Catholic Schools Week, annually celebrated across the nation, featured something new this year for Hays Catholic Schools.

Tuesday was the first day of enrollment for the newly formed junior high at TMP.

A second enrollment day for seventh- and eighth-graders is set for 3:30 to 7 p.m. Friday in the school cafeteria.

Eighty-three students signed up for seventh- or eighth-grade classes for the 2012-13 school year.

"That's a good start," said Bill DeWitt, principal of TMP. "We thought from the beginning it would be somewhere between 100 and 120, and that's what it looks like it will be."

The first student in line Tuesday, about 15 minutes early, was Jace Rueschhoff, who will be a seventh-grader next year.

"He was so excited to be here early to get that shirt," his mom, Angel, said of the T-shirts given out to new enrollees with a saying on the back, "Step into excellence. Be a part of the new tradition."

Jace already is part of history at TMP, as the first enrollee for the junior high.

"Yeah," his mom said, "I thought of that. He's excited."