WHAT CYO IS REALLY ABOUT

Throughout the course of every season, we all get caught up with wins and losses, administrative nightmares (like rescheduling games), complaints about officials or other coaches and a seemingly endless list of “issues”. And sometimes we lose sight of the value of our CYO Program. Here is a reminder of why we are all involved in CYO.

This past weekend, in an Intermediate 1 game between Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joan of Arc, an event transpired that will certainly have a major impact on all who witnessed it – and now hopefully on all who read about it.

With about two minutes to play in the game, and with St. Joan of Arc leading by 9 points, the St. Joan coach inserted a “special needs” player from his bench. The officials recognized the situation, assessed that there was no fear of injury to either the player or the other players on the court, and the game proceeded. Our Lady of Lourdes scored, cutting the lead to 7 points – then St. Joan missed a shot and a player from Lourdes grabbed the rebound and proceeded to dribble the ball up court. Then he slowed down, turned around and dribbled the ball back towards the St. Joan basket where the “special player” was standing. The Lourdes player handed the St. Joan player the ball and the St. Joan player shot and scored!!! The reaction of this player, the crowd and the officials was complete joy. The player was dancing on the court and both teams were celebrating.

If you have read this and not been touched then you need to ask Santa for a heart.

I want to personally thank all the coaches and players involved in this and especially the player for Lourdes. I have no idea if he did this on his own or was instructed to do it – and that does not really matter. Because in the end the “special player”, everyone in attendance and the CYO all benefit from a wonderful act of sportsmanship and kindness.

Team- I wanted to share the following email I received from St Catherine's. You should all feel good about the way you handled yourselves yesterday, I hope it was as rewarding for you as it was for those players.... Good Morning Loretta, I hope you had a great weekend. I wanted to send a note commending your program in particular your Varsity and Intermediate 1 players and coaches. The boys and the coaches showed a tremendous amount of sportsmanship and really displayed what the CYO is truly about. In the latter part of both games our teams were working to get some of our players that haven’t score this season the opportunity to score. Your coaches quickly realized this and had your players work with us to do so. I have to admit I wasn’t there to witness the Varsity game, however our head coach made sure I was aware of what happened. I was there to see the Intermediate game and was unbelievably impressed with what your coaches and players did. Please pass along our thanks and gratitude to both teams. Being in the position I am I unfortunately get to see and hear about a lot of the negative actions that take place. It was extremely refreshing to see something this positive happen and wanted to sure your program knows what a high class organization you have. All the best, Dan Brixius President – St. Catherine Laboure Athletic Association   **Great Job St. Patrick Players, Coaches and Staff and nice job also to Dan at St. Catherine for taking the time to acknowledge the positive things going on with Harrisburg CYO.**