Honored CYO coaches show powerful connection with players
St. John Bosco Award winners from Indianapolis pose for a photograph with Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, during the Catholic Youth Organization awards ceremony on May 6 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. They are, from left, Dr. Mark Bohnert of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish, Dr. James Rea of St. Pius X Parish, Jeff Taylor of St. Jude Parish, Kathy Caito of St. Lawrence Parish, Dave Goddard of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Jerry Deery of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and Bill Roberts of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)
By John Shaughnessy
In the world of youth sports, no experience has the potential to be more defining than the relationship between a coach and a child.
Far beyond wins and losses, coaches will leave their most lasting mark in the lessons they teach, in the respect and care they have for their players.
Then there are the moments when children and youths teach a coach, moments that reveal what they hope for in sports.
In that second category, here’s a story from Dr. James Rea, one of the seven people who recently received the highest honor that the Catholic Youth Organization gives to a volunteer coach—the St. John Bosco Award. (Related story: CYO recognition highlights work of both adults and young people)
The moment came from a boys’ high school CYO basketball team that he coached at St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis this past season, one of the 34 CYO teams he has coached in the past 19 years.
“We had just finished our second unvictorious season in a row,” Rea says with a smile. “Well, let me clarify that. We did have two teams that had to forfeit to us because they couldn’t get there through the snow, but our guys still considered them as victories. Anyway, in the end-of-the-season tournament, we ran into a really good team in our first game. We didn’t win, and I thought the guys would just blow out of the gym after the game.
“Instead, they wanted to keep shooting around. They just enjoyed playing and goofing around with each other. They were guys who had grown up together, and were now in high school at [Bishop] Chatard, Cathedral, Lawrence Central and North Central. They just liked getting together. They kept playing and having a good time until we finally had to turn off the lights. It was nice to see.”
Rea’s story offers an insight into the special relationships that can form under a coach’s guiding direction. A short story about another 2009 Bosco Award winner—Jeff Taylor of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis—describes how coaches can also help players draw closer to God.
The story about Taylor, who has coached football for about 20 years, was shared by Ed Tinder, the executive director of the CYO.
“One time during the team prayer, he stopped the team and stated, ‘Slow down, we are not going to slop through prayer. Pray like you are talking to God,’ ” Tinder recalled. “He goes to great lengths to make sure every player and coach is holding hands during prayer.”
Jerry Deery knows that such moments can last forever in a child’s memory. The longtime CYO football and basketball coach at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis talks about some of the most satisfying experiences in his coaching career of 24 years.
“There will be kids I’ve coached that I’ll see at a high school football game, or I’ll see them when they’re grown up at a Wal-Mart or a Target, and they’ll come up to me and say, ‘Mr. Deery, do you remember me from fifth-grade football?’ That says a lot about them and me. It makes you feel good that they still approach you. I know I remember all my coaches.”
It’s a lesson for all coaches in how the relationships with players can last—long after the win-loss records have been forgotten.
Lessons are sometimes learned and shared in unusual situations, too.
As a longtime coach at Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis, Dr. Mark Bohnert sometimes takes his players to sporting events at Butler University in Indianapolis. During one of those trips, a player found $500 in the stands. Bohnert explained to the player and the rest of the team that they had to turn in the money, because it was “the right thing to do.”
That moment fit the priority that Bohnert has for his players—thinking about others and respecting them.
“If we don’t have that respect for each other, we need to develop it,” says Bohnert, who has coached football, basketball, baseball and softball. “Respect starts with yourself, your teammates and your opponents. It’s trying to teach that respect at a young age so that it continues on in their lives.”
For Bill Roberts, a coach for 35 years at St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis, teaching the fundamentals of life has always been just as important as teaching the fundamentals of basketball.
“We talk in practice about their grades, and how they get along with their parents. Just how important it is to do good work in school and keep up on it,” Roberts says. “You watch them grow and you watch them improve, not just as players but as people. It’s a great thing to watch. It makes you feel good.”
Twenty years of coaching has also taught Dave Goddard that players watch their coaches just as much as coaches watch their players. That point surfaces when Goddard mentions one of his proudest parts of coaching basketball at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Indianapolis.
“I’ve been coaching 20 years, and I’ve never had a technical foul,” Goddard says. “I’m proud of that. I tell my players to give 100 percent effort, to have a positive attitude, and I make sure they know how to win and lose the right way. Be humble when you win, and realize the losses are not the end of the world. Be gracious to the winners, and try harder the next time. That’s the way it is in life.”
That approach is the essence of the spirit of the CYO program, says Kathy Caito, another 2009 Bosco Award winner.
“I believe in their philosophy,” says Caito, a kickball and volleyball coach at St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis for 20 years and now a member of the CYO Board. “I’ve always felt strongly that there are a marginal number of kids in grade school who will play high school sports. CYO gives them an opportunity to compete on some level and have a good time doing it.”
Rea offers a perfect example of how that involvement can affect a child. The moment came in a basketball game years ago that went into overtime. First of all, it should be noted that in overtime situations Rea doesn’t just play his best players. He gives every player on his team equal time in those situations “so everyone can have the experience of playing in overtime.”
Now, here’s his story.
“We had this one kid on the team who was really small,” Rea said. “We ended up winning the game by one, and he had hit a bucket in the second quarter. He did the math and told his mom that he made the winning bucket.”
A proud winner—just like the seven volunteers who received the 2009 St. John Bosco Award. †
