Intra-Catholic football rivalries are some of the best rivalries in high school sports. These contests are often long-standing traditions, made up of family culture, neighborhood and parish loyalties, and very talented student athletes. Consider how often the head-to-head matchups of two Catholic high schools are the biggest games in a local conference. Even apart from these rivalries, nationally recognized programs such as St. John Bosco (Bellflower, California), Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California) and Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati) come to mind.
In some ways, it all seems to have the makings of something worthy of the national stage, and one New Jersey coach has proposed the idea. Coach Brian Carlson, former head coach at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, New Jersey, even went so far as to suggest a name and motto: “The National Catholic High School Football Association: Family, Faith, Football.”
Carlson’s idea has a foundation in the American experience. How often have we as Catholics had to go our own way, creating our own network of parochial schools, hospitals and retirement communities across the United States?
In fact, in 1930, an auxiliary bishop of Chicago, Bishop Bernard Sheil, founded the Catholic Youth Organization explicitly to help youth develop character by organizing athletic programs. Sheil’s citywide program helped integrate Chicago parishes, which were often divided by race and class. Today, Catholic dioceses across the country support tens of thousands of youth in CYO leagues.
Sport has long had the support of the successors of Peter. In 2013, Pope Francis told the European Olympic Committee: “The language of sports is universal; it extends across borders, language, race, religion and ideology; it possesses the capacity to unite people, together, by fostering dialogue and acceptance.” For the Holy Father, sport helps us to overcome individualism, racism, selfishness and intolerance. Just last month, the pope argued that sport can be an integral part of the formation of young people: “If organized well, it contributes to the formation of mature and successful personalities, and thus becomes an important aspect of education and socialization.”
Yet despite all of these positives, a national Catholic high school football league is decidedly not what we need in America today.
Today’s youth are under enough stress. Consider the pressure students experience to perform well academically. While studies vary in reporting whether sport helps or hinders student academic performance, a national league would invariably distract from the primary responsibilities of our teens: to succeed academically in high school. Students are students first, and a national contest would further harm already fragile teenage mental health.
Additionally, the expenses associated with a national program would be astronomical. Already travel sports amplify the diverse means of American families. With participating families already spending, on average, $700-1,000 a month on youth sport, do we want to increase that burden? If costs become carried by schools, do we want to increase the costs of Catholic education? And do we even want to go down the road of subsidizing a national program by national endorsements? Isn’t this already complicated enough on the college level?
Is a National Catholic Football League what we want to be known for as a Church? Like it or not, many Catholic high schools, which are not subject to districting, or the same policies as public high schools, already find themselves at the center of recruiting controversies. Because part of the appeal of a national league is that it would expand recruitment opportunities for schools and increase investment on the part of colleges looking for recruits, a national league would only inflame those squabbles.
And all this would be happening even while many local Catholic athletic leagues are already struggling to schedule games at times that don’t interfere with keeping holy the Sabbath. While some teams travel with chaplains and attend Mass as an integrated part of their program, Catholic leagues should preserve Sunday for God, including worship and rest.
In short: While a proposal for a national Catholic high school football conference is out there, let’s hope that day never comes.
Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board: Father Patrick Briscoe, Gretchen R. Crowe, Scott P. Richert, Scott Warden, York Young
