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November 15, 2022By Mary Lim
On the weekend of Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6, all nine of the Catholic middle schools in Tucson competed in the fall sports tournament, which included girls' basketball and boys' volleyball.
The tournament took place at St. Augustine Catholic High School. On Saturday, at the start of the competition weekend and before any of the athletes stepped on a court, all the athletes who took part in the tournament gathered for an opening prayer.
Many of the middle schools had both junior varsity and varsity level teams during the fall season. The weekend prior, the junior varsity teams had their tournament, where each participating team played the same number of games regardless of whether they won or lost. There were no prizes to compete for at the junior varsity level. At the varsity level the following weekend, however, it was a much different ball game.
Mr. Ryan Anderson has been working in Catholic schools’ sports for over 12 years, this year being the first year that he leads the athletics programs as the Diocesan Director of Athletics.
Anderson says that the schools realize that, at the varsity level of sports, many students are hoping to become skilled enough to go on to play on high school teams, and so he recognizes that the middle school programs need to give them enough coaching and experience to make that development possible for them.
As the Director of Athletics, Anderson makes the schedule for the weekend tournaments and oversees the event. Anderson explains that the tournament is double elimination style, where the number one team is the team that doesn’t lose any games the whole weekend. If you win at least one game on Saturday, you will play on Sunday. All the trophies are brand new, with the first-place trophy measuring five feet tall!
At the varsity tournament, teams play to be recognized as the best and are awarded trophies according to how they place amongst the other teams. The top three teams get trophies.
Congratulations to St. Cyril of Alexandria School for winning first place not only in the tournament, but also in the season! Both St. Cyril’s girls’ basketball and boys’ volleyball teams took home the ginormous first place trophies. Anderson commends St. Cyril School for their victory and says that theirs was some of the best athletics that he’s seen during his time working in athletics departments.
Diocesan Fall Athletic Tournament 2022
Girls' Basketball Boys' Volleyball 1st St. Cyril St. Cyril 2nd St. John Sts. Peter and Paul 3rd St. Ambrose St. Ambrose Season Rankings Fall Athletics 2022
Girls' Basketball Boys' Volleyball 1st St. Cyril St. Cyril 2nd St. Ambrose Sts. Peter and Paul 3rd St. John St. Elizabeth Ann Seton The Diocese of Tucson Catholic schools are proud to be able to offer extracurriculars for their students, such as sports. Athletics are incredible for the development of the child in so many ways. In a Catholic school setting, students receive all of these benefits, and they get to bring God into their practices and competitions.
In regards to being able to integrate faith and athletics, Anderson says, “I feel that we are aways an unfinished product and that we are always trying to get better as a person. I take that into every part of my life. I’m always looking for ways to improve the league, to better prepare our student athletes for the next level of their lives.” What better way to prepare student athletes than to guide them in inviting God to walk with them as they work every day to better themselves, to improve their skills, their character, their academics, and their entire lives!
Our Mother of Sorrows (OMOS) Catholic School Athletic Director, Mr. Claudio Pierson, adds that for many of the teams, part of integrating faith into the sports season includes prayer before and after each practice and before each game throughout the whole season. Pierson has made this standard practice in all of the sports programs he oversees. OMOS girls’ basketball placed fifth in the tournament, and boys’ volleyball placed sixth.
In addition to an opening prayer on the Saturday of the tournament, each game was kicked off with another prayer on Sunday as the program drew closer to announcing winners. It was an excellent weekend of great athletic skill and ability, good sportsmanship, healthy competition, and joyous community. Congratulations to all nine schools for their hard work and dedication during the season and in the tournament, and special congratulations to those schools who placed in either the season or the tournament.
Please enjoy browsing photos from the tournament!
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