According to the Archdiocese of Washington:
The Office of Youth Ministry/Catholic Youth Organization seeks to enable youth of all races and cultures to
come to know and love Jesus Christ, to embrace their Catholic faith, and to develop their talents in the service
of their family, parish and community. OYM/CYO does so by assisting parishes and leaders in the Archdiocese
of Washington in developing effective ministry, education, leadership, athletics, scouting and recreation
programs for youth.
A few days ago, I received this comment by a reader on a posting of a slightly different topic:
Cyo--- Disclaimer: there are some exceptions to this observation
If you want your child to play and be a player with lots of action, you need to be coach, assistant coach, or assistant to the assistant coach.. If none of these are applicable, simply being a friend of the coach’s kid, the assistant coach’s kid, a neighbor of the assistant to the assistant coach’s kid or…you get my point. No matter if your kid is equivalent in talent to his peers ( one or two are really talented like high school shoo in talented, uh, the rest, not so…), he/she will be labeled “non essential player” if you are not in the aforementioned rim. My husband, being Lutheran, entered into this Cyo system believing, okay, if my kid is okay, he will play. Some of these guys live for coaching cyo, guiding the young athletes, building faith and self esteem…they will be fair. But, hello…hubby…you do not know cyo…you get your little butt in there somehow or your kid will be an afterthought and gathering splinters in the rear of their polyester cyo jersey pants !!! Cyo…gotta love it…ever since it was created it has been consistent in its values and methods of operations. In many instances good, but in many …a long standing need for change.
I bring this up because I have heard these same comments from parents who have children in CYO.
Some coaches are really good and fair, and try to give players a good amount of field time. Now, the better players will of course get more, and those that are not so good will not get as much, but even the not so good players, will get a fair amount of field time.
I have also heard that as the kids get older, and the urge to win much stronger (and there is nothing wrong with that), some coaches just use to poorer players to fill up the roster when they are short. Sure they are part of the team, but they only get 5 or 10 minutes in a game.
Have you had this experience? Would you be willing to share your experience?
2 comments:
Our son played basketball for three years. When he started, his abilities were limited so he was put in a team at his level (they played similarly skilled teams). They worked with him and he developed his skills moving to higher brackets. On his last year he was a little upset because, even though he had skills for the highest bracket, they put him on a lower one. His coach agreed. It was still competitive and he and other player ended up leading the team to the playoffs. He was not upset as to how the season went. No complaints on our end.
Our family has had great experiences with CYO at St. Jude's. The coaches are dedicated to providing an outstanding experience for the children. The teams are divided up by skill level and typically your child plays on a team of his/her ability. My children have played on some of the "A" teams and the coaches have always done a great job of rotating players in and playing in a sportmanslike manner. We don't crush the other teams if we are winning and everyone has a chance to play. And, the coaches are very patient when we lose. My only issue is the distance we have to travel for some of the games. It would be nice to play closer to home.
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