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June 4,
2007 
VOL.
45, NO. 11Oakland,
CA
One basketball
team shows how
community service is key part of CYO
 |
| Members of the CYO basketball team at St. Jerome Parish help youngsters with their playing skills during one of the team’s outreach sessions at the Hilltop YMCA in Richmond. |
The 7th grade
CYO boys basketball team at St. Jerome Parish in El Cerrito finished their
season at 4-6, putting them in third place in their division. And the
11-member squad couldn’t be happier – they are grateful they
had a season at all.
Team members had to sit out the 2005-2006 season because they didn’t
have a coach.
But the 2006-2007 season started not only with a new coach, Bernard Brown
II who teaches at El Cerrito High, but also with a new spirit. The boys
worked hard on the court to improve their athletic skills, and they lived
out their commitment to Christian values through service in their community.
“We always say we start by faith and we end by faith,” said
Chad deVries, a team co-captain, noting that the team prays at the beginning
and close of each practice and every game.
They also demonstrated their faith during community service projects.
Early in the season they came together to clean up a back area of St.
Jerome Church. They removed weeds and trash, prepped a wall for painting
and then painted the wall.
“At first I didn’t know what to do because I kept messing
up,” on the painting recalled Chris Mortensen. But once he got the
hang of it he had fun. Teammate Joey Benassini added, “It’s
our church and we have to take care of it.”
The team also had an ongoing service project at the Hilltop Family YMCA
in Richmond, where they helped teach youngsters the fundamentals of sports
and fitness. Like his teammates, Joseph Mejia, the other co-captain, enjoyed
helping other kids become more physically active. Instead of watching
basketball on TV, they have a chance to learn how to play it, Mejia said.
“I think it is important because it not only helps them (younger
kids), it helps us grow, you know, in maturity,” Mejia told The
Voice. “If we slack off – and they look up to us – then
we’re setting a bad example. So we have to know to be mature.”
Joseph Park said going to the YMCA helped him develop skills as a teacher
and a leader. “I think I am the only kid on the team who is an only
child in their family. What I like to do is go to the Y. I have a couple
of friends there and there is one guy who is younger than me so I teach
him.”
Sometimes team members take the lessons they learn on the court home with
them. For John McDermott that means helping his younger sister who joined
the girls basketball team for the first time this year. “Every day
I am in the backyard with her and me and her go over the dribbling and
shooting stuff and then we work on passing. She is always thankful for
it.”
Joey Benassini, a self-described “baseball and football guy”
who discovered basketball for the first time this year, now finds himself
pining for basketball practice in the CYO off season.
“My brother is a freshman at Salesian High and he had just got off
football and he was complaining about how he missed it so much and I was
just like ‘get over it.’ But now that basketball season is
over I sort of feel what he feels.”
