CYO volunteers honored for service to community, Church

Six individuals recently received the St. John Bosco Medal. The awards were presented by Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, archdiocesan vicar general. From left are Paul Kervan, Bob Hasty, Father Robert Gilday, Msgr. Schaedel, Bob Tully, Brian Treece and Carol Pitzer.

By John Shaughnessy

How do some of the best coaches in the Catholic Youth Organization measure success?

For Carol Pitzer, it’s the joy of seeing a child who has struggled make a breakthrough in sports.

For Brian Treece, it’s the smile of a former player who has returned to tell him about his life.

After 45 years of coaching and 40 years of helping at CYO events, Bob Tully

measures success in the way young people show character.

Robert Hasty believes success can be found in losing—if he knows his team has sacrificed and worked hard in pursuing its goals.

Paul Kervan takes pride when he sees his players put their faith, family and schoolwork before sports.

And Father Robert Gilday measures success in athletics when every child improves during a season and every adult models the right way to treat players, coaches and fans of the other team.

Put those six individuals together and you have the 2007 recipients of the CYO’s highest honor—the St. John Bosco Medal for distinguished volunteer service to youth.

Put the approaches of those six together and you have a great guideline for how the fundamentals of sports and the values of Catholic faith can shape the lives of children and adults.

The beauty of breakthrough moments

Carol Pitzer will never forget the girl who showed up at track practice upset and angry that her parents had made her go out for the team. It also didn’t help that the girl had little confidence in her ability.

Yet after several practices and Pitzer’s prodding, the coach noticed a dramatic change in the youth.

“She turned around from being angry and dissatisfied to actually wanting to run relays with other kids,” says Pitzer, the track coach for St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis for the past 14 years. “I like seeing a kid make a breakthrough. It makes me feel good to know that they feel they have accomplished something.”

Pitzer is an advocate of setting goals and working for them in sports, knowing that approach is needed later in life. She also encourages parents to keep their expectations realistic for children.

“It’s not to set the expectations too high, but to set some expectations,” she says. “I see both extremes. I see parents who push, push, push and talk up their kids—and think winning and competing are the most important things. I also see kids who don’t come to practice and don’t work hard. They don’t learn the concept of working hard to overcome obstacles and learn something.”

She especially enjoys the way sports can give girls confidence and help them develop friendships they wouldn’t make otherwise. The payback she receives for her efforts can be priceless.

“Some girls say ‘thank you’ every day before they leave practice,” she says. “I think that’s cool.”

Growing up in the Catholic faith

When a child plays basketball for Robert Hasty, he learns to look his coach in the eyes when they’re talking. He learns to listen. He’s also expected to hold his head high, win or lose.

“I’ve learned through coaching CYO that you teach kids to play and you teach them to play right,” says Hasty, a member of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis. “You want them to be successful, but you learn that being successful doesn’t always mean winning. You learn a lot about life when you win and sometimes you learn even more when you lose.

“When you lose, some people say that’s a failure. But it’s not if you set a goal, you worked for it and you were willing to sacrifice for it. A lot of times you don’t get what you want but you have to continue to strive.”

Hasty always strives for certain goals when he coaches basketball.

“Teamwork is important,” he says. “We’re having fun and we want to be competitive, but we especially want to stress that we’re young people growing up in the Catholic faith and we want to like each other and respect our traditions.”

‘They need to have fun’

Brian Treece gives a glimpse of his coaching philosophy when he talks about his approach to his baseball team of first-and second-grade students.

“You know what I tell a kid when he strikes out?” Treece asks. “I say, ‘Nice swing.’ When they’re younger, they need to have fun. They need to learn the game but they need to experience coaching where it’s fun and where the coach encourages them.”

Treece has followed that same approach as a basketball coach at

St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis for 17 years. He considers every day a great day, and every day gets even better when he steps into the gym with his players.

“As an adult, you can still have fun and show that to kids,” Treece says. “The

people who know me would say I have a great time. I married the right person, I have great kids, and St. Pius is a great place where I can give back. When we start a practice, we pray. And when we end practice, we pray. It’s a way to show them how important prayer is.”

Setting the example

Bob Tully has coached nearly every sport in 45 years as a teacher and a coach at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. He has also dedicated 40 of those years to helping the CYO, working at the organization’s talent shows, one-act plays and Ping-Pong tournaments of the past as well as every City Track Meet since 1968.

“The CYO is a true volunteer organization,” says Tully, a member of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis. “Everything that goes on is dependent on volunteers to make a difference in the lives of young people. I love volunteering for the CYO.”

His volunteering is just one way he tries to set an example for young people.

“Character and values are the things I try to exemplify for them,” he says. “They have to understand that character is not what you do when somebody is watching. It’s what you do when no one is watching.”

Stressing faith, family and education

In 20 years of coaching, Paul Kervan has always tried to stress the fundamentals of sports and life.

“I have a pretty simple philosophy when you play for me,” says Kervan, a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis. “The most important things for me are faith, family and your school. If we don’t have those things right, we’re not going to play sports. We’ll work on those other things first. The child is more important than sports.”

Kervan also emphasizes the basics in basketball when he coaches boys and girls on his fourth-grade teams.

“We focus on having fun, learning the fundamentals and sportsmanship, and representing our school and our parish well,” he says. “Basketball is just a game. It’s not life and death. If the kids are learning about sports and learning about life, that’s what matters. The basketball game is

secondary.”

A priest’s perspective on potential

If you’re at a kickball game and you see Father Robert Gilday umpiring or cheering from the sidelines, feel free to ask him about the rules. After all, he’s helped to write and revise them during the nearly 25 years that he’s served on the CYO board of directors. His role has also given him

an interesting perspective on the inspiring reality of CYO athletics and the greater potential for them.

He has never forgotten the wisdom of a coach who once told him that a coach’s main goal should be for each person to improve during a season.

As a parish priest, he has seen how students often do better in school when their coach stresses academics.

“I would like to see coaches really be role models for the kids, not just in coaching but in terms of our Catholic faith,” says Father Gilday, the pastor of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis. “Children should see their coaches in church. They should also see them involved in other activities of the parish.

“Our coaches also need to be mentors. With fewer

two-parent homes, having another adult as a role model and someone a child can count on is a good thing.”

He also calls for parents and coaches to display the right way to act toward other teams and their fans.

“Kids learn what they live,” he says, “and they live what they learn.” †