October 27, 2017

A moment in the stands leads to a commitment to coaching

By John Shaughnessy

David DayIn explaining why he has remarkably coached 100 teams in 20 years at the CYO level, David Day thinks back to a moment before he ever started coaching—when he was a father and a fan in the stands.

His oldest child, Jon, was in the fifth grade then, and he hadn’t yet developed as an athlete so he wasn’t looking to be on a team. But Day signed his son up for basketball anyway.

Then came a moment in a game at the end of the season when Jon’s teammates were trying to get him to score his first points of the season. The shot never came, but Jon did something else to contribute to his team, and his whole team started clapping for him.

“They were supporting him,” recalls Day, the father of five children. “I had never really seen anything like that before. It was the most impressive thing, and I wanted to be part of it. And the light came on for him. The next year, he signed up himself.”

Since then, Day has coached just about every sport at Holy Spirit Parish in Indianapolis. For 17 years, he’s also been an athletic director at the parish. And when no one steps up to coach a team, he’s the one who starts the season with the players.

“I’ve had to get some teams going until I could guilt the parents in doing it,” he says with a laugh.

His commitment to the youths and the CYO is so complete that he served on the organization’s board of directors from

2001 to 2008, including serving as the board’s president in 2006-07.

“God gave me the ability to start my own business, so I can do this. I realized through Church and Scripture that I’m supposed to give time, talent and treasure. From a faith standpoint, it’s what we’re called to do. I learned it from my parents and grandparents.”

Now he’s sharing the gift again as he coaches his 10-year-old son, Cooper.

“We’re bringing kids together and teaching them the values that Christ taught us—through sports. I’ve seen that happen time and time again. It’s a ministry that I believe God wants me to do.” †

 

Related story: Archbishop salutes CYO honorees and ‘teams’ that support them

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