Approximately 800 students gathered in Detroit Sept. 3 to celebrate 100 years of Catholic High School League
DETROIT – Kinsley Hancock is simply one member of the field hockey team at St. Catherine of Siena Academy in Wixom, but the sophomore is keenly aware of how vast a connection there has been for the area’s Catholic high school athletic programs over the past 100 years, thanks to the Catholic High School League.
“I think it’s just so amazing how much of an impact the Catholic League has had on high schools, and how long it has been going on as a program,” Hancock said. “It’s really beautiful that so many people have gotten to show their faith in their sports.”
Hancock and about 800 other student-athletes had an opportunity to dwell upon that during Thursday's Holy Sacrifice of the Mass marking the centennial of the Catholic High School League (CHSL), as 25 member schools gathered to celebrate at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Detroit.
Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger led a team of priests celebrating the special centennial Mass and delivered a homily on how athletics and faith are intertwined.
“We’re not here just to mark the passing of 100 years, but what has happened during that time. We are celebrating the good. The blessings, they are complex and many,” Archbishop Weisenburger said, shortly after beginning with a request for a round of applause to celebrate the CHSL reaching its milestone.
Athletics not only have the foundational experiences of victory, “but also discipline, humility, perseverance and even the experience of a loss – human qualities of good character," the archbishop added. "Those human values are the values of God.”
The archbishop also stressed the importance of sports in bringing people together to work toward a common goal.
“Teamwork is necessary in athletics, but to also balance out the strengths and weaknesses critical to our success as human beings,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Every good encounter with Jesus connects people to people. He’s not calling one of us. He’s calling us together to be present for one another. We have a wonderful and powerful team. You can’t do it without a team working together.”
Archbishop Weisenburger’s message resonated positively with Hancock.
“It’s so important for me that not only I get to play to help out my team, but also to give glory to God in my sports, and I think sometimes, especially in club sports, that’s overlooked,” Hancock said. “I think it’s so great that we’re able to, especially in the Catholic League, pray before every game and really just give all glory to God in everything we do in every game.”
Hancock said she’s grateful to be able to share her faith with her St. Catherine teammates on a daily basis, whether it’s at a contest, during a workout or throughout the school day.
“We start before every game with a Hail Mary, and we end every practice with a prayer, talking about what we’re grateful for from that day or what we’re looking forward to, just asking God to really be present in our athletic process,” Hancock said.
In the past, the Catholic League has led a “Rosary Rally” to connect student-athletes from different CHSL schools to kick off the school year. But in this, the Catholic High School League’s centennial year, it was time to up the game, CHSL Director Mike Evoy said.
“That was the purpose of the Mass – what better way to kick off the centennial year than demonstrating our faith, and calling every Catholic League member school together in prayer?” he said. “When you talk about 25 Catholic League member high schools, six counties, two states, and roughly over 800 people in attendance along with the Knights of Columbus, it wasn’t to the scale of the Prep Bowl preparations, but it took us the better part of the last month to pull this together.”
Like Hancock, Evoy found the homily very relatable.
“What a wonderful message – not only about our faith and connecting the student-athletes back to the sports, but to their teammates, and the self-sacrifice that it takes, both in sports and in our faith journey,” Evoy said. “We need to be there for one another, and help one another along our faith journey.”
Due to the size of the league and of Holy Redeemer Church, all Catholic League member high schools were invited to bring up to 30 student-athletes, and several assisted with the Mass. Mikey McCrary of Detroit Catholic Central gave the first reading, Hancock and Cecilia Murray of Bloomfield Hills Marian led the Prayers of the Faithful, and performing arts students from Royal Oak Shrine High School led the musical selections.
What did Evoy hope the students took away from the experience?
“First and foremost, they are brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said. “If they get to see the person they are getting ready to compete against this year – whether it’s a championship or a regular-season game – as someone who they have worshipped with here today, they will remember that at the end of the day we’re all just children of God.”
Although the Mass was held to reflect back on the Catholic League’s accomplishments and influences during its first 100 years, Archbishop Weisenburger concluded his homily with a brief and direct message to the student-athletes in attendance.
“You will be the example for tomorrow,” he said.
