Baseball Miracles Instructors Teach Children at Clinic in Puerto Rico

Baseball Miracles just sent a team of nine to teach baseball and softball to boys and girls in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, a region devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Baseball Miracles was assisted on this trip by former Major League Baseball players Jerry Morales, Alex Cintron and Carlos Baerga. The crew taught baseball and softball basics to the children, participated in a community service project to paint and fix parts of the little league complex and visited the elderly at a home in the area.

Baseball Miracles impacted up to 350 children on this trip.

Baseball Miracles, a non-profit organization with a mission to bring baseball and softball to children in economically poor regions of the United States and throughout the world, was founded by John Tumminia, a parishioner of St. Mary’s in Marlboro.

Click here to see a video recap of the trip.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BASEBALL MIRACLES

 

Cardinal Hayes Tops in State Poll

Cardinal Hayes is ranked No. 1 in the Class AA state boys basketball poll by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

Cardinal Hayes will bring a 5-0 record into Friday’s 7:30 p.m. game at home against Iona Prep. The Cardinals started the season with wins over defending state champ Archbishop Stepinac, Chaminade, Holy Cross, Mount St. Michael Academy and St. Raymond.

Iona Prep is 3-1 following its 72-59 victory over Archbishop Molloy on Tuesday.

 

 

CYO Hosting Shoot-a-Thon

CYO New York is holding its first Shoot-a-Thon in the coming weeks at various parishes in the archdiocese.

CYO New York has partnered with GivingZone in this venture to help CYO programs raise money for its programs. GivingZone has assisted CYO programs in the archdiocese in recent years.

Sacred Heart on Staten Island raised over $15,000 with its recent shoot-a-thon, the most the program has raised in its three years partnering with GivingZone.

Click here to learn how your program can participate and learn which parishes are hosting this event in the coming weeks.

 

CYO Track Opens Dec. 17

The 2018-2019 CYO New York indoor track and field season kicks off 5 p.m. Monday with an introduction to the season for competitors and their families at Iona College in New Rochelle.

Beginning in January, practices will be held at Iona College and Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx. There are three big meets scheduled right now: Armory Youth Championships in Manhattan Feb. 18, USATF Indoor Youth Championships at Ocean Breeze on Staten Island Feb. 22, and the CYO Ocean Breeze Indoor Meet March 24.

CYO track is open to individuals born between Jan. 2, 2002 and Jan. 1, 2012, and in grades two to eight for the 2018-2019 school year.

Click here for more information and to register.

 

Crusader Basketball Classic Bringing Top Teams to White Plains Jan. 4

Tickets are selling fast for the second annual Crusader Basketball Classic being held at the Westchester County Center in White Plains Jan. 4.

Archbishop Stepinac, the defending Class AA state federation boys basketball champions, will play rival Iona Prep at 7:30 p.m. The two programs split their regular-season meetings in 2017-2018 before Stepinac beat Iona Prep in the archdiocesan semifinals.

Two perennial state powers in girls basketball — Christ the King and Ossining — will compete in the opener at 5 p.m. Ossining senior Aubrey Griffin signed a National Letter of Intent last month to play collegiately at the University of Connecticut, becoming the third Ossining player to sign with Connecticut in the current decade.

Courtside seats and the private suites are sold out. General admission tickets are $10 and are available at participating schools or the Westchester County Center box office. Pre-sale student tickets are $5 with student ID (two ticket per student ID maximum).

PHOTO: RJ Davis, shown dribbling the basketball, is one of Stepinac’s top returners from last season’s state championship team.

 

CHSFL Honors Top Players

The Catholic High School Football League of Metropolitan New York honored its top players at a breakfast held prior to the Senior Bowl on Long Island.

Student-athletes received honors from all three leagues.

The league also announced its Golden Eleven Award winners. They are Brandt Mandia, Msgr. Farrell; Tom Bossert, St. Peter’s; Matthew Mongelli, Kellenberg; Brendan Kennedy, Fordham Prep; Brendan Lebitsch, Kennedy Catholic; Antonio Corrado, Mount St. Michael; Matt Panker, Iona Prep; Philip Arnold, Chaminade; Joseph Garbowski, Stepinac; Stephen Ryan, Xavier; and Brandon Ramrattan, Xaverian.

Click here for the complete list of honorees.

 

Lourdes Fall Athletes, Teams Gain NYSPHAA Academic Honors

Eight fall varsity teams at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie were recognized by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s Scholar-Athlete Award Program.

Football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey, girls swimming, cross country, girls tennis and volleyball were honored for having at least 75 percent of its roster maintaining a team grade-point average of 90 or better.

Also, 138 of the 200 fall athletes achieved a 90 or better grade-point average to be considered as individual scholar-athletes.

The teams will receive a certificate and the individuals a pin for their accomplishments.