Sports

Russian Catholic leader: No church stance on Olympic boycott calls

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Calls for an Olympic boycott because of a Russian law banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" have become "highly politicized," said an official of the Russian bishops' conference. Msgr. Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of the bishops' conference, said the Catholic Church would not be adopting an official stance on either the boycott or the law.

‘Faith, family, football’ permeates Steelers team, says Benedictine

LATROBE, Pa. (CNS) -- Ask Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney why his football team has been training at St. Vincent College since 1966, and he says that the campus has the right facilities, it's close to Pittsburgh and "for many reasons, it works well." Then he adds with a laugh, "And it helps that it's the Benedictines."

Malvern Prep searched deep in the heart of Texas for new basketball coach

Malvern Prep’s administrators have received their share of interesting coaching candidates over the years. Especially recently. Impressed by several resumes, one in particular raised some eyebrows – in a good way. After coaching for 12 seasons at Cypress Springs High School outside Houston, Texas, John Harmatuk was ready, willing and able to travel to the northeast to inherit the Friars.

Catholic League baseball squad feels pinch from absentees

So much for looking forward to the Carpenter Cup Classic. In the first round on June 17 at South Philadelphia’s Richie Ashburn Field, the CL dropped an 8-3 decision to the Suburban One National/Continental League. The contest started ugly, with two errors leading to three runs. It didn’t get much better, as SONC doubled the […]

Prendergast upsets St. Hubert’s for first league softball title in 31 years

On a hot afternoon May 22 on an immaculately landscaped field at Arcadia University, Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast High School -- aka Prendergast when talking only girls’ sports -- produced a memorable performance in the Catholic League softball championship. Led by senior pitcher Brooke Lachette’s steady pitching and a barrage of 10-hit, four-walk offense, Prendergast stunned defending champion St. Hubert’s, 6-3, for the school’s first softball title since 1982.

Archbishop Carroll’s girls lacrosse dominance ending soon? Don’t bet on it

Carroll’s latest conquest was a 20-2 Catholic League semifinal victory against overmatched St. Hubert’s. League Most Valuable Player Taryn Deck was her typical self, contributing four goals and three assists. Two of her teammates added a hat trick and four more supplied two apiece. Next up to the guillotine is Cardinal O’Hara, which doubled up on Archbishop Wood, 10-5, in the other semifinal. At 6 p.m. Monday at Neumann University, O’Hara will try do what no other team has been able to do in the past dozen years and counting: squash Goliath.

District One hoops champ Villa Maria plays family-style, win or lose

To say that most people figured Villa Maria Academy’s basketball team would have enough ammunition to make a bunch of noise in the postseason would be, well, inaccurate. For good reason. [hotblock] When you lose four standout starters and then need to rely on one primo performer and a horde of relatively inexperienced underclassmen, expectations […]

St. Anastasia’s girls win state CYO basketball title

St. Anastasia of Newtown Square won the girls state CYO championship March 17 by beating St. Gabriel’s of the Pittsburgh Diocese 36-21 to win the title game at Lancaster Catholic High School. St. Anastasia’s girls won the archdiocesan CYO championship the week earlier and the right to represent the Archdiocese in the state tournament. Shown below […]

St. Maximilian Kolbe wins archdiocesan boys CYO basketball title

St. Maximilian Kolbe, West Chester, finished a perfect season with a 58-53 win over parochial powerhouse St. Andrew’s, Newtown, to win its first boys archdiocesan Catholic Youth Organization basketball championship March 9 in front of a capacity crowd at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster. (See a photo of the girls CYO basketball state champion, […]

Girls can play CYO football with boys, archbishop directs

Come the fall, girls will be allowed to play full contact football with boys on Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) teams in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the archdiocesan Communications Office announced March 14 in a statement.