By Francesca Pollio Fenton,
EWTN News, and
Southern Nebraska Register
Seminarians from seminaries across the country gathered Feb. 13–15 for a weekend filled with basketball, competition, and fraternity during the sixth annual De Sales Invitational at the St. Francis de Sales Seminary in St. Francis, Wisc.
There were 450 seminarians who participated, from 18 seminaries, including St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward.
This year’s champions were the seminarians from the host seminary — the Saint Francis de Sales Shoremen — who beat St. Meinrad Seminary 56-54 in overtime.
The annual basketball tournament started in 2021 after a seminarian at Saint Francis de Sales, who is now a priest, had the idea. The first year only included six teams. Now, the tournament has 18 teams competing. Invitations are sent to seminaries across the U.S. in September and those who get to take part are determined on a first-come first-served basis.
Each team is guaranteed to play three matches. The first two are part of a pool play. After the two rounds of pool play, each team receives their seed based on their record and go into the playoff bracket, where teams are eliminated after a loss.
Father John Baumgardner, vice rector at the Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, told EWTN News that “every single year we’re really just so grateful” to host the event.
“I think the men are excited to come. It can often be the highlight of the year for many of them, just the chance to travel together as brothers,” he added. “Certainly it’s great basketball — even this year we had a lot of games that went into overtime — but I think for the men they really enjoy the chance to meet seminarians from around the country. So, the brotherhood, the fraternity, that they share.”
Baumgardner pointed out that this event was the largest gathering of seminarians of the year thus far — not to mention that the arena was completely filled with cheering fans from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
“So many different, young Catholic families with their kids get to come and watch. So, it’s a really important event, even for vocations, but for the life of the Church and the archdiocese,” he shared. He added that several bishops stopped by, and about 50 priests in attendance for the weekend.
The priest said he hopes the event is an opportunity “to foster fraternity amongst the seminarians and priests around the country, to worship God beautifully and reverently, and enjoy getting to play basketball with these guys.”
“I think men will be able to look back on our tournament as a great source of renewal and encouragement.”
St. Gregory the Great Seminary participated in the tournament for the fifth time, bringing 24 seminarians to play or to cheer on the team. Father James Morin is the team chaplain and coach. The seminarians practice together and do a lot of coaching themselves.
The team was eliminated after its third game, despite going into quadruple overtime.
Max Summa, a seminarian who organized the team and did most of the coaching, said “even though we didn’t get the results we wanted, no doubt, we had the team that played the hardest.”
Rector Father Brian Kane and Father Matthew Rolling attended the tournament.
“It’s a great opportunity for (the seminarians) to visit with other seminarians from around the country,” Father Kane said. “It’s great for the priests to get together to talk about the important work we get to participate in.”
