Dear Pastors, Principals, AC's, AD's, Coaches, and Parents,
We pray you are staying healthy as you handle the tasks at hand for the fall and beyond. These are certainly challenging circumstances to make permanent plans as the landscape continues to change. Through the uncertainty, all we can do is carefully consider all the information available and then discern what is best for the safety and well being of those we minister to and with.
With this in mind, I am sure many of you have been wondering how the pandemic will impact the upcoming basketball season. It is with a heavy heart that I need to announce that Archdiocesan leadership decided to suspend Boston Catholic Athletics/CYO Basketball for the 2020-2021 season which includes the Archdiocesan and Region 1 tournaments.
We understand that this will be a huge disappointment for so many, but especially for the players. This is difficult, but we believe this is a wise decision as parishes are doing all they can just to remain open and start sacramental preparation while schools will be busy trying to keep children safe and in the classroom.
We are sure that there will be questions as to how this impacts other sports, but the only sport that we, the Office for Lifelong Faith Formation and Parish Support, have oversight over is parish basketball for grades 5-12 and the Archdiocesan elementary school leagues that host basketball for grades 3-8. Diocesan Catholic high school sports are a separate entity and fall under the jurisdiction of the MIAA and the Catholic School office. We cannot speak about how this does or does not affect other school sports offered at an Archdiocesan elementary school.
Please note: should the situation greatly improve, and as State and Archdiocesan guidance allow, we hold out the possibility of a very shortened basketball season followed by an Archdiocesan tournament in the spring. While this appears to be highly unlikely, we want to hold out at least a small, but realistic, hope of this possibility.
St. Sebastian, saint of athletes, pray for us,
Michael Lavigne Asst. Cabinet Secretary for Evangelization and Discipleship Director of the Office for Lifelong Faith Formation and Parish Support.