In late Feb., Irving’s Holy Trinity Seminary bested St. Mary’s Seminary of Houston in a weekend multi-sport competition. The three sport events of the weekend were basketball, soccer and volleyball, and HTS won all but volleyball. HTS returned victorious to Irving with the Rector’s Cup, the trophy of the annual games.
While every UD student is sure to be familiar with HTS, most have likely never heard of St. Mary’s (besides the odd Houstonian). St. Mary’s is a major seminary, which means that it is where many HTS guys may go for their final years of formation after finishing their time in Irving. There is a lot of overlap between the two communities and these annual games have been happening since 2015.
Henry Stadler, Samuel Cavanna and JP McGuire sat down to give their perspective on the weekend and share some of the highlights.
Stadler played XXX in highschool, and viewed community as an important part of the weekend.
“The favorite part for a lot of seminarians is meeting their fellow seminarians, who they’re going to be brother priests with. And meeting Holy Trinity graduates,” he said.
Another bonus from the weekend is that trip back home for those who hail from Houston.
When asked about the connection between sports and spiritual life, Stadler said, “It definitely takes a lot of humility to play sports in a virtuous way. Sports are oftentimes an easy trap of pride, and so you do have to be careful. But when you are careful and you’re having fun, having a healthy competition is really powerful.”
Cavanna played soccer in highschool, but this was his first time attending the escorts cup tournament.
He said, “I really enjoyed getting a chance to play on a full field with two full teams. The nature of seminaries usually makes those chances kind of rare.” Cavanna also enjoyed the preparation for the weekend. “We got to practice for about a month leading up to the tournament, and then we got to play a full game at St. Mary’s.”
Cavanna reflected on the weekend as a whole and the importance of brotherhood.
He said, “It’s very rare in the year to have a weekend blocked off for deepening friendship with the other guys, and sports was a means to that.”
McGuire played football, golf and tennis in high school. He said that he enjoyed seeing old friends.
“Being able to see everybody who graduated when I came into HTS [is my favorite part]. They’re now in theology. Getting to hang out with them [is great], and sports is kind of like a secondary thing for me.”
McGuire was also the announcer for the basketball game, and enjoyed giving the players nicknames and making his commentary funny for the audience.
McGuire connected sports and the importance of fraternity. He noted that this weekend was an “Exercise the body, but also an exercise of the heart by being able to enter into a deeper friendship with the [other seminarians in] different ways. We’re able to call each other higher, especially with sports, but at the end of the day we’re having fun. The main goal is to grow a brotherhood and fraternity, and sports is a great way to do that.”