St. Martin de Porres CYO Basketball
2017 - 2018
Dear Parents and Guardians:
Welcome to the 2017-2018 basketball season! We look forward to another eventful and fun season! While dates for many of the events below won’t be finalized until registration in September, please familiarize yourself with many of the opportunities below to experience basketball in a variety of settings along with the instructional, intramural and travel programs that we offer. Please sign-up for clinics, events and contests at registration and I expect that the web site calendar of clinics and events will be updated by mid-September. Please also check us out on Facebook at St. Martin de Porres CYO Basketball! Click on photos, then click on see all, to view all of our different photo albums!
A few initial comments:
● B10-12 Intramurals: Instead of two sessions, there will one session of the high school league for the entire season from 9/16/17 to 2/24/18. Fee is $100 for active parishioners and $125 for non-parishioners. If you play on a team in the Holy Trinity tournament, then there will be an additional $40 fee.
● Registration: The ‘check’ table will be re-instituted in the cafeteria to review forms for correctness before you proceed to the payment table after which you can sign-up for clinics, contests and events before exiting.
● Team monetary collections for the Knights of Columbus food pantry will occur in November: Combined with the 50 / 50 at our tournament, we have raised $30,000 for the K of C food pantry since the 2008-2009 season. Top three teams win a pizza party!
● ChristLife: The first part of the ChristLife series, Discovering Christ, will be offered in January 2018. I would like to have a CYO table at this event, so please let me know if you’d like to participate to truly understand the meaning of life and develop a personal relationship with Jesus. Following Christ will be offered in Fall 2018 after which you can conclude the trilogy with Sharing Christ in January 2019.
● Middle and High School age players are encouraged to join Reach Christ, the St. Martin Youth Ministry: Father Bancroft guides this program, which offers many activities and trips plus most importantly, provides the kids the chance to establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
● Camp Veritas Subsidy of $200: We will continue to offer this subsidy to CYO participants entering grades 7-12 to attend this wonderful weeklong, overnight summer camp. The subsidy applies regardless of camp chosen: Ireland, Maryland, Mount St. Mary College or Camp Lakota in Sullivan County. The MSMC option includes the Catholic Basketball Camp, which Jim Santoro runs exactly like his Edge Athletic camps. So why wouldn’t you take the $200 subsidy and essentially get the rest of Camp Veritas for free?
Several comments about upcoming clinics and events:
● Clinics and contests: Expect clinics similar to those in the past, such as Marist clinics, shooting clinics, Viani clinic, Vassar men’s and women’s clinics, etc. plus we’ll have a few open gyms / pizza parties during the season. We will also have our annual 3-point contest on November 11 and hot shot contest on February 11. Winners will advance to a Dutchess county contest.
St. Martin de Porres CYO Basketball
2017 - 2018
● Nets and Knicks Events: Once the NBA schedule is released in early August, I’ll send an email announcing the dates for this year’s events. Please look at past yearbooks or Facebook to appreciate the court time, fan tunnels and anthem buddies offered by the Nets. 3,238 people have participated in our Nets events since 2008! I’m planning to have Allan Houston talk to the kids before the Knicks game on faith and spiritual growth and I’ll purchase lounges once again.
● A Wonderful Day of Basketball: I would like to offer a wonderful day of basketball, starting at the UConn Champions Center early one Saturday morning to view both the men’s and women’s practice, then off to Boston to watch an ACC game at Boston College in the early afternoon followed by a quick tour of Boston and dinner before attending a Boston Celtics game at Boston Garden. This is totally dependent on the NBA schedule, so let’s hope that things align! Please note that this trip will be subsidized to make it affordable.
● Philadelphia 76’ers Event: If things don’t align with Boston, then we’ll look to have an event at a 76’ers game similar to our Nets events, which would also include a tour of Philadelphia and dinner.
● St. John’s Practice in Queens, Tour of Churches in Mid-Town Manhattan plus Dinner: I will try once again to make this event happen this fall, which will include a practice hosted by Hall of Famer Chris Mullin on their campus in Queens, a tour of churches in mid-town Manhattan and a nice dinner afterwards.
● Our 7th Annual Coach’s Retreat: Date and format TBD in November, but I expect a combination of guest speakers and a DVD teaching from Discovering / Following / Sharing Christ and TMIY (That Man is You) along with a nice dinner from Cosimo’s.
● 10th Annual St. Martin CYO Basketball Tournament: This round-robin games of the tournament will be 12/9, 12/10, 12/16, 12/17 and 12/30 at Vassar College, The Culinary Institute of America, Oakwood Friends School and St. Martin. The final four and championship games for B7 and B8 divisions will be 1/13/18 at Vassar College and hopefully the weekend of 1/5-7 at Marist College for the other divisions. If you would like to be a tournament sponsor (platinum, gold, silver or bronze), then please let me know ASAP. A sponsorship brochure is on our tournament web site.
A few procedural comments:
● Playing Up: Only 2nd grade boys and 3rd grade girls can play-up to B3-4 intramurals and G4-6 intramurals, respectively. 9th graders who played on last year’s B8 travel team can play in the HS league. All other players must play at their grade level.
● Website: Our website www.stmartindeporres-cyo.org continues to be an important source of information for registration, clinics, contact information, our tournament and much more. Jennifer Kaufmann continues to do a great job on our website!
● Volunteers: Our program is successful due to the dedicated directors and coaches that we have. If you are interested in joining our team to give back to our community, then please let me know. I’m looking for future leaders for this program, so please contact me if you would like to get more involved with our wonderful program.
St. Martin de Porres CYO Basketball
2017 - 2018
● Pictures / Yearbook: Please take pictures throughout the year and please send photos to throughout the season for inclusion in our yearbook. If you did not receive a yearbook last year, I have some extras plus there is a PDF of the yearbook on our website in the photo gallery.
● Trophies Not Picked Up at Last Season’s Barbecues: I will bring unclaimed trophies that I have in my possession for pick-up at registration.
● Season-end Barbecues: Barbecues for all leagues will occur in early May and have become a fun social event for both parents and kids!
● Attendance at St. Martin’s Religious Education Classes: Any excessive, unexcused absences by CYO participants from St. Martin’s religious education classes may result in removal from the CYO program until attendance improves and work is made-up.
● Entrance to the St. Martin gym will be through the front of the school: Please ensure that you close both doors behind you after entering. Please do NOT leave the doors open!
Everyone associated with our program takes great pride in the quality of our program. We seek to continually improve our program, so please direct any suggestions to me at 462-8790 or .
Thank you.
Chris Fields
Athletic Director
St. Martin de Porres CYO Program