Extension magazine - Spring 2024

36 INSPIRE
Feature Story
Extension | Spring 2024 37
Young adults celebrate
their love of soccer,
friendship and God
LEFT A team competing in the “Copa Católica” (Catholic Cup) soccer
tournament prays together before one of its games. BELOW Young
adults at the ministry retreat participate in Eucharistic adoration at the
Lourdes Grotto of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in
Hanceville, Alabama.
Pope St. John Paul
II famously loved
sports, believing
that they could
serve as preparation
for the spiritual
life and aided the cultivation
of virtues and values conducive
to the Christian journey.
The late pope once said to
a group of competitive athletes,
“The expressions of
the language of sport are not
unfamiliar to Christ’s disciples:
terms like selection, training,
self-discipline, persistence in
resisting exhaustion, reliance
on a demanding guide, honest
acceptance of the rules of the
game.”
His conviction proved
true once again on a playing
field in Hanceville, Alabama,
which was the site of a recent,
inter-diocesan young adult
retreat that culminated in a
soccer tournament, the “Copa
Católica,” featuring seven
teams from five states. A group
of energetic 20-somethings
gathered in early November at
this ministry retreat co-hosted
by Catholic Extension Society
and the Southeast Pastoral
Institute (SEPI), which serves
Latino Catholics in 30 dioceses
of the Southeast U.S.
Many participants traveled
hundreds of miles to be there,
from Nashville, Tennessee,
to Mobile, Alabama, for two
Sports can be
a pathway to
the spiritual life
days of talks, team building,
Mass and Eucharistic adoration
at the Lourdes Grotto of
the Shrine of the Most Blessed
Sacrament. Then came the
“Copa Católica”—the Catholic
Cup soccer tournament.
By Saturday afternoon, these
young adult leaders were
ready to showcase their talents
on the field.
It was a tournament filled
with underdog stories, teamwork,
inspiring wins and gracious
losses.
“Throughout the weekend
the guys were waiting to play,”
said SEPI’s Giovanni Abreu,
one of the tournament’s organizers.
“And what a beautiful
way to end it with playing the
beautiful game as brothers
and sisters. No matter the result,
both teams were embracing
each other.”
The underdogs
Since many of the players
came from smaller or
under-funded communities,
Abreu’s idea was to change the
format from the traditional 11
versus 11 players on the field to
7 versus 7, or “fútbol rápido.”
The shift to this fast-paced
style of playing soccer with
fewer players had teams signing
up immediately across the
southeastern dioceses.
Six of the seven teams
hailed from Extension dioceses,
including Birmingham
and Mobile in Alabama; Knoxville
and Nashville in Tennessee;
Lafayette, Louisiana; and
Jackson, Mississippi. They had
creative or spiritually inspired
team names such as Knoxville’s
“Renewed by Christ,”
or Lafayette’s “Latin Cajuns.”
But perhaps none were more
inspiring than the under-dog
and under-manned “Saints”
from the Diocese of Jackson.
The “Saints” team comprised
players primarily from
the young adult group at St.
Francis of Assisi in Madison,
Mississippi. The team had a
few players who had to pull
out in the days leading up to
the conference, but the remaining
five players met others
from their diocese, from St.
Anne’s in Carthage, who were
eager to compete.
The two faith communities
in Madison and Carthage
are an hour away from each
other. The players had just met
that weekend and had never
played together, a contrast to
many of the teams that had
practiced with each other for
weeks ahead of the Copa. But
the beauty of both sport and
spirituality is the ability to
come together and learn from
each other and grow closer to
one another.
And that can create something
magnificent to watch.
Despite having a team of
players that hadn’t practiced
together and carried just two
substitutes, the Jackson Saints
ended the round robin portion
of the tournament as the
second-best team on the field,
which included a 4-0 shutout
victory in their first match.
It was quite the accomplishment
for a makeshift
team that had met just 36
hours before.
The beautiful game
In the end, the Jackson
Saints’ magic run fell short.
They and the Latin Cajuns
from the Diocese of Lafayette,
Louisiana, fell in the