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Dear Friends,
The LaSallian tradition is over three hundred years old. While it is true that athletics were not part of Saint John Baptist De La Salle's original schools, this dimension was added in time and has become an important physical and social dimension of LaSallian education.
Key to an athletic program is the quality of the coach. Like the teacher in the classroom, the coach is both the model of what is being taught and the source of skill and information.
Over the centuries, we have come to expect certain hallmarks of coaches in the LaSallian school. Like all LaSallian teachers, prayer is the foundation of the LaSallian coach's vocation. The coach realizes that he or she is entrusted with the formative years of young people by God. This is a cooperative venture.
The LaSallian coach realizes that he or she is a teacher... a LaSallian teacher. Students with ability are challenged to develop their talent and to teach those with less talent. The LaSallian student is never a prima donna. The LaSallian educator teaches that all gifts and talents come from God and are for the good of those who have less. Gifts and talents are calls to service, never treasure to keep for oneself. The call is to be brother and sister.
The LaSallian coach understands the delicacy of this time in a young person's life. Rather than berating the student for mistakes, the LaSallian coach takes time to teach and re-teach with great patience and care. The LaSallian coach realizes that different personalities respond to different types of handling. At the same time the coach tries not to humiliate the player or display inappropriate anger.
The LaSallian coach teaches sportsmanship. Purpose, control, and team spirit are the life giving qualities of sportsmanship. The players must understand that the sport is first and always a game. The sport never becomes life. It is always seen as a part of life and its purpose is skill and fun. It takes interior and exterior control to keep this purpose in mind. It takes a spirit of team to remember that the skill and fun involved comes best when it is the result of a group who understands purpose and controls for it.
And finally, the LaSallian coach remembers that in the LaSallian school, winning is synonymous with learning. Athletics reside in a school's program because they are an occasion of learning. Athletics are not necessarily successful when the score is a winning score. Athletics are really successful when they teach. To win a match offers opportunity to learn how to win gracefully without putting down the opponent. To lose a match is to learn how to live with limits, to lose but not be defeated, and how to congratulate the winner and mean it.
At Cathedral High School, our coaches strive to practice the qualities and methods of our tradition. Together they create a team of adults who call young men and women to new dimensions of growth and possibility. I have every confidence that the 2005-2006 will be a great year for all of our young men who step into the LaSallian tradition of athletics this year under the guidance of our LaSallian coaches.
Sincerely,
Sam Govea
Principal
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