Annual Rosary Rally at The Athenaeum of Ohio

The character-building society for student athletes, headquartered in Louisville, held its first-ever football rosary rally here July 31, 2014. They’ve since spread to numerous other cities and states, and here they’ve become a kick-off for the football season.

“We’ve had a lot of positive response from the players,” said Roger Bacon’s head coach, Mike Blaut. “It’s just a great tradition.”

Steve Specht, Head Coach at St. Xavier High School, said he told his players the rally exemplifies “everything good about Catholic education,” Whether the players are Catholic or not. “Why are we at St. X?” he said. “It’s about Christ, about faith. I tell them teamwork means learning to lean on people, and what better way is there to do that than prayer?”

The Bulldogs, an elementary school team made up of players from St. Gertrude and St. Andrew-St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, joined players and coaches from St. X, Roger Bacon, Moeller, Summit Country Day, Elder, and McNicholas High School for the event, which featured brief talks, Eucharistic adoration outdoors, and prayers.

New this year was a team that drove four hours from Illinois: The Sabers, from St. Thomas More in Champaign. SportsLeader’s founder and president, Lou Judd, connected Head Coach Nathan Watson with the football program at McNick. Head Coach Mike Orlando arranged for the Illinois visitors to work out and eat dinner with the Cincinnati team before the rally. “It’s what they’d do for us,” he said.

Click the following link to see a photo gallery of the 2017 Rosary Rally http://www.mtsm.org/PhotoGalleries/PhotoGallery60.aspx

For information about SportsLeader and to see if your school participates, go to https://www.sportsleader.org/

Text Credit: Gail Finke / The Catholic Telegraph
Photo Credit: E.L. Hubbard Photography.