Priest Holmes, Tommy Herr, Johnny Roland, Mike Matheny and Msgr. Louis Meyer were a few of the 16 inductees enshrined into the Missouri Sport Hall of Fame Sunday evening, January 30th in Springfield, Missouri.  Although Monsignor is known for starting CYC soccer at the parishes, helping start the soccer program at St. Louis University and bringing Pele and his Brazil team to play in St. Louis, he was much more than just the "Soccer Priest." 

In his acceptance speech Msgr. Meyer mentioned how Cardinal Ritter assigned him the task of creating a league where parish teams could play in 1941.  At that time the Muny league would not allow teams with black players to play.  That was the beginning of the CYC.  The CYC started one year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.  In her Saturday Post-Dispatch article about Msgr. Meyer, Kathleen Nelson points out that from that first baseball league, "The CYC has grown to include 5,000 teams in baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer and softball with more than 90,000 young athletes.  The organization estimates that two million area youths have played on CYC teams in its history."  Monsignor said after the ceremony, it isn't just him in the Hall of Fame, now the CYC is in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.         

A Random Act of Sportsmanship (RAS) was spotted the first week of the season during a 7th grade girls basketball game at Visitation Academy.  With only 30 seconds left in the game, Emilie, a player on the Sacred Heart team was accidentally poked in the eye by Sydney Hafenscher, a Visitation player.  Luckily one of the Visitation parents in the stands was an eye doctor and he immediately came down to examine Emilie.  Emilie and her eye were fine.

The act of sportsmanship that was reported by both the Sacred Heart coach and Emilie's parents took place after the game.  Sydney went out of her way to find Emilie, apologize for what had happened and make sure that she was alright.  It was obvious that Sydney was genuinely concerned about Emilie.  It is that kind of care and concern for one another, in this case a stranger on an opposing team, that we hope all our athletes will display.  Sports give us the opportunity to reveal our true character.  Thank you Sydney Haferscher for your Random Act of Sportsmanship.  It obviously made an impression on many of those in attendance. 

If you see a Random Act of Sportsmanship, please let us know, we would like to recognize our CYC athletes, coaches, officials and fans when that happens.  Simple e-mail Buzz Swanston at buzzswanston@archstl.org, or call 314 353-8911 ext. 13.