Athletics The Saint Joseph's Way

The Saint Joseph’s Way affirms the infinite worth and innate religiosity of each member of the school community.

• As coaches we show respect for our student-athletes by giving our best to them by preparing well for practices and games.  
• We expect all of our athletes to treat each other with respect and to provide support to all members of the team regardless of their ability or role on the team. We stress that everyone has an important role to play.
• We focus effort on the least talented players, as well as the most talented athletes, coaching up second- and third-string players, demanding 100% effort from all players.
• We show respect to our opponents and officials by refraining from derogatory comments and remarks, by always playing by the rules, and by offering friendly greetings and congratulations.
• As coaches, we set the standard by using language that builds up and encourages our athletes. When correcting and motivating them to improve, we always refrain from derogatory remarks and tactics that demean kids and/or take God’s name in vain.
• We create an affirming and welcoming culture on our teams that is free from all forms of harassment and hazing.
• Out of respect for our opponents, we are careful not to run up the score when an athletic contest is firmly in hand.
• The music played at games and practices will be consistent with the school’s Catholic mission and be free from bad language, racial slurs, and sexual content and innuendo. 

The Saint Joseph's Way embraces all of reality, believing that it comes from God and therefore reveals signs of His presence in the world today.

• No matter what happens in a game, we believe that there’s always something good that we can look for and expect, because we believe that God is present and is calling each person to Himself through the reality we are experiencing.
• We revere and value participation in athletics as a place for discovering beauty, truth, goodness, and even transcendent realities. As coaches, we look for opportunities to point these things out to our athletes to help them see that their love for sports is related to their innate desire for God.
• We believe that there are as many life lessons to learn from losing as from winning. Therefore, we seek to discover those lessons and to teach them to our student-athletes.  (Some of the possible life lessons include: the importance of working hard to overcome adversity; being gracious in defeat and victory; showing compassion for teammates and opponents who fail; practicing forgiveness toward teammates, opponents, and officials when wronged; remembering that our common humanity unites us more than being opponents divides us).
• We help our athletes embrace and be grateful for their gifts and encourage them to use them for the good of others.
• We help our athletes recognize their limitations and encourage them to overcome those that can be improved upon while accepting and making the most of those that cannot be changed.
• If we must cut a student from a team, we are thoughtful and gracious in our communication of that news.

The Saint Joseph’s Way proposes that fulfillment is found in communion with Christ, who remains a living presence today in the friendship of His followers, the Church.

• We strive to create a strong sense of Christian community and family on our teams such that they are animated by the belief that every member of the team has a unique and irreplaceable role on the team and in the body of Christ.
• While we value winning and we strive to do so, we don’t see winning games and championships as the ultimate objective and meaning of our athletic programs, but rather we view participation in sports as an opportunity to get to know ourselves, our teammates, our coaches, our opponents, and our innate desire for God better.
• We start practices and games with prayer and end with prayer in order to ask for God’s blessing on all of our activities and to help us keep the proper perspective and attitude.
• Under normal circumstances, we don’t practice or play on Sundays so as to keep the commandment to “sanctify the Lord’s Day” and allow time for family.
• When we travel as a team over a weekend, we always make time to go to Sunday Mass as the first priority of that day together.
• While expecting athletes to make a serious commitment to our team, we also work creatively in conjunction with other divisions of the school to allow space for their other interests. 
• We see coaching as a special opportunity to participate in the overarching academic and Catholic mission of the school; and therefore, we don’t isolate athletics from the larger purpose of the school.

The Saint Joseph’s Way calls on teachers and staff to accompany their students as they use their freedom to verify the school’s Christian proposal.

• We strive to build relationships with our athletes (while maintaining appropriate adult/student boundaries) by being approachable and making sure our athletes know that we love and care for them as people.
• We set high expectations, push our athletes to improve, and hold them accountable while giving them grace as well as firmness when it is needed.
• While we value skill and strive for excellence, we hold up as examples athletes who act with integrity and virtue and point to them as role models for their teammates. 
• We strive to make it known that we are there for our athletes and coaches to serve as sounding boards for whatever is going on in their lives, both “on and off the court/field.” 
• We are there for our students when they fail, whether that failure is athletic, academic, or personal, always taking the long view and never giving up on them.
• We look for ways to stay involved and accompany our students even after they graduate from high school.