A Special to the Blog

Written by Donald Lee, St. Mary's Class of 1988

Imagine if St. Mary's did not have a sports program. What would some of the kids do after school and on weekends? If you were attending St. Mary's in the mid 1980's, then that was exactly the situation.

I attended St. Mary's from 1985 to 1988 (6th to 8th grade) after going to Commodore Stockton (now Gordon J. Lau) Elementary School. In 6th and 7th grade, much of the athletic activities many St. Mary's kids had centered around recess / lunch, PE and after school. During recess and lunch, we would play a lot of NERF touch ball and maybe some dodge ball. During PE, we would do various activities per what the teacher wanted. Lastly, after school, we might play some football or basketball at Chinese Playground. I don't think too many of my classmates (nor the rest of the school) were aware of the bigger world that existed out there.

During my 8th grade year (1987-1988), St. Mary's hired a new Vice Principal and Science teacher in Mr. Jim O'Grady. Mr. O'Grady had originally worked at Epiphany and around November of 1987, he asked an interesting question to our class. He noticed that St. Mary's had no sports teams and asked the boys if we wanted to form a team.

There was a lot of interest and not too long later, the St. Mary's Saints were reborn. We held some practices at the school playground and Chinese Playground. After a few weeks of practice, we were thrust into our first game against St. Brigid and then two SFFD Flame Tournament games. We lost all three games though we were pretty competitive.

Though I would not know this until recently, our team was placed in the the 8B2 Middle Division by the San Francisco CYO. If our team had gotten a few breaks, we might have made the playoffs. But we lost our first six games including several by 1 to 3 points which hurt us. We did win our last two games to finish 2-6 (2-9 overall). If there was any consolation, one of two wins was against the team that ultimately won the LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (St. Vincent De Paul).

After boys basketball ended, we formed a boys baseball team and a girls basketball team as well. Neither team did particularly well but it was fun being out there.

As someone who remained involved with St. Mary's sports after graduation, I've seen the sports program go through it's up and downs. From 1988 until around 1996, the program was small as only 6th to 8th graders played. It wasn't until 1997 that St. Mary's allowed 3rd to 5th grade teams to be formed.

Since then, the program has thrived and remained a big part of the St. Mary's community. I don't think any of us (Mr. O'Grady or my classmates) would realize how big a deal it was for our class to form some basketball and baseball teams.

As I look back, I know the Class of 1988 didn't do anything special athletically. Yet, I am personally proud to have been part of the sports revival at St. Mary's. I'm happy that the kids through the past 25 years (and into the future) have gotten an opportunity to play sports if they wanted to. This was not always true for my class and some other previous classes.

I do want to note that the program would not exist without the hard work of many people. Lots of thanks to:

1. The parents who let their kids participate.
2. The coaches who spend a lot of volunteer time working with the kids.
3. The athletic directors that have managed the program through the years.

Thanks for a great 25 years. With St. Mary's working on finishing the gym in the new school building, I see a very bright future for the sports program.