OLGS Wins National Seminary Basketball Tournament

On January 27th, 2019, at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary’s basketball team became champions of the annual Father Pat O’Malley Invitational Basketball Tournament for the first time. Each year 16 basketball teams from Catholic seminaries across the United States are invited to this fraternal basketball tournament sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. The event was celebrating its 19th year and the picturesque campus of the Chicago-area seminary greeted the incoming seminarians in an elegant wintry fashion. Travel to and from the tournament was complicated for many teams by inclement weather, but the general mood was youthful, joyful and fraternal. Such inter-seminary athletic contests present a special opportunity for the seminarians of the FSSP to meet future priests from many of the dioceses across North America and to put smiling but competitive faces to the name of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

This past weekend was only the 4th appearance at this tournament for OLGS, but the seminary’s 2019 team made the most of their opportunity this time around. Led by no less than three of FSSP Harrisburg pastor Fr. Gregory Eichman’s younger brothers, OLGS achieved 5 comprehensive victories in a span of 40 hours. The FSSP seminarians defeated teams from the following seminaries: Moreau (CSC – South Bend, IN), St. Gregory the Great (Lincoln, NE), IHM (Winona, MN), St. John’s Seminary (Boston, MA) and Mundelein (Chicago, IL).

Upon leading their team to a +20-point average margin of victory, Mr. Nicholas Eichman, FSSP and Mr. James Eichman, FSSP were conferred the tournament’s highest individual honors at the trophy presentation ceremony after OLGS defeated Mundelein 54-34 in an entertaining championship game. Throughout the tournament the team’s high-paced and well-coached style of play garnered loud and enthusiastic vocal support from nearly all the teams and guests present.

The victorious seminarians would like to extend public thanks to OLGS faculty members Fr. Anthony Uy, FSSP (Head Coach) and Fr. Joseph Lee, FSSP (General Manager) for the sacrifices of their time, talents and efforts to train and guide them to such an achievement. Participation in the team provided an opportunity for camaraderie, discipline and recreation that provided entertainment and inspiration to the entire community at OLGS. In sum, it was a blessed weekend that will live long in the memory of, Deo volente, many future priests.

Non nobis, Dómine, sed nómini tuo da glóriam!

A few more shots of the championship game:

2019 Father Pat O’Malley Invitational Basketball Tournament Participants:

1. Mundelein Seminary (Chicago, IL)

2. St. John Vianney Theological Seminary (Denver, CO)

3. St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary (Boynton Beach, FL)

4. Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (Winona, MN)

5. St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)

6. St. Gregory the Great Seminary (Lincoln, NE)

7. Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary (FSSP – Denton, NE)

8. St. Francis de Sales Seminary (Milwaukee, WI)

9. Bishop Bruté College Seminary (Indianapolis, IN)

10. Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI)

11. Conception Seminary College (Conception, MO)

12. Kenrick-Glennon Seminary (St. Louis, MO)

13. Mount Angel Seminary (Portland, OR)

14. St. John’s Seminary (Boston, MA)

15. Notre Dame Seminary (New Orleans, LA)

16. Moreau Seminary (CSC – South Bend, IN)