2026 St. Francis de Sales Basketball Tournament

 

by Charles Maternowski, Diocese of Green Bay

Each year, IHM has the opportunity to participate in an amazing seminary basketball tournament at St. Francis de Sales seminary in Milwaukee, WI. This is a great time of competition, fraternity, and lots of fun. IHM has participated in this tournament 5 out of the 6 years since its creation, and always brings the energy to the tournament. This year, a group of seminarians got together with a pep band to play during the breaks at our games, and we easily had the largest cheering section, even bigger than St. Francis de Sales! We went 2-2 this year in 4 very competitive games. Our team is quite young, so we are hoping that this year is the dawn of an IHM basketball dynasty!

Due to the seminary renovation at De Sales, each team was given a single large room with mattresses; basically, we were camping indoors. This meant that the seminarians from IHM at the tournament (which numbered around 50) all slept in the library at St. Francis de Sales with mattresses sprawled everywhere! It was amazing to see our seminary community come together in Milwaukee for this blessed weekend.

I had the blessing of being an assistant coach on the team, primarily assisting with substitutions and anything else that the head coach needed help with. This role provided me with the opportunity to grow in fraternity with my brother seminarians on the team. I can say with great confidence that, after the tournament, many friendships were strengthened, which is such a great gift from the Lord.

At the tournament there were also 17 other teams, so it was a great opportunity to talk to other seminarians from across the country (as far as Boston I think!) and form new friendships with them. I greatly look forward to going next year as the Lord works even through the sport of basketball to bring us closer to Himself.

Please continue to pray for us, and know that we are praying for you!

A Note from the Executive Director:

We at the Catholic Foundation enjoy following along as these seminarians, the future of our local Church, grow in fraternity, faith and leadership. If you’d like to help fund seminarian education at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Winona, you can make a donation here.

~Elizabeth Williams, MS