CYO is a youth ministry and is available to all children in the parish. CYO is focused on building strong catholic youths and emphasizing strong catholic values in the framework of athletic activities.

Our goals for ministry with youth in the parish are:

• Goal #1 - To draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community.
• Goal #2 - To foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.
• Goal #3 - To empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.

Put succinctly, CYO’s mission is to provide an environment for our children to apply their learning of how to live and practice the teachings of the church.

How does CYO accomplish this?

By participating in CYO your child is exposed to the five elements that make CYO a unique experience: Cultural, Service, Spiritual, Social and Athletic. At St. Eleanor’s, CYO is not just an athletic organization. We build our program around all five elements to ensure a well rounded experience. For example, each sports team is required to perform a service project during the season. Our service projects incorporate the service, spiritual, and social components of our mission while providing benefits to our community.

When it comes to athletics, we promote Catholic values in the context of a competitive athletic environment. Furthermore, our CYO organization believes that sports are a metaphor for life, particularly when played in the context of the above five elements. What our children will learn from their CYO experience is that thru participation in sports they are preparing themselves to be responsible Catholic adults capable of dealing with the adversities and the challenges that life will present them as they get older.

In addition to the Catholic values we promote, some of the life lessons our children gain knowledge of while participating in CYO include:

• Building self confidence by participating in a supportive environment
• Setting goals and working hard to achieve those goals
• Accepting input/coaching from others who care about their advancement as a person and athlete
• Supporting and encouraging teammates to perform to the best of their ability
• Learning from mistakes and moving on
• Accepting defeat and victory with grace

Please feel free to contact any board member to further your understanding of our program. This web site provides contact information for all board members as well as additional details regarding CYO.

We look forward to your children joining our program where they will develop their own CYO experiences and apply them in their daily lives.