Hey CYO fans just wanted to get some opinions regarding an unpleasant phone call that I just had…read morewith St Bridget of Kildare CYO Athletics athletic director Jonathan Boncela. Background My step sons were suspended from their current CYO Cross Country season for our failure to work the volleyball fundraiser tournament. This left them in tears tonight as they were made aware that not only would they not be able to run the last two races of the season but also that they wouldn't be able to run with the team at practice tonight to East Coast Custard. The Call When I was made aware of this I found it completely unacceptable and made a call to Jon to discuss. I agreed that he was well within his rights to uphold their policy but I wanted to discuss options that wouldn't include punishing the kids. I suggested that he allow them to finish the season with the understanding that they would not be eligible to register for Winter sports. I also suggested that he set the expectations that if someone worked the basketball tournament that they would be eligible to register for Spring sports. Jon disagreed with my suggestions saying the only way they could continue with cross country is if someone worked the volleyball tournament. So you're thinking..... Why didn't you or mom work the tournament? Good question. Short answer is that they treated my wife very poorly earlier this year when she tried to help one of their coaches with a volleyball practice so that wasn't on the table. Not to mention that we didn't know this was an issue until there were a very limited number of time slots available to help. Why didn't Dad do it? I can't speak to this. It could be very much justified. I don't know. My Opinion I believe that every adult has choices in these situations. I believe that someone in charge of a parish CYO program should look for alternatives to punishing the kids. I laid out what I thought was a very fair alternative which allowed Jon to uphold the rules while not punishing my step sons and he chose the hard line alternative. I think this was very wrong but I am very interested in your thoughts.

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