Holy hoops: Inside Houston priests’ annual basketball game
Make no mistake: This is no ordinary basketball game. All of the players on the court have also been called to the priesthood.
Students at St. Mary’s Seminary compete against the Martyrs, a team of priests from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, for this annual event.
The excitement in the stadium is palpable. Each parish cheers for its priests as they charge to the court, high-fiving coaches, referees and friends along the way.
Like the priests, the seminarians have prepared for a victory, practicing each week prior to the big game.
“If we have an advantage, it’s the gym we have at the seminary,” seminarian Christopher Meyer said. “We practice every Monday.”
The victor will win a trophy with a cross on the top at the Priests versus Seminarians Basketball Game on March 6. The event takes place during Lent, and the Knights of Columbus are hosting a seafood tailgate at 5 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets range from $4 to $16, and all proceeds benefit St. Mary’s Seminary.
“It’s a good way to support the seminary,” Meyer said. “This is also a really good event for the archdiocese. They get to see who their priests are and who their priests will be.”
Meyer attends St. Mary’s and has played in every basketball game since the event started four years ago.
The battle between priests and seminarians was the brainchild of the Rev. Preston Quintela at St. Cecilia. He grew up playing sports and was surprised he could keep up his athletic skills while studying in seminary.
In fact, he and the Rev. Nicolas Ramirez, pastor at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, went to Holy Trinity Seminary at the same time in the Diocese of Dallas and were teammates on an intramural football team.
“We heard the seminarians were doormats, and it was just a practice game,” Quintela recalled.
They decided to turn that around, winning two championships with the seminarians in 2009 and 2010. “All of the students were surprised,” Quintela said.
The duo continued competing in basketball tournaments when they attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston. They faced Assumption Seminary in San Antonio as well as Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving. Each January, a national seminarian basketball tournament was held at Mundelein
Seminary in Chicago.
“We took an all-star team up there,” Quintela said.
He realized that the games had potential to reach a younger audience, to show children that priests are human. “A lot of times kids just see us in a collar or at Mass, and there’s no connection,” he said.
He was about to be ordained into the priesthood. He began brainstorming ways to continue playing basketball — and engage more families in the sport.
“Father Preston and my brother were classmates,” said Nicolas Ramirez’s brother, Jacob, who also plays. “Father Preston is a huge sports guy. He loves playing, really anything sports related. Once he was ordained, I knew he wanted to keep doing something, and he’s a very creative man.”
Quintela decided to form a basketball team in the priesthood and have an annual game against the seminarians.
“I thought it was an awesome idea,” Jacob Ramirez said. “If we could pull it off, I thought, let’s do it.”
They were met with initial skepticism.
“There was no way that we could play the seminarians,” said the Rev. T.J. Dolce, pastor at St. Martha Catholic Church in Porter. “I told him, ‘There’s a reason people retire from sports.’ We’d have gotten smoked.”
But then Quintela and his classmates graduated and became priests — and the competition seemed more promising.
Quintela formed a team. He also set a date for a game.
“But I didn’t have a venue,” he recalled. “I was dreaming big. I had that attitude of go big or go home.”
Quintela considered a few area schools that could host the game. Some seated a few hundred people.
“But I didn’t want a few hundred; I wanted a few thousand,” Quintela said.
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory had plenty of room in the stands, so Quintela booked it for the first Priests Versus Seminarians Basketball Game in April
2017. “I started promoting it,” Quintela said. “I was hoping for 1,000 people to come.”
“When the game started, there were 2,600 people there,” Quintela said. “It was full.”
Nicolas Ramirez was nervous at first. “I’d never done anything in front of a crowd like that,” he said. His parents were in the stands as he competed against his brother.
“It was a blast,” Jacob Ramirez said. “It’s good to have a friendly competition and for people to see priests in a different light.
You don’t get to see them play a very exciting basketball game every day.”
The priests won in both 2017 and 2018. So, the seminariansbrought on coach Larry Dunbar to step up their game. “He’s been great,” said Meyer, who worked with Dunbar to improve his freethrow stance. The seminarians made a comeback in 2019.
“We beat ’em pretty good,” Meyer said with a smile.
He has a good feeling about this year. But two seminarians were ordained and will now be on the other side.
“If they do win, it will be from the gift we gave them,” Meyer said. “But let it be known, both Father Nicolas and Father Preston have become worse. Fortunately for us, they get older every year. They slow down.”
Meyer joked that he is the official “trash-talker” for the seminarians. Off the court, however, the priests and seminarians
have become better friends thanks to the game.
And it helps the younger audience members to see that priests are people. Last year a few kids approached Meyer after the game for autographs. “They had sharpies ready and everything,” he said.
This year, Quintela handed over the event to the Rev. Richard McNeillie, vocational director for the archdiocese. Now, Quintela can focus on playing the game and leave the coordination to the central office.
“Competition is healthy,” Quintela said. “When we understand how to make it healthy, in business and in sports, it helps us grow to become more virtuous.”
Dolce said that last year there were only a handful of practices on the priests’ schedule before the big game. “This year, I put 12 practices on the calendar,” he said. “We got whooped last year. We need to practice more.”
This will be the first time the game is played at Delmar Fieldhouse, which seats 5,000.
“Hopefully, it will bring more people to see the priests and seminarians play,” Quintela said. “Come out and have fun.”
He said that it’s more than just another basketball game.
“We live in a world that’s sports-driven,” Quintela said. “This is a basketball game, but we’re modeling behavior. We can be competitive, but we exercise discipline. It’s about common good and sacrifice. There are a lot of virtues that can be learned from this game we’re playing.”
Nicolas Ramirez pointed to the Scripture and St. Paul’s letter about running a race.
“St. Paul talks about a Christian life, and when you run a race, you want to do it well,” he said. “Anytime you put your mind to something, you want to do it well. There’s something to that.”
Dolce said his favorite part is watching the fans cheer.
“What’s really fun about the game is how much the people in the stands love the guys on the court,” he said. “They cheer for every basket. They love their priests — and the guys who are going to be priests. It’s the way sports should be.”