The San Francisco call., 1910-03-26
BY WILL SCARLET

BY WILL SCARLET
The Catholic Schools athletic league
of California is an institution only
little more than year old, and already
it enjoys high repute among the local
athletic associations. One reason for
this is excellent judgment and fore
sight displayed by the governing body
of the league, and another is the en-
thusiasm with which the ideals of the
organization were realized by the
boys in the local parochial schools
Baseball, handball and other forms
of school athletics were always prom
inent among the Catholic schoolboys
of San Francisco and vicinity, but it
was not until November 1908, that a
systematic effort was made to organize
the athletically inclined youngsters in
the various schools and to regulate
and control the conduct of interschool
contests. The tangible result of that
effort is the Catholic Schools athletic
league
The originator of the movement is
Brother Joseph, at present prefect at
ST. Mary's college in Oakland Years
ago Brother Joseph was a prominent
athlete at st. Peters school, and when,
after several years, he took up the
teaching profession, he did not allow
his interest in sports to wane. His
duties brought him successfully to sew
eral different schools conducted by the
= Christian Brothers in California, Ore
gon and Washington, and wherever he
went he did his best to Establish the
athletic activities of the schools on a
systematic basis.
Brother Joseph'S plan for the
formation of an athletic league of all
the Catholic schools was eagerly taken
up by school boards and teachers with
the consequence that just one year
ago the organization pulled off a most
successful indoor meet at which repre-
sentatives of almost all the local
Catholic schools put in an appearance
After starting the league, Brother Jo-
seph retired from it's active direction,
but this year he was chosen president
y of the organization.
The purposes of the Catholic schools
athletic league are various The or
ganization aims at creating and main
tanning the right sort of interest in
athletics. In every school where the
athletic activities are not put on a
systematic basis there is sure to be
evils and abuses The boys will con-
centrate unduly on one form of ath-
letics to the exclusion of all Others
or they will yield to the unsportsman-
like motto, Win at all COST and as
a result the practice of ringing in"
outside players will obtain Such
abuses the Catholic league aims to
prevent.
AS Brother Joseph views the matter
athletics In a school Is not merely a
necessary evil or an invited nuisance;
the right sort of athletics Is a neces-
sity. Repeatedly, at the quarterly con-
ventions of the Christian Brothers and
on other occasions, Brother Joseph has
demonstrated the influence of athlet-
les in building up not merely the body
of the schoolboy but of molding his
character and teaching him the val
liable lessons of industry and self-re-
straint This conception of school
athletics is what lies behind the Cath
Ollie school athletic league, and 1t is
the realization of the beneficial re-
suits of the right sort OF interest in
sports that has prompted the teachers
in all the schools to, do all in their
power to further the interests of the
= organization.
At regular intervals during the
scholastic year the league holds con-
tests in baseball and basket ball and
stands sponsor for an indoor and an
outdoor track meet. This gives a suf-
ficiehtly wide scope for the little ath-
letes in all the schools without at the
same time causing athletics 10 seem of
more Importance than class work.
Capable local directors take charge of
the preparatory training in each
school with the result that the boys
get regular, systematic exercise.
Just now the spring baseball tOurna-
ment is on. While IL continues no
other branch Of sport occupies the at