The St. Thomas CYO basketball team is in jeopardy after its priest outlawed the program. Photos courtesy Jimmy Cooke
Saint Thomas the Apostle’s precious CYO basketball program was put on the chopping block this summer and parents of the young athletes came out in big numbers to plead for its renewal before the buzzer runs out.
Jimmy Cooke, an athletic director at Saint Thomas, led the charge with a Facebook post shedding light on the more than 50-year-old program housed in what he said was one of the nicest gyms in the area. The post elicited heartfelt pleas for help as parents throughout the Woodhaven community came together to save their basketball Catholic Youth Organization program.
“This is so disheartening, after all the work I and many others have put in over the years,” he said. “Also, all the history and connection people have to this program for it to be gone for no reason. With over 100 kids having been in the program last year, they will be left trying to find another place to play rather than in their community.”
Cooke said the move came as no surprise as Saint Thomas already rented its gym out to another basketball league in the past, sparking several parish members to speculate about Father Frank Tumino’s intentions to sell the church’s large gymnasium at 87-19 88th Ave. The pastor did not respond to several requests for comment.
Kids from all over southern Queens have been playing ball at St. Thomas for years before the controversial move to disband the program came earlier this year.
Photos courtesy Jimmy Cooke
Saint Thomas’s CYO program used to be home to more than 300 kids – many of them from low- and middle-income families – but that number has dwindled to about 70, according to those involved.
Tumino did, however, comment on a previous Forum story back in March in which he blocked an annual basketball tournament from utilizing the Woodhaven church’s gymnasium. At that time, he said the church was “no longer able to fund” the Frankie Caropolo Memorial Basketball Tournament honoring a community member who died in 2003 of cancer.
“If those calling The Forum are supporting members of this parish community, they have had more than five years to be keenly and appropriately informed of the spiritual, as well as the financial, issues that concern our faith community,” Tumino said in an email back in March.
But at that time, others involved said the tournament actually ended up generating funds for the church, paying for both its time at the facility and giving additional money to religious institution.
To make matters worse, Cooke also said he was never notified formally about the program being brought to an end. Instead, Tumino simply made the announcement at an open forum for parents of kids attending the school earlier this summer.
“From the time he began, he seemed to always be a non-supporter of the athletic program,” Cooke said. “Every year, the constraints would get tighter and tighter until he choked us. There’s no reason for this.”
Jennifer Figueroa-Cantey said her son Xavier Cantey has been an active member of the Saint Thomas program and was shattered to hear the program was being nixed.
“My son has played with this program for three years. He has developed such a wonderful relationship with the team he starts talking about registration in June,” Figueroa-Cantey said. “Even though it was a struggle to attend practice and games with our moving. He was determined to continue playing for coach Mary. This program had helped my son develop confidence and determination to achieve his goals academically and recreationally.”
Jim Frenzel, another member of the Saint Thomas parish and community, said the news left him deeply saddened and put the community’s kids in athletic limbo.
“Through the years of my coaching and volunteering as treasurer at Saint Thomas Apostle, I always felt that this was something God had given me to do for the children and the people of the parish and community,” Frenzel said. “I wish I could have done more to maintain the program. I pray that the children and their parents will be able to find another program that can provide the service that Saint Thomas Apostle Recreation had provided in the past.”
By Phil Corso
