“I have a real passion for CYO,” smiles the graduate of St. Rita School (Sierra Madre) and St. Francis High School (La Canada), who spent 20 years in sports marketing with Fox and ESPN.
That expertise, combined with his passion, make McGoldrick optimistic that he can help build the venerable youth sports organization throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
“We want to reach out to the community and establish partnerships with public and private businesses and organizations who support youth sports,” says McGoldrick, who was named CYO program director late last year. “Obviously, fundraising is a big component of my duties, and I believe through my background in marketing I can help make that happen to serve our Catholic school youth.”
He estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 student athletes in grades 5-8 participate each year in one or more of the nine sports in the CYO program, under the auspices of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. The sports include boys football and girls volleyball in the fall; boys and girls basketball and golf in winter; and boys volleyball, boys and girls soccer, girls softball and a track and field tournament in the spring.
Currently, approximately 170 elementary schools of the archdiocese participate in CYO, primarily in Los Angeles County, and McGoldrick wouldn’t mind seeing that participation expand. CYO in Los Angeles has been active since the early part of the 20th century, and McGoldrick asserts that it has made a significant and positive impact on the lives of many of its participants.
“My whole family went through CYO,” he recalls warmly, “and the lessons that you learn in teamwork, in cooperation, in striving for a common goal stay with you for life. And it’s something that we would like more youth and more families to be aware of, so that they can participate as well.”
In addition to his marketing career, McGoldrick was active in Santa Clarita Youth Football. His family — wife Patricia, a high school freshman son and an eighth grade daughter — is active at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Santa Clarita; McGoldrick formerly chaired the OLPH finance council.
He hopes to establish closer relationships with Catholic colleges (such as the Loyola Marymount University summer youth sports camps) and Catholic high schools, both to host CYO events and, through that, bring Catholic school youth in closer contact with Catholic high schools in hopes of boosting enrollment.
“We have one of the largest youth sports programs in Southern California,” he says, “but we always need to make families, especially younger families, aware of CYO’s existence and the opportunities it provides.”
St. Jane Frances takes boys and girls hoop titles
The Catholic Youth Organization recently hosted the 2011 Boys and Girls Basketball Championships in storied Gersten Pavilion on the campus of Loyola Marymount University. The two-day event completed another season of Boys and Girls Basketball that the CYO offers to schools throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in which 135 schools participated in the girls season while 152 schools were represented during the boys season.
After the regular season, CYO hosts a 64 team single elimination playoff for both groups culminating in the championship games. (To view the brackets for both tournaments, visit >www.cyousa.org.)
The girls championship game Feb. 27 matched North Hollywood and conference neighbors, with St. Jane Frances de Chantal defeating St. Charles Borromeo 44—38. Leading by six at halftime, the Lady Spartans of St. Jane Frances extended their lead to 36-18 with about 12 minutes to play.
However, the Lady Bruins, the 2010 CYO girls basketball champs, showed their mettle and went on a 14-0 run over the next 10 minutes. With a minute left, the Lady Spartans clung to a one-point lead over their North Hollywood counterpart and ended up scoring the final five points to win it.
In the third place game, the fans were treated to another wonderful contest between St. Benedict (Montebello) and Our Lady of Fatima (Artesia) as the two teams traded leads throughout. The Lady Bruins of St. Benedict held the biggest margin (five) midway through the second half. The Lady Chargers kept attacking the basket and hit a three-point basket with less than a minute left for a 27-24 victory.
In a replay of the girls championship, NAC and North Hollywood rivals St. Charles Borromeo and St. Jane Frances de Chantal battled for the boys title March 13. A back-and-forth first half ended with the teams tied at 22, but the depth of St. Jane Frances proved too much in the second half as they pulled ahead for the victory, their second consecutive boys basketball title.
In the third place game, Holy Name of Jesus of Los Angeles and St Louise de Marillac of Covina went back and forth throughout before a few late clutch plays by Holy Name made the difference.
