450 seminarians compete in sixth annual De Sales Basketball Invitational

Seminarians from 18 seminaries across the country gathered Feb. 13–15 for a weekend filled with basketball, competition, and fraternity during the sixth annual De Sales Invitational at the Saint Francis de Sales Seminary in St. Francis, Wisconsin. There were 450 seminarians who participated.

This year’s champions were the seminarians from the host seminary — the Saint Francis de Sales Shoremen — who beat St. Meinrad Seminary 56-54 in overtime.

The annual basketball tournament started in 2021 after a seminarian at Saint Francis de Sales, who is now a priest, had the idea. The first year only included six teams. Now, the tournament has 18 teams competing including St. Joseph Seminary College, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Saint Paul Seminary, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, among others.

Invitations are sent to seminaries across the U.S. in September and those who get to take part are determined on a first-come first-served basis.

Each team is guaranteed to play three matches. The first two are part of a pool play. After the two rounds of pool play, each team receives their seed based on their record and go into the playoff bracket, where teams are eliminated after a loss.

Father John Baumgardner, vice rector at the Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, told EWTN News that “every single year we’re really just so grateful” to host the event.

“I think the men are excited to come. It can often be the highlight of the year for many of them, just the chance to travel together as brothers,” he added. “Certainly it’s great basketball — even this year we had a lot of games that went into overtime — but I think for the men they really enjoy the chance to meet seminarians from around the country. So, the brotherhood, the fraternity, that they share.”

Baumgardner pointed out that this event was the largest gathering of seminarians of the year thus far — not to mention that the arena was completely filled with cheering fans from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

“So many different, young Catholic families with their kids get to come and watch. So, it’s a really important event, even for vocations, but for the life of the Church and the archdiocese,” he shared. “We’re really blessed, as well, [in that] this year we had a number of bishops who stopped by the games and then we had probably about 50 priests in attendance here for the weekend, which is just amazing. So, just truly such a Catholic weekend.”

The priest said he hopes the event is an opportunity “to foster fraternity amongst the seminarians and priests around the country, to worship God beautifully and reverently, and enjoy getting to play basketball with these guys.”

“I think men will be able to look back on our tournament as a great source of renewal and encouragement.”