The Irish men's basketball team wasn't the only traveling hoops team from Notre Dame this weekend. A group of Holy Cross seminarians from Old College and Moreau Seminary traveled to Illinois this weekend to compete in an annual inter-seminary basketball tournament.
The team, which consisted of 14 seminarians, won one of its three games in the "Mundelein Seminary Shootout."
They placed sixth overall in the tournament, which included nine teams from seminaries across the Midwest.
"Even though we didn't do as well as we had hoped, the atmosphere there was pretty incredible whenever we stepped on the court, and our fans and bench guys were going crazy during every game," junior Mike Palmer said.
The tournament was highly competitive and each team was intent on winning, Palmer said, but it offered more than just a chance to compete on the court.
"A huge part of it was also meeting other seminarians and bonding with our brothers in Holy Cross," he said.
Coach of the Holy Cross team, Michael Seidl, said he enjoyed the sense of community that the tournament created.
"This weekend was an opportunity for all of the young men in seminary formation to be together, to join in a common cause and to have some fun," he said.
Holy Cross lost its first game to the host team and eventual tournament champions, Mundelein Seminary. The two teams were neck and neck throughout the first half, but in the second half Mundelein pulled away, Seidl said.
The second game, against Mount Saint Mary's Seminary of Cincinnati, resulted in an easy win for the Holy Cross team.
A victory in the third game, against Kendrick-Glennon Seminary, would have sent Holy Cross to the semifinals. They couldn't, however, pull through in the second half, Seidl said, and another loss prevented the team from advancing further.
Chris Rehegan, in his candidate year at Moreau Seminary, junior Bob Dunsmuir, and seniors Tim Mouton and Anthony Stachowski were among players that gave noteworthy performances this weekend, Seidl said.
In the months leading up to the tournament, the team prepared by holding practices each Sunday.
"This year our team had hopes of improving on last year's 3-1 record and playing for the championship," Seidl said. "Since returning from Christmas break, we've had more formal practices several times a week. We spent time working on fundamentals and learning our offensive and defensive schemes," he said.
To prepare, the team also held a scrimmage against a team of graduate students and local residents.
Despite the outcome of this year's tournament, the team looks forward to competing again next year, Palmer and Seidl said.
"As long as they keep inviting us back and as long as we have enough vocations to put five players on the floor, we'll be sending a team," Palmer said.
Seidl and the Holy Cross team are already planning for a more successful tournament in 2011.
"We'll make sure to get plenty of practice time. We also plan on talking to Luke Harangody, to see if he might have a vocation to Holy Cross," Seidl joked. "That should improve our chances."
