Captain of US Olympic Hockey team learned the sport at NY Catholic schools

2014 Winter Olympics – Sochi, Russia
Men’s Hockey USA – Team photo and practice

Brian Gionta, captain of the U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team, competed in the 2006 Winter Games and played on three NHL teams, but his skating roots go back to his Catholic high school and college teams.

Before playing with travel teams in high school, Gionta was on the hockey team at Aquinas Institute, a Catholic middle school and high school in Rochester. In college, he played for the Boston College Eagles and was the team captain in 2000-2001, when the team won the national championship. At 39, Gionta is the oldest Olympic athlete in the entire U.S. delegation in PyeongChang.

While his Olympic experience is important, the years he’s logged in leadership roles is even more important. Having captained two different franchises – the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres – over a span of seven years, Gionta already knows the pressure that comes with the role. It usually doesn’t get much tougher than being captain of such a storied franchise as Montreal. He was also the captain at Boston College his senior season and has been a winner with both a Stanley Cup and an NCAA national championship to his name.

The 39-year-old Gionta has accomplished a lot his hockey career, from an NCAA championship with Boston College, to a Stanley Cup title with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. He’ll try to add a gold medal to his resume starting next week in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Gionta and his wife, Harvest, have three children, Adam, Leah and James. (From Catholic NY)

Vatican now emphasizing its sports involvements (from CRUX)

One doesn’t have to go any further than St. Paul’s letter encouraging Corinthians to “run in such a way as to take the prize” to find the deep connection between sports and faith.

On Friday, Vatican officials announced a further step in the Church’s relationship with the Olympic games, and the possibility that it might evolve into something permanent.

While no team flaunting the papal colors will have a chance to win a gold medal in the foreseeable future, Church representatives have been formally invited by the International Olympics Committee, or IOC, to take part in the Olympic session Feb. 5-7 ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Games, in South Korea, in an observer role.

The Vatican already had been invited to the opening ceremony of the games in Rio de Janeiro back in 2016, an invitation that has been reiterated for the 2018 games. This year’s novelty is in the Holy See’s opportunity to attend the session, which is a general assembly discussing the issues regarding sports around the world and Olympic policies.

“It’s one more step down the road toward relations between the Holy See and the Olympic world,” said Spanish Father Melchor Sanchez De Toca Y Alameda of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who will be leading the Vatican delegation, in a phone interview with Crux.