Monday, September 22, 2014

Theology by the Slice: There's No Place Like Home

Last Wednesday we heard a talk by Bill Gibbons, head coach of the Holy Cross women's basketball team. This year marks Coach Gibbons's thirty-fourth season at Holy Cross, and his thirtieth as head coach. During his time here, he has led the women's basketball team to over 550 victories during his time at Holy Cross. During his talk, Coach Gibbons shared with us several stories of events that have influenced his Catholic faith. His talk was entitled "There's No Place Like Home," and this phrase recurred throughout the coach's presentation, with audience members chanting it at his indication.

Coach Gibbons began with the classic tale of how he came to coach women's basketball at Holy Cross. Many of the coach's uncles had gone to Holy Cross, and had told him that he ought to be a Crusader throughout his high school years. Though Coach Gibbons went on to go to Clark University, he played basketball at Holy Cross during his college years. Afterward, he spent some time substitute teaching while pursuing an MBA, though he really wanted a coaching job. Then, he was unexpectedly offered a part-time assistant coaching job at Holy Cross by the legendary coach George Blaney (certainly different than a middle school coaching job). Coach Gibbons retained this part-time job for four years, and enjoyed his time in the position. Eventually, however, his mother advised him to find a permanent job, either in coaching or with his MBA. He applied to positions in both fields, and was soon offered a job in White Plains at a telephone company, and had every intent to quickly accept the business job.

Then, when preparing to accept the phone job, Coach Togo Palazzi the Holy Cross women's basketball team announced he was leaving, and Coach Gibbons was offered an interview for his position. The coach recalled the rather dull memories he had of women's basketball from his youth, and so had some reservations about the job. Nevertheless, he decided to pursue the offer. He had an interview with Fr. John Brooks, S.J. (which the coach likened to Dorothy meeting with the Wizard of Oz). In this meeting, Fr. Brooks expressed some doubt as to whether Coach Gibbons would be able to handle a team of women; the coach responded that, having had six younger sisters, he felt prepared for the challenge. Coach Gibbons was given the job, and soon fell in love with it. When after his second game the coach led Holy Cross to a victory against the University of Michigan (at the University of Michigan) in his,he knew that he had found his niche. A former chaplain, Fr. Joseph LaBran, S.J., had encouraged him to mold his players into women for others (something for which he prays daily). God had put Coach Gibbons into the right home.

The rest of Coach Gibbons's stories were of a more tragic nature, but each showed how his faith had helped him carry difficult crosses.

When he was in the tenth grade, Coach Gibbons had won a bicycle in a school raffle. The bicycle was a bit too small for him, so he gave it to his younger sister, Anne Marie. One day, Anne Marie set off on the bicycle to visit a friend, a few blocks away. The coach was later playing catch with his younger brother when his neighbor came racing toward his house. Anne Marie had fallen off the bicycle and, not wearing a helmet, had hit the pavement.  She was in a coma for three and a half days until she finally passed away. Without his faith, Coach Gibbons would have been unable to make it through this ordeal.

One of the coach's players had once likened the sacrament of Confirmation to stirring a spoon in a glass of chocolate milk. The sacraments of Baptism, Confession and First Communion like pouring chocolate syrup into a glass of milk; the one who receives them does so because their parents make them. When one chooses to undergo the sacrament of Confirmation, it is like taking a spoon and stirring up all the grace that has been given. In this time of trial, when the coach was preparing for Confirmation, he found he needed to stir his spoon and rely upon the store of faith he had been given.

Anne Marie died on September 7, and every year on that day a single rose blooms in the backyard of his parents' home. Coincidence? Anne Marie has gone home, to her heavenly home.

In 1991, the Holy Cross women's basketball team upset a school record for victories, making number three in the country. The game in which they had won their victory had been recorded, and it was the first one to be recorded on television. The coach planned to watch the rerun with his team. The night of the victory, however, Coach Gibbons received word that one of the former team members had committed suicide. A year earlier, this girl's father had committed suicide, and she did the same a year later. Coach Gibbons decided to watch the game and then inform the team afterward. Later that evening, after he and the team had watched the game, he told them the news. Although he had expected it to be quick, they instead sat and talked for four hours. They talked about life, death, faith, eternal life and shared stories of suffering and loss. Some students who had never really thought about "the end" were exposed to its reality, and the lengthy conversation brought them all closer together.

In 2011, Coach Gibbons's grandmother passed away at the age of 104. She had suffered the deaths of many of her own family: a daughter who died of cancer, the coach's Uncle Tom (a man with Down Syndrome and the center of love of the whole family), her own husband and a granddaughter. His grandmother had been a rock of faith, and her faith ad shone through and onto the whole family. The coach had the honor of giving the eulogy at her funeral, which was titled "There's No Place Like Home."

Coach Gibbons likened the road home to a highway where you need to stop at tolls. We need a deposit of faith to pay the tolls, and as the tolls get higher, the crosses bigger, the more faith we need to get through. He emphasized the importance of cultivating faith throughout that life, so that we have an abundant store of it to access when you need it. Finally, he said that on the way to our heavenly home, we ought to bring someone else along with us.

We sincerely thank Coach Gibbons for his sincere and moving talk. It is comforting to know such a faith-filled man is a part of the Holy Cross community.




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