'Souls in the Game' explores seminarian team

BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT

It should come as no surprise that a documentary about the St. John’s Seminary basketball team isn’t a typical sports film.
“It was never about winning or losing for us,” the film’s director Ann Gennaro said. “It was about, ‘Who is this team and what have they become?’”
Miss Gennaro wrote, directed and produced “Souls in the Game,” in collaboration with St. John’s Seminary in Brighton and the Archdiocese of Boston.
Coach Patrick Nee said when he brought the St. John’s team to the St. Francis de Sales Seminary Basketball Invitational in Milwaukee in 2022 during his first season as coach, he was blown away by how moving and spiritual the experience was.
“All these young men who will be our next priests competing in basketball and praying together,” he said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, people should know about this. This is a special thing to see as a Catholic.’”
The team’s captain, now newly ordained Father Peter Schirripa, agreed.
“The team had something special,” he said. “It was so much bigger of a story than basketball. It brought so many different guys from different backgrounds and different stages in their seminary formation together and helped form us into the men and priests that God wants us to be.”
So, they approached Miss Gennaro, content and communication specialist and video producer for the Archdiocese of Boston, to do the documentary.
“It represents both what’s happening on the court,” Miss Gennaro said, “and off the court, as well as what we’re doing here in the Church. We’re the souls in this game of life, so to speak. I’m not saying life is a game, but we are all a part of this larger mission and we’re all working together as a team within that.”
The film follows the seminarians from jogging in the dark early in the morning before practice at Mount Alvernia Academy to competing in the St. Francis de Sales Seminary Basketball Invitational in February.
Miss Gennaro said while it’s not unusual for a group of individuals to form a team, the seminarians created not only a team, but a brotherhood.
“That meant they could perform, but they could also love in the midst of loss and suffering and challenge,” she said.
The documentary also showed the team reaching out to others. Joe Bernardi, the facilities manager at Mount Alvernia Academy, didn’t know what seminarians did and didn’t have a deep faith, but the team built a close bond with him.
This isn’t in the documentary, but Mr. Bernardi later invited the team to his home for dinner and the team invited him and his family to the documentary’s premiere on May 11 at the seminary for the seminarians, invited guests and sponsors. On May 18, the feast of the Ascension, the documentary debuted on YouTube.com at https://youtu.be/rLig0kFFn7M. It’s also available at https://www.soulsinthegame.com.
The St. John’s Seminary team didn’t capture the championship in Milwaukee, but Mr. Nee believes the team won in other ways than on the scoreboard.
“Sports are really powerful for bringing people together,” he said. “It would have been nice if we won, but in some ways the story is better that we didn’t.”
That’s because the seminarians have a greater calling than winning a basketball title.
“These men are going to help people get into heaven,” Mr. Nee said, “and winning a basketball tournament is such a small thing when you think that these men are going to be with our dying parents and with us on our deathbeds and they’re going to be delivering the sacraments. Who really cares if you win a basketball tournament? So having that driven home by Father Peter in the end in that locker room scene was really powerful.”
On May 20, Father Schirripa was ordained to the priesthood and assigned as vicar at St. Brigid of Kildare and Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston. Some parishioners recognize him from the documentary.
“People from Colorado have even been reaching out to me about it,” he said. “It’s crazy. I don’t know how it spread as much as it did.”
Most of the team members belong to the Archdiocese of Boston, but starting point guard Rick Reyes is from the Diocese of Worcester.
“This was an opportunity to play as sons of the Father and to glorify him through sport,” Mr. Reyes said. “It was never really about basketball, but to play with that freedom, that wonder, that grace to show that the Lord is alive in us in spirit and truth.”
Mr. Reyes, 21, has been a seminarian for two years and is a team leader for the second summer at Totus Tuus, a Catholic camp run by the Worcester Diocese.
“Working with Ricky was fantastic,” Miss Gennaro said. “He is just a joyful ball of energy.”
Mr. Reyes had created playlists for the team and Miss Gennaro used his rap hip-hop music on the soundtrack for the documentary.
“He might be the youngest guy on the team and he has a real infectious energy about him,” Mr. Nee said. “He’s a joy to be around. He’s probably the best athlete on the team. He’s fast, he can jump and he has an amazing spirit.”
Mr. Reyes ran cross-country and track at St. Peter-Marian High School and St. Joseph’s College of Maine.
“He is going to be a phenomenal priest one day,” Father Schirripa said, “and he’s going to be one of the leaders of the team in years to come.”
Father Derek Mobilio, associate pastor at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Grafton, was one of the founders of the team in 2017, served as assistant coach last year, and accompanied the team to Milwaukee this year.
“He was a big asset to the team,” Father Schirripa said, “so that’s why everybody wanted him to come out (to Milwaukee) this year.”
Miss Gennaro described her first experience working with seminarians as “a surprising treat.” She expected them to be stoic.
“But working with this team, I was very surprised, they’re just really good, normal guys, which made it a lot of fun,” she said. “But at the same time, they’re all pursuing holiness, which is very beautiful.”
Mr. Nee played basketball for Brown University and owns a financial planning firm. A seminarian at his parish in Westwood asked him if he would be interested in coaching the team and he agreed.
“It’s been eye-opening to me,” Mr. Nee said, “to wrestle with the idea that with all the opportunities out there for them, they’ve decided to dedicate their life to being a celibate priest. It’s amazing they’re dedicating their life and it’s restrengthened me in my faith.”
Mr. Nee said people have told him the documentary opened their eyes.
“They see priests in a new light,” he said. “Like, they’re real people, and it kind of shook them in terms of how they viewed the church.”
“People have been really moved by it, they’ve really loved it,” Miss Gennaro said. “So it’s really kind of permeated the Catholic world and it seems to have begun to touch and reach people beyond the Catholic world too.”
Nathan Wilson edited the documentary and served as director of photography along with Chris Scesny and Nick Gould. Audio engineer Jeff Crocker, camera operator Sofoklis Gourdoukis and production assistant Chris Donoghue rounded out the crew.