From the joyful to the touching, a coach’s memories always focus on the kids

By John Shaughnessy

The memories of the special moments start to flow for Tom O’Gara as he looks back on his 26 years of coaching in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO).

There was the time when one of his basketball teams was in a tense, back-and-forth tournament game, trailing by four points with just about 30 seconds to go.

“The kids didn’t get down,” recalls O’Gara about that team from St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis. “We ended up winning the game in double overtime. It was pretty dramatic. That’s one of those games I’ll never forget.”

He has the same feeling about a moment that shows the growth of a player during a boys’ volleyball season. At the season’s start, the child could barely get his serves to the net. But in a game late in the season, he served six straight times that led to six points and a team win.

“You could see his confidence and his smile get bigger and bigger with each serve,” O’Gara says, as if that moment just happened instead of years ago.

Then came his memory of a moment that still fills him with emotion. On a day in December of 2015, his dad went into hospice care. That evening, in a holiday basketball tournament game that he coached, O’Gara watched as the oldest of his four children, Danny, hit his first four shots.

“It’s one of those moments when you feel the Lord is looking out for you,” says O’Gara, who has also coached his daughter Claire and sons Tommy and Sean.

Another special moment came recently when the archdiocese’s CYO presented O’Gara with the highest honor it gives a volunteer, the St. John Bosco Award.

The honor recognizes his 26 years of coaching that began at Little Flower and has continued at St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis. He’s coached boys and girls, volleyball and basketball, in a career that started in 1997—shortly after he graduated from law school—as a way of giving back to an organization that filled his childhood and youth with a lot of special moments from playing sports.

“I love the fact that CYO emphasizes the importance of sports to our Catholic faith,” he says. “It’s about building the whole person up and building the community up.”

O’Gara tries to do both in sports from a foundation of faith. As a coach, he starts every practice with a prayer. He also ends every season with a prayer of thanksgiving for the time they’ve shared together.

“I told the kids that the most important thing we’ll do every day when we practice is that we will pray,” he says. “Sometimes we’ll ask the kids if there’s someone or something they want to pray for. I think the whole community aspect of our Catholic faith is really nurtured through that.

“My other main goal for the kids is that they be good teammates. I think that’s what we’re called to do as Catholics—to be caring, considerate and respectful of each other.

“Coaching is a blessing for me. It’s rewarding to get to know the kids and their families and be on those journeys together through the course of a season. We’ve had a lot of fun years.” †

See more Catholic Youth Organization award winners