Football team gives touching tribute to longtime CYO coach

Mary Devine shows the football jersey that she received from the fifth-and-sixth grades’ football team of St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis. The team gave her the jersey after the Nov. 20 funeral Mass for her husband, Patrick Devine, who had coached boys at the parish for 40 years. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

The touching moment happened spontaneously—a fitting tribute to a man who coached in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) for 40 years.

The moment occurred at St. Lawrence Church in Indianapolis on Nov. 20, the day of the funeral Mass for 89-year-old Patrick Devine.

During the Mass, several people shared heartfelt words of praise for Devine, including how he and his wife Mary had been married for 66 years and how the couple, who had no biological children, cared deeply for their 22 nieces and nephews, even taking three of the nephews into their home for several years and providing a Catholic education for them in high school.

Then came the focus on the many other children Devine cared about, the ones he coached in football at St. Lawrence for 40 years.

They talked about the lessons they learned from him and the commitment he made to his players—a legacy that had been honored while he was still alive when the parish named the football field for him several years ago.

“We didn’t have any children, so they were just like his kids,” his wife Mary said. “He loved every minute he coached. Anybody who did it for that long had to love it. Everywhere we’d go, people would call him ‘Coach.’ A lot of them became coaches.”

Devine’s legacy was so strong at St. Lawrence that the coaches of this year’s 5th-6th grades’ football team decided to have their players attend the funeral Mass for Devine, wearing their jerseys.

“We wanted to pay our respects for the 40 years he put into coaching,” said Keith Minch, one of the team’s coaches who also serves as the parish’s athletic director. “Even after he was done coaching, he would come to homecoming.

“We always knew how much CYO football meant to Pat and his family. We just thought it would be a fitting tribute to be there for him.”

As the players and coaches listened to the eulogies for Devine, it left a deeper impression on them—and a desire to do something more to honor him.

“After the Mass, we came out. Everybody gathered and thought it would be a fitting tribute to give Pat’s wife a jersey,” Minch said.

Minch’s son Eamonn walked up to Mary Devine, hugged her, took off his jersey and handed it to her. Filled with emotion at that moment, she rushed to her family to show them the tribute from the team.

“I had no idea they were going to be at the church, and I was just blown away when they gave me the jersey,” Mary Devine said later. “I was speechless. The boy had already hugged me, and I thanked him for being there. Then when he took off his jersey and gave it to me, I was overwhelmed. It brought tears to my eyes. It does now just thinking about it.”

She believes her husband would have been touched by the team’s gesture, too.

“He was honored when the field was named after him,” she said. “I think he would feel the same way about the team coming to the church and giving me the jersey.”

It was an off-the-field lesson in grace and thoughtfulness for the players—teammates who had learned on-the-field lessons in hard work and determination in winning a CYO championship this season.

“You saw the reaction after she got the jersey,” Minch told the boys. “She was touched. Is there any doubt in your minds that it meant a lot to her? If you ever get the opportunity to leave a lasting impression on someone, then do it.” †