CYO Athletics

Resources for Coaches

General tips, resources and documents for CYO coaches.

Documents & Forms

General Tips

• Calendar: Knowing when the season begins can help you manage the tasks that need to be completed before the start of the season. Knowing when practice begins, games begin, rosters are locked and tournaments are held can give you a road map to a successful season. Visit your specific sport's page to download individual season planners. 
  
  
• Player Eligibility: The eligibility of the players on your team is important to us. If a child is enrolled in a Catholic school or is a member of a Catholic parish, he/she is eligible to participate on a CYO team. If the child is a non-Catholic enrolled in PSR or enrolled in RCIA he/she may be eligible to play. Contact the CYO office for details.
  
  It is expected that the child will play at the parish/school to which they attend. Please read our Player Eligibility page for more information.
  
  Each child must have a current Pre-Participation form on file with the team before he/she participates in practices or games. One component of the form is a physical exam, which is valid for 13 months from the date of the exam.
  
  Before the start of the season, review your eligibility roster with your athletic director to make sure all of your team members are on the official roster before they play in a game.
  
  
• Meetings: We recommend every CYO coach holds member-wide coach and parent meetings before each season. This is a great way to get a consistent message to all participating families and coaches. You can talk about your expectations as a coach, the mission of CYO and your program, practice and season dates, training and fundraising.
  
  A coaches meeting should be held three weeks prior to the start of practice and a parent meeting one week before the start of practice. Remember to invite your pastor to the meeting to help set the tone for the season.
  
  Each season, CYO Athletics also holds a General Coaches Meeting. These organizational meetings are very informative and help better prepare coaches for the upcoming season. Check the calendar for details.

• Deadlines: Deadlines are important for a program with more than 22,000 participants. As a coach, you will be made aware of registration and roster deadlines by your athletic director. Please respect those deadlines. If you miss a deadline, it could impact a team's ability to be sponsored or for a child to be added to a team roster.
  
  
• Championships: At the end of each season teams in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade, as well as the high school divisions, will have play-off tournaments and competitions. Make sure you view the Championship Information pages for more information on these tournaments.

Coaches Meeting Course

If you did not attend one of the mandatory winter season coaches meetings from October 28 through October 30, you must complete the Catholic Coaching Essentials course online. Once you complete the course, you must submit your completion certificate to the CYO office in order to receive your coaching credentials. Find more details regarding the course, cost and certificate submission here:

Catholic Coaching Essentials Course

Guest Player Rules

The coach needs the approval of their Athletic Director prior to the game to invite a Guest Player. If a team has fewer than 7 athletes at a game, a guest player may be moved from the member’s other CYO basketball teams to fill the positions at the start of a game under the following restrictions:

• The athlete meets the age/grade restrictions of the team he/she will assist.
• The guest player is reported by means of the button on the Coaches Information page of www.ccdocle.org/cyo before the game in which he/she will be used. It is recommended that this by done by the Member Athletic Director and according to Bylaw 5-3-2-C-6 are reported on the day of the game.
• The same individual may be invited as a guest player for no more than two (2) games during the season with any team. Once an individual is a guest player twice, they may not be invited by any other team for the remainder of the season.
• The athlete complies with Game and Time limits as outlined in Section 1-H.
• The guest player(s) must meet the minimum participation requirements outlined in the division specific sections.
• Guest player movements are to be reported on the basketball scoresheet before the competition begins. The guest player’s name should be listed after all of the regular team athletes and put “GP” next to their name.
• Guest player playing restrictions - If the guest player is the sixth and/or seventh player on the roster, they cannot start the first segment of the first quarter of the game. Coaches are encouraged to not play guest players more segments than players on the original roster.
• Uniform Requirements
  • Guest players must wear the uniform of the team that they are playing on, not their rostered team uniform.
  • There are to be NO duplicated uniform numbers (teams should have at least one extra jersey to be borrowed by the guest player for that game).
• Guest players cannot be used for sanctioned events or CYO championship competitions.

The Athletic Director must inform their coaches of what their process is to report a GP at their school/parish level.

Report a Guest Player

Coaches must have the Team ID to complete this form. Contact your parish athletic director for a copy of your team roster form or to have them give you the team ID number.

Online Resources

We recommend the following online resources to CYO coaches looking for more training:

• Jes-soft coaching software, plays and drills
• Human Kinetics Coach Education Center
• National Federation of High School Associations Coaching Today columns
• National Federation of High School Associations Learning Center courses
• CYO and University Hospital partnership: UH Drusinsky Sports Medicine Institute