By Chris Muskopf '91, Athletic Director

As Jesuit educators, the adults employed by SLUH are asked to execute cura personalis, or care for the whole person, relative to the young people with whom we work. We are called to appreciate and guide the development of talents, abilities, physical attributes, personalities, desires, hearts, faith and minds of our students.

What happens when it is those adults who need care and support? In the case of coaches in two spring sports programs, it is the student-athletes who banded together to support the coaches:

• Varsity head baseball coach, Raymond H. Bulte III '81 lost his dad, Raymond H. Bulte Jr. '51, on March 3rd, during the second week of the 2019 season. In addition to attending the Memorial Service on April 6th as a team, the team captains, Kolin King '19 and Joe Gilmore '19, collected money within the team to pay for a sign to be hung in the dugout that dedicates the 2019 season to the memory of Mr. Bulte, Jr.
• Varsity head volleyball coach, Jeff Cheak, learned on March 6th, also during the second week of the 2019 season, that his father had been diagnosed with advanced leukemia and would require aggressive chemotherapy and long stays at Siteman Cancer Center throughout the spring. The team captains, Dalton Ennis '19 and Brian Venhaus '19, worked with team parents to order bracelets labeled 'Spike for Mike' and '#SpikeCancer'. Shortly after these bracelets were distributed throughout the SLUH community, a pledge page was set up for players, parents, and other community members to pledge a donation to cancer research based on the number of spikes and/or digs the team recorded over the course of the season.

Thanks to our student-athletes who continue to impress us in competition and, more importantly, in the way they apply themselves off the field with a generous, enduring and loving spirit.