Church suspends CYO B-ball program

During the 1954 basketball season, All-American Buddy Ackerman, a graduate of Long Island University, played 28 games for the New York Knicks before being traded to the Boston Celtics. Ackerman, who died in 2011, at age 80, did not want to move from Oceanside to Massachusetts, so he quit basketball and started a local landscaping business.

In 1970, Ackerman brought Catholic Youth Organization basketball to St. Anthony’s Church, and it has been a regular program there ever since.

Until now.

Last week, the Rev. Nicholas Lombardi, the pastor of St. Anthony’s, at 110 Anchor Ave., abruptly announced that the program would be suspended for the coming year.

According to Deacon John O’Connor, who was involved in the program, it was suspended for “multiple reasons.” “Because of the behavior of some of the parents and coaches involved in the program — not just the Oceanside people, but the visiting teams as well — we had to re-evaluate the program,” O’Connor said. “That behavior was not fair to the children who played hard in the program.”

He declined to name specific parents or coaches.

“We have reached out to some parishioners, and will develop a board of governors for the program,” he added. “They will set guidelines and rules for the program so that it can be reinstated in September of 2014.”

To replace the program, the parish will run an instructional basketball program in the fall, and then a spring intramural program. O’Connor said that if the response is good enough, the program will be opened to the community as well.

The news about the CYO program, which served more than 250 local children, angered many parents and former coaches. Ocean-side resident Jenna Maughan is one of those parents. “My son is deeply disappointed that there will be no league for him to play basketball in this year, as he has been able to do for the past two years,” Maughan said. “My daughter, who becomes eligible to play this year, is disappointed as well, because she has looked forward to playing in the CYO for years after watching her brother play and enjoy himself.”

James O’Donohue, one of the program’s coaches in recent years, said he, too, was unhappy that the program was abruptly canceled, and that he went to Lombardi and O’Connor to speak with them about reinstating it.

“Father Lombardi gave me two reasons for closing the program down,” O’Donohue said. “The first was that the competitiveness of the program and the behavior of some of the players and coaches did not fit in with Catholic values — that it was not a good environment for the kids. The second was that parents had complained about the program and the actions of some of the players and coaches.”

O’Donohue added that he pointed out to Lombardi the positive values of the program and the number of children who would lose out on the experience, but to no avail. He then went to neighboring parishes, in Island Park and elsewhere, asking for permission to host the program, explaining that the coaches and parents would pay the necessary insurance costs and fees.

At least two priests in nearby parishes were receptive, O’Donohue said, until they spoke with Lombardi — and then turned O’Donohue down. The turn-downs quickly became public knowledge, and a focus of the anger of parishioners who were interested in the program, Maughan among them.

“I am appalled at the thought that the same Catholic values I was raised on have now turned my own parish into something hateful and distasteful,” she wrote in an email to the Herald. “A few of the fine, dedicated coaches volunteered their time, away from their families to take over and run the league for the parish. They were turned down. I understand the church leaders had the right to do what they did, but it was the wrong decision.”

Calls to the Nassau-Suffolk CYO seeking comment were not returned.