With the schools new addition of the Middle school arriving this August, it comes with the addition of the schools participation in middle school Catholic Youth Council (CYC) sports.

“I think especially in the first year, it’s going to be building connections with classmates,” Dean of the Middle School Joseph Kilmade said. “Kids are going to get to know each other in the classroom, but you know that you deepen those connections outside of it. So playing a sport, finding a common interest through a club is going to really help build relationships and establish that sense of belonging.”

For the fall season, the school will have teams in soccer, volleyball, and cross country. More clubs and sports will be established as more interest is shown for teams, and it is clear that there will be enough athletes to compete against other schools in that sport. Sports such as basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring are already being planned for.

Middle school athletes will be split up into teams determined by their grade level (sixth graders will play with sixth graders, seventh graders with seventh, etc…) This will model the traditional high school system of Freshman, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. Teams will compete in leagues that feature local parishes such as St. Gerard, Immaculate Conception, and other local St. Louis parishes, while also trying to schedule games against sixth grade through 12th grade schools such as Chaminade and Westminster. If teams play well enough, they will have the chance to compete for the City championship.

“Hopefully this motivates the guys to try new things, and also, coming into a bigger community like De Smet, you know, Sixth grade to 12th grade, your gonna have opportunities to take different classes and explore new interests,” Kilmade said, “And so I just hope that these guys coming in, those 138 stretch themselves a little bit and try some new things and meet some new people.”