Seminarians win, but cold weather dominated

By Rocio Granados - La Voz Catolica

Photography: CRISTINA CABRERA JARRO | FC

MIAMI | Days before the third annual Archbishop’s Cup, the soccer game between seminarians and archdiocesan priests, the predictions were chill.

It wasn’t about which team would win, but about the expected low temperatures on the night of Jan. 24, 2025, due to a cold front that had reached Miami.

Despite the cold, dozens of supporters arrived at the St. Thomas University soccer field in Miami Gardens to cheer on their teams, mainly their priests.

Saint-Clos Papouloute, a seminarian at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, said with great confidence that the score of this year’s match would be the same as in previous years, a 3-0 win for the seminarians.

Papouloute predicted that, although many people would come to support their priests, “they will lose.”

“(For seminarians) sports are part of our formation. We play every week, we always practice, which means that the priests don’t have a chance to win,” he said.

As Archbishop Thomas Wenski gave his blessing to start the game, the thermometer read 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). But it wasn’t raining, which encouraged Pilar Salazar and a group of 10 parishioners from St. Lawrence Church in North Miami Beach to attend the game.

For the cold night, Salazar brought hot ginger tea, and put on two sweaters, a hat and gloves. She also brought a small drum to cheer on Frather Cletus Omode, her parish priest.

“We hope the priests win, even if they are losing 3-0,” Salazar said. “Faith is the last thing you lose.”

Meanwhile, María San Palio, a native of Argentina and also a parishioner of St. Lawrence, brought her own hot maté and blankets for the cold. She and the other members of her parish group were optimistic that the priests would win the game, but the age difference between the priests and seminarians mattered.

This was evident on the field. From the beginning of the game, the seminarians kept possession of the ball and the priests defended their goal, even against several scoring attempts by the seminarians. The seminarians’ first goal came 27 minutes into the game. Moments later, the priests missed a scoring opportunity, and the seminarians scored their second goal in the 40th minute.

With less than a minute left in the first half, the seminarians scored again. In the second half, both teams had chances to score, but the final goal came with just a minute left on the clock, securing a 4-0 victory for the seminarians.

Although the final score did not favor the priests, one of the players, Father Ángel Calderón, chaplain of St. Ann’s Nursing Center in Miami, said the priests were thrilled.

“Thank God we are still able to compete and play sports, and that’s great,’’ Father Calderón said. “The seminarians are young and they play every day. It’s very nice to share a sporting moment with them.”

The cold weather “did not work against us; on the contrary, it was a companion, and that was fine,” he added.

“It’s always a lot of fun to participate in this event with the priests because there are many we don’t know and we get to meet them here,” said seminarian Darvin Leiva at the end of the game.

Leiva, who is currently studying at St. John Vianney Seminary, in Miami, said the seminarians had the advantage of their fitness and age. But the priests “surprised us a lot. In the first half they had possession of the ball for quite some time, and even though we pressed them, they were able to hold their own. But thank God we scored.”