Video by Olivia Cronin

For many college students, wiffle ball remains a childhood pastime, but for the men at St. John’s Vianney Seminary, it has become a spring tradition.

The wiffle ball league is in its seventh year and has transformed St. Thomas’ SJV yard into “The God Quad,” as the seminarians like to call it.

“You talk to the seniors and they always remember wiffle ball,” sophomore Colin Jones, wiffle ball commissioner, said. “It’s a torch that’s passed on.”

The league consists of eight teams, an announcer, a statistician and an umpire. Each floor has two teams, including a team of new men and returning men.

Jones said the league was designed so every team plays eight three-inning games. The best six teams compete in the playoffs, and the top two teams face each other Thursday, May 17, in the championship. The winner will be awarded a trophy and take home “bragging rights.”

“This year we have been able to have different teams, batting orders and statistics,” Jones said. “It really has materialized into something pretty official.”

Jones said all the teams are named after Major League Baseball teams, and some of them take wiffle ball pretty seriously.

Senior Coady Owens’ team, the Chicago Cubs, bought matching personalized T-shirts and hats this year.

“We decided that this season we would go big or we would go home, so we bought uniforms, we have hats, the whole deal,” Owens said.

Although the wiffle ball league is for SJV men, former seminarian junior Joel Downes found it hard to stay away from the tradition.

“Wiffle ball is one of the highlights of spring semester, so I asked Father Becker if I could play after I left the seminary,” Downes said.

Downes said he enjoys playing wiffle ball with “his brothers.”

“It’s not that serious, but we make it way more serious than it is supposed to be,” he said. “It is kind of a joke, but at the same time it’s really fun because we’re competitive.”

Jones said being a part of the wiffle ball league has been full of graces.

“It’s just really been fun getting to lead the group and make sure everyone is having a good time,” Jones said. “Seeing how guys really get into it has been one of the biggest graces from the beginning of the league.”

The seminarians can be seen in the “God Quad” at 3:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and during convocation hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ashley Stewart can be reached at stew1177@stthomas.edu.