Key Takeaways

• Ginny Gareau, a freshman homeschooler and parishioner of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton, Virginia, recently cleared 5’8″ to tie the No. 1 high jump mark for high school girls in the state — competing through the Northern Virginia Homeschool Athletic Association.

• Her story is more than a sports headline. It is a window into what intentional Catholic family life produces: children who are formed, motivated, and equipped to pursue excellence.

• An estimated 3.4 million students, or 6.2% of the school-age population, were educated at home during the 2024-25 academic year — a number that has grown significantly over the past five years.

• Ginny’s mother Katy, who also coaches for the Centurions girls’ basketball team, describes sport as a way to teach children how to face life’s difficulties with Christ at the center.

• For Catholic parishes, this story is a reminder that supporting families in their vocation — not just their sacramental life — is one of the most powerful things a church community can do.

The Story: A Bar Nobody Expected Her to Clear

The bar was set higher than Ginny Gareau had ever jumped before.

She cleared it anyway.

The freshman athlete, who competes through the Northern Virginia Homeschool Athletic Association, recently set a new personal record of 5’8″ in the high jump, tying for the top mark among high school girls in the state of Virginia. The achievement was covered by the Arlington Catholic Herald, the newspaper of the Diocese of Arlington, and it quickly resonated far beyond the track.

Because Ginny’s story isn’t primarily about athletics. It is about what happens when a Catholic family decides to take its vocation seriously — and what a parish community can make possible when it surrounds that family with support, opportunity, and shared conviction.

Virginia is one of the states where homeschool students cannot compete on public school teams. For families like the Gareaus, that could have meant a choice between faith-centered education and athletic opportunity. Instead, it meant finding a different path — and discovering a community built around the same values they were already living at home.

The Core Finding: Intentional Families Produce Exceptional Children

Ginny’s mother Katy, a parishioner of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton and a coach for the Centurions girls’ basketball team, articulates the philosophy behind their family’s approach with clarity.

“Sports is a way to teach kids how to deal with difficulties that they’ll approach in life,” she told the Catholic Herald. “And having the Christian view, it teaches you to not look at things without God. Having good role models and coaches, that’s how we’re teaching the kids to progress and move forward with Christ in their lives, as well as tackling the obstacles that come in front of them.”

That is not a parenting philosophy developed in a vacuum. It is the fruit of a Catholic vision of family life in which faith is not a Sunday-morning practice but the lens through which everything is seen, including competition, failure, discipline, and growth.

Communio’s Passing the Torch report, produced jointly with the Institute for Family Studies, found that children raised in homes where faith is actively practiced and openly discussed are dramatically more likely to retain that faith into adulthood. Children from households that pray together regularly have a 52% chance of praying daily as adults. Those with strong, engaged fathers show 73% higher odds of believing in God as young adults.

Ginny Gareau’s story is a vivid, human illustration of what that data describes. A family where faith is central. A mother who is present and engaged. Children given the space to pursue excellence within a community that shares their values. The result is a teenage girl who clears bars nobody expected her to reach.

The Counterintuitive Angle: Homeschooling Isn’t Opting Out. It’s Leaning In.

The cultural narrative around homeschooling tends to frame it as withdrawal — families stepping back from mainstream institutions to protect their children from outside influence. The Gareau family’s story challenges that framing entirely.

Homeschooling, done well within a Catholic community context, is not a retreat. It is an intensive investment. It requires more engagement from parents, not less. More intentionality about formation, more creativity about community, and a deeper commitment to living what the Church teaches about the family as the domestic church.

The growth in homeschooling over the past five years reflects, in part, a broader hunger among Catholic and Christian families for precisely this kind of intentional formation. During the 2024-25 academic year, an estimated 3.4 million students were educated at home — 6.2% of the total school-age population. Many of those families are not fleeing something. They are pursuing something: a vision of childhood and formation that the culture is no longer willing to provide.

And when parishes support those families well, with athletic programs, community structures, and the kind of accompaniment the Church is uniquely equipped to offer, the results look like Ginny Gareau clearing 5’8″ and landing at the top of the Virginia charts.

What This Means for Your Parish

At Communio, stories like Ginny’s remind us why we do what we do.

The family is the domestic church. That is not just a beautiful phrase from the Catechism. It is a description of the most powerful faith-formation environment. And when parishes invest in the health, stability, and flourishing of the families in their community, not just their sacramental participation, but their daily lives, their marriages, their parenting, their sense of vocation — the results extend far beyond the pews.

Think about the families in your parish who are already doing this kind of intentional work. The parents who are sacrificing convenience for formation. The families who are building something countercultural in their homes, quietly and without fanfare. These families do not just need affirmation. They need community, structure, and a parish that takes their vocation as seriously as they do.

Communio partners with Catholic parishes to build the kind of relational culture that surrounds these families with support, equips couples to build strong marriages, and helps the domestic church become what the Church has always said it is: the place where faith is first formed, first practiced, and first passed on.

Ginny Gareau cleared a bar nobody expected her to reach. Parishes that invest in their families are clearing one too.

Take the Next Step

Communio partners with Catholic parishes to build data-informed marriage and family ministry that strengthens the relational foundations where faith is formed and passed on.

► Read the full Arlington Catholic Herald article → catholicherald.com

► Explore Communio’s resources for Catholic parishes → communio.org

Credit: This post draws on reporting by the Arlington Catholic Herald and data from the National Home Education Research Institute and Communio’s Passing the Torch report, produced in partnership with the Institute for Family Studies. Read the original Catholic Herald article here.