🤠 Howdy! Well, well, well, Friday at last.

🌤️ Today's weather: Patchy fog then mostly sunny with a high of 65 and a low of 44.

Today’s newsletter is 933 words — a 3.5-minute read.

The youth sports boom is reshaping Sunday mornings in Metro Detroit as religious organizations and sports clubs vie for busy families' time.

Why it matters: Churches used to anchor family life on Sundays. But youth sports — a multibillion-dollar industry — are increasingly filling that role.

• It's a shift that organizations like the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit have pushed back on.

The big picture: Youth sports are part of a broad religious shift as more Americans consider themselves religiously unaffiliated.

• Sunday religious participation among parents of kids ages 5-17 fell from 26.8% in 2003-07 to 16.7% in 2021-24, per the American Time Use Survey.
• Declining Mass attendance has prompted the Detroit archdiocese to restructure.
• Meanwhile, more games move to Sundays with packed multiday tournaments and out-of-town play.

Yes, but: Metro Detroit Catholic schools and parishes have followed a no-sports-on-Sundays policy since 2019.

• "In shifting away from the hustle of required sporting activities on Sunday, we will reclaim this holy day and create more time for families to choose activities that prioritize time spent with each other and our Lord," former Archbishop Allen Vigneron wrote in a letter at the time.

What they're saying: "We need the kids and families to be able to come together … We were no longer going to be a part of the problem; we were gonna be part of the solution," says Mike Evoy, director of the 33-school Catholic High School League.

• Exceptions are allowed for weather cancellations, facility issues and other circumstances.
• Evoy's own family goes "nonstop" for six days, knowing Sunday will bring well-deserved rest.

Zoom in: David Dwaihy, chief of soccer development for Detroit City FC, tells Axios that Sunday scheduling hasn't been raised as a big concern. 

• "We try and remain mindful of the fact that we're just a small slice of the pie that makes up people's lives," he says, adding that DCFC's youth program does its best to be accommodating.
• DCFC's Detroit program grew from four teams in 2018 to 40 teams with 445 youth, plus regional clubs bringing total participation to more than 4,000.

Between the lines: For some families, Dwaihy says, soccer's togetherness "serves a similar purpose to what religion does for many people."

• That is never more evident than when DCFC's Maxwell Murray, who manages youth programs, hosts a weekly "Sunday service."
• Murray sets up goals along Jefferson Avenue, inviting anyone to play, with food and books to borrow.

The bottom line: For generations, Sunday meant bringing the family closer to heaven.

• Today, Sunday can also mean bringing your child closer to MSU's soccer team.

☕ Annalise here. I recently stopped to take meetings and write at a well-reviewed coffee shop in Livonia called Elen Café.

• I'm not around those parts very often, but I'd just toured the new Southeast Michigan Psychiatric Hospital in Northville.

The vibe: Elen's Instagram tagline is a lot to promise — "A dream has become a place" — but it was, indeed, very peaceful.

• The front of the shop near the register is sleek and minimalistic, but the back area with more seating opens into a giant wall of art.
• I'm pretty sure that's the dream part.

Dig in: The menu has all the good stuff, like coffee, matcha, desserts, crepes and sandwiches.

• It emphasizes seasonality, with a long list of sweet drinks: hot apple cider, salted maple latte, cinnamon roll dirty soda, pumpkin spice matcha and more.
• I was happy with my iced oatmeal cookie latte ($7.95). The highlight, though, was a unique sandwich I still think about: The Elen Signature ($14.95) with mortadella, fresh stracciatella cheese, pistachio cream and pistachios on focaccia.

If you go: 8am-8pm Monday-Saturday; 10am-10pm Sunday.

• 29465 Six Mile Road.

🗳️ The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to polling places in seven Michigan cities: Detroit, East Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, Lansing and Warren. (Detroit News 🔒)

🏠 The Detroit Housing Commission's plan to sell its single-family homes is on hold indefinitely.

• The public agency found that lenders rejected more than half of its first round of buyers, and some of the potential buyers complained about DHC administrative errors. (Outlier)

🚆 An Amtrak train collided with a utility truck in Wayne, appearing to split it in half. The circumstances of the crash and any potential injuries were unknown as of Thursday afternoon. (WDIV)

Mayor Mary Sheffield toured an under-construction equestrian center yesterday, wearing a distinctive "cowboy" hard hat.

Why it matters: The hat is fun. But the larger point is that nonprofit Detroit Horse Power is making progress building a new campus on Detroit's west side for its youth horseback riders.

• The former school site will include stables, indoor and outdoor riding arenas, a half-mile path, seven acres of grazing, classrooms and office space.
• Currently, Detroit Horse Power buses its students to barns outside the city. They learn to ride and care for the horses, plus emotional and social skills.

Plus, the nonprofit is recruiting donated horses to reside there.

What's next: The $13 million campus should be finished in early 2027.

Tell us how you're feeling! We're still taking responses to our reader poll about the upcoming midterms.

• Click here and scroll down to share your thoughts. We'll include answers in a future newsletter.

Our picks:

🗓️ Joe is out of the office.

👀 Annalise is eagerly digesting all the dialogue about AI restaurant menus and event flyers.

Edited by Larry Graham.