Catholic Sports Radio

A Jesuit priest and an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy, having previously taught in the Theology and Religious Studies department at Seattle University for 13 years. He is also the author of a book called, "Catholic Perspectives on Sports: From Medieval to Modern Times," and the editor of a book on sports and Catholic youth that was just listed as one of the top ten books on sports and Catholicism in the last decade. He was also on the Papal Commission at the Vatican for Sport & Spirituality. And, not only has he coached sports at the high school and college levels, but, he was a captain of his college football team and an All Conference free safety.

He coached 132 games in eleven seasons at Notre Dame, leading the Fighting Irish to the 1988 national championship. After Notre Dame he coached at South Carolina. Prior to Notre Dame he coached at Minnesota, Arkansas, North Carolina State, and William & Mary. Along the way he also spent one season as the head coach of the NFL's New York Jets. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and has been seen for many years on television as an analyst on ESPN. This all followed his days playing football at Kent State.

He has been coaching at a tennis academy and after school program in southern California for over five years. He has had tennis coaching related jobs over the years and had been a successful high school tennis player. His college degree is in psychology, and he has combined that with his passion for sports in launching a website where he publishes weekly posts about sport psychology, for athletic success and mental health. He is also getting ready to launch a website called The Catholic Path, where he intends to publish weekly book reviews and blog posts.

The Director of Athletics AND the Head Men's and Women's Tennis Coach at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where he has led those two teams to a combined seven conference championships and been named the Coach of the Year five times since taking over as head coach for the 2016-17 season. He had previously worked at a Catholic high school and is currently pursuing a Master's of theology.

She played college basketball under the famous coach Geno Auriemma at the University of Connecticut after a high school career as a student-athlete that saw her set records in basketball, plus she competed in soccer as well. Presently she is a missionary at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as part of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and a part of Varsity Catholic.

She has been the head coach of the women's softball team at LSU for ten years, following a stint leading a National Pro Fastpitch team, having previously been in the same position at Florida International University. Prior to that she had been the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Houston. She had started into coaching as an assistant coach at Stetson University in 2000. As a student-athlete she had been a pitcher at the University of Florida. In her current role she has established an active community service function within the softball program as the LSU players regularly visit hospitals and schools in the Baton Rouge area.

For more than four years now he has been the head women's soccer coach at Ave Maria University, where last November he was named the Sun Conference Coach of the Year after guiding the team to the best season in the history of the program. He also last year became the winningest coach in conference play in program history. Before taking the job at Ave Maria he was the head coach of the Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School girls’ team for three years. He is licensed by the United States Soccer Federation and is an alumnus of his current employer.

The Vice President for Athletics at De La Salle High School, a private Catholic school for boys in California. He started there as Assistant Athletic Director in 1999 before taking over in 2006 as Athletic Director. He is an alumnus of the school and has also coached boys golf as well as basketball there. He is also both the founder of the Catholic National Athletic Association AND the commissioner of the East Bay Athletic League.

His name is synonymous with wrestling success. He won six consecutive world championships as a competitor from 1987-92, including gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Additionally, he owns five national championships as head coach of Oklahoma State's men's wrestling program, a role that he has held for 30 years. During that time, he has coached 33 NCAA individual champions and five Olympians. He was recognized as the National Wrestling Coaches Association coach of the year in 1994 and 2003 and is a 15-time selection as his conference’s coach of the year. Most recently, he led his squad to its ninth consecutive Big 12 tournament title, with three of his student-athletes claiming individual Big 12 Conference titles in 2021. He has an .863 winning percentage for his career dual match record as a head coach.

He played close to 300 games over eight seasons with seven different National Hockey League teams and he was the MVP of the 2016 NHL All-Star Game. He had played college hockey for four years at Michigan Tech and has an autobiography called, "A Guy Like Me: Fighting to Make the Cut." He also has his own podcast, called, "Dropping the Gloves."

He played over 250 regular season and playoff games combined in the National Hockey League with two different franchises in addition to playing overseas in the Swedish Elite League. He went on to be a scout for the Vancouver Canucks and later joined his fourth NHL franchise, the Columbus Blue Jackets, as an assistant coach. He also was an assistant coach in the American Hockey League and nowadays has been the head coach of the University of North Dakota men's hockey team since just over six years ago. In 2016 he became the first rookie head coach in NCAA men's ice hockey history to win a national championship.

He was a tight end in the National Football League, having been the twelfth overall pick in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, with whom he played for two years before going on to play two more seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, all following a collegiate career as a four-year starter for the University of Notre Dame where he led the Fighting Irish in receiving each of his last three seasons and was first-team All-American as a senior. During his time with the Bills, he made the NFL's All-Rookie team. Plus, during his NFL career he won a division title and got within a game of the Super Bowl, and along the way he played alongside future Hall of Famers.

The North Lawndale Kinship Initiative Director for Old St. Patrick's Church in downtown Chicago, directing a ministry of community development. In that role he has set up a neighborhood sports collaborative called the North Lawndale Athletic & Recreation Association. Many people know him as coordinator for youth and young adult parish ministry, which he started doing 35 years ago and to some degree still goes on now. As a student he was the football manager for the team at his Catholic high school where he was able to learn the skills and the science of coaching, which he used when his parish started and needed a coach for a CYO football team, and that led to a whole career of coaching youth athletics across a variety of sports.

The author of "Crossing Parish Boundaries: Race, Sports, and Catholic Youth in Chicago, 1914-1954," a book which reveals the history of CYO. He is a professor of history at Salve Regina University, a private, Catholic, coed school founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1934 in Newport, Rhode Island, where he teaches a course on U.S. sports history. As a student-athlete himself he had played baseball, basketball, football, and tennis, including club basketball in college in Ireland.

The CEO / Executive Director of Arizona Sports Foundation, Valley of the Sun Bowl Foundation and Fiesta Events, Inc., community-based organizations that operate the Fiesta Bowl, Guaranteed Rate Bowl, and numerous charitable and community events throughout the state. Prior to heading the Fiesta Bowl, he spent eight years with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes and Jobing.com Arena, most recently as President and Chief Operating Officer. Before joining the Phoenix Coyotes in January 2006, he spent four seasons with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. He has also been both a football coach and a basketball referee.

He spent 25 years as a referee in the NBA, officiating over 1,400 regular season games, 240 playoff games, 23 NBA Finals games, and two All-Star Games. He has also been a rules analyst for ESPN/ABC. Earlier in his career he was a referee in the CBA, which followed time that he had spent as a minor league baseball umpire, himself having played in the Baltimore Orioles organization at the minor league level after pitching for Temple University. In high school he had achieved All-Catholic honors in both baseball and basketball in his Junior and Senior years. Four years ago he was inducted to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, and last month he was the recipient of Sports Faith International's Father Smyth Award. In 2019 he was ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church and just celebrated the two-year anniversary.

A professional stock car racing driver who competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 13 Toyota Tundra for ThorSport Racing. He began his racing career in 1996 and by 2001 was the American Speed Association Champion and Rookie of the Year. In 2009 he was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year. He also builds and races his own late model cars. And, he and his father and two brothers became only the second family in NASCAR history to have four members compete in a national series race.

He spent six decades in basketball, coaching high school, college, NBA, WNBA, and internationally. In the NBA he was the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, and Orlando Magic, and was an assistant coach with those three franchises as well as the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. He also served as a consultant with the Boston Celtics. He is enshrined in the hall of fame at William Paterson University for TWO sports. Late last year he put out a book called, "Havin' a Ball: My Improbable Basketball Journey."

Faith-wise, she tells a story here of having a reversion to the faith with her husband after a significant life event. Sports-wise, she worked for college football's Fiesta Bowl for two years, the National Hockey League's Arizona Coyotes for eight years, and at the Central Hockey league for seven years. As a student-athlete she had played both softball and volleyball, and, present day, she still participates in a couple sports recreationally. She is the Executive Director of the Arizona chapter of HopeKids, which provides ongoing events, activities and a powerful, unique support community for families who have a child with cancer or some other life-threatening medical condition.

This interview includes the guest sharing from his personal life about having gone through something that no parent ever wants to experience. On the vocation side, he has worked in youth and young adult ministry and CYO athletics for 37 years, including five years in the Diocese of Columbus. He has worked for Catholic Charities in Cleveland for 26 years. On the sports side, he played high school and college tennis, coached high school girls’ volleyball and coached Special Olympics teams in Pennsylvania and Texas. He is a tennis teaching pro and has coached boys and girls’ varsity high school. Plus, he was a Head Tennis Pro at a camp and resort north of Toronto, Ontario, for five summers and in the North Shore area of Chicago at a private club. He also even served on the U.S. Olympic Committee.