Catholic Sports Radio

He is closing in on 21 years since his ordination to the priesthood. He is Vicar Provincial and Vocation Director for the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. He is also a well-known conference speaker AND leads pilgrimages to Catholic shrines around the world. He is the author of 18 books and has a radical conversion story that he tells here. On the sports side, he has been surfing since he was eight years old and has surfed all around the world.

He is a competitive Masters Athlete for Olympic weightlifting and strongman competitions, AND he works as a referee, plus he is on the Board for USA Olympic Weightlifting. He has won bronze and gold medals at local and Texas state meets and even did a strongman competition in late 2019 and finished in third place for the master’s group and qualified for Nationals. He also dabbled in “Vintage Baseball” – baseball played by the original 1860’s baseball rules – and he played on such a team for about three years. On the faith side, he is managing partner of Virtuous Leadership LLC, working with bestselling author Alexandre Havard. He is also a Legatus member, serves as a national board member for Young Catholic Professionals, served on the Board of Catholic Charities Dallas, and was a member of Regnum Christi for eight years.

He is the Team Administrative Director for the National Football League's New Orleans Saints and has the distinction of being the organization's longest serving employee, having started with the team in 1977 as an assistant athletic trainer. In 2017 the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame presented him with the Joe Gemelli "Fleur-De-Lis" Award, and he has affectionately earned the unofficial title of "Vice President of Everything." He had been a football manager all through high school, having attended Brother Martin High School, which is a private, Catholic, all-boys college preparatory school run by the United States Province of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

A catcher who this past June was chosen by the Detroit Tigers in the sixth round of the 2023 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft after having played collegiately, first at Tulane University and then at Wake Forest. Prior to that, he was a four-year letterwinner on the baseball team at Jesuit High School in Tampa, having been part of the team that ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2020, at 9-0, and that won the state championship in 2019, posting a 27-5 won-lost record.  Away from sports, he is a convert to the Catholic faith, as heard in this discussion.

A special episode, of sorts, he returns after having previously been on this show way back on Episode 120, more than two-and-a-half years ago.  He is the Senior Director of Mission Integration, CYO, and Social Action for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Cleveland.  Earlier this year he was awarded St. Ambrose parish's Servant Leader Award.  Over two years ago he had started a parish-based mental health ministry at St. Ambrose, and, as we hear about in this conversation, back in January of THIS year CYO began training their athletic directors regarding the mental health crises of children and teens.

He is the head men's basketball coach at Belmont Abbey College -- a Catholic institution. Previously he had been an assistant coach at the United States Military Academy (Army West Point). As a student-athlete he had played collegiately for two seasons at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, before moving into a student-assistant coaching role. He had earned his first coaching position in 2018 at UNC-Charlotte and is a graduate of Charlotte Catholic High School.

He has been working in baseball for parts of four decades now, including having been the hitting coach for the Washington Nationals and the Pittsburgh Pirates as well as the player information coach for the Los Angeles Angels AND the minor league hitting coordinator for the Minnesota Twins. He was also on the coaching staff of the 2008 Team USA Olympic baseball team, plus he coached at the collegiate level, including the University of Kentucky, as well as the University of Florida, having played for the Gators during his years as a student-athlete.

He has been playing professional baseball since being selected in the fourth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft by the Texas Rangers.  He is a pitcher who has played in MLB for the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Seattle Mariners, plus he has earned numerous honors while pitching at the minor league level, and he even spent a couple seasons pitching in Japan and one other in Korea.  As a student-athlete he had been named State Player of the Year by two newspapers while playing high school baseball.

He returns after having first been on this show way back in October of 2019 (Episode 38). He is a TV and radio host, author, speaker, and world surfing champion. He operates Deep Adventure Ministries and his new book -- his third book -- is called, "12 Rules for Manliness: Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?"

He owns and coaches at a mixed martial arts gym and runs an acupuncture sports medicine clinic.  He has been training in martial arts for 30 years, having started in karate and gotten his black belt in Koei Kan Karate at just 14 years old. He eventually trained in Wing Chun and practiced and taught it for ten years and got a black belt in it as well.  Along the way he dabbled in different martial arts like Kendo, freestyle wrestling, Judo, and others, eventually finding his way into the world of MMA. He is now a fifth-degree black belt in SGC Karate and Kickboxing and a blue belt in BJJ. He is a convert to the faith and recently started a line of Catholic themed athletic clothing called Catholic Fightwear.

He was chosen by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL Draft and spent time with four different organizations between then and 2009, to also include the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, and Detroit Lions. He went on to play for the United Football League's Florida Tuskers, leading them to a perfect regular season won-lost record and to the championship game and was named season MVP and came back to start for the Tuskers the next season. He went on to two high school football coaching jobs and was the quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh.  Back in his days as a student-athlete he was a four-year starting quarterback on a football scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, and in 2017 he was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.  Listen for a powerful story in the second half of the show when he describes a professional opportunity and the sacrifice he made for family reasons.

She runs Rebuild the Body -- Catholic-based coaching integrated with fitness -- and she also runs Catholic Body Image, which uses a Theology of the Body approach. She is also a fitness instructor and is in the early stages of starting a podcast. As a student-athlete she had played basketball in high school and then in college worked the women's basketball team's home games.  She later became an assistant coach for high school basketball and present day is getting ready to run a 5K in November. She has a story that she tells here about a major medical occurrence that she has had to work to overcome.

The Head Track & Field and Cross Country Coach at the University of Dallas, which is a Catholic institution. Prior to his current position he had spent a year-and-a-half working as the Program and Events Manager with Chicago Area Runners Association. He has a wealth of coaching experience that includes collegiate, high school, youth club, and adult levels for cross country and track and field. Overall, he has coached 25 USTFCCCA All-Americans, nine NJCAA All-Americans, and two Northern Athletics Conference All-Conference athletes. A Military Veteran with high honors, as an athlete he competed for the All-Navy track and field team. Plus, while he was not on duty, he competed as a sprinter/mid-distance athlete, at various NCAA college meets and open meets. He has competed in over 100 road races including nine marathons and one ultramarathon.

He played for Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos after having been chosen by them in the ninth round of the 1997 MLB Amateur Draft out of Jacksonville University.  At that school he hit better than .330 each season with the Dolphins, including a school record .450 batting average in 1997, when he earned multiple honors. As a student-athlete he had previously played at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Alabama, where he was a two-time all-conference selection. After having been an administrator and coach for the Pensacola Pelicans/Blue Wahoos Baseball Club for nine years, he currently runs Coach T's Hit Lab, offering professional batting lessons and baseball clinics, as well as youth, high school, college and pro evaluations and analysis.

He is a Senior Offensive Assistant with the NFL's Houston Texans. He has 15 years of NFL experience, including serving as Offensive Coordinator with the Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, and Chicago Bears.  He was also the Quarterbacks Coach for Cincinnati, a role that he'd held with Philadelphia, Washington, and Seattle as well.  He had gotten his start in the NFL in 2003 as an offensive quality control coach with Atlanta and later became an offensive assistant with the Falcons. Along the way he had a three-year stretch serving as Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach at the University of Virginia, was offensive coordinator at the University of Buffalo, and spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Cornell University, for whom he had been a three-year starting quarterback, graduating with 26 passing and offensive program records.

(PARENTS MIGHT SCREEN THIS EPISODE BEFORE LISTENING WITH MINORS.)  With two very powerful stories that she shares here (and a borderline third at the end), she is in her second season as an assistant coach with the Ave Maria University cross country and track programs. Previously she'd been an assistant coach for the cross country and track programs at the University of Arkansas Little Rock for two seasons. She also has coaching experience at the high school level, having coached at two high schools in the Portland, Oregon area. While there, she also spent five years as a running coach at Nike World Headquarters. Back in her college days she was a decorated student-athlete, and has remained an active runner, currently holding the world records for fastest 10k race and fastest half marathon finished while pushing a stroller.

A Washington, D.C.-based attorney and former general counsel of the General Services Administration. He served as a lay baseball chaplain for eight years and is the president and founder of Catholic Athletes for Christ. He has served in sports-related ministry for close to 30 years including ministries associated with Major League Baseball, the NFL, professional boxing, and youth sports programs. He was a participant in Rome at the Vatican’s first-ever sports conference in 2005 and has been working with the Vatican’s sports office to promote the Church’s mission in the United States.

He is entering his eighth year as Assistant Baseball Coach at DeMatha Catholic High School near Washington, DC, having been the freshman head coach for two of his years there. He has also worked as Sports Information Director at Catholic University, which is also near our nation's capital. His career in sports has also included work as a journalist, covering NBA games in DC. More recently, he coached T-Ball for eight years, coached 10-and-under basketball, and along the way picked up a Coach of the Year honor. This all followed his having been a student-athlete back in his high school days. Listen for the physical challenge he overcame to play four different sports!

He is a former World Bodybuilding Champion, including having won Mr. Universe in 1992.  All told he competed in AAU Mr. East Coast, AAU Mr. USA, AAU Mr. America, and NABBA Mr. Universe -- some of those more than once and earning three first place finishes and two second place. He also competed in the 1991 Tokyo Sumo Wrestling Premier Event, winning the bronze medal.  In addition, he also became a professional skateboarder; even holding the world record for jumping onto a moving skateboard -- four feet and ten inches. And he was even a semi-professional boxer for three years.  As a student-athlete he had broken records in high school for the high jump and track events. STAY TO THE END FOR AN EMOTIONAL STORY ABOUT HIS BROTHER.

He got into martial arts in high school and competed in Tae Kwon Do in college, along with a little Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. That got him heavily into fitness and especially kettlebells, which led to him starting various fitness platforms and writing books related to minimalist methods of strength and conditioning. On the faith side, he has an amazing reversion story and next month will mark the release of his fifth book, this one to be titled, "The Best Argument For God."  He also has his own podcast that teaches listeners why it's better to be better at many things, not best at just one, covering everything from fitness and mental health to business and writing to philosophy and theology.