Episodes

Tom Schwein

The founder and team captain of Team Samaritan Cycling as part of Ride Across America, a coast-to-coast cycling campaign from San Diego to St. Augustine. As a student athlete he played baseball at what was then called Regis College and later played four years of softball and eventually became a runner, including participating in multiple Boston Marathons. He turned to cycling in 2010 by way of Ride the Rockies, the marquee cycling event in the state of Colorado. And, he has had extensive involvement with Catholic Charities.

Notable guest quotes:

“It takes training and it takes resilience. It takes dedication. And it takes wanting to do something for a cause.”

“When I chose that we would raise money for the Samaritan House – because, it’s non-denominational. And I wanted to encompass not just Catholics, but just Christians, people that wanted to do something for a cause. And the Samaritan House is actually … owned by Catholic Charities, and they support it as they now do five different homeless shelters in Colorado. And we’re raising money on this ride for all of the five Samaritan houses.”

“We have an opportunity on this ride to actually go in and either serve dinner or meet the people that live there and get national awareness for the crisis of homelessness… along the route.”

“We’re launching a program here in Colorado today and it’s called Miles for Hope and it’s to engage all of the Catholic parishes in Colorado, all the Catholic schools in Colorado, to help us raise money for the crisis of homelessness in Colorado.”

“With about 50 yards to go, I hit a divot in the pavement and my wheel turned 90 degrees and I went right over the top of my bike at about 30 miles an hour.”

“When I look at those pictures I just break down in tears because it was really, not just painful but, it was really a day where I didn’t realize what God was calling me to do.”

“I really started to like running and that led to winning a couple of 5Ks in Colorado and … actually I qualified for the Boston Marathon, and I went back and ran two consecutive Boston Marathons.”

“My tagline is, if you are what you’re meant to be, you’ll set the world on fire. And that’s from St. Catherine of Siena.”

“I got rejected from everybody, so I walked on (at Regis College) and by about the third day of practice the (baseball) coach came up and said, ‘I’d like you to be one of our four starters’.”

Related link:

Ride Across America

(This episode contains a prayer by Gregg Easterbrook from the NFL.com and ESPN.com column “Monday Morning Quarterback,” as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Eric Schon

He was the top-ranked offensive lineman and the fourth-ranked player among all positions heading into last year’s CFL Draft. Following last year’s Gator Bowl, in which he played for Duke University, he stepped away from the game due to a neck injury. He had started playing football at a young age and went on to award-filled years in high school, and then at both The College of the Holy Cross and then at Duke. Along the way he also competed in wrestling and track & field. On the faith side, he had only attended Catholic schools until he got to Duke, and is about to head off on a very special trip that will resonate with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Notable guest quotes:

“It was a huge blessing to potentially have an opportunity to go back home and pursue every child’s dream of playing professional sports.”

“Everything happens for a reason. Now I’m blessed with a great career, living an amazing lifestyle here in Boston, surrounded by people that I love.”

“Candidly, I had gone into (the Gator Bowl) having already made up my mind. Mentally I was going into that game knowing that that was going to be my last time stepping on the football field.”

“I really gave the game all I had; all I could give it. And it gave me back in return something tenfold. It gave me back not just the lessons in resiliency and the good habits of waking up early in the morning and understanding (that) if you want to accomplish something, you have to work hard to actually achieve it. But just the friendships and the camaraderie that it gave me is just something that you can’t put a dollar value on.”

“That decision to step away from the game is something that took a lot of prayer. I knew that physically I wasn’t necessarily in it anymore. I knew that my body couldn’t really take it. And I think it took a lot of relinquishing myself from an expectation, right? Removing my attachment at least to an expected outcome and kind of just submitting to the will of the Lord and submitting to what God had in place for me. And being content with that and trusting that.”

“I really want to emphasize the word faith here, having faith that God our Father had the perfect plan in place for me. And no matter how hard I tried to push against it or how hard I tried to make my own plan work or do everything in my human power or my human desire to make a certain outcome come to reality, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. And it’s not what God had in store for me. And trusting in that and having faith in that, I think is incredibly liberating, or at least it was for me. But to come to that conclusion took a lot of prayer and took a lot of conversations with God for sure.”

“There was also the questioning of, ‘Why is this happening to me,’ right? Anybody that goes through a certain, some sort of adversity, I guess you could say, there’s a tendency, I think, in the human psyche, to question things, ‘What did I do to deserve this’?”

“Somewhere along the way, you have to… just let go and look up at God and say, ‘You know what, God, I don’t fully understand why this is happening to me, and maybe I never will understand that, and that’s okay, that’s fine, that’s fine with me. As long as I have faith in Your plan for me, and as long as I have faith for what You have in store for me, my life, and my family, then I’m content with whatever happens’.”

“The most important relationship in my life is my relationship with God and Jesus Christ and really leaning into that relationship.”

“I think that those were the most formative years of my entire life. The most growth that I ever underwent were during those four years.”

“When you walk into our front door, there’s a statue of St. Francis there and the Catholic faith is a huge pillar of my family life.”

“I’ve always had the mindset or had the temperament to understand that football is just really one piece of my identity and one sliver of who I am as a young man and really just trying to remain humble in that and understanding that the physical talents that I’m blessed with are much less a product of my own doing and much more a product of God’s blessing to me.”

“St. Francis is a saint that we hold very, very close to our hearts in my family and he has shown up in our lives in some very big, big, big moments throughout our lives and throughout some pretty tough times that we’ve had as a family.”

Related link:

Pre-CFL Draft article on Eric’s retirement announcement

(This episode contains a prayer originally excerpted and adapted from Day By Day: The Notre Dame Prayerbook for Students by Thomas McNally, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Dick Vitale

He had a successful coaching career that included leading the NBA’s Detroit Pistons as Head Coach, before joining ESPN in 1979. During his broadcasting career he has called more than a thousand games and even covered events such as the NBA Finals and the 1992 Summer Olympics for ABC Radio. In 2008 he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He has authored more than a dozen books and is a champion for fighting pediatric cancer. He has been fighting his own personal cancer battle since a diagnosis five years ago.

Notable guest quotes:

“I’m doing immunotherapy treatments now to battle the cancer. They found cancer on my lungs and liver and I’m hoping it wipes it out.”

“I always remind people out there if you’re battling something like cancer or whatever it may be, I think there’s two things you must do; you must think positive and have faith.”

“My parents were uneducated, but they had a doctorate of love, and they utilized that love on our family and it rubbed off on me big time.”

“The prayer I take, when things are tough you go to St. Jude. A lot of good things can happen. St. Jude and St. Anthony are special to me, very special.”

“To be able to have something like this (house) … has never changed my values, it never changed my beliefs, it never changed my attitude toward people. It’s who I am, and the house is just a materialistic thing.”

“Treat people how you want to be treated. Be good to people and people are gonna be good to you. We don’t see that. We don’t have enough love in this country right now; too much hate, there’s too much hate in our nation, and I think if we all treated each other like we would want to be treated, we would all be such a better, better group of people of more love in the nation.”

“You take care of what you have to take care of and if you’re successful all that stuff is going to happen in a positive way and lead to so many other things.”

“I’ve never turned down anybody asking for an autograph or coming for a picture. To me I’m flattered they would do that, flattered that they would approach me like that.”

“How many times I take pictures and all the people and they’ll come back to me, someone will come back to me and say, ‘Hey my friend said that you were so nice to them.’ You know, I laugh at it because I just think you’re supposed to be that way. I don’t think it’s special.”

Related link:

Dick’s official website

Glen MacKay

He played cricket and rugby league in his youth and was very active sports-wise. At around 16 years of age he was introduced to tennis, got hooked by its international status, and around the same time watched films about the Olympics, becoming attracted to the storytelling. He fell into sports broadcasting and never looked back. As a TV producer with more than 25 years’ experience, he covered some of the world’s biggest sporting events, including seven FIFA World Cups, four Olympic Games, 19 Roland Garros tournaments, 17 Australian Opens, World Figure Skating Championships, and countless international sports broadcasts, working alongside many of the world’s greatest athletes. On the faith side, not only has he been to the Vatican three times, but four years ago he went to the Holy Land and made a film about it that even includes tennis star Serena Williams.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mum come from a staunch Catholic family whereas my father came from a family that was quite, questioning the Catholic faith; in fact, quite hostile to it.”

“The deal was, my mum wanted me to go to a Catholic school and have a Catholic education but my father – and pressure from his mum – was against that. So, my mum and dad reached a deal that I wouldn’t go to a Catholic school, but I would go to Catholic church every week.”

“In Australia at that time, even today, sport is very popular in Australia and in the suburbs of Sydney if you didn’t play sport, you basically got beaten up for being weak.”

“I think that’s one of my great blessings… I was very lucky that at that young age I kind of was in love with storytelling from a young age and I think that comes from listening to priests’ sermons and the interpretation of the Bible.”

“So, I borrowed my uncle’s camera, and I started taking photos of rugby league players and cricket players and most of my friends and people at school didn’t believe that I was taking those photos!”

“I was always appreciative of relationships, and I was always appreciative of, I think I’ve always been considerate, and I think that came from my mum and that also came from listening to priests’ sermons as well the importance of consideration. And so I think I’ve always been reasonably kind and considerate.”

“I’ve been to church in I can’t even remember how many countries; dozens, maybe close to a hundred. Yeah, I’ve been to a lot of churches in a lot of different countries.”

“I wanted to pay homage to priests’ sermons as part of the film and I wanted to have… a group of different priests from different places and tap into the power of sermons because I think that’s one of the powers and the beauties of the Catholic church and I think people who are not fortunate enough for – in my case I say blessed enough – to be part of the Catholic church, they’re not hearing those stories regularly.”

“Being in the sea of Galilee, that was a spot that just will live with me forever.”

“I’ve been fortunate enough to interview Serena (Williams) a few times, many times, and I was always curious – she’s a very religious devout Jehovah’s Witness, she’s very faithful. And I was always wondering what her take (is) on how much of her success is hard work and how much of her success is a God-given talent. And I’d been wanting to ask her that for years and one day I had the courage to do it and she gave me an incredible answer.”

Related link:

Glen’s film about the Holy Land

Peter Iacavazzi

He earned two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships, seven Pan American and National Championships, a European Championship, and achieved the distinction of being ranked the No. 1 competitor in the world in his division. He founded A Fighting Chance, a women’s self-defense program, and he is the founder of 40Fitness, a coaching program designed specifically for adults over age 40 who want to regain strength, improve health, and perform at a higher level without sacrificing longevity.

Notable guest quotes:

“I grew up in… I think a very typical Italian Catholic family… the Catholic church was such a big part of our life. We went every Sunday… I grew up really in a family where my father was very fond of always reminding us, faith and family and friendship are the things that matter in this life.”

“We went to Catechism and we received our … confirmation and … so growing up in the Catholic Church and Catholicism was such a part of our life. It was just, it was there. It was always there and it still always has been.”

“I grew up with the benefit of having a father who was in the College Football Hall of Fame. He later played in the NFL.”

“My love for football just came from playing the game… I did play in college, and I had a wonderful couple years.”

“I was living at the time in Southern California. I was working out in Gold’s Gym in Redondo Beach. And I became friendly with Royce Gracie, who back in the 90s really became a legend in the ultimate fighting championships in the UFC. And before that, he was a legend in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And we just struck up a friendship. And I started doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with him and some of his students.”

“I have been overly blessed in this life. The parents that God gave me, really incredible.”

“I was very fortunate that during those difficult times, those hard days of training, those getting beaten up by these little guys, being away from home and having to diet and all the things that come with being an athlete at that level, rather than turn away from my faith, I relied on my faith.”

“I looked for that ‘through Christ all things are possible.’ I really began to embody that. When things got really, really hard and they did often, I turned to Christ. I turned to Him for strength. I turned to Him for guidance. And sometimes I just turned to Him for comfort.”

“What a privilege to be on the mat and share your knowledge with really the most incredible men I’ve ever met, the very men that are out there literally giving their lives so that we can have a better life. So, I mean, how blessed am I to get to be able to do that with such incredible men?”

“I can’t make you the next world champion. But what I can do is give you a fighting chance to save your life. And that program I have been teaching now for over 25 years. And it has made a great difference in the lives of women. But it’s also made a great difference in my life of being able to serve and help women.”

“I’m here to hopefully make the world a better place and any opportunity I have to share my profound love of Christ and my belief in God, I will choose any platform that allows me to do that. As an athlete being able to talk to Jiu-Jitsu fighters and practitioners, working with military and law enforcement, and now working with people on their health and fitness. Any chance I’m given to share my love of Christ, my belief in Christ, and just be able to show how my love and belief and faith in Christ has helped shape my life, I choose that platform.”

Related link:

Peter’s website

(This episode contains a prayer seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Robert Prasch

He began playing football at a young age and continued with the sport into high school, drawing attention from colleges who expressed interest. He went on to play semi-pro football for the South Jersey Generals. He has a powerful story of redemption and on the other side of that coached offensive and defensive linemen on an undefeated Pop Warner team. He hosts a show called the “Creating Greatness Podcast.”

Notable guest quotes:

“It was kind of an expected thing. I was going to church because my parents were going and they kind of forced me to go as a child. We did CCD, confirmation, and just finished all that up. But after that, I kind of fell off quite a bit.”

“It all kind of started with Hulk Hogan and wrestling, actually… and God rest his soul, it was great to see him come to Jesus before he passed away. And I was just super excited and a mildly aggressive kid. I just wanted to wrestle and be rough and tough. And so that naturally led me into football.”

“Played all through pee wee, hit all-stars a couple times, won a couple of championships, was really going in the right direction athletically. I stuck with the wrestling; freshman year wrestled 135, sophomore year wrestled 152, which always kept me in elevated condition. I was in the newspaper when I started playing football, made All South Jersey, my junior year.”

“The problem was, I grew up in Bridgeton, New Jersey. And it’s a great historic neighborhood, but it also has its dark side. Something in me, I can’t really place it, was attracted to that. And I spent more time in the streets hanging out with my buddies than I did practicing, lifting weights, and doing my schoolwork, which is what eventually led to my downfall.”

“I was so immature and irresponsible and just a knucklehead. My offensive line tried to talk to me about Jesus in detention I was serving for something stupid that I did. I just didn’t want to hear it.”

“I was a runaway train very much just when I wasn’t involved in athletics or something where I had discipline. There was no other area of my life which I had discipline.”

“I got involved in a lot of really bad things, nothing violent or weird, but just regular, unlawful behavior and ended up landing myself in the state prison with a five-year sentence in Bayside State Prison.”

“I recognized something like an epiphany had come over me. Like, ‘You’re in this by yourself, man. You don’t have no one to help you, no one to save you, no one wants to deal with you, and it’s because of your repeated behavior.’ Now, little did I know at that time that God was already working in my life.”

“What I did for those 23 hours was read and pray and meditate and just try to learn everything I could that was going to change my life. I exercised; I worked out… I went into prison obese, addicted to drugs, so many different things. So, I just totally rearranged my entire consciousness. And God wasn’t done with me yet. He didn’t even reveal himself to me yet, but something had sparked. And from that moment on, I got out, I changed my life.”

“I went back to coaching. I just wanted to be around the game again. It’s something that I loved, although it’s nice because I was able to go back to it without that idolatry. It was like, hey, this is fun. This is a great thing. It’s good for me, it’s good for the kids. It’s good for the world. But Jesus is Lord. Jesus came.”

“I only search now to be great in the eyes of God. I’ve denied the world. I’ve denied the flesh.”

“Decrease you, die to self, invite Christ, grow Christ and eliminate vices and implant virtues. That is the way to purity. That is the way to holiness and righteousness, which we are called as Christians to do. That’s the path. That’s the journey.”

Related link:

Instagram for Robert’s podcast

(This episode contains a prayer from the National Catholic Coaches Association’s “The Leadership Papers,” although originally credited in there to The Coach’s Bible.)

Brian Bonin

He was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1992 National Hockey League Draft and went on to play with both them and the Minnesota Wild. Along the way in his professional hockey career, he also played for Cleveland and Kansas City of the International Hockey League and Syracuse, Adirondack, and Worcester of the American Hockey League. He also played two seasons in Switzerland. In 1996 he won a bronze medal playing for Team USA at the world championships in Austria. He had played his college hockey at the University of Minnesota and in his senior season there won the Hobey Baker Award, given to the most outstanding collegiate hockey player in the NCAA. Prior to his time as a Golden Gopher, he had been named Minnesota Mr. Hockey as the most outstanding senior high school hockey player in that state.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mom and dad did a decent job with faith. I feel I was not catechized quite well but had a very strong grandparent influence on my dad’s side. So, I would say they gave me an opportunity to understand the Catholic faith and to someday come back to it.”

“I basically played sports in four different seasons. Hockey was just the winter season. I actually did downhill skiing as well, even in the winter… I was also a skateboarder… I played baseball, soccer, tennis.”

“I was a chemistry major. But my studies fell off there as well. Hockey was really the focus.”

“The University of Minnesota has a good Newman Center. And I’d stop by and visit here and there… I mean, that’s all on me. Completely lazy. I look back, and it’s, I’m very, very disappointed… I was so, solely focused on sport.”

“For as good as I was, I think I was quite humble in some ways. Because when I even went to Minnesota, my first year there, I just wanted to fit in. I just was hopeful to play four years.”

“I was quite excited to start my professional career, thinking that I could move on from the college ranks and not only get paid but not have to go to school anymore.”

“For the three years in Pittsburgh, playing up and down in Cleveland, Kansas City, Adirondack, there’s a lot of movement because Pittsburgh was going through bankruptcy. So, it was a complete mess. Sometimes you didn’t get your paycheck. Complete mess, up and down, all over.”

“My ego took a huge hit. I mean huge. It doesn’t matter. When you climb the ladder, you always want more. So that crushed me. It absolutely crushed me. And I was not mentally strong enough for it. And I didn’t have an ego and the confidence that you need in pro sports. You can’t sit back and be humble.”

“I gotta basically have to say I had no faith. If somebody would have asked me, ‘Do you go to Mass on Sundays,’ the answer was yes. ‘Do you believe in God?’ Yes. ‘Do you believe in the one true faith?’ Yes. But in that, not very outspoken.”

“(I) got very lucky. In Cleveland, we had a men’s group, and they also had a faith group. And I just– I think I was just so down on my luck, something like that very much interested me.”

“No matter how you’re raised, we have that God size hole in our hearts, I believe.”

“All these little things of our faith that are so unique to us and so wonderful, I was intrigued and interested and wanted to learn more about the rosary, about adoration, about these things.”

“It is heaven on Earth. And what you can experience in Rome in all of our faith, I mean, it is the pinnacle.”

Related link:

Brian’s bio and career stats on Wikipedia

(This episode contains a prayer by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)