Mark Blaise
Episode 43
25 NOV 2019
Since June 2017 he has been the program’s second head men’s lacrosse coach at Benedictine College, a Catholic institution in Kansas, where he graduated from in 2013. As an undergrad he was a co-founder of the Men’s Lacrosse Club team there. He also has been an assistant coach at Rockhurst University AND was the head coach for the boys lacrosse team at St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic high school in Overland Park, Kansas. This past April he was named the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year.
Notable guest quotes:
“It was definitely a message that my parents really took home and my grandparents really took home that at the end of the day your faith is more about what you’re doing on the inside, and I do think that there’s some problems with that… It used to be that we kind of held that within our own circle but as we’ve all gotten older and grown into our faith, I would definitely say that we’ve tried to bring the faith to more different people.”
“Being that light of the good that the church does into people’s lives, and telling people why you’re happy and why you’re driven and why you’re successful at what you’re trying to do is because of your foundation in Christ, I think, is one of the greatest witnesses that you can give.”
“Typically where I’ve seen the most amount of people fall away from the faith is when they’re transitioning from a relationship with God that’s not very complicated, it’s simple, and then once you become an adult it’s a lot more complicated and if we’re not continuing to invest in our relationship and continuing to try to communicate with God, we’re not going to have that relationship if we don’t put effort and communicate with God.”
“So often I think that people stop going to church and basically fall away from the church and say, ‘Well, I don’t feel God’s presence in my life.’ And typically, it’s because they’re not open to it and they’re not trying to have that communication. If you stop talking to God and then say, ‘I don’t have a relationship with Him,’ that’s your fault as well.”
“Monks are normal people and they still follow sports and they still have interests outside of just work-pray.”
“One of the things that I always strive for is to be great in everything that you do… just not settling… If you’re settling, you’re never going to get to greatness.”
(on retreats) “If the adults aren’t putting themselves in those vulnerable situations that we’re asking our kids to put themselves into, how can we ask them and how do we understand what they’re getting out of it?”
“A lot of the things that we’re doing, full team, are trying to be inclusive and trying to show people that the Word of God is a way of life and that way of life is far better than any other way of life.”
