Bill Bommarito
Episode 265
26 FEB 2024
He has written a book on coaching youth sports, which just came out at the start of this month and is titled, “Beyond the Skills and Drills: The Keys to Successfully Coaching Youth Sports.” He has been involved with both high school and youth sports for 47 years. In addition, his nationwide coaching and parenting seminars have been attended or watched by nearly one hundred thousand participants. He was previously a guest on this show more than three-and-a-half years ago, back on Episode 78, and since then has had two impactful developments in his family that are part of the very emotional testimony he shares here.
Notable guest quotes:
(Regarding the passing of three siblings) “As a family we immediately turned to our Catholic faith and to the good Lord in prayers… We held onto our faith… and it made all the difference in the world as to how we walked that walk.”
(Regarding a devastating diagnosis during Bill’s daughter’s pregnancy) “We had a dear parish priest, who we love dearly, who shared with us some words that completely changed… how we looked at this devastating news.”
“Just FYI, for your audience, there is a thing in the Catholic church called ‘baptism by desire’.”
(Regarding the daughter Bill’s pregnant daughter was carrying) “Father Mike replies and… went on to say – and this was a game-changer for us, absolute game-changer – here’s what he wrote. ‘Before she became your daughter, she was first and remains always God’s daughter… You two have been chosen to carry her to the doorway of our eternal home’.”
“We lean very heavily on our faith family at our church, and we are blessed a thousand times over with people that we know are praying for (Bill’s wife) every single night and what a difference that makes, and because we’ve been in the community for so many years, we gain strength from the community as well. But, once again, it’s another way in which our faith sustains us.”
“We’re blessed with the Catholic faith to be available to us 24/7/365, and we use it!”
“How do we take care of each other? How do we (coaches) take care of those who’ve been assigned to us on our roster?”
“When I go to bed at night, I feel pretty good that a lot of coaches are impacted and a lot of families are impacted by the work, and I actually call it a ministry. It truly, for me, is a ministry, and I think it’s a way to reach out and evangelize what we’re doing as Catholics.”
“He happens to be a Marianist priest, by the way. I went to a Marianist high school and a Marianist university and he’s one of my all-time favorite people.”
Related links:
Website for Catherine Cares (non-profit)
Bill’s official website
