Daniel Gill
Episode 368
23 FEB 2026
He attended Benedictine College Preparatory, where he distinguished himself as a three-sport athlete. He went on to play Division I soccer at Mount St. Mary’s and Longwood University. He later coached at Benedictine for ten years, transforming the soccer program into one of the top-ranked teams in Virginia. He achieved similar success by elevating the St. Gertrude’s soccer program to statewide prominence. In the fall of 2025, he accepted his current position as a teacher and head soccer coach at DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland.
Notable guest quotes:
“We attended Catholic Mass, but I never felt like there was something specifically special about being Catholic growing up. It was just, I’m a Christian. There’s a lot of Christians out there. It wasn’t until later that I came to see how special being Catholic was.”
“I didn’t attend Catholic school until fifth grade and then I attended Catholic school through high school and then initially Mount St. Mary’s.”
“Probably a pivotal moment was I attended this sleepaway camp every summer called Camp Willow Run, which is in Littleton, North Carolina…. it’s a deeply religious camp and someone there or something there convinced me to turn my life over to Christ at a young age, which I did. And it’s been pretty steady since then.”
“Since I was in middle school, I’ve taken my faith seriously and have not fallen away from it.”
“The ones I really settled on and grew to love were basketball, tennis, and soccer… I played all of those at the varsity level in high school.”
“It had a deep impact on the family that (my brother) made that decision (to enter the seminary). And I think it was very inspiring not just to my parents, but to a lot of my aunts and uncles.”
“I went and visited him (at the seminary)… And that had a deep impact on me because I saw all these men there really with nothing… And their life was basically prayer and work, and they were just so joyful. And then I would go back to the secular world, and I just didn’t see that level of joy or happiness or peace. And so that was a big inspiration for me in high school at a time when really I could have fallen away from my faith. It was the boost I needed at that particular time to keep going.”
“I ended up getting into coaching education and eventually going to Spain to learn about coaching.”
“I would go to the parties in college and in high school, but I wouldn’t partake in a lot of the activities that were going on there. I was a designated driver. So, I just always felt like I was able to keep my own faith. It was my job to spend time with people that their faith was not important to them. And a lot of really great things have come out of that.”
“He also pushed me in my own time to just spend time in front of the blessed sacrament and just be quiet and just sit there with God and with Jesus and not say anything, just sit there. And just that simple act of doing that 15 to 30 minutes a day, which I’ve done every day over the last three years, has completely changed my faith and it’s completely changed really my life and how I interact with people.”
“Every day no matter what has happened, I go into the chapel for 15 or 30 minutes and just sit and so then I’m, instead of relying on myself and my own words, I’m really just relying on God to give me the support that I need and by doing that … I’ve made way more progress in my life.”
Related link: