Mike Hoendorf
Episode 372
23 MAR 2026
He has been coaching and working within the game of baseball for over 20 years and has been working in Catholic ministry for over ten years. He has previously spent time coaching at every level of baseball from youth to NCAA Division 1 baseball. During his coaching career he has spent time on the University of Dayton baseball staff, where he helped lead them to their first ever A10 Championship. He coached at the high school level, helping to lead two programs to their first league championships, and helped many players move on to the next level, including 2024 8th Round draft pick of the San Diego Padres, Nick Wissman. On the faith side, he is Director of Strategic Development and Midwest Sports Missionary for Catholic Athletes for Christ.
Notable guest quotes:
“I grew up in a house where my mom was very faithful. I remember many times saying, ‘Mom, why do we gotta bring faith into everything we do?’ Now I’m a sports missionary that says, ‘Yeah, faith is a part of everything we do, including athletics’.”
“Once I got to high school I made the baseball team, had more opportunities in that sport, and as I played it more and more – and my dad was a college baseball player, so baseball was also an important part.”
“It just kind of was a runaway freight train of being involved in the game of baseball and then growing to love how much it was a tool to grow as a person as well as a great game.”
“I also realized very quickly I did not want to coach at the college level because I did know I wanted to have a family and have kids down the line. I attended our – the head baseball coach at U. of D(ayton) – the year I was on staff, I attended more of his son’s baseball games than he did.”
“We intentionally did a preseason baseball retreat where we would spend a half a day in prayer and fellowship and talking about what we wanted to do to integrate our faith, having an alumni come in and give their testimony from a faith perspective.”
“I was like, all right, I’ll do another Marian consecration… I’ve had success with those, I’ll do another one, and … I’m gonna do one that where it’s gonna end on Our Lady of Lourdes feast day, and so that’s how I’ll prepare and if at the end of this consecration I feel called to go to Lourdes at that point I’ll go.”
“I got sent to a sports missionary conference that was being hosted down at the seminary in Cincinnati and that was my first introduction to, that there was this whole world and there were these organizations that did this type of work.”
“After the dinner they have time to be in fellowship if they’re staying in the dorms and all of a sudden, they were doing prayer and some meditation stuff together. All of a sudden, the walls started to break down.”
“We’re actually going to introduce adoration and confession as a part of the Friday night… All the teams that stay there, on Saturday morning we have Mass together, and so just all these different pieces where we are intentionally integrating athletics with faith opportunities that hopefully help these kids really start to put their lives in perspective and put their faith as a key piece to what they’re doing.”
Related link:
Mike’s bio (Catholic Baseball Showcase)