Jim Brennan
Episode 401
12 OCT 2026
He took over the JV soccer team at St Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1995, stepped away three years ago, but came back this year. More than a decade ago he was asked to help pilot what became the Sports and Arts Chaplaincy Program at the school, having started out ministering to the Junior Varsities and eventually becoming the chaplain for the hockey program. As a student-athlete he had swam in high school as well as having played for a CYO basketball team AND served as a student trainer and manager for the football and basketball teams. He attended the University of Notre Dame, where he played intramural soccer.
Notable guest quotes:
“The first thing I do when I meet with guys in the chapel to have these kinds of talks about their faith is to ask a very simple question. And that is, does God really care about hockey?”
“The glory of God is man fully alive and … when our guys play hockey, when they play it to the best of their ability, when they get better, when they’re there for their teammates, God smiles, right? This is so important, that He gives us those gifts, and for these guys, it’s their athleticism. And when we build that to the best of our ability, we give glory to Him.”
“Let’s pray through this. And so, brought the team into the chapel, sat down, told them, I don’t have answers, but we can talk through this.”
“They were near to the Lord in that moment and near to the boy who passed away and his family. And it was just … I’ve coached for over 30 years. It’s maybe the proudest moment of my career.”
“When we boil it down, it comes to our faith. This is the environment we grow up in. And this is just again, how we do. Being a man is to give of ourselves.”
“I think it’s in many ways helping to keep the guys focused on what really matters here instead of in the game… Just play the game. But play for your brothers.”
“We would bring our (students) over to Northern Ireland… And we used it as a way to … talk about the difficulties in being peacemakers, of following that call Jesus has for us to do that.”
“One of the people that we meet with is a guy by the name of Reverend Bill Shaw. He’s a Presbyterian minister whose church is in a Catholic neighborhood… one of the things among the many that he did is to have young people who are Protestant, who belong to his congregation, along with Catholic kids, form a soccer team.”
“We pray before every practice. Certainly, before every game, but that’s not unusual. But also, after games.”
“Gonna be men longer than they’re gonna be soccer players and sons of God forever.”
“I think that if we’re going to talk about what is the purpose of our lives, it is to love and to be loved by God and other people. And I think everything else serves that. And if it doesn’t serve it, it’s not worth doing.”
Related link