Bill Bommarito
Episode 78
27 JULY 2020
A longtime coach, having done so in football, baseball, soccer, and softball. He is the founder of Coaching Coaches and has had over 70 thousand volunteer coaches and parents participate in his coaching programs and parent programs. He currently has programs with several Archdioceses and several secular athletic programs. He is also the play-by-play announcer for women’s volleyball at two universities in the St. Louis area.
Notable guest quotes:
“I’m a cradle Catholic… went to St. Peter Catholic Church… I then went to St. John Vianney High School… And that launched me into the University of Dayton, which is also a Marianist Catholic university.”
“The Catholic church was a huge center of our life, in my parents’ life.”
“From grade school all the way through my first teaching and coaching experience was all Catholic-related.”
“What I try to get our coaches to understand is, that within the Catholic community, within the CYO programs, what we need to be doing is to make sure that our faith is first and foremost.”
“The other thing that I tell coaches all the time, it’s how you behave at practices, not the kids, but how you behave at practices, and in particular at games, that really tells your story and tells the rest of your audience – your players and your families – how important is your Catholic faith to you.”
“You’re going to have opportunities in which you can demonstrate your Catholicism and what it means to you, as to how you present yourself away from the field, away from the court… That’s why I say coaching goes way beyond the court and field because we become this example for these families.”
“Our goal is to teach our faith. Our goal is to teach the sport. And if you do it effectively and you do it well, there’s a great likelihood you’re going to win. And that becomes the bonus.”
“I think our sports programs, in some of these CYOs, they touch more families than unfortunately the number of families going to church on a Sunday. And… I’m not too far off. I can assure you of that because people love their sports. So if we’re not going to see them on Sundays, then I would love to be able to take our Catholic faith message to the field or the court where we know we’ll see them because sports are becoming more and more a huge part of a family’s experience.”
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