Episodes

Jon Aliaga

He created Bengals Soccer Camp — for boys — nine years ago, after having been hired at Bloomfield High School in New Jersey as head soccer coach for their girls program one year earlier. Three years ago, he created his own organization called Soccer Friends, which is a soccer team that focuses on quality development but also focuses on creating and maintaining good friendships. Back in his days as a student-athlete he had played soccer first at St. Benedict’s Prep and then at the Division 3 level for Drew University, later returning to serve as an assistant coach.

Notable guest quotes:

“One of the most important things my family really focused on with our faith – as busy as we were with soccer and baseball and martial arts and other things that we did – we always found time to go to Mass. There was 7am Mass on Sunday morning or the local parish at 6 p.m. on a Saturday. We went to our neighboring town that had a Polish Mass on Saturday afternoon to just make sure that we were attending Mass and fulfilling our duty. My parents always focused on our church and our faith and attending CCD and making sure we were receiving formation.”

“St. Benedict’s Prep … when I was there it was an all-boys school actually run by Benedictine monks in the late 1800s … but it was an amazing place. I loved it and it just drove home those Catholic virtues that we were taught as a young kid.”

“I dabbled with baseball; I played Little League. I did martial arts … I was, like, 14. I had a black belt in soo bahk do, which was a Korean defensive style. But my main focus was soccer. I think once I got to high school and I saw that I loved it and – it was passed down to me by my father who played professionally – I kind of focused on that in high school and … then I played in college as well.”

“It’s most famous phrase – one of its most famous phrases – ‘whatever hurts my brother hurts me.’ And to this day I, a lot of my best friends that I have, best men at my wedding, I made those friendships at St. Benedict’s Prep.”

“My Catholic roots, my parents instilled those roots so well that it really kept me focused and responsible in playing college soccer but also maintaining good grades.”

“It’s always good to reflect back on our lives, always room to see how God has been so right in our lives, how He’s really written out everything.  He’s the author of life.”

“We realized that soccer and any sport is such a tool and it’s such an instrument to help boys and girls really develop, build character, learn through adversity.”

“Last year when we went to one of the tournaments, we went to Mass with one of the other families.  So, we’re trying to figure out a way how we can integrate the faith into that.”

“We were blessed with being involved with a missionary group called Lazos de Amor Mariano out of Colombia in South America.  It’s also known as Bonds of Marian Love because it also is in English as well. But this movement has been very transformative for our lives.”

“God’s love is, there’s no words for it. His mercy, it’s just, I’m speechless on what I’ve seen so far.”

Related link:

Bengals Soccer Camp (w/Soccer Friends) on Instagram

Rex Kesselring

He just won a national championship last month as a member of the University of Tampa men’s lacrosse team, leading the team in the overtime win against Adelphi with four goals, plus adding one assist. He appeared in all 23 of his team’s games in 2026, finishing second on the team with 59 points, with his 40 goals being tied for the second most on the Spartans. This season he earned USILA All-American Honorable Mention and USILA All-South Region Honorable Mention honors in addition to being named to the Sunshine State Conference All-Championships Team and 2026 Second Team All-SSC. He has one more year left at UTampa and played lacrosse in high school as well.

Notable guest quotes:

“It’s always been a prevalent aspect in our lives, you know, born into a Catholic family… we all attended Catholic school from preschool until fifth grade.”

“My dad is one of five brothers; he’s from Syracuse New York and he coached and played all throughout his career up to the collegiate level. He won two national championships – one as a coach, one as a player – and so I think a stick was one of the first things to touch my hand after being born.”

“I always grew up playing CYO for the church league basketball and once I got to high school I decided to pick it up and play my senior year because I always loved doing it and I would always play with all my buddies who were … on the team and … only makes me a better athlete. So, I suited up and I got to win a sectional championship.”

“Got injured a little bit in a preseason game … and … just sent me down a spiral of not being able to have the confidence in myself and … I kind of veered away from lacrosse. I told my dad I hated it … I just became very distant with the sport … and just wanted nothing to do with it.”

“I always had the faith, but it was a matter of am I just speaking it or am I actually believing it?”

“That’s really what sparked my faith into it throughout the whole year. The decisions were external, but I’m praying every day just simple prayers and just … guidance and clarity and if it’s meant to be, let it be, Lord.”

“Something that really was prevalent since the day I stepped foot on campus was the FCA group and … they took my faith to the next level.”

“The prayer circle after a game it’s not something you see every team do, but they made it feel so normal.”

“It’s one thing to go out there on the field and play together but when you’re bonded by the Lord it’s just so much greater and you really do feel the difference.”

“Just from the faith aspect is just constantly praying; wake up, pray. If I ever found myself starting to overthink or get anxiety, just pray, just find comfort in His plan and find comfort in whatever is meant to be will be.”

“I genuinely prayed it every single day and just prayed to God for the opportunity to glorify His name on the biggest possible stage that I can using the sport of lacrosse.”

Related link:

Rex’s bio on UTampa website

(This episode contains a prayer adapted from one by an unknown Confederate Soldier, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Wes Walz

He enjoyed a long playing career in the National Hockey League after being chosen by Boston in the third round, 57th overall, of the entry draft.  In addition to the Bruins, he played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, and the Minnesota Wild, being the latter’s team captain and, at the time of his retirement, that franchise’s leader in games played. Along the way he also played four seasons in Switzerland. Shortly after his retirement he became an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He would go on to serve as head coach for three years at the high school that both a son and daughter of his played for. Present day he is a game analyst on Fan Duel Sports Network for Minnesota Wild games.

Notable guest quotes:

“Where we learned mostly about our Catholic faith was just from going to Mass every Sunday… we never missed a Mass on Sunday with my mother and father. That was something that was non-negotiable.”

“We went to Saint Mark’s parish… we learned about our faith. In school we went through all the sacraments as well too through Saint Mark’s in Calgary.”

“My favorite sport growing up was probably baseball and I played till I was probably about 16 years old… my first love was really baseball. I was probably a better baseball player than hockey player till I got to be about 15, 16 years old.”

“The fact that I was able to score my first ever NHL goal in my hometown in front of family and friends was something that I’ll never forget. And actually, ironically, 17 years later after my career was over, the last goal that I ever scored in the NHL was actually in Calgary as well at the other end of the rink. So, I scored my first goal in one end of the rink at the Calgary Saddledome and I scored my last goal 17 years later in the Calgary Saddledome.”

“I gotta be honest; I was 19 years old at the time, and I was 19 going on, like, 17 years old or 16 years old. I was so immature.”

“I was really a solid NHL player the last … seven/eight years of my career just simply because I was more mature and I was much wiser and I prayed a lot harder and my faith became a lot stronger too and I had the Holy Spirit behind me too, which played a big role as well.”

“I was asked when we got back into the twin cities to speak at the St. Paul Cathedral after I retired … for 15, 20 minutes to about 1,500 men… and I felt that it was something that I needed to do. I knew I needed to grow more in my faith.”

“There was more to my life, there was more to my wife’s life, than just hockey and things. I just, I needed more.”

“I needed to spend more time in Confession. I needed to spend more time at daily Mass. And receiving the Eucharist is something that I really believe has really helped me become stronger in my faith.”

“I have fallen in love with Adoration. I have an hour-long perpetual Adoration at St. Ambrose in Woodbury where at 12:30 on Monday I go in there and I sit with the Lord in Adoration and it’s just a quiet time.”

“My faith means more to me now and my family’s faith means more to me now than talking about hockey.”

“It warms my heart that people probably recognize me more now as maybe a man of faith than they did when I played.”

“Quietly, before the light comes on – and I did this as a player too – before the light comes on and we’re going on live television I quietly say a Hail Mary all the time.”

Related link:

Wes Walz on NHL.com

(This episode contains a prayer originally from catholic.org, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Steven Santini

A defenseman who played in twelve games for the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning this season, picking up one assist and finishing with +1 plus/minus rating. He also played in 33 games with and was captain of the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, recording six assists and finishing as a +10 with them. He had been a second round draft choice, 42nd overall, of the New Jersey Devils back in the 2013 NHL Draft. In total he has played 136 regular season games in the NHL, having also seen action with the St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, and New Jersey. He helped the United States win a silver medal at the 2012 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge and was named the best defenseman at the 2013 Under-18 World Championship, when the U.S. won silver. He played his college hockey at Boston College.

Notable guest quotes:

“My dad was your traditional Italian Catholic family from the Bronx. He went to Catholic school all the way through high school, everything. So, he was an important part of instilling the Catholic lifestyle into all of us and me and my sisters all went to Catholic high school.”

“I played baseball up until pretty much halfway through high school. I kind of had to devote my time to hockey, but I really liked baseball. I played it competitively. It was a sport I still like and then I probably stopped football around a little earlier, around middle school, just to focus on the falls and mainly be hockey.”

“As a preteen, I developed a strong level of faith whether it was going to church or daily prayer, do Bible readings, whatever it was. I was kind of into it and ironically when I moved out in my junior high school to play with the U.S. Development Team in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I actually didn’t have a car, but by the chance of God, I was actually walking distance from a Catholic church. I was able to go to church most weekends and I always thought that was just a cool thing that God’s always got you in mind.”

“I would say that particular injury at that particular part of my life, I wouldn’t say it challenged my faith, but it was definitely the first adversity.”

“You have all those people you rely on and obviously at (Boston College), we had a team priest, Father Tony Penna, who worked with the hockey team for several years and… We would meet every week during that time, and I don’t really feel like my faith was tested because I’ve never questioned my faith.”

“Father T, we used to call him, he was great. He would pretty much travel with us on the road. We would do Sunday Masses. If we played Sundays at 3, we would do a Mass right at 8 a.m. before 9 o’clock breakfast and guys would come into his office and meet with him or have lunch with him once a week. And I was really religious, but some of my teammates who maybe weren’t, he would just kind of talk about life and kind of he was a big part of helping one of my good teammates get confirmed.”

“I always just find for me, I can name a ton of cities we’ve been in, whether it’s Syracuse, Tampa, Milwaukee, I can go on and on. There’s always a Catholic church somewhere nearby. And even on the road in today’s world of Google Maps and Uber, you can find a Catholic church on the road.”

“You can keep up with it as much as you want. If you want to go to church, you’re going to find a church to go to.”

“I usually say a prayer at the house or the hotel before I leave and then I usually say one right before I start getting my gear on.”

“From my experiences in the locker rooms I’ve been in most guys are pretty open about their religion. I think a lot of guys wear the cross chains; a lot of guys have tattoos of crosses or Bible verses.”

“When you’re younger, you’re so focused on yourself and hockey, and then being married and having two children you learn that life is not about you and your hockey career. I still take what I do really seriously, I work hard, I compete hard, I do the best I can, I want to do the best by myself and my teammates. But at the end of the day, my kids, they don’t care if I win or lose. My wife, it’s not fair to her if I come home in a bad mood after a bad game.”

Related link:

Steven on NHL.com

(This episode contains a prayer by Fort Worth Christian Football League parent Linda Fleshman, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Gabe James

(Caution: sad testimony shared by this guest) He is a goalie for the Lake Michigan College Red Hawks, having also played club soccer for the (Premier 1) Force Shockwave. In high school he not only was a two-year varsity starter but two-time team captain, two-time Team MVP, two-time 1st Team All-Conference, and also earned 1st Team All-County and 1st Team All-Region honors. Along the way he set the school record for most saves in a game and most saves in a career. He was also a part of the football and basketball teams in high school.

Notable guest quotes:

“I went to my Catholic school, Saint Margaret’s, from preschool all the way through eighth grade to when I graduated. It was very prominent. My mom was very big on us being Catholic. As soon as I could I started altar serving.”

“I altar served from right after communion – so, like, second grade – all the way up to my senior year in high school.”

“By the time I hit around seventh, eighth grade, soccer just started to kind of emerge as the one that I was most enjoying. I found the people I liked the most there and… soccer really just moved my love for the sport, and it just made me want to keep playing it.”

“I would say if it’s a pretty like down and back game it’s a little harder to pray but if it’s a slow game, there’s times I’ve caught myself just asking God to help me stay active and present in the moment and that when an opportunity comes for me to do what I have to do that He helps me to make the save that I have to make.”

“Before every single game our captain would huddle us up into a circle and we would say a prayer to the Lord.”

“We would say some prayers in the car, we would say the rosary. We would just find a way to be able to still praise God on His holy day.”

“I had so many people around me that made it so much easier for me and made it just impossible to leave my faith and they helped me to understand that, the trials that you go through, you’ll get broken down but there’s always a way back up and that you’re never gonna be truly alone.”

“You have to be willing to be able to keep your faith strong, keep your life strong, keep believing in God.”

“God isn’t going to let you sit there in sorrow because you’re His son or His daughter and that would pain Him to see that. So, He’s going to help you recover.”

“It’s so nice to see so many young kids be willing to give up a week of their summer and to just go down and give up their time, their efforts, their hard work, and to just give to these other people, knowing that they’re less fortunate than them but that doesn’t make them any less human we are.”

“In the end my faith is what I see is one of the most important things in my life because if I lose my faith I, honestly, I lose who I think I am as a person.”

Related link:

Gabe’s bio on Lake Michigan College Red Hawks website

(This episode contains a prayer originally from prayers-and-poetry.blogspot.com, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Peter Piscitello

He competed in baseball and swimming in high school. To keep active while attending Benedictine College, he started running, which has turned into a lifelong pursuit, gradually moving from 5Ks to half marathons and having now completed five marathons, with his last being the 2025 Chicago Marathon last fall.  Along the way he officiated soccer games for several years.  He has worked in development and business operations in college athletics and has also worked within the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Present day he is the Director of Operations for Play Like A Champion Today.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was born into the faith really, received the sacraments, and growing up, we were kind of, I guess, your regular Sunday Mass goers… was involved in youth group as I became a teenager and all those kind of good things. It was a part of our life.”

“I was involved in every sport I could possibly get my hands on, whether that was the little YMCA basketball league as a six-year-old, probably, and eventually got into school sports. I always loved being involved in something every season.”

“I think it’s so important about things like Catholic education and just really the formation as a child.”

“Unfortunately, the faith just wasn’t the most important thing, it wasn’t my priority. And so that was kind of where I went astray for a period of time.”

“(Benedictine College is) really a phenomenal place that absolutely had a huge impact in my life.”

“It really just helped me to think, see things more clearly, get my priorities in order, and really understand what was important in life and dive into, really in a full way, the fullness of Catholic living.”

“I think this is something that’s important in sort of the Catholic part of my story. I realized that it’s important to take care of and steward the gift God gave you, the body God gave you.”

“I think there are some really strong spiritual elements in running in particular, and in sort of endurance sports that really tie back in nicely to what the faith journey’s all about.”

“It was amazing. And as someone who had never been to Italy, let alone Rome and the Vatican, to get to go and actually participate in a summit, in an event there, was kind of beyond my wildest dreams and … shake hands with Pope Francis and be a part of all that.”

“(It was) just a beautiful, beautiful opportunity to see what people are doing, not just in the church, but around the world, to help provide opportunities to participate in sports and to really spread love and goodwill and the message of the gospel through sport across the world.”

“Just the act of using a gift or a talent God has given us, whether you’re eight or ten or 20 or 60, is an ability to glorify God.”

Related link:

Play Like a Champion Today

Jadin O’Brien

She competed three months ago at the Winter Olympics in Italy as a member of Team USA bobsled. She is a three-time NCAA indoor pentathlon champion, having competed for the Fighting Irish at the University of Notre Dame. She competed at two U.S. Olympic Team Trials (Track & Field) and finished fifth in the women’s heptathlon at the U.S. national championships in 2025. She started in bobsled in August 2025 and made the U.S. Bobsled team for the 2025-26 season as a push athlete. At her IBSF World Cup debut later that year in Latvia, she would finish fourth in two-woman Bobsled and be named to her first Olympic team for the Games earlier this year in Milano Cortina.

Notable guest quotes:

“The Catholic faith was the central part of my family. Growing up a very Irish Catholic family, we went to weekly Mass, including multiple times throughout the week. We’d go to Adoration as a family as often as we could. We’d say the rosary daily, practice confession multiple times a month, and made sure that God was talked about consistently in our everyday lives.”

“I developed a disease called PANDAS and essentially that disease took full control of my brain. And so, I lost the ability to just function in everyday life, such as brush my hair, put clothes on, brush my teeth, turn on the shower.”

“My whole family developed a very strong relationship with St. Thérèse of Lisieux. And by studying her life, they discovered that she suffered with OCD. And severe OCD was one of the symptoms of PANDAS… And so, we kind of latched on to her as a source of hope and through my experience with PANDAS, there was quite a few little miracles actually that happened. And we attest a lot of that to St. Thérèse’s intercession. And eventually, … through St. Thérèse’s intercession… we were able to find a doctor who was able to tell me what I had. And eventually become healed.”

“Going to Notre Dame was by far the best decision I have ever made. I loved it. Everything about the university. What it stands for, the opportunity it gives you in all areas of life. It really is unmatched… I chose Notre Dame for three reasons, the first being faith. I wanted to go to a place where I could practice my Catholic faith openly and proudly and grow in it.”

“I assumed that I’d make it to the Olympics in track and field. So, God does work in mysterious ways.”

“My high school was Divine Savior Holy Angels. It was a Catholic all-girls school out in Milwaukee. And for my whole life though, I attended Catholic grade school, high school and college.”

“During my college career, every season, I had what seemed to be a season ending injury. So, my freshman year, I had to compete on a torn quad. My sophomore year I had to compete with food poisoning and then later redshirted that season. Junior year I had a stress fracture in my shin, a torn ligament in my elbow, and after that, another stress fracture, then a strained hamstring, dealing with all that while having to compete on it. So, for a lot of my college experience, when another injury would happen, I was constantly finding myself asking why. Like, ‘Lord, why? Why do you keep putting me in these positions to suffer? Like, what? Why? It doesn’t make sense. Let me compete’!”

“I’d pray a lot. I was like, ‘Lord, please just help me heal fast. Please help me get through this.’ He was absolutely building me up and building up my mental fortitude to be able to handle some very difficult things. And he also built up my resilience.”

“I was able to overcome these seemingly serious setbacks in my sports career and glory to God that I was able to not let that stop me and was able to do some pretty cool things in my college career.”

“I had to really learn the sport and then somehow get good at it fast enough to make the Olympic team later that year, while being in six different countries with people I had never met, learning a sport I had never done.”

“For many people, when you’re in such a position where you feel like you’re so out of control where you have really nothing tangible you can hang on to because your life is just all over the place, that is absolutely when God can shine his light.”

“It was absolutely a dream come true. The environment was magical. It was so exciting. Everyone was super patriotic, super excited, people from all countries were just so alive. Everyone was so energetic. The opening ceremony was one of the most special experiences I’ve ever had just being in Cortina, Italy, waving the flag, clapping hands with the fans, just everything about that experience and representing the United States was, there’s almost not a word for it. It was that amazing.”

Related links:

Jadin’s Team USA profile
Jadin’s track & field bio at Notre Dame

(This episode contains a prayer seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)