Episodes

Dr Michael Donato

He works as a sports medicine podiatrist. At Princeton University he had played four years of varsity baseball and one year of varsity hockey. In high school he had played four years of varsity hockey, freshman baseball and three years of varsity baseball, and freshman football and three years of varsity football. He also played youth baseball and hockey as well as CYO hockey for two different parishes. While he was taking pre-med courses, he even played club rugby.

Notable guest quotes:

“We didn’t learn our prayers at school. We learned our prayers at home. And then we brought that to school.”

“And at the school I went to… Our Lady of Czestochowa was always on the wall. It was in our chapel. It was everything. And there was a great teaching of the love for the Virgin Mary that we always had. And then when I went to high school, it was with the Christian Brothers of Ireland, it made me think about what it means to be a Catholic and how to grow as a Catholic. It’s not just going to Mass and that’s it.”

“My cousin, Peter Walsh is a Holy Cross father out in Portland University… my brother was a professional hockey player, Olympics and all that, my brother Teddy.”

“In the inner city at that time … thank God we were in sports because it kept us out of a lot of the other trouble things that were going on at the time in Boston.”

“Baseball team, we had a good team, when I was a junior we went to the NCAA – we won the Ivy League, we beat Harvard, it was a playoff game because we had equal, tied records – and then we got to go to the NCAA tournament.”

“Maybe it’s our Catholic faith, but it was never about money to me. It still isn’t. It’s meaningless to me.”

“I was working up in Boston… for a company in the mutual fund industry. I just did not feel like this was me… what I’m going to do the rest of my life. I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s not my calling… It’s like you just know, things feel right, you pray, you try to figure out which direction I’m going to go in. And I knew this just wasn’t the direction.”

“The lessons you also learn from sports, you’re on the ground, you get yourself back up, you work hard to achieve a goal, and you just go after it. And that’s what I did.”

“Anything I do is not for my glory. It is for God’s glory. If I am able to heal a patient or make them better, it’s not that I’m so great, it’s that God allowed me to help heal that person.”

“In sports, we stay humble. And this is part of that humility. It’s just, you must stay humble and understand where anything you do comes from God originally. You didn’t come up with anything out of by yourself.”

Related link:

Website for Dr. Donato’s practice

(This episode contains a prayer originally excerpted and adapted from Day By Day: The Notre Dame Prayerbook for Students by Thomas McNally, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Britta Curl-Salemme

She just won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy in February as a member of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team. She is a forward in her second season with the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Her international experience also includes having competed in three International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships with Team USA, winning gold in 2023 and silver in both 2021 and 2024. Plus, she won a gold medal with the U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team at the 2018 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship. As a student-athlete she had played five seasons at the University of Wisconsin, winning three national championships along the way and earning several honors.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mom was very faithful. She came from a large Catholic family … and she really brought the faith into the central part of our family. We grew up going to Mass every Sunday, no matter if we were traveling or, four kids in sports could get hectic, but she always made sure that that was a central part of our life.”

“By putting us in the Catholic schools, kindergarten through when I graduated high school in Bismarck, just, we had awesome Catholic schools, great mentors and religious teachers, priests, I just think I was so lucky to grow up there.”

“Our high school was awesome, and they provided Adoration every lunch hour all year… it was a tiny little chapel on the second floor… I just decided one Lent I was going to start going and I went once a week and then I started going twice a week and then I just found myself wanting to be there more and more. And it’s hard not to be transformed when you’re sitting in front of Jesus every day like that. So that’s something that I’ve tried to continue doing.”

“I actually … played three sports through high school: hockey, track, and soccer. And I loved all of them, but hockey was always the number one for me.”

“I still tried my best … I went to Mass every Sunday and I stayed close to the sacraments, but then my sophomore year – so, I’d been going to the Newman Center… I decided to join a Bible study in my sophomore year because I felt like I needed community. And I think that really just encouraged me and jump started my faith in college and just got more involved there at the Newman Center. And I continued to do discipleship and meet different people.”

“It’s definitely a balance and I’ve just found that having a certain detachment from my sport and putting myself in the hands of Jesus and going to church and to my faith that’s just been so much more fulfilling for me and then it makes hockey more fun. I just get to go and enjoy myself and as my mom says, use the gift that He gave me.”

“I’ve won … many championships, awards, and it’s always the same thing. You win the award and you finish your season and then you’re just kind of like left there wondering, ‘What next’ or ‘Is that it? Is it not supposed to feel a little bit better?’ It’s just not as fulfilling as you might think because you worked hard for something. So just recognizing that and knowing where your fulfillment actually comes from.”

“It’s Italy and you don’t have to go too far without finding a Catholic church. So, I was lucky enough to go to Mass a number of times there for a few weeks.”

“I didn’t really know what to expect just as far as the fans and how many people were going to show up… but I was so impressed with how many American fans showed up, actually. I don’t think we had a game where we didn’t have a really strong showing of U.S. fans that just, whether they were random people that decided to come to a game or were coming through the area, we just had really good support… and then the gold medal game was unbelievable, just packed to the brim.”

“They’re the pros of the religious life. I’m watching them pray and go about their daily life and seeing what I can learn from them.”

“I like to write on my stick AMDG… that’s just like a reminder for me of why I’m doing it and what I hope to bring.”

Related link:

Britta on Minnesota Frost webpage

(This episode contains a prayer by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Michael Sharman

A senior at Clemson University where he is a pitcher on the men’s baseball team. Through his first six games played in 2026 he had a 4-1 won-lost record over 32 and two-thirds innings pitched and an earned run average of 2.48 with 30 strikeouts and just five walks. He had played LAST season at Tennessee, where he went 3-1, pitching 22 and two-third innings and striking out 25 batters. He also played one season at Georgia Highlands College, where recorded 101 strikeouts in 93 and two-thirds innings pitched over 16 starts in 2024. He missed the 2023 season due to injury after playing one season (2022) at Parkland College, following a high school career that saw him letter three times in baseball and earn all-state and all-region honors as a junior.

Notable guest quotes:

“Our parents have been one of the biggest influences in our faith lives. They raised us up in the church, not missing Mass on Sundays. Just treating us how to be good devout Catholics. And I’ve carried that with me through my whole life and through college.”

“When playing a sport that I’ve put so much time and effort into, you can kind of start to worship your sport a little. So, I try to remind myself every day that you’re only as stable as what you worship. And if I worship the game of baseball, my life’s going to be very up and down. So obviously, I keep Christ as my center, and I’ve done a lot better with not worshiping the game of baseball.”

“The one that I remember the most is Catholic heart work camp that I went with my older brother… in high school… that was a week-long trip… we kind of go serve others … whether that’s putting out mulch in front of a church, picking weeds around a neighborhood or just doing whatever it is to serve for the community where we were at. And so that’s what we would do every morning and then we’d come back, have adoration, Mass.”

“It’s definitely not been a smooth road transferring four times, but I always tell myself it’s God’s plan. I wouldn’t want to do it any other way.”

“I tore my ACL, so I had to sit out and that was a big leaning on my faith moment for that whole year, just like reminding myself that, Jesus, I trust in you. That’s my biggest motto. I have it written on my glove and on my hat.”

“God always has a plan. And I truly believe that. So, leaning on my faith and staying grounded and having my parents and family around me to support me … was huge and truly impactful.”

“I think God really wanted me here at Clemson. I’ve never been more strong and grounded in my faith. I feel like I’m in the best spot I’ve ever been with my faith life, and I just feel super blessed to be where I am and I’m at peace and that’s how I know that God has me right where He wants me.”

“We all know that we need to follow Jesus, but if we’re not renewing our mind every single day, I think it’s so easy to fall apart and to be distanced from God.”

“I have it on my wall in my room and I love (Romans 12:2) and I think it’s so true because it’s very easy to fall into fleshly desires and to fall into the patterns of this world and it’s not easy to follow Christ and we know we need to follow Christ.”

“I feel like any chance that I get to express my faith and be unapologetic about my Catholic faith, I’m going to do it and I’m not afraid to talk about it.”

“Without the faith I would not be where I am and with baseball and reminding myself that God has given me the ability to play this game and if I push Him off to the side, I could only imagine where I would be in this game and I don’t think it would be a very good place.”

“I just try to give all the glory to Him whether it’s going good or bad because I know that my performances in baseball do not add or subtract the love that God has for me.”

Related link:

Michael’s bio on Clemson baseball site

(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)

Mike Hoendorf

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)

(This episode contains a prayer from the National Catholic Coaches Association’s “The Leadership Papers,” although originally credited in there to The Coach’s Bible.)

Noah Kararo

He currently plays for the ChiCity Orioles, as part of the Chicago Premier Baseball League. He is also Director of Baseball Operations for the Illinois Hawks, having previously served as their Director of Youth Development and having coached at multiple age levels within the Hawks organization. A former middle infielder, he played five varsity seasons at the University of St. Francis, appearing in 193 games with an on-base percentage of .346 in his career with the Fighting Saints. Prior to that he had been a student-athlete playing high school ball for Crossroads Christian Academy.

Notable guest quotes:

“Our faith life continued to grow and strengthen, especially with prayer throughout the day. So those are some of the hallmarks of my childhood faith journey.”

“The Mass was something earlier in my life that was more an obligation rather than something done out of love. As I grew older and my parents grew deeper into the faith that is something that we have held very, very dear to us on a week-to-week basis, even amongst the busyness of life… And even now that I’m in my working career, trying to make an attempt to make a daily Mass as much as I can, it’s been extremely important.”

“I started at Holy Angels Catholic School in Aurora from kindergarten through third grade.”

“While I did play other sports, I played a couple seasons of soccer. I played basketball up until I was a freshman in high school. I was best at baseball, and it really stole my heart. So, I ran with it and never looked back.”

“It was a big goal of mine to achieve an athletic scholarship in college. I was very much an undersized player. So, I didn’t have as many options on the table as some of my peers. Being a Catholic, having a Catholic institution at the center of my education was important, and just those combination of factors – the smaller school size, just to make sure that it was a fit for me athletically and then making sure that faith was somewhat of a presence – yeah, really led me to really considering those smaller Catholic universities.”

“I couldn’t see the path forward, didn’t know what the next step was going to hold, but it was just putting my head down, continuing to control what I could control, putting in the work day in and day out. And yeah, leaving the outcome up to God.”

“The way I live, my faith is not very loud, it’s often by example. So, people will see me praying before games or in the car, before or after something is going on, and just the way that I carry myself and the language that I use.”

“It’s very evident to the people that come in and out of the facility, the kind of character that I try to carry myself with, and it rubs off on people, especially those that I directly coach; they know what kind of standards that I have. I don’t let people swear during my practices.”

“It’s important that we really become attuned to how we handle failure, because especially in baseball, it’s a sport of failure, and that kind of mirrors what life is going to be in some regards as well.”

“I now attend a Bible study every Thursday night, regardless of what’s going on, that precious block of time from 7pm until 10pm on Thursdays, that is for Bible study, and I’ve grown so many fantastic relationships from being a part of that.”

Related link:

Noah Kararo on baseball-reference.com

(This episode contains a prayer by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Melanie Meza

She had a long career as a student-athlete, playing basketball for Whittier College, El Camino College, and her high school, all in California. During her time at El Camino College she made the Academic All-State Basketball Team and in her sophomore year posted double-digit rebounds in seven games. She was the team captain there and was coming off a high school career that saw her earn San Pedro News Pilot Prep Girls Basketball Player of the Year and All Santa Fe League First Team honors. She is a Catholic women’s fitness coach and the founder of Rosary Girl Walk, which is a walking wellness community for Catholic women.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was born and raised Catholic, baptized in the Catholic Church… Went to Catholic school from kindergarten to 12th grade.”

“Going to Mass was something that we just did to check off the list… it was more of like, I’m going to Mass because my mom’s telling me to go to Mass and I went for like the wrong reason – the cute boy, I’m like, ‘Oh, I hope I can hold my crush’s hand during the Our Father’.”

“My very first sport actually was track. I was only a runner. I only used to run. I feel like that’s the foundation of everything. Why I was able to go so far. I’m just really athletic. And so, track was my first sport. I started running when I was seven years old. And I did cross-country, track. I did volleyball. I was a two-sport athlete in high school, but I was way better in basketball.”

“I got a lot of my validation from that. It was like the one thing that I felt like made me worthy or felt quote unquote worthy. If I performed really well, then I was lovable. And if I performed really bad I was like, ‘I’m nothing. I’m not lovable. I don’t want to be loved.’ So, a lot of my identity was based on my performance and my sport.”

“During that whole process it was just like finding my identity in Christ and the Lord stripping me of my idol, which was this sport, which was myself, my looks too. I didn’t have … training or the gym to fix myself.”

“I went to Puerto Rico with a Christian ministry called Athletes in Action. And it was in that retreat that I finally let go of basketball… it almost hit my reality that I had an idol of this. And that it was actually taking over my identity.”

“I had a coach who was Christian … And he started to help me understand how to integrate my faith, my love for God in my sport.”

“I had a conversion in the Catholic church. But then I just needed deeper reasons to believe why to be Catholic and why to stay Catholic.”

“I love my faith and I also love fitness, so I combine the two.”

“I asked our lady for three intentions, and she answered them. I prayed the rosary for 75 days straight and she answered my three intentions.”

“I lived a double life. So, I would party on the weekend and next day I was in the front row pew, and I was singing my heart out and I was a lector and I was doing all these things.”

Related link:

Melanie’s Instagram

(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)

Joni Briganti

She has earned USA Triathlon’s Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors. She went from being a USA racer/triathlete into an International World triathlete. In 2017 she qualified for Age Group Team USA Triathlon, and this will be her 11th year racing the World Triathlon Championships. She has raced in Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, and Australia, and in 2026 will be back in Spain as well as the United Arab Emirates. She is also a USA Triathlon Certified Level 2 Coach. Plus, she teaches 13 fitness classes weekly. As she discusses here, she has been swimming competitively since she was a little girl.

Notable guest quotes:

“I grew up in a very Catholic home, attended Mass all the time, every holiday, all the weekdays, and my mother’s sister – my aunt Dolores – was a sister of St. Joseph. And then we had a really good friend, Father Damien … who I was very close with.”

“I went to Catholic kindergarten, St. Josephat, and then I went to Resurrection of Our Lord elementary school all the way through eighth grade, and then Nazareth Academy High School, all in Philadelphia.”

“I won the 25-meter freestyle at four years old in the age group six-and-under.”

“I swam in the junior Olympics when I was nine. I swam in the individual medley in Washington, DC – took second place.”

“We moved to Japan three days after we got married in 1977… (I) was very involved in the Catholic Church over there too. Father Don, I still remember his name.”

“I coached children’s swim league for three years where we lived in Japan… it was through the Amateur Athletic Union.”

“It was kind of interesting because if it was a Protestant service then they would have just have a cross and then they would bring out a crucifix for the Catholic service in the same area.”

“We moved to Hawaii and I was really into swimming. I did a lot of open water swimming. We participated in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim series and the North Shore Swim series. And I was still running.”

“One of the things that I really love about my love of Jesus Christ in sports is that it had developed inside of me this ministry to encourage others that they could do it too. So, that’s kind of where I want to be to encourage and inspire and ignite others that they can do it too, not just me.”

“Not that I don’t like to win. We all like to win… But to see others, especially people who I work with, achieve their goals, that’s what’s really most important to me.”

“I would … pray the rosary the whole time I was swimming. I pray the rosary on the bike. I pray the rosary when I’m running. I pray the rosary now on a daily basis.”

“I feel like everybody can be empowered by our Savior to do their best… if you saw what my ‘26 season has in store for me, it’s jam packed. And this because of Jesus Christ, it’s because of the grace of God.”

“I feel like I put on the armor of God. And that’s just how I compete. And then when I finish, it’s like, ‘Thank you, Jesus’.”

“There is nothing that means more to me than glorifying the name of Jesus through sport.”