Episodes

Joshua Brooks

He is a seminarian in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, attending St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He was actually not born into the Catholic faith and, as he talks about here, his sights were actually fixed squarely on basketball, which he played as a youth, with a focus on making the freshman team at the high school he would be attending.  He even later attended a basketball camp.  In the seminary he participates in tournaments in billiards and chess.  Listen for his thoughts on the 2025-26 NBA season thus far!

Notable guest quotes:

“My parents, they enrolled my sister and I into Catholic education.  So, by spending time in Catholic education, that’s how I was introduced to the Catholic faith, and I learned about how God the Father, how God loves you, basic scriptural knowledge, essentially.”

“My seventh and eighth grade years, I spent practicing with a personal trainer, with my own shooting coach, just so I can make the high school basketball team.”

“When I asked out that girl, and when we began dating… I still felt incomplete.  This was not the love that I was in search of.  I was looking for a love that would transform me, renew me.”

“I looked at that crucifix, and … I said, ‘Lord, if she won’t wait for me, who will?’  And the whole time our Lord was just saying, ‘Josh, I’ve been waiting for you.  I have the best love to give you. And I want you to share it, not just with one individual, but share it with the whole world, with the people that feel detached from it’.”

“You can tell if it’s from the Lord, if for two things; one, if it’s not easy, definitely know it’s probably from our Lord.  And then also if it’s something that is beyond you, if it’s something that you find hard to even fathom, then that’s how you may know it’s from God.”

“One thing I love about Catholicism is that it always demands more from us.  It demands us to be sacrificial as Christ is.  It doesn’t call us to be mediocre, but to be self-sacrificing and to give our all and to actually unite ourselves to the suffering of Christ on the cross.”

“They supported my decision in converting to the Catholic faith and wanting to become a Catholic priest, and I think it was not really through my own efforts or my own work.  It was through our Lord, through His divine call.  He reached out to my mother, and He reached out to her through other Catholic lay people and through the Catholic clergy and the religious sisters.”

“As Catholics, we see our Lord working in our interactions with each other, whether it’s after Mass, whether it’s at a parish Bible study or after adoration or while praying together.”

“Hopefully, God willing, in 2031, I will be able to be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.”

Related link:

St. Charles Borromeo Seminary website

Keely Lacina

She is an assistant coach for women’s swimming and diving at Northern State University, plus she does triathlons and trains for ultra-runs. Her coaching career ranges from high school and the club team to Dakota Sports and Fitness to a USA swim coach with a team in North Dakota and another, later, in South Dakota. She has also provided private coaching for collegiate athletes. During her master’s program she completed an internship at the University of Texas, coaching their youth Longhorns swim camp all summer, and at the University of Kansas camp. As a student-athlete she competed for three seasons at the University of Mary after having been a varsity swimmer all four years of high school, when she was a regional and state qualifier.

Notable guest quotes:

“We were obviously born and raised Catholic, and it was just, that was our lifestyle. I would say more so than anything else was – didn’t matter what you did or anything – it was that you are Catholic.”

“We obviously did our daily going to Mass, going to Adoration and everything, but it was very present. We always had a nighttime prayer, and we said our prayers before meals and things and then we do family devotions. We have a family prayer as well.”

“I really did enjoy ballet, but there was just this little bit inside of me that wanted more of a competitive drive. Ballet, you have that while competing for positions like different dance spots, but it wasn’t the same as going out and getting sweaty in sports. And so, I did make a swap over to tennis.”

“The University of Mary, they are very good about tying your Catholic identity into your athletics. And that you can’t have one without the other in that when you are an athlete, you’re doing that to glorify God. You’re using your talent to showcase God’s gifts to you.”

“When you find a deeper meaning and a deeper purpose behind why you are waking up at five in the morning, why you are jumping into a freezing cold pool, it just helps you. And it helps keep your faith in tune to your sport.”

“What drew me to going to the University of Mary… knowing that I’m not going to be looked down upon for talking about my faith or implementing my faith into my sports and my education. Because I think that was what I needed to carry me throughout the rest of my life.”

“I was taught through a lot of different faith camps that I went to, you need to have your identity in Christ first. And so, my identity is always and always will be (that) I’m a child of God. So, everything I do is for God and for my salvation.”

“My dad had taught me, ‘Say the rosary (in the pool). You’re going back and forth, back and forth – throw the rosary in there’.”

“My vocation is I’m taking whatever skills and gifts God gave me to glorify him. It’s the same as being an athlete except for now my vocation is to coach and so it’s about service. It’s not about me, it’s about doing something for someone else and so that’s big in my world of coaching.”

“My faith is everything and it’s who I am. I have no identity without God, without my faith.”

Related link:

Keely on Northern State University athletics website

(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.)

Mark Wegner

SPECIAL EPISODE – An exclusive interview upon his decision to publicly share his story, this conversation contains tears as well as (caution) mention of suicide.
He just finished season number 27 as a Major League Baseball umpire, including having been the crew chief for the Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series, for which he was the home plate umpire for Game 3. As a youth he had played baseball and was on his high school’s team, including winning back-to-back state championships. He umpired in the minor leagues for seven years before being hired full-time in MLB. He has umpired three World Series, five Wild Card series, ten Division Series, five League Championship Series, three World Baseball Classics, and two All-Star Games, including having been the home plate umpire and crew chief of the 2018 All-Star Game. Listen for his amazing testimony about a trip to Lourdes!

Notable guest quotes:

“Cradle Catholic, Mass every Sunday, and we actually, as far back as I can remember, would say a rosary every night as a family.”

“I played baseball my entire life, played in high school. In eighth and ninth grade I hurt my elbow really bad, it was probably the beginning of eighth grade, and I wasn’t able to play baseball, and it was actually … the Tommy John situation… I just threw way too much.”

“I went to Cretin-Derham (Catholic) High School, which has a pretty prolific baseball program. Paul Molitor went there. Joe Mauer went there after me.”

“I get asked a lot, like at umpire clinics or things like that … do you love your job? And I think about that. And I like my job. I’ve always liked it. I’m very blessed in a lot of ways, especially at making a career out of it. But I always wanted to be a dad. (But) I save that word, love, for those kind of things, not my job.”

“I just told God I said, I think this is the right thing to do… And if that wasn’t the right thing to do, to please let me know.”

“I’m not a spotlight guy. So, I might have chosen the wrong profession in that regard. Although we’re best when we stay out of the spotlight. So, I go do the best I can. I feel very blessed to have the job that I have… But you know, when I walk into the stadium, I really don’t feel like I’m any more important than… people that are going to sell food that day, concessions and janitors and things like that. And I just, I certainly try to be very respectful to them.”

“That year, if I thought somebody would pray, I asked them to pray for (my son). And I’m certainly always willing to pray for other people, but man, I just, I asked everybody and anybody that would pray… And ironically, when I would step on the field, I really think it was an answer to prayers, but it was the only time that my mind had to focus on something else because the other 22 or 21 hours of the day was spent trying to figure out how to help him.”

“They used to have a Friday prayer call… And we got on the phone and said a prayer together, which was awesome. And I made it through the game.”

“I remember feeling like this is an invitation. I just had just no doubt in my heart when we were done talking that … this is where God wanted us to go. And I really believe Mary was inviting us that day.”

“I do have a rosary in my pocket (out on the ball field). It is not a good luck charm. I do say it, but it is nice sometimes to reach back when I need and just feel that in my hands. And just as a reminder of who I’m doing this for.”

Jeff Manto

(LISTEN FOR HIS REVERSION STORY NEAR THE END!) He played nine seasons in Major League Baseball, playing for eight teams and being a part of three teams that reached the World Series. He also played in the league in Japan that is the highest level of baseball there. He is a member of eight Halls of Fame and was a manager in the MLB Draft League. After serving as hitting coach and manager for a team in the Philadelphia Phillies system, he went on to become the Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coordinator and then their hitting coach and later became the hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox and after that the minor league hitting coordinator for the Baltimore Orioles. He currently is the head coach of the Conwell-Egan Catholic High School baseball team in Pennsylvania, having been named 2024 Courier Times/Intell Baseball Coach of the Year.

Notable guest quotes:

“All of us went to Catholic school… we were … obviously Catholic all through and through.”

“My mother… she actually literally grew up next – in the church parking lot, what we call it today – she actually grew up in the house next to St. Anne Church.”

“It was just a tremendous, tremendous upbringing for me. Every day we played a different sport. I played three sports in high school. I was selected all-state in three sports – basketball, football, baseball – had offers in three sports.”

“I certainly didn’t think I would play baseball and when Temple offered a full scholarship that’s where I went.”

“I had a guy, a priest, Father Tom Cerrullo, who came to St. Anne parish, and we met each other when I was in seventh grade and he was going to be ordained in a couple of years and we hit it off fairly well. I feel like he would be what had been my mentor at the time (in college). He always kept me close to the cross.”

“The Yankees took a chance that I might sign a contract just because I would be in awe of signing with the Yankees.”

“We want to Athens and ended up in Turkey, (got to) see where Mary was living with the apostles, with John and things like that, and … we had Mass every day, our own little group. We had two priests traveling with us.”

“Yes, it was holy. Yes, it was inspiring. Yes, it was everything I thought I’d get out of it prayerfully, but most important, now … I could picture exactly what was happening because now I got more of a history as to what the gospel was speaking, not just read the gospel and figure it out myself. So, now I certainly have a better idea as to what was happening.”

“We spent about a week at the Vatican in Rome.”

“When you go to major cities there is major cathedral, you can find a church, and I made an effort to find a church even in the Major League Draft League towns.”

“Oftentimes I would turn my morning exercise into walking two miles or three miles to church and that would be my exercise physically and spiritually.”

“I felt a calling to get that daily strength and what that Eucharist meant to me is the strength, the bread, the nutrition that I need to show up every day … being a sinner, I need that bread of life.”

“A (baseball) clubhouse is a different dynamic. It’s a sacred place, if you will, for men and people love talking about their religion.”

“We have a rosary every Wednesday in the chapel at school and it’s for the baseball team, but we invite the school, we invite the other athletes. I tell these guys that they got to keep their eyes on the cross.”

Related link:

Manto Player Development Center

(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)

Bill Raftery

An Emmy Award winner who fans know as the lead game analyst for FOX Sports’ college basketball coverage. Before joining FOX Sports, he spent 32 years covering basketball as an analyst on television and radio for CBS, ESPN and CBS Radio. He has covered the sport’s premier events, including the NCAA Tournament, Final Four, the BIG EAST Championship, Big Ten Championship, ACC Championship, SEC Championship and New Jersey Nets telecasts! He began his broadcasting career in 1982 with ESPN, where he served as a game analyst for college basketball through the 2012 season. From 1970-81, he was the head basketball coach at Seton Hall. He served as president of the BIG EAST Coaches Association from 1979-81. Prior to his time at Seton Hall, he coached five years at Fairleigh Dickinson, earning Coach of the Year honors from the New Jersey Basketball Writers Association in his final season with the program. He had played three seasons at LaSalle and following his senior campaign, was drafted by the New York Knicks.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mother went to church every single day of her life until late in her life, before she passed away, and we had to say the rosary every night at supper.”

“As a youngster we moved to Kearney, New Jersey… in that town, which was renowned for soccer, you weren’t considered an athlete if you didn’t play soccer. So, that became part of the three sports I played, which were baseball, basketball, and soccer.”

“I visited a number of colleges, and the only non-Catholic was Maryland. I went down there. The parish priest actually went on the recruiting trip with me.”

“I was a really late, late draft pick and there were only eight teams in the (NBA) and when I got cut, I went to my high school coach’s house with a six pack of beer. He wasn’t home so I left the beer and then went to my house and my mother said, ‘What are you doing home?’ She was from Ireland, so she was very matter of fact and sports wasn’t an end-all. I said, ‘Well, I got cut,’ and she said, ‘Well that’s too bad. Just go get yourself a nice job’.”

“There’s always somebody to provide a lift (to Mass), that helps. One of the gang makes sure that either on Saturday night or Sunday, depends on the game. The weekends I’m with CBS, so it’s nice and easy, we got plenty of people that are willing to drive me and take care of me. And usually there’s one or two on the crew that want to go as well… Or I can get home on a Sunday and go to a five o’clock Mass.”

“You’re who you are and hopefully some of the things you think are important come true; the way you spend time with your team, things that you might do.”

“We always had a priest, chaplain, who did a lot… with any of the kids who felt comfortable, any of them that had any sort of concerns or questions, we made sure we (put) them with, Father Mannion was ours for eleven years and he was a special man. He was also the Lions under Joe Schmidt – chaplain – and up in Buffalo with the Bills with Chuck Knox.”

“I don’t think you’re in (coaching) to have somebody pat you on the back. I think you’re in it to do the best you can and somewhat lead by example.”

“We used to do the usual, the pregame prayer. We’d have service on the weekend and like on a Saturday or Sunday where they all attended pretty much in my days no matter what their religion was.”

Related link:

Bill’s bio on Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame website

Deacon Jim Mullin

He played college football, first at William Penn University and then at Missouri Western State University, including playing in a combined total of three bowl games. After college he played club lacrosse for several years and became an avid cyclist and swimmer and even competed in two short-course triathlons. In high school he was team captain for varsity football and was a three-time Missouri state qualifier in swimming and senior year state qualifier in discus. On the faith side, he is a convert and serves as Deacon and Minister of Evangelization at the Church of the Nativity in Leawood, Kansas, and was recently appointed to the Archdiocese Synodal Team.

Notable guest quotes:

“When something’s important, when God gives you a direction, that’s what’s important. That’s what you stay focused on.”

“Faith is what really got me through playing four years of football.”

“At one time… I realized, I’m not going to the NFL… So, I recognized, I needed to get an education. But I felt like I was still called to use the gifts that God had given me. And sports just really helps us separate the easy life or something that’s more difficult to attain.”

“I had a coach at one time say, you never quit in the middle. You can quit at the end of the season, but you never quit in the middle… It’s a little bit like Ignatian discernment as well. When things aren’t going well, don’t stop what you’re doing, discern.”

“You really connect, especially with cycling and swimming, long distance swimming, it’s a great way for me to really kind of focus on the Lord. Conversations are much deeper. When I’ve got my body distracted doing something for a long period of time and it’s tired, I find that my soul can open up a lot deeper and those are some of the best times of spending time with the Lord and really allowing him to talk.”

“It’s about the character and what we’re teaching those kids, not so much about the sport itself, but really about life and how do you take these lessons into life.”

“Doing what’s right when it’s hard, if I learned anything, that’s exactly what sports is about. It’s not about just winning at all costs.”

“The lesson that I really learned in working with the homeless, it wasn’t the food – we would take them socks or the necessities that they need – it really was in remembering their name, the dignity that they felt being seen as you remembered their name.”

Related link:

Nativity House website

Deacon Jim Mullin

He played college football, first at William Penn University and then at Missouri Western State University, including playing in a combined total of three bowl games. After college he played club lacrosse for several years and became an avid cyclist and swimmer and even competed in two short-course triathlons. In high school he was team captain for varsity football and was a three-time Missouri state qualifier in swimming and senior year state qualifier in discus. On the faith side, he is a convert and serves as Deacon and Minister of Evangelization at the Church of the Nativity in Leawood, Kansas, and was recently appointed to the Archdiocese Synodal Team.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mom and dad helped start the church, but the neighbors, all the people that were there, we did things together as – now seeing what parish life is like – it was very much a parish family. They got together outside of Sunday worship. They did things all the time. We went camping together. We celebrated fourth of July holidays. It was a wonderful group of friends that they had and frankly it was a wonderful environment.”

“We led youth groups… We took some of the young people out skiing. It was actually just a phenomenal church … it’s a very good memory for me.”

“I leaned over to my wife who was really enjoying all the people sharing and I said, ‘I’m gonna get the kids’ – they were in the nursery and I said – ‘I’m gonna get the car. You can stay as long as you want.’ We were actually sitting on the very front (pew), so it wasn’t like I could just sneak out. But I got up and went back, got the kids, and she came out shortly afterwards.”

“It’s a nine-month process? What is this? RCIA, I had no clue what that was. But I agreed, for all the wrong reasons. I just said okay, that’s fine. If that’s what it takes to get into this church, that’s fine.”

“They started talking about the sacraments and they started with baptism and marriage, and I had felt like, wow, God was very, He was real. When our kids got baptized, I felt that God was part of that. I mean a real part of it. And our marriage, I felt God was active in our marriage and so when they started talking about, okay, God is actually really present and He’s doing something in what we call a sacrament, I’m… listening more intently. Then they got to the Eucharist and it just all came back to me, this me getting up because of the communion being canceled.”

“I had a conversation with the head pastor, the monsignor now, and he gave me some really great advice, because I said, ‘You know, I’ve got some questions.’ He says, ‘Jim, you’ve really been given a great gift. Let the Holy Spirit reveal all the answers to these things, in the right time.’ And he did, he has, which is ultimately how I eventually got into the Diaconate.”

“We were going through our first reconciliation and… I get in and I’m with the priest and … I tell him my sins and so he gives me penance and he said, ‘I want you to go open up the hymnal to a page number’ … in my football career, 51 was my number… middle linebacker… Psalm 51 became very close to me. It was what gave me confidence when I was lonely. And so, the priest gives me this penance to open up and read and there it is, create in me oh Lord a clean heart… Psalm 51.”

“It just opened my eyes to the dignity of people and how we’re all related.”

“He said, ‘You know Jim, being a deacon is not preaching or being up at the altar. It’s about service to people. What is your service? What’s God doing with you that’s service oriented’?”

Related link:

Deacon Jim’s parish