Episodes

Pat Flynn

He got into martial arts in high school and competed in Tae Kwon Do in college, along with a little Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. That got him heavily into fitness and especially kettlebells, which led to him starting various fitness platforms and writing books related to minimalist methods of strength and conditioning. On the faith side, he has an amazing reversion story and next month will mark the release of his fifth book, this one to be titled, “The Best Argument For God.”  He also has his own podcast that teaches listeners why it’s better to be better at many things, not best at just one, covering everything from fitness and mental health to business and writing to philosophy and theology.

Notable guest quotes:

“I wanted to start trying to get in shape.  I wanted to try to start losing weight and trying to get stronger.  But I didn’t really want to go to the weight room.  Why?  Because all the friends that picked on me were there.”

“I, like, begged the instructor to just let me clean toilets and work for him just for lessons and tuition and he graciously accepted.  And he was a wonderful coach… So, I was very blessed to be set on a proper path.”

“I remember thinking… ‘Hey this seems sort of in conflict with whatever sort of theology I received in kindergarten.  Where’s Adam and Eve?  Where’s the snake in all this’?”

“You just kind of follow the example of what your parents do in all sorts of ways.  It wasn’t like I had the ability to drive myself to church anyways… at that (age).”

“One of the major turning points for me was when I really stumbled upon St. Thomas Aquinas.”

“I really did feel like I had found a philosophical system that was extremely robust in terms of its explanatory power of making sense of questions of being and meaning and morality and identity and destiny and all these questions that are important to all of us.”

“I went to the Mass, and it was a profound experience for me, especially once the Eucharistic Prayer and the Eucharist was confected, at that point I just knew I was right where I was supposed to be.”

“It’s… not a good thing to completely neglect your health.  That would be a sin against prudence and possibly issues of intemperance and gluttony and all that.”

“God gave us this body and that is a very good thing, and we have real obligations to care for our body and to be healthy and try to be prudent in the types of decisions we make with the activities we do with our body and the things that we eat.”

“What’s going to perfect you is union with God Himself and friendship with God Himself.”

“Fitness should be somewhere on your value scale, but it should not be at the top of it.”

“Now I can see fitness as something that hopefully, with God’s grace, is facilitating other virtues.”

Related link:

Pat’s official website

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

Terry Malone

He has more than 30 years of coaching experience and currently serves as a senior offensive analyst for LSU football. His coaching career includes winning a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints in 2009 and capturing the 1997 national championship with Michigan, having been a part of five Big Ten Championships with the Wolverines. Prior to coming onboard with LSU, he spent three years at Bowling Green where he served as offensive coordinator along with coaching the running backs and offensive line. That was his second stint with their program, having previously been there from 1986-1995 when he served in a variety of roles and helped them to back-to-back MAC Championships and bowl game victories in 1991 and 1992. He also coached at Western Michigan, Purdue, Holy Cross, and Boston College after having begun his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Arizona.

Notable guest quotes:

“This was a very traditional Catholic family.  We were the family that lived right next door to the church… We were called on for altar server duty anytime day or night, every funeral, every wedding had a Malone on the altar.”

“We got to know all the priests and nuns that lived there, and they became a very special part of our lives.”

“When you look at my background, I went to Catholic school grade school through college.  I went to an all-boys Catholic school… for my high school.”

“I really appreciated everything at Holy Cross (College) because of the influences that were there.  The Jesuits did a great job of keeping the Catholic faith in front of us… It was a terrific environment.”

“I can’t say it enough that I’ve lived a very blessed life.”

“In terms of our faith, there was no question about where we were coming from and how we were raised.  We were raised as Catholics.”

“One of the things I was very surprised about when we got to New Orleans is how Catholic of a city New Orleans is.  And we were blessed that the Saints are owned by a very Catholic family and so the Catholic faith was a big part of what the Saints were all about.”

“We were at the very foundation of a brand new parish… we were able to go from basically a storefront church that we worked out of to building our own beautiful Catholic church.”

“I’ve been involved with the Knights of Columbus for a long time, and I really admire those guys… They’re willing to do the dirty work that helps the Catholic church move in the right direction.”

“When Ann and I got married we had three priests that officiated the service.”

“Throughout my journey… the one constant that I’ve had no matter where I’ve gone and what I’ve been able to do, is that the Catholic church has been there for me.”

Related link:

Terry’s bio on LSU 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.)

Rev. Msgr. Christopher Nalty

He was a varsity wrestler at Jesuit High School in New Orleans during which time they won three state championships.  (He was second in the state one of those years.)  He went on to play intramural sports at Notre Dame, played flag football in seminary at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and was a referee of the annual flag football game when he worked there as a Vatican official.  He is an avid hunter and fisherman, and a PADI Master SCUBA diver, all while serving as the pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  Along the way he had received his law degree from Georgetown University, went on to practice law for six years, eventually leaving to begin studies for the diocesan priesthood at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Notable guest quotes:

“My parish is maybe about ten or fifteen minutes from my mother’s house, where she still lives… I’m the oldest of five kids.”

“My dad was actually in the first class of the permanent diaconate here in New Orleans, and so we were surrounded by the church.”

“My dad had, kind of, two deals with us.  He told us he would pay for us to go to college anywhere we wanted under two conditions; it had to be out of state, because he wanted us to see more of the world, and he said it had to be Catholic.  So, all five of us graduated from Catholic universities.”

“Notre Dame really was a perfect fit for me… going to Mass was like normal… it was just what you did… And so, my faith life only increased there.”

“The first time that I’d ever had a priest ask me whether I’d thought about being a priest was in my second year of law school… I was in the habit of making an annual retreat and it was during my retreat when I would always kind of think about it.”

“We sat down to pray our Liturgy of the Hours and it was kind of at that moment that I’m like, ‘I think this is what I’m supposed to be doing.’  It just felt right to, like, be with men who were manly, normal men and pray.”

“It was just this very eclectic group, but the one thing that we all had in common was that each of us had this kind of crazy idea that God wanted us to be a priest.”

“When I was a Vatican official I would see the guys, they asked me to be a ref, which was kind of fun – at least I wasn’t getting hit.”

“When I went for my apostolate, she said, ‘I’ve spoken to Mother Teresa and Mother Teresa said you must come to Calcutta this summer’ … I went back and I told my friend… and while we were walking down the hill from the seminary… he said, ‘Ya’ know, the last place on the planet that I want to go for the summer is Calcutta…  But if that’s what God wants us to do, I think we gotta go’.”

“The priest handed me the ciborium and said, ‘You distribute communion there,’ and I walked to my spot, and I looked up and the very first person in line is Mother Teresa and, so, I gave her what she wanted more than anything in the world – Jesus.”

“I met popes, and I met John Paul, but, I mean, I spent a lot of time with (Mother Teresa).”

“All the outdoor sports – hunting and fishing and trapping – in that, there’s always an element of God’s providing for you.”

Related link:

Rev. Msgr. Nalty’s bio on Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology website

Clayton Carlin

He is the Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator for Sam Houston State University football. Prior to his current role he had spent four seasons at Coastal Carolina serving as defensive coordinator. Before that he spent two seasons at Bucknell as defensive coordinator after having spent the previous six years at Cornell where he served two stints at defensive coordinator, spanning four seasons. He got his start at the Division I level as a graduate assistant at Nebraska, which led to opportunities with New Mexico State, where he spent two stints, mixed in with one year at Villanova and two at Buffalo.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was… one of seven children, cradle Catholic, and raised by two awesome parents… I’m the third oldest.  I have three sisters and three brothers.”

“I’ve been blessed with a great dad.  My father worked for the Philadelphia Eagles for 55 years… And… about eight years ago was inducted into the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame.”

“(I) Went to St. Matthias grammar school from first to eighth grade and we lived right across the street, literally, like five yards from door to door and then from there went to St. Joe’s Prep High School.”

(While playing football in high school and college) “I was active in my faith and again the reason for that… is my mom and dad just had such a huge impact on me, about attending Mass and the power of prayer and the sacraments and the Blessed Mother, so I’ve always stayed active in my faith.”

“As we all know God works in mysterious ways, but His plan is perfect.  As I tell coaches around here and my kids and the young men I coach, God doesn’t make mistakes.  He doesn’t go, ‘My bad’ or ‘Oops,’ He knows exactly what He’s doing.”

“We have a weekly Bible study here that I’m a big part of… on a weekly basis all year round that’s very well attended by our players.  So, we have a very strong spiritual foundation here.”

“You’re not just coaching football.  That’s actually the lesser part, in my mind.  I always tell guys, ‘If the only thing we do around here is win football games and play great defense, then I will certainly have failed because it’s much, much, much bigger than that.”

“I’ve always felt a strong affinity to our Blessed Mother and so every morning for the past probably close to 15 years now, if not longer, during Lent I said I’m gonna make a commitment to say the rosary every morning… and I’ve never stopped.”

“One of the first things that I do whenever I’m on the road… is find a local parish and the Mass times.  It’s a priority.”

“Over the past year or two I’ve just – always being a strong Catholic, a devout Catholic, a cradle Catholic – I have felt an even stronger calling to do more and get more involved and do things and more service.”

“I truly believe… the only life worth living is one led in service to others.”

“The coaching profession to me is a calling.”

Related link:

Clayton’s bio on SHSU 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.)

Lamar Hunt Jr.

He is a member of the founding family of the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and is also the owner of the Kansas City Mavericks, a franchise member of the ECHL. In addition, he is the founder of the Loretto Foundation, LLC, a private charitable organization. He also serves as interim president for St. Michael the Archangel High School in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and on the board of directors of Hunt Midwest and the Bright Futures Fund. He has also served on the board of Dynamic Catholic for many years.

Notable guest quotes:

“(I) did some professional flute playing for a good while until I sort of transitioned to business and being able to kinda do some things with my dad in my late 30s and early 40s, which was a blessing.”

“Music has always been my lifelong passion, if you will, gift… and I do think ultimately it was maybe responsible in some ways… that helped me look at the world in a different way and hear the world in a different way and see the truth, goodness, and beauty of God and ultimately the Catholic Church.”

“I started to see the richness of the Catholic faith, the depth of the Catholic faith, the broad scope of the Catholic faith and how it just encompasses so much and the teaching of the Catholic faith and just what it can give to us.”

“Obviously sent our kids to Catholic schools and just am very grateful to this day for that Catholic education that I got to see my children get.”

“The single greatest gift you can give, I think, another human being or a child or a young person is introducing them to a relationship with God.”

“I think I was starting to recognize in my life – and this is my biggest belief about our Lord is – He’s a healer.”

“The sacrament of Confession and coupled with the Eucharist, just receiving that grace through those two specific sacraments I think has just given me that walk with the Lord and hopefully on the road to sanctity, the path of holiness.”

“(I’m) very much dedicated – if at all possible and it’s generally very possible – to go to daily Mass and to chew, if you will, on the daily gospel.”

“I’m a very strong devotee of Adoration and/or just time in front of the Blessed Sacrament.”

Related link:

Lamar’s bio on Loretto Foundation website

Dr Lisa Petronis

She is a licensed clinical psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist who has seemingly done it all, sports-wise.  She currently participates in boxing, having played sports her entire life, including basketball, softball, running, and bodybuilding. Her athletic background also includes collegiate basketball, Division I offers, options to play internationally, and playing with a WNBA farm team. She has coached youth basketball as well as a senior women’s Olympic basketball team and has a sports ministry currently that provides sports-oriented training and integrates faith, with an emphasis on cultivating virtues.

Notable guest quotes:

“I’m a cradle Catholic and my family has always practiced the faith.”

“The boxing gym really brought people from all different backgrounds together and gave them an option at not just fighting in the ring and competing and becoming champions but really becoming champions in life.”

“For my young life we were at St. Adalbert’s, which was a beautiful church, a basilica of grand stature, is where I met God, was in that place and through the nuns.”

“We were able to attend Mass every day.  I think that’s where I was really formed in the faith and was able to appreciate the beauty of the sacraments, the silence of God and the way He reaches down from the heavens to communicate with us.”

“I played everything and, in those days, the Catholic schools, they had a rich connection with sports, and so there was, sports and the Catholic faith, there was a time where they went hand-in-hand.”

“So, it would be a little bit later that I just had to dive in deep on my own and just make a commitment to really grow in the faith and that’s definitely what I did.”

“I was inclined toward a more contemplative spirituality to begin with and that must’ve been what God knew was best for me.”

“Sport prepares me every day for the battle that I have to face against the Evil One to do the work of God.”

“I love our faith and I’m very happy when I can help others to integrate our faith into their healing journeys.”

Related links:

Lisa’s official website
California Sudanese Lost Boys and Girls Foundation
Fundraiser Lisa talks about in this interview

(This episode contains a prayer by Gregg Easterbrook from the NFL.com and ESPN.com column “Monday Morning Quarterback,” as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Tom Darabaris

He is the Director of Development for Catholic Sports (not affiliated with this podcast), a national young adult sports ministry that is building community for young Catholics, while growing the Church through marriage and conversions.  A cradle Catholic, he was the final cut from his high school basketball team, and fell into a party lifestyle.  After falling away from the faith in college, he experienced a powerful conversion his junior year.  The community of faith he encountered through Catholic Sports in Denver played a pivotal role in his spiritual journey. Today from the national office in Colorado he is helping oversee five sports being played in each of four different states, helping unite and provide fellowship for young adults ages 18-39.

Notable guest quotes:

“My experience in the faith kind of started around a difficult time.  My parents got divorced when I was seven years old, and I did basically Sunday school at two different parishes.  Thankfully they kept practicing the faith and everything… Basically started learning the faith more later in life.”

“I ran track, I played football for one year, lacrosse, basketball, baseball – my dad was my coach.”

“I absolutely understood that in order to really care about somebody you really need to challenge them and push them.  I certainly see parallels with that in the faith.”

“One of the big lessons that I learned… was that it’s not as much about sports and more about recognizing just the person and the dignity of that person and helping them grow.”

“I remember just staring at (the Bible) and had all the thoughts going through my head and just felt God was reaching out in that moment.”

“Thankfully my dad had encouraged me that, I read Psalms and Proverbs and I remember getting to the gospels and specifically getting to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew’s gospel talking about anxiety… So, I’m really thankful to have encountered God there.”

“Even though… my parents weren’t together, they continued practicing the faith and their perseverance at least made me feel like I could go back home.”

“What I really needed to make an actual full conversion is just encountering real Catholic community.”

“I saw the joy that you see in people that are really living the faith and I saw just really good examples.  You need to encounter that.  And so much evangelization starts with something really simple.”

“We see the leagues as a way to really just build an authentic community for Catholics that’s just really changing people’s lives.”

“We’re trying to… creating a community where they can encounter the relationship in their life that is going to fulfill them the most, which is the relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Related link:

Website for Catholic Sports leagues/events