Episodes

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

Jeremy Otto

He serves as the radio voice of Michigan State softball and #2 for volleyball, plus fill-in for the University of Toledo, as well as various championships for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.  His past roles have included being the lead voice of the United Shore Professional Baseball League, DePaul University softball, and various other free-lance opportunities.  During college he interned in the radio booth with Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers, after which he landed the job as the TV broadcaster for Detroit Mercy.  He is also entering his tenth year as the voice for Salem Media Group Detroit’s Catholic Football League on their news talk station, the Patriot.  He had even been “recruited” and given an athletic scholarship to start a broadcasting program at Marygrove College.

Notable guest quotes:

“My Catholic schooling definitely was at the heart of my faith formation.  I started at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores from kindergarten all the way to eighth grade, moved on to U of D Jesuit High School in Detroit… and then I started at Marygrove College… and then I transferred midway to Madonna University.”

“My grandma had a very key place… I thank her to this day for allowing me to be in a position to go to Catholic school.”

“Everything happens for a reason, right?  God kind of places you in the right situation, ya’ know, has those heavenly and maybe on earth guardian angels to help you through.”

“Every Sunday (Detroit Tigers) home game… they would have a little Catholic Mass just in the… interview room… Sometimes there would be athletes in there, there was members of the GM’s staff as well, and the front office had the chance to go down and receive the Eucharist and kind of celebrate Mass in an unfamiliar setting.”

“There’s definitely a faith life around campus as well, which is kind of cool to see, and, ya’ know, hear players tie into it as well.”

“Just like a lot of minor league baseball teams, they would have a specific night… And one of their promotions each year that I was there was Catholic Night… But that was kind of neat to integrate that into broadcasts.”

“They had a priest, I believe each time, say a prayer and then they would have a representative, I believe from the Archdiocese of Detroit, who threw out a first pitch, so that was kind of cool.”

“I do a lot of travel in the Big Ten here lately as well so we’re staying in cities that usually have walkable churches, so that’s nice and going to some of the bigger cities and seeing the cathedrals.”

Chris Ice

He holds the NAIA baseball career batting average record with a .480 career average while in college.  He had played basketball and baseball for four years in high school before going on to play baseball at both Creighton University and St. Mary of the Plains College. After graduation, he was a graduate assistant at Ft. Hays State University and then a head assistant baseball coach at St. Mary of the Plains College.  In addition to playing and coaching collegiate baseball he officiated high school football, basketball, and baseball, AND college (JUCO & NAIA) baseball and basketball.  He also served on the executive committee for his local youth baseball league for ten years and started a non-profit organization to support the travel high school basketball team.  His faith initiatives are just as extensive, if not more so, than all he has done with sports, including having been president of Ave Maria University, plus having a new book out that draws heavily from incorporating his Catholic faith into the business world and having gone through a major life tragedy.

Notable guest quotes:

“My parents made sure we got to church every Sunday and it didn’t matter if we were on a baseball travel trip or whatever, we always found a way to find a Mass.”

“When I was age seven, my grandmother used to stop by and pick me up every day to take me to Mass to go serve.”

“I went to Catholic schools all the way through – take out two years, of seventh and eighth grade – Catholic school formation all the way to the point of (when) I got my MBA.”

“I was forced a little bit to talk about my faith all the time because in the high school years I was in the high school seminary…  with those formative years it was a conversation of – with all my friends and peers, especially when I played summer baseball – of, ‘Are you going to be a priest’?”

“When I saw people excel, I got even more enjoyment out of that.  And then, of course, sharing my faith along with all of that (coaching) just really kind of felt natural.”

“There’s temptations that get thrown at athletes, especially these top tier athletes, and so (I’m) speaking to them about drawing on your Catholic faith and the grace that comes from the sacraments and making those good choices, maybe it’s making a sacrifice by praying the rosary in your room or go visiting the adoration chapel, just the blessed sacrament in the Catholic church, trying to get up early and go to daily Mass if you have that opportunity.  All those things can help you focus on what’s extremely important and keep you out of those other temptations.”

“People kept asking me, ‘Chris, how did you do it?  What led you through or able to do all that in that cloud of darkness?’ … I saw where God’s guiding hand throughout the whole thing… and it was pure grace and God’s gift back to me to endure was my faith.”

“I looked back and I go, ‘How did I do that?’  And it was purely the Holy Spirit and God’s grace.”

“My faith has been integral in everything I’ve done my whole life.  I never set it aside.  I’ve never missed Sunday Mass.  When I’m on the road I go.”

“I would host trips of parents to Austria, and we would visit in the different… holy sites in Austria.”

“Integrating your Catholic faith, it doesn’t have to sit on a shelf when you walk into your office of your business.  It doesn’t have to sit on a shelf when you go out and you’re having a nice dinner with friends.  It should be an integral part of your life every day.”

Related link:

Chris’s book, “Walking the Leadership Tightrope: How to Balance Career and Family Through the Chaos of Crisis”

(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)

Joe Mach

He is the Assistant Head Coach of the football team at Detroit Catholic Central High School, where he has been on the staff since 2008.  Along the way he coached in two State Championship games and, prior to his promotion this year to his current role, had been promoted to Defensive Coordinator in 2018. He was an Undergraduate Assistant Coach at The University of Michigan from 2003-2005, and as a student-athlete playing for Detroit Catholic Central, he was a member of back-to-back state championship teams. He holds a B.S. in Physical Education from The University of Michigan and his father is in multiple Halls of Fame as a football coach.

Notable guest quotes:

“It’s a part of my background that has truly shaped my faith.  I’m very realistic with the fact that I could be anywhere right now.  I believe God put me there for a reason with them, to have a very strong faith influence and a faith base… I believe this was all part of His plan.”

“My goal is to regularly ask, am I carrying out the mission that You have for me and to pay back that debt of gratitude that I carry with me.”

“I’m… a cradle Catholic.  I was raised with the Catholic faith… My father was… in the seminary… so he almost became a priest.”

“As a father now and as a teacher at the school and as a coach, I have a much greater appreciation for the Catholic identity that goes along with the institution that I work at.  It makes for a great environment for any young man to be in and I benefited from that when I was younger.  There is no question.”

“God gives us many gifts.  He doesn’t give us all of ‘em.”

“For somebody like me who was trying to live out his faith on a college campus… I had a great mentor right there… Being in that environment was integral to my development as a Catholic, even though most people view it only as a football experience.”

“I had an opportunity to teach Catechism to middle school age students during my time at University of Michigan.”

“I give all the credit in the world to the Holy Spirit and just kind of had a moment one evening, about the beginning of my sophomore year, kind of like, something’s gotta change.”

“I’ve always believed that football is a great game but only when it teaches great lessons.”

“I believe (football) is the best game out there to teach young men the qualities that they need to go out and really do God’s work… These are the guys who are gonna go out and be warriors for Christ.”

“We’re Catholic educators, we’re coaches, but really, first and foremost, we’re here to spread the kingdom of God.”

Related link:

Joe’s bio on DCC 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.)