Episodes

Pat Macken

He is a Canadian tennis professional who has been in the industry for 43 years. He served as Director of Tennis at the prestigious Arbutus Club in Vancouver for 34 of those years. He has a Tennis Canada Coach 3 and Club Pro 2 certification and has trained all levels of players from red ball through provincial teams. As a competitor he has won nine National Senior titles and with his brother Tony was part of the top open doubles team in British Columbia for ten years. He has been selected to represent Canada and B.C. in numerous events. He also writes a column on sports and faith for The B.C. Catholic, which is the Archdiocesan newspaper in his area.

Notable guest quotes:

“I’ve been a cradle Catholic.  We attended Catholic schools most of our lives… and I enjoyed my experiences at the schools… grade one through grade twelve I was in Catholic schools.”

“(My dad) and my mum, there was, they wouldn’t have accepted us acting badly on the court at all.”

“I always found it as exciting to win a sportsmanship award as even winning the tournament.”

“For me there’s five pillars of coaching.  There’s the technical, the tactical, the physical, the mental, and then there’s the character development, and often coaches overlook that aspect.”

“We have to do our best to try to send a message within our sport that helps create behavior in young people that will help society.”

“We have to be respecting our opponents… we have to be working together to grow the game and to help each other become better people.”

“I coach a high school team, it’s my old high school, actually, Vancouver College, which is a Catholic elementary and high school.”

“As I knelt down in front of them, the Holy Spirit just hit me and said, ‘Just ask them to say the Hail Mary with you’.”

“I’d always make a point of praying before we would start the overall, the matches.”

“I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the rosary… I try to say it throughout the day, even during when I’m coaching and doing other activities, I try to say it all the time.”

Related link:

Pat’s official 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.)

Vic Ferrari

He ran cross country track as a student-athlete, has coached flag football, and – now residing in Florida – continues to play competitive co-ed softball. He is a retired New York City Police Department detective who has written six books over the last six years, the latest of which just came out in the latter part of June and is titled, “Confessions of a Catholic High School Graduate.” He also tells a fun story here about playing wiffleball in front of an eventual A-list celebrity.

Notable guest quotes:

“I had Catholicism on both sides of the family.  My mother was Italian, and my dad was Irish.”

“I went to public school for my first eight years and my last year my dad said, ‘Next year you’re going to Catholic high school’.”

“It was a privilege to go to Catholic high school.  Back then, the Bronx, specifically in my neighborhood, was Catholic.”

“Looking back (Catholic high school) was probably four of the best years of my life.”

“I was a big New York Yankee fan and I used to idolize the Yankees.  And my father, he worked seven days a week, my father didn’t have time for sports, actually.  And he would say, ‘I know you love these guys, but they’re not going to do anything for you… They’re not going to put a roof over your house.  They’re not going to come to see you when you’re sick.  They’re not your family… They’re entertainment and never lose sight of that’.”

“My four years of Catholic high school… I went from being this punk kid to, it definitely put me on the right path of discipline and faith.”

“It was kind of a wakeup call to explore your faith.”

“There was a LOT of Catholic members of the New York City Police Department… It’s challenging, I mean, you try to forgive… you try to help people when you can.”

Related link:

Vic’s author page on Amazon (showing all six books)

(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.)

Jordan Langdon

She is a parent coach, motivational speaker, podcaster, and licensed counselor with Families of Character, which equips parents to lead their children with confidence and courage. As a student-athlete she played both basketball and volleyball, plus talks here about having even been on the men’s golf team, in addition to having ran track too. She also holds the all-important roles of being a wife and a mother (with children that play sports) and has thoughts about her experience at the gym and, “belonging to a team at home,” as she has discussed on *her* podcast and as is talked about during this episode.

Notable guest quotes:

“Cradle Catholic, grew up just two blocks from the Catholic church.”

“My kids are in Catholic school now, or, were in Catholic school, and I homeschool them now.”

“My parents were very faithful about bringing us to Mass every weekend.  We never missed.  And we did go to religious education on Wednesday evenings.”

“We spent a lot of time at our parish, cleaning up the grounds and serving Mass … so, just being a very active part of our parish.”

“Making sure that we’re integrating what we’re learning in Mass… and living in a way that is Christ-like and virtuous.”

“Our basketball coach would say, ‘Ya’ know, there are a lot of kids your age that would love to be out here playing sports and because of a disability they’re unable to.  So, I want you to play for that person, put somebody in your mind and sacrifice.  Do your best because someone else would love to be in your position and is unable to.’  That’s been with me over the years and it’s something that I call to mind everyday when I’m at the gym myself doing a workout.”

“There’s so many parallels between a sports team and a family team.  In fact, I always say that our family is the most important team we will ever be a part of.”

“Our family has done over 150 team huddles… We do that every Sunday at our house… The team huddle has been, I would probably say, the number one most transformative thing in my marriage and family life.”

“We live across the street from the church, so we love to ride our bikes over and go to Adoration and say Hi to Jesus… and just be an integral part of our Catholic community.”

Related link:

Families of Character

(This episode contains a prayer attributed to a blog published by the National Catholic Register, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Matt Hoven

He is a professor and Kule Chair at St. Joseph’s College, a Catholic college at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada. Three months ago marked the release of a book he co-authored, called, “On the Eighth Day: A Catholic Theology of Sport,” and three years ago he was the lead editor of a book titled, “Sport and Christianity: Practices for the Twenty-First Century.” He even has another book that he is working on, which is talked about in this interview. As part of his higher education, he studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  As a student-athlete he played high school basketball and in his adult years has done some coaching and has played recreational sports.

Notable guest quotes:

“We grew up next to the local Catholic church… it was a small little mission church and we cut the lawn and had the priests over for a drink after confessions and the whole bit.  So, my life as a kid, active in schools and whatnot, but also the church played a prominent role in it.  And sport, of course, was important too.”

“Like anything in this life, we need moderation and balance, and for my family it was always making sure we’re at Mass on Sunday and participating in other things in life that sport never took over.”

“If sport isn’t managed correctly… it can become idolatry where we lose our balance.”

“Each one of us have to ask questions about, ‘What are my priorities in life?  What are my foundational values?  And how do I live accordingly?’  And for people of faith, it’s important to make sure that worship and time in prayer, that that takes a priority over other things.”

“Obviously, if you’re daughter’s the captain of her flag football team and is an incredible athlete, it’s hard not to be proud of that… But when it comes to the sacraments it’s about being dedicated.  It’s about realizing what’s most important in life and having that balance.”

“The human spirit longs for something more.  It longs for order.  It longs for something beyond just the surface of our daily lives.”

“There’s a lot of good work amongst Catholic philosophers and thinkers about what play means.”

“Freedom, connectedness, and transcendence… start to tell us about the power of play and an element of human experience that we really need to pay close attention to.”

“Fundamentally, play is tied to worship, it’s tied to prayer.”

“Popes dating back to, like, Leo XIII, around 1900, have given speeches about sport.”

“Father David Bauer… was a really good hockey player growing up in the 1940s.  He played at the highest level as a teenager and won a national championship, but then he became a priest.”

Related links:

Matt’s website

Matt’s book

Ed Hastings

He played college basketball at Villanova, including playing with the Wildcats for the national championship and being chosen by the Boston Celtics in the NBA Draft. He would go on to become an assistant coach for men’s basketball at Villanova and nowadays is a professor in the Theology Religious Studies department there. At one point he was director of the Center for Sport, Spirituality, and Character Development at Neumann College, where he also served as the chaplain for the men’s basketball team. He also spent 15-plus years as a priest.

Notable guest quotes:

“I’m the oldest… I had one brother and four sisters… In our family, which was very much, honestly, an Irish Catholic family, I had two uncles that were priests.  And actually, one of them played basketball at Notre Dame… and Catholicism was a big part of my growing up, very much so.”

“I played baseball… all the way through high school and football I played actually all the way through high school.  So, I did play other sports.  It wasn’t until Villanova that I just focused in upon basketball.”

“I coached for one year at Villanova, then I went in the seminary.”

“I had a lot of good friends that were priests… and I think I always had a sense that there’s something deeper about life… And I also had a sense that my relationship with God was very important to me.”

“A big part of spirituality is looking back, reflecting back on experiences.”

(getting injured) “I gained things that I would never have been able to be a part of, relationships, maybe awareness about what life is really about.  So, it really did force me… to say, well, maybe basketball isn’t the most important thing.”

“Before every game I would do a prayer for the team and sometimes I would take them into experiences of serving in the local community and do some reflection around that.”

“I know for sure that I’ve learned more from losing in my life than I have from winning.”

“If we could stay with those painful moments… they can be revelatory of how God works in our lives.”

“We can’t control things and things don’t always work out the way we want them.  And I think that is, honestly, the message of the Cross.”

George Rose

He is the Executive Advisor of Pacific Rim Operations with the New York Yankees, which includes having served as a Japanese translator for the likes of Hideki Irabu, Masahiro Tanaka, and Hideki Matsui, among others. As a student-athlete he had competed in baseball, soccer, rugby, and track & field.  He also serves as an advisor for Japan’s Yomiuri Giants baseball team. He is a board member of “Catholic Men for Jesus Christ,” a now 25-year old organization. He also has a radio show called, “Brothers in Arms,” which airs monthly. And, he is a cancer survivor who by far is not only the first person to come on this show with a story about a miracle that would help confirm a saint, but probably the ONLY person who will be a guest and have that kind of witness to share — the closest that any of us will come to hearing something like this firsthand.

Notable guest quotes:

“I went to Catholic school just about my whole life, grammar school, high school, and college.  The first time I didn’t go to a Catholic school was when I got my MBA.”

“My mother was actually a nun at one time in her life.  When she first got out of high school, she was in the convent for three years.”

“When I was in eighth grade there was nothing I wanted more than to be a Major League Baseball player.  I used to sleep at night with my batting gloves on and my mitt.”

“When I was in my late twenties – 29 to be exact – I got sober at the time and about six months into my journey as a sober man I wandered back into St. Paul the Apostle on 59^th and Columbus, for Mass one Sunday, and when I went it was kind of like I was hearing the words of the Mass for the first time.”

“I did go away to college, in Worcester, Massachusetts, I went to Holy Cross, which is a Jesuit school.”

“I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer about five-and-a-half years ago, in 2017… I wrote to ask friends and family and anybody else to pray for a miracle of healing for my lung cancer.”

“I have a devotion to Sister Faustina and, of course, to all the Polish saints, right, Sister Faustina, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Pope John Paul II, just giants of the 20^th century.”

“I’ve been involved in Catholic Men for Jesus Christ for the last 12 or 13 years… we do Catholic men’s conferences in New Jersey in the Diocese of Trenton, near where I live, and I help organize the conferences and have been on the Board.”

“Even when you have cancer, every day, does become just a little more precious, I would say… And it was incredible how close I felt to God when I first got sick.”

Lance Mudd

From an early age, he wanted to be a cowboy. He loved working cattle with his dad and competing for ribbons and trophies in youth rodeos. In high school, he not only played football and other sports but won a national championship in the boy’s cutting horse contest. In college he competed in rodeo events for McNeese State University and, after college, as a steer wrestler at the professional level, and, he is still active in team roping today. Sports even carried over into his business, entertaining clients with hunting, golfing, fishing, and motorcycle trips.

Notable guest quotes:

“Our upbringing, (we) went through Catechism, all the sacraments, and mom made sure that we went to Mass no matter what.  We didn’t miss Mass for rodeo, baseball, or nothing.  We went to church.”

“Through the sports it taught me the work ethic that it takes and that you’re gonna lose more than you’re gonna win.”

“I started making money, which I never really had, and got a little ego to me – you know what EGO stands for, Edging God Out – but it became my God, because I didn’t have to be 6’2” and 250 pounds.”

“In the business world I did not know how to be a good Catholic and a businessman… I was all in in business and that was my God.”

“The business world, the money, the Rolexes, the motorcycles, the motor homes, all the stuff that they said would make you happy, it didn’t.  It would fulfill me for a little while but then it would vanish.”

“Financially I was okay, but mentally, physically, spiritually I was broke.  Bankrupt.”

“I fly down, I hear that they need help in Mexico building a church.  So, I fly down by myself, go meet the priest, I see what they’re doing, and… These people would walk to Mass, humble, poor people and it just blew my mind – no air conditioning, their families there, and they were dressed nicer than I was.”

“When I came home, I started going to Mass daily, every day, every day, front row, listening to the whole Mass.  And it was just a blessing that Our Lady of Guadalupe just took my soul and brought it to her Son, Jesus, and it changed me.  God showed me love and mercy.”

“I encourage men, no matter what state of life you’re in, whether you’re holy or really don’t know God that much, that, they offer so many great retreats.”

Related link:

Lance’s official website

(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)