Episodes

Kevin White

An Athletics Administration Leader & Educator who authored a book published last year called, “The Good Sport: Reflections on a Full Life in College Sports.” He is one of the most accomplished and respected athletic directors in American sports history. Over his 47-year career, he has shaped some of the most prominent programs in the nation, from Notre Dame to Duke, earning countless accolades and the enduring loyalty of those he mentored. As a testament to his unparalleled influence on athletics, 32 of his former assistants now lead sports programs across the United States, and four of his children head college sports programs. Sports Illustrated has dubbed his family the “First Family of Athletic Directors.”

Notable guest quotes:

“I was born and raised in a typical Irish Catholic family… and had the opportunity to move through that environment… My grandparents lived with us most of the time… I have Irish citizenship… dual citizenship.”

“We were very much an Irish Catholic family with an awful lot of connectivity to Catholic America. I attended St. Martin of Tours grade school, elementary school… and then later on I went to St. Joseph’s College… and… I was at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, a diocesan school… and then later on I spent time … at the University of Notre Dame.”

“My wife and I became a coaching duet, so to speak.  We were both largely track and field coaches.”

“That tournament ran for about 20 years and hosted 32 small Catholic institutions from around the country wherein they would come to Dubuque, Iowa in January to play in this tournament – 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams – and we had just a lot of fun putting that together, but we had some of the great former Catholic and currently Catholic coaches in our country get involved.”

“The way the sports business has evolved I would have never perceived we would be where we are today… this thing has just changed dramatically and we’re not quite where we’re going to be.  I think at this point we’re still in transition and I think I could say that about sport in any context, just not college athletics.”

“Len talked about writing his book largely about Notre Dame leadership and asked if I would be interested in writing … a segment … on Father Monk Malloy who had been the president for about 18 or 19 years… I was … really proud to have the opportunity to write about one of the great human beings that I had ever met or one of the great priests that have ever represented our faith.”

“We’re in a bit of a calamity state where we’ve deregulated the NCAA to a point of, we’ve almost destroyed the level playing field and it’s pay-for-play and schools are buying players from other institutions.”

“My ministry was probably not a heck of a lot different than yours… I’ve been in love with being an educator for almost 50 years… but I’ve loved the opportunity to work with young people and for them to think big, dream big, and be really aspirational, just not in sport but in education and also in life.”

“I’ve always kind of felt that … to do the right thing when nobody’s watching, I think, is what we teach our kids as parents.”

“I think we’re all here to become bigger, faster, and stronger but more importantly better and to serve each other and I’ve always felt a commitment to do that.”

Related link:

Kevin’s website

Lauren Evans

She played tennis at Furman University, with the program consistently finishing as a ranked team. They won the regular season conference championship for DI Southern Conference four times and the tournament three times and attended the NCAA tournament every year except for her senior year, when she was named MVP. She ran cross-country her senior year and a month after graduating ran her first marathon, finishing second in Italy. She had two opportunities to run professionally and has run four 50 miler races, finishing 3rd in the American River 50 Miler and winning several 50k’s. She had grown up playing tennis since age three and played tournaments in England and Italy. She came to the Catholic faith while in college, which she talks about during this interview.

Notable guest quotes:

“I grew up in Italy for a while and we had the opportunity to go in many, many churches. Also, when I lived in England, we went in a lot of churches just to see the art and architecture.”

“Sports are a beautiful thing, but I certainly experienced the parental pressure which I think is not healthy. That said I’m grateful that I played tennis. I’m grateful that I ended up on a college team.”

“I had a little bit of success in England but then when I went to Italy I played on the red clay and was older. And in Italy the way they function is you can play with 14-and-under, 16-and-under, 18-and-under, but the majority of the tournaments are just based on your level and it’s more of like a professional system. So, you would play against adults and I really felt that if you’re just talking from a sports development perspective that was really helpful because adults just think differently. They have more experience. Just because they’re older and have more experience, they’re smarter with how they play the game. So, I think my tennis game really took off by playing against adults.”

“When I first got to Furman it was a culture shock because I had grown up overseas my whole life. I had spent several years with Italians and then I went to the so-called Bible belt, and it was just a different culture. And so, the first semester was really difficult. I wanted to just go home.”

“I really liked going. I thought, this is good. I’m missing something. I love the joy, the communal prayer, but I did feel like something was missing.”

“Growing up in Italy there was some form of osmosis of going in and actually having the presence of Christ in the church, in the tabernacle.”

“I started going to Mass with her and I started going every Sunday when it was on campus and after a while I said I want to be Catholic.”

“I went to run the marathon, it’s very close to Loreto and I think I had an awareness that this is a special place. So, I ended up going to Loreto because I had an extra day there and I asked people, ‘What should I do,’ and they said, ‘You should go to Loreto because it’s right here.’ And it never registered to me that, like, Jesus’s house was there.”

“The biggest goal is that I will remain in relationship with my kids as they grow up and that they will become saints. And the goal of marriage is to mutually sanctify each other for mutual sanctification.”

“Why be mediocre? I think that’s the best lesson like from sports is you can’t really be mediocre and succeed. So, it’s like, you take what you learned in sports, and you have to apply it to the spiritual life. You can’t be mediocre in the spiritual life. That’s called being lukewarm.”

(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)

Dr Dillon Caswell

He grew up a four-sport athlete, including having been a highly recruited football player out of high school. Present day, he continues to train and compete across multiple sports. He is a Board-Certified Sports Clinical Specialist who has worked with elite performers across a wide spectrum: from semi-professional rugby players and Division I collegiate athletes to former NFL players and nationally ranked senior Olympians. A convert to the Catholic faith, he leads Hope Not Nope’s human performance initiatives, serving military special operators, elite athletes, and driven entrepreneurs. Plus, he has also authored a book by the same name, Hope Not Nope.

Notable guest quotes:

“We went to a couple Easter, Christmas Masses here and there, and never really understood what was going on. And we always had this belief in a higher power, but we weren’t really having conversations about faith or where to direct it.”

“I grew up playing four sports. They were football, basketball, wrestling, and baseball.”

“Out of high school, when people asked me, ‘Hey, what’s your plan?’ to me, my plan was, I’m going to go play college football. That’s the path… And I just remember being recruited for six to seven months and having conversations with all these coaches, and all these things happening.”

“I always had a belief in God. But it was the first time that I realized that His plan is greater than our plan, even when we don’t know why it’s happening or why we’re going through this particular thing.”

“That’s when I started to find the love of helping athletes reach their highest potential through human performance. And the avenue that I was doing that through was starting to study to become a physical therapist, which then continued to grow and grow and grow and … really kind of marked my faith journey of getting serious about seeking the Lord and what this all means and where to direct that to.”

“The scripture that kind of anchors what I get to do is Romans 5:35 and it helps us show us what true hope is and it kind of gets into a little bit of sports science as well.”

“When it was put on my heart to start the business and write the book, Hope Not Nope, my initial mission at that time that I shared was, I wanted to end suffering because my family was going through it, I was going through it, and I knew how much it, it’s a struggle, it’s hard, it’s a challenge to go through that adversity. And thankfully that perspective completely shifts because it’s not necessarily about ending suffering. We have to go through some of the suffering or some of the nopes that we face. It’s how we can turn that nope that we face into hope through that power and grace of the Lord.”

“It’s so amazing to just have this gift of the Catholic church and the tradition and the sacraments that are in it. It was everything that I was looking for.”

“We were told we have to have the golden ticket. So, we spent about 12 hours at the Vatican searching, trying to get this golden ticket. And we finally got it and then we ended up not needing it, whatsoever.”

Related link:

Hope Not Nope

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

Mike Scioscia

He played 13 seasons with Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, who chose him in the first round of the amateur draft. He appeared in a combined total of close to 1,500 regular season and playoff games combined, winning two World Series and being a two-time All-Star — all of this coming in a Dodger uniform. He went on to 19 seasons as manager of the Angels, winning the World Series in 2002 and twice being named American League Manager of the Year.  He was also the manager for the U.S. Olympic baseball team that took home the silver medals at the Summer Games in 2021 in Tokyo. Plus, he was at the helm of the U.S. national team at the 2024 WBSC Premier12, with the Americans finishing third.

Notable guest quotes:

“I started in Catholic schools… very Catholic household… out of all the things that you talk about with your family, the thing that I took as the best gift they gave me was faith.”

“My dad was not Catholic but the only way … that my grandmother – my mom’s mom – was going to let him marry my mom is if he converted to Catholicism, and he happily did and lived the life his whole way.”

“I played football, loved football, was honored to be captain of the football team, really wanted to go play football in college.”

“In our household – we were an Italian American Catholic household – there is no room at all for you to brag. There’s no room at all for you to think you’re a victim. You took every grace with being humble and you were very gracious if you had setbacks and or defeats.”

“I’ve had so much divine guidance in my life.”

“They just started baseball chapel, which is non-denominational. That has been in Major League Baseball for a long time now.”

“Tommy Lasorda, who was very Catholic, would bring us to Mass every Sunday, both in Vero Beach and if we were on a road trip he would have us go to Mass.”

“I really believe that God gives us all these tools to use, and He’ll know how we’ll use them, and He’ll know how hard we’ll try.”

(upon becoming manager of the Angels) “The first thing I did was find a priest that could come in and say Mass Sunday mornings at the ballpark and while instituting that… it was a godsend, literally, for us and for players that had to get to the ballpark early and maybe were gonna have trouble with juggling family life and getting to Mass.”

“You know the players that have faith and you know the players that understand their talents come from a gift from God.”

“My whole baseball life has been such a blessing.”

Related link:

Mike’s player page on MLB.com

(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.)

Erika Zschuppe

In recently completed NCAA Division I play, she led the nation and set a Florida Gulf Coast University single season women’s soccer record with 21 goals during her just completed senior season, becoming the unanimous Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, among other honors she received for the 2025 season alone. Her prolific season included scoring in ten straight games. In high school she had scored 170 goals in her career, leading her team to the Division III state championship as a junior. Having just graduated, her plan now is to play soccer professionally in Europe.  Listen for her testimony about when she “struggled a lot with (her) faith.”

Notable guest quotes:

“It’s been always in my life. My grandparents were born and kind of raised in Europe, so we’ve always had that Catholic background. Growing up, my grandma always brought us to church.”

“(flag football) championship at the Browns Stadium, which is something I could never forget… that was high school. So, like seventeen, eighteen years old.”

“I always just … stay humble because I’m not the best and I’m always going to have someone better than me.”

“I’m a leader in different ways, but when it comes to my success, I try not to talk about it. So, for sure, yes, quiet leadership.”

“Always the freshmen come ask for advice or whatnot. But I always just tell them, you know God’s plan and He has a plan for you. Just follow it and stay quiet, do your own thing.”

“I just had a feeling in my heart and in my chest that Florida was where I was supposed to be led. And I think that feeling came from God and what He wanted in my life. And I do believe that it all happened for a reason, and I’m very happy. I kind of just always left it to God. I prayed that I had a just a healthy body and a healthy future, that I was going to be able to play the sport I love and be around people who supported me.”

“(Philippians 4:13) really brought me to the point where I was able to be calm and in peace with my performance, with my actions and what I was doing throughout my life.”

“Knowing that God was there to strengthen me in hard moments through tough training sessions or little injuries or losing games and missing chances – He was always there.”

“I had an identity beyond my performance, so my worth was not because of my goals or assists or my minutes, but it was my value in that was secured through Christ. Soccer wasn’t something I just did. It was who I was before, and now it’s just something I do. It’s not the person who I am.”

“I found out a lot of my teammates were Catholic or, if not, Christian, and they did practice and they did have a great base in that. So, I did find a lot of strength in my teammates to be able to speak up and talk about that.”

“I did have faithful roommates who like going to church. So that’s where I was able to be comfortable in my own skin and be comfortable in knowing … that I am a daughter of God, and I am a disciple that can be truly shown through my soccer team.”

“I have my devotionals every morning and to wake up … and be able to pray before every day was something exceptional and … I am very proud of that. I started when I came to college, so … it made my day.”

Related link:

Erika’s bio on FGCU website

(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)

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.)