Episodes

Jay Paterno

An author, coach, and commentator with deep roots in college football, having spent over two decades coaching, including 17 years at Penn State. As a student-athlete he played football in high school, was on the 1986 national champion Penn State Nittany Lions in college and then went on to a coaching career that included Virginia, Connecticut, James Madison, and Penn State. His latest book, “BLITZED! The All-Out Pressure of College Football’s New Era,” offers a gripping exploration of the challenges facing today’s college football coaches, from NIL deals to mental health. A sought-after speaker, he regularly shares insights on leadership, resilience, and the changing landscape of athletics. His writing and commentary have made him a respected voice in sports regularly called upon by both fans and analysts for his perspective on what’s next for the game he loves.

Notable guest quotes:

“Our home parish was Our Lady of Victory, which, Phil Knight once joked to my dad, ‘What did they call it before you got there’?”

“We were altar boys, went to Our Lady of Victory Catholic school all the way through sixth grade. There was no Catholic high school in our town at that time, so we went as long as we could, went to CCD all the way through twelfth grade.”

“My mom’s very, very devout.  If you want to find her, she’s at four o’clock Mass every Saturday at the campus ministry, which she has given so much of her life to, and really all of us have been involved as well. So, you’d be hard pressed to find an area of our lives that was not touched by the faith that we were raised in.”

“The reason why I stayed in college coaching, not pro – and why my dad as well – in college coaching… you have the ability to impact people beyond wins and losses, beyond just an entertainment value for fans. You have an ability to take young people that come in as 17- or 18-year-olds that think they know everything and then quickly find that they don’t know everything and then watch them develop as human beings.”

“He was in a coma for a week, at one point was pretty much brain dead, and the doctors flat out told my parents, ‘There’s nothing else we can do. It’s in God’s hands,’ and he woke up on my birthday.”

“Immediately there’s this perception of an unfair advantage. But my dad, from the time I played and then when I coached, he made things harder for me than it was for other people.”

“My mom and dad would always say, ‘God doesn’t give you more than He thinks you can handle.’  And I occasionally would say, ‘Well God may have a much higher opinion of me than I have of myself because this last thing’s a doozy.”

“Now you have players that are coming into college, and their families have expectations of the kind of money they can get. So now it’s, ‘Well you’re at this school, but you’re not playing like maybe you should be. Let’s go to another school because they’re gonna offer you more money and you can raise your profile’.”

“Knowing that Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine was there and having heard that story as a kid and … the idea that you could go to a place that was so important in your faith and actually be on the ground and see the shrine and the shroud that’s there… we went and it was a very moving experience.”

“I read the Bible, and I do readings almost on a daily basis because I find it’s very sustaining.”

Related link:

Jay’s official website

(This episode contains a prayer from the South Bend Indiana Inner-City Catholic League, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Bob Zito

He has had his hands in a number of sports over the years. He captained the bowling team in high school, then played on the first-ever JV basketball team at Fairfield University, and later coached basketball and soccer at the club and high school levels.  He even ran the New York Marathon, back in 1988. Plus, he was a sportswriter for eight years, and present day runs a sports management business that represents athletes across five different sports. On the faith side, he serves on the Board and has a scholarship at St. Peter’s Prep and also is the Vice Chair of the FDNY Foundation Board of Directors. When he was Executive Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange, he established the NYSE Fallen Heroes Fund. He has even visited a basilica in Italy where he saw the remains of Saint Zita in the church’s altar.

Notable guest quotes:

“My dad insisted that we go to Catholic grammar school… He insisted that we go to Catholic high schools … My dad tried to make Mass every day, spearheaded a fundraising effort at our parish… and I just remember them always being close to the church.”

“When I was at St. Peter’s Prep in my freshman year, I actually started a weekly sports newsletter to try and capture everything that was going on at the school.”

“We’ve seen so many schools be shuttered, especially here in New Jersey, Catholic schools, because the archdiocese can no longer afford them because enrollment is down and it’s sad to see but it’s a fact of life and it makes you appreciate schools like (St. Peter’s) Prep even more.”

“Cento Amici is an organization; we’ve been around for now for 37 years, my dad and I started it.  It raises funds for need-based scholarships in New Jersey.  Right now, we’ve got 14 schools… We raise money, give it to the schools, and the schools then confer to students who are deserving of that money.”

“I’m just doing what I enjoy.  I love helping young adults and children and seeing them progress.  On the athlete side, I love it when one of our guys or girls is successful.”

“One of the things I have seen in the sports business is the importance of family.  When an athlete has a strong family background, that athlete has a great opportunity to succeed.  When the family unit is not there, there are just too many people pulling at the individual, and not always pulling in the right direction, and it’s very sad to see.”

“My wife … and two of her good friends… All devout Catholics have an organization where they help patients who typically are in serious medical difficulty… I love watching what they do.  That, to me, is more God’s work than what a lot of people are doing.”

“I was kind of amazed by this particular Basilica because I had read that Santa Zita was buried in the facility, so we went in and went up to the altar and there in a glass tomb in the altar are the remains of Santa Zita.”

Related link:

Bob’s sports management agency

Belinda Terro Mooney

As a student-athlete, she lettered in basketball and track, including having been All-District in basketball in her junior year. Present day she enjoys swimming, walking, jogging, dancing, and basketball. On the faith side, she is an author, Catholic Coach, and speaker, and has a story about having met Mother Teresa, which we shares during this interview. Her current writing projects include “Pray With Us: A Saint for Every Day,” “The 3 Works of Reparation: God’s Divine Mercy for Our Times,” as well as making a Catholic edition of her book, “My Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Workbook: Creating a Comprehensive Plan for a Calm, Ordered Life, 2nd Edition,” which contains information and planning for exercise in all forms including setting goals for sports and sports teams.

Notable guest quotes:

“I would witness my dad every night saying his prayers next to his bed before he got into bed. And my mom, saying her rosary in the bed at night, those were just daily occurrences in my life. And they would take us to Mass every Sunday, got us our sacraments… I always had a sense of God as my father, since I was very, very little. So, just a lot of piety as I was growing up.”

“We had a coach who really ran us to death. And that’s when I was in the best shape of my life. It was just an amazing time… And I just learned that you either get tough or you get out and I wasn’t getting out.”

“It was a time in my life when it was difficult– the school that I was at, there was some bullying and stuff. But basketball made me feel like I was strong. Basketball helped me through that time.”

“A good time in my life, especially as a young woman to feel that my body was strong. It was something that God had given me to help me through this life. And I was in the best shape of my life. And that’s when I made the all-district team in my junior year.”

“I probably could have played basketball in college… I let it go. And it was a great loss. I still have regrets about that… I unfortunately had to grieve that.”

“Instead of doing therapy, I’m doing coaching, which is easier for me because coaching doesn’t go back into the past and the pain. It stays in the present and moves into the future; what goals you want to set, just like the improvement that an athlete would have with a coach trying to move them forward in their performance and whatever sport they’re playing. Same thing with life coaches. We’re just doing it with the rest of life.”

“I feel like when you go to a country that has all these saints and especially if it’s saints that you have a personal relationship with – I love many, many saints in heaven and I’ve researched a whole lot of them – so when I was younger, I always wanted to meet up with Saint Bernadette. So, when I was in France, I got a chance to go (pray) at her reliquary… and then I also got to go to Saint Teresa of Ávila.”

“It’s just a lot of grace when you go on pilgrimages and I do recommend it, even if it’s just around where you live, if there are any saints’ relics or anything, you can go to your church and pray with the relics there as well.”

“I wrote to her a couple of times and she replied both times herself. She said, ‘I write all my letters myself.’ So, I still have those two letters from Mother Teresa, which is after I had met her.”

“Jesus told her the saints are the most powerful on their feast day. So, I’ve been praying this way as an intercessory prayer person for many, many years where if I know what the saint is on the calendar, who the saint is for the day, that’s their feast day, I’ll pray with them for all my people that I’m praying for.”

“When you know the saint whose feast day is the day that you’re having a big game or a race or whatever you’re doing, you just ask them to pray with you and ask our Father to help you do what He’s giving you to do.  And you’re going to do better than you would have had you not.”

Related link:

Belinda’s official website

Jerome Pannell

He has been coaching high school basketball for 15 years, including ten as Varsity Head Coach at La Salle Academy, an all-male private, independent college preparatory Catholic school in New York City, where he also serves as the Athletic Director. The survivor of a recent medical miracle, in 2017 he led La Salle basketball to their first-ever New York State Federation Championship, a team that saw one of its players eventually chosen in the NBA Draft. As a young adult he had organized a Friday Night Drop-In Center, where neighborhood youth could play basketball in the parish gym — provided they participated in prayer beforehand. Two of the highlights of his faith life include having discerned a possible call to the priesthood and having met Pope John Paul II.

Notable guest quotes:

“As a very young child, the faith was primary to our existence in our household.  My grandmother ensured that everyone in our family practiced the faith actively and that was initially through the basic ways, the sacraments and attendance at Mass.  After my grandmother passed my mom made sure to kind of take the baton and ensure that I not only knew how to show up for holy days of obligation or Sunday Mass, but not to just come and be an observer in parish life but to be an active participant in the life of the parish and sharing my faith.”

“I started playing (sports) at a young age, ironically all through Catholic organizations for the most part and I played in high school.”

“The intersection of my faith with sports is kind of a foundational piece for me because the two kind of go together in every step of my life.”

“Monsignor Howard Calkins is a inspirational and foundational piece of my life in terms of his support of my family and how I saw him minister to the people of our parish and the people of our community.”

“What we do for those on the fringes is amazing and can be so captivating.”

“I think that being able to teach where you are taught is one of the greatest blessings that you can receive. I love St Joseph and felt like it was an incredible foundation for me, and I was honored to be able to – by virtue of the principal, Simone Jackson, at the time and the pastor, Father Philip Kelly – to be invited back to teach.”

“It was shortly after my dad had passed away and it was in many ways a spiritual awakening because it allowed me to see that while I suffered a tremendous loss, God gave me so much in return.”

“My mom, in her infinite wisdom, called one of my best friends and told him to come get me and take me to the hospital and it took him a couple hours to convince me because I just thought I was fatigued and if he didn’t convince me I wouldn’t be here today.”

“There’s always time for prayer and it’s first. So, you can have a list of 20 things, but two through 20 are great, but it comes first.”

“When you are looking for the Lord, you don’t have to look very far. If you look you will find, and to find a Mass or a church that is open or an opportunity to worship or to serve Him. I get opportunities to serve him each and every day here at La Salle.”

“Here in New York at the Catholic High School Athletic Association we do a code of conduct and a prayer before every game in every sport because we want to lay the foundation for all of us (not) just as Catholic schools but just as human beings.”

(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.)

Dr. John Sottosanti

He has been active in long distance endurance cycling — including twice completing the “Death Ride” — and has cycled in at least five different countries. He is a golfer as well. As a youth he participated in basketball, baseball, and football. He is the author of a book called, “Mortal Adhesions: A Surgeon Battles the Seven Deadly Sins to Find Faith, Happiness, and Inner Peace.” He is also active as a speaker, giving lectures at parishes about the Camino de Santiago and the Shroud of Turin. His story also includes having served three years as a captain in the Air Force Medical Service during the Vietnam War AND being a cancer survivor.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mother was a devout Catholic born in Connecticut, but my father was born actually in Sicily, and he came over when he was six, and he was very smart.  He was able to get scholarships and go on to college and get a degree in civil engineering.  But he always felt the anti-Catholic prejudice.”

“I got my religion mainly from the Baltimore Catechism, which was very boring.  They basically taught you … who made you and who is God, and you had memorized answers, and it was quite boring, and it didn’t really impact me.  And my dad showed no interest in the faith and research shows that if the father doesn’t, often the kids don’t.”

“I studied very hard, and I eventually got a doctorate degree and then trained in surgery, oral surgery, at the University of Southern California.  I built a big practice, and I had a fair amount of fame.  I had movie stars, Nobel Prize winners as patients.”

“I was sitting in my car … at night with basically the roof opened and looking up at the stars and I was suffering so much mentally that I cried out and said, ‘God, if you’re up there’ – but I didn’t know if He was or not, I didn’t know if there was a God – ‘all I want is inner peace’.”

“He led me along in the faith and eventually went on a Cursillo weekend when I was in my late 50s that brought me close to Christ and set me up for what was going to happen in the future.”

“I learned that Queen Isabella of Spain was infertile for seven years and went on the Camino and prayed at a specific tomb on that Camino of a saint.  And she got pregnant and had a son and I said, ‘Well, Queen Isabella, if she could do it, I’ll do it’.”

“I honestly didn’t know that I was a good athlete.  I found out on the Camino because I was cycling with 16 other people that I was the strongest, fastest, I had the agility to come down hills at high speeds.  And so, I got involved with team and training at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and ended up doing incredible century rides in the mountains in which we would climb 16,000 vertical feet, do 130 miles in one day.  And I turned out to be quite a cyclist.”

“I can remember the time exactly.  It was 2008, it was April 15^th, probably 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the doctor called and said, ‘I’ve got bad news for you.  Biopsy report came back in.  You do have prostate cancer.  It’s very aggressive and it’s escaped the gland.’  And that was just a devastating blow.”

“I ended up going to a Mass for Padre Pio, praying to him and all of a sudden, after the Mass, I got this urge to go to Lourdes, France, and basically bathe in the healing waters of the Catholic shrine there in France.”

Related link:

John’s website (for his book, speaking, more)

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

Drew Haddad

He was a wide receiver chosen by Buffalo in the National Football League Draft and went on to play not only for the Bills but with the Indianapolis Colts and then the San Diego Chargers. This all followed a collegiate career playing for the University of Buffalo, where he was the most prolific pass receiver in program history with 240 receptions for over 3,400 yards and eighteen 100-yard games. In 2019 he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, where, present day, he is the wide receivers coach. He also coached football and basketball for 13 years in CYO for Saint Raphael’s parish. LISTEN FOR THE TESTIMONY HE SAYS HE OTHERWISE DOESN’T USUALLY TALK ABOUT!

Notable guest quotes:

“The Catholic faith was always present and that was passed down from my grandparents to my parents and then on to us and whether it was Sunday Mass and going to Catholic grade school and going to our parish or it was saying prayers before dinner, before bed, God always had a presence in our life in the Haddad house.”

“Sports was an integral part of me being raised on the west side of Cleveland.  It’s very competitive in the sports world over there and it’s a very large Catholic base of people on the west side of Cleveland and I think that that just allowed a competitive environment for us.”

“Going to St. Ignatius High School, all boys Jesuit school on the west side of Cleveland, walking in there as a wide eyed young man and leaving as a, what I think, ‘a man for others,’ is what the Jesuits preach, in those four years that was a very good forming period for me in my faith journey, having the presence every day of my faith.”

“I had talked with my coaches about Mass before games… if I wasn’t able to make it to a parish in Buffalo… I would go to the Newman Center’s Mass on Sunday nights and that was something that was very important to me.”

“When I had a successful sophomore campaign, so to speak, that’s where I started kind of thinking.  I had some people reaching out to me and some conversations were happening that, hey, you know what, I broke a couple records at University of Buffalo.  I was getting on some people’s radar.  There was All-American watch lists and all this type of stuff.  And … I think that’s where it kind of clicked for me that I would possibly have an opportunity to make it to that next level if I put in the work to get there.”

“Growing up, wanting to be a professional athlete was something that was always on my mind and I wanted to understand the work and the path that I had to get there and understanding and also trusting God’s path for me.”

“God put me on that path, I truly believe, for a reason.  I met my wife there.  I got to be a captain of a football team there.  I got on the radar to live out my dream in the NFL.  So, trusting God’s plan, I’ve really, I’ve put that all in His hands since day one and that’s why I’m at where I’m at today.”

“There was ever changing environment all around me but my faith and my relationship with God kept me stable.”

“We woke up on that Sunday morning, went to the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Main Street in Buffalo … and we went to Mass and I got right with God, as I told my dad, and then came home and sat in our family room of my apartment and watched the draft … with friends and family, had some teammates that came over and we waited patiently.  And in the seventh round I knew I was possibly going to go to either the Colts or the Bills.”

“We would always get together and do Bible studies.  So, I think that was something that was a little bit different for me in the NFL and then it propelled me to want to do a little bit more.”

“Make each day count.  Tell the people that you love you love them.  Be there for people.  Live each day to its fullest.  It was a very eye-opening experience for us to kind of go through that, not just one time but two times, and to be there for our children it was just a powerful testimony for us.”

(This episode contains a prayer originally from prayers-and-poetry.blogspot.com, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Richard Rossi

He excelled in three different sports. As a boxer he competed in the Catholic intramural boxing league’s lightweight division and won 80% of his fights by knockout, the rest by points. He was nearly undefeated, losing only one fight. In basketball, he was the only white player, starting guard, on an all-black basketball team in Pittsburgh intramural League. His team won the championship and had an undefeated season. And, in the men’s softball championship in Pittsburgh, he hit the winning walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth, resulting in his team taking the championship and carrying him on their shoulders in celebration. He is an Academy Award-considered filmmaker, best-selling novelist, and a guitarist who has composed over one thousand songs. His latest family faith-based film has won 15 awards at film festivals and can be seen for free on Amazon.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mother came up every night with my brothers and I.  We were in an attic, and we had a little bed in each of those four corners for me and my three brothers.  And she would say the rosary with us.  We had prayer in the evening.  In fact, to this day, I fall asleep every night holding a rosary in my hand and praying.”

“I was in a public school at 15 and I was kicked out for fighting even though I was defending the kids against the bullies.  I got sent to a strict Catholic school because of the fights.  And some priest said, ‘Man, you’re really good.  Why don’t we do this in an organized way?’  And they put me in a boxing league.”

“I’ve had multiple sports screenplays I’ve written.  One that I haven’t made yet is called The Immaculate Reception and it references in my hometown, Pittsburgh Steelers, the real turning point was when Franco Harris had this great play called the immaculate reception.  And that turned the fortunes of the Steelers towards winning four Super Bowls in the 70s, but it also is going to get into the Catholic faith aspect of the immaculate conception.”

“I felt the Holy Spirit had put in my heart that God is the master artist, creator of all things and artists support other artists.  So, I’d done some acting.  I kind of stumbled into getting some acting roles and some major TV things.  And it just seemed so shallow.  You know, here I was, making some money at it, but I thought, ‘I want to make something more substantive.’  And I realized I’m going to probably have to write and do this myself and make my own films because I wanted to make films about faith and about hope.”

“I was close with a nun, as a boy, named Sister Antonita and (Roberto) Clemente was my favorite.  I loved playing baseball as a boy, and he was my idol.  And she was close with him, and she told me about some private conversations … where he discussed his faith with her, and she led him into a stronger commitment to his Catholic faith.”

“I felt the Holy Spirit made it real clear; this is the whole point of the film.  The theme verse of the film is greater love hath no man than this that he laid down his life for his friends, John chapter 15 verse 13.”

“My dad had just died and it’s very emotional and when I went in the Duomo in Milan… I saw this old Italian priest and I had an experience with the Holy Spirit that was so powerful.  I felt led of the spirit to go to confession.”

“I really felt called to Saint Francis.  I love the peace prayer, and I love that he gave up a lot of his worldly goods to follow Christ … and I was just drawn to his life the way of the cross.”

Related link:

Watch “Lucy & the Lake Monster” for free on Amazon

[This episode contains a prayer (poem) by Central Catholic High School (Pittsburgh, PA) Principal Ed Bernot, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport]