Episodes

Peter Belisle

He is in his 15th season as the head men’s ice hockey coach at UMass Boston, where he is the winningest coach in program history.  Along the way he has earned National Coach of the Year honors and has guided his team to the NCAA Frozen Four. Prior to his current role he spent nine years with Division I University of Connecticut as an assistant coach.  As a student-athlete he had been a four-year letter winner with UConn.

Notable guest quotes:

“Very religious, ya’ know, growing up at Mt. St. Charles Academy, being, just, ya’ know, I spent all my days with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.”

“My faith through mom and dad… and St. James, just, my memories are in that church with my family.”

“The bond that we had… it’s just divine intervention when you think of the whole story between my family and hockey, okay?  My brother David gets cut by Lou Lamoriello at Providence College after playing, I think it was his senior year, and he was down, and dad hired him as an assistant coach, and they go on to win 26 state consecutive titles.  And I was a little kid… so I saw that all that in front of my eyes… being on the bus as a stick manager, equipment guy.”

“My mom was the rock… She had ETWN, the Catholic channel, TV channel, on all the time, religiously, like, every day, 24 hours a day, and just a woman of faith, church every Sunday, church every day after my dad had his skull fracture.”

“I’ve been so blessed in my life with my parents and my sport of hockey because of my family.”

“Looking for my calling I didn’t know, and then, I said, ‘Maybe I do want to get into coaching hockey’ … and I got an opportunity at the College of Holy Cross to go back and work as an assistant coach and it was one of the best years of my life.  I was, like, so passionate about, ‘This is what I want to do’!”

“People ask me my coaching philosophy and it’s easy.  I want to make better men through the game of hockey.”

“There’s so much you can take from the game and really implement into just good lessons in life and what Jesus wants us and how He wants us to be.”

Related links:

Peter’s UMass coaching bio

Interview with Peter’s brother (David) on CSR 54

(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.)

Trevor Williams

A pitcher getting ready for spring training with the Chicago Cubs. He had been with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from 2016-2020, having initially been drafted into Major League Baseball as a second round pick by the Miami Marlins. As a student-athlete he had played his college baseball at Arizona State University. He is also co-founder of an organization called Project Thirty Four.  He’s a very dedicated member of the Knights of Columbus too.

Notable guest quotes:

“Born and raised Catholic… I am the oldest of three boys… We grew up going to CCD classes.  We grew up going to Mass every Sunday.”

“It wasn’t until high school, for me, it wasn’t really until my Confirmation class in my junior year of high school is where I started taking more serious CCD and the church.  And, really, Catholicism was part of my life for so long and it was always there, I just never reached out and dove into it as much as I should have when I was younger.”

“I had an experience where I full gave my trust to the Lord and fully kind of just dove in and made the decision where like, ‘Ya’ know, what is the most important thing in my life.’  It was at an intersection in my life where baseball was becoming real.  It was becoming tangible.  I was going through some family tragedy, and it was where I just had to kind of look within myself and know, where am I getting this strength and what do I need to look upon and what do I need to do, and it was Christ’s church and the sacraments and making that decision.”

“The first immediate thing is, why did this happen to him?  Why didn’t it happen to me?  And why did this guy who had such a bright future in baseball, why did this happen to him?  And you spiral down those thoughts.”

“It made me reflect that, what is the most important thing in my life, and would I be okay with it if it was taken away from me?”

“It’s a reminder when I put the jersey on every day during the season that this is special and this is a gift and this is something that will be taken away from me, either on my own terms or something else.  But, it’s something that I’m constantly reminded of where that this is a gift from Christ and it’s a gift that there’s a reason why I’m still playing and I’m constantly searching for that answer and I’m constantly everyday taking up that cross and saying, ‘Lead me to what You want me to do’.”

“You can find a of parallels to your faith life into sports.  Just as sports can teach you a lot about life, I think there’s always stories from the church and our tradition and with saints that have gone through literally everything that we’ve gone through and more.”

“Over the last ten, fifteen years they’ve been pushing to have Mass at every MLB stadium on either Saturdays or Sundays.”

“The prayer I pray before every start is Jesus, I trust in You.  And it’s a humbling prayer and it’s a prayer of humility.”

Related link:

Project Thirty Four

(This episode contains a prayer attributed to legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Two Year Anniversary

Catholic Sports Radio hits its two-year anniversary — to the exact day — and, ironically, this episode takes a turn that is a first in the show’s 100-plus episode history. Listen for that as well as some data about the listenership that the show has enjoyed.

Jay Stricherz

A PAC-12 Conference Football supervisor, having previously been a PAC-10 and PAC-12 Conference football referee for 34 years, including having officiated over 20 bowl games, which saw him do two Cotton Bowls, two Sugar Bowls, and two Fiesta Bowls. In addition, he spent nine years as a softball coach at a Catholic high school in Tacoma, Washington.

Notable guest quotes:

“(I) absolutely loved working there with students and families that had a lot of needs, more than the average or most families.  So, certainly a real ministry… I knew that’s what I wanted to do to help others.”

“(I) loved the aspect of being a part of a team, being a part of something much bigger than just yourself, and committing to the team concept.”

“I think being Catholic was probably the number one thing that we were.  No matter what we were, we were Catholic.”

“There’s five of us in the family and it was Mass every Sunday.  If we were traveling it was going to Mass.  We were going to confession once a month.  And during Lent we were saying the rosary every night.  Looking back on it particularly, it was wonderful – a wonderful faith upbringing.”

“I would, through the years, say my own kind of silent, quiet prayers before games.”

“I went from being a head linesman on the crew… and I became the referee… So, I started to ask for a little more help from the good Lord than I had previously.”

“I got through a series of prayers that I would always say before the games, personally myself.  I’d say the rosary myself and then I’d say a series of prayers.”

“Our crew, we started having a pre-game prayer, a pre-game little session of inspiration.”

“I belong to an ecumenical prayer group with eleven men.  We meet every other Tuesday morning and we go through the gospels and all the New Testament and the Hebrew scriptures and it’s a wonderful aspect of learning about one another.”

“If you’ve got kids that are in a local Catholic school you’re gonna get involved yourself… So, I got on a number of committees… and became a part of the Board of Directors… and got into the Ignatian spirituality.”

“Through sports there is a lot of spirituality and a lot of opportunity to pass on God’s Word and Christ’s Word.”

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

Dr. Rosemary Buckle

An orthopedic surgeon who sees a lot of athletes, she is an avid runner, not only having ran track in high school and college but she has done three IronMan races and approximately 20 marathons. In her college days she was also a student athletic trainer at Notre Dame. (Have tissues handy for her story about halfway through the interview.)

Notable guest quotes:

“Our Catholic faith was very important, sort of center, in our life.  We went to Mass every Sunday without fail.  We attended Sunday school from a very young age, all the way through high school.  We ate dinner together and prayed before dinner every single day as a family.  And so, the Catholic faith was front and center in our life.”

“I decided for Christmas that I would try to find a priest who could come to… my parents’ home and say Mass there for a very small group, there were just eight of us there.  And fortunately, one of the Jesuit priests in town who doesn’t have a parish was able to do that and I think that was the highlight of my parents’ Christmas Day.”

“I have a brother who is also a very strong Catholic.  He has a Catholic counseling service in Houston that’s a not-for-profit.”

“For a Catholic, Notre Dame is a place where you can immerse yourself in your Catholic faith and you don’t have to apologize for it.  You don’t have to hide from it.”

“The swim part of the ironman (competition), which to me is the hardest part.  It’s over two miles.  It’s extremely solitary.  You can’t see anybody, talk to anybody.  And so, I would pray the rosary while I would swim.”

“As a Catholic, my whole life I’ve been a very strong believer in life, in the preservation of life.  For whatever it’s worth I’m a very staunch advocate for life and I’m against abortion.”

“I know that God doesn’t ever give us something that we can’t handle.  He gives us the strength and the courage to get through very difficult things.”

“I thank God for giving me the brains and the hands to be able to help people.”

“I just think that that’s a ministry and I’m able to help other people.  And, believe me, I realize that.  I couldn’t do it without the help from my parents, but more importantly, the blessing from God.”

Paul Jarzynka

The new head men’s tennis coach at Eastern Illinois University after having been assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach at Belmont Abbey College.  Previously he had been a volunteer assistant coach at Wright State University while also teaching professionally at a tennis club. He also taught professionally at the Michigan State Indoor Tennis Center, was an assistant varsity tennis coach at Lansing Catholic School, and was an instructor at Michigan State Nike Tennis Camps, all after having played collegiate tennis at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Guest quotes:

“I’m originally from Jackson, Michigan… Born and raised Catholic, grew up going to Queen of the Miraculous Medal parish… I think my parents did a really good job raising us with the faith… My mom always had a weekly holy hour, Eucharistic adoration… We would pray the rosary as a family.”

“I chose tennis because, it was, the final exam for, like, freshman Lit(erature) class, we had to pick a poem and, I don’t know, I just randomly flipped to a page and I read, by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken,’ and that one just really spoke to me… and you look back and that’s God working through that moment and that text.”

“In high school I was really, really involved with different campus ministry things, like leading retreats, led a couple Kairos retreats.  We had a sophomore retreat we put on called Tenui.  The high school I went to was a Catholic high school run by the oblates of St. Francis de Sales… We had a men’s group that was awesome, my junior and senior year.  We were talking about different things as a guy you’re kind of going through in high school and spinning it more into the Catholic light.  I still, things that we talked about and things that we did then, they still kind of come out in my everyday life.”

“You can be successful in whatever field you’re in and also be a really faithful person and fuse those and mix those together.”

“I consciously was like, sports and virtue and faith, like, the world is telling us that those don’t go together, but… at Franciscan (University), it really does go together.  In fact, it has to go together, because if it doesn’t, it’s not going to work here.”

“In the eyes of people in high school I had a really vibrant faith, and I was really involved in all these retreats.  It’s like, immediately, I should be a priest.  Which, that could’ve been a great calling for me too.”

“It was really clear from God that Franciscan (University) was the place.  That’s where He was calling me to be.”

“I think sometimes people think that, faith-wise, you can’t always use your sport… as a place that (you) can really evangelize.  And I think that’s kind of an old school misconception from people.”

“You have to be dependent on God and dependent on Him in the process.”

“We’re coming to this, we’re making this jump (moving to Illinois) because we really felt like this is what God was calling us to do.  And different things fall in place and it’s not just chance, it’s not just coincidence, I mean, this is clearly what God wants us to do.  And I think too, you pray for certain things… and He answers, and I think in a lot of ways this is an answer to our prayers… It’s exactly what we’ve really been praying for.”

“My coaching moves, our moves together as a family, God and His Will for us is at the absolute center of it.”

“As long as you’re focused on God and He’s the center of your life, you know it’s going to be great.  It’s going to be okay.”

Related link:

Paul’s bio on Eastern Illinois University 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)

Kathy Litzau

The Senior Associate Athletics Director at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, including serving as the sport administrator for men’s soccer, women’s basketball, and men’s & women’s swimming and diving, among other responsibilities.  Previously she spent 14 years as the head women’s volleyball coach at Milwaukee, where her teams compiled a remarkable 118-14 record in Horizon League play over her last ten seasons. In 2017 she was inducted into the Milwaukee Athletics Hall of Fame. Earlier in her career she was an assistant coach at three different universities, after having been a standout volleyball player at the University of Notre Dame.

Notable guest quotes:

(on what was helpful moving on to a public school after a Catholic elementary school) “The foundation, the base that was provided from the Catholic elementary, and then the religious programs that we attended, the CCD classes that we attended through my middle school years and my high school years.  But really, I would say the faith of my parents… They’re just incredible faith models for me and my brothers.”

“I was fortunate enough to have been recruited by quite a few schools and when I was finalizing my list of schools that I was going to visit, my dad pulled me aside and he asked if I would just do him one favor, and if I could please just visit Notre Dame.  And, I was raised in an Irish Catholic family and had never honestly visited campus… When I did go on the visit… I felt like I was home… I really felt… that I was being called to go to the University of Notre Dame.”

“I played because of the love for the sport and that’s what I try to tell young athletes; do it because you love it, not because you’re trying to get something.”

“The way Notre Dame is set up is, each of the dorms has a chapel… and that would be such a great night on a Sunday night, we would all come together and we would all have, we’d all be still busy in what we were doing — our studies, our jobs, our sports — but then in that moment to see all of my peers come together to pray, to thank God for what’s behind us, and to pray for what’s in front of us, and to just be in that moment together, it really was so fulfilling.”

“That calmingness, having that sense come over after hearing the gospel, and every week there’s something there that speaks to me that helps keep me focused.”

“I felt a calling to teach our confirmation classes… And then, I also wanted to use the talents that I had to assist our church, and they started sports for anybody that goes to the school or participates in the faith formation programs, kids could play on those sports teams.  So I thought with my background in the sport of volleyball, this is something that I, obviously, should step up and give back to the school.”

“One of my favorite memories at Notre Dame before a game was with our priest, to say the Hail Mary before every game.”

“My goal as a head coach was to always assist them through their experience as a student-athlete to grow as people, to be stronger as an individual, and to walk away – graduate after four years – being confident in who they are as a person and be ready to tackle anything that the world presents for them.  So, what I really tried to do as a coach, especially on the volleyball court, was prepare them for anything, so that when that adversity struck, they were ready for it in the sense that they knew that they could get through it.”

“As a parent to keep telling (her kids) you are unique, God has made you who you are, you have all the talents and abilities to be exactly who God wants you to be, and as a parent, kids will listen but half-listen because they’re looking to the outside world to give them affirmation.”

Related links:

Kathy’s bio on UWM website

Milwaukee Athletics Hall of Fame video on Kathy

(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.)