Episodes

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.)

Randy Awrey

The Head Football Coach at Perquimans County High School in North Carolina. He was a successful NCAA head football coach for 21 years, being named conference coach of the year seven times and being inducted into the Hall of Fame at four different universities. As a student-athlete he was the MVP of the Northern Michigan University national championship team, which was the first team in any sport to ever go from a zero and ten won-lost record to national champions the next year.

Notable guest quotes:

“When I was young… we’d go to church but that was kind of like ‘Check, done’ thing and move on.  And I think that as I’ve grown, I’ve obviously matured a whole lot more into my faith and have gotten a lot closer to Jesus Christ.”

“The older I got, the more I saw that that hole in my heart had to be filled and Jesus was the only one that could do it.”

“My father was in Knights of Columbus and he distributed Communion to the local nursing homes.  He also was an usher… My mom taught CCD classes.  My brother and I were altar boys.”

“The athletic part of it, that’s where — as a child and even as a young adult when I got into high school — that becomes your god, ya’ know, your athletics, your newspaper clippings… and everybody’s patting you on the back… You put other things more important.”

“That’s where we fall into that trap, is, we start reading our own press clippings and we start believing in how good we are and really don’t realize that God gave us those talents and God gave us those abilities.”

“Throughout my sporting career I went from praying to win games and then praying to not get hurt… to praying to do well, to be able to be a good teammate, to eventually praying that what I did would be a glow in God’s eyes.  And so, you go from ‘it’s all about me,’ to showing God to other people.”

“In my life when I seemed to want to do it myself and I wanted to try to do everything because I was big enough and fast enough and strong enough and good enough, it’s like pushing a car uphill.  And when I would let God drive and I’d let God do the work, it’s like pushing it downhill.”

“I wasn’t good enough to make it in the NFL.  And, I thought I was and I thought that’d be my career and I thought that’s what I’d be doing with the rest of my life but God had a different plan and He had a much better plan and He always does.”

“When I recruited, when I hired coaches, everything involved with the program, your managers, your trainers, everyone has to be on the same page, and I always felt if we didn’t have the right philosophy we couldn’t be on the same page.  So… we said your priorities are going to be with your faith, your family, your education, your football team, and yourself.”

“I had a chaplain come in and he would — ya’ know, God provided at every one of the schools, a different man each time, who was able to come in and — put together chapels before the game, FCA… type things one day a week… We’d have study halls with our kids, but we’d allow ’em to go to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting instead.”

Related link:

2-minute video: NMU 1975 National Championship Team (Randy was selected MVP)

(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.)

Niko Palazeti

The Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning for football at Ohio State University. He previously worked in similar positions at the University of Maryland and at Mississippi State University. As a student-athlete he was a three-year member of the Michigan State football team after having been an all-state football player for Detroit Catholic Central High School. Listen for the extremely powerful testimony that he shares about suffering a career-ending injury!

Notable guest quotes:

“The thing that was really exciting for me was I was in all these sports, all these different activities, with all these guys and they were my friends, but they were going to the high school that I was going to, and they were also parish members at Our Lady of Victory Church in Northville, Michigan… It kind of all was a perfect transition into a path into the church.”

“I was blessed enough to get a full ride scholarship to Michigan State to play football there… It was divine… it was a miracle.”

“They really do an incredible job of teaching you what it looks like to be a man of God… and to exude that in everything you do.”

“I was blessed enough and I do honestly believe that I was put to Michigan State… potentially not even to play football but to get into my career path.”

“My identity was based on who I was as a football player.  Unfortunately, the reality was that it was part of who I was.  It was part of how people identified me.  It was how I kind of communicated myself to others, was that I played football.  And it was a part of who I was.”

“I drove back to my apartment, punching the steering wheel, cursing God.  I was furious.  I was crying.  I was upset.”

“I just remember going and just praying, and just praying and being still and it allowed me to just be still in the fact and God really kind of spoke to my heart, and I just prayed that whatever His intentions for my life was, that I trust it and allow Him to work through me.  And it was a simple prayer, but I just remember feeling a lot of peace.”

“When you play college football, when you play college athletics, when you play athletics in general, it’s very stressful because a lot of times you’re performance-based.  But you’re performance-based because you think that your success determines your value.”

“In the spring of 2013, me and my best friends, we all went to South Africa… on a mission trip and it was incredible.”

“What are you worshiping?  Are you worshiping your sport?  Are you worshiping your career?  Are you worshiping your value or your worth or whatever?  Your reputation?  What are you valuing?  What are you worshiping?”

“(My wife) has actually been leading an Advent reading every Sunday.  And I think that’s really cool because a lot of times in our relationship I’ve been the one that’s been leading our faith life.”

Related link:

Niko’s bio on OSU website

Fr. Dale Grubba

He has run 63 marathons and hand cycled an additional twenty. He had coached Cross Country at Holy Name Seminary in Madison, Wisconsin, for ten years, including winning a state championship. He was also head coach of the Holy Name Seminary track team for eight years, also winning a state championship. In 2000 he was inducted into the Wisconsin Cross Country Association’s Hall of Fame.  He has also been an auto racing photographer and journalist, and has written seven books.  He has been a parish priest since 1966, including St. John’s in Princeton, Wisconsin, where he has been for 35 years, and St. James in Neshkoro, Wisconsin, where he has been for 20 years.

Notable guest quotes:

“I can’t tell you how blessed I’ve been.  I could never have picked a better vocation just simply because the Holy Spirit has always been with me to push me to new boundaries and to new adventures.”

“My choice was really to go and to be with people.  And I’ve loved doing that in my parish life and I’ve loved it also in my racing life.  I consider the auto racing part of my life a third parish that I have.”

“I always thought of those sports – like whether it was running marathons or whether it was coaching, but especially in the field of auto racing – I always thought that those were my way of connecting with people, and especially with people that might not be going to church.”

“So he was lying there in his coma and I said, ‘Bobby’ – ’cause I flew with him in his private plane quite often – I said, ‘Bobby, let’s do what you do when you take off in your airplane,’ ’cause he would always invite everybody, Catholic or non-Catholic, to make the Sign of the Cross.  And so I said, ‘Bobby, let’s make the Sign of the Cross.’  And he made the Sign of the Cross!  And that was his first coordinated movement after being in that coma for a long, long time.”

“What Kurt (Busch) wanted me to do was to say Mass for him in the morning, but then stand right by his car and give him a blessing before the start of the race.  And I was to be the last person that left his car.”

“For the millennium, I was in New Zealand running the first marathon of the new era.  But not only that, I got up at midnight – and I don’t think there are many Catholics in New Zealand – so I got up at midnight and said Mass.  And I thought to myself, ‘I’m the first priest to say Mass in the new millennium’.”

Related links:

Books Fr. Grubba has published

Jesse Romero

He was a three-time World Police Olympics boxing champion and is a former USA middleweight kickboxing champion and he is a member of the Sports Faith International Hall of Fame. He has a Master’s Degree in Catholic Theology and is an author, radio host, and evangelist. He is also a retired veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Notable guest quotes:

“I always had a sense of, I wanted to be on the side of good… Even since I was a kid, I’ve always had an understanding of good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lies, vice and virtue.”

“I remember as a Catholic school boy just hearing that gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, over and over again, ‘Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the Children of God,’ Matthew 5:9.  That stood with me ever since I was a little kid – peace maker, peace maker, peace maker.”

“I learned how to box, how to do martial arts.  Why?  Not to hurt people, not to be a bully.  So, I could be a peace maker.”

“I think America’s, uh, we’re suffering from truth decay and that’s why I felt called to be a sheepdog in the world of speaking and promoting the absolute truth of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Catholic church.”

“I think all the training I did in martial arts and in boxing, all that did was strengthen my resolve to realize that life is a battle; politically, intellectually, in our faith walk, it’s adversity, it’s climbing uphill.  And I think boxing and karate, it prepared me for the adversity of life.”

“I think it’s very Catholic to work out because our body affects our mind directly.  So, it’s our responsibility as Catholics to keep our bodies healthy.”

“I think what exercise is to the body, prayer is to the soul.”

“I was saying, ‘Wow, you can be a man of faith and a man of God, and also an athlete and also an effective police officer and a sheep dog.’  And so, those three, they’re not mutually exclusive.”

“I just had this explosion in my heart where I just said, like, ‘Wow, Jesus is amazing.  I LOVE Him!’  A switch just flipped in my heart… where I just said, ‘Man, I LOVE Jesus.  I want to follow Him’.”

Related link:

Jesse’s “Catholics Wake Up: Be A Spiritual Warrior” book

Jesse’s website

(This episode contains a prayer adapted from one by an unknown Confederate Soldier, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Humpy Wheeler

The former president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, having served in that role for 35 years. He has long been known as one of the foremost promoters of NASCAR auto racing and was inducted into 14 halls of fame. Back in his days as a student athlete he played college football at the University of South Carolina. His athletic career also included time as an outstanding boxer, posting a 40-2 won-lost record. He co-authored a book called, “Growing Up NASCAR: Racing’s Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All.”

Notable guest quotes:

“Today, there’s a tremendous Catholic population in the south, particularly in the big cities because of the migration from the north.”

“We went to Mass in the bay of a filling station!  And it was common to go in theaters on Sundays.  The blue laws, you couldn’t show movies on Sunday in a lot of places in the south, so, they loaned the priest the movie theater for the day and so we would go there.”

“I would line fields and cut grass and he even taught me how to tape ankles and all that kind of stuff.  So, I was around the monks.  There’s a Benedictine monastery there.  I was around them all the time.  And it made me feel extremely comfortable, even to this day, with priests.  And I have a lot of dear friends that are priests who I talk with regularly.”

“I’ve been very fortunate to have spent over 50 years in the auto racing business and doing the thing that I really love to do the most, and also the ability maybe to serve a – what I call it – an underground ministry.  You don’t wear a collar.  You just be a good Catholic and you try to minister to those around you in a subtle way.”

“There’s a great deal of Christianity and Catholicism in helping other people handle grief.”

“All kinds of moral things come up race week.  Something happens to somebody… and having Fr. Grubba there was wonderful, ’cause I could ask him anything.”

“One of my ministries, my own personal ministries, I don’t raise money for it or anything else, but… One of my ministries is to try to help young black kids who have grown up without a father.”

“The Benedictine monks set a great example for me, having been around them as a kid all the time; work, pray, and pray.”

“I have a wonderful relationship with the Blessed Virgin.  She has helped me so many times when I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel.”

“We have kept the faith as strong as you can as the real anchor to our marriage.”

Related link:

Book – Growing Up NASCAR: Racing’s Most Outrageous Promoter Tells All

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