Episodes

Fr Stephen Gadberry

The pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Batesville, Arkansas, AND St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Newport, Arkansas.  He was on Season 10 of “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC in 2018 and also enjoys archery and is an avid hunter, plus he coaches CrossFit.  He served in the U.S. Air Force in Texas, Germany, and central Iraq.

Notable guest quotes:

“Whenever I’m working and I’m being productive, for me that’s a very sacred moment.”

“I remember starting tee ball when I was probably five years old?  And pretty much every year since then I’ve done some sort of sport.”

“Throughout my life, just, I’ve always trusted the people who were over me: my parents growing up, my superiors in the military, my formators in the seminary, and now, of course, the bishop and the dean – the priest in charge of that area that I’m in – I trust that Christ will speak to me and I can hear His voice.  One of the ways I can hear it most clearly is through them.”

“(the bishop) was also concerned about my soul.  He said, ‘I want you to do (American Ninja Warrior) as long as it doesn’t affect you negatively spiritually’.”

“Spring of 2018 I get the call from (American Ninja Warrior).  They say, ‘Come, we’ll do the filming.’  I did that in Dallas, of all times, it was Palm Sunday night.”

“One of the best ways to preach the gospel is, just be joyful.”

“Through American Ninja Warrior I was… hoping to share this human aspect of this priest, because we’re called to live out the incarnation of Christ.  We’re called to share His grace, to manifest His divinity in the world through ministry, but we’re also called to embrace our own unique identity with our strengths and weaknesses that we have.  And so, He’s given me that particular skill set of… physical exertion, you could say.  So I just embraced it and trusted that if the Lord gave it to me and I use it well, that He’ll do what He needs to do.”

“(Saint) Augustine and Joseph Ratzinger, two of the greatest minds and greatest hearts in the history of the church.”

“I’ve been able to meet countless you could call them ‘famous’ people.  But at the end of the day, they do one thing and they do it well.  Everything else?  They’re just like you and me.  Which does not discourage me, but actually it encourages me to do, that one gift that God has given me, it encourages me to do it well.”

“It’s in the basics, the still, silent moments of the basic times of life that you can most perfectly hear the voice of the Lord.”

Porter Moser

The head men’s basketball coach at Loyola University Chicago since 2011, has been an NCAA Division I men’s basketball coach for 30 years. His 2018 team went to the Final Four.  As a player he competed on the Creighton University Bluejays and in 2017 was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a player.  He has also been inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.  Plus he is the author of a new book called, “All In: Driven by Passion, Energy, and Purpose.”

Guest quotes:

“I was born and raised Catholic.  Both my parents were Catholic.  And it was very traditional Catholic upbringing and I was able to go to Saints Peter & Paul Catholic grade school all the way through.  Then I went to Bennett Academy Catholic High School.”

“I remember finding the sanctuary of St. John’s Church right there on the campus of Creighton (University).  It was just, like, 50 yards outside the door of my dorm room… and I’d walk over there and be by myself, and just think and pray and just get my thoughts together and just ask for strength.  And I just remember having that private silent sanctuary to go to at St. John’s Church… And it was a defining moment in my life.”

“What I’ve learned in 30 years of Division I coaching… when I was a young coach I was so much about — and a lot of people are whether they’re in coaching or in business — you’re so much about the trajectory.  You’re, ‘What’s my next step,’ … and you’re so much about the trajectory instead of the journey and the relationships, whether it’s relationships with friends, family, spouse, kids, your relationship with God.”

“I just kept on praying for strength and I remember I just kept on saying over and over and over, ‘God has a plan’.”

“My faith grew and grew and grew and I was strengthened.  And, the adversity, I felt God’s power, I felt it more that God had a plan.”

“You achieve what you emphasize.  If you emphasize that relationship, that that’s a priority, same thing with your faith, you achieve what you emphasize.  If you’re not going to emphasize it, it’s going to keep going down in the pecking order.”

“God’s a lantern inside you.  And, are you going to let His lantern shine through you and have other people see His brightness through you, or are you putting a shade over that lantern to where He’s not reflecting through you? … I want my players to see that light.  I want the opportunities that are given me that come my way, I want it to reflect Jesus.  I want it to reflect my faith.”

“I also love what the Jesuits’ mantra is – men and women for others… I’ve just seen it in place when you put others first on how God finds it to come back to you.”

Related link:

Porter’s book, All In: Driven by Passion, Energy, and Purpose

(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)

Sherri Retif

She has been the head coach of the varsity girls basketball team at Germantown Academy for more than 20 years.  Her teams have captured the Inter-Academic Athletic League Championship 19 times, including a streak of 14 consecutive titles and 109 straight Inter-Ac victories. She had previously coached in New Orleans, where her teams captured back-to-back City Championships. She played basketball for the Tulane Green Wave and was inducted into the Tulane University Hall of Fame. In later years she was inducted into the Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame. In “Perspective on Youth Sport and Spirituality,” published by Notre Dame Press in 2015, she contributed a chapter on best practices. And, she co-authored a handbook called, “More Than a Game, Stories, Prayers and Reflections for the Student Athlete.”

Guest quotes:

“I grew up as a Catholic.  I went to Catholic schools all the way through twelfth grade and then I coached in a Catholic school for eight years… in New Orleans.  My husband took a job and we moved to Philadelphia and I just kind of thought I was done coaching and lo and behold Christ had another path for me and I was back coaching by the Fall.”

“I walked away from the game not thinking that was my calling.  I thought my calling was being a mom and a parent.”

“I realized my Christian values that I grew up with of honesty and accountability and community, and they just merged with the same values that I brought to the (basketball) court.”

“I learned that God was with us in adversity and God was with us in joy and bliss.”

“Being on a team is an opportunity for our students to have a small faith community, to have a safe place to grow and develop and make mistakes and learn.”

“If you’re focused on only winning or achieving a scholarship or outcome, you’re missing the journey, you’re missing the process.  And I think the invitation is to be aware of… is the experience moving them closer to God or is it moving them away from God?  Is my conversation with my athlete helping them grow closer to God or further away?”

“I think that’s where we all need to be as coaches – meeting our students where their needs are in our athletes.”

“The more we see Christ in others, Christ will grow in ourselves.”

“It doesn’t have to be all about winning on the scoreboard, it’s about winning in life.”

Related links:

Books mentioned:

Youth Sport and Spirituality: Catholic Perspectives

More Than a Game: Stories, Prayers, and Reflections for the Student Athlete

Chris Godfrey

He played guard in the NFL for the New York Jets, New York Giants, and Seattle Seahawks, including winning a world championship with the Giants in Super Bowl XXI.  He also played on three University of Michigan Rose Bowl teams.  He is the President and Founder of Life Athletes and nowadays is an attorney in Indiana.  He even talks here about a conversion experience as well as having met (Saint) Mother Teresa!

Guest quotes:

“My faith at that time, I was loyally Catholic, but, not necessarily, oh, I went to Mass and stuff like that, but I didn’t really have, maybe mumbled a few prayers at night, but wasn’t the first thing on my mind.”

“My new freedoms and the horizons and all these new things I was learning and seeing really distracted me from thinking much about my faith.”

“I remember hanging up the phone and falling to me knees and saying, ‘Lord, I give up.  Whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, You’re the boss now.’  And I’d never really prayed like that before and I meant it.”

“I just knew that I knew that God had a hand in the whole thing and that He was close to me.  And because He was close to me I wanted to get close to Him.”

“I was a Seattle Seahawk at that time and our fourth child was due right at the time I would  have to leave to go to Seattle for camp, so a lot of things were making me realize that, well, it’s been a good run, but I’m going to retire.  But I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet.  And so I went on retreat and the prayer in my heart was, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do next’?”

“All of a sudden the parable of the rich young ruler came to mind.  That’s, ‘Lord what do you want me to do,’ well, ‘Give away everything that you have and come follow me.’  And I can remember just kicking the ground and going, ‘Ah, jeez, I’ve been tithing, going to Mass… doing all these difficult things and now you want me to give it all away’?”

“It’s not so much our money that God wants, He wants our hearts.”

“One of the things that I’ve been doing out here for several years — and it’s really a nice fit with some of my other charitable interests — is that we brought the Lourdes experience back here to our friends and family members in northern Indiana.”

“We invite the young people to join us – over 300 professional and Olympic athletes – to live lives of virtue, abstinence, and respect for life.  And we invite them to make the same commitment that we’ve made.  We call it the Life Athletes commitment.”

“Our Super Bowl rings are as much a symbol of perseverance as they are success, and, if perseverance is important in something like football or sports, it’s way more important in our personal lives.”

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

Rich Garcia

A former Major League Baseball umpire, having worked in the American League for 25 years and been involved in four World Series.  He went on to be a MLB Supervisor for eight years. He was raised Catholic and is also a veteran, having spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps.  In high school he played baseball and did some boxing, getting two baseball scholarship offers for college.  He also coached high school baseball.  Wait for his big revelation near the end of the interview!

Notable guest quotes:

“From first grade all the way to the ninth grade I went to a Catholic school.”

“My grandmother lived with us and she did most of the raising, thank God.  She was a saint.  Her nickname was Joan of Arc.  That was a great, great help for me, growing up.”

“Everybody else went fishing and swimming and stuff.  I just played ball.  I played baseball.”

“I knew I had God in my life.  I knew He was there.”

“When you go to Catholic school for that many years, you have that instilled — it’s in you.”

“The way things are today as far as the umpiring profession, the ministry has really, really grown.”

“They have phone calls every Friday.  They have a conference prayer call every Friday.  All the umpires that want to get on can get on.  The minor league umpires are also included in that.”

“As an umpire if you want to survive you better pray.  You need a lot of prayers.  There were a lot of times where I’d talk to God.  ‘Get me out of this jam.’  ‘Get me out of this city.’  ‘Get me out of this place.’  And, like most of us, very selfishly it was done when we needed Him.  Fortunately, I’ve grown to not only talk to God when I need Him… but, to do it every day.  And to keep Him close to me.  And I thank Him every morning for the blessings that He’s given us.”

“He showed me a lot of different ways to pray.  Showed me a lot of different ways to get close to God.”

“I’m really God-based right now.  I’m as high as I can be on our Lord.”

(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)

Zach Eckert

A former lacrosse player who is an avid surfer and serves as the Director of Campus & Sports Ministry at JSerra Catholic High School in Orange County, California.  He is also a 3rd degree Knight.  He attended Creighton University (a private, Jesuit university) and Franciscan University of Steubenville where he majored in Theology.  Be sure to stick around for his emotional story about the “Jersey Ceremony” as well as why May 18th is so significant.

Notable guest quotes:

“It wasn’t until the 1999, the Columbine shootings, that happened at a local high school just down the street from my elementary school, that totally shook my mom and led her just to kind of seek God in a new way and led her back to the Catholic church.  And it was there, through the priest there… who kind of counseled her through the teachings of the church and brought her and I back into the faith.”

“My faith and my awakening in the faith just changed my game so much.”

“My coach in high school… a man of faith himself, and just the way that he coached us and the way that he lived this philosophy of his own faith really empowered me.”

“A lot of students… they’ll go on a retreat or they’ll have an experience in their faith and they’re on fire in the moment and then a week or two weeks later they kind of forget it because the feelings have left them.”

“Our faith is something where we have to will it.  We have to will to go to Mass on Sundays.”

“He was really coaching us to grow in virtue, which ultimately helped me in my faith just to persevere through those difficult times.”

“Our coach… and even at our public high school would invite us into prayer.”

“There was this philosophy he was instilling in us in everything that we do, on and off the field, what could Christ do.”

“There’s the sports ministry aspect, which is just empowering our coaches, forming our coaches, and providing that spiritual formation for their athletes.”

“We do these Chapel Talks before their home games, for the football team.”

Related link:

JSerra Catholic High School

Kelly Larson

An Assistant Girls Track Coach at City High School in Iowa City, Iowa, where the team has won four state championships in her 18 years there.  She competed in track & field as well as in basketball at Loras College, a Catholic institution in Dubuque, Iowa. She is also the vice president and a board member of the National Catholic Coaches Association. And she is a religious education teacher.

Notable guest quotes:

“College is sort of a time where once you get out of your home – your parents and everything and the structure – you kind of get out and you start spreading your wings a little bit, and a lot of times people tend to stray maybe away from the things that they did when they were living under their parents roof – church and their faith being one of those.”

“What I was really grateful for is, being surrounded by the Catholic faith, even when maybe I wasn’t paying that much attention to it, it was always there, and it was always sort of a backbone of our education.”

“They were able to also incorporate attending Mass with our teams during basketball season and track season.”

“I really enjoyed learning more about my faith that I didn’t realize I just hadn’t learned in a public school and it just really solidified in me what my faith meant and how important it was to me and how important it was that I continue my faith journey.”

“I hope that something people can describe me by is knowing that I’m a Christian, knowing that I know God and that He’s a part of my life every day.”

“I took her aside and I said, ‘Let’s say some prayers.  Let’s take a few moments and make this night about God as well, because you are sacrificing what you wanted to probably do with your family for your team‘.”

“I’m also free to wear my cross necklace… and I let people know that I pray and I thank God for a lot of things in my life and I let the girls know that I’m grateful for them and that I do pray for them and I thank God for them.”

“I just remember being incredibly overwhelmed and not knowing what to do and talking to a lot of people and just so exhausted and it kind of hit me one day, ‘I gotta go talk to my priest’.”

“My first thought was, ‘Why God? Why?!  What is the deal?’  And then I went through a little bit of guilt thinking, okay, I shouldn’t be questioning.”

“God is with me.  He’s walking with me every step of the way.”

Related link:

National Catholic Coaches Association

(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)