Episodes

John Keating

The head coach of the men’s soccer team at Belmont Abbey, a Catholic college in North Carolina.  He played pro soccer in South Africa and captained West Virginia University men’s soccer.  He is going into his tenth year at Belmont Abbey and had successful coaching stops at a couple other schools along the way.  He is a Benedictine oblate and at one point he even headed up the Catholic Defense League of Nebraska.

Notable guest quotes:

“I found that as the assistant athletic director (at Warren Wilson College) and soccer coach, that my faith came under attack in significant ways, being arguably the only pro-lifer, or, conservative, shall we say, on campus.  The net result was that I did not have answers for the accusations.  And, ended up learning more about my faith in that three-year span as a way to defend my faith than I had in the previous twenty-something years.”

“If you learn to be obedient, then the path is often pretty clear.”

“In addition to working with the Omaha (soccer) club, I was also working for the Catholic Defense League of Nebraska, defending the civil rights and religious rights of Catholics through the Midwest.”

“I sent in the most rudimentary of resumes and it basically said, ‘I am a Catholic who happens to be a soccer coach.  If you’re looking for a soccer coach who happens to be Catholic I’m not your guy.  But if it’s the other way around, please read on.”

“(the job at Belmont Abbey) presented itself to me as an apostolate.”

“Certainly it’s great to see the Holy Spirit working in the lives of young men.”

“Everybody knows the Our Father, so that’s kind of why we started with that and that’s what we do before every game, in the huddle, everybody involved.”

“The college itself, the broadcasting unit, will also do a prayer before the game that blesses, ya’ know, asks the Lord to bless the game and help through injuries and bless our opponents and the referees and spectators and so on and so on.”

Related link:

John Keating Belmont Abbey bio

(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)

Rachael Popcak

A competitive figure skater from the time she was eight years old through college. She is the founder/director of the Saint Sebastian Center for Performance Excellence. She is a licensed therapist with advanced training in Sports and Performance Psychology and has developed programming for the likes of Robert Morris University Basketball, the Pens Elite Hockey Team, and Franciscan University Athletics, among others.  Through Trinity Sports Medicine she is also the referral source for athletes seeking mental health services.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was able to kind of take those bad performances and say, ‘Okay, what can I learn from it and move forward,’ and also, really, give it to God too.”

“My identity didn’t really ride in that.  Sure, it was nice… to win or to do well, but it certainly wasn’t my defining characteristics for myself.”

“I was looking for a (college) that would continue to kind of foster my faith development, my faith life.”

“It’s a way for me to kind of talk to God without using words and just kind of praise Him through my body, which, kind of the idea of the theology of the body.”

“God created us and we can learn more about ourselves through how our bodies work, and dance and figure skating certainly allow that opportunity for the complete awareness of your body.”

“God is very close to me when I’m dancing or figure skating.”

“God created us each to be those unique and unrepeatable people.”

“Certainly, a score in a game or those marks on a sheet that says, This is how well you did, can feel as though somebody else is deciding who I am and what I have to offer.  But no one else can decide that besides me and God.”

“I think there’s many ways that we can really strive to live out those corporal works of mercy.”

Erika Maurer

A cradle Catholic, she played soccer all throughout high school and college, attending Catholic schools and even getting her degree in Theology. She is the creator of the Sportsmanship and Spirit Ministry for Seton High School, an all-girls, Catholic, college-preparatory school in Cincinnati, Ohio. She also talks during this interview about a group she is active with in her parish and also gives news about her family.

Guest quotes:

“Depending on the season I can work with up to three, or three to five teams at a time… So, basketball, I meet with them… right before practice for 30 minutes and we do a short faith-building.”

“I plan to be at all the home sporting events that Seton has for the week, as well as once a month we try to plan an event where all of the athletes from each team can come and just kind of get to know each other and grow in their faith together.”

“Faith-building is truly where I kind of try to bring concepts of faith to the girls lifes in a way that they can understand.”

“Through Christ we are proved and… when we play for His glory, we don’t have to wear that weight anymore.”

“I’m in prayer constantly for these girls and each week the Spirit just reveals to me what they’re going through… I’ve tried to plan it but honestly I find that it’s most impactful when I just let God be God and use me to reach the girls how He wants.”

“I don’t want to just be someone that shows up and the girls think that they need me to grow in their faith.  I want them to then walk away taking ownership of their Catholic faith for the rest of their life.”

“I really, really wanted God to love me and I thought that that really depended on me being perfect.”

“Jesus died for my sins.  He didn’t die so that I had to be perfect, He died because I was imperfect.”

“I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about what God had done for me.  He just, it changed everything.”

Related link:

Seton High School

(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)

Louise Dussault

The Director of Catholic Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Providence, up in Rhode Island.  She played softball, volleyball, and basketball, and in her current role is hands-on with the Catholic Athletic League, including the creation of Cooperative Parish Teams. She is a strong supporter of the intersection of faith and sports, as heard during this interview.

Notable guest quotes:

“It was the only college at the time that had a Youth Ministry degree… So I transferred out there from Providence.”

“Being athletic was part of my nature and I always liked being part of a team, so it was always team sports that attracted me.”

“(Sports and faith) always went hand-in-hand for me because I began playing organized sports through my parish.”

“My first leadership position was as the athletic coordinator for my parish.”

“Those coaches were incredible witnesses to me of faith.  They were all active Catholics.  They all were at church on Sundays back then… And even how they modeled how you not only won but how you lost and how you treated your opponents.”

“It’s horrifying to me that our young people aren’t given opportunities to play on a Catholic sports team.  I know what it meant to me in my formation as a person and as an athlete.”

“I think we need to make sure that our young people who are playing sports aren’t just playing sports and not being exposed to people that are handing on the faith.”

“Myself, as a player, we had a young person who converted to the Catholic faith because she was part of the team and because part of being the team was sharing faith stories and she saw that there was a vibrancy of what we were experiencing being part of a Catholic parish.”

“Catholic sports are not about keeping the kids busy.  They’re about teaching values.”

Related links:

Catholic Youth Ministry of the Diocese of Providence, RI
Mother of Hope Camp
Catholic Athletic League Diocese of Providence

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

Bob Bauman

The head coach of the boys’ varsity soccer team at Cristo Rey, a Catholic high school in Tampa. Last year the Tampa Bay Times ranked him 20th on a list of the top 50 coaches in Tampa Bay sports history. In 26 seasons at Jesuit High School, his teams had won 24 district titles, reached 15 final fours and won five state championships. His last title team also finished first in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll. All told, he posted a 571-124-69 record at Jesuit — a staggering .747 win percentage.  As an athlete himself, he had played college soccer and was offered a tryout by a pro soccer team.

Notable guest quotes:

“My father’s brother, Richard, was a priest and was ordained in the old St. Louis Cathedral in downtown St. Louis.”

“On my mom’s side, the family was very religious in terms of their Catholic upbringing and my third cousin off of my mom’s side of the family was the archbishop of New Guinea.”

“Buried in the floor of the St. Louis Cathedral is a relative of mine… right at the feet of the Virgin Mary.”

“My dad’s father… had been the trainer for the St. Louis Browns baseball club ’til they left and moved to Baltimore, Maryland, (and) became the Orioles.  My father was a bat boy for the Browns for three years before they moved.  My grandfather then jumped over to the Cardinals.  So, he was the trainer for the baseball Cardinals until, I believe, it was 1989.”

“In St. Louis there was such a strong Catholic base… there were so many Catholic churches, that that was the formation for your baseball leagues, your soccer leagues.  The Catholic Youth Council, the CYC, was so embedded in the area.”

“Sports supplemented our faith and that gave us groundwork for understanding the idea of respecting an opponent, the idea of doing your best, fundamental things such as discipline and commitment – all of the things that are very fundamental and the values that I cherish as a coach and try to transfer onto the players that I coach now.”

“It was always an order of God first, family second, academics third, and then athletics fourth. And I would tell the parents that, ‘If you sent your child here and the priority is soccer, then you need to realign your priorities’.”

“The idea of Cristo Rey is to take underserved kids, underserved youth, where the family income cannot exceed 60 thousand, no parent can earn more than 15 thousand, and it’s called Cristo Rey Salesian High School and Work Study Program.  So, every child that’s in the school is sponsored by a business where that child works one day a week, a full day of work at that business, and the business covers their tuition.”

(This episode contains a prayer by Fort Worth Christian Football League parent Linda Fleshman, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Peter Mulry

One of the winningest coaches in high school baseball, having coached for ten years at Tampa Catholic High School where he posted an amazing won-lost record of 329-39.  His teams won four state championships and a national championship.  He went on to coach at the University of Tampa and also scouted for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals. Last year he was No. 26 on a list of the top 50 coaches in Tampa Bay sports history and he has been inducted into four Halls of Fame. He has his own foundation, which is dedicated to teaching young children life skills through sports.  And just over a year ago he launched a series of what is now six books to bring life skills to young athletes through a diverse set of characters representing each baseball position on the field.

Notable guest quotes:

“She was the one that told me that, ‘Ya’ know, you really need to be an altar boy and give some of your time and get to Mass early in the morning and start your day off like that’.”

“People believed in us when we were young men and didn’t believe in ourselves and I think that’s kind of the spiritual journey that kept me going.”

“I said, ‘I’ll help the kids if I can help the coaches and the parents really realize what we can do with baseball and use it as a tool to teach life skills through sports’.”

“The whole essence of the program, the Peter J. Mulry program, is what we call the STARS of the Future, because without our youth doing well, we’re in trouble… The whole acronym to STARS is Spirituality, Teamwork, Attitude, Respect, and then being a better Student and learning all we can about being a better person.”

“I’ve always thought the Mass was one of the most beautiful rituals that we have in the world.”

“I tell people, ‘Just go (to Mass) one day and listen to how many times the word ‘mercy’ and ‘peace’ is mentioned, and ‘forgiveness,’ all the positive things that, we take this spiritual walk that we need to have as Catholic men and women.”

(about going to daily Mass) “I tried it without it… and I tried it with it, and it’s so much better with it.”

Related link:

https://peterjmulryfoundation.org/

(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)

Tony Saladino

Every year since 1981 a tournament has taken place to promote high school baseball in Hillsborough County (Tampa, Florida area).  It was first established as a memorial for Tony Saladino, Sr. and has grown from eleven public schools to now a 32-team event, with 38 players that have participated in the tournament having gone on to play in the Major Leagues, 12 of which were first round draft picks.  The guest on this episode of CSR has been at the heart of all of this for all those years and is a lifelong Catholic.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was born Catholic… And we tried to instill all the spiritual stuff to our kids, grandkids, and all the players in high schools in Hillsborough County.”

“I played recreation ball, high school baseball, metro league fast pitch softball, and semi-pro baseball.”

“Regarding our high school tournament, we schedule it no Sunday games, no Sunday practices.  It’s strictly for church.”

“We want to make it a cordial, family style, safe, nostalgic event each year.”

“We used to have a breakfast for all the players before the tournament started, and (the Fellowship of Christian Athletes) would bring in various speakers to give Christian messages.”

“(Fr. Tapp) comes to the tournament opening day, when available, does a blessing to the tournament… and gives a brief message to the kids.  And he’s awesome.  Big part of my life.”

“We’re just trying to take care of these high school kids to become caring and responsible citizens.”

“I start each day by reading a daily devotional… and my personal daily mission is to help others somehow, and attempt to motivate, influence, and inspire youth and adults to progress and improve and succeed in life using faith and family involvement.”

“I admire role models that exhibit and demonstrate family and family in their lives.”

“(I pray) that no one gets hurt, that everyone succeeds in life – not only in baseball but in life – and become caring and responsible citizens.”

Related link:

Saladino Baseball Tournament website

(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)