Episodes

Matt Yoches

The Director of Football Operations at Miami University in Ohio, where he is also the team chaplain. Among the many tasks he handles is being the liaison for NFL scouts. He had played football collegiately (winning two national championships) and went on to serve on the coaching staff of his alma mater (Grand Valley State).  He was born and raised Catholic and is married and the father of two.  LISTEN FOR HIS BIG REVEAL AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW!

Notable guest quotes:

“As I grew in my faith, and, I had my times that were not the brightest and not something I was proud of, but, I made mistakes along the way, and had some challenges with my faith and had some challenges just being a teenager and growing up.  But eventually I felt at home at church.  If anything, the one hour on Sunday in church made more sense than any other hour of the day.”

“My connection to God became, ‘Well I’ve got this great talent.  How do I use that to glorify God’?”

“That was always a desire of mine, was to make the most of the talent that God had given me… My desire was to do that every way, shape, or form that I possibly could.”

“Saturday morning we attended Mass as a team and before we got on the bus we would pray as a team in front of the Virgin Mary.”

“I would always say the prayer and I would always be very reverent and devout at that time and then as soon as I got on the bus I felt like, ‘Hey, I gotta flip the switch and I gotta be a football player and I gotta leave God there and do whatever I possibly could on the field to be successful’.”

“I learned eventually, Hey, you don’t leave God in the locker room when you go out to play.”

“He was highly successful, played for my Detroit Lions, but … more than anything was a man of God.  And he was someone who was someone who was not afraid to share his faith with anyone.  And he was one of the first people that showed me that you don’t leave God in the locker room.”

“Your faith isn’t just something you practice quietly, with your hands folded, on your knees, in church, by yourself.”

“I enjoy serving others.  I enjoy being the person behind the scenes.”

“I’m just here to help God do some of the work that He needs to get done.”

“He called me to become a husband and He called me to become a father and that’s my vocation and I’m proud of that.”

Related link:

Matt’s Miami University bio page

[This episode contains a prayer by Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception (Oldenburg, IN) Athletic Director Tim Boyle, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport]

Dr. Kelly Morrow

In the lead-up to Super Bowl Sunday, we talk about domestic violence. Plus, in the wake of cheating being a hot topic in MLB news lately, we cover that as well.  In addition, there’s a discussion on “participation trophies” and playing time.  Plus, there’s practical advice for listeners to take away.  All this and more from a professional and spiritual perspective via the Clinical Psychologist at Saint Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, where part of her work includes meeting with priests, religious, and lay men & women who are seeking faith-based counseling.  With a sports background herself, she also works with seminarians attending the Institute for Priestly Formation and conducts psychological evaluations for individuals interested in entering seminary, the deaconate, or religious communities.  She is a member of both the Catholic Psychotherapy Association and the Catholic Medical Association.

Notable guest quotes:

“Whenever we try to cherry pick from the Bible certain verses to justify our behavior, it’s probably not legitimate.  It’s probably not actually going to be on target.  And, you’re trying to make up excuses for something that actually is probably sinful behavior.”

“There’s ego-oriented athletes… They want to be better than everybody else.  They want the glory.  They kind of just assume that they’ve got all the tools they need.  And they may or may not give any credit to God.  It may just be that ‘I’m just that good’.”

“The emphasis should be on what’s best for the kids, not what’s going to make the parents happy and feed their egos and make them proud of their kids.”

“There was a study done by Project Play in 2014 and they asked kids why they play sports… And they say, ‘For fun.  It’s fun.  That’s why I play.’ … And ‘earning a trophy or medals,’ that went clear down to number 67 in this list of things that make sports fun for kids.  So that’s what the kids are telling us, but us parents, we think things very differently.”

“Winning and losing, both teach us life lessons that can be translated into other spheres than athletics.

“With winning, realizing that ‘my abilities come from God.’  So, keeping our ego in check by realizing, ‘Okay, I’m only able to really hit that ball because God’s given me the ability to do that’.”

“Your worth, your value as a human being, comes from God and being God’s son or daughter, not by your performance and your trophies that you achieve playing athletics and sports.”

“Keeping in mind that we are the temple of God and He has created this body and so we need to treat it with respect and care.”

Related link:

St. Paul VI Institute

[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]

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)