Episodes

Megan Aaron

Having just finished her collegiate career, she was a Division I soccer player for Troy University in Alabama.  Prior to that she played her senior season at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School and served as the team’s captain after having played three seasons at Whitney High School in Rocklin, California.  Among other insights, she talks about marriage prep and her experience going on a mission trip this spring.

Guest Quotes:

“This world and Pinterest, as girls know, bombards you with how perfect (your wedding) day has to be and you lose focus on the fact that it’s not a one-day event.  This is the start of the rest of your life, and it’s a covenant and it’s a sacrament.”

“All these little things have continued to pop up throughout this whole wedding prep season.  Like, the wedding of Cana, that was Jesus’s first miracle, and it was to a married couple.  It was at a wedding.  That was His first ever public miracle.  And, just like, all these little things about marriage that I’d never even taken time to notice before until now that I’m about to become married, all these things about the sacrament and how much more weight it holds.”

“That discipline that I had as a college athlete… if I don’t continue to take it on myself, in my life, with like, daily morning prayer now and NFP classes… then I’m all out of whack – spiritually, physically, emotionally, and that’s something I’m trying to figure out now and balance now because I don’t have a coach and a team telling me when and where to be places.”

“For a lot of us I think in college is when we realize, ‘Okay, yeah, this sport has meant a lot, but there’s other things to my life now and I’m growing up and about to be in the world’.”

“I could’ve been so much more happier, so much more fuller if I was just present and content and knew that my worth didn’t come from playing minutes, goals scored, any of that stuff.  And college athletics can literally ruin you if you never realize that.”

“On Good Friday… I was just looking at the cross and I was like, … ‘I know (my fiancé) loves me.  I know he loves me a lot and I know he would do anything for me.  But this God will never let me down.  He will never hurt me.”

“The Christian friendships that I’ve created and, honestly the smaller group of genuine, intimate, authentic relationships that I founded my senior year, were life changing.”

“The more outspoken and Catholic you are the more people have issues with you and things that you’re saying ’cause it’s not of this world.  And Christ says that, we’re not going to be loved by everyone.  We’re not going to fit in everywhere.”

Related links:

Megan Aaron on Instagram

(This episode contains a prayer by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R., as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Bailey Landry

She has played softball for Team USA as well as professionally, plus she enjoyed a college career at LSU that consisted of three Women’s College World Series appearances and her being named an All American two times.  She is a relative newlywed and a cradle Catholic.  Among other great reflections, she talks about the Catholic church in Thailand that she and her husband found on their honeymoon and why it was unique in terms of imagery.

Guest Quotes:

“It really scared me after my confirmation that I was no longer going to receive formal religious education.  And so it really took me to step up and say okay well I want more, I want to dig in more, and now, knowing, okay, it’s the gifts of the Holy Spirit, working in me, drawing me closer to him, I really dove in.”

“I was a brand-new student-athlete in a whole new situation.  It was just, a lot of different things were moving.  But I was very lucky that at LSU, at Christ the King – the Catholic church on campus – they have amazing, amazing ministries there.  And so, I had a teammate that, within the first few weeks, invited me to go to adoration and praise & worship.”

“Putting yourself in front of Jesus, like, there’s no way you can’t be transformed.”

“It was big for me to have a community of people who weren’t just athletes.  I think it just kind of opened up my mind to different avenues of the faith as well.”

“It is difficult to play sports at an elite level…  That requires quite a bit of time, effort, energy, all of the above.  But so does your faith.  And so, I think that a lot of times elite athletes don’t always make the opportunities to give equal energy to both.”

“I really didn’t have solid faith-based people that I was able to lean on until I got to college, as teammates.  And so, some of my very best friends I met at LSU, who are all faith-loving women.”

“Before every at-bat I pray a Hail Mary, just to myself, in the dugout, just for the grace that Mary was able to exemplify, whether I succeed, whether I don’t.”

“They always (ask), ‘What’s your best advice on, I’m going into college – What’s your best advice?’  And one thing I always tell them is that, it’s okay to not be okay, and, to make sure that you are surrounding yourself with good people.”

Related link:

Bailey’s website

(This episode contains a prayer originally excerpted and adapted from Day By Day: The Notre Dame Prayerbook for Students by Thomas McNally, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Fr Chuck Dornquast

The team priest for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he also played football himself in high school.  He was just ordained four years ago and is currently at St. Lawrence in Tampa, Florida.  He talks about what his role with the team entails as well as how he juggles that with his responsibilities to his parish.  Plus he tells the story of his favorite moment from being on the sidelines.

Guest Quotes:

“I’m a large guy but apparently I’m too friendly to be aggressive on the football field.”

“I showed up at my parish, which is right near where the Buccaneers have their training facility and one of their key staff members is actually a parishioner here at the parish and he came to Mass one Sunday and asked the pastor if we’d be interested in providing a priest to celebrate Mass for the team.  And my pastor saw my eyes light up at the opportunity of celebrating Mass for the NFL Buccaneers and graciously offered it to me.”

“(team priest) typically goes to a seasoned guy or an experienced guy.  Many priests were baffled that it somehow found a way to fall to me.”

“I spend a lot of time with the (Buccaneers players) in meals and try to give them that ministry of presence with many of them.  They work on the typical days that Catholics connect to their parish.  And so their depth of relationship to their own parish community or to a particular priest doesn’t happen because, well, they’re busy entertaining the rest of us.  And so that’s my role, is, to give them that connection to the church.”

“My first assignment is to the parish.  That’s my first duty, my first obligation.  So, our parish Mass schedule comes first.”

“We’re… five minutes from Raymond James Stadium… So, there have been times in which I’ve celebrated the 12:30 Mass and finished Mass at 1:30, 1:35, and be on the field by 2:00.  And, so, I only miss the first quarter of the game.”

“I can be in the middle of the third quarter, on the sidelines, cheering and rooting for the team, and all the stuff going on, and then five, ten minutes later be in the confessional preparing for the 5:00 Mass.”

“What I’ve discovered, at least here in Tampa Bay, the majority of these guys are tremendous men, high quality, with tremendous love, deep faith, and they attempt to live that out in many ways.”

“Jesus Christ came to dwell in our midst and to be with us… I think for a lot of these guys their faith is what keeps them stable and balanced.”

Dr Joe Estwanik

An orthopedic surgeon who is in the Carolina Boxing Hall of Fame.  He is a past president of the Association of Ringside Physicians and was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Society.  Born and raised Catholic, he was a weightlifter back in his college days and has gone on to be involved with sports internationally, serving as a ringside doctor for boxing and MMA to the tune of over ten thousand bouts that he has been present for in his career as a ringside doctor.  Some years ago he authored a book called, “Sports Medicine for the Combat Arts,” and now, this month, he contributed a full chapter to a new worldwide textbook called, “The Sports Medicine Physician.”  He now has his sights on creating a website centered around physicians against abortion.

Guest Quotes:

“The glory is the pros and the big shows and the worldwide pay-per-views, but when it comes down to it, they all start as youth.”

“When I’m a fan I love for it to be exciting.  When I’m sitting in what I call the ‘hot seat,’ the ringside physician, the seat right at the ring, I hope for a boring fight.”

“I have loved this mission, especially taking care of the youth, the kids… I get a lot of youth, disadvantaged youth, who really haven’t been exposed to a physician.”

“I have some great stories…  As tough and rough — for instance, I traveled with our national team, USA Boxing, all over the world, and I am allowed to take a guest, and quite often my wife.  And in far away places, be it Russia, be it Bangkok, whatever it is, my wife will come along with me.  And ya’ know, here are guys fighting the toughest people all over the world for USA Boxing.  And in the end, at night, they may come in the room and just want to talk with my wife or myself and just hang around and be lonely, as tough as you think they are when they flip that switch.”

“If we can keep politics out of this, and let people just be people, I have seen our USA boxers sitting next to the competitor from whatever country it will be, and they’re sharing their radios, they’re sharing the songs, they’re sharing their headphones, they’re laughing, they’re communicating in whatever way it is, it’s just youth being youth and left to their own, it’s a great world.”

“Even Benjamin Franklin said, ‘God heals.  The doctor sends the bill’.”

“Left to ourselves, different countries… different religions, it can all work.”

“I’ve even asked in Vegas when I’ve been there for fights and they kind of look at me like I’m one strange dude asking where the church is instead of other maybe more popular questions.”

Related link:

Dr. Joe’s Sports Medicine for the Combat Arts book

(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)

Sister Rita Clare Yoches

She played professional football for four years after having previously been an athlete in another sport, having earned a full basketball scholarship to Detroit Mercy, where she played for four years.  Last year she took her final vows and became a nun, and currently she is a campus minister at Florida State University.  During this conversation you’ll hear her say – among other observations – that she definitely sees the synergy between our faith life and our sports life.

Guest Quotes:

“My story… makes me a little bit relatable because (people) see something other than just the religious garb.”

“Playing aggressive sports and having a deep faith life can go together because Jesus is the ultimate warrior and the best athlete out there and, all of sports, they mirror our image of fighting for good over evil.”

“We are all children of God and that’s the only thing that matters, and whatever we do beyond that is supposed to glorify God and it doesn’t have to fit a specific mold at all.”

“The story is God’s story.  Only God could write a story like mine.  And so it naturally does point back to the Lord in all aspects and draw people to Him.”

“People just didn’t have any idea of how happy I was on the inside with my new relationship with the Lord.  But, it wasn’t bad at all because it just became this amazing point of discussion and it turned so many people who never thought about God or talked to God to think about it after hearing my story.”

“I heard the Lord say to me, ‘You should do this, you could do this,’ and I was like, ‘Do what? Become a nun?  Are you crazy’?!”

“I felt excited, like, the Lord picked me to be His bride, but then I was like, ‘Why me? Why do I have to do this?’  And then I was like, ‘I’m not worthy to do this’.”

“All saints have a past and all sinners have a future.  The stuff that we’ve endured in our life, the evil that we’ve endured, it’s our path to heaven.  It’s what we do with it and how we allow God to turn it into good.”

Theresa Feaster

The Director of Hockey Operations at Providence College for the men’s hockey team, she is a lifelong Catholic, the oldest of five children.  Theresa attended Catholic elementary, high school (valedictorian), and college.  She talks about working at a Catholic institution, the concept of people working together as a team, and the influence of her father on her career.

Guest Quotes:

“The idea of God’s providence and the idea of providence affecting everything we do is something that I’ve really come to appreciate, maybe, especially now that I’m older.”

“All these little things happen that maybe at the time you don’t really fully understand but then you kind of look back and you go, ‘Wow, that was all part of a path that I’m on now.’  So, certainly the idea of divine providence is a huge part of (Providence College).”

“You get this general sense of community and that there’s something bigger than yourself going on here.”

“There is that overarching sense of faith and community that comes with being a Catholic institution.”

“(the Dominican friars)… have become such a huge part of my life… The relationships that I’ve been able to build with the Dominican friars, that’s something that I’m really grateful for… It certainly made my life more rich.”

“I’ve always… been drawn to the St. Francis, ‘Preach the gospel at all times, use words when necessary’.”

“We do have a team chaplain who travels with us.  He’s with us all the time…  He’s a big part of our team.”

Related link:

Providence College men’s hockey

Neal Pionk

New York Rangers defenseman Neal Pionk cautions parents about putting too high of a priority on a child’s potential hockey career.  Plus, he talks about being born into the Catholic faith and attending Catholic school (K-8), coming into the NHL, moving to and living in New York City, and what happened when he tried to attend Christmas Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Guest Quotes:

“There’s a lot more to life than just a sport.”

“Your hockey career only lasts for so long, from the time you’re five or six years old until however long, 20, 30 years if you’re fortunate.  There’s so much more to life after that.”

“Parents… think that this tryout or this game is the end-all, be-all.  Well, it’s not.  Of course it’s important and it’s fun and there’s a lot of good that can come out of it but at the end of the day hockey only lasts until you’re 30, until you’re 35 if you’re really lucky, so, that’s not even half your life really, and to put such a high value on it… it doesn’t last forever and there’s a lot more to it than just those years.”

“One of my favorite parts about New York City, I’m just the average citizen walking down the streets, no one knows who I am, which is the nice part.  Go back home to… Minnesota it’s a little different, but in New York City I’m just the common citizen, which is nice.”

“The Rangers have a team chaplain and we usually, we try to meet up – it’s a little hard with our road schedule – but we try to meet up at least once a month… He works through an organization called Hockey Ministries.  He visits us… or he’s available to talk all the time.”

Related link:

NHL.com bio on Neal Pionk

[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]