Episodes

Antwyne DeLonde

He was Varsity Basketball Coach for seven years at The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland. On the business side, he joined forces with NBA legend Walt “The Wizard” Williams to assist former NFL player Wale Ogunleye with the UBS Sports and Entertainment Division. Together, they revolutionized wealth management for elite clients, including the National Basketball Players Association, and brokered historic deals such as connecting Players TV Media Group — a collective powered by icons like Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving — with UBS. He is also a U.S. Army combat veteran, and he demonstrated a true Christian heart by quitting his seven-figure job to create a social impact company that focuses on financial education for the underprivileged.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was raised Baptist, and I decided to convert to Catholicism back in 2017 when it was time for my son to get baptized and we wanted to make sure that he was brought into one faith.”

“When I was in Iraq in 2003 … I had an opportunity to open my mind to religion on a deeper and spiritual level.  It was probably the first time that I saw people who were in doubt just based on the circumstances of being in war.  And with that, it made me open up my Bible more and get more in tune with my faith.”

“Leaving Iraq and coming back into the States, it made me think about what I wanted to do and who was really guiding me, who actually protected me, to make it out of the circumstances that I was in, who guided me on the path that I am today.”

“Growing up in San Antonio, I would … go to the San Antonio basketball camps, whether it was David Robinson, I was good friends with George Gervin’s son, George Gervin Jr., and so just growing up and seeing basketball played at a very high level within San Antonio made me really interested in playing basketball.”

“I just knew that I wanted to coach because I wanted to give back to the game from a mentorship standpoint.  And that’s kind of how I viewed coaching was being in a position to coach up young men.”

“I grew up in the church.  My grandmother was a deacon in the church and so we grew up in a small church and so we were the church, right?  So just about every day I spent time in the church.”

“The opportunity of potentially playing basketball for Norfolk State University was also really intriguing to me after having several conversations with the coach leading up to me arriving (there).”

“Every trip that we took, we were in imminent danger … it gets very dark in Iraq early and so … it tested my faith, right?  I had to believe in the divine power in order to get through every single mission and that’s what got me through is my faith, which is something that I carried through today and I’ve always said that God provides vision with provision.”

“I actually ran and currently still run a mentorship program with the varsity basketball team.”

“Faith teaches discipline.  And to me, that’s what the army also represented was discipline.  And it goes back to being disciples, right?  And so, I felt that my faith allowed me to be a disciple, whether it was in the boardroom, whether it was coaching, or whether it was being a father and a husband.”

“When I received that calling, I started to do a deeper dive into myself through my faith, with my wife and my son.  And I realized that while I got great at making wealthy people wealthier, there was a system built for individuals that felt forgotten.  And my purpose became led by that call.”

“I had done everything I wanted to do at a young age, and I still felt unfulfilled, and it was God telling me that I hadn’t done enough.”

Related link:

Antwyne’s bio on his company website

(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.)

Todd Botto

He is a Professor of Athletic Training & Sports Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Over the last 30+ years he has worked in higher education teaching the next generation of athletic training and physical therapy students. He has also practiced clinically in a variety of athletic settings providing medical and rehabilitative services, including having worked as an athletic trainer in professional baseball here in the U.S. and professional soccer in Costa Rica. He was also the Rehabilitation Coordinator, Head Basketball and Assistant Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Southern Mississippi. He worked as a private consultant in the industrial athletic training setting and has provided medical coverage for numerous high school and private athletic events. Over his three-plus decades of professional service he has provided medical coverage for an estimated 7500 athletic events.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was about six years old when I started competitive swimming, and I played baseball and basketball.  I did that all the way up through about 14 years old and then I eventually got a part-time job at 14 and I stopped playing sports at that area, but I always had interest in sports and later on I got involved in sports medicine.”

“At (age) 21 I had an accident in the summer … I fell 27 feet on the concrete and broke six bones, herniated two cervical disks, ended up in a wheelchair for a little while and it really changed my career path… During my rehab … the athletic trainers … did my rehabilitation and that’s why I first learned about the field of athletic training and became interested in that.”

“I wanted to go into communications because ESPN just kind of started up some years earlier and I was thinking about going to work at ESPN because I wanted to be around sports in some fashion.  I didn’t know sports medicine existed.”

“On my drive home, I decided I had to change career paths just because I thought I wasn’t leading the life that God wanted me to live.”

“My career became everything; it really became my God.  Where you spend your time is where your God is, where you spend your attention is.”

“God was really like Santa Claus to me in a way; I wanted to believe in them, but I never really felt Him in my life.”

“When we think of practicing like in a sports sense, you’re thinking about somebody giving their all to get better.  And as a practicing Catholic I wasn’t doing that.  I was basically kind of going through whatever motions I thought at the time would check the box.”

“I prayed asking the Blessed Mother – and I still do it to this day – to bring the people into my life that are gonna help me and redirect me towards God.”

“The big thing is – in Medjugorje – is that you could feel that God’s really there.  I really truly believe the Blessed Mother’s there.  It’s something that I cannot explain.  We saw the statue of the risen Christ weep at the top of Cross Mountain.”

Related link:

Todd’s bio on Quinnipiac website

Chase Crouse

He played tennis and beach volleyball in high school and the latter when he was a student-athlete at Texas State University. Present day he participates in mixed martial arts, lifting weights, hiking, and doing Spartan races. He is co-founder of and fitness director for Hypuro Fit, whose mission is to bring a technically excellent and authentically Catholic approach to personal training. He also has a story about his own reversion to the Catholic faith, which he shares during this interview.

Notable guest quotes:

“My dad loosely non-denominational agnostic and my mom growing up was more of like a cultural Mexican Catholic, but she had her reversion later in life, so growing up we were nominally Catholic but not practicing by any means.”

“My dad actually was a semi-professional beach volleyball player.  So, I was kind of playing with that a little bit when I was in middle school but nothing too seriously and then by the time I got to high school I settled on tennis so that was kind of my main sport in high school and then eventually beach volleyball.”

“I got confirmed when I was in high school.  My mom made me go through the confirmation process.  It was kind of just like a check box kind of thing.  And I kind of got a little bit more into my faith going into junior and senior year.  I’d met some friends at the local church.  By that point I was already getting into partying and drinking and at first, I didn’t realize that those are two contradictory things.”

“Tennis was everything for me for a number of years.  I was playing on average, like, two to four hours a day.  Me and my doubles partner were ranked number four in the state of Texas at one point in doubles and colleges started emailing me and my parents probably my sophomore year going into my junior year.”

“I thought I was going to go to college.  I thought I was going to do it as a, maybe I don’t know if as a career, but something very serious and God had other plans.”

“Basically, my whole first year at Texas State I was never an atheist, right?  I was never agnostic.  I was always ‘Catholic,’ it was not part of my life at all.  I didn’t give it much thought.”

“The next thought struck me, and this was the Holy Spirit speaking to me, which was, if I died right now where would I be.  And for 19-year-old Chase that was a terrifying question.”

“I knew, like really knew, and experienced, that Jesus was real and that he loved me and that I should be striving more and more to do everything I can to honor, love, and serve him.”

“God just put this fire in my heart to serve him and so I wanted to tell others about his mercy and so I became a missionary and while I was a missionary that’s when I really fell in love with theology and knowledge for the first time and that’s when I knew I wanted to go back to school and study it more formally.”

“I eventually went to a school called John Paul the Great Catholic University to finish my undergrad, so I got an undergrad degree in what was called the new evangelization (which) was the name of the degree, which was essentially a theology and a philosophy degree.”

Related link:

Hypuro Fit website

Ryan Evans

He is in his second season as an assistant coach for women’s swimming and diving at the University of Kansas.  Prior to joining the Jayhawks staff, he was the head coach at the University of Mary, and before that he had been an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico.  Prior to moving into the college coaching ranks, he was the head coach of Reno Aquatic Club from 2018-21.  As a student-athlete he graduated from and swam at the University of Iowa, where he was named the team captain for the 2008-09 season.  He also received the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and the Iowa Swimming Leadership Award in 2009.  He has a compelling story about his reversion back to the Catholic faith.

Notable guest quotes:

“Parents were Catholic, went to Mass, still go to Mass every Sunday, and I attended a Catholic school first through high school, graduated from Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno, Nevada.”

“I grew up playing all the sports.  Baseball was probably my first love and then I spent some years playing basketball, but swimming has always kind of been a theme in my family… my uncle was a long-time swim coach, and my oldest brother was an All-American swimmer in high school.”

“One of my good friends decided to open up a specialty running store in Reno and he offered me the manager position, he wanted me to help him open the store.  So, I was the manager of Reno Running Company.”

“I told her, ‘I’ve always wanted to marry someone who was Catholic.’  I didn’t know why at that point but that was super important to me.”

“Sitting there (watching) this documentary… and a light bulb went off in my head and looking back now, that’s the moment that kick started my faith and my faith journey.”

“That was God’s plan, was for us to move to Albuquerque, and the reasons for that, there’s kind of three things that happened to me with my faith journey in Albuquerque.”

“It’s so amazing and beautiful to see how God has worked in our lives.”

“I started to do some research after reading the job description and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a faithful Catholic university!  This is something that we’re looking for’!”

“I think our faith gets stronger and it deepens when we’re in a community that maybe isn’t as accepting or as open to the Catholic faith.”

Related link:

Ryan’s bio on UofK website

(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.)

Alex DiVerde

He played football in high school but also competed in track, which became his long-term sport. Having broken a school record in indoor 4x800m relay in high school, he went on to compete for four years at Bradley University where he also broke a school record. Post-college he has continued to run, including five marathons and one 50-mile ultra marathon. He even qualified for and ran in the Boston Marathon.  Plus, since 2018 he has backpacked approximately five thousand miles across a handful of trails, including the Appalachian Trail.

Notable guest quotes:

“Both my parents were cradle Catholics, and I was as well… and then both sets of grandparents were devout practicing Catholics as well.”

“Sports were always a big part of, I guess, our family’s life and my life.  (I) played the laundry list of common sports that Americans could play growing up.  It was mostly soccer, and then track when it came around growing up, and then there was some basketball mixed in there, some baseball mixed in there, and then football and track were the focus in high school.”

“When I was taking a look at schools, I was having a number of, like, D3 schools reach out to me, but I really wanted to go and walk on at some division one school that would take me.”

“I went from playing football and running mostly sprint type training to basically running cross country or distance training.  So, I went from running 15 miles a week to 50 or 60, by the time end of freshman year rolled around.  So, I was training a lot harder than I ever had and putting way more work into running.”

“I put this, like, being a division one runner on this pedestal and it didn’t exactly live up to what I expected or what I wanted it to be and started looking around a little bit and asking God a little bit, like, ‘Okay… there’s got to be more’.”

“They had a football player for Northwestern come and give a talk basically about his faith experience in college… pretty much as soon as that talk was done, I went up to one of the missionaries that was there and was like, ‘Hey, my name is Alex.  I’m going to join your Bible study’.”

“I went on a FOCUS mission trip to the Philippines, and that’s where there was a group of four staff missionaries and maybe 10 or 11 students that went, ministered to the folks in poor areas there, and helped to build some homes while we were there, and it was through that trip and experience that God, very loud and clear, was like, ‘Hey, I’ve given you these talents in other areas for what you’re studying, but I want you to spend a couple years serving with FOCUS after college’.”

“(God is) going to speak to us.  He puts these desires on our hearts, and He’s going to speak to us … in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows… I had this idol of being a division one athlete, being able to call that my own, and, to a certain extent, He kind of broke that idol down a little bit, or, helped me to realize that He was the one who gave me those talents, but even though I had good talents at running, there’s much bigger things in life than just running fast around a track.”

“We were in Trinidad and Tobago and the main sport was soccer.  So, we’d spend the first half of the day running a soccer camp for the kids in Trinidad and Tobago in the community we were serving at.  And then in the second half of the day, we would run – most of the kids were younger, so it probably felt a little bit more like vacation Bible school or religious ed that you might experience here in the States and like that – so we spent a week and a half over winter break doing that year.”

“I find that sports is a very natural way to connect with other people to connect with other men.  So, I feel like that is, like, some of the guys there have very much, like, we have come together because we have shared common sports activities and whether it’s running, basketball, I feel like snowboarding and skiing is another very common one being in the upper Midwest and that being something you can do in winter that we spend a lot of time connecting while we’re doing those activities and that definitely helps us to be able to connect together, both together and with God for sure.”

[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]

Daniel Maigler

He played football his freshman year of high school, moved on to discus and two conference championships in that sport, and then went on to a long career in lacrosse, a sport that he remains involved with to this day. He played for the Illinois Wesleyan University Club Lacrosse team, Oxford University, and Second City/Windy City Men’s Club, and he still plays in an over-30 league. On top of all that, he not only has officiated lacrosse, but has coached five high school teams since 2001, plus, Park Ridge Youth Lacrosse, which he has now been coaching for three years.  (Be forewarned of two emotional stories in the second half of this episode.)

Notable guest quotes:

“I am a cradle Catholic… So … we were a weekly Mass family.”

“In the football two-a-days, I ended up having another player step on my back and ended up with a stress fracture in my L5 vertebrae… they said I should never play contact sports again.”

“This Catholic Life Community, it filled me up and gave me a sense of purpose, mission and just reason to have hope.”

“I had this desire to live a life of service.”

“I ended up changing from there to go to work at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Chicago.  And that’s when I was able to start doing the coaching alongside that because my passion for lacrosse that I picked up in college.”

“In so many ways, it’s not even what we necessarily say to kids.  It’s, we are an example of what they’re seeing of, what is a man like and how do we model for them?  How do we mentor them through our behaviors, through our actions, of sharing our values day to day in all the things we do in the way we carry ourselves?”

“We’re all role models, whether we want to be or not. Our only choice is whether to be a positive role model or a negative role.”

“The saving grace for me was the service work because I think … sometimes when we give service to others, it helps to heal our heart.”

“There’s … no reason why we can’t treat each other respectfully.  There’s no reason why there has to be trash talk.  There’s no reason why our victory has to be someone else’s loss.”

“For as long as I can remember my entire career, I’ve said the prayer of St. Francis every day… And when my father passed away, he actually, in going through his things, he had a little keychain with the prayer of St. Francis on a medallion, and I got to take that… it gave me a special extra connection with my father.”

Related links:

Paws For Patrick
Coaching Boys Into Men

(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.)

Taryn Wright Campbell

She is the Head Varsity Volleyball Coach at St. Francis Catholic High School in Sacramento, California, where she was previously the head junior varsity and assistant varsity volleyball coach. As a student-athlete there she had led the team to the state championship as a junior in 2005 before later going on to earn three All-Big Sky Conference awards at the University of Montana. Her coaching career began as a student assistant at Montana and included a stop at Nevada as a volunteer assistant and director of volleyball operations.  She also coached club ball for Northern Nevada Juniors.

Notable guest quotes:

“I did go to Catholic school from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade.  The school I went to, my mom was actually a teacher at, and we would go to Sunday Masses as a family when we were younger.  My dad was actually baptized when I was in college.”

“I eventually started working at a Catholic school with my mom and have been there ever since, and I love being able to teach kids about the faith, talk to them about it, be able to pray with them daily.”

“It’s very important for me to raise my kids the same way as my parents did.”

“I did play other sports growing up.  I did play soccer up until my sophomore year in high school… and tournaments ended up being on the same weekends.  And so, I obviously couldn’t be in two places at once… and, my dad, in the end, he basically told me, ‘Look, you need to figure out which one you love to practice more because you’re going to do that way more than you’re going to compete.’ … That hands down turned to volleyball for me.”

“I always had my own personal prayer that I would do before every match.”

“We did a lot of projects out with the community.  We did a Habitat for Humanity project one time as a team, which was very impactful to see what we could do on a day off of practice to help those less fortunate than us.  We would go into different classrooms and read stories to the kids, and just seeing the impact that we as athletes could have to these kids that we don’t even know was huge.”

“I feel like as a coach, kind of reminding these girls that there’s more than just the sport out there in life and part of my job as a coach is not only to teach them those skills, but to teach them how to be good young women.  Because if I’m not teaching them those life lessons, those skills, encouraging them to go do these service hour things, I’m not doing my job because I should be teaching them more than just volleyball.”

“One of the beauties of being able to teach at a Catholic school is I get to talk about Christ every single day.  I get to talk about Him in science, not just in religion.”

“The last couple years we as a school incorporated the virtues into our daily practice.  We would have quotes on a different virtue and so we kind of relate back to that pretty consistently.”

Related link:

Taryn’s volleyball bio on St. Francis High School 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)