Episodes

Colleen Scariano

She grew up playing a wide array of sports, from softball, basketball, volleyball, and track, to swimming and volleyball.  She has also played golf and in tennis leagues, plus she has run a half-marathon AND a triathlon.  Present day her focus, fitness-wise, is on stretching, strength, and restorative movement, adding that she loves a good hike. She has overcome personal tragedy more than once, and, she is the co-founder of SoulCore, a Catholic fitness apostolate whose mission is to amplify the experience of prayer through physical movement. Their signature SoulCore Rosary is a 60-minute strengthening workout that is set to the prayers of the rosary.

Notable guest quotes:

“I like to say it was a chaotic and fun, lively Irish Catholic family that I grew up in, and faith really was the cornerstone.”

“My parents made the sacrifice, you know, that was definitely a financial sacrifice for them to send us to Catholic schools.  And really that was one of my first experiences in sports, was, through CYO sports.”

(when tragedy first struck their family) “I saw our Catholic faith being lived out so beautifully in the response of my parents… my mom’s response in particular was that she really surrendered to God.”

“I saw so many of the virtues of the faith lived out.  My mom’s favorite scripture verse was Romans 8:28, which is, ‘God works all things together for the good of those who love Him,’ and she believed that, that God was at work even in these trials and challenges in our family.  And she lived always with this sense of hope even in times of difficulty.”

“It’s not always easy to share difficult things, especially tragic things, that we’ve been through in our life but there’s always healing when we’re able to share our story and obviously we touch other people through the stories that we share because we all share the experience of suffering and trial in some way in our lives.”

“I just surrendered to God in a deeper way than I ever had before, and I guess the best way to say it is that I went all in with my Catholic faith and with my devotion to God, and He is so faithful.”

“St. Teresa of Avila says that ‘all things suffered in love will be healed,’ and we know that God is love, so when we turn to God and truly entrust all of our suffering, all of our broken, all of our woundedness, He is so faithful.”

“The rosary – as I’ve learned through my own journey – is really a transformative and a healing instrument of peace.”

“Those became really the most powerful times of prayer for me when I was out running.  I wasn’t distracted by other things and truly that combination of prayer and movement became a healing instrument that would restore my grief back to a sense of peace and a sense of hope and even eventually leading me back to a return to joy.”

“I was invited on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje and when I was there a priest said to me, ‘When you go back, the Blessed Mother is going to have a mission for you’.”

“I love that on many of these pilgrimages we’ve been able to incorporate movement and exercise and things like that too, so, again, that combination of sports and athletics and movement in the faith.”

Related link:

SoulCore official website

Fr Steve Kim

He has been the Catholic chaplain for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers for the last eight years, which have included two trips to the Super Bowl. He was a competitive golfer, to the point of having considered going pro at one point, AND he did a 53-mile walk from East San Jose to East San Francisco as part of a fundraiser. He is the founder and president of several non-profits, was ordained to the priesthood at age 25 back in 2011, and just celebrated one year of serving as the principal at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, near Oakland. He not only earned a BA in philosophy and religious studies from Santa Clara University (SCU), but, earned three degrees at Saint Patrick’s Seminary and University, PLUS, he went back to SCU for his master’s degree and then got his doctorate from the University of Southern California.

Notable guest quotes:

“In Korea there’s about ten percent Catholics and – there’s not too many, but, yeah – I was fortunate enough to grow up in a Catholic family… I remember, ya’ know, memories of going to church as a kid in Korea.”

“My mom… she said, ‘Well Steven, you know, your mom’s not an athlete, your dad’s not an athlete, our whole family, we don’t have a history of great athletes.  I mean not that you can’t be a great athlete,’ but so she said, ‘Well, the only sport you might have a chance for, like a scholarship, that might be golf’.”

“Golf is like a lifelong sport, you know, and you really get to meet people and, you know, it’s really taught me a lot of life lessons as well.”

“When I was a junior in high school, I was kind of really thinking, praying – there wasn’t like this one like light bulb kind of epiphany moment – but it was kind of like this idea, ‘Hey, like, maybe I want to do something that helps people, that serves people, going beyond just my own selfish desires’.”

“When I considered the priesthood, that’s really kind of being self-led, right, and to really lay down your life for God, and to serve others, and to be somebody that not just heals people physically, but, a doctor of souls, you know, just to help people, you know, in the end, bringing people closer to God and ultimately to heaven.”

“If you look at the history of the church, in the darkest times we have people that step up, whether it was during Jesus’s time or, I think the 20^th, 21st century – 20^th century – had the most number of martyrs who gave up their faith for Jesus, in the history of the Catholic Church.”

“There’s a difference between happiness and joy, right, a lot of things bring us happiness, right, where, you know, money gives you happiness, maybe being in a relationship gives you happiness, but being in a relationship with God, that’s true joy, sustained joy.”

“I would use the analogy of kind of like the body of Christ, right?  So, we have different parts of the body but they all function and work together as a team, as the body of Christ.  And in a sports team there’s so many moving parts, it’s not just the players.”

“Whether you’re the MVP, whether you’re the general manager, whether you’re the grounds crew, whether you’re the logistics, equipment manager, whatever you’re doing, it’s a great opportunity to evangelize in whatever capacity you’re serving, it’s an opportunity to glorify God.”

“First and foremost, I’m a priest because of my mission to serve God and to serve people… I don’t have to go around and tell people, hey it’s my mission, like, I wear a collar, you know, I think it’s pretty obvious, right?  It’s through my actions.”

“The busiest people have the highest need to pray even more, so… give God the first hour.”

Related link:

Fr. Kim’s bio on St. Joseph Notre Dame High School website

Ciaran Clarke

He is an undefeated professional MMA fighter, currently boasting a 9-0 won-lost record, with his most recent victory having come on March 22nd, winning by way of a third-round submission in a featherweight match, after which he said, “I feel really great in this weight class and please with the help of God we can keep this streak going.” He hails from Dublin, Ireland, and is signed to Bellator MMA. From March 2012 to November 2018, he had 24 fights as an amateur. He had begun his combat sports journey through boxing at age 12 before transitioning to MMA a few years later.

Notable guest quotes:

“It was very much a Catholic household … Every Sunday, obviously, go to Mass and every night we’d say our prayers and again as a young kid, a lot of people think of praying as it’s maybe asking for something or praying for better days.  Well, actually when we were young, we were just praying for world peace or maybe there was a trial in someone’s life that we knew, or praying for good health and being thankful, to be honest.  It was actually praying to God to be thankful for things and also that was a big thing growing up when we were young.”

“In Ireland… when I was going to school, all the schools were Catholic.  You know, we made our first communion, confirmation, that was just, like, it’s a part of our culture and Ireland’s had great faith and still has.”

“When I was growing up, me being the eldest, I kind of had a little bit of a, you know, a bit of responsibility in my own young mind of kind of, I don’t know, like I had this responsibility of like kind of being, I suppose, the man of the house type thing.”

“As I became, you know, definitely as a professional … I would say, you know, the sport that I’m doing, definitely made me grow stronger in my faith.”

“What I pray for is the courage and the strength to get through the training, to stay injury-free, leading up to the fight, go in there healthy, and then for the two of us, the two competitors, which is myself and the other guy I’m competing against, to fight safely and go home to our families, win, lose, or draw.”

“I never (pray), you know, to win, you know, because, of course, you have to submit to God’s Will.  And that’s another thing, you know, I’m learning to deal with, you know, but like, I think that has most definitely, you know, my faith has grown massively in that.”

“When you really do put 100% trust in God, you know, you don’t have a lot of anxieties and it definitely relieves it.”

“As we all know, with great faith comes miracles.  And I know, you know, what God has done for me, and He’s never let me down.”

“We… always try and, in the area, you know, of the fight, we… always get to Mass that day.  And that would be a big thing like, you know, it’s we’ve created that kind of, I suppose, if you want to call it a ritual, you know, pre-fight ritual, you know, we go to Mass that day.”

Related link:

Ciaran Clarke on Instagram

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

Anna Zschuppe

She grew up playing soccer from the age of 9 and played goalkeeper and striker for AC Premier, Croatia Cleveland, and Kirtland High School and was trained under some notable former U.S. national team players.  She also has received her youth futsal/indoor referee license from the U.S. Soccer Federation, and she served as the girls’ head soccer coach at Braves Soccer Academy for U9-U11 teams for two years.  She now partners with Ignite Athlete Training in Dallas, Texas, as a soccer trainer. Meanwhile, she quit her six-figure, Fortune 500 job in corporate America as an HR consultant at age 26 to start her own business helping faith-based believers who feel like they’ve hit a breaking point in their lives or careers to discover their unique purpose, boost their confidence, and become the most authentic versions of themselves while keeping Christ as the focal point through mind-body-spirit wellness and connection.

Notable guest quotes:

“I quickly fell into soccer… and soccer is something that is huge within my family.  My dad, he was almost on a professional league for soccer.  My grandfather also played division one in Germany.”

(in college) “Easter Sunday hit and there was just something in me that said, you know, I missed Mass, like, I actually missed going to Palm Sunday Mass, going to Easter Sunday, so that’s when I started going… I started realizing, oh wait, I actually want this to be a part of my life, to some capacity.”

“The things that I learned in that season and was still able to love and participate in soccer and just a different way than I expected, was such a gift, such a blessing.”

“I was hitting this roadblock… of … I’m trying to get all of my happiness by all of these things I’m involved in: Bible studies, community groups, hanging out with people, having a different relationship with a different person, but I was still feeling unhappy.”

“You need to rewrite those lies with God’s compassion and truth.”

“I was really building this authentic relationship with the Lord, and I was actually having two-way conversations with Him, like, things that I would see and envision and hear from Him and everything.”

“That gave me the courage.  I knew the mission that the Lord had on my heart.”

“It was definitely a surrender.  I had to trust in the Lord that this purpose that He has for me, that it’s going to ablaze.”

“The Lord doesn’t call us to do easy things.  He actually asks us to take up our cross and follow Him.  The yoke is easy, his burden is light.  So, taking on his yoke, and for me, when I realized that, I was like, it would be a disservice if I didn’t follow this.”

“One of the things I realized in soccer was how much of a high achiever I was – that I wanted to find my identity by looking good on the soccer field.”

“Why is it that we have these beliefs that we have to look good, that our identity is tied into our sports life?  That we have to be liked and approved by others when, really, the person is the Lord, and He already sees us as perfect, whole, and complete.”

Related links:

Anna’s official website
Anna’s Linktree
FREE 15-Minute Prayer Session with Anna
FREE Coach Over Coffee Session with Anna
“Sacred Wounds: Stories of Redemption, Healing and Growth” Book
“TAG Talks Transcribed” Book

(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)

Claudio Reilsono

He has had a long career in baseball, including being the all-time leader in wins as coach of the Carnegie Mellon University baseball team, which he guided to consecutive conference championships in 2015 and 2016.  As a professional scout, he has assisted in professional player signings all over the world and in 2002 was named General Manager of the Global Scouting Bureau.  He is also a professional hitting instructor, conducting his own hitting camps in several states and serving as a hired instructor at many baseball camps. He was voted into the “Steel City Sports” Hall of Fame in 2014, and is the author of a book called, “Lead from the Heart Up, Not the Neck Up.”

Notable guest quotes:

“My mom is the one who taught me things, talked to me about God, about prayers, Italian prayers and the importance of having it in your life and faith.”

“I remember going by our church and I didn’t realize I did it so audibly, so loud, that I used to pray, ‘Please don’t let my daddy go blind.  Please don’t let my daddy go blind.’ … My dad never went blind… Three or four doctors told him that he had glaucoma, and he was going to go blind… He would tell you, ‘It was little Claud’s prayers that got me through’.”

“My uncle used to work over at Three Rivers Stadium, where the Pirates and Steelers used to play.”

“My dad had a landscape business.  I learned how to switch hit (by) hitting apples and rocks.  So, I was constantly hitting and swinging and throwing and my mom used to say if there was a baseball in the air you could be sure Claudio is underneath it.”

“I got a job at Quigley Catholic High School for a whopping 800 dollars a year, but I enjoyed those two years, and we were playing in a tournament one time, and I remember my dad told me, he said, “I’m very proud of you.’  He said, ‘You treated this Quigley Catholic baseball team as if it were the Yankees.  You bloomed where you were planted’.”

“I’ve had a lot of negatives, banana peels, I’ll call them, that I had to avoid.  I learned a lot.  I learned that through faith, that’ll help you get through.”

“That day, I always say, the good Lord presented me, said, ‘Here, Claudio, this is your gift,’ you know, ‘This is it, this is going to be your day’.”

“Without the good Lord’s presence and my parents, (I) guarantee you all those accolades or jobs or whatever opportunities I’ve had would not have occurred.”

“The good Lord would have said, ‘Hey, have faith, in a couple years you’re going to be at that ballpark.  You’re going to sign that guy on TV.  You’re going to sign that guy’s nephew.’  Things can happen in life.”

“How did they happen?  I always say, Very simply; through faith, through hard work, perseverance, or, I condense it into the word T-O-P-P – I had to be tough, I had to overcome, I had to be persistent, and I had to pray.”

“Everything I do is from a Christian foundation.  That’s how I was raised.”

Related link:

Claudio’s official 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.)

Mark Aylward

He has played sports his whole life. He was captain, All-Star, and MVP of his high school baseball team and a starter on their varsity basketball team.  Collegiately he attended Notre Dame and played in the Bookstore Basketball Tournament all four years that he was in college.  After high school he had continued to play in a variety of sports into his middle age, including softball, tennis, golf, and basketball, across multiple leagues. Present day, he continues his exercise in the form of walking, yoga, stretching, and calisthenics.  He also has been an avid sports fan his whole life.  And, he has created a free, downloadable publication called, “Find Your True Purpose: A Simple Workbook to Help You Connect Your Gift to Your Work.”

Notable guest quotes:

“Two of my uncles were priests, and one of my aunts was a nun, who eventually left the church; not left Catholicism, she left the church with a priest in her parish, and they got married and spent the rest of their lives together as practicing Catholics.”

“We were in Catholic school the next year.  It was a good move, because we did, we got a lot of discipline, and I can only imagine how challenging school would have been for me if we never made that transition.”

“My brother played, we played on the same teams growing up.  We were undefeated for three years in a row in Little League when my father was a coach.”

“(At Notre Dame) it was a wonderful experience.  I certainly got the whole Catholic environment culture vibe.  You know, professors talked about it openly.  There were events, Catholic events all the time everywhere.”

“The nature of my fatherhood was so intense.  I took them everywhere.  I went to all their games.  I met with all their teachers.  I worked from gymnasiums and dance recital studios.”

“So, I did some self-reflection and I thought, you know, this can go two ways.  This can go bad and sinful, or this could be a really good opportunity to reconnect with God.”

“One of my favorite things that I’ve ever heard one of the priests say is, you know the one thing that we all have in common here is we’re all sinners.”

“Everything I do is spiritually influenced and, you know, I’m very thankful to God as often as I can be.”

“It’s become much like my faith, you know, practicing, my exercise and my breathing and my visualization and meditation and prayer, and then walking, getting out in the sun and exercising my lungs, when I miss a day or two, I can feel it.  It’s no different than when I miss a day of reading that prayer in the morning, which I almost never do.”

Related link:

Mark’s official 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)

Paul Joel

He has a miraculous health-related story. On the sports side, he played football in high school and college, including in the Glenwood Football League and training camp with the New York Jets’ farm team. During his first two years he became the best table tennis player in college. As a Pulmonary Fellow at Mass General Hospital, he worked with some of the world-class runners competing from the Boston Marathon. He is the author of a novel called, “A Man Like You and Me: A Supernatural Adventure Story,” whose purpose, he says, is to increase faith in God in the reader, and is about supernatural events that started in his life in 1982.

Notable guest quotes:

“I had a kind of a rough childhood, kind of I was always alone… the only way that I made friends was on these sports teams.  So, sports was kind of like a saving grace – suddenly you have friends.”

“We were high school kids, and we were playing against men who were like 25, 26, 30 (years old).  I played four years in that league, and we won the championship three times.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night and the orthopedic surgeon, a resident, sawed open the cast and my foot was paralyzed and numb.  So, I had a numb, semi-paralyzed — the strength came back but since 1971, that was the end of football and that was also the end of being an orthopedic surgeon.”

“All of the Boston Marathon elite athletes would come through and they would get tested.  And, of course, they could do much more exercise than I could because they were world-class athletes, but when it came to the anaerobic threshold, the part where you’re now making lactic acid because you’re using up more oxygen than you’re taking in, I was able to go further than any of those people.”

“I get a message.  I don’t hear anything, it’s just somebody who’s just talking right into my brain.  ‘I love you, your sins are forgiven,’ and suddenly I’m all happy and I’m excited and the creator of the universe just communicated with me.”

“My wife… she’s a firm believer… a fine graduate of Catholic high and very devout Catholic.”

“I look back where the light is and I see a Christmas tree for a few seconds.  That disappears.  And I see an Easter candle for a few seconds.  That disappears.  And then I see the face of Jesus and I’m petrified.”

“We’re in Rome… in October 1982, western Europe, on Europasses, and I’m walking up the Spanish steps and I look up and I see the Holy family with baby Jesus… and that’s important because that’s the reason why we went to Barcelona, to see the sacred family church.”

“On April 29, 2022, miraculously my memory comes back.  What’s even more of a miracle is all the MRIs showed that the parts of my brain responsible for memory were destroyed.”

Related link:

Paul’s official website

[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]