Episodes

Bill Bommarito

He has written a book on coaching youth sports, which just came out at the start of this month and is titled, “Beyond the Skills and Drills: The Keys to Successfully Coaching Youth Sports.” He has been involved with both high school and youth sports for 47 years. In addition, his nationwide coaching and parenting seminars have been attended or watched by nearly one hundred thousand participants.  He was previously a guest on this show more than three-and-a-half years ago, back on Episode 78, and since then has had two impactful developments in his family that are part of the very emotional testimony he shares here.

Notable guest quotes:

(Regarding the passing of three siblings) “As a family we immediately turned to our Catholic faith and to the good Lord in prayers… We held onto our faith… and it made all the difference in the world as to how we walked that walk.”

(Regarding a devastating diagnosis during Bill’s daughter’s pregnancy) “We had a dear parish priest, who we love dearly, who shared with us some words that completely changed… how we looked at this devastating news.”

“Just FYI, for your audience, there is a thing in the Catholic church called ‘baptism by desire’.”

(Regarding the daughter Bill’s pregnant daughter was carrying) “Father Mike replies and… went on to say – and this was a game-changer for us, absolute game-changer – here’s what he wrote.  ‘Before she became your daughter, she was first and remains always God’s daughter… You two have been chosen to carry her to the doorway of our eternal home’.”

“We lean very heavily on our faith family at our church, and we are blessed a thousand times over with people that we know are praying for (Bill’s wife) every single night and what a difference that makes, and because we’ve been in the community for so many years, we gain strength from the community as well.  But, once again, it’s another way in which our faith sustains us.”

“We’re blessed with the Catholic faith to be available to us 24/7/365, and we use it!”

“How do we take care of each other?  How do we (coaches) take care of those who’ve been assigned to us on our roster?”

“When I go to bed at night, I feel pretty good that a lot of coaches are impacted and a lot of families are impacted by the work, and I actually call it a ministry.  It truly, for me, is a ministry, and I think it’s a way to reach out and evangelize what we’re doing as Catholics.”

“He happens to be a Marianist priest, by the way.  I went to a Marianist high school and a Marianist university and he’s one of my all-time favorite people.”

Related links:

Website for Catherine Cares (non-profit)
Bill’s official website

Joseph M. Lenard

He played hockey from a very early age, starting off as a center before switching to goaltender, playing for his high school, and then going on to become a goalie coach and ultimately head coach. He then spent approximately two decades as a referee for the Michigan Hockey Association of United States. He has also written multiple books, including, “Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You,” which was a Number 1 Amazon bestseller and is a Christian book with a baseball sub-thread. He also hosts his own show, called, “Christi-Tutionalist Politics,” which has a sub-heading of ‘Christian and U.S. Constitution.’  He also talks about being both a cancer survivor and a suicide survivor.

Notable guest quotes:

“Born into a Catholic family… I did attend Catechism classes in the summers so that I would have introduction or involvement in both the world and the faith realms of education.”

“Six years old, I think I was, when I was first put on skates.”

“All sports – if you have the right mentorship, the right coaches, the right, even, officials – teaching morality.  Sportsmanship matters, right?  Being a good human being, a good Christian.  Being there for the right reasons and treating each other well.”

“At the end of the day there has to be and should be that shaking hands at the end of the game, camaraderie, win or lose, good effort, that sort of thing.”

“God works in mysterious ways… the (Damar) Hamlin incident, they all came out and kneeled in prayer.  Thank God… that brought that back, that sportsmanship – kneeling to God in prayer.”

“My writings… are a calling… I feel they are not of me, they are from me, they are through me.”

“Life over death, hope over fear, faith over despair, love over hate, good over evil.”

“Before Covid, churches would do festivals to raise money… ‘cause you can get monies out of non-believers.  I dealt blackjack at the Vegas tents for many a church, including my own.”

Related link:

Joseph Lenard’s website

Faust Ruggiero

He played baseball in college and has coached over thirty youth sports teams across baseball, soccer, and basketball.  In addition, back in 1994 he started Phillies Fan Central, bringing fans of the MLB team together toward a common goal of enhanced communication with the organization.  This will mark thirty years of providing services to Phillies fans.  Meanwhile, he is an award-winning author and therapist, who says that everything he does is designed to bring people closer to the Lord, and to help them understand how to move from the worldly distractions that cause so much pain and into a more spiritual way to live.

Notable guest quotes:

“Everything was Roman Catholic in the town.  Our family did follow that; went to church, prayed, we all went to Catholic school ‘til eighth grade…  My kids went to the same school I went to, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.”

“Baseball was always my sport… I played Little League and went through the ranks like kids typically do, little bit of high school, and then college came along, and I was a pretty good centerfielder, I had a pretty good bat.”

“The Lord has me here to be in service, so, anything I do has Him in mind and service to Him in mind.”

“We don’t think of ourselves as fans, we think of ourselves as family… It’s not uncommon to see people praying in the stands… you see crucifixes hanging from people’s necks.”

“My approach to everything I do is with humility… I just stay in service and let the Lord take care of whatever’s gonna happen.”

“These were all youth programs where we’re teaching values along with what we’re doing.  Before we start a game, everyone took a knee and prayed, after the game was over, we did the same thing… It was gamesmanship above winning always.”

“It was always about the love of the person, the love of the Lord.  You put those two things together and… winning follows because it’s, internally and spiritually, a winning place to be.”

“When people start to realize that it’s not all about this worldly stuff, it’s about getting back and taking care of yourself and staying close to the Lord and taking care of all these things that are going on in your life, things change for people then.”

“The Lord came down for the downtrodden, so to speak, so, the people that I’m helping are the people that are confused and conflicted and hurting.”

“Ministry really starts in the home, so (my wife and I) make a habit to minister to each other.”

Related link:

Faust’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.)

Annie Agar

She is a sports content creator who has more than 1.6 million followers between TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter combined. She is also an NFL and college football correspondent, and has extensive sports broadcasting experience, including having been a sports reporter at the local news station in her hometown and having done sideline reporting for the NBA affiliate team from her hometown as well.  As a student-athlete she had competed in softball, basketball, and cross country, and later started into doing triathlons. On the faith side, she has powerful testimonies of perseverance, which she shares during this interview.

Notable guest quotes:

“My family grew up very Catholic… but my parents never really forced religion on us or said, ‘You have to be Catholic.’  They showed us by example, I think, and the way that they led their lives really showed to me how being Catholic can be such a peaceful thing and it gives you direction in life.”

“This… allowed me to dive more into my Catholic faith because it’s what I wanted to, not because of I was being made to do it.”

“We ended up being homeschooled… and it was a very faith-focused curriculum that we used… I learned the background of the saints that I now attribute so many great prayers to.”

“I think a lot of people say, ‘Well, it’s easy to be Catholic when things are going your way and it’s easy to pray when life is all sunshine and rainbows.’  So, my mom, and she’s very open about this, she lost her family at a very young age…  Her brother passed away when she was 16 of a very traumatic accident… And then when she was 19… my grandma got hit by a car… in front of my mom… and then my grandpa passed away a couple years after that… and her faith is so strong.”

“My dad… played for four years in the minors with the (Detroit) Tigers.  He was a relief pitcher… I ended up absolutely loving softball; played it many, many years.”

“He’s like, ‘You’re saying a Hail Mary before every pitch?  You cannot do that’.”

“That ties back into faith too… He sees his disability as an opportunity to show other people what they can do, and he does that through faith.”

“Since I was 16 (years old) I wear a St. Sebastian medal… and I have not taken it off since I was 16.  St. Sebastian is not only my favorite saint because… he’s the patron saint of athletes, but, so many prayers have been to St. Sebastian… I’ve interviewed a couple NFL players who’ve come up and said – ‘cause I always have my medal on – they’ve said, ‘Is that a St. Sebastian medal’?”

“I love the Franciscans… they do a lot of farm chores… and they produce food and things to give out to the community… and they are the funniest nuns.  I just love them to death… When I was growing up… we would go out and do things like help out the Franciscans… and helping out the Franciscans was my favorite thing.”

“At the end of the day I have my family, I pray about it, I have my friends, my close circle; if they’re proud of me and I’m proud of the content I put out and I feel like it’s doing what I’m meant to be doing – which is bringing people laughter – then there should be no question about it that that’s what you should be doing.”

“That is one of my favorite things.  I absolutely love going to churches in different states and different areas… Last year for the Super Bowl I was in Arizona and obviously Sunday is a very busy day and I still was able to find a church in my area and go to Mass before all the chaos ensued.  And it’s just a calming thing for me… I’m trying to go to Daily Mass more.”

Related link:

Annie’s TikTok account

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

Erin Yenney

She just retired a year-and-a-half ago after having been a pro soccer player, although she has now started a new semi-pro women’s indoor soccer team. Her pro playing career had seen her with a team in Turkey, which was preceded by playing for a team in Finland. Before that she played for two different teams here in the States in the National Women’s Soccer League, and before that played for a team in Colombia that became champions of the first year *of* the women’s pro soccer league in that country. That came one year after having played in Sweden. As a student-athlete she had played Division I women’s soccer at the University of Louisville after having been her high school’s all-time leading scorer.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was a cradle Catholic, went to Catholic elementary school, and attended Mass regularly with my family.”

“I did gymnastics, I did dance, I did soccer, basketball, and baseball.”

“I went on a retreat my senior year of high school – it was a Catholic retreat – and I just remember leaving there feeling like, I just felt so compelled that the Lord was speaking to me, and I remember coming home, sitting in the kitchen with my parents and I just remember crying and telling them – I just was overwhelmed with His voice… I just felt like He was calling me to do something.”

“When I went to the University of Louisville I got pretty involved with (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and honestly it was so enriching for my faith because it presented Christianity to me just in a different way.”

“I do remember, I would take some of my teammates to church on Sundays… I just felt so drawn to get to Mass and I think it was because I was yearning for the Eucharist.”

“Our teacher said, ‘Oh, what’s one thing that you want people to know about you that they might not know about you,’ and I remember writing, ‘I don’t want people to know me for my soccer abilities, I want people to know me for who I am as a person’.”

“My identity in Christ sort of was tested a little bit more even in my pro career, just because you get a lot of attention, and especially living in some of the countries I did with the attention that the clubs got.”

“I do feel really blessed (that) I was able to go and play in a lot of different places because I’ve always loved getting to meet new people and experience different cultures.”

“I was actively seeking another contract and two years went by before I got the call to go to Turkey.  So, it really definitely tested my faith in the way of wanting to make sure I was following God’s call for me, and I think that really happened during those two years before Turkey.”

“I do remember feeling very conflicted at different periods where I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing it for me, that I was doing it because that was what God wanted me to do.”

“It was the first time also that there was an intersection between my faith and soccer intimately in a sports environment.”

(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)

Jimmy Coleman

He is in the middle of completing three ultramarathons in 30 days. The last one will be at the end of this month and is being called an Adoration Ultra, which will start in Mass, then Adoration, and then running to other Catholic churches and spending time in Adoration at those. He currently owns one course record for most miles ran in 24 hours (103.5). In his days as a student-athlete he competed in JV football, JV soccer, varsity wrestling, and ran cross country.  In the case of the latter, he was team captain and the team finished third in the state and he got scouted by some smaller colleges.

Notable guest quotes:

“I was born and raised Catholic with two parents that are still practicing Catholics, still love each other.”

“When I became a parent, that’s the time more than any other time that I realized just how privileged I was to come from the family that I have.  Many people don’t have parents that are still together, and of those people, many of them don’t have parents that still want to be together.  And I have two parents that genuinely love each other.”

“I chose Saint Sebastian as my patron (Confirmation) saint because, really, I loved sports growing up.  It was always my dream to be a professional athlete in some sport.”

“A friend of mine said, ‘Hey, you know, if you take really good care of your body and you work out and you look really strong, when you’re trying to sell to people, you’ll be more effective because people will respect you as a person and therefore want to do business with you, and then just therefore buy whatever you’re selling.’  So, it was a very vain reason for having any interest in getting back to working out.”

“In my faith, I saw myself as someone that would probably at least have more answers in how we all got here to begin with… I didn’t want to give my children just whatever was convenient for me.”

“To believe that there’s no Creator at all, it’s a very difficult thing to put your faith into.”

“If the resurrection is true, it proves Christianity right and everything else as not just wrong but likely even demonic.”

“I get to go to daily Mass, if nothing else I get to go to Mass every Sunday.  And I’m in the real presence of Jesus Christ… If I told you that every Sunday I’m in the real presence of Jesus, what would you do?  Would you go to your church, or would you go to mine?”

“People are under the impression sometimes that we need to water our faith down in order to reach atheists, and I think that we actually need to radicalize our faith a lot more in order to reach these people, in order for them to actually see people that really believe what they say that they believe.”

“I made this post on LinkedIn and Facebook a year ago, saying how the best growth hack of 2023 was attending daily Mass.”

“If what matters more than anything else is the salvation of our souls, the coolest mastermind to go to is, seeing all the old people in daily Mass every day.”

Related link:

Adoration Ultra website

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

Fr Don Calloway

He is closing in on 21 years since his ordination to the priesthood. He is Vicar Provincial and Vocation Director for the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. He is also a well-known conference speaker AND leads pilgrimages to Catholic shrines around the world. He is the author of 18 books and has a RADICAL conversion story that he tells here. On the sports side, he has been surfing since he was eight years old and has surfed all around the world.

Notable guest quotes:

“We started always living near water and the first place was Virginia Beach, and, I was young, and went to the beach, saw some kids surfing and I wanted to try it and was able to start and I was eight years old  and it just blossomed from there and then everywhere we moved, near water, I just continued to do it and have done it my whole life now… And I was always involved with beach volleyball.”

“We went to Japan, my stepfather’s new assignment was in Japan, which I loved, right, because it’s an island – and lots of islands – so I got to surf in Japan a lot… I was surfing beaches that had never been surfed before.”

“I was in my teens, and I got in a lot of trouble and got involved with a criminal organization called the Yakuza, which is like the mafia – and I was only 15 – eventually I ran away from home and caused a huge international scene and one thing led to another and I ended up actually getting deported from the country because of the stuff that I was doing… so they kicked me out of the country.”

“It was torture for my mom.  My mom’s a saint (for) what I put her through… I didn’t even know that my mother didn’t live in the country anymore.”

“Eventually they apprehended me, threw me in jail, and then kicked me out of the country.”

“They sent me to rehab, so I went to two – drug and alcohol rehabs – and, they didn’t work, I actually got worse.”

“I was following the band The Grateful Dead and going to all these shows and doing so many drugs it was insane.”

“I was down in New Orleans around Mardi Gras time and tried to beat up a police officer, and pulled a knife on him, and, it was crazy, and so I got thrown in jail.”

“I had no morals, I had no compass, I had no real consequences to my actions, I didn’t believe in heaven or hell, I just wanted to have fun… And so, I didn’t have anything that was stopping me, that was holding me back from hurting others.”

“I picked up a book… about the Virgin Mary, and I didn’t even know what that was or who it was.  I was clueless about Christianity.”

“When I had this huge conversion experience I just fell madly in love with Jesus Christ.  I was so in love with Him because He unlocked meaning for me, for why I was here and what life was all about, and I just wanted to serve Him, I wanted to be as close to Him as possible.”

“I love the rosary and I promote it and write about it in those kinds of terms and categories and… I try to bring that – I guess you could say athletics, sports, that – battle kind of scenario into my spirituality… Even the scriptures describe our Lord, the psalms say, ‘The Lord is a warrior’.”

“We’re normal people.  We pray hard and we play hard.”

Related link:

Fr. Calloway’s website