Bruce Wawrzyniak

Catholic Sports Radio

Religion EN ↓ 389 episodes

Helping listeners find the right balance and priority when it comes to their faith life versus their sports life, interviews are done with guests who are Catholics in sports - current or former athletes, coaches, officials, clergy, administrators, and more, from the pro, amateur, and scholastic ranks. Whether you're an athlete or a fan, youth or adult, Catholic or not, this show will deliver content that speaks to you and provides opportunities for ongoing reflection for your daily life.

Author

Bruce Wawrzyniak

Category

Religion

Podcast website

www.catholicsportsradio.net

Latest episode

Jul 6, 2026

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Episodes

CSR 64 Porter Moser 20.04.2020

The head men's basketball coach at Loyola University Chicago since 2011, has been an NCAA Division I men's basketball coach for 30 years. His 2018 team went to the Final Four. As a player he competed on the Creighton University Bluejays and in 2017 was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a player. He has also been inducted into the Chicagola...

CSR 63 Sherri Retif 13.04.2020

She has been the head coach of the varsity girls basketball team at Germantown Academy for more than 20 years. Her teams have captured the Inter-Academic Athletic League Championship 19 times, including a streak of 14 consecutive titles and 109 straight Inter-Ac victories. She had previously coached in New Orleans, where her teams captured back-to-back City Championships. She played basketball for...

CSR 62 Chris Godfrey 06.04.2020

He played guard in the NFL for the New York Jets, New York Giants, and Seattle Seahawks, including winning a world championship with the Giants in Super Bowl XXI. He also played on three University of Michigan Rose Bowl teams. He is the President and Founder of Life Athletes and nowadays is an attorney in Indiana. He even talks here about a conversion experience as well as having met (Saint) Mothe...

CSR 61 Rich Garcia 30.03.2020

A former Major League Baseball umpire, having worked in the American League for 25 years and been involved in four World Series. He went on to be a MLB Supervisor for eight years. He was raised Catholic and is also a veteran, having spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. In high school he played baseball and did some boxing, getting two baseball scholarship offers for college. He also coached...

CSR 60 Zach Eckert 23.03.2020

A former lacrosse player who is an avid surfer and serves as the Director of Campus & Sports Ministry at JSerra Catholic High School in Orange County, California. He is also a 3rd degree Knight. He attended Creighton University (a private, Jesuit university) and Franciscan University of Steubenville where he majored in Theology. Be sure to stick around for his emotional story about the "Jersey Cer...

CSR 59 Kelly Larson 16.03.2020

An Assistant Girls Track Coach at City High School in Iowa City, Iowa, where the team has won four state championships in her 18 years there. She competed in track & field as well as in basketball at Loras College, a Catholic institution in Dubuque, Iowa. She is also the vice president and a board member of the National Catholic Coaches Association. And she is a religious education teacher.

CSR 58 Elliot Panicco 09.03.2020

A goalkeeper for NashvilleSC of Major League Soccer, having been selected in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft in January. He had attended UNC Charlotte, where he earned All-Southeast Region honors three times, including his senior year when he was also Conference USA Goalkeeper of the Year, Golden Glove Award winner, and first team all-conference.

CSR 57 Steven Didik 02.03.2020

A triathlete who also had a successful college soccer career. He is a Zone 3 ambassador, which is the world's highest rated triathlon brand. He also has many triathlons lined up to qualify for a national championship spot. He also mentors local youth athletes who are trying to go to the NCAA to play college sports. He also talks about being involved with both a non-profit called Faces of Courage A...

CSR 56 Bill Thierfelder 24.02.2020

Currently in his 16th year as president of Belmont Abbey College, which is a Catholic, Benedictine liberal arts college, he has been involved in sports in a variety of roles. He was the president of the York Barbell Company, was principal and co-founder of the Joyner Sports Medicine Institute, has served as Executive Director of the Player Management Group - which was a sports representation compa...

CSR 55 Tim Triplett 17.02.2020

The co-founder and president of the National Catholic Coaches Association, he has 14 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels. He is currently the head football coach and assistant activities director at Holy Family Catholic in Victoria, Minnesota, and played college football. He also has been a member of the Knights of Columbus for eleven years

CSR 54 David Belisle 10.02.2020

A lifelong coach, he was an assistant coach for high school hockey for 39 years and also gained national attention as the manager of the Cumberland Americans Little League team, including being seen on ESPN in a post-game, on-field speech - a video that went viral to the tune of more than a quarter million views. He was nominated by Sports Illustrated for the 2014 Sportsman of the Year and has als...

CSR 53 Matt Yoches 03.02.2020

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. LIST...

CSR 52 Dr Kelly Morrow 27.01.2020

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 Sai...

CSR 51 John Keating 20.01.2020

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...

CSR 50 Rachael Popcak 13.01.2020

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 Athle...

CSR 49 Erika Maurer 06.01.2020

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 n...

CSR 48 Louise Dussault 30.12.2019

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.

CSR 47 Bob Bauman 23.12.2019

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 Co...

CSR 46 Peter Mulry 16.12.2019

One of the winningest coaches in high school baseball, having coached for ten years at Tampa Catholic High School where he posted an amazing won-lost record of 329-39. His teams won four state championships and a national championship. He went on to coach at the University of Tampa and also scouted for Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals. Last year he was No. 26 on a list of the top 50 coac...

CSR 45 Tony Saladino 09.12.2019

Every year since 1981 a tournament has taken place to promote high school baseball in Hillsborough County (Tampa, Florida area). It was first established as a memorial for Tony Saladino, Sr. and has grown from eleven public schools to now a 32-team event, with 38 players that have participated in the tournament having gone on to play in the Major Leagues, 12 of which were first round draft picks....

CSR 44 Takeaways from 2nd Global Congress on Sport and Christianity 02.12.2019

To borrow a football term, an audible is called at the last-minute when the scheduled guest doesn't show up, utilizing this episode instead to share some insights brought back from the 2nd Global Congress on Sport and Christianity. The conference took place in late October in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and this installment of CSR cites content from that event that underscore the longstanding relation...

CSR 43 Mark Blaise 25.11.2019

Since June 2017 he has been the program's second head men's lacrosse coach at Benedictine College, a Catholic institution in Kansas, where he graduated from in 2013. As an undergrad he was a co-founder of the Men's Lacrosse Club team there. He also has been an assistant coach at Rockhurst University AND was the head coach for the boys lacrosse team at St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic high school in...

CSR 42 Haley Scott DeMaria 18.11.2019

In college she was left paralyzed with a broken back after a bus accident involving her swim team from the University of Notre Dame, with two teammates having been killed instantly. After five back operations and being told she wouldn't walk, not to mention swim again, miraculously, she returned to competitive swimming for Notre Dame 21 months after the bus accident and her injury. Her 2008 book,...

CSR 41 Jacob Flores 11.11.2019

He was with the NFL's Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills and, more recently, the Atlanta Legends of the Alliance of American Football. He had played college football at Dartmouth, and has now transitioned into the corporate world and life off the playing field. He also talks about what he's doing at his parish as well as in the community.

CSR 40 Clay Dimick 04.11.2019

A current member of the Charlotte Independence, which plays in the USL Championship, the largest pro soccer league in North America. He had played collegiately at Belmont Abbey, a Catholic school in North Carolina. He loves the game of soccer, but he is on fire for his faith, having become Catholic approximately 15 months ago.

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