Catholic Sports Radio
312 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 23 ratingsHelping 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.
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Episodes
CSR 184 Dan Venezia
August 08, 2022 07:00 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBHe played three seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization and is a survivor of two near-death experiences. Back in his days as a student-athlete he led his high school to a city championship and received a college scholarship, going on to lead the nation in stolen bases in 1992 in NCAA Division II play. Later, during a seven-year span, his recreational coaching record was 85-5 with six championships along with three undefeated seasons. He is also a professional trainer and has not only pub...
CSR 183 Mario Lopez
August 01, 2022 07:00 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBHe is a film actor, New York Times Best-Selling author, producer, host, and two-time Emmy winner. He currently hosts NBC’s “Access Hollywood” and “Access Daily” as well as a national radio show. Plus, he even has his own sports-related podcast that is talked about on this episode. He was recently inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, recognized as the 2022 Outstanding American, having wrestled for Chula Vista High School, finishing second in the San Diego section and seventh in ...
CSR 182 Rudy Ruettiger
July 25, 2022 07:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBHis story was told in a 1993 motion picture that USA Today ranked as the number one "Best Football Movie of All Time," centering on his time trying to get into Notre Dame and on their football team, and eventually into a game against Georgia Tech when he sacked the quarterback with less than 30 seconds to play in the game. He is a U.S. Navy Vietnam Veteran and has gone on to be a motivational keynote speaker, including having spoken at the White House under two presidents. He has co-authored...
CSR 181 Victoria Everleigh
July 18, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBShe is a highly accomplished figure skater, including being a U.S. Figure Skating Quadruple Gold Medalist. She has been both a national and international competitor in her sport, finishing Top 10 at the 2014 US National Solo Dance Championships, one year after having been US National Champion, Senior Theatre on Ice. She was also the 2013 Nation's Cup (World Championships) Silver Medalist, Senior Theatre on Ice and the 2012 US National Bronze Medalist, Senior Theatre on Ice. She has even perf...
CSR 180 Kent Lowe
July 11, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBThe Senior Associate Sports Communications Director at Louisiana State University, serving as the primary media contact for the men's basketball team and assisting in the overall Sports Communications office in other sports as needed. He is about to celebrate 34 years as a member of the LSU Sports Communications staff and has also written an award-winning bowling column for The (Baton Rouge) Advocate for more than 25 years. In 2018 he was inducted into the Louisiana State Bowling Association...
CSR 179 Tyler Rowley
July 04, 2022 07:00 - 40 minutes - 36.7 MBHe serves as the president of Servants of Christ, which defends life, family, and the Holy Faith through media and activism. He is a past leader in young adult ministry in the Diocese of Providence. His first book, “Because of Our Fathers,” was published last year. His second book, which he is co-authoring with Abby Johnson, is titled “Life to the Full” and will be published early next year. On the sports side, he played college football at Brown University.
CSR 178 Zach Blaszak
June 27, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutes - 25.4 MBHe is the Director of Athletics and Activities at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He has been supporting student-athletes as a member of the CCHS staff for ten years, and one year ago was promoted to his current role after having been Assistant Athletic Director and Athletic Trainer. In total he has had an 18-year career in secondary school athletics, working with hundreds of coaches and thousands of athletes. He did his undergrad in Athletic Training at Merrimack Co...
CSR 177 Paula Umana
June 20, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBShe is a former professional tennis player who is now a speaker, an author, and the tennis coach at Holy Spirit Prep in Atlanta, Georgia, with an amazing story of a nervous system disorder that left her quadriplegic. She had been the Number 1 tennis player in her country of origin, Costa Rica, including having been Central American Champion for nine years and representing her country at the Central American Games. She has written a book called "40 Gifts of Hope: Encouragement in Times of Sic...
CSR 176 Anna Wilgenbusch
June 13, 2022 07:00 - 26 minutes - 24.7 MBShe was the University of Dallas' first NCAA cross country two-time All-American. She holds the five thousand meter and ten thousand meter school records at the University of Dallas for track and field and the 5K and 6K school records for cross country. She was the only female NCAA Division III cross country All-American in the state of Texas in 2019 and 2021. She is headed to the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to study for her master’s degree in Theology, and she writes and authors C...
CSR 175 Tracy Guerrette
June 06, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBIt’s amazing to hear what she ALMOST did, given that she is an elite marathon runner, having competed in the Boston Marathon, the U.S. Track and Field Marathon championships in California, and winning the 2017 Maine Marathon, which qualified her for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. She currently coaches cross country and outdoor track at a Catholic high school in Maine. She was also the head women's basketball coach at an NCAA Division III school for four years. This all followed a career a...
CSR 174 Nicole Skoch
May 30, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutes - 32 MBShe has had an extensive career in volleyball. The sport has seen her in roles from head volleyball coach at Shawnee Mission East, a high school in Prairie Village, Kansas, to being a volunteer coach at the college level with the Kansas Jayhawks, and even coaching a club team, plus, having been a student-athlete at the University of Texas where she played for four years and was a member of the 2012 NCAA National Championship team. Prior to her time with the Longhorns, she played on the U.S. ...
CSR 173 Craig Stammen
May 23, 2022 07:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBHe is a veteran Major League Baseball pitcher. He has appeared in over 540 games and pitched close to 860 innings and is in his 13th season of MLB, with 2022 being his sixth season with San Diego, making him the second-longest tenured Padre. He spent seven years with the Washington Nationals, who had selected him in the 2005 MLB Amateur Draft out of the University of Dayton, where he made 60 pitching appearances after also having pitched for his high school baseball team as well.
CSR 172 Fr Chase Hilgenbrinck
May 16, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBTo serve Jesus he walked away from being a pro soccer player, having been with both the Colorado Rapids and then the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. That followed four years of having played soccer in South America for teams in Chile. In two of his four years there he was selected the league's Most Valuable Player at the fullback position. As a student-athlete he had made the United States Under-17 National Team and was a High School All-American before going on to Clemson Uni...
CSR 171 Mike Flood
May 09, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBHe is the Vice President of Community Outreach for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, having now worked for the team for 25 years. He had served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 22 years, retiring as a Commander in 1997. He played football, basketball and baseball through his high school years and during his 22 years in the Coast Guard. He also coached basketball in military and youth leagues, and officiated basketball for 20 years. He serves on the boards of the King County Municipal League, Camp Patri...
CSR 170 Tom McConnell
May 02, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBHe is the head women's basketball coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, with next month marking the nine-year anniversary since he was introduced there to that position. Just over three years ago -- during his sixth season -- he became the program's all-time winningest coach. Under his guidance the Crimson Hawks have won two PSAC tournament titles, and back-to-back Atlantic Region crowns and Elite Eight national semifinal berths. He had come to IUP with more than 25 years of coaching,...
CSR 169 Denis Villeneuve
April 25, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBHe has been running for almost 49 years and has run over 72,000 miles, which means he has averaged running four miles a day for almost 49 years. Three years ago, he won the State of Washington 6K Cross Country Championship and the Regional Championship. Back in his college days he started at the University of Oregon and participated in multiple intramural sports and ran on his own, including running his first marathon, before transferring to Oregon College for his junior year, running cross ...
CSR 168 Harry Perretta
April 18, 2022 07:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MBHe served for 42 years at Villanova University as the head women's basketball coach, tied for the most seasons at one school at all divisions in the history of NCAA women's college basketball. A private, Catholic school, Villanova saw their women's basketball team record 783 wins during his time as coach, which started when he was just 22 years old -- the youngest coach to ever head a women's varsity program at Villanova. He played his college basketball at Lycoming and went on to become a s...
CSR 167 Mark Wahlberg
April 11, 2022 07:00 - 18 minutes - 17 MBHe is an award-winning actor whose newest film comes out this Wednesday, April 13th, and is called, "Father Stu," based on a true story. He is a devout Catholic and the youngest of nine children in his family. On the sports side he is very well known for his passion for fitness, having appeared on the cover of countless magazines such as Muscle & Fitness, Men's Health, and Men's Fitness, among others. He has also had numerous roles in films connected to sports. (A video version of this episo...
CSR 166 Amy Brooks
April 04, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBShe was inducted last year into the Athletic Hall of Fame at DeSales University, a Catholic school where she was a standout runner on the women’s cross country and track & field teams. During her time at DeSales she was a part of three Cross Country PAC Championship teams, earning PAC Runner of the Year and All-PAC First Team honors twice each in 1994 and 1996. She was named to the PAC/CSAC 25th Anniversary Cross Country Team and was a member of the 4x800 meter relay team that continues to h...
CSR 165 Mario Andretti
March 28, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MBHe is a racing icon, considered by many to be the greatest race car driver in the history of the sport. He had an illustrious career that saw him win in every discipline he entered – midgets, sprint cars, dirt track cars, stock cars, IndyCars, Formula One, Formula 5000 and sports cars. He won the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and ultimately the Formula One World Championship, an unprecedented trifecta in that no other race car driver has ever won all three titles. He took the checkered f...
CSR 164 Dan O’Leary
March 21, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBHe was a tight end and long snapper who was drafted by the NFL's Buffalo Bills and went on to play for them, the New York Giants, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had played his college football at Notre Dame, where he was captain in his senior year, when the Fighting Irish played in the BCS Fiesta Bowl Game. After college he played in the Hula Bowl, all of which followed a high school football career that saw him play on three state championship teams, two of which were national championship...
CSR 163 Dr Mark Webber
March 14, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBHe is a world champion power lifter. Since 2018 he has broken nine state records in dead lift and bench press, along the way taking first place at the World Championships last year for the World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters for 220-pound 50–54-year-olds. In college he had been a middle linebacker on the football team at the University of San Diego, a Catholic college where he also ran track for them, setting the school shot put and discus records. For approximately 25 years now he...
CSR 162 John Chick
March 07, 2022 08:00 - 41 minutes - 38 MBHe played two years for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and also spent time in the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts organizations. In addition, he played many years in the Canadian Football League and was a two-time Grey Cup champion as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who won the league title game in both 2007 and 2013. In 2009 he earned the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award and in 2013 he led the league in sacks. He would also play in the CFL for the Hamilton Tiger...
CSR 161 Ed Valaitis
February 28, 2022 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBHe is what you might call a late bloomer with an amazing story of being far more active in sports now than he was at traditional youth, student, and post graduate ages, due to his upbringing. An adventure traveler, present day he participates in running, biking, hiking, and skiing. His devotion to his Catholic faith can be seen in that two months ago he put out a book that is designed to help business owners determine both when to sell and how to sell their companies, YET, by sharing his *pe...
CSR 160 Fr Craig Vasek
February 21, 2022 08:00 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBHe is the Chaplain for athletics at the University of Mary, a Catholic institution in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he works full-time with 19 athletic teams and around 450 scholar-athletes. Ordained as a priest in 2010 in Minnesota, he is a graduate of the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City. Raised around sports, he began to letter in ninth grade as a multi-sport athlete in football, basketball and track & field, including having been a two-way starter for his high school foo...
CSR 159 Mike McQuaid
February 14, 2022 08:00 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBHe has been involved in various sports-related capacities. Most recently is his foray into the sport of triathlon, which has seen him compete in over 20 long-course, Olympic, and Sprint triathlons, including reaching the podium six times in the past two seasons. On April 2nd he will compete in the Ironman Oceanside 70.3 in San Diego, and in preparation for that he will complete a training ride next week in which he will tackle the 10,068-foot, 35-mile climb to the summit of Maui’s Haleakala ...
CSR 158 Tom Fox
February 07, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 27.5 MBHe will be inducted this year into the St. Ignatius Athletics Hall of Fame. For 20 years he has run a basketball camp in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and has coached both basketball and track at two different high schools, plus he also coached AAU basketball. As a student-athlete he had played basketball on a full athletic scholarship at St. Francis College of Pennsylvania, which followed a high school career during which he was a four-year letterman in track and three-year letterman in basketball...
CSR 157 Joey Crawford
January 31, 2022 08:00 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBHe is a current candidate for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2022. He is the Referee Development Performance Director for NBA Referee Operations, following a career as an NBA official from 1977 to 2016, officiating more than 2,500 regular season games and a record 344 playoff games. Fifty of those playoff games were in the Finals. In the all-time NBA referee rankings, he is first in playoff games, Finals Game 7s, and total games, plus he is tied for first in total sea...
CSR 156 Lauren Sajewich
January 24, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBShe has been playing soccer professionally, including with last year's Danish League Champions as well as with the Chicago Red Stars Reserves, who reached the 2019 national quarterfinals and the 2016 national semifinals after having been 2015 WPSL national champions. This all followed a collegiate career that saw her at Texas Christian University where she was a four-year starter, senior captain, two-time Team MVP, and her team reaching one Big 12 Championship Final.
CSR 155 Linda Cimino
January 17, 2022 08:00 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBShe is in her fourth season as the head women's basketball coach at NCAA Division I St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, New York, a Franciscan and Catholic college. She had previously spent four seasons as head coach at Binghamton University. Prior to that she'd spent eight years as the head coach at a Catholic-Dominican school, Caldwell University, where she was also the Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator. She has also held roles as assistant coach at Adelph...
CSR 154 Anna Cummins
January 10, 2022 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBShe was an Olympic silver and gold medalist at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics and a three-time world rowing champion. She had won four NCAA national titles while rowing at the University of Washington and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame as well as the National Rowing Hall of Fame. The highlight of her career came at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she was the only American woman to race in two events. In one of those, she and her teammates won gold, which wa...
CSR 153 Joe Vaszily
January 03, 2022 08:00 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBHe has been an NCAA women's basketball referee since 2004 and has been officiating since working intramural games in 1994 at the University of Scranton. Along the way he has officiated in a number of conferences and in 2018 worked his first national championship. He has also been a part of eight consecutive Final Fours. As a student-athlete he played basketball, and then in his 20s he ran three marathons.
CSR 152 Bruce Scifres
December 27, 2021 08:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBThe executive director of CYO for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis where he oversees 24 thousand youth and seven thousand adult volunteers. He spent 27 years as the head football coach of the ten-time state champion Royals at Roncalli High School, a co-ed Catholic high school in Indianapolis. He led the program to seven Indiana football state championships and was named Coach of the Year twelve times. He has been inducted into three Halls of Fame and in 2017 was the recipient of the prestigio...
CSR 151 Art Hill
December 20, 2021 08:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBHe was an International Softball Federation-certified fastpitch umpire, working seven World Cup events and the World University Games. He continues to work Division I, II, and III college softball games, including having worked the NCAA Division III World Series. Additionally, he assigned and worked in the National Pro Fastpitch League for 12 years. He currently assigns softball for seven college conferences & Independent. He had even assigned umpires for the Rebel Spring Games, which is the...
CSR 150 Pat Fraher
December 13, 2021 08:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBHe is in his 21st season as an NBA referee, having officiated more than 1,100 regular season and over 50 playoff games. He also worked the 2015 NBA All-Star Game in New York. Before joining the NBA, he officiated for seven years in the CBA, where he worked the Finals and All-Star Game. In addition, he spent four years in the WNBA. He also has two years of college officiating experience and ten years of experience as a high school official. Back in his days as a student-athlete in high school...
CSR 149 Chris Strykowski
December 06, 2021 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32 MBThe Director of Football Operations and Special Teams Coordinator for the ten-time state champion Royals at Roncalli High School, a co-ed Catholic high school in Indianapolis. He is in his 22nd year at the school and has had seven kickers go on to play collegiately at notable schools, and, players under his direction hold ten team records. Next month he will be presenting at a Football Coaches Clinic for the seventh time. As a student-athlete himself he had participated in numerous sports, i...
CSR 148 Curt Tomasevicz
November 29, 2021 08:00 - 30 minutes - 27.5 MBHe competed for the U.S. National Bobsled Team from 2004 to 2014, qualifying for three Olympics (2006, 2010, 2014). On the four-man team, he earned two Olympic medals (gold in 2010 and silver in 2014) and nine World Championship medals. During his years as a student-athlete he played football for the University of Nebraska as both a running back and linebacker, earning Academic All-Conference honors along the way. Present day he is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and this p...
CSR 147 Erinn Black
November 22, 2021 08:00 - 38 minutes - 70.6 MBShe was on the Division I George Mason women's soccer team and then served in a Student Assistant Coaching/Manager role with the team. Earlier on as a student-athlete she had competed in three sports in high school: field hockey, track, and soccer. Now doing missionary work on a college campus, she was an all-state field hockey player and captain of her travel/high school soccer team. Injuries in her athletic career played a key role in the growth of her faith life, as she talks about here.
CSR 146 Carley Whitney
November 15, 2021 08:00 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBThe Assistant Athletic Director, Head Girls Basketball Coach, and Summer Camps Director at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. She is also the founder of IAmHer Basketball and had attended Kent State, where she played club soccer for four years, having been captain/manager for three. During that same time, she was driving back and forth every day to coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary, where she had been a three-sport athlete, earning eleven letters (four in soccer, four in softball, ...
CSR 145 Linda Randazzo
November 08, 2021 08:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBThe Assistant Track & Field Coach and Recruitment Coordinator at Belmont Abbey College, also studying (through Divine Mercy University) to become a licensed sports psychologist. Previously she was on staff with the track coaches at Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami. As a student-athlete she competed in the 200m and javelin at Belmont Abbey College, having also competed in track and field in high school. There was also some very notable sports involvement in her family, which she talks...
CSR 144 Kristen Phillips
November 01, 2021 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBShe played professional basketball in the WNBA, FIBA, and European Super League, being named the latter's Player of the Year in 2009. After her playing career she spent seven years as the Associate Head Women's Basketball Coach at Seattle University, a Division I level school. During that time, she also earned her master’s degree in Sport Business Leadership. As a student-athlete she had been a four-year starter and three-year captain and Defensive Player of the Year at the University of Was...
CSR 143 Brittany Bock
October 25, 2021 07:00 - 45 minutes - 41.4 MBShe was a two-time All-American at Notre Dame, reaching the Final Four three times in four years. She went on to excel as a professional soccer player for seven years and was part of championship teams and earned the opportunity to train at the highest level with the US Women's National Team. Listen in the second half of the show for her powerful story, overcoming eleven surgeries, broken ribs, and concussions, all while moving to seven different states. In addition to being a former pro ath...
CSR 142 Bobby Allison
October 18, 2021 07:00 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBA NASCAR Hall of Famer who was the 1983 champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and had three Daytona 500 victories, among numerous other titles and championships. He won on 27 different tracks and had at least three wins in every NASCAR major. He ended his career with 85 victories and was named one of NASCAR's "50 Greatest Drivers." He was also a seven-time Most Popular Driver Award-winner.
CSR 141 Kerri Gallagher
October 11, 2021 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBThe Director of Cross Country, Track and Field at Manhattan College in New York. In July 2016 she had been named head coach of Manhattan's men's and women's cross country, mid-distance and distance programs. An elite-level professional runner, she represented the United States in the 1500 meters at the 2015 IAAF World Championships. She had finished third in the 1500 at the USATF Outdoor Championships to qualify for the World Championships in Beijing, China, among other international competi...
CSR 140 Samantha Kelley
October 04, 2021 07:00 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBThe founder and president of FIERCE Athlete Inc. She played Division I soccer at UConn and is involved in competitive rowing. Her sports participation background also includes ice hockey as well as track and field. She has worked for Catholic non-profits and has a Master's in Catholic Psychology and has been pursuing certification in strength and conditioning AND theology of the body.
CSR 139 Fr Patrick Kelly
September 27, 2021 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBA Jesuit priest and an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy, having previously taught in the Theology and Religious Studies department at Seattle University for 13 years. He is also the author of a book called, "Catholic Perspectives on Sports: From Medieval to Modern Times," and the editor of a book on sports and Catholic youth that was just listed as one of the top ten books on sports and Catholicism in the last decade. He was also on the Papal Commis...
CSR 138 Lou Holtz
September 20, 2021 07:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBHe coached 132 games in eleven seasons at Notre Dame, leading the Fighting Irish to the 1988 national championship. After Notre Dame he coached at South Carolina. Prior to Notre Dame he coached at Minnesota, Arkansas, North Carolina State, and William & Mary. Along the way he also spent one season as the head coach of the NFL's New York Jets. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and has been seen for many years on television as an analyst on ESPN. This all followed ...
CSR 137 Jake Perez
September 13, 2021 07:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBHe has been coaching at a tennis academy and after school program in southern California for over five years. He has had tennis coaching related jobs over the years and had been a successful high school tennis player. His college degree is in psychology, and he has combined that with his passion for sports in launching a website where he publishes weekly posts about sport psychology, for athletic success and mental health. He is also getting ready to launch a website called The Catholic Path...
CSR 136 Scott Greve
September 06, 2021 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBThe Director of Athletics AND the Head Men's and Women's Tennis Coach at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where he has led those two teams to a combined seven conference championships and been named the Coach of the Year five times since taking over as head coach for the 2016-17 season. He had previously worked at a Catholic high school and is currently pursuing a Master's of theology.
CSR 135 Molly Bent
August 30, 2021 07:00 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBShe played college basketball under the famous coach Geno Auriemma at the University of Connecticut after a high school career as a student-athlete that saw her set records in basketball, plus she competed in soccer as well. Presently she is a missionary at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as part of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and a part of Varsity Catholic.