Podcast
Catholic Sports Radio
Hosted by Bruce Wawrzyniak · EN
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.
33episodes
Episodes
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CSR 382 Gabe James
5d ago00:31:26Tap to summarize(Caution: sad testimony shared by this guest) He is a goalie for the Lake Michigan College Red Hawks, having also played club soccer for the (Premier 1) Force Shockwave. In high school he not only was a two-year varsity starter but two-time team captain, two-time Team MVP, two-time 1st Team All-Conference, and also earned 1st Team All-County and 1st Team All-Region honors. Along the way he set the school record for most saves in a game and most saves in a career. He was also a part of the football and basketball teams in high school.
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CSR 381 Peter Piscitello
2w ago00:34:10Tap to summarizeHe competed in baseball and swimming in high school. To keep active while attending Benedictine College, he started running, which has turned into a lifelong pursuit, gradually moving from 5Ks to half marathons and having now completed five marathons, with his last being the 2025 Chicago Marathon last fall. Along the way he officiated soccer games for several years. He has worked in development and business operations in college athletics and has also worked within the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Present day he is the Director of Operations for Play Like A Champion Today.
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CSR 380 Jadin O'Brien
3w ago00:36:40Tap to summarizeShe competed three months ago at the Winter Olympics in Italy as a member of Team USA bobsled. She is a three-time NCAA indoor pentathlon champion, having competed for the Fighting Irish at the University of Notre Dame. She competed at two U.S. Olympic Team Trials (Track & Field) and finished fifth in the women's heptathlon at the U.S. national championships in 2025. She started in bobsled in August 2025 and made the U.S. Bobsled team for the 2025-26 season as a push athlete. At her IBSF World Cup debut later that year in Latvia, she would finish fourth in two-woman Bobsled and be named to her first Olympic team for the Games earlier this year in Milano Cortina.
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CSR 379 Fr Jon Polce
4w ago00:37:56Tap to summarizeHe played basketball and baseball in high school, when he also umpired the latter sport for about four years. He has also refereed some basketball games, plus, he has continued to play in pickup leagues his whole life, including cricket, curling, soccer, baseball, basketball, and golf. He also coached freshman baseball at Strake Jesuit for two years. Furthermore, he played in the national seminarian's basketball tournament in Wisconsin in 2022. Meanwhile, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2022 in St. Louis and two years ago was missioned to Jesuit Dallas to be the VP for Mission and Identity, which is the role he currently still holds.
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CSR 378 Nick Rennpage
May 400:32:13Tap to summarizeAs a student-athlete, he competed in swimming, water polo, and sailing, and he later coached swimming at the municipal, club, and high school levels. In addition to having turned to cycling, he is the Mission Officer at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, where he hopes to help athletes and coaches articulate a vision of sport that is deeply human, spiritually grounded, and attentive to the movement of grace in embodied experience, all while he is pursuing graduate studies at the University of Detroit Mercy, focusing on Ignatian spirituality and athletics.
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CSR 377 Gavin Doty
Apr 2700:27:26Tap to summarizeHe last month led Siena University to the NCAA men's college basketball tournament for the first time since 2010, by way of capturing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship. He was the MAAC Tournament MVP, after having been the first Siena University player in five years to earn First Team All-MAAC honors. He also set a record for the most points scored by a Siena Saints player through their first two seasons. Earlier this month he announced that he is transferring and will go play at Syracuse University. Before all that he had a record-setting high school career and even starred on the Nike EYBL circuit for the Albany City Rocks.
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CSR 376 Sam Goodwin
Apr 2000:31:49Tap to summarizeHe played hockey growing up and then went on to not only play junior hockey in Dallas for the Texas Tornado, but from there earned a D1 athletic scholarship to Niagara University. During his freshman year at Niagara, he and two teammates set an NCAA record and made number 2 on SportsCenter's Top 10 when they scored three shorthanded goals on one penalty, in 69 seconds. He still today plays in a weekly men's league hockey game. He is the author of the best-selling memoir, "Saving Sam," about his having been taken hostage and wrongfully imprisoned while in Syria, as part of his travels to every country in the world - all 193 United Nations Sovereign States, having attended Mass in 65 countries and visited Catholic churches in approximately 115. Listen as he mentions having even coached hockey in North Korea!
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CSR 375 Dr Michael Donato
Apr 1300:36:17Tap to summarizeHe works as a sports medicine podiatrist. At Princeton University he had played four years of varsity baseball and one year of varsity hockey. In high school he had played four years of varsity hockey, freshman baseball and three years of varsity baseball, and freshman football and three years of varsity football. He also played youth baseball and hockey as well as CYO hockey for two different parishes. While he was taking pre-med courses, he even played club rugby.
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CSR 374 Britta Curl-Salemme
Apr 600:31:43Tap to summarizeShe just won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy in February as a member of the U.S. women's ice hockey team. She is a forward in her second season with the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women's Hockey League. Her international experience also includes having competed in three International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championships with Team USA, winning gold in 2023 and silver in both 2021 and 2024. Plus, she won a gold medal with the U.S. Under-18 Women's National Team at the 2018 IIHF Under-18 Women's World Championship. As a student-athlete she had played five seasons at the University of Wisconsin, winning three national championships along the way and earning several honors.
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CSR 373 Michael Sharman
Mar 3000:30:12Tap to summarizeA senior at Clemson University where he is a pitcher on the men's baseball team. Through his first six games played in 2026 he had a 4-1 won-lost record over 32 and two-thirds innings pitched and an earned run average of 2.48 with 30 strikeouts and just five walks. He had played LAST season at Tennessee, where he went 3-1, pitching 22 and two-third innings and striking out 25 batters. He also played one season at Georgia Highlands College, where recorded 101 strikeouts in 93 and two-thirds innings pitched over 16 starts in 2024. He missed the 2023 season due to injury after playing one season (2022) at Parkland College, following a high school career that saw him letter three times in baseball and earn all-state and all-region honors as a junior.
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