Catholic Sports Radio

Bruce Wawrzyniak

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.

  • 31 minutes 53 seconds
    CSR 273 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.

    22 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 40 minutes 56 seconds
    CSR 272 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.

    15 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 39 minutes 25 seconds
    CSR 271 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."

    8 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 32 minutes 50 seconds
    CSR 270 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."

    1 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 29 minutes 41 seconds
    CSR 269 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.

    25 March 2024, 7:00 am
  • 32 minutes 10 seconds
    CSR 268 Terry Tucker

    He attended The Citadel on an athletic scholarship, going on to co-captain the men's basketball team in his senior year and then receiving the Senior Class Sportsmanship Award at graduation. He had played for Marist High School in Chicago and was co-captain and MVP of his team in his senior year and was All-State Honorable Mention. He had also played for St. Charles Prep High School in Columbus, Ohio, playing both for the JV and the varsity basketball teams. He'd started out playing on the St. Anthony Middle School basketball team that won the Boys’ Basketball of America National Championship. More recently he was the varsity coach of the girls basketball team at Emery High School in Houston. He is also the author of a book called, "Sustainable Excellence: Ten Principles to Leading Your Uncommon and Extraordinary Life."

    18 March 2024, 7:00 am
  • 29 minutes 46 seconds
    CSR 267 Dave Schultz

    He was active playing baseball as a youngster, and then added swimming to his list of sports when he got to junior high. As he got into high school, he stuck with swimming but dropped baseball, only to find out in the future that he was being scouted at the time. Later in life he taught at a Catholic school where he was also the softball coach and took a group of girls who never won a game prior to him coaching to being division champs. He would also coach baseball for the city parks and rec league, plus he coached for a couple of years in the Catholic Youth Organization.

    11 March 2024, 7:00 am
  • 30 minutes 34 seconds
    CSR 266 Bonnie-Jill Laflin

    She is a trailblazing sports broadcaster, TV personality, author, and philanthropist. She is the first and only female NBA scout, holding the front office executive position with the Los Angeles Lakers. A former ballet dancer, she is the first woman to dance at a professional level for three teams in two sports: the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. She is the first woman to be awarded six championship rings in two professional sports, earning a Super Bowl ring and five NBA championship rings. In addition, she has competed in barrel racing and created her own rodeo drill and flag team. She is also the author of a brand-new book, called, “In a League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports.”

    4 March 2024, 8:00 am
  • 36 minutes 41 seconds
    CSR 265 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.

    26 February 2024, 8:00 am
  • 34 minutes 10 seconds
    CSR 264 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.

    19 February 2024, 8:00 am
  • 30 minutes 38 seconds
    CSR 263 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.

    12 February 2024, 8:00 am
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