Catholic Sports Radio

This guest comes to us from the horse world. She started riding when she was five years old and went on to be a professional horse trainer and 3 Day Event rider. Along the way she trained and taught lessons for about 15 years. She stepped away from the professional circuit when she started having kids but does still have horses.  Meanwhile, she is a board-certified health coach specializing in Spiritual Somatic Rewiring - a signature framework that combines nervous system repair, subconscious belief work, and the truth of scripture to create permanent transformation at the root level.

He has been playing football for most of his life, including, as an adult, as a pro. He is an award-winning and record setting tight end who has been playing the last four years in Mexico, although last year he also played in Japan. In November 2022 he was drafted by the Orlando Guardians of the XFL. At the start of that calendar year he had played in the Fan Controlled Football League, with his team going to the championship game. In 2021 he had played American football professionally in Austria. Before all that, he played four years of college football at St. John's University in Minnesota, where he also played baseball. He capped off his high school career by leading the state in receptions.

He was a first round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers and went on to play ten years and well over 600 games with five different Major League Baseball teams before then going on to 16 years as a manager for three different MLB teams, including taking the New York Mets to the World Series in 2000. He also spent time as a broadcaster with both ESPN and SportsNet New York and even authored a memoir that came out a few years ago. He has been inducted into a number of Halls of Fame -- including by the New York Mets a few months ago -- and was even the first American manager to win Japan's championship series. He established a sports academy bearing his name in Stamford, Connecticut, has served as an advisor to the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, spent eight years as Executive Director of Athletics at Sacred Heart University, and even has his own restaurant and sports bar.

He is a lifelong runner, having competed in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in high school, earning six MVP awards, and later going on to six marathons, including a top 500 finish at the Boston Marathon. Other highlights include Masters All-American in middle distance events in track and field in his 40s, 50s and 60s as well as being faculty partner to track and field at Penn State for seven years. Between the Associated Press and Penn State, he has reported or edited on sports from every continent except Antarctica: six Super Bowls; five national (college) football title games; two Olympics; two Paralympics; two World Cups; the 2023 Women's World Cup; Final Four; and Little League World Series.

He has participated in fundraising events as a cyclist since the 1980s and was a member of a committee that started a cycling event called Elephant Rock in Castle Rock, Colorado. He later would participate in other events such as Ride the Rockies, the Copper Triangle, the Courage Classic and the Road Ramble. From October 4 - November 16 he and eleven other cyclists on Team Samaritan will take part in the Ride Across America, pedaling more than 2900 miles from California to Florida. On the faith side, he is a convert to Catholicism and has a story about being called to the diaconate in 2011.