The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Conversation and stories about real athletes and the journey thru sport, faith and life.
Connecting athletes, sports families and the church. Build bridges and telling real stories to help repair, build and grow people.
Hosts Dan Dromarsky and Dave Dawson
The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Carrying the Conversation: Why Season 2 Changes Everything
Dan and Dave launch Gospel in the Game Season 2 with a fresh approach focused on authentic conversations rather than traditional testimonies. They explore how creating space for genuine dialogue reveals the deeper humanity and faith journeys of athletes at all levels of competition.
• Moving beyond the "testimony time" format to have real conversations that reflect how people naturally connect
• Recognizing the value in stories from athletes at all levels, not just professional stars
• Exploring what the gospel is actively doing in people's lives now, not just their past
• Building relationships over time and hearing what does it look like to live now knowing God
• Dan shares a powerful personal story about an encounter with a homeless man that taught him about gratitude
• Inviting listeners to participate in the conversation by sharing their own stories and feedback
We want to hear from you! Message us on social media with your thoughts and experiences – your story might become part of a future episode. This relationship is an ongoing process as Christ continues refining us into better versions of ourselves.
worst entry ever. You're saying that on the worst entry ever. From what?
Speaker 2:no, like worst entry ever, like we just talked about, like what would be the worst entry ever?
Speaker 1:Like maybe even this podcast. Yeah, well, we. I mean yeah, you mentioned that because I from some of the smoke in the area right now, from the different wildfires, have been blowing my nose like crazy and you had said why don't you just blow your nose off the start of the podcast? I said that that would probably be pretty disgusting.
Speaker 2:It would be, but at the same time would everyone know what was happening? It would almost be like guess that sound.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's true, and those who know what that sound is would be pretty repulsed, right away.
Speaker 2:They would exactly. I hope he paused and washed his hands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, Maybe my nose blow sounds different than yours would like you as in the listener, whoever you're listening. There isn't really a universal nose blow sound.
Speaker 2:No, there isn't. But it's the same with sneeze. There's not a universal sneeze Right, I went to high school with someone who held in his sneezes Okay, and so you would get the, and you thought his head was going to blow up and his eyeballs were going to come to his head and one time in social studies it released into his hand and it was like he went up.
Speaker 1:He was the front of the class talking to the teacher.
Speaker 2:Went to go sneeze what and went and it's not just not all into his hand, gross. And then, as it went into his hand, he spread his fingers apart and there was nothing between all of his fingers like the web paw, yeah. And he was like, uh, can I go to the washroom and wash my hand? It was just, it was hilarious.
Speaker 1:I had this roommate that and he had sent me videos about like how manliness is weighed out by how powerful you sneeze and like the dad sneezes, right. You see the videos of like dad leaning back in the rocking chair and the boys clear out of the room. No, no, ah, and the walls shake right. So I had this roommate who was like that It'd be in the middle of the room. No, no, ah, and the walls shake right. So I had this roommate who was like that it'd be in the middle of the night and you just hear you're like whoa, you could wake the dead man yeah, yeah, yeah, where's the worst?
Speaker 2:yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So I mean, yeah, it's. It's an intro into season two yeah, we are.
Speaker 2:yeah, we'd like to welcome everyone. Gospel in the Game podcast Season 2. Yes, dan Dramarski, dave.
Speaker 1:Dawson, we had troubles remembering names. Well, I did in Season 1. Yeah, yeah. So we vow, as a great entry into Season 2, to remember that much easier, and we're going to repeat that over and over again yes, so we know what our names are like for us, not for you yeah, that's why I live near set up.
Speaker 2:I'm dan jomarski, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough. Doggone it people like me, yes, those of you who don't remember stewart smalley from sick yeah, saturday night live so we're changing the format a little bit here for season two and I think part of the idea that I think we've been blessed with is to navigate things, to have a conversational season.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think often you know where this started is. You and I have talked a lot about what the concept of Christianity and athleticism and how they out intersects. Right and in society. You hear a lot of. You know whether it's athletes or people connected to Christianity or even just in common Christian circles, from wherever sharing someone's story.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, it's testimony time and then often that is just kind of where it ends on some of the mainstream Christian media that we consume. But you don't really go further than that and in your day-to-day circles, whether you're at work or you're on a road trip, on a plane, on a bus or wherever in the post office, you're not going to walk up to someone and say hi, my name is Dan, can I share my testimony to you? I was born and raised and it's just not generally how we operate. So we have had some fascinating conversations throughout the off season about where we're going to go in season two and we really felt that surrounding around just having conversation is a lot of what you do as a chaplain anyway. You're just creating conversation.
Speaker 2:And creating conversation in order to I guess you'd say get below the surface.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to relate to someone.
Speaker 2:Relate to someone, and we talked a lot about that in season one too, about going deeper. We even use a lot of analogies of coming into the from the shallow end and trying to go deep as possible. Sometimes it's a little scary for people to open up and talk about what's happening and using that same picture. All of a sudden, when you can't touch the bottom anymore, things get scary and we tend to go just even as people all together. We tend to stay where things are comfortable.
Speaker 2:And so I think part of the conversation is maybe for not only us doing the interviewing or whoever interviewing, but for the listener, to encourage them to maybe go to some places that are a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Sure, and it's about relationship, right, it's about the ability to have a conversation, and I think often, sometimes maybe not even in sharing your faith, but in just general circles. Overall, going up and talking to a total stranger is sometimes intimidating, right? Just a person on the street hi, I'm so-and-so, whether it be your neighbor, whether it be a homeless person, whether it be whatever, right, having the ability to have conversation skills to show that you care, because you do deeply care on the inside, can open up tremendous doors and teach us great lessons. So, when we bring on athletes and people connected to sport, that's the goal for season two. We want to be able to have just conversations and find out who these people are and who we are, who you are, in order to go deeper and see where that leads and one of the things that comes out.
Speaker 2:When you do have a conversation with someone and you get to know them a little bit better, you hear the other side of sport, sure, and you hear a lot more about them being a person and maybe some of the things that sports allowed them to do outside of maybe their own comfort zone or what they're used to doing. And even, at the same time, it's not only sports facilitating that, but other things facilitated even sport. And so I think, yeah, get to see both sides of the coin and I'm really excited, yeah.
Speaker 1:And we see a lot of this in the podcast world, as it is right, there are a number of podcasts out there that bring on athletes they talk about. You know their stories with their family, or maybe you know taking a plane with so-and-so or whatever. It's pretty common. But yeah, on the faith side of it, I think a bit of a different approach, rather than hi, so-and-so, bring you on. What's your testimony, what did God do in your life? How are you a different person? And not minimizing that, because there's value to that, there's tremendous importance but we want to just have conversations and say, hey, like, what's your day-to-day life?
Speaker 2:and it might not even be the same thing that has been shared before sure and so, if anything it can might stimulate another conversation another time. I think that was one of the goals too when we initially started interviewing was this idea of checking in on the person to see what they're actively participating in?
Speaker 1:versus just always talking about the past.
Speaker 2:The past is easy to talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who are? What is the gospel doing in your life? How is it changing your life and who are you because of the gospel in your life and how does that? How do you walk that out in the day to day?
Speaker 2:So, thinking of this concept of interviewing people, talking to people, have you thought a little bit about, maybe, who you wanted to hear, maybe without even mentioning any names? Is there some sort of perspective or maybe even sport that has come to mind? Be like, I wonder if and I'll tell you why I'm asking that question Someone shared with me from overseas that's listening and talked about and shared with me about an athlete who's a believer in the sport of cricket, and cricket was the last sport, or pretty close to it, maybe from the bottom of my list, that I would automatically think of when it comes to my mind, right, is there any sport or anything that could have stood out? And I'm kind of thinking about talking about this because you never know who's listening, right, and someone might say you know what, I know someone involved in this sport.
Speaker 2:I should really tell these guys yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm glad you brought that up because I think often, especially personally being in media, you connect to pro athletes. You want the star power of them coming in and sharing a story. I've been part of a number of opportunities to have pro athletes come into churches and schools and whatever. Share their story. You have the star power. It has some more weight to it, right.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I try to spend time listening to there's a cool radio program on the local radio, christian radio station, that comes on and it shares ordinary people's testimonies with music Right, keep the faith. It's called. So they have like, they have a, they play a couple songs. They have like, say, call in 1-800 number, record your testimony. So just these random people from across the country. Here's what god's done in my life. Here's what god's done in my life.
Speaker 1:I was going through this, I was going through that and I can't count the number of times that someone's story is lined up with mine and I went, wow, that's so timely and so powerful. So I think for, especially for the kingdom, we can't downplay the power of somebody playing college baseball in Arkansas or somebody playing cricket or somebody playing rugby or somebody playing tennis. You know a bobsledder that has a powerful story, to be able to unpack that with them, because so often again in the, in the world of sport and in you know, I think, life overall, we just gravitate to. Wow Keanu Reeves, I want to hear his journey of whatever right, this and that we glorify those. So that's what excites me, I think, about season two is because you and I have each had a number of encounters with athletes from different parts of the world, whether it be pro or very minor, where God has done incredible things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know what that's actually. I'm glad you went down that route because I think we don't want to downgrade or, like you said, minimize anyone's thoughts or even make assumptions, because I think, as we tell stories and hear from people's stories, we might hear of things that actually touch us on a humanity level. You're probably going to hear from people that were raised by a single mom or people that had difficulty with siblings, maybe it was someone who fell into peer pressure.
Speaker 2:There might be just even things, addiction, tragedy, yeah, there's so many layers, even good things, yeah, even good things, where someone might say hey, yeah, you know what? Totally, totally exactly what I'm feeling right now, and so I think, yeah, sometimes we can make assumptions just because we think we know something about someone Right and hopefully this will be something that someone's like well, listen to the podcast. And ends up being like, wow, I never knew that about that person.
Speaker 1:Well, and the cool thing, the reason why there's a bit of a gap between season one and season two is the Lord was each doing things in our lives separately Right, and that's a, I think, an important part of how we want to direct this season. We hope you enjoyed season one. We might dabble back into some of those concepts again. There were some great episodes there you can go back and check out, but you know just the day-to-day life of what it has been like to unpack the journey right, and it's interesting. As we talked about in season one, it's been a long time coming. The process of us putting this project together. I mean years right, and like you and I, we had coffee a month ago. You even shared a great story of interacting with someone on the street. That really touched me and it hit me in a different way. So, yeah, it was cool. Those kinds of things are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's about life. It's about life and hopefully, like, we go through this as part of this as well. So when we interview people and we have breaks between seasons and other things happen in our life, things happen.
Speaker 2:Sure to the story, it adds another chapter to it, and so I'm even excited, thinking ahead, far ahead, thinking. Okay, it'll be wonderful to look back, and you mentioned about looking back to other episodes, about looking back and seeing how things progressed or changed or how the Lord's fingerprints were on that, and I know even some. We included some of the interviews that we did from years back as part of the first season, and I was thinking about even how some of the interviews that we did from years back as part of the first season, and I was thinking about even how some of those relationships have grown and built over the years.
Speaker 2:even though we may have not have released the interview, we were graced with the presence of Nicole Hensley.
Speaker 1:Right After we. Initially, she's a pro women's hockey goalie, a US Olympic goalie yeah, and her career If you're not familiar with the US Olympic goalie. Yeah, and her career If you're not familiar with the name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and things just keep on going and going and going in her life. And what people don't know is during the years between when we released the podcast and recorded it, each year she was one of our guest speakers at Hockey Ministries Hockey Camp Wow, and we would have a call with her and a lot of the girls that had come to the camp. This was a huge moment because it was someone that not only that they could relate to a little bit, but she told the story about how, when she grew up and how she was involved in sport, and so I think that was a real encouragement. But that relationship has been able to grow and develop as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's so, so powerful, powerful. I think that just the relationship side and what just sharing stories and doing life together can look like um, that's the part that excites me the most about season two and um, yeah, and even you know, I wasn't sure if you're going to share the story about the interaction on the street. Maybe, for yeah.
Speaker 2:Part of me says yes, the other part of me says um, um. I'll tell a portion of it.
Speaker 1:Right, well, you don't have to. I'm putting you on the spot here. I wanted to share that. To share because it touched me and it allowed me.
Speaker 2:This is part of the conversation. This is part of the conversation. So I think it's good because I think, as you and I have a conversation, it's going to bring up things that I think it was important to you for a reason and maybe it might be important to someone else to hear it. I'll tell the story, but you've got to answer my question.
Speaker 1:Can I blow my nose first? Yeah, sure, why not? Do you want to edit? No, no, no, we're just going to keep it live on?
Speaker 2:We don't edit. Yeah, you didn't tell me that. I explain that to guests. No, just go, let her go, man, just let her go. And oh, wow, that was great. You feel so much better Like a million bucks.
Speaker 1:We just lost 25 listeners. That's right.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? That's okay. We would have had to have 25 listeners first, that's okay, the podcast that doesn't get edited. No, but you want the awesome it's authenticity do you edit life?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't know, are you ever going to release? You know you did release the clip of you breaking a chair, recording her I did, I think, you did, but if we had the audio to that would have been great. Um, you can't do it right.
Speaker 2:See, I bother editing no, but we do have the, the audio, for that we do this would be a good spot to drop it. I have it okay and boom um. What sport Are you looking at? Any sport that you particularly want to hear an athlete from.
Speaker 1:Are you asking the viewer or are you asking me? No, I'm asking you. No, I mean there's lots out there, right, there's. I mean, yeah, football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse I mean there's. Yeah, I mean you're obviously connected to baseball. Me, you know not as much. I respect the sport but I don't consume it Okay.
Speaker 2:So now I respect the sport, but I don't consume it. So now you're, now you're going back to season one a little bit, Someone that you mentioned a sport that I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 1:Yes, paralympics. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, for sure, that's another one as well, that's that's one that I want to hear from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we're going to hold you to that one, okay, okay, um so, boy, this was a long time ago, 25 years ago.
Speaker 1:Oh, you told him like it was like a month ago. No, it's not a month ago. This was like 25 years ago man, yeah, you sold it to me like it was recent. No, okay, I don't want to hear the story anymore because I thought it was a recent story. No, no, it wasn't no.
Speaker 2:I was reminded of it oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And it happened that I was reminded of and was about being thankful for the things that we had for sure and so I had, uh, met someone. Um, I had an appointment downtown to go meet someone and I had walked along and I had seen someone who was asking for handouts. And usually it never has bothered me. You know, I understand some people are down and out and needs a helping hand, and not necessarily going to make a judgment call on some situation, sure, some people, I'm sure, are doing it with ill intent and other people are, yeah, absolutely Genuinely yeah, yeah genuinely and I had just.
Speaker 2:I had walked downtown and I had saw someone asking for some help and I had gone to my meeting.
Speaker 2:And it was a time in my life where it was like, yeah, life was a big time struggle. It was really difficult, and I had walked back and purposely rerouted myself away from where the person was that I knew that was asking for a handout. And then, yeah, as I kind of went around the opposite way, went an extra good like two, three blocks out of the way. I thought, boy, here we go. I avoided the contact with that person and seeing that person and, yeah, I thought I had avoided the whole situation. And, lo and behold, there was the person across the road from the new intersection that I had come across and I had no money to give, but I had time and so I listened to the person's story about what had happened.
Speaker 2:It was a sad story. The person had fallen off a set of scaffolding working on their own house and had fallen down a set of stairs when it happened and he was in a hospital and during that time he was in a hospital. His that time he was in hospital. His wife and his kids left him, ended up losing his home, was on the street begging for bottles and taking uh, going through parks on his route in order to go to the bottle depot. Literally was there to cash it in in order to have his meal for the day. That was his plan and so knew. Asked him if he could still paint.
Speaker 2:Uh said I knew someone in that industry. Um, I said, listen, if the bottle depot that you um say that you're going to every single day, I'll meet you there in two days. What time will you usually get there by in in the evening? So he mentioned to me they were doing and worked out timing wise. I could get there and thought, okay, good opportunity for me to see if I can find some work for him. Had someone who was willing to give him a job painting. I had someone who had connections with the YMCA downtown for a place for him to actually live for a week, and so I was able to put together a little bag of clothes and a Bible 20 bucks in it and first a fresh bag of underwear, and I thought, okay, you know, this is great, I'm doing him a favor, go to meet him at the McDonald's next to the Bottle Depot and on the date that's planned, on the time that's planned because there's no way to get a hold of him.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, here I am waiting for a half hour 45 minutes to meet this guy, to give him this bag of stuff and tell him the great news about employment, to give him this bag of stuff and tell him the great news about employment, about a place to live, about all this new changes that were going to happen in his life, and he didn't show up. And I was frustrated with that. And as I was frustrated with that, it just came to my heart, came to my heart, lord, speaking to my heart, just saying you know what, listen, you are so frustrated that this guy didn't show up, aren't you? And I, praying aloud, almost, and just like lord, I'm just like I am frustrated. I'm frustrated that I had all these great things planned for this guy and he wouldn't show up.
Speaker 2:and the other thing is he's not even thankful for what I had planned sure and, um, that same kind of still small voice said to me. He said, well, you're kind of the same way right now. Well, and I kind of just thought to myself this is all about me, isn't it Lord? I was like, yeah, I had all this great and wonderful things planned for you, and you're not even gracious about the things that I'm offering you even right now, and it was a huge wake-up call to me massive wake-up call to me and it was a really important event that happened in my life and it was one of those forks in the road that you'll have in life that it's like, okay, this happened.
Speaker 2:I can either keep on going the way I'm going or, you know, I have to make a planned change in order to be gracious and thankful for all that God has planned for me, because he has great things planned for me and I may think that what I'm doing right now is good enough and everything's fine and I'm used to it, but God's got an amazing thing planned and I think maybe we even just use this as a word of encouragement for someone who may be listening today, because you might listen to some of these interviews and talking to people and having a conversation.
Speaker 2:Maybe you have questions, maybe you've got questions about your life, maybe you have questions about what that athlete is doing and you want to know more. Maybe you got a comment about something that was said because you listened to it and you were like, oh, that's so what I experienced. That's the thing that we want to hear from the listener this season is. We want to be able to hear those comments, read those emails and say, wow, look at what the Lord is doing, not just because the person heard what we've said, but maybe it reminded them of the goodness of God and how thankful they are about what God is doing in their own life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a powerful story and carrying the conversation is what we want to do in season two. Season one, we had some episodes where we'd share concepts and we're grateful for the feedback we got on it. We want to carry the conversation in season two so, as we have some of these episodes that come through, message us on social media and send us contact info so we can hear some of your feedback and what the Lord's doing in your life, and that's how we can maybe create a conversation. By a situation going on in your life, it might be an entire topic of a show.
Speaker 2:Totally, and you know what you see all this time. Lots of times you watch a YouTube video or you hear someone talk and they're like and share, like and share. You know what? No, it's our intention is not to gain. Yeah, our intention is for this to be done for God's glory. But we like the idea of sharing because we're sharing with you, right? So we like this idea of sharing all the conversation for the conversation to go further, versus just stopping. Okay, yeah, I heard from Dave. He's got enough, said I heard from Dan. Okay, that's good.
Speaker 1:That ends there. No, no, this is an ongoing process.
Speaker 2:This relationship, as you keep on coming back to, which I love, is like that's what it is.
Speaker 1:It's building a relationship. Yeah, and Christ is always refining us and making us better versions of ourself, and I loved your story about how, so often you know, we might have interactions like that in our day-to-day life and you might run into some of the transient community and have similar experiences and we can often, you know, look in frustration, but, yeah, the lord reminding you of, hey, this is about you, right? So if that was encouraging for you today, this story, this episode, you can reach out to us, catch us on where all podcasts are found on instagram as well as twitter or x, and you can check us out there. I am dave he is. It's going to be a great season ahead. This is Gospel in the Game, season 2, episode 1. Thanks for listening.
