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
The Unexpected Antidote: When Thankfulness Replaces Control
What if the secret to overcoming fear isn't always positive thinking but thankfulness? When professional hockey player Talor Joseph found himself trapped in a cycle of fear despite visualization techniques and positive affirmations, he discovered an unexpected spiritual solution that transformed both his game and life.
This fascinating conversation explores how thankfulness became Talor's antidote to win challenges athletes face: fear and the desire for control. While most athletes are taught to visualize success—seeing themselves scoring goals or executing perfect plays—Talor found this approach actually intensified his fear. It wasn't until he shifted to a posture of gratitude that he broke free from performance pressure.
The parallels to Biblical principles are striking. Just as Jesus gave thanks before the miracle of feeding thousands with five loaves and two fish, Taylor learned that thankfulness must precede the outcome, not merely follow it. This spiritual reorientation allowed him to release his grip on what he couldn't control and find peace regardless of results.
Beyond performance psychology, we dive into the rarely-discussed realities of minor professional hockey leagues, where financial uncertainty and career instability test both players and their families. Talor's wife emerges as a crucial teammate in this journey, encouraging him forward in faith when the path seemed uncertain. Their story illuminates how thankfulness strengthens not just competitive mindset but relationships as well.
Most powerfully, we hear how Talor now invests in younger players through Hockey Ministries, mentoring goalies with both technical advice and spiritual wisdom. His willingness to share vulnerably about his struggles provides a roadmap for athletes at any level battling similar mental challenges.
Whether you're an athlete, coach, parent, or simply someone fighting the universal human tendencies toward fear and control, this conversation offers practical spiritual wisdom about the transformative power of gratitude. Subscribe now and join our community exploring the profound connections between faith and sport.
dave, if I was able to take you to a baseball game, what would you? Let me buy you for supper at the baseball game.
Dave Dawson:Oh my god. I would ask you first of all if we could leave and then go have supper really like, honestly, if I was like okay, I'm gonna entice you with something yeah, baseball wouldn't be enticing so but maybe the food.
Dan Dromarsky:Might you know what we were talking about? Uh, a sports food, stadium food made me think of this. I was showing someone a hot dog that you can get at the winnipeg jets arena. That's like three feet long. That has pierogies on it.
Dave Dawson:There's also that that I feel what it's called the heart attack burger, whatever, at the, because it came from the bomber stadium, because the burger you can buy at the stadium is where that started. What are the bombers? Yeah, that's the cfl football team. Oh, okay, yeah, so the burger is like massive. It's like I think I don't know what the parameters are around it, but it started with that five or six years ago that if you can eat this, then you get like season tickets. What really? It's insane. Wow, you have to be able to eat it all in one sitting. You can't take any condiments off. Yeah, you have to.
Dan Dromarsky:You have to literally eat it yourself I went to a place one time with a guy and the same thing was like if you can eat this burger, um, you get the next one for free and they give you a voucher for it.
Dave Dawson:Yeah, and the burger was 20 bucks, yeah so it was like it's a standard price of anything.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, within reason yeah, but then all of a sudden it showed up and it had this giant surrounding of fries with it okay, but the burger was one kilogram.
Dave Dawson:Oh, that's impressive it was solid and he did it I couldn't do it he did enticing food.
Dave Dawson:there I mean a lot of options. I mean I'm a big steak guy. I enjoy some steak, you know, if you're at a sporting event and baseball. I had a funny conversation actually with a friend yesterday about just the sport of baseball. Oh, I've never really got into it at all. But you know, in my broadcast career I have a tendency there are different styles of broadcast those who just live for the theatrics and live for the actual sport. They love the sport so much, it doesn't matter who's playing, they just love calling the sport. For me, the part I love about broadcast is the relationships. I love being able to build the relationships and tell the stories. So different sports that I do.
Dave Dawson:It's hard to get all the stories in. Like, I love calling lacrosse right now, but if you watch lacrosse there's no time to fit anything other than the play by play. The sport moves so fast. Hockey you can do it, you have those icings and whatever you can fit story in. But baseball is the perfect spot to fit stories because any commentator for baseball they're not talking about baseball, they're talking about what they had for dinner where they're in. Their wife went on vacation. Baseball they're talking what they had for dinner where they're and their wife went on vacation. Like there's, there's just, it's such a calm pace because, if you think about it, in hockey, when you're doing a broadcast, if you're telling a story and a puck goes in you, you're, you get what's called in the industry burned. Yeah, you just got burned, right. But in baseball, if you're telling a story, clack, you have the moment high fly ball. Like you have the moment High fly ball, like you have the. You can recover, yeah, but in other sports you can't.
Dan Dromarsky:So anyway, yeah, no, I don't actually hate baseball. No, but you want the gap in time. You bring up an interesting thing. I've always thought of it this way If you're calling hockey, you have a timeframe in which to fit the story in between whistles, and you don't want. You're like just focus on the game, just focus on the game, but in baseball you can tell the story as it's happening and you can quickly transfer to that moment when things do happen.
Dave Dawson:Now the count is one and two.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, and you actually speed up the game that way. A good color commentator will speed up the game, or even a play-by-play guy, for sure, yeah, yeah for sure, totally so.
Dave Dawson:Yeah, baseball is an interesting one for me, that I'm actually starting to endear myself a little more to the sport. Oh wow, because now realizing that's the spot that I can. You know, if I start to really get into it I can probably excel in that, based on my desire to build relationships and tell those stories. I love talking with players before games, coaches, and then reiterating their personal journey. You know I build a lot of relationships in sport over the years.
Dan Dromarsky:We should almost give you a challenge. How do you do like an interview with someone at the baseball field at the event, while eating Like if?
Dave Dawson:you can do the interview. Is this like the hot wings thing or whatever Put together?
Dan Dromarsky:like a dozen hot dogs while you're interviewing.
Dave Dawson:Yeah, just some sort of challenge don't generally go for the saturated fats or the bad foods anymore. I try to keep those out of my body. I'm a pretty regimented diet salmon, eggs, chicken, you know all the things that you can't get at a baseball game exactly because they're trying to force the other things in you. Never mind, I'm not going to go down that road. But here we are, the gospel in the game season two. No idea what episode we're on, because we're well into there.
Dan Dromarsky:But well, we're, yeah, we're technically episode three okay um, but you know, we haven't really been numbering them because we're on a rotation, we're on a conversation with a person interview and it's yeah, it's a lateral move this year and I like it.
Dave Dawson:I think, if, if, you enjoyed season number one, I really and we're going to dig into the conversation that you had with Taylor Joseph today in this episode but I really enjoyed yeah, really enjoyed the format of the conversation and I want to recap that and all the great things and I wasn't around for that, but I it was nice to be a bystander, right. So as I do things together as this project, it was fun to just be a bystander and go cool, like it's and the way you even talked about it, um, that as an observer, if you're sitting at a coffee shop and you're over over here in this conversation, that's kind of how I was when I was driving. I'm like, yeah, this is a very observant.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah. Yeah, we were chatting before this and just giving a little explanation and kind of the goal of the conversation piece where you have, like you have the traditional interview, don't you? Where you're like, how did you grow up? Any like things happen when you were young and like, build towards the person, sure, and then you went from the forward back, as you said.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, yeah, or a major event, and I think this idea of, like you just mentioned, having this interview. It would be like as if you're sitting in a coffee shop and you hear two people chatting and you're kind of intrigued by their conversation and maybe there's something that's ear-catching and something that you want to know more about. So I would encourage someone listening to dig deeper in it. But this is kind of what we're doing.
Dave Dawson:Google the guy's name or whatever.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we're kind of doing that today too, as we talk.
Dave Dawson:Speaking of digging deeper, did you have somewhere you wanted to go with that? Spoil me with dinner and baseball game conversation.
Dan Dromarsky:No, I was actually literally thinking that you and I should go to a baseball game, but we are going to do an interview coming up with a baseball player With baseball.
Dave Dawson:Okay, so I have to get it out there right now that I do not dislike baseball. I just don't for the record before. Yeah, so he comes on and I heard you don't like that.
Dan Dromarsky:Okay, that's off to a road yeah, we have someone that's listening that will send us a message and be like. So, since dave doesn't like baseball, yeah, yeah, can I invite him to the curling?
Dave Dawson:match. Yeah, darts is that? That's my gem? Yeah, yeah, I'll do some darts. I was even thinking like poker or something like that.
Dan Dromarsky:Those are all good games yeah.
Dave Dawson:Monopoly Darts yeah. I don't know if they have professional monopoly, if that's going to be the Olympics anytime soon, but, um, if you are observing this interview from a coffee shop and you've already turned it off, we don know. I will not be sneezing in this episode.
Dan Dromarsky:I have seemed, thankfully, to overcome that brief allergy attack over the last, so happy to hear stuff here.
Dan Dromarsky:So when we're selecting guests, um, there's a few different kind of methods to at least my madness. Maybe you can, uh, kind of, I guess, share how people come to mind first of all is, I would say, observation, or maybe something that we've met and you mentioned relationships, which I think is good because that's a foundation of a good, I think, interview. Sure, it's learning a little bit more about the person, or you have a relationship with them, or there's something that has stood out to you about that person. Yeah, and it's hard to observe in a podcast because you're not seeing it, but one of the things that Taylor Joseph has done really well in his last few years is giving thanks on the ice post-game, taking a moment to pray, and that's something that's observable about this player, and so I think there are some things that someone might have listened to the podcast or looked him up, and you'll see that as part of something that he does, and so I think, as you listen and as you observe, hopefully we can encourage you to dig deeper.
Dave Dawson:Yeah, and that's the thing that I've really hit me from listening to that podcast. You know when, when you had mentioned the concept of thankfulness. I didn't know where the root of that came, but I loved what he had talked about in visualizing before the game, cause a lot of players visualize, almost every athlete visualizes, right, you see goalies on the bench visualizing, players visualizing if you're a football player, you're a baseball player, you're, you're visualizing plays. They said that's the best way to carve those paths. And then he had mentioned then he sees a goal going, but then he can't unvisualize that. So then he tried to go with positive affirmations and say nice things about himself, and it could. It couldn't unplug him for it and it kept leading him down the cycle of fear, which I found interesting as he talked about.
Dave Dawson:Fear was always the thing Cause he was said do you deal with anxiety? You asked him about you know, is anxiety a thing that you have to, you've struggled with or whatever? And he had taught. He said no, not specifically, but fear is the thing that's always got me. And you said how did you overcome that? And he said, well, by thankfulness, which isn't. That wouldn't be your first thing you would often think of if maybe you're not coming from a faith-based background in your life, or maybe even if you are I. I thought that was really interesting and I've seen it work that way before, but it was.
Dan Dromarsky:It was pretty profound yeah, and I I like, how you like kind of just touched on the whole thing with, like you know, because we had a podcast last season where we talked about anxiety and or whether it's worry or or, however, however, however some of these things you want to phrase them, I can think it looks. Things look differently for a lot of people. Even fear looks different for a lot of people where, like for him, it was in the, in his head, visualizing some people. It's fear, like I've even talked to players where they're like I hate playing at this one arena because of something happened, and so it's not just necessarily trying to visualize what's happened with that, but it's also, like you said, it's that replay or something that triggers something that had happened previously for them in that spot. That's really difficult to overcome. It's almost not just a preparation, it's a mindset.
Dave Dawson:Yeah, and it's so interesting that thankfulness is the, is the antidote for that, of all the things you can think of. Okay, I'll try and do this and change my routine. And you talk to a positive affirmations. And you know thankfulness, I think, is rooted obviously in the worship of of our father and the Holy spirit. And you know, if you unpack the Lord's prayer as you go through it, the very first, and you know, if you unpack the Lord's prayer as you go through it, the very first thing is worship Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Right, you're thanking God for who he is, even in acknowledgement, the acknowledgement of it. Yeah, exactly so. It was interesting to me that in those moments when he was fearful, he said thankfulness. So, going through God, I'm thankful for this. I'm thankful that I can play right and I loved what he talked about. If he wants to send me to the American League, he can do it in a moment, right, you?
Dan Dromarsky:know if I want to go back to the American League.
Dave Dawson:You know, and he said, thankfulness gets him out of that desire to be in control of situations, right? So fear and control are the two things that thankfulness combats.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, and and I loved how he included, just touching a little bit on the fact of it His wife was part of this process with him and not only was him having thankfulness and her encouragement about like stepping in and faith, stepping forward in faith and understanding that if you're really going to go for this, you need to go for this, but I it was. It was a nice picture to have that. It was not only the thankfulness helped him and his inner mindset, but it also probably had a big impact on his relationship and positive light too, just being able to lead with thankfulness.
Dave Dawson:Well, and even I remember him saying that you know his wife got on a plane, I think, to somewhere back from wherever, huntsville I think, or Alabama or somewhere. He was talking about that. When she's getting on the plane, she's landing, going like what's happening, are you going to have a consistent income coming up? Like what's going to go on. And we often think in the pro athlete side, you know, you just watch the Stanley Cup with the families and the wives come on and you know that's cool to see the family part of that journey. And sure, oh yeah, getting traded from Anaheim to Florida, that must be so hard.
Dave Dawson:Well, we often think, or you go down way to the bottom, oh yeah, the junior hockey. You know, as you're in a relationship with the family stuff, you don't often picture the minor pro levels where you know AHL, okay, struggle, echl, struggle, how about one level lower, the SPHL? Like you don't think of the factors of that, right, and it's incredible to hear the story Like that was what hit me, because that's kind of the way I look at their trajectory. Okay, pro athlete struggles for sure, but then like minor, minor, minor pro, like you're still playing pro and you still have a dream, yeah, and you know what?
Dan Dromarsky:It made me actually think of the depth of the sport when so many people like watch NHL hockey and they're like, oh, nhl, these guys are the big deal, the big thing. There are so many layers to that sport where it's like the minors, minors, like the tiers down and the differences between the hockey itself. So many of them. Sometimes they're very marginal. Yeah, it's just so slim Like.
Dan Dromarsky:I was even talking with a junior coach today and one of the things that we were talking about is like the athletic level of like 16, 17-year-old players and how, sometimes, like, one division is just about crispness and passing or is just a tiny bit faster, but there's kids that are capable of playing in both levels.
Dan Dromarsky:You might have one level that some people might see as AA, that's a little bit less, but the team play is way better, sure, and then you have level of triple a and it has that I guess you'd say triple a logo, like label on it and the players are super talented and getting a lot of attention. But you got a guy who's like trying to take it from one end to the other and forgetting about the team play, sure, and so it kind of like allows you to see through a lens of a different, different dynamic. What it really made me think of, though, like when you just talked about that element of thankfulness, was it reminded me, biblically, of the miracle of the five loaves and the two fish, and how, what the first thing Christ did was he gave thanks, and everyone witnessing around him only saw five loaves and two fish.
Dan Dromarsky:Sure, and afterwards there's more than enough to have everyone fed, man, woman and child, but also there's leftovers pieces everywhere and so you're just like, when people are willing to give thanks before the outcome, it's a whole different ball game, right, it's one thing to say thanks once things work out, sure, and I think one of the things that it really made me thankful for no pun intended one thing that he was willing to acknowledge that that was the first step, not the last step. Yeah, and I think it's really important for young athletes, old athletes, people to hear that heartfelt thankfulness needs to happen at the beginning, it's not just at the end of it.
Dave Dawson:And it's the antidote yes, it's the thing that gets you through all the journeys, right, and I thought it was just fascinating hearing the story of his wife being a part of this and, you know, the helper in the journey. Okay, we're a team, we're doing this together. Right, we need to get through this together. So it was fascinating, I loved it. There's gonna be a lot of interviews we'll have from you know, pro, pro athletes like maybe tier one pro, and then a great guy like taylor maybe wish that I could have been in the room to, to be with him, just listening to him, the way he conducted himself and the way he spoke about. No, I I spent some. I spent some time fasting and praying and and it was incredible and the first thing I said to you when I walked into your house today hey, dan, how'd you guys meet?
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you went and I and I I didn't tell you the full story of it, but I'll share it now for this interview. I think it's a. I got a hold of Tim Wiebe, who helps run Alberta for Hockey Ministries, who runs basically for Alberta, and reached out to him just to say, hey, listen, I'm a believer, I really want to be involved and give some time to camp and I'm a goalie coach, I'm a player. How can I do that? Is there any capacity or items? I can just come out, just give my time, sure, and I was out there on the ice visiting them, seeing how he was interacting with the kids and one of the kids was my kid being a goalie and, uh, we just started chatting and conversing and he told me a little bit of his story and it was, it was just so intriguing just to see not only his level of maturity and this was probably five, six years ago Not only his level of maturity as an individual, but also, at the same time, how he was willing to just invest into youth, knowing and fully understanding that he was there once.
Dan Dromarsky:And one of the things that he just he didn't do it with his hockey skill, he did it with his heart, sure. And so there was lots of times, lots of moments that I was able to kind of just capture visually, where I saw him talking to the goalies and chatting with the goalies and just like just sharing into them just not only the perspective on the ice but after the ice, just talking into their lives, and so that was really, really encouraging. And then the next year he came back again and he had shared with me because I was saying to him how great it was to have him out, how good it was and this is in Edmonton In Edmonton and he actually shared on how great he what he got out of it. So it wasn't always about what was given Right, it was how much he actually got back out of it, sure.
Dan Dromarsky:And so years over the last few years it's been a great relationship that we've kept in touch and worked with each other and, yeah, no, great great guy.
Dave Dawson:And I think we often I think I've said this on podcasts before that we tend tend to glorify the the high up pro professional athlete, nhl, nfl, major leagues. You know, we we look at those, we glorify them in a lot of ways and we think, oh man, I can't wait to just to hear them speak there. They must have so much to offer and they may have depth to them. But it's the pedestal you put them on. Where we want to focus on in this podcast, there's going to be a lot of amateur athletes, we're going to have semi pro athletes, some pro athletes on as well, but it's it's what's in the story. What God's doing in in the details of someone's life is so special.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, and and it's about the like you mentioned off the start is the people. It's a relationship. Even telling the story of how we met, I almost become tongue-tied just because it's a little bit emotional, and when you get to know someone, I think you have an investment into it yourself, but it's a good reminder that it's like you know what. For those of us that have hope in Christ, this is what eternity is all about. We look forward to hearing all these wonderful things that the Lord has done through people and the things that they've allowed us to go through and go through together. And boy, you have a 30-minute podcast to tell you all the awesome things and experiences that Taylor's probably had. We could run a whole season.
Dave Dawson:Sure, yeah Easily.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah, so that's exciting and, as Dave mentioned, as you mentioned too, it's like it's really about those people and it's about what the Lord has done, and on all different layers, because we don't know where people are going to be. Yeah, and that's the other thing and it's not about whether they're going to achieve greatness but what their role is going to be going to be, and that's the other thing.
Dan Dromarsky:It's not always about athletes, it's about those that are surrounding athletes. I think sometimes, yeah, and those aren't necessarily the stories that everyone hears. I know one of the guys that we're going to hear from shortly. He does play-by-play on a professional level and I'd love to be able to hear from people that are involved, even like training and support, athletic therapists, coaches and things like that.
Dave Dawson:We're going to have a lot of people connected to the game, anything surrounding sport, because it's fascinating to see how faith and sport connect, not just as an athlete, but as a coach, as an athletic therapist, as, however you're involved in it, a marketing person, broadcaster, I think what we need as believers in this day and age, with so much darkness out there and so much division and separation, is how we can better understand each other and how we can share the love of Christ to others as well.
Dan Dromarsky:Okay, I'm going to put you on the spot here Out of every supporting role in sport. You've been involved in sport and around sport and broadcasting for a long time. What is the most unique supportive role that you've ever encountered in sport?
Dave Dawson:Unique supportive role, so someone connected to the team.
Dan Dromarsky:Yeah.
Dave Dawson:I mean, a bus driver is kind of a unique one. I would think, yeah, Bob Ridley, the former voice of the Medicine Hat Tigers. He drove the bus and did play by, play Right. He figured, if I'm on the bus I may as well drive it. And that's to me, that's a unique supportive role for sure, okay, yeah, because I'm just trying to thinkinals.
Dan Dromarsky:Tell us a little bit about your story. Where do those blue pucks?
Dave Dawson:come from. Oh my, that'll be the last time we're on the air today. Thanks for listening. Uh, too funny. Oh boy. Gospel in the game, episode 3. I am Dave. He is Dan. Follow us on Instagram and uh Twitter and find us at our. All podcasts are found. Gospel in the game.
