“A modern-day version of Howard Cosell.” That’s how players in the Lawrence-Mercer County Church Softball League describe Michael T. Mondak’s podcasting style.
The native of Portsmouth, Virginia has been around sports since his early childhood in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, when his father, who was then in the Navy, coached football and often dragged his toddler son to practices where the then-2 year old Michael made the players do sprints at the conclusion of practice.
Mondak, a former youth soccer player in Portsmouth, later became a key contributor playing inline hockey for five years after relocating to Hermitage from Portsmouth in June 1995. The summer of 1997 was his best year of inline hockey. A member of the Admirals, coached by his father, Mondak exploded for five assists in a 12-3 Admirals win (though he later admitted to puking during the game), and also had two games where he set up two goals and scored one himself.
“One of those two goals was a terrible shot-pass,” Mondak admitted years later. “I was trying to set up a possible tip-in for a teammate, but the Bombers goaltender never saw the puck coming and it went through his five hole. It was a terrible shot, but I got lucky.”
In 2000 he joined the golf team at Hickory High School, where he had another key contribution to the teams coached by Pete Sirianni and Bill Gibb. Mondak graduated from Hickory High School in 2003.
After spending two years at Robert Morris University where he studied sports management, he transferred to Penn State Shenango where he studied business and also was part of the golf team coached by Randy Fyock in 2008 and 2009.
In the summer of 2010, Mondak founded what is now MHB Network (then called MTM Productions – a play on his initials), which produces YouTube versions of classic game shows such as “Jeopardy!” and original content, such as 2018’s “The Great Trivia Quest” and the currently-running series “Michael T. Mondak Reads”, where he reads one picture book daily to an audience of school children, their parents and teachers.
Following his graduation from Penn State Shenango in December 2010, Mondak continued to produce content for MHB Network. It was during one of his “Jeopardy!” tournaments in 2014 where he began urging viewers to help in the fight against childhood cancers by making monetary contributions to the Four Diamonds Fund, the main beneficiary of the millions of dollars raised annually by Penn State students for their philanthropic event Dance Marathon (or THON for short). This simple request later became his closing tagline for every game show he hosted or podcast he produced. In 2015, Mondak began sporadic podcasts of Covenant Speed/Power softball, while at the same time being mentored by former Pittsburgh Pirates announcer Lanny Frattare.
“Lanny taught me that 85% of a broadcast’s success is determined before it even goes on the air,” Mondak says, “and that is why preparation is the key. He would spend hours before going on the air for a Pirates game looking at statistics from the teams to prepare for his games. I follow his example to this day.”
The sporadic 2015 podcasts were the basis of the founding of MHB Sports, the sports radio division of MHB Network. MHB Sports is the exclusive SoundCloud home of Covenant Speed/Power softball. It also doubles as a high school sports blog during the school year, where Mondak posts about high school football in the fall as well as boys and girls basketball in the winter. The initial podcasts also led to Mondak being hired by local radio stations News/Talk 790 WPIC-AM and SportsRadio 96.7 WLLF-FM as a studio producer for high school sports, a position he held for three years, while simultaneously working at either Dunham’s Sports or ServiceSource.
2021 was a big year for Mondak both personally and sports-wise. In January, Mondak was hired not only by his current real-life employer Sharon Regional Medical Center as a front line worker during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was also hired as the Sports Contributor for Sean Zippie’s weekly podcast The Zip Code, where he gave his thoughts on the NFL playoffs, the NCAA tournament and the Masters at Augusta National. However, the church softball season is something that Mondak looks forward to each and every year.
“Ever since I started podcasting these softball games as a way to get out of the house, my circle of friends has grown exponentially,” Mondak says. “Not only have I gotten to know the players on the Covenant Speed/Power, I have also gotten to know many of the players on the other squads in the league.”
When Mondak is neither delivering medical supplies to the hospital units nor podcasting softball, you can often find him on a golf course within a 100 mile radius of Hermitage on a Saturday between April and August. A bachelor, Mondak lives in Hermitage with his parents and their 6 year old Labrador mix, Cutch, who was born on Christmas 2014.
The native of Portsmouth, Virginia has been around sports since his early childhood in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, when his father, who was then in the Navy, coached football and often dragged his toddler son to practices where the then-2 year old Michael made the players do sprints at the conclusion of practice.
Mondak, a former youth soccer player in Portsmouth, later became a key contributor playing inline hockey for five years after relocating to Hermitage from Portsmouth in June 1995. The summer of 1997 was his best year of inline hockey. A member of the Admirals, coached by his father, Mondak exploded for five assists in a 12-3 Admirals win (though he later admitted to puking during the game), and also had two games where he set up two goals and scored one himself.
“One of those two goals was a terrible shot-pass,” Mondak admitted years later. “I was trying to set up a possible tip-in for a teammate, but the Bombers goaltender never saw the puck coming and it went through his five hole. It was a terrible shot, but I got lucky.”
In 2000 he joined the golf team at Hickory High School, where he had another key contribution to the teams coached by Pete Sirianni and Bill Gibb. Mondak graduated from Hickory High School in 2003.
After spending two years at Robert Morris University where he studied sports management, he transferred to Penn State Shenango where he studied business and also was part of the golf team coached by Randy Fyock in 2008 and 2009.
In the summer of 2010, Mondak founded what is now MHB Network (then called MTM Productions – a play on his initials), which produces YouTube versions of classic game shows such as “Jeopardy!” and original content, such as 2018’s “The Great Trivia Quest” and the currently-running series “Michael T. Mondak Reads”, where he reads one picture book daily to an audience of school children, their parents and teachers.
Following his graduation from Penn State Shenango in December 2010, Mondak continued to produce content for MHB Network. It was during one of his “Jeopardy!” tournaments in 2014 where he began urging viewers to help in the fight against childhood cancers by making monetary contributions to the Four Diamonds Fund, the main beneficiary of the millions of dollars raised annually by Penn State students for their philanthropic event Dance Marathon (or THON for short). This simple request later became his closing tagline for every game show he hosted or podcast he produced. In 2015, Mondak began sporadic podcasts of Covenant Speed/Power softball, while at the same time being mentored by former Pittsburgh Pirates announcer Lanny Frattare.
“Lanny taught me that 85% of a broadcast’s success is determined before it even goes on the air,” Mondak says, “and that is why preparation is the key. He would spend hours before going on the air for a Pirates game looking at statistics from the teams to prepare for his games. I follow his example to this day.”
The sporadic 2015 podcasts were the basis of the founding of MHB Sports, the sports radio division of MHB Network. MHB Sports is the exclusive SoundCloud home of Covenant Speed/Power softball. It also doubles as a high school sports blog during the school year, where Mondak posts about high school football in the fall as well as boys and girls basketball in the winter. The initial podcasts also led to Mondak being hired by local radio stations News/Talk 790 WPIC-AM and SportsRadio 96.7 WLLF-FM as a studio producer for high school sports, a position he held for three years, while simultaneously working at either Dunham’s Sports or ServiceSource.
2021 was a big year for Mondak both personally and sports-wise. In January, Mondak was hired not only by his current real-life employer Sharon Regional Medical Center as a front line worker during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was also hired as the Sports Contributor for Sean Zippie’s weekly podcast The Zip Code, where he gave his thoughts on the NFL playoffs, the NCAA tournament and the Masters at Augusta National. However, the church softball season is something that Mondak looks forward to each and every year.
“Ever since I started podcasting these softball games as a way to get out of the house, my circle of friends has grown exponentially,” Mondak says. “Not only have I gotten to know the players on the Covenant Speed/Power, I have also gotten to know many of the players on the other squads in the league.”
When Mondak is neither delivering medical supplies to the hospital units nor podcasting softball, you can often find him on a golf course within a 100 mile radius of Hermitage on a Saturday between April and August. A bachelor, Mondak lives in Hermitage with his parents and their 6 year old Labrador mix, Cutch, who was born on Christmas 2014.