This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio while just Surgery I
on the Ball. Welcome back to on the Vulkan of Fox Sports fourteen fifty
am. Your host Ja Gonzalez. Steve will be up for the rest of
the week, but I do have Henry here, and Henry's got breaking news.
This is Eye on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty.
Well the first set of breaking news. Former Rutgers right handed pitcher Christian
Coppola has committed to Arizona with two years eligibility. He was named the freshman
All American and All Big Time First Seamer in twenty twenty three, but he
struggled last year with the seven six year already my sophomore year. Interesting.
You know, you take a guy he's got experience, so that always helps,
regardless of you know, what you've done recently. We'll see how that
adds up for Chip Hale and pitching staff. You know, he's got some
guys that are gonna be He's he's gonna have replace some guys. They had
a really good pitching staff but guys who are probably all you know, all
going to be out of here, so we'll see what happens. Uh.
So you know, go get go, get go, get some guys.
It never hurts. It never hurts to have pictures, right, you need
lots of them. And so, uh, if Chip thinks this guy can
contribute, then more power to him. So we'll wait and see what it
looks like. So there you go. Uh. Former Arizona diver Delaney Schnell
will be representing Timyosa in the Olympics and this will be her second Olympics.
Right. She won a silver battle in the last Olympics in the synchronized dive.
She's in the same uh, in the same event this year, So
we'll see if she can get up that to a gold. We had her
on after her silver medal and she was understandably very giddy about it. But
now you know that she's got a sight set on some more. So we'll
see how that goes. But you know, you have to you have to
say that. You know, there's been some Olympians from Tucson, you know,
and and and uh, you know, she's a two time Olympia now,
so she's up there among among the group that has come from here and
been in the Olympics, and we'll see what she can do, but certainly
keep an eye on her in that in that event. According to Ross Dellinger,
the NCAA presents a new basketball tournament model that would expand the field by
four eight teams starting in the twenty six season. I'm so against this.
Yeah, you know, I understand what they're doing. I'm so against them
messing this up. You know, the the first four okay, you know
the extra four teams that they put, you know, to make it go
from sixty four sixty eight. I've come to like the NCAA tournament starting on
that Tuesday. It's fun. I watch those games. I know there's you
know, people gamble on those games. That's that's great. You know you
get two games, you got two games on Tuesday, two games on Wednesday,
and then the you know, then the brackets really get going on on
Thursday. Why do we need to do mess with that? I don't understand
it. I'll never understand it. Uh, you know, is somebody not
getting There's always gonna be somebody not getting in right, You're still gonna have
controversy over the next the you know, the next four out. I really
really really wish that some smart people and these are smart people too, but
I don't know what they get caught up and that they feel like, let's
mess with this some more. It's too good right now, so let's mess
with it's more. I don't understand it, and I don't understand why we
feel we have to keep doing that. Look, was I happy? Am
I happy with the twelve team football playoff? One hundred percent? You know?
It should have been eight a long time ago instead of four, And
if it had been eight, maybe it would it would still be eight.
Twelve is a great number, you know. I thought, if you're gonna
go to twelve, go to sixteen so that nobody gets a buy. But
they didn't, so they're at twelve. And I was a proponent of that
because I didn't think four was an enough Sixty eight is enough. Sixty eight
is enough? Why do we need to do this? And I don't get
it? And I really really hope that somebody steps in and says, let's
not do this. I know that, you know, the money aspect of
it is just irresistible. Please don't mess this up. The tournament is great.
Just the way it is. Leave it like that. Well, we'll
see. I don't know. I really hope they don't do this. I
mean, what do you I mean, yeah, I just think the math
with sixty four makes a lot more sense. I like the first four idea,
right, that was great. When they first did it, I didn't
like it. I've come to like it. It's only two games, right,
I've come to like it, like I said, because you know,
you get to selection Sunday and then there's games on Tuesday already, and I
think, okay, that's cool. Now you've got a whole week of games
there at night, so you go home from work or you're at work.
You know, they come on when we're still on the air. That's great.
I love that. I love those. I love those two games on
Tuesday, two games on Wednesday. I don't like I wouldn't like it if
Arizona was in those games, right, But you know what some teams have
done well coming out of there. Ucla got to a final fri out of
that. I think it was Virginia Commonwealth, I think got you know,
yeah, they got in there from the from the first four. So I'm
I've come to like that. But that's it. Stop there, just leave
it. Always upset exactly and is it is it the conferences to say I
want a little bit more, I need a little bit more money, we
need to get a couple more teams in there. Just stop, just stop.
I hate this. So let's see what happens. LA sparts rookie Cameron
drink tour ha cl yesterday. Terrible, yeah, awful news. She's she's
that player from Stanford, Arizona ran into her in the in the championship of
the of the NCAA tournament back in twenty twenty one. Really good player.
All American this year, top player in the country. And already you know,
you know, in her first season she blows out a knee and she's
out for the year. Just a really good player. And you hate to
see something that happen to those players, you know, And and I don't
know, you know what, I don't know what it is that with you
know, with knees for for you know, some of these female players.
You just see so many of them. Uh, it's crazy. You know,
my daughter blew out her knee playing volleyball. You know, it just
happens, seems to happen a lot, and for a player like Cameron Brink
you feel bad for her, so too bad. And she was supposed to
play in the Olympics on the three by three women's national team, so they
now will be looking to replace her. Gosh again, that's too bad,
all right. And then reigning al say On Garrick Cole will be making his
season debut today versus the Oreoles. Get him out of here. You're a
Yankee fan or two? Yeah, you're happy with that. You're happy with
that, all right. I'll let you have that one. Henri Lla,
you have that one, okay. That's all. That's all you got,
all right. Just something that came came across a few minutes ago. At
Tennessee in the College World Series, they beat Florida State seventy two, so
they they've won that. They've won their fourteen bracket in the College Royal Series,
so they'll be going on to play for the national championship. I think
it's Florida. Florida's playing Texas A and M in take Yeah, they play
tonight. If Texas A and M wins, they're in Florida wins. They've
got to beat Texas A and M tomorrow. So we'll see how that goes.
I've lost interest in the in the College World Series, although I was
at lunch today Bob Dobbs and the game was on, so we were watching
it, and h and Florida got out. Tennessee got out in front of
them, and you know, never gave it up. And so they're the
vault sort in the in the championship game, I think I don't think they
were. Were they the number one seed? Do you have that? They
were either one or two seed? They were the one seed? Okay,
so they were supposed to get there and they have. So we'll see how
that goes. And then the three game series starts on Friday. Things starts
Friday. What's today? Today's Wednesday? Right, and so it starts on
Saturday. Yes, okay, so it's and it's a best of three.
So we'll see if that. When that ends, maybe we'll be talking about
it here on Monday. But yeah, all right, Tennessee is in it,
so let's see what happens. What else. There were a couple of
things, and I you know, it's I hate this because I don't write
this stuff down. I don't jot it anywhere. And then I get up
here and I forget about it. But uh, oh well, you know,
so we've been having some interesting conversation over the last the last few days
about Ariazon football. You know, I met with my not met with but
I had lunch with my with my Wednesday group. These guys are giddy waiting
for the season to start. I think we're all kind of moved on now
from the PAC twelve. It's it's over with and talking about this season coming
up. I kind of talk to these guys because they're a couple of over
the top kind of guys that think Arizona is going to go and defeat it
every year stuff like that. But uh, you know, a lot of
a lot of excitement, a lot of feeling that you know, obviously Arizona
needs to win those first two games New Mexico and NAU. And actually said,
look, even if we don't beat Kansas State and we as in there,
excuse me, as in Arizona. Even if Arizona doesn't win at Kansas
State, if they put up a good showing, uh, you know,
because Kansas State is one of the favorites in the league, they'll be happy.
And I'm like, okay, that seems reasonable. You guys are you
guys are like, you know, in a in a good spot as far
as that goes. But you know that that as we get closer to that,
that's gonna be a fun and interesting game that I think it's going to
tell us a lot about Arizona. Yeah, yeah, so I'm u.
You know, there's still a mystery on on t MA Max foot or leg
injury, whatever it is. If it's an ankle, we don't know if
it's an ankle, if it's a foot, what it is. Uh,
you know, I think last anybody saw he was still on a walking boot,
uh in it. So we'll see. But I think, uh,
yeah, you got plenty of time. But man, when you're talking about
a foot on a receiver, that's uh, you never know. So we'll
see. We'll see how that thing turns out. Brandon Brent Brannan has said
that he's going to be okay, So we got to take him at his
word until we hear otherwise or no or no otherwise. But uh, you
know, I think there's a lot of excitement building for this football team.
Should be a lot of fun. I think that it's uh, it's it's
gonna be something that uh you know, Arizona fans, we're waiting for the
for the shooter drop right. Every ten I've mentioned a number of times,
every ten win season has been followed by a not so great season. I
mean the best of the the best of those seasons was after Rich Rodriguez' ten
win season. Arizona did go to a bowl game and won their bowl game,
although you know, the a lot of injuries during that year and didn't
get to where you thought they could get to after winning the Pack Croff South
the previous year. In ninety three, Arizona goes ten and two, ten
and two, When when's the festival? Next year, they won eight games,
ended up in the Freedom Bowl, lost a tough one to a horrible
game to Utah and the Freedom Bowl Utah was in the whack at the time,
or to the Mountain West at the time. They'd lose that game.
So that wasn't a good season. The season after the twelve and one year
was awful. They went six and six and didn't even go to a bowl
game, got blasted by Penn State in the opener of that year and had
a horrible year. And a year after that, Dick Toomi was gone,
so the record has been good after the ten win season, so some of
us who have seen that, we've got some angst about what's gonna happen this
year. You feel like it's it would be just like Arizona to go have
a horrible year, or if not even horrible, just not a great year.
There is a you know, there is a coaching change. Regardless of
how much we like or think Brent Brannan is, you know, can do
a great job, there is a change. These guys are going to go
into into that first game against New Mexico and it's going to be different,
uh, you know, a different coaching staff, different way of doing things.
We talked to Justin Spears on Monday, talked about the fact that,
you know, Brent Brennan's not gonna be calling the place like Jed Fish called
the plays for the three years he was here. Jedfish was the offensive coordinator,
he called the plays. He was essentially the quarterbacks coach. Brent Brandon
is more of a hands off guy. He's got Dino Babers to run the
offense. I trust Deno Babers. Guy's been a head coach. He did
a nice job at Syracuse until he didn't in his back here at Airs.
He was a great offensive coordinator here at Arizona. So you trust that he's
gonna, you know, take care of business and Brent Brannan is going to
let him run the show. And that's a way different approach than either Jeed
Fish or before that, rich Rod when rich Rod was here. So we'll
see. But you know again, and you gotta like having Dwayne and Keena
as a defensive coordinator. I created Duayna Keena for a lot of what happened
with the defense last year. Johnny Nansen great scheme. He's a really good
coach. He's a co defensive coordinator now at Texas. But I think the
emotion and the fire that that defense played with last year had a lot to
do with having Dwayne and Keena on the field. That's what he brings now
is the defensive coordinator. You hope that that continues. And you know,
Dwayne's been a great coach for a really long time, including here at Arizona,
So we'll see how he does. All right, let's go take our
break. We're to come back. We have an open segment because we're getting
get Judy McDermott on at four thirty five. So we'd love to take your
call five two zero four one six seventy four forty five and give us a
call and talk about anything that's on your mind. Would love to hear from
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Steve Prepera and Jacob Solids they have their tie on the ball on Tucson Sports.
Stay yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Welcome back down on the ball of
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacin Zaliz your host for the day. Steve
Rivera will be out probably the rest of the week. I have Henry here
running the board and joining in on the conversation. We're another segment away from
Judy McDermott joining us. She's the executive director first T two Son. She'll
be joining us at about four thirty five. So we've got another segment open.
If you want to give us a call five two zero four one six
seventy four forty we'll we'll take your cause. And we have a caller right
now, So let's take this call. Hi, you're on the ar and
I on the ball. Hey, Jay, how you doing good? Good?
Hard? What's up? I'm really not into Facebook, but I saw
that Steve's mom passed. That's what. Yeah, what you're doing really go
selling blessings out to him and his sons and the rest of the Rivera family.
Yeah, we appreciate that, and I'm sure he appreciates it. We're
getting we're getting some some emails and some text messages and that kind of thing.
And you know, I haven't even had actually talked to Steve. We've
just exchanged some text messages. I'm trying to kind of leave him, you
know, let him, let him be with this, and we're here if
he needs us, because he's he's getting inundated, and he's a guy,
got a plan, the schooner. They got to do everything right right.
All those things are tough. So anyway, I guess that's pretty much all
I had and just think it short and sweet. Okay, Well, we
appreciate the thought. Hey, we'll talk to you guys when Okay, do
that give us a call. Thanks a bunch. Yeah, so that.
Yeah, a lot, a lot of a lot of messages for Steve,
a lot of stuff on Facebook and and and Twitter, people giving you know,
giving Steve some condolences for the loss of his mom. So we appreciate
all of that. We know he's got a lot of friends and a lot
of support in this town. Steve's been here a really long time and he
deserves all of that and he's getting it. So that that's great for Steve.
So we'll, you know, I'm sure there'll be a time when we'll
we'll, you know, get him back here and see see how he see
how it goes from there. So we're just not going to press anything.
Just let him, let him take whatever time he needs. Means okay,
so let me get back to the NCAA tournament, because we we finished the
breaking news with that, I went during the break and read Ross Ellinger's story
from Yahoo Sports on this. Nobody's saying what the how it will look right
in terms of specifically how the BRAC would look. But you're they're saying that
it looks like, I mean, if you're going to add four or eight
teams, you're gonna have to have another first for sight. Uh so uh,
they're saying that the sixty four team bracket will stay. Let's take this
call. Hi, you're on the air and on the ball. How are
you doing today? What's up, Brian? How are you well? Just
calling about uh Willie Mays. I was luckily I got to see him play
when I was a kid. Yeah wait a minute, when you wait,
when you were a kid, Brian? You were never a kid? Okay,
sorry, anything to do, you know, get out of get out
of high school or yeah you know, then go ahead over the high corb
field watch the games. Yeah, yeah, you know. And and that's
the thing I mean, he was here, you know, the the Giants
spring training was that was in Casa grand and they came here all the time
to play. I'm sure there's a lot of people in Tuson out there who
got to see him play. Like I said, I think I think I
saw him play, but I can't. I don't have a specific memory of
it. You know, one thing too, is I think, you know,
if there's anybody close to being what me, he's the greatest player I
ever saw, right, but the closest one to him would have to be
Ken Grif correct correct, had all the injuries, maybe he might have passed
because he was applied to a player right right, right, you know when
the way Ken Griffy attacked the outfield, you know, you know, going
to the fences. So that's what that's what Willie Mays did. And you're
right. If there's one guy that you put sort of in that classification,
it was him, And you're correct. If not for all the injuries,
uh, you might have you know, he might have been more on par
with what with what Willie Mays did. But that's who he was. Right
For somebody who saw Ken Griffy play, you say, Okay, Willie Mays
was him with a little bit more, right, but a lot more flair.
I mean, even though Willie Mays had flair for I mean, considering
nobody had flair really back in the sixties, right, sure, Drysdale and
Gibson trying to kill people exactly, but William Mays, you know. But
but watch Willie Mays play. It was like, I mean, it was
like amazing. He could just do everything. Yeah. Well, and then
remember, right, Willie Mays was the one who perfected the basket catch.
And we all tried it, and how many of us got hitting the you
know where's or you know, or hitting the or hitting the shoulder, hitting
the chest or even in the head trying to make that basket catch and your
coach would say, what the hell are you doing? Catch the ball?
You know, and he, you know, don't have to worry about that,
you know. You know what, remember did you grow up playing playing
five hundred or you know, yeah, you know, you play five hundred
with the guys right where you're somebody's hitting balls to you. And if you
catch a ground ball and a couple of bounces, you get points, or
you catch a fly ball, and that's when we would try the basket catch,
right, and then you drop the ball or or it would hit you
in the head or hit you on the side, and you thought, how
does he do this so well? Right? You know? And if you
look Okay, you look at the catch he made against Vick Wurtz and center
Frail. Okay, you know now, I mean basically what he did now,
he did that a lot of players can do now, but the much
you know, they're great athletes, right, but he was the one who
kind of said, oh, you can play with some player and play the
game, you know, right, and just makes the game a little more
exciting. Yeah yeah, Brent, I know we've talked about this, but
you're growing up, you were a fan of who Cardinals, the car even
back then. Okay, so so you're Bob Gibson was your guy, right
and so right, okay, yeah, Lou Brock so but so to me
as a Dodger fan, you know, the Dodgers and the Giants were huge
driver. But as a Cardinals fan, how did you see Willie Mays?
How did you look at Willie Mays and the Giants? Just just amazed to
watch him play? You know, people had to remember to back in those
days. Unfortunately, we only got one game a week, right, right,
you know, the Saturday afternoon game. Right. It was not like
now where every every game is on TV. So it was a treat when
the Giants rough you know, Giants and Dodgers. You know, it was
just it's fun to watch. Yeah, you know, the Giants were coming
on, and even if you didn't like the Giants, you were going to
go watch that game because there was a chance to see Willie Mays, Willie
McCovey. As much as I hated Jan Marshall for clubbing John Roseborg with a
baseball bat, you know, I wanted to see him pitch because I wanted
to see him get rocked. Uh. You know, so you would watch
guys for those reasons and because you didn't get to see them all the time.
You know, it's funny if you ever seen the movie City Slickers where
Billy Christ talks about going to Yankee Stadium for the first time and it was
the first time first you could see he said, you could smile the grass.
It was the first time I had seen the game in color, right,
And you think about that, and you go, it was a special
thing to see a baseball game on TV. You know. I remember my
my very first Major League baseball game ever went to Uh I'm not a Dodger
fan, but I went to see the Dodgers and the Cardinals play, and
in Dodger Stadium, yep. And you know that to me, that was
like the biggest treat ever. That was the coolest thing. Right. Mine
was dodg Mine was Dodgers and the Reds at Dodger Stadium. And I got
to see Cofax throw and I still remember that. I can still remember from
from the seat that I was in and watching him wind up and throw.
I have that vivid memory. And I was six years old when that happened,
right, Yeah, I got to see Bob Gibson pitch, you know,
and it was like it was amazing and and and they right, and
they were our heroes, right. You went and saw those guys, and
it was a special deal to see those guys. I go to I go
to a Diamondbacks game now, and you know, if they play the Dodgers,
I know some of the Dodgers. I know zero of the Diamondbacks.
You know, I don't know who they are. That's that's basically every team
now. It's we're really sad, yeah, you know. And that's what's
differentically, who can afford the best players now? Right, it's different from
it's different from the way we got to see it. And I feel like
it's a little more romantic the way we got to see it. But that's
right. You know, at least my son has been able to see baseball
because we you know, we've been involved in so long, right, you
know, you know, back when he was you know, five six years
old, you know, go out, we go out the Dodgers stadium and
watch games, and you know, he could see baseball what it really was
back in the day. Yeah, yep, until all the free agency stuff
took over everything, yep, exactly, and fantasy baseball that changed it all
too all right, Brian, Hey, thanks so much, man, I
appreciate it. Okay, we'll talk to you later. Okay, there you
go, a couple of guys commiserating on what baseball used to be. Not
look, and I love I still love baseball now. I watch the Dodger
games every single day. And I like the fact that I can go home,
put on the MLB app and watch the games and I get to see
the games. Saw this game last night. That was an incredible game that
the Dodgers. Dodgers played unbelievable. I know, people get tired of hearing
about my Dodger rants and my Dodgers updates. Here we've got another caller coming
in. Let's take that exactly. Hi, you're on the arm and eye
on the ball. All right, appreciated. Hello, you're on the air.
Hide Jim, Hey Jen, what's up? Well? I was going
to tell you about memory I have. My dad I was eleven years old,
put me in the car one night from South side of Indiana and we
drove down and watched the Chicago Cubs play the Cincinnati Reds in one of the
last games in Crossley Field, the old field. Oh my god, oh
my god. You who are the who are the players that that that you
that you remember from that game? Ernie Bank and Billy Williams. Yep,
yep, let's play too, Yeah, let's play too. Yeah. You
know again, as I was, Tom, Tom Brandt serve a romantic time
for us, right, we absorbed baseball differently than the way you absorb it
now. And it's kind of like it was real special to go catch a
game. Uh yeah. It's really commercialized now and at a high pig and
the game now your Dodgers that you love so much, that's nothing but a
money machine. Yeah, but who can pay for the players? And it
would like it would be like you remember, we used to pick teams in
the neighborhood and you'd use the bat, yep, and hand over hand,
and whoever got the thumb on the knob got to pick right, right,
right right. Well, the way the Dodgers are doing it, it's like
they get every hand on the bank every time. Yeah, well they are
money machine. But you know what, they're my money machine, and I'm
just kind of okay with it for now until they win another World Series.
And that's why it's going to be. Well, you make one, you
make one. Now, I think there's two. I think my son is
one is one of those as well, so there's two of us. The
other one that The other thing I'd like to bring up while Steve is out
is fantasy baseball. Yes, I have the Woo's hitting Fantasy baseball, not
that I've ever had I've ever seen. I thought the worst team this year
doing something with the baseball this year, I thought I had the worst fantasy
team, Jim, I'm in last place in my league by a lot.
Yeah, I'm in third place because I do a good job picking pitchers.
Well, there you go. That's it. That's the key. My pitching
staff sucks and that's just the way it is. So there you go.
Hey, Willie Mays. Willy Mays memories only a couple. He was,
you know, from Indiana. He was not in the market on TV very
often, so I didn't have but I saw the big cats you're talking about.
Yeah, and you know he's a guy hit six and sixty home runs
and patrolled the outfield the way he did that right there, create the ends
of both ends of the specum right right, he could do everything. He
was a six tool player. Yeah, exactly, exactly, all right,
Jim, appreciate it. Thanks so much for the call. Talk to you
soon, all right. Yeah, so yeah, no again, you know
we talked with you know, talking about Brian and you know you went and
saw a game and it was it was a special deal. Again. The
first time that I went to Dodger Stadium, my family was in California,
went to two games. I saw a Gofax throw, saw him throw the
next year on the road in Houston because we had gone to Texas where my
dad's where altis living, I saw a game in the Astrodome and I have
very vivid memories of those and I don't know if the vivid memories come from
the whole movies that we have from that. But I have a real picture
of watching watching him throw, and you know, to me, the greatest
picture of all time. Although you know his again his career got cut short
by his arm problems, but you know, it was a romantic time for
us for baseball. And do I love the fact that you can watch whatever
game you want to watch? Now? Yeah, it's great. I love
doing that. But I think also at the same time, was you know
that Saturday game. There was one game It came on tuson time. It
came on at eleven o'clock in the morning, and so you'd watch your cartoons,
have your breakfast, get your chores done, turn on the TV and
sit down and watch the game. And it could be the Reds and the
Cubs. It could be the Yankees and the and the uh you know whoever,
the Yankees and the Red Sox, or you know, you picked up
the TV guide when it came in on Monday, you immediately turned to the
Saturday page, c who's the game this week? And if it was the
Dodgers, you were like, Okay, clear the decks for Saturday, I'm
watching the Dodger game, and that's how that's how we grew up watching baseball,
you know. And yes, you know what's happened with with its availability
now the money that comes into it because of that great it's made the game
great. It's it is a great game still despite the fact that a team
like the Dodgers can do what they're doing with all the money that they have.
But you know what, the money isn't guaranteeing anything. You still got
to go play the games. You know we're talking. I was talking about
this game last night with the with the Rockies the Dodgers. You know,
had youh rally scored seven runs on the top of the ninth inning to be
to beat the Rockies, should have lost the game when there was a check
swing by Taoskar Hernandez who should have been out, should have been the third
out. Instead he was not called out. On the next pitch he hits
a three run homer to win the game. Those are my Dodgers. I
loved watching that. It was great. Okay, let's go and take a
breakword and call Judy McDermott from First t tusaon where you give her a buzz
and talk about her program. A golf program coming up, so stick around.
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teamsecurity dot net. Steve Rivera and Jagon Salez they have their eye on the
ball on Tucson Sports Big Chef, Fox Sports fourteen to fifty streaming live I
mean, iHeartRadio WAMS Welcome back town. On to the ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host Jago Zalaz with Henry's here running the show
for us. Steve is out for a few more days, and on phone
got Judy mcgermott, executive director of First t Tucson, come off of a
tournament, a youth tournament here in the last couple of days, but running
a great program out there at First Tea for kids who want a golf and
it's as simple as that. So Judy, welcome to the show. Thank
you so much for having me. Jay, So I asked you, you
know, as you came on, you're out of the sun, but you
had a tournament for the last couple of days. Tell us a little bit
about the tournament and the kinds of things that you know, some of these
kids that get into your program can participate in absolutely well several several years ago,
unfortunately I don't even remember what year now, but First t Tucson took
over the Ricky Brareck Junior Golf program, which was a big part of Tucson
for seventy years. And so Ricky Bareck Junior Golf is basically developmental, just
fun golf tournaments for kids six years old all the way up to eighteen years
old. And with their two day tournaments on Mondays and Tuesdays in the summer
in June and July. And this week we played Oral Valley Country Club.
It was a real treat on Monday, yeah. And then we played the
Views Golf Club on Tuesday, oh man. And so we had about we
had about seventy kids to participate, all ages and had a ball and everybody
gets to Hot Doug lunch when they're done with their ground, which is toward
the treat. Yes, yeah, so wow. And we played the nice
courses yeah, and we charged very little. Luckily, our program is subsidized
by our great sponsors and the tushnkin Keys stores and the Cooligard Classics. So
a long time ago, the two hunkn Key stores promised Ricky Rareck when they
took over the Tucson Open from him, that they would make sure that the
Ricky Rare Junior Golf program lived on. And so that is pretty amazing when
you think about, you know, the program has been around for seventy years.
Very very cool. So in addition to the tournaments, right, you
said it. Mondays and Tuesdays, You've got you've got some instruction programs that
are when you're doing sign ups. Right now, tell us a little bit
about the sign ups. So our first tea programs for the summer, we're
doing summer camps. We just completed a summer camp at El Rio Golf Course,
which is our home. But we are at about ten locations. Summer
camp coming up the end of this month at Cricketry. Unfortunately that's full,
so nobody can sign up for that. But we do have a summer camp
at El Rio July tenth, eleventh, and twelfth from eight am to eleven
am those three days. And it's only sixty dollars for those three days of
camp for all three days, so cheaper than cheaper than babysitting. Yeah,
especially the day. We have a ball with the kids and our coaches do
a great job. You know, we have water balloon fights. You know.
Obviously we teach golf skills and life skills, and we're we have clinics
to teach chipping and putting. But we make everything a fun contest and we
sometimes have a Hawaiian theme, dress up, you name it. We just
make camp fun. And that's for aged kids seventy seventeen. So you won't
take a sixty five year old guy for the chipping and putting tighty clinics.
You know what I can tell you right now, you do not want me
coaching shipping. You don't. You don't have coach shipping. But you know,
I think you could teach them a few other things. Yeah, well,
and and again those are some things you probably don't want them to be
taught either. So but but you know, it's a fantastic program and and
I love it. I know one of my one of my niece's daughters went
through first team. She's she's in on the in the high on the high
school golf team at Sunnyside. Learned a lot from your program. So I
do I have some personal knowledge that this thing, that this thing works and
and it's and it's great for the kids. And as you said, you
know, just just go out and play, you know, get outside,
play, have a great time. It's meant to just you know, golf
of the game meant to be played and have fun. And that's what we
do here is we try to make it as fun as possible and don't make
it all about left arm straight and all that stuff. Funny time for that.
Yeah, So, so how many kids you have in each in each
camp like this real camp coming up, they get to come through sixty kids,
you know, to make the quality obviously good. And we can do
a lot more at a Rio summer camp because we have our nice learning center
here and we have the entire use of the range with three part three holes
within it. We are going to have a camp at fred Inink Golf Course
in July July twenty fourth, twenty fifth, twenty six. That'll be from
nine am to twelve pm, and that's still open for registration as well,
and we'll probably we'll probably have about fifty kids in that camp. And I'm
presuming that everything, all of our info is at first T twoson dot org.
And that's first T spelled out right, not the number so fi R
s T and tee two sun dot org. And I'm presuming that you know,
you can come to a camp even if you've never played golf right.
The idea is to learn play right correct correct. It's a fun instruction and
the best part about it is I see all the kids just meeting each other
and having fun. I mean, you know, what we do on the
golf course of adults is network and this is just networking for kids. And
like I said, we make it all friendly. And it's not like you're
waiting to be picked on a team and you know, being the last kid
to be picked, and it doesn't work that way here. Everybody's treated to
be coolly no matter their golf skill. And they you know, they just
have a good time and we give them a few snacks and enjoy everything.
And like I say, the water balloon fights are pretty popular. That's that's
well. You probably need to be cooled off several times a day. So
talking me, when you know, the first morning of a camp, how
does it work, What what do they do? What can the kids expect
to see when they show up, say at the Crooked Tree camp on the
twenty sixth. Every camp is a little bit different. We do mix it
up a little bit, but for the most part, when they arrive,
obviously we do meet and greet and we do introductions and we do a little
warm up. But then we have a chipping station, a pitching station,
a putting station, driving station, but everything we do contests so the kids
have a chance to win a prize. So we have like a softa Cup
game and the kids get collings under the salta cup if they hit the ball
into the soft cup, and we play you know, home run derby with
in golf, you know, like with baseball. And so our coaches do
a really good job making it fun and creating different games that they'll play.
So it's not just the golf. There's a game and then like say,
we have points and we put everybody in teams, so there's contests and then
we have prizes at the end of the camp to see, you know,
who won the prizes of who finished with the highest point total, you know,
unlike our golf score when you want it low, but we do highest
points total when we're doing the clinics in the camp. Well, if you
look at my card, you think I'm trying to shoot high, because I
do every time. It's bad. It's bad sometimes. So now, first
he's a national program, right, but it's got local chapters like like Tucson.
Is that how this works? Correct? And what's a neat thing?
There's aout one hundred and fifty chapters across the nation. But right now we
have two kids. They're at our Leadership Academy in Atlanta, and they are
Arthur Blank, who owns the PGH We're superstores. He sponsors these leadership summits.
And so these kids from all over the country are now in Atlanta and
they are getting to go to the PGA Tour Superstar headquarters. They're going to
see the soccer team stadium. Obviously Arthur Blank also owns the Atlanta Falcons.
They go to the Atlanta Falcons Stadium. And then all these people that are
in the sports industries and CEOs, they have all these panels for these kids
and so they just have a great experience. So Jojo Munoz who's in our
program, and Aidan Howe right now they are in Atlanta. Wow. And
then in August, Oliver de Gia and Frankie Felix are going to be going
to the leadership Summit in Montana at Arthur Blank's ranch there. And then we're
waiting to hear for our kids that applied to go to Pebble Beach if they're
going to get to go to Pebble Beach. And then Jojo Munoz, who
I've already mentioned, she just got accepted to go to the Game Changers Academy
in Minneapolis. So the neat thing about First Tea is there's national opportunities that
they can apply for when they're high school aged and the teenage, and they
just have, you know, amazing workshops for these kids. But what's really
neat is how these kids make friends with kids from other chapters across the nation
at these events. So I'm sure there's you know, one hundreds of kids
coming through this program. Do you get to you know, do you see
them down the road, you know, whether when they're playing high school golf
or maybe even college golf for that kind of jas in the high school golf.
We do a lot with high school golf here trying to help kids.
We give them free golf clubs. A lot of the kids that are playing
high school golf now might be new to the game and they don't even have
golf clubs, so we give them free golf clubs. And we're very lucky
that Don Pooley, the PJ pro that lives here in town, that played
the Tour and the Champions Tour, he comes and even gives instruction to these
kids. I mean, he's very kind, and so we do a lot
with the high school golf programs to help the kids with their games and giving
them equipment, and we do it basically practically no cost. We're financial aid.
We we do provide, but we do keep our prices really low,
so a lot of times people don't even have to ask for us. Right,
that's so cool. What do you think is the best part of this
for you? You know, at you doing this, what gives you the
most satisfaction, enjoyment, whatever, however you want to put that. The
best part for me is obviously for me just getting to know the kids,
and it's hard to see them when they graduate. You know. One of
our huge success stories is James Lbucas who got to play at Pebble Beach last
year, but he also has been caddying at Tucson Country Club with our program
that we started with them, and he actually received the Evan Scholarship. Okay,
yes, I've heard about it here. So he's going to be going
to Northwestern University to study mechanical engineering, and the Evan Scholarship is basically a
full ride, and he worked hard with his caddying at Tucson Country Club to
get enough rounds in to be able to even apply for the scholarship and it's
very competitive, but you know, the financial need has to be there to
receive this scholarship through the Evan scholars Foundation as well. But stories like that
are obviously, you know, amazing. But just the kid in maths is
just so fun to see them enjoying the game of golf that I grew up
to play. And we encourage kids here that don't be a one sport person.
Play all the other sports, but learn golf when you're young, as
we tell them. You know, you look at somebody like Steph Curry,
professional athletes play golf in their off time, and you know it's their hobby,
right, It's really important to learn how to play the game when you're
young, because it's a heck of a lot easier when you're older if you
learned it when you're young, exactly, you know, and from a you
know, from a purely selfish stample. And my son has been golfing since
he was five, and we we golf together now and we you know,
right and you know, he we're at each other's uh, you know,
first golf partner. We're the first one that we each call to golf.
Anytime you get four or five hours out there with your kid or him with
his dad. You know, it's a thing that you know, you get
to be an old guy like me. You can still play. You might
suck, but you can still play and you have fun. And I watch
him, you know, beat the hell out of me. But we have
a great time. Every time we play. We have a great every time
we play. Never never had. One of my favorite things is just the
Ricky Rareck tournaments. We do not allow spectators and because that was a tradition
that Ricky Rarek had, and it's just fun to see the kids out there
getting no one another and just having fun on the golf course without their parents
watching them. Right, and you know, the drive there's no drive home
saying why did you do this? You know, it's it's just meant to
be fun and to socialized with your friends and get you off that darn cell
phone for a little bit. Exactly, yeah, exactly, all right,
Judy, thank you so much. It's first T F I R S T
t ee dot org. Right, Tucson, first T two two sun dot
org. Okay, all right, first T two sun dot org. You're
trying to get information again. There's a camp coming up next month at Elrio.
So, uh, forrage, I'm looking at it and says for ages
seven to seventeen. So a lot of a lot of different ages out there.
So congratulations on what you're doing, Judy. This is this is awesome.
All right, appreciate you joining us. Talk to you soon. All
right. That was Judy McDermott from First t Tucson. Again. There's nothing
like for me. You know, my son is thirty one years old and
we the time that we spend golfing together is quality special time for us.
You know, he kind of wants to be around me to golf with,
and he loves playing well, he loves kicking my ass, which he does
every time now. But we you know, we're competitive with each with each
other, but we both understand where we play. He's, you know,
he's on the blue te's. I'm on the silver teas. But we have
a great time. And so as I mentioned, we were out there on
last Saturday out at Ventana Canyon getting getting heat stroked. But we had a
great time. All right. We've only got a couple of minutes. We
had a person who called during the break if you want to give us a
call real quick. We've only got a few minutes. I think you might
have had some comments on us. We had to clear the phone with Judy,
so we're ready to take your call, but we've only got about three
minutes. Let's take this call. HI, You're on the air and I
on the ball. Hi, this is Jonathan. I've been listening to your
show for a long time and some part time caller. I was calling because
all those baseball memories about dad and the Dad's been my first baseball game when
I was like seven. It was the Days taking on the Yankees opening.
Halfway through the seventh or eighth inning, it starts raining, plooring, people
leaving the stadium, and it got to the point where we were the last
like five fans in the stadium. It's one in him and finally a guy
comes over and says, they called the game. You gotta go home.
And I've looked on baseball ever since. One of them comments to the first
team thing, it's my dad taught me the game of golf when I was
younger, but didn't put me in first team. But I've met a lot
of kiddos through teaching that are in first team and their golf was had improved
greatly because they were in first team. He goes beyond just dad teaching me
the game. So I think it's a very good program. And I really
liked listening to that last day. Well. Great, We appreciate, appreciate
you listening to this. I love the memory. You know, right,
you go to a game and it's a special thing and you don't want to
leave the stadium, right, uh? And and that that that's too cool.
So what was that game in New York or in Oakland? No,
it was back in Oakland, Okay, in the area. Okay, my
dad's saying, son, I paid for twenty seven outs and seven out and
that's not with me because he's going to these games and it's like people are
leaving in the third corner or the eighth minute or whatever. I'm like,
you paid for the whole ticket. Why aren't you leaving exactly? That?
Great stuff? Great stuff, Jonathan? Why is great? Yeah? He
comes here, he comes here once a year golfh in Tucson, and it's
the most fun we have once a year in our golf. That's too cool,
Jonathan. We appreciate the calling as always, appreciate you listening. Thank
you so much. Yeah, I'll say listening, all right, that was
Jonathan, So yeah, you know again the thing ie we'll runn out of
timing. But the thing I hated most is going to a Dodger game and
have it to be a two hour game. I'm like, I want my
time there, right. I hated that exactly, all right, Henry hey
Man, thanks a much for this nice job today running the show and joining
in on the conversation. Thank you to Judy McDermott for information on the first
T two son and thanks to Jody Aaylor for the insight on those Phoenix suns
in the NBA. So we'll be back tomorrow for with some more great guests.
We'll be sure to get to come around and we'll take your calls and
join in on the conversation. So we will see you to tomorrow