Speaker 1: Were nineteen days away from Utah and Ucla. Ironically enough,
Speaker 1: speaking of Ucla, we have a former Bruin.
Speaker 2: On the show.
Speaker 1: You guys know him as the Wall of the Wassatch
Speaker 1: the Goat Hall of Famer Nick Romondo. Monday Afternoon, Nikki,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, Man.
Speaker 2: How you doing?
Speaker 3: That's what's going on? Doing great? Doing great?
Speaker 4: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: Good buddy, I appreciate your time. Do you stay connected
Speaker 1: to UCLA at all? Are you a basketball football fan?
Speaker 1: You stay connected your alma mater.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wouldn't say stay connected connected, but I'm
Speaker 3: definitely looking at the score, seeing how they're doing. Obviously,
Speaker 3: my son's a big hooper, so we pay attention to
Speaker 3: the basketball team more so, but always love when the
Speaker 3: Bruins win.
Speaker 2: Wait, your boys, your boys a basketball player? Huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a big hooper. That's his sport. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 3: you know he loves soccer and he plays for his
Speaker 3: high school, but his main sport is basketball. So going
Speaker 3: into a senior year at East and it's really been
Speaker 3: fun to watch him and grow in the in the
Speaker 3: and see how happy he is on the court. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm just really looking forward to the senior the year.
Speaker 2: I can't believe that that kid's a senior.
Speaker 1: I remember him running around following you when you were
Speaker 1: playing for RSL back in the day.
Speaker 2: He's a senior. That's wild, Nick.
Speaker 3: Don't blink your eyes. I know, man, my daughter's going
Speaker 3: to be a sophomore. My son's a senior. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm in it. This is a fun time for me.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Hey, I wanted to start out with your thoughts on
Speaker 1: watching Rafa Cabral this year. You know, during the league's
Speaker 1: cup run, there was a little Now, I this is
Speaker 1: kind of sacrilege because you did this at a high
Speaker 1: level for a number of years and you guys lifted
Speaker 1: a cup, but there was a little Romando field to
Speaker 1: kind of the way. He was stepping up in big
Speaker 1: moments during pks and he's the only player on the
Speaker 1: team that has played every minute this year.
Speaker 2: What what?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts watching Cabral play for RSL this
Speaker 1: year exceeded expectations.
Speaker 3: I am a big, big fan of Rafa. He showed
Speaker 3: up not only in the field. You guys don't see
Speaker 3: all this stuff. You know that I see, you know
Speaker 3: the training ground and you know in the locker room
Speaker 3: at the gym. He's a real leader of the squad.
Speaker 3: He's obviously putting the work on the field, showing up
Speaker 3: making the big says, like you said in that first
Speaker 3: game against Club America, coming up big in the PK shootout,
Speaker 3: but just his presence back there, his calmness to the
Speaker 3: back line. And obviously you need a goalkeeper to make
Speaker 3: the big safe for you here and there too. But
Speaker 3: a big fan of Rafa another p case that last
Speaker 3: night against New York. But I don't think he could
Speaker 3: do any more for the club. He's been lights out
Speaker 3: for me so now.
Speaker 1: Obviously the result didn't go to the club's way yesterday,
Speaker 1: but overall the form has been so much better, Nick,
Speaker 1: I think they're you know, they have two losses in
Speaker 1: the last eleven you know, some draws here there, and
Speaker 1: of course that does include the league's cup run. But
Speaker 1: a nice win over Club America, one of the powerhouse
Speaker 1: clubs in this region kind of felt like a road
Speaker 1: game in a way. But why do you think the
Speaker 1: club has turned it around? What do you most attribute
Speaker 1: the better form too?
Speaker 3: I think it's sometimes it takes a little time to
Speaker 3: get on the same page Obviously it's later in the
Speaker 3: season now, but guys are finding their rhythm. Guys are performing,
Speaker 3: you know better now, and you know, obviously Diego's having
Speaker 3: a highlight year and the confidence that kid has is unmatched.
Speaker 3: And you know, hopefully, you know, this weekend and Charlotte
Speaker 3: we get a three point to get back into that
Speaker 3: playoff position. But I see him every day their training sessions,
Speaker 3: and the guys are putting into work, you know, as
Speaker 3: we're getting better, every every other team in this league's
Speaker 3: getting better too, So we just got to keep pushing.
Speaker 1: Tell me how it's been for you to witness this
Speaker 1: rise for Diego and as somebody who wants upon a
Speaker 1: time kind of had a similar rise, you know, through
Speaker 1: Gold Cup run and then you solidified a spot with
Speaker 1: the national team and you played in a World Cup,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's been fun to kind of watch
Speaker 1: people around the country notice what we've seen from him
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years. But what stands out
Speaker 1: most about the way he's risen up this year, Nicky.
Speaker 3: For me, he's got that dogman. He's out there fighting,
Speaker 3: he said in the press. He's scoring goals, He's doing
Speaker 3: it on both sides of the ball on the pitch,
Speaker 3: and he's just he's a fan favorite. You could see.
Speaker 3: You'll turn on social media or the TV, everybody's talking
Speaker 3: about the kid. And he's just doing it, going out
Speaker 3: there and doing what he's done for, you know, for
Speaker 3: so so long, and uh, just really proud of him.
Speaker 3: I'm glad he's getting the spotlight and it's It's just
Speaker 3: he's just really fun to watch. He's out there busting
Speaker 3: his butt every every single week, and I'm really looking
Speaker 3: forward to see what comes of it.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to get your thoughts on Gozo, a
Speaker 1: player who I knew nothing about prior to the start
Speaker 1: of the season, and I had Pablo on I think
Speaker 1: it was after the first goal that Gozo scored and
Speaker 1: before you actually tallyed a goal, he was dangerous for
Speaker 1: another through a number of games, and I said to Pablo,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think he got something with his kid local,
Speaker 1: which is always fun West Valley kid. He gets his
Speaker 1: third goal over the weekend, if he continues to work,
Speaker 1: stay healthy, what.
Speaker 2: Does he look like when he's fully formed? In your opinion, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's he's Listen.
Speaker 3: We had him last year with the Monarchs. Did his
Speaker 3: time there, Uh fall him in the you know how
Speaker 3: to not with the academy. Like you said, local kids,
Speaker 3: he always always root for them. But Gozo can stretch
Speaker 3: the defense. He could, he could run for days, he could,
Speaker 3: he could start the press and he's always done that.
Speaker 3: Now seeing him doing that at the highest level is
Speaker 3: even more special for me to watch. And again he's
Speaker 3: bagging goals now, so his confidences continue to go up.
Speaker 3: He's a he's a you'll listen to the coach, he'll
Speaker 3: do his role. He's a great kid. So just rooting
Speaker 3: for the kid and and and happy to see him,
Speaker 3: you know, succeeded on the field.
Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to watch Rowan Cruz And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where we're at with the Yolatunji kid.
Speaker 1: I know they're working on his work visa, but two
Speaker 1: big time additions in the attack during the transfer window, Nick,
Speaker 1: what what sort of info can you share with us?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't seen much of him just when he
Speaker 3: comes on at the game. Obviously he hasn't started yet,
Speaker 3: but uh, he's a big presence up there. He's very
Speaker 3: technical and I think once he starts backing some goals,
Speaker 3: like any forward, you'll get your confidence, and it takes time, right,
Speaker 3: you can't just expect you know, players to come in
Speaker 3: and make it impact all the time. And it takes
Speaker 3: time to know your your teammates, to flow to flow
Speaker 3: how we play, get use of the league, who you're
Speaker 3: playing against. So you know, I'm excited about what I
Speaker 3: see and cruise.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, as a result of the loss over the
Speaker 1: weekends and some uh some games that didn't go RSL's way,
Speaker 1: the team is now back below the playoff line with
Speaker 1: a handful of games left. So if I ask, and
Speaker 1: I know you're RSL optimistic, I know you always look
Speaker 1: on the bright side. But if we can get these
Speaker 1: two strikers or these two attacking players kind of ingrained
Speaker 1: in what Pablo wants them to do, what's best case
Speaker 1: scenario for the rest of the season, how do you
Speaker 1: think it could look?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think I think we're going to make the playoffs
Speaker 3: the way you know Pablo has this team going right
Speaker 3: now and training and fighting. It was unlucky this this
Speaker 3: last game. Obviously you wanted three and Saren it would
Speaker 3: have been great for us, but you just got to
Speaker 3: keep your head down, keep working. I'm very optimist in it,
Speaker 3: and I think I think we're going to be in
Speaker 3: the playoffs come come the end of the year and
Speaker 3: hopefully make a good run of the playoffs.
Speaker 2: All right, Nick, is today your pickleball tournament?
Speaker 4: Is it?
Speaker 2: The Rise Pickball Tournament? Is that today?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: It is second annual Rice Charity Classic, So, uh, pick
Speaker 3: a ball tournament today at second Summit cider festivities and
Speaker 3: games start at five with the tournament starting at six.
Speaker 3: It's a huge day. We did it last year. We
Speaker 3: got a you know, a lot of people that attended,
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, good words from from people,
Speaker 3: and and we had to do it again. And yeah,
Speaker 3: this Rise at Rise Athletics Foundation. What we do is
Speaker 3: try to make soccer more a sensible in a community.
Speaker 3: So everything raised here tonight and through the foundation, we
Speaker 3: put back into the community and just try to make
Speaker 3: soccer give, soccer drawl. And Uh, today's a day. I've
Speaker 3: been stretching all day long, so I don't pull anything,
Speaker 3: and and yeah, ready to make an impact on that court.
Speaker 1: All right, before I say you lose, Let's move over
Speaker 1: to a story that is kind of permeated throughout our community.
Speaker 1: I've seen it a lot on the news and social media.
Speaker 1: It is heart wrenching.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: He's three years old.
Speaker 1: Carrie's three years old, and we're looking for a bone
Speaker 1: marrow transplant. So what do you want our listeners to know?
Speaker 4: Nick?
Speaker 2: How can they help?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, we caught hold of this story and we're
Speaker 3: gonna have a table there at second. Some insider. Carrie
Speaker 3: is a three and a half year old member of
Speaker 3: our community. He was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive brain
Speaker 3: disorder called sleebro ald. He is in urgent need of
Speaker 3: a bone marrow transplant due to this aggressive nature of
Speaker 3: the disease. We need to find a donor match for
Speaker 3: Carrie in a short period of time, so we all
Speaker 3: have kids available tonight at the pickleball tournament. The test
Speaker 3: is just a quick and easy slab of the cheek.
Speaker 3: We are looking for potential matches between the age of
Speaker 3: eighteen and forty years old. If you have either Asian
Speaker 3: or Italian heritage, the possibility of being a match increases.
Speaker 3: So if you please come out and get swabbed. Time
Speaker 3: is of the essence and at this point it's a
Speaker 3: numbers game, So please come out, pick up a swab
Speaker 3: and find let's find a match. For Kirie. It goes
Speaker 3: without saying that.
Speaker 5: This cost, the cost of medical care is and will
Speaker 5: continue to be significant. Medical bills are already piling up.
Speaker 5: The family has set up a goal fundmeed for Kirie's care. So,
Speaker 5: if you are, if you are, multiple ways to get
Speaker 5: there are multiple ways to get involved and show up
Speaker 5: for this young boy and his family who are already
Speaker 5: going through so much.
Speaker 3: So again, if if you have the time, if you
Speaker 3: haven't already, if you're the between the ages of eighteen
Speaker 3: and forty, please come out, get swabbed, come out to
Speaker 3: the event.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 3: There'll be some great raffle prizes and some fun times there.
Speaker 3: But more importantly, I think we want to, you know,
Speaker 3: find this kidd cure.
Speaker 1: More information and links to the go fundme and Carrie's
Speaker 1: journey can be found at the website Hope for Kirie
Speaker 1: dot org. Nick, thanks for the time, buddy, and have
Speaker 1: a great event tonight.
Speaker 3: Okay, Kay, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Okay again, Hope for Kiri dot org. You may have
Speaker 1: seen this story circulating on social media. A bunch of
Speaker 1: our local news outlets have covered it as well. A
Speaker 1: beautiful little kid man, He's three and a half years old.
Speaker 1: You pull up this website and it tugs at your
Speaker 1: heart string. So you can head to the website Hope
Speaker 1: for Kiri dot org and there are links for the
Speaker 1: GoFundMe that you can donate. You can join the donor
Speaker 1: registry and then they have locations where you can go
Speaker 1: get swabbed to see if you're a match. And as
Speaker 1: Nikki just said that his pickleball tournament, and I would
Speaker 1: encourage you to go to Nick's socials just his name
Speaker 1: at Nick Romondo on Instagram or Twitter probably TikTok. He
Speaker 1: has the information about the pickleball event tonight that you
Speaker 1: can go attend and you can enter to win some
Speaker 1: raffle prizes.
Speaker 2: You can play some pickleball.
Speaker 1: And while you're there, if you're between the ages of
Speaker 1: eighteen and forty, just take a couple of minutes get
Speaker 1: swabbed and maybe you can save this kid's life.
Speaker 2: I mean three and a half years old.
Speaker 1: Man, So Hope for Kiri dot org and let's bring
Speaker 1: in Tony to tell us more about this.
Speaker 2: Tony, how are you, sir?
Speaker 4: Hey s Ben some great? How are you man? Thanks
Speaker 4: for having me?
Speaker 2: I'm really I'm good man.
Speaker 1: And my heart's aching as I'm looking at these pictures
Speaker 1: of this young man three and a half years old.
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine.
Speaker 1: So tell us about this journey, Tony, what's this been
Speaker 1: like for you?
Speaker 2: And how can we help?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Kiri has been diagnosed with cerebral ALD. It's
Speaker 4: a manifestation of his original diagnosis of adreno lukodystrophe or
Speaker 4: ALD for short. It was discovered in his newborn screening
Speaker 4: and since then he goes to biannual checkups and imaging
Speaker 4: to make sure that the disease hasn't progressed to this
Speaker 4: cerebral ALD. On July twenty third, we went to one
Speaker 4: of his routine MRI images and unfortunately, later that day
Speaker 4: we got the worst news that they found that they
Speaker 4: believed to be cerebral ALD in his brain stem. So
Speaker 4: we had a consultation with his doctors that following Tuesday
Speaker 4: and they told us this planned forward which entails a
Speaker 4: bone marrow transplant, which I know you and Nick Romondo
Speaker 4: were just talking about. So Kiri is his mom is
Speaker 4: Kim Bodian, and I am of European descent. So we're
Speaker 4: having kind of a challenging time finding a match for him.
Speaker 4: These bone marrow registries are kind of only in like
Speaker 4: developed countries, so Kiri's siblings, his two siblings were in
Speaker 4: a match, and after your siblings are in a match,
Speaker 4: the best chance you have for finding a viable match
Speaker 4: is a random stranger somewhere in the world. So we've
Speaker 4: made this huge push to find a donor, and their
Speaker 4: community response has just been incredible the support. The donor
Speaker 4: registry only had about three thousand people before we started
Speaker 4: making this push, and as of this morning, they've had
Speaker 4: eight thousand new members join just in Carrie's name alone,
Speaker 4: as well as everybody else who joins through their own avenue,
Speaker 4: So the support has just been incredible. Kirie's going to
Speaker 4: go in for his bone marrow transplant in the first
Speaker 4: part of September. Carrie's mom, Jasmine, called and asked for
Speaker 4: an update last week and they were still looking for
Speaker 4: a bone marrow transplant, and it's kind of a long process.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of reasons that you can get ruled out,
Speaker 4: and it's also time sensitive, so that's why it's really
Speaker 4: beneficial to have multiple options and why we're making such
Speaker 4: a big push to find multiple viable options for Kiri.
Speaker 1: Well Tony a lot of things and including the many
Speaker 1: things I am as a father. So my heart goes
Speaker 1: out to you. How you doing, man? How's the family
Speaker 1: doing throughout this process.
Speaker 4: We're you know, we're doing really well. We've, like I mentioned,
Speaker 4: the support from the community and the love that we feel.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's total strangers out there running events to
Speaker 4: get swabs for Kirie. It's just been so powerful and
Speaker 4: so impactful for us. And you know, we're doing good.
Speaker 4: We told our kids that Kirie's going to go to
Speaker 4: the hospital for a while, and you know, he's just
Speaker 4: such a sweet kid. His first concern was, am I
Speaker 4: going to get my siblings sick? He wanted to know
Speaker 4: if he's going to his little brother and his older
Speaker 4: sister sick. And then his sister's response was, you know, well,
Speaker 4: we have to bring him stuffed animals and blankets and
Speaker 4: I don't want him to be alone up there, and
Speaker 4: it just, you know, it was really special. They're really close.
Speaker 4: But we're hanging in there, and you know, we have
Speaker 4: all the support and love from our community, so I'm
Speaker 4: sure we'll be just fine.
Speaker 2: How's mom doing.
Speaker 4: She's doing good. She's a doer. Her and her family
Speaker 4: have just been amazing. I took a second to process everything,
Speaker 4: but they jumped right into action and this huge campaign
Speaker 4: is it is a result of them. So we're really lucky.
Speaker 1: So we've got Nikki's pickleball tournament tonight and there will
Speaker 1: be kits there where people can go get swab.
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 4: Yep, that's correct. We'll have a table set up. We
Speaker 4: have about one hundred and fifty kits. I'll be there
Speaker 4: with a couple more volunt gracious volunteers, and we have
Speaker 4: a pre registration. If you text six one four seven four,
Speaker 4: that's six four seven four, you text Hope for Kiri
Speaker 4: to that you can actually get sent the pre registration
Speaker 4: screening so you'll know if you're eligible. Save you some
Speaker 4: time to come down, but we'd love to see you
Speaker 4: come down. Support Rise Athletics in the community, and yeah,
Speaker 4: we'd love to see you guys. Re listen you're eligible
Speaker 4: or not.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hope for Kirie dot org is the website.
Speaker 1: There's a link to the go fundme and there's a
Speaker 1: link to join the Donna registry. So let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. Twenty four listeners that can't make it to
Speaker 1: Nikki's even tonight. Are there other locations they can go to?
Speaker 1: Is the website the best place to go to get
Speaker 1: more information?
Speaker 2: Go ahead?
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you for the reminder. The website that Hopefkirie
Speaker 4: dot org has all of the links for the Bone
Speaker 4: Mirror registry to go fund me, all of that stuff,
Speaker 4: and it has a list of all of the amazing
Speaker 4: businesses that have graciously signed up to have test kits.
Speaker 4: We update that every night at like seven pm. So
Speaker 4: what you see on there right now is the most
Speaker 4: up to date information that we have about who still
Speaker 4: has kits. And then there should be a couple more
Speaker 4: of these events that we promote through Hope for Kiri
Speaker 4: on Instagram and all of those other social media's as well.
Speaker 1: All right, Tony, Well, we'll continue to push this out, man,
Speaker 1: and if you need anything from us, you just got
Speaker 1: to reach out.
Speaker 2: This is the important stuff.
Speaker 1: We talked about football and basketball and soccer, but this
Speaker 1: this is the important stuff. And you know, if we
Speaker 1: can do anything to help you out and rally the community,
Speaker 1: please reach out. Best of luck, and my heart goes
Speaker 1: out to you and that little boy.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you very much, Bence, Thanks so much for
Speaker 4: the time I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 1: So the website again is Hope Forkirie dot org. Nick
Speaker 1: Romando's charity pickleball tournament tonight. Will have a bunch of kits.
Speaker 1: They're present for you guys to go get swabed. Looking
Speaker 1: potentially between the ages of eighteen and forty.
Speaker 2: And as a result of.
Speaker 1: The nature of both the backgrounds of the mother and
Speaker 1: the father, if you have Italian or Asian blood, you're
Speaker 1: more likely to be a match. Unfortunately, Carrie's two siblings
Speaker 1: were not a match for him. He is three and
Speaker 1: a half years old. And this is heartbreaking because they're
Speaker 1: running out of time. That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 1: It's cerebral or cerebral ald devastating, an aggressive brain disease,
Speaker 1: and we're looking to find a bone marrow donor in
Speaker 1: a match to try to save this kid's life.
Speaker 2: So they're running out of time.
Speaker 1: And again Hope Forkirie dot org Nick Romando's Pickleball Tournament tonight.
Speaker 1: And as Tony just referenced, Tony is is is Carrie's father?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 1: Text right now six one four seven four, Text Hope
Speaker 1: for Kirie to six one four seven four and they
Speaker 1: will text you a pre screening just kind of something
Speaker 1: you have to fill out before you actually get screened,
Speaker 1: like a pre screening document that you fill out before
Speaker 1: you head over to the pickleball tournament. On the website
Speaker 1: Hope for Kirie dot org, there are links to the
Speaker 1: GoFundMe page, there's links to the donor registry and how
Speaker 1: you can get involved, and there's also information about where
Speaker 1: the new kids have arrived at several locations, so if
Speaker 1: you can't make it to the next pickleball tournament tonight,
Speaker 1: on the website Hope for Kirie dot org are other
Speaker 1: locations where if you just have a few spare minutes today,
Speaker 1: go see if you can.
Speaker 2: Save a life.
Speaker 1: Let's see if we can get this kid a bone
Speaker 1: marrow transplant so we can watch him grow as opposed
Speaker 1: to the other you know, possibility at the age
Speaker 2: Of three and a half, which I don't really even
Speaker 2: want to wrap my mind around.