Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services insure
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Speaker 2: And good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball.
Speaker 2: You're on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and
Speaker 2: when me today is holy moldy lookers in today.
Speaker 3: Tim Bentley, Oh my gosh, get out of here.
Speaker 2: It's been a while.
Speaker 4: What is what's been going?
Speaker 2: Where have you been? I've been, I've been here.
Speaker 5: You haven't seen You've been. I've been listening to you,
Speaker 5: but I haven't seen you. And I thought I'd better
Speaker 5: get anywhere. The ghost of Steve Rivera, lay some.
Speaker 3: Eyes on you, make sure that things are still good,
Speaker 3: that you.
Speaker 2: Uh well take them to take my pulse inerature.
Speaker 4: I didn't work.
Speaker 5: I do work at TMC, so I'm uniquely qualified to
Speaker 5: give medical to give you medical advice to uh.
Speaker 2: You're not just a doctor on the radio.
Speaker 5: Doctor Bentley. If I'm giving you medical advice, man, you're
Speaker 5: you're in the world of hurt.
Speaker 2: Still, don't you stay over there? Stay with there? Well,
Speaker 2: you're in the You're in the shoe today better known
Speaker 2: as the chair.
Speaker 5: So you're you're well, yeah, thanks for having me and
Speaker 5: I've been listening. You've been having some good guests and
Speaker 5: good shows.
Speaker 2: And thank you listening yesterday.
Speaker 5: I did well done. I mean it's that was fun. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that was that was those.
Speaker 2: Lots of fun. That was that was interesting.
Speaker 5: I always am just amazed at the careers that these
Speaker 5: athletes have afterwards.
Speaker 2: You and you A you A grats you a big time,
Speaker 2: just like bad ass.
Speaker 5: You know things are doing and it's and it's you
Speaker 5: don't know they're they're in.
Speaker 3: This bubble for four or five years here and.
Speaker 5: They're basketball players, right, you don't know that they're you
Speaker 5: don't see them as people sometimes.
Speaker 2: No, no, you're spot on, spot on, you don't and
Speaker 2: you don't you might or may not see the potential
Speaker 2: when they're nineteen twenty twenty one because you don't get
Speaker 2: to spend time with them, right, But then they blossom
Speaker 2: into these people and they're not kids anymore. They're not kids.
Speaker 2: They're young men and or older men, you know, baffo
Speaker 2: older men and and uh Lauren Woods is a you know,
Speaker 2: forty fifty year old dude, very impres I know.
Speaker 5: So you know Harvey Mason that you know, you could
Speaker 5: go down the roster of just successful people and I
Speaker 5: you know, whether you're playing at a high level at
Speaker 5: the U of A or you're just participating in sports
Speaker 5: or some sort of activity in your school career, you know,
Speaker 5: it really helps you be able roll rounded, you know,
Speaker 5: just human being in general.
Speaker 2: Well, and you know this, and it's just not specifically
Speaker 2: the football team or basketball team or the major sports.
Speaker 2: A lot of the great stories are in the other sports.
Speaker 2: The runners, sure, the softball players, the track and field people.
Speaker 5: Well, if you think about it, you know, think about
Speaker 5: your high school career and how many of the classes
Speaker 5: that you took you really remember.
Speaker 2: You probably don't remember high school.
Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe a favorite teacher you remember, yeah, but you
Speaker 5: remember the fun you had with your friends, either in
Speaker 5: playing sports or doing an activity or drama or whatever
Speaker 5: it is. Those are the experiences that create and shape you.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, and you know kind of further what you do.
Speaker 5: You might be a great athlete along the way, but
Speaker 5: your hopes and dreams.
Speaker 3: You who are going to extend beyond your.
Speaker 2: Career athletic and then because when you end your career,
Speaker 2: what do I do next?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: And you know these kids, their career. You know, they're
Speaker 5: not kids anymore, I said, young men. But you know
Speaker 5: they get to be thirty two, thirty three, thirty four
Speaker 5: and they're faced with life decisions.
Speaker 2: You know, well, aren't you going through one? Now you
Speaker 2: don't have to say if you are, you aren't. But
Speaker 2: but and that's a critical age because it's like you
Speaker 2: got to have that end game. If you don't have
Speaker 2: the end game, you're screwed.
Speaker 5: Right, And it's you know you Uh, there's a kid
Speaker 5: that I coached in high school that's a professional runner,
Speaker 5: you know, and and he's got his eye on the
Speaker 5: prize for twenty twenty eight for the Olympic Trials. But
Speaker 5: that's three years away. What do you do when you're
Speaker 5: thirty five there? But you know, and so it's start
Speaker 5: to think about what the plans you're laying. And so
Speaker 5: Lauren Wood's story, I mean, what a cool dude. Man,
Speaker 5: that guy just had his eye on it.
Speaker 2: Man spoke well, and then who would have thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: here's this actor, dude.
Speaker 5: How is he's seven to one and he's writing. I
Speaker 5: have to write my own stuff so my shows on.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, so you've been a while
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. God, it was just popped into my mind. Endgame, endgame. Well,
Speaker 2: so you've been You've been a number of places right
Speaker 2: all over your share career. So like for me, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you've had an endgame, not because of you, but
Speaker 2: because of other people. Say sorry to Tim, we're closing,
Speaker 2: or you know, we're moving a different direction whatever. I
Speaker 2: don't know, that could be false information for me. The
Speaker 2: paper closed fifteen sixteen years ago. Fifteen sixteen years ago.
Speaker 2: H And so my career, I'm thinking, what the hell
Speaker 2: am I going to do? Now? This is all I've
Speaker 2: done the rest of my life, all my life. I
Speaker 2: was forty five, I'm thinking, crap, I can just say goodbye?
Speaker 2: What am I gonna do? So I had to kind
Speaker 2: of reinvent myself.
Speaker 3: Well, you pivot, and you know it's one of the
Speaker 3: things that you learn how.
Speaker 2: To do, is you know what a family engage.
Speaker 5: I have worked in the media for a long time,
Speaker 5: and I have worked at stations that have been sold
Speaker 5: station management change.
Speaker 3: They were making it. Hey, here's your rolodex, see you later.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, no, we'll let us walk you through
Speaker 2: the door.
Speaker 3: You know we're going to walk you out.
Speaker 5: So I think that's you know, I credit sports, but
Speaker 5: I also kind of create just good people in your life,
Speaker 5: you know, kind of giving you the skill set to be.
Speaker 2: That's it right there, That's it right there. You have
Speaker 2: to know people, network with people, impressed people. You're in
Speaker 2: a business. Uh, I'm in a business. Everybody's in a business,
Speaker 2: whether they handled or not. People business.
Speaker 3: Right, you're in the people business.
Speaker 5: You're in the storytelling business, whether you're telling the l
Speaker 5: tour stories or the newspaper stories or telling stories on
Speaker 5: the radio. You know, you pivot. It's a skill, it's
Speaker 5: a lifelong skill. You might do it in different ways.
Speaker 5: And you know, so Lauren Woods is like, hey, I
Speaker 5: was always drawn to being creative and an actor, and
Speaker 5: you know, and and you had a chance to grow
Speaker 5: with you a and then yeah, and we didn't know that,
Speaker 5: never would have known. Yeah, you know, it's just I
Speaker 5: listened to him. I just remembered they were wearing the head.
Speaker 2: Bands, the headbands Passenger Creation.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then what a bunch of knucklehead these guys were.
Speaker 2: Remember that?
Speaker 5: And I was just like, oh, I know, and they
Speaker 5: just know that they're just goofballs. At twenty you know
Speaker 5: their kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, have all the answers.
Speaker 5: And then to hear him, you know, speak so well
Speaker 5: and passionately about what he believes in and what he's
Speaker 5: fired up about.
Speaker 2: Right right, has a ha's an foundation. He has a
Speaker 2: website that gives a t shirts he does in l
Speaker 2: A now to the homeless groups out there. So good
Speaker 2: for him. If you guys want to listen to our
Speaker 2: show and and then then that's that interview was great.
Speaker 2: I thought the Baffort thing was fun. You know, he
Speaker 2: called or he I've been trying to reach him and
Speaker 2: he said I can do today, said somewhere let's go.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So a big race for him next week at
Speaker 2: the Belmont. He has Rodriguez not named after coach Rodriguez,
Speaker 2: just just and he doesn't name the horses. It's the
Speaker 2: owners wearing the horses. Uh like Midnight Lout and and
Speaker 2: Care all these horses that were hot sean right right right,
Speaker 2: So yeah, he's not the one that's doing it, but
Speaker 2: they respect him to do that. You know, who else next?
Speaker 2: Who else next? So so he was on is a
Speaker 2: big race next? He was fantastic. Talked about his childhood
Speaker 2: in Ogallas and his time here at the u A
Speaker 2: and the Racing Foundation and stuff like that. So if
Speaker 2: you have to, if you missed it, you'd like to
Speaker 2: hear it, It's on my Facebook page. Just grab the
Speaker 2: link and put it in your browser and you can
Speaker 2: listen to it. It was a lot of fun. We
Speaker 2: had a lot of fun with that yesterday. Today should
Speaker 2: be an equal fun day. We're going to get a
Speaker 2: hold of Joseph Blair. We all know him as JB.
Speaker 2: He's in Houston. He's the coach of the Rio Grand Vipers,
Speaker 2: owner organization under the Houston Rockets. So we'll talk to
Speaker 2: him about that. What he's up to is helping create
Speaker 2: a court right the basketball court at the Pellibury area.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to talk to him.
Speaker 5: He's looking at courts at Palaverty Park over there in
Speaker 5: Broadway coalb area. He wants to help fund some basketball
Speaker 5: courts to honor his mom.
Speaker 2: He's always doing stuff like that, Judith.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I've been following him and I'm a big,
Speaker 5: big fan of JB.
Speaker 3: He's for since he played here. Yeah, he's a good dude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good dude. Trying to do a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: for the community here and there and everywhere. Uh, he's
Speaker 2: you know, played coach and played at the NBA level
Speaker 2: number of teams in Europe, so well versed. You know,
Speaker 2: if there's a smart dude, the savvy dude, guess who
Speaker 2: that is, JB.
Speaker 3: You know, and you were we were talking about Lauren.
Speaker 5: But I also think that there's a good foundation for
Speaker 5: a lot of these you know a lot of these
Speaker 5: U A athletes that stick around and there and there
Speaker 5: their ambassadors for the team, their ambassador for Tucson, even
Speaker 5: if they live elsewhere.
Speaker 3: You know, they are always.
Speaker 5: Advocating for you know, wildcats, bear down, let's go. What
Speaker 5: can we do to help? And I think the smart
Speaker 5: coaches and the and the and the savvy coaches here,
Speaker 5: you know, they bring them in and then it's a legacy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. You've been Okay, then.
Speaker 3: Things are really good. Just got back from Rocky point O.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 5: My wife finished her semesters, not very not very much.
Speaker 3: My wife speaks.
Speaker 4: So we did good.
Speaker 5: And you've got to translated, sit on the beach and
Speaker 5: relax for a little bit.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, pretty good, okay, pretty good.
Speaker 2: How about you?
Speaker 4: What's going on with you?
Speaker 2: Okay? I had surgery last week. I took some time
Speaker 2: off because the doctor said he can't go to work.
Speaker 2: I started driving Tuesday, so I started my shows here Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I'm fine, I'm getting better. And then here just you know,
Speaker 2: kind of wearing the stuff that they make me wear.
Speaker 2: You know, let me tell you secret, don't get old.
Speaker 2: It sucks.
Speaker 5: I'm I think I'm one step behind you. Man, it sucks,
Speaker 5: but you know, I guess it beats the alternative. Well,
Speaker 5: this is true, you know. I mean, like it's good
Speaker 5: to see it. Well, it's good to be seen, is
Speaker 5: what good?
Speaker 2: That's the alternative.
Speaker 5: It's like, you know, but I mean, I have tape
Speaker 5: on my shoulder today you can't see it. And and
Speaker 5: I just got a shot in my foot because I'm
Speaker 5: an old guy.
Speaker 2: And I need some quarts.
Speaker 5: I got the juice today in my foot, So I'm all,
Speaker 5: I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've seen weak in a burden sie. Have I
Speaker 2: told you this? So you've seen I've seen him and
Speaker 2: the two dudes hold them up? My meds was what
Speaker 2: held me up? Those are the two dudes.
Speaker 3: Do you want a pair of sung glasses?
Speaker 2: Except mylive I mentioned of my two dudes, right, gotcha?
Speaker 2: Stay strict to those diets and straight strict to those meds.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: And that'll explain a lot of things on the show.
Speaker 3: I'm ready to go wherever you want to take it.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: JB is going to come on first, and then we're
Speaker 2: going to talk to Marcus Middleton from the Maccabie Games.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be downtown DCC soon coming up in a
Speaker 2: couple weeks in June. In June. Uh, they've hosted it before.
Speaker 2: They're excited about it. I said, let's come on talk
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: One of the things that I Tucson, I don't know
Speaker 5: the exact name is that the Tucson that's the sports authority,
Speaker 5: but you know they have a sports Commission and they
Speaker 5: really are well this is Son doesn't visit to Son,
Speaker 5: it's on visit to Son now. And and you know,
Speaker 5: I really like that they're reaching out to you know,
Speaker 5: all kinds of sports, bringing people in sports, uh, events
Speaker 5: to m H.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 2: And they're working a lot of projects I have, you know,
Speaker 2: because what's his name is what's his name? Blake Eagers
Speaker 2: on my every Wednesday or whatever. And he's part of
Speaker 2: that with the Southern Arizona tourism, and he's the it's
Speaker 2: smart baseball and the so many other things it's smart
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 5: It's a big part of destination we'll travel is sporting events.
Speaker 2: Let me say this to you because you're you've been
Speaker 2: here on Trusson deserves it. But now they have to
Speaker 2: prove that they deserve it. That makes any sense, you know,
Speaker 2: there's there's one thing of winning the championship. Keeping the
Speaker 2: championships the harder. So you get it and you've been
Speaker 2: working hard for it. Now you have to prove that
Speaker 2: they should deserve to stay because if no one goes,
Speaker 2: what's the point, right, what's the point of all that
Speaker 2: work of trying to get a team here at any level,
Speaker 2: at any level baseball, basketball or whatever, and then oh,
Speaker 2: great grood for you, Oh I can't go, I want
Speaker 2: to go, I can't go.
Speaker 3: Well, it's it's it's a delicate balance.
Speaker 5: I have worked in that side of the of defense
Speaker 5: on visit Tucson and now that arena and the delicate
Speaker 5: dance that they do to get teams here and make.
Speaker 3: It a valuable product for people to live here.
Speaker 2: That's affordable.
Speaker 5: You know, people have you know, not a ton of
Speaker 5: disposable income, so you want it to be a good value.
Speaker 2: Well that's what I was going to say. In transition
Speaker 2: to that kind you can kind of put that translation
Speaker 2: to freeway football. Okay, it's been here for a one
Speaker 2: hundred years plus. Okay, now you have a good team
Speaker 2: or bad team or whatever. But what are they asking
Speaker 2: to do? Go watch you? And not all the time?
Speaker 2: Does that happen? It doesn't.
Speaker 3: And it's you know and that and people speak with
Speaker 3: their dollars, they speak with their attendance.
Speaker 2: Yes, especially in this town, especially in this You gave
Speaker 2: me a slight that looks like, yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Have been an event planning and management for a long time.
Speaker 2: What do you think it is? I mean, Tucson is
Speaker 2: a late arriving crowd. Uh, if you win, they will come.
Speaker 2: But there's gotta be some kind of like formula. You know,
Speaker 2: actually wyz to what the people?
Speaker 3: If you figure it out, you're going to make.
Speaker 2: A bazillion dollars. That's why I ask.
Speaker 5: You know a lot of other cities you go to
Speaker 5: and they'll talk about, oh they're late registering or you know,
Speaker 5: their Tucson cat or there's something casual Tucson is.
Speaker 3: It has been like that. And since I've been three
Speaker 3: years that I've been.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been here thirty seven, thirty eight.
Speaker 3: And it's been like that. And it's you know, the
Speaker 3: back of winter.
Speaker 8: They're loyal exactly, but they'll hold a grudge if they fail,
Speaker 8: you know, or if if they if they go, if
Speaker 8: they go a cross that's understandable.
Speaker 2: Please don't go. I love you, Please don't go. I
Speaker 2: found somebody.
Speaker 5: Better, right, So, Yeah, the work that they do down
Speaker 5: there is you know, they're doing a lot of quiet
Speaker 5: work behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is tough. I mean, Tucson has grown
Speaker 2: tremendously in my time at the same time as you.
Speaker 5: Well, and it's you know, people used to say, hey,
Speaker 5: you can't do anything in the summertime here. Everybody goes
Speaker 5: to San Diego. And that's just you know, the cliche
Speaker 5: around Tucson. It's it's twenty twenty five now and people
Speaker 5: live here year round.
Speaker 2: We have BC.
Speaker 5: Yes, you do, because this room is delightfully chilly, delightful.
Speaker 2: You didn't you didn't go to my old place.
Speaker 5: No, and I it was just it was it wasn't
Speaker 5: in a goat field over there on the west.
Speaker 2: The cemetery I used to do the Silent Cross didn't
Speaker 2: get out Obviously. I love that place because it started
Speaker 2: to me here. But yeah, we're studios over there, right.
Speaker 2: I have been a huge bohemoth of a building.
Speaker 3: I have been in there many times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, let's go and then come back and talk
Speaker 2: to Joseph Blair about what's going on with him and
Speaker 2: what he's trying to do down here in Tucson. Thanks everybody.
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Speaker 7: Streamy Live on the iHeartRadio AP. This is I on
Speaker 7: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to I'm the Ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with be to
Speaker 2: day is Tim Bentley. Hello, Hello, good you see you Tim.
Speaker 2: And now on the phone, we have what are you
Speaker 2: of a hoopster? Hoopstar Joseph Blair. Now they head coach
Speaker 2: at Rio Grand Valley Vipers. Jib. How are you.
Speaker 4: I'm doing excellent. I'm blessed. How you guys doing.
Speaker 2: We're doing fine. We're doing fine. You're up to your
Speaker 2: old tricks, are doing some great stuff for the community.
Speaker 2: But we'll talk about that in a bit. What you've
Speaker 2: been up to lately? I know you got to the
Speaker 2: playoffs of the G League.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we got to the playoffs, lost in the
Speaker 6: first round unfortunately, but uh, you know, it went on
Speaker 6: from there. And I'm not sure how much everyone knows
Speaker 6: about the G League, but every team in the GLA
Speaker 6: League is kind of like the child of an NBA team.
Speaker 6: So we are affiliates of the Houston Rockets. So as
Speaker 6: soon as my season finished, and when I had about
Speaker 6: four days off, that was right back up with the Rockets.
Speaker 4: Run as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so it keeps me pretty busy. It becomes a
Speaker 6: long season. Yeah, it becomes a long season. It's kind
Speaker 6: of divided because we start the season preseason with the Rockets,
Speaker 6: the entire preseason, through training camp, through everything, and then
Speaker 6: as soon as my season starts, I go.
Speaker 4: We get through the Rockets.
Speaker 6: Training camp, preseason games, and then the first rgular season game.
Speaker 6: Then I branch off and we start our training camp
Speaker 6: in the G League, and then we go through a
Speaker 6: little bit and we don't even have a preseason.
Speaker 4: We jump right into games.
Speaker 6: We did have one kind of friendly game, and then
Speaker 6: we jump right in the season and then the season finishes,
Speaker 6: and then right back of the Rockets again to finish
Speaker 6: their season and then the playoff run. So it becomes
Speaker 6: a long year of a lot of different devisive you.
Speaker 6: I guess it's segregated there. But and then it's a
Speaker 6: great learning experience for me.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 6: I love what I do, so it works out wonderfully
Speaker 6: for me.
Speaker 2: Yea question. In fact, I don't know if I've told
Speaker 2: you the story, but maybe six seven years ago, mister
Speaker 2: Brazi and Matt Brozie and I were sitting somewhere watching
Speaker 2: some games and you were out there doing your thing,
Speaker 2: and he says, you know what, Steve jb Is going
Speaker 2: to be great at this. I'm thinking, really, why you know?
Speaker 2: You know, not that I was questioning that. I says, why,
Speaker 2: he's a communicator. He knows how to communicate to the guys.
Speaker 2: He's been there, done that. But what makes him special
Speaker 2: he knows how to communicate and at this level that's huge.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think honestly, I go back to a lot
Speaker 6: of what I did when I retired there in Tucson.
Speaker 6: You know, when I were up for playing basketball. Most
Speaker 6: people do recognize a lot of things. As you said,
Speaker 6: a literally to earlier. I was very active in the community,
Speaker 6: started a couple of nonprofits, served on the board of
Speaker 6: nonprofits and coaching, in my opinion, is the same as
Speaker 6: what I was doing before. You try to get a
Speaker 6: group of people to believe in the same mission, at
Speaker 6: the same vision and put their efforts into it. And
Speaker 6: nonprofits a little bit different because you're asking people of
Speaker 6: their time or their money to support something that you
Speaker 6: believe is greater than yourself ask weall is the same way.
Speaker 6: I'm asking these guys to give their energy and time
Speaker 6: and I believe was something greater than themselves, something we
Speaker 6: can't accomplish on our own. That's the same as growing
Speaker 6: in community. It is the same thing I believe in
Speaker 6: growing communitia or a community of a team. We're doing
Speaker 6: the exact same thing. We're believing in something that's greater
Speaker 6: than ourselves and we could have accomplish on our own.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, I love that, JB.
Speaker 5: That's you know, helping you know, whether it's an agency
Speaker 5: or you know, a young athlete get through. What do
Speaker 5: you personally take away from coaching? You know, like you
Speaker 5: know your folks are probably in transit back and forth.
Speaker 3: What do you personally get from coaching?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 5: What do you look forward to to bring you joy
Speaker 5: and bring you happiness? There in that coaching realm.
Speaker 4: It's the same.
Speaker 6: Honestly, I'm probably go maybe this whole conversation, I'll go
Speaker 6: back to this. It's the same thing as I did
Speaker 6: in the community. See seeing other people thrive, seeing their collaboration,
Speaker 6: seeing growth. That's what the biggest thing is for me.
Speaker 6: I just believe that I've been blessed in my personal
Speaker 6: life and now I want to bless others as much
Speaker 6: as possible, and part of that is seeing their growth
Speaker 6: and development as individuals and players. And that's more or
Speaker 6: less the biggest thing for me. You know, I defer
Speaker 6: all glory to God and to the people around me
Speaker 6: support me and believe in what we're doing.
Speaker 2: So you've never looked better, at least the last time
Speaker 2: I saw you.
Speaker 6: Just to the vegan coach, Oh man, I will die
Speaker 6: vegan at a very old age.
Speaker 4: Don't you.
Speaker 2: How's that going? You know, obviously love doing it, but
Speaker 2: you've been in shape for in this shape for a while.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's crazy people ask me what you just
Speaker 6: asked me was. It's kind of like me asking you
Speaker 6: how's that meat eating going?
Speaker 4: It is me. It is part of who I am,
Speaker 4: and there's no you know, you view it as a
Speaker 4: different thing. I do it.
Speaker 6: It's just my lifestyle, and you know I I if anything,
Speaker 6: I would say it's going wonderfully, probably better than yours is.
Speaker 3: I'm from Kansas.
Speaker 5: I don't think I'm I think I'm legally required to
Speaker 5: have a you.
Speaker 4: Know, but I would like I would you realize? Hold up?
Speaker 4: First of all, I want to say this, Tim, I'm
Speaker 4: from Texas, so.
Speaker 5: You're not legally anybody can do it exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: With that, With that, JB, give me give me three
Speaker 2: things or two things that I should be eating that
Speaker 2: would for me. I'm a very picky guy. Tastes good
Speaker 2: and would be good for me.
Speaker 4: I don't know your taste number one, so to tell
Speaker 4: you what tastes good?
Speaker 6: I mean, but I say this, if you eat chicken,
Speaker 6: you eat chicken, Steve, Yes, Okay. If I boiled chicken
Speaker 6: and hand it to you, would you like it? I
Speaker 6: don't know, I don't know, probably not. So what do
Speaker 6: you do to make it taste good? You put everything
Speaker 6: that is a plant based thing on top of it
Speaker 6: to make it taste good. So really, just stop getting
Speaker 6: fare of the chicken and eat the things that you
Speaker 6: like the season that and make that chicken in your eyes.
Speaker 4: Tast it's good. That's easy. So it's really easy.
Speaker 6: What you think, you've just been conditioned to believing that
Speaker 6: the chicken is a major port of it.
Speaker 4: It's probably not the major portion of it. That's just
Speaker 4: what the goodness sticks to.
Speaker 2: Okay, So salads, you're gonna eat a lot of salt
Speaker 2: and pepper, that is what you Okay, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: get a little cheat sheet for people.
Speaker 4: It's much easier than what you think.
Speaker 6: There's there's tons of you know, broccoli, lagoons beans, black beans,
Speaker 6: red beans, black eyed peas, or mustard greens, color greens.
Speaker 4: There's a spinach.
Speaker 6: There's chick peas, a great source of protein, garbanzo beans
Speaker 6: being the same thing.
Speaker 4: Promise.
Speaker 6: There's there's a plethora of things that you can eat.
Speaker 6: So I think that I think that's really to be
Speaker 6: honest with you, I think that's a cop out with
Speaker 6: most media to say, well, well I eat well, there's
Speaker 6: there's more vegetables than there are actually the animals that
Speaker 6: you're killing.
Speaker 2: To eat exactly.
Speaker 5: And my wife is is a vegetarian, and and it's
Speaker 5: you know, really in twenty twenty five, people cater you know,
Speaker 5: they really want it's an audience and it's a it's
Speaker 5: a consumer that they don't want to miss. So it's
Speaker 5: really easy to find options.
Speaker 2: For Well, I see that you're like a Twigg. So
Speaker 2: I can't remember the last time were you. You were
Speaker 2: in Tucson not too long ago.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I was there what last week?
Speaker 2: Week? Okay, this week?
Speaker 4: Just there for the week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just to promote your your situation or what you're
Speaker 2: trying to do.
Speaker 6: Yeah, just working on this project at the honor of
Speaker 6: my mom. So I was there just in meetings, trying
Speaker 6: to hopefully scramble up some donors to help me with
Speaker 6: to support.
Speaker 4: What we're doing.
Speaker 5: How do you start that conversation? I mean, obviously I
Speaker 5: love your mom. I love your relationship with your mom,
Speaker 5: and you know she's such a cool lady. But what
Speaker 5: what what started this idea and what threat did you
Speaker 5: pull wind up here at the park and start this project?
Speaker 6: Well, interesting enough, council. Remember Cunningham, Paul Cunningham with the
Speaker 6: city two Son. He had done somewhat a similar collaboration
Speaker 6: with Corey Williams. Yeah, out on the Jesse Wuns Park.
Speaker 6: They redid one of the courts there. It's on a
Speaker 6: little bit smaller of a scale than what we're doing.
Speaker 6: But I remember going the ribbon cutting for that that
Speaker 6: day and I had no clue that Corey was doing it,
Speaker 6: that the city was doing it thing. And I talked
Speaker 6: to Paul at the time and said, yea, I would
Speaker 6: love to do this as well. And we did one park,
Speaker 6: how can we do another park? And so I just
Speaker 6: told him keep an eye on and keep an eye
Speaker 6: out for when there's another park, and I'd love to
Speaker 6: do it and put my name on it and do
Speaker 6: the same thing. Well, time passed, and obviously my accessibility
Speaker 6: there in Tucson was limited, so it really didn't pan
Speaker 6: out the way we expected. But fast forward to a
Speaker 6: bout the year ago, Paul called me and said, hey,
Speaker 6: I do have a project that might work for you
Speaker 6: if you'd like to like to hear about it. I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 6: because this is a much broader scale. I think that
Speaker 6: Corey's court has like and nothing against it whatsoever. It's
Speaker 6: an amazing court for Jesse. I went to park by
Speaker 6: the way, there was a cloth covering on it and
Speaker 6: it's not regulation length or actually, we're building two NBA
Speaker 6: linked courts side by side with They'll be the only
Speaker 6: court in Tucson with both the high school line, college
Speaker 6: and NBA three point line, as well as an NBA
Speaker 6: lane which NBA length, and it's covered with a metal
Speaker 6: covering solar lights on it with the scoreboard. It'll actually
Speaker 6: be the home court of elementary's there in the community,
Speaker 6: and three other schools in that area will be using
Speaker 6: it for different programs as well. But when he brought
Speaker 6: it to me, I was excited about it. And the
Speaker 6: one thing I said is that if I'm going to
Speaker 6: do it, I want to name it after my mom.
Speaker 4: I don't need a legacy. I'd rather build a legacy of.
Speaker 6: My mother, and I wanted to be the best court
Speaker 6: as of right now and any park in Tucson. So
Speaker 6: that's what we're doing, and I've been really fortunate the
Speaker 6: city of City's jumped in to put a bunch of
Speaker 6: money in that we're doing the entire park. It's going
Speaker 6: to be an amazing park when it's all done. I
Speaker 6: did walk the park last week when I was there.
Speaker 6: But this court is just homage to my mom, and
Speaker 6: this is the way I grew up. I grew up
Speaker 6: playing on park basketball courts, and for me, I know
Speaker 6: that number one, it brought me in contact with people
Speaker 6: I would have never met. It made me the player
Speaker 6: I am, And it builds community. And these parks in
Speaker 6: the Tucson air in particular epicenters of those communities is
Speaker 6: a this isn't out somewhere, it's dead in the middle
Speaker 6: of a neighborhood, and I'm hoping it becomes a neighborhood
Speaker 6: draw and I hope it becomes a draw for the city.
Speaker 2: Who what are you hoping for from this day forward?
Speaker 2: What do you need help with?
Speaker 4: Fundraising? Fundraising?
Speaker 6: The City's put up a lot a lot of money,
Speaker 6: but on my end, I still need to raise about
Speaker 6: two und and fifty thousand dollars to get this to
Speaker 6: see this project through. So anyone that just believes in
Speaker 6: what I'm doing, even if you're just doing to support
Speaker 6: my mom and her name and her legacy, I appreciate
Speaker 6: that as well. But this is a thing that's done
Speaker 6: for the community. It's a benefits community, but it also
Speaker 6: honors the legacy of my mother and just then amazing
Speaker 6: impact that not only two son have on her, but
Speaker 6: she tried to have on the two Soon area as well,
Speaker 6: Juus Blair Courts dot com.
Speaker 4: There's a website at Judahblair Courts dot com. You can donate.
Speaker 4: You click on the donate button, I'll send you to
Speaker 4: a city site.
Speaker 6: You'll go through a couple of continued continue buttons and
Speaker 6: you'll go down to see Judah BLAIRER Memorial Park or
Speaker 6: basketball court down there, and you can donate right there.
Speaker 6: Anything will help. Some people think that I'm not a
Speaker 6: huge donor, don't worry. Every single dollar helps and gets
Speaker 6: us to the goal and is much much appreciated by
Speaker 6: me and all my family.
Speaker 2: Is there a quick date that you'd hope to get
Speaker 2: some of this gun buy to finish.
Speaker 6: This well, the ribbon cutting as of right now would
Speaker 6: be we're setting it for May of next year. Really
Speaker 6: is built around when the rest of the park will
Speaker 6: be finished as well. But I will say on my end,
Speaker 6: I would love to get this money raise or at
Speaker 6: least a huge portion of it in the next sixty days.
Speaker 6: Has kind of earn this money on my side, so
Speaker 6: the city knows that knows that I'm gonna I'm good
Speaker 6: for it, and they can start the final building processes
Speaker 6: of the court. So I am hoping that before the
Speaker 6: ribbon cutting. The court will be available for the community
Speaker 6: before that, and then we'll just have the official kind
Speaker 6: of ground and I want to say groundbreaking, but the
Speaker 6: ribbon cutting, the official usage in May of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: That what an inspirational story. I coached high school for
Speaker 5: a long time, and I love the impact that moms
Speaker 5: and aunts and those carrying adults have on these kids.
Speaker 5: And I can see that that happened with your mom.
Speaker 5: You know, you probably see that with the kids you
Speaker 5: coach and these young men that you coach, you know,
Speaker 5: the role of a carrying adult in their life.
Speaker 3: What have you seen in that as you coach and
Speaker 3: work with these kids.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it goes one of
Speaker 6: two ways, quite frankly, and I think this goes as
Speaker 6: indicative of the times of which we live. It's either
Speaker 6: a single parent home, or it's a dual parent home,
Speaker 6: or some quite frankly, or without a parent. And I
Speaker 6: was fortunate enough to have my mother. I wasn't raised
Speaker 6: in a dual parent home. It was just my mom
Speaker 6: raising my brother and I on her own. But she
Speaker 6: did one hell of a job in my opinion. But
Speaker 6: my love for the game basketball comes directly from my
Speaker 6: mother's love of the game. She wasn't unable to play
Speaker 6: sports growing up. She had a brother and he played
Speaker 6: all the sports, but there was no female sports offered
Speaker 6: at her school. So growing up, even if she could
Speaker 6: shoot the ball better than him and run faster at him,
Speaker 6: she wasn't allowed display those abilities. And I think that's
Speaker 6: one of the reasons why I see such a proponent
Speaker 6: now or was there such a proponent for equality in
Speaker 6: sports When you look at my basketball camps and I'm
Speaker 6: ran there in Tucson for twenty years, we were always
Speaker 6: co ed because of the same belief that it's not
Speaker 6: right that there can be equality in the sports. But
Speaker 6: going back to your question, I think that it's it's
Speaker 6: not not only does it fall just on the parents,
Speaker 6: in my opinion, to raise these kids, but it also
Speaker 6: falls on our community as a whole.
Speaker 4: Were our community, You know that the I is very true.
Speaker 6: It takes a village to raise a child, so especially
Speaker 6: in these days and times when we in which we
Speaker 6: live are so much different than when I grew up.
Speaker 6: Because now we didn't have social media, we'd have all
Speaker 6: these outside influences. It was literally you had to be
Speaker 6: in my face to influence me. But right now, there's
Speaker 6: so many different influences from so many different directions, so
Speaker 6: many different areas. There's so many and quite a bit
Speaker 6: of false influences as well, people portraying a life in
Speaker 6: which they don't live. And this idea of that our
Speaker 6: kids have now that they need to live like this
Speaker 6: and they need to do like this is so it's
Speaker 6: quite sad, to be honest with you. And it happens
Speaker 6: also in sports because you see the players that I coach,
Speaker 6: they see a player in the NBA that's making so
Speaker 6: much money, they think, okay, well they live like this,
Speaker 6: so I need to live like that, or I need
Speaker 6: to pretend as if I live like that. And it
Speaker 6: gets in the way of the work. And a lot
Speaker 6: of times, sadly, people want to they want the job,
Speaker 6: but they don't want the hustle that comes with the job.
Speaker 6: They want the glories of being a professional athlete, but
Speaker 6: don't understand the work it takes to become a professional athlete.
Speaker 6: They want to get paid to do the work instead
Speaker 6: of working to get the pay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question, in fact, in fact, god, I can
Speaker 2: remember this pretty well. Nineteen ninety had to be some
Speaker 2: time in nineteen ninety. You can fix the year if
Speaker 2: you want. Get a press release just from who Jodah Blair,
Speaker 2: My son Joseh Blair has committed to the University of Arizona.
Speaker 5: Who's Who's Mama Blair Man? She's like one heck of
Speaker 5: a pr agent.
Speaker 2: So she well, back in the day, she was that person,
Speaker 2: and you kinda laughed, right because you probably remember those days.
Speaker 6: I mean, my mother, without a doubt, no one will
Speaker 6: ever even attempt to fight for the biggest fan of Joseph.
Speaker 4: Blair award outside of my mother. Everyone knows that. Everyone
Speaker 4: in Tucson knows that as well.
Speaker 6: If you ever said a loader and asked how I
Speaker 6: was doing, you're also gonna, i mean, how she was doing,
Speaker 6: You're also going to how I was doing as well.
Speaker 6: So well, yeah, God blessed me with an amazing mother.
Speaker 5: She Speaking of moms, my mom just texted, I'm curious
Speaker 5: about JB. What he thinks is a secret to a
Speaker 5: strong board for a nonprofit.
Speaker 2: You're we only have a couple of minutes, so sorry,
Speaker 2: but mom asked a question.
Speaker 6: Well, my my answer to that is finding a board
Speaker 6: that ever one is engaged in the vision of the organization.
Speaker 6: They have to be engaged in the mission and the vision.
Speaker 6: They can't just come on board because someone ask them.
Speaker 6: They have to be on board because they truly believe
Speaker 6: in what the vision and the mission of the organization is.
Speaker 6: And then because you'll have people that will just dig
Speaker 6: their feet in and be in the trenches for something
Speaker 6: they believe in more so than they would if it's
Speaker 6: just something they can throw money at. So it's always
Speaker 6: a belief in what you're doing. And this kind of
Speaker 6: goes back to exactly what I said as far as coaching.
Speaker 4: You have to believe in it.
Speaker 6: You have to believe and you're truly doing something that
Speaker 6: you can never do on your own. You have to
Speaker 6: believe that you're a part of something that's greater than yourself.
Speaker 6: This serves a purpose that will live on way past
Speaker 6: your lifetime and builds a legacy for the community in
Speaker 6: which you're serving.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you. My mom was already a fan. Now
Speaker 5: she's a bigger fan. Well, he has away with the woman.
Speaker 5: He knows what to say. Hey, JB, thanks a bunch
Speaker 5: for joining us. I also want to say, in addition
Speaker 5: to your mom, your mom was everywhere. I mean everywhere.
Speaker 5: I worked at the other station before I moved to here,
Speaker 5: and she was also. I mean, you go to a
Speaker 5: basketball game, guess where she Judith, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: You was everywhere? And you know that she was everywhere.
Speaker 3: What's the website again?
Speaker 6: One more time, Judith, Judith Blair courts dot com and uh,
Speaker 6: just alluding to what you just said. See, my mom
Speaker 6: loved twusons, She loved the two Sonans, she loved everything
Speaker 6: about southern Arizona. And I remember she would tell me
Speaker 6: I just drove around today saying hi to people and
Speaker 6: go in and pray for him.
Speaker 4: So that that was her life. That was my mother.
Speaker 4: That's and that's exactly why she deserves to be honored
Speaker 4: in my eyes. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Nice, nice, good, great, totally great, good. Okay, JB, thanks
Speaker 2: a bunch. Good luck on the draft, and good luck
Speaker 2: next year.
Speaker 4: Thank you, fellows, got Jamy be.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. If anybody wants to listen to this tomorrow,
Speaker 2: if you missed it, well you can tell anybody who
Speaker 2: missed it. Just go to the website, go to the
Speaker 2: podcast podcast. Yeah, thanks a bunch of Thanks Timmy, good
Speaker 2: good question. Thanks Mom. What's your Mom's name, Susan. Susan,
Speaker 2: Thanks Susan, Thanks Susan. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan,
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Speaker 7: Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio while this is Eye
Speaker 7: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the mark here on Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is
Speaker 2: Tim Bentley. Hello Tim Bentley. You want to say who
Speaker 2: you represented or just Tim Bentley?
Speaker 5: Tim Bentley, I'm the executive director of Communications and Marketing
Speaker 5: at Tuson Medical Center.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, I've been there for eleven or so years.
Speaker 5: I've been in Tucson since I moved here as a
Speaker 5: kid when I was nine or ten in the mid seventies.
Speaker 3: Went to Sabino High School Northern Arizona.
Speaker 5: Worked in TV and radio for some time, and then
Speaker 5: worked you know, some nonprofit. I was a high school
Speaker 5: coach track and cross country at Saint Augustine is still
Speaker 5: part of that. I am not ill you have you people.
Speaker 5: So I have a you know, I had a really
Speaker 5: nice run there. I had, you know, eight or nine
Speaker 5: years of coaching and and a lot of those kids
Speaker 5: that I coached.
Speaker 3: I was talking to you know, JB about it is.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of these kids now.
Speaker 5: Are thirty two thirty three that I coached as you know,
Speaker 5: as kids all the way through their senior year, you know,
Speaker 5: and they're always seeking out advice even though you know,
Speaker 5: not about running or anything like, hey, coach, I'm getting
Speaker 5: ready to buy a house, do you think I should
Speaker 5: get insurance or anything? You know, so life advice and
Speaker 5: you know, health insurance and and you know that role
Speaker 5: that coaches and I talked about that caring adult.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: JB's right, it takes a village.
Speaker 5: And I would see kids on the coach that I
Speaker 5: coached on the track and cross country teams, and if
Speaker 5: they had you know, a you know, a family unit
Speaker 5: mom and a dad, you know, but many of like
Speaker 5: JB said, would have a mom, or they'd have a
Speaker 5: group of aunts or a favorite sixth grade teacher that
Speaker 5: helped them out really it's it's a village, it's a
Speaker 5: carrying adult.
Speaker 3: It's a caring group of people that have a kid's back,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 5: And JB is the perfect example, you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 5: a just self determined and you know, self sufficient mom.
Speaker 5: And it could be any carrying adult that just you know,
Speaker 5: has your back. And I'd always say to a parent,
Speaker 5: I said, well, you know, we're not going to make
Speaker 5: sure that.
Speaker 3: They don't fail their test.
Speaker 5: You know, they're still going to stumble and fall, but
Speaker 5: we're going to make sure that they don't do something
Speaker 5: really dumb.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know that's our job is to make sure
Speaker 5: they were the bumpers of life.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, you said it earlier. I think with me, uh,
Speaker 2: high school stuff, uh, you know, not to you you know,
Speaker 2: what did you learn? What do you remember? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: You do remember your coaches, You do remember your.
Speaker 5: Coaches, your friends and your teachers and and those And
Speaker 5: it's never an impact that you think.
Speaker 3: It's always something.
Speaker 2: Right, right, you know, I remember I do remember some
Speaker 2: stuff in chemistry in physics, Uh briefly I would. I
Speaker 2: can't tell you, eh, and to know all that crap,
Speaker 2: but I know how it works. So you had twelve
Speaker 2: teachers from your first grade to twelfth grade.
Speaker 5: Well more than that in high school. You know you
Speaker 5: probably have six. Oh yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So let me give you let's say eighteen, just eighteen,
Speaker 2: how many impacted you? Like, how many do you remember, say.
Speaker 5: That the coaches that impacted me? Of the teachers, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: so probably just one and it's John John Brooks of
Speaker 5: the eighteen Yeah. I mean I can dig a good percentage.
Speaker 5: But if he's my favorite teacher, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not criticizing the thing, but wow, you know
Speaker 2: what you could be right, I could have.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, and I had. You know, let me
Speaker 5: put it this way. I've had teachers that have impacted
Speaker 5: me at every stage of my life. I had Ruth Solomon,
Speaker 5: who was a state senator, was my sixth grade teacher,
Speaker 5: and she taught us about independence and and you know, uh,
Speaker 5: forming community.
Speaker 2: And really being involved in it. So you remember that.
Speaker 3: I remember, you know, so probably six or.
Speaker 2: Seven that you're one was not a critician. I'm just
Speaker 2: you know, as I look back, I'm thinking maybe three.
Speaker 2: I maybe have a hard time rememory if.
Speaker 3: You ask, if you say, like, who's your favorite teacher.
Speaker 5: You could probably think of two or three quickly, you know,
Speaker 5: and everybody in the let's listening.
Speaker 3: So oh yeah it was mister or missus so and so.
Speaker 5: I love them because, you know, and maybe they they
Speaker 5: said something nice to you about something you wrote, you
Speaker 5: something you wrote you wrote.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so okay, so that's teachers coaches. How many two
Speaker 2: the impacted you? But of the how many of the
Speaker 2: how many.
Speaker 4: Coaches you have?
Speaker 3: Probably six or seven?
Speaker 2: Okay, so two good ones. Uh. I asked this up
Speaker 2: David Adams, and I don't remember how many good coaches
Speaker 2: did you have? Talking good coaches?
Speaker 5: Did you have a couple, you know, I mean, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: But it's to JB's point, it's it's the ones that care,
Speaker 5: that are invested in your success and you know that
Speaker 5: that want you to succeed, regardless of what success looks
Speaker 5: like for you. It doesn't necessarily have to be at
Speaker 5: the highest level. It's just like, did you run your
Speaker 5: fastest mind today? Or did you make a starting team
Speaker 5: or did you make first chair?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well here's just coming into my mind now. So
Speaker 2: I used to play ball. I have had about twelve
Speaker 2: coaches probably overall baseball, mostly even a little basketball running
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. Now, as I get older, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking maybe I've had one or two that were pretty good,
Speaker 2: pretty good, right, most of them are kind of Even
Speaker 2: in the little league you have volunteer coaches who kind
Speaker 2: of just their son plays and you play. But in
Speaker 2: high school, I'm not sure there are any good And
Speaker 2: I'm stilling going to say this when you play baseball.
Speaker 2: When you play baseball, and I did that a lot,
Speaker 2: and you're spending a lot of time running, you know,
Speaker 2: running to get into shape or whatever. You do that Okay,
Speaker 2: the first week or so, blah blah, did get in shape?
Speaker 2: If you can continue to run all year or season,
Speaker 2: just what you're not doing, you're not playing baseball. How
Speaker 2: do you get better at playing baseball by playing baseball?
Speaker 2: For you, as a running coach, what do you get?
Speaker 2: How do you get better by running?
Speaker 5: We run, and then we run some more exactly, That's all.
Speaker 5: It's different types of running. That's intervals and tempos, but
Speaker 5: it's still running.
Speaker 2: That's my point. I mean, you know, go run five
Speaker 2: laps or whatever. Elect in baseball, those laps don't mean crap.
Speaker 2: Go hit more balls, Go hit more balls, because you're
Speaker 2: not hitting any balls right now. You need to hit
Speaker 2: balls in the game and in practice. Go you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, You get better by being or doing
Speaker 2: what you can't do. So I agree with you.
Speaker 5: And but I also think that there's some outside skills
Speaker 5: and it's you know, we often from time to time
Speaker 5: when play ultimate frisbee, which is running, but it's it's
Speaker 5: a tough condition it's a it's a conditioning thing, but
Speaker 5: it's also a teamwork thing. And and so people are
Speaker 5: throwing frisbees and you have to you know, it's all
Speaker 5: inclusive thing, boys and girls. And it was a way
Speaker 5: to encourage, you know, camaraderie and friendship, but also to
Speaker 5: keep keep you in shape, but also break up the
Speaker 5: monotony of running sometimes. You know, as much fun as
Speaker 5: running is.
Speaker 2: True, sure no, and that's the monotony of it. You
Speaker 2: have to continue and get better, I'm sure you know,
Speaker 2: you learn have to learn how the frisbee well.
Speaker 5: And you know, when I coached, you know, a lot
Speaker 5: of my kids were three and four sport kids were
Speaker 5: such a small high school. But you know, I think
Speaker 5: that there's a lot of skill sets that come out
Speaker 5: of high school. And you know JB wants to honor
Speaker 5: his mom because she pushed him.
Speaker 3: I was reading the story in the Star.
Speaker 5: She went in to play instruments, and you know, I
Speaker 5: wound up playing basketball and she pivoted like like a
Speaker 5: good parent or a.
Speaker 3: Good coach would say, Hey, where where are your passion?
Speaker 2: It's called survival, man, you gotta do what you you know,
Speaker 2: do you think is the right thing to do. Oh
Speaker 2: by the way, Uh, we're not gonna have any breaking
Speaker 2: news on the top of the hour. I'm too old
Speaker 2: to do that, too tired. But I do have some
Speaker 2: breaking news. Arizona one three to two, get out of here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they'd be a couple. They have to go.
Speaker 3: Do they have to win two games out.
Speaker 2: Of this or I think you have to win them ball?
Speaker 2: So now they'll play the winner of Oregon and whoever
Speaker 2: they play Santa Clara's overday. So now at least they
Speaker 2: want right three to two so they advance. You just
Speaker 2: got to win this region, so that's what.
Speaker 3: So how many you have to win three games together?
Speaker 2: Two? Three, four? Probably four? Just don't lose two games.
Speaker 2: So now they'll wait for the winner of the organ game.
Speaker 2: See what happens there if they win, they got one
Speaker 2: more to win, so three, I guess got you as
Speaker 2: long as you don't lose two. But they lost. They
Speaker 2: beat Capuality too, eight three to two. So that's a
Speaker 2: good thing. And here we go and this this team
Speaker 2: and the track and field team are the only teams left.
Speaker 5: I think the are the the track and field team?
Speaker 5: Are they at regionals? Are they at national regionals?
Speaker 2: Talked about that yesterday. There's a it's a handful that's.
Speaker 5: There's a couple of kids that that made that qualified
Speaker 5: for regionals that can make to nationals.
Speaker 3: There's a long jumper and some some hurdlers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, So let me ask you, Uh, you've been
Speaker 2: in this business a long time, your thoughts on Fred
Speaker 2: Harvey retiring? You know, I'm sure you know you I
Speaker 2: didn't know, and uh, you know, I know. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you are friends with him.
Speaker 5: Yes, I've met and Fred Harvey's recruited a couple of
Speaker 5: my athletes and when I was coaching, and and the
Speaker 5: longevity these days doesn't.
Speaker 2: Happen, right, No, he came in at the same time
Speaker 2: I did thirty eight years ago.
Speaker 5: And you know, I to set a legacy and to
Speaker 5: bring people in like Bernard Lea Gott and other world
Speaker 5: class athletes to mentor and coach.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the legacy that you set. You know,
Speaker 3: there was a time.
Speaker 5: You know, NAU right now is the best distance team
Speaker 5: in the country.
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 3: It's just it's a.
Speaker 5: Combination of coaching, altitude, commitment to excellence. You know, when
Speaker 5: I was there in the.
Speaker 2: Eighties, we were okay, but you you in terms of running.
Speaker 5: Right, running wise, But u A in the eighties was
Speaker 5: the number one school.
Speaker 2: Everybody came here, yea.
Speaker 5: You know with Fred Harvey and Dave Murray, they came
Speaker 5: here because they could they could achieve excellence.
Speaker 2: So is there this is a dumb question because coaches
Speaker 2: are coaches, but not really And I've said this forever
Speaker 2: and I put this in the book Coaching matters. Coaching
Speaker 2: matters if you have a good one, you know, if
Speaker 2: you have a good and then so, so, what is
Speaker 2: this guy in northern Arizona who could probably coach anywhere
Speaker 2: right right? What secret sauce does he have that the
Speaker 2: others don't have? If I have a bunch of good runners.
Speaker 3: He has success. He's put some people in the Olympic Trial.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, But but what what is that success?
Speaker 3: He you know, he recognizes his talent and he's nurtured it.
Speaker 5: Okay, you know, And so he's brought kids in okay
Speaker 5: and says, let's we're going to be great, We're going
Speaker 5: to chase excellent. So he's brought in rather than just
Speaker 5: one or two good runners, he's brought in, you know,
Speaker 5: fifteen or sixteen.
Speaker 2: Okay. So let me ask you. So this guy, I
Speaker 2: don't what's his name, you know, Oh, it's mister x X.
Speaker 2: He went and got a job at Creighton wherever, Tulsa.
Speaker 2: He'd do the same thing, right, he would?
Speaker 5: You know, I often say this, you know, big time
Speaker 5: uh football and basketball, you go to programs, right if
Speaker 5: you want to be a good runner, a good you know,
Speaker 5: tier two athlete, you know, not the big not football, basketball,
Speaker 5: you go to a coach.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: So you can go to a program and for football
Speaker 5: and be great. You can go to Oregon. It's always Oregon.
Speaker 5: You it's always that.
Speaker 3: But if you want to be a great runner, you
Speaker 3: go to coaches.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think that's the case for a lot
Speaker 2: of other sports. It totally is.
Speaker 5: And it's so it's you know, you go to a coach,
Speaker 5: because they're going to make you great. So you can
Speaker 5: go to a Division two school and be a world
Speaker 5: class runner. You don't have to be at a at
Speaker 5: a top So.
Speaker 2: So what if you're established like Arizona was, how do
Speaker 2: you lose that? You lose a Day Murry, You.
Speaker 3: Lose to Dave Murray.
Speaker 2: You and if this guy left and you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: the same school. You know, the you could be you
Speaker 2: could be honest.
Speaker 5: It'd be okay, and he would be okay because they
Speaker 5: have the altitude right and that.
Speaker 2: He has that benefit to him in addition.
Speaker 5: To the older mammoth you know, these to be the
Speaker 5: great coach, he has that right. And he also had
Speaker 5: you know, he had elite teams running there. The Hookah
Speaker 5: elite national team is practicing in flag Staff and so
Speaker 5: if you're a college runner, you're running against Olympians. You know,
Speaker 5: the Australian Olympic team is there. So you're getting your
Speaker 5: butt kicked. You know, you win state in Arizona, you
Speaker 5: go up to nau You're gonna get your butt kicked
Speaker 5: by a bunch of Olympians.
Speaker 3: But it's going to make it.
Speaker 2: You know, good, right, just take a break and come
Speaker 2: back on the other side,