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A relatable and honest podcast about the highs and lows of being a youth hockey parent. Join us as we share real stories, struggles, and wins from the rink, offering insights and support for parents navigating the world of youth hockey.
This is for the sled dogs in the trenches. Real hockey parents, real stories. The Good and the Gong Show. No filters, no sugarcoating, no politics, just straight hockey talk, and the best guests around the barn. Welcome to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Intro:Alright, boys. Grind them corners, chirp responsibly, and bring that savage fire.
Scott:Alright, everybody. Welcome back to episode 61 of the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real hockey talk, just real talk for hockey parents
Glenn:in the trenches.
Jamie:Yikes. It's alright. It's all right. Yikes. It's right.
Jamie:I think I did it last week. So I think you're just two weeks, you're still rusty.
Scott:Yeah. But this has almost become inexcusable, if I'm being honest.
Jamie:Well, me ask you a question. Were you reading it? That's part of my problem.
Scott:I look at it, and then I take my eyes off of it. And then sometimes you just
Jamie:I hear you.
Scott:Don't doesn't work out.
Jamie:I think I have it memorized by now. I think I do. I think.
Scott:I should commit. You want to try it?
Jamie:Want me to try it?
Scott:Yeah, go.
Jamie:So what is it? Welcome to Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Scott:What you're asking me for Unfiltered
Jamie:podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.
Scott:Yeah, dude. You nailed it.
Jamie:I was actually saying it in my head when you were saying it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, oh, shit. He screwed up.
Scott:Yeah, whatever. Fuck it. Listen.
Jamie:This is raw and unfiltered, buddy.
Scott:Yeah, I'll give you something raw
Glenn:and unfiltered.
Jamie:No Jesus.
Glenn:Editing Zero.
Jamie:Zero. How now brown cow? The arsonist. That's odd.
Scott:Those shaped feet. Yeah, man. So anyway, welcome back. Yes. Welcome back.
Scott:Feel like
Jamie:I should say welcome back to you. You were the one that was away in sunny Nice.
Scott:Yeah, was nice to get away for Yeah, more than a minute, a couple days.
Jamie:Nice weather?
Scott:The weather was nice. It was good to feel some warm sun. I bet. It was quite windy but no complaints. Got in the ocean, got in the pool.
Scott:Nice. Yeah, wore some shorts and all that stuff. Put on some suntan lotion.
Jamie:All the white.
Scott:Sunscreen is what we call it nowadays.
Jamie:We are calling it that. I think that's coming here, by the way.
Scott:Warm weather? I think next
Jamie:week it's gonna be in the seventies.
Scott:You don't say.
Jamie:I do. You do? I am saying. Good. I think that's what it is next week.
Scott:Warm weather.
Jamie:I think it's the seventies ish?
Scott:Yeah. Then before you know it, we're all gonna be complaining it's too hot out there.
Jamie:Listen, that does happen.
Scott:It totally happens.
Jamie:It definitely does.
Scott:Know, I do wish the spring and the fall were just like a little more consistent and a little longer.
Jamie:The seasons are nice.
Scott:Because when you get a sick spring day Or sick fall day. Yeah, it's gorgeous.
Jamie:You're not wrong. It's gorgeous.
Scott:It's like
Jamie:No humidity, like that type of stuff.
Scott:Wow, this is paradise. Yeah. No, you You get like a handful of those a year.
Jamie:Not a lot. Nah. Definitely not a lot.
Scott:I remember I went to Los Angeles years ago now and we went out to, I don't know, Santa Barbara or something. And I just remember walking down the street and the weather was just like it couldn't have felt more perfect. I just like stopped walking and I literally had a moment of just like Just looking around? I can't believe it feels this good here.
Jamie:So what It's was
Scott:fucking unreal.
Jamie:Tell me, was it like 70?
Scott:I don't remember exactly what it was. But it was like, you know, just like for me at that time, just like perfect temperature. Like Interesting. It was unreal.
Jamie:So what is the perfect temperature? I feel like
Scott:I don't know.
Jamie:70, no humidity is like perfect.
Scott:So I think that it That's like what my So so coming out of the winter Mhmm. Yes. Going into the fall, no.
Jamie:For me, going into the fall, I want it a little more brisk. Like, want it a little colder. Like, I like wearing, like, a sweater or, like, a long sleeve. When it's, like, a little not cold. The first couple with, again, no humidity where it's just, like like, brisk.
Jamie:I don't know how to describe it.
Scott:Cool. I look
Jamie:like brisk. Right? Like, yeah. Like like like apple picking weather.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:You know? Yeah. Sure. That's, my, like, go to.
Scott:Great. Can't
Jamie:Anyhoo. How how do we oh, we were talking about your so you had a nice time in Florida.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. It was good.
Jamie:No hockey in Florida.
Scott:No hockey in Florida. Zero. You know, we put on some on the TV, but didn't even watch that much. Yeah. No.
Scott:No. It was it was all good. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:How about you? What'd you were, you were Eastering?
Jamie:What did we do? Because it was Easter weekend. Happy Easter. We were Eastering. Yes.
Jamie:Yeah. Correct. Happy Easter to everybody. Yeah. Were Eastering.
Jamie:Yeah. What did we do?
Scott:Dress up like a bunny? I did not dress Did you lay any cadbury eggs? I did not lay any cadbury eggs. Did you eat any?
Jamie:I did.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:I did. Hard not to eat cadbury eggs.
Scott:Only one, though. Only one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:You don't find that they get to be too much?
Jamie:I could eat so many cadbury eggs. Really? Oh my god. Could
Scott:I find that surprising actually.
Jamie:Really? Well, it's so good. The inside of a cadbury egg is to die for. Hard to go wrong with that. Creamy.
Jamie:It's just is. You're not wrong.
Scott:I know. That's why I said it.
Jamie:It is. It is. It's the inside of a cadbury egg is like heavenly. It's pretty legit. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. My kids my kids love hard to go wrong with Peeps. Right? Any shape. As long as they like marshmallows.
Jamie:Exactly right. And lots of sugar. Right? Yes. So Peeps, hard to go wrong with.
Jamie:The marshmallow kind of filled, like, eggs. It's Marshmallow filled eggs? It's not, like, it's not an egg. It's just it's a chocolate covered egg
Scott:Yeah. I get you.
Jamie:With marshmallow in it.
Scott:I don't I don't know that I'm familiar Oh, with that's
Jamie:so good. Really? That and the Cadbury eggs. And then jelly beans are legit on on Easter. Hard to go wrong with jelly beans.
Jamie:Fair. You know? Nancy buys these, like, funky jelly beans, dude. They're like
Scott:Not the jelly belly?
Jamie:No. Those are legit. Or bro Brox, also legit. Brox jelly beans.
Scott:Oh, I know what you're talking about.
Jamie:Yeah. Brox jelly beans are pretty legit. Always in my house. But then she started buying these, like I think I think they're made by Brox also. But they're, like, zippy type flavors.
Jamie:One's I'm like gonna say this all wrong, but I'm gonna totally butcher this. One's like cinnamon, and one's like they're like funky flavors.
Scott:Cinnamon's not funky.
Jamie:No. It isn't a jelly bean though. It isn't like a Brock's jelly bean.
Scott:Yeah. Like they have like super sour ones or like they're just strong flavors?
Jamie:Like a
Scott:very minty one? Are we talking They're
Jamie:like zippy. They have like zippy flick different flavors than like your regular your
Scott:traditional What's jelly zippy? You say zippy
Jamie:at the say barbecue sauce. I like sage or like Sage. Or like a peppermint jelly bean or like a Okay. God, what are they called? Shit.
Jamie:They're not your typical flavors
Scott:for Unique a New York. Unique New York.
Jamie:They are unique. That's for sure. And then there's these other jelly beans, which literally are like they're smaller. I forgot manufacturer. I haven't seen them in a couple years, but they are like all different colors.
Jamie:And they're like red with like green dots in them or something like that. And when you eat it, it's not what you think it is. So you see like green with red dots, you assume watermelon. Potentially. Right?
Jamie:Right? And then it's something like coffee.
Scott:Oh, that's that's misleading.
Jamie:It's it it they're different. I forget again, I I cannot for the life of me, cannot remember the name of them. But, yeah. Hard to go wrong with jelly beans, peeps, cadbury eggs. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Hard to go wrong.
Scott:Sounds like you got all the major Easter food groups in.
Jamie:We did. The it was nice. We went out to dinner, at a local Italian place that we've been to before. Lovely. Should have known there was gonna be an issue when the guy seating us apologized for the table next to us on the way up to the table.
Scott:What was he apologizing for?
Jamie:He was apologizing because it was a very large group that was behind us.
Scott:And they were a large group and loud.
Jamie:Large. We were, like, 12, right, sitting next to them. They're sitting behind us.
Scott:They're 12 people.
Jamie:12 people. Yeah.
Scott:And you weren't the large group?
Jamie:No. This was, like, 30 something.
Scott:Oh. That's
Jamie:large. And they had a kids table off to the to the right table.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Yeah. So they were a very big group. So he was apologizing for them ahead of us actually getting even seeing the table.
Scott:Well, was it that bad?
Jamie:It was pretty bad.
Scott:Oh, that sucks.
Jamie:So I was sitting my brother was to my right, his wife. Nancy was to my left. Nancy was to my left, and then Dominic was next to her, and then, like, my stepdad, my mom, my father-in-law, and mother-in-law. And I literally could not hear God bless. My mother, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, I couldn't hear.
Jamie:If you were like two spots away from me, I couldn't hear you.
Scott:That sucks.
Jamie:I And have pretty good hearing. So my mother's talking to me from the other side the table, and I'm trying to read her lips. Seriously.
Scott:How'd that go?
Jamie:Not good. No. Like, I'm hearing a little bit, and I'm seeing her lips move, I'm trying to piece together
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:What she's telling me.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:That was the only issue.
Scott:Well, that's a considerable issue. Was the food good?
Jamie:Food was good. Okay. No complaints.
Scott:So that's a win.
Jamie:Yeah. The food was good. No complaints at all. But you you literally had to like musical chairs
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And go sit next to the person to talk to.
Scott:Oh, it's If
Jamie:you wanted to talk
Scott:I'll say like, you know, as as I've gotten older and have kids and whatever, I'm I feel like my parents. Like, you're out to dinner and you're like, god, is it loud in here? You know what I mean? Like, I didn't care about that when I was younger, but now it's like, fuck. Get me out of here.
Scott:I can't hear shit.
Jamie:Let me ask you a question. I mean, when you I'm curious if you do this, speaking of that type of stuff. So I remember years ago, I'd be doing my homework and the lights were not on in my room. I was just doing it from the daylight coming from the outside. And my dad would walk in and he'd be like, Turn a light on.
Jamie:And I'm like, Why? Why? Now I turn lights on. It's awful.
Scott:It's awful. That happened to me
Jamie:I'm like, Don't you need a light on?
Scott:The other day when we were away, both my kids were sitting in Look, the sun was going down. So at one point it was lighter. And then the sun went and it was like the two of them are sitting on their devices looking at screens and it's like the room is getting dark. I was like, no, no, fuck it. I'm just gonna leave them.
Jamie:You did?
Scott:Yeah. Didn't say anything.
Jamie:You left it alone?
Scott:Yeah. Didn't feel like saying anything.
Jamie:Probably a smart move. Sometimes you had to pick your balance.
Scott:But the point is I I noticed it. Not that they would even care.
Jamie:I'm sure
Scott:they would. But, like, I totally know what you're saying.
Jamie:Yeah. So but, like like, Topher Scott has said to us in the past, you sometimes you need to parent, but do you really need to parent? Yes. You know what I mean?
Scott:Yeah. Look. Yeah. No. Totally agree with that.
Jamie:Right? I've been trying to not parent as much. No. When it's unnecessary.
Scott:Sometimes it's hard to tell. Yes. But you know what I'm really good at? Very true. I'm really good at seeing that in other people.
Jamie:Isn't it funny how that is, by the way?
Scott:So true.
Jamie:Especially when it comes to your kid on the ice. Oh, my god. That's all I'm sure. So we just had tryouts.
Scott:Yeah. But hold on. Before we get there,
Jamie:let's
Scott:let's let's pause and, shout out.
Jamie:We should. We should take
Glenn:care of business.
Scott:Howie's hockey, Crazy 10.
Jamie:Howie's hockey, Crazy 10. Go get, Scott's favorite, the candle. My favorite, the yellow handled scissors, which Stacy just picked up a pair, by the way.
Scott:First time.
Jamie:I'm not sure first time, but she definitely has a I know because she showed them to me. So she has a pair
Glenn:That's so ridiculous.
Jamie:Sent me a picture of them. Apparently apparently, they got a bunch of stuff from Howie's.
Scott:Good. Did they use a Crazy Ten discount?
Jamie:They used Crazy Ten. So Let's go. Go get your stuff from Howie's. Even though it's the off season, spring hockey's here, camps are here. Right?
Jamie:You guys are stop. Obviously, those of you who are still traveling and playing, go get your tape, laces, gear. Go get Stacy's son's favorite, the, light blue t shirt. He loves the, the material, by the
Scott:way. Yeah. I've got the light blue t shirt.
Jamie:I do too, but you don't have this one. You have Oh, no? You have this logo, don't you? Yes. So do I.
Jamie:He's got a
Scott:different one. What? The tape? The tape Howie's?
Jamie:No. It says Howie's across. It's cool. Yeah? He's got a good one.
Jamie:Nice. Yeah. If Stacy picked it, she picked a good one. She spy one for for Larry too.
Scott:Yeah. Larry definitely needs
Jamie:So they picked up a pair of yellow handled scissors. Yeah. You know, he'd get Scott's candle, go get some gear. Whatever you need from Howie's, use Crazy 10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey gear.
Scott:That's it. And if you haven't yet, next stop, hockeytraining.com. Coach Kevin. Coach Kevin. So if you're now we're in the off season and you're looking for what?
Jamie:No. I don't don't have my laptop. Well, good. Continue.
Scott:Yeah. So anyway, so off season's here. And if you're looking to get some reps in at home for yourself, if you play beer league, for your kid, if they're looking to do some training off ice, check out, hockeytraining.com, for quicker hands, faster feet, stronger stride. You can get all of these workouts and stick handling drills online. He's even got an online class, Zoom class, stick handling class that you should definitely check out.
Scott:Virtual stick handling is probably the better way to say it. And it's it's all stuff that's gonna be that's gonna translate onto the ice, especially, you know, the the speed, strength, agility stuff. You know, he's got some great training tools, and programming just to get you quicker in the off season. So definitely check out check out coach Kevin at hockeytraining.com.
Jamie:Love it. And, our favorite type
Scott:Hockey of training h
Jamie:Oh, sorry. Yes.
Scott:Hockey On Instagram.
Jamie:HQ is his Instagram.
Scott:Yeah. Check it out.
Jamie:A lot of really, really good videos there.
Scott:Yeah. Let's go.
Jamie:Huge library. Like, huge library of stuff.
Scott:Yeah. It's awesome.
Jamie:I don't know how videos he has. We got a truckload.
Scott:And the app too. Tell him
Glenn:the app.
Jamie:The app. Yeah. He's really dialed in. We like coach Kevin.
Scott:Super loud. Yeah.
Jamie:And then we have Titan battle gear. So Scott and I trust our children, in Titan battle gear. Not only is it safe, the safest on the market in our opinion, for your wrists, for your neck, the the, you know, the the feel is nice. The the coverage up on your neck is awesome. Plus, have awesome, styles.
Scott:Styles.
Jamie:They have like the the ice cream, they have the the palm trees, which is like the Miami Vice look. Yep. They have camo. They have a bunch of camos. They have a black and a green.
Scott:That speckled paint one.
Jamie:They do have the speckled paint one. They also have the USA Hockey logo. USA Hockey. Right? That's pretty sick.
Jamie:So we trust Titan Battle Gear for all of your base layer needs. So use the code crazy dads 10 for 10% off your Titan battle gear. Just spoke to Andres, the CEO today. Right? You saw the emails.
Jamie:So Scott and I may have some, custom base layers made for our teams coming this next fall. Yeah. Working on something cool. Let's see if it works.
Scott:Trying to see if we can make those available. Yes. Yeah. No doubt.
Jamie:Yeah. Should be good.
Scott:And then next up, athletic performance insight. Any of you coaches, managers that are looking to onboard, video analytics to your team for next season, check out athletic performance insight. Reuse the contact form. Reach out to Eric. He'll be happy to demo the software platform for you.
Scott:Even tag a game for free so you can see what you get after having a game broken down. It's really easy to use. It's got all the different analytics that you'd need from team stats to individual stats. You can, you know, filter your video replays, based on like successful zone breakouts and zone entries and penalties and shots on goal and all the things going Yeah. Know.
Scott:It's got all the things. So anyway, check out athletic performance insight for your video analytic needs and reach out to Eric.
Jamie:Yeah. He's a good dude. We should have him on again, by the way. It's been a while.
Scott:Totally should have Eric on again.
Jamie:It's been a minute. Was he our was he our first interview ever?
Scott:No. Vollmer was. Vollmer was.
Jamie:We gotta get him back on too, by the way.
Scott:Yeah. I'd love to hear how that wrapped up.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. No. He he he we should I I asked him. He'll come back on.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:We should find a spot
Glenn:for him.
Scott:Dude.
Jamie:No. We'll definitely get it done. Yep. Yeah. So that takes care of our our little business stuff.
Scott:Yep. And we also noticed, we have a lot of, different countries that have, listened in and just wanna thank all the new listeners that are checking us out. Really appreciate it. So shout out to all of you that are checking us out for the first time or the fifth time or maybe even more than that. But thank you so much for all the listeners.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Some crazy countries that I didn't even know playing ice hockey.
Scott:Yeah. What was the most surprising one? Oh. Ivory Coast?
Jamie:Ivory Coast was one. Honestly, I mean, there's a bunch of them.
Scott:Bahamas?
Jamie:That's a good one, actually. That that is Aruba is another one, but we had Aruba.
Scott:I still Yeah.
Jamie:I mean, there's a couple of them here, buddy. Like, Lebanon?
Scott:Interesting.
Jamie:Right? Israel, I could see. I get that. Right? I get ice hockey there.
Scott:You know who had a
Jamie:longer Senegal?
Scott:Senegal, also.
Jamie:Ice hockey in Senegal?
Scott:I don't know. Okay. I've seen some pretty interesting videos of just like hockey in different countries. I think it might have been, like, in India or Pakistan. But listen, people are trying the sport.
Scott:There's no doubt.
Jamie:Saint Kitts? Yeah. That's like
Scott:an island nation. No? Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:I can't imagine many rinks there. But somebody's listening. So our map keeps filling up, which is awesome.
Scott:Yeah. So thank you one. Thank you all.
Jamie:Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There's some strange ones too.
Scott:I know.
Jamie:I know. I'm just looking at the map. There's some anyway. But, yeah. So, alright.
Jamie:So you guys are not guys are not hockeying at all at the moment, right?
Scott:He's gonna get back out on the ice this week.
Jamie:Oh, you are hockey now.
Scott:We missed last week. We missed two sessions, unfortunately, because we were away. But no, he's back out on the ice this week. Otto's been doing his mountain biking team. He's got his first race this weekend.
Scott:Right. So that should be interesting. Never been to one. But dude, you know, so we complain about hockey. Mhmm.
Scott:I don't know. I I'm actually the more of my kids have done like some other sports, the less complaining I'm gonna do about hockey. Not that not that I even complain, but it like this race this one race is like Yeah. Three hours away for one fucking race. Okay.
Scott:That's a lot.
Jamie:How long is the race?
Scott:It that also, I don't know. But, like
Jamie:Got it.
Scott:He's riding through the woods, so it's not like I'm fucking
Jamie:So you're not standing in the woods. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:It's like a marathon. You just pick a spot when he goes by you.
Scott:Dude. And then it's like my my daughter's gymnastics competition, like, a couple weeks ago. I was out of the house for, like, I seven
Jamie:remember that. And my That's like a wrestling that's like a wrestling tournament, dude.
Scott:Dude, my daughter, like
Jamie:Those are long.
Scott:They're long, but, like, your kid only competes for, like, and sometimes, like I
Jamie:get it.
Scott:Like, less than five minutes. Like, when my daughter was doing swim meets, she didn't race that many races. And at her age, they were short That's too long. Yeah. In a minute and thirty seconds, I've watched her swim, and, like, I'm I'm out of the house for, like, seven hours.
Jamie:I get it. No thanks. I get it. When I used to compete for Brazilian jiu jitsu, we went up to, like, Bryant College and places for, like, tournaments. Yeah.
Jamie:And you're sitting a lot. A lot. Yeah. Waiting for, like, your weight class being called, waiting for, like, your whether it's gi or no gi. Mean, it's it's long, dude.
Jamie:It's really Yeah.
Scott:And it's I don't wanna watch other kids.
Glenn:It's like
Jamie:a wrestling tournament. It's it's I'm assuming gymnastics is the same way. It's long.
Scott:Yeah. It's
Jamie:not I think swimming is the same thing, by the way.
Scott:So I I was there. Right? Oh, I've never done that.
Jamie:Yeah. No. Swear. Right. Same idea.
Jamie:Yeah. Those are long. Long. Yeah. Hockey tournaments aren't that bad.
Scott:Forget even the tournaments. Just like I would rather drive an hour and a half to a game and then Agree. You know, see, you know, an exciting exciting sometimes, not always. Hopefully. But at least, you know, your kids get out on the ice, like Frequently.
Scott:More frequently. Yeah. And there's, you know
Jamie:It's not like a two minute thing.
Scott:No. And it's like it's like a it's a proper game. It's not like these like these meets. It's like all these individual Yeah.
Jamie:Like You gotta let me know where you decide to stand for Otto's race. I'm curious where you're You can be at the finish line?
Scott:I might just go to my car and lay down. Oh my god.
Jamie:Oh my god. Speaking of, what are your funny stories?
Scott:I like tune into something and just say, hey. This is where I parked.
Jamie:So when I when I drop Drop a pin
Glenn:and send it to him.
Jamie:So you started giggling earlier when we're when I mentioned my brother at the dinner table? Zach. Okay. Yo.
Scott:Shout out Zach Trebe.
Jamie:So Zach and his lovely wife, when we were sitting at dinner on Easter, he was telling me he's like he's like, we're going down to Orlando for spring break. I'm like, that's awesome. He's gay. He's like, guys
Scott:Why is
Jamie:he going for spring break? What why? Or
Scott:Yeah. Like, why spring break?
Glenn:Is
Scott:he gonna go
Jamie:I don't know.
Scott:Shotgun some beers on the beach?
Jamie:I don't think it's that kind of spring break. They're going to Orlando. They're not going like Panama Oh, right. You said Orlando. Yeah.
Jamie:They're not going like Panama City.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Or like Jamaica.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:You know, I I think I can't I can't see Mickey Mouse handing out like beers for you to like,
Scott:you know Imagine.
Jamie:Or like funnels.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Right?
Scott:It's like adult Disney.
Jamie:Right, right. Exactly. So like, so they're going down to Orlando, so they're gonna drive. I was like, okay, cool. So he starts telling me about, like, the drive that he's gonna make.
Jamie:It's just him and his wife. Yeah. Okay? And I'm telling you. I'm telling you.
Jamie:I'm telling you. I'm telling you. He's like, So we're gonna drive. He's like, I'm gonna stop somewhere and like, he I don't know. He's like, we'll drive for, like, you know, eight hours or something like that, and we'll stop in, like, you know, like North Carolina or, like, the end of Virginia, something like that.
Jamie:Right? Yeah. Seven hours, eight hours ish, whatever it is, however long they make. He's like, and then we're staying in a hotel. He's like, and then we'll continue the next day.
Jamie:He's like, and we'll continue all the way down. I'm like, okay. Cool. Sounds fun. He's like, so I bought a futon.
Jamie:What? A futon mattress for the back seat. I'm like, what? I'm like, Zach. He's like, yeah, futon mattress.
Jamie:I go, why? I go he goes, so so we get we get sleep when we're tired. And I'm like, wait a minute, you're gonna drive like seven, eight hours at state of hotel, then you're gonna get up next morning and drive another seven, eight hours, you're gonna be, for the most part, at your destination. Yeah. Right?
Jamie:So I'm like
Scott:What do you need the futon for?
Jamie:Why do you need the futon? He's so when I get tired, I can go sleep in the back. I'm like, you're gonna let your wife drive, like, by herself? Yeah. Like, you're not gonna stay up and, like, talk to her?
Jamie:Like, you're just gonna go in the back and, like, hit the sack for a couple hours? Yeah. He's like, yeah. I'm like, okay. I'm like, alright.
Jamie:And his wife was like, I don't even know Jamie. She's like, whatever. I'm not she's he's he's playing the whole thing. She's like, I'm not getting involved. I was like, alright.
Jamie:Have at it. So Zach is putting a futon mattress in the back seat of his car so he can catch some z's when his wife is driving and he's sleeping on the night out of Florida. That's unreal. Yeah. You can describe it like that.
Scott:I'm having technical difficulties with my,
Jamie:Are you? Yeah. What's not working?
Scott:My face. Your camera? My face isn't working. Sweet.
Jamie:As long as the audio is good.
Scott:I think so.
Jamie:So, yeah. So that's happening.
Scott:What the hell is wrong with my I don't know.
Jamie:While you fix it, I'll talk about how I try out.
Scott:Yeah. You can start, but this is annoying.
Jamie:Well, you fix it. So you're the you're the technical one, so you can fix
Scott:it. Wow.
Jamie:So, anyway, so so we had tryouts Monday night. Okay? And I tried to be really sneaky. I tried. So you remember the days where you would go and you could pay for tryouts as like a walk up?
Scott:I can't say I do because I don't think I ever did that. But
Jamie:Neither did I. Go for it. I didn't either. But do you remember the nights where sometimes, like, you weren't sure which team you're gonna make, so you try out for one the first night, and then you go somewhere else the second night? Right?
Jamie:Sure. That's the thing. You go to the never I've never done it either, but that's a thing. Right? And I and the walk up fee used to be, like, $50, $60, $70, whatever it was.
Scott:Yeah. Right?
Jamie:So I didn't sign up for tryouts. Yeah. Okay? I walked up the day of. Mhmm.
Jamie:And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, like, can I just do a walk up fee for tryouts? Yeah. Thinking I was gonna be like $75, like, something like that. She's like, yeah, that'll be $200 And I'm like, I'm like, what? I'm like, I can't just do one night.
Jamie:She's like, no, that's for the all three nights. I'm like, I know. I'm like, I just want it tonight. She's yeah, that'd $200. I'm like, okay.
Jamie:Really?
Scott:Listen. I but the truth is if, like, if people knew that they could just do that, then people would just do that. And then if their kid didn't make it, then they'd get off the hook for whatever they don't. But I I'm not disagreeing that people shouldn't be able to do that. I'm just saying that
Jamie:I tried, folks. Good for you. I tried. I tried to give a little loophole. Didn't work.
Jamie:No. It did not work.
Scott:Yeah. And, you know, like, you also Dom just had one night of tryouts. And I'm okay. Like, I but the thing the the the annoying part is that they're making you pay for ice you're never gonna get. That's what I'm saying.
Scott:And that and that's the part that's, like, harder to digest.
Jamie:It's bullshit is what it is.
Scott:Like, it and but but but also
Jamie:hard to digest. It's fucking bullshit.
Scott:Well, the other part that's real bullshit is that the teams are already picked. Like, it's not like you're actually, like, okay. There's that's
Jamie:not the case at all. It's spots. Right. But, like Right.
Scott:Exactly. So, like, if that second night is really there some spots up for grabs and, you know, fine.
Jamie:But But the first kids don't go back.
Scott:The first kids don't go back.
Jamie:Yeah. So you're paying $200 for an hour.
Scott:Yeah. If you make the team, I feel like the rest of that like, keep it for the night that that your kid skates,
Jamie:and then
Scott:put put whatever the balance is
Jamie:Towards
Scott:towards tuition.
Jamie:Fuck yes.
Scott:A 100%.
Jamie:No question about it. Put that shit toward tuition, but they don't.
Scott:Yeah. Listen. I I know they don't.
Jamie:But So, again, let's say that your kid goes Monday, doesn't get a contract. Yeah. K? And that was the double a team. And you're going back the second night knowing that that double a team is picked, and they're looking at you now for single a.
Jamie:And your kid doesn't wanna play single a. He wants to play double a. So what happens if you go to another building
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:On night two? You pay $200 for tryouts for one skate. You go to another building. They're gonna whack you for tryouts. Probably something similar ish.
Jamie:But do you do you think if
Scott:you go on the second night somewhere else, they're gonna charge you for all three nights?
Jamie:I don't know.
Scott:Or are they just gonna make you pay for two because you physically can't get to the other one?
Jamie:Well, they should.
Scott:It's like it already we already passed.
Jamie:We got charged for three nights.
Scott:I know. But it was also on the first night. So in theory, you could potentially end up getting called back for two more nights.
Jamie:Alright. So instead of so instead of $200, they're gonna bang you, like, I don't know, $1.40 ish, $1.35
Scott:ish? Two nights?
Jamie:For two nights?
Scott:Maybe.
Jamie:How's that work? I haven't done it. No. I
Glenn:don't know.
Scott:Just But it's
Jamie:just another way for them to shaft you.
Scott:Listen. Yeah. I hear you.
Jamie:Like you said, it should go towards your fucking tuition.
Scott:Yeah. It should.
Jamie:Or that extra tournament that you guys are doing.
Scott:It should go towards Or something.
Jamie:Something. The extra $1.50, whatever the number's gonna be, should go to, like, that that tournament that you guys are doing that the that the, organization's not paying for.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:I gotta tell you, it's a real shame how how badly they screw you in this game.
Scott:Yeah. It doesn't feel good.
Jamie:No. It doesn't. No. Like you said before, we were talking off air, just roll it all into the fucking tuition. Just roll it all in.
Jamie:Yeah. You know? And make the tuition x y z instead of, like, nickel and diming along the way after you increase the tuition
Scott:prices. Right.
Jamie:And from what I understand, we're not our tuition went up because we're one year older. But I am under the impression that we're losing a skill session and the off ice stuff.
Scott:And your tuition went up.
Jamie:And the tuition went up.
Scott:Why are you losing it?
Jamie:I don't know. That's a good question. Fucking black bear, dude.
Scott:Yeah. Listen. Dude, don't know. It's probably at least at least this year, the gear package You know? We were was part was rolled into tuition.
Scott:So, when I had gone when we had left Avalanche, we went down to Woodbridge.
Jamie:Right. Sometimes the gear package is extra.
Scott:Right. So that happened and I thought to myself, oh, we're going to Woodbridge at least, know, it's gonna be less expensive. And the tuition was, but the tuition also didn't include the gear package. And of course, we don't have Woodbridge anything because we're coming from the, you know, the the abs. And so it's like, that was another whatever
Jamie:$1,500?
Scott:Whatever it was. I was like, oh, this is actually more expensive. And I'm driving like three x the distance just to frigging get to practice.
Jamie:It's annoying, isn't it? Super annoying. I know all you parents are dealing with this shit as we speak or have dealt with it in the last week to two weeks. It's annoying. It's just annoying.
Jamie:Just roll it all into a one time shot.
Scott:Right? Yeah. But that's kinda separate from, like, the tryout fiasco.
Jamie:Dude, what about, like, the bullshit ID skates? Like, Yeah.
Scott:But the RD skates, don't pay for.
Jamie:No. They're called tune ups. The fucking tune ups.
Scott:Oh, the tune ups, that's different story.
Jamie:I mean, like, really, dude? The fucking tune ups? I didn't do them this year. Didn't them last year.
Scott:We didn't do them this year. No. No. I'm not doing tune ups. No.
Scott:Like, come on. Like, stop it. Yeah. I mean, look, when I coached the and again, this is with much younger ages. So there's like, you know, you the the kids are lesser known entities.
Scott:No doubt. But, like, the tune ups were helpful because you get kids from other programs that get in front of the coach, it gives you an opportunity as a coach Fair. To engage with parents after tune ups. You're like, hey, listen. Your kid look really good out there.
Scott:What are your plans for next year? Are you thinking about this program? Are you going somewhere else? Fair. You know, would love to have you come to tryouts.
Scott:Fair. You know, let me know. So I think I think those it's not so bad, but like in for those for the younger ages and the teams are a lot less figured out. Oh, I shouldn't say a lot less, probably. The the the point is that I think it's it's more beneficial for younger ages, but once you get older, I don't you know, there's conversations that are happening.
Jamie:If you're moving, I understand what you're saying. If you're moving buildings But
Scott:you're telling me
Jamie:oh, go I get that. Then you wanna do some tune up skates to get your kid out there in front of coaches. 100% agree with that.
Scott:No problem. But if you're staying in the same building
Jamie:You're staying in the same
Scott:building. They know who you are. You don't need to do a tune up. They had all season to look at you.
Jamie:Right. Funny. I never really paid much attention to it until recently, until we started doing this podcast. And now, not that I wasn't in tune to it before, but now it's just irritating me, I guess. Where it wasn't before, but now it's starting to irritate me.
Scott:As well it should. I like Yeah, especially the tryouts and just getting one night of tryouts and you're paying 200 It's like, please.
Jamie:I mean, I'm paying $200 I want a really high level skills coach to be one on one with my kid.
Scott:Yeah. There you go.
Jamie:Not for my kid to skate around cones and do two on ones and you know what I mean? Yeah. That's really? Well, know
Scott:what's interesting? So part of that, like, you're talking about just like doing drills and whatever. Right. When I was with the abs and we had tryouts, there was one of the philosophies was, like, don't even put them through any drills. Just, like, split them up in teams and have them play a game because that's what they're that's what they're coming here to do.
Scott:You know? So just have them play a
Jamie:remember those days.
Scott:And just watch them play.
Jamie:Yeah. I remember those
Scott:And don't even bother with this. Get on the line, on Just the get them out there and have them play.
Jamie:Yeah. Listen, it shows you something. Listen, some kids don't skate around cones well. And some kids show out better when they play and vice versa.
Scott:Totally.
Jamie:Right? I mean, it's definitely true. No, it's true. And I need to call myself out for being a total fucking hypocrite,
Glenn:by the way.
Jamie:Why? I have said in the past that I'm not doing spring summer stuff with Dominic. That is not the case this year. I am doing spring summer stuff with Dominic.
Scott:But define that.
Jamie:So I think I've said in this podcast a couple times that put the hockey bag away and do not do anything. So I have done that in the past a bunch, right? But this springs and I'm not doing any spring teams, by the way.
Scott:I'll fuck up my candle, dude.
Jamie:No, I was taking off the bottom You want that on? It's part
Scott:of the candle. Okay, sorry. Sorry. Don't mess with my candle. I don't wanna
Jamie:mess with your candle. I won't take that off.
Scott:There you go.
Jamie:I'm not doing any spring teams, so I'm staying true to that. Zero spring teams. I've signed up for zero spring teams. So I said no to like three on threes, I said no to like spring teams, five on five, said no to all that shit. He's still skating, right?
Jamie:Not a whole heck of a lot, but he's skating. But I did sign up in the summer for a bunch of college camps.
Scott:A bunch?
Jamie:I did.
Scott:I didn't know you signed up for a bunch.
Jamie:I did.
Scott:What else did
Jamie:you Just sign up this On Easter weekend, was doing it. So because my kid is getting closer to high school, college ish age, Listen, he's redoing eighth grade, so we have time. I want him to start seeing like, more college campuses. So we're doing
Scott:Can you show me? Can you blow me where the Pampers is?
Jamie:It's a great movie.
Scott:Can you blow can you show me where the campus is? Where the
Jamie:campus is? Jeremy Piven?
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
Jamie:And who was the other dude? Who said that?
Scott:George Clinton? We.
Jamie:He was in that too. But who was the actor? It's going to bother me now. I can't even name. Go.
Jamie:Anyway, so yeah. So we're doing Penn State. We're doing Princeton, which we've talked about here. Oh, go sign up for Princeton's ice hockey camp. July '16 down at Hobie Baker, there's day camps and overnights.
Jamie:I think the overnights are almost sold out, depending on the dates. And then there's the that's thirteenth through the sixteenth. And then, like, I want to say this go on their website, like princensportscamps.com, something like that. If you type in Princeton ice hockey summer camps, it'll all pop up. So Scott and Otto are doing the twentieth through the twenty third.
Jamie:It's like a Monday through Thursday. Yeah. They're going to sleep over, but there's two sessions. So go sign up. If you're Jersey, we have a lot of Jersey listeners.
Jamie:Go sign up for the Princeton Ice Hockey Camp. There's a couple of different age groups too. There's a young kid, then an older kid. If you haven't been to Hobie Baker, it's awesome. Dominic did it when he was really little before COVID, and then they shut the camp down for a lot of years.
Jamie:Then last year, the place was under renovation. So it's back. Princeton Ice Hockey is back. It's run by Coach Sire, the head coach of the men's team, and his three assistant coaches, Coach Jones included, our buddy Coach Jones.
Scott:Sweet. Yeah.
Jamie:So, yeah. So go sign up. If you're in Jersey or right outside Jersey in Philly or Delaware and you wanna come, Princeton Ice Hockey Camp. Go Google Princeton Ice Hockey Summer Camp and it'll pop up.
Scott:Nice.
Jamie:Go check it out.
Scott:All right.
Jamie:So we're doing that and we're doing, I think we're doing Sacred Heart.
Scott:Oh,
Jamie:I think so.
Scott:You know, we had signed up Otto for that like
Jamie:I know you did.
Scott:Not last year, the year before.
Jamie:I know you did.
Scott:And then not only to find out like a week before, oh, he's too young to actually sleep on campus. So he can't come.
Jamie:Did he go as a day camper?
Scott:No. We're gonna drive to Connecticut just for day camp.
Jamie:Oh. Got it. You're alright. So
Scott:He's still too young, but it was really annoying. It was like the first year they had put it out. And we were just like, oh, let's let's go. It's near it's closer or whatever. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. And no, that was a fail.
Jamie:Yeah. So I'm clearly a schmuck because the Penn State Camp and the Sacred Heart Camp are both no sleepovers. Just day camps. We're staying in hotels in the area.
Scott:Yeah, know people that have done that before.
Jamie:Yeah. Listen, it's like pseudo vacation y type stuff. Well, there's not much vacationing out in Happy Valley by Penn State. No. Not a whole lot to
Scott:do out
Jamie:there other than whatever there's to do out there. Go to the creamery. Creamery is great, by the way.
Scott:Yeah, I've never been out there.
Jamie:Oh, my God. If ever been to Penn State, the Penn State Creamery
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Oh, my God.
Scott:They have a major dairy program out there. Dude. Major. Major. Major.
Jamie:And the Penn State Creamery, which is their ice cream place, is phenomenal.
Scott:Yeah. I'm sure.
Jamie:You know, like tremendous. Like, I highly recommend if you're in the Penn State area, go there. Yeah. If you haven't been there already. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Do want to kick it over to oh, do you have more to say?
Jamie:No, that's all. That's all I got. Our guest. Our guest. Big stud.
Jamie:I mean, Glenn Hefferan, the USHL Commissioner. What? What?
Scott:Unreal. Yep. So coincidentally, a local Jersey guy as well, which was nice. And have some devil's history there that we talked about on the pod. But it On and was really great to talk to him just to learn more about junior hockey.
Scott:It's a level of hockey that I just, you know, I'm not that familiar with. But just
Jamie:Yeah, hearing him
Scott:I talk was either. Tier one versus tier two. And tier one, don't have to pay for. And tier two, you do have to pay for. And you know just how the how many teams are in the league and compared to the CHL and you know the NHL's involvement.
Scott:Like just all these different things about you know USA Hockey, the state of you know the junior hockey in this country, how the Canadian rules or the rules with Canada have changed things. And really just how hard it is.
Jamie:Yeah, the big time developmentally. Just
Scott:how hard it is. And he even said that just the jump, the hardest jump that he's heard repeatedly is not going from junior to college or college to pro. Mhmm. It's going from youth to junior.
Jamie:Yeah. It's
Scott:big Men.
Jamie:You're talking about men.
Scott:Yeah. But you also have like these much younger kids who don't have all these life experiences don't have to necessarily And look after they have to bill it and all these other things. And he said it's the hardest jump in hockey.
Jamie:He also said there's, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, there's two 20 year old roster spots per team.
Scott:In the USHL? Yes.
Jamie:Mean, that's you're talking it's a man. Plan is like a 16 year old.
Scott:What was the average age? Don't know if he said it.
Jamie:Did he say it was 18 or something like that?
Scott:Most of them were 17?
Jamie:Was it younger?
Scott:I think most are 17.
Jamie:So you have 20 year olds, a league made up of mainly 17 year olds ish, and then two 20 year olds per team. And he said they don't not fill those spots.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? Like, you're going fill those spots. Yeah. Because I think you age out after that, if I'm not mistaken.
Scott:You do. Right? Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. But major developmentally, really cool. It sounds like they're expanding, trying to expand, which is awesome. Yeah. I didn't know much about juniors, so this was pretty eye opening.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%.
Jamie:Of why we had them on. Hopefully, gives some value to you guys who don't know much about juniors and kind of the next level after youth.
Scott:Yeah. So and listen. Glenn's had a long history in the sport of hockey, and he's very well respected. You know, it's within USA hockey, clearly the USHL. He's just got deep roots.
Scott:So it was a pleasure talking to him Yeah. Was. Learning, all that stuff. So I hope everyone enjoys our next interview with Glenn Hefferan. Here we go.
Jamie:Alright. We're here with our next interview, and we are lucky enough to have USHL commissioner Glenn Hefferan. Glenn, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us.
Glenn:Oh, Jamie and Scott, my pleasure. I'm looking forward to it.
Jamie:Such a treat. Really, I know you're super busy, so I'm sure especially these days. So really appreciate you taking time to hang out with us a little bit. So kinda let our audience know what you're doing now, you know, and then we'll kinda get into your background a little bit.
Glenn:Sure. So I I'm this is my third season as commissioner of the United States Hockey League, the nation's only tier one junior hockey league. It's been around quite a while. It actually started back as a senior league, and then they converted to juniors. And, yeah, it was a senior league and and and then converted to juniors, and and this has been a journey for some time.
Glenn:They're USA Hockey. I was fortunate to be part of USA Hockey back in the nineties, and and I was asked to participate in what they called the Super League task force, which basically would city to city of all of our best junior cities in both the North American Hockey League and the USHL with the concept of let's develop it into into a super league to take the best and then get the best amalgamated into those eight, ten teams. And what ended up happening, like anything else, it takes a while to get that baked, and it then converted into creating the tier one standards, which at the time, the commissioner was Gino Gasparini, who was a friend and mentor to me. We both served on USA Hockey's junior council at the same time. And we we did a lot of work together to to get that pass, and now this is this is where we're at in in terms of junior hockey, and it was all about setting high standards.
Glenn:And so it is this was not something I had set my sights on, but fortune you know, fortunately, things came about and opportunity knocked, and and Right. I was really I was really honored to be selected, and and I've been enjoying it. It's been a, you know, it's been a challenge. There there's you know, the landscape is changing, but that challenge brings opportunity. And and so I'm I'm grateful to be, in this position and and, looking forward to, you know, continuing on in the role.
Glenn:We've got some things I can't get into, some really good, exciting announcements coming up. And so but hopefully, in the next two or three weeks, we'll be able to put this pretty big announcement out with the NHL, and we're really excited about it. So, that and my I still have a role here in the Atlantic District, which will wind down in June. I do serve on USA Hockey's congress. USA Hockey is now structured into a kind of a bicameral governance.
Glenn:You have the board, and then you have congress. I'm a member of the congress side. And I'm, you know, locally the affiliate president here for New Jersey, Eastern PA, and Delaware. And I have to say I'm very fortunate to have a great team of people, within the within the Atlantic affiliate that actually make the affiliate run. I'm just kinda here as, as I sometimes like to say, the night watchman.
Glenn:And, you know, like because everybody, our our staff and and officers are just so good, and they know what they know what it takes to make this affiliate run. And, yeah, there are some things we need to work on here, but, we'll I'll we'll be transitioning into a, you know, into a new leader, come June. So kind of excited to see that happen. It's time. I've been, know, I've been affiliate president since 2015, so it's kind of time, and it's, that that that's the way that role works.
Glenn:But, my background as a hockey player is, you know, is illustrious, said no one ever. I I grew up well, I said it. I grew up in Jersey City, you know, and I I learned to play at Roosevelt Stadium, which was a 33,000 seat baseball stadium where Jackie Robinson actually broke the color barrier in the minors. Yes. Oh,
Scott:wow. Nice.
Glenn:And he came played for the Montreal Montreal Royals. And so pretty famous game where he got a standing ovation when he hit a two run homer. Standing ovation by the Jersey City crowd. So Yeah. But the rink was located behind center field wall, and and we used to go there for public skating.
Glenn:And I was 12, 12 years old, and I collided with this kid, Kevin Russell, who's dear friend to this day. He's an attorney in Jersey City. And
Jamie:Oh, that's funny.
Glenn:He got up real quick, and I didn't. And he says, well, those figure skates. And I've told this story a 100 times, but it's a meaningful thing for me because Kevin, we're both we both grew up in Jersey City at the same time. We're the same age, and and he says, well, you gotta get hockey skates. Those are figure skates.
Glenn:And he explained the difference, and he was so, you know, gracious about it. And I went home that afternoon, I, like, begged my mom. My mom was a single parent, and, you know, it was Christmas week. Like, she had just spent a lot of money. And, I found out this department store had hockey skates.
Glenn:Sherbrooks for $24.95. Oh my goodness. You barely can get a roll of tape and a mouthpiece for that amount. And and so she agreed to go. We got the skates, and I went back to public skating that night.
Glenn:And I see this kid, Kevin. He goes, look at you. You're skating better already. And I don't know if he was being honest or, you know, or or being kind. I think probably kind.
Glenn:And he goes, well, now you gotta start playing hockey. I said, well, I don't know anything about it, and I don't have any gear. And he said, that's alright. Come to my house tonight, and I'll give you some of my old stuff. And I we walked back to his house, and his dad's looking at me.
Glenn:He goes, what's your last name? I goes, Hefferan. And he goes, are you Gail's son? I go, yeah. That's my mom.
Glenn:He goes, oh, we know your mom. He pick takes out his black book. Back then, people had a black book.
Jamie:Yeah.
Glenn:Sure. Talk companies. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn:And and he called my mom. He goes, Gail, it's Jack Russell. You gotta come to my house and pick your kid up. He's getting all of Kevin's old gear. And, you know, next thing you know, I started playing hockey, and I was terrible at it.
Glenn:But that program had a way. These were not learned hockey coaches. These were good dads who cared and moms that cared about what you became as a person more than a hockey player, and they created an environment where it didn't matter how good or bad you were. You were part of the family, and every player was, you know, made to feel like, hey, you're you're just as important as anybody else. And and when you feel like you belong, even if you stink, and I just stunk, I was terrible.
Glenn:And I knew I was terrible, but I didn't care when you belong to a club and you feel like you belong.
Scott:Sure.
Glenn:Yeah. It feels good. And I stayed with it. The association had you start refing when you were 15, so I got into refing, and and that actually helped my skating, and I got a little better. And then I started coaching at a young age, got a junior team at a young age, met my wife because of because of that junior team.
Glenn:She lived in Ridgewood. Her dad was a sponsor of the team, and I met her at the end of the junior season in 1988. And I had to come to her house to pick up a check to pay the team's bills for the rest of the year. And as I said, her dad was a sponsor, and he was very involved in hockey. And I started dating her, and three weeks later, I asked her to marry me, and she's she's stayed with me ever since.
Glenn:Yeah. Three weeks. No way. It was the Devils making playoffs for the first time. Don McClain's game winning goal against Chicago that put them in the playoffs, and that gave me the reason to ask her dad if he had a connection to get, tickets to the game.
Glenn:And he goes, well, you can use my seats. You know? Mary wanted to know if you wanted to go. So that's kind of how it all started, and I kinda stayed with it. And even, you know, running the Atlantic Hockey League was almost a happenstance thing.
Glenn:I was I was getting out. I was just gonna ref, and my daughter was just born. And I was just gonna, like, just kinda sell off, and I was working on Wall Street and doing other stuff. And and the next thing you know, they elected me president of the Atlantic Hockey League. And Oh, is that had a junior division.
Glenn:Yeah. So I I and then I stayed involved ever since, served on USA Hockey's board for a number of years, and and just been involved ever since pretty much.
Jamie:Wow. So your father almost love the fact that you that, like, your wife's family's hockey people. I mean, your father
Glenn:loves to love it. Well, he was the president of the affiliate way back. Long I didn't inherit the job from him, but he, you know, he he had retired and he left the area and, you know, he and, he died several years ago, but I know he'd be really proud to see what I'm doing and, you know, is knowing that his his grandson and granddaughter played the game. And his son his son also played. My wife played.
Glenn:She was a goaltender. Oh, my god. Yeah. My wife's actually she's a better athlete than I ever could have imagined being. Through a football like nobody's business.
Glenn:Yeah. She's she's unbelievable. And my family calls her Saint Mary. So Oh. For good reason.
Glenn:So that's really fortunate that way.
Scott:You know, it's That that's unreal, especially, like, proposing after three weeks. That's Yeah. Unreal. Go I mean, I guess it sounds like we can thank the devils for that kind of
Glenn:We I do. I told John McClain that story. I said, you know, the reason why I got married, that game winning goal caused me to ask for tickets for the playoffs. And and it's and it is true. I really it was three weeks, and I knew.
Glenn:Like, as I said, we've been together ever since, and she's she is the best part of my life, and she knows it, and everyone else knows it. And I got, you know, great kids out of it, and they all enjoyed the sport. And, you know, my daughter was actually at the game that Wednesday night for the doubles when when Jack Hughes came back,
Scott:and they Oh, sure.
Glenn:She was at that game.
Jamie:And then next night,
Scott:was at
Glenn:the Ranger game. Oh, wow. Yeah. She's she's a she's a diehard fan. She loves I can see that.
Glenn:And and so is my son. He's you know, he he he still enjoys it. He he coached at Willie P, played at Willie P for a little bit. And so, yeah, I mean, it's all it's it's all been it's all been a family thing, man. It's it's it's a great it's been it's been awesome.
Glenn:So I I enjoy it. Very blessed.
Scott:That's so cool.
Jamie:Sounds like it.
Scott:You know, one of the things that that you were just talking about is you were kinda going through, like, your journey, then you were talking about, you know, being the affiliate president. Right? If I'm not mistaken. So one of the things, I don't know, Jamie wanted to dive into this a little bit, Jim. I think I'm, like, you know Good.
Scott:Getting ahead of you a little bit. But, you know, I think even for myself, when I hear about, like, the affiliates and, like, how they're how they tie into USA Hockey. And, you know, we had when we had Ken Martell on, and, you know, he was talking a bit more about some of that stuff for the developmental league and how things get voted in, etcetera. You know, I I was just speaking for myself. I don't know that I am so clear on kinda like how that works.
Scott:Without getting maybe getting into like a lot of detail, could you could you maybe just kind of like paint a broad picture on on kind of like the the affiliates and how and and how that whole system works and how it contributes to both USA Hockey and then down to the organizational level?
Glenn:Sure. So USA Hockey is is divided into 12 geographic areas, 12 districts. Some of those districts have multiple affiliates. It's kind of a subset. So the New England District is made up of five different states.
Glenn:So the New England states, not counting Massachusetts, Those five states each have their own state governance or affiliates. For Atlantic, we're one district, one affiliate. There are there are a handful of us that are like that. New York is one state, one affiliate, one district. Mass, Michigan, Minnesota, I think we're the only five that are structured that way.
Glenn:Okay. Every other there's 32 affiliates throughout the country, and it's just based upon different state needs, you know? Connecticut might adopt rules that Rhode Island doesn't adopt. And so USA Hockey, it's kind of set this in motion a long time ago. There hasn't been much change to that structure, and it's almost like if you can consider, you know, the federal government and then you have the states.
Glenn:Yeah. And the federal makes some rules and laws, but states have their own ability to set rules and policies and it's just kind of the same structure. And it's and it's been a network of all volunteers, you know, for the most part. State now most affiliates have paid staff. We have some paid staff, and it's just it's just the work is so voluminous.
Glenn:You you you need paid support. Like, a volunteer is somebody who goes and dedicates, you know, four or five hours a week maybe at most. And this sport, you you have to put in a lot, a lot of hours. Sure. And so more of the bigger affiliates, Minnesota, Michigan, Oz, New York, we're all finding it necessary to have paid people, and you've got legal issues, you know, that, you know, that are involved and from SafeSport and just other things, just dealing with, the appeal process.
Glenn:And and that is an important aspect, you know, every every athlete, every coach, every official, when there's disciplinary action, you're you are you're entitled to due process, and it has to be it has to be cared for, and that's guaranteed under a federal law called the Amateur Sports Act. And the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act set up these governance structures. They're called national governing bodies. Every sport has them. Every sport that competes internationally has them.
Glenn:USA hockey and a few others, swimming, gymnastics, and a couple of others are membership driven. It's the it's the bigger picture. It's growing all of the levels of hockey plus the international teams. There are some NGBs that are set up just to focus in on their international. Like, I think, I think, the USA basketball is one where they just focus in on international competition.
Glenn:So that's kind of the structure and what we've you know, it's been an outgrowth. We went through a massive governance change a few years ago at the request of the US Olympic Committee. I was part of that task force. It was, you know, it was it was eighteen months of, oh my gosh, so much tedious work, but it was worth it, and it's given us a better it it has given us a better way to govern the sport. I know sometimes you hear stuff that, oh, that's, you know, USA hockey
Jamie:and Always. Always.
Glenn:It's unfortunate. USA hockey is an I have my own critical, you know, criticisms of USA hockey, and I don't do it privately. I do it fairly publicly, but I do it in the confines of the boardroom and which is you can watch those those videos and and whatnot. But That's public. It's public knowledge.
Glenn:It's a great organization that's done so many good things in terms of the curriculum, the American development model. There's there's a lot of things that it's done exceptionally well and has created a lot of tools, and they're responsible for the growth of the sport. What you're in now is this battle between the old way of these nonprofit and municipal ranks and so on, and then dealing with the for profit side and now even private equity getting involved. And and so there's there. Yeah.
Glenn:Yeah. And it's they're not the only one. There's there's a few of them. So
Jamie:Yeah. I'm sure.
Glenn:There's there's clashes of, you know, ideology and and what's important and, look. These ranks don't build themselves. They're you're spending tens of millions of dollars to to build them out. And, you know, look. I do you wish I one of the things that I always see is that we're the only Western nation where our government does not make an investment in youth sport, and that should change.
Glenn:You know, I think the Aspen Institute says we spend about $45,000,000,000 on youth sports, the entire ecosystem of youth sports, and federal government could write a check for that and wouldn't even know it's missing. A error. Yeah, kind of. When you're cranking out a $6,000,000,000 budget. Yeah.
Glenn:Even if they didn't do all of it, if they covered half. Like, we can get more more people playing the sport and or any sport. It doesn't matter if it's this or soccer, lacrosse. We're we're hockey folks, and we we wanna see hockey continue to grow, and I think this Olympic cycle with the men's and women's taking home gold, and I, you know, I don't want to make any predictions, but I think our disabled team will certainly be in the hunt for the gold medal, certainly be in the mix. We've got some guys that are, you know, right from this area that play on that team.
Glenn:And and so, like, it's just a great time to be involved with our sport. And I'll tell you what, one of the things that that I think a lot of people don't understand, and it's not talked about enough, from a collegiate standpoint, the NCAA reports that the hockey players, division one college hockey players, have one of the highest graduation rates, have the highest one of the highest academic rankings in terms of performance, academic performance, we're always in the top one, two, or three positions, and often in the one or two spot in graduation and and academic achievement. And so that that, I think, is testament to the the quality of the kind of programming that it's you know, the dedication that it takes to play this sport, and you as hockey dads know what you go through, to put your kids through this sport. It's a it's a lot of hours. It's a lot of work.
Glenn:It's a lot of driving. And I tell you what lot of money. Well, and that is a that is a challenge. It's funny. The Aspen Institute reported last year that they looked at the window of a five year period from, like, 2018 to 2023, and the average family spend
Jamie:I can't wait to this number.
Glenn:I can't wait to get number. To guess. I'm gonna ask you to guess. Mhmm. The average family spend on one child on their primary sport
Jamie:for the year. Right?
Glenn:For the What do you think that number is?
Jamie:Scott, I'm gonna let you guess first.
Glenn:We'll both do the best. Sure.
Scott:I I have no problem. And this is this is for any any sport.
Glenn:Any sports, all average together, what do you think it is?
Scott:Oh, well, I'm gonna guess that it's much lower than ice hockey. That's gonna be my guess at first, but maybe I'm So I'm gonna say, on average, let's say for the year, $3.
Glenn:3? 11 oh, it's $1,100, and it's 1,100. It's up 46% from 18 to 20 you know, 2,018 to 2,023.
Jamie:Yeah.
Glenn:And so we spend that in a weekend. Right.
Jamie:That's like a skills coach for, like, a couple months.
Glenn:On a home game. I don't wanna say what we spend. And so we've gotta do a better job at getting and that's not, listen, that is not every player in the sport. That's not every corner of of of the universe. And, you you know, between us and Canada, we account for 80% of the hockey playing population throughout the world.
Glenn:Sure. And so and we're continuing to grow. The growth is is there. We need more access beyond just because you have the money, you might you know, you know where we live. You know?
Glenn:If you wanna go to a rink, you have limited choices, and they're either gonna be fifteen, twenty to twenty five minutes away. And if you're a typical family, if you have a, you know, a household of three kids and somebody's got local gymnastics or local taekwondo or local basketball, Now, who's gonna run down to, you know, Hackensack or
Jamie:Hackensack or
Glenn:Bridgewater or wherever and get their kid back, and then I gotta drive back and get the other one. It's not no matter how much money you have, it becomes an unmanageable thing. So we need more rink development. That needs to happen. We need to see that part of the game grow.
Glenn:And I think the NHL has done a a spectacular job, in supporting growth of hockey in many ways, and we just we need infrastructure support, and that really needs to come likely from the government. Like, we need state and and and federal funding to grow these venues to you know, you see what happens when you get an award in Olympics. Well, all of a sudden, there's all this money that becomes freed up to to build these venues that are needed. Well, we need to do that, you know, for for more venues for, for local sports, support. So, that's kind of my that's the spiel about the governance.
Glenn:And Sure. And know we kinda little little sidetracked there. But, I mean, think about it. 1,100, and they're saying that's up 46% in a five year period. And in hockey, you know, even for a tier two, you know, reasonable what do you spend?
Glenn:At 4 or $5,000?
Jamie:Yeah. On tuition. Yeah.
Glenn:Yeah. On tuition alone.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. He's he's he's account anything else.
Glenn:Nothing else. Could spend a thousand dollars on skates or more more. I think the last pair of skates I bought, I think I spent $300 for me. Yeah. So I like, those are some of the challenges that, you know, that we face.
Glenn:And I also think, you know, if we want to dip into the mindset and how parents I had the really good fortune of working with an agent. His name is Neil Sheehy, Anders Lee's agent. I think he was Zach Parisi's agent, Ryan Suter's agent. Great, great guy. Minnesota guy.
Glenn:Didn't take the typical path. Played in played in Harvard, then went pro, did some European pro, then decided to come back and get his law degree and and become an agent. And he's a great, great individual, and I've done some work with him. And he we were doing this presentation with some players, and he said, do me a favor. Put up on the first slide these two words.
Glenn:Love, big letters, fun. And he said, don't show that slide until I tell you. And we had a room full of about 40 players, 14, 15 years old, and said, Scott, why do you play hockey? Well, I love it. Well, why do you love it?
Glenn:Because it's fun. Neil would look at me, and the slide would come up, and all of a sudden, love fun, and these kids all think, oh my gosh. Well, that's supposed to be their answer.
Scott:Yeah.
Glenn:And so Neil would tell me when you're meeting with a family, have that on a piece of paper. And when you're after you're done doing the spiel and they think you've done a nice little parlor trick, slide the paper across to the parents and tell them, post this somewhere where you're gonna see it every day so that you are reminded that it's not about you, it's about their love and fun for the game. You're just there to be the chauffeur and pay the bills.
Jamie:And and the financier. Yes.
Glenn:Yeah. The financier. And and believe me, kids remember. I know my kids did. They were so grateful for the hockey experience they had, and there's not too many days that go by where they don't remind me or or my wife.
Glenn:And and so you there's obviously sacrifice to all that. But getting parents to understand, and it's a you know, when you make that kind of investment, you get emotionally invested. And No doubt. You gotta detach and just let it be about them. And Yes.
Glenn:When when you do that, you'd be surprised. You'll enjoy the experience more, and they will enjoy it more. You know, one of the things that I saw, and I know this is not fair because I know it's not every I know a lot of situations that work really well for kids and and parents, but I remember distinctly, the start of the 02/2122 season coming out of COVID. Yeah. And the rules loosened up.
Glenn:And I had a handful of coaches and hockey directors call me and say, hey. Can we bring those restrictions back?
Jamie:Can we keep because they didn't want the parents in the building.
Glenn:And they felt like their kids, when there when there was nobody in the building, that their kids played better.
Jamie:Of course
Glenn:they did. So I I I can understand that. There's there is definitely different pressures when mom and dad are in in the or maybe it's one or the other, you know, and and players need to, you know, players thrive when they're when they're feeling like, hey, I'm not being judged. So I always try wasn't perfect with it. I was always the first question out of my mouth if I wasn't at the game is to Jeff Fun.
Glenn:And I'll never forget. I think I told you guys earlier offline. I I son switched from forward to defense in his band of minor year, and, I couldn't be at his first game. They were playing against the Mercer Chiefs, and, they called me from the car, after his first game. And I said, did you have fun?
Glenn:Did you like it? And he goes, well, one thing's for sure. The forwards don't pass back to the d. And I said, remember all those times? And I was like, oh, let me catch myself here.
Glenn:You know? Right. And so, you know, you have those moments, but, I mean, there's no greater there is no greater sport. Mean, I know that's a biased comment, but it just there's just so many things that comes together. There's so much passion and the connection that these players make.
Glenn:You know, you don't have that locker room, you know, in baseball and and basketball. Maybe basketball a little bit, but it's not the same. And so the sacrifice, the commitment, the camaraderie, it is it is. It's the greatest sport in the world. And as I said, it's been a lifelong passion for me since I was 12 years old.
Jamie:Yeah. Creates really good people at the end of the day. I think the game creates really good people.
Scott:It does. Yeah. Well, you know, so there's so many things there. But what what I wanted to to start getting into a bit is just about junior hockey. And James, sorry if I'm, like, taking your your thunder.
Scott:No. That's okay. About this earlier. But, like so I grew I grew up. I played hockey, you know, before there was triple a in the area, you know, and I started playing junior b, was as far as I went in playing So so Dan, Dan and Bridgewater, with the Rockets.
Glenn:Who's your coach? Todd Morgan? No. No. No.
Glenn:O'Brien.
Scott:So this was back in in '97? No. It was earlier than '97.
Jamie:You were in high school. '6? '96?
Scott:Yeah. It must have been '90
Glenn:much earlier than that.
Scott:In Bridgewater? '96, '97. Yeah. Right around then. Yeah.
Scott:Exactly. Exactly. So so so I made the team down there, and then I didn't go on to to play the the full season. I'd I'd at that point, I was living up here in Franklin Lakes. I was driving down by myself.
Scott:So that's as far as I got. I didn't I didn't I didn't play the
Glenn:Was Chad Kuvo on that team? Yep.
Scott:Yes. That's yes. That name's yeah. A 100%.
Glenn:I know the team. Yeah.
Jamie:That's funny.
Scott:So so for me but this was interesting, I think this all kinda like, you know, like, well, this what I'm about to say doesn't tie into it, but like, you know, we're talking about how, know, it's it's an amazing sport. One of the things in in, like, the density and, like, the infrastructure for me as a kid, like, I there wasn't many hockey players around where where I grew up. And so by the time I was, you know, like, able to play at that level, I was driving myself forty five minutes to practice, like, you know, three nights a week. I wasn't getting home. It's like 11:00 on a school night.
Scott:Travel was big on the weekends, you know, which would had been consistent for years at this point. And I felt alone. You know, I really felt alone. And I had all my high school friends that had you know, were, like, playing football or, local sports, and they all knew each other, and they had the camaraderie, and they had the common, you know, bonds. And and I I was missing that, and, you know, I ultimately gave up on hockey because I just I felt, you know, I felt isolated, you know, in in a lot of ways.
Scott:I wish I I wish I had a better support system at the time whether, you know, my parents weren't athletes. They were just kind of going with, you know, well, following my lead. But, yeah, it was an interesting time. And I tell my son, you know, you're just so lucky that you have you know, there's more hockey around. You have friends that are, like, driving distance.
Scott:You can, you know, have, like, these bonds with kids, and you can, you know, go year over year playing with them and potentially. And it's it's just different, you know. And and when we talked to Sadie Lundquist once and, you know, we had her on the pod and she was just talking about Minnesota hockey and the community model and how similar to, like, kids around here would play baseball, basketball, football, the same as for hockey over there. And I was like, oh my god. Could I imagine playing hockey with all my friends for so many years and blah blah blah would be a total a game changer.
Scott:But nonetheless, I think I'm digressing a little bit. But
Glenn:No. You're making a great point, actually.
Scott:Yeah. So I wanna go ahead if I cut you off.
Glenn:No. I I just I get I totally relate to what you're saying. It is a that's a big sacrifice for a young athlete to have to do all that driving and be be on your own. And for me, it was very similar. I was just very fortunate that the hockey program, they provided transfer.
Glenn:They had a bus for away games. So Yeah. And I didn't even have to go where the bus was meeting everybody. I could just walk right down the block, and the highway was right there, and they'd pull over, and they'd pick me up. You know, so I had a great I had that support system.
Glenn:And when we did spring hockey, other parents were responsible, and they knew they knew the circumstances. And, you know, so it you you do end up doing a lot of this at at that time alone. And, I I absolutely can understand that. And so think about it then. It was a big sacrifice, tuition based.
Glenn:You gotta pay to play. You're you're doing a lot of driving, you know, and so, I think right around that time is when we started to raise standards and, you know, where you had a bus to games that were more than certain amount of miles and, you know, you started to have to do certain things that, you know, made sense in the tuition level of of junior hockey. So it is a big sacrifice, especially back then.
Scott:Yeah. No. For sure. And and and, yeah. No.
Scott:It it's just it's so interesting. And if there if I could do it over again, I would've I I I wish I had been in a position where I was either had more determination, maybe is the right word on my end, to to go further because I I wasn't a bad hockey player, but, you know, I I wanted to be able to provide, you know you know, or just for my son, just the the support network to help him through the tough times because, like, when we talked to Doug Christiansen, you know, he said, for any hockey player at any level, the price of admission gets hard at, you know, high at some point. And if you're not loving it, you know, it's just like the the cost is is can be too much. And and that I I kinda feel like that analogy applies to what I went through. It was just too much for what I was willing to do, and I anyway.
Scott:But
Glenn:You're you're no worse off for it because you you had you those are decisions you make. And, you know, I think today, you know, there's a lot of conversation around getting players to understand adversity. The great John Cooper, who was a product of the USHL, product of the North American League, product of the Central States Hockey League, his journey is amazing. He ended up jumping into coaching hockey because he wanted a clerkship with the judge's office in Michigan.
Jamie:And he said, if
Glenn:you agree to take the heist my son's coach my son's high school hockey team, we'll give you the clerkship. And he did. That's that's how he he got started. At least that's my understanding of it. And I I've you know, I know John pretty well, and, he was doing a level I think it was a level five coaching, symposium.
Glenn:And he said, parents, get get your players, get your kids to want to embrace adversity. Get them to embrace it. And it because it's when it gets hard and we see it in the USHL, you know, where where it it's really hard. It's Rand Pecknold has the great has the best quote. I've stolen the quote from him.
Glenn:I've shared it without his permission, but he doesn't he doesn't squat back about it. He said to me, we were doing our draft in his building, two years ago, and he said, you know, I don't consider the USHL to be a development league. This was a private conversation. And, and my heart sunk because, you know, here's the great Ram Pecknald, one of the greatest, NCAA coaches and and and runs an incredible program at Quinnipiac. And I'm thinking, oh gosh, where is this going?
Glenn:And he said, I consider the USHL to be a survival league. And I, what do you mean? He goes, the kids we get from the USHL are just so battle tested. They're so hard. He goes, we throw everything at them as freshmen, and they they just handle it.
Glenn:I'll, you know, I think you can point to one player on their team this year. I talk about them a lot, Ethan Wittenbach, a kid from Long Island, young man from Long Island. I've gotten to know him and his family, and they're awesome people. Ethan spent one year in the USHL, ended up getting drafted by Calgary, and and now is, you know, is a freshman at Quinnipiac, and he's leading the NCAA in total points. Leading as a freshman.
Glenn:And and that has everything to do with how hard of a year he had. He had an injury. You know, he had a lot overcome a lot of adversity. And, you know, at the end of the year, he was awarded recognized as the Goudreaux Award winner, which is a special award we have in honor of Matthew and Johnny. And Matthew and Johnny's parents were there to make the presentation in front of thousand fans in Sioux Falls.
Glenn:Yeah. It was pretty pretty spectacular moment. And, but that's the adversity that that that John Cooper was talking about. Like, you have to battle through. This is hard.
Glenn:It's hard to play in the USHL. It's hard to it's hard to score in this league. And I think that level of adversity is the reason why 50% of college hockey are players that came out of the USHL, 27 and a half 16 team league, 27, and a half percent of of last year's NHL rosters were USHL alum. And more players that were signed as free agent signings, and and you look at their pathway. And and, you know, our new mantra this year is our path, your pace.
Glenn:You know, Tyron Lawrence is expected to go in the top 10 in the draft this year, and he left, our league in the middle of the season to go to BU. And our path, your pace. And if BU is ready for you and same thing with Yageroff, the goaltender for b u who was at who was at Omaha. And so that that is embracing it. That's a player then saying, okay.
Glenn:I've done a good job here. I am ready for the next level. And clearly, division one college hockey is the next level. And I think that's what our our formula is really built around preparing you for college and pro. And and, you know, when when you look at the way our schedule rolls out, I think it's 89 of our games this year fall on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, which means Monday through Thursday, we're training, and Sunday's recovery day.
Glenn:And and so these are the these are the things that that are just so hard on athletes. But you know what? We try to give them the best possible environment. We're not perfect. We're working towards it.
Glenn:But I always consider the USHL like Disney World. You know? We're gonna be forever a work in progress. We're always going to be looking to be better and stronger and faster and and all of that. So, like, that's the thing that back to the Cooper comment, in getting families and parents to understand about the value of embracing adversity.
Glenn:We heard our Olympians, both from the men's and women's team talk about it's the losses that have made the difference in their careers. It's those you know, the the pains that they've gone through. Do you think Jack Hughes was in pain in the last ten minutes of that game? He may not have been feeling it, but he paid some prices in that game and so did a lot of other athletes. Yeah.
Glenn:Yeah. You know, Sidney Crosby, you know, as well, you know, paid a price, to try to, you know, to help his team. So it is all about, you know, you know, how hard this is. It's not supposed to be easy Right. To to get this level.
Jamie:You know, it's funny. So can you actually describe let's give, like, a juniors one zero one to people that don't know what juniors are because I have a feeling a lot of our listeners who have younger kids have no clue what juniors are. I mean, my kids just finished his first year bantam. To be totally honest with you, Glenn, I mean, I know a little bit more, but, like, it there's so many not there's so many, but there's tier one juniors. There's tier tier two juniors.
Jamie:Can you kind of give Sure. Like, your one zero one juniors?
Glenn:Yeah. So you have tuition based junior hockey. You have tier two junior hockey, which is ostensibly free, but you pay for certain things. And then you have tier one where it's almost exclusively free. We pay for in the USHL, we pay for your billeting fee.
Glenn:We pay for your sticks, your skates, all of your gear, you know, your gitch, everything. We pay for all your transportation on the road, you know, like, buses, hotels, and meals on the road. Like, all of that stuff we pay for. That may not be the the same experience at other levels of junior hockey, and then you have, you know, the tuition based junior hockey. And some of those teams and programs do an outstanding job.
Glenn:There's a couple of them that I can think of off the top of my head. I know Chris Cirella in the EHL does an unbelievable job, And and I I hear things about how he promotes players, and he's never over promoting kids. And they're largely d three. That's kind of been their sweet spot. So it is get it is digging in and finding players that had experience there, and and, you know, I think I tell families all the time, reach out.
Glenn:Reach out to a player that played there two two years ago. Find out what his experience was like. So from an experience standpoint, we have an obligation because of our our license with USA Hockey that we have certain, mandates that we have to meet. And those I think those where you're gonna see us do even more in the coming year, in this coming season, in terms of what we provide for our players. And so it's it's making sure that they have everything they need from academic support, off ice training, strength and conditioning, mental support.
Glenn:We use a headversity program. I think almost all of our teams have a minister, you know, from hockey ministries. For me? And it's voluntary. It's all, like it's kinda separated for a reason, but it is all you know, hockey ministries has has provided us with ministers for for the teams because for several players, it's important.
Glenn:You watch a couple of USHL games, get to the end of the game, and you might see not one team, but both team players from both teams come to center ice and huddle. And presumably, they're, you know, they're saying a prayer or you're doing something at the end of the game, and we're just kinda making an assumption what it is. But all of those things are important because when you leave home, like, this is this is what you're, you know, this is what you're faced with, and you're living in someone else's house, on a mission to become a division one. And maybe, you know, with a little little bit more work, you're you're gonna be an NHL player. And, and so, from our end of it, that's what the tier one experience.
Glenn:I think tier two would be the North American League. And I they're they have a little bit more latitude in terms of what they provide and not provide. I don't believe fees. I think there's a few other things that they they don't pay for that we do. And then the tuition base is, you know, it's all over the map, to be quite honest.
Glenn:You have teams that do an outstanding job to teams that don't do, you know, a good job at all. And then that's that's probably like any profession. You could talk
Jamie:to
Glenn:plumbers, electricians, realtors. You know, you it's gonna run the gamut. Right? So you're gonna have good operators in in tuition based junior hockey and and not good operators. What I will tell you is 95% of the division one men's hockey rosters will will pass through a junior hockey team before entering college.
Glenn:Right. Hockey and tennis are the only two sports that allow the 21 year old freshman. Right. Those are the only two sports. So I happen to think those two years are really beneficial, not just it's not just the hockey development.
Glenn:By the way, this year's freshman class you know how many birth years are represented in this year's freshman division one class? It's I was stunned. Nine birth years.
Jamie:I was gonna say, like, your way.
Glenn:Nine different birth years are represented this year's freshman class. I'm, like, I'm dumbfounded by it. Yeah. And so that shouldn't be. And it has you know, NCAA's gotta get their act together with some of that stuff.
Glenn:But and so, you know, the the sweet spot for junior players is usually going to be in that 17, 18 year old category. Most of our players, I think most of our our largest class is 18 year old or 18 year olds. It's probably close to half the league, but there are some 16 year olds that play, 17 year olds. I I know there's pressure on us to get younger. I think our average age this year at the start of the season was 18.2.
Jamie:Okay.
Glenn:We are capped at no more than four 20 year olds, And so I think you'll you and I think most of our teams max out at four 20 year olds. They're not they don't leave too many of those holes open, but it has a lot to do with the shifting sand of college too if they've committed, and they want you to wait another year. So you have some of that to deal with. And, again, I think from the the tuition free programming, I think the North American League gets you know, they get their share of division one players, a lot of division three players. And I think, you know, obviously, with the changing landscape with the CHL becoming eligible, but I think their model is very different from ours.
Glenn:Theirs is more of a professional model where they'll play to you. They'll play Thursday. You know, their cadence to their schedule is not I don't think is the best developmentally. I think what we do is developmentally smart and sound so that you're getting more practice time. We do have a two to one practice to game ratio, and, you know, and that could vary from team to team depending on how their schedule broke.
Glenn:You know, some of these teams play in buildings that are, you know, our concert venues, and there's other sports that get played in there. So you are subject to, you know, the availability. That is no differently in the professional world, but we do try to keep to that. You know, we want to maintain that 90% threshold on on, you know, weekend schedule so that it's when you move to college because, you know, 95% of our players will go on to division one college hockey. Well, we want them to follow that same pattern when they enter into college.
Glenn:They're practicing Monday through Thursday. They're playing Friday, Saturday. Hopefully, had a good weekend and coach gives them off on Sunday. So, you know, there's 64 there's 64 division one programs now. The Maryville coming online today.
Jamie:I saw that in Saint Louis. Right?
Glenn:Yeah. And I'm I'm hoping to see that, the Tennessee state gets gets moving and and they get their program off the ground. We need college hockey to grow. I mean, just to give you a comparison, the division one freshman class average is about 500 players. 500.
Glenn:That's it. Division three is about 700. Do you know how many freshman football players there are in D 12, And 3?
Jamie:There's gotta be a truckload of them.
Glenn:18,000 freshman. Yeah. Right. Not counting red shirts. Right.
Glenn:And and so when you think about the scale between college football and college hockey, we're tiny. And so we need to see college hockey. In order for the rest of the sport to grow, we need college hockey to grow at all levels. Do you want to three? However, we can make it grow.
Glenn:And hockey believe it or not in the college level is is the third highest revenue sport on a per team basis. Granted, it's smaller, but they are third. It's it's basketball and then hockey. And so, you know, there's there's incentive, but you have to build a $100,000,000 building to make it work. Right?
Glenn:So there's challenges to it, but I I'm waiting. There's gonna be an SCC school that's gonna pop. They're gonna go. There's gonna be a hockey program down there, and the next thing you know, I think so. Like, I think that could happen, and when that does, you're gonna see a bunch more come online.
Jamie:Oh.
Glenn:Sure. Because if they have it, we gotta have it. Like, that
Jamie:right now. Auburn, LSU, you're gonna see the Ole Miss. You're gonna see them all. And then, like, Duke, UNC, you're gonna see all those schools.
Glenn:Can you imagine? Like, that would just it's such a boom for the sport. And, hopefully, this these Olympic gold medals will will spur peep you know, programs on and universe to say, hey. Yeah. This is I mean, think about it.
Glenn:What other Olympic moments gets this kind of attention? Yeah. In internationally, what about the the four nations? I mean Yeah. We we lost an overtime in that one, but
Jamie:It was great though.
Glenn:Media is talking about not sports media. Mainstream media was talking about the four nations. You know? And and let's be honest, we're a very nationalistic sport, but you had 28,000,000 people watching at 08:00 in the morning. Can you imagine if the other three hours of our nation were were were actually starting at noontime maybe?
Glenn:Like and then I get it. I understand Olympic closing ceremonies and all that stuff, but, man, I it is, you know, like, everybody was watching. And and and to see the videos of bars opened at 08:00 in the morning and filming reactions and
Jamie:Yeah.
Glenn:You know, tell me another Olympic event. And I think they Sports Illustrated did a survey years back that said the single greatest moment in all of sports was the nineteen eighty Olympic men's gold medal. And looking like, I think we're gonna look back ten years from now and see, like, this was such an men's and women's gold. Yes. Like, just so this could be the shot that's heard, you know, around the country and spark the the next generation of fans, and and hopefully that happens.
Glenn:It takes time to see it happen. It takes Yeah. Takes a few years, but it it does it does kick in. And that's when we had the unprecedented growth here in in in New Jersey and Eastern PA. Devils winning a Stanley Cup in '95 certainly helped.
Glenn:Yeah. Mean, having a great team like that. I think I think the rangers winning in '94 helped the region. Sure. Know?
Glenn:So those things do drive. Mean, look at how how it's growing in Florida, you know, between the panthers and and the lightning. I mean, so those kinds of things create just such a great buzz. And so back to your original question about junior hockey, it is it is looking for a program that is developed players. It's being realistic about where your, you know, where your child is in terms of their abilities and understanding that playing junior hockey at at the USHL level is a hard thing.
Glenn:It's hard. And, you have to be prepared for it. Like, you can't you can't throw in the towel when you've been dropped to the fourth line, and you're not on power play. This is it only gets harder from here. And I will say this.
Glenn:I've had NHL players tell me this. I've had college players tell me this. The single most challenging moment for them in their career was not going from junior to college or college to pro or junior to pro. It was going from youth to junior. They've said that was the single and that seems to be uniform.
Glenn:It is a big, big step going from that level, from youth to to junior. And if that's, you know, if that's something that gets you excited as a player, then, you know, we're the we're the right spot for you. If if you're looking for an easy road, don't don't come here. It's it's a tough it's a and I don't mean that it's tough in terms of it's probably more mentally tough.
Jamie:Right.
Glenn:It's a mental toughness as and physically demanding. There's no question about that. But we run a good league. We have, you know, we have a player safety department. Just a nuance that most people don't realize.
Glenn:We have in a closed system, we have a six camera system. It's all kind of AI driven. It's under the Speedy O system, and it tells you how important it is. It's funded by the NHL. Oh, wow.
Glenn:And it's part of our player NHL all the NHL teams have access to it to to watch games and whatnot, but we use it for player safety so that, you know, every play is reviewed that, you know, that could be a that can cause suspension. And so we're the league office is always watching. We we see everything. There's you're not subject to the cameraman's view. We see every inch of the ice from multiple cameras.
Glenn:And so, I like, that's a message we wanna send to families. Like, you're sending your your son to a safe that puts safety as a priority, and and that's important for for families to know. It is about skill development. It is about becoming an elite player. This isn't this isn't about being a thug league.
Glenn:We are we are developing some of the best players in the world. Jack Hughes played in the USHL. His brother played in the USHL. In fact, 20 45 of of the Olympians on 10 different nations teams played in the USHL. 22 played for team USA.
Jamie:That's right. The NDTP has a team in your league. Right? Right.
Glenn:Yeah. They actually, their 17 team and their 18 team both play in the league.
Jamie:Right. Oh, they both do. Interesting.
Scott:Yeah. They play Yeah.
Glenn:They play a splits they play one team schedule, but split. Split.
Jamie:Right. Right. Yep. And there's a draft for their development. Yeah.
Jamie:And there's there's a the USHL has two drafts. Am I correct? Different ages. Is that sound right?
Glenn:Phase one. Yeah. Phase one, phase two, and and I those are birth year driven. We have a lot of information on our website about that. Our combines are kinda structured the same way.
Glenn:We have a phase one and phase two combine, and then we have a player development combine. We're gonna be announcing, this will probably be the first public announcement of it. We're going to be doing a fourteen year old event, a 14 new event up in Walpole this June. We'll have some some more information out about that. We expect NTDP, their their evaluation staff will be in attendance.
Glenn:We're somebody from Central Scouting. We're probably gonna have an agent or two there to explain agency. Like, we're and it's gonna be an intimate event. It's gonna be less than 80 players. It's it's it's gonna be really focused on on explaining the development process because we think this is the age where players really need to start understanding what they need to be doing to become the very best version of themselves.
Glenn:And so that's that that'll be another series that we'll announce shortly that you'll you'll be seeing posted up on our website soon. It's great.
Scott:Yeah. So so for kids and and and their families that are, like, in youth hockey, midget, you know, they're looking at, like, 17, 18 in, like, that age range. In in terms of those players that are on the, you know, the the top end of their youth teams are all any kid that is making their way to the USHL, like, in terms of being recruited, the scouting process, you know, how many players are, you know, with with social media and and all the other tools that are available. I mean, surely you have your finger on the pulse and know who's who and where they are. But is is it all a recruitment process, or do is there a pathway for players to kinda, like, get in front of the USHL?
Scott:I know you just talked about this, the 14 year old, but with the is that, like, an invite thing? Like, kinda how does that work?
Glenn:All of our teams run camps in they have open camps in June. And, you know, listen. It's I don't wanna say it's a long shot. Our teams pick up a lot of players out of those camps. There there's not a lot if you're a great player, everyone's gonna know who you are.
Glenn:Right. But the great players are fewer and far between. The rest of the players get developed over time. And and, again, I I used Ethan Wittenbeck as an example. He's a kid, came out of Long Island hoping to make Sioux Falls last year, makes it, hoping to make the third line.
Glenn:Not only makes the third line, gets selected to play in the prospects game, gets drafted, and you know the rest of the story. Like, it's drafted by Calgary. And so, you know, like, that's a kid who really took advantage of everything that the Sioux Falls had to offer him to develop into the great player that he is now, and and and he's a Hobie Baker candidate. Like, the these are things that that can happen for any player who wants it and wants to put the work in. So today, there's no there's no faking it, and there's not a lot of secrets.
Glenn:But there aren't players that all of a sudden pop up and they show up at a camp, and the next thing you know, they're they're selected for the team. So I say when you have the opportunity to compete with and against those players at at at, at open camps, it's absolutely worth doing. Yeah. You're gonna pay money, and I know that probably, you know, that probably grates on people. But if you knew that the team operated a $2,000,000 budget, you know, to run their to to run their team, you'd understand that what we're asking, what these teams ask for in these open camps, it's you know, they have to get a lot of people there, and it's you know, there's there's a lot that goes into it.
Glenn:It's not just a haphazard. Let's just put it together. And what's interesting to me is a lot of the college guys go to these camps. They go to watch players. I'm sure.
Glenn:So so it's not just the just not just going to a camp. You're also going to an exposure. Right. Right. And so I think I think for the for players like that, you know, I don't I think players, especially elite players, don't take enough time, enough break in this in the offseason.
Glenn:And I say break, I mean, you don't need to be at every single exposure event. I told this on on Topher Scott show the other day. My buddy John Riley, who's an Atlantic District guy, was was ran our player development program for a number of years, was scouting with the Flyers. He's now with Tampa. John used to say, be careful about going to too many exposure events.
Glenn:You might get exposed. And I think you know yeah. I think
Scott:you know
Glenn:how he meant, like Yeah. These events, you're gonna make you're you're more likely to make more mistakes if you're not if you're fatigued and you're not rested and you're not training properly Yeah. There's a whole science to how elite athletes train today. It's not like what it was just even twenty years ago. Yeah.
Glenn:And so I think I think players need to know how to rest their body. Playing other sports are really important. Having a hobby is important. They find that some of the best hockey players have other hobbies. It's true.
Glenn:I just heard that, and I'm trying to remember where I heard it. Somebody else was talking about it on another show I was listening to. And so you don't have to like, I see these stories about, well, this weekend, we're going up to this cup, and next weekend, we're going in that tournament, and then we're going in this tournament. Take some breaks from it. Get away from the game because you know what?
Glenn:You're gonna come back in September and you're gonna be hungry. You're gonna want to play. You'll be chomping at the bit, and your body will be rested. Go play baseball. Go do some other stuff.
Glenn:I'm sure there's a bunch of people screaming right now that are thinking this is heresy that, you know, that, oh, don't tell kids not to come. Yeah. I mean, I think I think players need to get a break, and I think it's important to do that. And so, you know, from a getting notice standpoint, as I said, there's not a lot of secrets, but I I'll give you this. There's a portion of players about 25% of the league actually comes from from Minnesota.
Glenn:Minnesota high school players make up a big chunk of our players. And if you think about how they are structured in Minnesota, they don't amalgamate their talent. All of their kids play high school hockey. Now granted
Jamie:Yeah.
Glenn:It's a very different model, very community based. There's a you can hit a rink with a three iron from just about every home in Minnesota. Yep. If not a not if not a brick and mortar one, one that's maybe in your backyard. Got it.
Glenn:It's just how it is. Yeah. And so they it's a different thing. And so they disproportionately rep have unbelievable representation in the National Hockey League and in at the collegiate level, both men's and women's. And so you take them out of the equation, and you take the players out of, that have come out of other junior programs that get to the USHL.
Glenn:That's this year's this year's roster. Just counting youth, 54 different org youth organizations from 74 different teams within those youth organizations are represented on USHL rosters. 54 clubs. Everybody that's paying attention to rankings, paying attention to rankings. They're they don't make you a better player.
Glenn:They don't they do nothing for your development. What you need to and and, unfortunately, sometimes coaches get really their heads wrapped around, oh, we gotta beat them by six. Throw that out the window. That is not going to knock you a better player. So true.
Glenn:And call anybody out that thinks that they matter. They don't matter. They wanna know that you're a good player. And so there's a handful of teams that that feed a large number of their players to the to the USHL. And that has a lot to do with the amalgamation of talent maybe into the top ten ten top ten, twelve teams.
Glenn:But after that, think about it. 54 different AAA organizations are represented in the USHL right now today, and and that doesn't count any kid that came out of another junior program because those kids played triple a
Jamie:Sure. Somewhere else.
Glenn:Yeah. A year before or two years before. So Right. Yeah. All I'm saying is focus in on development.
Glenn:Folk, find the coach that is, I call it a transformational coach. You ever wanna read a good book about coaching? Read Inside Out Coaching by Joe Ehrman, and it is all about transformational coaches. John Cooper is probably the epitome of a transformational coach. He always put his athletes first, and by doing that, it created unbelievable team success.
Glenn:And John's not the only one. There's a lot of great transformational coaches out there. I I have a ton of them in the USHL. They get it. They understand that it's about because when you put their needs, your players' needs and wants and goals and dreams first, they're gonna achieve beyond Yeah.
Glenn:Expectations. And that means if they're achieving, the team is achieving, which then is a reflection on the coach. So the coach gets his due just by making sure that those players feel good and feel safe to be able to develop their their skills and make mistakes and and work hard through those those mistakes. You know, the whole rankings thing, I I can get really heated about it. I I really do.
Glenn:I it it makes me and I know the guys that run, and they're good guys, but, you know, it's it's just this franticness about, oh, we gotta beat them by six, and, oh, we can't play them. Teams canceling games because, oh, it'll hurt our rankings. Grow up.
Jamie:It's not about that. That's the stupid parent side of it. It it was it was originally it was originally put together for for good reasons. Right? And then people started using it for stupid reasons.
Glenn:Well, I think I think this is one of the mistakes that USA Hockey makes because it's used in part to determine the at large bid. It's not the exclusive determining factor, but it's a big part of it. And, I think that's a mistake because I think that drives the the craziness around rankings. And as I said, the last I looked, there's no ranking that ever made a player better. And in fact, if anything, it makes players worse.
Glenn:And so because it makes the team's infrastructure worse, it makes coaching it deteriorates the way coaches should be functioning, and and that is developing their players. You know? And I think that's, you know, I think that's something that our our teams really understand. And in order, by the way, in order to play in this league, you can't play two lines. You won't get away with playing two lines.
Glenn:Everybody's gotta play. You you got 21 guys on the bench. Guess what? They all gotta play because it's it's sixty minutes of hardcore hockey, and and, you know, I I encourage anyone. We have some, some games that we have that we call live to social.
Glenn:They're free. You find them on, Amazon Prime, Fubo, or two or two of the platforms, and and go look for those games. And and I you know, if you I'm amazed at the number of triple a players. They say they wanna play college hockey, and they've never been to a college game. And, like, if that's the level you wanna get to, how do you know, like, without having been there?
Glenn:Well, same thing for the USHL. Dial in. Like, I'm not asking you to go pay a fee to watch us on our, you know, flow streaming platform. Go to the games that are free and and watch how our teams play and
Scott:Yeah.
Glenn:Watch how they're coached. And as I said, it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty cool it's a pretty cool thing.
Jamie:I'm curious. Are Canadian kids allowed to come down and play in the USHL?
Glenn:Sure. They do. Maclin Scalabrini played in the USHL. Played for the Chicago steel.
Jamie:Oh, that's right. Yes. Okay. And has that always been like
Glenn:that? Adam Santilli and Owen Power.
Jamie:Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn:That Ganel Barry, I think, plays for Chicago now. Like, we've got some great Canadian hockey players.
Jamie:Gotcha. So they they picked the USHL over the OHL and, you know, all those Canadian leagues. Okay. Interesting.
Scott:Yeah. That that whole landscape is become so interesting now, obviously, with the NIL money, and now you can you know, you don't lose your eligibility if you go play NCAA, etcetera. Like, in terms of, like, it sounds like there's gonna be more of an influx of Canadians coming to The States than maybe there were previously. How how has it, if it all, changed the USHL level? And and then then that said, if there were more Canadians coming south of the border, in turn, are you seeing more Americans going up to the, you know, north of the border, or is it or it's kinda too early
Glenn:to tell? No. No. There's there there was an immediate rush, and I think it's the greener grass syndrome. I I as I said, I think I think this will all settle out, pretty quickly.
Glenn:As I said, I I know our development model is actually better. And one of the things that I've said, and I'm not trying to be funny about this, but our superpower, is to take players that you would say are sixes and sevens rated, and we turn them into eights and nines. And the last I looked in college hockey and in the NHL, there's a lot more eights and nines than tens by a lot. And so we're we're building those players, and we're really good at it. And our model has proven to be really good at it.
Glenn:And so, yeah, we we saw that, but I think the level of play is level of play is still really good in the league and, you know, we we'll have those issues. But now we're, you know, we're starting there's some differences too in the way they operate in terms of contracting. So you you sign a contract in the CHL, you're bound to that team for for three years. And and so that changes some of the dynamics in terms of how recruiting works. And so I think that will I think that will get addressed and fixed in in in the very near future.
Glenn:It's you might have read some of these meetings with the CHL and the USHL along with the National Hockey League. They very much want a cohesive they want a very cohesive system, and I'll say this, I don't think this is violating any confidentiality, but on day two of our meetings at the NHL offices, Gary Dentman was in the room, and he went around and thanked everybody for being there. And he said, we want you to work together. We need you to work together, and we want you to help us grow the game. And understand this, nothing is ever going to be perfect.
Glenn:And with that, I'll leave you with with deputy commissioner Bill Daley and have a good meeting, and he walked out. That's Gary's way of saying figure it out. Right. Make it work. We need a viable, healthy ecosystem.
Glenn:And, you know, and I think I think Gary and Bill have proven year over year that they they get what they want. They know how to get it done in a good way, and and they've been great partners for us, and they've certainly been great partners for the CHL. And, you know, where we are in the ecosystem is, you know, we're at the very we're at the very top for 16 and to 19 year old, 16 to 20 year old athletes. And then the next level is is college. You know, one of the things that I I hear, well, you know, the USHL is a two step league.
Glenn:You gotta go somewhere else before you get to the National Hockey League. Well, here's the truth. Every league outside of the American Hockey League is a two step league. Everything below that is a two step league. 78% of this year's NHL players all pass through the American Hockey League, and you had another swath of them that came from European pro.
Glenn:They had another bunch that came from college, and then you had a handful of players that came directly at, I think, 12 that came directly at a junior hockey. That's rare. There's just not a lot of players that are able to make that leap, and so you're going to have more development time. And that's that is recognizing the role we take. Like, we take great pride when a player leaves and goes to the American League or goes to the yeah.
Glenn:Goes to college hockey. Like, it's that's that's what our role is in the ecosystem, and we're we get excited about that. That's something we celebrate. And so we're gonna continue to do that because that's the path. I think if it's not clear to everyone, I think the NHL is recognizing that the NCAA is probably the best way to develop players prior to coming into the National Hockey League.
Glenn:I mean, think about what they provide. I mean, it's an NHL like environment. You have You have physicians and nutritionists and every other specialist that you could possibly need in that environment, and these college programs do an amazing job, and we're trying to mimic as much of that as we can, And we're able to do that thanks, you know, to support from USA Hockey and the NHL. So we're gonna get better at telling our story, and and I think we've done a really good job with that over the last year. You know, hopefully, us and some of the CHL teams will get a chance to play some preseason games this year.
Scott:That'd be amazing.
Glenn:Yeah. Which I know the I know the scouts wanna see it. And Sure. You know, hopefully, they'll they'll take us up on our offer, and we've we've kind of made a an outreach to say, hey. Let's get an exhibition preseason series kinda set up, and let's have some fun with it.
Glenn:And, you know, listen. I you know, it's we're we're here to help grow the game and take advantage of all the opportunities that are in front of us. And as I said, I I I see a bright future. I think the NHL sees a bright future as well. You know?
Glenn:This is this is a change in a rule of eligibility. It did not change the way we develop players. There's a reason why we're that we've been able to lead the way we have in terms of NHL and collegiate placement. And I'm as I said, we're just we're just gonna continue to get better at it.
Scott:So so let me let me ask this. In terms of, like so junior hockey, like, you know, we're we're talking here, I can imagine a lot of play you know, families, parents, whatever, they're just like, oh my god. Like, this is what an amazing opportunity if my kid ever had it. In terms of, like, misunderstandings about what junior hockey is or, you you know, are there any common ones that you would say or any, like, myth busting you could do that potentially people get wrong about, like, junior hockey?
Glenn:Well, I would probably throw that back at you. If you're aware of any, should tell me, and I can probably dispel them.
Scott:No. Fair.
Glenn:One of the things, you know, oh, you're gonna live in a lousy basement somewhere. All of these billet families, you know, go through a screening and vetting process. Most of these most of these families, are longtime billets, you know, lifers, and will, you know, been billeting for these teams for twenty plus years. And so you know know what you're getting. The houses are all previewed ahead of time and, you know, making sure that it's a good living condition.
Glenn:You know, there are some demands that you integrate yourself within the family and you participate in family functions, and I will tell you, I hear stories that these kids, you know, now married with kids and their kids are playing and they go back and visit their billet family. Yeah. You know? And and so it's it is it's it's an amazing relationship that that that gets built. I'm I never billeted as a as a player, but I did bill it as a as a GM.
Glenn:I started the Bismarck Bobcats back in '97, and I became very close with the billet family, and I'm still friends with them today. And I practically lived at their house because I was a young guy living away from home, and my wife and kids were here in Ridgewood, I'm, you know, I was spending twenty five days a month out in Bismarck, and so you still long to be part of a family, and so, I totally can have that relatability, although just a little differently, and so, I think that's probably a myth that needs to be, These billet homes are really nice. I mean, I've some of the stories I've heard is like, you know, some of these
Jamie:billets are these kids live like kings. Of the stories are just We heard a bunch of people we've had on. We've asked for billet stories. They're great.
Glenn:Oh my gosh. It's like these kids get treated like royalty. Yes. Yes. You know?
Glenn:The husbands will say, my wife won't cook these kind of meals for me, but she's making steak and, you know, whatever. And so it's great to hear it's great to hear that. I get I stick out like a sore thumb when I go to our games. I'm always in a suit. And, yeah, I just you know, it's just a habit, and and so all the fans know, like, when I'm there, like, you're the commissioner, and and they're always willing to share their stories.
Glenn:So I bumped into billet families and even I was actually at I was act actually at Quinnipiac for for a game earlier this year. I think their first home game of the season, and I'm I saw Billett there was a Billett family there watching their their player who's his he was his first year, and I can't remember who they were playing. I don't know if it was was it Maine? It might have been Maine, and their kid was playing for Maine and had played in the USHL. And they said, aren't you the commissioner of the league?
Glenn:And they came over and, you know, chatted with me for a while. But that'll just tell you the connection that they have. Yeah. You know, with the players. And so I think that's probably one, you know, I'm in it every day.
Glenn:So I like, I know like, I would normally hear the bad news, and I don't hear a lot of like, I don't hear those kinds of issues. You know, you might have squabbles over, you know, custom sticks and you know, this lies. You hear those little things, but other than that, like,
Jamie:trivial stuff. That's, like, nothing.
Glenn:Yeah. I don't think you, you know, I don't think you hear too much. I mean, look, that's I'm sure everything isn't perfect. I'm sure there are things we would wanna do, but that's the case for any league, you know, across the the NCAA deals with it. You know?
Glenn:I'm sure there are teams in college hockey that wish they were doing it a little better, a little differently. And and so I think that's been our goal over the last three seasons is to raise the standard and improve what we do and provide the best possible experience. And as I said, I I think that there's a crop of players out there that we can take and develop into high performance athletes that can move on to, you know, to college and and and professional hockey. And and, again, it really does boil down to what they want, and that is that really is, if you want this bad enough, you're gonna do it. You're gonna you're gonna go through the hard work to make yourself the very best athlete you can possibly be.
Glenn:And by the way, I will say, we don't just have opportunities for players. We have opportunities for front office ticket sales, you know, GMs, head coaches, assistant coaches, equipment managers, you know, officials. We we we have a a pretty robust officiating program that's part of the national officiating, development staff. A lot of guys that have gone on that are now still working in the American Hockey League, a couple of guys that are in the National Hockey League. Ryan Daisy for one, who's one of the linesmen actually in the, in the Olympics this year.
Glenn:You know? So there's opportunities in our league for every aspect of the game, administrators, you know, team presidents, and so on. And I I think that I think that's something that people forget. We're not it's not just for players. And we kind of embrace that even in the league office where, you know, we expect our staff, if they see a job that they wanna go after, we support them.
Glenn:We want them to go after that. You wanna be an assistant coach in college hockey or you wanna be a, you know, an assistant AD or an SID or whatever. Like, we're there to support you to get there because the higher you go up in the hockey ladder, that's just better for us.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Do you see the USHL expanding at all? You guys are 16 teams. Do you see that growing at all?
Jamie:Obviously, with, like, all the registration in youth hockey, do you see that down the road?
Glenn:The NHL and USA hockey have have kind of it's not a mandate, but it's damn near close to one.
Jamie:They want
Glenn:they want us to expand. I'm actually flying tomorrow morning to expansion location, an undisclosed expansion location. Interesting. We're eyeballing we have two that should likely come online for the twenty seventh season. We've got a, you know, a huge opportunity on the West Coast that we're evaluating and working with that group with very close ties to NHL teams, and that's an important initiative.
Glenn:And so I I would imagine by the '18 or the 2829 season, we'll be at 20 teams in our proper territory and then working through expansion in the West and and and in the South as well. So and, again, part of the challenge for us to do this, and I think people forget, like, all the professional hockey teams for the most part, especially at the minor levels and below, are all in The United States. There's there's only, like, one or two American League teams in Canada, and I think maybe one team in the coast league in Canada. So all of professional hockey is here, minor professional hockey. And what does that mean?
Glenn:They take those buildings, the buildings that you would need to have. So it's finding the right situations, and Middletown, Ohio is one that we've been public about. We're waiting you know, there's just some I think there's just some final it's a final sign off on, you know, some bureaucratic process that has to work its way through, and I think that they'll be breaking ground soon. We've got another another one that we're working on that's an eminent situation that, you know, we hope to announce soon. You know, so expansions definitely there's 15 different locations that want to be in the in the USHL.
Glenn:And Right. I will tell you over the last month, we've gotten more calls, from prospective investors and, you know, potential team owners that wanna buy into the league. And that's that's just, that's great for us. And and and, like, it doesn't look like any of our teams are selling, so that should be that should be a very telling sign that everyone knows that the the USHL has a really, really bright future. So, I think that's a a plus.
Glenn:So expansion, absolutely. USA Hockey and the NHL want us to create more opportunities, and Right. You know, we're we're we're obviously going down that road. It's great.
Scott:That's unreal. Well, listen, Glenn, we've we've been on for an hour twenty. This has been I I there's there's I know. I know it's wild. Sorry.
Jamie:We're having fun. No. Crazy.
Scott:This is unreal learning so much, but, you know, obviously, don't also don't wanna take up more of your time.
Jamie:Your entire evening.
Scott:Yeah. But I
Glenn:It's all good. I cleared the calendar, boys.
Scott:Appreciate It's all good. I'm I'm sure we you know, down the road, we'd love to reconnect with you and and just, you know, learn more about as things develop at the USHL. And I'm sure as we get questions from our listeners, you know, we're gonna wanna reach back out and, you know, like, learn some more about what our audience is interested in learning. But one thing before we we go, and I don't know if my camera if it's going to show this backwards or forwards, But I actually wanted to share this with you.
Glenn:Uh-oh. I hope I'm not gonna be embarrassed. Yeah. I yes. That is awesome.
Glenn:I think I I think I have that.
Scott:You have it too?
Jamie:So That's funny.
Glenn:My wife That's
Jamie:very funny.
Glenn:My wife, she was the I don't remember the number. What is it? The three forty eight club? Oh, it it was during the big snowstorm.
Jamie:Yep.
Glenn:My wife had to go to the hotel to pick up the referees because it was snowing so bad. And and there were and there was actually less than 300 people in the building, but they had everybody sign this sheet. If you were there and you've got this special badge. She still has it.
Scott:Oh, yeah?
Glenn:Yeah. And it I I might have been, like, 86 or 87. I don't remember what year it And, oh, I have I definitely have. So I was actually a stringer for UPI in those years, from '88 to '96.
Scott:Okay.
Glenn:And I covered the devils. Oh, wow. Amazing. When you're a stringer, you that's like you're the lowest run of journalism and reporting, but I had great access, and I was there in 'ninety five when they was there when
Scott:Seth That was and
Glenn:Joe got the goal. Yeah. I'll never forget it. I was covering that in in the in the garden, and then and then I was there in '95 when they wanted Jimmy Doubt is is a somebody who's a dear friend that I've known since he was a kid. Jimmy Doubt actually handed me the Stanley Cup to pass to Billy Gerron.
Glenn:And, I was like It's awesome. I threw out the first question to, governor, Christie Todd Whitman because there was some rumors that the devils were gonna leave. There was some talk that Gaylord Entertainment out of Nashville was gonna buy the Devils and move them to Nashville at that time. And her husband and a few others, they got together to work out a better a better lease at the at the
Scott:At Brendan Byrne?
Glenn:Brendan Byrne. I still call it the Brendan
Jamie:Byrne. I do too. I can't call it continental air.
Glenn:Continental Air Lava. Whatever it is today.
Scott:Eyes up. Eyes up. Yeah.
Jamie:Oh, eyes that's right. Yeah. It'll always be Brendan Byrne.
Glenn:It was the Brendan Byrne Arena, and and to be there, I I was in that building until about three in the morning. I watched Marty Bergdorf put his new baby in the cup, and I and it's
Jamie:just That's awesome.
Glenn:Have a newspaper. It was a mock newspaper sports section from the Bergen Record that the Bergen Record had printed in advance of the game should they win, and, you know, they had swept Detroit, if you remember.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn:And they handed that out, and I got an autograph from every single player on the team except for one. And he he wouldn't sign it. He was he said he'd done, and it was Claude Lemieux. No. So but I got everybody else's signature, and, you know, it was amazing.
Glenn:It was just an amazing time for for hockey. And, I mean, to see them get to the, you know, to get to the game seven with the rangers and, you know, and obviously, they want it. But I will Kenny Danico asked me this question a while back. He goes, what was your favorite season? And I said, well, I know this sounds selfish or crazy because I'm a Devils fan.
Glenn:Yeah. But '95, but not not just because the Devils won. Yeah. It was a short season.
Scott:Short season.
Glenn:Right. Every single game, those players were well rested. Right? They didn't start till, what, January?
Jamie:That's right.
Glenn:And and it was an unbelievable run because every single point counted. Everything mattered. Every game was like a playoff game. Yeah. It was just a great season to watch.
Glenn:And so, you know, it was just those are good memories. But being a stringer, oof, you're a low man on the but I had a great seat. I I had a nice center seat in the press box and that main press box loge. Yeah. And and it was great.
Glenn:Just and worked with some amazing people there. Actually worked alongside John Della Pina, who's, you know, heads up all of all of communications for the NHL. And, you know, so it was just kind of interesting to see how it all panned out for everybody after that.
Scott:Yeah. Unreal. Yeah. No. I my I my father started getting tickets not shortly, you know, shortly after they come over Colorado, split season tickets.
Scott:So as a kid, when I was in the first grade, I started going to Devil's games, you know, way back in the day and happened just to, like, just we got I got so lucky because we they would split the playoff tickets also, and it just we got game four, you know, in '9 in '95 and was there. And I I actually just came across my scrapbook. My wife brought it back from storage. I thought it had gone missing, but she found it. And in there was, like, a few of these towels that they had handed out.
Scott:Got one from Yes. You know, the '88, from '94, '95.
Glenn:I was in the bill I was in the game. I was at the game with the big Schoenfeldt mess.
Scott:Oh, yeah.
Glenn:The referees boycotted, and Vinny Godleski, who was the district's referee in chief. I've knew Vinny for years. Paul McGinnis reft and John Sullivan, who was off ice officiating for off ice crew for the islanders. Those were the three guys. And if you remember, only Paul had black pants and the sweater had the referee sweater.
Glenn:Vinny and John had to wear green devil sweatpants and yellow was not. Yellow practice jerseys. They can't and I'll tell you what. Paul I called Paul the next day. I thought he did an unbelievable job.
Glenn:He did a great job, so much pressure. Yeah. And then I, you know, I think Lou actually ended up taking league to court to get the the suspension lifted on Schoenfeld, which is why the referees boycotted.
Jamie:Wow.
Glenn:Nice. And it was yeah. The the game was delayed, and it was it was an interesting time. That was a fun year in '88 to get to be because they had a pretty good run. I it was they had the caps.
Glenn:They did they have the islanders?
Scott:Yeah. Honestly, my memory doesn't seem
Glenn:to have mine too. It's Yeah. I always remember, prior to '95, like, you were at a ranger game and they were playing the islanders, they used to the islander fans used to chant nineteen forty. Right? When they come to the devil games, they used to chant 19, never.
Jamie:Boy, devil. Oh,
Glenn:the Islander fans were great. They were I started out as I I was an Islander fan. That's I didn't become a Devil fan until 1988. Yeah. I was a little bit of a bandwagon guy, but, it was it was exciting.
Glenn:I also think that Fox Sports, when Fox had the contract, I think that they did some I know people didn't like the common trail puck, and they didn't like the glow. They didn't purists didn't like it. But average average sports people loved it because they could follow the game. Yeah. And and you and I could watch a grainy TV, and we'd know what's going on and who's in possession because we know the game.
Glenn:Yeah. Fans that didn't know the game, sports fans that didn't know the game, that made a difference. So I always and the Fox robots, I remember that too. That was that was
Jamie:Oh, yeah.
Glenn:Such a different era for for watching hockey. And the games were longer then too. I mean, you know, they it seemed to be much longer. Now, it's they've got it down pretty good, so
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:They have a nice product. They really do.
Glenn:They do. NHL's done an unbelievable job.
Jamie:Yeah. No doubt. No question about it. All
Glenn:right. Well, Thank
Scott:you so much. This was such a pleasure talking to you,
Glenn:getting to My know honor, honestly. Truly my honor. Thank you so much for having me on.
Jamie:I really appreciate it. Don't be silly. We will have to do it again.
Glenn:I'd love to.
Scott:All right, Glenn. Listen, have a great night, and once again, such a pleasure talking to you.
Glenn:Thanks. Thanks, Glenn.
Scott:Take care.
Jamie:And we're back.
Scott:Welcome back.
Jamie:Awesome interview with Glenn Hefferan, USHL Commissioner. Yeah. Awesome interview.
Scott:Suck, dude.
Jamie:Like, really, really insightful. Like, I did not know much about junior hockey until, like, recently.
Scott:Yeah. And and to be honest with you, one of the things that I wanted to do is as soon as we, like, got on, like, oh, dude. I wanna go check out a game. Because it was funny, actually.
Jamie:Dude, that's a very good point, by the way.
Scott:But, like, the closest ones in Pennsylvania to us.
Jamie:Is it I think it's even I think it's Ohio.
Scott:No. I think the Phantoms.
Jamie:I don't think so. I thought it was Youngstown.
Scott:Oh, is it Young is it?
Jamie:I I thought we asked him during the pot during the interview. I could've swore the closest Chatchip T or Google it. I wanna say the closest was Youngstown. I'm assuming that's Ohio. No?
Jamie:Check that? No. To make sure I'm not lying. You know? I mean, I could be lying, but I could have swore the closest was Youngstown.
Jamie:Maybe I'm wrong. But there's not a whole lot of teams. I think 16?
Scott:Right? Cedar Rapids, Chicago.
Jamie:Youngstown, Ohio. Does that sound right? Am I making
Scott:it up? It's
Jamie:possible. I could be making it up.
Scott:Youngstown Phantoms.
Jamie:Oh, is it? So where's Youngstown?
Scott:Sioux City.
Jamie:Can you find out? Can you giggle it for me?
Scott:Jamie, pull it up.
Jamie:I want to say maybe it is. Maybe it is. Maybe you're right. Hold on. Youngstown, Ohio.
Jamie:Ohio. Yeah. So it's Ohio. Yeah. My bad.
Jamie:Right. Mean, listen. It's not it's right it's right next to Pennsylvania. Close ish.
Scott:No. Actually, I think it's, like, right on the border.
Jamie:That's what I'm saying.
Scott:Literally on the border of, like, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Jamie:Right. That's what I'm saying. It's right it's just past Pittsburgh, a little past Pittsburgh,
Scott:I think.
Jamie:Yep. You know?
Scott:Yeah. Right.
Jamie:Yeah. Not around the corner for us. No. But for you Pennsylvania and Ohio listeners
Scott:Check it out.
Jamie:Go check
Scott:it out. But it was so funny. Was like, what did he say about parents talking about how Oh my god. Like they want their kids to be in the USHL and there's something along those lines. He's like, well, have you ever even seen a game?
Scott:Have you watched a game? Have you ever been to a game? I'm like, no.
Jamie:So how
Scott:do you know that that's the path for your kid?
Jamie:Yeah. He's like, I don't want to push our TV service, but he's like, go check your game out.
Scott:Yeah, totally.
Jamie:You know? Listen, I mean, it's like no joke hockey.
Scott:Yeah. It is.
Jamie:Like, there's a lot of guys in the NHL that
Scott:play No joke. In the
Jamie:No joke. No. It's the real deal.
Scott:Yeah. A lot of players of, elite athletes Celebrini played for the Steel, for example.
Jamie:A lot
Jamie:of major, major guys have gone through the USHL. Yeah. Great development, you know, if you're if you're well, if you're a US or Canadian born kid. Right?
Scott:No doubt.
Jamie:You know, I mean, it's it's that and the CHL are are the are well
Scott:CHL's The got so many more teams. Yeah. It was just interesting to hear about how it's been subsidized by the NHL for years and years. And even when he was talking about how like years. A lot of like NHL teams have like got former CHL players.
Scott:And they're, you know, they I don't wanna say that they're loyal to the CHL, but, like, the CHL gets potentially more looks than kids from the USHL just because their products have been, like, found their ways into jobs at the NHL level.
Jamie:Yeah. Junior hockey is still, I don't want say it's still like a mystery to me. It's confusing.
Scott:Like what part?
Jamie:The amount of leagues and tier one, tier two. Right?
Scott:Yeah. Don't know anything about the tier two situation.
Jamie:Like, that's like the null and stuff like that. Right? Yeah. That's like tier two. You know, there's there's it's confusing.
Jamie:Yeah. You know? It's if you don't know what the hell if you're not like in it, you have no idea what's going on.
Scott:Yeah. And even like up in Canada, it's in it because they've got three leagues that make up the CHL.
Jamie:Right. It's what I'm saying. Like, it's confusing. Yeah. You know, like, if you don't know what's going on, it can be very daunting.
Jamie:And that's why we're hopefully trying to spread some awareness about this stuff early on so people know what's going on.
Scott:Yeah, no doubt.
Jamie:Hopefully, we can have the Commissioner and the Knoll on too.
Scott:Oh, yeah. That would be great. Yeah. Yeah. We're working on it.
Scott:Jamie, figure that out.
Jamie:I'm working on it.
Scott:Good.
Jamie:Yeah. It's not easy, but I'm working
Scott:on it. Okay.
Jamie:Yeah. So fingers crossed. But, yeah. No. Glenn was great.
Jamie:He, I I actually liked how he was talking about how The US is one of the only countries that don't put money into the youth programs.
Scott:Oh, yeah. That was an interesting point.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. That that's curious if that ever like because overseas, we've talked a bunch about how they already do that.
Scott:Yes.
Jamie:You know? So I'm curious if that is ever going to change.
Scott:Yeah. Well, listen, the sport's growing. There's going to be more and more money involved. However that looks, don't know exactly. But in any event, it's it's certainly thing things have changed where it's like, you know, it's it's there's better players that are going that are playing in in the college level.
Scott:It kind of seems like after juniors, then it's like juniors and then college. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:And and during that process, any youth player that's at playing at a high level, like, then you go play juniors, like the next highest level that you could, you know, like go to. And then from there, do your time there, then go on to college, at which point you're a little older, you know, and then you're gonna get, you know, the college experience where there's a lot lot less games. True. There's more physical development, office training.
Jamie:They structure it a lot like college, the USHL. I thought that
Scott:was But that's not the case for the CHL.
Jamie:No, it's not. Totally different. Yeah.
Scott:Right. Totally different. Definitely different models. Yeah.
Jamie:Which I kind of like how the USHL does it. You know? It's really a developmental league for that reason, no?
Scott:Yeah. But then you hear people say, Well, like, if your next step is like after juniors is going to play in the NHL, right? For some, that's what happens. Don't play college. Yeah.
Scott:Some. Then, like, the the knock on US college is that you only play, like, 30 something games, which is nothing close to the the workload you're gonna play at the NHL level, which is more similar in the CHL where you're getting way more games.
Jamie:Yeah. I don't know. So listen, we've had this conversation a lot about for a youth kid, is the better path for a youth kid the youth program that has 70 games? Or is it the youth program that has 40 games and a lot more puck touches in practice and stuff like that because you're not traveling so much? So we're talking the CHL and the USHL right now, and they're structured very similarly.
Jamie:So you have the USHL, who is more development, only a couple of games on the weekends, very similar to college, Friday, Saturday night. And then you have the CHL, which is a more rigorous game schedule.
Scott:Travel schedule.
Jamie:Right, more like professional ish.
Scott:So
Jamie:it depends. The USHL, in my opinion, is more of a developmental league. They want kids to come there to get better and move on to, I think for the most part, colleges. Right. Right?
Jamie:Universities. Yep. Right? I'm not sure the CHL has that type of I wonder if they want you to jump right into pro. I don't know.
Jamie:I'm not sure what the answer is.
Scott:Well, there's definitely more CHL players that are coming down and playing in the NCAA. That's then true. True. You're And having teams that have like Especially now. Much deeper benches.
Scott:Like, you got more depth players. Like, it's it's the cream is rising.
Jamie:The the product Yeah. That is college hockey is exploding. Yeah. And it's only going to get better as these Canadian kids come down.
Scott:Like you The said talent pool gets better.
Jamie:College hockey, in my opinion, is going to be so good. It's already good, but it's going to be so much better moving forward because of what's coming. No doubt. Fantastic. It's fantastic in in product respect.
Jamie:And then but it's not fantastic because you have a bunch of Canadian kids taking spots from US born kids.
Scott:Yeah. But then it's also, like, if you think about it, like, the the less Canadians that are I I don't know if that that ultimately makes more room for US born players To go up. To go up their hard play. Yep. You know?
Scott:You're gonna maybe is that just giving more Canadians an opportunity? I you know? I don't know. I guess
Jamie:we're gonna have time will tell.
Scott:Time will tell. But it's an interesting time. But, you know, certainly at the collegiate level, you're seeing the game get better. You're seeing much more parity. You know, you're gonna see less teams that are gonna, like, you know, less less discrepancies between teams, you know.
Scott:Who is that? There was that one team, don't even know, I I don't remember, that was like making a big push at the end of this year that was kind of like a I was like, who is that?
Jamie:You're talking college? College. Like, White Men Can't Jump may be one of the best movies from when we were kids. Like, one of the best movies.
Scott:You can listen to Jimmy.
Jamie:But you can't hear.
Scott:You can't hear.
Jamie:He's like, you can't hear him. He's like, what? What?
Scott:Rosie Perez,
Jamie:Rosie Perez? The dude from oh, who is the guy from? It wasn't Fresh Prince. It was that other show. He was Westlake Snipes' buddy in the movie.
Jamie:Duck? Who?
Scott:Who was it? The other
Jamie:was actually in the King and the Duck?
Scott:The King and the Duck.
Jamie:No. No. Not them. It was Wesley Snipes' buddy and when, Woody Harrelson's on the beach, like, taking Wesley Snipes to school, like, basic like, like, conning him
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:About how he can shoot, he's like, we go and see We go go and see What was his name? I don't Malcolm Jamal Warner?
Scott:No? Yeah? Dude, wasn't he from Cosby Show?
Jamie:Hold on. Didn't he die? He did?
Scott:Am I making that up?
Jamie:Are you that's the it Malcolm Jamal Warner? Dude, I don't I don't think so. We go and see was it? We go and see the no. He wasn't in the water.
Jamie:Was he? Anyway, but whoever it was
Scott:Yeah, dude. He was caught in in a strong riptide while swimming in a
Jamie:No shit. Yeah. He's gone?
Scott:Yeah. He died 07/20/2025 at age 50
Jamie:Last year?
Scott:Yeah. In Costa Rica.
Jamie:Holy shit, dude. Really? Yeah. Oh my goodness. I didn't realize that.
Jamie:Yeah. Holy shit.
Scott:Yeah. Sad. He was born in Jersey City. How about that?
Jamie:Really? Yeah. I I did not know that. 1970. Oh, okay.
Jamie:So he's a bunch of years older than us.
Scott:Yeah. Was 54 when he died. Sad.
Jamie:That's a shame. I didn't realize that. Gotcha.
Scott:Accidental drowning.
Jamie:Okay. Got it. I did not realize that. It wasn't Malcolm Jamon Warner.
Scott:Oh, Jesus. He was with his eight year old daughter when he died.
Jamie:Oh, that's awful.
Scott:Fucking awful. Sorry to hear that.
Jamie:Meanwhile, was not Malcolm Jamon Warner. It come on. Who's the weed going sizzler, dude? People are screaming at the at their radio right now or wherever you are, your iPhone or however you listen to us, they're screaming right now. What is his name?
Jamie:Kadeem Hardison.
Scott:I would have never guessed that.
Jamie:Yes, you would have. Anyway, we go and see. Anyway, that's who it was. How did we get on White Men Can't Jump, by the way?
Scott:Because I said Raymond.
Glenn:Is that you? Is that you?
Jamie:What's up, Otto?
Jamie:Oh, you guys are recording?
Jamie:We are. Wanna come say hi? You might as well. Sure. Come say hi.
Scott:Quick.
Jamie:Everybody, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only
Scott:Say what's up.
Jamie:You frozen?
Jamie:What's up, guys?
Jamie:Are we both frozen?
Scott:No. That's No. That was frozen before.
Jamie:That was frozen before? Gotcha. The one and only. So how did your tryouts go, speaking of?
Jamie:They were good.
Glenn:Yeah? Yeah.
Jamie:Crushed it?
Jamie:Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah, you did.
Scott:Sweet. You smell lovely.
Jamie:Yeah. I'm really kind of using shampoo.
Scott:This is beautiful. That what smelled it? I should start using shampoo.
Jamie:It's a good thing. I don't know.
Scott:You know, are you getting back on the ice this week?
Jamie:Yeah. I have top line on Thursday.
Jamie:Sweet. Nice. At American Dream. Yeah. Pretty sweet setup there.
Jamie:Yeah. It's nice. I like it.
Scott:Yeah. What else are getting up to this spring? Definitely. What other sports are you doing?
Jamie:Mountain biking. And that's it. Right?
Jamie:What?
Jamie:No.
Scott:The other thing that you're doing every day after school, did you forget that one?
Jamie:Oh yeah, in track.
Scott:Nice. I like it. Nice, dude. Are you
Jamie:doing like the hurdles? Are you sprinting? Like what are you
Jamie:doing? Want to run the fifty five and two hundred.
Scott:Okay. 55, is that just like middle school distance? I don't think I've ever heard of a 50 The
Jamie:shortest that we can run at our
Jamie:Just sprint, right? Right. Because the 200 is two times around the track. Is that right?
Jamie:Yeah.
Jamie:Because 400 is four laps, which is like a mile. Yeah. Nice, buddy. So you're doing a half mile.
Jamie:Yeah. Good for you. It'd be nice.
Scott:Are doing? Jamie used to run track.
Jamie:You? Jamie ran track for a short period of time. Yeah. I was decent for a short period of time.
Jamie:What'd you run?
Jamie:So I ran cross country my freshman year in high school just to get ready for basketball.
Jamie:You played basketball? Yeah. That must have been like
Jamie:I was good. I was a good basketball player. So I ran cross country just to get in shape for basketball season with a buddy of mine. And I actually found out I was pretty good. And I started meddling in county races.
Jamie:And then I ran an eighteen fifty six as a freshman, which is a legit time. For like
Scott:For for what distance?
Jamie:For 3.2. It's a five k. It's 3.2 miles.
Scott:You did an 18?
Jamie:I I ran eighteen fifty six or eighteen forty six.
Jamie:Like, are
Scott:It's a five k. Oh, yeah. Five five k.
Jamie:Yeah. It's five three.
Scott:That's fast. Three
Jamie:I ran at eighteen fifty four, eighteen fifty six.
Jamie:Eighteen minutes.
Jamie:Yeah, in fifty four seconds. Yeah, so just shy of nineteen minutes for 3.2 miles. So after that, the phone started ringing. Like, is this freshman? So I had some pretty interesting
Jamie:Is this a lie?
Glenn:It's true. This a lie?
Jamie:We're recording here. I'm gonna lie on this thing. No. I started getting some phone calls from some pretty big track schools asking who is this freshman. And then I ran that.
Jamie:And I think it was at Pascag Valley. I crushed it at Pascag Valley. I was finishing passing a bunch of seniors as freshmen. And then I was riding my bike to get a haircut one day to go to a basketball workout.
Jamie:Career rendering.
Jamie:Hit by a car, shattered my left tibia amphibia, and that's all she wrote.
Scott:Oh. Yep. It's fucking crazy. Yeah. I remember my dad was like, Jamie got hit by a car.
Jamie:Your dad, my mother called your dad.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And your dad met the ambulance in the hospital.
Scott:Yeah. And
Jamie:I remember your dad came up to me while I'm sitting on a gurney, right? And my tibia and fibri were shattered, totally shattered. Because you watch it on TV, my tibia and fibri were like this. Jesus. Totally shattered.
Jamie:It came
Jamie:through Was his it skinny a little crosswalk? Whose fault was it?
Jamie:So it was like a blind corner that they were coming around, they were going straight, I was turning.
Jamie:How fast were they going?
Jamie:I don't know, 25ish, 30 miles an hour. It was like a back road that you'd never be on. You know what mean? And there was vegetation. It was kind of overgrown.
Jamie:So it was just wrong place, wrong time for both of us. But yeah, so your dad, who was a doctor at that hospital, met us there. And I remember the orthopedist came over, and he asked me why I wasn't screaming. And he showed me a picture of my fracture. He's like, yeah, you should be screaming in pain.
Jamie:There's just a shock. Do you know when I actually I didn't cry, didn't shed a tear. They said it. I didn't shed a tear. Do you know when I started
Scott:crying? When?
Jamie:When I got home later from the hospital that night when I had a cast for my toe got home
Jamie:that night? Did they stay home?
Jamie:No. Nope. They set it, and they put a cast on. I had a cast from my toes to my hip I
Scott:remember that.
Jamie:On my left leg. And I started crying when I tried to get up the stairs
Scott:to get
Jamie:up to my room.
Jamie:Wait. How old were you?
Jamie:I was a freshman in high school.
Jamie:Oh, right.
Jamie:So that's when I started, because I got frustrated, and all of a sudden the painkiller started wearing off, and the cast was weighing down my legs, the fracture was pulling. It was stretching and I couldn't get up the stairs. I got upstairs eventually, I was scooching up on my rear end backwards. So that's when I started getting frustrated. I think I was crying in just straight frustration.
Jamie:But I didn't cry in the hospital. Yeah. Pretty nasty fracture too. Do you remember that?
Scott:Listen to my yeah, I remember. Thanks for seeing
Jamie:me in the hospital. Appreciate it.
Scott:Honestly, was afraid. My dad
Jamie:did not come and see me in the hospital.
Scott:No, I didn't.
Jamie:Your grandfather came to see me in the hospital, but your dad did not come.
Scott:Well, so listen, I was afraid, honestly.
Jamie:You were afraid to see me in the hospital?
Scott:No, kind of. When my dad was like, you got no, I'm being serious. He said Jamie got hit by a car.
Jamie:I did.
Scott:I'm going to the hospital. And the idea of I don't know, whatever I made up in my mind, like it happened to you, was like afraid.
Jamie:Did he even tell you what happened? Like for all you know, Jamie could have broken a toe and just he had really bad pain.
Scott:Listen, I I I visited Jamie in the hospital when they were in second grade.
Jamie:What did you do
Jamie:in second grade?
Scott:In New York City.
Jamie:What did you do in second grade? Yeah.
Scott:Was sick and he had caught some very
Jamie:strange came down with this crazy, crazy thing that like, of course, I can't win the fucking lottery.
Scott:Kawasaki.
Jamie:Otto. Yeah, they still don't know how people get it to this day. I got this thing called Kawasaki syndrome when I was in second grade. Like the motorcycle.
Glenn:Kawasaki syndrome.
Jamie:Yeah, no joke. Look it up. Yeah, it affects swelling around the brain and heart. I was at baby's
Jamie:Swelling around the heart.
Jamie:I was at Columbia Presbyterian in Manhattan. They said What's
Jamie:the Presbyterian?
Jamie:What?
Jamie:The Presbyterian.
Jamie:What is it?
Scott:The name of the hospital.
Jamie:Yeah, Columbia Presbyterian is the name of the hospital. So they told my mother I wouldn't make
Scott:the night. They told her that? Yeah, you didn't know that. Are you fucking serious? Yeah.
Scott:No, no one I mean, in second grade, they didn't tell me that.
Jamie:The doctor came out and he's like, yeah, like, make plans, your child will
Scott:No shit. I didn't know that. Last the night, yeah.
Jamie:I remember it
Scott:when So
Jamie:fuck you, doc. Fuck.
Scott:I remember vividly Sorry, don't
Jamie:Is that what she said?
Jamie:No, that's what I just said. I'm sure she said think she
Jamie:Did you actually believe you granddad at night?
Jamie:I was eight. So your parents didn't tell you that,
Scott:did they?
Jamie:No. I had like 105 and change fever. My mother said they strapped me down the bed. Unfortunately, a lot of kids die. I was old to get it.
Jamie:Apparently, you get it
Scott:As an infant or No,
Jamie:no, no, but under the age of eight. So I got it at the age of eight, which apparently was old for that. And they still have no idea how you get
Scott:it. Wow. I remember going to the hospital. It was a rainy day Yeah. When I went to visit you.
Jamie:Yeah. In intensive care for I was in intensive care for like a week.
Scott:Yeah. It was crazy.
Jamie:Yeah. It was wild, dude. It was wild. Wild. It was a wild time.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:I remember when I think it was when like I first started having like these little like pains in, like, my chest right here. I have, like I don't know if it's, a little bit of asthma.
Jamie:Yeah.
Jamie:But when we first went, like, we went to, like, the urgent care Mhmm. And they had they said I had, like They're close. They they said I had like something around what'd say? They they had like a a low beating heart or something like that.
Jamie:Okay.
Jamie:And then we went to the hospital and they were like, everything's fine. Like we saw
Jamie:Right.
Jamie:But I remember that was like That
Scott:was a scare for a minute.
Jamie:Sure. Yeah. That stuff's freaky. So hug your children, folks.
Scott:That's right.
Jamie:Never know. No
Scott:doubt. You never know.
Jamie:Tomorrow's never possible.
Scott:Mommy, love them.
Jamie:Yes. Make sure you hug your children. Maybe don't get so bent out of shape when your kid's not skating hard on the ice. It's in the grand scheme of things.
Scott:Not that important.
Jamie:Probably not important. Right?
Scott:Love you, buddy.
Jamie:Yeah. Love you, James. Appreciate it, buddy. Love you too. Yeah.
Jamie:So so we have so you wanna promote what we have going on tomorrow night?
Scott:Yeah. And then we can wrap it up.
Jamie:We can.
Scott:So tomorrow, we're going live on Instagram with, yeah, Instagram live tomorrow night, 08:00 with Jim Dowd. We're gonna talk some youth hockey, college you know, we're please join us. You know, it'll be going, like, obviously on Instagram, and you'll see that we're live. Join us. Ask questions.
Scott:But we're gonna have a talk with New Jersey legend, former NHL, Stanley Cup winner, Jim Dowd. And it's gonna be a great conversation and an opportunity for our listeners to write in and say say what's up and and ask some questions.
Jamie:Yeah. It's gonna be awesome. Looking forward to it.
Jamie:Are you guys going to have a chat on the screen so you guys can
Jamie:Yeah, of course we are.
Jamie:Yeah. So is it going be like people will
Jamie:Yeah, they can write questions. Questions? Yeah. You can ask a question?
Jamie:I probably will.
Scott:You should.
Jamie:You should. Jump on and ask a question to Jimmy Dads, the legend himself.
Scott:Yeah. That's and get Dom to do it too.
Jamie:I will. Yeah. I'm sure Nancy will be on too. Yeah. Tell all your friends.
Jamie:Set your calendar, folks.
Scott:All your hockey friends.
Jamie:Set your calendar.
Scott:Tomorrow night, 08:00.
Jamie:Oh, Wait.
Scott:Oh, no. Not tomorrow. Tomorrow. It is tomorrow. So when you're listening to it, it's today.
Scott:Tonight.
Jamie:Tonight. This comes out Wednesday.
Scott:Wednesday. So
Jamie:And this is Jim Dowd Wednesday night. So if you're listening to this Wednesday morning or afternoon, it's tonight.
Scott:Yeah, exactly.
Jamie:Wait, this
Jamie:is getting posted tomorrow?
Jamie:This is getting posted tomorrow morning. Yes.
Jamie:We put it up at 06:00 every day.
Jamie:It'll be up at 06:00 Wednesday morning. Be there every square.
Jamie:And it'll be Wednesday night.
Jamie:Yep. Wednesday night with Jimmy Dad. Yeah.
Scott:Alright, dude. What do say we wrap this one up?
Jamie:Alright. It was fun.
Scott:Alright. Absolutely. Good talking to you.
Jamie:Yes. Likewise. Thank you everybody for downloading, sharing, doing everything that you're doing. We really appreciate it. Thank you to the new listeners.
Jamie:Yeah. Love you guys.
Scott:Yeah. Love you too, buddy. Yeah. Alright. Bye.