Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Jamie:Hey, everybody. Welcome back to episode 83 of the Crazy Dads, Crazy Dads Hockey Podcast powered by Pacific Rink. The unfiltered hot pot oh my god. The unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.
Scott:It sounds like you're still in them, dog. It's it's
Jamie:been a long weekend.
Scott:Well, it's been full of hockey. We are back, homeboy.
Jamie:We are back. But and I'm not sure that's a good or bad thing, but we are back.
Scott:No. No. It's good. I was apprehensive at first, but we're we're definitely good. But listen, let's shout out sponsors real quick.
Scott:Watch a
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. So so we have a Dog dog dog. So now that we're back and now everybody's back in the swing, we have Howie's hockey. Go get your tape, laces, your gear, your gear bag, your scissors, your candles, your wax, the whole nine yards.
Jamie:They've got it all. Use the code Crazy 10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey gear. They've got awesome stuff. They've got some of the best gear out there, Best logo next to ours out there in the business. So go check it out.
Jamie:Crazy 10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey gear.
Scott:Excellente. Love Howie's stuff. I was I was sporting the, the sweatshirt that we got, the black with blackout. Yeah, man.
Jamie:Yeah. Sick.
Scott:Yeah. I think it's sick too. I put it on. I was like, I don't really like that. I was like,
Jamie:what does he not like about it?
Scott:Like, what is wrong with you?
Jamie:What would he not like about it? I don't
Scott:know. I don't know.
Jamie:I mean, it's awesome.
Scott:Yeah. Well, maybe it's because his dad was wearing it. I have no idea. Probably.
Jamie:But but, yeah, no. It's great. The Blackouts were just sick.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. No. I totally agree.
Jamie:Yeah. Awesome.
Scott:Yeah. Alright. But next up, we've got hockeytraining.com. And, boy, let me tell you, I'm eyeing the thick of training some men's league domination 2016. By the way?
Scott:Yeah. It's going great. Is it? It's going great. Good.
Scott:So I will say this. Well well, yeah, I'll say this that the the programming is great.
Jamie:Mhmm.
Scott:I'm doing a lot of exercises I've never done before. K. Hockey specific Hockey specific training exercises for sure.
Jamie:Right. Good.
Scott:But the the gym that I go to, actually, they have they have a nice little turf area where you can push a sled.
Jamie:They have
Scott:an air bike, which are like, you know, just an area where you
Jamie:can do
Scott:some sprints also. Okay. So part of the programming is, you know, not just like at a weight machine or like a stretching mat. Like, it's it's it's definitely beneficial if you have some room to run and
Jamie:you can kind
Scott:of have a sled and stuff like that.
Jamie:Right.
Scott:Which we do, which is which is great. So so that's been totally working out. I'm getting after the air bike big time.
Jamie:Are you that's like that's like a combine, exercise.
Scott:Yeah. But the air bike's great. Yeah. It's great. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. So Tough. Yeah. There's not like, there's there's not, it's a great mix of Mhmm. Dynamic warm up, stretching, mobility exercises
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:Weight lifting, body weight stuff, conditioning. So it's a great great combo. Yep. Yeah. No.
Scott:It's great. So I'm doing it, like, four days a week. And last week, I only got to I only got there three days last week just because of the short week with the holiday and everything. But this week, I'm gotten getting back after it. Yeah.
Scott:So it's great. So in any event, I wanna shout out coach Kevin and his training platform because, like, I gotta tell you, and I've showed you I've showed you also Yeah. You're cranking through. Like, the app two apps. Right?
Scott:There's Hockey TV, which has a whole library, video library. Then there's, like, the regular app Yeah. Hockey Training HQ app where you have it's like your dashboard. It's got all the different chats. There's a locker room chat for people to share what what they're going through, give each other support.
Scott:So it's building a community. Mhmm. There's a whole point system built in. So, like, at the end of each month, he shows everyone who's Shows
Jamie:you where you are. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. And Very cool. No. Really good. I just needed to get used to, doing some different exercises.
Scott:So I was and look. I didn't know how to do a bunch of them if I just read them. Right?
Jamie:But then
Scott:there's Yeah. Sure. You click on a button, and there it is. All of the a video for all of the exercises
Jamie:you Yeah. Can
Scott:Yeah. So that's been really So
Jamie:Like user friendly. You but Super user friendly.
Scott:User friendly, but when you're at the gym and, like, you're trying to, like, teach yourself new exercises and you don't know exactly how much space you need Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Kinda like where to set yourself up most efficiently. Like, there's a learning curve. Of course. That's like with Once you figure
Jamie:out, you'll be, like, you'll be like a pilot.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. So I I can't say enough about coach Kevin and his hockey training platform. It's awesome for all ages. So they just came out with in season domination '26.
Scott:So they have it split up for, younger athletes and older athletes. Maybe it's 13 and below and then 14 plus. I forget exactly what it is, but, definitely check it out.
Jamie:I like it.
Scott:Because you're gonna get a lot of, you know, great work in that maybe you're not gonna even get with your team right now, like, from some mobility work, you know, for example. So any event, definitely check it out. And then I'm also doing the stick handling challenges challenge with them. So Oh, you are? Just putting up a program, because it's about eleven between ten and twelve minutes long.
Scott:So it's a short stick handling class.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:Doing one a day for the next thirty days is part of the challenge, and it's just, you know, I I I honestly I swear, like, even after doing it for, five days Mhmm. Like, just becoming more You
Jamie:already feel?
Scott:Already feel I'm already feeling better.
Jamie:You do.
Scott:I I and I'm not there's right. I didn't take a magic pill or anything. It's just honestly putting in some extra reps.
Jamie:Right.
Scott:And it's like, wow. I can I can I can go to my backhand a little further than I did last time?
Jamie:Right.
Scott:You know what I mean?
Jamie:I can Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Get my head up a little
Jamie:quicker. Sure. So So there's no Ozempic for stick handling. You have to put the work in.
Scott:You gotta put the work in.
Scott:Got it.
Scott:Yeah. No GLP one Okay. Hockey Okay. Injectables.
Jamie:Got it. No injectables.
Scott:Got it.
Jamie:Gotta put the work in.
Scott:Gotta put the work in. So in in any event, hockeytraining.com, hockey training h q on Instagram. Yeah. Check them out. All great stuff.
Jamie:Yeah. He's got some he's got some great stuff. And go check out Titan battle gear. So Scott and I obviously talk a lot about Titan battle gear. We love Titan.
Jamie:We've picked up some of the best stuff on the market. They've got some of the best protection. They've got some of the best looks. You know, sometimes they have some a tough time keeping stuff in stock, right, because people are really kind of
Scott:High demand. High demand product.
Jamie:Protecting their kids these days, which is great. We need to get more people on that bandwagon. So go check out Titan Battle Gear. Link in our show notes, titanbattlegear.com backslash crazy hockey dads. Use the discount code crazy dads 10 for 10% off your Titan battle gear.
Jamie:They've got the Miami Vice. They've got camo. They've got some regular colors. They're always coming out with new stuff. This is the the three point o base layer.
Jamie:So they keep getting better with better technology. Stuff keep keep keeps getting better with more protection and more coverage on the body. Hopefully, the pants come out soon because I know that's in big big demand. So go check out Titan Battle Gear, titanbattlegear.com. Use the discount code crazy dads 10 for 10% off your Titan Battle Gear.
Scott:Very good, sir. And we have athletic performance insight. So seasons are underway. I'm assuming a lot of coaches have, already chosen their desired video review platform. But if for some reason you're not liking what you're doing, maybe you're having trouble with one of the TV broadcasting systems That's true.
Scott:Or whatever the deal is, which actually is not exactly, gonna influence, API. But, athletic performance insight is an amazing tool. So if you haven't decided yet, check it out. If you're on the fence about what you're gonna do for the season, check out athletic performance insight. Go to the website.
Scott:Go to the contact form. Fill it out. Reach out to Eric. He'll demo the platform for free. He'll break down a game for free so you can see what's going on on the back end, but you have all your under the hood analytics team, individuals.
Scott:You can go over, like, you you know, team concepts, individual plays, penalties. You name it. You can filter it. You can look at all different heat maps. It's got all the bells and whistles.
Scott:So Yeah. You're still on the fence or unsure or wanna look for an upgrade for the season, check out athleticperformanceinsight.com.
Jamie:Yeah. Mention Crazy Hockey Dads get a 10% discount, which is a $100. Yeah. It's a number.
Scott:Yeah. It is.
Jamie:You know? So Nothing. Especially now that we're all traveling and stuff for hockey, at least you could pay for, like, I don't know, maybe, like, 25% of a hotel stay.
Scott:Well, we will talk about hotel stays.
Scott:We will talk about
Scott:hotel stays. Let's let's not forget BJD. Shout out Big John Dangles.
Jamie:Shout out BJD.
Scott:Don't know Big j BJD's stuff. Go check him out on Instagram.
Jamie:Yep. Big John Daniels. Check him out. He's got really cool stuff. So thank you for our great intro, like Scott said.
Jamie:And you guys are gonna start hearing a lot of Sparks skate sharpening stuff on on
Scott:our Absolutely. On
Jamie:our, on our podcast moving forward.
Scott:Just did an unboxing.
Jamie:We just did an unboxing. Sparks was nice enough to send us two machines, one for me, one for Scott, along with the beam, which is an insane kind of, like, laser leveling tool, that they came out with, which is awesome technology. So an unboxing is coming. Yep. The first sharpening is coming.
Jamie:Yep. Right? If we if we release that video. But thank you to Sparks. So you guys are gonna hear a bunch.
Jamie:We're gonna have a discount code, you know, because the Sparks is not cheap, but it is so good.
Scott:So and convenience. And easy to use. And easy to use.
Jamie:It's like It's so simple.
Scott:Right. And it it yes. I I couldn't agree more not just saying it because Right. You know, we're we're, you know, working with Sparks right now. It it literally is very easy.
Jamie:It's super easy.
Scott:Super easy. Yeah.
Jamie:I mean, you saw how easy the unboxing was to put it together and to get it going. You download the app. You know, the beam the beam was charging while we were doing it. I mean, it's it's so simple to use.
Scott:It is very easy.
Jamie:I wish I had known about this when my kid first started playing.
Scott:Well, listen. For whatever
Jamie:reason I would have been so ahead of the game.
Scott:Well, here, let me ask you this question. So there was a reason why you were apprehensive to using sparks when they first came out. Mhmm. What shifted the needle for you?
Jamie:So, I thought that sharpening was more of an art form.
Scott:Oh, I think we actually talked about this.
Jamie:Right. I think we did too. Yeah. So that was my feeling at first. I thought that, like, a machine couldn't do, you know, what a person and and, you know, the the you know, with with the eye for doing it and for kind of the feel.
Jamie:You know? But then you start seeing them everywhere. You start seeing that pure hockey is getting rid of, you know, the sharpening machine that they put in. And and listen. It's because they're convenient.
Jamie:Yep. Right? But they're consistent. I mean, how many times have you gone into a pro shop and you're like, oh, you're like, I don't want that person to sharpen my skates?
Scott:Definitely happened before.
Jamie:You wait for the other person.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:What if they're not there? Right? So it's you know? And sharpening is not getting cheaper. Right?
Jamie:And I don't know about you, but more people are listening to us, but, you know, a lot of pro shops are disappearing from rings.
Scott:Yes. I've noticed that more and more.
Jamie:Right? They're getting taken over, or they're not profitable enough, whatever it is. So they're turning into, like, physical they're so they're subling the space out to a physical therapy office or, like, or or just nothing. Right? It's just dark.
Jamie:You know? Where Don played down the rockets. They didn't have a pro shop.
Scott:Right. Ever.
Jamie:It became their class until they had one Oh, time ago.
Scott:You were first there.
Jamie:They had one when Dom was a mite. Right. But then when Dom was at for school, it's gone. You know? Yeah.
Jamie:So, like, Woodbridge doesn't have a pro shop. Nope. I know Hockey Monkey's down the street.
Scott:But it's still not
Jamie:convenient. But it's not convenient. No. You know? So so if you can if you that and, like, running into rings going, oh my god.
Jamie:Gotta sharpen dumb skates. Right. You know? So now you do it all at home. And not only that, but the Sparx is portable now.
Scott:Mhmm.
Jamie:Like, the old the older models were heavy as hell.
Scott:Okay. Yeah. I've never picked one up before.
Jamie:I have seen them. One pair one parent used to bring it. Yep. The shit was very heavy.
Scott:Yes.
Jamie:So as the Sparks has evolved, they've gotten much more advanced in the sharpening. They got much more advanced in, like, the weight. Yep. Right? So now the new ones are, like, much more portable.
Scott:Yes.
Jamie:You can bring it with you on a hockey tournament week.
Scott:We actually had one of the parents put in a chat. Have my Sparks with me.
Jamie:Our our assistant coach had it. Yep. Right? Yep. You know?
Jamie:So it's great.
Scott:It's almost like a it's almost like a a must have.
Jamie:Listen. If you're going away on a hockey weekend, you guys are gonna play four or five, six games. How can it hurt?
Scott:Six games.
Jamie:Well, whatever. You know? Whatever it
Scott:is. How many did you guys play this weekend?
Jamie:We played four.
Scott:You did play four?
Jamie:We did.
Scott:Yeah. Wait.
Scott:Were they
Scott:full games? Three minute periods? I mean
Jamie:Yeah. Fifteen minute periods? Yeah. We played full games. Yeah.
Jamie:You guys didn't?
Scott:No. Haves.
Jamie:You guys played two halves? Yeah. Why? I don't
Scott:know, but I'll tell you this much. During the first game
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:When the when it blew when the whistle blew at the end of number two Yeah. And I was expecting number three to come.
Jamie:Oh, I know.
Scott:And number two, it ended. I was like
Jamie:Thank God.
Scott:I can I can leave
Jamie:the rink? Was it a rough one?
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:It was.
Scott:But it was also game one. And we we played a team that's been skating together. Well, we'll we'll get into it. But just getting back to Yeah. Whatever you were saying.
Scott:Yeah. Sparks and assistant coach,
Jamie:everyone's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're gonna hear a lot more about Sparks on our podcast. Right?
Jamie:Because, you know so we wanna obviously bring you guys, you know, good good things that will help your you and your kid in your hockey journey. Yeah. Right? Obviously, Howie's hockey has has nice clothes, you know, but the tape is really good. Right?
Scott:Tape, laces, scissors.
Jamie:Yeah. Right. I mean, so we we we Pacific Rink. Right? Obviously, you know, we're sponsored by Pacific Rink.
Jamie:Know? We think Pacific Rink has the best bag in the business.
Scott:Right. That's why we're reaching out to them.
Jamie:That's right. Correct. Right. Titan battle gear. Same idea.
Jamie:Best protection out there for our kids. Right? Mean, I we spend a lot of money in this game. You wanna protect your your your biggest asset, which is your kids, you know, God forbid. So we so we push Titan Battle Gear because we because we believe in it.
Jamie:We believe, you know, Pacific Rink has the best bags. We we believe that Titan is the best gear out there. We think, you know, Howie's Hockey has the best has the best, you know, tape in the game. Right? You know?
Jamie:So we wanna and we believe that Sparks is the right skate sharpening company out there.
Scott:Right. There are other ones out there.
Jamie:There's a power one out there. That thing's a
Scott:piece of shit. And they use that over at
Jamie:That's what one's a piece of shit.
Scott:That's what they used over at the, the Hockey Monkey down at Woodbridge.
Jamie:Oh, did they? Yeah. Is it what
Scott:is it called? The Precision or something?
Jamie:Something like that. It looks very futuristic. They basically ripped off if you if you for those of you who know Sparks, they ripped off Sparks' app.
Scott:Oh, yeah?
Jamie:Oh, yeah.
Scott:Well, that's not copycat. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. You know, but I gotta tell you, Bauer Bauer listen. We all like Bauer because they make nice sticks, and they make nice gear. But I have to tell you, like, Sparks is a skate sharpening company.
Scott:Right. That's what Period. Right.
Jamie:They don't make sticks. They don't make shoulder pads. They don't make skates. They make sharpeners.
Scott:And beams.
Jamie:And accessories for their sharpeners. Right. Right? Bauer's trying to capture a a piece of the market share.
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:They don't belong
Scott:there. With skate sharpening. Correct. Right.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Or else we would be showing the Bauer skate sharpener here. Fair. And we're not.
Scott:Yeah. No. Listen. I I Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:I don't haven't that's the only place where I've seen the Bauer skate sharpener out in the wild.
Jamie:Ah, Hockey Monkey. I've never seen it.
Scott:But I only went to the Hockey Monkey because that's where I had to go for auto when he was at Woodbridge
Jamie:Right.
Scott:For skate sharpening. But I would they I would never go there, Right. Just instead of a pure hockey because pure hockey is closer.
Jamie:Now Yes.
Scott:Hockey Monkey was closer, that might be a different story. And there is one opening up, by the way.
Jamie:No. It's open already. Oh, it did it did open? 17th South.
Scott:Dude, that
Jamie:It's now fifteen minutes from
Scott:us. Dude, that's where It's fifteen minutes from me. Used to be an exotic pet store.
Jamie:Is that what that was?
Scott:And that's where Otto got his snake Really? From that building.
Jamie:Yeah. It's a big warehouse. Yeah. Is that what that used to be? Yeah.
Jamie:The whole store was a
Scott:do exotic pets.
Jamie:It's a big store for exotic pets.
Scott:There were a lot of them. They had, like, a little, like, petting zoo.
Jamie:Oh, really?
Scott:Kinda. Yeah.
Jamie:Guess it didn't do so hot.
Scott:I I mean, I guess not.
Jamie:I guess not since they're not there.
Scott:But it was a good come with a car wash next to it. Pretty good too.
Jamie:Okay. And the strip and the strip clubs that are kinda bracketed on both sides? The what? Strip clubs.
Scott:Oh, I don't know I don't know about that.
Jamie:I don't know what those things
Scott:are. What? Me neither. Yes. I know.
Scott:It's right in
Jamie:the story. I I hear they're there.
Scott:Wait. There's more than one?
Jamie:I think so. I didn't know that actually. Was somebody told when we
Scott:were on
Jamie:Oh, I When we're actually on our hockey weekend this past weekend Yeah. Someone told about
Scott:the other The secret one is
Jamie:Anyway, I've never been to either one of them.
Scott:In the in the back alleys.
Jamie:Yeah. I've never been to either one of them. I mean, obviously, know one of because of The Sopranos. Yes. Right?
Jamie:Was famous for
Scott:The Sopranos. They would put they they would have, like, a lettering on, like, the letter board sign out front. It would say,
Jamie:like, Bada
Scott:Bing. So it was
Scott:always, like, leveraging that,
Scott:like Sure.
Jamie:Why not? Right? Totally. I mean, Sopranos shot, like, all the entire the entire show there.
Scott:That's amazing.
Jamie:I mean, it was they did I forgot how many seasons The Sopranos were, but they shot the entire show there. Paramount. Dude, doesn't it suck that you have to pay
Scott:for Paramount?
Jamie:Hulu, Disney, Netflix, Prime. Dude, it was
Scott:better when you didn't now it's like you wanna go back to the core.
Jamie:It's so irritating.
Scott:I know.
Jamie:I know. It's so irritating.
Scott:Oh, boy. Do I know? Because then it's like, how many times have I gotten, like, a free trial?
Scott:And you don't,
Jamie:like cancel it?
Scott:And then don't cancel with the intention of canceling it. Yep. Yep. Or I've been borrowing, like, credentials from, you know Somebody else? Someone else for certain things for, like, ages.
Jamie:Yeah. But So irritating, dude.
Scott:Alright. So let's let's talk hockey, man.
Jamie:Let's talk hockey.
Scott:The weekend was underway.
Jamie:And everybody's back in gear.
Scott:Yes. Yes. Some yeah. Definitely people started the weekend before. Some people, this was their first weekend.
Scott:But, dude, I got so we drove up to Massachusetts on Friday.
Jamie:Yeah. You did. You guys had a cool experience up there.
Scott:We did?
Jamie:Well, you were at Providence College.
Scott:Yeah. For sure. Right? Yeah. I just wasn't sure exactly what you're talking about.
Scott:Yeah. So the first game was at Providence College. Yeah. Haven't been there before. Go Friars.
Jamie:Yeah. Go Friars.
Scott:Right? Neighborhood's a bit sketch.
Jamie:The neighborhood around the school is a little Suss? Is a little questionable.
Scott:Little suss as the kids say.
Jamie:Super super questionable. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:But great facility.
Jamie:Yes.
Scott:And it was a great place to kinda kick things off. We so we got to the rink. So what I learned before we went up there Mhmm. Was that the this tournament that's been going on for some time, the eastern kickoff Eastern yeah. Eastern Alliance kickoff Okay.
Scott:Is typically for ages older than Pee Wee Major. I think it might have only been a Bantam tournament.
Jamie:So it's only older kids.
Scott:Bantam midget in the past. Got it. This year, they added so we were only one of four teams that were there.
Jamie:In your For your age.
Scott:So we played so we played all three teams.
Jamie:And that's it.
Scott:And that's it. And then we played so anyway Okay. So we're we're supposed to play the South Shore Kings. Okay. Game one.
Scott:We get there, and I see on the ice a whole bunch of Middlesex Islanders jerseys.
Jamie:I was like,
Scott:that's weird.
Jamie:You're like, that doesn't look like South Shore Kings.
Scott:That does not look like South Shore Kings.
Jamie:Okay. They're green.
Scott:Yeah. Green and black. And then then I thought to myself, like, is there any chance that, like, this is a more common, like, thing in Massachusetts? Like, I it made no sense.
Jamie:Middlesex Islanders is, like, orange and white. Of course,
Scott:with, like, the lighthouse on there. Yeah. So in any so
Jamie:Not green.
Scott:So it was Definitely not green. So it was the Middlesex Islanders, and it was the twenty fifteens, not the twenty fourteens.
Jamie:So you guys are playing younger kids?
Scott:Younger kids who they'd finished, like, sixth or eighth or tenth in the country. They entered up. They entered up. Okay. And they beat us.
Jamie:No shit.
Scott:They beat us game one, and that was like, oof. Okay. But I'll tell you this much. Gotcha. You know, what you'd expect from elite teams even in, like, the PE birth years is you should expect a a team that's certainly puck moving.
Scott:Right. You you have kids that have, like, you've depth in your lineup in terms of abilities, skating, stick handling, passing, shooting. Right. There's no, like, cliff or there's less of a cliff.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:Then you're also gonna have kids that know where to be, like, positionally for the most part. Mhmm. So on breakouts, those, like, quick one two passes and you're up the ice, like, that would happen often.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:You have kids that are also really good at, like, positioning and, like, angling. So so, basically, we played against the team. This is our first team together. A first game together. Mhmm.
Scott:And we played against a team that was Probably
Jamie:been together for a little while.
Scott:For a little while. Yeah. They only had like 10 skaters. So they had like two lines of Lean
Jamie:and mean.
Scott:Lean and mean. And they won. They won. What's final? Oh, the first one was maybe like five two?
Jamie:Oh, you played them again?
Scott:We played them in the finals.
Jamie:Oh, time. I gotcha.
Scott:And then we lost again. But in between, we had two good games. We bounced back on Saturday.
Jamie:Okay. And after
Scott:the first game, I was like, this. You know?
Jamie:Thought it was gonna
Scott:be bad. There were things you know what, like, was like it wasn't that I felt like you could make a it wasn't clear that the team wasn't what am I trying to say? Like, there were there were individual plays. Like, there was a few upsides Okay. That were, like, pretty pretty bad.
Jamie:Like, they should've We should
Scott:we should've stayed on sides is what I'm trying to say. Right? Then there was, you you know, there were we had two breakaways, and we we ended up, like, whiffing on, like, both of the shots. You So don't you don't expect that every day either. You know what I mean?
Scott:You hit a bunch of posts. Like, the game could have been closer.
Jamie:Okay. You lost five two, though.
Scott:I think. First game. Honestly,
Jamie:I Something like that. Yeah. It's not that point. It's something like alright. It it was not they didn't blow you guys out.
Scott:But I left there saying, like, we played a better team, and we had a moment of looking good in the beginning of the second period. I thought it was gonna come back, but then the wheels fell off.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:Our goalie played well. It kept us in the game certainly for the first half.
Jamie:Okay. Not
Scott:No. Listen. Not awful. It's the first game. So just write that one off.
Jamie:Yeah. Sure. But then they came back
Scott:on Saturday, played two solid games against, you know, 20 fourteens. K. And they were not, like, high end triple a teams.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:They're still triple a teams.
Jamie:Got it.
Scott:We won ten five, and then we won oh, what was the second game? Jeez. My memory is bad. But then we won our second game of the day also, and the and the team looked much better. They were moving the puck well.
Scott:Like, it was
Jamie:like Okay.
Scott:So a
Jamie:big difference from game one.
Scott:Yes. Okay. And that was great to see. Then come to the finals, we're playing the same Middlesex team again.
Jamie:Again, who lost two game one?
Scott:Lost two game one. I thought, like, okay. We had there was a moments in game one where I thought we we were gonna start, like, clawing it back and, like, kinda go, you know, go for it. Dude, same thing happened. They got the first goal.
Scott:Right. Second goal, third goal, fourth goal. Maybe maybe fifth goal. And then I stepped out. I called my wife.
Scott:And when I came back in was six two. Oh. And then I think we made it six three Okay. With, like, four minutes left and just nothing came up.
Jamie:Just didn't go. Alright.
Scott:Just just didn't happen.
Jamie:So Okay. Not awful.
Scott:No. It wasn't awful. I think that the
Jamie:So you guys went two and two on
Scott:the weekend? Two and two.
Jamie:Yeah. And lost in the finals.
Scott:Lost in the finals Okay. To a team that, like, they they deserved to win. Like, they were they played better than us. But I will say though that we definitely had some chances in both games
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:Where if we had, like, you know, put them away, they would have been a much closer game. Not saying a guaranteed win
Jamie:Yeah. But I gotcha.
Scott:The the games could have been a little bit closer.
Jamie:And you guys played that first game on the Fryer's Ice?
Scott:On the Fryer's
Jamie:Ice? Fryer's Ice. Yeah. It's a nice rink, isn't it?
Scott:It is. My only thing though is that, like, the LED lights are just very bright white.
Jamie:It is bright. Yes.
Scott:And it's, like, a little, like, woah. It's a jarred.
Jamie:It's a little sterile.
Scott:A little, like, a little clinical, a
Jamie:little Yeah. Like, feels like you're in
Scott:a hospital. Kinda. Yeah. But, you know But
Jamie:it's a pretty building.
Scott:But I like how this like, the the white, gray, black transition throughout the building. It's like
Jamie:it's Yeah. They didn't they didn't shop in that building.
Scott:Oh, for sure. And let's go Jersey Devils. So I'm in the rink. Yeah. I'm looking up.
Scott:They have like, pictures of players, past players that I all all went to the highest levels, I
Jamie:think. Right.
Scott:So who do I see first up there? And I took a picture. I'll show you. I didn't send it to you. Randy Vilachak.
Jamie:No shit.
Scott:Yeah. He went there? He went there. Oh, I didn't know that's a pre played. And then I'm I keep going
Jamie:down the line.
Scott:That's cool. Chris Terrari.
Jamie:Another devil. Another devil. Cool.
Scott:Yeah. And then and then I'm in the ring think Chris Terrari wore number one. I think that's right.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Okay. It was Sean Burke wore number one. He wore 31, I think.
Jamie:Did he? Got you. Terry won 31. Maybe you're right.
Scott:Sean Burke wore
Jamie:Maybe you're right.
Scott:Maybe you're right.
Jamie:Nice. Oh, so there's
Scott:two bits there. And then and then there's a banner that's got Lula Morell's name on it.
Jamie:Did he coach there? Or he played? Really? Yeah. I didn't know that.
Scott:I was like, wow.
Jamie:You're right. Chris Terry wore 31. 31. Correct. Sean Burke wore you're you're absolutely right about that.
Jamie:Nice nice nice by you. That's cool. You guys you just got one game on the on the
Scott:Friday's One game on the Friday's
Jamie:That's cool, though.
Scott:We we played a game in a different rink. Every game we played at a different rink.
Jamie:Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh.
Scott:Played in Providence, then we played it
Jamie:Well, because you guys are in that in that Rhode Island, like, mass area, like, right on the borders of all those states.
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:So you kinda bounce all around to all those ranks in that area.
Scott:Yeah. We weren't far from Foxborough.
Jamie:No. You weren't far from anything. No. Rank wise.
Scott:No. No. No. It was good.
Jamie:That area, you drive, a half hour in any direction, you'll find rich. Size.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. It nice. Good.
Scott:Alright. So listen, the takeaway was I think the team's got definitely has potential. Mhmm. I think the coaching staff like knows what they have Right. To deal with at this point and it's just a matter of starting to work on the things that Now
Jamie:you start developing.
Scott:A 100%.
Jamie:Okay. Good.
Scott:So yeah, man. That was so it was a solid weekend.
Jamie:Good. I like it.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Nothing wrong with that.
Scott:Yeah. How about you?
Jamie:So we were out in the Pennsylvania area, in the Northeast Philadelphia area. We played same rink all four games.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Ours was not a tournament. It was a showcase. Okay. And, you know, so I'm I'm I'm here. I'm alive.
Jamie:You know? So that's positive. But, I stayed in what was probably the worst hockey hotel that I've actually ever stayed in.
Scott:That sucks.
Jamie:And I didn't leave.
Scott:And you also knew this going into it. I still
Jamie:We talked about it in the last podcast. I know. All the reviews that we read are true.
Scott:They are true. Oh, 100%. Have you put a review up on the No.
Jamie:I have not.
Scott:Are you going to?
Jamie:I'm not that guy.
Scott:What do you mean you're not that guy?
Jamie:I'm not like a
Scott:letter writer. You you're the guy that kinda drops bombs. That's the way you that's
Jamie:the letter writer. Not like a I'm like There's no more carrier pigeons.
Scott:Understand. I'm
Jamie:not like a review writer.
Scott:You could take, like, a picture and just send
Jamie:it. Sure.
Scott:I could. I'm just saying.
Jamie:I'm not I'm not like a I'm not gonna go and Yelp and be like, My state was awful. I'm like Uh-huh. No. I'm I don't need I don't trust me. I don't need to.
Scott:You
Jamie:You just look at the reviews, and they don't need me piling on. It's all there.
Scott:I'm just saying.
Jamie:I listen. I could, but I I I could, but I I I'm not that guy.
Scott:Maybe if you maybe if you write in, you'll get a free night.
Jamie:So it's funny. I I think I think our our team manager is actually don't say she's working on that, but I know she's I know she's she called Marriott. She's like, you guys are out of your fucking nights.
Scott:You need to blow that place up like yesterday.
Jamie:Dude, she spoke to the AHF. Yeah. She spoke to a rep from the AHF. And she Yeah. Were they helpful?
Jamie:She's like, listen. She's like, you cannot. This is on, like, your recommended site. Like, you can't recommend this, so I tell the Hockey parents.
Scott:But but what did they say? Did you get feedback?
Jamie:I'm not sure. I didn't I didn't really ask. But
Scott:I'd be curious.
Jamie:But but let me listen. We were there. We we we didn't leave, you know, because a lot of hotel there were listen. We could have left.
Scott:But teams did leave. Right? That you told me that teams left. If you don't wanna say who it was, that's fine.
Jamie:I can say half of Ashburn who drove up from, like, Virginia Yeah. They left because of
Scott:bedbugs. That's disgusting.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. So there there was our well, god. Were you gonna ask her? You're gonna ask her something?
Jamie:I thought you just gonna ask her something.
Scott:No. I was, but it's
Jamie:not important. Yeah. They we when we the first night we were there Friday night, we had a late game. Okay. We had, like, a 07:40 game.
Jamie:Yep. So we got back, and a bunch of us were having some drinks in the lobby. And there was a long line at the counter to check-in or check out for that matter. So, and what we found out is that a bunch of them were the Ashburn parents who had just driven up. Yeah.
Jamie:Because you're it's Friday evening. Right? So we happen to a game Friday evening. So they had driven up, you know, however many hours it took them to get from Virginia to Pennsylvania. And a lot they a lot of their rooms had bedbugs.
Scott:Oof.
Jamie:So they were trying to, you change rooms, and there weren't rooms for them to change into. So there's this big line, and the girl at the front desk is, like, going back and forth trying to find clean rooms for these people.
Scott:Can you imagine being that girl, Like, on that shift? Like, what shitty look.
Jamie:Scott, they have to this hap
Scott:This must happen all the time.
Jamie:This hap has to be a common occurrence. Right. Just look at the reviews. It has to be.
Scott:Right. So they're they're you'd think that they're prepared to deal with
Jamie:People getting their cars broken into the parking lot, the cockroaches, the bed bugs. Like, this is a common thing in this place. Yeah. When when they when they when somebody comes to them, to one of the employees there and say, oh, my sheets are dirty, or there's a cockroach in my room, or my my window got broken into in the parking lot. They this is not like, oh, my God.
Jamie:I can't believe that just happened.
Scott:Right. They're they're so desensitized to the riffraff that it's just another day in paradise.
Jamie:Again, just read the reviews.
Scott:Yeah, and don't go.
Jamie:And and stay fucking clear. I mean, it's yeah. So so our
Scott:Wait, do you wanna say which hotel that was?
Jamie:Yeah. It was the Four Points Sheridan that's owned by Marriott in Northeast Philly. What a fucking dump. I mean, I'm gonna say it because it's so fucking awful. Like, do not fucking stay there.
Jamie:Do not. Like, if you're a hockey family and somebody goes, oh, let's go stay at the four points Sheridan in Northeast Philly, do not stay there.
Scott:Do not do that. To all you team managers,
Jamie:all you coaches, I I'm warning you right now, you don't wanna be anywhere near this fucking place. Yeah.
Scott:Mean, is that sucks. Yeah. But didn't you also tell me that someone had bloody sheets? Yeah. But like
Jamie:Like, not only did this person have bloody sheets, but this person who had these sheets is like a germaphobe, one of our parents. He this is like the last person that this could have happened to.
Scott:Like the worst person.
Jamie:The worst person. Like, this is like this
Scott:is literally the worst
Jamie:person I heard.
Scott:Was blood. It was like You can I tell? It was
Jamie:saw a picture. Yeah. He it it looks like this is gonna sound gross and awful. It looks like
Scott:Someone gave birth in
Jamie:the bed. Like a lady.
Scott:Gave birth?
Jamie:Oh, it looks like a a young lady who is it was that time of the month Yeah. Sat down on the on the bed.
Scott:Got
Jamie:it. That I mean, there's, like, outlines of, like, her ass cheeks. Yeah. I'm kidding.
Scott:No. I don't think you're kidding.
Jamie:They're pretty bad. I saw that It looks like an apple. Dude, I Let's see. Looks like an apple.
Scott:Dude, I actually saw that on a subway once. I was on a subway, and the
Jamie:woman got up.
Scott:And I was like Woah. Woah. And then she was wearing, like, white jeans, and she walked away.
Jamie:Was like Sweetheart, no. Oh, no. No. No. That's a bad move.
Jamie:No. How do you wear how do what female wears white during that time?
Scott:I don't know if she did, whoever she was.
Jamie:I I don't know what the equivalent for a guy is, in that department, but that's that's rough. I mean, that's like that's that's rough, man.
Scott:Yeah. Anyway. So let's let's listen. And there
Jamie:was a cockroach in our in our assistant coach's room.
Scott:That's disgusting.
Jamie:Dude, he the the assistant coaches our two assistant coaches were down having drinks with us, and the head coach was there.
Scott:Wait. Did you have two assistants last year?
Jamie:We did.
Scott:You did?
Jamie:Yeah. Okay. We did. One didn't show up all the time. Okay.
Jamie:Sometimes we had all three.
Scott:Part
Jamie:time? Kinda. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:And then and he had he had a baby this year, so he, so there there
Scott:even more time?
Jamie:He has even less time. Know. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Jamie:So, so now another one of their buddies came on, the three of them are all went to high school together, and they all played hockey together. They're all pretty good friends. It's a cool coaching staff.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:Real cool. So they were all down there having drinks with us, and the two of them were like, yeah. You know, we're gonna go to bed. So they went up.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And then they came back down. And then we're wondering why. And, and Marty, who's, one of the assistants at the goalie coach, he, he looks at Tyler. He goes Tyler's your head coach. He looks at me.
Jamie:He goes, yeah. We just found a we just found a cockroach in our bed. So, yeah, we're sleeping in your room tonight.
Scott:Oh my god.
Jamie:So the three coaches shacked up in the same room. He doesn't I don't blame him either.
Scott:No. I mean, it's better than sleeping in
Jamie:your car probably. I I would recommend you don't stay in your car.
Scott:That's right because that's, like, off limits there.
Jamie:Because there are multiple reviews that, like, they break into, like, six, seven, eight, nine cars a night there. One of our dads Yeah. Was there a couple years ago with this older one, and he's like, Jamie, I was here when nine cars got broken into.
Scott:And he went back?
Jamie:He alright. So it's funny you say that.
Scott:Wait. What am I missing
Jamie:three hockey players.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:So he's he's been through a lot of hotels.
Scott:Yeah. And this is actually not the worst.
Jamie:When he pulled up oh, yeah. It has to be the worst. When he pulled up, he actually told me yesterday. He pulled up. He's like, shit.
Jamie:This place again? He realized it was a place it was. Shit. Oh, shit. But he realized that it was that place again.
Jamie:He's like, Oh, God. You gotta be fucking kidding me. So so I guess the highlight of the weekend was none of our cars got
Scott:broken into. That's great.
Jamie:That's a win. So that worked out nicely because we're all we're all staring down from the windows at our cars, like, in the middle of night trying to make sure that nobody was there hanging out in the parking lot.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:But it's an it's an area.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:It is. It is definitely an area. And then I guess we were supposed to have, like, breakfast in the lobby Mm-mm. Saturday morning. Mm-mm.
Jamie:And I'd, like, at the buffet, and the coach was like, nine it's like 9AM breakfast. We're gonna do a team meeting, and all the kids are gonna eat together. And we've done that before in other hotels. And we get down there, and there's no food. We were like, And you know what?
Jamie:One of the moms actually the manager actually said, she's like, You know what, Jamie? Because I'm like, What? Like, what happened to the food? She's like, After the cockroaches scene, she's like, Would you I'm wanna eat like, You know what? Good point.
Scott:Yeah. Fair. But but but again, share with us why there was no food.
Jamie:I don't know. Right. I don't have any
Scott:No one knows why they did not serve food.
Jamie:Right. There was just no food. There was an area set up for, like, buffet style,
Scott:but there no food. No food. Zero food. The cook called out.
Jamie:Your your guess is as good as mine.
Scott:Either way, that's what that sucks. And I agree. I wouldn't have eaten there anyway, but the fact that it's just like another thing to add to, like, the awesome reviews for this place, like, Jesus.
Jamie:The price kept changing for, like, the drinks that the whole, like, store that was there. Like, Dom's like, he got, like, a chocolate milk one day. Was $4. The next day was $5. And you're like, wait.
Jamie:What the fuck? Jesus. You know? So it was just a total dumpster
Scott:fire. Oh, that sucks.
Jamie:You know? So so yeah. So listen. We made the best of it. It was fun.
Jamie:It was fun because it was because it was an experience. Our room was fine.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:We had a I see why some of the reviews are good, and some of the reviews are awful.
Scott:But even if you're in a good room, you can't, like, give it a good review.
Jamie:I mean, our if I didn't see any the reviews, if I didn't know that some people had bedbugs, if I didn't know there was bloody sheets, if I didn't know that somebody had a cockroach in the room, our stay would not have been awful.
Scott:Okay. Like That's fair.
Jamie:The room was our room was fine.
Scott:Was adequate.
Jamie:Listen. It's a little date our room wasn't dated, though. Our room was new. Right.
Scott:With new with new sheets?
Jamie:Dude, I I took the sheets off. I unzipped the mattress cover.
Scott:Oh, you did?
Jamie:Fuck yeah.
Scott:You're brave.
Jamie:Are you kidding me?
Scott:That's the kind of thing you don't wanna
Jamie:fuck with. All did it. We did it. Dude, our mattress was new. I was like, okay.
Jamie:We're good. So I said to Nancy, I'm like, Nancy, I'm like, we're good. Like, we're okay. You know? Like, we're good here.
Jamie:Because Nancy didn't come down Friday night. Didn't? She said, Jamie, you gotta let me know what it's like. Why? So I drove down with family.
Scott:I got
Jamie:Dom and jumped in the car. Yeah. It was an hour and a half. And then, and she's like, let me know what it's like. She's like, because if it's bad, I'm not coming.
Scott:So you lied to her? No. I told her.
Jamie:I told her it was rough, but I said our room is clean, so you're fine.
Scott:But then she ended up sleeping like she looked like Kenny from South Park.
Jamie:She looked like exactly Kenny from South Park. She slept in socks, sweatpants, shirt, sweatshirt, hood up, and tied. Yep. Like, not only that, it's like it's funny. We went to Topgolf to not have to be in the hotel.
Jamie:Yeah. So we just did something to, like, not be there.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right. You know? So we had a very late game. We had an 08:40 game Saturday, and the nine forty's gonna go back by, like, ten and change ish. Right?
Jamie:So she's finally in bed at, like, midnight, and, like, all of a sudden, it's dark in the room, and all a sudden, like like I have a very powerful flashlight
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:That she brought with her.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And, like, all of a sudden, like, the whole room, like, illuminates. So every, like, two minutes, she would turn the light on and, like, look for bugs. Turn light off. Then turn it on. Then turn it off.
Jamie:And I said to her, I go, Nancy, I go I go, if you what if you do find something? I go, if you find something, I go
Scott:Stop looking.
Jamie:I go, because if you do find something, there's nowhere to go. Right. There's no more rooms. The room is sold
Scott:out. Right.
Jamie:Right? So they're sold out or dirty, and you're not gonna go eat so that's not gonna work. And you're not gonna go sleep sleep with the car because that's probably more dangerous.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? So stop looking. So stop looking. Stop looking. So she did.
Jamie:I'm not gonna lie, though. When you woke up in the morning, you felt itchy. Not because it was bedbugs, but, like, it was just in your head. So we were fine. But yeah.
Jamie:So we were we were fine. And and and the hockey was the hockey was decent this weekend. We, we lost our first two to two good teams. Kids did not play particularly well. Chalk it up to, like, a, like, like, a first time together with the with the team.
Scott:Okay. Yeah. I mean, same same thing here.
Jamie:Like
Scott:Yeah. You know, if if it's, like, similar to you, you've got a whole bunch of new kids. If if you're playing with, like, a like, the same core from last year with only, like, two additions, then, like, it's
Jamie:just six additions.
Scott:Yeah. So we have a team where only five kids have played together last season. So there's only so much you can expect from, like, the first game out. Correct.
Jamie:Yeah. So the first two were rough. The first one was bad. Second one was a little bad, but better. Yep.
Jamie:And then the last two were good.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:So on onward upward. So we're we're off and running, dude.
Scott:That's great, man. Well, I'm glad to hear it. But we, one thing I forgot to mention, which we need to post, I don't think we did yet, but, we had a we had to pay $25 to watch to watch
Jamie:our
Scott:kids play. And so when I got to the rink that night, there was some, you know, like, college girl sitting there.
Jamie:She was collecting And I
Scott:was and, like, look. When I saw
Jamie:Did get a wristband?
Scott:I did.
Jamie:But I
Scott:swear, I think I'm the only one that paid to watch. I I I don't mean
Jamie:Most people would just walk by her?
Scott:Plenty of people walked by her. And I'm not saying from our Did
Scott:you try
Jamie:to stop them?
Scott:I didn't I didn't observe that. But she was like, what am I supposed to do? Like, I'm like, are people giving you shit? And she's like, yeah.
Jamie:Oh, a
Scott:100% there. She's like, not not only are like 100% people are giving me a hard time. Like, then there are people that are just walking by Yeah. And like not listening to me. And then I never got clear instruction about what to do with siblings.
Scott:Like, do siblings have to pay if like a family of like five shows up?
Jamie:She was supposed to
Scott:She was like, I was just letting siblings go. But at the end of the day, it's like whoever made the rule that parents had to pay to watch their kids, that person should have been sitting there collecting money and dealing with that shit as opposed to getting some poor, you know, mission I'm not saying poor, but like, you know, she I don't think, maybe she knew what she was getting into. I wouldn't have signed up for that. You know what I mean?
Jamie:That's right. Yeah. Listen. It's, yeah. Listen.
Jamie:It's, that's a hard thing to
Scott:start charging parents for. There were a penny of people that were like That's hard. This is my this is my f u to private equity That's hard. Not paying.
Jamie:That's hard. Yeah. That's really hard.
Scott:Oh, listen. I don't I don't blame you. Someone said the money goes back to the kids. I'm like, yeah. Right.
Scott:It goes back to the kids. How does it go back
Jamie:to the way it goes back to
Scott:the kids. I heard I overheard someone say that and that Who?
Jamie:Like an employee there?
Scott:No. I I I overheard a conversation of parents talking, like, by your front desk.
Jamie:How does it go back to the kids?
Scott:I have no idea. I just giggled, and I always kept walking to the bathroom. I was like, there's not a chance it's going to the kids.
Jamie:No. No.
Scott:No. I I Not even a
Jamie:little bit. I've only witnessed that kids
Scott:would they be going to anyway?
Jamie:I've only witnessed that once.
Scott:I did. I Venmoed, and it went to the junior Bruins. So maybe it does. Like, if I'm giving $25 to a hockey team, I'd rather give it to my son's team. And Sure you would.
Scott:You know what I mean? Like Of
Jamie:course you would. No. Yeah. Listen. Like, that's ridiculous.
Jamie:We we I remember that in Buffalo a couple years ago, we had to pay $25 to watch for the weekend.
Scott:Yeah. It's bullshit. It is bullshit. Total bullshit.
Jamie:Yeah. And people were giving that person shit too. Was collecting
Scott:Well, they should.
Jamie:Every every rank had a table. You know? Yeah. And they were checking wristbands. Yeah.
Jamie:I gotta tell you, a lot of people just walked right by. A lot of people were like, fuck you, and they walked right by.
Scott:Yeah. I don't doubt it.
Jamie:They they did not stop them.
Scott:I wasn't looking, like, at everyone. Like, I got a wristband that was basically silver silver glitter. Mean, I it wasn't really glitter, but it was, like, you know, shiny and whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Notice any shiny objects on anyone else's wrist. I could have missed it, but I I I at the by the end of the weekend, was like, I might have been the only one that paid
Jamie:for this. I was the only sucker that actually
Scott:Or or other people did also, and they just, you could pay per game. Like, if you're only going to, like, the first game, you pay, like, $10. Maybe they, you know, did something different where they didn't get the same wristband I got. But That's a
Jamie:shame, dude. You can't charge for youth sports.
Scott:Well, they what do you mean they do everywhere? If you wanna watch your kid on TV, you wanna watch your kid in person, you wanna,
Jamie:you In in person, for the most part, you don't have to pay for youth sports.
Scott:Well, what do you think about high schools charging for admission? Because they do.
Jamie:You know, you're right. They do charge for, like, high school football.
Scott:Yeah. There is money.
Jamie:High school hockey, high school football. Is that considered youth?
Scott:But you're also giving the money to your your kid's team. Right? Or no. If you're an opponent and you're going to an away game and the home team is collecting money and you have to go in as an away person.
Jamie:Right. But then but then you so, you know, it's funny. The, it's funny. I wonder where that money goes. When when
Scott:Which money?
Jamie:Like, if you go let's say you go to, like, you watch a high school hockey team play. Yeah. Does the money go to the high school hockey team? Just go to the rink.
Scott:Oh, the
Jamie:Where does that go?
Scott:It probably goes to the high
Jamie:the You think it goes to the high school hockey team?
Scott:I do.
Jamie:You do.
Scott:I do.
Jamie:So that's okay. I'm okay with that.
Scott:Otherwise, they would have
Jamie:because those programs are not well funded. No. You know? Yeah. So that I get.
Jamie:But, like, these rinks are you tell me these rings are not well funded?
Scott:Well
Jamie:I mean, just look at the tuitions that they charge.
Scott:I I listen. I I do not know the economics of it. I just know
Jamie:I'm sure they're getting a cut of Black Bear TV.
Scott:But I still think it's hard to make like, it's a it's hard, like, it's a hard business. And I'm not saying that they should charge to have parents watch their kids for a tournament weekend. I'm just saying that it's it's probably thinner margins than one might think.
Jamie:Maybe. Might be right. Listen. I know it costs a lot to run these ranks. Yeah.
Jamie:It was just you know, I I get that. The maintenance is the insurance, I'm sure, is a lot. The energy costs, I'm sure, are high. Yeah. I'm sure that but I wouldn't be crying for these organizations.
Scott:I don't yeah.
Jamie:I don't think they're not. Listen. Private equity would not be involved if it was not a profitable business model.
Scott:Yeah. But the the the profitability might be just on the aggregate of a lot. You might need some kind of critical mass to cover your costs, and then the rest sinks to the bottom.
Jamie:Well, listen. The the rink and wane is not hurting for money.
Scott:No. But they all I mean, that that that guy is known to be
Jamie:He's also a good businessman.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's that's what he's that's his reputation for sure.
Jamie:Yeah. Listen. Yes. You know? Listen.
Jamie:I I don't know. Unfortunately, I don't know what the answer is. It it's I I don't like paying for youth sports.
Scott:No. You shouldn't
Jamie:have to
Scott:watch your kid play.
Jamie:That's shitty. Yeah. That's really shitty.
Scott:But would I support
Jamie:a local High school, fine. College, fine. But, like
Scott:Would I support a local high school? Like, you know, sure. That feels better than paying for, like It
Jamie:does.
Scott:A tournament that I'm already paying for. Like, I'm not paying for, like
Jamie:Especially if you're paying for just the tournament, the two years ago.
Scott:You know what I'm saying? Like, it's
Jamie:That I don't like.
Scott:Yeah. Not cool. Anyway That I don't like. Yeah. What else?
Jamie:Nothing. We're off and running, buddy.
Scott:We're off and running.
Jamie:I mean, hopefully, you guys all had a good a good holiday weekend. Hopefully, you guys you know, I'm seeing most of you are probably playing hockey someplace. Yep. We're kind of off and running, so it's gonna be interesting to see kinda what happens the rest of the way. You know?
Jamie:You know, I'm looking forward to it. We have a fun new parent group. Not new, but with the the people that joined are are good people. You know? So we kinda meshed pretty well this weekend.
Jamie:So that was fun. You know? Hopefully, you guys are all doing the same out there. Are you are you getting more involved in the parent group yourself?
Scott:Yeah. That's
Jamie:You said you're going to. Do you actually
Scott:say that. I yeah. I did. I mean, look. I I the Saturday we got there, it was a late turnaround Friday night.
Scott:Right. Saturday between games, we went to the restaurant with, like, all the other families. Most of the other families sat at a table with some new dads that I haven't don't really know. Right. I sat down with Seamus.
Jamie:Oh, you did? Yep. Nice. Thomas said hi. I will.
Jamie:Nice.
Scott:I will. Cool.
Jamie:It's a good dude.
Scott:Yeah. No. Totally. So yeah. So we started meeting the families.
Scott:There's still plenty of people I haven't spent too much time with. But, yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to spending some more time with the group this
Jamie:year. Right. For sure. Seamus was the one that got punched in that rink in, South Jersey.
Scott:I know. You mentioned that story.
Jamie:By that crazy parent that went after the ref. That's crazy. Crazy coach.
Scott:Crazy coach.
Jamie:Coach went after the ref.
Scott:Coach. Right.
Jamie:And then he was over there, and he he got he got caught in the crossfire. Nuts. Right?
Scott:Crazy. Should have him tell the story.
Jamie:We probably should have Mona tell the stories. Right? Was wild, man. Yeah. You know?
Jamie:But, yeah. No. So hockey's back. Yeah. It's it's hopefully gonna be a fun season for all of us.
Jamie:Fingers crossed. You know? And, yeah. And and the the guy that we have an interview with today, had a pretty cool hockey career.
Scott:Oh, did he ever? So you want me to Good.
Jamie:Fire away. Yeah.
Scott:So today, we're joined by Mike Vilardo. Mike is now of Subject, which you might have seen some clips for on Instagram and other
Jamie:social platforms. Subject.
Scott:Yeah. And so but Mike, for his youth hockey career and youth sports career, was a high level hockey player, high level baseball player. Correct. Hockey wise, he went to NTDP. He ended up getting offers from d one schools.
Scott:He got offered to play, d one baseball and hockey at Yale. Yeah. And he maybe the same for Brown, or
Jamie:I think he had a of think he had a lot of Ivy League offers,
Scott:you know, from yeah. Yeah. So he he played division one oh, through through his, you know, academic journey.
Jamie:He
Scott:played both division he played division, one baseball Yeah. And super high level hockey. Yes. And at the end of it, he found that there were plenty of credits that just didn't transfer as he went between different schools. Yeah.
Scott:And so he started Subject, which he describes as the Netflix of education Yeah. Where you have online learning where you can, like, scroll through. And I don't mean to take an education lightly by scrolling it, but what I'm saying is that there's, you know, for any online education, there's more and more of it with these academies. That's true. If you use subject, the credits you're earning on subject, from what I understand, should be transferable and will follow you, and you don't have to lose them, which is something that happened to Mike.
Scott:So he was solving for a problem that's only becoming more and more prevalent, I guess.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:And it was a great conversation to learn more about his path as an athlete and also more about subject, which we know the hockey communities are using.
Jamie:The, the hockey communities around us are using his platform
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:You know, as their educational part of their of their of their academies. Yeah. Yeah. No. He he's he's an interesting dude.
Jamie:We have to have fun again. He was a lot of fun.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:He has a his story is wild. Yeah. I mean, the schools he wound up at, the was wild.
Scott:And just the the sheer like, the the number of changes he made between baseball, hockey, baseball, baseball, hockey, Heinkel is Einhorn. Einhorn
Jamie:is Pinkle. Right? Like, Richmond Spiders, Purdue. I mean, Penn. I mean, he was all over the place.
Jamie:Yep. You know, like, all over the place. Yep. You know? But yeah.
Jamie:But it listen. It it shaped him to become the man he is today. You know? And now he's the CEO of a pretty neat, educational company. So, yeah, you'll hear more about it in the interview, but he was he was he was a lot of fun, man.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%. Yeah. Yeah, let's kick it over. My Vilardo subject.
Jamie:Alright. Enjoy.
Scott:Alright, everybody. Welcome to another interview here with the Crazy Hockey Dads. And tonight, we have a special guest on with Mike Vilardo from, Subject. And for anyone that's not familiar, he's gonna go into all the details, but he's doing a great thing there with educating today's youth. And from a hockey perspective, he played elite level youth hockey.
Scott:He went to the NTTP, played juniors at for the Chicago Steel. But not only was he a baseball I mean, a hockey player, also a baseball player at Penn and Purdue. Mike, just a tremendous athlete, and thank you so much for being on here. We'd love to hear everything you got going on. So if you don't mind kicking it off with us.
Scott:Yeah. Thank you for all that you're doing to help support families as they navigate this process. You know, huge fan of the show. Excited to be calling in today and looking forward to diving to the hockey. But, yeah, my current life, I live in Austin, Texas.
Scott:I started my company Subject in, you know, in Los Angeles, California six years ago now. We're building the Netflix of education. I was getting my MBA at UCLA at twenty nineteen when I got thrown into Zoom University, which was the worst experience in my life, biggest waste of time and money, but inspired me to start subject to help kids not experience the pain that I did in online learning. So a lot of passion here. We actually help a lot of hockey schools.
Scott:You know, TPH is one of our biggest partners. We love getting to work with them. The Woodbridge Wolfpack in Your Neck of the Woods, you know, really great people we're working with there. Long Island goals, a variety of folks across the country in hockey and all sports, but also just a lot of great public school districts that we're able to partner with and provide classes that they might not be able to support with either limited teaching staff or students who are not engaged with in person learning as much. So we've been really excited.
Scott:Subject.com, subject.ai, to help students learn better than ever before, and we love supporting teachers. They're the heroes of the society, teachers and coaches. So And any way we can help any public district or any sports academy provide a better experience with their education, we're here to help. So subject.com, subject.ai, and excited to dive into hockey.
Scott:Yeah. Well, a a little bit more about subject, if you don't mind, Mike. If
Scott:you I'm happy to do it as long as you love me.
Scott:Yeah. No. Want listen. I I think so online learning is something that has only become more and more prevalent, especially in, like, in the context of hockey. You see the hockey academy is popping up everywhere.
Scott:There's plenty of online schooling, nontraditional schooling. So I think this is, like, definitely something that we should dive into more, you know, and just learn more on how people, you know, are using subject. If you could just kind of go into Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Well, so, I mean, I'll go into I mean, we'll go to my story more in a bit, but, you know, growing up, I went to seven schools in five years. It was very hard to transfer classes, transfer credits. It was very frustrating. Lost a lot of credits that way, and, you know, I think that was a big inspiration around because I because I always say, you know, when I talk to investors, recruits, anyone, like, oh, why'd you do subject? It was the two stories.
Scott:One, the UCLA MBA going virtual and being super frustrated. And two is, you know, growing up in Cary, Illinois, wanting to play pro hockey or pro baseball and doing anything for that journey. And, you know, school was on the back burner back then, but seven schools in five years and seeing the pain of switching schools. And also the variance in education you get based on what school you're at. So the opportunity to go to subject you know, right now, you can go to subject grade six through 12.
Scott:And then this time next year, our plan is to launch k five as well. So in theory, you can go kindergarten to twelfth grade on subject and then apply to Harvard and get into Harvard if your grades are good enough. And that's something we are really excited about. You know, we are a four credit institution that helps schools and sports academies provide an even more engaging experience. And when you think about the sports academies, it's really been able to provide a next level transition to either junior hockey, college hockey, whatever it may be.
Scott:Know, TPH and us, we just announced the partnership to be the USHL academic provider, and huge fans of getting to work with USHL. You know, I got to play there. It's a great league. Kids can be able to go from TPH to USHL and not even have to switch schooling. They just stay on subject the entire time.
Scott:How great is that? You know, especially in, you know, and then obviously, we're talking about hockey here. You are one call away from going up to junior team, one call away from getting sent down, one call away from getting cut from the USHL going to the NAHL, and that's a lot of, you know, turbulence for someone's academic journey. We hope that subject can provide a much more consistent experience where you can enjoy your learning experience and not get left behind, which sometimes sports put a really difficult situation on student athletes, and we always wanna prior prioritize the student part of being an athlete first.
Scott:Yeah. And Right. James, just one one thing because I I I don't wanna hug the mic. But, Mike, if you could just clarify, TPH for those that don't know.
Scott:Yeah. Total Package Hockey Academy, you know, and they actually are now Total Package Academy as well because they have soccer, lacrosse, tennis. Nathan Bowen, the founder there, is a really great business partner of ours at this point. I've really enjoyed working with him. You know, Adam Ewing is the chief academic officer.
Scott:The entire team there has been great to work with. We really love getting to work with them. And, yeah, that's it's interesting because I played against TPH when they were the team out of, you know, Alabama and Tennessee. This is back in 2007, 2008 in the Detroit, like, showcase tournament. And I actually played against Nathan.
Scott:He was the coach. I was a player, and we were able to reconnect many years later. And, you know, we were able to get dinner one night and, you know, really paint my vision for him and how we could be able to build something special together. And, you know, what he's done over two decades now is exceptional, and it's cool to see them not only of hockey, but also other sports. And then to be able to land the USHL as a major partnership, something that's really exciting to, you know, accelerate both of our businesses.
Scott:Yeah. Congrats on that.
Jamie:Yeah. Thank you. So so, Mike, when you first started this, were you thinking, you know, like like traditional education first, and then the academy just kinda like or kind of like an easy ad for you? You know, because it's it's funny. You know?
Jamie:So I I knew about the academy down in Woodbridge that's being built. Right? Yeah. And and one of our one of our listeners from San Diego reached out and she's like, oh, you know, I know you guys are in Jersey. Can you give me some good restaurants in the area?
Jamie:She's my kids going to the Academy of Woodbridge. So I'm like, oh, cool. So I I happened to look it up and I found that subject is gonna be running the education, and this was when when I was talking to you guys trying to get you on, and I was like, oh my god. I'm like, subject. You know?
Jamie:Just kinda like, yeah. It was awesome. So just talk about that a little bit, and then we'll get into your your playing career as a kid.
Scott:Yeah. So when we first started, just wanted to build something cool that helped students fall in love with learning. You know, I was in a tiny LA apartment, and, you know, during the time COVID, it was it was, you know, obviously terrible, everything that was going on, very stressful. So many families, you know, my own family, many people affected and, you know, always wanna say that was sensitivity. In LA, in California, it was extreme lockdown.
Scott:Couldn't even go outside the restaurant. Didn't go to the beach. There's cops there. So, like, after six, seven hours of Zoom lectures, what could you even do for fun? It was really just Netflix.
Scott:And, you know, the things that we look forward
Jamie:to,
Scott:Tiger King, Last Dance, well, Love is Blind season one. Right? We're at the saving graces of COVID. This is what got you through the day to day. Yeah.
Scott:And so that was a I was like, okay. I'm a millennial. The kids in high school at the time were Gen Z. Now they're out of high school. And Gen Alpha was in, you know, middle school, elementary school.
Scott:They have to have a higher bar than I do for videography, and I'm upset. Imagine how upset and angry they are. What if we could build something that looked like Tiger King or Last Dance for them that got them actual credit? So that was our first vision, and just wanted to build something fun that they were able to enjoy learning from. And then over time, we kept hitting other milestones.
Scott:So first, we got accredited, which meant that we could take our course for actual credit. Right. Very challenging, rigorous process that's allowed for us to be able to really impact students deeply, which is great. And with that, we said, okay. We wanna sell the school districts because, typically, b to b business to business is a more lucrative business model that could be able to scale more quickly.
Scott:And also for us, deeper impact. When you're selling to schools, the school's paying for the product, not the students. So in theory, you can impact students of all backgrounds even more. So win win. Better business model, better impact.
Scott:Awesome. Trust the fact. So it was very challenging, as you can imagine. Selling to schools with no experience, learning that was very, very hard. You know, didn't know anyone, didn't know what the way to go to market was from a marketing standpoint, sales standpoint.
Scott:So learning all that on the fly, and, you know, we were able to take on some venture capital, which we're super thankful for, and we have some incredible investors on our cap table, Kleiner Perkins, you know, Owl Ventures, litany of great people. And, you know, when you take out venture capital, you have a pressure to your return capital to, you know, drive all the returns. And so and, you know, the thing that's has helped me a lot is in, you know, aspiring out, the growing up aspiring entrepreneur, they're very similar where, you know, the chances of success are low, but you can obsess over something. And if you do really well, it could be a really spectacular outcome. Well, when we were really struggling to sell to schools and finding our way, now we're on a really good ramp, and it's been a really good last couple years.
Scott:The sports academies kinda came up naturally because it's authentic to me and it's my background. I had a lot of coaches that were now running these sports academies. Yeah. And when I would reach out, whether I either knew them or played against them or with them, there would be some level of respect and credibility because of my athletic accomplishments. It's funny because it's like, okay, I'm not trying to be a high school hairy here, but you're ten, fifteen years out of your career.
Scott:It's kinda dead and gone at that point, but when you're in business with schools, you can actually really leverage it. Yeah. And so that's been really powerful for us. So we started getting some traction, especially in the Chicago area where I grew up. You know, G Force Academy, they're still one of our customers to this day, has been really successful.
Scott:Love working with them. They have several academies in the Chicago area. You know, this kinda snowballed, and then we got some more momentum. Went to the East Coast, Long Island goals. The president of that organization was one of my coaches growing up.
Scott:Then we got the the the Wolfpack, and now we actually even have Simone Miles Gymnastics Academy in Houston, Texas. It was super fun to be able to work with that. So it kinda just more so hap that was more like true relationship sales, networking, and leveraging my reputation, whereas selling to school districts was more so learning the science of selling to schools and having to learn a whole new industry.
Jamie:Yeah. And and it's funny because the blossoming of the academy models or alternative school now kinda worked in your favor. It just kinda happened to come online big time when you started this business.
Scott:Oh, completely. And I think with any business, a lot of it is you create your own luck with hard work and surface area for luck, but timing is very important. Absolutely. And the why now is very important. You could be too early on a business, you could be too late on a business, and you're out of luck.
Scott:You know, we're really blessed that we started this company at a really good time for change in education, and not for one day do I, you know, think like, wow. Am I so lucky to be able to start this at a time? And that's also one of the biggest reasons why I've been able to stay so consistent and excited every day is that I'm so passionate about education. I'm so passionate about sports. And I also have the humility, I believe, to say, hey.
Scott:This might be the best idea of my lifetime. You never know. You need to ride this all the way and be able to absolutely captivate and be able to have the best outcome possible. Because I know a lot of founders and great people that I've worked with in the past and future, etcetera, that they do their second or third business, and think it's gonna be a piece of cake. And that's not how it always goes because the why now is so important, and you need to be able to respect the fact when you have caught fire, you gotta take advantage of the opportunity and run with it.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Know, it's so interesting that, you know, just how it's evolved. I remember so clearly during COVID how, you know, there was, like, just thinking about the online learning piece more critically because now my kids were doing it.
Scott:Granted, they were young, but it just it struck me. And maybe it was something that I read or something that I saw. But, you know, if you take, like, a I don't know, like, a a Harvard professor, for example. Right? And who's, like, you know, world renowned, whatever credentials you wanna give him.
Scott:But, like, with the advent of, like, online learning or becoming so prevalent, like, what what would stop him from just, like, you know, offering his lectures, you know, to to the masses and not just like, you know, the you know, offer it to Harvard students. Now I'm sure there's, you know, like there's contracts and there's all that stuff. But just generally speaking, the idea of not necessarily going to the institution to get all of these great educators, you you know, to teach you. Right? You could have this, you know, you know, a combination of, you know, professors and teachers from all over the place to give you a top notch education.
Scott:I just thought that was, like, such an interesting idea on how, like, technology and how the world has changed. So, like, really, like, good good good for you for just, you know, going down that lane, like, with everything you got because it's it's becoming obviously more and more of a traditional way of or what was nontraditional is becoming more and more traditional.
Scott:Yeah. No. I I I completely, you know, have a very similar passion and vision of what you just painted there. And we always talked about early days that, you know, obviously, getting the chance to learn directly. You know?
Scott:And I was lucky enough to go to Penn. And, you know, these schools, you know, Adam Grant at Penn, I always talk about, or Scott Galloway at NYU or East you know, Harvard. Being in person with those professors is the optimal experience where you could get that. But if you could get that person virtually Yeah. It's better than 99% of the other opt ins.
Scott:So Right. How can we be able to help more students get access to the best instructor in the world at an affordable cost, that's with leveraging technology and media. And we're really excited to be leading that subject. Right.
Scott:Yep. So go ahead, guys.
Jamie:I was just saying, Mike, let's let's dive into your your background as a kid. How'd you start playing hockey and baseball, and let's hear it from when you were
Scott:little now. This is fun to you know, because I have my own podcast. I don't usually get to be the guest, so I'm I'm That's right. This is good to reminisce. For one, it's still you know, and subject's been great, and I'm loving the experience.
Scott:I'm very lucky. The youth hockey and baseball tournaments and experiences, some of the best experience of my life, especially the memories of my dad. They're really, really special to me, and I can't recommend anyone who's listening to this podcast. Please enjoy every tournament you have with your son or daughter. It is amazing.
Scott:And, you know, I'm excited to experience that on the other side one day as a parent, but I miss it so much as a player. So hockey, you know, I I lived in Cary, Illinois. It's a Northwest suburb of Chicago. You know, small town, but, you know, it was a really, really great place to grow up. And I was three years old, and one of my neighbors for their four year old birthday party was doing, like, a skate at the Crystal Lake Ice House.
Scott:You know? And so, like, they're going around the neighborhood like, hey. You wanna come to this skate? You know, if I was growing up in a nontraditional hockey market, maybe that doesn't happen. My parents had no hockey experience.
Scott:They had never you know, neither of them played competitive hockey. I don't think my mom at the time had ever even skated, but she's like, yeah. Let's go do it. Let's try and see what happened. And I just got completely addicted to skating, fell in love with the game.
Scott:It's just the best getting out on that sheet of ice and putting the skates on and just removes all your outside noise instantaneously. So getting to skate and and the nice thing is, just like Ice House is only ten minutes from my house. Barrington Ice House is only ten minutes away. All these rings I mean, I had five rings within twenty five minutes of my house. So right away, it was like, okay.
Scott:This is actually somewhat accessible. And if he really likes it, we can explore it. And so I just started skating more and more, and also the kids in my neighborhood, we played roller hockey together, and then, you know, being in Chicago, it would, you know, be cold in the winter. A retention pond behind our house would freeze over a lot of the times, and we'd be able to play pond hockey. So between the pond hockey, roller hockey, and then access to local rings, I just got more in love with the game every single day and ended up playing, you know, AA hockey for the Crystal Lake Leafs.
Scott:You know, that's why I'm a Leafs fan today. It's random. I am a Leafs fan, I know that.
Jamie:You're wait. You're not a Blackhawks fan?
Scott:Well, so and, you know, there are a lot of people who aren't close to the game. Mean, you guys are, of course. But, you know, when I grew up in Chicago, the games weren't even on TV because there was like a whole it was a really it's a forgotten era. When I was in high school and college, they were crushing it. They won the Cups, you know.
Scott:It was just awesome.
Jamie:That's true.
Scott:But before that, none of the home games were on TV because they thought the ownership at the time thought that would drive more people to go in person. It's like 5,000 fans a game at the United Center. Like, it's an unheard of time, long time ago now. But, yes, Crystal Lake Leafs, you know, we had the same jersey as the Maple Leafs.
Jamie:I get it.
Scott:Play AA through Might. And I actually had you know, the year when I was playing Might was the last year where in The US where the age cutoff was July 1 for double a. Double a and triple a used to have different age cutoffs. So I went for my last fight. Yeah.
Scott:It's very random facts. They bring some random old facts in. My birthday is in September September sixteenth. So I had that extra year of might. And then I only got one year of squirt because they changed it to be like, hey.
Scott:Everyone in The US is gonna go by birth year now. AAA always did because they were playing all the Canadian teams. Right. But AA was a July 1 cutoff. So I only got one year of square, but that's when I made the jump to AAA, played with Team Illinois, and ended up playing six years with Team Illinois.
Scott:Had a great experience with them. Not sure I I believe now at this point, I'm not as close to it as I, you know, I was, but it seems like Mission and Reapers have taken the leap in the Chicagoland area. Team Illinois, when I was playing, was very, very competitive. We won many state championships.
Jamie:They're still legit.
Scott:Good. Okay. Because I I I played one year with the Mission, and I played six years with Team Illinois. Yeah. Loved the Mission as well.
Scott:Great coaches. You know? But Team Illinois gave me more of an opportunity in terms of I spent more time developing there, and so very thankful for them. And then, yeah, I mean, from after playing AAA, I was lucky enough to play on the US development team. Still think that's every American kid's dream.
Scott:It's very, very special year there. And after that, I was a little homesick, so I ended up making a huge mistake in my opinion, but came back to play baseball because I knew I could play division one baseball. So I was committed to Ohio State, make the development team, didn't have the best experience because I was the worst player on the team. And so I got a lot of humble pie. I learned the hard way.
Scott:I wish I would have sucked through that. I would listening, don't make the mistake I made, but I came back to play baseball, then ended playing division one baseball largely due to that experience. And so it was still a great experience. Got to play, you know, at Penn and Purdue, and we could go into that story too as well because that was a bit bit of a long journey. But getting to play, you know, at the highest levels of, you know, amateur hockey and amateur baseball, I was extremely blessed and had a great experience.
Scott:Wow. So just you know, we've talked to, you know, a bunch of people at this point, and, you know, the billeting piece comes up, you know, quite often. But, you know, in terms of your experience and just you'd mentioned that there was some homesickness, was there anything else that, like, about your setup that just, you know, didn't work for you? I I mean, because it I, you know, I I feel like people generally like just to talk about the highlights and less about the lowlights. And, you know, if you could just share, like, what that was like for you.
Scott:No. Think I think it'd be really helpful for people to understand
Scott:because Absolutely. I'm very I'm very comfortable speaking to you on this. And for one, I have loved my experience in the USHL. It's a great league, so very big fan of USHL. I think what I would love for all of hockey and, you know, myself included at the time, more opportunities to play high school before going into the USHL.
Scott:I think that'd be a really great experience. Like, my senior year, though, going to play division one baseball, I played high school hockey for fun. To this day, still the most fun I've ever had playing hockey. So if you are not, yeah, if you're not likely to play division one hockey, please play high school hockey. I can't trust enough.
Scott:Like, it's a great experience. You play with all your friends. You play in front of your classmates. The rink is two minutes from school if you're lucky enough to live in a traditional market. So much fun.
Scott:I had a blast. You know, I think for me, when I went to the development team, Pioneer High School where we went to, which was very fun. I had a great experience. I met a lot of friends there. But if we had Subject at the time, not trying to plug the company, Hockey's here.
Scott:It really would have been. Right. Hey, that's why we say you gotta founder market fit. This actually the founder, or are they just trying to make a product that makes money? Like, no, I really wish I would have had this product, because I also moved in the middle of the year.
Scott:Like, I had a really I had a huge break. You know, the development team called me up. You're not gonna pass that up. They it was in September. The season had already started.
Scott:I was minding my business. I was about to play for the Chicago Mission, And Andre Sorensen, incredible coach, and the guy ended up coaching the Blackhawks. I was so lucky. I played two games with them. We're getting into the season, and he called me and my dad on the way to practice.
Scott:We're driving to Woodridge. It's about an hour drive from Cary. He's like, hey. The development team wants to talk to you. And we're like, what do you what do you mean?
Scott:Like, that's so random to see. Like, well, they've had some injuries, and they wanna have a great player come up. And, also, they want someone who's strong enough academically to handle the jump mid semester. Right. I was like, wow.
Scott:Like, we we were really on a good path there too. Like, we weren't rushing my development. I was gonna go to the USHL the year after, likely the Chicago Steel, which meant I wouldn't have to bill it. I could've stayed at home. And so we're like, do we wanna do it?
Scott:And, like, well, if we don't take the development team, probably I will regret that the rest of my life. So we said, let's have the talk. We talked with them, and we said and we're like, okay. Like, anytime, like, we need to know by the end of the week. And so we met with the development team.
Scott:They were playing the Chicago Steel that weekend. We met them after the game, like, at the locker room, went out, talked to the coaches, talked to the leadership, and we committed to doing it on the spot there. So it was a very rushed process to move up to Ann Arbor. Great town, by the way. Love Ann Arbor.
Scott:Still one of my favorite places I've ever lived. But that was very rushed. And so, like, if I think if we would have had a more methodical, you know, approach, and I, you know, I would recommend any family that too, like, really think about when you wanna make the jump to juniors. You know, I think, like I said, like, one, now a subject at USHL, a lot easier to do that jump, which is awesome. But I think it's really important to understand what you're getting into and making the jump when it's appropriate for you so you could have success and be able to go in there and be a real impact player.
Scott:I was so deliberate about my development, and I was gonna go my senior year. And, you know, I think that would have been, from a hockey standpoint, better, I couldn't pass up the development team. So I won my junior year, and, you know, obviously, it was a life changing experience. Still get to talk about today, so it ended up working out in that aspect. But I think hockey wise, I probably wasn't ready for the USHL jump just quite yet.
Scott:And so sometimes it could be good, force you to grow up faster, force you to be ready to play earlier, but also you could lose your confidence. And I think I lost my confidence a little bit, which immature of me. Wish I could go back and tell myself to stick through it more.
Jamie:You know, it's funny. You just said what I was gonna ask. I I was gonna ask you if you thought that maybe you weren't mature enough to do that at the time, because we talk all the time, Mike, about, you know, every has a different path in this game. Right? Some are early bloomers.
Jamie:Some are late bloomers. Right? So that was I guess that was what I was gonna ask you. If you were more mature, do you think that process would have
Scott:ended differently? For me, I was always you know, growing up, I was always first line or second line center. And so going into a fourth line winger role was very hard on me. Yeah. And I did not adjust so well.
Scott:Also, I was very small at the time. You know, I was only, like, a hundred fifty five, hundred sixty pounds. So being a fourth line winger in the USHL expecting to check, play a more physical game, that was really hard, and I did not excel at it. I started to turn the corner at the end of the year, which was great, and so I started to feel a lot better about it. But then when I went and played baseball, I'm at home.
Scott:I'm having a ton of success. I it's a lot lower competition here playing high school versus junior teams. And I was like, oh, I could just do this another year and still play at the, you know, very high level and, you know, kinda took the easy way out there, which, again, I don't recommend. But I think the aspect of if you're a top six forward or a top d pairing, know that if you jump early, you probably will not be that and understand that you have to learn to adjust to that role. I think there's a lot of value in understanding what it's like to be a role player, and I actually take a lot of value in that now, building my company and saying, hey, not everyone is a superstar.
Scott:Sometimes you're a superstar. Sometimes you're role player. That's right. Understand your role and be successful. There's a lot of great life lessons in that.
Scott:It is more fun being a superstar than a role player. And so my, yeah, my fund level dropped dramatically overnight.
Jamie:Mhmm. And
Scott:I think, to your point, the maturity aspect, not understanding like, hey. Like, yeah. It won't be that fun for five, six months, but then, you know, hey. In two years when you're at, you know, college and you're, like, the, you know, top six forward again, you're gonna be like, I'm thankful I went through that experience. I didn't have the long term vision to appreciate that in the moment.
Jamie:Most people don't. And the adversity is real. Right? You know?
Scott:So much adversity, which is there's a lot of good adversity, and I still take a lot of positive from that year to this day of saying, hey. You know, I'm playing with, you know, roughly 40 guys who end up playing in the NHL, some All Stars, some Olympians. And, like, getting to see that up close in person and being able to compete at that level gives me a lot of confidence now when I'm competing at the highest levels of business that
Jamie:Business.
Scott:And also to stick through the adversity. Going through that experience and falling away from it, now anytime I have a hard day or a hard year, it's like, I'll never make that mistake again. You gotta run through it. Right.
Jamie:That's how it could grow. Growth.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. I grew I grew a ton from that experience. I'm so thankful, and I actually am still in touch with some of the development people to this day and really thankful for the experience they gave me.
Jamie:It's awesome.
Scott:Yeah. That it's it sounds like an unbelievable opportunity even if it wasn't, you know, it was just for the year. But as you were talking about, like, the the difficulty in transitioning to, like, you know, the fourth line or not being, like, one of the top players on the team, You know, in in terms of, you you know, parents and looking at their children's development and, you know, a lot of parents are chasing the top teams. Right? And they they want their kid to be on a winning team.
Scott:They want their kid to be surrounded by, you know, like, the best players possible, but it doesn't necessarily, you know, translate always into great development. On the other hand, if you have, like, a parent that is, like, okay with their kid either maybe dropping down to tier two or finding a a less competitive team, It might feel like a loss in the moment, but, like, just that the that adversity that the kid's going through and trying to either earn his way up to that tier one level or, you know, you know, figure out his own way of coping with, like, the struggle of, like, maybe going down. It sounds like, you know, if I had to put words in your mouth potentially that, you know, those bit any adversities like that growing up is only gonna benefit you down the road.
Scott:It is. And being able to navigate challenges with coaches, teammates, political influences from parents is what the real world is like too. So Yeah. It doesn't end when you're, you know, 22 and you get your first entry level job. If anything, it's a bigger, grander stage.
Scott:So I think that when you're thinking about navigating the adversity, it's so important to have the positive self talk in the car from the parent and be supportive of your student athlete navigating the challenges together and really encourage them to be able to earn their keep. Don't do it for them. You should not be the one pleading with the coach to get a change in environment. Let your son or daughter earn that right, and let their performance speak. At the end of the day, you know, and one thing my dad always talked about is, you know, production wins above all else.
Scott:If you're the best player, they're not gonna be sitting you. If it's you're a bubble player, they might, and that means you're leaving it in the coach's hands, and that's on you. You should make it, you know, undistinguishable. Like, the coach isn't gonna sit LeBron James. They would look like a fool, and everyone would chirp them about it.
Scott:Go be the LeBron James. And if you're not LeBron James, be a great teammate, and find a role on the team. That's right. The worst is and, like, that's the thing. If you if you're gonna have a big ego and big attitude, you better be the best player, because once you're not, you're out of there.
Scott:And so it's important to learn that lesson as early as possible.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. You know, it it's interesting. You mentioned the car ride. So what were your parents like as far as because we talk about crazy hockey parents.
Jamie:Right? Some, you know, like, drill their kid in the car after games. What were what was Mike's parents like?
Scott:Yeah. So my parents are very different. You know, my mom was not as into the sports. Love her to death. She's a great parent, and she's a great mom, but she did not like the competitiveness of the hockey and baseball journey.
Scott:She wanted to have a more dialed back experience, and I think that her and my brother share that opinion, and, you know, I respect them for it. My dad and I are both ultra competitive and loved the environment. And so my dad and I really felt like we were on a journey together to try to make it as far as possible. And I think my dad really knew how to motivate me and what what buttons to push. Dad never once ever denied practicing with me for baseball or hockey.
Scott:That guy would practice me day or night, countless hours.
Jamie:And he asked for it.
Scott:Yep. And he would and anytime I asked for him to practice with me, he would do it. Anytime we could get extra ice or extra time with a coach, he would do it. He was incredible. I think the only fault for my dad is that he would fight for me, which I think is a good parent thing in a way.
Scott:He'd fight for me over the team any day, and he always thought I was the best player, which is awesome. And so he always gave me the confidence to really believe in myself. And Yeah. I think that that was really beautiful, and I love my dad for that. I think I think he did a great job of and, like, kinda what we're talking about earlier is, you know, a lot of people do chase the best team right now, and they wanna win the state tournaments.
Scott:They wanna, you know, go to the the brick or this and that and, you know, post on their Instagram, my son or daughter won this tournament, blah blah blah. And, you know, that was important to us. And winning is important, and it's good to learn how to win at a young age. But the most important thing by far was how much ice time I was getting. It wasn't even close.
Scott:So we always prioritized playing on a team where I would likely be on the first line over playing on a team that was gonna be the best and win the championship. And I think that that did weigh dividends for my development, and I appreciate my dad navigating that way. You know, with the one year we went to the mission, for instance, we had an incredible team. Several future NHLers, you know, Ryan, TJ, Jacob, Nick, Incredible team. Awesome environment.
Scott:And we won a state championship, and we choked in the regionals that didn't make it to nationals, but the next year, they're bringing in extra kids from Wisconsin, make the team better, all stuff. And that's when we went back to Team Illinois. We're like, yeah, you could stay on the mission and be second or third line, or go back to Team Illinois, be first line, and it's gonna be way more fun, and you're gonna get way more puck touches. And and you're gonna face more adversity too because you're gonna play against teams that might be better than you, and you're gonna be going up against the first line defenseman against Compuware, honey baked, and having to figure out how to get around those guys rather than getting the cherry pick across the third line defenseman. So I think that he did a great job development wise that way and really prioritizing me getting a ton of ice Simon puck touches.
Scott:And and, obviously, at the end of the day, helped my development, helped me pass by many of my peers because when it was time for getting scouted by juniors, development team, high school, I had a lot of confidence and ability to be able to create plays with the puck. And I think at the end of the day, especially as a forward, that still has the most premium skill set is how can you create plays? How are you creating offense? And are you getting the puck in the net?
Jamie:You know, it's it's interesting, Mike. You know, I know you're a baseball player too. Did you guys do a lot of power skating edge work, or were you playing when hockey season was done, you threw the bag in the closet and went and played baseball?
Scott:I did very little hockey in the summer. Okay. Now I was very lucky that I was a good enough player that I could, you know, still make the team. If you're a bubble triple a player, you kinda have to, innuendo, do the spring and summer stuff, or you might not make the team, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but that's life. So, you know, sometimes you have to do that.
Scott:I really love the game of baseball and hockey. It was very hard to make a decision. Part of the reason why I went to seven schools in five years and kept going back and forth and why I left Richmond on a baseball scholarship to play in the USHL with the seal again, we could get into that shortly as well. It's, like, to try to make it again in hockey. I could not make up my mind.
Scott:I truly love both sports, and my dad my dad was a baseball player, so he liked baseball more as a person, but he loved and fell in love with the game of hockey. And even though I was very busy because it's kinda like hockey's mid August to end of March, and then baseball in Illinois was, like, early April to early August. So there wasn't much crossover time opportunity. It did work out okay where you could play both at a high level and be super competitive. I think it'd be harder today because people push you to specialize even more.
Scott:It definitely still wasn't easy back then, but being able to play both I wasn't able to obviously play you know, I played basketball one year. I never played football. Played lacrosse a few years. But once I knew hockey and baseball were my biggest loves, I was able to play both. I mean, I played both into my college years, which was pretty special.
Scott:It's awesome. That's unbelievable. You were you were just touching upon, you know, like, how you you left Richmond to go to the USHL. Could you just kinda dive into that a little
Jamie:Yeah. Bit more Absolutely. And Good
Scott:story. Yeah. This is a good one. It's a long time ago now. I was basically finished
Scott:with
Scott:the development team. I always knew it was a one year experience for me because I got picked up late. So, you know, thank them for their services. Thank you for giving the opportunity of a lifetime getting to wear the USA jersey. We'll never forget that.
Scott:I still love it. This is my Austin office. Have that framed in our LA office. It's a real special memory. So I was gonna either have to go play in the USHL and continue to pursue hockey or pursue baseball, and so we kinda were navigating that process.
Scott:The Indiana Ice held my rights. I went to Indiana Ice Camp. I was with Blake Coleman. You know, a guy who won USHL MVPs, NHL. Really great player in the NHL now.
Scott:You know, I was likely gonna play on the line with him and was just doing all the baseball stuff. And, you know, my dad and I always joke is kinda funny. It was we were at a a tournament at Purdue, end up playing for Purdue later with baseball and doing the Indian ice camp the same weekend. And the ice camp, they're like, what are you doing here? He's like, no.
Scott:I really take baseball seriously too. And they didn't like that because they're like, what do you like, are you not gonna be on the team or what? I'm like, no. This I wanna play on my options, playing baseball. So they were afraid I wasn't gonna report, so they traded me to the steal.
Scott:It's in the summer of twenty ten. So, hey. Win win. Get traded to steal. I could live at home my senior year.
Scott:This is amazing. Win win. But baseball just was going really well, and, you know, hockey baseball and hockey are both super hard sports, but no one will argue that hockey is not harder conditioning wise. And, you know, the idea of getting, like, back into shape for the hitting and the physicality, you know, even though I was able to live at my home and carry the Edge in Bensonville where they were playing at the time, it was a forty five minute drive. Just everything was more friction playing hockey versus playing baseball hometown, high school, all of sudden.
Scott:Not how you should make decision, by the way. That's not what I'm saying. It's more so as a 17 year old brain
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:That what I was deciding between. I like, okay. I could play high school, play on the Cincinnati Pro Red Scout team, which I got just got offered to play for them, play division one, and not have to switch rules. This sounds better to me. I'm gonna do this.
Scott:So I effectively quit hockey. You know, still very disappointed, upset with me, but it is what it is. Go play baseball. Adios. So played baseball that year, but I played high school hockey for fun.
Scott:End up picking up high school hockey the day of the first game. All the kids at the pool, they were just like, please, like, if you're just playing baseball, play on the high school team for fun. And I was like, I don't really want to. I don't wanna get hurt. I wanna focus on baseball.
Scott:Well, I wanted to get drafted for baseball, man. I'm taking it seriously. I'm training super hard, playing fall baseball for the first time because I never could do that because of hockey. So wanted to go pro, and they're like, hey. Like, just play for fun.
Scott:It's a toned down schedule. If anything, it's a good workout for you, and you'll have so much fun. So day the day of the first game they convinced me, end up playing. Had a very fun year. Was, you know, state player of the year by the hockey stop.
Scott:You know, it was it was a lot of fun. It was I think I averaged, like, four points a game. Nice. So big jump going from, you know, division Ringer. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Well, I was going from the division one international USHL schedule with NTDP. I played Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Maine. I played all those schools the year before. Right.
Scott:School hockey in Illinois, which isn't considered the greatest high school hockey state. It's very solid, but it's
Jamie:not Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Minnesota or Massachusetts. So it was a big jump. So much fun. And the Edmonton Oilers actually reached out to me because they're like, what are you doing?
Scott:What happened here? Like, you were you were on the development team. You're on our list. You know, we were really excited about tracking you this year. Like, you're playing heist walking Illinois, and I was like, wait a minute.
Scott:I could get drafted while playing heist walking Illinois. Like, I wanna keep them interested. Like Yeah. Playing high school, but you never know what can happen, because it's the truth. You never know what can happen.
Scott:And they're like, okay. We're gonna come watch you. So they came, watched, met with my family, and they're like, okay. If you're gonna play juniors the next year, like, we'll seriously consider taking you, you know, sixth, seventh round pick. And, you know, the Steel, who still held my rights, they came to my games in the state tournament.
Scott:And similarly, hey. Like, your offer is still on the table here. Like, we'll take you back. Unbelievable. Yeah.
Scott:It was it was and so I really considered it because, like, plus, I I love hockey so much too. And, you know, especially once you're in the thick of the season, like, I can't give this up. This can't be my last time playing hockey. But then I ended playing baseball. You know, in spring, I had a really good baseball season, was, you know, Allstate, first team shortstop, committed to Richmond.
Scott:You know, I I had a couple scouts watching me for the draft that year. Didn't get drafted, but, you know, I was really playing well for baseball too. So I'm like, you know, I'm gonna go play baseball. I I you know, hockey, I love it, but I'm gonna go play baseball. So I ended up playing Baseball Richmond.
Scott:This is the first semester of my college season. And, you know, kinda like what happened to the development team, I went, and I realized, you know, it wasn't the best anymore. It wasn't gonna be a walk in the park to start. You're a freshman. You're bottom of the barrel again.
Scott:You're not gonna be the first, you know, starting shortstop. You're away from home. You know, at the time, you had a long distance girlfriend. You're, like, homesick, upset, all that stuff. So I was like, in my mind, I'm like, gotta get out of here.
Scott:I gotta escape. But really, this is where the first part of the subject journey really crystallized, because when I was at Richmond, which is a great school thank you for the opportunity, Richmond.
Jamie:Go Spiders.
Scott:Go Spiders. Go Spiders. Yo, in the classes, I would go to class with non baseball, just regular students, and they're like, hey, how'd you end up at Richmond? All the kids in the class are like, oh, got deferred from Penn and went to Richmond. Or I got deferred from Yale, but Richmond was my last option.
Scott:Had an offer to play baseball and hockey at Yale. They wanted me to play both sports. I had an offer for baseball from Penn, offer from hockey from, you know, from Brown and Princeton, and I didn't take them because I wanted to go pro, and I thought it was a waste of time. And our family was like, yo. You you're not gonna go pro from the Ivy League, and you don't need an Ivy League degree.
Scott:Get a great job. It's not worth it. Going to Richmond, not like in the baseball experience, being homesick, missing the long distance girlfriend, and then also realizing that I coulda went to these great schools that these kids wanted to go to, but I decided not to. I knew I made a mistake. And so I was like, okay.
Scott:How do I get out of this experience? Well, the least friction to get away from this experience is go back to hockey. Think about it. The coach isn't gonna be as offended. You're going to play hockey, not baseball.
Scott:Everyone knew you were a talented hockey player. It's it makes sense. There's rationality behind it. And, objectively, I was better at hockey than baseball. You know, statistically and ranking wise, I was pushed higher for hockey than baseball, so I'm gonna go back to hockey.
Scott:I told the I shipped my hockey stuff from my home. My dad sent it. I played a game with the club hockey team against VCU, their arch rival, Richmond VCU. I had two goals and an assist. So, like, okay.
Scott:This is easy. I'm I'm quitting on Monday. Go in. Quit baseball. Tell him, hey.
Scott:I'm going back to hockey. Sorry, coach. He's like, you're sure you're leaving us? He was upset, but not as upset because it was hockey. Like, it wasn't as offensive.
Jamie:Because you were changing sports.
Scott:You're changing sports, so it's not as abrasive and disruptive. So he's like, okay. If you're sure you wanna do good. And back then, you know, this is now there's a transport. It doesn't matter, but, like, you had to get your release back then.
Scott:So because I'm going to hockey, he signed a release. And even on you know, this is a good detail from the story, and the story's like, going to play hockey, never wanna play baseball again. It's literally on the release page. I don't think I have a picture of it. Otherwise, that'd be great documentation.
Scott:But he's he's like, yep. Wish you the best. Great. So I played on the club team for a month straight and also practiced with the double a team, the Richmond Royals. Thank you to that coach for letting me skate with them.
Scott:So I'd go to the ring, skate with the double a team, then I'd skate with the club hockey team, play club hockey on the weekends. And then I was figuring out my way back into the USHL. Des Moines Buccaneers put a claim on me. Reg Simon was coached at the time. My triple a coach knew him.
Scott:And then the USHL or the Steel put an injunction because they had my rights still. They're like, wait a minute. We're not letting him go to the Des Moines Buccaneers. We traded for this guy. This is our player.
Scott:So they got my rights, and they said, okay. Because I said I don't wanna miss out on my semester. I've already gotten halfway through. I wanna get the credits. Like, play till Thanksgiving on the club team, and then every weekend, you'll come home and play with us.
Scott:And then once your semester's up, you'll be practicing with us. So the first four games I played with the SEAL were only games I didn't even practice for the team. Would just come in and play on the weekends after not playing the USHL for two years, which was a lot of rust. And then at the semester ends, my dad came out. We drove back from Richmond, Virginia.
Scott:We had a game against Youngstown Phantoms with the Steel in Ohio. It worked out pretty well because it's kind of on the way, and drove back. And so played with the Steel the next 30 games. I enrolled at junior college, Harper Community College in Palatine, Illinois, and I just wasn't the same player. And these are great schools, by the way, and would love to have them on my podcast, so please, if you give me the chance, come on.
Scott:AIC, Bentley, St. Lawrence.
Jamie:Oh,
Scott:yeah. These were the schools offering me, which, again, very solid programs, but they were not the programs that were offering me with the development team, were Notre Dame, Yale, Central. Yeah. Exactly. So I I was very frustrated and down on myself.
Scott:I was so much regret. I'm like, wow. I made such a mistake. Left the development team. Didn't take my Ivy League offers out of high school.
Scott:I was really upset and down like, wow. I might have messed up my whole life. Like, that was, like, the dark place you go into at the time. And then sure enough, I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna just do a one last ditch effort.
Scott:I was at my parents' desktop at my home. I'm gonna email all the baseball schools that offered me in high school and just see if they'll respond. Be like, hey. I had a great senior year. Things didn't work out at Richmond.
Scott:See what happens. So I emailed Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Yale. Penn and Brown offered me the next day immediately, and Penn got me on the phone and shot up Penn. They're right there. Thank you for the biggest life changing opportunity.
Scott:And they said, hey. You need to decide right now on the phone if you're coming, and you can no longer go to the Wharton School. So Wharton School is the, you know, the the business school. Yeah. Commonly considered the number one business school in the world.
Scott:They only get a limited amount of Wharton spots. I got offered the Wharton spot out high school, did did not take it. And I said, coach, I'm in. And he's like, k. I'll see you in the fall.
Scott:So it happened that quick. Funny enough, literally that week then, Dartmouth for hockey offered me as well for with the seal, but they said I'd have to play another year of junior. So I would've went in, you know, another year later, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna take the Penn opportunity and was, you know, really blessed to be able to have a great experience at Penn and end up getting a play here at Purdue as a grad transfer as well. So a lot of different experiences across different organizations, leagues that have honestly paved me so well today because I've been in so many hyperintense cultures and different team dynamics that learning from those coaches, players, teammates, parents, it allows me to bring a lot of great leadership lessons and learnings that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
Scott:But very, very turbulent journey, as you can tell.
Jamie:That's the second rule of five years. Spiders, boilermakers, Quakers, Bruins, what am I missing?
Scott:Yeah. Okay. So the two junior colleges. So Oh, right. This is a well, but this is actually one last good story tangent.
Scott:Harper College, I'm taking literally two classes. So I knew going in, I'm like, I'm gonna take less classes so I could do better on the steel, and then I'll take two other classes in the summer. So you you know, take four or five classes every semester in college. I'm gonna take two in the spring. I'll take two in the summer.
Scott:I'll stay on track. Once things weren't working out, I emailed Penn, and we get the offer. I was gonna have to sit out a year because back then, as d one to d one, technically, I was still a Richmond to Penn transfer.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:So I was gonna have to sit out a year, I was like, there's no way I'm gonna do it. Back then, you know, sports was my entire identity. I could not imagine. Was like now looking at it, like, that probably would've been a pretty good year at Penn just as a student, but at at this time, I was like, there's no way I could deal with that. So I found, a loophole that if you were able to graduate from a junior college, most people do it in two years.
Scott:You do it in one year, it doesn't matter. You're still eligible
Jamie:Eligibility right away wise. From you
Scott:So I double enrolled. I enrolled at another school as well, McHenry County College. I So was going to two junior colleges at one time. I did thirty eight credit hours that one spring, and then I finished over the summer. I end up doing sixty two credit hours in that one calendar year, which is very challenging, but that's what allowed for me to go to Penn and be eligible to play right away rather than having to sit out a year.
Jamie:Alright. So I have a quick question. Like, and and hold on, Skye, because I don't know we don't
Scott:You're have time good.
Jamie:So I I know and I wanna get to college too because I know that's like your bread and butter. So if you had to do it all over again Mhmm. Give me the path.
Scott:Yeah. It's like I I you know, what's funny is I think about this all the time, and I'm glad that I finally got asked to talk about it on media and hopefully share a story. For one, I'm very thankful for my path because it made me super entrepreneurial. Yeah. And as an entrepreneur, you have to know how to navigate really messy situations.
Scott:So number one, very thankful, and I think it worked out for a reason. Number two, so if we're gonna go back, if I were to advise if if I right now, I just have a daughter, and, you know, she's amazing. If I ever have a son, and he's in the same situations as me, I would say to take the Yale double offer. That's what I would do. You could literally do it for one year and equip both sports, and you could talk about the rest of your life and your career in any interview, and you'd be so exceptionally hireable because, you know, playing Ivy League sport one, would always say go to the Ivy League if you get the offer.
Scott:I think it's always worth it. I know that's a hot topic. Not financial advice, but I do I do think it's always worth it because I value education. I just think the opportunities you're awarded being out of the Ivy League are so unparalleled. So Ivy League above all else.
Scott:But then, yeah, I would have taken the Yale to double offer to play two sports at Ivy League school. Pretty exceptional opportunity. Can't believe I passed it up. And then also, you know, when I would've I would've been a sophomore when they won the national championship for hockey.
Scott:Oh, wow.
Scott:That was my year.
Jamie:Oh, so you would've been there.
Scott:I would've been a national champion. So if I were to say to go back, it'd be number one, I would say Yale Bowl sports. And again, if it ended up being too much, quit one or both over time. Nobody cares. You were able
Jamie:to play out of there with a Yale degree.
Scott:Yeah. Yale degree. And then to be able to say you played two sports at Yale, that would be it. And then my secondly would be and, yeah, gosh. I don't know about because I love them, man.
Scott:They gave me an opportunity. Is be to go to Penn in the Wharton spot right out of I high think that would have been a great experience. And, you know, I only got to spend five semesters at Penn, have the Penn degree, so very thankful. But getting to spend, you know, eight semesters at Penn, I had so many great memories there. I would've loved to get the chance to be able to spend more time there and, you know, meet more and more great people in the Wharton School.
Scott:Yeah. You know, and you said it yourself just now that there's a lot of turbulence. And I'm I'm curious about, like, your your thought process, like, mental strength perhaps. I probably don't have the right adjectives to put on this, but, like, for any kid that's facing a fraction of the decisions you needed to make, which, you know, just hearing your stories, like, oh my god, I was like getting stressed out sometimes, you know. But like, what what are some things that maybe you leaned into when you were going through some of these turbulent times to to kinda help you navigate them, you know, help like with I don't know, like just like emotionally trying to like, you know, get through it and with your head held up high and and always try to, you know, do what was in your best interest.
Scott:Like anything in particular that that you would do to to help yourself or, like, talk
Scott:to people? I mean, I I it sounds super cliche, but just work even harder. You know, I I get actually frustrated when people always say, like, work smarter. Yes. Over time, when you have twenty years of experience, you can work smarter because you understand how to navigate the system.
Scott:When you're a young person, you just gotta work harder. And, again, having the support system, like my dad and I going through this together, like, going back to baseball after giving it up, that was so hard again, but we went to the I remember we went to these cages in Wakanda, Illinois. It was like this it was at a warehouse, and we would go out, and I was taking the junior college class. I was at Harper College from 8AM to 8PM nearly every day or McHenry County College, and we'd go after at, like, 09:10PM at night and practice and work and get better at the craft. And, like, that was you know, until subject, which was even more challenging, I'm very thankful for the great opportunities I've had with subject.
Scott:The junior college experience was the most challenging of my life because the thirty eight credit hours in one spring while having to train to get good enough at
Jamie:Baseball That's a course load.
Scott:Yeah. That very challenging. So going through that was, I always say, just work even harder. Like, even when you think you're in a hole, work even harder and get through it. And then having the support system for me, it was largely my dad, and, you know, we're very close through that.
Scott:Like, it could be your sibling. It could be your mother. It could be your best friends. It could be your teammates. Like, having a support system who understands what you're trying to accomplish.
Scott:And, you know, I knew, especially after being at Richmond, I said, I knew my I wanted to go to Ivy League no matter what. That's when I made the decision. And so when I didn't get those Ivy League offers from hockey like I thought I was going to, I thought it gonna be super easy going back to hockey. I was like, I gotta find a way through that. And that was the Baseball last hurrah, and, you know, I was very lucky to do that.
Jamie:Yeah. Listen, it wound up working out, which is fantastic. So I know you're huge into education, so I have a really interesting question for you. So we talk all the time about, like, parents wanting kids to play d one. Let's say a kid's not gonna go d one.
Jamie:Right? So let's say he can go to Middlebury and play or Hobart or Trinity. Right? I know you're big into education. Like, what would you advise a parent whose kid's not gonna go play d one hockey?
Scott:I would say that to play either high end d three or to play club hockey. I think that both are incredible options. I think NESCAC d three is absolutely exceptional, and I can't advise that enough how important it is to be able to look at the NESCAC. I think the NESCAC is better than majority division one opportunities, and I strongly stand by that. So if you could be able to go NESCAC, can't recommend it enough, and d three is an incredible option.
Scott:And then in addition, I think that d one club is an insanely good option. So, you know, it's funny too. Like, I get a lot of random chirps on, like, my social. Not as much anymore because now people know my story, but when we first started doing social media, like like, oh, NTDP to ACHA. You're such a boss.
Scott:You're such a bum. Like, all of sudden. But one, in my head, I'm like, you know, I went and played division one baseball. You gotta do the research. But two, when I if it wasn't for going through that experience, I would've never explored club hockey.
Scott:Club hockey is very competitive. Club hockey is awesome. And you could have such a good time. Like, my wife, she went to Florida State. Would've if I could've go back and play club hockey at Florida State, think I'd had a way better college experience.
Scott:So, you know, I think that playing club hockey at University of Illinois, even schools with Division I-
Jamie:Alabama. Yeah.
Scott:Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, this is incredible. Yep. On campus, no one cares if it's club or d one.
Jamie:No.
Scott:They're like, you're the hockey guys. You're awesome. You play hockey. That's awesome. Like, nobody and then, like, when you're out in the real world, no one's gonna be like, oh my god, you played NCA d one versus d three versus club.
Scott:Like, you're a better person because nobody cares. If you're speaking I always say prior to his degree no matter what, so choose the degree. And then if you're talking about just pure fun, playing club hockey is probably the most fun of the three experiences. So if you could get a great degree like, I always joke about go play club hockey at Penn, because they don't have a division one team. We gotta get that fixed.
Scott:But go play club hockey at Penn. You're gonna have a way better life than majority of people playing division one somewhere else. So I say prioritize the degree as a top choice. And again, if you can't play d one, it's not the end of the world. There's incredible d three and club hockey options.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. We say it all the time. Use hockey as a vehicle to get to further your education. Right?
Scott:And and and one of the other things I just, I I I wanted to make sure to touch upon was just the the the academic balance. I mean, obviously, from the schools that you've listed that showed interest in you, you are a, you know, a high academic achiever as well as a high you know, an elite athlete. And can you just, like, go into a little bit about, like, you as a student and and just how you balance that along the way?
Scott:Yeah. So growing up, you know, I was very perfectionist mindset always in everything I did. So I wanted to be the best at everything. So hockey and baseball were the start, but also school, I was ranked number one in my class out of roughly 500 kids at Cary Grove High School. I think that's part of the reason why the development team thought I'd be a good late add because I could handle the jump.
Scott:Yeah. It ruined my ranking, though, because going to the development team, going to Pioneer, when I came back and finished Cary Grove tenth, I was like, what what is this? Because they had a different GPA at Pioneer. But anyhow, I was ranked number one before leaving. Right.
Scott:So I was a very good student, and I really cared a lot about my grades. I wouldn't say, though, that I was, like, a you know, someone who studied a lot. I was someone who's extremely efficient with my time. I would get everything done either in the car ride to hockey or in study hall at school. Very rarely was I doing work at my house, so I was extremely efficient, and that kinda helped with entrepreneurial skills as well.
Scott:But anyone watching this as well, like, GPA is and GPA in high school is very important. GPA in college, I'm not as sold on, but GPA in high school is very important, so take it seriously. But if you could be able to really focus on your test scores, I think that a lot of these schools, when they recruit you in academic index wise, the test scores can move a lot more weight if you don't, for instance, have a perfect GPA. So, you know, I did well on my ACT as well. So between the ACT and my, you know, test or class ranking, I was in a good place.
Scott:But if you could get at least a moderately respectful respectable, excuse me, ACT or SAT and be a great player, you can go to a really great academic school and, you know, use hockey as a tool to a better degree.
Jamie:Yeah. It's awesome. It's great. Yeah. I I know you have a hard stop, Mike, so we're gonna look for One
Scott:question, and then I'll I'll roll off.
Jamie:Oh, yeah? Alright. You got the last one, Scott?
Scott:If not, I got one.
Scott:You, James, you you wrap it up, buddy.
Jamie:So I listen. You know, obviously, you know, you're a very high achieving guy. You clearly did a nice job, you know, budgeting your time when you're younger. You clearly do that now, you know, as as an entrepreneur. If there's one trait that you would would say to our parents, hey, listen.
Jamie:You know, try to develop this. Or maybe you're just born with it. You know, what do you say is the most important thing to the listeners that we have, you know, that to try to instill into their children? If you could pick one or two.
Scott:No. Grit above all else. It's all about grit. How you deal with rejection, how you deal with bad news, and what a great vehicle with hockey. When your son or daughter gets hurt, how do they deal with it?
Scott:Are they able to navigate and come back from that injury? When your son or daughter gets benched by their coach, how do they navigate it? When they get picked on by a teammate, how do they navigate it? You know, when they have to switch teams, how do they become the new kid? Grit is everything.
Scott:Dealing with rejection in life is everything. Life is not easy. You're gonna get told no a million times. How can you be able to learn from every no and get better for the next yes? And I think grit is the best opportunity to be able to develop that skill set.
Scott:And, you know, hockey, baseball, all these youth sports are incredible, and, I'm so thankful. For me, hockey and baseball and working with my dad through that taught me more grit than anything else in my life, and I'm very thankful for it.
Scott:That's amazing. So, Mike, just please make sure to tell everyone once again where they can find you if they wanna hook up with, you know, you or Yeah.
Scott:Please. You Thank again for having me. This was a blast.
Jamie:It was great.
Scott:It was our pleasure.
Scott:Another episode sometime in the future. Really appreciate it. By me. Yeah. At mike from subject.
Scott:Thank you for the tag on this visual. Amazing. At mike from subject on pretty much every social, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter X, whatever is best for you all. You could find me on LinkedIn, but please follow Engage. We're giving great advice to prospective student athletes and parents all the time and also bringing a lot of really great people on our podcast to be able to share a lot of lessons in tribulations.
Scott:So thank you both Scott and Jamie for having me on the show today. I really appreciate your time and all you're doing to help people, and, you know, hopefully someone can be one thing from my story, and, you know, it can better help their life.
Scott:For sure. Thank you so much, this the end of Appreciate the your time tonight. Yeah. Absolutely.
Scott:Thank you. Alright.
Jamie:Alright, everybody. We are back with our interview with Mike from Subject.
Scott:Yes, sir. Crazy path. I would like to go to online school if I could rewind everything again and just focus on hockey.
Jamie:Or any sport.
Scott:Yeah. Or any sport for that matter. But for me, would be hockey.
Jamie:It's funny how he, you know, he kinda I don't wanna say stepped in shit because obviously, you know, he he he even said during the interview, you know, the hardest workers get find the most luck.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Right? And that's funny how that works. You know? But, you know, it was very he started this business at a very appropriate time to fill a need. And around him, right, which we were talking about during the interview, were popping up these hockey academies Yep.
Jamie:And the alternative schooling. Yep. Right? I mean, COVID listen. After COVID, I moved my kid into a hockey academy Yep.
Jamie:Into the alternative type schooling. So it's funny how, like, that's popping up now, and it's perfect for his business model.
Scott:Oh, could be more perfect.
Jamie:Perfect for his business model.
Scott:Online learning is is only become more and more common.
Jamie:Yes. And these academies pick a sport, any sport, gymnastics, dance, football, basketball, baseball, hockey. Right? They're popping up everywhere. Yeah.
Jamie:You know? I I even know some for wrestling.
Scott:Specifically wrestling academies locally?
Jamie:I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure there's one. Yeah. They
Scott:are. Okay.
Jamie:Know? So, like so, like, you have all these sports popping up.
Scott:Like Brock Lesnar's WrestleMania Academy.
Jamie:Sure there's MMA ones too that I don't even know about. I guarantee you there are. You know? So you have I mean, think about it. Because all these places are pretty dead during the day.
Jamie:Mhmm. So why not come up with an academy model where you're where you actually have revenue during the off hours?
Scott:Yeah. Listen. I think if anything, it's easier to do that nowadays because there's online learning options. I'm sure it was more of a ball bust to try to set something like that up back in the day. You'd probably get more pushback of, like, just being, like, an alternative Yes.
Scott:You know? But, no question. For sure. And, you know, it's and and we we talked about it with him, but it was like when we were during COVID and it this was all online. I was thinking to myself, like, if I'm like an all star, like, professor at Harvard, like, what would stop me from just putting out like, I I didn't even think it through, like, you know, about, you know, getting credits or keeping the credits.
Scott:But, like, you know, I was thinking about, like, celebrity teachers. Right? You could have, like, teachers, like, the best teachers across the world.
Jamie:Yeah. Sure you
Scott:could.
Scott:Like, teaching you online.
Jamie:Of course, you could.
Scott:Like, and and they could pay for it.
Jamie:100%.
Scott:They would get so in any event, it's just it's really interesting Yeah. How, like, kind of like it's like decentralized education. Yeah. Decentralized education.
Jamie:Yeah. Which and it gives you access to people you wouldn't have access to in your geographical area.
Scott:A 100%.
Jamie:Right? Which is sick. Yeah. I mean, I get exactly why they started it. They filled a need for schools to offer classes to their students where they didn't have a teacher to teach that
Scott:subject. Right.
Jamie:Right?
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:So now you can do it with the online. Just stick something in front of me. Listen, we're all in front of screens every day anyway now.
Scott:No doubt.
Jamie:So why not use it for the greater good?
Scott:Well, a parenting topic is definitely screens because one thing I didn't mention yet, but Otto just got a cell phone Yeah. He did. For this year. And it's been a little bit of a rocky start.
Jamie:Has it?
Scott:Kid with a cell phone.
Jamie:Has
Scott:it? Absolutely. There's some learnings for me and my wife. I hate them, dude. I hate And it's it's like I really it's it's it's crazy.
Scott:And I and I think to myself, like, our kids don't know any different, but I have to think our parents, I'm surprised that they didn't look at us when we were on our cell phones. Even like in our twenties and thirties, like, when we were really like, you know, on them more. Like, how they weren't looking at us and be
Jamie:like, did we on them in our twenties? I don't remember us being on them in our twenties.
Scott:I definitely I got a BlackBerry in my twenties. I did too. I got an iPhone. My first iPhone was an iPhone three.
Jamie:I don't even remember mine.
Scott:IPhone three, iPhone four.
Jamie:I don't even remember my first iPhone. I honestly don't remember it. But I had the BlackBerry too.
Scott:The BlackBerry? And then I had an iPhone.
Jamie:The trackball and then the trackpad?
Scott:Yeah. I didn't have the They were
Jamie:great, by the way.
Scott:I had yeah.
Jamie:BlackBerrys were great.
Scott:Everyone says that. My wife loved it.
Jamie:I I loved my Blackberries. I I had a couple of them.
Scott:Yeah. No. I I They
Jamie:were great.
Scott:I only had it for a hot minute before they replaced it with cell phones with with iPhones.
Jamie:Yeah. So you you held out till eleven for the for the
Scott:Eleven. Yeah. We we really
Jamie:I held out a little longer than you.
Scott:Do. You did? I was 13. My hat's off to you. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. I I mean, we would
Jamie:have I had to it for school, though.
Scott:Right. Me too. Our part of our reasoning, which isn't great
Jamie:still wouldn't have one.
Scott:No. But, like, honestly, Otto was one of the last kids in that I'm
Jamie:sure he was. Dominic was the last kid.
Scott:And and Otto would come home. He's like, I don't even care if the phone, like, he like, just short of, like, doesn't work. Yeah. Of course, he's just saying that to make a point, but he's like, I just don't wanna be the only one that, like, doesn't have a phone, and I'm always, like, talking on my watch. And, like, that's not a great reason to give a kid a cell phone, but like he felt whatever.
Scott:Awesome. Exercised. Whatever it is, we gave in and but we said we said to him like, look, listen, the moment this gets out of hand, we're taking it back. You know, this is a privilege. And so you you're gonna have to step up your game.
Scott:And so we're in a transition process of getting used to it and really seeing where
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. The biggest challenges are.
Jamie:I hate when Todd, like, takes out his phone. It it it it gives me, like it makes me cringe.
Scott:I was was talking to my wife. I was like, we should get, like, a lockbox. Yeah. And Yeah. He should.
Scott:Like, lock up our devices.
Jamie:100%.
Scott:Yeah. But it's, like, easier said than done.
Jamie:It it is. It is. And listen. I I we use it a
Scott:lot for work. Right? For work, for directions, for everyday things. Everything. But it's important when you're with your family.
Jamie:Yeah. But kids use it for shit.
Scott:Of video games and other And shit.
Jamie:And shit. And like Snapchatting, which Dominic does not have.
Scott:Oh, Otto's begging for Snapchat.
Jamie:Yeah. I that's a hard no for us.
Scott:Yeah. Hard no. Yeah.
Jamie:Mean, I he's lucky he gets to watch, like, an hour of YouTube a day.
Scott:Right. You know? Yeah.
Jamie:I'm I don't even like that.
Scott:It's a wild it's a wild place, that interweb.
Jamie:Listen. It I will say this. Okay? Even though parents have a hard time with screen time for kids, and they do, and rightfully so, there's a lot of shit they scroll through. I don't want my kids scrolling through Instagram.
Jamie:I don't want them scrolling through YouTube. Right? Yeah. But I will say this. As much bad as there is in having a phone, there's that much good too.
Scott:There is also good. It's not just one direction. Correct.
Jamie:Right. If you're scrolling through good stuff
Scott:Mhmm.
Jamie:Like, there's a lot of good stuff there. Yeah. Stuff you would never have access to. Right. You never hear people.
Jamie:And in my opinion, so just like the internet when it first came out, it was positives and negatives. There's just as many positives as there are negatives. Okay? You just have to make sure that your kids are using it the correct way.
Scott:Well, I agree with with that, and there's definitely positives and negatives. But one of the things that I would love to have an impact on with him is, like, the need to like get that dopamine hit, like just to pull out the phone and take a look. Dude, I caught myself the other day. I went to go use the bathroom. Yeah.
Scott:And like I'm literally standing at a stall at a urinal and I took my phone out. And I'm like, what am I doing?
Jamie:Yeah. You don't wanna drop that, by the way.
Scott:No. I know. But I was like, I I was like because I had an idle moment where Slash. I was like, Jesus, what is wrong with me? This is crazy town.
Jamie:It's very accessible. It's super accessible.
Scott:It too much, man.
Jamie:It is too much. There's no question about it. But again, on the flip side of that, you now have access to so much information at the touch of a button or you could speak into it now. You now have access to the I can't even quantify the amount of information and the amount of access you have to positive things out there. That's literally Without
Scott:a doubt.
Jamie:At the snap of a finger.
Scott:Without a doubt.
Jamie:It's phenomenal. We never had that as kids. No. We had to go to the library. Or or you And looks them up.
Scott:You might have an, like, encyclopedia set at home. Like, Encyclopedia Britannica
Jamie:Right. Perhaps. Right. Exactly. The Encyclopedia Britannica.
Jamie:Right? Yeah. Like, that that now the access to these kids, the access to information is is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Now listen.
Jamie:Sometimes you have to vet some of the information that you're getting, but, again, you have access to people all over the globe now
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Which you never would have had.
Scott:No. It's it's it's Right? Right. It's it's something that needs to be learned how to use responsibly. You can't expect kids to use it very responsibly.
Scott:It takes time and but but along the way, it's, you know, that everyone has like limits on their bandwidth. And there are times when I'm just like, I I I get it. I I turn my cheek because I just I I can't die on that hill right now.
Jamie:It's the path of least resistance. Yeah. It's really easy to let your kid scroll on his phone when you're busy doing something.
Scott:Totally. It's easy. It's easy.
Jamie:It's easy. Yep. Right? It's hard to say, hey, listen. Put that shit down and go do something
Scott:else. Right.
Jamie:Because you're doing something. We're all we all have busy lives. Right? Yesterday, we picked Dominic up from his buddies. I'm like and I see him looking in the back, looking down.
Jamie:I'm like, dude, I put your phone away. Yeah. I'm like, to He's like, I don't wanna talk.
Scott:Right. So then just be bored. Yeah. Look out the window. Yeah.
Scott:Daydream.
Jamie:I I I wanna check on your phone.
Scott:Yeah. That's what my wife says it all the time, and I agree with her. Yeah. She's like, you guys need to learn to be bored. Like, the moment you don't have a screen in front of you, that cannot that that cannot be on board.
Scott:What are we doing next? Yep. I'm getting something to eat. Mom and dad, what can you do with me right now? Just like figure that shit out.
Scott:Absolutely. Want to. I can't help you.
Jamie:Yeah. Go go do something. Yeah. Whatever you don't ask me.
Scott:Go for a walk.
Jamie:Yeah. I don't care what you do. Just go do something. Yeah. I don't care what you do.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Go build something into your room or whatever. Don't give a shit. Legs, go for a bike
Scott:ride. But then it's great because then we see when my my son and daughter, like, when they both don't have screens, like, they they
Jamie:They figure it out.
Scott:Yeah. They figure out having fun together.
Jamie:Of course, they do. Yeah. And that's great.
Scott:A 100%.
Jamie:Yeah. I know. Screens suck.
Scott:Anyway. You know? Anyway, so also in switching gears now, Chiclets did their, Metro division preview. So we have the
Jamie:Did they?
Scott:We have hockey on the, back end. The swing is coming. Yeah. But I will say Sunny Meta, let's go devils, was on Chiclets.
Jamie:Oh, was he?
Scott:He was on Chiclets.
Jamie:What do you what was he saying?
Scott:He was saying how he's excited to be there, that he did not have his like, he thought he might have a little bit of a break, but didn't have much of a break. Just been grinding the whole time since he got there. Yeah. Really excited
Jamie:work to do.
Scott:Yeah. They're really excited about, you know, some of the players that I'm into that.
Jamie:Yeah. He just traded for Luke Evangelista. Right?
Scott:I don't maybe.
Jamie:He did. Yeah? Yeah. They gave up some draft picks for him. He's a young kid.
Jamie:24,
Scott:I think. Great.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. He's he's all about, like, you know, all the under the hood stats like Moneyball. Like, his whole thing was, like, you know, like, taking Moneyball to hockey. And he's like, it's harder because it's not you know, him and Biz were having the conversation of, like, just saying that, you know, baseball, it's like, for most of the game, it's batter versus pitcher.
Scott:Yes. Right? Hockey, you've got it's like 12 person chaos, and you're trying to figure out who's responsible for what.
Jamie:Yeah. I'm not so sure that would work
Scott:in in hockey. Well, that that's the approach that
Jamie:he's taken.
Scott:And and they've been using that down in, down in Florida.
Jamie:Okay. And then They also have a major advantage in Florida.
Scott:With the tax the state tax. 100%.
Jamie:Okay. But They save so much money. They can pay guys so much less. And those guys are making money like the guys that are in higher tax states. Fair.
Jamie:So you can you can build out your roster much more efficiently when you are in a a tax free state.
Scott:But once those tax free states teams are made, right, like, they're they're only gonna have so many roster spots. Right? So the like, there's gonna be t there's gonna be, like, the next, you know, the next best version of whomever that's that Yes. Will be playing at another team, and it's like identifying you know what I mean, though?
Jamie:Yes. I do. Right? I do. And then yes.
Scott:Use that approach with I mean, if if you're gonna say that the money and the contracts trump
Jamie:Yes.
Scott:And that you're gonna end up having players for money purposes signing in no, you know, income tax states, which I understand.
Jamie:Right.
Scott:At some point, all those spots are filled, and then you can apply the same kind of logic of, like, this money ball logic, whatever it is
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:To the rest of the pool.
Jamie:I hope you
Scott:And you start bringing, you know, players that are, you know, meeting some metrics that are maybe not the first five metrics you or I might look at.
Jamie:Does that mean he's not gonna give Quinn Hughes 19,500,000 when he asks for it?
Scott:He didn't he didn't answer the Connor Hellebuck question. Oh, what was that question like? Are you lining up Hellebuck?
Jamie:Well, if he was smart, he would try to.
Scott:Well, people think that Jersey is a destination for him.
Jamie:Listen. I think probably anywhere but a a Canadian team is a destination for him. Don't think he wants to play in Canada. Fair. For whatever reason.
Scott:For whatever reason. Right? For That's the reputation all The USA gold medalists are getting for wanting to leave Canada.
Jamie:Sure looks like it, doesn't it?
Scott:Not not well received on their way back with the golds.
Jamie:Sure looks like that.
Scott:I think Brady was booed, if I'm not mistaken, in Canada.
Jamie:I I think they all don't wanna be there. I mean, we talked about that before on the podcast. Yeah. You know, your American superstars are all like, get me the fuck out of here. The only ones there is Cole Caulfield.
Jamie:He wasn't even on the gold medal team.
Scott:Cole's up there. Lane's up there. Montreal.
Jamie:Lane has to be up there. Lane's on his rookie contract. Lane didn't have the choice. Cole signed an extension. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Right? Well, listen. But if Lane stays, that's not the story.
Scott:Listen. But if you if you're Cole Caulfield, you're telling me you don't want Martijn St. Louis as your coach.
Jamie:Like, no fucking way. There.
Scott:Of course you want. He's your coach. The guy's the, like, the best undersized player to ever play the game.
Jamie:No question about it. But look who left Canada. Johnny Goudreaux, Matthew Kochuck Yep. Brady Kochuck. Connor Hellebuck is on his way out.
Scott:But the so but Matthew and Goudreaux left before, obviously, before the gold medal.
Jamie:They did. Yeah.
Scott:Right. Yeah. You know, for for whatever the reasons were. But Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:It's Crazy Brady Brady's down in Florida gone.
Jamie:Quinn wanted out. Yep. You know?
Scott:That's true. But you know who did sign long term in Vancouver?
Jamie:Who?
Scott:Zeeve Bouiam.
Jamie:Oh, okay. Alright.
Scott:Maybe it was, like, eight by eight.
Jamie:Zeeve had to do that. Why? Zee so Zeeve was in the, Zeeve was in the the, he was in the
Scott:The Quinn Hughes deal.
Jamie:The Quinn Hughes deal.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Why did he have to do that?
Jamie:Because why would you not he got traded. Why would you not sign an extension?
Scott:Be right. I guess. Yeah. They they they I guess they needed confirmation. He would sign in a long term there.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Correct. He wasn't gonna not sign that. Yeah. You know, let's see if Zeev stays, you know, throughout his entire career there.
Scott:We'll see.
Jamie:As if he turns into a superstar, let's see if he stays. Yeah. You know?
Scott:Yeah. Well, rooting for him.
Jamie:Yeah. It's gonna be it's yeah. It's funny. You know, the devils need to make a bunch of moves. Again, you can't go into the season without a goalie.
Scott:Well, you should
Jamie:Jake Allen's great, but is Jake Allen gonna be able to hang the entire season?
Scott:Right. You know? Right. Well, listen to the the episode. But yeah.
Scott:Now, so in any event, NHL. So we'll start getting back into NHL also.
Jamie:Yeah. As it's getting closer. Yep. When's that start, by the way? When's when's the opening season?
Scott:When's the opening day?
Jamie:Opening day for
Scott:the season. Look it
Jamie:up. Is it
Scott:Jamie, look that up.
Jamie:I'll look it up. No. I'm looking forward to hockey. Hockey is getting back on the youth level. Hockey is getting back on the pro level.
Jamie:I'm looking forward to to this time of year. I like this time of year.
Scott:Yeah. No. It's it's exciting. I'm looking forward to it.
Jamie:And we have a lot of really good interviews coming up.
Scott:Yes, sir.
Jamie:There's some really cool stuff. We're gonna be down in Atlanta, for the hockey barn opening, hopefully, early October.
Scott:That's it. That's the plan.
Jamie:Yep. What else we got going on?
Scott:We our our Turtle Box I'm getting shocked about making Turtle Box, by the time this comes out, the Turtle Box winners will be will have been picked.
Jamie:Oh, are picking tonight? Okay.
Scott:Congratulations to those that have just got themselves a Turtle Box. Yeah. Some good stuff.
Jamie:Thank you to Turtle Box for doing that
Scott:by Yeah. Shout out Brad Miller.
Jamie:Yeah. That was awesome. Yep. We're gonna have drinks then while we're down in Atlanta, by way.
Scott:Yeah. Atlanta's gonna be a busy trip. I discovered someone else that I started talking to that's down there.
Jamie:Oh, yeah?
Scott:I'll tell you. I I think I started telling you about that, but I'll tell you.
Jamie:Alright. Cool. Nice.
Scott:But, yeah, no. It'll be busy. It'll be good.
Jamie:Good. I like busy.
Scott:We just need to keep plugging away and, you know
Jamie:September 29 is opening night.
Scott:Hell yeah. Hell yeah. When does preseason start?
Jamie:I would say it's probably starting the next week.
Scott:They only have, like, four games
Jamie:or something. A lot, but my guess is it's probably starting very very shortly. Okay. Yeah. We're back.
Jamie:Everybody, we're Alright. Hope you guys haven't freaked out just yet. Hope you all are still calm, cool, and collected.
Scott:And if you're not right in, holler at us.
Jamie:Yeah. Let's talk. Let's hear some crazy stories from, from weekend number one of the season.
Scott:That's it. Alright. Alright, brother.
Jamie:Alright, buddy. See you. Later.