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Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You
Unknown Speaker 0:42
what's going on good day Las
Unknown Speaker 0:48
Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. In just a few minutes, I'll introduce our guests for today. That's coach Tate gene Tate, outstanding individual who's done a lot in the neighborhood, particularly as it relates to youth. So we'll get with Coach shortly here. I want to once again reiterate the birthdays that I have in family, particularly cat Richardson. Kathy Richardson, my sister, who recently passed away, just want to recognize her birthday was in the month of October. Also, we have Angel Nathan, Chris, casara and Amira all in the month of October. So just want to say happy birthday to those family members. And also want to mention again, the 10th annual armed forces, military vets and first responders function. It will be on October 19, and I failed to get that further information on and I promised that I would, and I failed to do that, but just check your local listing. Is something that has occurred again, 10 times well, nine times already. This will be the 10th annual so please check that out. I think it's something for our veterans to be honored. We should try and get there to support them later on again, in October 19. So with that, I'd like to further talk about, once again, how important it is for us to check your registration and make sure that, because sometimes, well, not sometimes, but you can be vetted if you didn't vote in the last election. So make sure your registration is proper. Get yourself educated. And I encourage people, once again, to please study, particularly parents, veterans and others. Project 2025, important things that this document addresses that will be harmful to us all as citizens. I don't care if you're male, female, black or white, it can bring harm to us. Also. I want to encourage folks who have some issues and looking out, looking for getting their benefits together, and that is to Tony Marshall, our service officer, 301-537-9462,
Unknown Speaker 3:10
Tony Marshall, our service officer, now with that, I'd like to introduce gene Tate, outstanding individual In our community. How you doing? Coach, doing great. Thank you absolutely. Look, Coach, I know you a vet. Will you tell our listening audience What branch did you serve and how long
Unknown Speaker 3:31
I was in the army, and I was drafted 1965, to 67 Okay,
Unknown Speaker 3:41
so 65 to 67 so what was your MOS
Unknown Speaker 3:47
Levin, bravo, that's infantry.
Unknown Speaker 3:50
Infantry. Yes, sir, you were right in the middle of Vietnam. I'm a Vietnam era veteran. But I caught, I was 71 to 73 so I was catching the, basically the tail end of that conflict. Thank God.
Unknown Speaker 4:07
No, I went in. When I went in, we were a part of the build up of three divisions to go to Vietnam. That's when the United States really got involved. So I went to Vietnam in 19 middle of 1966 to 67 with the Fourth Infantry Division.
Unknown Speaker 4:30
Okay, so you went over there and was in the middle of the war zone as it was occurring.
Unknown Speaker 4:38
Yes sir, we were, we were four clicks off of the North Vietnam bar to play cool Vietnam.
Unknown Speaker 4:50
So Coach, where were you born and raised?
Unknown Speaker 4:54
Born in kenlock, Missouri, Missouri. And. Yeah, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, most are familiar with Ferguson 19, excuse me, 2015 when Michael Brown was killed, right? If I walked out of my backyard, I was in Ferguson, Missouri, okay, Kinloch. Kinloch was a segregated township there in Missouri? Ferguson was all white, pillar was all black. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 5:26
all right, so now to something that I know is near and dear to your heart, and that is youth baseball. How long have you been involved in? What inspired you to get involved?
Unknown Speaker 5:39
I started coaching Little League in 1962 and have been involved ever since, wow, so and what caused me to get involved? I was a baseball nut, but I was always a midget, and everybody had aspirations of playing baseball, I had opportunity being from the midwest of San Negro League teams place. So hey, I want to be a professional ballplayer, but they wasn't looking at guys five, six at that time. So rather than I have some skills, my dad was a pretty good baseball player, and he had coached my older brother had played. So rather than waste my time on a falsehood, I started coaching. That's interesting. It's, it's just something that, uh, with me being around kids, it keeps me, keeps me level. Cool,
Unknown Speaker 6:41
cool. You know, you mentioned, you mentioned your size, and my wife is all, what's his name? To me, with the down in Texas? Yes, she said, Yes. How does he hit that ball so well? I said, You know what? It's technique that's just like, I'm an avid golfer. Risk what I'm I'm an avid golfer, and I know some guys, 5556, and they can spank the ball. And I'm like, What's wrong with me? But I ain't start golfing until I was in my mid 50s. At 73 now I've gotten a little bit better, but not much. So you got it. You got involved because you didn't feel as though you might make it to the big league. So you just gotta start getting involved with youth as a coach, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:23
well, somebody, you know, someone, helped me along the way, and I felt that I should be able to do the same thing. It's just I started a little earlier than most did. Mm,
Unknown Speaker 7:37
okay, so you've, you've done, I guess they got various divisions, or age size or weight size, or how's that determined?
Unknown Speaker 7:49
Well, I like I say, I started in 62 coaching Little League, which is age nine to 12, okay. And the program that I work now the East Palo Alto T ball pitch machine is a independent program, and we start at four years old. We go four to 14, and we break them down at age groups up until they're 14 years old, and develop them as such. You start off on the tee, go to coach pitched and you know, pitching for yourself, but just trying to make sure that they know the fundamentals of the game of baseball, which is very important, right? But at the same at the same time making sure that they're learning something in school. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 8:45
You know, one thing I admire about those who are willing to coach. I recall when I was, you know, I never played really organized football, other than the police fire football game and and I was so dumb I'm running right well, I don't need no mouthpiece. And I ran down that field on the special teams, and this big cop caught me up under my chin, man and my my jaws heard me from my jaw. Hurt me for about two weeks. Next year, I had two mouthpieces. I said, Never again, but I run around here asking why I don't need no mouthpiece. Yes, you do food because you hitting your chops, it's going to be ugly. So in doing that, though, I did do some coaching, and one of my friends, Orlando Hogan, said, man, just treat them like they're little men. And the discipline that these youngsters get, I think it helps most of them through life. And one thing I noticed, and don't you love it when you hear someone say, Hey, Coach, you're like, Who is that? Because you knew them when they were when they were little bitty people. But I can tell you that I again, I admire what you're doing because it takes a special talent or a special gift for a person. Because some all. Kids, there are different levels. You know, you may think that you know that there's some superstar there, man, but some of these kids, they just need somebody to help them. And I think part of that discipline that they that they get while training to be a baseball player, I think helps them through life. No doubt in my mind,
Unknown Speaker 10:23
well, we train them for baseball, but we talk to them more about life, because the percentage that will make professional baseball is very slim. What we do is talk them about making sure that they're getting something between ears, learn something, and you can do a lot more. If you go, you get a degree, come back and go to work for a baseball team, right? There's a lot of jobs for you there, trainer, you know, sports medicine. Be vice president ticket sales, all of these types of jobs. And then the main one is agent. The agent is making more than the player is right? So if you've learned something, and you go to college, come back with that degree, there's so much that you can make outside of being on the field, absolutely and really move forward, yes, sir.
Unknown Speaker 11:24
And you know what? That's very important. Because sometimes young folks get locked in that I'm on, I'm going to make the team, and the percentage, as you mentioned, is so slim, of you actually making it. And one of the point in terms of when I was assisting, coaching, one kid. He was so good this football. I mean, he had a natural talent, but he always acted up. And one time, he acted up so bad, I told the coach. I said, I tell you what, I think we need to keep him out at least during the first half. And we knew we were going to get slotted. That's how good this kid was. But I told him, I say if he plays in the first half, I'm done. No key is going to run me. That ain't happening. I mean, we're here for a purpose. Certainly, we want to teach them the basic fundamentals. But also, there's life after football, and particularly after this right here, because they got to go to school, and they got to go in there and try to, you know, do the right thing while in class, to include getting some decent grades, because, like you say, without that degree, without some knowledge and training, man, you're gonna be in a world of hurt just thinking about, I'm going to the big leagues. Okay, you keep thinking that way. But I think for you guys to to put on a table coach, that there's so many other avenues that you can pursue outside of being on the, on the on the actual field itself. There's a multitude of jobs, and you covered quite a few of them. And I think that's important that you guys share with those young folks, so they have a clear understanding that they that there's lots of opportunity outside of just being on the field.
Unknown Speaker 12:58
Yeah. Well, you know, with with talking to them about making sure that they're learning something the program that we run right now, it's been around 32 years, and all of the youngsters from the program has gone to college. They've gone academically. Nobody's gone on a sports scholarship. Wow. And we feel, we feel pretty good about that, yeah, absolutely. We have one in Colorado who is a doctor. We have one in his second year of law school at Vanderbilt that's excellent. We have, we have 10 to 12 that's gotten a master's degree and they've gone to college all over the country. Excellent. And and chief with your background, one of the first shelters that played in our program here in Las Vegas. We've been here in Las Vegas 20 years with the program. Is now a fire a firefighter for Clark County Fire Department.
Unknown Speaker 14:00
Oh, excellent, excellent. Well, again, that discipline that you guys ensure that they address or is addressed toward them, it's going to help them in life, and to mention some of these different professions that you have, some of your youth are a part of now, it's, it's commendable on your part, because, again, you and your your coaching team, and that's, that's part of the thing that we must do. We just can't be even though I always tell, tell young people, don't let anybody change your vision. But also, you better have a backup plan. Because if you don't have a backup plan, I've seen guys who were excellent, but they didn't make it. They had the talent, I'm talking about baseball, football. Had the talent coach to be there, but they weren't selected. And as a result, not all, not all of them, but some of them. Man, they were so disappointed. They got hooked on drugs, and they just went down, down, down. And I think part of that was, was a lack of them listening to you coaches, as as you were explaining that there's other opportunities. Don't get stuck on on one, one particular thing, Coach, you got something coming up that that I think we need to swing and over and start talking about you got a major fundraiser that you've been doing for a number of years, and I missed it the last few for various reasons, being in and out of town, and I'll be out again this year, but I'll certainly pass this information on so please share that with our listening audience.
Unknown Speaker 15:38
Yes, well, our program is free to the youngsters, but you know, we have obligations. We pay the city for the use of the fields. We have to have insurance, right uniforms for the kids and those types of things. So we do a annual Golf Classic to raise funds to help us along the way, to take care of these obligations that we have, to make sure we can keep them so I feel. And this year, it is October the 19th, we'll be playing at Wild Horse. And this is something that we've been doing. It helped our organization, from the standpoint like I say, I've been here for 20 years, and coming and not knowing anybody, gave me an opportunity to meet people such as yourself, who has been a big supporter for us. But you know, and we're fortunate that we have a couple of former major league baseball players. Nate Oliver played with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Giants. He has a world championship bring as a player with the Dodgers and as a coach with Chicago White Sox. Kurt Ford played with St Louis Cardinals in Philadelphia, Phillies. We have a couple former Olympians. Bernlo Brown, high jumper out of Compton High School, Los Angeles, 1968 Olympics. Eddie Hart University, California, Berkeley, 1972 Olympic sprinter. And these people give up their time to come and help us promote and, you know, come out and play. We put them in a in a foursome with we might have two or three people for another team, and we'll add one of these celebrities with them that, you know, they can get to meet and share information with each other. And you know, those, to me, are very positive things that people don't mind coming back to the neighborhood and doing something to help the youngsters, because they are our future. And if we don't put some time in with the we're not going to have a future. Absolutely,
Unknown Speaker 18:03
once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. We have coach Gene Tate. He's doing a wonderful job with our young people in the community. So with this annual fundraiser coming up, I trust that folks will participate. In fact, let's I'll do what I can coach to try to get the word out. Because I think that we should fill up the entire course with what is generally about 140 or so. I forget what the actual memory is, but we want to do that. So, ladies and gentlemen, we got to help the coach fill up every spot there. So give that information again to include any website, etcetera. Coach, we're got about a minute or so to wrap things up. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 18:50
our tournament is October 19 at Wild Horse golf course in Henderson. Our website is ball charts.com. Forward, slash Junior giants. And the information on the tournament is there, along with some of the other things. Like, I say, we have a couple of former major league ball players that play in the tournament, but they will do a clinic for youngsters here in the valley on the 17th of October. Oh, excellent. We have a baseball clinic for the kids with four former major league baseball players that will be there to teach them some skills of the game.
Unknown Speaker 19:32
Alright, once again Las Vegas, we have coach Tate. He's with the East paleoto, with the Las Vegas branch, and they do T ball and and pitch machine that helps the kid get their skill levels together. So Coach, we want to thank you so much for coming on the show, and we're going to do our best to continue to to encourage people to participate in your annual fundraiser, the 18th annual Golf Classic. Thank you, Coach. You. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Well, we thank you for allowing us to come on so people can see and hear more about because, like, I say, 20 years and I still meet people say, Oh, we didn't know you were here.
Unknown Speaker 20:13
Well, I want to, Hey, Coach, I want to thank west coast. He gave me this, this document. He said, Here's, I got a letter for you, Chief, I don't know what it is, but here you go, and I'm like, what it did? When did you send it to me? Coach, when did you sit about a month ago, I said, Man, that was like wagon train mail to get here, but we asked gave it to me the other day. So once again, Coach, thank you so much for being on the show. Okay?
Unknown Speaker 20:37
We thank you, and you have a great afternoon, all right. Evie, all
Unknown Speaker 20:41
right. Thank you. Once again, Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more. On the other side, I'll just cover some things that I've talked about in the past that I think very important.
Unknown Speaker 20:59
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I am Dave Washington, the host of this show, and I appreciate our audience listening in each Saturday at 7am I got a couple things. One of the guests that I was trying to get on was we were unable to make the connection, so I'll get them on in fact, it's Assistant Chief Mac Travis with Clark County Fire. He is over recruitment, so we're going to get him on the show to talk about some of the the obstacles or trials and tribulations that he may be having in in his recruitment process. But I think it's important for him to come on the show, so we're going to nab him one way or the other West. We'll get him on and let him talk about some of the things that he will need from the community in terms of helping him to get the recruitment of new firefighters for Clark County Fire on on the payroll there, if you will. So we will be getting with the chief soon, also speaking of fire, the Carl homes executive development institute, its website is up now taking registration, so those firefighters out there who are interested in pursuing upper mobility within your respective departments. Again, it is not a hands on didactic type thing. It's more of a leadership, management training and education type of a program that's been around for over 30 years now. We're housed at Dillard University, and we were the first full week in June every year, and we've been doing it for again, over 30 years. And in fact, I think we've been at Dillard now, in fact, speaking of Dillard, we were praying for them, because they had a category two storm to come right through New Orleans. And I did speak with Michelle Matthews, who was our lead contact down at the university, as we do our summer institute there, they're all doing fine. A lot of lot of not a lot of major damage, like, like when Katrina went through, but certainly there is some damage there that they're able to take care of. A lot of down limbs, etc, but no downed trees. Thank goodness. It's a beautiful campus. If you've never been there, you ever get down into the New Orleans area, please stop by and visit those at Dillard University. Earlier on the show we had Doctor, Doctor coach, coach Gene Tate, and he has an annual golf tournament to assist funding for their their T ball and slow pitch youth baseball. So we want to make sure that we provide some assistance for those who are golfers out there. This tournament will be held on Saturday, October 19, at Wild Horse 2100 West Warm Springs drive in Henderson. It's 7am 7:30am shotgun start. And so we encourage folks to I trust that they have some information out there, probably on Facebook and but I don't see an actual website here on his document for the tournament. But again, Gene Tate coach. He's a great guy. Does a lot of youth work in our community, and he's been here, as he mentioned earlier on the show, been around here for 20 years. So let's give that brother some some support, because he's doing a wonderful job. And I, I like what he talked about in terms of, they not only encourage the kids to just be thinking about they're going to be ball players, but also, what about the other jobs that are available in the other professions, from trainers to agents, etc, etc. There's a lot going on that one can can do in the profession of baseball. So it's encouraging to. To know that they don't just let these kids start locking into, you know, I'm gonna be the next Babe Ruth, or I'm gonna be the next Hank Aaron and all this because they're, they're everybody's not gonna get. The percentage of them becoming professional baseball players is pretty, pretty, pretty thin. In fact, they got a better chance of being in public safety. And I'm talking about police and fire and EMS, they got a better chance. And those are very, very competitive professions, but they will have a better opportunity to do that than get into professional baseball. And speaking of public safety, couple weeks ago, we had Sheriff Kevin mcmahill, man, I am so pleased with the work that this man is doing. I think it's just his first or maybe his second year. You know, the sheriff is an elected official in our community. This sheriff has taken on and no disrespect to all the the previous sheriffs, and I've worked with several of them on the multicultural Committee. He is taking it upon himself and his department. They've hired a PhD to deal with and several clinical folks to deal with, with depression and other things that are harmful to to police officers, police fire and other particularly in public safety, have a high risk of divorce, suicide, depression, all these things, and he's taken upon Himself to bring these folks on so those folks who are having trouble, and it's nothing to be embarrassed about, in fact, as I mentioned when he was on the show, how I was debriefed in a classroom down at Dillard university with the in EDI the Carl Holmes executive development institute. Look, there are things that are harmful to us because they see a lot and a lot of times it's hard to separate what's going on in your head from this, this tragedy that you've seen, or multiple tragedies. So what he's doing in terms of helping his folks and and letting them know that that he cares about them, I think, is so important, and I trust that this model that he's using or he's developing will be used by other police agencies throughout our country. I have got the word from and I love him, and he sometimes you're like, Why are you mentioning my name? Because you're famous, as far as I'm concerned, West, because you keep me on track, young man. And I love it. So with that, we got a program that Faye Duncan Daniel had called the living waters, and we're hoping that her program will will be one that that will become an annual program. It occurred on July 27 2024 at the Helena River Park. We're hoping that Faye will get funding to continue that program, because it's so important for us. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. And I must mention again, our service officer Tony Marshall, 301-537-9462, Tony can help you get your benefits together. So please don't hesitate. And you can't just walk into his office where he does have an office where he comes over to American Legion Post 10, but he also has an office out at the service center out near the the Veterans Hospital. I forget the address, but he can set up an appointment for you to to get those things addressed. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I will be on a little hiatus and Gene Campbell chief, Eugene Campbell will be covering some spots for me as I do some rehab in my medical issue that I'm having. So once again, love you Las Vegas, and we appreciate you guys listening in every Saturday morning at 7am this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Signing off for a few weeks. Thank you very much. Hey.
Outro Song 29:20
Oh, all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear, all you wear.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai