From a school that was too small to field a baseball team to later planning events in Sports City USA, Josh Dill’s story is full of ups and downs. Ups and downs, much like a trampoline (in this case, power tumbling and trampoline), 6-man football in West Texas, intramurals at Texas Tech, and more.
We talked with Josh about what his 2020 looked like and what we look forward to in 2021.
Enjoy episode #92 and other episodes of Hustle and Pro in our archives.
Show Notes
[01:06] Quick hits with Josh Dill
[03:12] Sports Snapshot
[07:31] Texas Tech
[08:19] The strange sports year
[11:15] What we watched
[21:08] Josh’s up and down in the gym
[27:42] Events in Frisco
Resources within this episode:
- Josh Dill: Twitter: @FriscoSportsGuy | Instagram: @dilljt84 | LinkedIn
- Visit Frisco: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
- Kelly Walker: Bio | Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
This episode is sponsored by: 
Xscape Pain: Website | Facebook @XscapePain | Instagram @XscapePain | Twitter @XscapePain | LinkedIn
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
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Welcome to Hustle & Pro, Season 2, talking sports and Frisco from youth to pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
Welcome to today’s episode of Hustle & Pro. We have Josh Dill as our guest today. If you don’t know him by name, I promise you you know some of the work that he’s done, uh, because if you’ve been to or seen or heard of any sporting events in Frisco, Texas, Josh was probably involved in it. So, welcome to Hustle & Pro, Josh. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Let’s start with a couple of icebreakers, um, to get to know you a little better. Who’s your favorite athlete?
Um, well it really, Kobe Bryant was my favorite athlete. I mean, I was, uh, my screen name on AOL back in the day was KB82cool. Oh, wow. Which is really embarrassing, but, uh, yeah, it was, uh, I was a Kobe fan from the very beginning.
That’s awesome. Uh, what’s your favorite sports movie? We just did an episode discussing this for a while. So I’m curious, what is your favorite?
Oh, man, I love sports movies. Um, the one that like rings the most, uh, true for me I guess, is Slap Shot. So, uh, I started working in minor league hockey and it was just kind of that, it reminds me of that time where a franchise was really struggling to survive. So it was just that old school hockey movie. But, uh, man, I watch a lot of sports movies, but, uh, that, one’s probably the one that, that hits closest to home.
Awesome, yeah. I, I don’t know that one. I mean, I know the movie, but I can’t think of like watching it myself, but, um, it didn’t, it wasn’t on our, on our top list discussion. So I’ll have to add that to our, to our list.
Yeah, it’s probably not as mainstream and for somebody in Texas, I mean, hockey wasn’t big back whenever Slap Shot came out, but uh, you know, just the guy trying to sell the skates and, you know, selling everything you can to try to make it through the season. That was my last first year in minor league hockey. So it’s just, uh, I felt it really deep. Yeah.
Minor-league-anything you feel those pains of trying to get, get a season, get through a season. Um, so this might be a tough question, but what’s your favorite sport? And sometimes we break this down, like what’s your favorite sport for you yourself to play or do versus what’s your favorite to watch if you’re watching someone?
Sure. I mean, I, my favorite sport to watch is probably hockey, um, which is funny, cause I never played it. Uh, I’d skated the other day and it hurt pretty bad. Um, I mean I was a better basketball player in high school. I was all-district my senior year, which didn’t really mean much because I was at a small school, but, uh, that was just, I, the game of basketball is, is my favorite X’s-and-O’s-type thing.
All right. So basketball in high school and hockey, what else did you do? Like what’s your, your sports snapshot look like when you go back and see what all the things you did?
Yeah. I mean, I played a bunch of different sports. The only thing I really didn’t play was baseball a whole lot. I’ve played some T-ball and stuff, but I played Little Dribblers’ Basketball and I was, uh, a power tumbler, tumbling and trampoline person for 10 years which, uh, looking at me now, you probably wouldn’t think that, um,
Okay, I wanna, like, that’s fascinating to me. Okay. So I grew up a gymnast, so power tumbling and, and, um, what was the other thing you called it? T&T, tumbling and trampoline. Tumbling and trampoline. Okay. So in my world there wasn’t those spinoff pieces and focuses. It was just, you were a gymnast or you weren’t. Right? Sure. And then, you know, in your backyard you were good at trampoline or you were good at tumbling when you, when I got older and moved into the cheer world a little more. So then, um, where are you from, first of all?
I grew up out in West Texas. Uh, my, my parents have a farm just south of Brownfield, which is about an hour; 45 minutes south of Lubbock.
Yeah, I’m a Red Raider. So, I know Brownfield. So then how the heck did somebody growing up there- how’d you get into power tumbling and trampoline?
My tumbling coach was from Levelland. Um, and so she kind of had some, like, she traveled around all the towns that surrounded Lubbock, which is why it was the hub city. Right. Um, and so she would come to Brownfield and a bunch of my cousins and stuff were involved in this. And so my mom put me in, I think I was 2 when I first started and, you know, we just, it kind of progressed and I kept, I kept getting a little bit better and better at it. So yeah, that’s, uh, it’s weird when people say, like I say, I’m a gymnast a lot of times, but it was more T & T you know, working with gymnastics. Obviously they do split that up very heavily now.
So, when she puts you in that young, did she put you in a tumbling class or gymnastics? It’s tumbling, yeah. You didn’t do, so you didn’t do event-based events?
No, I did long skinny mat, you know, tumbling, and then I did a trampoline and then we did double mini trampoline as well. So it’s like an apparatus, it’s a mini trampoline. You jump, you do a trick, you jump on the next side and then you jump off of it. So it’s kind of like a vault, but it’s little mini trampoline. So I did that for, until I, until I started playing junior high football. I did that. And I, and honestly, it’s funny. I think T & T helped me be a better athlete because I knew how to fall. I knew, you know, I didn’t get hurt near as much. I got hurt tumbling and stuff, but I felt like on the football field, I controlled my body a little bit better because of that background.
Probably. And your core. And there’s just so many different things you developed as a tumbling or a trampolinist that like you never probably would have otherwise. That’s so fascinating to me. So, okay. So said you quit, like, what you say, middle school?
Yeah, about 7th grade.
So, like, what are the things you’re, I’m sure the people listening to this aren’t as detail-interested in specifically, but like what kind of tricks are you doing at that age when you’re as good as you are? What were you doing?
I think one of the biggest, last tricks that I landed, uh, I think I landed a full, uh, you know, and, and it was just a regular, you know, back flip with a full twist. And, uh, that was a big accomplishment. I mean, I was doing a lot of, uh, you know, flip-flops, back handsprings, whatever. Um, I did, uh, you know, some stuff, some double backs and stuff on the trampoline, but I was- I had to kind of choose, do I want to go into more traditional stick-and-ball sports? Um, or do I want to stick with this? And I was having to drive an hour each way to, to do the tumbling and trampoline. And I really wanted to play football, even though it was six-man football, so it was a little different. But, uh, yeah, we kind of changed paths there.
‘Cause tumbling would have put you on the track to be a cheerleader. Yeah. Like what else are you to do with your schools, with those skills, if you want to do something with schools, you know, except cheer.
Yeah. And my, my school did not have male cheerleaders. Um, you know, we were a really tiny school. I had, I had 11 kids in my graduating class, so, uh, we played six-man football. So if you didn’t play football, we didn’t have a band. I played, I got to play every sport that we had, but we didn’t have baseball. Um, because we didn’t have enough kids. Yeah.
Can’t fill the team. Wow. That’s fascinating. Yeah. That’s a small, um, there’s some small towns out there. They build some, some six-man teams. That’s so cool though. So where’d you go after high school?
Uh, so I went to school at Texas Tech. Yeah. And I got a PR degree there and I played some intramural stuff and I felt like I was a better intramural player than I was a high school player. But you know, of course I was, I was, uh, you know, six foot, two, white guy that couldn’t play college basketball. I always kind of wanted to, but, uh, I got to live out a little bit of that in the intramural world.
Yeah, dominating and some intermural basketball. I played intramurals at Tech also, um, a little bit of basketball, myself and some outdoor soccer and indoor soccer and softball and, um, whatever the girl football power, whatever they call it. When were you at Tech?
Uh, let’s see, I was there 2002 to 2006.
We just missed each other. I got out of there, um, just before you got there. Yeah, I got there in ’97. Nice. All right. So we just wrapped up a really strange sports year, right? To say the least. Yeah. Um, and so isn’t it crazy to think that the Winter Classic was 2020 or 2020? Like it was the first day 2020 and it was like a glorious day for DFW, you know, sporting events, right? It was like the perfect thing, um
It’s funny. I just, uh, we just hit me and my wife just had our anniversary last month and she bought me a panoramic of the Winter Classic cause we went cause we were both Stars fans and uh, you know, it was, we were joking around that day going, “Man, if we’re going to big events like this for all of 2020, you know, the joke being that, you know, whatever you do on the first day of the year is what you’re doing all year. This is going to be an incredible year. I work in sports like this is going to be awesome.” And I, it was literally couldn’t have been anything further from the truth.
It all comes to a screeching halt probably during one of your events. So Conference USA was happening at The Star, like mid-tournament, everything gets shut down. I mean, I know things got shut down all over the world and not “poor Frisco,” whatever, but for our world, it was during, you know, uh, an event here that we brought to the, to the city. Um, and so everything kind of stopped. So if it sounds like you and your wife are kind of like me and my husband, where we do a lot of sports related things, that’s our, that’s our spare time. That is what takes up our social life. Yeah. So that’s what makes it even harder when something like this happens and you all of a sudden have- we have no FC Dallas games to go sit at, we have no RoughRiders to go sit at and enjoy and take our kids to and all the things, the Rangers, all of our traditions. So it was hard, right? So what did you, did you guys feel that and what did you guys do?
And have we, I mean, we, we obviously felt it quite a bit. I mean, I was at home worrying about, um, events that we were supposed to be having. Um, and it was a surreal moment in the Conference USA, whenever we’re sitting in the, in the room at The Star with the, the whole Conference staff and a bunch of the ADs and deciding, you know, I remember that day, I drove to the gym and, uh, got a text that the NCAA tournament was, was being, you know, postponed. And then by the time I left the gym, there was a, I had a text from, from Conference USA commissioner saying, “Hey, we need you up here right now.” Um, and I had just left the venue to go work out. And then I came back and we were like, I, so I’m sitting there in my workout clothes and she’s like, “I don’t think we can continue with this tournament.” And so she’s on the phone, she’s getting calls from Mark Emmert, from the NCAA president and, you know, we’re sitting there and it, uh, it all just ground to a halt. So, uh, yeah, it was surreal. My, my busy slate of events that I had really in March and April, none of them went off. So we spent a lot more time at home. Um, and then it just seems like from then on, we’ve been in this waiting period. Initially, it was like, “Oh, it’s going to be, you know, 4 to 8 weeks. And the 8 weeks never ended. And we just, you know, we keep making plans and it seems like every couple of days we throw that plan away and we go with something else.
Yeah. Like, we’ll see if these tickets hold or we’ll see if this happens. So one of the things we did besides getting outside when, when it was just our little life in our house, thankfully we live in a place like Frisco where we could get outside and there’s parks. We have baseball fields in walking distance to our house, lots of trails and bikes. So where we could still as a small family of four, um, play sports. But one of the things we did was watch a lot of sports related stuff on Netflix or on TV. Did you guys get into that? Oh absolutely. Yeah. Like, thank goodness the Last Dance came on when it did, right? ‘Cause I needed those 10 weeks of, or 10 episodes of Michael Jordan. Yeah.
You needed that, uh, something to look forward to, it was like, that must-watch TV. And it was kind of fun to realize that like so many people were watching it with you. That’s what I think sports is great is it’s camaraderie. It’s like I’m doing this, but you know, just like the Winter Classic, I’m doing this with 80,000 other people. And to hear 80,000 people yell “Stars” in the middle of the National Anthem, it’s like bone-chilling kind of stuff. And that’s what, you know, the Last Dance kind of gave us a taste of that. Like, I remember we had something to talk about in the office, you know, that week. And, you know, I’d talked to Chuck about, you know, he actually used to work out around Michael Jordan. You know, Chuck works and works with me. And, uh, so he had some insight and he was talking about, you know, being in basketball during those days and, you know, so it was, uh, it was fun to kind of again, use sports as that thing to kind of come around and be a part of, but it still wasn’t live events.
Yeah. Still not the same, but it’s amazing how we were. We consumed it anyways. Like people thought it was crazy. Um, I remember the first morning, like EPL Soccer came on and my husband turns on to watch, and it’s just so weird that there’s no fans, but then like now I like it because I can hear, I like now prefer no crowd noise. Like when FC Dallas playoff game, the other night was on, I’m like, “Ugh, they have the fake crowd noise piped in. It’s too fake. I can’t hear the coach and the players talk. I like, like, I want to hear the game.” So it’s amazing how it has changed some of our watching preferences.
I think the, the more hardcore sports fan is kind of like that. Like I like watching basketball and you can hear them players talking to each other, you hear them setting things up and you hear the coaches interacting. You know, I think the more casual sports fan, it’s almost like a laugh track on a, you know, a comedy show or something it’s like, “Tell me when I should cheer when I should get excited. Or, or even if I’m just going to turn back and look at the TV ’cause it got louder.” But if you’re, if you’re a really sports fan, I get it. Like it’s become somewhat normal to not see the crowds, which I hate because it’s working in sports tourism we need crowds.
Yeah, we do. And, and I’m, I’m the first one to want to be there, too. So did you watch Lance?
I didn’t, I I’ve, I’ve never been a big cycling person.
It’s good enough anyway. I mean, I’m big enough to know that I just watch Tour de France every time it comes on TV or not even, I mean, who watches the whole thing, not the like, you know, the, the newsworthy stuff and see who’s, you know, leading whatever but, um, it was good. Oh yeah. I think it’s good. And also just cause he’s a Texas, like it’s just close to home. So I thought it was interesting. I watched some Aaron Hernandez stuff, which is, that was hard to watch. Um, so did you eat into the Cheer phenomenon?
Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I’ve, uh, you know, it was funny watching that show with my gymnastics background. Obviously a lot of that made sense and, uh, and then some, a lot of those guys were competing when I used to work at the Fort Worth Sports Commission and we hosted a big ACA event there in Fort worth. And so it was funny. I was like, “Oh, that’s in the convention center.” You know, there were times whenever they would show just little clips of them being at a competitive- Oh, you recognize footage. Yeah. So yeah, I I’ve always been an appreciator of cheer even though I never did it because it’s like, it combines gymnastics. It’s very athletic. Yeah, same. And, uh, but it’s crazy to see these, these, you know, little girls and I say little girls, they’re young women, but they, their bodies are breaking down because they’re, they’re competing harder than a lot of, uh, contact sports.
Oh yeah. It’s intense. It’s a lot more intense than people realized. And a lot of the breaking down comes from what, you know, the tumbling side of it. I mean, tumblers have lots of creaks and cracks than most people don’t realize that really affect your body long term.
Oh yeah. I still can’t stand up without my knees or ankles- I have, I’ve terrible knees and ankles and it’s all from tumbling.
Same, but man, I’m a sucker for some Texas sports documentary. Um, I also got into Athlete A part of, because when I was growing up as fascinated with the curlies and just anything gymnastics. Um, I think when I was asked on this podcast who my favorite athlete is my answer, um, is gymnastics. Like, it’s what I think back when I think of like a lifetime of, of favorite people to watch. I just, I like watching gymnast, but, um, Athlete A was a, was a big one for me.
That, that was, that was a hard one for me to watch because I knew a lot of the people in that situation. I, the president of, of USA gymnastics at the time, Steve Penny and I were, uh, you know, I I’d gone to dinners with him. I’d literally a couple of years before all of this went down. I had breakfast with, uh, Steve, Béla Károlyi, Ron Galimore, uh, you know, I, I was, I was friendly with those guys. I went to events and we saw, we, we, we hosted a lot of gymnastics in Fort Worth and, um, we still do over here. So I, I, it was, it was really hard for me because I see both sides of what went down and, and taking care of kids is the most important thing. And that’s where they messed up. But I also know the business of sports is not always just a clear cut, easy thing to do. And so, you know, it makes you wonder, you know, everyone says, you know, “through hindsight, yeah, that’s exactly- that was so wrong.”
Yeah, “they have done this right then.”
Yeah. And, and it’s, it’s easy to see what went wrong in a car accident, but in the moment people make split-second decisions and they’re not always right. But, uh, yeah. Athlete A was, was one that I definitely consumed and it was, uh, but it was a little, little odd to watch.
It was, I bet for you, especially knowing those names and faces. Yeah. Um, it was odd to watch for me just thinking back, man, that was so much in my childhood and I, I never experienced anything like those girls did. Everything I can think of was, was positive about my gymnastics life. But man, it was just powerful. That documentary was super, super important and powerful. And I’m glad they put it out there because the parents side of me watches it, thinking, wow, like watching how some of the parents had to really fight for their children’s wellbeing. When we, I trust coaches so much, I put a lot of trust in what I tell my kids all the time. Like, “well, you know, that’s what your coach said. Like that’s probably the right thing.” What you’re supposed to do when you want to support your coaches and defend your coaches too. But it also kind of like made me go, well, you know, you need to, what does your gut say if your kid is saying this? Yeah, listen, and don’t just sweep everything, every complaint under the rug, like, you know, pay more attention.
Sure. Yeah. It’s, it’s definitely a balancing act, I think. Yeah. It’s uh, you know, yeah. I’m the same way, you know, I don’t want to coach the coaches, but then at some point you got to go, “okay, if this doesn’t seem right, my gut is telling me to fight for it.” And that’s what some of those parents did. And thankfully they did ’cause they probably helped save a lot of other kids from going through that.
Exactly. Like when your parents are saying like, “what’s going on with our case,” “Oh, they’re not getting any-” it’s like, crickets. Well something’s wrong, right? Yeah. And so to save other people from going through it, like say something. Okay, did you get into the F1 series?
I didn’t. I hear a lot about it. And it’s kind of, that’s, I’m kind of excited ’cause all this content is still available. And so I’ve like, I’ve got like a playlist whenever I can find time with not having an FCS championship this year. Maybe I’ll have an extra weekend where I can sit down and consume some of that stuff. Yeah, Drive to Survive. I mean, I’ve heard people that are like “now I watch Formula 1 all the time because I watched that show.”
Yeah, I wouldn’t go that far for me. My husband puts it on now because it, because of the show. But um, it’s just, again, it makes you appreciate a sport you otherwise wouldn’t have really known the nuances of. Yup. Um, it’s a good one to watch.
Well, and that’s what, I mean, the reason I’ve worked in sports is, I mean, I like to watch people reach their pinnacle. That’s what’s so great about sports is there’s this thrill of victory, there’s this agony of defeat, but there’s, it takes, you know, a lot of preparation, a lot of hard work to get to this. And that’s kind of what, you know, and we’ll talk about this another time, but like even working events, it’s the same kind of theory. Like I, I prep for events, you know, we work hard for several months and then we execute event and you sit there and you go, “okay, that’s, that’s awesome.” Like, so it’s, it’s still competing in a way. Yeah.
That the journey of seeing the journey to make, to see what I, you know, a two-hour event knowing the journey behind it. And like you said, the prep that goes into it and that’s part of what Drive to Survive is. I mean, you see footage of them all sitting in a room, 20 guys with headphones on, watching footage, or I don’t know what they’re watching. And then just listening to the dynamics between all the people that it takes to put this one guy or a couple of guys on a team, in a car and race is really amazing. So yeah, watch that one, if you get a chance. So then there’s a funny one I want to ask you about, have you gotten into Ted Lasso?
So I’ve watched a couple of episodes. My wife is not a big fan and you know, we have young children, so we kind of have to figure out what we’re doing with our TV time and that’s not her favorite. So, um,- there’s some language in there. Yeah. And I mean, she just, I, I it’s, it’s kinda goofy to her. It’s a goofy show, but I really liked Jason Sudeikis a lot. Yeah. So my plan is to watch that, you know, whenever I get back to traveling and doing things for normal work, um, that’ll be something I’d probably watch on the road.
Yeah. That’s a good road road trip when your wife’s not around. So you can, don’t have to bother her with it. Yeah. It’s so funny to me, it just cracks me up.
I love anything that shows the business behind sports, you know, and that’s, there’s a lot of that in there. And
Well, ’cause it’s not about the soccer. I mean the soccer on the field is funny. It’s comical. It’s not real. Like you can tell that the soccer footage is stupid. But it’s not what it’s about. Like it’s the relationship with the owner and just the dynamics of, you know, bringing this goofball football coach in to this team in London. Like I just thought it was hilarious. So that’s something I got into. So then a lot of people- I’m fascinated with this weird year of not having as much sports to go to. Um, I’m fascinated with people getting more active or less active because it could go either way this year. What did it look like for you?
So it was kind of a little bit of both. I mean, last summer I kind of realized like I needed to focus on my health a little bit. So I started working out and going to the gym. Um, but I hadn’t really changed my diet or anything. So I lost a little bit of weight. Um, and then we stopped going to the gym during the first part of COVID because, and we were working out with Chuck that works with me and my wife. We were all going. Um, once we stopped having daycare and things like that, it was got much harder. And then we were like, “well, let’s, it’s probably not safe to be at the gym.” So we stopped and I gained quite a bit of weight back and then it was towards the end of the summer that I went, “okay, like, let’s start doing this again.”
And I got real focused. I went to like a, mostly a keto diet and uh, we were going out on the bikes and, you know, being more active, but then really got back in the gym. And so, uh, for the last about five or six months, it’s been, I’ve been really active and I’ve been able to, you know, I wasn’t traveling and a lot of times I have to take people to dinner and stuff. So you’re like, “let’s order the best thing on the menu.” So I was really strict with it and it’s a, it’s paid off and I’ve seen some results, which has been nice. What’s your results? So this morning I hit 50 pounds that I lost since the end of August.
50, that’s huge. That’s awesome. So you just kind of got tired of letting, letting the, the lockdown, like get the best of you. I mean, we all have, I felt that too, a lot of people have, and there was like a point in time where you just said, okay, enough’s enough. Like let’s get back out there and figure it out. And was it an equal amount of change in diet and change in movement or like, was it mostly the diet that did it?
I mean, I think it takes both. Um, you know, one thing that helped us, I got a, I got a smoker. Um, so I got a trigger and started doing some, some pellet smoking. And uh, so that helped with the keto, obviously eating meat, as long as it’s something that I, you know, again, it’s like competing, I get to, I get to prep for it. I get to think about it. I get to make plans. And then I get to see it come to fruition and I get to, you know, I get to consume it and feel like it’s something that, that came from me a little bit. Um, so that helped a lot. Um, you know, and then, but we’ve been, we’ve been lifting, uh, pretty heavily for the last couple of months. And so it’s been fun. I’ve been tracking everything. I see my muscle increasing and then I can see my body fat going down. So, but I was just, it was, it was a mood thing. You know, I was really, I wanted more endorphins. I wanted to be happier. I didn’t want to be tired every time I had had to get out and do something. Um, and it’s changed everything. I mean, I think it’s changed my relationship with wife and my kids and I just, I can do a lot more, although it’s kind of hard right now going to the gym after work and not getting home till it’s dark, but, uh, but it’s worth it ’cause it’s helping.
Yeah. I know. I feel, yeah. And I agree with you with the weights. I’d put off and sort of resisted that whole, you know, being somebody who lifts weights for so long. And so many females do, but, um, John over at Conquer Fitness in the last couple of years taught me how and I like, that’s when I would see different results. I did a lot of other things, but until I actually just started using, I mean, I’m talking like 8, 10, 12-pound weights. Not like I’m like doing a lot. I mean, I had to work up to like bench pressing with some weights on the bar. I’m not a, like, I’m not a strong person, but um, that’s when the body fat comes off.
Yeah. And it it’s, you know, cause your body because you’re tearing those muscles up a little bit and there, your body’s recovering from that, you know, for, it’s not just cardio where you burn what you burn while you’re doing it. You’re kind of burning the whole time. But I understand it cause it’s, uh, I mean even growing up being an athlete, I never really learned how to really lift weights. And my wife definitely didn’t. My wife was not an athlete in high school. Um, but you know, Chuck is a coach. He coaches basketball and he was a college athlete, a pro athlete. So he was able to kind of show us like, you know, you don’t just have to go in and pick up this machine or do what, you know, he’s kind of showed us how to build plans. And so now I can go to the gym and I can make a plan when my wife goes, we have to go separately because we still don’t have, you know, places, you know, daycare and all of that stuff.
But you know, I can kind of say, “well, here let’s hit, you know, back in buys today and here’s 3 & 3 that we can do.” And, and so, you know, but it was funny. We were working out with somebody yesterday. Me and Chuck were, and I was telling him, he kept saying, “are you breathing? Are you breathing?” And she’s like, “yeah.” And I’m like, “do you know what he’s saying? He’s not saying like, are you, he’s saying he’s like, whenever you’re, you know, whenever you’re pushing the weight up, you should be exhaling.” I was like, “I had to learn that.” And he was like, and Chuck was like, “Oh, I didn’t think to teach her that.” You know? And so she was like, “Oh, that does make sense.”
You’re right. Like in, in with his past, he was taught that at some point, but in, you said your wife wasn’t a- I was an athlete in high school, but my high school was not, they were not teaching us that. I think they were probably teaching the football boys, how to be in the weight room.
But see all we did in football, I did squats, bench press, and um, like some leg press. That’s all we got. We had a very rudimentary gym, too. So I didn’t know how to, you know, I walk into a gym and I’m intimidated. There’s a hundred pieces of machine in there.
Right. The variation. Yeah. Me, too. And yeah. And I don’t even think we stepped foot in a weight room, girls in high school. But that was, I mean, I was a cheerleader, but like softball, you’re not going to take soccer there. We just didn’t do that back then. But now everybody in high school in Frisco, every athlete gets weight room every other day and off season and all summer. And like my daughter started learning how to lift weights or be in a weight room safely and all that in 7th grade. And so I’m like, “this is sweet. Like she has a really good foundation of how to safely be in a weight room.” And so now if wants to go work out with me, I’m like, “okay, great. I don’t, I don’t have to babysit you. Like I know, you know how to use the equipment and somebody taught you. Like, she probably knows more than I do about it.
I think that’s kind of why I gravitated towards Frisco a little bit is because it was just it’s sports was part of the culture. It’s, you know, everywhere I’ve been before. It’s like, “yeah, we like sports.” But you know, here it’s like, and these kids are coming out and they’re getting, you know, top-level coaching there. They have all of the, they have everything kind of in front of them. If you want to go and be a pro soccer player, you have access to that right here. Um, and that’s why, you know, I was in Fort Worth before and I loved being over on the west side of the metroplex, but I was like, “man, for sports, there’s not a better place than Frisco.”
I agree. Okay. That’s a good, that’s a good ending. So my question o end this podcast, when life is back to normal, I want to have you back and let’s, let’s look at all this stuff that, um, Visit Frisco, um, does to bring more sports here and to amplify the sports that happen here. We’ll have to talk about that another time, but what are you most looking forward to when things are back to normal, experiencing sports in Frisco?
I mean, um, I’m looking forward to, to crowds, honestly. The thing that I think we need, you know, with whether it’s through the vaccine or whatever, is, is confidence. We need confidence that we can safely go and do these things. I know what the protocols are at each place. I think we have very smart sports operators here. So the events that we are doing are, I think are safe, but I think the general public is, is just very unsure of their own safety. So whenever everyone kind of feels confident again, that they can get out there and you can go and you can stand next to someone that you don’t know and scream at the top of your lungs and high five, somebody that you’ve never met, that is what I’m looking forward to the most. Is just that, that sense of community, of being in the same building and cheering for people, you may have never met, but it’s all, we’re all rowing the boat in the same direction.
Yeah, I love that. I love that. What is your favorite event in Frisco in a perfect year when everything happens?
Perfect year, um, that’s hard. That’s like having to pick like your, your favorite child.
I know, they’re your babies. I’m sure.
I really like any of the events that are kind of that long prep time. So with the FCS Championship, um, that we run, you know, that we start prepping for that usually in August and we have meetings, you know, sometimes bi-weekly, and then closer in we’re having, you know, weekly and daily meetings about that. I like events that, uh, I have to be at. Lone Star Conference Basketball is one. It’s a smaller tournament, but I’m there and I’m involved in every aspect of the event. So at the end of it, I’m exhausted, but it’s that exhausted that I love like, “Oh, I just competed” is how I feel. And so, um, my, my favorite event that’s probably FCS is probably way up there just because it’s, it’s on, on national TV. It’s, it’s great. But we’ve got,
And if that football field and all that good stuff and Toyota Stadium and checks a lot of boxes.
Well, we get to work with all the great partners that we have here, so.
Well, I’m excited to talk you about that, uh, in a future episode, when we can explore all of the things we’re going to run down a list so long of what’s coming back to Frisco. People won’t even believe it, right?.
Yeah. We, we’re already starting to make that the list. We’ve got some really cool stuff in the pipelines.
Good. Well, here’s here’s to that. I’m excited to have that back. Thank you. I know you are busy. Um, so thanks for coming in and chatting with us and giving us a peek into your sports background.
Yeah. Thanks for having me and thanks for doing this. I think it’s, it’s important to have somebody talking about all the great sports stuff that’s happening in Frisco. You guys are doing a great job.
Well, thanks. We’re here every week, talking about youth players, pro players, coaches, organizers, entrepreneurs, whatever it is. If they want to talk to me about sports, I’ll talk to them. So, we love doing that. Um, so thank you for listening to this episode of Hustle & Pro. Remember to subscribe however you listen to your podcasts. And do me a favor, hit that review on iTunes and tell us how you’re liking us. We’ll see you next week.
Basketball Season’s Greetings