He had me at Field of Dreams. Isaiah Rojas loves sports, and you can hear it when he talks about playing sports as a child in California, as a way to have an identity. It’s evident that he has taken this passion to preserve and respect sports into his work life.
Isaiah played college baseball, went to school to be a PE teacher, pivoted into sports management, worked for our rival MLS team, the LA Galaxy, and even ran Parks and Rec for an Indian reservation. He landed a job working for i9 Sports and fell in love with the alignment of his passion and the opportunity to impact young athletes.
Isaiah says, “Sports can change a kid’s life.” And, that’s what i9 excels in as a recreational league – fostering good sportsmanship and fun.
One practice per week allows families to experience a sports season without taking over their schedules. Sometimes it means shifting our results-oriented way of thinking as parents. Isaiah talks to us about teaching kids to focus on the things you can control, not the outcome of the game. They want kids to have fun so they’ll enjoy their experience and continue playing and loving the sport with their friends.
i9 Sports has Frisco area leagues for soccer, baseball, basketball, flag football, ZIP lacrosse, volleyball, cheerleading and more. Visit www.i9Sports.com for local info and to register.
Enjoy episode #47 of the Hustle and Pro sports podcast.
Show Notes
- [00:35] Quick Hits
- [1:55] Background as an athlete
- [5:12] Turning sports into a job
- [7:27] i9 Sports
- [10:32] Good Sportsmanship & Fun
- [15:10] How does i9 encourage kindness among the kids?
- [21:00] Isaiah as a sports parent
- [23:40] Benefits of being a part of a team
- [27:40] i9 seasons and enrollment
Resources within this episode:
- i9 Sports: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
- Kelly Walker: Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
- i9 Sports on Lifestyle Frisco
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
This episode is sponsored by i9 Sports North Dallas.
Visit i9 Sports to find the program that works for your family. Age Groups include Pee Wee, Juniors, and Seniors. Sports include Flag Football, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer and Zip Lacrosse.
i9 Sports® provides a youth sports experience unlike any other teaching the importance of good sportsmanship on the field and in life.
The Way Youth Sports Should Be.®
Transcript: (machine-generated)
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers, and entrepreneurs from Peewee League to Pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker.
Welcome to Hustle and Pro. Living in Frisco, Texas. It is so refreshing to talk to someone whose mantra is the way youth sports should be and focusing on good sportsmanship and fun, um, for kids and families. So Isaiah Rojas, thank you for joining me and welcome to Hustle and Pro,.
Thank you for having me.
I’ve got a couple of quick hit questions. First to sort of get to know you and your personal sports interests. So who’s your all time favorite athlete?
All time. Favorite athlete. Ken Griffey jr.
Oh, love him.
Yes.
Consistency, right?
Yes.
Uh, what’s your favorite sport to play personally? Baseball goes along with the Ken Griffey jr there. Um, is that your favorite sport to watch also?
Yes.
Okay. Yeah.
So this is a new cricket question. You’re my first guest that I’m asking this too. What’s your favorite or some of your favorite sports movies?
Ooh, I love sports movies. I mean, my favorite sports movie of all time is field of dreams. I love field of dreams. I love the Sandlot. I mean obviously baseball, but so, uh, those two are, are great. Remember the Titans is a great one. So I would say those three are definitely my, my top
I love field of dreams. I’ve tried to get my kids into it and they don’t get into it as much as I want them to.
My little four year old to wash a Sandlot and he gets a little scared of the beast.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s intimidating, but it’s, so those are such great movies. Yes. Um, another, you know, baseball ish movie. I’m a league of their own, one of my personal favorites. Love, love that movie.
So I want to learn about you personally and about your professional world in sports, but, um, you’ve happened to make sports a part of your everyday life, right? But I want you to kind of rewind and tell me, you know, how you got to this point. So what was it like for young Isaiah? Um, what’s did sports look like for you as a kid?
So, uh, I grew up in a very small town in Hollister, California. Um, and I went to a very small school in that town, so there was only about a hundred kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. So it was a very, uh, very different demographic there. It was a, a large part of the community was a Hispanic that worked in the farms, worked in the orchards, and a large part of the community was the people that own those farms and orchards and lived kind of in the estates up in the Hills. So, um, as a young kid I was, uh, you know, able to participate in all the sports were at the school and played in little league sports, you know, throughout. But, um, sports for me was a way to have an identity. I wasn’t, um, it kind of gave me an essence of pride. It gave me a way to, um, kind of separate myself a little bit to kind of have my own little identity there outside of sports. So I played recreational, I played for the school, I played competitively. Um, I played any sport that I can, um, baseball, flag football, soccer, basketball, anything that I can get a ball and get around. We played. So in the neighborhood at school, recess leagues. But I would say a lot of my youth sports experience was just playing the playground and playing, you know, with kids, you know, not things structured. Yeah.
Yeah. So, but you did play, you keep saying for schools. So how far into your school, like middle school, high school, did you play baseball through high school? Okay. And other sports during high school or were you singled into baseball by then?
No, we played, I played multiple sports. So it’s kind of unique because, uh, at, uh, my, after my freshman year of high school, my parents decided that uh, a private school, it’d be a better spot for us to go to. Um, so we went to a private Christian school, which really limited my sports abilities. So it was a great experience. But sports wise there was kind of a step back at a pretty big step back. So I was able to still able to play uh, football and basketball there, but the baseball, they didn’t have a baseball program, so, um, that kinda was a, uh, kind of a big hit. But uh, yeah. But I played, you know, through high school and once I got to college, I played college baseball. I could continue to play in inter murals in college and high school as well. So I was able to still play the different sports, but I was able to play baseball through college.
Where were you playing baseball in college?
[inaduble] University, which is a Southern California and river Riverside.
Oh, nice. Okay. So you played for the school or intramurals or both?
Both.
I played intermurals basketball, flag football and soccer and then baseball for the school.
Awesome.
I loved college intramurals.It was so fun. I tried to, you know, extend my softball career and well in soccer and basketball and college intramurals and it’s just a good time. Like some of my friends still to this day are some of my intramural friends from, from, you know, sorority life and just college campus life. I loved it
That’s one thing I liked about the high school. They did it in murals too, since they didn’t have as much competitive sports. So I was able to play in high school and college. There was a lot of fun playing with your friends and competing against friends and teachers and stuff. That was fun.
Yeah. So you extended it farther than most. Um, okay. So what point did you decide to turn sports, kind of that dream job of working in sports and working around sports into reality for your,your career?
Well, um, I originally went to school to be a PE teacher. That was my thought is I wanted to, to be a teacher. I had great PE teachers when I was growing up and I loved that, that idea. Um, and then my senior year I took a sports management class if you didn’t go to college and I just loved it. I loved the idea of, uh, I’m not, I’m not too much of a, you know, in everybody’s face in front of, you know, camera type of person. I like to kind of be in the background a little bit. So I love the idea of being able to kind of create programs and be a part of programs on the background side. So I ended up getting my masters at Cal State Long Beach and sports management, uh, did a lot of internships, which I really, really loved working with FC Dallas and in other programs or I’m not FC Dallas. I’m sorry. The um, LA Galaxy. Yeah, I think you asked me. Tell us again.
Yeah, yeah. Our neighbors here in Dallas.
Worked for the LA galaxy for a season rival LA galaxy. So we can talk about that another day, right? Yeah, it was a season that Beckham came over.
Oh, that’s like the biggest season they’ve ever, right. That’s like putting them on the, on the map. I guess. Literally like Beckham just changed. He changed the MLS for fraternity. It’s still is big names coming over, which is cool. Yeah, still is [inaudible] out, but we’re getting more, they’re still coming and going. Um, awesome. So you, so you had your masters. I think sports management is, you were kind of ahead of the curve. I feel like there’s so many young people coming out of college and now with that degree, not a master’s like you did, but man, it is just more and more prevalent.
Well that are, and there’s a lot of programs and which is great. At the time when I was in California, there was Cal State Long Beach and there was a San Francisco State and that was really the two that I kind of to choose from. So, but now, I mean there’s undergraduate, there’s tons of different, you know, community colleges are offering programs.
Yeah, great. But it is just a lot more than, it’s hard to get those jobs. You mentioned interns, internships, that’s the name of the game. You got to find anything you can to get in the door, right? If you’re trying to work for a team or a firm or something like that. It’s a, it’s a tough path. But I bet it’s fun. So you had all those experiences with teams and different things like that. And now you are the business owner here in Frisco or this area of i9 Sports. Right? So tell me how, you know, when did that happen and how did that come into play for you?
Yeah, so, um, while I was, while I was doing my masters, I was working for, um, an Indian reservation, actually. They owned a private sports complex and it was, they’re just barely building it. They hired me on as a sports director straight out of college. So it’s kind of a cool, you know, introduction job. So I worked there for about six years running the complex baseball and football complex as well as their parks and rec division for awhile. Um, worked for big league dreams in California, just kind of around sports the entire time. But I was just noticing that, that my time with, uh, sports, whether it was youth sports or adult sports, I was, um, dealing with a lot more conflict than I was comfortable with, uh, on multiple occasions, you know, uh, having to break up adult fights, having a breakup, uh, fights, you know, at a, at a youth kids game or even an adult game and, and just kind of, uh, loved being around sports.
I loved the participation in sports, but just didn’t like all the things that was coming with it. And, uh, just randomly I got an email about a position for i9 sports in Honolulu, Hawaii. I’ve never heard of i9 sports before and thought, yeah, I’ll apply for a job in Hawaii. Why wouldn’t I, and then a month later I was, I got the job when I was flying out to Hawaii to work for this company. So, um, I, I flew out there, again not having any experience with them, just knowing kind of what they’re about and uh, kinda got sold from the training that I went to that they sent me to in Florida. And, uh, I mean, just fell in love with it. It was the first time that my passion for sports aligned with the impact that sports was having with these, with these kids and that, and those programs over there and kind of the philosophy lined up. Um, and I just, I just really loved it. I worked there for three years, uh, running their sports program, which is one of the nation’s largest science sports franchises that the Honolulu branch there. And running that.
Not a bad place to have that.
Yeah. Yeah. So we, you know, my family loved that. We had our first son out there, me and my wife. So, um, so Hawaii has a close place in our hearts for sure. But, um, after three years I was, uh, I just felt like, you know, this is something I want to do for a long time and, uh, wanted to come back to the States and start my own franchise. And, uh, there was actually a previous, the owner here in Frisco that was, uh, had an i9 sports franchise and kind of just worked out to where we’re looking to come back. And she was looking to sell and we met, I came out to Frisco and one February, a couple of years, you know, in 2015 now or 16. And then, uh, signed papers and moved out in the middle of August when it was still hot.
Did you know back then, like what you were getting into as far as a sports city?
Oh no, not at all. I quite a market, right? Yeah. Once I realized, you know, this the demographic and then you know, I remember reading the sports illustrated articles, it was Frisco, Texas was a normal place for youth sports. I was like, wow, this is going to be a very interesting place to come to. So
Definitely have some potential here. Right? So I know enough about i9 to know it’s like a fantastic foundation for young people and learning sports. But I love the component about this good sportsmanship and things like that. So tell me, I’m like, what is i9 Excel the most at? Like what is your kind of the main foundation that, that you want people to know if they haven’t already learned about it?
Yeah, so we are a recreational league. That’s, that’s, that’s who we are, that’s who we want to market to. That’s who we want to be. Uh, we’re not really a highly competitive type of program. Not that I have a preference of one or the other. I played a highly competitive baseball and then you know, through as a kid and going through growing up. But um, there’s just a lot of kids that aren’t looking for that kind of sports experience and a lot of families as well. So for us, we are a recreational sports program that focuses on the fun and sportsmanship and the recreational side of sports. So it’s a one day a week program where parents get to practice and play on the same day. So for parents who have multiple kids or have busy schedules, you know, we kind of fit that, that, that, that need for them where their kids can still get involved in sports, they’ll benefit from sports without committing to three to five days a week. All your weeknights, you know, out the fields or at the gyms or whatever.
And I think there’s a time and place for that. You get to that if, when, if and when you get to that level, but it’s not everybody’s going to get to that level. And when you’re younger, right. What’s most of the age group you’re working with?
So we start with kids as young as three and we go up to age 14 but I would say the majority of kids in our program are in that seven to 10 range.
Okay. Yeah. About the time you’re aged out of kind of your program, sweet spot. That’s the point when you want to go, you should be going, okay, let’s make some some sacrifices and let go of a few more of our week nights and family time and that kind of thing. It shouldn’t be when they’re six. Yeah. I think, you know, as, as a parent it just shouldn’t take over your family’s whole schedule. Yeah. I mean I’ve been guilty of it some we, we juggle a few sports here and there, but we try to focus one sports season at a time. But I’m like, when we talk about that, uh, on your site, I was talk, I was looking at this parent creed or mantra or I don’t know, pledge maybe that you guys put on there and I don’t have it memorized or anything, but I urge people to go look at it. But I love it because it talks about how like the bottom line we want kids to walk away after this game is to have them had fun. It is not, and it should not be about just the win. Um, I think parents get so caught up in that when I’m winning that you lose sight of the fact that these young people just need to enjoy what they’re doing. So then they come back and do it again and again and they don’t have a bad memory.
As adults, we’re results oriented. When we talk to our kids about sports, I’m an, I did the same thing my dad did. The same thing to me is Hey, how’s the game? Who won? How’d you do? And those are the questions that we ask. We want to know the results instead of, you know, Hey, did you have fun? Anything exciting happen? You know, that kind of stuff. Kind of open ended questions that allow the kids to kind of express what, what happened that day. Or Hey, I got to try a quarterback today. Or, you know, I made my first basket or whatever the case might be. Um, but yeah, I mean with our programs, what we talked to our parents and our coaches about a lot is, you know, focus on the things that you can control. You can control their effort. You can control their sportsmanship or attitude that they display on the field. Uh, the outcome of the games, the, the performance, you know, they’re not always gonna put up 20 points. They’re not always going to win the games, but they can always have great effort. They can always have great sportsmanship while they’re there. So if those are the things that we focus on, there are always going to be successful. They’re going to want to play for a long time, they’re going to have fun. Those, that’s, that’s why kids play. It’s because it’s fun. I can’t tell you how many times working for i9 sports and working for other organizations where, um, coaches and parents are, are, you know, coming up to me, they come up to the table and complaining about the ref or complaining about the outcome and complain about this. And the two teams that are just got done competing are over there at the park playing a little pickup game, playing tag, you know, getting around. Usually they’re ready to go for the next game. They’re there, you know, the game’s over, they want their loss and you know, there’s going to be times where their kids got bummed out or whatever, but they get over it pretty quickly. It’s usually the adults that are kind of, you know, upset about the results and upset about that thing.
The adults hold onto it tighter than the kids. The outcomes. Yeah. And like you said, we’re trying, we’re unfortunately that’s just sort of how we’re trained to think of it. But I do, I think it’s like a big responsibility for us as parents and organizers of sports and you know, I’m sure you’ve plenty along the way or your kids, same here. Um, but it’s a responsibility to shift that and remind them that or, or show them that there’s so much more to it than just who won at the end of the game. And there’s so much, you know, the journey and the experience. And the friendships and the good sportsmanship and the respect and those kinds of things.
I want to ask you, so when, um, I saw a study about how like 84% of youth athletes wanted to quit a team or did quit their team and when, and the reasoning was the top ranked reasoning was that it just wasn’t fun also that they had some teammates that were mean and then the other was too many practices or interfered too much with personal life. And, um, that makes me sad, first of all, the part about the mean teammates, but it’s real life. I mean, you’re lucky if you get on a team where every single person gets along all the time. The more you got to work together, the more things can rub and it’s hard. How do you guys kind of combat that and encourage the nice side of having a teammate?
Yeah. Well, you know, we tried to do a couple of things to allow the kids to have fun. And, and when you ask, you know, there’s a study by the Aspen Institute that, uh, asks, you know, why kids enjoy sports or why they’re not enjoying sports. And like you said, coaches, teammates playing time, those things really matter. So for our programs, we allow for coach requests and buddy requests. So if you have a friend that you want to play with as a three year old and they get them, you know, comfortable to be out there, kids love playing with their friends. And so allowing that makes kids feel more comfortable, they have more fun, they enjoy themselves more. Same thing if there’s a coach that they really like, um, or if what’s a, whether it’s their parent or just another parent. So those kinds of things really do help when you feel comfortable with the kids you’re playing with as well as the coaches that you’re playing with. The other thing that we do is we, in all of our rule books for all of our sports at all of our ages require at least minimum 50% playing time for every player during the game. And then we tried to really encourage equal playing time as much as possible. Sometimes it’s not always possible. You got eight kids in a basketball game, you’re going to have some kids.
Yeah. And that’s hard to manage. Perfectly.
Yeah. Yes. But as much as possible, we tried to really encourage that with our coaches and with our staff to make sure that we’re monitoring that, that kids get that playing time and they get an opportunity to play because that’s why they play is they, that’s why they’re practicing. That’s why they want to, you know, join the sport is to play in the game. And so we want to make sure that those kids get those opportunities, whether it’s a three year old playing for the very first time or a 14 we get a lot of 14 year olds that play in our program that are playing sports for the very first time or playing a new sport for the first time. You know, they’re, they’re very competitive baseball players, but they’ve never tried basketball so they can play with us. They can feel like they’re not, you know, 15 years behind as a 14 year old and they can really enjoy themselves.
And we get a lot of kids that training ground. Yeah. Cause playing multiple sports is so beneficial. Um, I played um, baseball for travel leagues for a long time and it was, it, it wore on me to where as I got, when I got to college I was, I was beat, I remember games in the outfield or at shortstop where I couldn’t get set because my back was hurting so much and just because my arm was hurting so much and I’m so playing multiple sports really benefits kids. And so one of the things that we try to do is encourage that participation in sports. And so we’ll get a lot of teams that play travel or competitive soccer. We had an all girls soccer team that played flag football with us a couple of seasons ago and that was a lot of fun. And they were good. They beat my team pretty badly that season. But
Girls in Frisco are playing on football teams up through middle school.
Yeah. And we have an all girl basketball team that plays with us right now and our eight to 10 year old basketball division. And you know, it’s just so fun to see them compete and see them. How fun. And, and, uh, you know, that for them it’s just about fun because this isn’t their main sport. Right. They don’t have, they don’t have as much pressure from the parents or the coaches that they have, you know, in the other sports that they’re more focused on.
The, the not the taking the pressure off is, is key for the young, you know, the younger they are because well they’re going to, the older they get, they feel that pressure and a lot of them put it on themselves. But, um, our daughter tried out and made a middle school basketball team this year and really never played. And um, it’s kinda nice though. It’s definitely not a first choice sport, but it’s kinda nice because on game day happens to be today when she leaves in my car at school, I get to say, I’ll see it at the gym tonight at five. Have fun. Like there’s no pressure because she’s not supposed to be that good at it. It’s not like a main thing. None of us are expecting anything when the expectations are set correctly that the youth athlete tends to be able to have fun more. Right. And that starts with the parents and the coaching.
Yeah. And that’s what’s going to allow a kid to play for a longer period of time was when they’re having fun throughout the entire process. And yeah, you might, you might find a sport that you are really interested in and you kind of, you know, as a parent or you know, you kind of guide your kids through that sport. Mine, I’ll probably guide my four-year-old through baseball a little bit more, but I’ll, you know, when he plays the other sports I’ll definitely be supportive as well. But um, you know, as we’re, as we’re kind of pushing our kids through the to play sports and stuff, we really want to make sure that we’re, you know, encouraging them to and just enjoy the whole process. You know, for a lot of the kids that play, you know, like you said, 84% of kids are going to drop out or thinking of dropping out. I read a stat that’s uh, has 70% of kids drop out by the age of 13 before they hit seventh grade. So for all these kids, you know, up until 13, 14 years old, this is their sports career. This is their experience that they’re going to look back on. For some of us, we were lucky enough to have high school or college members or even fewer of us that have fewer, not me, but other people that have pro memories. That’s awesome. But for these kids, this is going to be their sports experience. So we want them to look back and say, Hey, I remember my first touchdown. I remember this coach. I remember this game, and I remember this experience. They’re never going to remember the outcome of a, you know, the third game of the season when they were 12 years old. Right? The one who lost, but then remember, yeah, I remember that one game when I throw a touchdown that was my first touchdown pass. That was [inaudible]. the feeling they got from that. Yeah. The things . that, that they’re going to take with them that, that confidence build their, the, you know, um, the building blocks. Yeah.
I know you mentioned like when kids kind of bail early, I think, um, a lot of that is, I see that around here that I think families pushed to a competitive level too early prior to that age 13 I think is what you said. But I just see it so often a good athlete in a specific sport and it is, it is enticing as a parent to go, Ooh, you know, my, my nine year olds really good out there and the infield, let’s, let’s push and push and then guess what, by age 12, eh, he’s kinda over over it. Right. For whatever reason, it makes me sad. I see it all the time. But I have a question. So what are you an outfielder? Is that what you said?
I played outfield, but mostly shortstop.
Okay. Say, middle infielder. So what happens when you’re, you’re a boy goes and starts playing baseball and doesn’t in feel in it. Like what are you just kinda gonna let him figure it out and then pick whatever he finds and enjoys the most for him? Or do you feel like you’ll hold on to that baseball dream and keep him in longer?
He plays baseball and he enjoys it and he does right now. So I’ll try to encourage it, you know, as much as possible to keep it fun for him. So to play him backyard baseball, just throwing the ball to him and stuff like that, having fun. But if he decides that, Hey, I like soccer, or I like this, or I like that. Um, I mean I want him to, to benefit from sports and sports can change a kid’s life. I, I grew up as a first generation Mexican American and um, sports gave me an identity. It gave me confidence. I was able to, to kind of allow me to feel like I’m not different than everyone else that I was growing up with. So it can, you know, it can truly change a kid’s life. And, um, I talked that, I tell it to my coaches that play with our programs and every once in a while we get up.
We see experiences like that where, you know, kids are really gonna benefit from that. So I hope he plays sports. I hope he plays baseball. If he doesn’t, if he decides that, you know, there’s another sport that he wants to do, I just want to make sure that he stays active, stays engaged and you know, can benefit as long as possible for that. If he has the skills to take them far, awesome. I’ll be with there with them the entire time. But, um, I’ve got lists of what avenue that, yeah. For me, I was very personally driven. I was a kid who has an eight year old, you know, would, would not, you know, hit hit all of his baskets that day or not get, you know, went three for four and be mad that for that fourth, that bat. And not all kids are like, right. So if he’s like that, then I’ll try to, you know, keep them positive. But if he’s not, then I’ll try to make sure that we’re just kind of making sure he’s enjoying the process. So hopefully he does. But I’ll try to [inaudible]
I’m the same way. Um, I love dabbling in as many sports as you can while you’re little. Yeah. We’re about to hit age 10 for our youngest and man, he brags about how many things he’s tried. Um, some have stuck right and some haven’t and that’s great. I hope he continues to dabble in as much as he wants. And we learned a new sport lacrosse at age, I don’t know, maybe my, maybe 11, I don’t know. 12 and that’s hard jumping into a new sport like you said, but, um, like you said, as long as there’s something attached to something, I don’t personally need it to be. My sport so much is just something, you know who Abby Wambach is, right? So when she was inducted into the national soccer hall of fame this past, it was October, September or October of 2019. She was here.
And, um, I asked her like looking back and talking to the youth athletes, especially around here and in a city like ours, like what’s her advice and you know, she says it’s, you’re not going to be what I am. You’re not going to, chances are you’re not going to be an Olympic gold medalist and play on a, on a national level team. You know, like she does, but she said her advice is just be a part of a team. Make a difference in a group, find a group of people, they hold you accountable, you know, it pushes you to be better even if that’s at a very low level of a team. Just be part of that.
Cause there’s so many benefits from that. I mean, I have friends still that I played with little league baseball when I was seven, eight years old, that I’m still friends with coaches that that followed up with me and I checked in with and um, that, you know, are, are almost like family to me, you know, almost politic father figures to me. So yeah, just the benefits of being a part of the team, that the sportsmanship traits that you learned, the perseverance and all those things, it’s so beneficial. There’s um, so many good things that come from it. And you know, it’s just, it saddened me to think that there is some that um, are just seeing the negative side of sports kind of becomes a more adult sport and professional sport. Like, so, you know, you know, like I said, I have, I love competitive sports. I want the kids in our programs to play as hard as they can and do their very best. But at the end of the day, you know, whether they won or lost that game or did greater, didn’t they have fun? Did they enjoy themselves? And that’s the thing that’s going to keep them coming back.
Right. One last topic I have question for you. Are you a Rangers fan / Roughriders?
I am from the Bay area, so I’m a giants fan, so I love, I love my Bay area teams. But yeah, I’ve gone to a lot of Rough Riders games. We love going to the stadium. My little boy spends more time though in the playground than he does watch letting me watch the game. But, uh, we do love going to the rough riders games.
Once he gets maybe a little older, he’ll, he’ll sit. Um, so we’re at lots of Rough Riders, games, our family, we love going there and it’s so nice and convenient in our own little backyard. And we don’t make the Arlington drive too much. It will be interesting to see if that changes now with the AC. Yeah, the roof. I am excited to get out there and just sort of see what it feels like and looks like. So we’ll for sure get out there a little bit. But, and then what about FC Dallas? I know you are for the galaxy, but are you an FC Dallas fan now?
I am more of an FC Dallas fan than anything else? I’ve never been a big soccer fan, uh, played a lot of baseball, basketball and football, but I did play soccer just to kind of have fun.
But, um, for an MLS team. Right. So you have at least a working knowledge of the inside of it? No.
Uh, when I was there, I loved watching, I loved being a part of the games and stuff. I go to a lot more FC Dallas games now, so I kind of will, will follow them and see how they’re doing more often than any other team.
We love FC Dallas games too. Yeah. Anybody who knows me or listens to this podcast much. That’s uh, that’s kind of our, our main sport here locally is um, attending. Anyway. Sports of course we’ll watch anything on TV but um, FC Dallas and Rough Riders games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot. Yes, that’s where we’re in right now too. I guess I’m just kind of have soccer fever right now because um, the FC Dallas season just kicked off literally a couple of days into a practice season and um, so lot of exciting trade talk, um, just made a trade announcement with a Liga MX player that’s kind of going to be kind of a game changer for FC Dallas. So I’m in soccer mode right now. And then baseball is right behind it with seasons starting in spring. So, um, all fun things. So speaking of, um, I’m guessing enrollment for i9 is sort of a revolving seasonal enrollment process, right? Where parents can go find that out on online. How do they do that?
Exactly. We play winter, spring, summer and fall. Any, any season that you want to, you know, join a sports program, we’re going to have at least four or five sports going. So we’ll have volleyball, basketball, flag football, soccer, tee ball. We have a multi-sport program for little kids that can play, um, two weeks of soccer, two weeks of baseball, two weeks of football to kind of try it out, see what they like. So that’s great. Yeah. The little sampler for the kids to kind of try it, a couple of different sports and kind of choose the one that they enjoy the most. So, but yeah, we’re always, um, in season or getting ready for a new one, we just started our, uh, winter program, but we’re going to be, you know, getting geared, things geared up for spring very soon after that. So yeah, whenever you guys are ready to join, we’re always looking.
Yeah. Fantastic.
And the site is website is www.i9sports.com. So it’s the letter I number nine sports. Yeah, i9 sports.
Okay. So go check that out. And if your parents or guardians of any young or future young athletes, um, in this area. And so, thanks Isaiah. Thanks for jumping in here in the studio talking to me and no problem filling me in on, on your story. I love it. Um, so I’ll see ya to FC Dallas Rough Riders, Legends game one of these days. So go check out i9 sports online and while you’re at it, if you’re listening to this, go ahead and subscribe to Hustle and Pro on iTunes so you can get notified when our new episodes publish.
Painting the Picture of Achieving a Goal