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Sweethearts & Heroes - Brandon Bruttomesso · Aired Out

0:45
Speaker 1: D Good morning, welcome to the aired out podcast new
2:01
Speaker 1: Day right in front of us thirteenth of May. I
2:06
Speaker 1: know the big headline, Barry strikes down the school budget
2:11
Speaker 1: for a second time. I know everybody is worked up.
2:15
Speaker 1: If people are either really happy about yesterday's town meeting
2:20
Speaker 1: day results or ticked off. There's a lot of stuff
2:24
Speaker 1: to be said about it, a ton and frankly, the media,
2:31
Speaker 1: the local media, is oversaturated with it. I mean, there's
2:34
Speaker 1: just so much happening on with regard to all the
2:39
Speaker 1: results from yesterday, all the elections, all of the big
2:45
Speaker 1: decisions made. And here's the thing, and I want to
2:47
Speaker 1: start out by saying this this morning. I know it's
2:49
Speaker 1: a big deal, but I also know that there's a
2:53
Speaker 1: ton of information out there times Argus has got a
2:57
Speaker 1: lot of which need read it and absorb it. And
3:04
Speaker 1: as I said yesterday, think think positively if you can,
3:09
Speaker 1: try to be objective with your thoughts and take a
3:16
Speaker 1: deep breath and don't be a keyboard warrior. I know
3:20
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that's that's being said right
3:22
Speaker 1: now regarding this, but have an open mind and thank
3:31
Speaker 1: you if you were one of the many that got
3:33
Speaker 1: out yesterday and voted so so important. Hey, Deb Phillips
3:38
Speaker 1: is with us on the line from the World dep
3:39
Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, How the heck are you today?
3:44
Speaker 2: Good?
3:44
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you hearing plenty of stuff about yesterday's results?
3:50
Speaker 1: Are you hearing plenty of stuff about yesterday's results?
3:54
Speaker 3: Just some conversation this morning?
3:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, uh yeah, you know, you know, the race
4:03
Speaker 4: with Tom Loson was closer than people expected.
4:07
Speaker 1: Yes, it was so so.
4:10
Speaker 3: That was interesting. But he was elected again.
4:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very interesting. There was some a lot
4:20
Speaker 1: of interesting things that I took I think took place
4:22
Speaker 1: last night that was starting to come down the pipeline
4:26
Speaker 1: and land its way into the media and on my phone.
4:31
Speaker 1: A lot of interesting stuff. But let's let's talk about
4:34
Speaker 1: what's what's coming up in the world today. Wednesdays are
4:37
Speaker 1: are a huge celebration in central Vermont because people rely
4:42
Speaker 1: on and look forward to getting fresh copy of the world.
4:44
Speaker 1: And it's a big it's a big day. Yeah. What
4:47
Speaker 1: what do we expecting there today?
4:48
Speaker 3: Devik delivering right now, you know, So that's my good
4:54
Speaker 3: news for the day. Yeah, good and we uh we
4:58
Speaker 3: have in this week's paper we continue with our shop
5:01
Speaker 3: local promotion. The featured advertising this week is Bury Tile
5:06
Speaker 3: in south Bury. They have fifty plus years of flooring
5:09
Speaker 3: and tile experience and extensive product knowledge and installation experience.
5:15
Speaker 3: We also have one of my favorite pages that they
5:18
Speaker 3: do four times a year. We have the Adopted Pet
5:23
Speaker 3: and that's pets from the Central mount Humane Society. There's
5:27
Speaker 3: eighteen pets. There's cats, dogs, and two guinea pigs this
5:31
Speaker 3: week that are looking for a new home. And then
5:35
Speaker 3: we're continuing with our America two fifty the Glimpses of
5:42
Speaker 3: Vermont's Past, which is running every week throughout the whole
5:48
Speaker 3: year with a lot of good history notes about Vermont.
5:53
Speaker 3: This week talks about George Perkins marsh I don't know
6:00
Speaker 3: if you think about where Marshfield got its name or
6:03
Speaker 3: things like that, you know, I love that. That's always good.
6:09
Speaker 3: We also have a few job ads in the paper
6:13
Speaker 3: this week, people looking for to hire, and and we
6:19
Speaker 3: have some you know, advertisers that are promoting gifts for
6:24
Speaker 3: your graduate which is this time of year everybody the
6:30
Speaker 3: graduations and stuff.
6:32
Speaker 1: So yeah, a couple of weeks away. I love that
6:37
Speaker 1: that back page there with the history stuff, just glancing
6:40
Speaker 1: through that, always learning something new, always yes.
6:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's very well written and interesting.
6:49
Speaker 1: And if folks want to get in touch with you
6:53
Speaker 1: or Gary or any of the teammates over at the world,
6:57
Speaker 1: what's the best way to do that.
7:00
Speaker 3: You can call eight oh two or seven nine to
7:03
Speaker 3: five eighty two or emailed me at sales at Vthypenworld
7:08
Speaker 3: dot com.
7:09
Speaker 1: All right and Vthyphenworld dot com. Great site, and you've
7:14
Speaker 1: got the digital version on there as well. You guys
7:16
Speaker 1: are so busy.
7:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, this time of year, we definitely are busy. I
7:22
Speaker 3: love me.
7:22
Speaker 1: I want to sit now fifty two years, fifty five
7:26
Speaker 1: years somewhere in that ballpark fifty two believable, unbelievable. Depp,
7:31
Speaker 1: thank you ever so much, love having you on Wednesday.
7:34
Speaker 1: Anything else that you can think of that you want
7:37
Speaker 1: to highlight in today's edition.
7:40
Speaker 3: Well, we will have an early deadline for the next
7:44
Speaker 3: week's pay for the for the twenty eighth because of
7:48
Speaker 3: Memorial Day, Yes, Memorial Day, so yeah, so we'll have it.
7:54
Speaker 3: Deadline next week for advertising is Wednesday, May twentieth.
7:58
Speaker 1: All right, good to know. Anything else that you can
8:01
Speaker 1: think of, you make sure you tell me and I'll
8:03
Speaker 1: get it out of here on aired.
8:04
Speaker 3: Out all right, greatly appreciate it. Jad, thanks so much.
8:08
Speaker 1: Thank you, Deb. Deb Phillips from the world right there, Hey,
8:12
Speaker 1: be on the listen keep your eyes peeled because we
8:14
Speaker 1: got some tickets for the Vermont Mountaineers that we're going
8:17
Speaker 1: to be given away as we get closer to their
8:19
Speaker 1: opening night. I'm so excited about it, and we've got
8:22
Speaker 1: a pretty nice partnership going with the Vermont Mountaineers, which
8:26
Speaker 1: I'm going to be telling you more about in the
8:29
Speaker 1: very very near future. Weather wise, here's what's kind of
8:32
Speaker 1: going on right now. Cloudy, cold, and rainy is the
8:39
Speaker 1: word here for today and tomorrow. I tried to tell
8:44
Speaker 1: g last night some of the daytime highs here and
8:47
Speaker 1: he was like, stop, I don't even want to know
8:50
Speaker 1: about it. I'll just say chilly and rainy for today, Wednesday, Tomorrow, Thursday,
8:58
Speaker 1: and then by Friday, hopefully it's going to start feeling
9:03
Speaker 1: a little bit more like spring. Dare I say summer?
9:08
Speaker 1: Blackflies are on the way. Why do we have a
9:12
Speaker 1: lot to get to today? Casa Azteca are two words
9:16
Speaker 1: that I want you to remember today. If you stop
9:18
Speaker 1: into Fecto Homes right there at three point fifty River Street,
9:22
Speaker 1: in Montelli. You drop your name in the box. They're
9:25
Speaker 1: doing more one hundred dollars gift certificates for different restaurants
9:29
Speaker 1: every single week. One hundred dollars to Casa as Teka.
9:33
Speaker 1: Do you know what that would get me? Full belly
9:36
Speaker 1: and maybe a couple of marks three p fifty River
9:39
Speaker 1: Street stop in. Doesn't cost you anything. Just drop your
9:42
Speaker 1: name in the box and good luck. The drawing is
9:44
Speaker 1: this coming Friday. I'm shifting gears right now. We are
9:48
Speaker 1: bringing you nothing but positivity and goodness this morning on
9:54
Speaker 1: the airwaves every single Wednesday. And how I got tangled
9:58
Speaker 1: up with these guys from Sweethearts and Heroes is a
10:03
Speaker 1: story in itself. So blessed that my little girl came
10:08
Speaker 1: home from school one day and said, Dad, there was
10:13
Speaker 1: these people at my school and they were this one
10:16
Speaker 1: guy had these big muscles and he was given out
10:19
Speaker 1: free hugs, and his fingernails were painted and he was
10:22
Speaker 1: kind of weird. And then there was this other guy
10:24
Speaker 1: there who was all burned, and he was making us
10:26
Speaker 1: eat marshmallows and recite the alphabet backwards, and we were
10:32
Speaker 1: doing all these bully drills and home, my god, I
10:36
Speaker 1: was like what the hell is this going on here?
10:39
Speaker 1: And a matter of days later connected with Tom Murphy.
10:43
Speaker 1: And I don't know how long it's been, it's been
10:45
Speaker 1: at least a year and a half. And here we are,
10:48
Speaker 1: and we've devoted our airwaves every Wednesday to not the
10:53
Speaker 1: good message, but the great message that Sweethearts and Heroes
10:59
Speaker 1: brings out of everyone and puts on the air. My
11:02
Speaker 1: special guest is Brandon Prude Messo, who Tom says, Tom
11:08
Speaker 1: Murphy says, the co founder of Sweethearts and Heroes, a very,
11:14
Speaker 1: very very Those are three varies that he used with
11:19
Speaker 1: me on THEE and I took notes, so I know
11:21
Speaker 1: that there were three very special twenty eight year old
11:26
Speaker 1: guy who's joining us live right now? Where are you? Man?
11:30
Speaker 1: Where are you right now?
11:32
Speaker 2: I'm coming out of Boston.
11:34
Speaker 1: Dude, I am. I'm so happy to meet you here
11:40
Speaker 1: virtually never shaking your hand. I hope to someday. But
11:45
Speaker 1: manned is Tom. He's got you on a pedal still.
11:48
Speaker 1: You haven't seen him in a long time though, right, No, it's.
11:52
Speaker 2: Been it's been quite a while since I've ran in. Tom.
11:54
Speaker 1: You're twenty eight years old. You you have quite a
11:58
Speaker 1: story in your twenty eight years here on planet Earth.
12:04
Speaker 1: Before we go backwards and start about what that is
12:09
Speaker 1: and how how you got involved with sweethearts and heroes
12:13
Speaker 1: and how this may have kind of set a pretty
12:16
Speaker 1: pretty strong foundation for you as an adult. Now, before
12:21
Speaker 1: we go backwards, let's talk about the here, the now.
12:25
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
12:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm busy, to say the least.
12:32
Speaker 5: I am juggling a few different coaching positions, but I'm
12:35
Speaker 5: lucky enough to be coaching full time. I'm the head
12:37
Speaker 5: coach at Brookline High School for the wrestling program.
12:41
Speaker 2: I am an assistant coach at BC.
12:44
Speaker 5: For the cheerleading program at JAG Cheer. I am a
12:48
Speaker 5: coach on a couple of all star teams. And I've
12:51
Speaker 5: got my hands full with a lot of private lessons
12:53
Speaker 5: for stunting and for wrestling.
12:58
Speaker 1: I saw some photos last night, m HM, and and listen,
13:05
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I don't know anything about this, but anybody
13:12
Speaker 1: that can take another human being and have them stand
13:20
Speaker 1: on one hand above their head, that's pretty amazing. Dude,
13:27
Speaker 1: that's crazy. I mean, you don't just you don't just
13:32
Speaker 1: wake up someday and say I'm going to figure out
13:35
Speaker 1: how to do this on a YouTube video.
13:39
Speaker 2: I wouldn't suggest going to YouTube to learn that one.
13:43
Speaker 5: Maybe use a couple of extra mats and and maybe
13:46
Speaker 5: pull me in and I'd be happy to teach you.
13:47
Speaker 1: And that, Yeah, that I think I saw ye had
13:49
Speaker 1: two You had two women up there.
13:54
Speaker 5: Well, once you do one for a while, you're like,
13:56
Speaker 5: let me try to up the any a little bit
13:57
Speaker 5: and make it a little more challenging.
14:00
Speaker 1: How the shoulders, But.
14:03
Speaker 2: They're doing okay.
14:05
Speaker 5: It's taxing for sure, and I got to make sure
14:07
Speaker 5: I'm you know, staying up on stretching and taking care
14:11
Speaker 5: of myself. But I've had a surgery at this point
14:17
Speaker 5: six years ago on one of my shoulders, and and
14:20
Speaker 5: you know, any given month there's a there's a tweak
14:24
Speaker 5: or a or a partial tear.
14:25
Speaker 2: It seems like what about the back, the back.
14:29
Speaker 5: That's always a that's always a forefront of the mind
14:32
Speaker 5: for me. As we get into it, we'll talk a
14:34
Speaker 5: little bit more, you know, about where that's come up.
14:39
Speaker 5: But I've been dealing with issues with my back for
14:43
Speaker 5: ten plus years now, and you know, if I'm diligent
14:47
Speaker 5: with my stretching and I'm really focused on taking care
14:49
Speaker 5: of myself, we do okay, but you know it still
14:54
Speaker 5: comes up. It still bothers me here and there, and
14:56
Speaker 5: you know, long flights are a pain, and you know
15:00
Speaker 5: every so often, I just got to make sure I'm
15:02
Speaker 5: taking a lot of time off for myself.
15:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I gotta tell you before we go an
15:07
Speaker 1: inch further, thank you so much Brandon for your time
15:11
Speaker 1: this morning. I've got a pretty good gist how busy
15:14
Speaker 1: you are. You're you're wearing a couple of different hats,
15:17
Speaker 1: You're you're juggling a lot, and I want to thank
15:21
Speaker 1: you first off, before we go any further for for
15:24
Speaker 1: this time this morning. Tom was like, you gotta have
15:27
Speaker 1: this guy on. I mean even even Leon was like
15:32
Speaker 1: sending me an email saying, this is like branding is
15:37
Speaker 1: pretty much one of the ogs of Sweethearts and Heroes. Man.
15:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I'm you know, I appreciate you having
15:48
Speaker 5: me on JD to talk about my story and to
15:51
Speaker 5: and to highlight some of the impacts that Sweethearts and
15:54
Speaker 5: Heroes has had on me, that that Coach Spector's had
15:57
Speaker 5: on me, and to talk about you know how that's
16:01
Speaker 5: like you said, you know on the intro, kind of
16:03
Speaker 5: laid the groundwork of my trajectory and I'm able to
16:07
Speaker 5: have a lot bigger you.
16:09
Speaker 2: Know, ripple effect.
16:11
Speaker 5: Starting all the way back from middle school to where
16:14
Speaker 5: I am now.
16:15
Speaker 1: There was a little Catholic school in Rutland. I'm not
16:20
Speaker 1: sure if it's still there. I assume it is, but
16:25
Speaker 1: there was about forty kids in an assembly that Sweethearts
16:30
Speaker 1: and Heroes was speaking at. Your dad was there? What happened?
16:39
Speaker 2: Yeah?
16:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, so he I mean, he wasn't even supposed to
16:42
Speaker 5: be he works at the school, but he wasn't even
16:44
Speaker 5: supposed to be, you know, at the presentation and ended
16:47
Speaker 5: up getting switched last minute to go help out with
16:50
Speaker 5: crowd control, I guess, And and he was watching Tom
16:55
Speaker 5: and Rick present and he was like, I know these
16:57
Speaker 5: guys and you know, he remember all the way back
17:00
Speaker 5: from when when I was in school, and you know
17:04
Speaker 5: that Jason and Tom ended up being my commencement speaker,
17:08
Speaker 5: so you knew him from there. He was like, I
17:09
Speaker 5: got to go up and talk to him and see
17:11
Speaker 5: if you know they remember my son. He was like,
17:13
Speaker 5: I'm Brandon's dad, and Tom immediately you know, clicked and
17:17
Speaker 5: was like, no way, what what I mean, what are
17:19
Speaker 5: the chances truly? You got to you got to take
17:21
Speaker 5: a picture and send it to him and let him
17:23
Speaker 5: know that you're here with us and that and that
17:24
Speaker 5: you ran into us. So I got the selfie from him.
17:28
Speaker 5: He was like, you know, you're not gonna believe who's
17:30
Speaker 5: at my school right now presenting? And I ran into
17:34
Speaker 5: him and they remembered your story and they still talk
17:36
Speaker 5: about you and and you know, still share a lot
17:39
Speaker 5: of your story. And so that you know, sparked reconnection.
17:46
Speaker 5: Tom and I you know, hopped on a phone phone call,
17:49
Speaker 5: you know, I think within a week, and I think
17:51
Speaker 5: we talked for like an hour about you know, everything
17:54
Speaker 5: that's been going on from last time I saw him,
17:57
Speaker 5: which was you know, maybe ten years ago. And then uh,
18:02
Speaker 5: and then he was like, we gotta get you on
18:03
Speaker 5: the podcast. You gotta meet JD's great and we got.
18:07
Speaker 2: To you know, broadcast you know, the Journey.
18:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and then your dad was like, Tom, do
18:17
Speaker 1: you do you anything in New York? I mean, it's
18:20
Speaker 1: just it's just amazing. The planets were lined here, man, Truly.
18:29
Speaker 1: Tom says that in your early days middle school, which
18:37
Speaker 1: let's be honest, it really wasn't that long ago.
18:43
Speaker 2: Thank you, No.
18:44
Speaker 1: And I'm serious. I mean, it really wasn't numbers wise,
18:47
Speaker 1: It really wasn't that many years ago that you were.
18:53
Speaker 1: Were you a trouble kid? Were you you were pretty
18:56
Speaker 1: hopped up on some uh testosterone. I think it early age.
19:00
Speaker 2: Fair to say absolutely.
19:03
Speaker 5: I always say when I'm when I'm talking about, you know,
19:05
Speaker 5: kind of pre sweethearts and heroes and pre Jason getting
19:09
Speaker 5: me into wrestling, I was on a bad trajectory phrasing
19:14
Speaker 5: that I usually used when I'm when i'm talking about
19:16
Speaker 5: it with some of my kids.
19:17
Speaker 1: And here you are, and and I think I think
19:21
Speaker 1: Tom's words were when you were first introduced two wrestling
19:30
Speaker 1: that when you walked out into the gym, uh and
19:34
Speaker 1: I don't know if if Jason was there or what,
19:37
Speaker 1: but you were like wrestling, Kay, I'm not doing this?
19:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean firm.
19:47
Speaker 5: I think Jason was my middle school pe teacher, and
19:53
Speaker 5: coming into sixth grade, he knew almost immediately, impressively quick,
20:00
Speaker 5: that I needed wrestling. I needed something to change. I
20:06
Speaker 5: was not you know, hanging out with great people. I
20:08
Speaker 5: was maybe making some bad decisions that I hadn't considered
20:13
Speaker 5: the repercussions for, and they were gonna take me down,
20:17
Speaker 5: you know, a road that wasn't going to give.
20:20
Speaker 2: Me a great outlook on life and.
20:25
Speaker 5: And so ray from the beginning, he was like, you
20:27
Speaker 5: gotta wrestle, you gotta wrestle, you gotta wrestle. And I
20:30
Speaker 5: every time that's gay, that's gay, that's gay. I'm not
20:33
Speaker 5: doing that. I'm not rolling around with dudes.
20:35
Speaker 2: I'm good.
20:37
Speaker 5: No, thank you, stop bothering me, leave me alone. I'm
20:40
Speaker 5: I'm happy with where I'm at.
20:41
Speaker 2: Like you don't know me. I don't need any of that.
20:45
Speaker 5: And with a lot of trouble kids, right, persistence is key,
20:49
Speaker 5: and he really stuck with me and we I mean
20:53
Speaker 5: even now we talk about it that in eighth grade
20:56
Speaker 5: he could he could triggure the spot in the in
20:57
Speaker 5: the gymnasium we were doing.
21:00
Speaker 2: It was in the dance unit. I think we were
21:02
Speaker 2: lining dancing.
21:04
Speaker 5: And he pulled me aside at the end of gym
21:06
Speaker 5: class and he physically got down on his hands and
21:08
Speaker 5: knees and he.
21:08
Speaker 2: Said, please just give it a try. We really need you.
21:12
Speaker 2: You'd be so good at it. The team needs you, Like,
21:16
Speaker 2: give it a try.
21:17
Speaker 5: If you come and watch a practice, I'll never bother
21:20
Speaker 5: you again about it.
21:21
Speaker 2: I won't I want to ask ever again. Just come
21:22
Speaker 2: to the room. Just watch a practice.
21:25
Speaker 5: And I said, dear God, if that's what it takes
21:27
Speaker 5: to get you off my back, fine, fine, I'll go
21:30
Speaker 5: and watch a practice and shake on it. You can
21:33
Speaker 5: never ask me again. And he said deal, and so
21:37
Speaker 5: I went. I went to UH one practice and.
21:41
Speaker 2: That's where I saw.
21:41
Speaker 5: We had two seniors that year who were state qualifiers
21:45
Speaker 5: in New York, absolute studs. And I just watched them
21:50
Speaker 5: just scrap for two hours, and I was like, oh,
21:54
Speaker 5: I had a I was wrong, you know, completely off
21:57
Speaker 5: base about what you know wrestling really is. And I
22:01
Speaker 5: basically just dove headfirst into into the sport. And you know,
22:04
Speaker 5: come to find out years later, he was like, the
22:06
Speaker 5: team didn't need you. We didn't need you. You needed us,
22:10
Speaker 5: but you didn't. You weren't in a place to hear that.
22:12
Speaker 2: Wow. And so we're.
22:15
Speaker 1: Talking, we're talking a short time before this, and let's
22:23
Speaker 1: just just be honest. You you were saying that you
22:26
Speaker 1: were kind of gravitating towards potentially making some really bad decisions.
22:37
Speaker 1: Were any of those decisions involving drugs?
22:42
Speaker 2: Yeah?
22:42
Speaker 5: I definitely was, you know, smoking weed when I was
22:45
Speaker 5: in middle school and and drinking and not even just
22:50
Speaker 5: I was just looking for fights, you know what I mean.
22:52
Speaker 2: I was just looking for problems. Basically.
22:55
Speaker 5: It was like almost actively seeking him out as fast
22:57
Speaker 5: as I could.
22:58
Speaker 1: And you were supposed to have a knife fight.
23:06
Speaker 5: You know the details on that one. I think I
23:09
Speaker 5: know the situation. I don't know if I remember ever
23:13
Speaker 5: thinking or knowing that they were supposed to be knives involved,
23:16
Speaker 5: but you know, I wouldn't be surprised if I was,
23:21
Speaker 5: you know, ready and willing.
23:23
Speaker 2: I remember specifically there was one time I.
23:25
Speaker 5: Was looking for a fight and this other guy's friend
23:29
Speaker 5: was like, yeah, well, you know, I'm here, and it'll
23:32
Speaker 5: be like I'm not you know, I'm stepping in with him,
23:34
Speaker 5: And I said, all.
23:35
Speaker 2: Right, I'll take both of you. I don't care. I
23:37
Speaker 2: was ready to go two on one. I was ready
23:39
Speaker 2: to buy someone with a knife. It.
23:42
Speaker 5: Wow, it was like, I said, a bad trajectory, and
23:46
Speaker 5: I was. I was ready to actively seek out some
23:50
Speaker 5: some problems.
23:51
Speaker 1: My goodness. So you get involved with wrestling and then somebody,
23:58
Speaker 1: and I want you to tell the story. Somebody tells
24:00
Speaker 1: you about another student at school. What's that all about?
24:06
Speaker 2: Yeah?
24:06
Speaker 5: So I was taking the bus to school, and I
24:10
Speaker 5: was having to be a kid on on the bus
24:13
Speaker 5: who was just having some some problems. There was a
24:16
Speaker 5: bunch of kids on the bus that were, you know,
24:19
Speaker 5: relentlessly picking on him and you.
24:23
Speaker 2: Know, torturing him really mentally.
24:26
Speaker 5: And he was living in this private misery going through
24:33
Speaker 5: his life every day, you know, relentlessly being called gay
24:38
Speaker 5: and getting made fun of and very isolating.
24:44
Speaker 2: And that's when you know.
24:45
Speaker 5: His his mom came in and talked to Jason about
24:50
Speaker 5: the issue and was like, I don't know what to do.
24:53
Speaker 5: I can't seem to figure out how to help I eat,
24:56
Speaker 5: and I'm at my wits end and I need I
24:58
Speaker 5: need somebody to help me here because I'm afraid I'm
25:00
Speaker 5: going to lose him. And so that's when I got
25:04
Speaker 5: brought into it. And I wasn't told the whole story.
25:08
Speaker 5: I was just told, hey, listen, this kid needs a
25:10
Speaker 5: little bit of support.
25:13
Speaker 2: Right. You don't have to be his friend, you don't
25:14
Speaker 2: have to do any of this. Just ask him to
25:17
Speaker 2: sit with you on the boss.
25:18
Speaker 5: You didn't have to talk to him, right, just just
25:21
Speaker 5: have him sit with you on the boss. And I said,
25:23
Speaker 5: I mean, at that point, you know, I started wrestling.
25:25
Speaker 5: I was kind of all in and I whatever coach
25:28
Speaker 5: Spector said was was gospel, and I was I was
25:31
Speaker 5: all in and I said whatever you need, coach, absolutely wow,
25:35
Speaker 5: Like do you want me to? And so I still
25:37
Speaker 5: had a little tendency here. I hadn't quite gotten rid
25:39
Speaker 5: of it. I was like, do you have me to
25:40
Speaker 5: fight him anybody? Because I will? And he was like no, no, no, no, no, no,
25:44
Speaker 5: definitely don't do that.
25:46
Speaker 2: Just just pull him in with you. Just let him
25:49
Speaker 2: sit with you on the boss.
25:50
Speaker 5: And so I, you know, I was like, and Matt,
25:52
Speaker 5: why didn't you say with me? And so he started
25:56
Speaker 5: sitting with me on the bus, and you know, walking
25:58
Speaker 5: in the hallways and stuff. I'd be like, hey, what's up, dude,
26:00
Speaker 5: you know, give him knuckles and just kind of acknowledge
26:05
Speaker 5: his existence and and in the day to day, you know,
26:09
Speaker 5: he had a familiar face, someone who had his back,
26:13
Speaker 5: and I, honestly, I didn't think anything of it.
26:18
Speaker 2: I was like, it was so easy to do.
26:22
Speaker 5: And like I said, I wasn't informed of kind of
26:26
Speaker 5: what was happening.
26:27
Speaker 2: So I didn't even notice it before.
26:29
Speaker 5: I didn't notice any changes after, but I was like, no,
26:32
Speaker 5: this is somebody that I'm I'm looking out for, right,
26:35
Speaker 5: It's a familiar face in the hallway that I'm going
26:37
Speaker 5: to say hi when I when I walk by him,
26:39
Speaker 5: and and I and that was it, and you know, lo.
26:44
Speaker 2: And behold, that was that was the catalyst that.
26:48
Speaker 5: Was needed to to really pull him out of that
26:51
Speaker 5: that misery. And a lot of the other kids in
26:54
Speaker 5: the school saw like, oh, you know, he's got he's
26:56
Speaker 5: got a buddy in Brandon, and you know, maybe we
26:59
Speaker 5: don't to them and we don't pick on him as much.
27:02
Speaker 5: And I think even there was still some but the
27:06
Speaker 5: impact was a lot less for him because he had,
27:10
Speaker 5: you know, he felt like he had somebody that saw him.
27:13
Speaker 1: Tom refers to you as a gatekeeper who set the
27:19
Speaker 1: norms within your peer network with regard to what you've done,
27:25
Speaker 1: which is it's such a such a simple thing, such
27:32
Speaker 1: a simple thing, but is so much larger than just
27:38
Speaker 1: frankly giving him knuckles, acknowledging him and sitting with him
27:43
Speaker 1: on a school bus. I mean, we're light years beyond that.
27:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:51
Speaker 5: I think I think the media and you know's in
27:54
Speaker 5: movies and everything like that, you see bullying and the.
28:00
Speaker 2: Fight against bullying.
28:02
Speaker 5: As this battle, right or this war you have to
28:06
Speaker 5: go in and it's gonna be a physical altercation, and
28:10
Speaker 5: it's gonna be this huge mountain to overcome. Yeah, and
28:15
Speaker 5: you have to do so much to you know, be
28:18
Speaker 5: somebody that is anti bullying, and that's not the case
28:24
Speaker 5: at all. The the you know, call to action is
28:31
Speaker 5: simple things, and it's and it's setting the tone right,
28:33
Speaker 5: and it's it's doing little things.
28:36
Speaker 2: That have these huge ripple effects.
28:38
Speaker 5: Because, like I said, when I was in middle school
28:41
Speaker 5: and you know, coming into high school, I didn't think
28:45
Speaker 5: what I was doing was hard. I didn't think it
28:48
Speaker 5: was a big ass to say, oh, let me just
28:50
Speaker 5: acknowledge who this person is, right, let me say hi
28:54
Speaker 5: to him, let me do this. But it ends up
28:57
Speaker 5: setting the norm, like Tom says, and then all of
29:01
Speaker 5: a sudden, the ripple effect is, well, it's not cool
29:05
Speaker 5: to pick on this kid anymore. And I didn't have
29:09
Speaker 5: to go and get in a verbal altercation. I didn't
29:12
Speaker 5: have to yell at anybody and say hey, leave them alone.
29:15
Speaker 5: It was just a subtle shift in in dynamics that
29:22
Speaker 5: took you know, really not a lot of effort on
29:25
Speaker 5: my part, and you know, it can ultimately save a
29:30
Speaker 5: life without really having to take that much, you know, effort.
29:38
Speaker 1: Really, can you imagine if more of us did this.
29:43
Speaker 1: Did you get any pushback from any of your peers
29:47
Speaker 1: or anyone within the wrestling community or anywhere in school
29:51
Speaker 1: where they're like, dude, what are you? What are you doing?
29:56
Speaker 5: Honestly, not that I can remember. So, you know, I'm
29:58
Speaker 5: sure I did a little bit, but it wasn't to
30:01
Speaker 5: a degree that I really could even have, you know,
30:05
Speaker 5: acknowledged me. Maybe I can flip on the radar. Essentially,
30:09
Speaker 5: I think I think I was lucky to be in
30:13
Speaker 5: a position where I was very confident in myself and
30:18
Speaker 5: was kind of really starting to find my footing of
30:22
Speaker 5: who I felt like I was, And so when I
30:25
Speaker 5: started to do some of these you know, shifts in
30:29
Speaker 5: in my behavior, it didn't matter what anybody else said anyway,
30:36
Speaker 5: you know, I kind of I kind of knew what
30:38
Speaker 5: I needed to do, and if you know, Coach Spector
30:41
Speaker 5: was telling me I need you to do this. I
30:44
Speaker 5: trusted that there was a really good reason why he
30:47
Speaker 5: needed me to do that, and I was going to
30:49
Speaker 5: be that that peaceful warrior that just you know it
30:55
Speaker 5: didn't matter when anybody said it would just kind of
30:57
Speaker 5: roll off my shoulders.
30:58
Speaker 2: And after, you know, maybe a week or two, they
31:01
Speaker 2: were like.
31:02
Speaker 5: Oh, you know what, Like, he's not shaken, so we're
31:06
Speaker 5: going to stop, right, it's not it's not having the
31:08
Speaker 5: effect that we wanted to have, and so they dropped it,
31:12
Speaker 5: you know, pretty quickly.
31:13
Speaker 2: From from what I can remember, Wow, you.
31:15
Speaker 1: Know it's a sit here and listen to you. I
31:19
Speaker 1: can't help but think that this is this is all
31:23
Speaker 1: the product of the of a culmination of Tom Murphy's
31:28
Speaker 1: Sweethearts and Heroes, your dad coach Specter, your mom Jackie
31:36
Speaker 1: writing or Matt's mom Jackie writing a letter to Sweethearts
31:44
Speaker 1: and Heroes frankly desperate for something. And there's no quick
31:54
Speaker 1: fix to a lot of this a lot of the time.
31:57
Speaker 1: I mean, the schools can't just wave a magic wand
32:03
Speaker 1: over problems and make them go away. But look at
32:07
Speaker 1: all of the pieces that fell into place here, and
32:11
Speaker 1: you were the last piece, brother, It was all on
32:14
Speaker 1: your lap. You may not have realized it yet, but
32:17
Speaker 1: all of these things came together and ended up with you.
32:23
Speaker 1: And have you stayed in touch with Matt? How's he doing?
32:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's doing really well. We're doing really really well.
32:29
Speaker 5: Were still were friends on Facebook, and you know, every
32:32
Speaker 5: holiday one of us reaches out to the other one
32:34
Speaker 5: and always make sure touch base on each other's birthdays
32:37
Speaker 5: and stuff.
32:37
Speaker 2: And I posted about.
32:39
Speaker 5: Coming on here and he was like, send me the link, dude,
32:42
Speaker 5: I want to watch it. So he's doing well, and
32:46
Speaker 5: that's it's really awesome to see. And you know, obviously
32:50
Speaker 5: I talk about my coaching and how I'm able to
32:52
Speaker 5: coach full time.
32:54
Speaker 2: Before I was able to get.
32:55
Speaker 5: Into coaching full time, I was, you know, working on
32:58
Speaker 5: an ambulance for through college. So you know, for about
33:01
Speaker 5: six years, I worked in an emergency department. For a
33:03
Speaker 5: couple of years, you know, I was in I was
33:05
Speaker 5: in medicine, emergency medicine, and you know, my impact there
33:10
Speaker 5: saved a lot of lives, and I talk about it
33:13
Speaker 5: with all my athletes. My goal as a coach is
33:15
Speaker 5: to make good people, good students, good athletes in that order.
33:21
Speaker 5: Right at the end of the day, I could really
33:23
Speaker 5: care how good you get at wrestling or how good
33:25
Speaker 5: you get at cheerleading.
33:26
Speaker 2: There's not really a lot of places to go with it.
33:29
Speaker 5: But I think they can both teach us a lot
33:30
Speaker 5: of great lessons about who we are as people, and
33:34
Speaker 5: that's going to make us successful in life.
33:36
Speaker 2: And when I'm.
33:36
Speaker 5: Talking to them about, you know, the things that I
33:40
Speaker 5: find important, I always say, I've saved a lot of
33:43
Speaker 5: lives on the ambulance, I've saved a lot of lives
33:47
Speaker 5: in the emergency department, and you know, I've done a
33:50
Speaker 5: lot of saving. I could really care less about the
33:56
Speaker 5: ones on the ambulance or the ones in the hospital,
33:58
Speaker 5: because guess what, there would be somebody else if I
34:00
Speaker 5: wasn't there, that would.
34:02
Speaker 2: Have been there.
34:03
Speaker 5: The ones that mean the most or that that's had
34:06
Speaker 5: the deepest impact on me, is is this story, Because
34:09
Speaker 5: like we talked about, it's there's not always somebody there
34:13
Speaker 5: that that steps up. There's it's not it's not a
34:15
Speaker 5: shift that gets filled whether I'm working at.
34:19
Speaker 2: That agency or not.
34:22
Speaker 5: And so it's you know, it's it's that story that
34:24
Speaker 5: really I think is powerful. And that's and that's the
34:27
Speaker 5: reason why it's powerful is that we gotta we got
34:30
Speaker 5: to show everybody from you know, youth to middle school
34:35
Speaker 5: to high school to adults in and out of athletics
34:39
Speaker 5: that it's it's all of our jobs to step up
34:42
Speaker 5: and to step in and and it doesn't take a
34:45
Speaker 5: lot to have the effect that we all talk about
34:49
Speaker 5: needing to see.
34:51
Speaker 1: You referred to Matt as your greatest safe Yeah. Wow,
35:01
Speaker 1: that's like, Oh, that's like goosebumps. Man, that's unreal. You know, Tom.
35:09
Speaker 1: When I was chatting with with Tom Murphy a few
35:12
Speaker 1: nights ago, and I took a lot of notes, I
35:19
Speaker 1: don't think that I ever talk with Tom without having
35:23
Speaker 1: a pan or a pencil in my hand. I mean
35:27
Speaker 1: maybe the same with you.
35:29
Speaker 2: M Oh yeah. Absolutely.
35:30
Speaker 1: One of the things he said is once Brandon converted,
35:40
Speaker 1: he just simply couldn't stop kindness. He couldn't stop empowering
35:52
Speaker 1: young people to be the change. And he said, Brandon
36:00
Speaker 1: is a machine. He's infected with the message of doing more,
36:07
Speaker 1: doing better, being a better human being, and now he's
36:11
Speaker 1: doing so good for so many people. Direct quote Tom Murphy.
36:21
Speaker 5: Well, you know, coming from him, that's powerful, that that
36:25
Speaker 5: means a lot.
36:25
Speaker 2: And and I don't disagree.
36:28
Speaker 5: I think it's it's like there's a fire was let
36:32
Speaker 5: you know what I mean.
36:32
Speaker 2: And it became almost a mission.
36:38
Speaker 5: For me, you know, and I I you know, bopped
36:42
Speaker 5: around to some different different avenues, and I just as
36:44
Speaker 5: far as my career goes in, it just never felt
36:47
Speaker 5: like I was having the impact that I wanted to
36:50
Speaker 5: but also knew I could have on people. And that's
36:55
Speaker 5: what kind of kept driving me towards coaching and coaching
37:01
Speaker 5: more and coaching more. And you know, I always, I
37:05
Speaker 5: always say, you know, if I could have the impact
37:07
Speaker 5: that coach Pactor had on me, or that Tom had
37:10
Speaker 5: on me when.
37:11
Speaker 2: I was in middle school and in high school, and
37:15
Speaker 2: even one.
37:16
Speaker 5: Kid, you know, my dedication and devotion to coaching will
37:21
Speaker 5: will have been worth it.
37:24
Speaker 2: And I think I'm lucky enough to.
37:27
Speaker 5: Know that I've had at least that much of an
37:31
Speaker 5: impact on way more than one.
37:33
Speaker 2: So far.
37:35
Speaker 5: I've had one of you know, I'm big on culture
37:38
Speaker 5: on all my teams, but especially with my wrestling team
37:42
Speaker 5: and making sure that we are the most welcoming program
37:47
Speaker 5: in the school.
37:49
Speaker 2: And I've had athletes come up to me and tell
37:52
Speaker 2: me that.
37:52
Speaker 5: And I've had athletes come up to me and tell me,
37:54
Speaker 5: you know, before I found this team, I was not
37:59
Speaker 5: sure what I was going to do regarding whether I
38:02
Speaker 5: was going to you know, self harm or not, and
38:07
Speaker 5: was in a very tough place, and you know, finding
38:09
Speaker 5: this program and this message of you know, being a
38:14
Speaker 5: beacon of light for for everyone and just drawing those
38:19
Speaker 5: people in that need it and finding that community.
38:25
Speaker 2: You know, it's just it's really special.
38:27
Speaker 5: That I get to do this and and get to
38:29
Speaker 5: continue pushing that message and and like Tom said, being
38:33
Speaker 5: that machine.
38:35
Speaker 2: Because that's that's what I'm here for.
38:38
Speaker 5: I can make a great I can make a great cheerleader,
38:41
Speaker 5: but at the end of the day, I'm here to
38:42
Speaker 5: make great people.
38:44
Speaker 1: You had a a wrestler who is the Ukrainian refugee
38:49
Speaker 1: who was struggling with a lot of things. What are
38:54
Speaker 1: those things? Mental health things, some uh some, some alcohol,
38:58
Speaker 1: and a war that was happening that his family was
39:03
Speaker 1: involved with and that he was involved with back here
39:06
Speaker 1: in his own head. Can you tell us about that story?
39:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was.
39:13
Speaker 5: It's just a tough situation for a lot of different reasons.
39:17
Speaker 5: Right when you're coming from a war torn country and
39:22
Speaker 5: your family ends up being separated, it is a it's
39:25
Speaker 5: a big challenge for a lot of reasons, not one
39:31
Speaker 5: being you know, just adjusting and at a high school
39:35
Speaker 5: age to a new environment and a new program and
39:39
Speaker 5: new school.
39:40
Speaker 2: You know, when I was in undergrad.
39:43
Speaker 5: My first year of college, I struggled to adjust to
39:47
Speaker 5: that new environment. And you know, I had my whole
39:50
Speaker 5: support system within a couple hours of driving distance. And
39:55
Speaker 5: so you have a you know, a parent halfway across
39:59
Speaker 5: the world in a very tumultuous situation. It's you know,
40:06
Speaker 5: almost no wonder that you're going to go through some things,
40:10
Speaker 5: and a lot of those things I wasn't even privy.
40:13
Speaker 2: To for for a while.
40:16
Speaker 5: And you know, their parent was able to see the struggle,
40:22
Speaker 5: and that you know, breaks a parent's heart, and so
40:26
Speaker 5: they you know, that's where you know, turned to some
40:29
Speaker 5: alcohol and was struggling with that addiction. And you know,
40:33
Speaker 5: it was two parallels kind of going towards the same direction.
40:37
Speaker 2: Of a bad spot.
40:40
Speaker 5: And by you know, the higher power or whatever you believe,
40:47
Speaker 5: the grace of God that the universe brought that that
40:50
Speaker 5: individual into into my orbit. And like I said, without
40:56
Speaker 5: even being aware of the situation, I was able to
41:01
Speaker 5: welcome him into the community and and give some support
41:04
Speaker 5: and some you know, found family, and all of a
41:08
Speaker 5: sudden we started to see this change in this in
41:12
Speaker 5: this adjustment on trajectory, and you know, started feeling a
41:18
Speaker 5: lot you know, less isolated and a lot more connected
41:23
Speaker 5: and found a purpose. And you know, through just seeing
41:29
Speaker 5: the adjustment in their their son, his parent was able to,
41:34
Speaker 5: you know, say, you know what, I'm I'm going to
41:37
Speaker 5: make a change too, And you know, all of a sudden,
41:41
Speaker 5: now are that trajectory is shifted by quite a few
41:47
Speaker 5: degrees and you know, both are are on a much
41:51
Speaker 5: are in a much better place now. And that goes
41:55
Speaker 5: back to, you know, the the power that we all
41:58
Speaker 5: have that we don't realize we have. I didn't need
42:01
Speaker 5: to do I was gonna say I didn't need to
42:04
Speaker 5: do anything. But it's obviously not that I'm not doing anything.
42:08
Speaker 5: It's that I'm just working on the right pieces and
42:16
Speaker 5: everything else will naturally fall into place. And it doesn't
42:20
Speaker 5: take this grandiose, you know action. It just takes little
42:28
Speaker 5: bit every single day of being welcoming, showing that community
42:35
Speaker 5: and setting the standard right, setting the tone for interactions,
42:40
Speaker 5: welcoming everybody into the room, making sure that all the
42:45
Speaker 5: kids see how welcoming I am and the tone that
42:50
Speaker 5: I set when talking with people, and they and they
42:54
Speaker 5: naturally kind of replicate and fall into place and go well,
42:58
Speaker 5: peace doing it, and I'm going to do it.
43:00
Speaker 2: And if they're doing it, I'm going to do it.
43:01
Speaker 5: And then all of a sudden, we have a room
43:03
Speaker 5: that started with my first year we had twenty kids.
43:08
Speaker 5: My fourth season that we just finished, we had almost fifty.
43:13
Speaker 5: And to be able to maintain the culture that we've
43:15
Speaker 5: maintained through that growth, I think is a testament to
43:18
Speaker 5: how willing people actually are too, truly want to be
43:24
Speaker 5: good and want to support other people. And you know,
43:27
Speaker 5: positivity breeds positivity, and the impact is you know, it's
43:31
Speaker 5: a ripple effect. You throw a stone in the water,
43:33
Speaker 5: and that ripple is going to reach so much more
43:37
Speaker 5: than that single stone ever could.
43:39
Speaker 1: So true. Your bio says your coaching philosophy is to
43:45
Speaker 1: make good people, good students, and good athletes. But you
43:51
Speaker 1: add in in that order. That's pretty cool, man.
43:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
44:00
Speaker 5: I think you know in that I learned a lot
44:03
Speaker 5: of lessons in in my wrestling room that really prepared
44:06
Speaker 5: me for life. And I think athletics in general prepares
44:09
Speaker 5: you for life. But I think saying that philosophy all
44:16
Speaker 5: like early and often and then putting my money where
44:20
Speaker 5: my mouth is, I think it really is is the
44:25
Speaker 5: way to have the biggest impact because it's easy.
44:29
Speaker 2: You know, you're when you're.
44:29
Speaker 5: In you're in high school and you're an athlete. Most
44:33
Speaker 5: of the time that sport is the most important thing
44:35
Speaker 5: to you. But then you hear your coach saying it's
44:39
Speaker 5: actually the third most important thing to me, and it
44:43
Speaker 5: kind of shifts, shifts your your brain chemistry a little
44:47
Speaker 5: bit towards whereas, Okay, well, what's actually important here? Why
44:52
Speaker 5: why are we actually here? And so when we talk
44:56
Speaker 5: about you know, in in wrestling season, the first fifteen
45:00
Speaker 5: minutes we set aside to talk and it's a lot
45:05
Speaker 5: of times it's about wrestling, and you know, sometimes it's
45:09
Speaker 5: about mindset and mental training, and sometimes it's just me
45:12
Speaker 5: talking about some of the things that I think are
45:15
Speaker 5: important for high school kids to hear. And that's usually
45:19
Speaker 5: surrounding making sure that we're good people and what it
45:23
Speaker 5: and what it takes to be a good person.
45:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got to start there, man. I mean, it's like,
45:28
Speaker 1: if it's not starting there, then the other stuff is
45:33
Speaker 1: probably maybe even most likely not going to fall into place.
45:37
Speaker 1: I mean, and listen, it's like, you know, I'm listening
45:41
Speaker 1: to you and I'm thinking, so many of us could
45:44
Speaker 1: be that Brandon Pruto messo on the school bus. We
45:49
Speaker 1: don't have to be a tough guy. We don't have
45:52
Speaker 1: to be a wrestler, we don't have to be an athlete.
45:56
Speaker 1: We could just be ourselves and be with that person.
46:03
Speaker 1: Step out of your comfort zone and be with that
46:06
Speaker 1: person who is different from you, is different maybe from others.
46:12
Speaker 1: And this isn't just kids on school buses, man, this
46:15
Speaker 1: is us living in our community. This is this should
46:19
Speaker 1: be more at the forefront of our of our minds,
46:23
Speaker 1: it should be more so in our culture. And just
46:31
Speaker 1: take a moment to say hello to somebody, whether you're
46:36
Speaker 1: in line at the grocery store or passing on the
46:39
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk, whatever, be a better human being.
46:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
46:47
Speaker 5: I think one of my favorite quotes of all time
46:49
Speaker 5: is my Angelou.
46:51
Speaker 2: People aren't going.
46:52
Speaker 5: To remember what you said to them, but they are
46:55
Speaker 5: going to remember how.
46:56
Speaker 2: You made them feel. Yes, I've had so many interactions where.
47:02
Speaker 5: The machine just keeps chugging along, right, and I don't
47:05
Speaker 5: even know what I'm doing, yeah half the time, right,
47:08
Speaker 5: Like it's just natural at this point and it's not
47:11
Speaker 5: a conscious effort.
47:12
Speaker 2: But I've had people come up to me.
47:14
Speaker 5: You know, I'm thinking specifically of this one person that
47:17
Speaker 5: came up to me after we had graduated and we
47:19
Speaker 5: were at a tailgate at BC and this kid came
47:22
Speaker 5: up to me and he was like, Hey, Brandon, I
47:24
Speaker 5: just want to come over and say hi and say
47:26
Speaker 5: thank you. You know, in undergrad, every time I saw you,
47:31
Speaker 5: you just always made me feel so welcome and so
47:33
Speaker 5: seen and like you always wanted to talk and you know,
47:38
Speaker 5: I just wanted to say, you know, thank you, Like
47:40
Speaker 5: you were really a bright spot.
47:42
Speaker 2: In my time in undergrad.
47:43
Speaker 5: And you know, we talked and then they walked away,
47:46
Speaker 5: and JD, I'm gonna be completely honest with you, I
47:49
Speaker 5: didn't even remember that person.
47:52
Speaker 2: It was.
47:53
Speaker 5: It was somebody that I was like, these interactions that
47:55
Speaker 5: I was having, I couldn't appointed to where we were standing.
47:58
Speaker 5: I couldn't appointed to what we talked about. I don't
48:02
Speaker 5: have a clue, but I had such an impact on
48:05
Speaker 5: that person that they had to come up and tell
48:07
Speaker 5: me that after we had graduated college. And it's that simple.
48:13
Speaker 5: It doesn't It really doesn't take a lot to make
48:18
Speaker 5: somebody feel that, you know, special in that scene, that
48:24
Speaker 5: you know it's just I'm going about it and it's
48:27
Speaker 5: second nature to me, you know what I mean, I
48:31
Speaker 5: don't think anything of the interaction because I'm like, oh yeah,
48:33
Speaker 5: like of course I'm going to stop and look somebody
48:36
Speaker 5: in the eye and say, hey, how's it going, and
48:38
Speaker 5: ask them about their classes and you know, talk about
48:40
Speaker 5: this and talk about.
48:41
Speaker 2: That, like of course. But to them, that was everything.
48:47
Speaker 5: Right, and that that little thing that took me thirty
48:51
Speaker 5: seconds to do, you know, out of my day, that
48:54
Speaker 5: wasn't even you know, consciously aware of it.
48:58
Speaker 2: Essentially, it impacted.
49:01
Speaker 5: Them so much to have somebody that so positively interacted
49:07
Speaker 5: with them, you know, on campus and throughout four years
49:11
Speaker 5: that they felt compelled to come up and say something
49:14
Speaker 5: about how I made them feel.
49:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's just it's incredible what you're saying,
49:23
Speaker 1: and I can. I can relate to that as well,
49:27
Speaker 1: the feeling that you've had, and I've shared that many
49:33
Speaker 1: times with my community as well, and it is super profound, honestly,
49:39
Speaker 1: stuff that I think you'd probably agree, the kind of
49:43
Speaker 1: material that sticks to the bones and kind of hangs
49:47
Speaker 1: out in your soul.
49:51
Speaker 5: M Yeah, And it's it gets easier and easier right,
49:55
Speaker 5: because the more interactions you have like that, the more
49:58
Speaker 5: you're like, oh, man, I've got to be doing something right,
50:02
Speaker 5: you know, And I want to keep creating space for
50:06
Speaker 5: those interactions and for those feelings to be you know,
50:12
Speaker 5: had in everyone that I talk to, because you know,
50:17
Speaker 5: I think everybody's heard the phrase you know, you don't
50:20
Speaker 5: know what somebody else is going through, and you really don't.
50:23
Speaker 5: And sometimes it's the people who are struggling the most
50:26
Speaker 5: seem like they have it the most together. So you know,
50:32
Speaker 5: it doesn't matter who who it is. When I'm interacting
50:35
Speaker 5: with somebody, my goal is to make them feel seen,
50:39
Speaker 5: feel heard, and feel special.
50:44
Speaker 1: Listen, man, you know, big props to an impressive career
50:54
Speaker 1: that you've had on paper, just looking at your bio
50:58
Speaker 1: here for silver metal at All Star Worlds, for wrestling,
51:06
Speaker 1: for cheerleading, for cheerleading. Yeah, then you had a New
51:10
Speaker 1: England third placer, multiple top three sectional team placements and
51:19
Speaker 1: individual championships, multiple girls Division one state finalists, and a
51:26
Speaker 1: girl's sixth a sixth place team finish. This is all like,
51:33
Speaker 1: this is really impressive, man, Thank you. Not as impressive though,
51:41
Speaker 1: as what you've done with your life. Awards are awards,
51:48
Speaker 1: they get printed in metal, they get printed on paper,
51:52
Speaker 1: they get hung on walls, collect dust on desks. These
51:59
Speaker 1: are are by far not your greatest accomplishments.
52:07
Speaker 2: Not by a long shot. I always say that the outcomes, those.
52:12
Speaker 5: Those trophies and those metals, and those team placements.
52:16
Speaker 2: And all of that, it's a byproduct.
52:19
Speaker 5: It's a byproduct, right, Like we said, good people, good students,
52:23
Speaker 5: good athletes. If we're doing the things that are going
52:25
Speaker 5: to make us good people and the things that are
52:28
Speaker 5: going to make us good students, then it is inevitable
52:33
Speaker 5: that we're going to end up making good athletes too.
52:36
Speaker 2: So if we're focusing on all of the right things.
52:40
Speaker 5: In you know, all aspects of life, the results that
52:45
Speaker 5: we're hoping to have on the map, they'll inevitably follow.
52:53
Speaker 2: You know.
52:54
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of d. Snyder's famous, famous question, what do
53:01
Speaker 1: you want to do with the rest of your life?
53:06
Speaker 1: What do you want to do.
53:10
Speaker 2: This?
53:12
Speaker 5: I want to keep doing what I'm doing, and the
53:16
Speaker 5: goal is to just continue to grow.
53:18
Speaker 2: The size of that impact.
53:21
Speaker 5: I absolutely love what I'm doing, and I want to
53:25
Speaker 5: make sure I'm able to do it for a very
53:27
Speaker 5: long time. And you know, whatever capacity I'm able to
53:32
Speaker 5: do that in and I think the goal is always
53:35
Speaker 5: going to be to expand the reach, right Like I've
53:40
Speaker 5: grown the wrestling program from twenty to you know fifty
53:45
Speaker 5: over four years, and you know, I've been in cheerleading
53:49
Speaker 5: now for as a coach for five years, and I
53:53
Speaker 5: just want to continue to build on that foundation of
53:59
Speaker 5: you know, impact that I've been able to have since
54:02
Speaker 5: I was in middle school. And if I'm able to,
54:07
Speaker 5: you know, every year churn out more Brandon Bruno messos
54:13
Speaker 5: that are going out into the world and having the
54:17
Speaker 5: impact and the effect that I've been able to have
54:20
Speaker 5: on individuals, than that result is just going to spiral
54:26
Speaker 5: and you know, expand, And I think there's nothing that
54:30
Speaker 5: I feel more called to do.
54:34
Speaker 2: Than that.
54:35
Speaker 1: Listen, I don't want to speak for Tom Murphy of
54:39
Speaker 1: Sweethearts and Heroes.
54:40
Speaker 2: But.
54:42
Speaker 1: You guys might be a little long overdue for a
54:46
Speaker 1: little bit of a reunion and maybe even some stage
54:53
Speaker 1: time together just.
54:54
Speaker 5: Saying yeah, we definitely we definitely talked about that a
54:58
Speaker 5: little bit when we last book on the phone of
55:01
Speaker 5: figuring out how we can start collaborating together a little
55:04
Speaker 5: bit more and start working on some stuff together, so
55:08
Speaker 5: we can you know, really amplify the signal.
55:12
Speaker 1: Because you're your testament two, frankly, the beginning of Sweethearts
55:19
Speaker 1: and Heroes success story. You're the real deal. You're you're
55:23
Speaker 1: your proof that this this thing, this Sweethearts and Heroes movement,
55:31
Speaker 1: which started long ago, was really valid and you're you're
55:38
Speaker 1: kind of the beginning of the testimony of giving this
55:41
Speaker 1: thing some traction. Man. You you you gave it the
55:44
Speaker 1: first big push, gave it some momentum. Tom knows that,
55:48
Speaker 1: so does Rick.
55:49
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, yeah, absolutely.
55:54
Speaker 5: And you know, I feel very connected to two Sweethearts
55:58
Speaker 5: and Heroes, I mean all ways, always have and so
56:03
Speaker 5: if there's a way that we can, you know, figure
56:05
Speaker 5: out somehow I can get.
56:09
Speaker 2: Working with them and.
56:12
Speaker 5: Showing everyone the blueprint and that it works and that
56:15
Speaker 5: it's not hard and that we can really have a
56:18
Speaker 5: lot of positive change and impact without having.
56:23
Speaker 2: To you know, do that much.
56:26
Speaker 5: Really, you know, I don't think there's any way that
56:31
Speaker 5: I'd be able to avoid that.
56:33
Speaker 1: But an absolute joy to have you on. Man, I've
56:36
Speaker 1: been looking forward to this for a long time. Tom
56:39
Speaker 1: said to me, you think you've gone away in the
56:41
Speaker 1: past with with other shows, that have left an impact
56:44
Speaker 1: on you, waiting to get brute Messo on.
56:48
Speaker 2: I. I really appreciate you having me on j D.
56:51
Speaker 5: I've been looking forward to this too, and and you know,
56:53
Speaker 5: reconnecting with Tom really fired me up. And you know,
56:57
Speaker 5: I just had my my wrestling team's banquet the other day,
57:01
Speaker 5: so it's bad. You know, I've been very excited to
57:04
Speaker 5: come on here and talk about my story and about
57:06
Speaker 5: sweethearts and heroes. And you know, we really appreciate you
57:10
Speaker 5: holding space every Wednesday to amplify the message.
57:14
Speaker 1: Thank you, brother. I can't wait to meet you. I
57:16
Speaker 1: hope it's going to happen one of these days. Maybe
57:18
Speaker 1: Tom set something up and invite me. Thank you so
57:22
Speaker 1: much for your time. Man, It's so valuable to so
57:25
Speaker 1: many of us. You've had a big impact just in
57:27
Speaker 1: the last hour here on the airwaves. But you're doing
57:31
Speaker 1: you're not doing good things with your life, man, You're
57:33
Speaker 1: doing amazing things.
57:35
Speaker 2: And thank you.
57:36
Speaker 1: Everybody and anyone that's in your circle knows that it
57:42
Speaker 1: should be so proud of you and frankly blessed to
57:46
Speaker 1: be connected with you.
57:47
Speaker 2: Man, Thank you, Thank you. I really appreciate that.
57:52
Speaker 1: All right, brother, stay well, hope to meet you again
57:54
Speaker 1: someday soon.
57:55
Speaker 2: All right, soon, you got it?
57:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, Brandon brute Messo right there. Wow, Listen, we have
58:02
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of new followers, new listeners, new viewers
58:07
Speaker 1: this morning, and I hope they become followers. Please if
58:11
Speaker 1: you would just take a minute and like and follow
58:15
Speaker 1: the page. Every Wednesday we do something similar to what
58:20
Speaker 1: we're doing right now, where we get real results from
58:24
Speaker 1: sweethearts and heroes on the air with us, and it
58:28
Speaker 1: is it's the one day, not the one day of
58:31
Speaker 1: the week. Look forward every day, but it's on Tuesday nights.
58:35
Speaker 1: I'm always so pumped up to come in on Wednesdays because,
58:40
Speaker 1: let's be honest, there's a lot of heavy stuff that
58:43
Speaker 1: we're carrying around. All you have to do is have
58:46
Speaker 1: a phone. All you have to do is turn that
58:48
Speaker 1: phone on to see and hear what's happening in the world,
58:52
Speaker 1: what's happening in our nation. There's plenty of negative stuff
58:56
Speaker 1: out there. I love the fact that we got some
59:00
Speaker 1: positivity that's making its way onto the airwaves. We're gonna
59:07
Speaker 1: carry on the rest of the week. We're gonna be
59:10
Speaker 1: watching the weather carefully. We're going to be giving you information. Man,
59:13
Speaker 1: There is so much great stuff that's going on in
59:15
Speaker 1: our community. Be on the watch, be on the listen.
59:18
Speaker 1: I'm gonna post up something here in just a little bit.
59:21
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about what's happening at the Central
59:22
Speaker 1: Vermont Marketplace. We got some food trucks that are gonna
59:25
Speaker 1: be coming up there. We're gonna be talking more and
59:27
Speaker 1: more about the Heritage Festival, the Mountaineers. We've got some
59:31
Speaker 1: big announcements on tonny Brook Fight promotions, Amateur Mma making
59:36
Speaker 1: its way to Burlington, Vermont. There is really some huge
59:40
Speaker 1: things on the horizon. Don't get bogged down with the
59:48
Speaker 1: good news or the bad news of what's happening with
59:51
Speaker 1: local elections yesterday. I know it's heavy for a lot
59:56
Speaker 1: of us. Budget does school budget failed again. It's got
1:00:03
Speaker 1: a lot of people worked up. Just take a deep
1:00:04
Speaker 1: breath today, all right. Reprioritize, get some fresh air. The
1:00:11
Speaker 1: sun will come up tomorrow whether you want it to
1:00:15
Speaker 1: or not. And we're all in this together. We'll get
1:00:18
Speaker 1: through it, all right. Find some joy in your life,
1:00:21
Speaker 1: find some entertainment, unplug for a little bit, get yourself grounded,
1:00:26
Speaker 1: get some exercise, read a book, Unplug, and we'll catch
1:00:33
Speaker 1: you tomorrow morning, right here where you are now. They
1:00:36
Speaker 1: aired own podcast.
1:01:23
Speaker 6: Or pasta Past Say
1:01:44
Speaker 5: Ar