Latest / Chirping Zebras / GREG SIMEONE | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #129
Transcript
- AOA Studios: Welcome everyone to chirping zebras mark riley. Actually, alongside Gino Bender. We're back. We're on site. We're on site. We're on site, baby. We're at the Lodge Bar and Grill in Randolph, and we have a great episode coming for you. But before we get into anything, want to thank our sponsor, the referees, Chris. Your one-stop shop for all your referee needs, from training and payment to development and scheduling. They do it all. Also want to thank AOA Studios. Mike Scarfo is here, and AOA came down if you're looking to tape anything. AOA Studios in Beverly is the place to. Ago. And also want to remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube and follow us on the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. I love having it live. That's why it's my line. That's your line. I love it. I nail it every time. And we want to I mentioned the Lodge. We're here at the Lodge, Bar and Grill in Randolph, owned by the Rooney brothers. Yep, Julie, Dave, and Steve. Well, you nailed it. And Steve happened to be on the nineteen eighty six Stanley Cup Montreal team. Yes. With our guest a couple episodes ago, Mike Lawler. Yes. So yeah, so pretty cool. connections everywhere. Yes. Right? It's there's always connection. And great hockey family. Yeah. Two weeks in a row, yeah, awesome hockey family. and and Steve's gonna be a future guest for sure. absolutely. We'll have him on. But interesting, we we have Mike Lawler, Stanley Cup winner. Last week, Brad Lukovich, two times Stanley Cup winner. but on today's show, we have someone that we go back with a lot. Long, long way. Yes. Greg Simeone, former professional hockey player, a coach, and now a children's creator, a children's author, and we're gonna talk about it's great stuff. and he's a great friend of the show. Yes, and he's also a great friend of ours. I coached his son at there. so it's that explains a lot. That does explain that's why he ended up in the military. Yeah, but that's okay, we'll go into that as we get closer. So as I say, usually a online with yeah without further ado this fire here nice and warm yeah little toasty actually I think we're gonna be busting a ladder before we're done so without further ado we're gonna we're gonna have Greg Simeone right on Greg, welcome to the Zebras, man. Thank you, Believe. Welcome to the Zebras. I'm really proud to be here and excited to be here. this is awesome. No, we I I want to get right into it. I mean, hockey guy, and tell us more about the book and where it came from. How do you go from player to coach to children's author, children's creator, as you said? I don't know, I was a children's creator, I guess too. I have three kids, but I've never written a book. Tell us how that happened. I'm a lot like everyone else. I go on TikTok, Instagram, every day. day you're seeing these unbelievable stor fourteen to twenty second clips people getting hit in the head. Right. football kid takes the football runs down the field and some parent comes out and trips them. Parents r argument referees and I'm just it's been two years and it's slowly just You I'm in the golf business, I s writing everything down. I'm like, this is terrible. Toxic, yeah. I'm not saying I'm I was perfect, but I was pretty good. Like This is terrible for the kids today and I'm I'm not trying to change the world. I'm I'm just trying to be an advocate and a voice for young eight year olds. I my platform is eight year old kids. I was lucky enough to coach Kids, th ten kids of sixteen from eight to fourteen years old. That's really cool. Ten of them have made pro. Wow. And they've made over five hundred million dollars as twenty nine year olds collectively. So I coach with Neil Shea, I coach with Kevin Stevens. We made it fun. Everything was fun. The kids didn't know they were working. Right. So that's what it's about. Neil Neil's a NHL scout, obviously everyone knows who Kevin is. Yep. and I was the minor league bum, but they made me run practices and we had fun. And but they worked hard. And that's that's one of the platforms where I felt comfortable enough. Like I don't want to lend my voice to it, I'm not a superstar or anything, but I was with these kids and ten out of sixteen players made it to pro. It's it's a What was the what was the emphasis on back then? Like now I feel like the emphasis is on winning, winning, winning. It's not and they I always say it's about development. Like what was the emphasis? The emphasis amazingly when when I got with Neil and Kevin who are pretty much hockey geniuses with kids, The emphasis was on one-on-one battles and competing. Yeah. And having fun. Like the kid you go up to Ottawa or Canada, you're not the kids aren't gonna remember the scores of the game. Right. But they're gonna remember going out skating on a big pond and having fun and going to pizza parties and stuff like that. My books focus on eight-year-olds. And the eight-year-olds, that is where the youth We don't want to lose kids at that age. That's where the youth it should be fun. Learn the game, make your best friends. You don't have to play triple A hockey at eight years old. If you want to, that's fine. Keep it light and play all the sports and have fun. I mean eight year olds too, right? We're losing a lot of referees at the eight year old level, right? If they get their first introduction into the game at at at the eight U eight level. Right. They they're just learning how to blow the whistle, point for goals, call off sides, right? And you know, they're getting yelled at for calling obvious fouls, right? And then when they go see the obvious foul and they don't call it, they're getting yelled at. So it's like it so we're losing kids, referees at the eight le eight year old level too. So like that's a big part of this podcast and platform why I want to make it, you know, officiating fun. In ninety five percent of it, it's good. It's not toxic. It's a good environment. It's it's you know a lot of fun. But you get that five percent you see on the Do you know the end I'm not I'm not blessed to have grandkids yet. Hopefully someday but I'd like to go to a game. But your dad, who I've become very good friends with over the last three years, has told me Hey, your kids might not be able your grandkids might not be able to play. I'm like, why? Because there's gonna be no referees. Like there's no one signing up for soccer. Right. that's not just hockey. I know. I have eight eight books coming out and they're all about different sports and that's why, you know, it goes from mostly team sports, but the book I just finished is about golf. Mm-hmm which is a very vicious parental pressure. I can only imagine Yeah. So and and that's a business I'm in. So I'm I'm I'm not saying every parent is like that. I and I don't want to be like that, but people have to be conscious of the fact that we're in a state and age where this is happening, and this great kids and great parents. Parents that you wouldn't expect to do this. Like do it. Like I've seen a husband punch a wife at an eight-year-old game. Ridiculous. This is and I I've seen so many things I don't even want to talk about them but right it has to stop and how do we get it stopped I it's I I say it's education right there was an incident that a couple of weeks ago where parents were texting me over an eight U eight game right and I went in live bar and I watched it and I actually called the coach. I'm like, what are you doing? I go, cut the crap. I go there eight. Yeah I go well and then and then I I you look at it from a coach's perspective, right? He goes, Okay, my kid's the smallest kid out there. He's getting run over and I'm I'm nervous for my kid. I go, well he's got all the equipment on, right? I go, I go, when he gets run over, what what do you see in him? Do you see him limp limbering and crying or you see him pop right back up and get in play? You see him pop right back up nine out of ten times and get right back into play. I go, just coach your kids, don't worry about the referees. Just coach the crap out of your kids, crap out of your team, and ignore the referees, especially at the U8 level. They're gonna miss off sides. Right. They're gonna count a goal that wasn't a goal, right? Yeah. And and it's gonna happen every game. And you see it every game. It's like, these refs are terrible. It's like no, they They're not. They just learn. And they're w just like your kids. They're walking out of there with tears. Right. They're literally walking out of there with tears. So hockey as a sport hasn't changed. No. Right? when we played it it's the same game, right? But now we gotta look at what changed. And is it the fact that these programs are charging huge money and these parents are paying these huge checks for their kid to play with, you know, the guarantee of them going to college and playing in college or playing a pro that's the mindset, right? Not of everyone, but a lot of people. Is that the problem? Like what what is the root of the problem? Because the game itself is I we never swung our stick and hit anyone in the head, but I mean I know you've cross tracked a few people in the face. I've I've seen it. Well, I had it coming. Yeah, of course. They deserved it. we joked a major was a minor and a minor was nothing when we were repping him. But but y you know, what what is it? What do you think it is? What you asked me a question earlier, like what can you do to change us and I I've been thinking like For two years, how do we change this? There's no real answer. The and I'm trying to preface this. I don't want to call out professional players. I'm not calling you out. I want to say the term like call upon. You know, the NFL guys, NHL guys, the best. You gotta get in the locker rooms. And it's not just professional players. Division one, two, and three players. Get and it's not just college players too. Good high school teams. Get in the locker rooms. Tell the coach you need the team. Let's start something that gets these kids in the locker room talking to the kids with no coaches, no parents. This is this is what we gotta do. But like The N the NFL and the NHL and all these great sports, like d I I see no messages on it. Like can we do some promos or some ads or something? Player safety, yeah. Not a safety, like it's not okay. It's like it has to stop. Yeah, like we haven't seen. What are you teaching these kids? Well like you know, I I I kind of liken it to the plane crash theory. You don't hear about the thousands of planes that land. Right. Right? You you hear about that one that crashed. So with the stick swinging Everything. We don't hear about the ninety-five percent of games that go off with nothing like that. But those ones where those happen and they're happening more often. Like you said, where is the NHL guys coming out and making a video saying, hey guys, what are you doing? Right. We don't swing sticks like that. You shouldn't be swinging sticks like that. One player came out and said, I never did that. I never had to do that. And if I did that, my my I wouldn't be playing. My mom and dad, my dad would That's a whole thing. That's a whole nother book. Let me write that down. Yeah, we can write that together. We can write that down. No, I work alone. But the it's it's just like the press I I am in the golf business. I see so many things. I've seen it for 20 years. I don't want to mention names or anything, but we we had a young kid like Five years old. They brought him on the Johnny Carson, not the Johnny Carson, Jay Leno show to meet Phil Mickelson 'cause he could hit a golf ball. Right. You know. Remember Tiger Woods was on Johnny Consider. Yeah, but Tiger Woods was good. Like he was he could shoot tw he could shoot thirty at five years old. True. This kick should hit a golf ball. Just hit a golf ball. And like his all of a sudden you saw the yellow pants and the pink shirt. I'm like By nine years old he quit golf. And I heard he's made a nice comeback and he's a nice young man, but the parents, you know, I they put so much pressure on him. Right. And he was done by eight, nine years old. my my daughter's playing right now and she's a goalie and there's that that position alone's pressure. Right. And unbelievable. I I I instilled in her just, go to practice, working your skills, have fun, effort, energy and attitude, and that's all I really care about. And she just lost the game the other day and you'd think they would have won. she's doing like the pirouette, yeah. Whatever, But you know, it's it's it's good to keep teach you know, good competition and and all that kind of stuff, the will to win and like, you know When state tournament time she wants to win. Right. but it's that it's teaching when when it is time to you know, grind here, playoffs. This is this is the game. The rest of it's all about development and having fun and leaving with a smile and you know, having a good good experience a good experience, exactly. I used to tell all the kids, parents when they were real young, like six or seven, I'm like, Don't get too high. If your kid's the best player in this team Don't get too excited. be happy. It's a good start. And if your kid's the worst player on the team, please don't get down. Those are the kids that usually end up being the best players. Right. You know, the kids that figure it out might they might grow later, they might develop later. they figure it out. Right. so don't get too high, too low. the It it's it's awesome the development of children and I've I'll tell another story, coaching Triple A. and I sort of got lured into coaching Triple A. I really didn't want to do it at first and this was with my oldest son. And we had one kid and by the way they were six or seven years old and they could check. Mm-hmm. Yep. And Metro Days. He'd get sixty sixty goals a year. yeah. But he would just skate and run people over. He's a good little player, but like I had to tell his dad, like that's not gonna change. Like you gotta do something else. Like and you know, so we we worked on that and he but you know, there was Ale there was some stories about him saying his kid already signed at seven years old with B U. So it it's that's nuts. It's that's nuts on so many levels. Look at all my friends here, they they can tell you a hundred different hockey stories. Yeah, yeah. Or any sports stories, you know, like I don't know. Yeah, I mean no, I mean JP McCursey said it best to me at hit at home two years ago. Like he's the goalie coach for the Terries and you know he used to play there and he goes, Your daughter's nine. He goes, You don't want to break her yet. Like let her let her enjoy it, let it still pure And he goes, look at her, she's smiling every day and having fun, he he makes it great, like he buffs her balls, like you know, like dumps her and that kind of stuff, you know, just you know, has fun with her, right? And and she loves when he's there and she loves being coached. The the most fun I ever had in hockey, believe it or not, was not with my boys, it was with my girls. And one was really good, but she literally could not stick handle from here to that wall. And one was really slow but she could stick handle. And I had more fun watching them and there w it was just awesome. We were down Rhode Island once and my daughter was who who wasn't very good at hockey was chopping a girl and the girls swore at her. And my daughter was like twelve and she started laughing so hard because the girls swear. Swear and then they both hugged each other and I'm like, That's awesome. Yeah. Girls hockey's so much fun. No, but d they're getting all they're gonna girls' softball, they're fighting in softball. Yeah, they are. You girls aren't off the hook, Charlie. they know. Now, I coached your son Greg, I mentioned it. Yeah. there. Yep. When when I was the J V coach there. Yep. And you know, even even coaching at that level, I may feel bad for you by the way. believe me. Him and a few of the other ones. they spent a little time in the box. But i I i you know, you wanna win, right? I d I from mites all the way up, I'd always say winning is more fun. That that's a fact. But Doesn't matter if we win or lose. We want to have fun. And when we leave the building, it doesn't matter. Right. And I took that approach with with Greg at in high school. And I would think if you asked him, he probably had a lot of fun playing for us. he did. He loved something. But I was also, you know, made him accountable. Yeah. And, you know, I I demanded a lot. Yeah. But at that same time, if you make it if you make them hate you, you know, then no one's getting paid. Right. Right? At pro level is different. Right. Right? But in any sport. But in the youth level, it's like, you know, what are we doing? And and I think that's what's getting lost. Right. No one's getting paid, but they're paying a lot. Right. I don't know. And that w I think that was his year where his senior he knew he was never gonna be a varsity player and which was great. And at one time there's too many kids on the JV team and and he said no, these young kids, let them play. And I think his senior year he didn't want like he wanted to play, he just went and played some men's leagues as a senior and he still plays to this day, he loves it. So i he loves the game, but you know there's a lot of kids that like Men's, but going down to the eight year old age, it's just it should be fun. The parents, come on, we gotta wake up. It's it's it's ridiculous, and I feel bad for you guys. I mean, being referees and all the stuff you see. Right. I mean, it's just the car I mean, I see it, I'm in the rings all the time. It's just constant yelling and screaming at nonsense. And it's but it's just like a lot of it's just noise, right? A lot of it's just noise that amplifies. It like, they yell at a little bump, then the yell at the next little bump gets louder, and then boom, a penalty happens. It's like, you gotta call something. It's like, well, those weren't penalties. Like that was. why don't you just shut up and just But in a twel twelve, fourteen year old referee's mind, you know, are you all of a sudden taking away from developing your refereeing skills because you don't want to be yelled at. Like you f like a hockey player might be afraid to make a mistake. Right. Is it the f like a a young referee might be afraid to make mistake? They're afraid to make the call because last time I did that I got screened at. Yeah. Even though it was the right call. Well and and then you add the layer of too much hockey. Right. So n back in the day, we'd have a veteran out there when we first started, right? So you know, I might go work with a see that fourteen, fifteen year old kid. And help him learn the thing. But now you have so much upper level hockey that you need to put the guys that can do those games in there. Right. Right? You can't put kids that are new or well, the NHL puts guys that are brand new in, but that's a whole nother story. you gotta you gotta have the guys that can do those games. So they're taken away from mentoring these young kids. And let's be honest, protecting them from that kind of stuff. Right, well here's here's a here's a quick little stat. 1800 games this weekend going off. in the New England area. How many referees do you think are covering those those games? No, there's eight no, we got there's two hundred and seventy five referees working total. So like you got eighteen you get eighteen hundred games. But you got eighteen hundred games going off, right? And you got a total of two hundred and seventy four well it's like an average of six games a weekend. You know guys are doing ten to fifteen games in that weekend. So like Yeah, the great we got our numbers up. we got a thousand referees signed up for USA. But are you working? No, half the kids are playing. Half the kids are all everybody under eighteen, they're all playing that weekend. they're I'm all playing in that tournament, right? I played in ref 'cause I had that luxury 'cause my father was the assignment. He's like, Well, you you I had no choice. Right. Like But that's that's wild. And I would assume talking to your dad. The pay is really good for these. Pay's unbelievable. It's better than a paperboy. It's better than flipping burgers or like I don't want Slinging to derail a kid from trying to be a referee, but I know I'll tell you the cutest thing I ever seen in my life, and I heard someone said he's a on track to be a professional referee referee is the little McManus kid. Yes he is, yeah. My son was playing hockey. He would walk in the locker room and he'd be like, a one-year-old, two-year-old with a rough shirt. I'm like, what the heck is this? He's like, he to be a ref. Yeah, yeah. Because I know the dad. I'm like That's awesome. So yeah, he just so he he's actually injured right now. But he he worked the USHL final last year. Like, you know, I I did it when I was out there, right? Not too many kids can say that it's unbelievable. It's so happy for him. And he just got hired by the East Coast League. That's So when he comes back he'll be working some he'll be working some USHL still. And minor pro and that's how you you develop. Is he under twenty two yeah he's twenty two twenty three yeah yeah yeah I mean that is awesome. Yeah I mean there's a lot of opportunities for young kids to you know stay involved. I mean I had like sixteen, seventeen year old kids working our junior final this year so yeah but but I I know across the board basketball I used to have a superintendent that worked on my golf course and he showed up on a Monday morning with black eyes. I'm like what's going on? He's like I ref basketball And the kid's a big strong kid. Right. He's like, they beat me. I'm like, dude, I live half a mile from there. I wish I knew. He's like, I had no time to text. And he came up with black guys. I'm like, are you gonna press shot? I don't even know who they are. Jesus. Like and that's basketball, so it's It's a really slippery slope. We just It has to get better, it has to stop. Parents have to look in the mirror. Yeah. And I counted since Labor Day. There's been eleven things I've seen. I'm sure there's more. Eleven heavy baseball swings to the head. Yeah. And I've never seen this in my life in hockey. Two kicks to the head. three kicks to the head. There was basically one almost hit a kid's throat. You hit a kid's throat and you're the poor Clint Mulachuk guy who got sliced in Buffalo and It's so I mean it's it's disgusting that all this stuff is happening, right? is it that accountability, right, in society is kind of pretty lax right now. You know what I mean? Like no one holds anyone accountable. And not not only that, but like parents I I teach, right? Parents don't want to hold their kids accountable. Right. You know, if a kid fails it's the teacher's fault. Right. You know, if the kid gets in trouble, it's the teacher's fault. Just like you can go to some stores now and rob the store and they don't even press charges. Right. As long as it's under a certain amount. The accountability is lacking in the country as a whole. Right? And and I'm not even gonna get into the leadership of the of the country but accountability's gone. Is that is kind of seeping into sports now it seems. You know? So this series have one book on the table. I have one book on the table. So we got how this is about Kim, an eight-year-old from Boston. I have five more books done. It's an eight-part series. I have a young I try to do every every place I played hockey in. So my next book is Apollina or a young woman from Nashville, an eight-year-old from Nashville. That's probably my favorite book so far. Like, and then I have Jaden from Flint, Michigan. He's a bit of football player. And then I moved to Toronto. I never played in Toronto, but a lot of my teammates were from Toronto. So I have a a book, Lauren from Toronto. She's a lacrosse player. Okay. And then I have, I don't know why I picked Iowa, but I have a girl from Iowa. It's a I lived in Des Moines. I don't know first season. I gotta look. I gotta look. I don't even think I gave the power. I don't think I gave the poor girl a town. Des Moines! I gotta give her a town. We lived in Carey. that was North Carolina. I haven't given the poor girl a town yet. but it's a great Design, gotta be Des Moines. Gotta be Des Moines. check that. I gotta be Des Moines. We've got Nick Des Moines. And then my last one I just finished last week's about a little kid in Jupiter, Florida named Cooper, who's a golfer. It's awesome. All right. So, and then I have two more left in the series. But I do have a little really, really good news that I'm only gonna break on chirping zebras. Look at that. We got breaking tonight. I wish we had a thing, like music. Breaking news, like 95 sports on that breaking news sound. I can do that with AI. Can we do that with AI? But we had a major we're not really live yet. We should be live in about two weeks, but I had a major company I can mention the name it's well maybe I shouldn't. But they're going in every airport in America and Canada that bought a lot of books. and you know I guess my book and another book came down between hundred books. I didn't even know if I was up for the publishing but up my publisher entered me and we got in and congratulations. That's awesome. That's unbelievable. That's awesome. No, what the hell? Hudson News. Hudson. They're in all the Hudson stores. They're all that's awesome. Wow. The bookstores. So they should be available, I think, November eighteenth across Canada and America. That's awesome. So yeah, that's huge. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not I again I'm not trying I'm trying to get the message out in my way. I know people are gonna start go trying to bring this idea and bring it to fruition. This is the way I want to do it. So talk a little bit about the books because I read Cam and I also read the soccer book. Is that Paulina, right? Paulina, yeah. So I I read both, you sent them to me. very cool. Kind of give the arc of the story maybe or kind of what happens within the book. it's a great question. So basically Cam The young little boy introduces himself and he loves hockey, just loves the game of hockey. And he's eight years old. you know, loves his dog, Chase. he's a real animal lover and every book has dogs. And they're all dogs that have been in my life and People ask me why. I I just think dogs and kids go along so well like Yeah, they do. Spe and and dogs go along with ev pretty much everyone but Gino. Yes. Not a dog fan, but that's okay. You a dog fan, but the thing are you? That that's funny, but the thing is a dog doesn't care if you win or lose. They really don't. Right at all. And I have I have five dogs at home now. I probably shouldn't say that 'cause I don't know if my town will help five dogs. But they're all in the book and then a few of my dogs have passed. Gino's like, this is great TV, Greg. Thanks a lot. Well, you know that we have Frankie Chirps, our official mascot. My dog. I didn't know, but I'm gonna get him in a book. We gotta get Frankie Church. I'm gonna make one of my dogs beat him in a race though. That's the way I do it. On the ice. On the ice. Well the hockey book's done. So we're gonna figure it's maybe three points shooting. There you go. But racing the duck. So it it's really cool. So he he loves the game of hockey. But all of a sudden the parents get involved. Parents are talking to the referees, fans are yelling at the referees, fans are parents are talking to the coaches. the long slow car raid home that we I think everyone's been there. No radio, no I I mean I love my dad, I love someone like that. I've been there. Yeah and my dad was he was the greatest person in the world. But It's almost impossible as a parent not to do it. Like it I'm I'm not perfect, trust me. And Greg will tell you that. but he did. He did he did, yeah. He probably did. so it's just it's there's so many things, but I always try to tie it in with I don't think I did it in the first story, but you tie it in with the dog and Mom and Dad start smiling at the end and there's a cute little story that hey, I really love Baseball, hockey, golf, soccer. But just let me play. I get it. If I get good at twelve or fourteen and you wanna send me to please. I'm ready for high school. I'm ready for anything if you want me to do that. But right now I like the fact that I can play with kids in town. If I gotta play triple A, Danny Shea, All American at BC. He our kid My freshman coach. Your freshman coach I will tell you. He took me aside. And you know, my son Christian was a good player and his son Ryan, who's in the back of the book, Edmonton Oilers, big deal. My pseudo godson, I call him, took me aside once and said, Listen I am not letting our kids play AAA hockey unless they play town hockey. I'm like, why? Like I didn't he's like, why? Because he's gonna be the best friends of their life. And I'm like, holy Toledo, like was he right? The NHA BC All American, check out, told me this and I'm like, my kids now, like he's going to a wedding this week. He goes to fifteen weddings a year. And his group of friends from two or three towns around here that all played youth hockey together. And his triple I'm not saying his triple Right, right. They're they are the closest group of human beings. And I will always be indebted Danny Shea for not allowing that to happen. He's like, our kids aren't better than anyone. I'm like, you know what? I was so young and stupid. I didn't really no, I'm serious. Like Danny who's who's young and stupid like me, but he got You got it right. I want I want to follow up with that, but first, the dogs playing goalie in the book. I thought was great because they, you know, that is I mean, pure fun, right? The dogs are playing goalie. I'm so glad I have two daughters. And my daughter Bella, who lives with me, and I have a daughter, Julia, who's twenty-five, who lives in Southie. And God's country. They yeah, God's country. And they They both have dogs, but guess who takes care of them? Mum and Dad. Yeah, of course. So I have five dogs. and w her dog's a little cock of spaniel, the other dog's a golden noodle doodle. I don't even know what they call. So Shih Tzu. Sh no blue shih tzu. So I'm shihu. My brother has a shihtzu. I don't even know. He's got one of those little but it's such a cute dogs and I'm like sitting at home and I do I do like my mind turns off About nine o'clock at night, and I got my iPad. I don't know why. I go through and I get up, I get in the couch, and I my new house I I moved and it's a smaller house, but I got a nice TV room, no one bothers me. And I just go to a town on the iPad, and I was like, wouldn't it be cool if the dogs could play goalie? And I'm and so I so I went on AI, and yes, everyone in America hates I AI, I know because they write me all the time, but sorry, it's the future. It's it is it is it's yeah. This is a throwback. You're gonna have a thousand book writers a month next year at this time. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You're ahead of curve. I think it's a throwback, and I'm sure you I don't know if you're old enough. Happy Days. Remember when they had the German Shepherd play goalie in the pond hockey? I didn't know that. It's throwback. By the I'm older than that. First thing I thought of. I'm older than you, but I didn't even know that about Happy Days. And I love the German Shepherd played goal. I love no one loved Fonsey better than me. my God. He was the best. He was the best. He was the best. I got his leather coat and a t-shirt. Yeah, but no one beats the fans. But I love the dogs playing goalie. It was just a great little insight into kids would do that. Parents, you know, and this kind of what I was thinking about when you were talking, everything is so structured. So structured right when we were kids, you you know, you left the house, you went down the park, and maybe you had a ball, maybe you didn't, maybe you had a stick, you made up games, played kill the kid with the ball. Ball played whatever. Now it's all just organized, but that's a throwback with the dogs in the net to kids just going out in the yard and figuring it out. Yeah. They didn't have a goalie, put the dogs in the goalie, right? It's a kind of a throwback to that time that's missing now. Awesome. And that I think is one of the problems is that kids are so micromanaged nowadays, and they have everything: schedule, play dates, and this and that. They don't have any time to just be a kid. So when my so you guys are a little young. Than me, but when in my baseball book, the third book, I was like thinking of things in my mind that I really like to do in baseball. And we had a game called Pickle. pickle is great. But like my sons are like, Dad, what's pickle? No one's gonna understand that. I'm like, dude. And we used to play it on the beach with the tennis ball. Yeah, and you know, you got a bass or a sneaker. Yep, whatever. A rock. We used to play it a late. You're cruel, a rock. I grew up in Selty. Yeah, they played. In the street. Yeah, I I used to walk home with bloody feet. I slid in the Gino's rock. No sneakers to find Gino. And it was like the coolest, like all the girls who play the gun. Who's gonna steal? Yeah. I love pickle and my my son Christian's like, Dad, no one understands that. I'm like, well, people my age do. yeah. And I have my buddies on the beach play pickle with Jaden. yeah, the kids play my my daughter plays it. Yeah, pickle. That's the best game. But they don't there was another one with a bat where you rolled the ball back and you have I forget the name of it though, but half That was another one. Pickle on the beach was unbelievable. The best. We played it everywhere. We played it down where my cottage on the lake down in Long Pond in Lakeville. We used to put we I sort of styrofoam bases. Yeah. And my father would put a fishing line with a weight so that it would sit, you know, in knee deep water. And we used to play in the lake, running back and forth, sliding in the water was a lot better than the street and south. Awesome. but pickle was the best. Pickle is unbelievable. And I'm sure that game came out of kids down the park. It's the ninth book. We got a ball. No, there's only eight books. I'm only doing eight. I'm done. I'm done. So anyone who wants to cut me, go ahead after eight. But give me royalties. You got it. I get we we'll do a zebra book. one of the things that you you you kind of alluded to, like when I was a kid, and I'm sure when you were a kid, we played for a town. Right. And we played with those kids all the way up through high school. Now some of us you know went to private high schools and didn't go to the town high school. And this is why I had to admit to Albi, Andrew Alberts, and Gigi Marvin, Minnesota is the best hockey state now in the world. Yeah, it's a Because that's what they still do. And now you have that rivalry, you have that pride, you have those friends you make. And here it seems like you could have kids from 20 different towns playing on a team. You know, yeah, they they make friends and they get Together and the whole thing, but it's not the same. It's not the same. Because you're playing with the kid, you're playing street hockey with the kids you go and practice with. And that I think is lost, especially here in this state. Right. So I it's funny because I, you know, I locally I grew up in Canton, moved to Milton in fifth grade, and I started playing hockey in Milton, and it was such a different time. Like my dad, like just the work hours of men back in the day, my dad. Got up at six AM or five thirty AM. I wouldn't see him 'til eight at night. Yep. Nine at night. And you know, he had a construction company and then like the family night would be we'd all we'd all drive to Canton to go to Papa Gino's on a Friday night at nine o'clock. I mean nine not nine o'clock. And ri my buddy Rune's here will know this. We went to Papa Gino's on in Canton at the Tritown Mall. And if we were good if we were good school. My parents let us go to the Candy Delight. Right right next door. Candy Delight was it was like I was a little fat Italian because like this is awesome. I g you know, but that's how it was. I never really so when we get to Milton, like my dad was an all American at Norwich in nineteen fifty two and the captain of the team. But he couldn't go to my games. I couldn't even get a ride to practice. And thank God all my friends in Milton, their parents took care of me like they would pick me up, take me to games and practice. But you know, as I got a little older and a little better and a little bigger, you know, the pressure starts. It's it's Yeah. Hey what what were you thinking here? You should have done I'm like, Yeah. Let me play. Yeah. And also. But like you mentioned that I I I grew up and played for Dedham. Yeah. We hated Milton. We hated Canton. We hated West Right. We hated Southie. We hated everyone still. Right? And they hated us. Yeah. And because that's where we played. And there was very few junior teams. Yeah. St. Maritz, I think, was really the only program that was kind of like a club. You know? Wait, did did Dedham even have a team? I don't remember the playing them. I'm just kidding. We had we had really good hockey players. Don't start with me. I'm just kidding. So that'll tell you. and a B C high kid over here, so whatever. two great schools? We yeah, two great schools. now the the other thing I wanted to ask you about was your your own we all love journeys, right? And everyone's journey. What was your journey at Hockey? 'Cause you mentioned you started in Milton. I so I started in Canton. Canton, okay I have a really Cool weird story. I actually started out being a really good hockey player. Like I had older brothers that played. I started out being a really good player. and then I sort of went into I I come to Milton and I sort of got into an awkward growth stage. Like slow I I wasn't as good as I th was when I was younger and till about seventh or eighth grade and that inv involved getting cut from a team from an A team down to a B team in the middle of season which you know it's whether it's right or wrong, I I mean I love it now because I felt that It it just fueled me every day and and by the way, all my but I I'm not process professing to be the best hockey player in the world. But at the time in my mindset was always, hey, this kid, when he was twelve, he was the best player in the state. We're fourteen now, he's quit hockey. That's one kid I beat. And and that's Yeah, yeah. Then seventeen, you know I go to Milton High School and I just keep getting bigger and stronger and I had I had two great coaches. I had a coach Skip Lapworth. He passed when we were younger. He was maybe the best motivator and I played three years pro. that I've ever seen in my life. and I had a coach, I went to a year of prep school, I was so lucky. I went to Cushing Academy and I played for Steve Jacobs. And those two guys, Steve Jac Steve Steve Jacobs, like Cushing Academy. I graduated I think thirty nine or forty years ago. He still checks on me every month. Every month. And I I think all his players. So like what does that tell you like and he'll be the first I wasn't his favorite hockey play. I was good. I wasn't the top plo ho Cushing's a different level then. Milton. It's just th you go from Milton, you got four or five good players. You go to Cush, you got fifteen. Right. Yeah. And and it really it's just like at the academics, they prepared you for college. Like I walked into college, I'm like, okay, like yeah, last year I was playing with all these kids that played in the junior Olympics team. Right. That at sixteen, probably better than you know, you. But you know, and then I just kept growing and growing and growing and my mom came down with cancer my sophomore year in college. And I I don't mean I was academically ineligible and I was at a D three Norwich, we were real we had some talented, talented kids. I mean, I think there was 35 or 40 D one teams at the time. And I go to Norwich and I was shocked. I'm like, holy Toledo, these kids are freaking good. Like they're really, really good. And you know, it wasn't an easy journey for me, but there was I had to leave after my sophomore year 'cause of grades or I couldn't play till the next January and I'm like I played in the Pro Am League, I had one scout that loved me. But at the time They were looking for big kids. Like I was six foot five, two ten soaking wet. And they they took me, they signed me, and I'm like, yeah, let's give this a shot. And they were r they were really actually Steve Rooney was in the camp with me. yeah, it by the way, just to show you the Boston guy, like I think I was twenty and he was like twenty seven. Took me out every n like din like he could not have been I was there for six weeks. He could not have been more of a confident. Yeah, yeah. Just a great and he probably had at the time seven years in the NHL. Like who the hell am I? No one. You know who else was good to me? Brendan Shanahan was awesome to me. Like Yeah, he was really nice to me. I'm like he was younger than me too. I'm like, you're like nineteen, you just you're a really good player. He's like Yeah, shut up. You wanna watch a movie? He wasn't they're just a different breed. Yeah, yeah. You know, but I I I am so lucky, like in the dedication of this book, My buddy, I don't know if you ever knew Danny Cruz. Danny Cruz, he's he'd be fifty-seven this year. I think he passed last year, Mass General. And he's one of my best friends in life. We talked literally talked every day on the phone, and he's the first book dedicated to, but he was a Dedamara a CM knight. I used to have to hear it all the time. He played with Teddy Donato with CM. I know I know yeah, I do. He's a cool kid. Yeah, because he went to C yeah, I do know play baseball together. And he's I would love for you guys we're having a big his daughter's a beautiful girl Sophie his daughter Sophie we're doing a big fundraiser for him sometime in the spring May in Dedham in Denham cool you know so we'll we'll let you guys know you know have you guys down there you know you can put on your old Maratha youth jersey and sign a few autographs I have a couple. I'm Weymouth jersey. No, I want your daughter's goalie jersey. I heard she's awesome. Yeah, she does all right. She plays she has fun with it. Good. Good. Now, one thing that you mentioned actually in the book, but I know it's your belief. Multiple sports. Kids playing multiple sports, and that's lost because everyone's specializing in age eights. So what's happening? So what's happening? You and I both have Eight-year-old boys. Okay? My boy's gonna play baseball, golf and tennis in the summer, whatever, tennis or racquetball or pickleball, whatever they do now. Your boys just stay in hockey, right? Well the nine year old your boy's ahead of my boy and ten year but in the long run, these other sports are They're giving you different aspects of skill. Like golf. Like who are the best non-golfers are are hockey players? Like I the best hockey player I ever played with in college is a kid named Ricky McCarthy. I don't know if you ever heard of that name. Ricky was an all-American Norwich and he was he he went on to play in the East Coast League. He's older than me. He's unbelievable. He picked up golf. I think within three months he was shooting. In the low 80s. And I'm like, you are so he was the first guy that literally reminded me of Wayne Gretzky the way he played. I'm like, and he was a writing. He was like, he might have been a 40-year-old freshman. But we loved him at Nolan. He was the most talented, talented kid I've ever. Were you there with Frank Simonetti? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. No. All right. He's a lot older than me. A lot older. Okay. Alright. Well, now the the multiple sport thing, you nailed it. You don't want to fall behind the neighbor. But the experts I'll say don't specialize till fourteen. Right. Because you want to build that athleticism. The hand-eye coordination you get in baseball or in tennis is different than hockey. And you know, like the I it just thought of the Sadine twins could have went pro in soccer. Adam Oates was better at lacrosse than hockey. So was Gretzky. And Gretzky, yeah, yeah, yeah. you know, well the story is Gretzky's dad used to throw his hockey bag in the attic at the end of the season, wouldn't let him take it out until September. That's the lore, which you know, and there's something to that. But now it's not just hockey. You have girls my daughter played softball. They wanted her on a tournament team all summer. She was like, Dad, I want a summer. I don't want to go every weekend to a softball tournament. You know, lacrosse, yeah, soccer, every sport now they expect you to go year-round. Right. And that I think leads to the problem too. Look at a guy like I don't know if you ever had Kevin Stevens or on Yeah Kevin's a good friend of ours. He's awesome. Great. But Kevin's a big proponent of the three sports. I think he could have gone to B C for football. he did go for hockey and they say he's one of the best baseball catchers in in the country. So I think he picked the right sport, but yeah. So my daughter's team, Steve Gray's coaching and we got a dear friend who's awesome. And he you know, we have a lot of alternates. We have also a lot of girls that play lacrosse, a lot of girls that play soccer, a lot of girls that we have one girl that can't even get to practice. Yeah. Right? So she's like, Is she she gonna be able to play in the game? Yes, go Go to soccer. You only have eight weeks to play it. Right. You have s you have all all winter to play hockey. Right. And he's instilling that and encouraging to go play those other sports. Right. Instead of just saying, Hey, no, you're gonna be here, you play with us. He no, we we we have you know, plenty of alternates, plenty of backups. So girls can have that luxury to go do that. So I think it's great. I think that's a start in something like that. So I don't know. I and I think it's a credit to to him as a coach to encourage that. Some coaches, you're not a practice, you're not playing. Right. Even for eight ten year olds, right? Yeah, you know, you don't practice, you don't play. That's that's for high school, college. You know, that's not for youth hockey. It shouldn't be anyway. No. You know? I can't believe Greeley coaches with all the golf horses out there. He's like a two handicapped, he's really he's filthy, yeah. He's filthy. Just to show you what a small world is, his wife was my big babysitter. no kid. Yeah. And his wife Laura was my babysitter and her sister was my babysitter of my kids. Along with the yeah, so Wow, small world. You know I play with I play with I play with Steve and and Jack and the Wheelers. If you see what I did in the book, like Montillios? Yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Twin girls. Jenna and Alyssa, they were my babysitters. When w my wife's from Germany, when she first came over, we first started dating, she was their babysitter. So it all turns back into and the Montillo twins have two little cute Italian boys, like eight and ten, maybe nine and eleven, and they're into hockey and all sports. So well I like the way you you know, give shout outs in the book to local businesses and local people. It's a great touch. It's a cool touch. Listen. That you put in that maybe someone in Iowa, Des Moines, might not get. But us Boston guys, like I was looking through it, I'm like, look at that. One of my good buddies in Milton is Scotty Domino. Okay. And he get, you know, he's might be one of the hardest working people you'll ever meet in your life. And he gets he's in the fruit market. You know, they get up at like two in the morning and and go in and work from like 2.30 to 10. But In i in on one of the girls' shirts in the Iowa book it says like Domino's corn market and I haven't even told him yet so that's awesome. We'll see how good your reach is if he sees us, but like I just made up Domino's. We're huge in Iowa. Huge huge, yeah. So we're gonna take this national you guys your reach is incredible because I keep getting stuff from when you had Andy Brickley on Lou Marlone. But I have a question for you guys. How did you you had low cash on it, so you guys trying to bring in some musicians too? Well he ha yeah, well we'll bring in we'll expand with an anything, right? well we'll we did tee off of heroes. Yeah. Right? which i Low Cash came and played at. Turns out Low Cash, one of their road managers, kid by the name of John Lasard, played for me in Sandwich years ago when I coached Sandwich with Derek Curtis. So we ran into each other, I'm like, what are you doing here? Curtis did it. He was at Archie's right? Yes, he was at Sandwich First. That's where I coach with him with Puckmasters. He was a very good coach. I used to watch Curtis good. I don't know him but he's a good coach. Excellent coach. He still has the same helmet on too yeah. But then I talked to John, and next thing you know, I'm down at Hilton Head doing the low-cash golf bash with Tony V chirping the golfers from the you know the chirp box. And then they're huge sports guys. And so we're, I mean, we never wanted to pigeonhole ourselves, right? We wanted to have, you know, not just hockey players, not just referees, every sport. We want to have models like yourself or children's office, you know. We we wanna open it up. And so I'm glad that you you know you like that aspect of it. You know we're trying to do that. You're gonna laugh at me, but you know, and and I'm probably gonna catch a lot of stuff for this, but the ability to illustrate through AI gives me like there are companies that call me like, can we have a Nike sweat? I'm not saying Nike but like can you make that sweatsuit Nike? Can you make that sweatsuit can you make that basketball? We'll say Wilson, but I have companies like can you make their skates boom. So there it that's pretty cool. Yeah. This this way of advertising is gonna be huge. And like it's like anything. Like sell a million books, guess what? They w they'll put their thing in anything. Not something I'm saying I'm selling a million books, but this is where it's going. Well hopefully it will. No, I is I if if it ever did it would it would go a lot of that money would go to helping the fund the message to get out but Simmer if you sell a million books SimmerBooks.com is gonna become a chirping zebra sponsor I thought you No I'm gonna buy you a show. It's even better. I'm gonna be better. I'll just pay you guys I'll be the new host. That'll be perfect. I'll be the I'll be the new host. We work alone. now before we let you go, where can people find out more? And you have the animated thing too. So you mentioned like talk about that? So I had a guy like write me on Facebook. I again I don't know what I'm doing. Like I like I I'm not Neither do we. I'm trying to be as humble as I can in this. You know, I I'm I'm not a dumb guy, but I'm not the smartest guy in the world. But I think I'm on to something. Definitely. I'm just trying to give it the best position to elevate. And you know I I I think by Doing it the way I've done it, we're gonna bring it to another level. But I can you can get this live in about 10 days. Okay. And I'm gonna put it out you can check us out at at SimmerBooks on TikTok, Instagram, Simmer Books on Facebook, and my LinkedIn, I do the Simmer Books stuff is a Greg Simeone, but I don't do everything on there because it's not really supposed to be this tort sort of stuff, but SimmerBooks.com tells the whole story. Talks about all the my kids, not my real kids, my cartoon kids who I like better than my real kids. You know, they don't ask for a a Venmo, they don't ask for no no and you can turn them off. Are we on to some book idea? Sorry, I broken a lot. Yeah, no. No, I like that. We have you can have, you know, children's book kids. But I am so grateful. I'm so grateful for the opportunity you guys gave me to come spread the message. And if it I'd love to support you guys any way I can. No, you yeah, appreciate your support and having yeah, brick and you know that was awesome that those days hosting us. We know you're a big fan of us and we're a big fan of you. you know, even back when Greg played for me, I used to love you coming down and going, I love when you said this to the rest. I wouldn't even watch in but but people are gonna think you said bad things to the rest. No, he would never swear. He just said like Everything he said, wouldn't even watch my kid who was probably punching a goalie to heaven. Right? Like Greg, that's not really. He was a frequent flyer. That's really not the object of the game. but anyways. But he he just said the funniest thing to the rest and I and I'm up Just laughing my butt off. Jeez, he is so smart. I'm sorry. And my kid never had a better year of hockey in terms of fun. I love hearing that. That's awesome. It's like he just literally loved it. I think he played one year or two years for you. I think he I had him t for two years. Yeah. The first year was fun, the second one a little long. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'll tell you what though, none of those refs, not many of them had a sense of humor. You had a sense of humor, pal. I actually told one of them, why don't you use your game check to buy a sense of humor? And I got benched. But that's all right. I don't know. I don't know if you bench someone for that. You gotta kinda appreciate a good shirt. Nah, I I I actually got the one time in Lawrence Academy. You say one more word and you're out of here. And I said, all right. And he goes, That's a word, and he threw me out. I swear to God. Yeah, I didn't swe I never swore a coach. Don't pay, don't plate yourself into a corner as a referee either, because now you have to do it. But I never swore referees as a coach, and I never swear coaches as a referee. I wish I could say the same. No, you you have no shots. I had a bleep you the other last week on the episode because it was the first five minutes. I don't think I swore today. I might have. I think you I think you've been pretty bad. By the way, I Yeah, well I'm not I'm I'm not I'm not perfect. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I no. But simmerbooks.com and you know i you've done a great thing, you got a great thing going and I think it's gonna blow up. And not just so that you're successful, we want your success. I hope it blows up so that people wake up and say, Yeah, you you got something. I don't care about my personal success. I I just want the the thing out there. What's one what's one message to parents out there that You would want to say for all sports, all kids. What what for what's the message to the parents? I'm gonna use a big SAT word. I have a plethora of messages, but he's up on the car ride home, win or lose, you know, like it's okay, buy him an ice cream, but you know, it's not the end of the world. If you have something to say, you know, talk about it the next day. I I love the 24-hour rule, by the way. Like I love that rule. It's just a just talk to them in 20 buy them a pizza, buy a and they might not want a pizza. Your kid might be upset himself or you might want to know if he wants to go to a birthday party or something, but let's go. And you gotta know your kid too, right? Like know how they're gonna take criticism and how they're not. Like my daughter got like sometimes she likes watching videos. Right. And then sometimes she doesn't. Right. You know, so like I'm walking the force. So like I remember the other day I she got lit up. I'm like, hey, I clipped all the goals. She's I'm I'm not watching those. And I was like, yeah, fuck it. Flush it, good for you. I'm not gonna sit there and force her to do it, right? hey, you gotta watch this. It's like, well, no. Yeah, get get the smart. You know, well, yeah, no, she is a lunch. That is true. You know what? I am the nut, yeah. His daughter will be in your book. You'll have to write a book about Gino's daughter. no, she's really good. I've heard from so many people. You know what question I used to love asking kids, my own and also players that play for me. what was your favorite part of today? your favorite part of the game. Yeah. and they might say, and I scored, or you know, they might say, I don't know, I didn't really do anything well. Wait a minute. Remember that backtrack you had? Yeah. That was awesome. Like you know, that positive. Look at the positive first. Yeah. And then teach the negative. Don't you know, don't punish the negative. Teach it. Right? So that, you know, all right, when you're in this situation next time, maybe think about doing this as opposed to going next time do that. It's one of two. One of things. It's not don't flood them. No, no, no. You don't flood them. And and you know, hopefully this episode, your book series, maybe you know, it takes one person to start it to change the the culture. I don't know if it's me, but I'm trying to help. Well, we'll behind you, so this is awesome. Great, I really appreciate it. This is great. And I think I lost five pounds, by the way, with this. me too. My pits are soaked. Yeah, we're a little sweaty, but yeah. I said we're gonna bust the ladder. I said we're gonna bust. This is the new workout and loot and shed a few pounds. We could, right? Forget those. We can put those, we can put those, we can put those black sweater, those sweat jackets on. The silver shoots, the rest of the This is the plan of fitness workout. If we get chirp chirping zebras, we'll chirping chirpin workouts. We're on to something. Awesome. Greg, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you, pal. Drake Simeone SimmerBanks.com. Greg Simeone. Awesome. I mean, just a class individual yeah great human being and what a great message you know I really think this simmerbooks.com his book series hopefully will make people think and realize that what are we doing? They're just eight they're eight years old I know the kids and and even when they become 10 or 12 it's like they're still kids. Let them be kids. So check out simmerbooks.com you know a whole series different sports it It's fantastic. Come check out the lodge. Come check out the lodge bar and grill. The lodge is gonna kick up on a Wednesday. Let's go. Yeah, we want to thank the Lodge Bar and Grill in Randolph. Come check it out. also want to thank our sponsor, the referees, Chris, your one-stop shop for all your referee needs. Also want to thank AOA Studios, Mike Scarfo coming down and doing all the technical stuff and then all the editing. Want to remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube and also follow us on all the the social media, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. That's gonna wrap it up here from the Lodge. We're so happy to be live and in person and hopefully we'll do it again soon. So for Gino Bender, I'm Mark Riley. We'll see you next time right here on the Chirping Zebras. Geno Binda: you