Latest / Chirping Zebras / Exceptional Citizens Week | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #107

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Exceptional Citizens Week | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #107 · Chirping Zebras

• Mark Riley: I believe that is a zebra on the ice, Bill. How did he get on the ice? Trip, trip. They still can't get him off the ice. This is crazy. Here comes all the zebras. It's a zoo out there. You can't do that. Doesn't matter. Welcome everyone to trip and keepers. Welcome everyone to Chirping Zebras, coming to you from Skate 3 in Tewkesbury. Mark Riley alongside Gino Bender Jr. and Josh Dolan as always. And ⁓ we're here for a special Bruins alumni game against ⁓ well for the Exceptional Citizens Week, which we'll hear more about during the episode. ⁓ before we get into anything, want to thank our sponsors, the ⁓ referees crease your one-stop shop for all your referee needs from scheduling and development to payment. They do it all. Also, want to thank Damon Financial Services for over 24 years. Damon Financial has helped families and business owners grow and protect their wealth with clear, trusted strategies from retirement planning and investments to tax efficient solutions. They deliver no nonsense advice focused on your goals. Call them at 508-321-2101 today to schedule a meeting or find them at Damon Financial.com. Also, want to thank AOA Studios. Mike and Z are here. And doing ⁓ all the work on site. And if you want to tape anything, their studios up in Beverly, AOA Studios. Also want to remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube and find us on the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. ⁓ and also wanna ⁓ say go to chirpingzeebras.com, get all your merch. ⁓ we get the lace sweat lace hoodies and ⁓ some cool stuff. Also want to remind you, March 15th, ⁓ we're ⁓ actually This is already over. Yeah, that might be we had a great time. That was such a good fun. It was an awesome event. That's right. ⁓ so that's all right. My ⁓ yeah It's been a long afternoon. We had a lot of a lot of guests today, so we had some great guests. We have some great guests. Some legends, absolute legends on. ⁓ I mean Mickey Wood, how great is he? Yeah, eyebrow. You know, Bish with ho it's ⁓ his home rink, home of the Bishop Gertons. Yes. Yep. My favorite part was Right before the Mickey Ward interview, you said, What should I mention when I introduce you? I knew I knew what to mention. I just meant I always like to ask what the interview ⁓ the ⁓ intro. So I hear you ⁓ might have fought a couple times. No. No, but we the exceptional citizens week. ⁓ and of course we you know, you might hear some background noise during this game. We're right next to the rink. We got ⁓ youth hockey going on. ⁓ plenty of Canadian geese out there cheering on their kids. Yep. And ⁓ Bruins alumni staffing new slamming doors. Just slamming doors and and throwing on the hand dryer in the bathroom. So we you know, we we like the Marines. We ⁓ adapt, we improvise and we overcome. Just like the Marines. I mean last week we had no ⁓ no lighting this week we had noise. Now y you know where that com you do you know where that quote, ⁓ imp improvise and overcome, adapt, improvise and overcome? Clint Eastwood movie? ⁓ I thought you came up. No. That's a quote from Heartbreak Ridge. Probably came out before you two were born. ⁓ but yeah, it's a great movie. Clint Eastwood. But ⁓ it's like a military movie. ⁓ all right. Marines. So you like the Marines. Well I think Kelly's Heroes was his only one. That was a good one too. Do I feel lucky? Well, so enjoy this episode with all our guests coming to you from Skate Three in Tingsboro. Joining us now Tom Saxon from Exceptional Citizens Week. Tom, welcome to the Zebras. Thanks a lot. Hey, thanks, thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks for having me and helping to promote our cause. It's great. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about the program. So ⁓ Exceptional Citizens Week has been a camp for overnight ⁓ kids with special needs, ⁓ Down syndrome, kids in wheelchairs, all sport all sorts of ⁓ disabilities. And we've been doing it for, I don't know, the camp has been in existence for over 60 years. I've been doing it for about 40. And with my friend Dan over there, you can't see him on on screen. so it's a hundred percent volunteers. ⁓ it's free to the to the kids. The campers go a hundred percent free, they've never paid a dime. And we have our ⁓ we we support the camp by fundraisers. Yep. So today we're here, we're gonna do a ⁓ charity hockey game with the ⁓ with the Bru Boston Bruins Foundation. And ⁓ you guys are really big supporters. We appreciate you coming out to help us. ⁓ and we can't say enough about all the volunteers. So All the volunteers they come from all walks of life. ⁓ a lot of kids from Boston started out from Ma mainly a ⁓ Boston kids coming up from the different ⁓ different neighborhoods in Boston. It's you know, and they're like, wow, this is this is something different, way out of our wheelhouse, taking care of someone that you know needs help. ⁓ it's one on one, so every camper has their own counselor and then there's support staff, there's people that run horses. We do actually have a a little rifle range where the kids blow up balloons. With B B guns. That's my job. They moved me up to that after they said you can't take care of the kids anymore. Gino did that in selfie all the time. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, those rail guns, all right. It wasn't balloons. But before we get like too deep into the camp, I do wanna ⁓ bring up, you know, my my hockey skills. ⁓ seventy two, seventy three East Boston B Wee champs. All right. So you see you got a champion with us. Yeah, it was you know, it was a different game back then. It was you know yeah, I love the you like that? Yeah. So y you know We we kind of our philosophy was more pucks for the net. You know what I mean? So is ⁓ you know, go to the boards, dig it in, and then you know, try to score. What that was you know was that that was our thing. Let me see that for a second. Yeah, you can ⁓ there's some baseman in East Boston missing a chunk of their wall. Wow, Pee Wee B. Pee Wee B, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was ⁓ I played for ⁓ I played bro two years. And the happiest day of my father's life is when I said, Yeah, Dad, I really don't like hockey. Goes good, I don't have to get up at five o'clock anymore. Yeah, yeah, I can see the pity. Exactly. Yeah. But anyway, back to the camp. So what's funny is before we move on, East Boston, ⁓ we found out because the the world is so small. My father always said, Don't talk about anyone because you don't know who knows who. ⁓ you're friends with my cousin Kevin. That's right. ⁓ Kevin Riley and know my whole family over there. No, he's not. He's not a dentist. Only ⁓ we only have two of those in the family. Probably comes in handy in this line of work, right? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I don't pay a bill. So Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up because I think it's cool that you know the words. Yeah, it's a small world. It's a small world. So and I don't know if I failed to mention my brother goes up there, he's he's a camper. Yeah. So he's ⁓ he's been disabled his whole life and he's been going up there for longer than I have. So he's been going up there probably ⁓ maybe forty five years, fifty years. So he's like sixty five now. So And ⁓ yeah, so all the kids, we have a lot of returning campers. We try to get pull in pull in new campers. and it's a it's a great experience. We were up in New Hampshire for many years and now we've moved down to ⁓ Pembroke Mass. Yep. Camp Pembroke. So we have a visitors day that you know, in the third week in August. we'll get you the information. L love to have you guys come down and and see the place. Yeah, absolutely. I would love to 'cause I I have a daughter with special needs, autism and the whole thing. Yeah. ⁓ wow. Yep, she has a deletion in her chromosome. So yeah, I would love to check that out. Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And ⁓ and my I have a I have a child too with autism. So ⁓ yeah, my old sister. Yep. Wow. So I didn't No, that's why we're You didn't tell me this. We're all about this cost. ⁓ all right, yeah. But as soon as Danny told me about it, I go, absolutely well, I can't wait to get up here. So like I mean Hell, I flew in from ⁓ Buffalo this morning and drove right up here for it. So wow, this is awesome. That's perfect. Yeah, that's great. Activity wise, you mentioned the horses, ⁓ the shooting. What other kind of things do you guys do with them? ⁓ we have there's a there's a lake, so we have we have boats, ⁓ the arts and crafts, and there's always always something coming up. We have people come in. ⁓ you know, you guys know Jim Plunkett, the singer. ⁓ yeah. So he comes in, we have other ⁓ entertainers that come in. ⁓ I mentioned boating. Like I I'm charge of the rifle range. We have archery. ⁓ Petting zoo. Do the other petting zoo for yeah, so you get ⁓ little goats and whatever. George would like that. Yeah, yeah. Big big petting fan zoo, man. ⁓ guy, for sure. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, so there's always always something going on. There's a big they have a big phone party. ⁓ cool. ⁓ and then there's a there's a theme of the week and they it's like a play that goes on every night. The characters walk around, so it's usually like You know, Snow White or you know, something like that. You know, the kids and they have there's always a like a good guy, bad guy, there's a villain. And the you know, the kids boo the villain and they cheer the ⁓ you know, they they they cheer the the you know, the good person. So ⁓ and you know, th we entertain them at in at the meals. So, you know, the ki the kitchen guys, I'm also in the kitchen crew, you know, the that's where they put all the old guys so they don't cause too much damage. I bet they would like chirpin' zebras the musical. Yes, that's that's due up. So you guys have a musical? Next year, twenty twenty twenty-seven. We're doing the musical champions evil. No, I I definitely want you guys to come down and I do check out check it out. We'll get you we'll get you all the information. Yeah. Come down and visit us there. You can ⁓ maybe we'll do a podcast from there. Absolutely. You know what? I don't see why not. W dot ecweek.org. So we're always looking for ⁓ volunteers, especially you know, more guy volunteers. We seem to get more women. Yep. The young ladies and ⁓ we'd like to get some more ⁓ you know, some more guys down there. So you know, take care of a kid. It's ⁓ it's tough work, but it's rewarding. ⁓ one hundred percent. Yeah. So I'm sure it is. Yeah, so you have a you know, it's like to have like having your own kid and you gotta, you know, keep an eye on them. Yeah, yeah. And and w it happens during the summer? ⁓ yeah, it's in the s yeah, it's it's it's the third week in August. Okay. Anyway, what I forgot to mention too is what we have ⁓ we started about four or five years ago. We have a street hockey game. ⁓ cool. With the the kids, the campers versus the ⁓ waiters. So there's like all waiters that that ⁓ they're all mostly high school kids in the ⁓ in the it's a pretty good game. Campers always win. It's like the broom's alumni. They seem to win every time. They a program in Weymouth ⁓ for all the and it's awesome. It's unbelievable what Like there's like probably thirty, forty kids that go and it's awesome. Yeah. They street hockey. It's awesome. Yeah. So last year we were kind of messing around a little bit and we said, you know, maybe have like a fake fight right at the start of the game. And ⁓ one of the campers didn't really take it as is a fake. And and he he greatly pulls the he pulls the shirt over with some poor high school kid and starts bounding on ⁓ That's awesome. So we gotta we g we gotta be careful what we say. But ⁓ yeah, it's ⁓ it that's one of the best ⁓ events at camp. The street the whole camp comes out and they and they watch it and they're they're chairing and you know, we have ⁓ you know, referees. I was just gonna say, d do you need referees at We need refs. We need refs. Why don't you guys absolutely no better than the Zebras. We can show up and ref that game for sure. Yeah. You guys take bribes? They're from South. We don't talk about that on camera. ⁓ all right. I'm sorry. Sorry. So that's awesome. So ⁓ ECweek.org is where they can get the information. We'll put that up ⁓ too and we'll put it in the description. So that'd be great. If you ⁓ you know are looking to volunteer for a great organization. ⁓ I was looking for volunteers. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I think that's awesome. Tom, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. And ⁓ really appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate what you do. Yeah, thank you. You and thanks guys. It's an amazing program. So I'm not getting into heaven. No. Well That's not getting me into heaven. I'm hoping there isn't one, because God knows I don't That was kind of ironic. God knows and hope there's not a heaven. Anyway, ⁓ Tom Sa Tom Saxon from ⁓ Exceptional Citizens Week. Joining us now, Colin Hennigan, who organizes ⁓ the game for Exceptional Citizens Week against the Bronze alumni. Colin, welcome to the Zebras. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. Now you've been doing this game for a long time. This is my ⁓ tenth year. Wow. Tenth anniversary. Yeah. First year for exceptional citizens. Okay. Yeah. ⁓ did seven years for another organiz another nonprofit and then ⁓ two years for children's hospital. ⁓ wow. And ⁓ we changed up this year after ⁓ we saw we went down to the camp over the summer and saw what what was needed and completely ⁓ kind of blew us out of the water. Like it was Something real ⁓ inspi inspiration I guess to get on and see that and ⁓ see all the all the volunteers and and the campers there was eye opening for for all of us. We can't wait to go down and check it out. ⁓ for sure. And now ⁓ obviously the Bruins alumni they they've they've been great to us. Yep. Huge fans. ⁓ and and they're so great to work with, but No one knows that unless they work with them. Exactly. So share a little bit about how that you know, how they support. I've started again ten years ago, ⁓ when Rick Middleton was running it. Yep. And ⁓ now Frank Simonetti's running it and the guys are just absolutely incredible. Right from the the ⁓ Karen, the manager who runs it all the way down to the players and ⁓ they they always come in to and have a great time doing it, you know. We go across the street next door for the ⁓ The game afterwards and the ⁓ the party afterwards and they they all come over, sign autographs with kids and socialize and with the the younger ones, which is awesome. What what blows my mind because I I get to referee some of the game, referee in today's game, and the skill is just incredible ⁓ out there. Still t r I always I growing up as a kid, Reggie Lemelow was ⁓ favorite player. ⁓ okay. And I think he's seventy four, seventy-five. I I think still he's one of the best skaters. He just is Reggie and Mob, though I I like I love going. goalies and my daughter happens to be a goalie now, yeah, little emblem with the best. I have two boys at a goalies so I have five boys that play two of them goalies. So how many times you remortgage your house? That's not easy. I'm still I'm still on hand-me-down, so I'm doing all right. That's goodies. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. And so you played growing up? Yeah. Played ⁓ played in high school and then had to go off and go get a job. Did you win a P We B championship? I won't. Like Tom? No? I won nothing. Yeah, no, I I have a few trophies myself. I know Gino, you won few things. I got a couple things, yeah. Yeah. So there you go. now you as a as a hockey dad, you know, we talk about the sport, the culture. It's a great, you know, great culture. Yeah. And it's great sport, greatest sport on earth. But as a a parent, with because we're we're zebras. Yeah. What what thoughts on refereeing and have you ever been kicked out of one? No comment. I've been kicked out of one game. Really? As a as a coach, it was against the Islanders, ⁓ New England Stars versus the Islanders, and ⁓ I had a few choice words for the for the ref and he kindly asked me to leave. And yeah. It got around the Islanders organization pretty quick via text and yeah. Were you coaching for the Islanders? I was coaching for the Stars. ⁓ I was an assistant coach for the Stars, yeah. ⁓ no, one of my boys' teams and ⁓ okay. It was a little crazy, but I mean it I'll tell you, it is frustrating. Like, even like I run the referees and I'm out there watching ⁓ and I'm like, what the hell's going on in my own daughter's game? Right. And I'm like, but you have to expect that, right? It's you talkie, they're amateurs. And if like everyone's like, ⁓ how how can they how can they miss that? It's like, well, 'cause they're they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Like they're they're they're amateurs, they're Utah referees. And they're human, right? You're not gonna see everything. You don't have replay and you know, you're gonna miss an offsides and you gotta you gotta go into youth hockey knowing that, right? So you're the guy to blame? Yes. So I'm gonna I I feel all the phone calls and emails and everything else, yeah. The NHL guys miss shit that they shouldn't. In so how can we expect some 17-year-old kid that you know is just starting to do it? I gotta ask. Do you remember what you said to get you thrown? Cannot use those words. Yeah, you can. Especially on a Sunday. We didn't say anything. Don't worry about that. This is a non-religion. This is non-secular. This is the locker room. I think that's the right word. We're not gonna get canceled on TikTok, were I? I got kicked out of two games ⁓ when I coached for Ther Academy, ⁓ the JV Boys. I got kicked out of two games and never once did I swear. I didn't get personal. I might have told the guy he was dead wrong, but so Yeah, you don't have to say nasty things. You slid something in there, you must have. No, no, I didn't. Come on, what'd you say, Reg? I like that. So what i now d are you playing today? No. No. I gotta I can running around doing all the I don't have the pr the privilege of playing. Thanks for Is that that's the excuse you use? I can't play, I'm busy. Yeah, exactly. Is that what you're doing? One day of the year I get like twenty thousand steps in, so holy. Yeah, because this putting this together's gotta be a monumental task. We started in September. You started putting it together? Wow. ⁓ up until last night. ⁓ wow. How when did you text me about this event? Like couple like months ago. Yeah. Probably like yeah, probably around then. Yeah. Wow. We have a lot of meetings. ⁓ put the ⁓ the Irish cottage up in Methoan. We have to have a lot of meetings, at least. Once a week, you know, it's a but do those include like wild turkey and and Bud Lights and just Guinness. No, just Guinness and a lot of them. Yeah. Honey, I got another meeting. We're gonna go to a book club tonight, honey. This is your fifth one this week. I know we got a lot of details. We got a lot of details. This one's in Vegas. Yeah, it's for the kids. Yeah. But I like I texted Dan last night, I said, I'm in a meeting by myself at the Irish cottage. He says, I'm an ext. What are you waiting for? That's awesome. But there has to be, I mean, from the donations, obviously, ⁓ coordinating with the Bruins alumni, the rink, you know, all that goes into it. People don't realize that Yeah, there's a lot of ⁓ the corporate donations. ⁓ we was I'm very fortunate as of this morning, we have over eighty thousand dollars raised. Wow just in corporate donations. Wow. we're over five thousand dollars in tickets. So far, so that's amazing. We should be all sudden done should be over a hundred thousand dollars. That's awesome. That's the and like you said, I I don't think people realize how much goes into organizing these games. I've done two of ⁓ maybe like ten years ago. Like now I work with the Bruins alumni, but I didn't know what I was getting myself into and I was like twenty two. I don't think I could do that now at thirty four. But yeah, the Boston comedy all star team. Yeah. You put together and ⁓ that's how we met yeah, that's how we met. Yeah, and ⁓ and I beat the bag out of you in a fight. Yeah, well I did. I did. I did. This video of it. He had no chance at all. That video's been off the other thing. But no, th there is a lot going into it. Now, is this the only fundraising that ⁓ I mean you're involved with this, but yeah, is there any other fundraising you do year long for No, this is a good one. Awesome. Takes enough out of me. ⁓ I'm I'm sure. But that's ⁓ in the refereeing today. is gonna be ⁓ upgraded a little bit because I'll be out I'll be out there. So who are you with? ⁓ I'm with ⁓ Teflon Don, Donnie Garcia. Teflon Don and ⁓ Doug, the real goonsmith. Yep. All right. ⁓ they'll have the bands. I'll have my ⁓ Lini jersey on ⁓ from Von Rhode, former guest. And and I'll be out there. There'll be not one offside missed. 'Cause you don't call ⁓ It's the the referee, it's the two one one the referee calls. ⁓ Wait a minute. You think they get near the blue line? No. Come on. I work that neutral I work that neutral zone like Riley still thinks he's in the NHL. I d I actually do. I suck like that. Well, Colin, thanks for coming on. Thank you very for Thank you for what you do for this ⁓ this program. I mean, it's outstanding and thank you guys for for coming here. Yeah, no, we appreciate it. It's a great way to go check it out. Yeah, yeah. Colin Hennigan, everyone. Joining us now, Gary Bishop, the head coach of Bishop Girton, and ⁓ someone who has five hundred wins as a head coach. Gary, welcome to the Zebras. Yeah, thank you. It's great to be here. Now, how long have you been coaching? ⁓ I graduated from college in seventy one and I started coaching that s same fall, seventy one, seventy two. Wow. I can't do math. It's a long time. I mean Rick Gotkin just retired ⁓ last night. He did his thirty eight seasons at Mercy Hearst, yeah. That's a that's a shift. ⁓ yes, I I remember Coaching with Riff back at Hockey Night in Boston back in the day when he first started. No kidding. Yeah, and that and like I said, I've been coaching sin f you know, in fifty five years now. Wow. I was just gonna say I was born at sixty nine, so that's the only reason why I can do the math. Yeah. I hockey night in Boston, I mean like he ref hockey night. I I'm sure you've yelled at him a handful of times, but that I mean that was a I mean how fun were those days. ⁓ those were great day. Well they back in the day, you know, everybody went to Hockey Night in Boston. Right. That was amazing, right? So you had, you Brian Leach, Tony Amonte, those guys were all playing ⁓ Hockey Night in Boston. Well that it was scouted, not only for the players, but even for the refs. You could you know, yeah ⁓ some of the refs were kind of ⁓ scouted. You know, scouted out of there for high college, high school, you know. Well I think until Rooney Rooney started doing hockey night in Boston. Yep. And ⁓ I remember I refed him. When he played there. So that was that was interesting. A five was a two and a two was nothing. And I got the no, he got an assist on every goal. Every ⁓ and and well I don't know. ⁓ I'm a legend in that tournament 'cause I called a penalty on the ⁓ a holding penalty on the kid that played with one arm. ⁓ really? Yeah, true story. So ⁓ I've since made amends. He dragged him down. He said he always dragged people down. I was the only ref that had the ball. So it worked out. And he led the tournament in shorthanded goals. All right. he thinks that's funny. I've never done that bit on stage. I've probably done it on here too, but you never know. ⁓ so now ⁓ being the Zebras, your relationship as a coach with the referees. ⁓ Especially my father. Yeah. His father and I go way back. Good and bad. I was just on the phone with him and he goes, You gotta you gotta you gotta ask Gary if he remembers this one. He was like, you know, one of his players, one of your players is flying in the net, crashes the goalie, runs the goalie. My father calls five in game and you're like, Hey, you can't call that. We teach our kids to do that. Yeah, I d I do remember that well. He and I talked about that over the years. ⁓ that's all. He would skate by the bench and yell at me, Hey, Unibrow. And I and I'd be yelling, Newman. You guys know each other? No. It's unbelievable. ⁓ yeah. The the Panther back and forth. It was like it was relationships, right? Like it's like, yeah, it was fun. It was like it was all for show. People think you're yelling at each other and you ring. Locker room laughing and drinking apples. He used to tell me, he said, Boy, I wish my son could have played for you because you let them do whatever they want. I said, Well, they're let them hit. It's a physical game, which is kind of gone away. It's not whatever they wanted. You were teaching them. Teaching to hit, absolutely. Right. Just take them out of the play. What what are your thoughts on the change? The game has definitely changed. Yes. In a in a big way. Not only the physicality, ⁓ not only fighting at the pro level, ⁓ but like diving now is just out of control. Yes. ⁓ what's your thoughts? on the the kind of the evolution of the game from back in the day in the 70s and it's how it's changed over that course of the Back in the 70s it was it was more of a situational game. You know, people worried about two on ones, three on twos, how do we play this? We teach situations. They've gone to a skill f skill formula now, so it's all skill, skill, skill, skill, skill. So the kids nowadays shoot better, skate better, bigger, stronger, better nutrition. But they don't understand the game as well. Yeah, the hockey IQ I find has is gone down greatly. And those ones that have it ⁓ or understand it or get it or can learn it, ⁓ they seem to be the ones that obviously advance at the ⁓ yeah. You know. They they s they they stand out. ⁓ you know, w right away. From a young age, they stand out people. They know who they are. Yep. They're identified early. That's ⁓ you the college guys are now identifying ⁓ when they're fourteen and fifteen years old. Right. And and so what do you what do you find are the biggest qualities for like your y everyone has a favorite type of player. What's your favorite type of player? I want high IQ and physicality. You have to play physical in this game. Yeah. You know, you gotta tie people up. You gotta run into people. You don't have it you don't need to kill people. Right. But you gotta run into people all over the ice and that's that that part's out of the game now. So like now like even like culture times like the seventies, eighties, like dealing with parents and people then And dealing with the parents in like you're not even d dealing with parents, you're dealing with advisors, you're dealing with people's strength coaches, nutrition coaches, all sorts of stuff. ⁓ like how many crazy phone calls do you get from parents and and those type of people throughout ⁓ you get them regularly. I mean, you know, I I've had players that are barely division three players telling me they're gonna go to UNH or B U. Right. And they're taught that and told that from the get-go, you know, you go you do this, you go here, you're gonna do this. But as long as you get an advisor. Get yourself an advisor. Right. And I don't know what the advisors are doing for these kids, but they're giving them some wrong information. Absolutely. Yeah, I I agree. I mean even all the D one coaches are even saying that. They're like, the stuff that we have to deal with day in and day out that I didn't have to deal with before, it's obnoxious. ⁓ yeah. Well, it's the age of entitlement. Right. Everyone gets a trophy. Yeah. And they shouldn't. Or a plaque. Or a plaque. Yeah. Which You have to be special and win a P We B championship to get one of those. As we've seen here on the show already. now the w what w what just hit me as far as the change in the game, we always talk about this. So Massachusetts, I we used to that it was the hockey hub. We'd always fight with Minnesota. Now, this state has seemed to gotten away from You know, high school rivalry, playing for your town, having that, you know, pride in who you play for everyone plays for everyone, different things, this all over the place. Your cause when you started, it was all about high school hockey in Massachusetts, right? And you had teams that were public, private didn't matter. And now it's not like that. So your thoughts on that? Because it's just kind of frustrating to see as guys who grew up with that. Yeah. The change. No though that's one of the biggest differences in the game, though. Kids they don't stay home. Yeah. You know, they they'll go to a high school for a year or two and say, Okay, now ⁓ someone wants me to go play juniors, so I'm gonna go play in this junior program. Or I gonna go to a prep school, I'm gonna leave. So, you know, you get kids and those kids with a real good hockey IQ, they're leaving even earlier because someone wants them and someone offers ⁓ what they think is a better package. Right. But Minnesota doesn't do that. Minnesota has always had all their kids play four years of high school hockey and they've done it right for the past forty years. Right. Kids stay there, they stay in their high school, then they They go play juniors and then they go to college. Right. In New England, we've gotten away from that. We've you know we've expanded so many junior programs. ⁓ You know, we can't compete with the USHL kids, so they're they stay out here, and then if they don't make a certain team, someone makes another league. Right, right. It's d it's trickling down and the you know the numbers just aren't there to support it. And that's gotta be difficult for you as a coach dealing with that. Yeah, I mean I I'll have a real good player that'll come in as a freshman. Score 20 goals and then leave to go to what he thinks is a better spot and end up having to pay $70,000 to go to a prep school or $40,000 to play at a junior program. And then like you don't get like you don't build relationships, you don't build camaraderie, like hell, like on these, like we're we've been we play college together. We're still friends now, right? Like all his high school buddies we still like hang out with when we go, like every time I hang out with him, it's like all his high school buddies. Right? His his his class of two thousand, two thousand and one. He won two t state championships. But it's New Hampshire, it doesn't count. No, it doesn't count but those kids are all they're still friends. They still I've been to ⁓ I've been to a lot of their weddings. They're still the class of two thousand and one, they're the only one that sent me anything for my five hundredth win. No kidding. Wow. Wow. So those guys still ⁓ they're still a group, they still get together. And that that's gone away. That's too bad. Well it's it's like that in college now with the portal. Everyone's jumping. Like you you ⁓ I I we always ask people's o opinion about the portal. And how kids just go all over the place. And there's certain times, you know, like we had Timmy Lovell on. He he transferred, but that was back before that happened and not many people transferred. And they transferred for a usually a legitimate reason. Yeah. ⁓ now it's just I'm on a conservative. I'm on the third line, I'm not happy, I'm gonna jump in the portal. Right. And see if someone takes me. Yep. And that's the other part of it though. They don't they don't always can take. Right. But yeah. And and i college athletes getting paid. ⁓ yeah. I mean that's that that that throws the curveball in the whole thing. Yeah. 'Cause now, you know, you've got the big ten schools who have the money and who have the endowments. Yep. You know, then you come out the east, they don't they don't have anything like Michigan can offer. Right. Or Penn State can offer. You know. Now I mean the job security for these coaches now with the D one level is tough too, right? It's like what what what did you do for me yesterday, right? Like and they're they're getting can left and right too. It's unbelievable. ⁓ yeah. There's more pressure on ⁓ It's not what it used to be. No, not at all. You know, like you said, you're not playing for the school anymore, you're playing for yourself. Right. Now, five hundred wins, super impressive. Did you ever have seasons where things didn't go well? And how'd you handle that as a coach? I've been here thirty five years. I think we've had two seasons that didn't go well. Wow. Most of them, you know, in the Sixty percent win category. So we've had some pretty good success there. We've had some great kids come through the year. Dan Conley over there, you know, along with his group that won two state championship. We had two more in the two thousand, two tho ⁓ two thousand eight, which had a great group of kids. Well, I suppose it's we haven't had a lot of bad years. With five hundred wins. It's kind of a dumb question. Yes. How many times did you suck? None. You have five hundred wins. now i it it What you you went right into coaching. Yes. And and from playing. Yes. Did you know that was the route you were gonna take? No, that gentleman sitting over there, Bill Riley, I played for. Okay. In my senior year, I was I was all set to go in the ⁓ Navy Officer Candidate School and he said, You wanna coach? And you got me a contact on Lehigh University where I was able to go to grad school, start my coaching career down there. It was a great deal. They Paid my tuition, gave me a little bit of money. And then and then left there and came up to Austin Prep for about six years. And then Coach Riley called and said, Hey, you wanna come over here to Lowell? I'm on. Wow. That's it it's a cool journey. Yeah, ⁓ yeah, it was great. And then I you I left when we left Lowell, I came over here and I've been here for thirty five years. That's amazing. Good shift. Yeah. Yeah. It's been done. Now, ⁓ this game here today with the Bruins alumni. you're here obviously to support the program of Exceptional Citizens Week. Absolutely. Yeah. And and what you're I mean, the program is amazing. And ⁓ Colin's amazing that, you know, puts this game together. Have you been involved with this over the years? ⁓ yeah, I've been involved with Danny Conley who's quite involved with it. He and Colin have no, I know he's quite involved with this setup and they've done a great job here in his program that he's been he's been doing it since he's been in high school. What what's it, camp? exceptional since exceptional. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He and they just he's done a great job with it. Even in high school he started doing this. It's awesome. Did you get a plaque for the 500 wins? Yes. The school was really good. ⁓ good. I just want to make sure. We're showing off plaques today. They actually gave me two of them. Did they? Two plaques? Yeah, and then they had a little ⁓ get together down at Epigram to right down the street, a little brewery, and we had about what a couple hundred people there. That's awesome. That's the way it should be. As the way it should be. Not many people get to 500 wins. So that's impressive. You know? I mean real impressive. It's been fun. Yeah. You know, doing it for fifty-five years. That's that's amazing. Still going. Yeah. Yeah. Now do you have any plans to retire? ⁓ it's it's getting close. I don't know. Don't take that even though. That's a that's a I'm not telling the high school right now on camera. You're you're on the team for now. No, that's awesome. Well, Gary, thank you for joining us. Yeah, and ⁓ 500 wins and an incredible, that's an incredible shift, as Gino said. And you got Mickey Ward coming up here who used to come and give our kids little speeches, which has helped some of our teams out a lot. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. He's he's come up and given speeches to Danny's team. Our 2016 team, we showed one of his fights. ⁓ wow, cool. And he walked in the door and every kid went, there he is. That's awesome. ⁓ That's awesome. I love it. And you just teased ⁓ a upcoming guest, which was kind of cool. I didn't even have to. Look at that. Another win. You're that good, Gary. That's awesome. Gary Bishop, everyone, and ⁓ thanks for joining us on the Zebras. Thank you. Joining us now, Bill Riley, the former coach of UMass Lowell. And and we're not related, but I think we ⁓ we want to be. Sure, yeah. Now, ⁓ you had a great run at Lowell. three national championships and then you took him D one. I mean, what was that like? Yeah, that was that was a lot of fun, of course. it was it was very ⁓ political actually. I had some teams that w welcomed me to come in and a few of the ⁓ competitive teams that that were trying to keep me out. So ⁓ it was ⁓ it was I won't name the names but ⁓ I I had a lot of support from like teams like St. Lawrence and Clarkson that were in Hockey East at the time. Okay. And they were they were in favor. Cause when I was when I was in Division Two, Colton, I was refereeing in Division One. So I had a lot of friends that were in hockey that supported me. And some of the teams that were in Hockey East that I had success with, didn't want me coming into the league. And so anyway, ⁓ it prevailed that you know, s we got into the league and ⁓ we're very successful and I'm glad that ⁓ we're all friends again and things are working well. Right. Back in the day everybody coached, played in ref, like Joe Batania did it, you know, everybody. And and it's funny how it's like the ref coach thing now. It's like nowadays it's like I either do one or the other, right? Right, right. Then when I when I got out, ⁓ my father was the ⁓ commissioner of the old New England League. That was you know, Manchester, ⁓ you know, Lowell, ⁓ and so anyway, ⁓ I'd referee in those games and that that was a lot of fun. Yeah. You know, I was I'd have it was one referee and two linesmen and and ⁓ and of course I played in those that that that league at the same time, you know, prior to refereeing and it was it was a physical game, it was a lot of fun. lot of lo lot of ⁓ guys from other other leagues, a lot of local kids, ⁓ like you know, down in a lot of the lot of the kids working in the factories and stuff like that come down from Montreal and would would be working and playing. And it was ⁓ it was it was ⁓ lot of lot of fighting, a lot of physicality on it's too bad the league, you know, the Bruins got so successful that everybody stayed home and watched the Bruins on TV. Nobody came out and watched the ⁓ college the old New Wheeling League, yeah. Right. Now, what's your feeling on the game today? I mean, it's fast, we got a lot of speed and skill compared to when when you were coaching. ⁓ well the thing the thing that ⁓ impresses me is that everybody across the board can all skate. I mean, they all fly. I mean everybody goes to power skating schools now. and I I assume everybody is like, you know, ha has a a weight coach that you know, if they're not if they're not training, you know, at the high school at home or if they're not, you know, at a prep school, ⁓ you know, they they they're working at places ⁓ where there's ⁓ places like at B U and B C and some of the colleges, you know, have have ⁓ s some of some of the leagues where you learn how to s how to how to stretch, how to develop and how to, you know, take care of yourself physically. So everybody's in great shape. ⁓ the thing that that the the ⁓ baffles me is the I I miss the fact that the Russians are not back here playing hockey again. Because, you know, North American hockey is like north south, north south. And the and the Russian team would go east west, east west, then they go north south. ⁓ so I now I watch the game. I I went to the Bruins game the ⁓ the other day and ⁓ i I saw literally I saw two two checks. Two checks on the whole game. Actually I only watched two periods. Check full disclosure. I went to I went to ⁓ look for a friend of mine. I went to high school with it's that's an usher. He's retired, he's a little bit older than I am, and I I spend a lot of time, you know, socializing with him. Yeah. But ⁓ the game isn't isn't what I remember. ⁓ It isn't the way I wound up coaching in t terms of You know, playing the way the Russians played. Which we miss and is I welcome them back ⁓ so we can get back to ⁓ the European style of hockey. So so basically, you know, you're going east, east, west, you know, you circle and you circle and then all of a sudden you send a guy going a hundred miles an hour and you you give him the puck and he's he's gone. But you gotta inter you gotta go in the zone with two men. Two men working on one. You know, I I come down on the on the defenseman, I go like once I step like this And that defenseman steps on his foot. Once he puts the weight on that foot, you make a short little pass, and the other guy's gone. Yep. so it's it's it's it's gone to an all speed with no finesse. Now, as a coach and a ref, because we both now Geno coaches his daughter, I coached a long time and ref. As a coach dealing with referees, how how is that? Because I used to get frustrated to do you know, with what I saw, Gino, it's only a matter of time before he gets thrown out. so what was that like? 'Cause that's a dynamic that kinda is tough 'cause you know what's right and wrong. Well, you know, ⁓ in terms of like f in when I was in the New England League, which is a step, you know, ab above say c say college hockey at the time, ⁓ so I played for Lowell in the Lowell Chiefs in the New England League. And then I gravitated to once I I broke my eye and did a I had a double compound fracture in college. But then I came back to play in the New England League. ⁓ but then I had a just a little hip check which was in practice, which cracked the bone again. I had to you know give up the playing the game and get into referee and ⁓ so in playing playing the game I knew most of the players And they also knew my Yomere was the commissioner of the league. Right. So you know, I I'd talk to the two linesmen and I'd say, ⁓ you know, I'm sick and tired of these guys complaining and everything else. You know, I'm telling you what, you know what, I'm not gonna call a penalty this period. I'm gonna I'm not going the whole I'm going the whole the whole period 'cause I'm not calling a penalty. And then they'll so they would be complaining for the first period, then the second period they wouldn't complain anymore. And then the third period they'd play hockey. They w they stopped trying to kill one another. Right. 'Cause I was trying to teach ⁓ a lesson. Yeah, yeah. You know, they're not they weren't playing hockey in the first period. They're trying to kill one another. S so I'm trying to bring ⁓ back to you know, to the si the the s silent ⁓ you know, educator. Yeah. So by the third period they just they play the game. I wish coaches picked up on that because like when we're laying the hammer, we're laying the hammer for a reason. Well I'm I don't just want to go out and call fucking penalties, right? Like I wanna I wanna go ref the game. So if I have to call penalties, I'm refing game. Like that's what the game calls at that time. So like Don't get mad at me because your players want to be idiots. Right, right, right, right. And then, you know, the coach has to work with you instead of against you sometimes. And I think that's where ⁓ we'd we'd be having Sunday dinner at my father's house and ⁓ all of a sudden the phone would ring and my father would take the phone and ⁓ it'd be somebody complaining, you know, they don't want a certain referee ever again. Yep. So my father would say, I told you, don't call me. I decide who plays and who who who reps and who doesn't. So then he'd he'd say, Hey, you gotta wait another five minutes. He'd then make some calls, make sure that the referee that wasn't required or or the referee they didn't want to see next week was in the next he was gonna see him again. So you know, he'd have to teach him lessons. Yeah. It's not gonna do you any good to complain about 'cause I'll make the decisions. Nowadays it's complete opposite. It's too bad. It's horrible. It's like, ⁓ let's avoid the conflict, let's let's keep the peace. It's like fuck that. L like go through controversy, have that friction, it's hockey. What are we doing? Send the guy right back the next week. Even though it wasn't assigned to the game. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. One thing that's changing college is where the players are come from. And so when you were coaching back in the day, most of the kids, like I played at Curry, the international kids were one from Maine and three from Connecticut. That was the international team, you know, kids. Now they come from all over the world. Right. ⁓ so ⁓ did you get you know, in was that their Towards the end with guys coming over from all over? Well, ⁓ yes, I I mean I I used to go into Minnesota and I'd I'd scout Ms Minnesota. I didn't have the budget everybody else had, you know, but I would I w I had a lot of kids when I went to B U a lot of my lot of my ⁓ teammates were playing ⁓ coaching at different schools. So, ⁓ in particular, Dick Toomey, who was a local kid from Newton, ⁓ he was the coach at ⁓ at ⁓ at ⁓ ⁓ in ⁓ i in ⁓ in ⁓ in the Ivy League at Brown University. So I would go to pro I'd go to ⁓ Minnesota, you know, with him and I would s I would stay at his hotel, I'd be in his car and I'd pay for the phone. ⁓ 'cause that's he got the hotel for nothing. Because the guy that owned the hotel was a Brown graduate. So it was a very affordable trip. And I'd get a I got I'd get a couple of ⁓ in in Minnesota it's ⁓ Nordic, Nautic Nordic people, you know. And I had a couple of guys from Finland. ⁓ actually over over the time I had three different kids from Finland. ⁓ wow. And ⁓ you know they they they were they were good players of course, you know. Shelly Francisco or Shirley Brown. Turn this off. Yeah, no, no worries. We we ⁓ it's a fine. It's a twenty dollar fine for your law. The phone going off in the locker room. Just saying. Well, Bill Riley, thank you for joining us on the Zebras and ⁓ we appreciate ⁓ you coming on and all you've done for college hockey. Joining us now, ⁓ a boxing legend here in Massachusetts, Irish Mickey Ward. Mickey, welcome to the Zebras. Thank you guys, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on. Thanks. It's great great to have you. ⁓ now you've inspired so many kids in in especially in Lowell but also all around. Massachusetts and and the country. ⁓ what's that like to be kinda like that icon? I don't know. I d I really don't look at myself like that. People people say that, but me personally I don't I just did what I did 'cause I love the sport and ⁓ you know, the aspect of it and stuff. I just love the condition and the f and you know, fighting I didn't you know I never liked fighting when I first started but and I didn't let you never like fighting but It's it's your job, so I had to do it. Right. And I had to mind it, you know what I mean? I just I just grew into it. Yep. And and you know, and it ended up being what it ended up being, but ⁓ I never expected to go like to where I went. Well you had a movie made about you. Mhm. What what was your thoughts on the movie as far as like 'cause ⁓ a good friend of ours, Dougie Smith, ⁓ which the goon is is you know, ⁓ about his life wasn't really that accurate from Who Dougie is. You know? But I think the fight I mean it was a great movie. Yeah, ⁓ it was pretty close. ⁓ you know, it it's it's funny because ⁓ you know, like Dickie's Pot. It w you know, ⁓ Christian Bale played Dicky Great and and when we went out into LA it was f the funny story is when we went out to LA like two weeks before, like about two months before it came out, it was like they do like a dry run. We went out and then Christian was jumping out of the second floor. Dicky's looking at it like he's looking at he didn't do it. So Mark hits me like this, he goes, Look at your brother. So Dicky's looking at it going like Christian Bill's jumping out, you know, they knocking the door, the police. Dicky jumps out of the window in the back, so Dicky's looking at it like he didn't do it. So Chr so Mark hits me, you know, like I said. So the movie gets over and we go over to Dickie, me, Christian and ⁓ Mark and go, Dickie, if that part where you were jumping out of the window didn't happen, we could take it out. Cause we don't want it to be like, you know, something that wasn't. He goes, Yeah I did it. He goes, But I went out the third floor, not the second. Mark look Mark looked at me and goes, ⁓ hey go but that's possible. We'll keep it a separate. So but it w it was just great being a part of it. ⁓ you know, meeting Christian, great guy, ⁓ Mark. I've I've been friends with Mark for a long time and ⁓ you know, all all the other s actors and stuff, it was like really n just great to be able to ⁓ see what they do for you know, like how the how everything is and it's run and it was really ⁓ it was pretty ⁓ pretty nice to be able to be part of that. Yeah. Now ⁓ that fight you had with Gaudi, what was that like being in that fight? That was just incredible. Fight of year. Yeah. Yeah. It it was tough, ⁓ it was real tough. But that's where you train for, that's where you from even when I was a small kid. I wasn't always the f the fastest kid or the strongest, but I I ⁓ I always lasted. I always had that conditioning. 'Cause fatigue makes colour of all men. I don't care how good you are, how whatever, even on s hockey, if you're not in condition, a less guy that can is in better condition is gonna fly by you or whatever. You what I mean? Yeah, tied up into the dirt. Conditioning is I think once you get to a certain level in sports there's conditioning is like a key to like obviously you gotta know what your game plan and different things. But I think he conditioned if you can't like I said fatigue makes coward of all men and ⁓ I was always like in shape, so that's what I think. And I and I could tell f I when I realized I could take a punch, I was like, I might as well just go forward instead of running around. So it wasn't stupid, it wasn't smart, but that was the way I fought. Yeah. 'Cause I was in such good shape and I had a good chin, so I just kept going forward and I didn't mind getting hit. I didn't like it, but I didn't mind it. That don't sound good, but Yeah, it's funny 'cause ⁓ do you do you know Danny O'Connor? Yeah. Yeah. I trained Danny a little bit. ⁓ you did? Yeah. He ⁓ he he always would tell me like he was like, I don't like hurting people. I don't like punching ⁓ but I'm good at it. ⁓ I I wanted to hurt him when I hit him, bleed me. But ⁓ c when I was in there, when I come out of there and no. But when I went in there, I definitely wanna hurt him. Not to a point you wanna hurt him, like no. But it's just like even my brother Dickie, I spawned him. I used to spawn him and I used to k I knocked him down one time. Cause I he's hitting me hard and he and I was getting it was a get back from other when I was a kid. Yeah, right. When I got in there I said, how about this? I'm gonna take an easy one, right? When had a chance, bang I hit him. I w I would never I would never h hurt him or I would never like Yeah. No, but I got ⁓ back. Well you wanted to win. But I got ⁓ back. Yeah, yeah. Now whereas Zebras, gotta ask about boxing referees. What's the interaction as a boxer with the referee? it's funny because they changed so much. I different organizations, I have different refs and but in the amateur level it's you know, you you got local guys and stuff, but it's funny because the refs they ⁓ Sometimes you got a good ref that will let you fight. And it's a guy that refs that to too much on you. They don't give you a chance to fight. ⁓ you know they break, they smack you in the back. I remember a guy when I was a kid. I was like eight years old fighting. My first fight was seven. I was fighting like eight years old and ⁓ he smacked me in the back so hard, right? I wanna I that hurt worse than any punch I got hit with. I was like, I look back at him like, what are you doing that for? you know. The guys were 'cause he was an old time fight, ⁓ gotta break it up. You know? And but those are old time referees back in the se late seventies, like middle seventies and late seventies, yeah. But now it's all different. The referees but they sometimes like I said, they get in your way. Some are good, some are bad. Yeah. Not bad, but I mean not as good as others. Now i did you get to know them? Or were they switched so much like were they different every fight? Yeah, I get to know ⁓ I I actually 'Cause I started fighting in Linux City. I got lucky and I started fighting here when I was eighteen nineteen, almost twenty. And ⁓ so I got to know all the ESPN and stuff like that, so I got to know all the referees down there and they got to know me and so it was I even I still stay in touch with a couple of them now. It's good but it like even when you're fighting with it's way down the middle, you know, you don't get no like they don't go on your side or his side. They try to be right st you know. And there's and there's referees that let you fight and like I said and don't let you fight, so Yeah. Frank Cappuccino, the guy the the Italian guy there, he is a p ⁓ Hall of Fame referees. When he refereed me in Toro Gaddi's first fight. And they say, why'd he let the fight go? Like there's so many times. You could've I could have s in the ninth round when they I was hurting him. They could have stopped it, but if if he stopped it, then the trilogy wouldn't have happened, you know. So it's crazy how things happen. You know what I mean? And and then Toro came back in the tenth round and it was like a c 50 50 fight, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So if he stopped it, it wouldn't be the trilogy. And then if he let it and if he he let it go, which he did, and it became what it became. I I think one of the Best boxing trilogies, I think, in the history of boxing, no? I mean I mean there's others, obviously, but now who is who is a fighter that you kind of grew up idolizing? Like we all had hockey players, who was your boxer that you looked up to? I don't know. I mean, like I said, I played all sports younger. I played f everything. So I love baseball and football more than ⁓ boxing when I was younger, because that's what I played more. You I tried hockey, right? And I like while I was skating on my ankles, I was like on the pawn pawn hockey. Yeah, yeah. Right. And I'm up skating like this and eight and I'm I'd fly like a son of a bitch, right? But I didn't know how to stop, I just killed everybody or whatever. Then I learned how to stop and and I love hockey, but it was the same time as boxing and 'cause winter. Yeah. So I know I didn't really play hockey, but I liked it. Yeah. Yeah. Well awesome. Well Mickey Ward, thanks for stopping in. Thanks, guys. We'll definitely have to have you on for a full episode. You deserve a full episode for sure. Because you're a legend. And I mean that. Seriously. Thank you. Mickey Ward, everyone. Well, that was great, boys, wasn't it? I mean, some ⁓ some really cool people. Some some really cool cool people, a good cause in we've already told people where we're at. They're off the f Douggy Schmidt over here yelling in the middle of our outro. One of our favorite former guests. Douggy Smith. Let's bring him in for the outro. The real goon. Douggy, come on in. He doesn't have a microphone, which is good. We don't we don't need to listen to him anyway. ⁓ And by the way, by the way, you bust my balls more than anyone. I have one of these brand new lace hoodies for you in the car, and I know you'll believe it when I give it to you. You get one today. Listen, I was your Fifth or sixth guest on the show. Yeah. You were struggling mightily. You were. You dug deep down and asked me to help jump start your ridiculous podcasting start, right? Look at us now. Yeah, you've been promising me swag for how many years has the show been on? Two? At least. That's a nice scally. You got the scally, I guess you got the scaly. Wait a minute, I hooked you up with ⁓ quarter zip. It's not my fault you're a double XL, you know? Get off your budget. Let's go. Buy yourself. Gotta talk to his dad. We've been waiting almost as long as you told me I was gonna get a Doug Glad jersey from you. Right. Next year. Yeah, there you go. Well, you're here to referee you've refereed this game in the past, and ⁓ pretty cool that they play with th this year for the Exceptional Citizens Week. What a great cause. No, it's it's a fantastic organization that they have together here, and obviously you guys are involved in it, which is huge. This obviously we choke, but every little bit helps, right? And you guys pub you know being publicizing it and and doing what you're doing. ⁓ and Colin who runs it for them. Yeah. He's a great guy. And ⁓ yeah, it's a it's a fantastic day. I know. We di and and Colin was on. He was one of our guests and ⁓ so he was great. And so we're really happy to be here and ⁓ in Tingsboro. Lord's area. What do you want from me? That's what I do with Winchington and Winchester. There you Good luck repping with him T because he's not on. ⁓ he's a linesman, actually he's not a right. I'm just a linesman. I'm just a linesman. That's I'm happy being a linesman. No pressure. There's no pressure. I'm just a camera guy. And I actually get to skate. God knows you two don't. I'm good at leaning on the boards. You are very good at that. You are. Yep. And you look fantastic out there. Well that's gonna do it for this episode of Chirp and Zebras coming to you from Skate 3 in Kingsboro. ⁓ I want to thank our sponsors, the referees Creese, the one-stop shop for all your referee needs, and Damon Financial Services and also AOA Studios. Go see them up in Beverly. They're the best. ⁓ also wanna remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube, please. Like and subscribe on YouTube, ⁓ although we're doing pretty good there. And ⁓ find us on the social medias, the Facebook, the Instagram, and of course, the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. ⁓ and make sure you visit chirpingzeebras.com to get your merch, to get your ⁓ lace hoodies that Douggy Smith is gonna get one today. And we're gonna we're gonna get it on video so he can't ⁓ bust my balls anymore ⁓ when he goes and sells it at Savers. And ⁓ and that's gonna do it. You don't sell it too if you give ⁓ away. Giveaway. You don't have to. Mark that donate. I don't know. I don't know the store. I don't know the store. ⁓ I don't know. So ⁓ jeans look like they came from. Budget no, these are ⁓ these are Marshall specials. From high school. I am a fashionista, baby, and you know it. ⁓ all right, that's gonna do it for chirping zebras. I'm Mark Riley for Geno Binder Jr., Josh Dolan, and Doug the real goon smith. We'll see you next time right here on The Chirping Zebras.