Latest / Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman / Bruce Bottorff: Protecting Kids. Brain Trauma, Flag Football & the Future of Youth Sports

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Bruce Bottorff: Protecting Kids. Brain Trauma, Flag Football & the Future of Youth Sports · Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken Brains with your host, Bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Mack Parkman Foundation, where we look at the issue of repetitive brain trauma and what this issue, this condition is doing to the brains of our athletes, military, and kids in the form of repetitive head impacts for our athletes and repetitive blast exposure for our veterans.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And why this is so important for you to understand as a parent, a loved one, or a medical professional, because this is not trained in our medical population.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yet it's the largest exposure and cause of mental illness on our children and veterans in this country.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have to do a better job.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So on the show, we bring in all kinds of experts and researchers and patients and doctors and authors and folks that are out there leading the cause, like our gentleman today and his guest, so that you are informed and you can make decisions you need to protect those you love.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today on our show, another outstanding guest here, someone a good friend of mine, Bruce Botteroff, who's the board chair of the Manatee Police Activity League.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Bruce was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, and has been a lifelong advocate for youth development through sports and mentorship.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: A former Yale University football player, Bruce began playing tackle football at just nine years old, a passion that shaped his understanding of teamwork, discipline, and leadership.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: For more than nine years now, Bruce has served as the board chair of the Manatee Police Athletic League, PAL, where he continues to drive initiatives that promote safety, education, and community engagement for local youth.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Under his leadership, Manatee Police Activity League has transitioned his traditional full contact football program to NFL flag football, reflecting his strong commitment to player safety and evidence-based youth athletics.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: A firm believer in the growing body of research highlighting the risk of repetitive ed impacts in children, Bruce advocates for delaying participation in full contact sports till age 14.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: His mission is to ensure that young athletes can build skills, confidence, and lifelong fitness habits without compromising their long-term health.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bruce, welcome to the show, You Warrior You.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Bruce.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of nice things you said there.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for giving them to us.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just an average Joe, so who uh who loves sports and believes that uh, you know, sports can cure a lot of things in this country.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of things that we currently have now going on between the political divide and all the other BS.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, most of us, you know, we want to live our lives and we wanted to enjoy it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh through sports, we we have a lot of fun.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and what's uh what's amazing is you know your story.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you actually I mean you've played the sport.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about I mean, you started playing at nine.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Was there even like a Pop Warner back then?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, you're my age.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't know you could play football at nine years old back then.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, back then, uh back in the early 70s, um uh in in Sarasota where I grew up, we had what we called Ringling Redskins.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it was pretty much if you wanted to play good football, that's where you went and played good tackle football was ringling redskins.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Flag football at the time uh wasn't wasn't very popular, and uh, but certainly tackle football was.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And for ringling redskins uh there in Sarasota, um you had two basically divisions.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: You had a Braves division, which was nine to eleven years old, and then you had the Warriors division, which was 12 and 13-year-olds.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And at that, at that time, the league uh it was weight-based.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh 9 to 11-year-olds had, if I remember correctly, a weight of about 106 pounds was maximum weight.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you actually weighed in on Saturday mornings before the game every Saturday.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you didn't make weight, you didn't put the pads on and play.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so and then in the the Warriors division, 12 and 13-year-olds, uh, that weight was about 130, 135 pounds.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you, Bruce, I got a lot of my grit and hard work because as a nine-year-old, uh, I back then I was called husky.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they didn't have kids that were obese.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was your big boy, you're husky.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: You remember those words?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Husky.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had to buy husky.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had to buy husky shorts for my boy before he started sprouting, man.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I hear you.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So at nine, I had no problem uh making the 106-pound weight.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: But 10 and 11, uh, me and another young man that I uh that I played football with, uh, we pretty much ran before practice and active practice every day and tried to you had to shed about 15 to 20 pounds every year just to make the weight.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Wow like wrestling.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Just like wrestling.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um we didn't put the bags over us, uh, it was too doggone hot out there running around.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I was lucky and I was able to play for um uh the division uh the team I played for was coached by all police officers.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's where I really got my first involvement with any type of uh police athletic league, even though this was not hosted, this this group, the Raming Redskins, wasn't hosted by by the uh police athletic league, but uh my team specifically was coached by all police officers.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because I think my grandfather uh uh was a policeman in the uh in Sarasota for and retired policeman uh for 30 some odd years.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um the police officers knew who I was and said, yeah, we want him on our team.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're gonna put him on, we're gonna put him on the offensive line, you know, and defensive line.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, being husky at the time, I uh yeah, I played offense and defense and loved it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh, you know, back then in the 70s, you know, we we never had any issue or we didn't think about concussions, we didn't think about anything.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: It just was uh, hey, when you got a good pop on it, we we just just said, Oh, you got your bell rung.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you stand up there and you're like, whoa, okay, what the heck's going on here?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, you just got your bell rung.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Shake it off and you know, take a couple of seconds and let's go.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get back in here and let's do it again.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh, but now that uh you know, Reeling Redskins, it's still there.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the site is still there, but now there's so many, so many youth sports organizations around between Sarasota and Manatee County.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's uh they're they're all over the place.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: So where it was just one central area when I grew up, we had we had great athletes.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're playing, you're you're playing with really good athletes.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh most of the people that came through that organization went in through and played high school, and a lot of us played college ball.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, and so you were involved with police even uh way back then.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's amazing what uh I just know here in in Florida, the police are so involved with youth, like these sheriff's houses where they take disadvantaged kids and they give them a loving home until they can get in the military or something.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, our our our police here are absolutely dedicated to our kids, and it's uh it's a real amazing and it's really heartwarming to see, you know, um, you know, the effort that they put in there.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: They are very they they are fantastic.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and our current uh chair from Manatee County, uh Ricky Wells, does a fantastic job.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: He supports us tremendously at uh the police athletic league, Manatee PAL, we call it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's a huge supporter of ours, and uh he sub he supplies us with deputies.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have two full-time deputies and one full-time civilian uh from the sheriff's office.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Ricky Wells, uh the Sheriff Wells provides us with those three uh individuals to help support programs that uh that our group sponsors, and uh it's fantastic.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And in him along with uh Colonel Pat Casella, those two individuals, we couldn't do it without him.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh that that that's amazing the dedication.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So these are full-time employees that are dedicated to the youth of Manatee County.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, in uh in all of our sports, whether it's whether it's basketball, whether it's football, whether it's baseball, those are our three main sports right now that we that we have.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, like you said earlier at the beginning of the podcast, uh we no longer through Manatee PAL have contact tackle football.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have flag football.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've had it for coming up on two years now, and we're associated with the NFL Flag League.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um we're we're getting off the ground, it's it's moving forward.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a little struggle, you know, like anything else, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've had tackle football at PAL, uh started at um uh 8U, 10U, 12U, and 14U.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we had those divisions.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And 8U was, you know, seven and eight-year-olds.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh 10U is nine and 10-year-olds, and 12U, obviously 11 and 12, and 14 is 13, 14.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, we've had we've had that going since you know the late 90s.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So for us as an organization to pivot like we did and decide that with the data, and and again, I'm not a I'm not a scientist, I'm an engineer.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm an electrical engineer out of school, and right now I I do all disciplines.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: I do electrical, mechanical, and structural engineering for the work that I do, and I'm certified in all three.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's uh, you know, I'm far from a scientist.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm I'm right there in the weeds, I'm where the rubber meets the road.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And as the data has come out and it's shown us that, you know, uh repetitive head trauma um to our young kids is just not good for us.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not good for them.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um while we may not see the impacts of that uh immediately um over time, the data shows that you know it could be in some kids you could see that immediate, some kids you could see it two years later, some kids you see it five years later, some kids you see it 15 years later.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and for us as an organization to promote sports and promote the um uh the advantages of sport and what it does for our community and what it brings to our kids uh in their development and not only athletically, but in in their development academically and how they um basically um communicate with one another.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's one thing to communicate in a sports environment, it's another it's another thing to communicate whether you're in a school or you're just out at a uh of a civic event, et cetera.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's important uh for these kids to know that we've got their back and that um you know, with looking at this data, we felt that it's not our position for us to support contact football for kids that are younger than 14 years old, plain and simple.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Bruce, that's an amazing I mean uh what what you're talking about right now is is evidence-based approaches to decision making, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that and and when it comes down to sports, and it doesn't matter pick your sports, you know, we we are emotional, you know, in some way.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, football's a religion.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we got it, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's it's it's uh it's where it's it's it's coming out.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um talk to us about the data.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're I mean, I know that you and I had talked early on, and um, you know, and I I just you know, you know, that introduced you to some of the studies out there.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um was there other you know, you know, research that you did, studies out there that kind of uh led you to make this decision as uh as the president of the PAL?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, appreciate that.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So uh besides the data that was brought to our attention through your organization, the Matt uh Parkman Foundation, which is fantastic.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um besides that, um there's a plethora, and I say hate to use that word, you know, a lot of us, you know, but there's a great deal amount, but there's a plethora of information.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there's a lot of information that's out there and available.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's just it's just whether or not uh you want to believe it.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um, again, I'm an engineer, so you know, as not a scientist, but you know, as an engineer, I look at data every day.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And data doesn't lie.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, certainly you can, you know, there's people say, well, you can manipulate data, you can do this, you can kind of sure you can.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you need to make sure that you do your research and you look through and you look at it and say, listen, this makes sense.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, here's what we're seeing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: All the the the fundamental pieces of what certain kids are going through, what, you know, um, and I hate to I hate to use this word, but post-mortem, certain things that they've shown for those that, you know, haven't made it, that we, you know, the kids that we've lost, the young men that we've lost, the young women that we've lost, the young people that we've lost, um, and the ability for us to go in uh after that fact and do some more studies and the technology that's available to us.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Shoot, we didn't have this technology 35 years ago, Bruce, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I made it a I made an example um last time you and I were talking, was it's kind of like seat belts.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: You and I grew up, what the hell is a seatbelt?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's in a car.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: We know what the what's it what is it here for, you know?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: What the hell do I need it?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, exactly.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know, again, right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um data comes out, more and more data comes out, and it shows that, hey, seat belts save lives.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So guess what?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a time that any one of us get in the car and it's just a habit.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: We take put the seatbelt on.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, everybody got their seatbelt on, okay.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's ultimately that's where this is gonna go.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it it it it it has no choice.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, data is data.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I love football.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: My son's 14, just started playing tackle football.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I try to tell him that you know, football, tackle football is not flag football.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Football is a controlled, violent sport.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to be a good football player, you have to play violent.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's plain and simple, but it's controlled aggression, controlled violence, and I don't use that word in in a derogatory sense, but that's just what it is.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's physical, it's demanding, and like any, you know, in that type of sport, if you want to be good at it, you better be ready to be violent.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and with that, you know, there's there's uh there's you know repercussions, there's you know, injuries that happen and things of that nature.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: We look and we watch the NFL.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um they actually have every game, they have a group of people that are watching every player that's out on that field.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't see something right, they they call down and that individual player is pulled off the field regardless if they want to or not.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the NFL is there to make money, and let's be honest, right?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if they have a product and it's making money, it for them to pull that product off the field, you know it's you know it's important.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And my grandfather, who is a smart man, I love him to death, god rest his soul.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's looking down on us, but he told me something a long time ago that I that I take near and dear.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to follow the truth, follow the money.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Plain and simple.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And sorry, Bruce, go ahead.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, you keep going, keep going.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So so with that, you know, I look at, okay, NFL.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're doing it, they they understand the importance, and these are grown men.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now we've got you know kids, and we all know kids, you know, kids want to be out there, they want to show you know, mom and dad or grandma and grandpa or their buddies how tough they are, et cetera, et cetera.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and sometimes they just don't know when they're gonna when to stop.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to be there.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have to be the stewards to help them and prepare them and protect them.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not saying we're gonna coddle them this and that, et cetera.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: All we're doing is saying, hey, you know what?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're just a little too young to get out there and bang heads.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: You can still be athletic, you can still get out there and you can still play your flag football, you can still play your soccer, you're not gonna head, you know, you're not going to, you know, head a ball, that's gonna be illegal, you know, all these different things that were, these rules that were coming up are here to protect our kids.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then when it's time, when we're developed, when we're at the age of, you know, on average 14, some could be 16, some could be 12, you know, but an average age of 14, right now that's what the data says.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe in 10 years, the data says no, it's 16.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a firm believer, Bruce, when I hear people say, well, you know what, you know, if my kid's not gonna start playing tackle football, and and he's a great athlete, and that's his way out to, you know, help, you know, get him and his family out of where wherever they are to play sports.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if he doesn't start playing, you know, this sport at at 10 or 12, he's gonna be behind.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: I hate to say it, but I call it bullshit.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's that's that's wrong.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: That is absolutely wrong.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that let's be let's be let's be clear.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of these leagues nowadays and this and that, because there's so many of them.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: There, there's a lot of just you know, volunteer coaches and volunteer this, volunteer that.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And until they get into high school and they start getting even more serious uh about it and and really getting good coaching, they're not losing anything.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Be out there, be active, play multiple sports, do all these things, etc.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, get your agility.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of things baseball, soccer, basketball, volleyball.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's all kinds of sports.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And and of course, we live in paradise here in Florida.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: We can play sports all year round outside.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and at night, and and not be frozen.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, let's, you know, let's be realistic.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, the parents, it's an education.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's there's but like anything else, Bruce, it's like trying to teach people to drive in a roundabout.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Some people just don't get it, they're never gonna get it, right?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um so and that's okay.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: That that's quite all right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: The majority of us, we look at the data, we look at it, we understand that you know what, this is really what's best for our kids because it's not something that you can see, it's not a bruise you can see, it's not a cut, it's not a broken arm, it's not this.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: When you start dealing with the brain and you're dealing with those functions, there's things, you know, you can't see it.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like when I did electrical engineering.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: I can't, you know, you don't see electricity.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: You sure as hell feel it, but you don't see it, you know.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Lightning, you can say, but you know, outside of that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So those are kind of analogies, those are the things.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So based upon that data, um, and talking with the individuals, and and believe me, like I said, I started playing at nine years old.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've got my bell rung many a time.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, not to say that I've, you know, I've had some, you know, trauma, brain trauma, who knows?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uh they've always told me that, you know, some people I know always said that my mama just dropped me on my head too many times.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: It could have been that football.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: It could have been.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, you know, you know, going back again, you know, we have data, it shows what it shows, and if we choose to ignore it, that's true ignorance.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna be ignorant.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be here, we're here to support our kids.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because, Bruce, as you and I get older, we're gonna need our kids and our community to help take care of us and help take care of our community when we're not able to do it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's funny.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to a lot of parents, they're like, Well, my kid needs to start playing this way out.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I go, well, if that boy gets his bell rung and he don't make it or he ends up working at a gas station, I said, that's your meal ticket, man.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: That kid's supposed to take care of you.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you want a doctor or an engineer, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and uh, but uh your your position, Bruce, I mean, gosh, if we could just find more men and women like you that they're there whose priority are the children.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like we run into these leagues all the time, and it's about wins and losses, right?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about, you know, it's about, you know, you know, making money, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's about my league's better than your league.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: We want your kids here.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's about everything but the kids.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the point that you just made is that sports is not supposed to hurt you.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sports is supposed to be, it's there's so much we learn from team sports, whether it's cocktail, it is a vehicle.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you've played football.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I played, you know, I played rugby.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You played in college, I played semi-pro, and I still talk to my best friends, are my rugby players, you know, for the most part.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I got a couple Army guys, but my buddies are my rugby buddies.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh just you know, I'm still on a chat string with them.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: We we play, we haven't played in about four or five years.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's like we have, you know, we talk all the time.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that level of camaraderie, that passion, you know, the teamwork, the commitment, everything you talked about.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the priority, along with the kids' health.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, so tell us when you announced uh your decision, how was the uh how was the reception from the parents or the you know the PAL itself?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um to be honest, uh once we announced and once we as a board decided this is the direction we're gonna go, um there there were several, there was a majority of uh our POW um football families that weren't very happy with us.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um to be honest, it just it just they just weren't happy.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I understand, and and and I don't blame them.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't blame them at all.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I know that uh you know uh our I I love Sheriff Wells to death and uh and uh Colonel Pacasella, both of those gentlemen are fantastic, they support us greatly.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um but it's also it was difficult for the sheriff's office to to to swallow that pill for our decision to you know get away from contact tackle football because that's that's what we've had for you know three decades.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um but again, um, you know, it was a decision by the board, and it wasn't one individual, it was the majority of the board at the time, and and um at that time we had, oh, I don't know, nine or eleven members.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I believe you know it was if it wasn't unanimous, it was very close.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um they all understood.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and these these people that are on the board, they're from all walks of life.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have lawyers, we have uh sales associates, we have executives, engineer, you know, we have all kinds of uh folks, uh realtors, et cetera, uh, that were on the board at the time.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh because that's what we want.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: We want a whole well rounded group, and it's not a dictatorship.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: So when we uh when we announced it, uh it was a tough, it was tough pill swallow for uh I would certainly a majority of of our families.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I had some communications and I spoke the for those that uh wanted to speak with me one-on-one, I spoke with them.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I spoke as a group and and just let them know that uh for their kids' best interest, in our opinion, um for the data it shows, this is this is how we're gonna be moving forward.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: And um the the POW, our POW group, uh we had we were called the Jaguars for football.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh nothing to do with Jacksonville, but still called the Jaguars.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um while we had a good group of uh folks that came in or were playing with our flag football, we also have a good amount of kids that continue to play tackle football, contact tackle football, uh for the Jaguars, but outside the POW league for a um individual league that was uh you know that was brought up.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then others kids kind of scattered around and played from, you know, went over and and played for the you know, the whether it was the Wildcats or the Titans or you know, other leagues locally.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um but um but we looked at it, Bruce, was not only the the best, uh we looked at it the best for our kids, and we have to be stewards, like I said earlier, for our kids, we have to look out for them.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um the best that we can.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we also looked at if we bring flag football in, we can bring a great deal more people, more children in, because that opens it up to our female, our girls' flag football.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And in high school, girls' flag football is getting if it hasn't already, it's getting very big, it's getting very popular.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And they're getting college scholarships now for girls' flag football to go play in college.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, unbelievable.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a whole nother path to get the school.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's another whole path, another whole path.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: And as you know, the Olympics, we're gonna have flag football in the Olympics coming up in 28, right?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, amen.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, it's a whole nother avenue.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna be a whole nother way for kids to not only continue to play, but if they don't want to play the tackle contact football, they'll I think that at some point in time down the road here, we're gonna have flag football in high school for men, for boys and girls, and we're gonna have it in colleges.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter, it's just a matter of time.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Look, I mean, if you're gonna have any Olympics, it it's already showing.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna come, yeah.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna come.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you and if anybody's ever seen now, it's you know, it's on ESPN now, you know, in the summers.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's a big to-do, you know, whether playing at Disney World, you know, the wild world of sports, they'll play there, they'll play different places.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's gonna get big.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it continues to grow at a rapid rate.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we at PAL chose the NFL flag.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously the brand, it's a fantastic brand, in our opinion.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we like the rules, we like the regulations, and we we like the way that it was played, you know, where you could not only you know throw and run.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we liked all of that and and how they laid it out.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: They I think they have a very good product.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a few products around uh here in our area, Under Armor and NFL.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we just you know we're looking forward to ours to grow even more and more and more, uh, especially if I can put a plug in.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Especially as we as uh the police athletic league of Manatee County, we're we are um fundraising for our new home.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: We lost our home a few years ago, um when unfortunately at the time uh the school board took our property back over and um it was purchased by another entity.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh while there's still some education at our property, we are no longer there.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: We were there for three decades.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're kind of homeless now.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're playing football, flag football, we're playing our basketball, we're playing our baseball, we're utilizing uh, you know, whatever we can utilize between the boys and girls' clubs, uh, some of the high school gyms, et cetera, for our basketball, and then uh a few at several different baseball parks for baseball, and then flag football, different uh Lincoln Park and D GT Bray and a few other places.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: But uh we're we're we're we're trying to raise$14.5 million uh for a uh brand new facility that's gonna be within a quarter mile of our old facility in the heart of you know uh in the heart of the city of Bradenton to support the kids that you know our mission is to support.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna have three basketball, indoor basketball courts.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to have an outdoor artificial full-length football field for to support lacrosse, flag football and soccer.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: Our indoor basketball uh courts are gonna support obviously our biggest program, which is basketball for Manatee Powell.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's our biggest uh biggest uh platform, sports platform.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we'll also have volleyball in there and maybe a little bit indoor soccer, but full concession, and then besides all that, the facility is gonna be able to support education.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: So not only sports, but education.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So our goal.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: for Manatee Powell, like we had said earlier, was to develop our our children in our community, provide them a vehicle for sports that will also help support education of our same kids.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: So our ultimate ultimate goal being that all of our sports to be free and for them to be free for anybody to participate, those kids have to give back us time for tutoring, which will be free.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to provide tutoring for all of our kids that come in.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So ages ages six to eighteen free tutoring free life skills.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: We also want to we're going to be developing life skills training for all of our kids.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's life skills mostly for our older kids.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of like when you and I grew up we had home economics, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: I used to bring that gig you know all the different things you know that, you know, back in the day in the 70s and 80s home economics, but you don't have that anymore.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, reading, writing arithmetic.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of these kids come out, they don't they don't understand credit.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: They understand all these kind of things especially with you know when you and I grew up there was no such thing as a cell phone.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing we had was a rotary phone.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: You give a kid a rotary phone today and they're like what the heck is this?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: How do I call somebody?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know they're pushing buttons like there's no buttons you got to you know you got to rotate it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Come on man.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: So so so our plan for Manatee Pow is we we're fundraising for that for those dollars to build the facility the city of Bradenton is leasing us the entire property that we're going to have our new POW facility on a 99 year lease dollar a year.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Can't beat it right wow um it's going to be part of the city of Bradenton's um uh new park development that's around Leecon Park in in in uh conjunction with the Pittsburgh Pirates so that whole area around from 13th um from 13th in Bradenton uh Avenue uh west all the way up to 17th and then over I believe it's the 20th or 21st where Leecon Park is uh and over to Rogers Gardens that whole area is going to be basically uh encompassing a sports complex and that's gonna be the heart of pal.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if we could template that across Florida.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean to be working with the city and investing in kids like that tell us a little bit about who are the children that you support I mean I don't think these are kids from way out there on the west side of town.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well I mean be real let's be realistic in our area you know while we're city we're not really you know a true inner city you know our inner city is not like you know Chicago LA you know Philadelphia you know those areas it no it's it's not that but it's it is inner city kids it's kids um you know that that uh you know are struggling on the economic level and the families you know they're getting by they're they're hardworking um but you know the mom and dads are are working out there uh the grand and grandpas are even working out there grandpas are taking care of the kids while the parents are working all these so we're we we pretty much support uh you know our goal is pretty much anywhere from I-75 to 75th Street from from east to west okay and then from from Palmetto area down south to let's just call it uh 53rd um Pride Park area um it's a big area to pull from uh obviously we get a a a good amount of our kids are w are within a mile to a mile and a half radius of uh let's just call it um 13th Ave and uh first street if that's your if that's your point there that's where you know the old PAL facility was right there on the corner of 13th Ave and 1st Street from as that as that is the center of your of your circle a mile and a half radius outside of that maybe up to two miles that's where we're gonna pull majority of our kids from because a lot of the kids are riding their bikes to us you know they're they're walking to us.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have the ability or they're getting picked up you know our basketball program being as as as great as it has been for so many years um because of Deputy Ralph Bryant and Deputy Francine Houston those two know bat they know more about basketball than I ever think I could ever know about football.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so you know the basketball program is really what you know most people know POW for um and um you know we you know those those kids in that area um uh you know if you go out to where Mixon is that's I think that's 24th or 26th Street East.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know if you go from 24 26th Street East to let's call it 26th Street West in Bradenton and then I say from Palmetto down south to Pride Park that's really in that square area that's 99.9% of our kids.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's all severely disadvantaged I mean it's all hub zone it is that is a very challenged part of town so great that it is it it is and you know I'm I was very lucky um you know when I grew up in the in the 70s uh and and early 80s when I went into college uh I was ignorant you know I didn't know any better I you know I was happy with a baseball or a football in my hand and and a bicycle I could ride and other than that and and food on my plate I could care less and and I was just as ignorant as inner to be you know didn't look at you know hey we don't have this or we don't have that hey I you know my parents worked hard to make sure that I didn't want anything I I wasn't wanting for anything excuse me and uh you know I wasn't my brother and I I mean we we we hung out we played we went to school um did what our teachers told us to do uh learned as much as we could we had good guidance and some of these kids that we deal with they don't have good guidance Bruce um you know it it for one reason or another it is what it is and what I enjoy about being a volunteer there is I want to give these kids as much opportunity as I had when I grew up I want to I want to educate them as much as possible I want to you know be there for them to answer questions to show them to give them you know to to be a leader for them and say listen you do X you know do A, B, and C, you're gonna get to D, E, and F.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: But you got to stay steady and steadfast.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know in in in in pal, if anybody has been if anyone has ever been to a Man T PAL event, they'll understand real quick that there's a certain way that you have to hold yourself when you come to one of our events.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna be disruptive you're not going to be disrespectful and you know you've got to hold yourself uh accountable and if you're not gonna be any one of those then guess what we're gonna ask you to leave fairly quickly we don't we don't play around we don't deal with those things and I think that uh when the kids see that and that gets becoming of the culture that they hold um our kids get you know become very successful they do well in high school then they go to college and they do well in college or they go do well in the tech school or they do well in the construction out in construction or whatever they choose to do um they do very well because they have a good solid foundation.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's our goal is to give them that solid foundation.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And again it it all it all sorry Bruce it all starts you know it sounds like I'm a sales guy and I talk a lot but I'm just I really I am an engineer and I usually pretty quiet but I'm passionate about this.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of the things that I know that once I retire from doing the work that I do now, I I'm gonna want to be around these kids and help support these kids until the day I can't or maybe the day they kick me out one of the two but you know I hope they don't kick me out.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: No but Bruce I mean this this whole focus on the children right I mean giving them not only just an outlet in sports but helping them through life right I mean just giving them those skills that they need how to read a clock I mean I'm I got a book here it was one it was my son's it was called Life Lab and he'd come home and I'm like hey so what'd you learn in life lab he said we had to learn how to read a clock like with hands I'm like what he goes yeah I said how'd that go?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: He goes nobody knew how to read a clock with hands.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said it was crazy.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: So every time he'd come back from lifelab tell me what you learned today right you know whatever it was like checkbooks whatever and um but the you know beyond the ignorance that you know sometimes kids have just in our digital culture today to give them that that framework that foundation of skills respect discipline and mentorship right a lot of these children just don't have good mentors as you say it is what it is but you know have being around police officers and and men and women who have made something from themselves a lot of them coming from the same background is so important and I and I you you're my my hat is so off to you and I have to get more involved just soon as I get rid of this company I am all no it's a hey you know you're doing great you're doing great things Bruce and and one of the things that we look at is you know it's today's kids and today's day and age is you know completely different than what we grew up in right and our day and age when we grew up was completely different from our parents and you know with the advent of the cell phones and the digital age and everything else it's great information but like anything else it's what it's how you how you read that information how you take it in and what you do with it.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: And those are the things that we're gonna be that we teach our kids is you know when you and I grew up Bruce it it you know our mentors always say oh don't ever don't always believe everything you read in the newspaper right don't always believe everything you read here you know do your fact checking you know do your research etc now the information's so easy to get and I tell my 14 year old son is that hey just because it comes across your phone doesn't mean it's true.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh what no everything that's on the internet isn't true you know do your research you know do your do your due diligence you know um you know there's never any there's never anything that's for you know there's never anything for free right you know there's always a catch at times you know except it's too true it's too good to be too good to be true um you know the free cheese the mouth the mouth the the mouse and the free cheese you know all that kind of stuff so you know what we really want and uh we stay away from the political spectrum a hundred percent okay we don't care we don't care what your political affiliation is when you come in here we're all people that's how we see them and we're gonna help you in sports we're gonna help you develop we're gonna help you in in your education we're gonna help you develop we're gonna help you in your life skills we're gonna help you develop what we want is we want individuals that are truly not only team players but leaders and then those individuals then take it upon themselves to determine what they want to believe and what they want to do but we have to give them that we want to give them that good foundation we give them that good foundation I feel so much better that when they go out there and they get in front, you know, in front of something that's either good or bad, they're gonna know what to do, how to do it, and they're gonna represent our community well.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: So where do we take this Bruce?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean we've got the first police activity league in the United States of America advocating for children first, their brain help first, you know and and and putting together a program that I think is what probably the first brain safe approach to sports for the police activity league and and I do worry because they are the police and you know they're they're they're a pot they're a checkbook to a lot of lawyers, right?
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know so I think a lot of what you're doing right now is is not only absolutely I mean just so inspiring for our children it also helps the city you know a little bit there too.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: But um you know how do we how do we expand this or what do you do do you have any you know thoughts on how you could take or you know what you've done of course you know I'm part of that as well if I if I can you know how do we how do we move this to the next level and get some more PALs to take a look at this?
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: So once um you know every year we have a um a uh state POW um meeting for lack of a better term I don't know if they call it a meeting and they get together, et cetera uh and it's usually in December of every year.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um you know since we lost our home uh we've been like I said we've been a little bit uh down and out but we we're making it work and uh we're gonna we're gonna have a home here in just a few years and I think that once we have our our home when we have a good home base and we have that POW athletic uh NFL football league going on we have our basketball going on we have our baseball going on and we show how successful it is and how successful it's become and we can show the numbers that okay when we had tackle football we had you know X number of teams in each division and and in each team we had an X number of kids and we were supporting you know 225 kids during tackle football.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now with our flag football we're supporting 800 kids.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay and oh you know oh by the way the data is the the the amount of data is not going to go down it's only going to go up.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're only gonna get in and not only is the data going to go up but our ability to take that data and and sift it through all of these algorithms and look at all the different things and come up with okay hey we know for a fact this is what's causing this this is what's causing that this is beyond a shadow of a doubt we know that we know a majority of it now but there's it's gonna become even more because in the next 10 years our scientists and our our tools for identifying these things and you know um well yeah I guess just identifying it are going to become so much more on a day-to-day daily use basis that um it's gonna be overwhelmingly in my opinion that you know what um just like seatbelts you know what i it it's it's gonna be a rarity if at all that we're gonna have contact head contact sports for kids under 14 years old um I I I absolutely believe you yeah I I think you're right Bruce and um and I think the sooner we can you know talk to other organizations about this approach the data the data centric approach like there's a reason for this it's not just you know a guy that's lost his kid or you know somebody that doesn't believe in contact sports.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean this is data driven evidential uh an evidential approach.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well I mean look at me I mean I'm you know it took me a long time to to calm myself down after college because from the time I was nine until the time I was 21 um because I was you know back in the day shoot when we were you know when I went to college I just turned 18 years old so until the time I was 21 that's all I knew is I hey I want to play football and I want to be violent I want to be out there in this you know and and have you know just get out there and bang heads and let's go.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it took it it took some time to to get that kind of that testosterone driven for lack of better term um you know uh not rage but controlled rage controlled anger etc just to you know calm down and say hey you know what that's that that was that that was a different life now now I'm starting my you know my my career life um outside of that and so it you know if I can look at it in my opinion and and and convince myself based upon the data then you know anybody that looks at it that has an open mind um and looks at is gonna it's gonna come to the same conclusion Bruce and you know it it's it's horrible that what's happened to you and your family okay that being said um you know it's not like you said just because somebody lost a kid this and that this is what the data says this is what it shows uh and we're not talking one instance we're not talking two instances we're we're we're talking about data you know thousands of data points you know it's I mean it's there and for somebody like myself in in the uh profession that uh deals with data deals with hey how do you come up with designs well that I come up with this design this is what we have to do because this is where the data shows this is what's going to be best and um and and and there you go that there you have it.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's it's kind of that simple but it's not that simple.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know when you really look at it and say well you know uh you know don't take you know what I say you know as as for granted or as base do your research and go out there and look and go to these you know go to these seminars that you like you host Bruce and and just talk to people and and see but there's also a common sense piece to it too Bruce because there's a lot of there's a lot of parents that I know you know those parents that said you know what thank you thank you thank you thank you for moving over to flag football because I didn't want to be the one to tell my kid you know what I don't want you playing I don't want you playing contact sports at this age because I don't think it's good for you.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know Bruce we respect you and you know they come to me and say you know Bruce we respect you you're you know a leader in our our organization and PAL and if you truly believe this is best for our kids we're right there with you.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well we need some more of that Bruce I mean we need a lot more of that going forward but this is an awesome start.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: What you have done uh you know with you and your board I think is uh is going to absolutely lead you know the you know children's sports to a position where it needs to be because in the end you know the data doesn't lie and unfortunately I didn't wasn't aware of the data that existed to make better decisions for my son and now we know and and what you're doing is is flat out amazing.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: So as we close uh tell us about the manatee PAL I think you got a fundraiser coming up uh talk about how people fund you I mean we and then we got the big fundraiser to get the home so go ahead and uh and pimp it for a bit there before we close out man and uh really appreciate everything you're doing man.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well I appreciate that you know I'm I'm I'm far from a sales guy so uh but uh yes so uh Monday this Monday November 3rd we have our annual uh PAL Mantee PAL golf tournament it's at the Ritz-Carleton it's been there now I think this is the ninth year that we've had it at the Ritz-Carleton and uh what a great course I mean pristine uh golfers come out and it's it's truly one of the area's pristine uh golfing events the gifts are fantastic the offerings are great you have lunch you have dinner you have a great time it's for a great cause and uh that's uh this is our biggest fundraiser of the year by far um we're you know we we look at it uh be realistic you know we we take in probably you know$25 to$35,000 we net out of it um which is fantastic it allows us to keep our costs down uh and um and uh help scholarship a lot of our kids uh for flag football for basketball for baseball etc um outside of that we we do a few other um you know we have some fish fries we have some simple things et cetera seafood for uh seafood uh sales uh we sell you know sometimes we sell donuts uh sometimes we have car washes we have all kinds of little things like that but the the the the golf is the big thing um and you know to get a hung contact our our website is uh manateep manatepal.org and uh it comes up there our our address right now is the main sheriff's office address off a 301 uh boulevard there um across from the old uh I guess the old Bradenton Mall which really isn't much anymore um but uh hopefully like I said in a couple years we'll have our new facility uh that's our goal looks like we will be and um we are we're working hard with the school board uh for their support which I believe that we're gonna get because we're also gonna be able to do some things with SOAR and four and you know things because what happens is when these kids come in or parents come with these kids and they bring their kids to practice there's always usually a little young you know younger brother younger uh sister that's with them you know that's you know three, four years old, five years old, just not old enough yet to get into the sports side of the and we want to be able to do things for them.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have activities for them educational activities for those kids at our site while the older kids are playing sports.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: So and then we're gonna have at this new facility we're gonna have adult education besides free tutoring and uh for our you know for our kids in elementary middle school and high school we're gonna we're gonna have we're gonna bring programs in to help adults to help these kids to help these kids' parents you know to maybe get themselves some more education to maybe improve their lifestyle in whatever area that they're looking for.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um you know that's us uh you know uh we uh we pride ourselves and you know really looking after the kids uh we uh nobody makes a salary we're all volunteers um and you know like I said earlier our goal is that every single program that we have at PAL once we open up our new facility every single program is absolutely froubly free well Bruce I mean I cannot thank you enough for your dedication to our kids and not just here I mean but leading the way and and making a hard decision um to do you know what the evidence says is is the right thing and to stick with that decision um and I can I can already see the success that you're done and and I think it's amazing that you and the board have taken this move and and we want to make sure that it's it's you know that that you know that that people know about it that there is a a reason to right now based on the science to move ahead.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much to you the Manity PAL for making that decision of what you're doing for our kids and we look forward to working with you far into the future until I can't get out of bed because this is this is a great mission man.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great mission and you accept what volunteerism should be in this country and um I thank you for it sir.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: Cannot well no and and and likewise it got it goes right back to you Bruce and uh you know like I said when I first met you got to have a name and uh in in order to have have that name we need to make sure that uh you know we we have a responsibility to to uh our family and our community amen and you're rocking those Xbox headphones by the way yeah my son gets them back later today so cool beats man well everybody man another great show of broken brains man cannot thank Bruce Puttoff and uh the man at DPAL for coming on board remember as you get out there keep you know focused on our foundation what we're doing we have the podcast we've got the uh Army Navy event coming up on December 13th we've got fuel the band rock concert all you can eat all you can drink VIP tickets remember 100% of the the monies raised goes towards veterans mental health and suicide prevention the largest threat to our veteran population out there.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget our book is for free.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the website download it new versions coming out in about two months as soon as I get my head out of my other business and I'll be able to focus on it we got the uh HeadSafe app on uh the uh on on Google store and Apple store and guess what I just got from Australia my first subcussive tracking mouth guard so I'm looking for some reasons to hit my head a little bit to kind of see what this thing can do.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you got any ideas throw them out to us so like us subscribe to us push us out there really thank you all and for you those of you with children remember you only got one melon take care of it this is Bruce Parkman signing out for the Mac Parkman Foundation we'll talk to you soon.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks