Latest / The B Team Podcast / Ep. 81 - Hope Beyond the Diagnosis with Tim Siegel

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Ep. 81 - Hope Beyond the Diagnosis with Tim Siegel · The B Team Podcast

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the B-Team Podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I am your host, josh Saffron, with my co-host, matt Morris and our permanent guest Rob Nelson.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast Be here.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the B-Team Podcast.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, josh Saffron, with my permanent guest Robbie and our co-host Matt.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: And our alternate.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It's a permanent alternate, I mean that's a big title.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Jim because we're going to have to get you up on the screen.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: That's it Matt Rushmore.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And Josh brought Jim in because he knows about tennis.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: I guess you and I only know about pickleball, and there's a 50-50 chance whether I was going to make this one or not.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: So now we're, here.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: What are we talking about today?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Well, we're here all Thursdays for Business Bentonville, bourbon and we're kind of going to go off of the cuff today because Tim is not Bentonville Business or Bourbon, but his story is super cool and I wanted to have you on, tim.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us today, my pleasure.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, guys.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So Tim Siegel there's a whole.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I mean he is former Razorback tennis player, former professional tennis player, top 100 in the world doubles partner with Jimmy Arias.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Played in US Open like major, major tournaments, like big-time tennis player, us.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Open like major, major tournaments, like big-time tennis player.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Us Open's a tennis tournament that's played every year in a full shot.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Help these guys out.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I'm here to help.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Then Texas Tech tennis coach, big-time in the tennis community.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: SMU.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Well, he's down that way now.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: He's not at SMU he said he coached there.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I was listening.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: He coached there, but the best thing with him is author, husband, father, and obviously we're here today to talk about Team Luke.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So I'm not an avid reader, but I've read your books because it's very touching.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So the story he had a son named Luke.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: He has passed away may God rest his soul and he was involved in a terrible golf cart accident and you're doing a ton of stuff now around children and brain injury.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So thank you for joining us today and spending time with us and I'd love to just hear your story and how we can help spread the word.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Well, so much.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You know I loved my time in Arkansas.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I was there from 82 to 86.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I was fortunate to have been on some great teams and then I knew I always wanted to coach college tennis at some point.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But between that time I played professionally.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I was fortunate to have played all the Grand Slams, wimbledon, us Open, all those tournaments.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I played against the big names like Yvonne Lendl and John McEnroe, people like that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: But I always knew I wanted to coach college tennis and so I was the SMU tennis coach just two years and then for 23 years I coached at Texas Tech, from 1993 to 2015, and I loved coaching.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I had some really good teams, top 20 most of my years.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: But what I loved more than coaching was being around my children.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: At the time I had three younger children little girl who was 12, a daughter who was 10, and then my son, luke, was nine, and I just didn't want to be missing their sporting events.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So on July 8th of 2015, I resigned from Texas Tech to take over as the middle school and high school tennis coach, which is not the usual path for a Division I coach, but it's what I wanted to do to be around my children.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Twenty days later, on July 28, 2015, I got a phone call.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: No father ever once received that my son, luke, was in a golf cart accident.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: He suffered an an an optic brain injury.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: We spent five months at two different hospitals.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We were told Luke would never use his lip, use his voice to open his eyes.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: But I always knew he would do more than what we were troubled, and we came home after five months and I became Luke's primary caregiver, where I spent literally every waking hour as the night nurse, day nurse, therapist, took him to therapies all over, and I was just so convinced that he was going to speak and he was doing remarkably well, making some progress.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: He would move his tongue to commands.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'm from New Orleans, so we're big Saints fans and I would ask Luke to move his tongue to commands.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I would.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I'm a friend of orleans, so we're big faith fans and I would ask luke to move his tongue.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: If he loved his things, he would move his tongue eventually.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Would would make some sounds and then, just um, in august of 21, luke got covered and on august 19th 2021, lu Luke passed away from COVID so sorry to hear very your story and his story is very inspiring and so I'm sure that was an awful time when he passed, but you're doing wonderful things in his name now, helping others and driving a lot of awareness.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Well, you know I am.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I was told early on that I should start a nonprofit and I just didn't know the first thing about it.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: But I started T-Loop.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I merged with another nonprofit called Hope for Minds, out of Austin, and we had the same vision, the same goal, and that was to help children who've had a brain injury, and we started in January of 2018.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: We have granted over half a million dollars to families each of those years.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: We have support groups online.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: We have a conference in October every year in Austin.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Last year we had 120 families attend the conference.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: This year we've already scholarship 80 families.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Just in the last two months, gentlemen, we've had over 50 families need our assistance.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: We help financially, we help through education.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: We help families non-fatal drowning, car accidents, accidents like my son.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: So I am doing all that I can to keep my son's legacy alive by helping family.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: You can every day.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: What's what's amazing?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Like you're doing an amazing job of telling the story.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna go up one more level, like like drew brees hall of fame quarterback for the saints got connected to this and and then it just spread like wildfire with professional athletes.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, you have so many professional celebrities involved in what you're doing, which is an incredible testament to not only you but obviously your son.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: The day of the accident I reached out to the Saints and I said look, can Drew Brees send a video?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: A week or two later I get a video from Drew, and that led to our being at Saints games with Luke in his wheelchair.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I went to practices.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Drew came to Lubbock to do an event for Team Luke.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I still keep in touch with Drew.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: If you have ever watched Patrick Mahomes play football, you know that on his right wrist there's a Team Luke calledolt from Heinz bracelet because Luke and I would watch Patrick at Texas Tech, and so Patrick's been very involved.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: We've also had so many tennis players for Andre Agassi, andy Roddick, john Isner, I can go on and on.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: All of these tennis players have supported us.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Djokovic, nadal and Federer all sent videos to Luke.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: So we and we also have one more.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I'm a big Texas Ranger fan and Luke was the biggest Elvis Andrews fan, and so we asked the Rangers to have Elvis send a video, which he did.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: We've become very close with Elvis.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: He visited Luke in the hospital, we visited Elvis in the clubhouse and I keep in touch with Elvis regularly.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So the world of professional athletes have been very supportive, for sure, and of course also John Calipari spoke last year and the bank had Pinnacle and so I'm very, very close with the Razorback basketball teams and so I'm very, very close with the Razorback basketball teams and so I'm just excited to help as many families as I can and I'm blessed to be able to help, although I'm extremely sad every day because of what happened to my son, I'm also blessed to know that, because of my son's story and the inspiration that he has helped so many people that you mentioned my books.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I've written a couple of books I I just know that that uh luke continues to make a difference in the lives of so many talents you know I don't ever see these guys quiet.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: They're always chirping and breaking balls and stuff like that and like what you're doing here is it's, it's, it's serious, I mean it's kids and it's brain injury and it's paying it forward to so many different people.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I mean share the website and I guess how can we help and how can we continue to help spread your word?
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: TeamLukeHolperMindsorg is our website, and we also had a documentary that just came out.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: It's on YouTube and it's called Hope Beyond the Diagnosis, and we interviewed families at our conference.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Dr Phil actually has a segment on there.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: A lot of the athletes I just mentioned are on there as well.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: I think that will really tell the story, as well as anything ESPN did a story on us.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: It's also on YouTube.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It's called A Father, a Son and their Saints, so I'm just amazed.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: We also have a Facebook page called Luke's Legacy Pray for Luke Siegel, and we have over 70,000 followers.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And whenever I post on there, so many people reach out to us and send messages.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: So you know, I feel like this is my calling, this is my purpose in life now, and I also want to share one other thing is that I do a lot of public speaking all over the country with teams, with schools, with businesses, and I have what's called seven inspirations from Luke, and those seven inspirations are find your passion, don't ever quit, lean on friends and family, make good choices, be careful, have faith, find forgiveness and let a loved one's legacy live on through you.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Lean on friends and family, make good choices, be careful, have faith, find forgiveness and let a loved one's legacy live on through you.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And that's sort of the core of my message and I think it's getting out there around the country, which I'm really proud of.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Now you guys know, you would know specifically and obviously you're familiar with the story.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: We had a horrible golf cart tragedy here a few years back with a young tennis phenom named Colin Matthews and again there was such an outpouring.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: We live in gated communities here and I saw kids this week on golf carts.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I mean it's not a toy, I mean these things are vehicles and they're powerful and that's a little easy.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's really crazy and scary around this.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: All could have been easily prevented and I know that you're seeing and hearing many, many more stories about things that it's shocking around how kids are getting hurt and we need to send the message out that kids need to be more careful and parents should be more careful with this as well.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: We've actually helped Colin's family.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: I've spent time with the family.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: They were at our event last year.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: You know I'm not anti-golf cars, I'm just pro-safety Yep.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And it's still hard for me to fathom that this family thought it was a good idea to let two 9-year-olds unsupervised on a city street on a modified golf cart.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: But, as you mentioned, so many golf carts are out there and if Luke had had a helmet on, if Luke had seatbelts, all this could have been different.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: But as I said at the conference last year, if Luke didn't have his accident, there would be no team to cope for mines and we would not be helping so many families giving out thousands and thousands of dollars every year.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, as I think about it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: You know kids are riding bikes.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: I see more and more kids with helmets.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: I think sometimes you know something like a golf cart.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: There's like a false sense of security that you think, oh well, I'm almost in a little car and you're really not Outside of the obvious.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: You know, wear helmets when you're riding bikes.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: What are some of the advice or recommendations you could give to people out there to help keep we're all parents, we all want to, not just for ourselves but for our community as well keep kids safe.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: What are some of the things that we should be pushing in the area?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it starts with parents.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Parents need to know that, especially when you have modified golf cards that are taller and heavier, it can tip over, and that's what happened in Tip Top of Luke.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: He suffered head and chest trauma.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: But I've been around so many families that think my son is safe, he's fine.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: But I've seen parents with their children on the back of the golf cart and all it takes is one little bump and your child has a brain injury from a, from a head injury, and I just wish that parents were more aware of the dangers.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You know and it's the hardest things for me when I think about this you know we, actually we have.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I have been in front of so many cities and talking to their city council about golf cart safety and I'm amazed at how even the city council is not really aware of the dangers and yet we are receiving at least one or two, it seems like every week, from an ATV or a golf cart every single week, and it's hard to handle.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, if Luke's injury and accident is helping one family, then we're making some good out of this.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Well, it certainly sounds like it's helped more than one family, and the fact that you took something so devastating and tragic and made it something that can have a positive influence on the people around you and communities around you is certainly something to applaud.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Do you have a large annual fundraiser once a year, or can you share with the viewers a little bit about that?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: We've had.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: We have multiple, you know, events we have in every spring in Lubbock.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: We've had Drew Brees, dick Vitale, we've had Demario Davis, the linebacker of the New Orleans Saints, who actually prayed over Luke before a game.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: We've had a lot of country music artists Eli Dunban, diamond, rio, pat Green and then we have a golf tournament in Austin and we will be having an event in Little Rock.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: My good friend, bobby Bank is head director of the Country Club of Little Rock.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: He used to be at Fort Smith where we've had all those tennis events.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: So we do quite a bit and we're just trying to raise money from different events from different individuals.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: You know, andre Agassi has been incredible to us.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: He's actually playing tennis on Tuesday with someone who is donating money just to play with Agassi has been incredible to us.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: He's actually playing tennis on Tuesday with someone who is donating money just to play with Agassi and have lunch with Andre.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: That's fantastic.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: That's what kind of guy he is yeah, that's huge.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, Andy Roddick has done a couple events for us.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: The tennis world has been fantastic If he wanted to play tennis with Andy Roddick or Andre Agassi or Monica Salas.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: What does that cost for Matt to do that?
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe that's something that we talk about off the air, yeah.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Josh let's put it this way, it's six figures.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's nice.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Just keep it to Agassi's back end, you'll be fine.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Don't let him serve.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: That's amazing, I would imagine, for you, and I'm going to use a different context here.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Jim and I have been divorced before I don't know where this is going, but I'm going to go to a good place and we get questions.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm going through a divorce.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Can you give me some advice?
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I'm certain that, having been through this with Luke, you're getting a lot of families at stage one.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: When you've been through this from soup to nuts, saying I don't know what to do, I'm sure you're providing so much value, paying it forward, to these families that are in a spot now where you were many, many years ago.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: That's got to be very touching for you.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll add this I have an amazing relationship.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, two years ago, I did get divorced because of what happened to my son.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: When you grieve, you're grieving so differently, and my ex-wife saw Luke's injury as more devastating than his passing, and for me it was the opposite.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: I was so convinced that Luke was going to speak, although I do feel Luke is speaking right now just through me.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: But my relationship with my ex-wife is beautiful.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: It's wonderful.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: We have two amazing daughters through with with my wife.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: But, but my, my advice to parents is that when something like this happens whether it's an injury or a passage is that keep the lines of communication open.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Reach out for therapy is vital, being open faith in God to church.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: It's impossible to survive this alone, and I've learned a lot about myself.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Certainly, it wasn't until two years ago that I actually forgave the family that allowed this to happen, and once that happened, I felt free.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I felt that I could live with sadness and I rid myself of bitterness, angerness and the need to forgive.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: And so really, there's one message, and that is to lean on each other but also realize that forgiveness is probably the most important thing that we can learn.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I bet that was hard.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Though I bet that was really hard, I mean that must have been.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Did you actually go speak to the family?
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I started with a text and I met with the family afterwards.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I gave them my book.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: My second book is called Fight Like Luke Transforming Grief into Love, Strength and Faith.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: The one thing I've learned about forgiveness is you don't just do it once it's really an everyday thing.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: I'll be in Lubbock next weekend for our annual 5K Color Run and once I get to Lubbock I think about the Triggers and certainly about that family.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: But I just know that I've got to do all I can to move forward.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: My son is always in my heart every minute of every day, but I have three daughters, I have family and friends and I can't allow myself to just be so much in pain.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Although you know, August 19th is the four-year anniversary of Luke's passing, July and August used to be great months for me because those were months that the summer, enjoying life, and after the season, and now those are the two worst months of the year yeah I, I mean we all have kids here.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I mean I can't imagine you're supposed to bury your parents.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: You're not supposed to bury your child.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I mean I, I can only imagine the grief and the pain and the suffering and the things that's done, but you've been able to turn it into so much good for so many other people.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I mean it's very selfless of you to be able to say, hey, I want to help all these other families out, and you're helping how many families a year?
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Well, we grant around $500,000 to families every year.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: We were able to give up to $5,000.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: So you know we help families through support groups.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I have a podcast called Tuesdays with Tim.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: I just interviewed a mom just yesterday whose son had a non-fatal drought, and just to share her story and to get the word out and to know that the brain can heal.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: To what extent every injury is different we don't know, but we were told when he used his limbs, used his voice and's open his eyes because of his anoxic, lovely, damaged brain.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: But he did all three and the one message that I tell parents is that every therapy is important, every one of them.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: But the most important therapy is love and I was there with Luke, giving him all the love and talking about the Saints, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Tech and the Razorbacks, and I know that that was a big part of Luke's healing.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: What do you got Matthew for him.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't believe how strong you are with what you've done.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: It's amazing, that's all I can say You're not speechless.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Normally this is hard for us 99% of the time.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: We have somebody here live in studio and it's like all right, we're virtual.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And I said, guys, we've got to make this one happen today, because your story and what you're doing for Luke and what you're doing for kids is, I mean, I've never met you in person before.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to playing tennis with you later on this year, but what you're doing is, I mean, you're a saint.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I mean it's fantastic the way you're helping others and you don't have to do any of this stuff.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: And it's just amazing to me that you're giving back so much on something that hurts and is painful for you.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I can't say enough about it.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I can't say enough about it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: You know, what's interesting about this is that I've been asked by many people what I do for a living isn't healthy for me, and the truth is there's something else that I could be doing Now.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: The very last thing that Luke and I ever did, just prior to July 28th of 2015, was play tennis, and my whole life was playing tennis.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: And because of that day on I think it was July 25th, and when Luke said to me I want to be on your tennis team, I could not get near a tennis court.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: When I would see a tennis court, when I would think about tennis, it made my stomach hurt, and for nine years I didn't touch a tennis bat, I didn't get near a tennis court.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: And one year ago, my daughter said let's play some tennis.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: And since I've been in Dallas, I play tennis two or three times a week.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: I'm supporting the SMU and CCU tennis teams, and tennis is now part of my life that I thought I would never play again.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: And so I do know that this has been so great for my heart, for my health, because I know I need distractions.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: So great for my heart, for my health, because I know I need distractions, but I also know I need to be strong, and you mentioned that I'm strong.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: If you would see me at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, you would know that some days I'm not, some days I just need to go for long walks.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: It's the amount of pain that I feel is so real and so severe at times.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: But I just know that I'm doing this with and for my son and Luke's favorite number is three and the football coach at Texas Tech does not give out number three anymore.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: It goes to the hardest work and the greatest fight of an honorable son.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And every time I think of that number three it gives me strength.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And I see the number three every single day and I know that when I see that number it makes me feel closer to my son.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Well again, I knew your story from playing with Coach Cox and the Razorbacks Shout out to Coach Cox, a wonderful human being, and I play in the Tuesday drill down there.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Jim plays with me sometimes and I hadn't heard the story.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And we play in the Tuesday drill down there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Jim plays with me sometimes and I hadn't heard the story and we all had Team Luke shirts one year, simon and Coach Cox and we're all playing and we're all wearing the Team Luke.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: So I was wearing my Team Luke shirt and I go, hey guys explain the story.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And they pulled the story.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And then I started reading the book and following you and it's like it's just amazing all the stuff that you really have going on.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Well, what is the connection today to the northwest arkansas area and how much are you doing up here and how much you associated with coach cal parry, coach cox and other things up here in the region?
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: you know there are a lot of, and I said this at the tennis reunion last year.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: There's nobody and I mean nobody that's a bigger razorbacks fan than I have maybe as much, but not more so, and I remember telling that at the tennis reunion.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I just love the Razorbacks.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: I would say that my four and a half years at Arkansas were right up there with my 23 at Texas Tech.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I feel so much pride and support and love for the Razorbacks.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: I love driving to Fayetteville.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Once I get near to Kansas I have a different feeling and I'm very close to David Waddy, the tennis coach.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: I'm close with Robert Cox.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I had breakfast with him a few weeks back.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I come to Fayetteville a lot.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: I'm very close to Simon Robinson, my good buddy, my teammate.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: I look forward to coming back for a football game.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I'm coming back obviously in October for the US Dags tennis weekend.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I just For a football game.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I'm coming back obviously in October for Phoenix Jags Tennis weekend and I just get so much pride.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: You know what I can say, guys.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if two or three, four years from now I'm living in Fayetteville and I'm going to every great event.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Whoa, that would be awesome.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are you telling us something here?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Are you breaking news that you're going to come back this way?
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: That's breaking news that you're going to come back this way.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: That's breaking news, but keep it between us.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, we only have 2.5 million followers.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: It'll be between us and our 12 viewers.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: The one thing I will say you're coming up, it sounds like the first weekend in October, that's correct.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you a favor on behalf of the team here Do not take it easy on Josh.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: I want him, do not let him, I don't.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: I don't want to see him get a point.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: We don't want him to return anything.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just want you to absolutely punish him.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Do you think you could do that for us?
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I would bring my egg in.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: So Steve still does the draw from a lottery.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask him if he could help me make sure I get on your team.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: It feels like that's my best, but Simon's playing again this year as well, if I understand it.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, he is, and I know that Simon's knees are not as good as mine, so I'm hoping that he's going to be struggling.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But last year I did play with Steve.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: It was a blast.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: But you know, what's amazing, guys, is that I'm probably in better shape today, at 61 years old, than I was at 45.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: And it's really because of all that I was dealing with in my heart, in my pain.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I didn't get my heart rate up for a long time because I was so focused on those monitors the heart monitors, the brain pressure monitors and now that I'm back on the tennis court, I just know it's good for my health, it's good for my heart and I'm really excited about playing tennis again.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be in Fayetteville playing with Simon.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: I'll be back in October.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I want to go to basketball games, football games, so I look forward to seeing all you guys in October.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But I would imagine in these past 10 years, when you were so focused on Luke and everything else, you probably didn't eat well, you probably didn't sleep well, you probably didn't work out.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it was a strain on you mentally, physically, but more importantly I mean emotionally.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Or was a strain on you mentally, physically, but more I mean emotionally.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I mean I'm sure you were a shell of what you are today as far as the physicality goes.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: You know one thing you don't know is until you start to sleep, you don't realize how much you need it.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something that is an absolute fact that for six years I never had one night of sleep, one full night of sleep, because I was Luke's night nurse, five nights a week and the other two nights I was always worried about Luke and so I never slept.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: And I used to drive Luke every week for two years for therapy in Fort Worth, Wednesday to Friday, and I was up all night making sure he was okay, Giving him meds, turning him, and still to this day I can't sleep without a little help.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Trazodone has been my lifesaver.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I do need that because when I wake up, all I can do is think about my son and Pete Luke, and so it's hard for me, but I know that I let myself go, but I walk a lot, I play tennis a lot now and I'm in a much better place, Much better place.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: So if I'm playing against you, do I want to play to your backhand?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Do I want to get like what's I need, like something to give me a little bit of an advantage, like what's the weakness we have to play against?
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Let's put it this way If you serve to my backhand, I'll be very happy, Ah so you had a great backhand.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Do you have a prediction on the score If you played a set against Josh?
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: what do you think the score is?
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's a tough.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Does he get a game Do?
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I get a point.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, I was a doubles player.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I was never really.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I was a good college tennis player.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I'm blessed to have been in the Razorback Hall of Fame and I think that was in 2019.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But I was a doubles player and I had a big win over Yvonne Lendl in doubles.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I've beaten Johnny Noah in doubles.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I made the third round of the US Open, third round of the Australian Open.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I've had an incredible, incredible life experience traveling the world.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: But I do feel like I'm in good shape.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: But I'm not the player I used to be, but I still feel pretty good.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Net player baseliner.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I was all about coming forward.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: My strength still to this day, is my quickness, my volleys.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I do not have that Alcaraz type forehand, but I'm definitely a double player all the way.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to see if I can throw Steve Stagg a couple of dollars, because he does a lottery to figure out who you're playing with.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I played with Stagg the first year that we did it and he was very distracted with all of the tennis tournament and I was not playing well and we didn't fare very well and I'm coming off knee surgery.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: These guys know oh yeah, here we go.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: We had to live it with them.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Listen the excuses again it's been plenty of time.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Be ready on October 3rd or 4th or whenever this is.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Here's my idea Let you and I hit the ball the day before it starts, just to get an idea and that way I can see your game and that way you can find out my weaknesses.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like you're going to have too many Other than the hamstring industry you had last year that knocked you out in the semifinals the way I heard it.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: That's embarrassing, but I promise you that I'm healthy.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Now he's coming, he's coming.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And Simon's got a big player too.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a fun.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: It's down in Fayetteville.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Steve Stack has a clay court tennis at his house.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: It's like a 50 and over tennis his house.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: It's going to be it's like a 50 and over tennis tournament weekend.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a lot of fun.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Sounds like it.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: I'm going to enjoy it.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I'm going to enjoy watching.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: Are you playing in there too?
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think so.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: I don't think they let me play no-transcript.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: I'm willing to make a donation for every ace you get by.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Josh, we can certainly make this a money maker for you, as long as it's a really lopsided outcome.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I'll jump on that bandwagon here you go, tim, it's your new fundraiser.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Beat the crap out of Josh.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: You guys need to be there to come watch yeah.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't miss it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: That'd be amazing.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Yep, tim, thank you for coming on with us today.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to meet you in person in a few months.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you for all that you do.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I mean again these guys, everybody's very chirpy on the podcast, everybody's listening intently to your story, what you've done with Luke, the way that you're raising funds I mean just major kudos to you and I thank you for coming on today and I'm excited to meet you in person.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Just spread awareness about, you know, children with brain injuries.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Teamlukeholpermindsorg is our website, which is our website.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Please get a chance, go to listen to Hope Beyond the Diagnosis, and it's an amazing documentary.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: It is out there and I would love for you to let me know what you think of it.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I will, and I listened to the other day the NFL segment that you sent over the ESPN segment.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I mean I had chills.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I'll make sure I share it with you guys.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: It's the Sunday countdown and they did a whole segment on him and his son and it's just like the hair on the back of your neck stands up for what has happened and transpired and the way that everybody's rallied around his son and Tim and the work that he's doing.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: So it's just an amazing story.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, guys.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: An amazing story.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, guys.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your time.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Pleasure, looking forward to meeting you.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you, cheers.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: See you, cheers.