Continuing their conversation about the progression of E-Sports, Russ talks with Greg and Ray about how the program has grown from just a few kids playing soccer to having about 700-800 kids participating per week across the Bay Area; expanded to multiple countries such as China, Guam, the Philippines, and India; and developed into multiple programs such as E-Soccer, E-Hoops, E-Karate, and, more recently, E-Dance. This growth has gained recognition and attention from multiple organizations, including the Warriors and the Earthquakes, leading to collaborations with both.
Episode References:
Continuing their conversation about the progression of E-Sports, Russ talks with Greg and Ray about how the program has grown from just a few kids playing soccer to having about 700-800 kids participating per week across the Bay Area; expanded to multiple countries such as China, Guam, the Philippines, and India; and developed into multiple programs such as E-Soccer, E-Hoops, E-Karate, and, more recently, E-Dance. This growth has gained recognition and attention from multiple organizations, including the Warriors and the Earthquakes, leading to collaborations with both.
Episode References:
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Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:did the digital scribbler podcast. We're excited that you're listening to us. We hope you'll share it with your friends. Um, it's a podcast. Our digital scribbler podcast is a podcast highlighting technologies for those with disabilities and inclusion programs. They provide the tools for anyone to start their inclusion story. I have with us today a ray Kim who has been a part of building and running the hoops program and Greg Bosniak has been part of building the original e-sport, which is east soccer. And uh, they're here today to give us sort of an update. Why don't we real quick, you give me an a in the sports update and, and I want you guys to give an east sports update. Sure. For all those families out there. Yeah. To know what's happening now,
Speaker 4:right. Well to, to kind of give you the full, the full perspective. So you know, as we've talked about, e-sports started in 2000 with just soccer. Now in the bay area alone, we have 20 programs. So we're, we have nine soccer programs around the bay area. We've got six e hoops programs, two karate programs, one fitness program. And one of our newest and exciting ones is now two e dance programs, one on the East Bay in West Bay. Do you personally get involved there? Right. Uh, no. I watch, I'd like to see, I like to see some Saturday nights I've been holding back. Um, and it's cool because, you know, as we said, we started foster city, but over the years we've, uh, you know, we have programs now in southern Nevada but also internationally. And of course we can talk more in detail about that. That's a super exciting part of watching this program go international. And so we, we've had programs over the years in India, Kenya, Philippines, um, which has really been phenomenal. And they've gotten involved with the, uh, with the, the, the, um, some of the professional programs there and they've gone into all kinds of different sports, not just soccer, Guam. And then even this past year, which I definitely look forward to give you some more details later on this. But we started one in China digitally. We launched one digitally through some, some web training. So that's an exciting thing. And that's a new frontier of what we're doing with these sports. And annually we have about seven to 800 kids and families in the bay area who participating and a also over the years it's been really cool, um, getting, you know, getting recognition and attention from great sports organizations like the Warrior schooled state warriors and the San Jose earthquakes because of what we've done in the community with inclusion and a, with our programs now, building relationships with them. And you know, we can talk in more detail later in the podcast, but just having some great uh, partnering and collaborating and doing special events with them at Avaya Stadium and at Oracle arena. And you can, uh, we'll link up some of this stuff to the Jefferson award and all that so that people can understand cause we got an earthquake's radar in part because of that. Yup. And sometimes it's hard for these organizations who want to do good. And I think university San Francisco,
Speaker 3:the San Jose earthquakes, the Golden State Warriors, Saint Mary's, I forget what they are. They, I forget, I forget what they're call with their mascot. Is the scenario, the gale scenarios gales. These, I think sometimes it's really hard for these universities to find the organizations and the find the people to help. True. And, and, and to then it's to their credit that they, that they, that attended that attentive. Um, that's a great, that's a great update. And then, um, what about this warrior's night thing that got went on ray with the hoops. Oh Wow. That was a, gosh, cause that's an update. Now this has taken place once or twice. This is not
Speaker 5:the, yeah. The second year. Um, and the warriors, it actually, uh, reached out to Greg and found us on online and was interested in you hoops and inclusion and, and um, they started an initiative of having a special needs family appreciation night last season. And so they invited a ie hoops and all the kids out. And it was, gosh, I mean, to want to be on it, part of a, any MBA arena, uh, it's, it's amazing, right. But then
Speaker 3:to fast arena and in the world right there, oracle, which they just had their last year in it. And, and you were part of that.
Speaker 5:Yeah. And it was just for these kids. I mean, they're, these kids were just, they're one of them. So many of the kids we talked to, their dream was I want to meet a NBA player, let alone an actual golden state warrior. Right. And they got that opportunity. They, the warriors reach out. They brought a us, um, to pregame the, all the kids and their parents were able to watch these warriors warming up, shooting around a, Steph curry was out there, one of these awesome kids from, uh, a the Berkeley hoops group. Um, Richie Gomez got our chance with Bobby drawn, Bobby's, you know, started his own ie hoops program up there. Uh, and we were able to get down to
Speaker 3:Bobby played basketball as I alluded to earlier, for the University of San Francisco. That's right. And that, and they, he played for the last team they had, that was, I can't remember exactly, but I believe they were ranked number one for awhile. They were certainly in the top five or 10 the entire time in those years. They had an extraordinary team with bill Cartwright. A carpenter. Yes. Yeah. Went for Boynes was my favorite player on that team. But I think it's important to note that Bobby has taken his division one skillset. He's a parent of, of some of the best coaches we've had in our program. Uh, and uh, uh, uh, how does Bobby know? Richie,
Speaker 5:you know, Bobby knew Richie from, I guess they are, they, that he knows his parents and Bobby was getting[inaudible] started up there cause Bobby was very passionate about basketball and, and inclusion and, um, through the relationship, Richie, who's a nine year old boy, he, he lost his sight. And um, but the boy loves basketball. And so, uh, Bobby brought Richie to this warriors night and they, they, I mean, Richard was great. Now, I saw the pictures him one, you know, they had your group holding the flag for the Star spangled banner, right? Yeah. So we had this, uh, we had the whole, um, so we had a team to do the opening of the national anthem, the flag. And so we had six of these kids, um, uh, rich. He was one of them, a few others where there being able to does, you know, half court size flag across the oracle arena. And what was interesting was the warriors were learning about inclusion on the fly. Meaning during the rehearsal they had the power tech desk going on these big loud noises, you know, things that were just not sensory friendly. And at one point, these kids and they play, we all said, hey, you know what? This is part of the thing that's gonna help us be inclusive, is understanding, uh, the environment we've got to create. And so, so on the fly, the warriors changed with the whole game. You aren't kidding me. They changed their whole game.
Speaker 3:I didn't hear about that. Why did I hear about that? And uh, the, the, the, the warrior's shout out to the warrior shout out
Speaker 5:and we said, all right, let's not do the cat. The big canon sound, let's, let's lower the power tech. There's all the actual flames. And so they changed everything on that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:What, or what multi billion dollar organization stops everything they are going to do for a few kids for the flags, for the flu flag ceremony. I understand. But they didn't do it for the, they did it for the kids. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Who does that? Yeah. Most people, you know that right? Most people are like, you know, we can't wait the crowd of 60,000 or whatever it is. We can't like do that. It takes too much of it. Cause I've been there, I've been to warriors games and the fire goes out on the little things and he, it makes you feel warm. It's loud. It's an, people love it. They do. Fans love it. They shut that down. So they shut that down. Shut that down. Rate. Totally set it down. Oh Wow. Cause we caught off Bob Meyer. Big shout out to Bob by for serving lake up. Who's the other owner? Yeah, Joe Lake. A there's one other owner there, Huh? Yeah. But I got to live. Give me the other owners. I got, I can't believe that.
Speaker 5:Yeah. And so amazed and inspired and they were just like, hey, what else is going to help? I mean, they were just ready to figure out what
Speaker 3:I want. Bob Meyer in the studio. I want to interview them. Yana Marie, you can get them ready then you can to go to his house today. Now you don't need to go to the south.[inaudible] be a stalker. I don't want to be bailing you out of jail. So I'm looking at a picture of Bobby Taran, Richie Gomez and some guy in a sweatshirt. Who's that guy?
Speaker 5:I'll be Steph curry number 30 curry. And this was before the game is right. This is right after our, Steph had just come off the court, uh, finished his shoot around routine and he took a moment to meet us and uh, meet with Richie there and with Bobby
Speaker 3:and, and I, I just want to say, and I, I saw pictures of, I think looney was in some pictures with kids. Yup. Um, I just think man
Speaker 5:Jones was there. They had a Jordan Bell, all these players.
Speaker 3:I, I just think the, the inspiration of this comes home to me when I see a multibillion dollar organization change their plans. Yeah. Yup. That shows a, that shows the desire to make a difference in the community. Uh, that shows a commitment to understanding that basketball's beyond that there's life that is more important than basketball. And I don't know how many people play basketball in their life. It is a really difficult thing. Obviously Steph Curry's all world, but it's a difficult thing to it to, while you're preparing for a game, you're trying to make sure that you went home court. So the, the last few games, I don't know, they probably had 12 games to go or something. When you went there. That's right. The last few games matter because they're fighting the nuggets and you're trying to fight the rockets and make sure they don't steal anything. Of course the rocket's just totally folded. But um, I, I can't say enough about it now. Now you guys played a game at halftime?
Speaker 5:Yeah. So they gave us the whole half time this year. So last night. Yeah, I mean, well last year it was just the pregame, right? The prime time slot, which is the, the game it says about five minute game before the opening ceremonies. So this year they were still impacted by last year and all the kids and those families, they moved to subside. Now we've got to highlight this at halftime. So we were the feature event at halftime and they let all the kids, all their mentors and some of our parents on the court during halftime. And then they had their, the where's own announcer courtside announced for what's out there doing play by play in the loud on the play. Like the A, because I didn't get to go because I didn't get a ticket for it, but they had their lawyers, a courtside announcer announcing play by play each steal each basket and these kids were just living the dream. Yeah,
Speaker 4:it's cool too because like you were saying, I mean even, yeah, I was there. I think we did great. It was the real started dude. I didn't get a ticket, but you know, it was cool. It kind of building on what you were talking about, how the warriors really, we're learning on the fly and adjusting and really working around. It was cool because you know, not only did they move us up to halftime show, but they said, man, we, we love what you're doing and we love this. We love inclusion and what you're doing with that. And they heard about our other sports programs and so they said this year, hey, we want to feature another one of your sports. And so they said, we've got this outdoor performance area between the Coliseum and Oracle. Uh, it's just awesome turf area and we have out bands and things. We'd love to have them. One of your other e-sports out there. So we had our Alameda II dance program going out there before the arena opened.[inaudible] it was in an area where they always dance after the, after the games over. I'm not sure. There's a section where all these people, that's what it is. It might be after the game side of it. Yes. They all dropped there in dance. The game's over. It's probably that area. Then it's the only area outside where they do performance. I know that from watching TV, I didn't get to go, I didn't get a ticket, but it was cool because they asked for that and then this whole flag ceremony came up because a couple of weeks later, Eric, for the warriors who I was working with and getting all these different things that he called me and said, hey, we have another opportunity. We'd love for your kids to be part of the flag ceremony. So it was great to go from last year doing prime time the game, which is the prime time slot before the game to doing calf time, doing the outdoor performance, doing the flag ceremony. I mean it was just a, we, we definitely felt like they rolled out the red carpet to give us an opportunity to really be able to showcase inclusion. So it was, it was really exciting.
Speaker 3:And um, and so, uh, the kids after the event was over, the kids went to, I mean they stayed and got to watch the game. It's like,
Speaker 4:yeah. So all the kids, after everything was done, we watched the game and then another feature that they didn't have as part of the day, but because we said, hey, it would really be awesome to do this again, they'd do it now and then is at all the programs that came wasn't just our program. They were other special needs programs that he'd come for that night. But they let all those families and kids come down on court and shoot a free throw. So they, so after the game was over, all the kids were able to line up and go down and shoot a free throw and be able to say, I shot a free throw right where Steph curry gets to shoot. So that was fully that
Speaker 3:you shot a free throw in one of the legendary, uh, uh, facilities, stadiums or whatever you call it, a basket for basketball that, that will no longer exist now. Right. And so one of the great memories of it will be, uh, was this, uh, what was the theme of the night? It was special needs family appreciation night was there. That is so incredible. I hope the warriors continue to do it. Yeah. Uh, for not only our program but for all the programs. So that's really cool. That's exciting. You know, it's interesting as I'm looking at this picture in front of me during the half time show as well, it wasn't really a show as a, it was the, um, the hot feature of all the kids playing their basketball scrimmage. I noticed that at that time the warriors were also playing the Detroit Pistons. And so some of the Pistons had come out early from halftime to try to get a warm up in or, but as I'm watching across court on the sides, not shown in this picture that I'm looking in front of right now, we had some of the Detroit Pistons players stop and just watching and then they're starting to cheer on some of these kids play Mousey. And it was just the funniest thing seeing these, you know, the, the opponent's team coming out. Yeah. And they were just like clapping. They're like, come on. And it was really quiet. I think it's important for people to know. There's a lot of criticism of athletes, you know, when an athlete, uh, gets into, uh, uh, a bit of trouble, um, it tends to be highlighted in the news in an extraordinary way. And I think those are the moments that people don't get to see. I, I think there are a lot of basketball players, football players, soccer players, hockey players. Yeah. They're just human beings. That's right. And I think what you saw in that moment was the humanity of guys who make millions of dollars. And I think too often the pictures are taken of them, or I'm sorry, the pictures are taken of of of different ones of them who may be in a bad moment. And too few of those pictures show up. Like where did, where was that picture on ESPN? Mm, well that's not even, this isn't even covered and I'm not saying they have to cover it, I'm just saying this goes on in stadiums all around the country, all the time where they're doing special things, but it's not going to get the ratings. Like I watch, I turn on my television, I recorded the game and I turn it on and I got to see just a little, a little clip of it. Right. And there was a, the announcers were, were at half time talking about it and they just had a little visual. But I was like, how different would it be if some of these announcers, instead of talking about what, what would happen is some guy's personal life, which maybe we need to know. Maybe we don't, I don't think we need to know more personally. But instead of doing all that they could have easily had half time said let's shave off the stats. Let's not worry about who got what and let's let 30 seconds of that game be seen. Right. And let those announcers watch. Cause those pistons players may have been watching, but the television, the media doesn't always want to watch. And I say this because I think you know, I, I think yes, these guys are making more money than most people in America. But they're there. There's a caricature written that they don't care. They just want to get to the team they want to play for. But when you tell that story about those pistons coming out, they were human beings. That's right. Who have kids of their own, who, some of them probably have a special needs kid connected to them one way or the other. Cause autism has just exploded in America, in the world. And so I think these guys are like, yeah, that's what it's about. How many of them remember being a little kids and plan out there in the many of the, I bet you played with special needs kids themselves because sports is one of the most equalizing and inclusive things that exist in the world. So it's really great. Um, do you guys have anything else on the update? I have a few questions for you.
Speaker 5:Go ahead. Pretty much it, I mean since, since um, uh, he hoops branched out into San Francisco in the last four years. We now have other, a schools and volunteers who, who actually have been coming regularly because they heard about it through word of mouth. It was organic. Yeah. So we had the, in San Francisco, we also have the University of Pacific dental school and uh, one of their volunteers was of just happened to be invited to the soccer program. They said, this is great and we heard about you hoop. So now we have dental students coming and volunteering at the USF, um, you hoops program. And these dental schools, these dental students are saying, I know one day and one of our patients are going to have special needs. So we're, we want to learn now about inclusion and what this is all about. And then a university of high school, we have a lot of teenagers now coming. They're a varsity basketball team comes out and volunteers now. Um, and so that's been really great. So when high school, again, university high, one of the premier, uh, prep high schools in San Francisco. Really?
Speaker 3:Yes. Well, we had a, we had a, we had to put a, we had to put a link to these, these schools and these programs, make sure that Nathan gets those so we can put a link to them just to give him a little shout out and let's, uh, you know, we gotta make sure and on, uh, on, uh, on, on our east sports site, if you're listening, uh, the podcast here in the digital scribbler podcast, uh, is, uh, uh, on our digital scribbler site. Um, you'll be able to find that a, but also it, uh, uh, maybe we'll put a, uh, put the, the, the pot, this particular podcast on e-sports, uh, get it on e-sports for us and maybe get a, get a nice pit. Do you guys work on the, the, do you have any connection to the east port site? I don't even know. Okay. You, Greg does. I don't, yeah, I think, I think, you know, one of the things I think people want, and I'll just give you guys a, just from my talks and hearing from people that are in the various programs, uh, wanting people want I think is they want more from that e-sports site and they want to be able to know that if I go there, I can find out everything that's going on. Right. Uh, and so I don't know if you guys have a, uh, maybe a, a set of, of, of goals or whatever, but maybe I could encourage you based on what parents are saying and doing, just kind of put a list together of things. Cause there's a few things that I want to, I want to mention to you and ask you questions about. So one, uh, does, does, does the, does the East port site, does e-sports have a social media presence, Facebook, Twitter, any of those things? It does. Um, cause people sometimes are looking for it or wanting to share about it. Yeah it does. And I would say one to your point, it's, it's, it's a good point that I think we need to beef it up. And since I think we have, we have ebbs and flows and how much it's used so they get in the summer we do better at, you know, having more presence on that. But I don't think consistently because, cause I think there are people, I get asked questions by people as far away as like other countries in the, and then by other states and they, they want to know is there anything on the east West site that is like a kit that we can download and say, okay, I wanna start a you hoops. Yeah. We actually do. We, we, we actually rebuilt the site quite a bit last summer. So, um, it is exciting. We do have a start your own section now that has some videos, has tutorials and has documents that you can download that, that basically walk you through basics of how to, how to coach kids with different types of special needs. And so there's a lot of really great stuff on there and it ties into, you know, the timing of last year rebuilding the site. I got an email from a woman in China and a part in it and she said she had heard about these sports program. She had a group of families that was, she was a special needs teacher at a group of families, wanted to start a program and of course we couldn't send a team there but I was able to direct her to the site, all the different parts of the site to learn, learn from. And then we did two Facebook, uh, video trainings with her. She had a room of like 20 volunteers and people in it somewhere in a dining room somewhere in China. And we did some training. And then they watched the program really fast. That's, you know, the, the website really making a difference. But so do you have any goals for expanding hoops? Right? Uh, W we do in terms of, we actually have the, one of the goals we've been talking about is there are certain high schools that have actually had an approaching saying we would like to have our own use. We're going to on our campus some of these private schools in San Francisco, downtown. I'm in expanding it beyond San Francisco. Do you have any plans for like getting it out to, uh, Alameda for instance, or getting it to, uh, the Santa Clara County? Uh, do you have any plans like that yet or we need to work on those more. I mean, we've had a requests from people in other cities like in Los Angeles and um, but just[inaudible] but here the area, no, we need to actually work on more of a Umat Magic Johnson through hoops. Right? Yeah. I got, I was very lucky to be magic step down from the Lakers so he could join the hoops.[inaudible], you know, it's not, I ain't no magics and I got a plan to take this thing to the next level. So, so, but have you thought much about it or is that like a new thought? Do I think about actually a new thought? Cause I think we are. We are. Um, and that's how we have to be thinking more. Yeah. Because I think we were just, I think we finally got to a point where things are flowing now locally, but I think this is the inclusion aspect is too good to be. So d d w did Bobby Giran that we talked about earlier, the former division one player for University of San Francisco back in the days of bill Cartwright, et Cetera, that he just launched his own, you know, Bobby actually had come to summer e hoops event San Francisco and he decided, hey, I'm going to launch my own[inaudible] Bobby with just a few friends and his local neighborhood. Yeah. Found a community center and decided here's what we're going to happen. And they had a huge turnout just even for kids. Why can't, why can't people do that? I can't, why can't, why can't we just say, Hey, let's start 10 10 hoops or something. I don't know. And like when I was growing up, of course I grew in the Midwest, you know, I had a hoop on my, on my house and a in on my street were some kids who were probably, I was in high school kids probably from ages eight to 11 maybe. And they used to always see, they saw me out there, which I didn't always like cause I was trying to work out, but they thought me out there. They always come down and want to play and I would spend an hour letting them shoot, showing them how to shoot, doing all these kinds of things. So technically I had a f, a version of[inaudible]. I don't remember what kids had special needs or not, but they raised kids in my neighborhood. In fact, when I went to college, they would come down to the house and knock on the door and ask my mom, where's Russ? We want to play basketball. And she kept trying to tell them he's gone to college, but they just couldn't. It took a while for them to get that sort through their their mind. But I'm wondering if you shouldn't be exploring the idea. It's a great idea and I learned with the soccer is you don't want to control it too much. You want to let it, you want to let it give birth. Like when III karate started, we, we fanned the flames of encouragement at first. That's I was, I was like, well, we don't
Speaker 4:want to lose the brand right. The way it's done and the process. But what you realize is there's millions of kids that need to be included. Who cares how it all flows out. And even later on if someone gets to start later on, they can get technicals and we started out. We weren't, you know, we didn't have all the things figured out that we figured out later, but I'm thinking that that would be a good goal. That's great. I love that too because, and that's why these kinds of discussions are great because I see myself, I see us looking for more opportunities to build more partnerships like we have with USF, St Mary's Warriors, earthquakes. Um, but what you're talking about is great because you're right, as the, with with the social, with the social media presence, building up and with doing more on the web. You're right, we could, we could be able to roll it out. So in neighborhoods
Speaker 6:where people can get their hands on that material and learn, they can start, start smaller. Naples,
Speaker 2:thank you
Speaker 6:for listening to the digital scribbler podcast. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe to the feed and please leave a five star rating and brightest review. Also, make sure to check out digital scribbler.com to learn more about our apps, products, and efforts to help bring inclusion into the mainstream. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next.