Digital Scribbler has launched its pilot episode discussing the benefits and necessity of creating an inclusive environment for everyone. The founders of the internationally known inclusive program, E-Soccer, Russ Ewell and Greg Bodzioch, discuss how they went about beginning the program.
With the “e” standing for “exceptional,” E-Soccer was meant to bridge the gap between children with special needs and their neurotypical peers. Since its start in 2001, the program has exponentially grown, expanding from a single soccer field in the Bay Area to programs across the country and world. Today, kids can participate in not only E-Soccer, but a variety of E-Sports as well, ranging from E-Hoops to E-Dance.
As Russ and Greg discuss in the podcast, this program is so much more than something to do on a Saturday morning. It provides friends and companions for kids with special needs throughout the rest of their lives, and imparts a perspective and heart to neurotypical children that they will carry with them forever. To find out more about the program, go to e-sports.org to learn how to get involved.
Take a listen as they share their story on the first episode of "Digital Scribbler"
Digital Scribbler has launched its pilot episode discussing the benefits and necessity of creating an inclusive environment for everyone. The founders of the internationally known inclusive program, E-Soccer, Russ Ewell and Greg Bodzioch, discuss how they went about beginning the program.
With the “e” standing for “exceptional,” E-Soccer was meant to bridge the gap between children with special needs and their neurotypical peers. Since its start in 2001, the program has exponentially grown, expanding from a single soccer field in the Bay Area to programs across the country and world. Today, kids can participate in not only E-Soccer, but a variety of E-Sports as well, ranging from E-Hoops to E-Dance.
As Russ and Greg discuss in the podcast, this program is so much more than something to do on a Saturday morning. It provides friends and companions for kids with special needs throughout the rest of their lives, and imparts a perspective and heart to neurotypical children that they will carry with them forever. To find out more about the program, go to e-sports.org to learn how to get involved.
Take a listen as they share their story on the first episode of "Digital Scribbler"
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Speaker 2:welcome to our, this is me podcasts. Yes. We found our theme in the movie, the greatest showman. The purpose of this podcast is to inspire people around the world to embrace the inclusion of those disabilities and to change this world by making it more accessible to those disabilities. Our specific focus will be to share stories, provide information and insight to inspire us in you to change the world as families, friends and communities who advocate for a world inclusive and accessible to those with disabilities. Our mindset must be that of Alan Kay who said, it's easier to invent the future than predicted or as other iterations from fingers like Peter Drucker. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. This is me, is an incredible song from the movie, the greatest show man, as I already alluded to, it's a song of empowerment that appears in that movie after a scene where a Ginny Len, who's an opera singer performs, and at that time, PT Barnum was amidst some aristocratic and wealthy people and he became a shame to allow them to come in and see the people he had been working with, which were people who had unusual appearances, unusual backgrounds, even some disabilities of types and PT. Parnham was really so ashamed of me. He wouldn't let them in. It hurt the people that were in his group that he had really rescued and given purpose to and that pain, they turn in the movie into the song. This is me and the song. It starts out with an incredible set of lyrics, a powerful set of lyrics. I'm not a stranger to the dark hideaway. They say, because we don't want your broken parts. I've learned to be ashamed of all my scars. Runaway. They say, no one will love you as you are, but I won't let them break me down to dust. I know that there's a place for us for we are glorious. When the sharpest words want to cut me down, I'm going to send a flood going to drown them out. I am brave, I am bruised. I am whom I meant to be. This is me. Look out cause here I come and I'm marching onto the beat I drum. I'm not scared to be seen. I make no apologies. This is me. It's an extraordinary song with extraordinary lyrics that really guide us to be the kind of people that say we're not going to be ashamed. And again that's what this podcast is about. Today we have Greg Bods, yacht, Nathan Shave runoff and myself for this first iteration of the, this is me podcast. We are going to tell the story of inclusion and accessibility through e-sports for the family or individual disabilities for their friends, for their community who want to meet the grief, the pain, the suffering, the obstacles, the injustice, the loneliness of life with disabilities. If you want to meet it with the spirit of innovation, you found the right podcast. If you want to be able to have determination and not be in golf by despair, you found the right podcast. We choose and hope you will too, to defy gravity and say, this is me. And so we'll began talking about our east sports programs. Greg and I were riding in a car one day and came up with this program and I had read an article about hand eye coordination being less easy to develop than foot to eye coordination. But I want to let Greg start the story by telling you a little bit about our launch and about his history as we go on and tell this great story of E-sports, a story of inclusion and accessibility.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for inviting me on today, Russ. Um, it's been an amazing 19 year journey, uh, amazing that, that you and I were riding in that car in, uh, early 2000. Um, and I remember as you know, it was, it was incredible to be able to just have a friendship for so many years. And at the time I remember I was a young married guy with no kids. And here you are a, you know, a, a married with two boys with significant special needs. And I just remember us talking on the ride about your experience with your boys and wanting them to get involved in a sports environment where they can build friendships, not only with other kids with special needs, but as well typical kids. And you know, of course, my background in soccer, having grown up all my life, playing competitively, loving, being passionate about the game and uh, wanting to learn how to coach more and do that as I, as I aged. Um, I just remember it was that car ride was the genesis of the idea to bring kids that were typical and special needs together on a field. Because, you know, just because of our friendship, I want it to be able to help your kids have that opportunity. I know all the years of, of uh, uh, playing sports and the camaraderie, the bonding, the, all the social benefits that I got from growing up playing sports. I remember best sharing stories, riding in the car about what it was like growing up on sports teams you play in basketball growing up, me playing soccer and all the great memories we had and, and, and us just dreaming about those opportunities for your boys and them being able to be involved with typical kids and, and what could become from that. So I think that was, that was a, I remember that that car ride was just a couple of weeks later we met at a small elementary school bow ditch. Um, uh, I think it was either middle school or you here. That was, that was April of 2000 when we at that field. And I remember we went out there, we said, hey, let's just gather, I was going to bring some of my soccer friends guys that I coach and play with and, and you know, you, you had some families in mind that had typical kids, special needs kids and we said, they, let's just meet out there. I think we had like eight kids total, six to eight kids. I think, um, about half of them were typical and half had special needs. And then I came with three or four other guys who, who I play soccer with.
Speaker 2:And so our car ride must've been, do you think it was in January or was it earlier than that? I can't remember what it was around. It was either around the holidays of the year before or January, February, somewhere in there. Yeah. Cause I read the article and I can't remember what, what, what, uh, what periodically journal I was reading, cause I read a lot of them. It wasn't a special needs one. Uh, and they said very specifically the reason that soccer was a global sport was because it was played all over the world, certainly. But the reasoning that the writer had was, uh, flipped to eye coordination comes much faster than hand-eye coordination. And that, uh, it made me think about playing kickball when I was growing up in school and that everybody played kickball. And I don't even know if people know that kickball is, but you know, you're kind of like a baseball game and you get this little rubber, big rubber ball and then you roll it and then people get to kick it. I remember in elementary school that was the first sport we played and, and that, but then you go to, at that time, baseball and that was really hard for a lot of kids because now you've got to have hand eye. And so I remember us having that whole discussion in the car and because I couldn't stand soccer growing up, like I you over time. Well I remember, I remember in high school we had three guys come over from England to our high school and they were all soccer players and they returned into football players, American football players, because we had no soccer at the school. Now, it's funny, as my high school now is one of the better soccer, uh, teams in Michigan at that time we had no soccer. So the mindset coming up growing up in the 70s was soccer's not an American sport. You knew about Palae. Yeah. But you didn't really do that. So the only reason I brought it up as I went, if foot eye coordination comes quicker, sacro be the best sports for my kids to learn. Now here's the interesting thing. I didn't figure that out too. We did a little league baseball, right? I don't know if you remember that idea. I remember you talking about. So my son Nick was eight. Jonathan was eight, and we went to a little league baseball and we were on a special needs team. The community was really great and they had a special needs, uh, team for, um, uh, the baseball teams. And so I remember it was picture day and you all the teams show up and I'm coming out there with Jonathan and I'm kind of nervous, you know, cause you know, he's, he's got down syndrome and, and, and, and, and, uh, and we're, we're walking in and I'm really nervous and I'm looking for the team and I keep asking people, well, where do we go again? Where's it at? And we wind along and we're going past all these teams, having so much fun and getting ready for the picture. And in the very back is where they have the special needs team, which of course now that we know what we know, we would have put them in the very front, right, for ease of accessibility and, and, and we would've, we would've had him playing on the teams with the kids that were typical. But I went back there and it was a tremendous experience being with them. But I remember at one point a fly ball went up and, and uh, and it was going to come down on some kids and my son and I ended up reaching out and catching it and then sort of reprimanded me as well. We don't do that because we want them to, you know, do this thing on their own. And I remember going, okay, this doesn't remind me at all what I was like growing up. Number one, when I was growing up in little league, the parents were all on the sidelines and it was a community thing, right? And everybody was like invested in everybody else's kid. Yeah. And it was just such an extraordinarily fun experience. And I was like, we're not in fun. I remember one day I was driving to the, the, the field and I looked at Jonathan in the back and he didn't look too happy. And I looked at myself in the rear view mirror and I was like, I don't do this if we're not having freight. Right. This is no good to know that say we need something different. Yeah. And so that's what led to our[inaudible] yet you're not happy. Yes, exactly. You're not even there. So that's what led to me come in. I read the article and I went to you, Greg, and I was like, I knew you were the most passionate and the best soccer player, uh, that I'd ever met. Uh, and of course you'd done some, uh, you know, go into your Maryland, UCLA[inaudible]. I remember you playing soccer in DC with some guys that were really good soccer players. And I went to you and I asked the question and I remember, I remember the question. I said, so Greg, I really had this idea about soccer, but I don't know if it'll work and, and, and, and let me tell you the idea. And I said, I'm, I'm thinking maybe my kids can learn this faster. And you go, oh yeah, of course. And of course, you know, you at that point, you're right. He goes, you'll absolutely work. And I remember feeling so inspired when you said that to me. Yeah. Because I knew nothing about soccer.
Speaker 3:Well, it's funny cause I was, I was talking about this the other day. How, um, for me at that moment, I remember talking to you about the idea and for me, I had always been thinking boys soccer. For me, all my life was for me. I mean, I, I had, I had played soccer at, you know, at a competitive level all through high school, played in college in Spain, at University of Madrid, played in[inaudible] at UCLA, um, not at the school, but was playing Semipro ball there in the, in the area, just playing at a high level and my life. But it was always trying to develop my skills to be a better player for me. And I, and I remember thinking, wow, I have never used my passion for soccer to help somebody else specifically on a soccer field. So I just remember thinking, what a joy, what a pleasure would be to be able to use that passion to help your kids. And, and of course, just because of our friendship, I thought this is going to be an amazing way for me to give back. So much of what I've been giving all the years of, of the training I'd had, the experiences I had, and I just thought, boy, that'll be incredible for your boys, Jonathan and Jordan and for all the other kids that were involved.
Speaker 2:And what's funny about it is this. So if you're out there listening, your parent, and you may be thinking, what is east soccer? You guys haven't told us what it is yet. Or if you're a coach or you're someone in the neighborhood or for anyone, what will, okay, east soccer, east soccer was me. Well, first of all, the e stands for exceptional. And the reason we chose exceptional is because it was going to be something uniquely different that met needs that were unmet so that it was an exceptional sporting environment. And Greg and I both having played at a, at a variety of levels is he's already alluded to soccer and basketball. Uh, the, um, and Greg can talk, he can talk more about iie and all that in a minute. He'll give you more detail. But, um, the, the thing that, that, that it really was about was I, I sat down and said, this has gotta be inclusive. Right? And so if you're out there, and we're not saying that if you don't want your kids in an inclusive program and you'd prefer they be with special needs kids, that's totally fine. So there's nothing wrong with that. We were telling the story of what we did, and I looked at Special Olympics and I love Special Olympics and it was awesome. But at that point I was like, I'm looking for something that will allow my son to be part of society for his whole life. It mainstream is not even the word to say because mainstream implies I'm trying to get him into something. Uh, no, it just that he can function as part of our society. And when I went to the baseball practice that day, the pitcher day, what I saw was for the rest of his life, he's going to be separate from his friends because some of his friends were playing on the other teams, but he wasn't allowed to play with them because he had to be on the special needs team. Now I understood his limits and I understand having played sports that there's a certain level of sport you can't play if you have a disability on a competitive level with, uh, an interscholastic say high school sports or cause I get that. Um, but when they're very young and nobody's getting signed up for the NBA or major league baseball or major league soccer, there's no reason why they can't stay with their friends. And so I sat down with a piece of paper and I began to write down, okay, well how would we do this? And so the first thing I wrote down is that has to be inclusive. And one of the battles we've continually fought with these forces, sometimes people take it and they want to make it only special needs kids. And one of the reasons is they have difficulty finding volunteers. So with east soccer, which you do, this is the original, the original framework is you have some special needs kids that you want to be included, but you go out in a good age group to get his middle schoolers and to be, to be like peer coaches or, or, or, or to work with the kids. Uh, it really the, the oversight coaches and then you get peers that are the same age as the special needs kids and they play with them. So what you've got is you've got an eight year old with special needs and eight year old is typical and a middle schooler who's typical and they're all working together in little groups to learn how to develop. And at that time we had a physical therapist who joined us and he was able to help us come up with really development plans that would take whatever they were doing at school or whatever they were doing at their therapy during the week. We would try to take those things and you soccer to enhance those developmental goals. Pretty extraordinary. And then the coaches we had come in were friends of Greg people we knew and we would work with the coaches before practice to help them learn because many of them didn't learn, they didn't know how to work as special needs kids, but even more importantly, they didn't know how to include special needs kids and typical kids and including them. Is, is, is, is a work now you, if you're out there listening, you may say, now this is really work. Well, yeah, it does really work in Greg. We'll give you some details. He'll give you some numbers on it. Um, but it, it doesn't work if you don't work. And so you have to get out there and you have to say, okay, I'm going to have to work at relationships. And I worked real hard as a parent at relationships with middle school families. Middle school parents were typical, showing them how being in an inclusive coaching environment would allow them to develop their character would allow them to develop empathy. Because to me, and if you look at this statistically when it comes to, uh, employment, emotional intelligence is one of the highest ones out there. Uh, if you have that quality, you can get a job almost anywhere. And so I spent a lot of time really recruiting middle school kids, recruiting typical kids. And one of the best ways we did it is we said, if you come and join this program, we will coach you up and how to play soccer. So you can do really well. So again, before I turn it back to Greg, east soccer is an inclusive sports program that focuses on the soccer, but we now have e-sports and he'll tell you more about that. But inclusive meaning typical kids alongside special needs, kids with typical coaches to make sure that they have friends forever. Last thing I'll say before Greg takes over. When I was in high school, I ended up being saved in certain situations where I could've been bullied because I knew guys who are older athletes in the school and were stars and that was one of our principles when, when when our special needs kids had middle school and high school, we want them to have athletes and kids who are well integrated in their school to stand up for them and make sure they're safe and guess what? Here we are. I know my oldest son is 26 years old and he asks all those friends that he started out with, they all protect them. They go on double dates together, they are do weddings together. It just is an amazing thing, but it all began in that little field. Valdez. But let me let Greg give you a little bit more detail on this. I'll start with where you ended because it reminds me of that, that the word I think of is championing, and that's one of the coolest aspects of the program over the years that you're talking about watching, you know, having been there for the whole ride over the past 19 years. But watching the typical and the, and a, the kids with special needs working together and how they, how the friendships champion them as they go through different stages of school and life and just seeing those friendships develop and seeing them. Um, seeing, you know, some of the kids that were typical seven, eight year olds now in their 20s in college and having gone through high school, some of these kids that they coached and the ways that they not only champion them, but they were just great friends and they help them have an incredible, very typical high school experience. And I know, um, you know, when I was thinking about as you were talking about just getting, getting the coaches and teaching the coaches and teaching the kids, you know, thing. When we started with e we put the e and e soccer not only to be exceptional, but we said that word means education.[inaudible] the e and e soccer. Not only for exceptional because all children are exceptional, but the, he really also implies and stands for education because we started, as you know, we started not knowing what
Speaker 3:we were doing and mark our physical therapists, we were all learning on the ground in the trenches week by week. And one time I was asked, so, you know, where did you, you know, when did this grand idea to create this program happen? And I said, it just evolved. We just showed up one week at a park and we wanted to help the kids. We wanted them to be included with each other and we were going to do soccer, but we didn't know exactly how it was going to look. And so we were learning how to take the stuff that mark had, a, the, the, the knowledge he had from physical therapy, the knowledge that I had playing the game of soccer and coaching at some, you know, just nominal level. And we put it all together and just because of our care for the kids and getting them together, we were learning every week. And I remember meeting after the, after the games or after the trainings and talking about what worked and what didn't and what can we do better next week. And that's how it evolved. That's how it grew from, you know, just eight kids on a field and at bout itch a school back in 2000 over the years. Um, and you know, of course after about a year or so, I think we split and we had, we, we went to from a West Bay program to then opening up a branch with an East Bay program because we had families coming from way out in Contra Costa here in the bay area, um, up in San Francisco, south of us. They were coming from all over because families were talking about what we were doing and they were inviting friends. And of course the special needs community is so interconnected that we realize we, I don't think when we started we realized we're doing something that is uniquely meeting a need and we're doing sports in a way that's not happening. It was happening in, in classrooms maybe, but it was only being done. It was only in theory on a, on a, in a sports environment. And so anyway, I digress, but I think that's a, you know, that,
Speaker 2:you may remember this story because, uh, we had about a, I forget the numbers, but whatever it was, eight kids, eight coaches or whatever. And then the, the nice thing about it when we started out was we did it just like we did when we were grown up. We had the parents on the sidelines and one of the people, it's gonna important to bring in here in a minute is we're trying to get laid. The groundwork is Nathan because he came as a kid. And in that, in the, in the, in the plan, and I want the listeners, I want our listeners to be able to, uh, I want our listeners to be able to hear a from someone who grew up in the program as a kid now is married, uh, in, in building his own family. But, um, um, I remember after, I don't know, maybe three or four weeks, it was starting to really go, yeah, we were, we were finding our way. I like that you said education and that we were learning cause we were learning and you and I had no idea what was going on and we had run things. I mean, I, I'd, I'd built and run a lot of events in organizations, but I'd never done anything like this. Um, but I remember I went home one day and, uh, we had, you know, finished on up and I was sitting down for a minute and, and, um, and gelled red reminded me or I told Gail, I said, there was a, um, who is it? Uh, a woman came by that we kind of knew whether, and asked if she could have her kid be in the[inaudible] join us. And I was like, aw, man, you know, I, I did this for my kids and I'm trying to get my kids' friends and I'm trying to get my kids set up and it's hard enough in life, but now I'm, I'm doing this for my kids. And if you're out there, you know what you probably, some of you can relate. And uh, and, and, and when I told my wife, I go, why? You know, I don't really want to add people because we're just getting going. And she goes, are you kidding? Do you know what parents with special needs kids are going through out there and the help they need? And, and, and I think it just awakened me to, this is not about me, that this wasn't about my kids. This was about an extraordinary number of kids around the world that didn't have those needs met. And I think that's, that was the only way. Otherwise I would've kept it at[inaudible] and we'd have just been us doing it for, to this day probably. But that's the only reason we expanded it. We didn't, we didn't expand it because we even realize, like you said, the neat, we didn't start there. That's not where we started tackling, but we recognized. Yeah. And it's important if you're out there, cause you maybe, you know, I grew up in a small town in a pretty small town in a, in Michigan. I mean set. Graham's the second largest city but a small suburb outside of it. You may be out there living in a, in a place where people you feel like aren't interested in this or you don't have the resources. You know, it wasn't that hard to get started. Um, you can just find your friends and find parents that are your friends. All you need is a couple of families you know, that are your friends. Have typical kids. And just find the time that works. It may not be Saturday. That's when we started, maybe Sunday. And, and just get them to come out and say, I just want to be able to begin to build a social network, a fabric for my kids to have for a lifetime. Because especially these parents, we know we may not be around forever and we want somebody to be there and to know our kids and understand them. And I know some parents I talked to think, well no one will want to do this. Um, there are a lot of people who want to do it. It's just a matter of being persevering to find them. And we'll talk more about that in, in, in, in further, in future iterations of the podcast. Cause we're going to do, I think we're going to need to do four or five on this just to make sure that you not only understand the story but you get some of the practicals. But I have a couple of questions for you Greg. Um, so how many kids would you say are in east soccer programs and e-sports maybe? Actually, can you spell out what the East sports programs are today? We started with east soccer. Just spell out with the east coast. So we started with east soccer in 2000 the year 2000. And then we expanded into our, our, our second sport of III karate in 2003. Then after that, um, somewhere between 2005 and 2010, we uh, launched our, uh, e hoops program, which has really taken off and we can talk a lot more about that one. Um, and then a couple of years ago we, we, uh, went to iie fitness and we started any fitness program. And then just over the past year or so we started some he dance programs that are sort of our newest, our newest, uh, venture and do another sport. Now have you joined the dance programs, Greg? Uh, no, not, not quite yet. I don't want to break out the disc move, so I'm afraid I might break something if I joined the dance. So. Okay. So that's good. That lets us know now are there any, any future e sports programs that you think are going to come on the horizon? Well, you may not even know this yourself, but I had been talking to one of the moms whose daughter was a big part of our program for many years and we're working, she's working with YMCA to get an east swim going as well. Man, that should be just another, another opportunity that will be phenomenal. Then you can build that big pool for us and I big facility now I know a lot of you're excited out there, you're listening in your, your, your, your, you're getting fired up but you're still not fully convinced that people will want to do it. So we have Nathan Shaffer an off in his family, has been a friend of our families for multiple decades. Uh, but maybe Nathan you can tell people a little bit about why you are willing to get involved in a program as a typical kid growing up to help special needs kids.
Speaker 4:It's funny as you're talking about the baseball stuff earlier, I'm like, my family was the baseball family. Like I have grandparents who played in the majors and the minors and so like we just like grew up playing baseball. So I was one of those kids and you know, playing baseball and like not, you know, being conscious of like other kids around me, you know, and like the different needs and um, I know I started, it's a little embarrassing now, but I would argue with my dad was trying to get me to come out to you soccer when I was seventh, eighth grade and he would, I would fight him tooth and nail cause I didn't want to go cause I wanted to watch Spiderman cartoons in the morning. You know, I was just so wrapped up in my own whatever thinking I'm like, oh my God, looking back now, I'm like, Geez Whiz, come on Spiderman stuff though. Yeah, exactly. Don't you can't wreck, I like iron man more but I was all in it but I was one of those middle school kids that you're referring to that came out in seventh and eighth grade and just started working with kids with special needs. Um, and not, I think at the time I was just so young and like didn't really like comprehend the full impact that it was making on me. Then also my peers around me, my mind jumps to kind of this story that I was personally connecting with an old high school friend. He reminded, I didn't even think about this, but he reminded me that like when we were in high school and we had a PE class together in our class, there was like, there was a kid with special needs and I would always talk to them. I would like hold the door open for them and whatever. And like I'd had no memory of this. But he, he told me, he was like, man, I took notice of that because it was so different than what everybody else just ignored the kid in class. But like I think I shared that cause I'm like, it's Kinda crazy just you start at that young age and it becomes so just natural or just so normal to just interact and like see someone else's appear. You know, who, if they might have a disability or whatever. So I know when I look back and I, we've been, I've been doing every step pretty much every Saturday since I was in seventh, eighth grade. I've been doing east soccer and I'm 28, so I don't even know how many years that is. But um, and still doing it even to this day. But I think it's just made a great impact on how I view people. Right. Just in general, you
Speaker 2:know, having compassion and like looking at people just as peers as equal and everybody's going through something, but everybody at the same time is also normal. Now, weren't you playing another sport when you, uh, when you were in high school that you ended up sort of lowering, it's lowering the priority on playing that sport and whatever it would interfere with your being able to be at east soccer? Oh Man. I W I grew up playing baseball, basketball, football, ran track in high school. So like oftentimes games would be on Saturdays or track meets would be on Saturdays or whatever, you know, and I would make sure I'm at east soccer or even if it was like one of those like super far away track meets where we'd have to go travel. I would make sure that like the kids that I would be working with, addie soccer were taking care of when I had to leave and I couldn't be there. So I would make sure to communicate ahead of time and like make sure, cause I was like, these are my guys, these are my dudes, you know, and like I want to take care of them and make sure they have a good experience on a Saturday morning, you know? So even if I physically could not be there, there was still like just an awareness or a consciousness of like, these are my friends. You know, you, you probably remember, but in Greg goes to, there were a lot of people who showed up to volunteer that were friends of yours and friends of other people in the program. And the reason I'm bringing this up, and maybe you and Greg can talk about that for a minute, but the reason I'm bringing it up is, as a parent of special needs kids, it can be very difficult to believe there's someone like you, like I'm sure there are people out there right now going, okay, that Guy Nathan is a one of a kind person. But I think there's much more of an appetite for it. But what I've noticed is people don't, who don't have any familiarity with kids with special needs may want to include them, but they're afraid that they'll make a mistake, they'll say the wrong thing. Uh, and, and so we saw us, we still see a significant of people volunteering. Right? Absolutely. Well, I mean, I mean that was one of the things that I was thinking about the other day. At some point in our program, we, you know, we realize that there are so many neat, there's so many kids coming that we want to be able to involve in the programs, but we don't have enough volunteers. And so just like you mentioned a guys like you and Nate who are part of our program and it loved it. You would bring friends from your high school. And this was starting to happen as we grew over the years into multiple programs, we started to see a pipeline of these coaches coming, these volunteer coaches coming from high schools, middle schools, colleges. And that was in, you know, in part what even spawned and open doorways for us to start[inaudible] hoops programs at university San Francisco, St Mary's College here in the bay area. Because, and let's, let's make a transition because Nate, you can talk for a minute about your sister cause she also was in it and she sent some stuff that's pretty extraordinary with, with, and again, for those listening, remember this is a program started in 2000. This is 2018 and what I'm trying to encourage everybody about is there are kids out there that'll go up, the adults who want to be friends with your kid now and, and, and will want to be for a lifetime. And if you hear this story, uh, Nathan can tell you about with regard to your sister, you'll be impressed with what she's done with her life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was going to add to what you just said. I think like typical kids, they want to be friends. They just don't necessarily know it at the moment. But if you put them in that environment, like it's just gonna become natural, you know, for them. Um, and yeah, so my older brother and then my younger sister, we, you know, we're doing east soccer and spending time together and then she ended up, um, uh, going to college over in the East Bay. She was one of the support people in helping a group start St Mary's he hoops. And then now she's working in San Francisco in this city and she's brought many of the kids, she works at a private high school to he hoops. And she just sent me, she actually just sent me a picture this morning that they're ie hoops, like volunteers that come from her private high school. They made it into the yearbook, like the, they're like vault small bullets. And so it's become, it's, and she's presented to the, to the high school and she's got other, other, uh, high school students to also like stand up with her and like, you know, a champion he hoops and getting more volunteers to come out. It's slowly but surely becoming like a fabric of that school where like she's brought out students and they're bringing out their friends too. So it's slowly spreading to kind of this in this, in this little high school, whatever. And it's been, I can feel super proud of her cause I'm like, she's, she's there and she just has a heart for, you know, getting into kids, volunteer building, building the character of these kids.
Speaker 2:And I, I think it's important, you know, for people to be able to see anybody who's listening that that's how it changes the world. That, you know, we live at a time where there's a lot of acrimony, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of negativity. It's difficult to watch the news. It's difficult to watch society sometimes because there's so much conflict. And one of the thing that is I think amazing is how much this experience teaches us. Not just to be empathetic toward those with special needs, but it teaches us to be empathetic toward everybody. I think you tend to be able to respect differences. And as Nathan alluded to, we're in the bay area specifically, we're in silicon valley doing this, which, you know, I don't know that silicon valley in all the engineering and the technology work we do down here, I'm not sure we are known as the most empathetic place in the world. So, yeah. So, so the fact that it's succeeded here and, and, and we started with, with one, a little a group at a about outage middle school where Canadian geese would migrate to and before the practices or the, the, the, the games and the training, we had to go out there, the dads went out there with shovels to remove all of the Canadian geese. Uh, you know, yes, exactly. And, and, and, uh, but, but that's what I remember my friends and, and their, my dad and their friends doing, they were always clearing off something, cleaning up something, mowing something, cutting something, putting together. Um, but, uh, we, we, we, we did, we did all these kinds of things. And I, and I, and I, and I think now when you look at what happened with the kids, and we'll have more stories like that as we began it, uh, to tell this that we did all this in silicon valley. I know if you're living in the Midwest, the south, where there tends to be sometimes a little bit more community than in, in, in, in the, the technology corridors of silicon valley, these things can be extraordinary. And once people learn to be tolerant, if people with special needs, they become tolerant of a different gender, they become tolerant of different color. They become tolerant of different socioeconomic and not just tolerant, even empathetic toward. Right. Um, so, you know, we're gonna wrap up this, this, uh, this, this episode, but, uh, what would you want to leave him with Greg? Anything before we, and again, what we're going to probably deliver three, four more of these, but what would you want to live with?
Speaker 3:Well, one um, one fine. As I was hearing you share, Nate, your story about you personally and then about your sister and, uh, as we're touching on so many things, know, like you said, stories are flooding my mind that, you know, there's so many amazing things to share, but I think one of the, when I look at east soccer and where it's gone from day one in 2000 with just a few kids, a few coaches and all, and I think about not just how it's spread to so many multiple programs, but I think about all the different, what you were just saying, when I think about all the different types of people that it's brought together and that it's helped grow in different ways for kids with special needs, building friendships, you know, learning a sport and building friendships with typical kids in that environment. Incredible for all the typical kids, all the siblings of the special needs kids who had been a part of the program that have learned all those characteristics, that compassion, the leadership aspect of helping the other kids. Um, the selflessness, all, all the, the empathy, all those, all those soft skills in those characters skills and heart skills, um, that have helped the typical kids. And I think about, um, the community connection, what we were talking about, all the different organizations now, the colleges, the high schools that are sending their kids and it's win win for us and for them. These kids are getting to grow up serving, learning the things I was just talking about the typical coaches and kids would, would, would benefit from but as well, um, they're getting community service hours to help them in their leadership. Um, you know, positions at schools. So it, it's really cool. It, the parents, like you said, the sideline of all the parents meeting while their kids are being served, talking about their experiences, parents from different backgrounds and races and cultures with kids with special needs or typical kids standing on sidelines talking about all they're going through learning from each other. The therapists that have been a part of it. I mean, I just think it's a, it's such an organic family really. When we think about e soccer, I know you and I talk about this. It started as family for us cause we're friends. Yeah. But that's really what it is. A giant family that, um, that, you know, through all that we go through and all we hear in the news, like you said, uh, there's no place other than being on an e soccer on a Saturday where I can
Speaker 4:just feel like this is a, it's, it's kind of a perfect world in the mid, in the midst of everything going on around us because of what we're doing and, and how we see families changing. All right. So, um, I'm gonna get, uh, Nathan in here real quick, but let me just, uh, give you a couple of facts and some places to look. Um, again, this is a Nathan Schaefer NOFX and, and he grew up in the program and shared some great things and you'll be hearing from him again, Greg Bosniak, who really is the, the, the, the wizard mind behind the development of coaches and connections. You'll be hearing more about, uh, the work. Uh, the Greg is sorta spearheaded for us, uh, with earthquakes. Uh, the San Jose earthquakes, the Golden State Warriors. Uh, yeah, our programs have been on those fields and working with those folks. And those are two extraordinary organizations. Uh, you're going to be able to listen to the, uh, uh, podcast here. Um, uh, we'll be, we'll be sharing it and posting it. You can go to, uh, e-sports dot org, a ww dot e sports.org, and you'll be able to find the podcast. You'll also be able to go, uh, I have moneys Russ fuel. Um, I have a, uh, a startup, uh, named digital scribbler and we developed software for kids with autism and special needs who have a verbal challenges and they use that software to be able to communicate. Uh, there's a whole story behind that, but that's not the time. But you'll also be able to get the podcast there@ww.digital scribbler.com is there anything that you want to add before we go on, Nathan, that you'd say to the, maybe maybe some of the, uh, parents of typical kids, if they're out there who maybe listen or that you could say that, uh, um, would help parents of special needs kids to find friends for their kids? Anything like that? Yeah, I think it's only, at least how we've structured it over the years. You know, just a single hour on a Saturday morning, you know, you're not, you're not really giving up too much of your time to actually like reap the benefits of, you know, your character being shaped, uh, to be in a lot, uh, far more compassionate than you might, you know, be naturally. You know, I think that's a big thing is that there's not much of, not much of a time investment or whatever, but it definitely kind of shapes you for the rest of your life. Um, and the kids that we've had come through our program and myself kind of growing up in it, you know, they've gotten their middle school volunteer hours or high school volunteer hours and they go to colleges over the bay area, over the United States. Um, you know, kinda still referring back to their time at you soccer, you know, just how it kind of helped them. Um, and leadership and training and, you know, Compassionate Interactions, um, and everything. So I think it's just such a small investment of time, so much more, uh, benefits. And one of the things that I know you're probably thinking about is that that one hour turns into attendance at birthday parties. Holidays. Tell me about it. Yeah, I've been to plenty of birthday parties, plenty, you know, graduation parties for some of the, some of my peers who have special needs who and you know, graduated high school or you know, graduated and got different degrees at colleges and everything and like just going and being supportive cause you're
Speaker 2:like, hey, we're friends. Like this is what a friend does. You know, that's important. Um, because, uh, number one, you know, and we won't give these statistics today, but there's an incredible vulnerability as adults with special needs grew up. There's an incredible vulnerability to depression, to discouragement, isolation that's prevented by developing these programs. And yeah, I mean most parents out there have special needs kids and parents and in kids who are friends with kids with special needs, they all know that there's a lot of advocacy involved. And so if that advocacy begins to young, it's as impactful as any other therapy because you're going to make sure that when they're 30 or 40 years old, they're not alone. And that they have people who care about them besides their parents. And that really will change the world. And I think we need it. You know, if you look around the world today, if you read the newspapers, if you watch, uh, the television, 24 hour news, if you watch sports today, there's a tremendous amount of conflict. There's a tremendous amount of difficulty people have, including people that they don't like or that they don't have a common bond with. And these are the kinds of programs that I just think if people were involved in them from the ground up from the day they were, you know, able to walk and move around. Because one program that got added to e-sports was the program for the low. I didn't even come up with this, the babies, right? Or a little rising stars, the rising stars. And I was like, at first I was like, what do we add? And that for it. So we had to use up coaches for that, but I didn't get it, which is that the earlier the kids start, the more likely they are to be involved in it. And so, uh, this is just an extraordinary thing we're looking forward to continuing to provide for you. This is me podcast and today it's Greg Bosniak. It's nature safe and office. Russ, you'll uh, and I want to leave you with the words. Uh, the final words of this is me, another round of bullets. It's my skin will fire away cause today I won't let the shame sink in. We're bursting through the barricades and reaching for the Sun. We are warriors. Yeah. That's what we've become today is the beginning of the podcast. This is me. We will teach and hopefully share and inspire you, your child, your adult child, your friends, your family, and your community to include people in such an incredible way and to be warriors really for advocacy and inspiration to make this world more inclusive and more accessible for those with special needs. So until our next podcast, we hope you make great use of this can share it. Maybe can use it to inspire your friends, your family, and your community to get involved. And we hope to hear from many of you over the weeks and months to come that are launching east soccer programs, e karate programs, e fitness programs, e hoops programs. Uh, we're looking forward to dynamically changing the world. Thanks for listening today and we'll be seeing you on our next podcast.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].