Ep 67 - Jayvon and Jayvion Biles, The Biles Twins - Faith, Fire and the Final Call

They watched their house burn, walked inside to grab what mattered, and still showed up that night to officiate a championship game. That one decision tells you almost everything about Jayvon and Javion Biles, the Charleston High School twins who’ve been lighting up the region with faith, leadership, and a work ethic that feels rare at any age. 

We sit down with the Biles twins to talk about what it really takes to be young officials in today’s high school sports world, how they handle criticism from the stands, and why they see officiating, worship, and preaching as part of the same mission. They share the behind-the-scenes story of traveling for games, learning the craft, and keeping their identity grounded when everyone has an opinion. If you care about sports officiating, youth leadership, and positive small-town community stories in Sikeston Missouri and beyond, this conversation delivers both perspective and practical wisdom. 

We also dig into their next chapter: Lincoln University, criminal justice, and a long-term goal of joining the Missouri State Highway Patrol while continuing to officiate at higher levels. Along the way, they break down what they want younger kids to learn from them: be yourself, start now, and keep your word when it costs you. 

If this story challenges you or encourages you, subscribe to The Dog House, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review so more people can find these kinds of voices.

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Transcript

Welcome To Bulldog Nation

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the dog house. This is where Sykes and Pride lives, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog drip, we've got you covered. You're listening to the Dog House, the voice of Sycan. What's up, Bulldog Nation? Coming back to you this week for episode 67. And like I said earlier, Micah, I said that last week, but it was actually 66. This is actually 67. I got a little ahead of myself. I think I had we were going to schedule them differently.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

But we needed to get Perry's out.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Correct. Correct. You are Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thanks for listening. Thanks for checking in again this week. We are really, really excited about our guest, the Biles twins this week. Like I told you a blessing. They are absolutely a blessing. They were a blessing to us on the show. We can't wait to get this one put out and get the episode live. Actually, I meant to do it Wednesday, and I got tied up and well, I was mowing my yard. So I didn't wasn't able to do that, but I was able to got it last night and we're excited, and they've sent me messages and they're really excited for the episode to come out as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

So I guess the grass was kind of fast. Mine did. Mine was like, Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Yes. Speaking of that, we'll Micah, nice, nice segue into our into our partners.

Sponsors And Community Shoutouts

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

I might have thought about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Mention our partners real quick. Mercy Phoenix, Jody Cheney, and his crew. We're very thankful they are partners with us. They again they see the vision of of what Mike and I are trying to do with with the rising tide lifting all boats.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And so we are going to come up with a logo like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Interesting. Yeah. Maybe I could uh chat GPT it and see what it comes out.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Put a little slogan on one. Rising tide lifts all boats.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Wow. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Rising tide lifts all boats. I love that. Yeah. Thanks for the look at you. I man, you're just more than you're more than a pretty face. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I wished I had a pretty face.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

That's right. Well, as I always say, we have a face for radio. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

But anyway, back to Mercy Phoenix. We are proud that they're partners with us. If you are excuse me, Mercy Phoenix, M-E-R-C-I, Phoenix like like the city, P-H-O-E-N-I-X. They are your healthcare staffing solution specialist. EMTs, EMS, R N's, L P N, C N A's, all those things, they provide those services. EMTs, did I say EMS, EMT?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, you didn't.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Yeah. They provide those services to healthcare facilities that need those folks to fill in, and they were they're able to do that. And if you are in if you are in that market looking to get into that market or looking to get into that, I'm sure Jody would help you tell you the required training that you would need and the classes to take and all sorts of those things. He would be your your go-to guy. They are continually looking for people. I know they have got lots of jobs that are going on right now. Again, there were a couple of that what that we've seen them advertise in the forty something dollars an hour plus per diem plus housing, and so it can be a very nice job for someone, and you know, again, they're looking for those types of folks. So if that's a that's something that you're interested in, give them a shout.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

They are mercy phoenix.com or even if you've been in it and maybe you want to get back into it, you know. I mean, like I know during COVID, people kind of stepped away from healthcare, but you know, maybe maybe maybe you want to get back in it, maybe help you do that too.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Correct, correct. Also give a shout out to our other partner, Greengrass Guys, who is now, and I think we talked about this already. The mosquitoes. They're doing the mosquito thing, and I talked to D D Bizzle and David Bizzle and the and his their crew. I know they uh got me on their list to come by and get get this stuff because it they're gonna start coming out. I mean, you can't sit outside after dark, you know, coming up in the next few months, and so they'll get on top of that and keep these silly mosquitoes as we call the state bird down this way. Oh gosh, keep those things at bay where you can sit outside, enjoy the nice evenings. But we're very appreciative of them being partners with us, and uh we we just can't thank them enough. And if if you see them, tell them thank you, patronize them, use their businesses, and if you just want to look, go to the junior high baseball field, the the VFW as well, uh junior high baseball fields at the at the complex, go look at the at VFW at the baseball field, go look at the soccer fields, go look at the football fields. Come by and look at my front yard and you'll see how good the bank, too, right? The bank, yeah. They and they do others as well. They do lots of others.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

But those are just ones that we know.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Those are the ones I can tell you to go by and look. Yeah, come by and look at the bank, they look terrific. It's just it's unbelievable. Shout outs to our normal folks. Luke, shout out to him, who was on last week as one of our special guest hosts, but he does our graphics, and we don't have them up there right now. Actually, I will have them up when you see the edited video of this, but he does our graphics on the TV behind Micah and me that's announcing the guests and all those things and our logo. Shout out to Aaron, my wife, for giving us his time and his space to do this. Our general counsel and general nuisance, Justin. More of a general nuisance, more general nuisance than general counsel, that's for sure. Shout out to him, shout out to Tucker Cheney for the knowledge, dropping the knowledge for helping me editing the videos that go on YouTube.

Video Podcasts And Platform Updates

SPEAKER_03 6:36

And by the way, just starting with this episode, and I will try to remember to put this out on a social media post. We can now, through Buzz Sprout, I will be able to upload our videos and play our videos on Apple. Oh you can watch our videos on Apple Podcast. Oh. Besides listen to it, you can watch it on there.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

That's a new feature that I think they've had for a little bit, but now Buzz Sprout, which is our podcast hosting service, will so does BuzzSprout. I'm just kind of I'm yo' I'm I'm I'm Micah's uh Micah's not the technical side of this.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

No, I'm not at all. But does Buzz Sprout load up to YouTube or do you have to do that differently?

SPEAKER_03 7:18

I do that separately. Okay. Yeah, I load directly to YouTube. Okay. Yeah, there's probably some services that do that, maybe. I don't know. I haven't haven't come across them yet, but yeah, I'll load it directly to YouTube. I haven't the the doghouse podcast count and I load it in there, and it that takes a little while. It probably takes 30 or 40 minutes to upload and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

If you happen to listen to this and you haven't followed our page on Facebook, please do. We need six.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

No, no, no. We're a thousand and seven now. Oh, awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Thanks to I'd looked yesterday or five.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Yeah. I it's funny you said that. I meant to say that earlier. Thanks to the Biles twins, they got us. I'm sorry, a thousand and eight now. Awesome. They got us over the top. Thank you, everyone, for liking our page. Thank you for following us, following along with what we do. Again, putting out positive content. That that's what Mike and I want to do be a be a light and not create controversy and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

We don't ever want to when our guests are on, we want to we don't want them to think we got them or something.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

No, correct. We talk about that a lot before the shows with our guests that this is not gotcha. We're not trying to we just want information.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I'm excited about next week's. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I mean, like and I I think it's a a great thing in the community. I mean uh it's called F three. And and I think that I think it'll be interesting. Faith or no, it's like it's faith or it's faith fellowship fitness is what it is. F three. And I've been to a couple workouts. Um That's what I hear. I'll be honest with you. I went to I went to the one and done it and I couldn't really do it, but I mean like I adjusted like last week when I went, I went and I walked the track while they were doing it, and then I still joined in for the the uh circle of the fellowship and the and the thing. I'm gonna try to go in the morning, which is actually the launch this Saturday morning. And after Saturday morning, this this like this Saturday, then they'll start at 5 a.m. on Tuesday mornings too. So it'll be 6 a.m. on Saturday morning and 5 a.m. at the football field.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Okay. By the time you're you will hear this, they will have I was just sitting here thinking when you said that, I was thinking back to Cinderella from our prior guest, but Perry, we're gonna go tonight.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

You'll hear this on Saturday. They will have one more show in on Sunday. So go get your tickets, go see Cinderella, go support those kids in Charleston. I know we're Sykeson folks, but Perry and Amy are some of the finest people you're gonna meet, and they are helping, they want to help their community. Yes, yes, because I mean I'm very envious of that for our school system to have something like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Like because that would be something that we would strive for. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Yes, correct. Finish up our shout-outs, we'll get back on that. Yeah, thanks to Tucker again. Thanks for hit help with the YouTube editing. Derek James, Brian James for the stats behind the scenes, lore history, kind of all intertwined together. And last but not least, Tyler Anderson, Twisted Arrow Woodworking for a cool sign on the wall. Thank you for that. Again, like, follow, share our Facebook, review it on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and you can catch our shows on all the podcast platforms Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, FM Player. Gosh, there's I mean, there's like 20 of them. I can't I never can recall all of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

But be sure if you watch on YouTube or if you subscribe. Subscribe to our page, subscribe to our page. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yes. Yep. Thank you for that. I and I put those little things at the bottom when you're watching it, tells you to subscribe, or you can like and share our pages. Please do that. Please give us a review, comment, all those things. That helps us. We're not making money at this, guys, but we just it ain't even that. We just want to get the message. We want exactly. We want to expand our messages.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Algorithms that you know the more people we have subscribed, the more likely they are your for it to pop up on your on your YouTube or other people that it may be interested in.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Exactly. Exactly. You can also go to our website and listen to all the previous podcasts, doghouse.bussprout.com. Those will all be on there. Actually, back to episode 15 with the goat, Coach Hollyfield. But we will you can there's a link on our Facebook page that goes back to our original, but the first 14 if you want to listen to those as well. That's available. But thank you for checking us out and listening to that. And if you want to email us, our email is doghouse.sy ston at gmail.com. Send us comments, guests, recommendations, whatever. Any other recommendations. And we have swag if you're interested in that. We got some t-shirts available. If that's something that's up your alley, please let us know and we'll get some of those to you. They're for sale. And Micah, we are again episode 67. We're quickly approaching episode 100. We got to do something. We had an episode 50. We had a really it was Mr. Rick Adams, but I want to do something special for episode 100. We still got time. I mean, there's still gonna be that probably will put us mid-fall, probably. Probably. Yeah, I'd have to have to go map it out, but that'll if we do four months, that'll take might be that's 33 episodes. That'll take us probably toward the end of the year. Yeah. If yeah, so anyway.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Well, I mean when there's fifty-two weeks in a year. Well, that's true. And we uh and Rick Adams, the 50th, was right at January.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Well, that's true. Good good point. Good point. Yeah. So it'll be late, early winter, late fall, early winter. Yeah. Yeah. So we're gonna try to put something together. A special, special hundredth episode. So please continue to to listen to us and without further ado, we will get to our guests this week. Just hang right with us through the break. Hey, thanks for sticking with us after the break. Micah, we are here with our two fastly becoming famous guests. Yes. They are taking over Facebook. Every time I open it up, it's like something about the Boss. Boswins are here, they're officiating, they're preaching, they're doing this, they're going here, they're going here, and I'm thinking, Micah, we gotta get these guys on here.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

I don't know when they sleep.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

I'm not sure they do. Well, they're young, they can get away with stuff like that, Micah. You and I are old, we gotta get our beauty sleep.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need some beauty sleep.

Meet The Biles Twins

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Without further ado, I'm gonna introduce our guests. All right, let's go. This week in the doghouse, we're joined by Jay Von and Javion Biles, two impressive young men from Charleston High School who are making a real impact on and off the court. They're baseball players, basketball officials, preachers in their church, and future Lincoln University students. Their story is one of faith, resilience, and perseverance, and we're excited to have the Biles twins in the doghouse. Jayvon, Javion, welcome to the doghouse. Welcome to the doghouse, guys. Thank you. We'll appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

I know I said this already, but we're honored to uh to be here and glad that you all chose us uh to be in the doghouse. Well, you were we we talked about it.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

One time in your life, you'll say you're glad to be at the doghouse. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

When you're married, you're gonna say, I don't want to be in the doghouse. But now you can say that. That's right. Absolutely. You you you were Mike and I talked about it. We had other people recommend you. You guys, again, as we talked before, I met I met you guys in Columbia. Yes, sir. I had heard of you and seen uh of things of you, very impressed. Mike and I talked about it, and of course, you know, he's from Charleston. We ain't got all of the Charleston out of him yet. We got a lot of it out of him, but he is like, we gotta get some Charleston guys on here. So we we we've done that, and we're very proud that you're here. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I mean, like I've been I'll be honest with you. I mean, like I've always I've often said, I mean, like, I wish young men, young women in this area knew what people do coming from even a small town like Charleston. Absolutely. I mean, some states, yes, sir, some are all over the country. Right, would you probably know that? Yes, sir. But I I I wish we had a way to convey that because I feel like hope is something that lacks among our youth. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Absolutely. Yep. There's been a lot of mental mental health issues. Seemed like COVID just kind of exacerbated it. Brought everything down. Absolutely. Yeah, it did. It did. So enough us talking. We want you guys. What tell us tell us about tell us about you guys. What one one one one letter separates your names, right? And I. Right, right, right. Absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

So tell us about you guys. Well, we spend a lot of our days in in church. And if we're not in church, then we're on the court. And if we're not on the court, then we're on some type of field, whether whether that is a football or basketball, I mean football or baseball field. I mean, so that's where we spend a lot of our times. And I everything that I do personally, I'm sure my brother can agree to this. Everything that we do, we take it as a ministry aspect. And most people is like, you know, they live their life based off, you know, their morals or however they want to do that, which is fine. But everything that I do

Faith First And Ministry Mindset

SPEAKER_02 17:00

has somewhat connected me to ministry. And so that that's that's a lot that says a lot about me and who I am. I don't do what I do to be seen, I don't do what I do for a pat on the back. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

But I just I do it because you you come from a biblical worldview. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Absolutely. I I couldn't disagree more. They're twins, they're gonna say the exact same thing, right? So I I I just the same, I feel the same way. Yes, yeah, I feel the same way.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

I remember seeing videos of y'all when y'all were really young singing.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Sing too? Yes, sir. We sing as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Are they is there anything they can't well we probably holler more now than we do say that? But I do remember, I do remember y'all.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Like y'all used to sing the national anthem. Yes, sir. Oh, that's right. You talked about that.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah, that's our so most of the stories I hear from people that sing, did you start singing in church? Yes, we did that where we did. So was your mother, grandmother, or somebody basically forced you?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Well, nobody really forced us, but we heard singing a lot, maybe too much sometimes at home. Our grandmother was sing, their whole family had a little singing church group, and so we kind of took after that.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

So any musical instruments?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

I just play the drums at church. Okay. I'm I'm not your typical drummer, you know. Like I play drums to uphold the service. If they had another drummer in there that, you know, could do better than be hired, I would I would push the church to hire him.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Oh, okay. Okay, you're there just to support and do the best.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

And he does a great job at doing it.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

I don't, I don't, I don't think so. But my my son, my son has a tons of musical ability. My wife does. His wife, which is my sister, my brother, my mother, that we lost my mother last year. She was the matriarch of it, and she sang. My son says, I make I just make a joyful noise. I I get told to be quiet. That's right. We just make we just make the joyful noise.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Literally, I mean, like my daughter will tell me, like, mmm. Easy over there, big fella. My wife will let me sing. Right. Because she loves me.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Well, they let me, they just don't want it to do, they don't want it very loud.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

No, I've I've I've I've been kind of you've been squashed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

That's not good.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

I mean, like, I'll tell you how musical our family, like, I'm married into the family, but like the first time I went to my niece's birthday, she was one year old.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Which one was that? It was Carolyn. Oh, Carolyn.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Like, I've been in the family probably not even six months. Yeah. And we go to her birthday, which is down in Tennessee, which her both sides of her family are very musical, like her mother and father.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Which is my brother and sister-in-law.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Anyway, they start singing happy birthday.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Trained, I mean, like trained in like my brother has a vocal performance degree from Mizzou. Gotcha. My sister-in-law has a major from or a master's from Ole Miss in some sort of vocal performance. They're both unbelievably talented.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

We need to get that figured out because we talk about that all the time. Yeah, we do both birthday. But anyway, they start singing happy birthday to her, and it's like in four-part harmony. Because like Tara's Tara's dad is like a was a uh I don't want to say world or not, but he was well known, he was well known organist. Like he played at like big shows and everything. All these horse, horse, horse, like uh shows, and he played the but he played or in and like man and like I think her sisters uh she's very good too. It was I would I just felt really out of place. I love hearing it. I and I love one of my favorite things about family is when we get together, I mean, like they sing, I listen.

unknown 20:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Or you lip sync.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Yeah. You lip sync a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Sometimes I move my lips.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Right. So how did you guys you grew up playing sports, obviously. Are you playing you're playing baseball right now?

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Just baseball. We just grew up playing just baseball. Just baseball, uh huh.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Okay. Well, your your namesake or your your family just basketball. Basketball. Basketball and the Biles family is known for basketball.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

You can Google like Marcus and you get a picture of him blocking Hansborough shot. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

We we see and hear about that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I bet, I bet. I mean your your family's very, very basketball. Vinny is the one that I mean I I Jeremy was a little bit younger than me. Yes, sir. A couple years, but Vinny, I don't know if you remember Shirley Owens. Do you remember Miss Shirley?

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Shirley Owens. Well, my grandmother last name is Owens.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

So anyway, Rico lived with Okay, gotcha, gotcha, you got it. You probably know anyway, like so Vinny and and and Shirley were like she was always taking care of the city. Okay, gotcha. Taking care of it. But anyway, it was it was kind of one of those things. So like I've I've watched a lot of your family play baseball.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

So you played baseball your whole life. Now you're playing in high school. You guys are seniors. What what drew you to officiating?

Why They Became Officials

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Oh, I'll let you go first. So it's something about officiating that we just love. Part of the reason why we officiate, I couldn't I couldn't tell you a reason why we officiate football. I just love officiating football. I love the action uh in football. Basketball, I always tell people one of the main reasons why we started officiating basketball is because we're terrible at playing basketball. And everybody else in our family is good at playing basketball. Okay. And so we we we are uh officials at basketball and we we think we're pretty good. We don't think we're pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

So did you start officiating like family basketball games? Oh no, no, no. I was gonna say, God no.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

I was gonna say get out of the middle. Don't get you'll get you'll get in the everything in the middle. Absolutely, absolutely. So good by the hookouts, yeah. Right, that's right. That's right. So you so we were talking about this before. You're tell us where you're calling, you were trying here, and then yet Illinois kind of tell us about that story, too.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

So we started in Missouri, and once we had got uh the phone call or whatnot that we were not allowed to ref high school anymore because you know of our age, and we were still in high school in Missouri, we were like, well, the season for junior high, it's almost it's almost over, so we're not gonna have any more games. So we called a ref named Mark Simmons from he's from Cape, from the Cape area in Missouri, but he refs in Illinois and he had been doing it for a while. Okay, and so he was a big help in getting us into Illinois officiating, and we loved it. We loved going over to Cairo and ref and hype games and making people mad and you know kicking people out, kicking people out. Oh, have you heard if y'all had to do that?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

It was it's a story.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Oh my gosh. Well, let's hear it. Okay, so we were in the I want to say championship game, yes, Cairo, neck and neck game with Century, Century, Illinois. Rind you, this is an eighth grade game, and this is so in Illinois, they do something that Missouri doesn't do, which is regionals. So their eighth grade goes to state or whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Right. We I I wish we had that for our junior high little. But we don't, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

We love that. So we're in a century game championship game, and a guy tells me in the crowd that he does not want us to come back to Carroll and officiate. So just some random K Roll fan. Some random Can. And I kept making trips down, and I'm like, I'm gonna ignore this guy. So I then told the officer that was standing next to me, I said, Hey, if he says something else, he's gone. And he said something else, and I looked at him, I said, get out. And he looked at me, called me names, and I just laughed and kept on running, you know, because like now you're gone, so I don't have to pay you any attention now. Right. Yes, I have kicked him out.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

And uh Is that the only person you've known?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

That's the only person I've had to kick out. Only person. Have you threatened some more? I have. I have looked back at people and I've said, hey, that's enough. Like, knock it off, we're done. And and usually they react and they they understand like startles them. Right. We're always the nice guys, so it's like seeing us get to that get to that limit is like, whoa, they do get mad. And so the the hardest thing to me about officiating is ignoring the crowd. I mean and not having rabbit ears. Yeah, absolutely. So that's and that's something that I'm sure every official deals with, but I try my hardest to ignore them. I mean, you're not you're wrong every call you make.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

There's no saying you you you make half the crowd happy and half the crowd mad.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

You're making somebody mad with every call you make, regardless. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Nobody ever committed a foul, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:59

No, right, no, no, no. Everybody's handsome, nobody brought their hands. Nobody travels, nobody travels.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Right, right, right. Oh my gosh. So that's true. That's great that you've learned that already.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

So I know you're officiating in Illinois. Can you I know you can't officiate high school here, can you officiate junior high in Missouri?

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Yes, sir. We officiated we officiated a lot of junior high. Okay, and then we did freshman games, and then that's when they called and was like, yeah, we couldn't do that. And that's they said we were doing a great job so they can have the heat. So for the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Well, I mean, like, but you know, like there's a there's a shortage of absolutely. And I mean, like, I I love the the fact that you know y'all aren't willing to do what I mean. Absolutely. And uh I'll be honest with you, it's probably a good way to make some money. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, you know, and a lot of people that you know, some of our friends, you know, they were like, well, they won't let you do high school. I wouldn't do it, you know, because it's drinking high. But we love doing what we do so much. You know, it was worth it. Like, I'll do this. Everybody has to start somewhere, you know. Like I'm grateful for City of Cape, which is where we started refereeing. We started refereeing there doing, you know, uh rec lead and and first and second grade, which anybody can call a first and second grade game. I mean, there's a call every time somebody has the ball. You probably have to ignore it. Yes, absolutely. You do.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

You do. I've I've actually done some upward referee. I mean, like this, like upward refereeing, like I don't know, you do your upper upward basketball.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

It's uh it's through church normally. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Carroll actually has has a supportly upward. Anyway, and I mean like not not official or just it's pretty tough to call call a third or fourth grader because you're like he's he's walking every time or double driven because there's that that thought process of like, do I let them buy with it, but they still need to learn. Right, absolutely. You know what I mean? Like because that's what makes a good young referee for for that age. You know what I mean? For sure. I mean, like I mean, I've coached youth league sports, and it's hard to say, well, I mean, like, what do you call it? When it has a like a major effect on on the on the game is kind of what I see. I mean, like absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

I think I know the answer to this, but who who is worse? The players or the parents?

SPEAKER_02 28:21

The parents, the parents, the parents, the parents, the parents, absolutely, and you know, a lot of times the players are only worse because of what they hear and see their parents saying and doing to officials. Now, me, I'm not I'm the type of official I I don't like to immediately get a player in trouble if they say something to me. I'm I'm the type where I'm gonna address you, okay? Hey, this is what we need to do. Don't say this, don't do that, we're good. Now, you take that you take it the extra mile, and you know, you say stuff outside of your neck, then you know, now now we're in trouble.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

You've got to escalate it.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Absolutely, absolutely. But Mr. Rice has done a great job at letting us know it is okay to be that official that approaches and lets them know, hey, let's calm this down, let's stop this, or this is gonna be this. You know, he's done a great job at the end.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Well, you are the authority in the game. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, and I think that's important to learn. I mean, like it's not by who you are, it's the position you're in. Authority comes with position. Yes, sir, absolutely. And and and use it. Yep. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

My my greatest call that parents make is over the back. That's that's the greatest call. And it's not technically a customer. And I love when they call it because then I know that they don't know the rules. Right. So I keep going and I ignore them.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

So it's it's a push. I mean, it's a push. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

It's a push. Because Lloyd he told me I think a lot of guys sometimes if you'll notice the players go to their back and then try to tip it out that way to not get that foul call. Absolutely. Right. Even though we call it over the back, it's not over the back. It's not over the back.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

So he could jump up forever and reach over the back. I mean, like as long as his arm's long, as long as he don't touch any part of the body and gain a position.

SPEAKER_03 30:07

Absolutely. So for for the camera, JV ones sir. J Von. Yes, sir. Okay, okay. Just I think I got it.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

While we're talking about that, I've been sitting here thinking, I was like, did y'all ever like I mean, because y'all are pretty close looking. Like identical, right? Yes, sir. Okay. You ever pull pranks on people? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Like teachers or in elementary, we did a lot, but because we got our haircut different, now it's hard to do it. Oh, I see. In elementary, we did kindergarten, we got away with it a couple of times.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Did you see like like my my niece has friends that are twins and they live down in Alabama, and like they actually switch classes every now and then?

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Oh my god. We we can't do that now because of our hair.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

That's kind of how they are now. I think Coach Minor might catch on pretty well. I don't know. I don't know. You think you can pull the wool over his eyes? I think so. I think so. Maybe so. Maybe so. Maybe so. I think so. Coach, if you're hearing this, I'm not putting them up to it. I'm just saying if they do it, don't blame it on me.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

You got like what? Y'all probably got less than two weeks or less than a week. 13 days is total, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:13

I was gonna say we get out May May May 8th. He's putting a countdown every day on Facebook. I see us.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Like I don't know who's more happy to get out. Y'all hear it. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

He's probably ready to get rid of us. Well, honestly, I don't think so. It'll be hard for him to get rid of us because we live we live right next door to each other.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Okay. It's funny, it's funny you said that when I when I was talking to him, I told you, and we can just go to that right now. The first thing that I remember about you all, someone posted on Facebook, and this was December, did you have a house fire? Yes, sir. Is that what happened? Yes, sir, yes, sir. What is everybody good? Everybody's good. Everybody's good. Okay, I mean you can replace the house and absolutely. So, what what was the story with that?

SPEAKER_02 31:56

So we had got called from school, and it was like, Your mom said you need to come home. And so we go home. I'm thinking, like, oh, maybe we got a new car. You know, maybe it's something good. And so our mom never calls us out of school if it's not anything good, or we got a doctor's appointment. So I'm thinking, like, all right, this is something good. So we came home and we pull up. Well, we had to go get all of our siblings.

unknown 32:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Which is when my mind switched to, okay, what is going on? Something wrong. Absolutely. Something was wrong. And so we go down, we pick up our siblings, and then as we're coming down, we uh make the turn onto our street where we live, and we see fire trucks, we see all the types of you know, emergency vehicles, and we're like, what is going on? Did something happen to my grandmother? Did something happen to my mother? So of course we don't do the speed limit driving down the road

The House Fire And Showing Up

SPEAKER_02 32:49

to get to the house. There's probably a statute of limitations on that now. It's okay. And so as we're we're going down, uh we see our house is is on fire. And so we get out and our mom is crying, and you know, she she we embrace her, we give her a hug, and we're like, what's going on? And all the time while we're you know we're processing this, we want to be cops. And so we hear firefighters telling firefighters telling us, you know, don't go in, don't go in. Of course, we still went in. Oh, you went in? We went in our house while it was on fire. What were you well we wanted to get our referring suitcase? Oh because we had to officiate that we had to officiate that night.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Oh my.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

And so, you know, in the in the back of our we got our suitcase. So his suitcase was actually burnt. So we had to open it and get his stuff out and put it in mine. We put it in the car, and you know, by that time we did get our PCs out. We don't want to leave that. We got our PCs, our gaming PCs out of the house. And so after we got all of that, we went to our car, of course. It was a we were emotional, of course, you know, and things like that. And so we had pulled off, you know, and went to our sister's house. And at that time, you know, they they had got some stuff out, but we didn't have any clothes at that moment. Only thing that we had was our clothes that we had on. So we smelt like smoke, you know, and everything. Our refereeing clothes uh smelt like smoke. Oh, and we went to Sykston Middle School and refed a junior high championship tournament game. Yep. And you know, I would have never wanted to do anything else that night.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

I was gonna say, how did you gather yourself to do that?

SPEAKER_02 34:31

I I I think most part of gathering myself was knowing that I had a job to do. I made a commitment to do it, and I wanted to stick to my word no matter what. So and I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

I think if you would have called and told Miss Russell at the junior high in Sykes or whoever, they would have understood. So I'm on the school board here and I know Miss Russell, and if they if you would have told them that, they were like, we understand.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

But y'all probably would have drove yourself. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Oh I would have I would have questioned myself, you know. I would have called the school. And your mother apologized. And your grandmother was okay with that? Well, we actually didn't tell them. We didn't tell them. We didn't tell them. My mom knew we had a game that night, but when we had left to come to Sykston to go to my sister's house. Oh, she lives here. She lives she lives in Sykeston. And so we came to my sister's house and we just sat and we, you know, we cried and we got went through the whole nine and we went to that game. We were a little late getting there, but we got there and we we did what we were supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

So when y'all went to the game, did you know where you were going that night?

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Yes, sir. We knew we knew we knew before. Okay, we knew before. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

And you and so your your mother and your siblings and your grandmother had a place to go then that night? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Well, our grandmother usually watches our our siblings while my mom is at work. That's why it went to my mom, like, okay, what happened to my grandmother? You know, I didn't know that my mom was off, but she was there when the house fi when the house caught on fire. My grandmother had came to make sure she was okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

And so Oh my gosh. Coach Minor, when I talked to him, said you guys bought the house right next door to his side. Yes. Oh, that's great. We did. It's great. That's great. He I uh he said he was glad to have you guys his neighbor. Absolutely. We we love being his neighbor. We do give him grief, which aggravate him. That's what you need to do. I guess maybe wait till the season's over so you don't have to run. Absolutely. Senior prank on principal.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Oh, I know. We've been trying to get our class to do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

They can stay at our house, and then when we know for officially that he's asleep, then we can go and you know, just bamboozle his house or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 36:38

I say usually. We'll have to wait and post this until it happens, and otherwise we'll make him wise to it.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

He really telegraphs a lot of things because all you can do is read his Facebook page. That's true. Absolutely. I don't know if y'all are friends with him. Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

We are oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

And we love Coach Miner. He was a very big support and help during the time of our house fire. So even with when Misha interviewed us for Officials Week, Minner, we call him Boss Man. Okay. Boss Man allowed us to kind of miss out on some school stuff and call us in his office and allowed us to Oh, they did a phone interview for us. Absolutely on Zoom, on Zoom. He was a big help to that.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

And we I told you they're getting famous, man. Big time.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

We just scratching the surface.

SPEAKER_03 37:27

I know. You know, it's funny, and this came into my mind, and I I want to go back to this real quick. Before you guys got here and before Micah came over, I was watching just something on TikTok, and it was a pastor of a church, and I don't know where he was. Are you do you guys are you on TikTok or anything like that? Have you seen the guy? His the name of his account is SB Mowing. All he does, he goes to he sees houses with yards that are grown up.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

He's out in Kansas.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

Okay. I wasn't sure where he was. And he goes, he knocks on the door, they come to the door, he said, Hey, I see your yard is overgrown. Will you let me mow it? And they're like, Well, I don't have any money to pay. And he's like, I'm not charging you anything. I'm I just want to and he mows it, edges it, weed eats it, gets all the grass off, picks up trash, does all kinds of stuff. And he where the pastor was going, he he said, I can just see this guy talking. He was like, Well, Lord, what what do you want me to do? And he said, How about mow the yard? How about mowing grass? This guy makes no telling how much money now because of all the YouTube uh watches and things he gets. He takes something so small, and you guys, not that it's small, but yes, you know, what I mean we're officiating, we're doing this podcast that who knows, a thousand people might listen to. I don't know. And and not that we're I'm not doing this to or we're not doing this for glory, we're glory, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Share people's stories. Right, right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

To as we say all the time, rising tide lifts all boats, right? Absolutely. And we want to promote positive things in this area. But where I was going was that it it just that it stuck with me, and I'll show you guys when we get done. He was just like, he took something small that it seemed small, right? Mown his grass, that's not a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

It seemed insignificant, really. And that's what he said.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

It seems ins insignificant, but now look how many people this guy's reaching by doing something like this. And that that was really powerful, and that reminds me a lot of you guys. I probably watched it.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

I probably watch at least one of his videos every day.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Oh, it pops up on my and and it's just as as this pastor said, he is bringing joy for us watching him clean up these folk shows. He's blessing somebody, it's exactly what he's doing. It was just it was really powerful for me. No, and that just kind of set the tone for tonight. You guys, you guys are a delight. I I appreciate it. Absolutely. I you they I was telling Micah, I was like, all right, he shot me a text like they're in the driveway, and I was standing there at the door for a while, and I kept coming out, and I was like, I was doing like this, and y'all were talking, and finally you looked, and I'm like, come on in. And and and the way they're smiling right now, if you can see her when you when when the video posts, they've smiled the whole time. They smiled when they came in, they have not stopped smiling. And that that but that's genuine. That you guys are faking that. That's a genuine smile. And you know how you can tell, Micah? When your eyes move, that's a genuine smile. No, I mean, seriously, I mean you can do that. That looks fake, right? I just go like this. That's uh, but when I smile like this, there's no way that's a fake.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

That's what I mean. There's nothing fake about these guys. Absolutely. It is it it's a it's a great story. I didn't know you guys went and called that night. That still blows my mind. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

We did, we did. Actually, that that's how everybody found out. Right, because officer Brett. We were not Officer Mullen, we weren't out there. We were not gonna tell anybody. You know, we we weren't gonna tell anybody, we weren't gonna ask anybody for anything, we weren't gonna make a Venmo, we weren't gonna do anything. We just, you know, I I guess we're just that type of people to where it's like make my own way to say we don't want to ask. Right. Ask. And so we came and once we walked in, he was like, Hey guys, I heard about the uh fire. He said, Is there anything I can do? And you know, we were like, No, you know, we didn't want anything, you know, we didn't want to ask anybody for anything. And so eventually we let up and and we kind of, you know, addressed and told them what we what we would have needed.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

And so I think you guys got your needs taken care of? Absolutely. Okay, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

I think no matter where we go or how high we go, and no matter what it is, ministry, that day we will be forever grateful for everyone that helped us. So absolutely. And I think that's something that we will never forget.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

You know, and I talk a lot, and my favorite scripture in the Bible, like my life verse, is James chapter 1, verses 2 and 3. It says consider it true consider it joy when you face trials and tribulations because it makes you mature and lacking nothing. That's just y'all live in that. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Absolutely. For sure. You're living that. Yes, sir. And I think that's just great.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

Yes, sir. Were you able to were you able to like wash your uniforms before you went that night? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

No, we went. We went smelling like smoke and sm and we smell like smoke. You know?

SPEAKER_03 42:18

So did somebody did somebody ask you besides Matthew?

SPEAKER_02 42:21

They didn't, but we did tell, we did tell, um, we did tell the athletic he may be the athletic director.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

Matt Matt Matt Johnson is the athlete.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Okay, no, it wasn't the it wasn't him. It was the was it the head coach?

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Oh, where there was uh of Sykston.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Sykeston Jr. High.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

It was probably Caleb or Von Shepherd. Von Shepard.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

We did tell him, we said, hey, just so you know, if we run past somebody and they say we smell like smoke, it's because we've had a house fire. And you know, we would just let him know that. And and immediately he went to, is there anything you need? And we were like, no, we're fine. You know, we're good. We're here to officiate this game. Oh, and and we did, and we went and we officiated that game not with a frown, not with tears. Oh no, I could that's with straight joy, you know. That happened, you know. God brought us through many other things. This may be the biggest thing that we may go through in life. Well, at that time, right. And and if God done it before, he can do it again, and he brought us through just like we knew he would.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

So I've been watching The House of David, and that just kind of reminded me of of I haven't seen that yet.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

What's that on? Is that on like it's on prime? Yeah. It's on prime.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Yeah, but anyway, it it like just kind of that like he when he slayed Goliath, like he he knew he could do it because he killed a lion and a bear, and like and it just that just brought that to life. It took me there.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Holy cow. So do you guys do everything together? I mean, just about we do, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

We do everything together. The only thing that has changed that we don't do together is sing together on Sunday mornings. I lead worship. At the church we attend. Okay. And he's on drums.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Who I I see just recently one of you are preaching. I was. It's you. Okay. Okay. It's J Vion. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

And then I preached this Sunday. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Yes, sir. Well, that's so I guess you're kind of doing it. You're not doing it at the same time. Yeah, same back-to-back. Do you know have you have you gotten your word? I do.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

I do. I'm going to be talking about oh me. The victory and suffering. Victory and suffering. So you know, I feel like sometimes God'll give you a message, and and the message that you may have, you may not have experienced yet. And it'd just be, you know, when that trial comes, you know, now I can experience, or now I know what to do while I'm in while I am going through that experience. But when God gave me this message, I can preach it a little bit harder because I know what it feels

Preaching, Calling, And Family Legacy

SPEAKER_02 45:01

like to be suffering, to feel like you're at the the bottom of the barrel, you know, you have nothing to look to, you know, and to keep that mindset that, you know, even though this is going on, I still got victory over this situation.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

So where's this legacy come from? Like that's a that's a great question. That was my where is this instilled in y'all?

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Uh would you say grandma? I I'm gonna actually say my grandmother. Okay. So she does not preach. She's just she just sings and she ministers to people. Absolutely. Absolutely. Of course. And and my grandmother is a big pusher of the faith. You know, like I have seen, I've seen my grandmother minister and be sick, you know, you know, not feeling good in her body. And and she pushes herself. And so my grandmother is a big, a very, very big asset to our ministry. Anywhere locally that we go, she's usually with us. She's always always with us and praying for us and pushing us. Of course. Um, I'm sure in my preaching video, she probably was the loudest one in the class.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

And all the amens were coming from her.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Okay. And and I'll be honest with you, you know, I have to, we have to appreciate our mother because she gives us the open door policy to just do, you know, like a lot of people, a lot of people that I that we know, you know, have parents that don't really want them to go out yet. And our mom has that much faith in God and in us that, you know, God called them to do this, you know, as long as they tell me what they're gonna do, you know, and some stuff we do have to, you know, confirm with our mom. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

In life 360. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

I mean, like, well, well, there's freedom and obedience. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and and and I and and and it sounds like your mom knows y'all. Like, absolutely. I talked to I'm a I'm a counselor. Okay, yes, sir. So I talk a lot about like when when we're disobedient, our world gets smaller. Yes, sir. So people don't trust us. Right. You know, but when you're obedient, you gain freedom in the fact that people trust you and you're gonna make the right choices, and a lot of that goes a long way. But I mean, I I I knew there had to be a legacy. So I mean, yes sir. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

When I I I know you were called to do this. When did you guys feel like you had that calling? Was there a time, do you remember I was 10 or 4?

SPEAKER_02 47:25

He started preaching before me, and he preached his first sermon at uh Liberan Apostolic Church in Liberan, Missouri. Okay. And honestly, when when I was asked to speak, I I thought that he meant somebody else. I didn't think he was actually thinking of me, you know. So and I was I was young, I wasn't really old. I was like 14, 15, maybe. And when I did speak, I I honestly just let the Lord speak through me out of it. Of course. I didn't have my own, I didn't go in my own agenda and things of that nature. And of course, my brother helped help out as much as he could.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Well, you have to you have to start somewhere. Absolutely. I mean, there's still the Bible still talks about being prepared for things. Absolutely. And you learn and you and you prepare. Girl, absolutely. You train like just like for a race, right? Absolutely. You don't just run go run a marathon. Right. You got to do it. You have to train. Absolutely. That's exactly right. And that's what you're doing right now. You're training for those things. All of us have to do that. He's preparing us for things that come ahead. Absolutely. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

So you were 14, you were uh I I think I probably preached my I don't think you were 14, 15, maybe. You might have been younger than that. Oh. Because we if I'm remembering the video, you were really short. I was short. I couldn't see over the podium. They had to put a pillow over me. I'm pretty sure you probably were on a school. I'm gonna say about 10. I'm gonna say about 11. Oh, maybe eleven. Okay. So I know for a fact I preached my first sermon around 12, 12 or 13. Okay. 12 or 13. And I felt the call. Number one, my brother preaching, you know, seeing him preach was just very, very powerful to me. You know, I bagged my brother up. No, I and I make this determination in my mind and in my soul. You know, if I'm somewhere and my brother's there, and it doesn't matter if he's refereeing and I'm not on the floor, or if he's preaching and I'm not on the floor, there's nobody in that room that's gonna bag my brother up and push my brother more than me. You know, and I make that determination. So being able to push him and let him know, like, hey man, you got this. Like, you know, the hype man. Right, right, right. I was this hype man, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

That's a that's a twin bond. Y'all have something too that that like kind of it just struck struck me like accountability. Absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

I'm more harder on him, but yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 49:46

I've got a couple of those questions coming at the end. Yeah, I I I love those. You're harder on him than he's harder on you.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

Okay, and they probably should be reversed, but you know, it's I guess it just it happens. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Well, I I I appreciate that y'all are willing to let each other do that. Absolutely. Because I think that's important. Yes, sir. That's a lesson a lot of people don't learn in a lifetime. A lot of people don't learn until they're older.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Because they resent that. And and you know and I'm and I you know, you you gotta know who your coaches are and who your critics are. Absolutely. I mean you you gotta you gotta know the difference. And it sounds like you understand that.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

Absolutely. Yes, sir. Has preaching has it has it changed the way you communicate? Uh so when you first started, what were you nervous? Like, oh my gosh. Absolutely. You know, you're so you're up there. Are you meaning preaching?

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Yeah, I am nervous every time I get a preacher. Even now. Even now. Okay, I feel like, you know, anytime you bring a word, you want the word to be for somebody in the house. Sure. And so my nervousness comes from, okay, God, I know I studied, but did I hear you did I hear you correctly? You know? So my nervousness comes from that. But when when I get that microphone and I start God starts flowing through me and speaking through me.

SPEAKER_03 51:16

Well, that's and that's probably like baseball. You're probably you kind of got a little bit of anxious energy before the game and probably even officiating. A little bit anxious when the game starts, you kind of get in the flow of the game, absolutely, and that that kind of goes away. So do you feel like being able to speak to people in front of a crowd has helped you? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's gotten better with time. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Not only not only just being able to speak, but it's what we speak. Absolutely. And so what we speak, not only speaking, but what we speak, we want to live by what we speak. So preaching is not just something that we do, but we want to make sure that we're living by what we preach. Absolutely. Which is which is a big that's how you grow who listens to you or who will accept what you have to say, is by living by what you preach and living right.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

So that that's that's a big thing on preaching. They need to meet uh they need to meet Dr. Ken, don't they? Do you know Dr. Ken Holloway?

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Name sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

He's from Sexton, he's the Barker.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Oh, oh yes, absolutely. So we have met him before. Okay, we just met him on a big time. Yes, yes, we see that.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

We've seen that treasure. Yes, he is one of our dear friends, I think, so highly of him. Right, absolutely. And he's he's a man of God and he absolutely and he speaks and he he was he was a he was a joy. And of course, I've known him for quite a while, and his wife, Miss Maxine, are just uh just treasures. They're and it's funny, they're not twins, but they dress like twins all the time. I give him a grief about it, and I'm like, you know what? I go, when Aaron, my wife, if she walks out with the same color shirt on, I'm going back in and putting a different color shirt on. Right. They come out wearing the exact same thing. Right. The shirt, the pants, the shoes, the hat, and I'm like, do y'all do that a lot?

SPEAKER_02 53:04

Well, we used to. We slacked away from it a little bit. Right. We have you need your own identity. Absolutely. Right. Now, for certain events, we we will, yeah, but we've slacked away from it.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

I mean, I know you're dressed similar to it.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

I like those pull, those pullovers are nice. Yeah, absolutely. Those are great. So when you are, we talked about this. You're going to Lincoln University. Yes, sir. Tell us tell us that story. We they we again we talked before we came down here. Tell us how that came about.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

So we were young, we received a scholarship from Lincoln just by singing the national anthem at a football game. At a at a Lincoln University game. Lincoln University football game, right? I think it was some football game. That was after the fact. Okay. So we sung the national anthem at our school.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

And they heard us. I don't know if you all know Miss Angela Zorbis. Yeah. So Miss Angela Zorbis was our principal at that time. Oh, that's right. She recorded us and posted it. It went viral. Right.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

And then we took trips with the Lincoln group as a young group.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

And then we went to Lincoln, got accessing the national anthem at a football game. We sung the national anthem at the football game. And then after that, we received the presidential scholarship. Oh my goodness. This coming school year, our counselor reached out and was like, hey, have Bowes twins. They received a scholarship. And the secretary told her, We have no idea of this scholarship. Oh no. So, in other words, we

Lincoln University And Future Plans

SPEAKER_02 54:38

have no scholarship. Right. And our counselor worked really hard to get the scholarship, which she did get the scholarship back.

SPEAKER_03 54:45

Were some of the people that were there? That time of that. Okay. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Luckily, we had paper and things of that nature to help us back in the city. So it was the doctor and it's a good thing. Right. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

Well, I now see that that's new to me. We didn't hear that.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

We didn't hear that part. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 55:03

That bit that was heartbreaking, though.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Well, it was. And I'll tell you, when she called us in and told us that they said that we don't have the scholarship, we looked at each other and smiled because obviously ministry clicked again, like, they don't know the guy we serve. You know, like it's fine. We'll get it. And and they were, you know, our counselor did some work.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

See, I probably would have been kicked the door, slammed the door. Those liars been throwing something, kicked the trash can.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

So our counselor did did some work and we appreciate her all the time. And she got the scholarship. You know, they told her, you know, we we we still got the scholarship. They just had never heard of 11-year-olds getting full ride presidential scholarships. And so but we did get the scholarship back.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

So oh my gosh. So you're going there too?

SPEAKER_02 55:54

We're going to get our criminal justice degree. And then immediately following graduating college, we're going to join the Missouri Sahara Patrol.

SPEAKER_03 56:02

So you have to go to the I think they have an academy or something, right?

SPEAKER_02 56:06

For six months.

SPEAKER_03 56:07

I guess there's a application process. Okay. Locked down pretty good. Yes, sir. We sure do hope so. So is there you're going to be up there, you're going to be away from your mother, your grandmother's siblings. How's that? Have you had to do that some now?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Well, we travel quite often. So they, you know, they see us, we're there. My mom oftentimes like to say things like uh we're never home or we're in and out and we just eat, eat, sleep, and and bathe here. And so but so we kinda, you know, we kind of we kind of try to spend that valuable time with our family and sure be there, but we are always on the road. If it's like I said, if we're not refereeing, we're in ministry doing church things and traveling and and doing things like that.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

So I'm assuming that like kind of when you get there, you already kind of know what church you're gonna be going to. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 57:12

Well, we have an idea. We have a little bit of an idea.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

I don't know if you've kind of went and filled them out already.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

No, no, we haven't we haven't filled them out, but we've heard about a lot of churches down in that area, so we're just gonna try to find out.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

That could be that could be difficult. Absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely. You want to find one that fits. That you're gonna grow up with that. Absolutely, right? Yeah, right. Absolutely. Where you're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

Absolutely, absolutely, right? So you're and then you you gonna plan or you will officiate games in that area, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

We will officiate games in that area, and we were at Misha uh at the state tournament. Yeah, and one of the guys that is on the board for officials came up to us, and you know, he was like, I'm gonna get you a job. And he said, I'm gonna get your job in Jeff City, and he did. So when we go there, we already have a job at the Boys and Girls Club, which is like I think it's right behind somewhere near Lincoln. Somewhere near the campus. Okay. And uh, so we're gonna be teaching young young kids about leadership and and things like that. So tutoring, tutor it all. So, so you know, nothing that for both of you? Yes, sir. For both of us. So again, we think of that as ministry, you know, like helping more youth, you know, growing leadership.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

Looks like the Lord's making a way right here, isn't he? Absolutely. He is. He is absolutely so that's great. And then so you will you officiate baseball too, some or I said I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

That may change. That may change. I'm more of the baseball softback softball guy. So he won't do much. Okay. But you'll be there. W will you yell at him? I don't know. Baseball, baseball and softball, I don't know if I really have umpires back sometimes. Uh I have to really, you know, you have to be my all-time favorite uh for me to have your back. No. But I I'm I will definitely be there to support him. Uh I I like to say, you know, fans are worse in softball, baseball. Than basketball? Than basketball.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

It's the heat.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

Are they closer to the action, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 59:12

Is that what it is? I think they think they know what a striking a ball is.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Well, for one thing, you are in a set position. Absolutely. Right. Like if you're especially calling balls and strikes, everybody's right behind you. Yes, absolutely. Yes, sir. Absolutely. And you don't get to run up and down the court or field, you're right there.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Baseball and softball, you have less of less of an excuse to make. Versus basketball, it's going so it's going so fast, you can you know argue an excuse. But I I think learning, of course, and I'm gonna try to learn more and more about the game, sure. Being around boss manner. So he'll teach teach me more about the game. For sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

So kind of when I can't remember, I think we talked about this before we started recording. Y'all said one of your goals is to become a professional official. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And like, have y'all looked into like what that entails, like how to go about that?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:08

Or so uh we did some some research. First, you need to do a couple of years of high school basketball, and then you need to do some years of college basketball, and then after you know Lloyd did college basketball. And so following your college, you have to get into camps and things like that. And it's really officiating is really one of those things where you grow and you get better and you get seen, and the right person sees you, and then you have it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

Well, with your there are several highway patrolmen from this official yes, yes, sir. Yes, exactly. So you'll have that that freedom to to to be able to do that as well. Absolutely, absolutely. There's Todd Turlington, he's a highway patrolman. Cody Narramore. I don't know if Cody is back. Now he couldn't officiate for the time he was in the Academy. He could and then I and then I think after that because he was a newbie, so to speak, as a as a trooper, and then he then he could officiate after but and I think he may have called some games this year, I think. Yes, sir. But yeah, there's several guys that do that that are that are highway patrolmen. So how do you think being able to handle the criticism how is that have you gotten better? I mean, did you come in there and when they started booing you and yelling at you and stuff like that? How how how how were you able to handle that as young younger men than a lot of the guys that are you know grown men doing? Yes, sir. How would God respond? Oh don't say that because I'm gonna have to ask myself when I'm yelling at somebody.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

How would God respond? We honestly came in with that attitude, you know, like we came in with they're not gonna like you. And and I personally I like when I make a call and a fan gets mad because that lets me know I'm doing something right, you know? So most of the time that that's why a fan is getting upset or that's why a fan is is getting mad. So we came in with that attitude, you know, like don't respond, you know. How would God react? There has been plenty of times where people have been very angry and they'll say stuff, and that's when the referee, you know, if it's bad enough, they have to look back and say, hey, knock it off. And there have been times where people have been so angry

Handling Criticism With Calm

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

and mad where they say stuff and they expect me to, you know, turn around and address them and be very mad, but I've literally looked at them and smiled and was like, hey, let's calm down. You know, we're good.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

We're playing a game. Absolutely. What does the Bible say? A you turn away sharp words with gosh, what basically a calm word. Absolutely. But if you hit back with that, then all of a sudden you're pouring gas on the fire. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

Oh, you are throwing gas on the fire.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:58

Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. That's uh what you're talking to myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

When you were sitting there talking about when you were sitting there talking about like, you know, like we come in expecting that is exactly I mean, like, Jesus faced that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

Of course, Jesus flipped over tables too. But he he turned to cheek a lot. He did.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:27

You know, I've heard sermons on like identity, you know, like many people want to identify identify you by what you do. Yes, sir. And your identity is in Christ, and it sounds like y'all are very grounded in that. And I and I think that that that makes you much better capable of doing what you do.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:47

Absolutely. What do you when you guys officiate, when you preach, when you sing, when you play the drums, whatever, you're you're affecting adults, of course, but you're well, first off, your role models for your younger siblings, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:04

I've seen them, I mean, like I've seen somebody post last week. I don't know which one of y'all posted on it, but I seen like a mother post that, you know, like their daughter's going to the Navy or whatever. And one of you were like, great job. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:17

Like, I mean, kind of so what do you what do you want the younger kids to see from you all by doing what you're doing? What what are you hoping they're getting from from that?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

Go ahead. You talk more than me. Well, I'll be honest with you. I hope, number one, that they are getting our leadership care characteristics. That's that's the one thing. But a big thing that I hope that they're getting is us, you know, and when I say us, I'm meaning us being us, ourselves. The biggest thing in life that I think a person should know is that it is okay to be you. Just be the best version of you that you can be. You know, I don't, I don't really we grew up hearing a lot of older people say, well, you have to be like this, you have to be like that. You know, that's just how you know things were, you know, as we were coming up. But one thing our mom, our moms strive to let us know that it is important that you be you. Because when you have nobody else around you, when you don't know anything else, you have to rely on what you know is best and be the best version of you that you can be. So, you know, that's what I hope young people are getting is that you know, we do this because it's what we love to do. You do what you love to do, you be your best

Being Role Models For Youth

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

best version of yourself that you can be.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:38

I I and I hope also, and I know you I know this is a given, but I know you want them to see Jesus through.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

Yes, absolutely. Of course, that's what I was saying. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

You know what came to my mind when you you had people, you gotta do this, you need to do it this way, you need to do this. Theodore Roosevelt had a quote. He had a bunch of them, but like uh come out. Comparison is the thief of all joy. Absolutely. That's what came to mind when you were saying that. You know, you weren't taught to compare. Absolutely. You weren't taught to to become a better version tomorrow than you were today. Absolutely. And I I see that in y'all. That's why I would love that that's great that you're gonna be working with young kids. Absolutely. Because people need to see that. Absolutely. I mean, and and who better? I mean, I'm an old guy. I can't show people that. I mean, I can, but but I mean, like, I can't I can't. You're connecting with those kids. You're still in there. And you're connecting with people us, our age. I mean, like you're connecting with all people. Of course. Because of course. You're different. Yeah, absolutely. In a good way. In a good way. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

You know, and another thing, and I'm I'm gonna let you talk, but I'm about to I forget my thought. Jeez. Okay, so I would also want them to know, you know, that that, and I just lost my thought. Okay. Well, anyway, I'm about to lose mine. When it comes to young people, I want them to know that you don't have to wait till you graduate or get older to do what you want to do. There are many opportunities for young people to do what they want to do in life. And I just think that that's something that not necessarily people fail with telling the young people. I just think that that's something that the young people fail to see.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

Micah, well, what what did we literally talk about? We recorded our podcast last night with our this week's guest coming up, and Mr. Perry Harper, that we talked about. He talked about, well, what led you to restart the theater program in Charleston? We've got to these kids know their their opportunities, right? Absolutely. We not just tell them, but let's show them. Here's what you can do. Not everybody not everybody plays baseball. Not everybody plays basketball, right? But they there are other opportunities that they can still be involved in things. And whether it, you know, they may not ever be on Broadway or whatever, or an award-winning singer, but they can still that can still create who they are.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

We even talked about the opportunities that come from that. I mean, like the marketing, the stage, the all the time. The technology, all the settings. You don't have to be on stage. You could be you could be the behind the scenes. Behind the scenes, right? You could be the usher, you could be the marketer, you could be, you know, like all those things. We talked about that last night. I mean, like, and and and I I think y'all do a great guy. You come from somebody that would say your identity is basketball. Absolutely. Like, I mean, just by your last name. Yes. Okay. And it's arrogant. Yes. You didn't accept that. Right. Not at all. Right. Not saying you don't like basketball. Right. Absolutely. Obviously. But you found out. But you found your niche and and what you're good at. Right. Absolutely. And you're honing that craft. And I think that's what kids need to see. Absolutely. I mean, you're going to make a difference for a generation of kids to come.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:01

Yeah. And you already have. You've already started that. That's what the Lord's put you here to do that, right? Absolutely. He's he's he's and I'm excited. Ah man, we are I just want to sit back and watch now. I want I don't want this to be the only time you ever we ever see.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

So we know and and I know you're always gonna have roots in this area. Do y'all want to come back here and be state trooper?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

We want to come back. I mean, because that's not always possible. Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

They've they've changed that up a little bit now. You're right. Used to be say back in the day, I don't know when it changed. And I'll we we right before we came on here, one of my good friends, and we already talked about this, is Mr. Grant Williams. He's a lieutenant with the highway patrol. I want you you know, we talked about it, we're gonna meet him after this. He told me that at some point that switched. The thought was at so at the time when they did it, if you're from here and you come back here, what if you work a wreck that your family's in, right? Absolutely. Or you're involved in something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:04

Or family members involved in a crime, you've got to investigate. Correct, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:08

Correct. And and and they've they being the highway patrol figure that out because there's guys all the time from from this area coming back. Grant is from Portageville originally. I know Jim Cooksie is from Matthews, he's in this area. Dylan Vandeven, who is a good friend of ours that lived a couple houses down, moved about a year ago back to Dexter. He's from Dexter. So it is certainly possible. And and selfishly, like like we said about Toyson, I want you guys to come back. Absolutely. We want, you know, we're gonna be selfish. We want you to bless our area, right? Yes, sir, absolutely, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

And I just didn't know. I mean, like if you're NBA, that's right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

If you're an NBA ref, I mean you can be here sometime, but if we like to be, you may not be a trooper for long if you ask.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:55

We've talked about that too. We have that the trooper is has been a long time, long-term goal, and we really want to be a trooper. Yeah, and so at all costs, maybe we can't, maybe we just get the opportunity later on down the road to officiate at MBA, or the higher we go is D1 college, which is fine. Um, but we want to be able to do everything that God has planned for us. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

You know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:18

Or if you just become high school, I was just gonna say absolutely I was just gonna say wherever the Lord takes you, I know that's where you guys will be you will be happy to do that. Well, it's so happy, so happy. Oh, yeah. It's it's it's man, this has really been a blessing. I I I I didn't really not that I didn't know what to expect, I just didn't know you, right? And we know some of the guys, or most of the folks that we bring on, and we kind of know their story. Gosh, the stuff that you've told me have had me scratch my head. I'm not sure I would have called that game that night. And I still go back to that. Micah, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

It it it it it tells you their character.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

It does. That's exactly what it addresses. Absolutely. I have a job, I told that man or the one the lady I was gonna be there, and I'm gonna be there.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

People see commitment more than they see anything. I mean, like, and and that's what jumped out at me. Like tonight, your commitment is being here. You were here one time, you showed up, you were prepared.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:20

Actually, I was a ding-dong last week. I was like, Micah, they're supposed to be here tonight. And he was like, I wonder why. And I looked, I was like, Oh my gosh, next week, I was like, 'cause he kept going, they have a ball game tonight. And I'm like, why would they tell me that then?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:34

And I looked on my phone and I'm like, you're you're committed. I mean, like, yeah, and and you know even like your commitment to Jesus Christ. I mean, like you you you live that. I mean, like this whole night tonight, you you you said the first thing was like my commitment is that I want to reflect Christ. And and and that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:58

You guys do that in spades, there's no question.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

Oh, glory to God on that one. You know, and and you were talking about dates and stuff, and and we we kind of do a lot. We do a lot throughout the week and everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:09

And it took us a minute to figure out a date when we were going back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

And and we God has put so many special people in our lives, you know, and put them in at the right time. And and our we she's our secretary, actually. She takes everything. Isis, her name is Isis and Linaya, and you know, they take care of us. You know, they're young and and they just do they help keep you on track of your commitments. They have a calendar, they have a calendar, and they put stuff in our in on our calendar for us and and reminds us of dates and games. And Isis travels with us and records videos for our page. So a lot of people don't know that we don't we don't run the Bowes twins page. Oh, do you not? She runs that page. Oh my god. She might say something about that last week. Yeah, something about the page, and they didn't know we didn't control the page. We do not control the page. Really? Our second? Absolutely. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And how old is this young lady? She's 22. Oh, okay. She's 22. She's way older than you guys. Absolutely. She is.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

Okay. Okay. Oh my God. Yeah, she's a she's a woman. She's 22.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:20

This is this is excites me, though. The young people like that are like, you know, people always talk about like the next generation's going to be. Absolutely. No. Not lazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:29

They're lazy, they don't want to work, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:32

I'd be honest with you are probably going to be some of the most educated generation that we've ever had. That's true. In a in a different, in a different way. Like I know electronics and stuff like that. We talk about. And and I'm not I'm I'm one that says I think teaching should be from a book. Yes, sir. I mean, like uh but there are also there is also a place for the having information at your hands. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Absolutely. But y'all are gonna be y'all, y'all give me hope for the future. I appreciate it. I mean, not just y'all, I mean like I see it in other kids. Yes, sir. But I see a difference, but I see a difference in your generation. Yes, sir. And and and I mean I work with a lot of kids. I've worked with a lot of kids for for a while, and I see a difference. I mean, like it's it it really is, and I I really want to see happy that y'all are wanting to come back to the case. Absolutely. I mean, you know, and and uh you know it and I know that and I'm not saying this is gonna happen, but you know, maybe one of you make it to the staple true, the other one don't. You know, I think you're gonna be each other's biggest support way about it. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, one of you makes it to the NBA, call it NBA game, the other one can be in the stands cheering it on the road. Absolutely. Absolutely. The only people in the stands rooting for the trick the ref.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:50

But before we move to the next topic, we speak about like people and and like the the next generation, and it's all about who you surround yourself with. That's right. That's right. So we we talk to Linaya and ISIS daily, and what Jayvon forgot to mention about like those two is they work very hard with us, and we're hard people to work for because difficult. I can never figure anything out. But something about Lanaya is I don't know if you all have seen, but we have a prayer line. And so with our prayer line is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Lanaya is up first at 4:30, 4:30 is short.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:28

What do you mean by prayer line? I mean I can call a phone number. Absolutely and and so we're leave a prayer request or you pray with me on the phone.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:36

At four at 5:30 to 6:30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:41

Is there two 530s in the day? I thought there was just 5:30 in the evening.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:45

5:30 a.m. and then five thirty a.m. and then six thirty, all the way to six thirty a.m. We have a prayer that's a prayer call, and you call in this number and we're on the line praying for that whole for that whole uh section of time.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:59

So if I say I have a need for something, you'll pray with me on the cloud.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:03

Absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:05

Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me?

The Prayer Line And Their Team

SPEAKER_02 1:17:07

And Lenaya is up every morning around 4 30. She gets us a call. She gets us up, or we'll get up and we're like, hey, let's let's get on it. Are you serious? I told you I don't know what's sleep. Right? When do y'all sleep?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:21

We we we get rest. We get we get rest. Oh my gosh. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Is is the number did you put it on Facebook something? We did have. Okay. It's on Facebook. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:33

I'm on the I don't I don't think I'm friendly with them on Facebook. Oh, you're gonna have to add them on the page.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:39

Please personal, so we can add you back. I was just gonna say, I think I've added them as free. I don't know that I'll have to go check and see if I find I think both of them. I think I've added you back. Yeah, we're you have, but I've said I don't know but if I filed followed the biosphere. Okay, so I'm gonna have to go follow that. Oh, okay. Well, that's great. Well, we are now to our lightning round, which is the the the one-hitter, so to speak. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:05

Is there anything y'all want to just say?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:07

Yeah, let's this is this is kind of moving toward the end of it, but you have we talked about everything. Is there any more stories? You tell us.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:14

You know, I just I would just want to say thank you to to you all uh for bringing us on here. You know, I I've enjoyed this.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:22

It's our it's our pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:24

You know, I I've I've enjoyed this. And you know, to to the community, to those, you know, that'll watch this, you know, continue to pray for us. You know, that God will continue to build us up and and be who He has uh called us to be in this last and evil day.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:39

So yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We will do that. All right. Who is more serious? Oh, definitely me.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:48

Oh, yeah. I I don't I don't really joke a lot. Do you not? I don't. I don't, you know, I don't really joke a lot. I smile a lot. I smile a lot, you do, but I'm very serious. I'm very serious, you know. Is he the jokester then? He is, he has a lot of jokes. Some of them are not funny, and some of them probably should never be said,

Lightning Round With The Twins

SPEAKER_02 1:19:09

but you know, I'm not the best person to talk out in public.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:12

So do you so do you have a bunch of dad jokes? Is that what you've got? Kind of the way corny jokes is what I would. Okay, okay. That's right. My when I tell a joke, my son was like, really? That's another dad joke, isn't it? So okay, okay, you're getting that down early then. Yes, very early. So if who's more serious, who's more outgoing then? I'm more outgoing. Yes. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:35

You're more talkative though, right? I'm more talkative when I need to. I uh I'm also the approacher, like, hey, how are you? You know, like I'm that I'm that nice. So I'm more serious.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:48

I wish I'd known that because I like I said, I seen y'all the other day and I was like, I need to go, I need to go introduce them myself and I probably should have, but I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:56

Yes, sir. Well, I saw you guys standing on you just happened to be right on the on the rail, and I was standing there, and my son was with me, and I'm like, but that's the Bowes twins. I need to go introduce myself because we need to get him on the podcast. Yes, sir. And well, he was there. Yes, yes, sir. He entered the podcast. Yeah, I introduced you guys to him. That's right. That's right. As soon as I said that. Yeah. That's right. Well, that's great. Who is more competitive?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:18

That would be me. Yes. That would be me. Really? Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:21

And so if you guys are playing a game on what do you have, PlayStation, Xbox, whatever? PC. PC. Oh, PC, that's right. You said the PC. So are you more likely then if you're more competitive to what do they call it, rage quit? I don't like to lose. Okay, I'm with you. I'm with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:41

I'm gonna keep going till till I win.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:43

And if I'm factual, no, we gotta go another quarter. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:47

That's him. That's it. Okay, okay. That's great. He's the one in the in the driveway that like missed the free throw. Oh, I got fouled again. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. That's him.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

Well, I'll tell you a little bit about that and then we can move on. No, we keep going. So we we we uh after we leave from NCTC because we're a part of the criminal justice. Oh I want to ask that. Mr. Caiton's we love Mr. Caden. Okay, we had him on and we watched it. We absolutely love Mr. Caton.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

He is a dear friend. His wife works with me at the end.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. We love Mr. Caden. There's nobody like Mr. Cain.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

I was not aware that you guys are in his class.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:23

Thinking about it earlier, and I'm like, sir, I don't want to put him on the spot for a minute. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:27

We are a part of the case. He is a treasure to have. He is, he is. He's a great teacher. A lot of the all of the law enforcement things that we know and that we will be able to take with us will be because of Mr. Cain. He's been he's been a great, great help when it comes to law enforcement. And after we leave his class and go back to Charleston, we go in the gym and he plays basketball scrimmages, scrimmage games with some of the guys, and he will call a foul if he ever's in the game. I like to get get my point. Sometimes I even come up and I'm like, hey, let me referee this game. You're cheating them. And then they think, well, he's the referee. He knows what he's talking about. I'm like, no, he's cheating you. You know, that is not a foul. Oh my god. He calls a foul every time he's losing a game.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:15

But you're just holding him accountable, right? Absolutely. That's exactly what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:19

And he gets mad. He's like, what are you doing? I'm in a game right now. I'm like, so win it honest.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:26

Yes. That's right. If you're gonna win, do it right. All right. Which one, who gives better advice? Probably me.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:34

I I'm I'm more when I give advice, I like to sound very, very deep for whatever reason. So I don't know. I I he's more of a simple guy. I'm more of a deep guy. I like my big words and things like that. Okay. Okay. You agree with that? I agree. I agree to that. I think I give okay advice. Okay. If somebody was to call me and was like, hey, I need your help, then okay, I can help you. But if it's like, you know, on a serious level, the only thing, you know, I'm so serious, it's like, well, you gotta do what you gotta do, you know? Like, hey, but he does give, you know, more deeper.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:07

So J Vion gives better advice.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:08

J Vion definitely gives better advice.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:10

Okay. Who's tougher on himself? That would be me.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:15

Yes. Definitely J Vion. I did not want to leave practice today because I I struggled. J Von J Von likes to be, he likes to leave like, so he had to be here at the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:27

And I like to be on time, but J Von would probably rather pull up at six o'clock. Yes. And we're not supposed to be here to 6 30. So he wants to sit in the car for 30 minutes. Yes. And so I I So you were wanting to work on something.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:40

More than yes, sir. Absolutely. More hit hitting the ball or fielding or throwing or whatever. Okay, sir. Catching fly balls. Yeah. Yep. Which I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:48

You play center field? I play left field. You play left? Dugout.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:53

I'm sorry. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:56

I say that all the time. But if if coach needs me, then I'll go to right or left. Okay. And if not, I'm trimming the team on. I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't, you know, I'm not going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:05

So that's where the competition comes in. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. I remember because you guys played here. I remember you in Cheryl Hill now. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

Now, you know, he may have me at baseball or, you know, basketball. I'm the better official.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:19

He thinks he's the better official. I am the better official. So you are competitive, and I mean you're you're still competitive. He just more.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:27

He's more competitive.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:28

I gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:29

But I will always be the better official. And we say, and we say that, like, and it's good that we have games together, but sometimes it's like we shouldn't have games together. And we'd rather not be together in some cases. Really? Because I want to tell him when he's wrong. I I and I'm sure he won't be able to do that. There's not too many times where I am. And that's the problem. He's never wrong. There's not too many times, right? That's the problem because he's never wrong. I'm with you now.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:55

Oh my gosh, oh exactly. My brother and I, exactly. He's an attorney. He loves to argue. So if you start arguing, as they say, you you at some point you realize it's kind of like a pig in the mind, right? You're like, he's really enjoying this and it's really getting to me. Right, right. Oh my gosh, that's funny. That's funny. Well, who is more likely to speak first?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:20

That would be me. Jayvon. It's because most of the times I'm always thinking about what am I going to say next? What am I going to say next? He has to take time to think about what he's going to say. So I'm usually, yes. So there's some differences there between you. Absolutely. I want to be wise. Again, I want to be deep when I speak.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:40

You're quiet, but when you speak, it's powerful. Slow to speak. Slow to speak. That's right. That's right. What about what is your favorite baseball memory together?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:52

Favorite baseball memory. Well, I'll just say every time I wear his jersey, I always hit the ball. Last night, wear the wrong jersey. Nobody ever knew. But my coach. That's true. And I put the ball in play. Every time, it was an out. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. But every time I wear his jersey, I put the ball in play.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:13

Now you almost won last night, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:14

Absolutely. It was a very good game, very close to the game. So I I didn't get to go to the game last night. I was sick. Oh. And I just didn't attend the game. Didn't want to get anybody else sick. So I didn't go. But he did do that, and we didn't realize till we looked at the stats that's better with your jersey. And and the funny thing is that is that like when he got the hit, he came back in the dugout and I was so excited. I was like, man, you did good. You did good. Good job. It's last year. And then we went and looked at our our stats and and it said my jersey number, and I'm like, This ain't right. And then we looked at each other's bag and we were like, You had my jersey. I was like, Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:57

Thanks for the hit you've given me. Thank you. That's cool. So that's great. What's your favorite officiating memory together?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:07

I'll have to be honest with you. Working the Carroll Championship regional game. Oh, that regional game? Absolutely. It was like the Mark with Mark Simmons. Mark Simmons. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:17

Was it a three-man crew?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:20

Okay. And then we did another one with Mr. Height. Then the next day after that, we did the day before we did Mr. Height, and then the day after we were with Mark Simmons. But that those games really, they were it was a pack gym. Just because of the magnitude of the game. And then you know, like everybody's in there fighting for a spot, you know? And so working with my brother doing those games might have been like the best experiences ever. That's great. And I would want to live those again, you know. Of course. I would. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:50

That's awesome. What's this would be for each of you. Okay. What's one word that describes your brother? So one word that you describe each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Oh, now I need time to think. Yeah, I've been thinking. One word that I would describe my brother. Very passionate. You know, he doesn't do anything, you know, without showing halfway. Halfway, you know, half halfway, half done, you know, medium well. Right, right. He's gonna be very, very passionate about it. And, you know, I appreciate him for that because there's some things, you know, that I'll I'll need him to do. And he may not want to do it, but some people sometimes you don't want to do it. You don't do it the way you're supposed to do it. If I if I need him to do something and he does it, he does it all the way, make sure it's done. And so I I would say very passionate. Very passionate. Very friendly. Javon is very, very friendly. Agreed. Um he speaks out and he will greet anybody, which I will too as well. But he's more of the He's the front band. He's like the and he gets the little touching on the shoulder and things like that. And so he he's he's a very great. Very serious when I do it, though. Very serious, very serious.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:04

He's very friendly. But he's friendly. I I I we picked up. You both are, but yes, absolutely. That's that's a great descriptor of him. All right. This was well, I got this one and one more. What's one word that describes your journey so far?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:20

Oh. Amazed. Amazed. Like I I you could have told me that I'd be doing a lot of this about fifth grade year, and I told you no. Yeah, absolutely. I I would never never imagine that we'd be doing the things that we're doing now. Especially at 18. Absolutely, absolutely. Oh my goodness. I would describe it as joyful. You know, even with our house fire, even with everything that we went through, it's just been a joy, you know? Even I didn't realize this is gonna be a preaching moment. I didn't realize how much the house fire would push me into my next when it came to when it came to seasons changing, as much as it did. And what I mean by that is is uh you go from a season where you feel like, okay, God, you know, where do you need me to be? And then the house fire happened, and then it's like, God, I serve you. God, I'm I'm I'm in ministry, I'm doing exactly what you need me to do. You know, what's the cause here? What what are you trying to get me to? And to know God and experience God on a different level, and you know that you can tell people, hey, I've been through a tough spot in my life. But to know within myself that, hey, God got me, God got this, I have nothing to worry about, you know, and it has trained me to have that uh realization, you know, I don't even let myself go to sleep worried about anything. And you know, a lot of people that is easier said than done. Right. You know, a lot of people it's it's very much easier said than done. And I a lot of people would say, well, you can say that now because you're young. You know, but we deal with stuff, you know, we go through stuff because we are young, you know. And and you know, I just feel like the journey has been very, very joyful uh for me because God has allowed a lot of stuff that should make me depressed, make me upset, and he's allowed me to see the joy. I've got a question about that too.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:31

Go ahead, finish. I got I know where I'm going with it, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:34

When you when when you figured out that it was a fire and all you had was the clothes on your back and then you went in and got your your uniforms, did you guys like God what we're doing what you want us to do? Absolutely. You we're doing these things, we're ministering, we're doing this and this. Why? Did you ask why? Like what why why I didn't necessarily ask why?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:58

I asked what's next. Where do we go from here? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:02

Y'all y'all want to be counselors?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:06

Because I would have. I'm like, right, well, wait a minute, God. What we're doing all these things, we're doing exactly what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:12

That's a very mature Yeah, no, it is a very mature thought. That's I would say that. Remember when I told you my script, my life scripture, his first James chapter one, verses two and three, consider pure joy when you face trials and tribulations. It's got me to stop asking that why question. I'm not there yet. And I changed the I changed the why question to what am I to learn?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:33

Because that's where the mature part is. Absolutely. I mean, control the things that I can control, trust that something greater than me is in control. That's where I'm at on the mature part of that. But kind of going back to the joy. As a counselor, people often come to me and they'll be like, I want to be happy. Well, happy depends on the happenings around you. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:59

Joy is from within. Right, absolutely. And you know, if I go out to get in my truck and I have a flat tire, am I gonna be very happy about that? Nope. Can I be joyful? Yes, I can be joyful in the fact that I have a truck. Right. I have the ability to get the tire changed. So those are very mature thoughts on agreed. I mean, like so if if you ever want to not build a boss. Probably you probably could very become well pastor counselor.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:31

And and before we move, I'm gonna say this. Brother, do you remember when we came in the house and we got our PCs, we got all our clothes out, well, our referend clothes, and switched them in the suitcase and we walked out. We came back in and we went in our sister's room. Right in our hallway before you get to the bathroom, you know, me and my brother was, you know, my brother was saying it out loud, like, Lord, Lord, what what's next? You know, what do we do from here? You know, we in that hallway, my mom had a cross on the wall. And it was like a little gold little cross. And even while the fire was going on, it hadn't, you know, it hadn't got the wall, you know, the the paint started coming off and things like that because of the heat that was in the in the house. But the cross was still hanging on the wall. And when my brother was saying that in my ear when I walked out, we hugged our mom and I we walked to the car, I called Ice, and I was like, hey, this is going on. When we got in the car on our way to Sykston, I looked at my brother and I said, just like the cross is still standing on that wall, the next move we do, if we don't know how to do or what to do anything else, we stand.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:39

Wow. And so that is really mature.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:43

We cried all the way, but I promise you, we had that determination that no matter what, we were gonna stand. We were gonna stand.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:50

And so it's the the foundation of our faith is what gets us through life. Absolutely. I've been through, we've all been through trying times and been through things, and there are times that that I've had to say, just like you, Lord, I don't know what else is next, but all I I'm gonna trust you. I want to trust you. That's all that I can do. That's right. I don't know what else I can do at this point, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:12

And so sometimes, I I thought of this earlier as well. Sometimes God has to create those things to get us to move. To get us right. Because he's been trying to tell us the whole time, go over here, and we're so well, I say we, I'm so thick headed that I won't do this, but he's got to create some uncomfort for us. Absolutely to get us to move.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:32

You know what, you know what? Just kind of sit here talking, like many people are complacent and they want to go back and God create in me what you've already created in me. God is a creator, right? He wants to create something new in you, and and y'all are constantly looking forward and like let's bring it on. You know what I mean? Like, and I think that's awesome that y'all are y'all y'all feel that way, and and kudos to your grandmother for that. I know there's other people involved, but I mean, but I mean I'd love to meet her someday. Yeah, absolutely. That's great. I mean, like absolutely. I think I think she very well is setting legacy for beyond. Yes, sir. Just past her, that's for sure. For her whole family.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:18

Absolutely. And then your kids and their kids, right? All all of all of that, all the way down. All right, last quick, last question. Three people we need to get on the show. Okay. Jamarcus, Mr. Williams, our superintendent.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:35

Okay. He's come up a couple of times.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:36

I think we actually I think did we say that last night?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:39

I think we did. Yeah. I think we did.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:41

I I know Jamarcus. He is a fine gentleman.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:47

I had three.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:48

Okay. We can we can get them off the air, it's no problem.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:52

I I was thinking of Gracie Smith. That's one that's going straight to the Navy.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:58

Oh, is that Captain Smith's daughter? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:01

Okay. I didn't want to say her name, but I mean I'm friends with her mom, and I've got to be a good thing. Yeah, it's all good.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:07

It's all good. I did not realize okay. Terrific. Terrific.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:12

Thank you for your service. I was thinking Danny Former.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:15

Yes. I know Coach Danny.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:17

Coach Former.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:17

I haven't seen him. Actually, I called Coach Miner when I talked to him the other day. He was with Coach Farmer. Yes, yeah. Is he helping during the testing? He's subbing me. Okay. Because I said something. I said, what are you up to? And he said, I'm sitting here with Coach Farmer watching the kids do something. I was like, oh my gosh, I hadn't seen Coach Farmer. He lives here. Right. Are you too much? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:43

I know you said three, but there's a principal that stands out to me at basketball games, and it's the middle school. You said her name earlier.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:52

Miss Russell? Christy Russell? Yes. I believe that's a good thing. At the junior high, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:58

She stands out to me. I don't, and I'm sure you guys can take this out, but there was an incident that happened at the middle school with her, and it was Sykeson versus Carol Middle School, and something happened. I remember. She I and she still came to the C D I think it was SEMO conference. Uh-huh. And she treated officials very well, very well, even after all that happened. So she stands out to me a lot. Okay. Really like her.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:24

I remember that. I remember what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:26

I know you said last question a little bit. Oh, yeah. I do. I just want to know. Y'all got one car, right? So how do you determine who drives?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:34

We have days. So I'll do Monday, he'll do Tuesday. Oh, do you really?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:38

Is that how you do it? I just thought you might arm wrestle or fight or something. I didn't I just want to see how competitive you really are.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:44

Yeah, we we just have to do it. And it's hard. It is scissors. It's really hard sometimes having to share and things like that. It's hard when it when it comes to a car.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:53

And you you're the worst critic, so he can't drive. Are you the worst critic? Who was the worst? Who's are you criticized his driving? He criticizes you.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:05

I have the most speeding tickets. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:08

So it deferred you to drive then now. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:12

So it's best, you know. So if you're going a long trip, he's driving.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:15

Well, no, he's driving because I don't like taking long trips. You get that naturally, though. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:19

I can tell you the story off air.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:21

Oh my gosh. That's great. That's great. Guys, we have thoroughly enjoyed this. Absolutely. We appreciate your time. I know you're I didn't everybody's time's valuable. I didn't realize how valuable your time was with all of the things that you guys have going on. We appreciate you coming over and doing this. I I thrilled that you have been through Mr. Caton's class or you're going through it. He is he's a blessing to us. He's a blessing to our school district, and he's blessing other school districts as well, right? Absolutely. Not just us. But the as a matter of fact, we we feel like the the SCTC program just in general is a blessing to this area. Major. With all of the sending schools that come that come here and send their students here. There are there are so many good things going on there. With that said, though, we we you are Micah Harris. Matt Tanner. And and we told you before we finished with Go Dogs. And so you guys, you you you you say whatever you however you want to end it. All right. But welcome, or thanks for listening to The Dog House. Go Jays. Love it. Oh my gosh. That's gonna do it for this episode

Final Thanks And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_03 1:40:37

of The Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and bulldog grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the Dog House, where Sykston stories always have a home.