Why Sports Build Leaders | In the Locker Room Ep. 3

Episode 3 of **In the Locker Room** dives into what sports teaches athletes that the classroom can’t always capture.

John, Claudio, and Arianna talk World Cup energy, national pride, fan culture, the power of team sports, and why athletes carry lessons like leadership, confidence, identity, and teamwork long after the game ends. The crew also gets into funny locker room moments, directions, Waze, Arianna getting recognized by fans, rugby toughness, the Haka, playing in front of a crowd, and why parents showing up matters more than they may realize.

From World Cup stadiums to high school gyms, this episode is all about the emotion, passion, and life lessons that make sports bigger than the scoreboard.

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0:00 – Episode Recap
0:25 – Welcome Back
2:32 – National Treasure Debate
6:25 – Winning Moments Fan Story
8:13 – Ariana Fires Back
10:17 – Men, Women & Memory
13:44 – Waze Debate
22:37 – World Cup Talk
27:27 – The Haka
30:15 – Rugby Toughness
36:27 – What Sports Teaches
37:22 – Finding Your Voice
41:44 – Teamwork Lessons
45:41 – Sports & Identity
51:18 – Sports Unifies Us
59:24 – Playing for a Crowd
1:01:20 – Parents in the Stands
1:05:03 – Home vs. Away Crowd
1:07:13 – Cornhole Rematch
1:08:10 – Closing Message

#TheWinningMomentsShow #InTheLockerRoom #7aMoments #HighSchoolSports #YouthSports #CollegeAthlete #SportsPodcast #TeamCulture #SportsLeadership #WorldCup #WomenInSports #AthleteLife #ChampionshipMindset #SectionOneSports #SportsCommunity

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to the locker room. I'm John Lim. I got Ariana Stockinger, a high school stud, thousand point scorer, section one champ. I got Claudio Valenzuela, multi-sport athlete, coach. Who's better in sports, men or women?

SPEAKER_01 0:17

One's better than the other. They're just different.

SPEAKER_04 0:19

It would be a it'll be a fun competition. Welcome back to the locker room on the winning moments. I'm here joined with my main man, Claudio, and my main girl Ariana. Look at that big smile she got, Claudio, filming here today. She's ready. She's ready for the locker room conversation. So uh let's kick it off for Ariana since you're since you're so ready for the crowd here in this uh beautiful jean jacket. By the way, Claudio, we need to step up, I need to step up my game for fashion-wise. Now that I'm filming with her, I can't be so bland. I feel like I'm just like an accessory of the facts with all her beautiful outfits that she puts on for the locker room.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

I'm proudly rocking my uh 250-year anniversary shirt for the uh you know the birth of America.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

The birth of America. You know what's wild about the birth of America? There's a show on Netflix right now, the Experiment of America. I think that's what it's called. And it's like a five-part series, and it talks about you know how America became America. And I didn't realize, I didn't remember when you learned about 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. We were at war after we signed the Declaration of Independence, okay? We were at war for like the next 11 years. We were still fighting for our independence, okay, after we signed the Declaration of Independence.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Really? I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Yeah. The the famous Delaware uh Delaware crossing with George Washington was not till after we signed it, while we were still at war when basically the Brits owned still New York, okay, where we were where we were at. They took over our capital in Philly. We were still fighting for years, and we might have lost the war had we not got the French to come help us out. And the French were like, listen, we're not doing anything, we're not helping you until we see that you can win. And once George crossed that river and won a couple of battles, then all of a sudden the French were like, All right, we'll come help you. And next thing you know, we are now 250 years old here in the great country of America. Wow. I I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

It's a great documentary. You guys should both both watch it. Yeah. I usually like to learn my history from my national treasure movies. I got you. This that that's a great show.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

I wish half that stuff was true. Yeah. And it might actually be a good one.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Wait, you don't think that was true?

SPEAKER_04 2:42

I don't think I don't think all of it's true. No way. Not the secrets of uh the secret book or whatever it is? U There might be a secret book. I might rock with a secret secret book that only the president can have. I don't think they store it in the library, right, of uh the the national public library.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

You've never seen National Treasures with Nicolas Cage?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

No.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

None of them? Not even what?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

No, I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

What TV are you watching, lady?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

What?

SPEAKER_03 3:08

What do you watch?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

A lot of things. Blues clues. She definitely is a blue clues generation.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

The question would be watched blues clues. She still does.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

With the original brother or the new brother? Oh, because you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

I didn't even know that it was a brother.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

So blues blues, okay? They had two. Basically, they had the original guy, and then I I don't know what happened to him. Then they brought his brother in to be like the second host. It's like having two Mr. Rogers, but you know. Wait, his actual brother or his actual brother. His actual brother. They wanted him to look alike. I don't know what happened to the original guy. I don't know if he just left. He got sick. It wasn't like some negative controversy. Uh, not like Jared from Subway, but they brought his brother in to film it, and now he is the the I mean still is, I guess. I don't know if Blues Clues is still on, but yeah. Ariana?

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Can you fill us in on this?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I would not know, Claudia. I would not know. Yes, I like it.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

The sass is coming out.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

It's coming out, it's coming out, okay? Listen, you can't you can't mess with her in the locker room.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

She she hit she has no hose bar. First of all, that's what the locker room is about. The locker room is where we we jovially joke on each other because then when we go out to the battlefield, then we have each other's backs. But in the locker room, blues clues.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

Gotta let loose, gotta let loose. We definitely do you know the blues clues uh song? No. Yeah, me neither. Me neither. Ariana?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I was trying to think if what it was.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Stop it. It's in your playlist.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

If it came on, I would I would sing a lot.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Isn't that when people call you that's a ringtone?

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Certain more ringtone, the blues clues ringtone.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

The only kid show I watch is uh Elmo, just because my nephew watches that. I know every single song to do it now. What's your favorite Elmo song? Oh, there's too many. They're all coming on.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

Come on, you gotta give us a taste now.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Play them like every day in the house.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

Yeah, but listen, you just said you know it. Now you're on the spot. You gotta say, what's one song? Give us a few notes of one song.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Probably the theme the Sesame Street theme song. What's a theme song? I've never heard. What is it called? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

I'm pretty sure it's called the Sesame Street theme song.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, that's probably what it's called.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

How does it sound? How does it sound? Like, give us some give us some some something. I can't even get it in my head right now.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Me either.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

I mean I've watched Sesame Street like since Oscar the Grouch was doing. You know what's funny? I think I do have it in my head.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

But I feel like she's trying to bait us.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

No, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

She's like, I'm not singing, but I want to make these guys sing if I'm quiet enough.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

I know the other ones.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Give us something, Claudio. Give us give us a little t give us a little hint of it. This is this is an Ariana show. Let's go, Ariana.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

The only one that that's in my head right now is the la la la la la la Elmo's world. That's the only one that's in my head and it's saying in my house probably 20 times a day.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

That's you know what we need to do, Claudia, when she has moments like this. We need to get her a uh Elmo doll, like a safety em all doll. So she got the emo doll on her lap so she can open up if she went when when she's feeling like like shy.

unknown 6:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

I'm really trying to think of that. By the way, so uh wildness for for our shows. My son gets into a little fender bender yesterday in Rye, okay, uh, at his girlfriend's house, and the the car is uh they live on a Wait, was it parked? No, no, no, I'm sure. No, he didn't park car. Uh I wouldn't put it past him at times according to his rims. He might hit it. He ain't parked herbs. His rims are park herbs. Well, he uh a car is pulling up as they're driving by, right? We're sitting there talking to the police. Car pulls up, says hello to uh his girlfriend's father, and it's like, hey man, I know you. You're the guy from the winning moments. And I was yeah, yeah, yeah, to me. And I was like, all right, this is this is pretty cool. It's pretty cool to say that. Not pretty cool. I'm sitting here for a car accident, you know, a little fender bender type thing. And uh I don't want the people who are the fender bender to think like, oh, this guy's famous. Yeah, we'll definitely make uh his son's fault in that case. Um, but yeah, he pulls up that and then he was like, I love all your shows that you guys do. I really appreciate what you do for the kids, this and that, whatever. And I'm like, thank you. And he's like, I just show you a new show. I was like, uh, what new show? He's like, in the locker room. He's like, who who's the uh who's the girl on in the locker room? She's great. Right? I was like, it's Ariana. She's interim. No, it's totally true. Side of the road. Okay. Cards are cards are starting to come up, and he's like, Yeah, love your new show in the locker room uh with that that young girl you have there. And I'm like, Yeah, it's Ariana. She's a section one uh uh hero champ in this conversation. All right. She champs it up so I do, I do.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Okay. By the way, Ariana is so gassed right now. She's like, yo, that's right. I'm gonna up my contract.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Listen, listen.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

People are watching and they're listening, and they they love the the new uh atmosphere we have in the locker room. So also what you're saying is they didn't ask about me?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

No, they didn't, clearly. They did not. Did you real quick?

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Yo, machine gun.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Machine gun killer's out. She was like, okay. You want me to be up here in the locker room? Let's just roll the sleeves up, okay. Now I'm ready to go. And bam, coming, she's coming for you. I like it. I like it. Yeah. Finally, some competition. Finally. Wow. Wow, you're gonna want to talk about that? Finally, some competition. About time she woke up. Are you saying it because it's Ariana, or are you saying because it's uh it's a girl?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

This is what he does all the time.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Well we'll leave that answer for a little later. We'll see how she performs. Wow, wow. But we all know the truth.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Come on, listen. If you're not gonna stand up for yourself, you've got to stand up for all the other women out there that Claudio just like basically like, hey, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

What is a woman hater?

SPEAKER_04 9:03

That is crazy. That is crazy. Shots fired.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Okay, big shots fired in that one. That's getting cut.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

That's not that's that's not across the board. That's that's a straight.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

That was under the table, that was under the gut. That was that was Ariana.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Remember what you said in the last show?

SPEAKER_03 9:18

I did not expect that from you.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Men versus woman.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

I did not expect that from you. Oh, she's she's pulling out receipts. I thought that I thought higher highly of you.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Clearly not.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

I think that was more. That was a great kidney shot. I thought she hit you right in the kidneys. That was below the belt.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

She put him down for a standing standing A count with a with a body shot.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

With the body shot. Now I'm gonna have to feel the wrath. Claudio's upset. The wrath of women. Women, I love you. I apologize for my co-host here. She's very rude. He says. And she speaks lies. Speaks lies. She speaks lies, she's not telling the truth. No, she is not.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Yeah, well, listen, in the locker room, in the locker room, you gotta bring receipts. You gotta bring receipts for the things that you say. So uh we'll see if Ariana had receipts later on.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

This is gonna get cut out. This is the difference between men and women. Bringing receipts? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I just said, do you remember what you said last show?

SPEAKER_03 10:10

I don't.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

That was that was a res that was a receipt.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

I don't even know. All I know is that no receipts are held. We we do get out right here, right now. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

It's interesting. I think I think what she just said though is the difference between men and women, right? Not not the receipt necessary, but she goes, Do you do you remember what you said last show? No. And Claudio's like, no. That's the difference of men and women right there. Right there. Hey, do you remember did you remember uh to bring this home? No. Uh do you remember it was so-and-so's birthday?

SPEAKER_02 10:40

No.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

No. Do you remember it's our anniversary? Yeah, I do. Did you get me a card? Yeah, yeah, I'm just gonna run out right now. I gotta pick up something in the car. It's in the car. Yeah, yeah. I gotta go move the car first.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

The majority of my parents' arguments are my dad not remembering anything.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

My dad says if it's not that important, I don't retain it.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

I'm not that bold yet. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

It's like I have so many other things going on.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Like, I'm I'm not that bold yet. I have to I have to be like, oh, my bad. No, listen, she's right though.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

She's right. Do you remember it? No, no, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:20

It's just an it's like it's like men with directions. Okay, like like pre-ways and the rest of it, all right, like before Ariana was born. The argument in the car would have been like, Do you know where you're going? I know where I'm going. Do you need help with directions? No, I don't need directions. Okay, I know where I'm gonna get to. And then four hours later, you're like, okay, you still know where you're going? No. We've been driving around, we've been driving around in a circle. We've seen this place four times already. But whatever defect we have, yeah, you're right. We are uh our memories are not great. And uh we uh we like to think that we're good with directions when when we're not. That's why we invented uh Google Maps and Ways. Okay?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Some things men invent for men. And Google's map, Google Maps and Waze invented by men for men, so they don't screw up, okay, ever arguing about directions again.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

I would have been lost without Waze. I'm horrible with direction. So bad.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

I'm gonna I'm gonna contain my comments for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

No, come on, man. You can't hold back.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

I feel like you got you both of you are baiting me. Both of you are baiting me. Baiting me. You gotta come on.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Why do you think women don't know with direction? Because I just I don't.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

I never said that.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I'm horrible with direction.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Well, I don't think young people know directions anymore whatsoever because you don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

It's like when I was a kid, if you asked me for a phone number, I could tell you everybody's phone number, like if my brain was the yellow pages. And now, uh one second, let me look it up.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

You know, it's just your brain, your brain actually, because it needs to operate on so many uh tasks, if it if it can forget it, if it can create a shortcut, so scientifically your brain creates shortcuts. That's why, like, if you're really good at like time stable and math and they give you a calculator, your brain knows that the quickest way to get an answer is to pick up this device. Your brain now knows the quickest way for you to get an answer for the phone number is to look up the phone as opposed to trying to remember it. It's weird that way. The only thing that breaks that down is music for some reason. Some reason our brain on music, we can remember things and trigger a memory from like a song. Like the song comes on, you're like, Yep. I remember Claudio's wedding.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

I remember when Michael Jackson hit at Claudio's wedding and we were rocking. You just it triggers like some weird thing in the brain. Yeah. Versus like, hey, do you remember Claudio's wedding? Nah, man. I remember saying hello. I remember having some drinks, and I forgot the rest. And the song comes on, you're like, yeah. I remember that dance he was doing. Okay. Big Claudio doing doing the twist, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Getting down to the floor. You know what's funny bringing it back to the map thing. So my wife gets super mad at me. So I'm excited to let this air out, Catherine. Um so I I she gets mad at me because anytime we go somewhere, uh, and you know, we we put things on the map. I don't like putting things on the map if I know where I'm going, or even if I'm generally know where I'm going, but she's always adamant, put it on the map. That way you can see traffic patterns, which to her credit, that is, since I've started doing that, I do it now even to come to work, just because it will tell you if there's a lot of traffic on this one street, so you can go a different route. Not because I don't know where I'm going. You live four minutes from work. That is true. I don't do it for work, you're right. But if I go down to Westchester or whatever, I definitely do because you know, there's two major ways to go. And one of them, you know, if a branch falls, there's a there's a pileup that goes, you know, all the way to like I'm not knocking you.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

When I have the kids in the house, I use ways to figure out which bathroom to use, traffic control-wise. So I get I get it. I get it, man.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Uh first first tap in the morning. So I I I put it on, but what I get screamed at is because I never follow it. If I think my dad, if I think I know where I'm going, right? My mom gets pissed, I will let it kind of take me. And then I'm like, oh, I'm used to going this way, but it's trying to take me this other way. And I'm like, I don't want to go that way because from my knowledge, that's longer, or it's usually more traffic, or whatever excuse I make in my mind, and I'll deviate. And she'll be like, Why are you doing this? And then God forbid, god forbid, it takes us a little longer to get there. Right. This is why, because you're not gonna be able to get it.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

She has every right, she has every right.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

So, going back to the the original portion of the conversation, I think I do that because genuinely I do like maps. I our generation had to learn how to get around with physical maps. You don't even know what that is, but they used to there used to be a book, right? And you opened it, and it would give you like you know, quadrants to the bigger map, and you could find like how to get so you and you'd have to kind of memorize it or write it down, and that's how you would get from place to place. There was no looking in the map on your phone, there was no like getting uh ways to tell you the fastest route at the next roundabout. It was right right, yeah. It was literally that, and and I kind of miss a little bit of that because you I enjoy maps. So now that we have a map in our phone, I enjoy looking for routes myself. So that's how I navigate. But my wife doesn't like that because she's like, You have a map, just press the map. But no, woman, I like I this I enjoy this part. Why would I, if I enjoy this part, not do that?

SPEAKER_04 16:09

But so I don't I don't I don't disagree with you. Like I love maps too. Um, we have a big map here in the in the office in that case. I I love maps themselves because my dad would used to give me the map in the car. Maybe there's some psychological bonding that I would do with him, the map, and I'd be the navigator. And those maps in the books were tough because when the page ran out, you had to figure out where when the next page.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Um which it might not be next to it, it may be like a couple of pages down, a couple of pages down to where you gotta go.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

So I I love that, plus my memory triggers where I need to go and so forth. However, I 100% agree with Catherine when it comes to why don't you follow it.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

Because the traffic patterns that that are out there, they're Waze. I trust Waze, unconditionally trust, unconditional trust for Waze when it comes to traffic. Now, granted, it puts more miles in your car and you go around, but it's like you always say, you'd rather drive the long way than sit in traffic. 100%. Waze, Waze is is uh the most accurate mapping system. Uh that's why Google bought them, right? So Google Maps bought Waze. Biggest mistake Apple ever made was not buying Waze. Um but they bought them for the purpose of like the traffic patterns. All right, so you get the two best mapping systems on the planet. You know what's a crazy story about Ways? The guy who built Ways, an Israeli guy who came up with the idea for Waze, right? He's got a great book. Um talks about like find the uh find the look for the problem when you're inventing something. Find a problem and then build a business around the problem. You know, kind of like what we're doing here for the winning moments, we see the problem in youth sports. So we're building our business about giving the kids recognition, uh, where we don't have that anymore for youth sports, making sure that you can relive the moments by simply tapping the bracelets and the patches, making all that content come alive and live someplace. He has a book that talks about the same thing. I think it's called Find the Problem. Anyway, when he built Waze, there was no maps. There was no digital real maps when he built Ways. So how they built the map while building Ways. Wait, when did he build Waze?

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Because I thought the original map, wasn't it the original Yahoo? Or map? Yeah, MapWax.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Yeah, yeah, MapQuest, right? So there was something in place. There was something in place where they pulled old maps, right? But there was no like like you know how Google drives around and videos your house and all the roads, right? There was no direction side of it because they mapquest would take old maps and they'd basically build out maps for it. Waze, the original Waze, okay, the drivers created the maps. So he leveraged us driving, and it wasn't here in America for for for a minute, it was basically in Europe, but he leveraged us driving as you drove around. It built the actual map the same way Google Earth was built by driving around. So the pictures of all your homes and the 3D version of the world is basically built by Google for driving the world. Google has literally driven the world to build Google maps and Google Earth. Waze did the same thing. Just imagine like I have to give you directions to go somewhere, and I'll give you directions to go somewhere, but I'm gonna use you to make the directions better so I can I I can build an actual map that doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Input all the traffic, accidents, all that on the internet. It's it's mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

It's mind-boggling to me how they put that together. Kind of the same way when my brain gets messed up when you think about like the Lincoln tunnel in in New York.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Like how you built this tunnel under the water while the the current is still happening with no like dam in that scenario.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Well, I think it's under under the the the ground part. It's not like in the water. I think it's under the ground at the bottom of the I think.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

No, no, it's under the water. So so what I learned about bridges, okay, the Brooklyn Bridge is a fascinating, a fascinating uh uh bridge, one because it's been around so long, and it's like one of the first rear like suspension bridges in America, and it's lasted. You know, I mean it was built over a hundred years ago. Um but they they have underground welding, underwater, not underground, underwater welding that you can do, uh, which is mind-blowing. You think about like fire and water, and although they would bring big pillars and so forth, but they would do welding under the water, uh, which is just I mean, listen, these engineers back in the day are absolutely geniuses for some of the things that they uh they create. But the Brooklyn Bridge is another good documentary to watch. Uh that, how they built the roads for America. I mean, listen, we take for granted now how easy it is to get around. We're talking about ways, like literally on your phone, a map that talks to you. Which I think recently they had like an uh no, it was minions. I thought they had like an Elmo, like you can let Elmo speak to you in your ways, because you can change your wage voice.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah, you can't pick your character in a ways.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

That's in Ariana's car, you know. It's in her car, right? She has Elmo telling her around. Okay, I can't do the Elmo voice.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I have the voice shut off completely. I can't hear it. Can't when it interrupts my music and like so I just have it up and I just look at it. I can't wait. Just look at it.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

So again, difference between my wife's car and my car, mine is silent like yours. I just because I can just visually kind of know she needs hers blaring. And it is the most obnoxious, the most obnoxious thing when that voice comes on. Make a left on this, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Like if I'm familiar with the area, like I can't have it on. If like it's somewhere completely new and I'm like lost, I'll turn it on, but barely. I can't. That's annoying.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Claudia, what uh what accent does she have on there? I don't know. It could be a British one. Yeah. I'm in trouble. Tell us a lot about the accents. Yeah. I'm in trouble. My friend in uh my friend in Poland, uh his wife loves the uh Arabic accent. So we're in her car. In her car. Okay. The w the ways has an Arabic accent. Wow. Okay. As he's driving around. It's it's crazy. I was in the car and I was like, okay, turn left here. And I was like, uh Igor. He's like, ah, it's my wife's car. Okay. So, alright. Whatever floats your boat.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

So we're learning a lot here about you guys and directions and and dad and mom as well. Right. Okay, beefing about directions. A lot of common a lot of similarities here in uh in men and women here in the locker room today. So let's let's let's talk about learnings, okay? Because right now we have the World Cup going on in America. It's fascinating because when you think about world games, you think about the Olympics typically, uh, but the World Cup is probably I mean, I think it is. Well, I guess if you're in America, you think of it that way. No, I'm saying if you think about like like I think I think the world in general, when they think about like you think of single event, especially because interesting, the Olympics happens every two years. People think it's every four years because it is by season. But you basically have the Olympics every two years. Right? Two years you're in the winter, then two years you have the summer. So it's really every two years for the Olympics, they keep it top of mind.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Well, World Cup is very similar. World Cup is every four. Every four. Each conference usually happens every every four as well, but in in the in different orders. Yeah. Yeah. So you have like the the the Euro Cup, right? Uh South American Cup, African Cup, the Asian Cup, they all kind of happen in between, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

So those are more like like almost like continents, right? Right. In that scenario, even though with the media today it is worldwide. But when you think about football or soccer, depending on what side of the pond here you're on, it's the only sport that garnishes the world the World Cup is the world's view, right? You have over a billion people, I mean, arguably two-ish, maybe to three billion people, eyes on the World Cup for one sport only. One sport and one gender.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

I think there's another one too. I think tennis could be up there. I mean, there's not like a World Cup, but they have their Grand Slams and Wimbledon, Wimbledon, uh they get watched Wimbledon.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

No, Wimbledon. That's how we are. Um, there are but to your point in sports, you know, you have some of these things. Like in America, we have the Super Bowl, uh, which has you know some worldwide views now that football is.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

I think now it has a huge worldwide like view.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

I think basketball is the number one sport, American sport. Yeah. Basketball is the number one American sport. The finals, okay. You think it's more than than than you know Super Bowl? Yeah, globally, yeah. Yeah globally. Yeah, David Stern did a phenomenal job putting us in China, putting us in Europe. Now we have a lot of players, especially the All-Star game that they did about the like the world game and the All-Star, Europeans versus Americans. Uh 100% David Stern back in the day, expanding basketball globally. You know, it's it's technically, I think it's the third third of fourth sport. I mean, cricket's up there because you know, it's played in India, very popular. And listen, it's in a country that you have almost a billion and a half people. So by by default, it's like giving yourself four rebounds. You miss four shots. We give you four rebounds, okay? But we don't count the four shots that you missed. All right. So same concept. But yeah, I think it's I think it's cricket, football, cricket, uh, then tennis, you're probably right, is is there. But basketball as a worldwide sport is is extremely popular across all countries.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Especially because of European players. I mean, those guys have have changed the game uh significantly, both on how you play, because they play it differently. Uh look, we have a Eurostep. All right, think about that. We have a Eurostep in America because of the European players. So it has changed the game a lot. We can't blame Michael Jordan for walks anymore. Uh we could blame the Europeans for three-step moves.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Jesus, the traveling is wild.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

It is. It is wild. And in high school, they don't even call it the same way. But here nor there. Talking about the world stage and the world cup. I think about how in the world, pun intended, they garnish that. Like, how much how in the world do you have such a great fan base? Here in America, by the way, like New York's been phenomenal. All right, you see the fans. Uh, I got to watch a a Norway game. Who'd Norway beat to before this last game? Hmm. Who'd they beat? Uh was it uh CIV? I think the Avery Coast. They beat the Avery Coast, uh, which was fun because this family was down here. I was in Long Beach, the family was here from Norway. So you could just see how much, right, the the American sentiment of like America is great to be at, and all the energy, plus all the Norwegians doing the rowing. I mean, I find it That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

The rowing is is is well I I like those Nordic uh countries, they'll always bring something like a what different element to the World Cup. Like uh the last time it was Iceland, they had like uh the whole clap thing. You know, and those Vikings are great. Yeah, it's it's like it's it's it's cool because it's a very unified type of a thing that even if you're not from Norway, I want to do the roaring woo.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

You know, it's like New Zealand, uh the famous rugby club where they do the the the Hakka. Is it called the Hakka? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that's wild to me. That's pretty cool. The Haka, like every time I see that, I'm like, all right, it's like a Rocky movie. What are we doing right now? Okay, let's let's go do something and play some sports.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Now, is that like a Polynesian um chant? Because it's not native to New Zealand or is it native to New Zealand?

SPEAKER_04 27:52

I don't know if it's native to New Zealand or Polynesian, but uh, it might be native to New Zealand. But it is it is of that culture, yeah. Of that that region's culture, the Hakka. It's like uh it's like our national anthem almost, I think.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Uh but it's like very like sentimental and like but it's potion.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's they they banned it. They banned the haka in um I think it's Hawaii. Or yeah, it might be New Zealand or Hawaii. No, it has to be New Zealand, I guess. Maybe it's Hawaii. I'm not sure. But they banned it, I think it's New Zealand, they banned it in like their uh like their Congress, right? Parliament or Congress, forgive my ignorance of of what they call it, but they banned it, and I remember seeing like a senator or one of the politicians, she did the haka at an assembly live, um, and they were basically telling her, like, okay, you know it's banned here in in the assembly, and she went through with the entire thing. And the fierceness of her face.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

It's crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

It's it's wild, like they're preparing for war.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

It's very yeah, it's very intense. It is very intense. Okay. So, and uh by the way, it is I think it is a New Zealand thing. It is New Zealand, right? Yeah, it was written for New Zealand or to for their land, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

Yeah, listen, I I would say the Hakka to me, is how it's how you say it right, Hakka? Yeah, the Hakka to me is probably the most intense chance.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

No, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

Of all sports. It makes you question do I really want to go to war with these guys?

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Seriously. Especially because it's rugby. Okay, like the last person you want to get into a battle with is rugby. If I had to choose, all right, maybe not MMA. MMA, I would definitely not get into that battle. But if you're in a you're in a pub and you gotta choose what what sports to get into a fight with, all right. Rugby is number one no. Okay, if you see a rugby player, if you you're in a pub with a bunch of rugby players and there's gonna be a battle that's gonna happen, nah. Nah, man. If I if I was with my boy in a pub that had a whole bunch of rugby players and he was drunk talking shit, and he was about to like, they were about to fight us, I think I would punch my boy in the face to knock him out, like shoot the hostage in the leg to save the life. I'd punch him in the face so we wouldn't have to fight the rugby team. I think that would be the case. If you were to pick a sport of people you would not fight with, what sport would it be, Claudia? Including like the martial arts stuff? Let's put those guys out. Let's put out boxing and and and martial arts where people could kill you, okay, with like a twist of an arm or you can't use your elbow anymore because they basically broke it. Put those two sports out there. Let's go team sports. It's team sports. Team sports, what what team would you not you'd be like, all right, man, you win. Probably women's tennis. Just joking. Yo, Billy J would take that racket and beat you.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

She would beat you. She's like a soldier. Um, no, I think those dudes, they have a first of all, they have to have a different pain tolerance than everybody else. Because everything that they're doing, like every other sport, they're just doing it without pads and they're doing it full contact. I don't even think there's like a I almost feel like they have no rules as to how they can like get at each other. So one, their pain threshold is lar, I think, bigger than than most other sports. Yeah. So I would and on top of that, these guys, every every one of them, they're all like not only like brolic and big, but beefy. So it's not like you're like picking these guys up and chucking them to the floor. Like they're so just like thick, one swat knocking you down.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

My man, they got they got pads on them. They just call them muscles. Yeah, no. Their muscles have muscles, like literally, like they lost their neck. Their neck starts like here and and basically just comes out like shoulder pads, but it's just pure muscle.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

It's crazy. I agree too with that.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Yeah, even the rugby, you wouldn't you wouldn't you wouldn't take a rugby girl now?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

That's the sport that came to mind right away. It was definitely rugby. What's that woman's name? She was on Dancing with the Stars a couple seasons ago. She plays rugby. Well, I think I do. I don't know why I'm blanking on her name, but like the build of her body is insane.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Claudia, he'll pull it up.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Oh my god, like she's a beast.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

She's her name is Ilona Max Mayer. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yes, that's her.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Ilona Mayer? Yeah. I will definitely put her up to see the see this body in that case.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Her shoulders are they're they're pretty big. Yeah. Our shoulders have built-in pads. Called They don't need shoulder pads to go into oh my god. She's is this her? We need to put this picture up. She's actually holding somebody. Oh yeah. That's it. Normally they'll they'll hold the women up there. No, she doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

That's wild. Yeah, that is wild. She's like, give me them, give me them right now. Yeah. Put them right on the shoulder. Okay. That's wild. That should be a TikTok challenge. You know, like the boyfriend, girlfriend TikTok challenge. I think one was like, Can you throw your girlfriend up on one shoulder? She should be doing a TikTok challenge right now. Like, listen, ladies, okay? Bring your man over here and we'll put him right up on the shoulder with the one push. That should be the new TikTok challenge. Yeah. Okay? Let's see see if you can pull that off. So wait a minute, Ariana. So you're saying that, okay, if if you were in a you were in a pub, all right, we'll keep the well let's stay with the uh European terms here for the World Cup in honoring that case. If you're in a pub right now, we're in a pub over there across the pond watching some uh some sports and and some group got rowdy right now, some woman got rowdy, and she was a basketball player, you would uh you would throw down.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Depends.

SPEAKER_04 33:32

You see how quiet she she whispered into the mic as if, you know, depends. Depends. I mean depends on what.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I don't like confrontation as it is. I'm not instigating her anymore. I don't like confrontation as it is, like especially with strangers. Um but yeah, like if she's 6'4, like bigger, yeah. I don't I don't know if I would go near her.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't this if this girl was upset in the bar, I don't think I'm going up there either.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

No. I mean she doesn't like confrontation, she doesn't like confrontation, okay, with strangers. All right. But if you watch her on a basketball court, okay, she's like uh I don't know your name. I don't know uh strangers, okay. Half move, elbow getting up. Uh-huh. Put her in between the lines. That's what we gotta do, Claude. If we're ever in a pub with Ariana, there's a problem. Bull the whistle. No, no, no. No, just like just like uh Kate and Clark's commercial, right? Uh from the logo. Oh, yeah. But they put the logo everywhere. We just gotta one second, and we just gotta take some take some chunk, draw a line. Okay, put the other woman in the box, in between the lines with Ariana. You do not want to mess with her in that case. Outside the lines, she just like, uh it depends. I don't I don't really know if I would ever, yeah. Okay, in the lines, I will take you down. All right. I don't care, male or female. Come on, Sebastian. Come on. You want your dad told me you want to play one-on-one? Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Student Sebastian.

SPEAKER_03 34:51

Yeah, yay. Yeah. How do you feel about that statement, Ariana? Is that true? But in the court, in the paint, you're a different person. Yeah. Why?

SPEAKER_01 35:02

That's like just what he said. I feel like outside I'm very like that. I don't like confrontation.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

I don't like what about inside turns that switch on.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Just like the competitiveness of the the the atmosphere, like just it's way different. It's just, I don't even know how to explain it.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Which is wild, okay, when you really think about it. And I agree with you. Like there's something in us athletes that once you turn that switch on, you're like a different person. There's a Rocky, not Rocky, I was gonna say Rocky. There's a s Sylvester Sallone movie, uh, I think it's called Over the Top, where he's arm wrestling. Okay. Switch the hat backwards. Right, switch the hat backwards. You know what she does not know about this movie. She does not know about the movie. Obviously. All right.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

Great soundtrack, too.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

That movie was was made before her parents even thought about having an 80s. It's earth, it's a little bit late 80s or early 90s. We'll look it up. It's called Over the Top, where he basically was arm wrestling. And whenever he had an arm wrestle, because he was a trucker, he had a trucker hat on before trucker hats became cool, and then he would turn it around, and we did an interview, like, all right, how do you get into it? Like, well, I turn the hat around, just turns a switch in my head, and then he, you know, he wins. Um, great 80s movie. It's gotta be 80s because it feels like an 80s movie. Great 80s movie in that scenario. So I want to talk about, you know, we talked about the World Cup and the world watching sports uh and so many things that we we learn from this. I want to talk about what sports has taught you and or teaches you that the classroom doesn't. Because I feel I've learned so much from sports in the game, right off the off the field or off the court for that matter, that I I wish they had for my kids, I wish they had classes. Like a class that team sports can teach you um that don't. Like let's let's let's let's cut out a bio maybe not biology, you probably need that. Let's cut out some history class, okay? All right, and uh put in a sports learning class. What's something sports, Ariana, that's taught you that you didn't learn in the classroom, and if you can change the system of teaching, you'd actually put in the classroom?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Definitely the number one thing. Like when I was younger, I was a very kind of quiet kid, you know, a little shy, had to break my show, which I'm kind of the same now a little bit, but sports, like the leadership that I developed and the voice that I developed that sports gave me is crazy. I feel like I became a different person, you know, that's why I became a captain, and like you know, people looked up to me. I was probably one of the loudest voices on the court. Um, like I was never ever like that. And that's definitely the number one thing that I can think of that I'd change as a person, to be honest, when I started playing sports. And now that I'm done with sports, like those characteristics have carried over like greatly. Now my friends are like, you go over there and say something to that person. Okay, you go on the phone and you call, or like, and I was never that person ever, but sports have just brought that out of me. Like I blossomed when I started playing sports.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

So you feel sports sports gave you your voice.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, I 1000% agree with that.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

Yeah, because you can't say you're shy while you're sitting here in the locker room on a podcast uh that we put out all over the world on YouTube and 17 other different social medias. Yeah. Including Spotify and Apple, and make sure you like and subscribe because we need it. Claudia, what has uh what's something sports has taught you that you would if you were a teacher, you'd put in the classroom?

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Well, alone, I mean, what she's saying is accurate, it's a hundred percent. And you said it as well, like it's it gives you your voice, right? Um, so I actually as you asked the question, I kind of wrote a couple of things down because when you break it down to like the most elemental things that you can when you think about sports and you think about you as a person, it's like it gives you confidence, it it gives you um the belief in yourself, you know what I mean? Like these are things that we take for granted until and we see it with like as as with older kids and older people uh that maybe haven't had those experiences, and their own self-confidence, their own self-worth, their own self-belief in themselves is not the strongest, and it's a lot of times it's because you haven't that hasn't been reinforced, and I think that's what sports does. I mean, just think about picking up a sport, any sport, when you were four, five, six, whatever, and you're learning it. We all struggle when we're learning, but as we get better, we start believing that we can do it. Right, we believe in ourselves that we can we can be good at it. Then you start becoming a little bit good, and then you're starting to give yourself like even more because you're basically giving yourself your power. And I think that's what sports does, it gives you your power.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

I think it's your point about the confidence. I think there are smart kids that are in classrooms that have confidence. Like, I mean, I was really good in math, so I had confidence in any time that we did like a math B in that scenario, and in spelling, I was horrible. Okay, so like in the spelling B, I was always not so confident. But what sports gives you is that that at least team sports, and or coach, like no one was beefing me up before the before the spelling bee, like, hey John, you don't have to worry about being embarrassed. You're gonna do the best you can. Come on, man, let's pick it up. I'll help you with the word. But as you said, it's not only the confidence it gives you, but I think the teammates around you, andor coaches, uh make sure that you keep that confidence. Because, like you said, like you're four, five years old, six, like you can barely tie. Some kids can't even tie their shoes.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

You're learning, you're learning the world, period. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:52

Learning the world through sports. Learning the world through sports. I said this the other day, like like sports is the new religion. And usually like you think about the world, the world is learning. The world has basically been built off of religion, depending on what book you want, right? The Bible, uh, the Torah, the Quran, whatever book the uh the Buddhists used, I'm not really sure. Uh but yes. But to your point, like sports being the new religion, that confidence level that you get, and being able to sustain the confidence, I think it's the hardest part for me. Is like I can get confident in a moment, but how do I sustain that throughout the entire time, especially when you're doing something that you're not good at? Like for me, spelling, thank God for spell check. Otherwise, uh so okay, you wrote down a couple of things. Yeah, confidence is one of them. What's what's another thing sports has has taught?

SPEAKER_03 41:39

The the one I didn't say out of the three that I out of the four that I wrote down, and and and it's with it's in the word. It's in the word of team sports, right? And that's learning how to become part of a team, working within a team, learning how to know your role, um, excel, lead, uh, be a role player, all of these things. Like, I don't know. It it's if you've never done a team sport before and you're faced with having to work in a team as a part of a team, I can feel that that can be a difficult thing because if you don't know, you're probably thinking about, well, I gotta do me. I always gotta do me. Because there's no other way of thinking if you've never experienced what it truly means to be a part of a team and having to do your part in a field of 11 for soccer in a court of five. You guys have five? Yeah, five feet? You know, uh or whatever it is, you know, you don't know what that feels like. So that you know, I think learning how to work as a team, work collectively, is probably one of the biggest things that you get out of a team sport environment. I completely agree.

SPEAKER_04 42:45

Ariana, if you had to change how could you learn as a team in a regular classroom?

SPEAKER_01 42:54

I mean, I guess like, you know, there's team projects and team things you do in the classroom, but it's never I don't think it will ever be the same as being on a sports team. Like just what goes on on the court is like just again the atmosphere, like the competitiveness of the sport you're playing, like dealing with people's emotions on the court, like that can't like I don't know, like it's very hard to do that in a classroom. I don't think you can I don't think you replicate it. Talk about emotions, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:32

Replicate when you know we were talking about the World Cup and uh Norway, right? Norway's having a great run in in the World Cup, and we were talking about before, like beat the drum and row, row the boat, okay? Like literally row, row the boat. And they got the stands rowing the boat. They got people in the bar row in the boat, they got people that have no idea what they're doing, but they're just rowing the boat, okay? Because they see everyone doing it. And I think the emotion, yeah, one of the things about sports that you can't teach that emotion that sports just gives us. As a fan, as a player, I don't even know where that comes from, first of all, because people are obviously passionate about other things. But I feel like people who have never even played sports, who've never had that opportunity to get on the field at team sports, whether their parents couldn't afford it, okay, or they just weren't athletic, or they didn't put them in, all the things that happen, not because they didn't want to, but they just couldn't, it wasn't available, but they're huge fans. You never see someone who's more passionate, angry, happy, sad. The level of emotions that go on during a game, what what do you think we'll start, Claudia? We'll start with you. What do you think contributes to that us as humans in a psychological way? Like, what is the reason that we are so passionate about sports? Using Norway as an example, regardless of the sport, I don't follow football, aka soccer, the way that you do, okay, knowing all the teams and the players and so forth. Um, every time you talk to me about it, I feel like I'm talking to Coach Ward about basketball plays, just nodding my head, like, yeah, of course, of course I know.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Of course I know. Coach Ward's knowledge goes beyond anyone. Like he could talk to me about soccer, and I'd be like, oh, what?

SPEAKER_04 45:09

I didn't know that. Yeah, Mr. Elephant. We're gonna call him Mr. Elephant from now on, okay? But yes, like you're very passionate about the sport because you follow it and so forth. But I'm watching these World Cup games and I'm at the edge of my seat, like, not even rooting for who's gonna win, whether it was Norway and Brazil or or shootouts, like I don't even care who wins the game, okay? Because it's not my country or my team, and I don't know the players, but I'm at the edge of my seat screaming at the TV as a nice play happens or a great save that England was doing last night from a penalty kick. Like it's bananas. What what can what do you think contributes to that? Well, I think it's identity.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

At the end of the day, it's identity. Ooh, good word. Yeah. I think I think it's people as humans, when we fall in love with something and we follow it for a long time, and think about it, sports, most of us pick up sports at a very early age. And it it stays with us through our most you know crucial developmental years where we're growing and still being very passionate. And at that point, you're still in your mind, probably if you're into sports, playing as if you're going to one day make it, right? And it's not until you know life hits you the right way and you realize that only a very small percentage kind of move further and further, that then you've already been identified. So it's already part of you, it's already part of your DNA. So now once you've no you're no longer in the competitive aspect, it's all you have. So the passion intensifies because now you know I'm not out there proving, fighting, being a warrior. Now I'm living it through the boys that that are you know from my country, from my club, the things that I follow. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 46:49

I totally get what you're saying. As a matter of fact, remember we did the interview with uh Greg, Greg the Beast. He talked about uh the identity, like he didn't know what he was when lacrosse was coming to an end. You know, he was he was Greg, who was the number one face-off man in the world, lacrosse player, and then he had to find himself and how lonely that was uh until he turned that around. So, to your point about identity, I think that's a great word to use. Uh, that's why Claudio was known as uh Catherine's uh Catherine's husband when they introduce each other. Uh so she he he takes proper identity in that scenario.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 47:27

But for uh shout out to Catherine. For you, for you, Ariana, what what do you think? What do you think makes us so die hard fans, passionate about uh the sports?

SPEAKER_01 47:40

I think identity is a great word. Um kind of just piggyback off of what Claudio said, just when you're playing a sport for you know a long period of time in your life, and like again, that's what you know yourself of and you learn so many things from this sport and you love it, you're so passionate about it, and then you watch a sport or a team and you fall in love with this team because one right, that's all you know, it's you're kind of pouring your passion into this team now, but also like you know what it's like to be on a team to play, like you kind of carry that over like to a team now that you're watching, like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

And I mean, think about this like most I'm gonna put myself out there, right? Most times when you follow a team that die hard, a lot of times it's been ingraining you from probably birth, your parents, a dad, a mom, an uncle, somebody that influenced you a ton that said, Hey, I am a New York Knicks fan, so it's almost like, all right, well, I'm a baby, so I guess I'm gonna rock with you because I don't know anything different. Right. I'm not really forming thoughts. And then through your passion, I'm learning that yes, the Knicks are my team, right? And I think a lot of times those diehard sentiments come a lot of times from from the people that have influenced you at a young age. I am a Real Madrid fan, and I am a real diehard Real Madrid fan because when I was a child, it is the team that my mom adored, and that is the only reason why I navigated my way to that. And I like other teams here and there, but the real Madrid team will be forever my team. And it started with my mom loving it, which made me watch it, me love it, and before you know it, it is now it's my team. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 49:38

So we gotta we gotta give we gotta give credit for your uh your soccer career to the fact that you're a you're a good mama's boy. That's good. Always it's good, always good shout out, shout out to mom for that because you give you gave you gave a lot of winning moments that unfortunately we couldn't record because we weren't existing at that point. Uh there were no cameras back in the day. No cameras, no cameras, pen and pencil, like see if we can draw his face him out. Sketch him out, okay? Uh back in the day when you were playing with the uh with the big skin. It was the bullskin. It was the leather pigskin, okay? Um, but no, I mean like we all have that story. Actually, Claudio questioned my diehardness as a fan. Oh my god. All right, uh, during the Knicks playoffs when I when I sold my ticket, okay, uh, to not watch the number one comeback in NBA history. And still to this day, Sebastian will ask me, uh, you think my dad regrets it? And some of anyone who knows me who I've talked to, like, no, no, because you got to watch it with you and he got to watch it with Maddie. If I had my kids there with me, I would have gone to the game uh because I already had the tickets. But for me to go by myself or with the buddy and knowing that Maddie, Maddie is a my daughter's a diehard Knicks fan, right? She knows more players than than her brothers. And she's in the family group chat. Like, did you just see that basket? Did you just see what's happening? Okay, Brunson's taking over the game. We're gonna win. And she's leading the family group chat as if she's a 25-year-old human. She's nine. And I'm just like, okay, we got it, we got a diehard fan on our hands here. Uh, not like her dad. I sold those tickets. I watched it with my family, and it was great. By the way, also, sports unifies. That's such a I was just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

You kind of just said it because unification is great, you know.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

Unification is is a great thing, and that's why America is genius. Okay? They're genius for keeping the unification of us as Americans, no matter how crazy we live today in the world of the political uh division that we have here today in our country, probably the biggest division, I think is the biggest division since what I imagined slavery was at that point with Lincoln. Like, we're so divided as a country. But sports, okay, unifies us as Americans because they play the Star Spangled Banner, okay? Our American anthem before every high school varsity game in this country, and some they might play it in JV or lower, but every in here in our world in New York, every high school varsity game, they play the Star Spangled Banner. So you have your anthem, not just in the pro games where you see it, but you have it early on in high school. You're never forgetting it. As a young kid, you're talking about your brain's not developed till 26. You're hearing it. Are you play basketball, you're hearing it 20, 30 times, okay? Because a lot of schools, a lot of schools, we don't do the Pledge of Allegiance anymore. So it used to be the Pledge of Allegiance was how we get the young kids uh in the classrooms to remember that that, hey, you're American or you're living in America, and America is the greatest, right? And you're so young, you're not. Back when I was younger, there was no like cable, TV, news shows. So it wasn't so polarized, polarized publicly. We're now it's social media and things you can hide behind. You could say whatever you want. But the the Pledge of Allegiance, which you said every day, got you thinking, like, okay, it's great. Like I pledge allegiance to the flag, and the United States from America was it was great. And then we cut that out, but the Star Spangled Banner, because of sports, every game.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

Every game you hear it, and I mean you can only it's like the best amp-up song that you could ever I mean you you're talking about it, and I'm literally it I'm feeling the feels that I had when I was in high school and in in hockey specifically, it's very, very I don't know, it's very different because you're in a very enclosed space. So it it gets amplified. Yeah, right. And then when I was in college, I used to love like a night game and putting that out there, and it's like chilly, and you're hearing that, and you're just standing with your brothers, and that you know it's it's it's an awesome feeling.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

It's oh god. Ready to go. When I gotta chill, I gotta chill as you say it. Chill. It's crazy. My heart was out of my chest.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

In the gym, in the gym is the same.

SPEAKER_04 53:55

Yeah, basketball b basketball gym, you hear everything. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

Shaking my knee the whole time. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_04 54:02

Ready to jump. I was just gonna say, like, you I've never seen a uh player, no matter what sport I've covered or played in, where the player is just like standing still. Like you're you're you're your your body's moving. That song is on. Yeah, you're swaying, your body's moving. I mean, obviously on the ice, like you're you're rotating like on the basketball. Some people are holding arms together, okay, moving. Like even in this dance, like you're sitting there, like it's amping up us as fans and parents. Some parents weigh too much amp amp down parents. Okay, some of the parents need to amp down a little bit. But yeah, like it's it's a genius thing that I think uh we've done as a culture, right? And as a country, sure, but as a culture, even around the world, um, when they play the national anthems. Like, I love watching the World Cup where they put the big flags out. Okay, I cover the entire field, celebrating that we are one species here, but multiple cultures and multiple fans. And I will say that I think I've been to football games around the world. Like I was in Bayreuth Munich. Uh I watched a football game in Bayern Munich. I watched one in Poland where the one in Poland, one, you have to get an ID card. So I'm not, I'm there. Okay. I have no like uh uh what they call it a PESL number. I've no that's like our social security number, all right, or like a business ID. I have no PESL number at this point, but I had to get an ID to get into the stadium, which by the way, okay, you have to walk through like these uh like the like the uh subway gates that we have here, so you can't rush in and you have to walk through a metal detector, okay, because these people literally kill themselves. It can get wild. It gets wild. Wild. I mean, we've seen all the the the the uh the bad things that have happened, like stampades and things of that nature where you can't get out and people actually die. And you see these fans that are passionate, they don't sit down the entire game, and yes, they're definitely gonna get into a fight if they clash. Even when I left the stadium once in Poland, they have two separate entrances. Like you can't walk out this way, okay, because you're gonna do that. But when I see, and living in New York and New York City, New York City uh has declined, in my opinion, compared to where it was, you know, just 12 years ago. You know, 12, 13 years ago when Tabash and I were running around New York City, it was a completely different city to me than it is today. But when I see New York City during the World Cup and I see these fans all over the world, Mexico City, another city that has somewhat declined over the last 20 years from a place that you would normally want to go to and feel safe about, it's amazing how the world has come together, and now we're one big world again. Just one big harmonious world. The fans are great, they're passionate, but they're not fighting. You don't see it in the streets. Like I remember watching the New York Knicks win the championship, and in the city we were beating up Spurs fans.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Yeah. I was just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

One, we just won. We just won the game. Why are you beating the Spurs fan up? Okay, one, he's a fan, he should rock his jersey. Two, it was a dad with the with the with the son, so that hit me really, really hard.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

In that scenario, like if I was with my son in some other city and you wanted to fight me while my my 12-year-old son is there, uh, that's wild. Bad representation of New York. I'm a New York City kid, so I hate seeing anything bad about New York City. Because I love New York City, I think it's the greatest city in the world. But a credit to the football fans and the soccer fans and the World Cup because it's just fun.

SPEAKER_03 57:31

Do you know what my favorite part is of the World Cup so far? Which part? I love, especially when the US plays. It's really only when the US plays, and the entire stadium is singing along with the anthem, and because they've been winning, they're singing, you know, their little uh song they sing at the end of the of each game that they win. And it's a whole stadium is doing it. And that that is that's gotta be the most. I mean, I've never been in front of uh 80,000 person crowd singing or chanting to me. So I can only imagine that the feeling that these guys must get when they hear either the the national anthem or at the end when they play their song, and and it's just louder than anything that you can because 80,000 voices will be a lot louder than than a lot of speakers, you know? That's cool. Imagine playing it in front of 85,000 people.

SPEAKER_04 58:18

I couldn't imagine. And I couldn't imagine. And arguably, let's say eighty-five thousand people and uh hundreds of millions of people, right? Because even though the world, you know, you probably have three, maybe four billion uh soccer slash football fans out there. Uh I think uh the guy from Norway, uh Claudio, who's the guy from Norway? Holland? Holland. Holland. Yeah. I mean, this guy's having a World Cup insanity. But when he was interviewed, he's like, you know, you have 200 million people rooting for Brazil and watching Brazil, that's what he said. And you know, they only got like five and a half million. And he's like, just knowing that there's hundreds of millions of people, not to mention 85,000 people in these stadiums, watching the game is just wild.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

When the US plays, it's well, I mean, there's other teams too that bring that many people, but when the US plays, it's I mean, it's gotta be like 90% of the stadium. I know, it's gotta be. And it's amazing, it's gotta be the most amazing feeling to sit there and hear, hear these chants, you know.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

Before we wrap up, that's another thing that sports gives us. Uh, I like playing in front of a crowd. I play better in front of a crowd.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Me too.

SPEAKER_04 59:30

Okay. Like we just had the July 4th party. I had to play a two-on-two uh basketball game uh at the house every single year. They do it. Okay. Uh and uh I was in no uh I was not ready to play basketball at that particular time. I was done with my basketball for the morning um in the afternoon, and I'm here to relax it and celebrate the 250 years of America. And I was uh basically forced to play a basketball game. And I was like, yeah, I don't know how I'm gonna pull this off. I can't lose. I can't lose at my house. But I'm another year older here, okay? And these kids are just young and and faster and getting stronger. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I said, all right, hey, you need to bring a bunch of people out here. There has to be a bunch of people out here in this half court that are watching. So I feel like if I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna hear it for the rest of the day. Okay, not by the two guys that we're playing against, but from all the people watching and their cameras out, and next thing you know, it's gonna be like, ah, John's an old man, which is partially true. Uh, and I'm and I lost. But that feeling of of like everybody watching you rooting for you, I don't know how it is for you, but Ariana, you were saying like you play better when there's a when there's a bigger crowd?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

Yeah, 1000%. I would like to. Why?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:43

Why does that why is that what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

Oh God, I don't know. I just like when I walked out, like from you'd go in the locker room like 20 minutes before the game, we'd do our little locker room talk, and like then I'd be all like run out and come out, and like if I saw like not a big crowd, I was like, oh God, like I hated it. Like, or like my parents had to be there every game. And they I think they've missed maybe two collegiate games and like they've never missed a game. They traveled everywhere, and like if they weren't there, I had this like sick feeling in me.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:20

I was like, Why do you think it was so important for your parents to be at every game?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

What did they give you?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:26

What did they give you that you felt that way?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Like, well, one, I don't know, like I don't want to say comfort when they were there, but sort of like parents should give comfort.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:41

Yeah, 100%. That's our job. But at in the game, you felt more secure, I would say, if uh if mom and dad were there?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

Now what if there's only one parent? Was one parent okay, or you needed both parents there?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

I needed both parents there.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:58

Yeah, yeah. There's no shame in that. I think I think that I think that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:03

You know, especially, I mean, having both parents with you. Uh, you're very lucky to have that. I think the fact that you say those words, like, hey, if I'm gonna dominate a game, right, I need my mom and dad there.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:16

I think that's great. Uh I hope my kids feel that way, Claudio, as they uh as they play. Okay, like, yeah, I'll play better if knowing that my parents are in the stands, uh, which is it's phenomenal. Shout out to mom and dad for for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

And one last thing, I always felt like and I know certain circumstances of things going on, and like people have different lifestyles, but I always like felt terrible when like kids' parents wouldn't go to the games. Not like just miss one or miss a couple because they had things going on, but like the kids who like never had anyone there to support them. Like, oh, I just like it hurt my heart a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

Yeah, no, I I I agree with you. And listen, uh, as a parent, especially high school, high school's difficult because of the time they have the games. Right. Right. So you have to leave work early or not uh I mean it's different now that a lot of people work from home uh post-COVID, but in the earlier days, like my dad never saw me play a high school sport uh unless no, he didn't even see that. Well, because during the week he couldn't make it, and all of our games during the week. Um so yes, unless I played on a weekend where there was a chance he could come, but otherwise he he couldn't because he had to work. Um and my mom, same thing. So she had the kids, she couldn't come to a high school game. So they never got to see me play soccer in high school, uh, never saw me play baseball or basketball. Uh, I think we had one like soccer game when I moved to Westchester, it was like a night game, right? Because they played under the lights, and the Bronx they didn't play under the lights uh for probably many reasons in that scenario. But yeah, then he might have came to that one. But other than that, like I get it. So it does suck when those kids don't have their parents there to watch it. My dad never missed a Little League game when we were there, okay? But uh yeah, never, never never came to a high school game. So Claudia, for you, like what gets you like playing in front of a crowd, does that get you amped up? Do you play better in front of a crowd, or you're like, no, of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

It's it's exciting, it's a thrill. It's almost like your opportunity to be to show what you got, you know? Right. So it's just it was always I look forward to it, you know. Um I mean it she kind of said it all. It's really that. It's that that feeling that you get that you're gonna be able to showcase what you got and you're gonna be able to battle in front of all the people that love you, that cheer for you. Um, so it's yeah, it's definitely exciting. I mean, who doesn't like to play? I mean, I honestly I don't know who doesn't like playing in front of a crowd, you know, because it's it's almost like the the whole point of the whole thing. We're not playing in secret.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:51

All right, I'm gonna give you guys a rapid fire and then I'm gonna close out the show. So uh we all now admit that playing in front of a crowd and an audience makes us play better, right? We almost need that energy to play better. Rapid fire, Claudio, you first. Home or away crowd. Which one made you amped up more? Home. Ariana?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

1000% home.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:13

Oh, I like the away crowd. I like coming into your house, beating your ass in your house, and then taking that bus ride home with with all my boys, like, yep, we came, we saw, we conquered, right? Little Jay-Z like like like scenario in that case. I love playing in the away crowds where you're just like on in the enemy lines, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

Yeah, sometimes now that you say that, like as a team, we like sometimes like played better away, which was kind of weird. But like personally, obviously I love a home court, you know, family, friends, everyone we know there.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:48

So I mean, you do say what do you prefer. I obviously prefer playing at home in front of my home crowd and front of people that love me. Yeah, you know. Um I mean, no who doesn't like going to somebody else's house and beating. The ass. Everybody. I feel like you that's probably one of your favorites. Probably one of your favorites. I mean, uh it's not a good one you lose and then you gotta go home with your tail between your legs, like god damn, we we lost this one. Especially as a Harrison kid against Rye.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:11

Like, you know, going to Rye to beat Rye as a Harrison kid. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:15

But as far as favors, I mean who who wouldn't, you know, of course you want to play at home. Yeah. You know, it's everyone that plus you're gonna get it's your whole entire it's like the extra man on the field or on the ice or whatever, and it's your home crowd. So it it feels good, it supports you. Even like if something doesn't go is not going the way in the game, they will uplift you and they will kind of carry you through, you know? That's why I prefer the home crowd.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:39

I don't know. This this day age in sports, some of the uh some of the you you cannot yell, scream, speak your speak your mind in sports and high school sports. In this day and age, some of these home crowds are you might as think you're in a library, people reading a bunch of books here while we're watching the kids play. It drives me nuts. Like you don't have to taunt or say negative things, but show up. You're here, bring some passion, okay? Go white, go blue, go whatever color your team is playing, like cheer. What the hell are you here for? Just watch and spectate. You could do that on TV anyway. That's why we play the game. That's why we're here in the locker room. Another great episode in the locker room, talking shit. Although it was kind of peaceful, this uh this one here. Claudio could not get Ariana to drop the elbow uh as she would normally do if she was posting him up. Listen, by the way, we still need the cornhole game. Let's get this on the schedule because I I have DMs asking who's going to win. This has become like the battle of the sexes cornhole tournament over here. Is Claudio going to take the cake or is Ariana going? And I just bought a new cornhole set, so we'll do it at my house. Perfect. All right. Or bring it right here to the we'll do it on the street of Stanford.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:50

I gotta be if we have to. I don't know if we should do this the battle of the sexes. I feel bad for Ariana. I don't want her, you know, feel humiliated. Oh my god. Wow. You know. Well, you can't wait.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:00

We can't end the episode on that. You're gonna take that, Ariana?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:03

We'll just see after the game what the results are.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:06

And then Silent Assassin. She's pulling a silent assassin. Shaking in my space boots. Silent assassin. All right. We appreciate everybody watching and tuning in. Please like and subscribe. All the followers don't just help us, but they help all the kids that we represent here on the winning moments, giving them exposure so they can keep creating those winning moments that we love watching and enjoying and covering. And that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:33

Almost heaven. West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountain, Channel. Life is older, older than the tree, younger than the man.