All righty. Welcome back to Disc Golf Daily Saturdays, where we interview people in Disc Golf that are just doing good things in Disc Golf. And I have someone here that's definitely a familiar face and might even be a familiar voice. We got Zoe and Dyke. How are you doing? Oh, hey, everybody, I am fantastic. Thanks for having me on. Of course, we had to have you on. You're a mover and shaker in the industry, and that's what we're all about here. So before we get into kind of what you do, just for the people that don't really know your background, tell us about yourself and how you kind of got into the sport that we all know and love. Oh, man, all right, this is pretty cute. I'll give you the, you know, the concise story, because everybody could tell their first Disc Golf story forever. Yes. But I was 21 years old when I started playing Disc Golf, and my boyfriend at the time introduced me to the sport, and it was in my hometown of Le Grand, Oregon, and funny thing, it was on a tone pull course, so I actually thought that Disc Golf was just a made-up game where you just, you threw at objects, and I was certain that this fun made-up game probably didn't exist very many other places or not very many other people knew about it, but how cool that I was throwing frisbees and playing this golf game with it. And I'd say about three months after playing this with my friends in my hometown, we moved to Bend, Oregon, where I started my first PE teaching career job, you know, getting into my field. And that was a really awesome job, PE teacher, activities coordinator for a girl's private boarding school. And we show up to the Central Oregon Community College, and I lay eyes on my first Disc Golf basket. It's actually a mock three, and I turned to my boyfriend at the time, and I said, Alan, what is that? Is it an elk feeder or a cow feeder? That's so funny. Yeah, and then it was explained to me that Disc Golf is a sport that a lot of people play organized competition, but nobody said anything about the word professional Disc Golf. That would be years later. It's crazy that you say that because I, one of my full-time jobs, I own a tackle store, like a bait and tackle store, and one of my employees is like a big, big hunter. And that's what he thought as well. He thought it was a feeder for like, for like deer or moose to drop their horns and like feed out of it and have the chains drop their horns or some of the horns, antlers. Yeah. There's been a lot of, you know, just because of my upbringing and being from Northeastern Oregon and things like that, I grew up in a family and hunt and fish and things like that as well. But it was not too far off to, to really think that this was a device for something like that. So that's funny. You're the second person I've ever heard say that. So you mentioned that you are a PE teacher. Yes. So how long were you a PE teacher for? And can you just tell us more about that avenue? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to worry into the next few things I'm going to tell you about who I am in the disc golf industry. So I worked for the Academy of Sisters. And at that time it was at a campless in La Paine, just south of Bend, Oregon. And I was there from 2005 to 2009. And that was an awesome first four years of having like specialized training opportunities outside of what like a public PE teacher would, because you know, this was a private board in school under the Bend La Paine school district, public district, but private board in school. So I got to do really specialized, awesome trainings to whether it was outdoor adventure therapy, how to handle like, you know, large groups of folks outdoors, how to plan events for large groups of people during parent weekends. And so there were a lot of just other things that I was doing as the activities coordinator. And I had a past fail PE curriculum opportunity. So I got to schedule any sport I wanted to teach and the students were going to pass or fail, you know, and I got that free reign. So in those early days, like as early as 2005, I started trying to teach disc golf for a PE class. And I only started with a nine week unit. And when I say only a nine week unit to a lot of people, they're like, what? And I was like, yeah, I had this freedom to design this thing, you know, and they're like, wow, we try to teach disc golf for like one class period or one week. And so those were the early days of me being like super focused and passionate about my teaching and my athleticism or like the sports I'd been into and cross referencing all of my training to design a disc golf curriculum. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome, a nine week, um, I wish I had in high school. I didn't really start, I had, I lived my high school's maybe two minutes from April Hill. I didn't start playing till after I graduated college. Wow. Yeah. Hey, we're going to have to talk about that. Maybe, um, maybe you play, I'll visit your high school, but let, we'll get back into like what you play is going to become because the opportunity there. Yes. So the story evolves 2009, the only reason I stopped teaching is because I, I had an opportunity presented to me to move to Anchorage, Alaska. And it was really for the next adventure. It was for the shred, for the snowboarding and, um, I couldn't say no. I even just got the goosebumps thinking about it. I remember telling my parents. I remember telling all the folks that, you know, what I was doing. And at that time, the Academy financially was under, it's a nonprofit. So it was under some difficult financial times. Basically, I designed a six months worth of what's just regular staff members could, um, have the students do just like as a substitute PE teacher. And I went on unemployment and I moved to Alaska, thought I'd try out an adventure life for a year, ended up staying for two years, um, finished it up with a really sweet job up in, uh, Q Lake Lodge at a really high end fishing lot, fly fishing lodge. And then right before I moved home, I, I played this tournament in Gerdwood. I remember I had become the Alaska state champion just prior to that. I was stoked about that as a FA one, you know, am division player. And I was like, you know what? I want to do a disc golf clinic and I'm going to do it in downtown Anchorage at the West Chester Lagoon nine hole course at the time. So I get all these people. I get these flyers out of the disc golf club, loved it, helped me promote it and 32 people showed up to that clinic that day. And at the end of it, it was, it was really successful. I couldn't believe how many folks showed up and it just got me really excited and high about coaching and teaching again. And really, really, I was starting to zone in on my craft with disc golf, you know, I, I was falling so much more in love with this. So I tell this entire group of 32 folks, I'm going to go down and I'm going to play a professional disc golf. And I'll be back to Alaska at some point. But while I'm young and I have this opportunity, I'm going to take it. And I'm just going to go see what that even means. And that was October of 2011. So then I would move home to Bend, Oregon at the time. I did not go back to try to teach her anything. I just, I really sold a lot of my items, worked a lot of landscaping, cleaning, painting, any kind of labor jobs that I could to save up money to go on and try my hand at the disc golf professional tour events, which were national tours at that time. So I, I complete that whole season of 2012 and national tours and eight years and I was traveling with Sarah Hochum and Don Smith as my first like tour partners. And later on that year, I would meet Dustin Keegan at the Oregon State Championships. And you know, I was like September of 2012 and I was like, man, I really want to play the world championships next year. I missed out on that Santa Cruz whole thing and I missed out this year. I want to go. I want to go next year. Do you want to be my partner at the world championships and represent Oregon? And that's the whole beginning of the story of who is now my best friend, my partner in crime and in life, in business and who I train and play passionately play disc golf with. And who is the operations manager of a now seven year old nonprofit called Universal Play Disc Golf, for short, everybody knows us as you play. And you play doesn't really, we don't get our letter of determination from the IRS and it doesn't become a thing until 2017. But from that first year on tour, so then it goes to 2013, that little four year gap was me teaching clinics for free all over my, the early tour days. And then inserting myself when I was back in Oregon into PE classes and basically coming in as a guest instructor to public schools because I was missing, I was missing that teaching element and really dusting off those early notes of what my disc golf curriculum was like and upgrading it and advancing it. And so I was doing that stuff and doing some private lessons certainly as a pro and things like that. My first sponsors, life is going good, disc golf is in a way to make a living or sustained. So I'm trying just a little bit of everything I can to survive and stay in disc golf. And then you play, yeah, we started a nonprofit and our mission statement for you play, it still is the same as it was from the very beginning. And it's to promote health and well-being for people everywhere and enhance community through disc golf education. And the words have changed slightly throughout the years of board retreats and things like that. But the honing in of why Uplace was started was to make the world a better place through disc golf because not enough people know even what it is or that it's an option. Yeah, no, exactly. And new play has been an incredible part of a lot of people's lives and even, I'll let you tell the Cole Rodon story how cool that is. But first, can you just tell us more about exactly what Uplay is and what you do with that nonprofit organization? Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned we're only seven years old, so pretty, pretty young, if you will. And in the first couple of years, it was about getting our feet underneath of us learning number one, what does it take to be a nonprofit and like what's nonprofit law, what's nonprofit like procedure. So that was the whole first half of the pie. And then the second half was what is it that Uplay really does? What do we deliver and what are we asking for people to get on board with? And disc golf education, it was easy enough to start with, hey, support us. We want to get this into schools. We want, we want community organizations or youth camps or places where kids will gather and involve themselves during summer breaks and spring breaks. So any kind of public access to children, let's insert disc golf. And at that time, I didn't have a published book or curriculum. It was still just asking folks to allow us the space and the time and us bringing all of our own equipment, you know, that we were saving up to go to schools and like donate out of the back of our trunk in the early days. And it evolves all the way into programs and partnerships within the disc golf industry. Sponsors getting on board, big manufacturers making larger donations. And so now what Uplay does is I'd say our bread and butter or the biggest thing that evolves our whole year's tour, because we call it the teaching tour, is our partnership with the disc golf pro tour. And then the support partnership that backs up that all up by the PDGA. So our two biggest partners in PDGA, DJPT, help us to plan the this year 18 events. But it just always depends on how many events are on the elite series. And we pick those for the purposes of serving each piece of the disc golf community and getting it out there to the world. And what does that mean? The first piece is Uplay has touring pros or disc golf professionals come in with us and they volunteer their time, first of all, to learn the Uplay methods and then second of all, they sign up for which leak is good for them to come in and teach with us. So then we go into a school, guest instructors for the PE classes. And if it's a community organization or a camp, you can imagine we just fill that hour and a half with disc golf slot. So we come into the program or the school, we're the teachers, the teacher or staff or coaches stay on site so that they have that understanding of what we just did and it gives them a base to build off of so they could continue to offer it. That's a big part. Got to have the adults there to buy in to continue doing it. And then we teach the kids all day. At the end of the day, we donate the equipment. And our equipment donation now is to baskets, you know, traveler baskets or like single chain baskets, nothing championship level. And then 30 starter packs. And so that means that the school and then we also leave them with the curriculum, like the book. So that means that the school is taken care of. And then with other manufactured discs that are donated, we allow a kid at the end of class to take a putter home, if they want to continue playing part of the wrap up of the really fun disc golf day too is we challenge each kid to go home and share with their parents or someone that they love spending time with what they just learned today. And that kind of secretly empowers them to be teachers and then spread the message more and then ask mom and dad or whoever it is that they love love spending time with to take them to the course. We just told them that was the closest. So now the pros, the disc golf tour and pros have this wonderful community engagement and they get to be a part of what they do best by connecting with children. So that part is a really big deal to me just because of the background that I told you of me entering the sport and like what I am. The kids having the opportunity to play it from kindergarten all the way through I've taught a 99 year old. So really young to forever age you every person I just I want I always wanted disc golf to be an opportunity from a much younger age. I didn't get it till I was 21. I was a multi sport athlete, you know, I was like, man, I don't know how many world titles out of stacked up if I found it when Paige did, Paige was four years old. Anyway, so that's pretty fun to think about. And then for the teachers, especially post pandemic, but you play has been going through the pandemic teachers are running out of passion, they're running out of life source, running out of something new with kids and they also are intimidated by teaching disc golf because they aren't necessarily disc offers or throwing frisbees. So they're not going to do it. I have to I had to require that this would be the most active learning fun for all of the teachers or the the guests, the coaches, you know, for that we're working with. So they will continue it on and then furthermore, now that the book is finally out. It's like one of those things where, okay, well, I didn't I didn't keep all this information inside of me. I got to share it with the world and and now they can purchase the book, you know, and it's like, okay, I think we've sir we we've checked off all the boxes, but now it's about continuing to find funding and continuing to find donations to continue the educational research, meaning sending more people that are that are either top two and pros community coaches or brand newly interested adults that want to provide something for a kid three different communities of people to empower to teach disc golf that that's a big long few paragraphs to describe disc golf is being brought to the world by you play and not letting it just be a fun day where we bring it smiles, which is number one. It's got to be the best day ever the execution of the entry and your first day of this golf is like maybe one of my very favorite, but then we get deeper down the road of of what all can happen for a person for a coach and for a teacher again in their world. It's so passionate and so cool and then fills my cup and I'd say every one of our volunteers are bored, our contracted staff members that come in and out, they see these outcomes. They see that it's not just like, oh my gosh, major joy, but major, major joy that continues and now sustains because we've got more people to buy on to disc golf is checking off all the boxes. Yeah, yeah, no, I love it. It sounds like you're very passionate about, you know, bringing in growing sport to to the youth or anyone really to adults and it's awesome. Like, I'm the same way as you where it's like, I wish I just found disc golf a little earlier. Like, I found it 22. Well, kind of, I started really playing 22. I knew about it in 2015 around there but didn't even play. So yeah, that's awesome. Do you have any like fond or what's your fondest memory from working with you play with the kids or anyone? Is there any fond memory that you have that really just kind of like fills your, fills your heart up thinking about it? Yeah, I do. I actually have one for every category, but like there's one that tells me like, yeah, this is all, there's two, but the one that I'm going to share, maybe I'll share both, is that after a community connect program, it was a Texas one. I can't remember if it was Texas States or Waco, it was two years ago. Yeah, Texas States, Ella Hanson was leading that event because she's become one of our lead instructors over time and you know, we give that homework, but we call it fun work at the end of class. Go home and tell someone you love about disc golf and show them what you learn and teach them about disc golf. So Ella's on her way to a different course, not the course for the competition. She's getting ready to film her in the bag. She turns her head and looks at the practice basket and she sees this like literal six year old. He's in first grade teaching his mom how to putt and and he's using the you disc, you play putter because you disc also makes a really nice donation of putters to give away. He's using the equipment, you know, you can see the little sticker with the QR code. This is where we go to more courses. This is what I learned. This is how you throw. And if you just think about that right there, the child becoming empowered and inspired and becoming the teacher for their parent, it's just, it's so beautiful to think about that. Yeah. Like you said, just like capturing that joy and sustaining and not just having it a fun day. And yeah, it's awesome to see kind of your fruits of your labor and put it in action. So that's a, that's awesome story. Yeah, keep going. And I, as you say, can I share one other one because it's kind of recent and it's really, really a big deal. And I'd probably drop another question about a really great partnership as well. Or like a lot of things we've done with partners, great stories. So Africa, boom, you play goes in where the educational sustainability partner for the Paul McBeth Foundation. So we go over one year after the course at Indiana University in Uganda has been built and we run them, you know, a C-tier is the kind of like the topping on the cake of the week of teaching disc golf at like the most max capacity you can as many schools, as many kids as possible. So we did this huge, huge, huge event, huge teaching, 17 days. And we go out to this completely remote island when we were in the small fishing village called Catosi. So we're going out to this island that we think we're going to maybe do some fishing or something. And we see the boys, you know, our African coaches bring the basket and the starter packs. And we're running out of daylight. So we had to kind of go to a different island than what they were planning on going to. And it's kind of, I'm like, wow, I wonder what this adventure is really going to be about. I thought we were off and we were fishing, but let's go see what we're doing. And we go to an island that none of them have been to. They speak with the leaders in Swahili. They ask if we can come up to their football pitch, their soccer field and show them a new game. And they're hopeful that they'll just like let us out on and let us hang out with their whole village and listen. So we haul all the disc golf equipment up to the football pitch. And we watched our African coaches in Swahili teach everything that we had just worked with them for a full, huge couple of weeks. And they had been to every single school and worked so hard with us. So to see the fruits of your labor pay off and to see them teach backhand, sidearm, putting track stands, straddle stands, and do it so well. And I know exactly what they're saying, but I absolutely know nothing that they're saying, but I'm watching them do it. And I actually just kind of put my hands back and I was like, it's working, it's really working. Yeah. So that's kind of a cool one. No, that's an awesome story. It's like the sport of disc golf, it breaks kind of language barriers. It's like exactly what you're saying. I understand where you're saying where it's like you couldn't understand Swahili per se, but you understood exactly what you're saying because of just disc golf, you know, the language you all understand. Yeah. So thanks for asking. So you've told me all like the positive, good stuff, but I kind of want to know what was your biggest struggle at first starting this nonprofit? Because I'm sure it hasn't been all sun shines and rainbows and butterflies. So so yeah, for anyone, I guess, wanting to start anything, whether it's with disc golf or anything. Yeah, it's not always going to be as as easy and I just want you to talk about kind of like that other side is, was there any like struggles that you had where you kind of started down and like, is this ever going to work? Yeah. And I think it's good to back it up to, um, I remember the seasons 2015 and 2016. It was actually 2015 more so, but you know, those were really different and difficult times for touring pros. And the national tours were in the super tours were awesome, but, you know, nobody was really financially able to make it. So I was already on into my now third and fourth year of having to landscape while I was home to survive and paying to play the tour, if you will, that right there was enough to like want to not break your spirit, but, but like, it's just so hard to put yourself into something and have no way to like survive. Even if you were winning, you know, I had divisions at eight years that might have three FPOs at a lot of times, so we're playing for each other's lunch money, essentially. And so then it was all of those teaching events that I told you about on the road that kept me going with a different kind of passion and education. But it was, it was the idea that the disc off pro tour birthed inside of me that I could be an entrepreneur inside of my sport and I don't have to leave this wonderful world that I love. I have to work and I have to let go with what my niche is. And so many people want to tap into the clothing or tap into being a disc manufacturer. Now that's pretty popular basket manufacturer, but I knew that mine was to tap into my skills as a speaker and as an educator. And so I would say just even hanging on long enough to get to the point of starting you play tells a much harder story. But then the disc off pro tour starts in 2016 and Dustin Keegan, Paul Omen, Shasta Chris and myself were the first four employees, if you will, but touring pros that drove the RV and drove the first initial long disc off pro tour trailer. And we set up what the assets were then they're very different now and very many more, a lot more trailers and a lot larger of a moving body. But 2016 was the hardest grind and most like soul breaking if you were going to stay in your passion or you were going to leave it and go get a nine to five or go back to teaching. This was important because we stuck it was the first five events, you know, there's a million stories inside of how hard and how far that we come through the first five events, but the pro tour continues on. We continue to love it and support it. There's so many things that we learned that year and that was the year that inspired me that I needed to tap into my niche, my main bin. Steve Dodge actually, I remember at one point being like, have you pitched any of this education stuff to your sponsor? Somebody's got to get a hold of you like you're onto something here, Zoey. That was that was one of the first things that came to mind or came out. And then after we did start, you play, I had to figure out how to like fundraise and how to pay a staff if I was ever going to have a staff and it took two full years of running different types of fundraisers to even get $10,000 in the bank. This was like snail's pace. I would say that some of my hardest things were getting to the point of starting it and then after starting it, two hard years of fundraising and teaching for free. So what we all it's not about teaching for free, but it's about you want to run an event that is subsidized even as a nonprofit. If you want a grant, you won the grant because of all of the items you are going to deliver inside of it. And I didn't know anything about grant writing. Still don't know a lot. I haven't won very many, but I do know that partnerships and fundraising is something that became a whole new world. And that was hard. And it took more than two years of sweat equity for a lot more than just me. We're talking about an army of angels that really came together to be, you play as board of directors, Dustin Keegan needs a huge mention and Valerie Jenkins needs an even bigger mention, not a bigger but same grandstand of mentioning, because those two really studied what do we do, how do nonprofits survive, and let's keep coming up with new innovative fundraisers besides just tournaments and, you know, non-sanctioned tournaments, because that's, we were doing a lot of those, but we needed to do more and we needed to do different. And any nonprofit person, whether they're a director or volunteer or any level of nonprofits, will tell you that fundraising and finding the people that are passionate about your mission, that's unending, it's infinite work. And you can have it be hard, or you can like change the lens, you know, like anything and put on the goggles of like, how can I have fun with this? So for seven years, I've been in this massive kind of self-training, natural training of how do we always have the right lens on to approach what we're trying to accomplish? And with nonprofits, fundraising has got to be the hardest one. Yeah, for sure. I can definitely relate to you on that too, running the Northeast Disc Golf Expo. It's definitely tough to kind of like, at first get people on board. It was like really tough at first, just like, hey, like, trying to do this thing, like, can you help me out? And it was really hard to convince people, like, okay, like, and then until I actually proved it, which it makes sense. Like, I don't, I don't fault them. But I'm just saying at first, it's like, why, like, why do I need it? Why should I help you out? I'm guessing is what they're thinking in their head, like, yeah, it's crazy. And there's something else with this golf you got to think about. I've been in the sport for almost 20 years now. And I think about some of my mentors that have been in the sport of 40 years, 50 years, nobody was paying in disc golf in the early days. And nobody was paying for education or training or any kind of things like that. Now that's a very different world now. And we're all thankful for that. But funding, what you play does, this is important for everyone on the podcast, understand is our business model, which is not a business model, is to provide this all for free. So that's what we're fundraising for. It's, it's not, you know, it's, it's never a charge to a school. I've never had a school pay a dollar. And that'd be a really crazy and a really cool day. But that's usually the first thing that keeps a school or keeps an organization from wanting anything to do with disc golf. So we had to fundraise and make it available for that outside world, you know? So that's, that's, that's what's really going on behind the scenes when we're doing fundraisers. What are your money go to? Well, we got to make it free for schools. They don't have any money to pay for it. Yeah. And I really, I really like, kind of your, like your mindset on that because yeah, I agree with you. It might be the reason that a school is like, no, why, like, it's really cool to see that you value that growth of disc golf that, you know, you're, you're willing to, you know, provide this service to these, to these schools just to help out the youth in a way that I think that's really, really special. But speaking of kind of just like fundraising support, what are some things us at home can, can do to help and support the wonderful things you're doing with you play, if there is anything. Yeah, there, there's a couple of ways. There's, there's always a way, right? I mean, there's the number one way, get on the website, you play disc golf.org, read about us, you know, check out what we're doing. The donation button is, is littered all over the website. So that's like the first way. But tell a, tell a teacher, tell a coach, tell an adult that we have our books available because there's like the community coaching book and I don't think a lot of people have ever seen that. That's for your after school program or your parent coach. And then there's a much thicker book for teachers and curriculums and education. You could actually, actually get yourself through 18 weeks in this one because I want a hand bone on it. This is the third edition. Okay. So both of these books, um, uh, Valerie Jenkins, myself and Dustin Keegan in the beginning knew that we, this was going to be a U play specific product and any sale of this as the three authors and all throughout time would always make the any proceeds for U plays programs. So those are U play supporters. And by the way, some of the greatest tools you can equip someone with. Um, and then just on our website, we've got a, a couple of little things. We got a shirt, nice Jersey thought space Jersey that some of the highest quality and some of the best art in the game. We've got T box socks, check out our T box socks because we're getting some new ones after our, our recent disc golf strokes art fundraiser. And that just ended yesterday, funny timing for this podcast, but if you guys want to see some beautiful pieces and learn about an annual fundraiser, we do it's called disc golf strokes. You can look on, it'll be on the website for a couple more weeks because we're still shipping them out and making products from these paintings. What we did is got six professional artists of different varieties and then six groups of touring pros. And we first over a six month period of building the event, those professionals meet and come up with their theme, paint the art at OTB. And then during the Portland events, we auction off the pieces. And then we put cool light up disc golf items with the paintings, but that's a way of bringing the joy of painting and the joy of this golf together through a fundraiser. And you see the pros, just all of the professionals just coming together, having all this joy, you get to share that. And then people that love art and want to share like disc golf in an art artistic way. That's what the you play disc golf strokes fundraiser is all about. But I kind of went off there, getting on the website and checking out a couple of little products, telling somebody about the books and then understanding that our biggest need besides fundraising is volunteers. And that might be the most important ask I get out there is we do have a volunteer form and we have like an updated database. We've got some help with that now. And if you have a skill and you're like, man, I just want to help, but I don't know what to do list a couple of them. We can use your help always. There's always, if you've got skills, I can find a way to use them. Yeah, for sure. That's awesome. Well, let's, we have about like 10 minutes left. Let's, let's, let's get into kind of your more recent, commentating transition, where you've been commentating for the DGN for the past or disc golf network live for the past few years. Can you just tell us more about that and how that came about and how you got the opportunity and what made you kind of start transitioning to the role as opposed to playing these events? Yeah, thank you. And I'm glad we have just at least a few minutes to talk about this. I feel like I'm our conversation flowed perfectly in the way of it's so important to talk about you play for me and it is so important, but there is still this Zoe and I professional disc golfer and player. The sponsored player that has, you know, I've been on a number of teams. I'm finally in my forever home with infinite and thought space. I've got my signature discs. I've got the signature Sphinx for infinite and I've got the mana for thought space and those become things that like, I got the 2018 World Pudding Championship and like some big, you know, bigger awards that were important to me on the tour. But throughout those times and those accolades, those created years of relationships and put me in positions where when the disc golf network got started, I wasn't part of that initial crew, but I certainly was involved with folks like Nate Dawson, Valerie Jenkins. I knew mom lewd, my producer and director, Johnny V, Terry Miller, we go back to the first days of Smashbox and Dana Vichy and Zoe and I were always on Smashbox. So I'd always had kind of this huge interest in, for me, I called it educating, but in a lot of ways, if you look back, there was a lot of reporting I was doing and there was a ton of motivational speaking. That doesn't, there's no room for that in the broadcast. But either way, I get, I get to the right opportunity three years ago and I get to do a broadcast and immediately, you know, my peers on the tour, great reviews, you know, great feedback. And my, my boss, my production boss and my contacts that within the disc golf pro tour really complimented me. And if it felt good, they said, hey, why were you hiding this talent from us? And that's a huge compliment to me. And broadcasting is a way of feeding that passion that I don't get to feed because I'm working in the industry teaching so much, I miss playing. So when I'm, when I'm broadcasting, I'm actually feeding that disc golfer, that pro inside of me, because I'm on top card and I'm seeing what every player is doing. I am in the live action. And when I say part of the discussion, you could talk about that, like, who's, who's in the discussion to win or I am the discussion. And I take it seriously to make sure the picture is painted as fairly and professionally as you can. And I've always been like, the scorecard can't tell the story or like, that's not what happened. Or like, you know, I, I'll yell at the screen, watch another sports. And so I take this, like, commentating position to the next level. The other day, I got out of the booth and I was so hungry after the second round of the Beaver State playing, or no, it was the third round when, when Holland wins and, you know, hole 17 on crumbles. The action and like the pure goosebumps for multiple minutes. And they're like, I have to stand up because I'm falling out of my seat in the booth, you know, with my headphones on, like, everything about this is feeding the most passionate disc golfer. And I don't have anything to prove. I only want to enhance the game. And it takes a, it takes a special individual to have the power of the microphone. And I, it, I'm not saying I'm like special or better than anyone. But what I am saying is my focus or my goals when I'm commentating or to create the exact factual picture in front of us to the best of my knowledge. And I don't have anything to do with that. It's, can I do that? You know what I mean? So I try to, I try to stay away from eye statements. We're all guilty of, of that. But I try to really bring the show to, if you were just driving in a car and you couldn't see it, like you could really feel and understand what it might have looked like, you know, or what, what that real feel in the last couple minutes of competition are. I want to paint that for people and I'm passionate about it. And I think that's the, like, just the competitor, the, the professional disc golfer, but lifelong, like sports and athlete minded person that I am. I'm just, I'm a fanatic for sports. Yeah, it definitely shows, you know, when you're talking about it, that, that passion, even talking to you now, that passion that you have, you can definitely see it, that kind of just fire in your eyes that when we're talking about these things that, you know, it means a lot to you. And I do appreciate kind of what you're saying. Like, I think, yeah, commentary is a super important part of any sports podcast and painting that picture is crucial to kind of the viewer experience to get kind of the full scope of what's going on. Because yeah, we can see it with our eyes, but, you know, whether it's the stats or just like telling people what's going on that we wouldn't really think about or sometimes just showing telling people exactly what's going on. Like, I think those are crucial things. Yeah. Well, and like, yeah, let's, let's just bring up page peers for just a moment because she is one of my closest friends in the entire world of disc golf. And she always will be, you know, will be 75 and 80 years old old ladies enjoy and throw and slap down rollers. I'm sure of it. But to see page come back from that like injury and to be able to be the commentator on top of it has zero to do with our closeness and our friendship. But the passion that comes out, I mean, I was crying. I was bawling, actually, and I had to put it together before the camera gets back on me. And I was like, that's the stuff that broadcasting, that's why it's so addicting for me. Because the feeling of success and joy is something that I'm so addicted to creating or giving to other people. And the extreme amount of joy, I mean, a brow water works to thousands of people in that moment, the extreme amount of joy that that accomplishment from that athlete that just happened, that's what that's what we live in for. That's more than the joy of disc golf. That's what we're living for. That's life. Yeah. So I just had to bring it up because it's like, it's passion, it's life. And it's, it's important for me to make the room to stay in this role. And I also, I also hope to, to teach or to like, in the future, like, bring up new commentators and give them some of these keys and some of these things that I focus on prior to the event, the win, the press conference is happening. And then during the actual broadcast, like, you only, you only get so much time in a split second, and you have to speak pretty quick. So I hope to be able to share that knowledge with people in the, in the industry that want to come up in it too. Yeah, yeah. And I don't think like us, the common disc golf fans realize like, you're speaking, but you're also getting pulled things in your ears as you're, as you're commenting. So it's not like the easiest thing where it's like, like, when you're on, on points, not the, you have like a guy, someone talking to your ear, like, okay, we're going to pan to this, this, this, this. So it's, it can be tough, especially like, I don't know if you've ever used a speech jammer. If if someone's in my ear, or talking, I, I can't, I can't speak. So I don't think people realize it. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a new whole thing. I, my cartoon brain thinks that like, my head splits in half and my left ear really does listen. And somehow my right ear and right side of my, and my mouth are connected. And I keep it together. Because there's a lot going on in there, and a lot of change up, and, and a lot of things that, how many times do you do like, monkey see monkey do or Simon says, where you hear a word and then you just accidentally say it. Yeah. Well, that's a skill to compartmentalize the listening to. You're right. That's something that it's that people don't realize that I think is a, definitely a secret talent. So yeah, just, I guess one last question, something that people Steve mentioned in one of my buddies mentioned when I, when I texted him, I was interviewing you if he had any kind of questions is that you're the positivity. That's two things. That's the thing they both of them brought up out of left field. Like they weren't the positivity you bring to, to the booth is, can you just tell us more about that? Just, is that intentional? Or is it that just who you are? Yeah. It's just me. I mean, I, it's because I'm the most focused on what I'm doing. And it'd be funny if someone else said that they were more focused on my commentary. But there are commentators in the world that I don't know that are as focused, you know, like I, I'm thinking of different sports. But I'm so focused because I, I love disc golf. Because if I wasn't behind the mic, I want to be tapping in that world championship putt. And I, it's the joy that disc golf brings me. Yeah. It's every, everything I just told you about it. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I, I really appreciate you coming on and, and let us know and, and chatting with us, Zoe, before we let you go, is there anything you want to shout out or, or let people know? Yeah. Yeah. I want to, I want to thank you for this opportunity. And, and I want to remind people, please, I meant that ask seriously about a volunteer opportunity with you play or any, every cent, every dollar a donation is a big deal and it's uplaydisc golf.org. And then I want to thank everyone out there separately. I'm going to put you play aside. I want to thank everybody out there for following me as a player, for listening to me as a commentator and, and for believing in me as a teacher or as a speaker. Because there are millions of people out there that this disc golf world has, has put in front of my path and has been the reasons that I like am in all of these different positions. And I don't know that I can always keep up all of the different positions, but I'm continuously evolving. And it's because of people all along my disc golf path being right there helping me. And so thank you to every one of you that's part of my journey because there's so many more than I could name. And Steve Dodge, you are a huge part of that. I love that guy. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been Disc Golf Daily. Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share. It really does help us grow. (upbeat music)
