September 24, 2025 • 37 mins
An exploration of Native fandom and careers in professional sports, featuring former rezballer Shawn Martinez, Director of Live Entertainment for the Phoenix Suns, and a passionate high school basketball fan whose story goes far beyond the game.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey everyone, before the episode starts. Be sure to subscribe
and rate the show. If you're enjoying it, Thanks for listening.
This is burn Sage Burn Bridges. I'm your host, Nicole Garcia.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
To me, the definition of res ball is a bunch
of res kids getting together with no rules. It's just
you and like six of your cousins playing together.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is my friend Kim, who we will be hearing
from throughout the episode.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It gets pretty wild. I mean, it could be a
combination of like basketball, soccer, wrestling. Sometimes you don't even
have a goal, or you have a goal but there's
no net, it's just the rim. Sometimes you're playing with
the basketball. Sometimes you play with football. There is no
rules and it's just the six of you playing because
you're at Grandma's house and there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Res Ball is extremely popular in native communities in today's
I want to explore the many important aspects beyond the game.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Reds Ball for me is running gun fast pace. There's
no slowing down. You're always on the run. For me,
I mean shooting the three, taking in into the hole,
your dirt road, your dirt court. You know where to
dribble and not to dribble and where to shoot from
and how to hit the backboard because it's not very stable.
(01:33):
Just reds ball is home court basketball that I'm used to.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
This is Sean Martinez who is living the NBA dream,
but in a different way than you would expect.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I think one of the biggest things I've learned in
life is to always be ready for that right place,
right time. And it was the right place, right time
when I was hired by the Denver Nuggets in Denver
in two thousand and two, I was ready to take
on the challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
This challenge started with coordinating and DJing, leading to the
director of live presentation for both the Phoenix Suns and
the Phoenix Mercury.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I think I might be the only Native American that's
in this position in all the leagues. No one said
no when Native American News put that out there. That's
kind of how my journey really started in the NBA
and that little kid in forty Finance real Perco dreaming
of making to the NBA. This is my way to
get in and it was really a blessing to be
(02:31):
a part of that journey. I started DJing in college.
I used to hang out by the DJ booths, and
they fired the DJs and told me I was up.
I'm like what, I don't know what I'm doing. So
I taught myself out of DJ how to max, how
to do all the little things. And I DJ's with
the guy who worked for the Dinner Nuggets and he's like, hey,
apply for this job.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And I applied and I got the job. I worked
for Let's Go, the Nuggets, the Avalanche, the Mammoth, the
Rapids won a championship with the Rapids. The Colorado Crush
won a championship with John Lway and the Colorado Crush.
I worked for the Rock Tieth, I worked for the Broncos,
every team in Denver I worked for just to get
my start and learn the whole business of arena entertainment,
(03:15):
if you will, live presentation, and then just like parleying
that and get him recruited to Detroit, where my boss
who hired me in Denver, went out there. So he
brought me out there to kind of do.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
But in Denver, on the Native American air this night,
I'd round the ball the Palow style dancers to come
in and dance, bringing a drum, educate people in the
different styles of dance. When my mom was younger, she'd
make a hundred Frybreds. Everyone always remembers that, Hey, I
remember when your mom made all that friy red and
we had to eat at the stadium. And when I
got to Detroit, it's like, man, where all the natives at?
(03:48):
Like I got to find him? And I went up
north and found some sag Chip Native Americans up there,
went to one of their picnics, just introduced myself and man,
I felt like I was at home when I went
to their picnics, because it just felt like I was
back on the Reds. I did six years with the
Detroit Pistons and now I'm back home through the pan pandemic.
This job opened and I applied and I didn't have
(04:09):
one live interview. They were all either zoom or something.
And I got the job and I got home and
things just kept rolling. It's the home team. It's close
to home. I drive five hours and I'm back home,
which is amazing. And I love seeing all our DNA
people at the game. I'm always waving and trying to
get on the screen, so trying to give back and
(04:30):
make sure they can experience what I'm experiencing because I
just I love that part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Nobody really knows that somebody is in the NBA who
grew up just like everyone else out here, you know,
And it's a different route because I didn't even understand
this job. I understand a DJ, but I don't understand
like you can actually produce an NBA game. For instance,
like when you're working with the Suns, there's the DJ
that you're kind of looking over, so you're just you're
not doing that anymore. You're doing more the bigger picture.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I'm directing the game outside of the game, so I'm
in charge of anything that the players are not doing,
from the gorilla to the dance team, to the entertainment team,
to the dunkers, to the DJ, to the video to
the animation to see I'm directing all that. I start
with the script, but if things changed during the game,
(05:20):
you kind of follow the vibe of the room and
the vibe of what's happening in the game, and I'm
directing all the madness.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
It's kind of like a live TV show all of
this stuff happening. But usually there's a huge team of
people working on stuff like.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That right, it's me and I have my six people
who work under me. Under that, it's all our entertainers,
so forty entertainers, if you will. And then the game
production crew, which is my control room camera crew. We're
all putting this big piece of entertainment together and trying
to entertain fans and make sure they have a good time.
(05:53):
Whether you win or lose, everyone's like, wow, that was
a good time.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I've seen a couple of games I think like, maybe
no shade, but Oklahoma, there's no sound sometimes and I'm like,
that's happening.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
It's feels so weird.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, we try to play music, make sure that players
get their dribble up music and their big songs and
their sound effects.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It seems like it's just very short clip bits of songs.
What music is chosen? Is that based off of your
own preference or are you going off the team, are
you going off the fans? What are you like looking.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
At every single one of those elements and then whatever
the element is and then heal in the room. I
have a sheet, it's kind of a music sheet that
has hot timeout songs, defense songs, back in the game songs.
Just in case you forget what you're doing. You can
just look at this number and punch it in and
ready to go. That was one of the first things
(06:45):
I was taught when I started learning the arena DJ
sound because I DJs Women's Final Four, I DJ's All
Star Games. Me and DJ Automatic, we like the East Coast,
Like any of those East Coast beats are just so
much harder. They feel like I'm gonna dunk on you
when I hear this song kind of kind of beats.
(07:06):
And then like if we're playing Golden State or the Clippers,
we take all the California artists out so we're not
giving them any Jews, So we got to think about
those little things. But just making sure the team knows
we're here for them, we know we're all on the
same page trying to help each other win.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That is something to think about when you're playing at
the Lakers. I'm sure you can't play any like you know,
Dre Dog.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, if you can tie a song to what's happening
at wherever you're at, it always amplifies that moment even more.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
That's one of the things I love doing and just
making sure, like to me, seventy five percent of the
room at a game is music. When you can hear
someone can hear their jam, they're in, They're instantly into
whatever's happening.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You really got to know the music. You really got
to know the part, not just the music, but like
the part of the song that's going to hit. And
then it's for really short times. What are the rules?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
The rules are you can only play instrumentals when they're
dribbling up on offense, so it can't have any lyrics
for defense. It's got to have a defense cadence like
the ben Evn. So there are some rules and we
really try to abide by them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Sean's doing a lot to represent Native people, and that's
not just by playing Redbone or giving us screen time
during games. He also helped create the iconic Phoenix Suns
twenty twenty two twenty twenty three city edition jerseys.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
The originative jersey was just an unbelievable undertaking that started
when I was in Detroit. They reached out to me
to be a consultant on the jersey, and all of
a sudden things kept moving during the pandemic and I
ended up getting the job with the Phoenix Suns and
it was just an unbelievable program where we worked with
all twenty two tribal nations, federally recognized tribal Nations of Arizona,
(08:54):
the Intertribal Council of Phoenix, Indian Center, Kahokia Unity. Everybody
had a piece and had an input on it. Jonathanz
who was president at the time when we were going
through the design work, he was definitely instrumental and giving
us feedback on the design. And just the great work
between Graham Wincott and Chris Roshar creative director, all those people,
(09:17):
all of us coming together and making sure we tell
the story of our people and we tell it the
right way and still listen, not thinking, oh, here it is,
we're going to lay it out. When people give us feedback,
We're still listening, making sure we're fine tuning in and
where we ended up by the end of the season
was just unbelievable. Just having the anthems sung in our
(09:38):
Dinair language and Tahuna Optum, White Mountain, Apache and hope
like this is on the biggest stage in the NBA
where we're having our people showcase their talents. At halftime,
we had Native American DJs here. I got all twenty
two tribal nations flags hung up permanently in our pavilion
(09:58):
here at Footprint Center, and just you know, giving back
and making sure our people had a voice. Every time
I booked an entertainment group, it wasn't go out there dance,
it's tell us why you're dancing, tell us why you're
wearing the regalia, what's the dance about? So you can
educate our son's fan base on what we're about. And
all the tribes had a chance to do that, which
was an amazing, amazing thing that I wanted to make
(10:21):
sure it was one of the staples. And how they
talked about the Sipy Cure Patche Ground dancers dancing a
halftime in arena was so amazing, Hilo River basket dancers,
I mean, just all the different Denetta and Nablo dancers.
We had the guardians to have the super bied Guardians
of the Grand Canyon dancers in here and they all
explained what they were doing. It was so cool to
(10:41):
see that on our court, which was a dedication to
the jersey with this logo at center court twenty two
flat that represents twenty two tribal nations of Arizona, and
that was on the court and they were dancing on
a center court with all the twenty two tribal nations
were for Sun on the court and on the jerseys
that the sons were wearing, and the turquoise color, the
(11:04):
protection stone, all the little things that we researched and
made sure they came to life within this program is
just dreaming on the ras, this point being a part
of that. It just all came together. Something that I've
been working for my whole life. Can still tell our story.
Like we always say, we're still here. We're entertainers, we're artists,
(11:26):
we're poets, we're professionals, letting people know we're thriving and
what is now the new America. I appreciate the platform.
I appreciate the connection. I appreciate being able to amplify
the voices of all tribal nations because we're still here.
We still have a story to tell, and that's why
(11:48):
I'm here. I believe that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
For the rest of today's episode, let's move local and
talk about a super fan of high school basketball.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
From what I know about johnsy Bear, he was practically
at every single game, the loudest one to cheer like
he he really is wing High School's number one fan.
Speaker 6 (12:29):
People like to watch me at the game because I
cheer on the team. The fans they said, oh Jones
is here, Yes, Yes, this place is gonna rock. Yeah
A shay Yahi Jones the gag outo jonesy bear. A.
(12:51):
That's my nickname.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
I'm Kia Jenny Bush.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I got that name from local radio station out in Gallup,
which is kg a K.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Mister Dehi is.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
The one that call me jonesy Bear and shash Bernantai
and what does that mean, You're the main bear boss
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I know he'd be on the radio because we'd be
listening in KGAK with Harrison Dehaya. And there's a couple
of times, you know, you just hear a guy start talking.
Dad's like, oh, that's jonesy Bear.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
To kick it off, let's first talk about Jones's origin story.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I went to Through High School for two years. Then
I transferred to Wingate High School for my junior and
my senior year. My sophomore year, even though I was
still in school in Through, I used to go to
a wing Gate basketball game. Back in those days, wing
Gate had a good team every year, and I started
(13:56):
following wing Gate from there on, and then my senior
year that's when I got really into it and I
started following them everywhere.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So it's been quite a while.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
It's been thirty five to forty years.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
My knowledge of Jonesy Bear came from dad. He would
come home from work and I'm like, so, how was work?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
What'd you do?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And one of my first questions was did you have
to arrest anybody?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
What was the exciting thing today? A good ninety five
percent time, It's like nobody everyone behaved. Then when it
came to games, I'm like, so did you arrest anybody?
What happened? Thing crazy? And he's like, we had to
escort Johnesy Bear out or we had to tell jones
Bear to come down a couple of times.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
He's our number one. Then this is.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Bill Bisenti Kim's dad and former security guard at Wingate
High School.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He's a pretty good friend, pretty good person. A lot
of everybody likes them, and he supported the Bears and
all the fans support him. I came to wind Gate
High School, I started working at nineteen ninety two and
now I was started as a janitor, so I just
worked there to about ten years later. Everybody just keep
(15:07):
about Jonesy. So I want to know who Jonesy is,
and finally you when the game starts, that's what he comes.
And then people telling us Jones the key, So now
just what do you call him? Jonesy beer.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
As it comes to preparation, Jones's fanhood resembles something Sean
would do.
Speaker 6 (15:27):
Before the game, we write everything down and then we
passed out the notes. This is what we're gonna say.
Diego's trust Diego. That's I guess traditional of Wingate High
School Bears.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, and it just means go Bears go. A shush
is bear.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
Yes, go Bears go. Yego's rust Diego. If wing Gate
is ahead, like maybe ten fifteen points or two or
four points behind, that's when I start running down the
bleachers and then I start saying yak with shut Shago
as loud as we can so our team can hear yeah,
(16:15):
shut Jego. To me, I think it's it's a powerful
name for the school, the team. They want to hear it,
so they don't know that, oh Jones is here. So
we'll say yeag with shut Sago, Go Bears go.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
How many other ones did you come up with?
Speaker 6 (16:34):
They make a foul and we start saying you you, you, yes, yes, yes,
and all of you.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
No other team walks.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
And then we say walking walking back to through all
the referees. They know who I am when they make
bad calls, and then we say liar, liar, that's on fire.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
You guys get personal.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yes, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Speaking of the cheers. You have a lot of props,
and it looks like you make a lot of them.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
We have a bat call sign, we have referee for
sale sign, a sign that has an eye chart.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
I make those.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
I passed those out to the fence and we show
it to the referee. They don't allow eye chart. Now
you'll be escorted out.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I've seen you with like two by fours.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
That was funny. That was a homecoming game. I don't
know whose idea was it, but they they said we
should make some noise makers. So my brother, my whole
family they got two by four. Then they cut them
up for me and then we started painting it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I did.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
We make like maybe twenty seid and we took it
to the game and everybody wanted more and more and more.
But they say it was too loud and everybody was
covering their ears, So.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
They're not allowed anymore.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
I still use it, but it's not a two by
four now. It's like a half an inch board like thinner.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, it doesn't make that much.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
And then I usually.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Make like ten of them, and then I put the
player's number, I have them on there, or sometimes I
put their name on there.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
They can bring those in during the regular season, but
when the district game comes up, we're not allowed any
posher or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
He's got so much energy and he's doing all this
creative stuff, you know, and as far as like cheering
and creating different cheers and props. And I just think
it's super interesting because I'm like, I don't have that energy.
I'm so interested in that energy.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
True, it's like where do you get all your energy?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Like, sir, give me some of that energy. How on hers?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I would love like if I worked that hard for anything.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
True, I'd be I'd be the president, I'd be invincible.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Here again is Kim, who herself has ties to wingate.
You graduated from my gay high school. Yes, yay go Bears.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
He's been at it for to my knowledge, over.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Over thirty year years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
See that makes sense because my dad was when Ate
High school for maybe thirty years, thirty five years maybe,
And see around that whole time, you always heard about
John Zy Bear, So I'm sure forty years does not
surprised me.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That brings me to another question I was curious about
when I started talking about interviewing you. How do the
cheerleaders react to you because you're kind of like stealing
their shine.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
One time we went to the game, I said, we'll
give the cheerleader to opportunity to do their charing because
it seems that we're taking over the charing. So I
talked to them and it goes, we'll go with Jones,
so they'll look at me and I'll be charing and
then they just follow me.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Wow. I don't think that's ever happened before. Like yours
just are like, we'll just go by this megafan and
let him lead us. Yes, And how is your relationship
with the coach and the team, and like the parents
are they just happy to have you on their side.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
The staff of Winget High School and the coaches, they
enjoyed me coming to the game. Jones will do the
action here and you know, he'll do the show here.
I don't pay at the game. I go in free,
especially when they have a pre sale ticket while people
(20:32):
are all in line. I will never be in line.
They'll know that. I'll pick up my tickets. Coach Martinez,
well give me twenty forty tickets, fifty tickets.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
People will call me.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
I will have maybe one hundred to two hundred phone calls.
They'll ask me, Jones, get me a ticket. I need four,
I need ten.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So they do support you. Then they want you at
the games. Yes, wow, because if you know, people don't
know this, but I know people stand in line like
just trying to get in because it's not a big gym.
It's a very small school. So if you're trying to
get your whole family there, good luck.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
You got to be there early or they will call me.
They say, well, ask Jos he'll get tickets.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
If you want tickets from Jones, there is a condition.
You better be ready to cheer.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
I only do people that will be chained with me.
Then I'll get tickets for them.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Oh so that's a trade off. Yeah, okay, And that
probably makes your cheering that much louder and that much
more energy.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
Yes, and the basketball players they love it. They say,
we can hear you, we can hear you on the court.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
On the other side, what has your interactions been with
opposing teams? I'm sure that gets tricky.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
We'll say we have a home game and then our
rival high school is Hatchie Cougars, and then the second
one is through Hawks. We'll start off with to Hatchet Cougars.
But ever we come up with our chair. Now they
started saying that too, And now all these high school
(22:22):
around here, everybody's using my chair.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Now I take the other school, the cheer and everything
that. I think they get an idea what Jonesy doing for
when they high school.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, I've seen a TikTok on this. There's like res
basketball moms.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And they'll be like, oh, they're stealing Wingate cheers and
to Hatchie, so like people.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Know about it, Uh huh?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Is that friendly? Is it just fun? Or you know what?
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Tra Hatchie. Some of the fans they'll be nice to me,
but some of them will like try to jump you
or things like that. But it don't hurt me though.
I don't say bad stuff to them. But those other
fans from there. They say it, but I said, I'm
just here supporting. We get bears.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Sometimes Jones is not the only one. We ask them all.
Sometimes we had to tell the fans, the other fans,
the Lister fan we had, we had to tell them
to leave because they're misbehavior. Sometimes the fans gets out
of hand, so we had to protect our team, the coaches,
the cheer leaders, and the fans make sure nobody gets
(23:36):
in trouble. We told them that we don't tolerate what's
this right here? Okay for you to leave the game
if you're going to be in had that habit.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That brings me to something else I heard about When
I was asking people about you, because a lot of
people know you as like the super fan, they were
telling me that oftentimes security has to travel with you. Yes,
and that is we get high school security, so they'll
go with you to Tohatchie.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
Yes to Hatchi or ship Rock. Especially in the room.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
They had to watch ship Bro. You're the worst one.
Ship Bro when it's packed full, when we have a
t ship playoff, in no way we can't control over
twenty five hundred people. So they had to call it
a ship law. Enforcement to come out and watch lamp
(24:29):
phone called the serve to assist us the Ruts. They're
okay because the Rute they always had the law enforcement right.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
When security would have to travel with the team to
another town like ship Rock, he would they would leave
the school and he's there at the school, and then
they travel to Shiprock and somehow he's first in line,
and they're like, you were still at the school and
we left. How did you pass us and get there
and be number one in line?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
He has his ways.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I guess it's true. He had he had some wingate superpowers.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And have you had to use them?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
No?
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Actually, the security will just watch us. But I know
what I'm doing at the game, what I'm saying. So
they say, you guys watch shones. They don't want nobody
to get hurt and stuff like that. So that's how
the security comes along.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh, I think that's smart, especially if you're saying that
they can jump you. You know, I mean, nobody needs
to get hurt over this.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Yeah, it happened before. Oh gosh, yeah, it happened before.
And you know, if somebody says something to me I
don't like, and that's when I turn around and I
turn around and I say, hey, how would you feel
if you were in my shoes? If I say something
to you? But my fans of wing Gate they'll look
(25:56):
out for me.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
They will, Yeah, because you have like a big crowd
that you seem to travel with. And then security. As
mentioned earlier, when the team travels, Jones travels and it's
(26:17):
a big production.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
I usually get a charter bus from the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
How big are those bus?
Speaker 6 (26:24):
It's a it's a like those Greyhoun bus those big wow,
like fifty I think it was fifty people that will
fit well.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Time when the boys make the playoff, Jones, what a hit?
You make a reservation? Then he ran a charter bush.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I had to pay out of my own pocket.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I can't imagine. I'm sure it's very expensive.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
They give me a discount because they say, oh jonesy bear. Yeah,
if people want us to go to the game that far,
I collect money.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
All the parents they went for it, and all that
charter bush. Everybody filled it up and they left for
Chover City.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
When I rent that bus less than thirty minutes, it
was already full.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Next day following Monday, as hell's everything, You're going pretty good?
What do you likes it? Enjoying it?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm sure that's a fun trip, are you guys chanting
and cheering the whole way down to wherever you go? Yes,
these games are far, Like I'm you said you went
to Las Crucis. That's pretty far.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
I mean, yeah, I've been to Las Cruisis, down to
the south Hobbs, Roswell, Deming, Silver City out that way,
our change up for Dallas, then up north to tows
west Las Vegas, and.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So these are like over four hours in a busy. Okay,
I actually heard a story about the bus breaking down
and the opposing team's bus also been there, or I'm
not sure what exactly that story was. Do you know
what I'm talking about? Wing?
Speaker 6 (28:01):
It was going to Albuquerque State Tournament. We're right there
on I forty. Our bus broke down and we were
all getting mad, and we're mad.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
At the bus driver.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
Call back to the school, maybe they can bring another
bus or something. And then finally they brought another bus,
so we all jump in that bus again. We started
taking off to albut Criquet.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So what was the confrontation with the opposing team?
Speaker 6 (28:34):
They said, you guys broke down. They were saying that
to USA says, we're here.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Now, we're here.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So they were hackling you guys and making fun of you.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
Yes, yes, yes, and they probably think that we're not
going to show up.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
One time they saw he was broken down somewhere or
like he was with a group of people and their
vehicle had broken down, and they passed them. And again
once they got to the high school where they were
supposed to play, him and his group were there first
in line, and it's like, weren't you were just broken
down back there?
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Right then when our bus driver try to part, everybody
jumped off. Chaperone had our money, had our tickets too,
so we had to wait for them at the door,
and then finally we all went in. Once I walked in,
I started cheering, and there we go. The best high
school that really really likes Wingate's cheer is out there
(29:35):
on the other side of Santa Fe Plwaukee High School.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
They just love our cheer.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
They always say, you guys, bring in the crowd of
Wingate fans. We packed that gym over there, and that
gym hols like maybe close to four thousand, like ship Rock.
We even packed ship Rock. We packed Kurtland and now
we have a soul out here at wing Gate and
(30:05):
Tahatchi Roue.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And these are all Native schools primarily.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Unfortunately, there have been instances where opposing fans have taken
exceptions to Jones's cheering.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I watch out for myself. I'm a nice person. I
don't say bad stuff to other people at the ball
game and stuff like that. They can say to me,
I hear it.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
It don't hurt me.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
I don't want to say bad stuff because of the
school and the players. I don't want them to look bad.
Are Native basketball players, especially these high school I have
respect for them.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Well, Sometimes Jonesy is trying to protect the team, the
coaches and the fans, and it's the people the girl
high fans the show calling Jonesy. But Jonesy is just
trying to keep himself everything. He's trying to protect the
wing Gate side and all these people in their scoring.
(31:11):
They may came mad and started throwing cussing at each other,
and then sometimes their security start coming in and they talk.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
One year, there was a game at the real high school,
the Roue Hawks and Wingate. My sister she doesn't want
to go out that way because that's our second rival
Local High School too, the Route. Those guys are rude.
They just don't like me. One year, Wingate was playing
(31:45):
out there. I don't know who said something inappropriate word
and stuff like that, and they were saying that it
was my cheering section right here, and I got the blame.
They were pointing at me. The referee went to the principal.
The principal came went to coach Martinez. They which Martinez
(32:07):
looked at me. We have to ask courtier. Out at
the Root High School, there was state police, there was
Navajo police, there was a sheriff. Wing Gate fans that
were saying that what's next? The National Guard, the whole
fans at the Root, they were just cheering away. No, no, no, no, goodbye,
(32:27):
Jonesy Bear. There's another person over there in through. He'll
be standing up and pointing at me and all this
and that. He'll say all kinds of stuff to me.
If wing Gates playing that through when people are in line,
he'll ask somebody to jump me. And it happened before
(32:48):
out there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Have you been hurt from this, no, like not physically. No,
it just gets it stops its.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
Yeah, if one of the wing Gate fans in line
behind me or stuff like that, they will like protect me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
This animosity can be harmful and destructive.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
One year, I lost everything, like my cheering bag. I
don't know how people got my bag. I believe that
when they played Tahachi at wing Gate, somebody took off
with my stuff and I could I didn't.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
I didn't know that I missed it.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
When I got home and I started try looking for
my bag, and I said, what happened to my wing
Gate bag? I have a big old bear that sits
on the bleacher too. I was busy with him. The
next day somebody destroyed all my stuff. They cut everything
piece to piece, my wing Gate shirt, all my signs.
(33:55):
They brought it back the next day threw all over
the parking lot at wing Gate. I don't know when
they did that, but the next day one of the
staff they called me, goes Jonesy.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
You know what, we found your stuff. But if they're
all destroyed, it hurt me.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
So some people are really taking the heart. How big
of a fan and impact you have?
Speaker 6 (34:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Does that scare you?
Speaker 6 (34:23):
It was before, but then you know that was my experience.
So that's when my sister said that you need to
stop going to games.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Now, we care about you.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
And you know, I know those fans, wing Gate fans,
they care about you. They protect you and stuff like that.
But look what they did.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
This tension with through has some irony to it.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
I living through during the day like this. All my
days off, I don't go nowhere.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
If I'm gonna go to the store, I gotta wait,
I'm gonna wait and tell, like when they're not busy.
But sometimes I go over there and then all of
a sudden people start coming in. They said, they look
at me, jonesy bears here.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
You literally have to live your life in your town
around you not being liked by them.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Yes, I went to school at the route. They always
bring that up. You went to school at the roof.
Why you don't like the root Hawks.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
One of my biggest questions this whole time is who
is Jones outside of Wingate basketball.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I started working with the State of New Mexico with
Magistrate Court here in Gallop for about maybe twelve thirteen years.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
I left.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
I went to Wingate Elementary, working there for about maybe
three years. Then I went down to the high school.
I worked there for two years. Then I came back
to the state back to Gallup here. I started working
here at Earl's Restaurant for almost twenty years. Then I
started working with home care and I used to work
(35:59):
out on the reservation in Arizona. My mom is from
th Roue and my aunt my uncle's out there in
through some of their grandkids. They play for Tharu And
when basketball season comes around, and then then that's when
I don't talk to them, especially when they play wing game.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Because you don't want it to interfere with your personal life.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Yes, okay, And how the basketball season is over, that's
when we we get back together the family.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And they understand that they don't take a person.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
They understand that.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
And what do you do when you're not cheering for basketball?
Speaker 6 (36:38):
When I'm at home, I go through all my books.
When there's no games. When the season's over, I start
taking out all my stuff and I go day by
day looking at those picture except these are the days
that we went.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Then I go for a drive and stuff like that.
I wish there was more more games a year.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
This episode of burn Sage, Burn Bridges was written and
produced by myself, Max Williams, and Dylan Fagan. The voices
you heard in Today's episode were Kim Bissenti, Sean Martinez, Jones, Biguee,
and Bill Bissenti. Additional thanks to the Next Step Program,
Doghouse Media, and my mom for exposing me to the
world of wingate basketball. Remember to listen and subscribe. New
(37:33):
episodes come out every Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
Hey everyone, before the episode starts. Be sure to subscribe
and rate the show. If you're enjoying it, Thanks for listening.
This is burn Sage Burn Bridges. I'm your host, Nicole Garcia.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
To me, the definition of res ball is a bunch
of res kids getting together with no rules. It's just
you and like six of your cousins playing together.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is my friend Kim, who we will be hearing
from throughout the episode.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It gets pretty wild. I mean, it could be a
combination of like basketball, soccer, wrestling. Sometimes you don't even
have a goal, or you have a goal but there's
no net, it's just the rim. Sometimes you're playing with
the basketball. Sometimes you play with football. There is no
rules and it's just the six of you playing because
you're at Grandma's house and there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Res Ball is extremely popular in native communities in today's
I want to explore the many important aspects beyond the game.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Reds Ball for me is running gun fast pace. There's
no slowing down. You're always on the run. For me,
I mean shooting the three, taking in into the hole,
your dirt road, your dirt court. You know where to
dribble and not to dribble and where to shoot from
and how to hit the backboard because it's not very stable.
(01:33):
Just reds ball is home court basketball that I'm used to.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
This is Sean Martinez who is living the NBA dream,
but in a different way than you would expect.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I think one of the biggest things I've learned in
life is to always be ready for that right place,
right time. And it was the right place, right time
when I was hired by the Denver Nuggets in Denver
in two thousand and two, I was ready to take
on the challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
This challenge started with coordinating and DJing, leading to the
director of live presentation for both the Phoenix Suns and
the Phoenix Mercury.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I think I might be the only Native American that's
in this position in all the leagues. No one said
no when Native American News put that out there. That's
kind of how my journey really started in the NBA
and that little kid in forty Finance real Perco dreaming
of making to the NBA. This is my way to
get in and it was really a blessing to be
(02:31):
a part of that journey. I started DJing in college.
I used to hang out by the DJ booths, and
they fired the DJs and told me I was up.
I'm like what, I don't know what I'm doing. So
I taught myself out of DJ how to max, how
to do all the little things. And I DJ's with
the guy who worked for the Dinner Nuggets and he's like, hey,
apply for this job.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And I applied and I got the job. I worked
for Let's Go, the Nuggets, the Avalanche, the Mammoth, the
Rapids won a championship with the Rapids. The Colorado Crush
won a championship with John Lway and the Colorado Crush.
I worked for the Rock Tieth, I worked for the Broncos,
every team in Denver I worked for just to get
my start and learn the whole business of arena entertainment,
(03:15):
if you will, live presentation, and then just like parleying
that and get him recruited to Detroit, where my boss
who hired me in Denver, went out there. So he
brought me out there to kind of do.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
But in Denver, on the Native American air this night,
I'd round the ball the Palow style dancers to come
in and dance, bringing a drum, educate people in the
different styles of dance. When my mom was younger, she'd
make a hundred Frybreds. Everyone always remembers that, Hey, I
remember when your mom made all that friy red and
we had to eat at the stadium. And when I
got to Detroit, it's like, man, where all the natives at?
(03:48):
Like I got to find him? And I went up
north and found some sag Chip Native Americans up there,
went to one of their picnics, just introduced myself and man,
I felt like I was at home when I went
to their picnics, because it just felt like I was
back on the Reds. I did six years with the
Detroit Pistons and now I'm back home through the pan pandemic.
This job opened and I applied and I didn't have
(04:09):
one live interview. They were all either zoom or something.
And I got the job and I got home and
things just kept rolling. It's the home team. It's close
to home. I drive five hours and I'm back home,
which is amazing. And I love seeing all our DNA
people at the game. I'm always waving and trying to
get on the screen, so trying to give back and
(04:30):
make sure they can experience what I'm experiencing because I
just I love that part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Nobody really knows that somebody is in the NBA who
grew up just like everyone else out here, you know,
And it's a different route because I didn't even understand
this job. I understand a DJ, but I don't understand
like you can actually produce an NBA game. For instance,
like when you're working with the Suns, there's the DJ
that you're kind of looking over, so you're just you're
not doing that anymore. You're doing more the bigger picture.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I'm directing the game outside of the game, so I'm
in charge of anything that the players are not doing,
from the gorilla to the dance team, to the entertainment team,
to the dunkers, to the DJ, to the video to
the animation to see I'm directing all that. I start
with the script, but if things changed during the game,
(05:20):
you kind of follow the vibe of the room and
the vibe of what's happening in the game, and I'm
directing all the madness.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
It's kind of like a live TV show all of
this stuff happening. But usually there's a huge team of
people working on stuff like.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That right, it's me and I have my six people
who work under me. Under that, it's all our entertainers,
so forty entertainers, if you will. And then the game
production crew, which is my control room camera crew. We're
all putting this big piece of entertainment together and trying
to entertain fans and make sure they have a good time.
(05:53):
Whether you win or lose, everyone's like, wow, that was
a good time.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I've seen a couple of games I think like, maybe
no shade, but Oklahoma, there's no sound sometimes and I'm like,
that's happening.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
It's feels so weird.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, we try to play music, make sure that players
get their dribble up music and their big songs and
their sound effects.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It seems like it's just very short clip bits of songs.
What music is chosen? Is that based off of your
own preference or are you going off the team, are
you going off the fans? What are you like looking.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
At every single one of those elements and then whatever
the element is and then heal in the room. I
have a sheet, it's kind of a music sheet that
has hot timeout songs, defense songs, back in the game songs.
Just in case you forget what you're doing. You can
just look at this number and punch it in and
ready to go. That was one of the first things
(06:45):
I was taught when I started learning the arena DJ
sound because I DJs Women's Final Four, I DJ's All
Star Games. Me and DJ Automatic, we like the East Coast,
Like any of those East Coast beats are just so
much harder. They feel like I'm gonna dunk on you
when I hear this song kind of kind of beats.
(07:06):
And then like if we're playing Golden State or the Clippers,
we take all the California artists out so we're not
giving them any Jews, So we got to think about
those little things. But just making sure the team knows
we're here for them, we know we're all on the
same page trying to help each other win.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That is something to think about when you're playing at
the Lakers. I'm sure you can't play any like you know,
Dre Dog.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, if you can tie a song to what's happening
at wherever you're at, it always amplifies that moment even more.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
That's one of the things I love doing and just
making sure, like to me, seventy five percent of the
room at a game is music. When you can hear
someone can hear their jam, they're in, They're instantly into
whatever's happening.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You really got to know the music. You really got
to know the part, not just the music, but like
the part of the song that's going to hit. And
then it's for really short times. What are the rules?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
The rules are you can only play instrumentals when they're
dribbling up on offense, so it can't have any lyrics
for defense. It's got to have a defense cadence like
the ben Evn. So there are some rules and we
really try to abide by them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Sean's doing a lot to represent Native people, and that's
not just by playing Redbone or giving us screen time
during games. He also helped create the iconic Phoenix Suns
twenty twenty two twenty twenty three city edition jerseys.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
The originative jersey was just an unbelievable undertaking that started
when I was in Detroit. They reached out to me
to be a consultant on the jersey, and all of
a sudden things kept moving during the pandemic and I
ended up getting the job with the Phoenix Suns and
it was just an unbelievable program where we worked with
all twenty two tribal nations, federally recognized tribal Nations of Arizona,
(08:54):
the Intertribal Council of Phoenix, Indian Center, Kahokia Unity. Everybody
had a piece and had an input on it. Jonathanz
who was president at the time when we were going
through the design work, he was definitely instrumental and giving
us feedback on the design. And just the great work
between Graham Wincott and Chris Roshar creative director, all those people,
(09:17):
all of us coming together and making sure we tell
the story of our people and we tell it the
right way and still listen, not thinking, oh, here it is,
we're going to lay it out. When people give us feedback,
We're still listening, making sure we're fine tuning in and
where we ended up by the end of the season
was just unbelievable. Just having the anthems sung in our
(09:38):
Dinair language and Tahuna Optum, White Mountain, Apache and hope
like this is on the biggest stage in the NBA
where we're having our people showcase their talents. At halftime,
we had Native American DJs here. I got all twenty
two tribal nations flags hung up permanently in our pavilion
(09:58):
here at Footprint Center, and just you know, giving back
and making sure our people had a voice. Every time
I booked an entertainment group, it wasn't go out there dance,
it's tell us why you're dancing, tell us why you're
wearing the regalia, what's the dance about? So you can
educate our son's fan base on what we're about. And
all the tribes had a chance to do that, which
was an amazing, amazing thing that I wanted to make
(10:21):
sure it was one of the staples. And how they
talked about the Sipy Cure Patche Ground dancers dancing a
halftime in arena was so amazing, Hilo River basket dancers,
I mean, just all the different Denetta and Nablo dancers.
We had the guardians to have the super bied Guardians
of the Grand Canyon dancers in here and they all
explained what they were doing. It was so cool to
(10:41):
see that on our court, which was a dedication to
the jersey with this logo at center court twenty two
flat that represents twenty two tribal nations of Arizona, and
that was on the court and they were dancing on
a center court with all the twenty two tribal nations
were for Sun on the court and on the jerseys
that the sons were wearing, and the turquoise color, the
(11:04):
protection stone, all the little things that we researched and
made sure they came to life within this program is
just dreaming on the ras, this point being a part
of that. It just all came together. Something that I've
been working for my whole life. Can still tell our story.
Like we always say, we're still here. We're entertainers, we're artists,
(11:26):
we're poets, we're professionals, letting people know we're thriving and
what is now the new America. I appreciate the platform.
I appreciate the connection. I appreciate being able to amplify
the voices of all tribal nations because we're still here.
We still have a story to tell, and that's why
(11:48):
I'm here. I believe that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
For the rest of today's episode, let's move local and
talk about a super fan of high school basketball.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
From what I know about johnsy Bear, he was practically
at every single game, the loudest one to cheer like
he he really is wing High School's number one fan.
Speaker 6 (12:29):
People like to watch me at the game because I
cheer on the team. The fans they said, oh Jones
is here, Yes, Yes, this place is gonna rock. Yeah
A shay Yahi Jones the gag outo jonesy bear. A.
(12:51):
That's my nickname.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
I'm Kia Jenny Bush.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I got that name from local radio station out in Gallup,
which is kg a K.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Mister Dehi is.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
The one that call me jonesy Bear and shash Bernantai
and what does that mean, You're the main bear boss
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I know he'd be on the radio because we'd be
listening in KGAK with Harrison Dehaya. And there's a couple
of times, you know, you just hear a guy start talking.
Dad's like, oh, that's jonesy Bear.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
To kick it off, let's first talk about Jones's origin story.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I went to Through High School for two years. Then
I transferred to Wingate High School for my junior and
my senior year. My sophomore year, even though I was
still in school in Through, I used to go to
a wing Gate basketball game. Back in those days, wing
Gate had a good team every year, and I started
(13:56):
following wing Gate from there on, and then my senior
year that's when I got really into it and I
started following them everywhere.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So it's been quite a while.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
It's been thirty five to forty years.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
My knowledge of Jonesy Bear came from dad. He would
come home from work and I'm like, so, how was work?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
What'd you do?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And one of my first questions was did you have
to arrest anybody?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
What was the exciting thing today? A good ninety five
percent time, It's like nobody everyone behaved. Then when it
came to games, I'm like, so did you arrest anybody?
What happened? Thing crazy? And he's like, we had to
escort Johnesy Bear out or we had to tell jones
Bear to come down a couple of times.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
He's our number one. Then this is.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Bill Bisenti Kim's dad and former security guard at Wingate
High School.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He's a pretty good friend, pretty good person. A lot
of everybody likes them, and he supported the Bears and
all the fans support him. I came to wind Gate
High School, I started working at nineteen ninety two and
now I was started as a janitor, so I just
worked there to about ten years later. Everybody just keep
(15:07):
about Jonesy. So I want to know who Jonesy is,
and finally you when the game starts, that's what he comes.
And then people telling us Jones the key, So now
just what do you call him? Jonesy beer.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
As it comes to preparation, Jones's fanhood resembles something Sean
would do.
Speaker 6 (15:27):
Before the game, we write everything down and then we
passed out the notes. This is what we're gonna say.
Diego's trust Diego. That's I guess traditional of Wingate High
School Bears.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, and it just means go Bears go. A shush
is bear.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
Yes, go Bears go. Yego's rust Diego. If wing Gate
is ahead, like maybe ten fifteen points or two or
four points behind, that's when I start running down the
bleachers and then I start saying yak with shut Shago
as loud as we can so our team can hear yeah,
(16:15):
shut Jego. To me, I think it's it's a powerful
name for the school, the team. They want to hear it,
so they don't know that, oh Jones is here. So
we'll say yeag with shut Sago, Go Bears go.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
How many other ones did you come up with?
Speaker 6 (16:34):
They make a foul and we start saying you you, you, yes, yes, yes,
and all of you.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
No other team walks.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
And then we say walking walking back to through all
the referees. They know who I am when they make
bad calls, and then we say liar, liar, that's on fire.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
You guys get personal.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yes, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Speaking of the cheers. You have a lot of props,
and it looks like you make a lot of them.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
We have a bat call sign, we have referee for
sale sign, a sign that has an eye chart.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
I make those.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
I passed those out to the fence and we show
it to the referee. They don't allow eye chart. Now
you'll be escorted out.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
I've seen you with like two by fours.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
That was funny. That was a homecoming game. I don't
know whose idea was it, but they they said we
should make some noise makers. So my brother, my whole
family they got two by four. Then they cut them
up for me and then we started painting it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I did.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
We make like maybe twenty seid and we took it
to the game and everybody wanted more and more and more.
But they say it was too loud and everybody was
covering their ears, So.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
They're not allowed anymore.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
I still use it, but it's not a two by
four now. It's like a half an inch board like thinner.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, it doesn't make that much.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
And then I usually.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Make like ten of them, and then I put the
player's number, I have them on there, or sometimes I
put their name on there.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
They can bring those in during the regular season, but
when the district game comes up, we're not allowed any
posher or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
He's got so much energy and he's doing all this
creative stuff, you know, and as far as like cheering
and creating different cheers and props. And I just think
it's super interesting because I'm like, I don't have that energy.
I'm so interested in that energy.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
True, it's like where do you get all your energy?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Sir?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Like, sir, give me some of that energy. How on hers?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I would love like if I worked that hard for anything.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
True, I'd be I'd be the president, I'd be invincible.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Here again is Kim, who herself has ties to wingate.
You graduated from my gay high school. Yes, yay go Bears.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
He's been at it for to my knowledge, over.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Over thirty year years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
See that makes sense because my dad was when Ate
High school for maybe thirty years, thirty five years maybe,
And see around that whole time, you always heard about
John Zy Bear, So I'm sure forty years does not
surprised me.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That brings me to another question I was curious about
when I started talking about interviewing you. How do the
cheerleaders react to you because you're kind of like stealing
their shine.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
One time we went to the game, I said, we'll
give the cheerleader to opportunity to do their charing because
it seems that we're taking over the charing. So I
talked to them and it goes, we'll go with Jones,
so they'll look at me and I'll be charing and
then they just follow me.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Wow. I don't think that's ever happened before. Like yours
just are like, we'll just go by this megafan and
let him lead us. Yes, And how is your relationship
with the coach and the team, and like the parents
are they just happy to have you on their side.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
The staff of Winget High School and the coaches, they
enjoyed me coming to the game. Jones will do the
action here and you know, he'll do the show here.
I don't pay at the game. I go in free,
especially when they have a pre sale ticket while people
(20:32):
are all in line. I will never be in line.
They'll know that. I'll pick up my tickets. Coach Martinez,
well give me twenty forty tickets, fifty tickets.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
People will call me.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
I will have maybe one hundred to two hundred phone calls.
They'll ask me, Jones, get me a ticket. I need four,
I need ten.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So they do support you. Then they want you at
the games. Yes, wow, because if you know, people don't
know this, but I know people stand in line like
just trying to get in because it's not a big gym.
It's a very small school. So if you're trying to
get your whole family there, good luck.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
You got to be there early or they will call me.
They say, well, ask Jos he'll get tickets.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
If you want tickets from Jones, there is a condition.
You better be ready to cheer.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
I only do people that will be chained with me.
Then I'll get tickets for them.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Oh so that's a trade off. Yeah, okay, And that
probably makes your cheering that much louder and that much
more energy.
Speaker 6 (21:43):
Yes, and the basketball players they love it. They say,
we can hear you, we can hear you on the court.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
On the other side, what has your interactions been with
opposing teams? I'm sure that gets tricky.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
We'll say we have a home game and then our
rival high school is Hatchie Cougars, and then the second
one is through Hawks. We'll start off with to Hatchet Cougars.
But ever we come up with our chair. Now they
started saying that too, And now all these high school
(22:22):
around here, everybody's using my chair.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Now I take the other school, the cheer and everything
that. I think they get an idea what Jonesy doing for
when they high school.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, I've seen a TikTok on this. There's like res
basketball moms.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And they'll be like, oh, they're stealing Wingate cheers and
to Hatchie, so like people.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Know about it, Uh huh?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Is that friendly? Is it just fun? Or you know what?
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Tra Hatchie. Some of the fans they'll be nice to me,
but some of them will like try to jump you
or things like that. But it don't hurt me though.
I don't say bad stuff to them. But those other
fans from there. They say it, but I said, I'm
just here supporting. We get bears.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Sometimes Jones is not the only one. We ask them all.
Sometimes we had to tell the fans, the other fans,
the Lister fan we had, we had to tell them
to leave because they're misbehavior. Sometimes the fans gets out
of hand, so we had to protect our team, the coaches,
the cheer leaders, and the fans make sure nobody gets
(23:36):
in trouble. We told them that we don't tolerate what's
this right here? Okay for you to leave the game
if you're going to be in had that habit.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That brings me to something else I heard about When
I was asking people about you, because a lot of
people know you as like the super fan, they were
telling me that oftentimes security has to travel with you. Yes,
and that is we get high school security, so they'll
go with you to Tohatchie.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
Yes to Hatchi or ship Rock. Especially in the room.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
They had to watch ship Bro. You're the worst one.
Ship Bro when it's packed full, when we have a
t ship playoff, in no way we can't control over
twenty five hundred people. So they had to call it
a ship law. Enforcement to come out and watch lamp
(24:29):
phone called the serve to assist us the Ruts. They're
okay because the Rute they always had the law enforcement right.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
When security would have to travel with the team to
another town like ship Rock, he would they would leave
the school and he's there at the school, and then
they travel to Shiprock and somehow he's first in line,
and they're like, you were still at the school and
we left. How did you pass us and get there
and be number one in line?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
He has his ways.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I guess it's true. He had he had some wingate superpowers.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And have you had to use them?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
No?
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Actually, the security will just watch us. But I know
what I'm doing at the game, what I'm saying. So
they say, you guys watch shones. They don't want nobody
to get hurt and stuff like that. So that's how
the security comes along.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh, I think that's smart, especially if you're saying that
they can jump you. You know, I mean, nobody needs
to get hurt over this.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Yeah, it happened before. Oh gosh, yeah, it happened before.
And you know, if somebody says something to me I
don't like, and that's when I turn around and I
turn around and I say, hey, how would you feel
if you were in my shoes? If I say something
to you? But my fans of wing Gate they'll look
(25:56):
out for me.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
They will, Yeah, because you have like a big crowd
that you seem to travel with. And then security. As
mentioned earlier, when the team travels, Jones travels and it's
(26:17):
a big production.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
I usually get a charter bus from the Navajo Nation.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
How big are those bus?
Speaker 6 (26:24):
It's a it's a like those Greyhoun bus those big wow,
like fifty I think it was fifty people that will
fit well.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Time when the boys make the playoff, Jones, what a hit?
You make a reservation? Then he ran a charter bush.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I had to pay out of my own pocket.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I can't imagine. I'm sure it's very expensive.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
They give me a discount because they say, oh jonesy bear. Yeah,
if people want us to go to the game that far,
I collect money.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
All the parents they went for it, and all that
charter bush. Everybody filled it up and they left for
Chover City.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
When I rent that bus less than thirty minutes, it
was already full.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Next day following Monday, as hell's everything, You're going pretty good?
What do you likes it? Enjoying it?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I'm sure that's a fun trip, are you guys chanting
and cheering the whole way down to wherever you go? Yes,
these games are far, Like I'm you said you went
to Las Crucis. That's pretty far.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
I mean, yeah, I've been to Las Cruisis, down to
the south Hobbs, Roswell, Deming, Silver City out that way,
our change up for Dallas, then up north to tows
west Las Vegas, and.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So these are like over four hours in a busy. Okay,
I actually heard a story about the bus breaking down
and the opposing team's bus also been there, or I'm
not sure what exactly that story was. Do you know
what I'm talking about? Wing?
Speaker 6 (28:01):
It was going to Albuquerque State Tournament. We're right there
on I forty. Our bus broke down and we were
all getting mad, and we're mad.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
At the bus driver.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
Call back to the school, maybe they can bring another
bus or something. And then finally they brought another bus,
so we all jump in that bus again. We started
taking off to albut Criquet.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So what was the confrontation with the opposing team?
Speaker 6 (28:34):
They said, you guys broke down. They were saying that
to USA says, we're here.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Now, we're here.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So they were hackling you guys and making fun of you.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
Yes, yes, yes, and they probably think that we're not
going to show up.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
One time they saw he was broken down somewhere or
like he was with a group of people and their
vehicle had broken down, and they passed them. And again
once they got to the high school where they were
supposed to play, him and his group were there first
in line, and it's like, weren't you were just broken
down back there?
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Right then when our bus driver try to part, everybody
jumped off. Chaperone had our money, had our tickets too,
so we had to wait for them at the door,
and then finally we all went in. Once I walked in,
I started cheering, and there we go. The best high
school that really really likes Wingate's cheer is out there
(29:35):
on the other side of Santa Fe Plwaukee High School.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
They just love our cheer.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
They always say, you guys, bring in the crowd of
Wingate fans. We packed that gym over there, and that
gym hols like maybe close to four thousand, like ship Rock.
We even packed ship Rock. We packed Kurtland and now
we have a soul out here at wing Gate and
(30:05):
Tahatchi Roue.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And these are all Native schools primarily.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Unfortunately, there have been instances where opposing fans have taken
exceptions to Jones's cheering.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I watch out for myself. I'm a nice person. I
don't say bad stuff to other people at the ball
game and stuff like that. They can say to me,
I hear it.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
It don't hurt me.
Speaker 6 (30:34):
I don't want to say bad stuff because of the
school and the players. I don't want them to look bad.
Are Native basketball players, especially these high school I have
respect for them.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Well, Sometimes Jonesy is trying to protect the team, the
coaches and the fans, and it's the people the girl
high fans the show calling Jonesy. But Jonesy is just
trying to keep himself everything. He's trying to protect the
wing Gate side and all these people in their scoring.
(31:11):
They may came mad and started throwing cussing at each other,
and then sometimes their security start coming in and they talk.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
One year, there was a game at the real high school,
the Roue Hawks and Wingate. My sister she doesn't want
to go out that way because that's our second rival
Local High School too, the Route. Those guys are rude.
They just don't like me. One year, Wingate was playing
(31:45):
out there. I don't know who said something inappropriate word
and stuff like that, and they were saying that it
was my cheering section right here, and I got the blame.
They were pointing at me. The referee went to the principal.
The principal came went to coach Martinez. They which Martinez
(32:07):
looked at me. We have to ask courtier. Out at
the Root High School, there was state police, there was
Navajo police, there was a sheriff. Wing Gate fans that
were saying that what's next? The National Guard, the whole
fans at the Root, they were just cheering away. No, no, no, no, goodbye,
(32:27):
Jonesy Bear. There's another person over there in through. He'll
be standing up and pointing at me and all this
and that. He'll say all kinds of stuff to me.
If wing Gates playing that through when people are in line,
he'll ask somebody to jump me. And it happened before
(32:48):
out there.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Have you been hurt from this, no, like not physically. No,
it just gets it stops its.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
Yeah, if one of the wing Gate fans in line
behind me or stuff like that, they will like protect me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
This animosity can be harmful and destructive.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
One year, I lost everything, like my cheering bag. I
don't know how people got my bag. I believe that
when they played Tahachi at wing Gate, somebody took off
with my stuff and I could I didn't.
Speaker 5 (33:26):
I didn't know that I missed it.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
When I got home and I started try looking for
my bag, and I said, what happened to my wing
Gate bag? I have a big old bear that sits
on the bleacher too. I was busy with him. The
next day somebody destroyed all my stuff. They cut everything
piece to piece, my wing Gate shirt, all my signs.
(33:55):
They brought it back the next day threw all over
the parking lot at wing Gate. I don't know when
they did that, but the next day one of the
staff they called me, goes Jonesy.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
You know what, we found your stuff. But if they're
all destroyed, it hurt me.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
So some people are really taking the heart. How big
of a fan and impact you have?
Speaker 6 (34:20):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Does that scare you?
Speaker 6 (34:23):
It was before, but then you know that was my experience.
So that's when my sister said that you need to
stop going to games.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Now, we care about you.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
And you know, I know those fans, wing Gate fans,
they care about you. They protect you and stuff like that.
But look what they did.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
This tension with through has some irony to it.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
I living through during the day like this. All my
days off, I don't go nowhere.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
If I'm gonna go to the store, I gotta wait,
I'm gonna wait and tell, like when they're not busy.
But sometimes I go over there and then all of
a sudden people start coming in. They said, they look
at me, jonesy bears here.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
You literally have to live your life in your town
around you not being liked by them.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Yes, I went to school at the route. They always
bring that up. You went to school at the roof.
Why you don't like the root Hawks.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
One of my biggest questions this whole time is who
is Jones outside of Wingate basketball.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I started working with the State of New Mexico with
Magistrate Court here in Gallop for about maybe twelve thirteen years.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
I left.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
I went to Wingate Elementary, working there for about maybe
three years. Then I went down to the high school.
I worked there for two years. Then I came back
to the state back to Gallup here. I started working
here at Earl's Restaurant for almost twenty years. Then I
started working with home care and I used to work
(35:59):
out on the reservation in Arizona. My mom is from
th Roue and my aunt my uncle's out there in
through some of their grandkids. They play for Tharu And
when basketball season comes around, and then then that's when
I don't talk to them, especially when they play wing game.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Because you don't want it to interfere with your personal life.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Yes, okay, And how the basketball season is over, that's
when we we get back together the family.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And they understand that they don't take a person.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
They understand that.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
And what do you do when you're not cheering for basketball?
Speaker 6 (36:38):
When I'm at home, I go through all my books.
When there's no games. When the season's over, I start
taking out all my stuff and I go day by
day looking at those picture except these are the days
that we went.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Then I go for a drive and stuff like that.
I wish there was more more games a year.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
This episode of burn Sage, Burn Bridges was written and
produced by myself, Max Williams, and Dylan Fagan. The voices
you heard in Today's episode were Kim Bissenti, Sean Martinez, Jones, Biguee,
and Bill Bissenti. Additional thanks to the Next Step Program,
Doghouse Media, and my mom for exposing me to the
world of wingate basketball. Remember to listen and subscribe. New
(37:33):
episodes come out every Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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