Hour 1- August 8, Kirby Bollnow

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Fox Sports fourteen.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
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Insurance Services Insure your most Prized POSSESSI yets, We'll be good.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, and today with
me is Tim Medley from the TMC.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Hello, Hello, thanks for having me back.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Tim Bentley, I was gonna call and sick today drop
the mic after yesterday's show. I don't think we can
repeat yesterday's show, but we're gonna try.

Speaker 5 (00:34):
You did good job. I was listening and I just
was cracking up. And I know both those guys that
were in studio with you and there it was Ricky
and his brother Lamont. Yeah, and just just a super
fun listen. And you know they're they're superstars here in Tucson,
and it was fun, you know, to hear their stories
and you know they've been part of you know.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
I'm almost sixty, you know, the same age, forty years,
forty years.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
You know, their legends here and it's just fun to
hear them and that they're their commitment to our community.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
It's it's really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Ray had a couple of nice questions to him. Did
some homework. I was like, where'd you find that stuff?

Speaker 6 (01:10):
The Internet, baby, good Internet.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
They never fails to Yeah, so they Google. They didn't
answer this question, although they kind of gave me a
little grief. Do you think they spend any money on
you know, rich people get rich, They don't spend any money.
Do you think these guys spend any money when they
go drinking?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
I do know they do not. They do not.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
But that's why they love living here, you know, because
they're supporters of the community. They have businesses here and
have great and you know, they're they're good families and
you know, so it's lots of fun. So like, if
I can buy Lamana beer every now and then, I'll
do that.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Aren't you aren't you? Yeah that guy? Yeah, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
If La momt was here today, I'd buy my beer.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm not sure you drinks. I'm not sure. One of
my sponsors, Ray Flor's place is new place.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Where are you going tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
I'll trial places nice.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Yeah, that's they they're good operators too.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
They and Ray Flores and his family are good supporters
of teams.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
So we like to we don't take you.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
They do a lot of stuff for our employees, and
when we take care of our employees. So just just
all around, you know, two sounds a good community. We
take care of each other.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, I'm glad you had time for me. You're not
out gallavanteen playing Dora the Explorer.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Nope, nope not Now.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
I just got back from Seattle, which man, if I
could live in Seattle in July and August.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well I was gonna say, you don't want to live there.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
And I have been there in the other months, but
if I could live there in July and August, it
would be It's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
So traveling right now.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Go catch some fish on the not in not in
the water, but at the marketplace.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Right they throw fish at your face, and you know, if.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
You catch it, if you know, you still slapped in face.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Now it's a it's a it's a cool place, you know.
And we are of the age where people in the
member when all of our friends were moving to Seattle,
Pacific Northwest to go go work for that company called
Microsoft and.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Oh yeah and Starbucks.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
I did not make that decision. No, I kicked myself
every Now.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
That's why we're still working. That's so we're still working
talking about stuff.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
I know, I know, we're on the radio now. I
had to come back up here to the station. They
have good snacks at the station.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh yeah, yeah for you runners, touch your meal for
the day. That was it. That was it? Rat What
do you think? How are we going to survive today?
How are we going to survive today?

Speaker 6 (03:23):
We're I mean, there's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Speaker 7 (03:25):
Me.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, we got a lot of good guests here today.
Remind me mister Bull now now right.

Speaker 6 (03:32):
Yeah, Kirby, Kirby Bull now, and then we have Sam Thomas, and.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Then Roger Woods, Roger Woods, Robert Rogers. Did that what
I say? I think Roger Woods? Okay, Roger Woods. I
hope you got Roger Woods.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
We're about to check.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
He's a boxing guys. I don't want to go Roger.
I don't want to get him mad.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah. So well, mister Kirby Bull now he's one of
the officials in town. Talk a little about what's going
on with the officials. I guess, shocker shocker, this just
in Uh, there's a shortage of referees. Would you want
to be referee?

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Listen?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
You you thin guy, you don't know what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
I wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
I coached high school for a long time and just
to watch the parents, oh, yell at the coaches. There
are no referees in track and cross country, you know,
but just it's it's tough, you know, and it's to
be a referee.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
If you can't give my kid to run faster, damn it.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
My kid needs a scholarship.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
Well let's make sure they pass their stright because that
kid has no.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Hope, I don't you know. Let's better hope for good
test course.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
The only way you spelled believe before.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
Yeah, now, that's that's it's a tough and I have
a few friends at arrest. I'm sure you do too.
It's it's it's always a tough grind. You want to
you want to give a good uh performance. You don't
want to be in the way.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
You want to be noticed at all.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
And depending on what age you're refereeing, you know, you
know you want to provide a good environment environment you created.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
You said, the right thing or the proper thing is
the kid. It ain't about the kids. The parents are
the one that's needling you, yelling at you blind, You're blind.
What are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (05:14):
I know, but I'm excited.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
I'm excited that I'm not coaching this year, but I'm
excited because all the high school.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Sports are coming back. Yeah already, my friend's kids are.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
They're going across country practice and football practice and band
practice and.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, one hundred and twenty thousand degrees.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
Oh my god, I'm so stuff. That just makes me.
Who do you get mad? I heard you guys talking
about the heat the other day, and I don't even
know who to be mad at.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, not at Uh. Yeah, it's tough. Well, I've been
here too, You've only been here a few few Yeah,
I'm thirty seven, thirty eight in a couple of weeks.
I'm just getting too old. I guess I'm just not
as it's an old thing.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
I think it is because I'm here every like everybody
say it, I'm here, and everybody say I know.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
But you just you don't sound grumpy like Steven.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Here's the problem.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
I'm going for you all the time.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Could I say? The other day it's like Goldilocks. This
doesn't right, This isn't fit right, this one's right, this
one doesn't fit right, this one just right? No, it
doesn't never.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
I know, but if we moved, everybody complains about their weather.
They go to California, it's beautiful. I'm not going to
the beach.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
It's too.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
I'm not going down there today. Come on, I'm not
going up to the mountain.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
No over traffic. No one goes there anymore. It's too busy.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
I know when you when are you traveling next? Where
you're heading any place?

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Nowhere? I'm done for a while. Uh probably Vegas, Oh,
San Diego, San Diego, Vegas for bell for for readers,
and then the big use you of a Florida game
in November. Then I can think of right now the
first game of the year, nice November fourth or whatever. Yeah, see,
you're gonna go. You're gonna try to finago another trip

(06:54):
to Vegas as A, as A, as A whatever.

Speaker 6 (06:57):
Right, yeah, let's see what can happen.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
So so then we're gonna have to Sam Thomas, one
of the favorites all time here for women's basketball. See
what she's up to now? I do know she has
a h she has a basketball camp this weekend, so
we will talk about that. That's one of the reasons
I wanted to run, you.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Know, and I heard the Huntley's talking about their football camp,
and what I like about our our athletes here is,
you know, across all sports, you know, they really welcome
that next generation of kids in and and you know,
welcome that they understand that importance of bringing those kids
in and being a good mentor and influencer.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Sure. Sure, and then with the maybe fall in love
with the program to eventually have their parents buy tickets.
And sure, it's all what's in the seats? Baby?

Speaker 4 (07:41):
Fill in the funnel, man, let's fill the funnel.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah you want to drink? Yeah, you want to do?
You want to not shows? That'll be twenty five dollars.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
Everybody through the gates where it's called per cap I
used to work at Old Tucson Studios.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
What do you mean? What are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (07:54):
So per capita income?

Speaker 5 (07:56):
And so when I worked at Old Tucson Studios, we
knew everybody through the door was ten bucks. Okay, you know,
so you know, like, how are you gonna get You
might spend twenty nice pin zero?

Speaker 3 (08:04):
But yes, and where haven't you worked? Man? Okay, let's
not good digress.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
Listen, this is a two hour show.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
I don't think we have so yeah, okay, what do
you call it again?

Speaker 4 (08:19):
So we called it per cap so per capita income.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
I worked at all Tusung studios in the pre and
post fire, and are a good per cap back then
was twelve or thirteen dollars a person on top of
what you spent ticket in, so about twenty bucks a person.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, you know what would you think? It's you? That's
why they need people in the butts in the butts
in the seats, the butts.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
And I don't know, it would be interesting to see
why at a basketball game to people outside their tickets.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
So they average fifteen eighteen dollars a person.

Speaker 6 (08:46):
The beers, the beers by themselves are like two hundred twelve.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, so I mean if you know, if somebody drinks
three and somebody drinks zero, I mean, so I would
be curious on what the per capita revenue is on
some of these.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
We just need people in that building, right.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Just you know, putting butts in the seat and a
few bucks at the at the CA.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah yeah, okay, what time do we have? We have
a love time. We have four minutes again, if you
guys want to call five two o four one six
seventy four forty. You can call us now if you
listened to yesterday, show any questions about today. That'd be
fine too. What's the weekend anything for you?

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Way?

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Football is getting closer. I guess they have practice tomorrow.
I guess they have practice this morning. They practice tomorrow night,
then probably day off on Sunday. Do you go to
practice either? If you go to practice, I haven't been
yet because I'm too busy.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
But is that part of your ritual preseason?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Do you go? And I used to, but you know,
I don't know what the hell I'm looking for. To
tell you that I've been doing it forever. I covered
the team directly for the Citizen for three years in
the late eighties, and you know, go to practice every day.
Injuries blah blah blah, and then basketball so and I
have no dog in the fight. Sure, no, no, no,

(09:57):
that's not right. I have no care in the fight. No,
if they win, they win. I mean, I'm here to
do this job right, to do this and then we
talk about it all the time. And that's why I
have guys like you, guys and your thoughts. You guys
can tell you I'm a fool. No, Well, we'll know

(10:18):
when to go six and six or five and seven.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
When they go five and seven, I don't know five,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, we haven't asked you. We haven't asked you yet.
You said six and sixth, didn't you?

Speaker 6 (10:27):
I think I said seven and five. Yeah, sixty six seven.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
I think it's one. That's eight and four. I said,
what the hell is he? How did he get through
the doors here?

Speaker 5 (10:36):
Well, you know, I think what this I heard a
couple of people say on your show the last few
weeks or some people are hungry for something that happen. Yeah,
you know if if they bust out and go eight
nine wins, I mean, this town will be ecstatic.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Well, this would be would be like.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
You know, so you know if they go six, if
they go seven and five, this town will be Well.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Here's the thing. And you know this because you're a coach.
We don't know. They could go two and two and ten.
H they can get ten and two. We don't know
because we're just going by paper. Well, this is a win,
this is the wind, this is the boss. Last year,
what were they going to go eight and four? Nine three?

Speaker 4 (11:11):
Remember that?

Speaker 3 (11:12):
And then it went to the Yeah, we had a customard.
Yesterday we had a bank that baby. It was like
to look do it?

Speaker 6 (11:23):
So he's funny we get someone to kiss or just.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
I just randomly cussed. So we survived yesterday. We're still
in the air, thankfully. Yeah. Okay, let's uh, let's take
a break, all right, I know that we're slowing down.
Come back with mister bollnow after this.

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Speaker 1 (15:58):
This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Hey, welcome back to you y on the ball here
on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and today
with me is Tim Bentley. You've got Ray at controls here.
If you guys want to call later, please do now
on the phone. We have Kirby Bowl now, one of
the big refs in town. How are you doing Kirby?

Speaker 14 (16:21):
Hey Steve and Tim, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Sure. Let me let me say, can we boo you
right now? So get you more comfortable with the situation?

Speaker 7 (16:31):
What's that?

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Can I boo you right now? Those stuff at you?
So you feel comfortable? Show yeah, yeah, yeah, you can.

Speaker 14 (16:36):
You can tell me how bad I think and you know,
hold up the miscall sign from your iPhone.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
So how long have you been doing? How long have
you been doing?

Speaker 14 (16:48):
This, Yeah, Steve, you know it's an exciting time of
year for our households. I coached for nine years in
youth football. I coach my son at Mountain View High School.
He's not a head coach at Tango Verdi. And this
is my eighteenth season as an official.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Okay, okay, And you're a glutton for punishment or what
are you?

Speaker 14 (17:12):
You know what, Steve, the schools and the youth organizations
have done an amazing job of trying to rein in
the sportsmanship. But at the end of the day, right,
you know, more often than not, it's not that hard.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
You know.

Speaker 14 (17:32):
You see college coaches yelling at at officials and and
and we get it a little bit. But you know what,
at the end of the day, I'm here to help
the kids have a great experience and keep him safe.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Sure, no question. And tell me the situation locally. Are
you in need of people? I'm assuming?

Speaker 14 (17:50):
Well, so, so here's where it gets interesting, right we
are We are starting here locally and nationally to get
back to and actually better than pre pandemic levels of officials.
You know that pandemic year, I worked forty to fifty
to sixty games a year normally. I worked eight in

(18:13):
twenty twenty when it was the pandemic. We're getting better,
people are coming back. Here's the challenge we have one
Like I'm one of the younger cuchies here in Tucson.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
And I'm sixty five. Wow.

Speaker 14 (18:31):
And you know, there's been a couple of new schools
since since I started officiating. But the big thing is right,
we're getting older. We're not getting enough new guys, young guys.
And there's a thing about girls flag football. Have you

(18:51):
heard about it.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
I've heard about it.

Speaker 14 (18:52):
Yeah, it's exploding. It's exploding. I already have. I already
have I don't know, ten eleven, twelve girls live football
games on my schedule right now. And it's only going
to continue to get bigger. And Day wants to work
more and more seven man crews for varsity games for

(19:15):
tackle and we can't do that until we get more official.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
Hey Kirby, that's interesting. I'm curious you're talking about the
need for refs. But there's people like me that maybe
played a different sport or did something different and didn't
don't have any football experience and at you know, kind
of in the juniors or in high school level is
this a good opportunity for people who maybe have an
interest in helping kids become good athletes and good leaders,

(19:42):
but don't have that football background.

Speaker 14 (19:46):
Tim, That's the fundamental thing, right, is we will teach
you how to officiate a football game. We get our
most recent people that are coming into football are coming
from other sports, right, whether they officiated baseball or they
officiated basketball or soccer. Right, they're starting to say, hey,

(20:08):
football is kind of cool, Right, so I'm going to
go join football. And at the end of the day,
it's about how do we support the kids and keep
them safe and deliver a great experience for the schools.
And so you don't have to be an expert football
person to become a really really good football official.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
What's the typical timeline for for you know, Tim or
I to kind of go in and say, okay, we
want to help you. How long would it take from
from bottom to top or not to top, but to
actually do it?

Speaker 14 (20:43):
Yeah, So Steve, let me take you on the wayback machine. Right. I,
Like I said, I coached my son for not I
coached some for seven years. I stayed in Tucson youth
football for a couple more. Some of the officials recruited
me to officiate. My first three years, all I did
was subvarsity because I wanted to go watch my son

(21:05):
at a lot of reasons for that, right and and
there was no need for us to jump right into
the varsity pool. Today, we have brand new guys, first
year guys that are gonna work varsity games this year.
And so when Steve, when you talk about what's the
timeline right, ideally you're going to come in, there's a

(21:28):
bunch of training that goes on. Hopefully you're gonna work
subvarsity and youth football because reps and reps and reps
is what makes you better. But but you will be
put on a crew probably your first year to work
a varsity game or maybe a couple of varsity games.

(21:48):
But but the camaraderie, you know, the old hats like
myself and and others. We're here to make new official
successful and so we're going to give you all the.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
Support you need.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I heard you.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
I heard you say training, and I'm thinking that's like
football calls and stuff like that. But what about physical
what's there? What are the physical def questions? Because I'm
thinking about my knee in my back right now. But
what are the physical demands for uh in my lungs
for a reth well?

Speaker 14 (22:17):
Well, tim so, so I'm a little bit of a.

Speaker 7 (22:21):
Freak, right I Uh.

Speaker 14 (22:25):
I work for Garment International and and and we support
our fitness devices here in Tucson, and like I had
an nine hundred and sixty one day streak where I
ran every day for nine hundred and sixty one days.
So so I run staying in shape. Yeah, there's a
little bit of work going up and down the field,

(22:48):
but it's not it's not going to kill you. And
you know, if you work out just a little bit,
you'd be all right.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
Well, I'm wearing my garment two fifty five right now.

Speaker 14 (23:01):
Right on, you're a little bit behind. I'm wearing a
nine to seventy.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
I know. That's my that's my next thing. Garma makes
a good product.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
But I'm I if you're runner, I'm curious have you
ever logged your steps or done Strava or done your
garment map during a game? I would be curious to
see that.

Speaker 14 (23:20):
Yeah, we actually asked. It's funny to say that, right,
there's actually an American football app on your garment watches,
and I recently just got my son to wear a
garment watch. He was opposed to watches for a long time,
and he's like, Dad, this is really cool because I
can see where I am during practice. And my biggest

(23:42):
day was ran five miles and then I went out
and worked eight flag football games and I had fifty
seven hundred steps.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
I ran a marathon at twenty eighteen, and that was about.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Them, you know.

Speaker 14 (23:58):
But you're you're point about about being physically fit is important, right.
You have to commit to that because look, I'm gonna
I'm gonna be sixty five in February, so this is
you know, my my, I'm in my sixty fifth year
of life, and every year there's a new batch of sixteen, seventeen,

(24:19):
eighteen year olds that I have to keep up with.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yeah, right, let me ask you, do you you should?
You said you're on the younger side of the people involved.
Right in this group that you're with, do they do
they not leave because there is a fewer refs? Do
they stay longer just because they want to continue the
flow of it? Does that make sense?

Speaker 14 (24:42):
Yeah? Yeah, it does? Like it's I don't think they're
being altruistic and looking out for officiating. I think they
love the camaraderie, right, The fellowship that we have is incredible.
That's the big You know, we get paid a decent
amount of money at the high school level, right, we

(25:03):
get so there's the game fee plus mileage. At the
varsity level, we get about ninety eight maybe let's just
call it one hundred dollars. JV you get sixty, Varsity
flag you get seventy. But the money doesn't really mean
a whole lot. It's I can't tell you how many
really cool road trips I had. You know where our

(25:27):
crew jumped in a van and we drove out to
Yuma for a playoff game during the pandemic. Yeah, makes sense,
and that's where that's where people people don't want to
let that go. Most of my friends today are football officials,
whether they be in Phoenix here in Tucson. One of

(25:50):
the guys on my crew actually is he works with
me on my day job.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
So these folks.

Speaker 5 (25:59):
I I coached high school for a long time too,
and I that was that's my biggest takeaway was the
camaraderie that you have with other coaches and the impact
you have on kids. And it sounds like the referees
kind of have that same thing for the folks that
are interested. So like if I if I started today
and I could be coaching a varsity game, what's what's

(26:19):
what's the next step? I mean, if if somebody's interested
in making this a is this a full time job?

Speaker 4 (26:24):
Is this is this a hobby? Is it something that
I could pursue?

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (26:29):
And and good question, right. I think someone that's really
really motivated can make this a full time job because
you could do football, then you could do basketball, then
you can do softball, right and and and there's never
a shortage of games to work, right. But mostly it's

(26:51):
just an avocation where people really want to have a
commitment to a to a purpose and and they pick
a sport and they work a sport.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Right.

Speaker 14 (27:03):
We hope that you work more than one sport at
the AA level. But yeah, it's really more of a
hobby or of an avocation than it would be for
a full time job.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
So what's your what's your position? You're on the show now, obviously,
uh speaking well about it? What's your position with any
group or is it you're just here to talk about it?

Speaker 14 (27:26):
Well, I am on the board for the Tucson Football
Officials Association, which is a chapter of the Arizona Football
Officials Association. And you know, we just need more officials, right,
So I'm here because we want more officials, and and

(27:47):
anybody that's interested can go to a i A online
dot org and click on become an official, and it
takes you through the process. But I'm really here supporting,
and i know this sounds cliches, Styve, right, I'm here
supporting the kids, and the more officials we can get,

(28:09):
the better we can serve the kids and the schools
and the coaches.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
So you said you only well, in my mind, only
after you've talked about how many you can do a
spring follow and all that forty to sixty or something
like that. There's fifty two weeks in a year, so
you do at least one a week, and you probably
could have done double or triple that realistically.

Speaker 14 (28:28):
Well, well, absolutely right, But if you think about it,
I'm not talking I'm just talking about football. I am
only a football of okay, okay, And so my typical
year is, and especially now, it's accelerate a little bit
with flag ten, twelve, fourteen flag games, twelve, varsity games

(28:51):
eight to ten JV games. Then I also work youth
football and I'm slow down a little bit. But previously
I would work four games every Saturday for you football
for ten weeks.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Mm hmmm. Yeah.

Speaker 14 (29:08):
And this is like I said, there there's plenty of
games if you want to work.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
So I have a question. Yeah, do you ref your kids?
Your son's football team? Do you take a verdy?

Speaker 3 (29:26):
So? Are you allowed to?

Speaker 14 (29:27):
Yeah, it's a tim it's a qualified yet.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
And do people know that you're you're his dad? And
do they get mad at you?

Speaker 14 (29:38):
They know I'm his dad. They don't get mad at
me because I don't work regular season games. That's why
it's a qualified yet.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Okay.

Speaker 14 (29:45):
I worked his games in seven on seven during the summers,
you know, all the schools through seven on seven tournaments,
the Victory Gold, Hard Card Tournament, et cetera. And we
get assigned to his scrimmage the last couple of years.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
So you would pick him up maybe during the playoffs
and then some other specialty.

Speaker 14 (30:07):
No, I would never work him during the regular season
or playoffs or anything, right, because scrimmages are practice. Yeah,
So we on the thirteenth, we're at Tanka Vertie and
we had Tanker verty Sabino Scrimmage and my crew worked
at and that's the last time I'll see him until Christmas.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
So let me ask you. You're sixty four years old.
How long have you been doing this?

Speaker 2 (30:31):
One?

Speaker 3 (30:31):
And two? I'm sure you know Chris rest stat Or.
We had him on the show maybe a month ago. Now,
this big time guy in the NCAA, and YadA YadA.
You've never had aspirations for something like that in your career.

Speaker 14 (30:45):
You know, Steve, I started late, right, Like I said,
I moved to Tucson in nineteen ninety six. My son
told me that all I want to do is play
tackle football when he was eligible for two y F
helped coach him for nine years. So I was in
my forties when I started. You know, they're not looking

(31:06):
for a short, fat, bald guy in his forties at
the college level, yeah, right, And out here in Arizona,
Like my son went to Cornell College in Mount Verne
and Iowa, and in that radius around the Chicago area,
there's probably over one hundred Division three, Division two schools

(31:30):
out here in Arizona. Right, You weren't good enough to
work the Big ten, Big twelve. I mean packed, Pac ten,
Pac twelve, whatever. There's not a whole lot of opportunity
unless you wanted to travel.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
So I just looked at you know.

Speaker 14 (31:47):
I mean, I've worked some semi pro but but yeah,
I'm real happy being the best high school ref.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
I can be.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Yeah, there's something about staying.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
We were talking earlier in the show about you know,
local and you know, caring and being involved in your community,
and I think that's what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
You know, I'm really drawn to that.

Speaker 5 (32:06):
You know, you're helping kids have a good experience and
learn a lot of lessons outside of sports. I'm curious
you talked about a nine hundred and sixty one day
run streak.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
What happened on day nineteen sixty two?

Speaker 14 (32:20):
Well, so on nine hundred and sixty I had some
skin cancer surgery. Oh no, And I asked the doctor
if I could run, and he said, well, my dentist
tells me I should flass but I don't. I'm gonna
tell you not to run, but I'm sure you will.

(32:40):
And so he said, but you could get a biggie
hemo hematoma. And so I ran the next day and
I woke up with a big bruise on my face,
and so I guess he's right. So I got to stop.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
But do you flyus listen?

Speaker 5 (32:58):
I just I just looked up Kirby's is results and
you ran a two oh nine half marathon at the
Oral Valley Half. Okay, yeah, and that's a hilly course, dude,
well done.

Speaker 14 (33:09):
Yeah, my fastest marathon I ran the Lake County Marathon
in Chicago area. I ran a two fifty six. And
in nineteen ninety I ran a three h four in Chicago,
which qualified me for Boston. I ran three o nine
in Boston.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
And by the way, Kirby, you must have lied to
me on your photos because you're not a short, white,
bald guy. Your photos don't show that.

Speaker 14 (33:30):
Yeah, but I am right.

Speaker 7 (33:35):
Next time I see you, I tried, and I'll come
up and introduce myself.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Okay, great, Okay, good Kirby, thank you. I always try
to sneak in a little bit of running talk with
these guys.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yes you do. You's a nice segue. Hey, real quick.
So if somebody, like anybody who's listening, wants to kind
of suggest somebody or be part of it, how do
they do it?

Speaker 11 (33:53):
Well?

Speaker 14 (33:54):
They go to AIA online dot org okay, and click
on becoming official and I'll put it out there Steve
right if anyone wants to call me five two zero
three seven zero two two zero five or send me
an email at k oh no b O L L
n O W at Comcast dot net. Okay, and we'll

(34:16):
get them hooked up and and they it's real good
with new officials brand new to the to the avocation
where we have scholarships, so they'll they'll be able to
officiate their first year at uh no cost.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Okay, cool, let me ask you so, so they sign
up at the high school level, but what if you
want to do like little kid level. That's just a
different area.

Speaker 14 (34:40):
Once you get signed up at the high school level,
you get pulled in to the youth level.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Okay, okay, great, good to know.

Speaker 14 (34:47):
Well the assigner the assigner for A y F Sonoran
Desert A y F and T y F it is
is an area commissioner for the AI.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Okay, no, makes sense. Thanks Krouby Curby, nice talking to you.

Speaker 5 (35:04):
Are you still running a little bit another outside of football?

Speaker 14 (35:08):
I am, I am. I did four miles on the
treadmill this morning, plus I did a mile and a
half rock with a twenty five pound pack, and I'll
run three or four miles tomorrow morning before I go
do a couple of youth football game.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
All right, Steve, and I will.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
See you there. I'm going I'm gonna go take a nap.
You just gotta me tired. I'm gonna ware yacht all right.

Speaker 14 (35:31):
I thank you for having me on and and and
like I said, you know, the more officials we get,
the stronger we get. That you that girls flag football
is exploding.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yes.

Speaker 14 (35:42):
The first year I did it two years ago, there
were two teams. Last year there were nine. I think
there's fifteen this year in southern Arizona. It's going to
be in the Olympics. Colleges are starting girls flight football.
So yeah, the more we can get, the better we'll be.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Okay, Kirby Boo, get the heck.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Out of here.

Speaker 14 (36:06):
Take care, all right, I'm gonna throw a flag on
your hair.

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Speaker 13 (40:12):
Breaking down all the axes and ohs.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Box Sports fourteen fifty.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Hey, welcome back to whining the ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Tim Bentley, Hello, Hello,
and you're Ray. Hey. Ray. That's a good side gig.
Little cash Now. They're not gonna mess with you either.
Your two you know, yeah, yep, that's you know. You
don't like my call, son, coach, you're out of here.

(40:50):
I been working on it. Ninety bucks, hunder bucks.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
Hundred bucks a game, you know, in sixty bucks for
some lower level games. I mean if you.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Work two or three four week you know you could.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
You know you're making three hundred bucks a weekend. And
you know that's walking around money.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
It's walking around money, and that's paying paying your your
water bill, your electric bill.

Speaker 6 (41:10):
That's some runner money right there.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
Yeah, I'm telling you that's that's what my family would.
We call it wham walking around money, walking a little
what are you walking around and walking around?

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Man?

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Just got my pocket.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
My grandma would give you twenty bucks and she goes,
here's some wham wow. I know, man, it was good life.
When you're in college you get like a ten dollars. Yeah,
that's yeah, from your grandma. When you're twenty one.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Grandma, I just walk out with my with my with
my pockets and burden outside. You don't got no cash.

Speaker 5 (41:41):
But there's something about working with you know, you know,
high school athletes and young athletes and you know, trying
to learn the game and be good citizens.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
You know they don't do it for that. Come on, Tim,
it's not going to go Yeah you think this is
their church. You know they're going to get some pain.
But go ahead. I don't want to ruin ruin your
friend until.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
But I think you know you're roncho. So if you
make a couple, but that dude's busy, I mean.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Y yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. But let me say I'll
do respect to all these they're going you're not doing
it for the kids. I'm not. I'm gonna go ref
be as fair as I can and see what I
see and get the hell out.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
All right, my mom's listening.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
I did it absolutely for the kids.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
You're going to heaven. You're going to heaven. I'm sure
that's not on the high on the list, but I
get it. It sounds good and all that. You know,
if people go to church for certain reasons.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
But it provides structure for kids.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
And if you make a few bucks, you know, you
want to give these kids a good experience.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
You think the kids get who is that old guy? Ruy?
He doesn't know the game.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
I think that old guy is Okay, ran.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Over him on the cimar. I hurt his knees. Let's
call it what it is.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
Anyway way to go?

Speaker 3 (43:01):
No, No, that's good. He's a good dude too. You
can tell that he enjoys his job and and and
it's into that stuff. I could you know when I
was first there was the paper closed fifteen sixteen years ago.
I'm thinking I can just go to sports park, get paid,
you know, twenty five bucks a game, and called balls
and strikes and still do what I was doing. And
then I did. I played with those guys. Hell no,

(43:22):
there're a bunch of crazy Ben. Could you call a
bad play? You're dude, I couldn't. Adults, No way, no way. Yeah,
so that's that's a different deal. Right, So Class two
a little small ball softball, and they're gonna kill you
at the end.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
Well, and I know we gave him a hard time.
We boot him on the way out of here. But
I mean he didn't really tell any horror stories.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
We didn't. We didn't, we didn't have Apparently everything's nice.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
Well, you're gonna have a great time, you're gonna help kids,
you're gonna make a hundred bucks.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
No, no, no, I'm not. It's gonna be a crazy kind
of person kind of being flip about it. But it's true.
I mean, you going out there, make some be fair
to both sides, hope you don't mess up, yeada YadA,
and then you do it again tomorrow. Yeah it's like yeah, no, no,
you're right, because guess what if you if you make
something badly or whatever, you'll hear about it. You are

(44:13):
you're going to hear about it. It's like being a rap.
You don't want to be. You don't want to hear
about it. The perfect thing is you don't want to hear.
But it's like an offensive blindman when you hear about him.
When the mess up, man, when they mess up, when
they mess up.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
Well that was good. A I A A I A online.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
And that's where you live for all your high school
sports when I was a coach, we've lived in there
all the things.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
So they do a good job.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Right, Yeah, if you always want to call five two
zero four one, six seventy four forty we have about
eight minutes now.

Speaker 6 (44:45):
Someone called just for a second.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Okay, call that quick. It could be big or done. Yeah.
You got about t minus two weeks almost for the
first game. Yeah, well what is it? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (45:00):
I think it's a week zero is two weeks two?

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Okay, okay, we gotta call Hello, you're on the air,
nine on the ball. Who's this? Ohne, who's this? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (45:12):
That was the guy that called for just a second.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Hey, how.

Speaker 7 (45:17):
I just did ericson issue?

Speaker 11 (45:19):
Was on?

Speaker 7 (45:20):
Hey? This guy is Tim?

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Is that his day? Yes?

Speaker 7 (45:24):
Yes, Tim, the young man's very astute the time. I
didn't get to hear the guests, but I want to say,
this is my birthday weekend and Jay's birthdays a couple
of days after mine.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
No, he's Jesus birthday happy.

Speaker 7 (45:42):
I thought I thought Jay's birthday was the team's like
me Monday yesterday. Oh well that's why he's off.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
No, yeah, he went to California today.

Speaker 7 (45:53):
Okay, anyway, why was he gonna call?

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (45:57):
Oh yeah about the games? I'm gonna because of Tim talking.
He pumped me up so big. And remember my you,
my wife works at the U of A Foundation. He
pumped me up so big. I'm gonna go to a
lot more U of A foot basketball games, of course
because of him.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Why is that? What did what did you say? Tim?

Speaker 4 (46:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (46:21):
He was.

Speaker 7 (46:22):
He was very positive about promoting you know, and you too, Steve.
I'm not going to give you a little credit about
filling those seats.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Oh yeah, you know you guys.

Speaker 7 (46:32):
You guys were in agreement more or less. And hey,
mister mister Rivera, your birthday you're sixty born in sixty four, right, Yes, Uh. Yeah,
So you're just a kid and you're isn't your birth
late later in the year. We're you gonna turn sixty?

Speaker 3 (46:49):
No, I'm sixty one. I just turned sixty one. Okay,
look I get this.

Speaker 7 (46:56):
Today.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
Come on, don't tear down any thing.

Speaker 7 (47:00):
But kids, Hey, Tim, him and Jay, but mostly the
young man sitting next to you. You know, I'm three
years younger than Jay. We're both older than Steve, and
he's a good Oh and that one guy that that
he has had so many good you know interns saying,

(47:23):
you know, and he's pointed out, what are we We're mature.
We're not old till we're seventy. Steve could be old,
but you know, six seventy is the new sixty.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Come on, good point.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Let's let's.

Speaker 7 (47:39):
Tim's about forty five exactly.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Could be like my.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Mind, Howard, Thanks for the call, man, Howard, your seat there, buddy,
talking about being tans gentle.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
I'm I'm bad to turn twenty five and old man like.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
You guys t shirts older than you, did you them?

Speaker 4 (48:02):
I got a backache older than you right now.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Due any more calls, please do just kinda make them straightforward.
You're being positive today. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
Uh, buts in the seats. Maybe that's what you start.
That's what he's talking about. It's just, you know, let's
support the teams. Go spend some money by football. I
do not, you know, I did for a while, and
I kind of dip in from friends and family and
stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
So I like to go.

Speaker 5 (48:34):
I like to pick my spots every once in a while.
When they played in AU, I like to.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
I went to Au.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Like to you because you're any you grad So did
you go to the NY you beginning you get you
were you year before me?

Speaker 4 (48:45):
I didn't go. I would like to win. Member used
to play them in basketball and I would go.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
And you know that's when Murphy was yeah, yeah, well
they plait them for yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
And when I was at NAU, they you loot would
bring his team up.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
To the sky. That's when you first got there.

Speaker 4 (48:58):
Oh my god, that was so it was great.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Better buy your tickets now because you're not going to
get them later and he won't.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Yeah no, I I but I do like to dip
and I'm gonna try to go to a couple.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Of games this year. Football.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
They need you butts in the seat, baby, that's me.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
R y I'm not per per cap I to write
that per per capita and yeah gets the wreky. Maybe
you can call.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
It what pert cap on those football games?

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Which ones? Which ones he's circling to go to?

Speaker 4 (49:27):
You know, I'm who's in October? Because that's what I
was looking at.

Speaker 6 (49:31):
Uh, Oklahoma State is the only one.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Oh in b y u U.

Speaker 5 (49:35):
I might go to b y U a kid I
coached in high school. Nico, I went to b y
U And he might be he's living in Flag so
he might come down.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
He's still he's still running, right, he.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Moved a flag.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Can I ask you that question? How do you make
a living running?

Speaker 7 (49:49):
So?

Speaker 5 (49:49):
Uh, you know, Nico is an elite athlete. He ran
two o nine in the marathon, you know the reaches.
So he's sponsored by A six and so A six
sponsors him and pays him a stipend his salary, and
then he gets incentives to run different races, like a
lot of elite athletes. So you get incentives to run

(50:10):
certain races, and then if you win or you know,
then there's there's incentive awards for setting records or winning
races or being top American?

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Is it just to have your name out there of
visibility for these sponsors.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
So it's it's it's it's product placement. You run for
a s's product placement. They want to have their products
there and they want to have a wide breadth of
of athletes you know, different, you know, from the one
hundred meters runners up to the marathons.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Well, I saw a former I wants say, who I
saw former? You of a track athlete? Here? She was, uh,
just short of Olympics, I think because I was out
there in the Olympics and I'm thinking she drove up
in a nice Mercedes and I'm thinking, mmm, she must
be doing well on the old circuit or something. I
don't know how.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
And some of those athletes, you know, they can get
appearance money.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
Yeah, that's if you know, you talk to the folks
like Bernard and.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
And how those guys I can understand, you.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Know, they get paid money to show up and run.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
So nko is he's up in the flagstaff, he's got
his eyes set on the twenty eight Olympic trials.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
What's the percentage of people that do that become those
level Because those are the one percenters, those are the.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
Those are the probably the point one percenters.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
You know, because if you think about it, you know,
if you run a thirty minute ten k, you know
that's that's five minutes a mile.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
We'll say that's five minutes. It's faster than five minutes
a month.

Speaker 5 (51:30):
You are probably you know, the fifteen hundred fastest American fifteen. Really,
it's such a crazy amount of people. When Nico ran,
he ran twenty nine high in college and he was
ranked one hundred and tenth in the NC double A.
So it's it's so the feud and far between that
those guys hit.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
And what makes them special? What makes the one, the
one and a half or whatever present you gave me
zero point zero one.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
So it was genetics.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
I mean you gotta have it, yeah, to have good
VO two max and all that stuff, and you have
to have a little you know, point in my every
athlete your pointing till.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
You your head, I am because that's.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Not that's not good radio.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
But it takes a little you know kind of a
you know, like get after it. You know, you were
talking to Ricky and Lama, you know they you know,
they wanted.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
To get after it.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
And you could tell a kid, boys, boys and girls,
you could tell, like, who wants to get after it?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Well, that's the funny thing. We had him yesterday, right,
and you were a former athlete. Wrestler. Wrestlers are bunkers,
you know their bunker stuff. Uh and I played baseball
for a while you uh, those those you know the
difference in those guys who are elite guys, they have
something different, you know what I'm saying. Could you tell?
Could you tell it? So even runners, you.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
Could tell, you know, who had the aptitude vo two
max athletically, but who just wanted to gridded their teeth
and wanted.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
To But he's he's he's a buck buck twenty and.

Speaker 5 (52:57):
And it doesn't mean that they wanted to after the race.
They wanted to fight this man Like.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Sure, that's what that's why you become what you become. Okay,
we gotta go giving me the high five year