February 8, 2025 • 56 mins
The salient point of this podcast episode is the detailed exploration of Everplay Sports and Social, a recreational league that facilitates adult participation in various sports while fostering community engagement.
The discussion with Alex Avinger highlights the league's evolution since its inception a decade ago, emphasizing its diverse offerings, including kickball, softball, and the increasingly popular pickleball. Listener discretion is advised, as the language and content may not be suitable for all audiences. We delve into the operational challenges faced in managing such a league, particularly in maintaining staffing and field conditions, while also celebrating the community's spirit exemplified by the substantial charitable contributions made by the league.
Throughout our dialogue, we reflect on personal experiences that underscore the importance of camaraderie and enjoyment in adult recreational sports.
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Everplay Sports and Social League
Springs sports are registering through February 19th, 2024! Visit https://everplaysports.com Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/trinity/all-stars-show License code: O9PSCKXIEBKXKSRY
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:32):
The All About Nothing podcastmay have.
Language and content thatisn't appropriate for some.
Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome, nothingers, toanother episode of the All About
Nothing podcast.
This is episode number 241.
I am Barrick Gruber.
I'm joined by Alex Allen.
Okay.
And before we get started, Ihave mispronounced your name so many
times.
Avinger.
(01:52):
Avinger.
Fuck.
I've gotten it right every time.
Yeah.
Please subscribe and share the show.
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Want to remind everybody thatthe second annual Comic Con, Coastal
(02:13):
Comic Con, is coming up onMarch 1st and 2nd in Wilmington,
North Carolina.
It's going to be theWilmington Convention Center.
Artists, vendors, Voices,voice to artists, tv.
More actors.
We got Ross Marquan coming,Sam Witwer, Matthew Wood, Matthew
Waterson, Cal Dodd, andKatrina Roebuck.
So check that out.
Coastalcomicon.com or you cango to Instagram or Facebook at Coastal
(02:36):
Comic Con.
Also want to remind everybody,ZJZ Designs, you can check out new,
new, new designs and such.
There's.
They're coming out regularly.
Also check out their St.
Patrick's Day lineup that justcame out.
Liam the Leprechaun isfeatured on all the shirts.
So check that out.
Great designs.
Check it out.
ZJZ designs.com so, Alex,thank you very much for letting me
(03:00):
come out here and harass youwhile you're supposed to be working.
So for those of you that don'tknow ever play sports and Social
League is a group that wasstarted here back in 2014.
And it really just started outas I want to say it was dodgeball
and kickball.
That was primarily it, right?
That's right.
Ten years ago, we started asjust a single dodgeball league.
(03:23):
Yeah.
And as the seasons went on,you just added different sports.
You know, the next season,dodgeball and kickball.
The next season, dodgeball,kickball, softball.
Next season, dodgeball,kickball, softball, and indoor volleyball.
Then we cut dodgeball becauseit ended up being a lot of, as you
can imagine, screaming and,you know, not agreeing with calls
(03:45):
whether, you know, last timepeople played dodgeball was in middle
school, high school, right?
Yeah.
There was no.
There was gym teacher on the bleachers.
Beep, you're out.
No questions.
Asked now we have grown upsthat are no it didn't hit me.
Yes it did.
No it didn't.
So we're arguing, you knowthere's a foul ball or arguing about,
you know spending most of thetime and the game time that these
(04:06):
players are paying for arguingabout if you're out or not.
So we brought it back lastspring as a 10 year anniversary throwback.
Yeah.
And you know we, we've ran itfour seasons now offering it again
this spring and if it worksout great.
(04:27):
If not, hey, we did it for ayear essentially and we may offer,
offer it just like seasonal inthe winter when it's cold to give
somebod players like myself,you know, you don't want to be out
here for 50 minutes in thecold and whatnot.
You'd rather be inside.
So yeah man.
What people can't see behindthe table is that he's long sleeves,
(04:48):
long pants, I'm in shorts.
I didn't.
It was warm today.
I didn't think that this wasgoing to be the weather.
So 2016 you became a part ofthe officiating crew.
How did that come about?
Yeah, so I have a history withjust working with different recreational
and sports leagues going backto high school.
So almost 16 years of justexperience with different recreational
(05:12):
sports leagues locally here.
Went to Chapin High School.
Worked for ICRC ref and socceras a teenager.
Ump and softball as a teenager.
Fast forward go to college atUSC upstate in Spartanburg.
Get into intramural program.
Started off as just an official.
A week later I was a manager.
(05:33):
You know months later got intoan undergraduate assistant position
staff director and finishingup up there I was just going, I had
two days a week in school.
I was back and forth, not evendidn't even have a place.
An hour and a half up thestreet I would go do my class, come
back my boss up there at thetime for intramurals.
(05:56):
Hey look into ever play sportand social club that looks like something
you would be interested in.
Emailed the email that westill have today.
Hey I'm interested.
And getting out there, notonly being around sports but meeting
people, you know, right out,right after college, whatever it
may be.
Started off as an officialwith everyplay.
(06:16):
Kind of went through the samesort of process as intramurals.
They, they made me, they mademe a staff director.
January 2020 bought ownershipto make four of us as co owners.
That was a weird first part ofownership in 2020 of January.
(06:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And then this April 1st wouldbe three years of me doing this by
myself as a solo owner.
And that's just, you know,that's a whole other episode we can
kind of get into.
But that's, that's how I gotinvolved just with the background
of sports.
Yeah.
You know, so I think, I thinkthat the.
(06:57):
The COVID 2020 Winter KickballLeague was probably my favorite.
That was the one where we wereout at the Blowfish Stadium, Lexington,
and having three basically inthe outfield.
We had three games.
We were just sort of spreadout in 90 degree angles across the
(07:18):
outfield.
And, and even at the time, I was.
I was friends with the ownerof the Blowfish, Bill Shanahan.
Yep, yep.
And so shout out to Bill.
But it was.
That was such an.
That was, it was.
It was so much fun.
Yeah.
And.
And the number of people thatcame out, despite the fact that,
you know, I mean, there wereplenty of safety measures in place
and everything for it.
(07:38):
But, you know, you weretalking about some of the.
The events of leading throughyour time here with Everplay, the
people you've gotten to meet.
You met a significantindividual during that time.
You met your wife?
I did, yes.
I met her.
(07:59):
Shoot.
I met her summer of 2019, andshe was in nursing school at MUSC
in Charleston, and I was still here.
I was just a staff directorwhen I, When I met her.
I had this plan of, you know,buying ownership in January.
(08:20):
She didn't know any of that atthe time.
And.
Yeah, I mean, tell her so.
Yeah.
So, you know, I told her mywhole plan.
She's very supportive of.
Of decision and buying ownership.
I'm very passionate about, youknow, doing this or I wouldn't be
(08:40):
doing this.
So.
But the Blowfish, that.
That was.
I almost forget about thatbecause it seems like so long ago,
but it was one of the firstleagues that we did bring back a
late fall kickball league onWednesdays out of the Blowfish and,
you know, a minor leaguebaseball stadium which is very unique
(09:01):
compared to what we're playingon Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
out here.
Yeah, there was somebody elsetaking care of the field.
Yeah.
Right.
So they, they, you know, andsomething different.
And it was, it was very fun,unique experience and whatnot.
Bill was awesome.
The staff there was very awesome.
The one thing that, you know,for us, we rent these fields through
(09:23):
Lexington County, City of Columbia.
So we have to abide by their.
Their rules and regulationsregarding, you know, we are 21 and
up league.
Right, right.
Sponsored by Bud Light and KWKW Beverages here.
Locally, we're not allowed tohave beverages out.
Adult beverages.
Right.
So, you know, going out therehaving a Bud Light or Ultra and in
(09:52):
the concourse and the standsand bringing up, you know, not legit
on the field, but, you know,in your dugouts was cool.
Yeah, I think you can agreewith that.
I was more fond of the hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate, becausethat was a cold winter, you know,
and it played out wellbecause, of course, we were adhering
(10:13):
to Covid restrictions andthings like that.
So a lot of us wearing masksand, you know, if we, at least on
our team, if anyone testedCOVID positive, then they didn't
show up that week.
Right.
And that was one of our.
Don and I back then, had tofrom scratch come up with a COVID
policy.
(10:33):
Oh, yeah.
And we still have it in playbecause Covid is still around.
But.
But like, you had somebodychecking people's temperatures.
We had people at the gatesbefore you could even come in, checking
temperatures, giving masks toparticipants that didn't have them,
you know, hand sanitizer rightthere at the gate.
(10:55):
So, I mean, we were doing it,doing it all to try to take every
precaution we could to makepeople feel safe and, you know, still
allow people to come out andplay leagues that we were shut down
for, you know, five months.
So people were ready to get back.
And yeah, I remember wheneverything broke, I was still playing
(11:18):
softball at Bray, and.
And it was ultimately, it gotto the point where we couldn't even.
We didn't have enough peopleto field the team because people
were concerned about beingsick or getting sick or being sick
or whatever.
Right.
So ultimately it all, youknow, it just whittled out.
And then, you know,thankfully, that late fall winter
(11:41):
kickball came back and we allsigned up because that was that for
us.
For me, having kids at home,it was the one night out a week I
get.
So.
So expand for me on thevariety of leagues that ever play
sports and social here inColombia has.
Because I know we're talkingabout kickball, we talked about dodgeball,
but you all have expanded insome new sports recently.
(12:03):
That's right.
Which is one that's taking theplanet by storm, which is pickleball.
Pickleball, Yep.
Yep.
So we, you know, this springwe're offering 15 different leagues.
That doesn't mean 15 different sports.
We run two days of softball,three days of kickball, two days
(12:23):
of soccer, with one of thosedays having two locations, two days
of indoor volleyball, two daysof sand volleyball, and then, yes,
try and dodgeball again.
And then some self officiatedSports, like you said, pickleball,
which is growing.
It's so fun.
My wife and I love it.
(12:43):
We play, if I had time, Iwould play in the league if I could.
You know, bowling and, and cornhole.
Yeah, Cornhole.
You know, a lot of differentleagues that, that don't require
a lot of people on a team.
Pickleball, you know, you needtwo people on a team are bowling,
(13:09):
four people bowl per game.
And cornhole, you know, two orthree people are playing on a team.
So those are more social leagues.
You're, you know, playing inthese leagues and less competitive
with it being self officiated.
And then you have some ofthese other leagues, kickball and
(13:30):
softball and indoor volleyballthat take a little bit more, you
know, actual physical athleticism.
Like so it's just a lot moregoing on, you know, and there's,
I've had a couple differentvenues that I've been checking out
(13:51):
to maybe add an indoorpickleball at some point, you know,
so some different ideas thatI'm bouncing around and you know,
we're going to continue tohopefully every single season is
the best season we've had,which has been the case, knock on
wood, ever since taking thisthing over by myself.
(14:13):
We've only gotten better byeach season and each year.
So is it things that I'mtrying that are different?
Sure.
So, so that, that would be mynext question.
How do you, how do you keepthe league from, become the leagues
from becoming stale or youknow, to keep the, it energized and
fresh.
(14:35):
Having good staff, committedstaff, offering different services.
Whether I, you know, I broughtback the old Everplay Columbia for
last year, being the 10, 10year anniversary.
I mean you've probably seenall the designs.
You probably have hundreds ofshirts that have the same logo.
So that's something that Imade very.
(14:57):
There is a Goodwill that has aconsiderable number of Everplay shirts
in varying sizes from triple Xdown to extra large.
So, but yeah, no, I thought,you know, that was one of, that was
one of the things that I thinkI heard the most complain about was
when Everplay switched over tojust the monochrome shirts and then,
(15:19):
and then bringing back theactual, the actual shirts from when,
when, when I started playing,which was in 2015, I had a pink shirt
with that Ever Play design on it.
That one's not on Goodwill.
That one, you wash your carwith it.
I, I don't even, I, I, thatone, I think I do, I think I do yard
(15:39):
work and now.
Yeah.
Hey, that's impressive.
Ten years for sure.
But no, just, you know,changing things up.
You know, people love change, right?
Yeah.
Not necessarily changing, youknow, leagues, but, you know, if
there's rules that, that are needed.
Needed me to look at differentsports, different leagues, different
(16:05):
venues.
As you know, you're.
You've probably like you saidone, you've known about M.
AV and B AV where we play forsince 2015.
Yeah.
So looking for differentvenues, different gym space, adding
sponsors with differentrestaurants and bars that they can
wear their every place shirt,go in, grab a discount on food and
(16:27):
drinks and you know, don'tsettle just to be, you know.
Yeah.
The same player.
So, you know, and Columbia'sgrowing man.
Yeah.
In Columbia, KC West Columbia is.
Is booming.
So things that I'm doing differently.
But also people are stayinghere in Columbia post grad.
(16:49):
They're not, you know, haulingbutton at Charleston, Charlotte,
Atlanta, Greenville.
They're staying here becausethere's a lot to do, you know, as
far as interesting things thatare popping up, I think at least.
So.
Yeah.
Come a long way.
What about skill levels as faras like, because I mean, we know.
(17:10):
But so for, but like as far asskill levels for people that want
to play, if they want to signup and play, you know, like you said,
like with kickball, what arethe skill levels that you would suggest
as far as kickball?
Kickball.
We have a lot of people thathaven't played kickball since middle
school and high school.
Right.
(17:31):
So, you know, when they'resigning up, they, you know, there
are a little bit of differentrules as far as where you can kick,
where you can pitch, where youcan stand.
We don't for any of ourleagues require any sort of skill
level or experience or anything.
You know, history wise.
(17:51):
Like for instance, if theywant to just come, like for kickball
or soccer or volleyball, theymay have never played that sport.
It's something that they wantto try.
So they go out and try and seeif they can pick up on it, ask questions,
you know, so there's all sortsof skill levels.
Even pickleball.
People might not even knowwhat the kitchen is when they sign
up, but they go out there andthey'll figure it out pretty quickly.
(18:14):
The kitchen.
The kitchen is right in frontof the net, Right?
That's.
That's right.
There's like a little line ina box where you cannot go in the
kitchen unless the ball hitsin the kitchen.
Interesting.
Okay.
So, you know, and some peoplego in there not knowing and the other
team will call it out or maybethe other team doesn't know.
So, you know, we don't requireany sort of.
(18:35):
You know, obviously, if youhave a background in soccer, kicking
this ball out here is probablya little bit easier.
If you were a volleyballplayer that uses your hands majority
of the time.
Sure.
You know, that's like me, youknow, playing soccer and going and
playing, you know, softball.
(18:55):
I'm probably gonna swing andmiss the first or second time.
You know, it's going to takesome time, ask questions.
A lot of newer teams and newer players.
This.
This blue team is actually kickball.
Their.
Their name is kickballers.
I made it as a free agent team.
So you can sign up as a free agent.
(19:17):
A group or a team.
So they had a couple groups,they had free agents.
I made them a team, calledthem kickballers.
Unfortunately, they're 0 and 5right now, but you can tell from
week one that they've come along way with the score being one
to two right now.
Yeah, week one probably wasn'tgoing to be that close in the third
(19:42):
inning or fourth inning,whatever we're in right now.
Yeah.
And for the record, we maylook like we're distracted from looking
this direction or looking ateach other, but there's a kickball
game going on behind you, allthat that you can't see.
And someone actually just did a.
A bun.
A girl did a bunt and got adouble out of it.
(20:03):
So that's.
That's the kind of.
That's the kind of stuff thatyou get to see with kickball.
Age ranges do you have.
I know everybody's got to beover 21.
That's right.
I have played softball with avarying range of ages, including
Paul, who was a taxi driver.
Rest in peace.
(20:24):
He.
I don't know how old he was,but whenever I saw him listed on
my team, I always.
I always kind of shook my headand was like, oh, well, he's.
He's a good guy.
He is.
Yeah.
There's a lot of good, good people.
You know, we've had a lot ofplayers that.
That are out here for theright reasons.
Yeah, to learn to meet people,which is, you know, whatever play
(20:49):
is.
We want people to enjoysports, whether it's.
You have a background insports or learning the sport like
we were just talking about,but to meet new people and connect
with people, you know, fordifferent seasons, different years,
different sports.
(21:11):
We have groups that.
That go on beach trips,mountain trips, friends givings.
People literally get engagedon our fields.
Oh, yeah.
Like, yeah, nobody has everbeen married on our field, but I've
seen, I've seen people getengaged and do their engagement pictures,
(21:32):
you know, from, from justjoining as a free agent.
Yeah.
And meeting their significantother through our leagues.
Yeah.
There's a, there, there are,there are many people that I met
literally just playingkickball that I, you know, I've,
I've maintained a friendshipeven though all of us have pretty
much moved on from playing kickball.
(21:54):
We, you know, we, we havestayed connected and that was, that
was something that I attributeto playing on ever play.
You still bowl with those fewof those people.
Some of those people are new.
You know, they, you know, webowl on Tuesday nights over Bolero
and we have the 10 week seasoncoming up for the spring and we do
(22:15):
tend to re sign the same people.
But like Brandon, my buddyBrandon, he and I went to go see
a Falcons game.
Oh, yeah, I saw that.
My wife and I went to go seeFalcons and Cowboys in November.
Yeah.
And she thought it was a great idea.
She wanted to wear her awesomecowboy boots.
And I had just the youthCowboys jersey.
(22:38):
You know, I collected jerseysas a kid and probably have over 50
of them and still have a lotas an adult too.
But she, you know, wanted todo the part and dress for me as a
Panther fan.
I was like, do I have tosupport the Cowboys?
Do I have to support the Falcons?
Can I just wear my Cam Newton jersey?
I ended up getting a Matt Ryan jersey.
(23:00):
There you go.
There you go.
And she, you know, wore RoyWilliams Cowboys jersey and I kid
you not, like booing her outthe stadium.
It was, it was pretty cool.
How old was that jersey?
The Roy Williams jersey?
It was.
Roy Williams was.
I mean, oh, I got to be 20 or25 years old.
(23:22):
90S, right.
Probably still in great condition.
It was a youth extra large fitter.
Perfect.
But the Falcons fans were nothaving it.
Yeah, well, I'm always when itcomes to, when it comes to people
wearing jerseys of other teamsat Falcons games, as long as the
Falcons pull off a victorythen, which they did see.
And I went to the Panthersgame and didn't.
(23:43):
So that was, that was a great game.
That was a really.
As a Panther fan, I was like,man, I wish we would have went to
that one.
But looking at the schedule.
Yeah, I got your text messageafter that.
That was, that was great.
But going back to youroriginal question, we have all, like
you said, 21 and up, but Imean, we have kids from USC that
come because intramuralsdoesn't offer kickball.
(24:06):
For instance, intramurals Is seasonal.
A lot of the programs aroundhere are seasonal for us.
We run all four seasons.
All the sports that I hadmentioned earlier, we run all four
seasons.
So they come over or, youknow, if Pine Grove is not running
their softball, that thosepeople come over and play with us
on our softball leagues.
So the cool thing, that's thecool thing about us is we run all
(24:28):
four seasons.
We're not seasonal, but we dohave a variety of different ages.
They vary from 21 to, youknow, 65, 70, you know, so.
And kudos to those Medicarepatients that come out here and play
because that it's not.
It's not going to be me.
(24:48):
I think they come out and theythink it's really fun and they meet
some cool people and then thenext morning they're like, what did
I do?
No, they have a generalpractitioner that they can go visit
that sets them straight.
They'll probably come back outand support the team and maybe not.
Or ask me.
I get an email, hey, that wasa bad idea.
(25:11):
Can I get a refund?
Oh, well, they should haveread the terms of service.
That's right.
One of the other things I wantto talk about was the community engagement
as far as Everplay.
So far, more than $30,000 hasbeen donated to various charities.
How is that money?
How has it decided whichcharities get at the end of the season?
(25:34):
So, yeah, and that's somethingthat we're very proud of that I inherited
with Everplay with the formerco founders and partners to make
Everplay a giving back business.
You know, we are a small business.
We're very fortunate to be ina position to give back.
(25:57):
And you know, after this year,I think I did the numbers, we'll
be pushing 35,000.
That's amazing.
So we give an annually.
I think it's at 12, 1200.
That is just through ourkickball leagues running three days
of kickball for four seasons.
(26:19):
Each champion gets a hundreddollar donation to their charity
of choice.
So they get to pick who we'regiving back to.
The players do.
So I think that's really coolto give them that option to pick
whether it's locally, whereverthey decide as a group.
So that's just 1200 or 1200.
(26:41):
Through our kickball, we doother cool donations.
You know, you played in ourmasters of putt putt.
I think you got a selfie withthat trophy.
I did.
Or last spring?
Yeah, last spring.
We didn't win.
We just, nobody was looking,so we took the trophy.
So I'm on the course.
You Know, I play in thatevent, which is awesome.
It's coming up March 29th.
(27:01):
It's a one day event.
We go to Frankie's, you signup, you play 27 holes and then we
take the top teams and thenyou play an additional 12 holes and
you get cool prizes, you get a donation.
I've actually made trophiesthe past two times, so I'll have
trophies again.
You can display it on yourdesk at work or home or show it off.
(27:24):
Your friends brag about it.
That's the only league that Iactually have trophies made for.
Yeah, but that's just, youknow, kickball.
We do that donations to.
When we bring teams out totrain as a group for kickball because
it is our biggest Sport.
We'll bring two random teamsout March 5th with all my kickball
(27:46):
staff, ref 3 games.
I always tell the two teams,hey, we're playing for koozies.
We're playing for a charitydonation to really kind of give it
that game like atmosphere and competitiveness.
And then at the end I gatherthem all.
Hey, both teams are getting adonation, both teams are getting
koozies.
And everybody's just kind ofhappy to be out there.
(28:06):
It's an appreciative thing for me.
Hey, thanks for committingyour time coming out here and making
us better.
We look forward to a good season.
That's the least I can do isgive, you know, $100 for this team's
charity.
$100 for this team's charity.
Here's some koozies.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Let me see.
Has.
(28:26):
It has, has, has doing thatlike even like with your officiants
and your, your refs and thingslike that, has that built a sense
of community just with, withyour staff as well?
Yeah, I mean to get.
They're out here not only for.
Majority of the reason they'reout here is because they enjoy these
(28:47):
sports.
Yeah.
And they want to meet new people.
They get paid as a, you know,they get paid by the game, by the
hour.
But that's just an add on, youknow, they're making a little bit
extra gas money, a little bitextra money to put towards groceries.
It's not going to pay your carpayment, your mortgage.
So they're out here justhelping, helping me and I usually
(29:10):
for them, you know, they helpme out.
A lot of them play in the league.
So for instance, rc, that'sreffing behind the plate right here,
plays in our Thursday kickball league.
So most of the staff, youknow, I've managed a staff of 34
part time folks.
That's a big staff.
It is.
(29:30):
I mean, whenever I came on in2016, there was like 12 of us.
I was working four nightsbecause, you know, we just didn't
have enough staff.
And you know, it was fun, itwas a lot, but.
But for them, you know, Icover the registration fee on whatever
sport they want to play.
You help me out.
Sure.
One night you're getting paidto be out here, you're meeting new
(29:52):
people and then if you want toplay, I think it makes you better
as an official being a player,seeing the other side of things.
Plus you really respect in theofficial side of things.
He's out here reffing so heknows, you know, tomorrow when he's
with his fellow employeesthat, you know, it's, it's tough
being in that position at somepoint, you know.
So yeah, a lot of people don'tagree with their calls.
(30:16):
You know, I wish everybody wason their best behavior out here,
but I get it.
Everybody has their off daysand think that this is the next kickball
Olympics.
But it's, you know, everybodygets one of those koozies up there
and a ring pop and a charitydonation for kickball.
But at the end of the day,it's just the game.
It's for fun.
But for my staff, they help meout, so I help them out.
(30:37):
That registration also, I liketo do something cool with them every
single.
Before every single season.
Yeah, you know, we go and havesome fun.
We went bowling this pastwinter season, March 4, I'm going
to rent out a gym.
We're going to play somevolleyball, some dodgeball.
I hook them up with merch.
You know, if they want ahoodie, a beanie, I'm going to do
(30:59):
water bottles in the spring.
Don't tell anybody, you know,so I like to help them out, hook
them up with some merch andyou know, show my appreciation.
Because without them, justlike without the ever players, we
wouldn't be able to do what we do.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm appreciative of them.
They've made going back toyour question the community stronger.
(31:20):
Without them, I mean, wewouldn't be able to donate or do
anything.
So.
Yeah, absolutely.
What are, what are some of thechallenges of running a league like
this?
If, you know, like I said, noteverybody players can, can be challenged.
(31:41):
Staffing could be a challenge.
That's why I do a lot of thethings that I do to try to maintain
them.
I'm in a group with a lot ofother different programs around.
Okay.
It's called ssia Sport andSocial Industry Association.
So it's a bunch of differentlocations that do the same thing
that we do.
And a lot of the trouble ismaintaining staff.
(32:03):
I mean that is not only justwith, with us, it's you go anywhere,
you go up the street, you'reseeing signs, neat hiring call indeed.
All these different thingsneed and help.
And so you know, those arejust basic stuff fields like you
had mentioned with the, withthe Blowfish.
(32:26):
You know, they did a lot ofthe maintain of the fields.
We rent this space.
If for instance, tonight, ifwe get that rain that's supposed
to come through, Lexingtoncounty is not going to get out here
and pump the puddles of water.
That's me and the staff comingout and prepping the fields.
We literally just rent thespace and hope the lights work.
Yeah.
And you know, fill dog holes,whatever it is.
(32:51):
Other challenges, I meanthere's a lot of back end admin stuff.
For instance, our pay systemfor spring has been down for almost
two days.
So like for instance, if youwere going to go register for any
of the leagues that we hadmentioned right now, don't wait until
I've got our IT on it rightnow trying to get it situated.
(33:15):
So yeah, I mean that's stuffthat's outside of my control, that's
challenging because there'snothing that I can actually do on
my part besides letting theever players know, hey, hold off.
We'll let you know when the,you know, payment processing for
our admins back up and running.
(33:37):
You know, we have insurancemaking sure that they're happy, making
sure players are signing theirwaivers and everyone's registered.
Yeah, it's.
There's a lot of differentthings that you can really think.
Think about that you don'twant to think about that just kind
of happen and put you in that.
You know, a lot of the, A lotof players and a lot of, I mean a
(34:01):
lot of the staff, you know,other than me trying to enlighten
them and tell them, you know,hey, if a light's out, I'm getting
on the phone with, with theperson that I rent the fields.
Then they're going throughsomebody and then we're hoping that
it gets done by this time.
So it's not like I'm out therechanging the bulb myself.
I'm not electrician.
(34:23):
Or a lumberjack.
Yeah, or a lumberjack.
These are, these are not verylow to the ground.
That's right.
So it just, you know, there'sdifferent things that pop up.
Yeah.
That are random, you know, so.
But yeah, that, I mean, themain thing is managing players, reminding
(34:48):
them, hey, this is just the game.
This is why you're paying to play.
You're not getting paid to play.
Yeah, I had to remind myplayers many times.
This is, these are kids games.
Right.
And we're playing them asadults, so.
And you're paying.
Yeah, there's, there's,there's, there's nothing to take
ultra seriously.
I mean, at the end of theseason, win or lose, you're getting
(35:12):
a koozie.
So, you know, that's, it's,it's, it isn't the prestige.
It's just about having fun.
And that's how we, that's,that's how I always tried to maintain
our teams.
Yeah.
And does that mean that, youknow, you early in your days didn't
agree with calls and may havegotten on us a couple times?
No, I didn't, I didn't likethe, I didn't like the sliding into
(35:35):
third thing.
That was.
But I also understood, sothere's, the rule was, is you couldn't
slide into any, in any of the bases.
And that was because there wasan event where a girl did break her
leg and it was pretty severe.
So totally understood the rule.
Just didn't like it.
And, and I had, and I had veryemphatic players on my team that
(35:58):
didn't like it enough thatthey would try and convince me that
I needed to continue to argueabout it.
So that's where it came from.
As a captain, that's yourduty, is to step up for your team
and, and let us hear your voice.
And there's definitely a wayto do it.
I mean, I had to come up witha whole sportsmanship policy on my
own that every league gets thelast week of the regular season just
(36:21):
reminding them what we standfor, what we're about.
You know, you're not able tojust come out here and act a fool
and say and do whatever you want.
If that was the case, wewouldn't be a league.
It would just be pickup.
So it's just a friendlyreminder, just like it says in the
subject, just to remind the players.
Like you said, it's a kids game.
There's a way to becompetitive and good and athletic
(36:45):
and own it and be, and showgood sportsmanship and act the right
ways.
Because we've had, I mean,we've had some really good teams
that are good sports and we'vehad some that aren't very good sportsmen,
you know, run up the Score orgestures towards other teams or even
their own players or us.
(37:05):
Yeah, but you're going to findthat in, I mean, you see, we see
that in baseball.
We see that in basketball and football.
Like, you know, we have.
And they get a fine, right?
They get a fine, they get a suspension.
We don't, you know, if you getejected for whatever reason, you
know, we have a quick warning policy.
(37:25):
If I have a warning, that's.
And we don't want to hear any more.
And if we hear it again,you're out.
And you're not only out thatgame, but the next week.
And then if it's somethingsevere, I look at it and make a judgment
on, hey, this person may needto go to another program because
we just, we're not about that.
So in, in my history, I havehad players that have been suspended
(37:47):
for two games, not the wholeseason, but I have had, I've had
at least one individualsuspended for multiple games.
I was not there those nights.
So see.
Yeah, yeah.
What, what is so, so as we getcloser to the end of this, what,
what is, what sort of futuredo we see as far as ever play?
(38:07):
Are we looking at thepotential of any new or different
leagues that we haven't done before?
I know I mentioned to you theidea of a fantasy football league.
I thought that, you know, that may.
Be something to look into andyou know, March Madness would be
something cool.
You know, there's a lot ofdifferent programs that do.
(38:28):
We've had some people askabout Ultimate Frisbee.
We tried it.
We got like one, two teamswouldn't work out.
Team trivia nights.
Oh yeah.
Kind of cool.
You know, I tried to do a oneday kickball tournament last spring.
Yeah.
(38:49):
Bring bouncy house, bring food trucks.
We got like two, two or three teams.
Okay.
Which is decent enough.
But I ended up just making ita field day, giving everybody their
money back or credit.
And they still were able tocome and play two hours of kickball.
(39:09):
We officiated it.
We still had the bouncy house,we still had the food truck.
So that was kind of cool.
That's something that I'mreally going to try to focus on.
And it was during the seasonsand a lot of the players already
signed up for one of thekickball leagues.
Sure.
And it was at Be Ave, whereYou've played for 10 years.
Like it's the same venues,nothing new.
(39:29):
So locking down somethingdifferent, a different venue and
doing it in between seasons issomething that I'm thinking about
doing and seeing if that issomething that people are interested
in signing up.
Yeah.
And there's not a whole lot oftime in between seasons because you
mentioned for we go.
(39:50):
You go year round, it's four seasons.
But it's not just four seasons.
You'll have.
You'll have an early winterand then a late winter or a late
fall.
And so, you know, there'sconstantly sports leagues that are
available, and even if thereisn't one going on two weeks later,
it's going to be starting.
Right.
So it's not, you know, that's.
(40:12):
It is.
Everplay, I think, has, atleast in my life, has become a staple
and I'm thankful for it.
You know, at 45, I've been able.
Wow.
Am I 45?
Yeah, I'm 45.
God bless America.
I have managed to find my wayinto bowling and we've stuck with
bowling for a little while.
(40:33):
I have stopped playingsoftball for a little while.
When is the last time you'veplayed softball?
Ever played softball?
You played kickball and thenyou gave up kickball and then went
to softball.
And then I came back to kickball.
And you went back to kickballand now you drop both of those and.
Play just bowling ball.
Yeah.
But like, did you try anyother program?
(40:54):
No.
I had thought about trying todo dodgeball because I seemed to
catch and throw decently.
So I thought maybe dodgeballwould be something I'd be interested
in doing.
But dodgeball wasn't being played.
Now it is back, but nine years later.
Yeah, dodgeball, Dodgeball.
Being inside is kind of likevolleyball being in the side, you
know, I used to playvolleyball pretty much twice a week.
(41:15):
And the reason I leftvolleyball was because I came down
on one of my.
On my left shoulder for a.
For a dig one time and havenot recovered.
It's.
I got two bone spurs andarthritic cysts.
So it's, you know, hey, age,you know, I can't.
Trust me.
Throughout baseball, I.
I have broken my hand so many times.
This is gonna be a swollen like.
(41:38):
Is that your bowling hand, too?
Yeah, that is my bowling hand.
That's right.
So you know that.
I guess basically what I'msaying is if you haven't signed up
for Everplay Social, you livein the Columbia area, check out the
website because you're boundto find something that you could
probably enjoy and you get tomeet a bunch of new people that you
(41:59):
may not have known before oryou can come with your own team because
that's, you know, that's oneof the biggest Things is getting
to meet people that you don'tknow and, you know, really just getting
to interact outside of yourcircle sometimes is the biggest thing.
Even with bowling every week,we play against teams that we've
never played against before.
You get to know them, andsomehow, you know, everybody just
(42:22):
sort of becomes friends and whatnot.
We've had teams that havebowled with us for a very long time
that are.
They look forward to thatTuesday night, running into those
teams.
We've had teams sign up andsay, hey, you know, please assign
us bowl of duty.
Please assign us.
Wait, we can do that?
Yeah.
We have a team every singleseason, they want to bowl against
(42:45):
the same three teams because of.
Not all.
And they might.
They might lose all three games.
Sure.
They just want to be aroundthose people.
I didn't see.
I didn't know we.
I didn't know that requestingthat was possible.
That's why we've never done it.
Yeah.
I mean, ultimately.
Ultimately, because I'm such acurmudgeon, I would have.
Just don't make a whole lotmore work for me because the generator
does randomly schedule games.
(43:07):
But I do go in and try to helprequest if.
Well, I was gonna say was Ihad teams that I don't want to bowl
against.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
No, but that's not even anissue anymore.
So it's.
You know, I'm not saying thatthose people disappeared.
I'm just saying they're nothere anymore.
But, yeah.
So I really appreciate youcoming on the show.
I'm gonna do your sevenquestions here in a second.
(43:29):
But before we do that, justwant to remind everybody ever play
sports and social is signingup now for the spring season, including
dodgeball, bowling, softball,kickball, pickleball, soccer, volleyball,
cornhole, and masters of puttputt on March 29, you can sign up
for all of those through.
Well, all of the leagues youcan sign up through February 19th.
(43:49):
It's going to beavailable@everplaysocial.com so go
do that.
The Masters of putt Putt.
You can sign up up until theday before.
So that'll be on March 29th.
So you can sign up up untilMarch 28th.
So sign up for all of theseleagues because they sell out.
I mean, ultimately, they.
They.
Almost every league sells out.
(44:09):
The spring is a massive sellout.
Participants, you know, 1700participants, 15 leagues that were
offering this spring, thebiggest amount of leagues that we've
ever offered.
If we can say that we ran all15 of those would be the best in
terms of numbers.
(44:31):
Sales and participants and leagues.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, like I said, twoweeks from today, February 19, 15
leagues.
Sign up as a free agent, agroup or team, and we'll find the
right team in the right spotfor you.
We do take an account, youknow, age.
(44:51):
When you do sign up, wepromise we will try to stick you
with the best group possible.
Yeah, absolutely.
And plenty of stuff to offer.
So I appreciate you having me on.
No, I appreciate you being on.
So we're gonna do seven questions.
Have you seen seven questions before?
I want to say yes.
Okay.
No, you don't have to.
Because.
Because then it makes it moreinteresting if.
(45:14):
Look, people don't make it allthe way through this end of the part
of the show.
It's fine.
That way, they don't know whatquestions are being asked because
then I have to create new onesmore often, so.
All right, first question forAlex Avinger.
What was the last thing you googled?
The last thing I googled wasthe new Jurassic World that's coming
out this year.
(45:34):
I just heard it on the radioand was like, I want to see that
trailer.
Okay.
Seen all the Jurassic Parks.
My wife went to see that.
The.
The newest Jurassic World.
She hasn't seen the second or third.
Whatever.
They're on right now.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just think those are interesting.
Yeah.
Kid movies, obviously, for megrowing up, those were awesome.
Totally different.
Now with the differentdinosaurs, you don't just have the
(45:58):
T.
Rex.
You have, you know, the T.
Rex on steroids or.
Yeah, they've completelymanipulated the dinosaurs, and now
we have dinosaurs that are,like, super mutant dinosaurs that
they've introduced.
Right?
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, second question.
If you could have onesuperpower, what would that be?
Probably to fight a.
(46:19):
Probably to jump super high.
Okay.
So I could change these bulbsso not.
So not.
Not the power of flight, butto jump, fly.
I don't think flying.
I mean, that would be cool,but I think just, like, jumping would
be super sweet.
Okay.
And I would be probably the.
The MVP of this kickball league.
(46:40):
That's.
That would be.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
I just could.
I just, like, picture, like,GTA put in the code as a kid with
the super jump.
Yeah.
And, like, literally, you justhave, like, five stars, and you're
just hitting that jump button.
You're just, like, jumping up.
Yeah, absolutely.
I can see that.
All right, if your life were amovie, what would the title be?
(47:03):
Well, I can't say theAvengers, can I?
You can.
Yeah.
That's fair.
If my life.
If My life was a movie, whatwould it be?
He dragged his body, man.
I don't know.
Ever play sport in social club movie?
Okay, that would be kind ofcool to feature, like, Hard Knocks,
(47:26):
but, like, behind the scenetype stuff.
If you decide to do a moviebased on Ever play sports and social,
you have to let me in as oneof the screenwriters.
I need.
I need.
I would want you to be theMorgan Freeman commentary.
All right.
That would be cool, right?
That's fair.
Yeah.
All right, number four.
If you could eat one food.
If you could only eat one foodfor the rest of your life, what would
(47:47):
it be?
Japanese hibachi.
Okay.
My wife, she probably.
If she watches it and makes itthrough to that, she would.
She knows that's.
That's what she would say.
I love Japanese hibachi.
They cook in front of you.
We went there two weeks agofor my birthday.
Crushed it.
Did you catch the shrimp?
They don't do that anymoreafter the.
So the one that we went was alittle bit higher scale.
(48:08):
Like, the Miyabi's here, but.
So there's like, two next toour house, and one of them is a little
bit more laid back.
Like, you could literally justget, you know, back from the pool
or on, you know, and go inthere in your tank top and your.
Your bathing suit.
Yeah.
And they'll throw.
The cooks will like, they'relaid back.
(48:28):
They'll throw it in your mouth.
They'll shoot sake into your.
Into your mouth from cooking.
Like, it's totally different.
But I can't remember the lasttime I've tried to catch the shrimp.
Last time I tried, I did not succeed.
I wasn't prepared.
The last time we went for myson's birthday, I was not prepared.
Which one did y'all go to?
So the one in Lexington.
(48:49):
It's down next to theHollywood fee.
Hollywood Feed the animalplant or food store.
I was not paying attention,and I caught one in the side of the
head.
So, you know, lesson learnedat hibachi.
Always be prepared.
Always watch the cook.
What's.
What's your least favoritecandy and why?
(49:12):
Ah, man.
So I'm not a big chocolate person.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I like Starburst, Skittles,Twizzlers, the more fruity type stuff.
I.
I think I have to go with aButterfinger, man.
I can't just.
It's stuck to your teeth, andthat's fair.
It takes you.
You know, if you don't havefloss or even a drink, like, you
(49:34):
can't really.
You're just sitting theremessing with it.
It's just.
I don't know.
I just can't do Butterfingers.
See, and, and challenge for mydental hygienist.
I'm actually, I have a newdental hygienist.
I will be eating abutterfinger before all of my cleanings.
Just so you know.
What is, what's one strange orunusual talent you have that most
people don't know?
(49:59):
Unusual talent that I don't know.
That's.
That's a good question.
Let's come back to that one.
Well, that's the second tolast one, but.
So if you don't know one, I'lltell you one that I have.
All right, tell me.
And this is one that I didn'tfind out until just a few years ago,
(50:21):
but if I hold my nostrilsclosed, I can blow air out of my
eye.
And how did you figure that out?
You just.
I sneezed.
I sneezed and it hurt.
Oh, man.
Because I think.
I think something popped.
And that was, that was it.
Now I, now I can blow air outof my.
Out of my eyeball.
That is impressive.
(50:41):
Yeah, I guess you don't reallyknow unless something like that happens
and you're like, oh, that's cool.
100%.
Yeah, I should use that, like,as my superpower too.
Ultimately, when my kids docheck me into some assisted living
facility, that'll be how Iwork my way up through the tiers
of the tears of the coolpeople at the old folks home.
(51:02):
Yeah.
All right, I'll have to thinkabout that one.
Well, you can get back to us.
We'll, we'll, we'll update.
We'll update everybody on that.
All right, last question.
If you could have dinner withany three people, dead or alive,
who would they be?
My wife's gonna hate me right now.
Jennifer Aniston, Definitely.
Sorry.
(51:23):
She knows that.
So she's not, she's not mad.
Yeah.
Jennifer Aniston.
Let's see.
Aaron Rodgers.
Okay.
I'm a, I'm an Aaron Rodgers fan.
If you haven't seen, seen theNetflix documentary and you don't
like Aaron Rodgers, go watch it.
You still might not like him,but it does give a lot of emphasis
(51:47):
on him as a person.
I'm not a spokesperson forAaron Rogers.
Jennifer Aniston.
Aaron Rodgers.
And let's see, man, maybe MarkWahlberg would be cool.
(52:09):
Okay.
Aaron Rodgers and MarkWahlberg are very similar, and they
are.
Yeah, I think I would have togo with them.
I think that would be aninteresting dinner.
So you're you're.
You're eating tofu.
And.
And I, I'm guessing thatthere's some.
Some.
Some.
What's the.
What's the.
What's the thing they do inSouth America that Aaron Rodgers
(52:30):
went and trapped himself in acave for, oh my gosh, 30 days or
something.
What's it called?
Ayahuasca.
Yep.
So tofu and ayahuasca.
And my wife, she can come too.
That's the least appealingdinner I've ever heard of.
But.
Well, Aaron, I see now you gotme messed up.
Alex, I appreciate you beingon the show with me.
So again, make sure to checkout everplaysocial.com for registration
(52:54):
and details on the spring league.
And I'm guessing here in the next.
I'm gonna guess in the nextmonth or so, you're probably gonna
have the details about thelate spring season.
Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, we.
We're already in the works with.
With the late spring and thesummer, so we.
We'll have that up and running and.
(53:15):
Yeah.
And roll this thing back and.
And, you know, I appreciateyou taking the time and coming out
here.
Oh, yeah.
Been a good friend and a good.
A good player.
You know, you're one of thefirst players that I've met through
the leagues with ball of duty.
You know, you throw Yalls logoon our sleeves with the shirts.
That was awesome.
I think, I think, I think thevery first team that I played on
(53:39):
back in 2015, we were.
We were just kick it orsomething like that.
So that was, you know, I go tolook at my list of all the teams,
the team or the leagues that Isigned up for the.
And I have to scroll the mouse twice.
Number are you at?
Can you take a guess?
Oh, if I were to take a guess,I'm gonna say 39.
(54:00):
39.
Maybe 40.
We might be.
We might be approaching 40.
I'm about to find out.
He's gonna look.
He's gonna look at direct.
While he's looking up that I'mgonna run the credits.
It's gonna do it for episodenumber 241.
Thank you very much, Alex, forbeing on the show with me.
241.
Links to past episodes,podcast platforms, merchandise and
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(54:21):
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Welcome, nothingers, toanother episode of the All About
Nothing podcast.
This is episode number 241.
I am Barrick Gruber.
I'm joined by Alex Allen.
Okay.
And before we get started, Ihave mispronounced your name so many
times.
Avinger.
(01:52):
Avinger.
Fuck.
I've gotten it right every time.
Yeah.
Please subscribe and share the show.
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Want to remind everybody thatthe second annual Comic Con, Coastal
(02:13):
Comic Con, is coming up onMarch 1st and 2nd in Wilmington,
North Carolina.
It's going to be theWilmington Convention Center.
Artists, vendors, Voices,voice to artists, tv.
More actors.
We got Ross Marquan coming,Sam Witwer, Matthew Wood, Matthew
Waterson, Cal Dodd, andKatrina Roebuck.
So check that out.
Coastalcomicon.com or you cango to Instagram or Facebook at Coastal
(02:36):
Comic Con.
Also want to remind everybody,ZJZ Designs, you can check out new,
new, new designs and such.
There's.
They're coming out regularly.
Also check out their St.
Patrick's Day lineup that justcame out.
Liam the Leprechaun isfeatured on all the shirts.
So check that out.
Great designs.
Check it out.
ZJZ designs.com so, Alex,thank you very much for letting me
(03:00):
come out here and harass youwhile you're supposed to be working.
So for those of you that don'tknow ever play sports and Social
League is a group that wasstarted here back in 2014.
And it really just started outas I want to say it was dodgeball
and kickball.
That was primarily it, right?
That's right.
Ten years ago, we started asjust a single dodgeball league.
(03:23):
Yeah.
And as the seasons went on,you just added different sports.
You know, the next season,dodgeball and kickball.
The next season, dodgeball,kickball, softball.
Next season, dodgeball,kickball, softball, and indoor volleyball.
Then we cut dodgeball becauseit ended up being a lot of, as you
can imagine, screaming and,you know, not agreeing with calls
(03:45):
whether, you know, last timepeople played dodgeball was in middle
school, high school, right?
Yeah.
There was no.
There was gym teacher on the bleachers.
Beep, you're out.
No questions.
Asked now we have grown upsthat are no it didn't hit me.
Yes it did.
No it didn't.
So we're arguing, you knowthere's a foul ball or arguing about,
you know spending most of thetime and the game time that these
(04:06):
players are paying for arguingabout if you're out or not.
So we brought it back lastspring as a 10 year anniversary throwback.
Yeah.
And you know we, we've ran itfour seasons now offering it again
this spring and if it worksout great.
(04:27):
If not, hey, we did it for ayear essentially and we may offer,
offer it just like seasonal inthe winter when it's cold to give
somebod players like myself,you know, you don't want to be out
here for 50 minutes in thecold and whatnot.
You'd rather be inside.
So yeah man.
What people can't see behindthe table is that he's long sleeves,
(04:48):
long pants, I'm in shorts.
I didn't.
It was warm today.
I didn't think that this wasgoing to be the weather.
So 2016 you became a part ofthe officiating crew.
How did that come about?
Yeah, so I have a history withjust working with different recreational
and sports leagues going backto high school.
So almost 16 years of justexperience with different recreational
(05:12):
sports leagues locally here.
Went to Chapin High School.
Worked for ICRC ref and socceras a teenager.
Ump and softball as a teenager.
Fast forward go to college atUSC upstate in Spartanburg.
Get into intramural program.
Started off as just an official.
A week later I was a manager.
(05:33):
You know months later got intoan undergraduate assistant position
staff director and finishingup up there I was just going, I had
two days a week in school.
I was back and forth, not evendidn't even have a place.
An hour and a half up thestreet I would go do my class, come
back my boss up there at thetime for intramurals.
(05:56):
Hey look into ever play sportand social club that looks like something
you would be interested in.
Emailed the email that westill have today.
Hey I'm interested.
And getting out there, notonly being around sports but meeting
people, you know, right out,right after college, whatever it
may be.
Started off as an officialwith everyplay.
(06:16):
Kind of went through the samesort of process as intramurals.
They, they made me, they mademe a staff director.
January 2020 bought ownershipto make four of us as co owners.
That was a weird first part ofownership in 2020 of January.
(06:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And then this April 1st wouldbe three years of me doing this by
myself as a solo owner.
And that's just, you know,that's a whole other episode we can
kind of get into.
But that's, that's how I gotinvolved just with the background
of sports.
Yeah.
You know, so I think, I thinkthat the.
(06:57):
The COVID 2020 Winter KickballLeague was probably my favorite.
That was the one where we wereout at the Blowfish Stadium, Lexington,
and having three basically inthe outfield.
We had three games.
We were just sort of spreadout in 90 degree angles across the
(07:18):
outfield.
And, and even at the time, I was.
I was friends with the ownerof the Blowfish, Bill Shanahan.
Yep, yep.
And so shout out to Bill.
But it was.
That was such an.
That was, it was.
It was so much fun.
Yeah.
And.
And the number of people thatcame out, despite the fact that,
you know, I mean, there wereplenty of safety measures in place
and everything for it.
(07:38):
But, you know, you weretalking about some of the.
The events of leading throughyour time here with Everplay, the
people you've gotten to meet.
You met a significantindividual during that time.
You met your wife?
I did, yes.
I met her.
(07:59):
Shoot.
I met her summer of 2019, andshe was in nursing school at MUSC
in Charleston, and I was still here.
I was just a staff directorwhen I, When I met her.
I had this plan of, you know,buying ownership in January.
(08:20):
She didn't know any of that atthe time.
And.
Yeah, I mean, tell her so.
Yeah.
So, you know, I told her mywhole plan.
She's very supportive of.
Of decision and buying ownership.
I'm very passionate about, youknow, doing this or I wouldn't be
(08:40):
doing this.
So.
But the Blowfish, that.
That was.
I almost forget about thatbecause it seems like so long ago,
but it was one of the firstleagues that we did bring back a
late fall kickball league onWednesdays out of the Blowfish and,
you know, a minor leaguebaseball stadium which is very unique
(09:01):
compared to what we're playingon Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
out here.
Yeah, there was somebody elsetaking care of the field.
Yeah.
Right.
So they, they, you know, andsomething different.
And it was, it was very fun,unique experience and whatnot.
Bill was awesome.
The staff there was very awesome.
The one thing that, you know,for us, we rent these fields through
(09:23):
Lexington County, City of Columbia.
So we have to abide by their.
Their rules and regulationsregarding, you know, we are 21 and
up league.
Right, right.
Sponsored by Bud Light and KWKW Beverages here.
Locally, we're not allowed tohave beverages out.
Adult beverages.
Right.
So, you know, going out therehaving a Bud Light or Ultra and in
(09:52):
the concourse and the standsand bringing up, you know, not legit
on the field, but, you know,in your dugouts was cool.
Yeah, I think you can agreewith that.
I was more fond of the hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate, becausethat was a cold winter, you know,
and it played out wellbecause, of course, we were adhering
(10:13):
to Covid restrictions andthings like that.
So a lot of us wearing masksand, you know, if we, at least on
our team, if anyone testedCOVID positive, then they didn't
show up that week.
Right.
And that was one of our.
Don and I back then, had tofrom scratch come up with a COVID
policy.
(10:33):
Oh, yeah.
And we still have it in playbecause Covid is still around.
But.
But like, you had somebodychecking people's temperatures.
We had people at the gatesbefore you could even come in, checking
temperatures, giving masks toparticipants that didn't have them,
you know, hand sanitizer rightthere at the gate.
(10:55):
So, I mean, we were doing it,doing it all to try to take every
precaution we could to makepeople feel safe and, you know, still
allow people to come out andplay leagues that we were shut down
for, you know, five months.
So people were ready to get back.
And yeah, I remember wheneverything broke, I was still playing
(11:18):
softball at Bray, and.
And it was ultimately, it gotto the point where we couldn't even.
We didn't have enough peopleto field the team because people
were concerned about beingsick or getting sick or being sick
or whatever.
Right.
So ultimately it all, youknow, it just whittled out.
And then, you know,thankfully, that late fall winter
(11:41):
kickball came back and we allsigned up because that was that for
us.
For me, having kids at home,it was the one night out a week I
get.
So.
So expand for me on thevariety of leagues that ever play
sports and social here inColombia has.
Because I know we're talkingabout kickball, we talked about dodgeball,
but you all have expanded insome new sports recently.
(12:03):
That's right.
Which is one that's taking theplanet by storm, which is pickleball.
Pickleball, Yep.
Yep.
So we, you know, this springwe're offering 15 different leagues.
That doesn't mean 15 different sports.
We run two days of softball,three days of kickball, two days
(12:23):
of soccer, with one of thosedays having two locations, two days
of indoor volleyball, two daysof sand volleyball, and then, yes,
try and dodgeball again.
And then some self officiatedSports, like you said, pickleball,
which is growing.
It's so fun.
My wife and I love it.
(12:43):
We play, if I had time, Iwould play in the league if I could.
You know, bowling and, and cornhole.
Yeah, Cornhole.
You know, a lot of differentleagues that, that don't require
a lot of people on a team.
Pickleball, you know, you needtwo people on a team are bowling,
(13:09):
four people bowl per game.
And cornhole, you know, two orthree people are playing on a team.
So those are more social leagues.
You're, you know, playing inthese leagues and less competitive
with it being self officiated.
And then you have some ofthese other leagues, kickball and
(13:30):
softball and indoor volleyballthat take a little bit more, you
know, actual physical athleticism.
Like so it's just a lot moregoing on, you know, and there's,
I've had a couple differentvenues that I've been checking out
(13:51):
to maybe add an indoorpickleball at some point, you know,
so some different ideas thatI'm bouncing around and you know,
we're going to continue tohopefully every single season is
the best season we've had,which has been the case, knock on
wood, ever since taking thisthing over by myself.
(14:13):
We've only gotten better byeach season and each year.
So is it things that I'mtrying that are different?
Sure.
So, so that, that would be mynext question.
How do you, how do you keepthe league from, become the leagues
from becoming stale or youknow, to keep the, it energized and
fresh.
(14:35):
Having good staff, committedstaff, offering different services.
Whether I, you know, I broughtback the old Everplay Columbia for
last year, being the 10, 10year anniversary.
I mean you've probably seenall the designs.
You probably have hundreds ofshirts that have the same logo.
So that's something that Imade very.
(14:57):
There is a Goodwill that has aconsiderable number of Everplay shirts
in varying sizes from triple Xdown to extra large.
So, but yeah, no, I thought,you know, that was one of, that was
one of the things that I thinkI heard the most complain about was
when Everplay switched over tojust the monochrome shirts and then,
(15:19):
and then bringing back theactual, the actual shirts from when,
when, when I started playing,which was in 2015, I had a pink shirt
with that Ever Play design on it.
That one's not on Goodwill.
That one, you wash your carwith it.
I, I don't even, I, I, thatone, I think I do, I think I do yard
(15:39):
work and now.
Yeah.
Hey, that's impressive.
Ten years for sure.
But no, just, you know,changing things up.
You know, people love change, right?
Yeah.
Not necessarily changing, youknow, leagues, but, you know, if
there's rules that, that are needed.
Needed me to look at differentsports, different leagues, different
(16:05):
venues.
As you know, you're.
You've probably like you saidone, you've known about M.
AV and B AV where we play forsince 2015.
Yeah.
So looking for differentvenues, different gym space, adding
sponsors with differentrestaurants and bars that they can
wear their every place shirt,go in, grab a discount on food and
(16:27):
drinks and you know, don'tsettle just to be, you know.
Yeah.
The same player.
So, you know, and Columbia'sgrowing man.
Yeah.
In Columbia, KC West Columbia is.
Is booming.
So things that I'm doing differently.
But also people are stayinghere in Columbia post grad.
(16:49):
They're not, you know, haulingbutton at Charleston, Charlotte,
Atlanta, Greenville.
They're staying here becausethere's a lot to do, you know, as
far as interesting things thatare popping up, I think at least.
So.
Yeah.
Come a long way.
What about skill levels as faras like, because I mean, we know.
(17:10):
But so for, but like as far asskill levels for people that want
to play, if they want to signup and play, you know, like you said,
like with kickball, what arethe skill levels that you would suggest
as far as kickball?
Kickball.
We have a lot of people thathaven't played kickball since middle
school and high school.
Right.
(17:31):
So, you know, when they'resigning up, they, you know, there
are a little bit of differentrules as far as where you can kick,
where you can pitch, where youcan stand.
We don't for any of ourleagues require any sort of skill
level or experience or anything.
You know, history wise.
(17:51):
Like for instance, if theywant to just come, like for kickball
or soccer or volleyball, theymay have never played that sport.
It's something that they wantto try.
So they go out and try and seeif they can pick up on it, ask questions,
you know, so there's all sortsof skill levels.
Even pickleball.
People might not even knowwhat the kitchen is when they sign
up, but they go out there andthey'll figure it out pretty quickly.
(18:14):
The kitchen.
The kitchen is right in frontof the net, Right?
That's.
That's right.
There's like a little line ina box where you cannot go in the
kitchen unless the ball hitsin the kitchen.
Interesting.
Okay.
So, you know, and some peoplego in there not knowing and the other
team will call it out or maybethe other team doesn't know.
So, you know, we don't requireany sort of.
(18:35):
You know, obviously, if youhave a background in soccer, kicking
this ball out here is probablya little bit easier.
If you were a volleyballplayer that uses your hands majority
of the time.
Sure.
You know, that's like me, youknow, playing soccer and going and
playing, you know, softball.
(18:55):
I'm probably gonna swing andmiss the first or second time.
You know, it's going to takesome time, ask questions.
A lot of newer teams and newer players.
This.
This blue team is actually kickball.
Their.
Their name is kickballers.
I made it as a free agent team.
So you can sign up as a free agent.
(19:17):
A group or a team.
So they had a couple groups,they had free agents.
I made them a team, calledthem kickballers.
Unfortunately, they're 0 and 5right now, but you can tell from
week one that they've come along way with the score being one
to two right now.
Yeah, week one probably wasn'tgoing to be that close in the third
(19:42):
inning or fourth inning,whatever we're in right now.
Yeah.
And for the record, we maylook like we're distracted from looking
this direction or looking ateach other, but there's a kickball
game going on behind you, allthat that you can't see.
And someone actually just did a.
A bun.
A girl did a bunt and got adouble out of it.
(20:03):
So that's.
That's the kind of.
That's the kind of stuff thatyou get to see with kickball.
Age ranges do you have.
I know everybody's got to beover 21.
That's right.
I have played softball with avarying range of ages, including
Paul, who was a taxi driver.
Rest in peace.
(20:24):
He.
I don't know how old he was,but whenever I saw him listed on
my team, I always.
I always kind of shook my headand was like, oh, well, he's.
He's a good guy.
He is.
Yeah.
There's a lot of good, good people.
You know, we've had a lot ofplayers that.
That are out here for theright reasons.
Yeah, to learn to meet people,which is, you know, whatever play
(20:49):
is.
We want people to enjoysports, whether it's.
You have a background insports or learning the sport like
we were just talking about,but to meet new people and connect
with people, you know, fordifferent seasons, different years,
different sports.
(21:11):
We have groups that.
That go on beach trips,mountain trips, friends givings.
People literally get engagedon our fields.
Oh, yeah.
Like, yeah, nobody has everbeen married on our field, but I've
seen, I've seen people getengaged and do their engagement pictures,
(21:32):
you know, from, from justjoining as a free agent.
Yeah.
And meeting their significantother through our leagues.
Yeah.
There's a, there, there are,there are many people that I met
literally just playingkickball that I, you know, I've,
I've maintained a friendshipeven though all of us have pretty
much moved on from playing kickball.
(21:54):
We, you know, we, we havestayed connected and that was, that
was something that I attributeto playing on ever play.
You still bowl with those fewof those people.
Some of those people are new.
You know, they, you know, webowl on Tuesday nights over Bolero
and we have the 10 week seasoncoming up for the spring and we do
(22:15):
tend to re sign the same people.
But like Brandon, my buddyBrandon, he and I went to go see
a Falcons game.
Oh, yeah, I saw that.
My wife and I went to go seeFalcons and Cowboys in November.
Yeah.
And she thought it was a great idea.
She wanted to wear her awesomecowboy boots.
And I had just the youthCowboys jersey.
(22:38):
You know, I collected jerseysas a kid and probably have over 50
of them and still have a lotas an adult too.
But she, you know, wanted todo the part and dress for me as a
Panther fan.
I was like, do I have tosupport the Cowboys?
Do I have to support the Falcons?
Can I just wear my Cam Newton jersey?
I ended up getting a Matt Ryan jersey.
(23:00):
There you go.
There you go.
And she, you know, wore RoyWilliams Cowboys jersey and I kid
you not, like booing her outthe stadium.
It was, it was pretty cool.
How old was that jersey?
The Roy Williams jersey?
It was.
Roy Williams was.
I mean, oh, I got to be 20 or25 years old.
(23:22):
90S, right.
Probably still in great condition.
It was a youth extra large fitter.
Perfect.
But the Falcons fans were nothaving it.
Yeah, well, I'm always when itcomes to, when it comes to people
wearing jerseys of other teamsat Falcons games, as long as the
Falcons pull off a victorythen, which they did see.
And I went to the Panthersgame and didn't.
(23:43):
So that was, that was a great game.
That was a really.
As a Panther fan, I was like,man, I wish we would have went to
that one.
But looking at the schedule.
Yeah, I got your text messageafter that.
That was, that was great.
But going back to youroriginal question, we have all, like
you said, 21 and up, but Imean, we have kids from USC that
come because intramuralsdoesn't offer kickball.
(24:06):
For instance, intramurals Is seasonal.
A lot of the programs aroundhere are seasonal for us.
We run all four seasons.
All the sports that I hadmentioned earlier, we run all four
seasons.
So they come over or, youknow, if Pine Grove is not running
their softball, that thosepeople come over and play with us
on our softball leagues.
So the cool thing, that's thecool thing about us is we run all
(24:28):
four seasons.
We're not seasonal, but we dohave a variety of different ages.
They vary from 21 to, youknow, 65, 70, you know, so.
And kudos to those Medicarepatients that come out here and play
because that it's not.
It's not going to be me.
(24:48):
I think they come out and theythink it's really fun and they meet
some cool people and then thenext morning they're like, what did
I do?
No, they have a generalpractitioner that they can go visit
that sets them straight.
They'll probably come back outand support the team and maybe not.
Or ask me.
I get an email, hey, that wasa bad idea.
(25:11):
Can I get a refund?
Oh, well, they should haveread the terms of service.
That's right.
One of the other things I wantto talk about was the community engagement
as far as Everplay.
So far, more than $30,000 hasbeen donated to various charities.
How is that money?
How has it decided whichcharities get at the end of the season?
(25:34):
So, yeah, and that's somethingthat we're very proud of that I inherited
with Everplay with the formerco founders and partners to make
Everplay a giving back business.
You know, we are a small business.
We're very fortunate to be ina position to give back.
(25:57):
And you know, after this year,I think I did the numbers, we'll
be pushing 35,000.
That's amazing.
So we give an annually.
I think it's at 12, 1200.
That is just through ourkickball leagues running three days
of kickball for four seasons.
(26:19):
Each champion gets a hundreddollar donation to their charity
of choice.
So they get to pick who we'regiving back to.
The players do.
So I think that's really coolto give them that option to pick
whether it's locally, whereverthey decide as a group.
So that's just 1200 or 1200.
(26:41):
Through our kickball, we doother cool donations.
You know, you played in ourmasters of putt putt.
I think you got a selfie withthat trophy.
I did.
Or last spring?
Yeah, last spring.
We didn't win.
We just, nobody was looking,so we took the trophy.
So I'm on the course.
You Know, I play in thatevent, which is awesome.
It's coming up March 29th.
(27:01):
It's a one day event.
We go to Frankie's, you signup, you play 27 holes and then we
take the top teams and thenyou play an additional 12 holes and
you get cool prizes, you get a donation.
I've actually made trophiesthe past two times, so I'll have
trophies again.
You can display it on yourdesk at work or home or show it off.
(27:24):
Your friends brag about it.
That's the only league that Iactually have trophies made for.
Yeah, but that's just, youknow, kickball.
We do that donations to.
When we bring teams out totrain as a group for kickball because
it is our biggest Sport.
We'll bring two random teamsout March 5th with all my kickball
(27:46):
staff, ref 3 games.
I always tell the two teams,hey, we're playing for koozies.
We're playing for a charitydonation to really kind of give it
that game like atmosphere and competitiveness.
And then at the end I gatherthem all.
Hey, both teams are getting adonation, both teams are getting
koozies.
And everybody's just kind ofhappy to be out there.
(28:06):
It's an appreciative thing for me.
Hey, thanks for committingyour time coming out here and making
us better.
We look forward to a good season.
That's the least I can do isgive, you know, $100 for this team's
charity.
$100 for this team's charity.
Here's some koozies.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Let me see.
Has.
(28:26):
It has, has, has doing thatlike even like with your officiants
and your, your refs and thingslike that, has that built a sense
of community just with, withyour staff as well?
Yeah, I mean to get.
They're out here not only for.
Majority of the reason they'reout here is because they enjoy these
(28:47):
sports.
Yeah.
And they want to meet new people.
They get paid as a, you know,they get paid by the game, by the
hour.
But that's just an add on, youknow, they're making a little bit
extra gas money, a little bitextra money to put towards groceries.
It's not going to pay your carpayment, your mortgage.
So they're out here justhelping, helping me and I usually
(29:10):
for them, you know, they helpme out.
A lot of them play in the league.
So for instance, rc, that'sreffing behind the plate right here,
plays in our Thursday kickball league.
So most of the staff, youknow, I've managed a staff of 34
part time folks.
That's a big staff.
It is.
(29:30):
I mean, whenever I came on in2016, there was like 12 of us.
I was working four nightsbecause, you know, we just didn't
have enough staff.
And you know, it was fun, itwas a lot, but.
But for them, you know, Icover the registration fee on whatever
sport they want to play.
You help me out.
Sure.
One night you're getting paidto be out here, you're meeting new
(29:52):
people and then if you want toplay, I think it makes you better
as an official being a player,seeing the other side of things.
Plus you really respect in theofficial side of things.
He's out here reffing so heknows, you know, tomorrow when he's
with his fellow employeesthat, you know, it's, it's tough
being in that position at somepoint, you know.
So yeah, a lot of people don'tagree with their calls.
(30:16):
You know, I wish everybody wason their best behavior out here,
but I get it.
Everybody has their off daysand think that this is the next kickball
Olympics.
But it's, you know, everybodygets one of those koozies up there
and a ring pop and a charitydonation for kickball.
But at the end of the day,it's just the game.
It's for fun.
But for my staff, they help meout, so I help them out.
(30:37):
That registration also, I liketo do something cool with them every
single.
Before every single season.
Yeah, you know, we go and havesome fun.
We went bowling this pastwinter season, March 4, I'm going
to rent out a gym.
We're going to play somevolleyball, some dodgeball.
I hook them up with merch.
You know, if they want ahoodie, a beanie, I'm going to do
(30:59):
water bottles in the spring.
Don't tell anybody, you know,so I like to help them out, hook
them up with some merch andyou know, show my appreciation.
Because without them, justlike without the ever players, we
wouldn't be able to do what we do.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm appreciative of them.
They've made going back toyour question the community stronger.
(31:20):
Without them, I mean, wewouldn't be able to donate or do
anything.
So.
Yeah, absolutely.
What are, what are some of thechallenges of running a league like
this?
If, you know, like I said, noteverybody players can, can be challenged.
(31:41):
Staffing could be a challenge.
That's why I do a lot of thethings that I do to try to maintain
them.
I'm in a group with a lot ofother different programs around.
Okay.
It's called ssia Sport andSocial Industry Association.
So it's a bunch of differentlocations that do the same thing
that we do.
And a lot of the trouble ismaintaining staff.
(32:03):
I mean that is not only justwith, with us, it's you go anywhere,
you go up the street, you'reseeing signs, neat hiring call indeed.
All these different thingsneed and help.
And so you know, those arejust basic stuff fields like you
had mentioned with the, withthe Blowfish.
(32:26):
You know, they did a lot ofthe maintain of the fields.
We rent this space.
If for instance, tonight, ifwe get that rain that's supposed
to come through, Lexingtoncounty is not going to get out here
and pump the puddles of water.
That's me and the staff comingout and prepping the fields.
We literally just rent thespace and hope the lights work.
Yeah.
And you know, fill dog holes,whatever it is.
(32:51):
Other challenges, I meanthere's a lot of back end admin stuff.
For instance, our pay systemfor spring has been down for almost
two days.
So like for instance, if youwere going to go register for any
of the leagues that we hadmentioned right now, don't wait until
I've got our IT on it rightnow trying to get it situated.
(33:15):
So yeah, I mean that's stuffthat's outside of my control, that's
challenging because there'snothing that I can actually do on
my part besides letting theever players know, hey, hold off.
We'll let you know when the,you know, payment processing for
our admins back up and running.
(33:37):
You know, we have insurancemaking sure that they're happy, making
sure players are signing theirwaivers and everyone's registered.
Yeah, it's.
There's a lot of differentthings that you can really think.
Think about that you don'twant to think about that just kind
of happen and put you in that.
You know, a lot of the, A lotof players and a lot of, I mean a
(34:01):
lot of the staff, you know,other than me trying to enlighten
them and tell them, you know,hey, if a light's out, I'm getting
on the phone with, with theperson that I rent the fields.
Then they're going throughsomebody and then we're hoping that
it gets done by this time.
So it's not like I'm out therechanging the bulb myself.
I'm not electrician.
(34:23):
Or a lumberjack.
Yeah, or a lumberjack.
These are, these are not verylow to the ground.
That's right.
So it just, you know, there'sdifferent things that pop up.
Yeah.
That are random, you know, so.
But yeah, that, I mean, themain thing is managing players, reminding
(34:48):
them, hey, this is just the game.
This is why you're paying to play.
You're not getting paid to play.
Yeah, I had to remind myplayers many times.
This is, these are kids games.
Right.
And we're playing them asadults, so.
And you're paying.
Yeah, there's, there's,there's, there's nothing to take
ultra seriously.
I mean, at the end of theseason, win or lose, you're getting
(35:12):
a koozie.
So, you know, that's, it's,it's, it isn't the prestige.
It's just about having fun.
And that's how we, that's,that's how I always tried to maintain
our teams.
Yeah.
And does that mean that, youknow, you early in your days didn't
agree with calls and may havegotten on us a couple times?
No, I didn't, I didn't likethe, I didn't like the sliding into
(35:35):
third thing.
That was.
But I also understood, sothere's, the rule was, is you couldn't
slide into any, in any of the bases.
And that was because there wasan event where a girl did break her
leg and it was pretty severe.
So totally understood the rule.
Just didn't like it.
And, and I had, and I had veryemphatic players on my team that
(35:58):
didn't like it enough thatthey would try and convince me that
I needed to continue to argueabout it.
So that's where it came from.
As a captain, that's yourduty, is to step up for your team
and, and let us hear your voice.
And there's definitely a wayto do it.
I mean, I had to come up witha whole sportsmanship policy on my
own that every league gets thelast week of the regular season just
(36:21):
reminding them what we standfor, what we're about.
You know, you're not able tojust come out here and act a fool
and say and do whatever you want.
If that was the case, wewouldn't be a league.
It would just be pickup.
So it's just a friendlyreminder, just like it says in the
subject, just to remind the players.
Like you said, it's a kids game.
There's a way to becompetitive and good and athletic
(36:45):
and own it and be, and showgood sportsmanship and act the right
ways.
Because we've had, I mean,we've had some really good teams
that are good sports and we'vehad some that aren't very good sportsmen,
you know, run up the Score orgestures towards other teams or even
their own players or us.
(37:05):
Yeah, but you're going to findthat in, I mean, you see, we see
that in baseball.
We see that in basketball and football.
Like, you know, we have.
And they get a fine, right?
They get a fine, they get a suspension.
We don't, you know, if you getejected for whatever reason, you
know, we have a quick warning policy.
(37:25):
If I have a warning, that's.
And we don't want to hear any more.
And if we hear it again,you're out.
And you're not only out thatgame, but the next week.
And then if it's somethingsevere, I look at it and make a judgment
on, hey, this person may needto go to another program because
we just, we're not about that.
So in, in my history, I havehad players that have been suspended
(37:47):
for two games, not the wholeseason, but I have had, I've had
at least one individualsuspended for multiple games.
I was not there those nights.
So see.
Yeah, yeah.
What, what is so, so as we getcloser to the end of this, what,
what is, what sort of futuredo we see as far as ever play?
(38:07):
Are we looking at thepotential of any new or different
leagues that we haven't done before?
I know I mentioned to you theidea of a fantasy football league.
I thought that, you know, that may.
Be something to look into andyou know, March Madness would be
something cool.
You know, there's a lot ofdifferent programs that do.
(38:28):
We've had some people askabout Ultimate Frisbee.
We tried it.
We got like one, two teamswouldn't work out.
Team trivia nights.
Oh yeah.
Kind of cool.
You know, I tried to do a oneday kickball tournament last spring.
Yeah.
(38:49):
Bring bouncy house, bring food trucks.
We got like two, two or three teams.
Okay.
Which is decent enough.
But I ended up just making ita field day, giving everybody their
money back or credit.
And they still were able tocome and play two hours of kickball.
(39:09):
We officiated it.
We still had the bouncy house,we still had the food truck.
So that was kind of cool.
That's something that I'mreally going to try to focus on.
And it was during the seasonsand a lot of the players already
signed up for one of thekickball leagues.
Sure.
And it was at Be Ave, whereYou've played for 10 years.
Like it's the same venues,nothing new.
(39:29):
So locking down somethingdifferent, a different venue and
doing it in between seasons issomething that I'm thinking about
doing and seeing if that issomething that people are interested
in signing up.
Yeah.
And there's not a whole lot oftime in between seasons because you
mentioned for we go.
(39:50):
You go year round, it's four seasons.
But it's not just four seasons.
You'll have.
You'll have an early winterand then a late winter or a late
fall.
And so, you know, there'sconstantly sports leagues that are
available, and even if thereisn't one going on two weeks later,
it's going to be starting.
Right.
So it's not, you know, that's.
(40:12):
It is.
Everplay, I think, has, atleast in my life, has become a staple
and I'm thankful for it.
You know, at 45, I've been able.
Wow.
Am I 45?
Yeah, I'm 45.
God bless America.
I have managed to find my wayinto bowling and we've stuck with
bowling for a little while.
(40:33):
I have stopped playingsoftball for a little while.
When is the last time you'veplayed softball?
Ever played softball?
You played kickball and thenyou gave up kickball and then went
to softball.
And then I came back to kickball.
And you went back to kickballand now you drop both of those and.
Play just bowling ball.
Yeah.
But like, did you try anyother program?
(40:54):
No.
I had thought about trying todo dodgeball because I seemed to
catch and throw decently.
So I thought maybe dodgeballwould be something I'd be interested
in doing.
But dodgeball wasn't being played.
Now it is back, but nine years later.
Yeah, dodgeball, Dodgeball.
Being inside is kind of likevolleyball being in the side, you
know, I used to playvolleyball pretty much twice a week.
(41:15):
And the reason I leftvolleyball was because I came down
on one of my.
On my left shoulder for a.
For a dig one time and havenot recovered.
It's.
I got two bone spurs andarthritic cysts.
So it's, you know, hey, age,you know, I can't.
Trust me.
Throughout baseball, I.
I have broken my hand so many times.
This is gonna be a swollen like.
(41:38):
Is that your bowling hand, too?
Yeah, that is my bowling hand.
That's right.
So you know that.
I guess basically what I'msaying is if you haven't signed up
for Everplay Social, you livein the Columbia area, check out the
website because you're boundto find something that you could
probably enjoy and you get tomeet a bunch of new people that you
(41:59):
may not have known before oryou can come with your own team because
that's, you know, that's oneof the biggest Things is getting
to meet people that you don'tknow and, you know, really just getting
to interact outside of yourcircle sometimes is the biggest thing.
Even with bowling every week,we play against teams that we've
never played against before.
You get to know them, andsomehow, you know, everybody just
(42:22):
sort of becomes friends and whatnot.
We've had teams that havebowled with us for a very long time
that are.
They look forward to thatTuesday night, running into those
teams.
We've had teams sign up andsay, hey, you know, please assign
us bowl of duty.
Please assign us.
Wait, we can do that?
Yeah.
We have a team every singleseason, they want to bowl against
(42:45):
the same three teams because of.
Not all.
And they might.
They might lose all three games.
Sure.
They just want to be aroundthose people.
I didn't see.
I didn't know we.
I didn't know that requestingthat was possible.
That's why we've never done it.
Yeah.
I mean, ultimately.
Ultimately, because I'm such acurmudgeon, I would have.
Just don't make a whole lotmore work for me because the generator
does randomly schedule games.
(43:07):
But I do go in and try to helprequest if.
Well, I was gonna say was Ihad teams that I don't want to bowl
against.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
No, but that's not even anissue anymore.
So it's.
You know, I'm not saying thatthose people disappeared.
I'm just saying they're nothere anymore.
But, yeah.
So I really appreciate youcoming on the show.
I'm gonna do your sevenquestions here in a second.
(43:29):
But before we do that, justwant to remind everybody ever play
sports and social is signingup now for the spring season, including
dodgeball, bowling, softball,kickball, pickleball, soccer, volleyball,
cornhole, and masters of puttputt on March 29, you can sign up
for all of those through.
Well, all of the leagues youcan sign up through February 19th.
(43:49):
It's going to beavailable@everplaysocial.com so go
do that.
The Masters of putt Putt.
You can sign up up until theday before.
So that'll be on March 29th.
So you can sign up up untilMarch 28th.
So sign up for all of theseleagues because they sell out.
I mean, ultimately, they.
They.
Almost every league sells out.
(44:09):
The spring is a massive sellout.
Participants, you know, 1700participants, 15 leagues that were
offering this spring, thebiggest amount of leagues that we've
ever offered.
If we can say that we ran all15 of those would be the best in
terms of numbers.
(44:31):
Sales and participants and leagues.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, like I said, twoweeks from today, February 19, 15
leagues.
Sign up as a free agent, agroup or team, and we'll find the
right team in the right spotfor you.
We do take an account, youknow, age.
(44:51):
When you do sign up, wepromise we will try to stick you
with the best group possible.
Yeah, absolutely.
And plenty of stuff to offer.
So I appreciate you having me on.
No, I appreciate you being on.
So we're gonna do seven questions.
Have you seen seven questions before?
I want to say yes.
Okay.
No, you don't have to.
Because.
Because then it makes it moreinteresting if.
(45:14):
Look, people don't make it allthe way through this end of the part
of the show.
It's fine.
That way, they don't know whatquestions are being asked because
then I have to create new onesmore often, so.
All right, first question forAlex Avinger.
What was the last thing you googled?
The last thing I googled wasthe new Jurassic World that's coming
out this year.
(45:34):
I just heard it on the radioand was like, I want to see that
trailer.
Okay.
Seen all the Jurassic Parks.
My wife went to see that.
The.
The newest Jurassic World.
She hasn't seen the second or third.
Whatever.
They're on right now.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just think those are interesting.
Yeah.
Kid movies, obviously, for megrowing up, those were awesome.
Totally different.
Now with the differentdinosaurs, you don't just have the
(45:58):
T.
Rex.
You have, you know, the T.
Rex on steroids or.
Yeah, they've completelymanipulated the dinosaurs, and now
we have dinosaurs that are,like, super mutant dinosaurs that
they've introduced.
Right?
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, second question.
If you could have onesuperpower, what would that be?
Probably to fight a.
(46:19):
Probably to jump super high.
Okay.
So I could change these bulbsso not.
So not.
Not the power of flight, butto jump, fly.
I don't think flying.
I mean, that would be cool,but I think just, like, jumping would
be super sweet.
Okay.
And I would be probably the.
The MVP of this kickball league.
(46:40):
That's.
That would be.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
I just could.
I just, like, picture, like,GTA put in the code as a kid with
the super jump.
Yeah.
And, like, literally, you justhave, like, five stars, and you're
just hitting that jump button.
You're just, like, jumping up.
Yeah, absolutely.
I can see that.
All right, if your life were amovie, what would the title be?
(47:03):
Well, I can't say theAvengers, can I?
You can.
Yeah.
That's fair.
If my life.
If My life was a movie, whatwould it be?
He dragged his body, man.
I don't know.
Ever play sport in social club movie?
Okay, that would be kind ofcool to feature, like, Hard Knocks,
(47:26):
but, like, behind the scenetype stuff.
If you decide to do a moviebased on Ever play sports and social,
you have to let me in as oneof the screenwriters.
I need.
I need.
I would want you to be theMorgan Freeman commentary.
All right.
That would be cool, right?
That's fair.
Yeah.
All right, number four.
If you could eat one food.
If you could only eat one foodfor the rest of your life, what would
(47:47):
it be?
Japanese hibachi.
Okay.
My wife, she probably.
If she watches it and makes itthrough to that, she would.
She knows that's.
That's what she would say.
I love Japanese hibachi.
They cook in front of you.
We went there two weeks agofor my birthday.
Crushed it.
Did you catch the shrimp?
They don't do that anymoreafter the.
So the one that we went was alittle bit higher scale.
(48:08):
Like, the Miyabi's here, but.
So there's like, two next toour house, and one of them is a little
bit more laid back.
Like, you could literally justget, you know, back from the pool
or on, you know, and go inthere in your tank top and your.
Your bathing suit.
Yeah.
And they'll throw.
The cooks will like, they'relaid back.
(48:28):
They'll throw it in your mouth.
They'll shoot sake into your.
Into your mouth from cooking.
Like, it's totally different.
But I can't remember the lasttime I've tried to catch the shrimp.
Last time I tried, I did not succeed.
I wasn't prepared.
The last time we went for myson's birthday, I was not prepared.
Which one did y'all go to?
So the one in Lexington.
(48:49):
It's down next to theHollywood fee.
Hollywood Feed the animalplant or food store.
I was not paying attention,and I caught one in the side of the
head.
So, you know, lesson learnedat hibachi.
Always be prepared.
Always watch the cook.
What's.
What's your least favoritecandy and why?
(49:12):
Ah, man.
So I'm not a big chocolate person.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I like Starburst, Skittles,Twizzlers, the more fruity type stuff.
I.
I think I have to go with aButterfinger, man.
I can't just.
It's stuck to your teeth, andthat's fair.
It takes you.
You know, if you don't havefloss or even a drink, like, you
(49:34):
can't really.
You're just sitting theremessing with it.
It's just.
I don't know.
I just can't do Butterfingers.
See, and, and challenge for mydental hygienist.
I'm actually, I have a newdental hygienist.
I will be eating abutterfinger before all of my cleanings.
Just so you know.
What is, what's one strange orunusual talent you have that most
people don't know?
(49:59):
Unusual talent that I don't know.
That's.
That's a good question.
Let's come back to that one.
Well, that's the second tolast one, but.
So if you don't know one, I'lltell you one that I have.
All right, tell me.
And this is one that I didn'tfind out until just a few years ago,
(50:21):
but if I hold my nostrilsclosed, I can blow air out of my
eye.
And how did you figure that out?
You just.
I sneezed.
I sneezed and it hurt.
Oh, man.
Because I think.
I think something popped.
And that was, that was it.
Now I, now I can blow air outof my.
Out of my eyeball.
That is impressive.
(50:41):
Yeah, I guess you don't reallyknow unless something like that happens
and you're like, oh, that's cool.
100%.
Yeah, I should use that, like,as my superpower too.
Ultimately, when my kids docheck me into some assisted living
facility, that'll be how Iwork my way up through the tiers
of the tears of the coolpeople at the old folks home.
(51:02):
Yeah.
All right, I'll have to thinkabout that one.
Well, you can get back to us.
We'll, we'll, we'll update.
We'll update everybody on that.
All right, last question.
If you could have dinner withany three people, dead or alive,
who would they be?
My wife's gonna hate me right now.
Jennifer Aniston, Definitely.
Sorry.
(51:23):
She knows that.
So she's not, she's not mad.
Yeah.
Jennifer Aniston.
Let's see.
Aaron Rodgers.
Okay.
I'm a, I'm an Aaron Rodgers fan.
If you haven't seen, seen theNetflix documentary and you don't
like Aaron Rodgers, go watch it.
You still might not like him,but it does give a lot of emphasis
(51:47):
on him as a person.
I'm not a spokesperson forAaron Rogers.
Jennifer Aniston.
Aaron Rodgers.
And let's see, man, maybe MarkWahlberg would be cool.
(52:09):
Okay.
Aaron Rodgers and MarkWahlberg are very similar, and they
are.
Yeah, I think I would have togo with them.
I think that would be aninteresting dinner.
So you're you're.
You're eating tofu.
And.
And I, I'm guessing thatthere's some.
Some.
Some.
What's the.
What's the.
What's the thing they do inSouth America that Aaron Rodgers
(52:30):
went and trapped himself in acave for, oh my gosh, 30 days or
something.
What's it called?
Ayahuasca.
Yep.
So tofu and ayahuasca.
And my wife, she can come too.
That's the least appealingdinner I've ever heard of.
But.
Well, Aaron, I see now you gotme messed up.
Alex, I appreciate you beingon the show with me.
So again, make sure to checkout everplaysocial.com for registration
(52:54):
and details on the spring league.
And I'm guessing here in the next.
I'm gonna guess in the nextmonth or so, you're probably gonna
have the details about thelate spring season.
Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, we.
We're already in the works with.
With the late spring and thesummer, so we.
We'll have that up and running and.
(53:15):
Yeah.
And roll this thing back and.
And, you know, I appreciateyou taking the time and coming out
here.
Oh, yeah.
Been a good friend and a good.
A good player.
You know, you're one of thefirst players that I've met through
the leagues with ball of duty.
You know, you throw Yalls logoon our sleeves with the shirts.
That was awesome.
I think, I think, I think thevery first team that I played on
(53:39):
back in 2015, we were.
We were just kick it orsomething like that.
So that was, you know, I go tolook at my list of all the teams,
the team or the leagues that Isigned up for the.
And I have to scroll the mouse twice.
Number are you at?
Can you take a guess?
Oh, if I were to take a guess,I'm gonna say 39.
(54:00):
39.
Maybe 40.
We might be.
We might be approaching 40.
I'm about to find out.
He's gonna look.
He's gonna look at direct.
While he's looking up that I'mgonna run the credits.
It's gonna do it for episodenumber 241.
Thank you very much, Alex, forbeing on the show with me.
241.
Links to past episodes,podcast platforms, merchandise and
social media are all availableat our website, theallaboutnothing.com
(54:21):
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(54:41):
Linksavailable@theallaboutnothing.com how
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The All About Nothing podcastis a product of Big Media and produced
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