September 14, 2020 • 46 mins
Two dads of T1D daughters, on a podcast, trying to figure it all out.
A real treat for our listeners this episode! DaD had the privilege of visiting with current Major League Soccer (MLS) champs Seattle Sounders and US Men's National Team starter Jordan Morris, perhaps the most high-profile T1D athlete in America.
Jordan talks openly about his earliest T1D memories, his fears regarding how his diagnosis might impact his dreams of playing professional soccer, and his reality today thriving as he does on the domestic and international soccer stage!
We can't thank Jordan enough for being so generous with his time and so candid and honest when sharing his inspiring story. Please do check out all of the incredible work Jordan and his Foundation are doing in the T1D community at www.jordanmorrisfoundation.com
Also, please remember to check out our wonderful Dads and Diabetes show sponsors...
Glucose Revival @ https://glucoserevival.com/
Dia-Be-Tees @ www.Dia-Be-Tee.com
And a special sponsor for this episode...www.bootbags.us (thanks, Jordan Schweitzer!)
A real treat for our listeners this episode! DaD had the privilege of visiting with current Major League Soccer (MLS) champs Seattle Sounders and US Men's National Team starter Jordan Morris, perhaps the most high-profile T1D athlete in America.
Jordan talks openly about his earliest T1D memories, his fears regarding how his diagnosis might impact his dreams of playing professional soccer, and his reality today thriving as he does on the domestic and international soccer stage!
We can't thank Jordan enough for being so generous with his time and so candid and honest when sharing his inspiring story. Please do check out all of the incredible work Jordan and his Foundation are doing in the T1D community at www.jordanmorrisfoundation.com
Also, please remember to check out our wonderful Dads and Diabetes show sponsors...
Glucose Revival @ https://glucoserevival.com/
Dia-Be-Tees @ www.Dia-Be-Tee.com
And a special sponsor for this episode...www.bootbags.us (thanks, Jordan Schweitzer!)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
I just want to remind you,guys, this is just me and Mark
telling stories, and that nothing thatwe say here is intended to be medical
of basis is strictly from our pointof view as two dads telling the stories
of our T one D kiddos.We also want our listeners to know that
we're trying to maintain a perspective recognizingthem. Whatever Alan and I or our
families are dealing with, it doesn'tamount to a hill of beans compared to
(00:42):
that which our daughters or anyone diagnosedwith Type one diabetes has to contend with
on a day to day basis.Welcome to Dads and Diabetes. Just two
dads if T one D kiddos ona podcast, trying to figet it all
out. I'm Mark and I'm joinedas always by my friend and fellow dad,
(01:07):
Alan. Hey, Alan, how'sit going, mate? Going good?
How's everything with you? Bud doingokay? I'm hoping and I keep
a signal and stay on this podfor the duration. I know this is
going to be a short one andwe'll explain why in just a moment.
But there is a hilacious storm goingon right now here in Austin, Texas
and looking out my office window,I actually just saw our trash can start
(01:29):
to make its way down the streetunder the force of water. So really,
yeah, my stars, Yeah,it's but you know, I'm not
going to complain. It has beena really really good summer here in Austin.
When we got here last year,Alan, it was it was like
an oven and it was not Iwas not excited about my future summers in
(01:52):
central Texas. But this summer hasbeen really nice. It's been very few
days over one hundred degrees. We'vehad lots of rains. Everything is rush
and green, and yeah, it'svery pleasant. What's the weather like we
you are in Arkansas? It isbeautiful. I'm looking at my office window
right now. It is. It'sbeen in the you know, if it's
(02:13):
been in the low eighties, butmornings are getting to be around sixty eight,
sixty seven, sixty eight seven.It's nice. Yeah, get down
the round in the low fifties herein a couple of nights. Wow,
very well. You can't listen toa podcast that contains an Englishman without there
being some talk of weather, soyou're welcome, listeners. Well, this
(02:38):
is going to be a short one. At least this portion here with Alan
and I talking is going to betruncated, and we'll talk about why in
just a second. But before wedo that, we have some really exciting
news for our listeners. Something supersignificant has happened since our last recording,
and it's happened to the Naulty family. Alan, go ahead and share them
(03:00):
us. Uh, if you haven'tseen it on Facebook. I am a
new dad. I'm a new dad. Good night granddad. Don't edit that,
duddy. Yeah, man, ohyeah, that's I got my first
grandchild and super excited about that.That's awesome. Good looking a little dude.
(03:24):
Yeah, oh, it's awesome.It really is fantastic news. Um.
I saw pictures of little Lucas andhe is a stunner. I mean,
I know people always say that aboutbabies, but let's be honest,
at least half the babies who areborn, they don't come out photo already
and include my own kids in there. I'm not going to say who is
(03:46):
who, but Lucas really is abeautiful bouncing baby. So what were the
what were the stats on the youngman? He's um eight pounds, two
ounces, twenty one inches and shewent through thirty eight hours of labor,
Good Lord, and I feel badbecause I told her, you know,
and it may take a while,but not nothing, nothing like that.
(04:09):
Yeah, it was incredibly torturous andshe has very low tolerance for pain.
So I'm extremely proud of her.A man would never make any three that
no reason that the Good Lord didnot put us in charge of that category.
So, wow, you must beso proud, you must be so
excited. I'm sorry, Yeah,we're Oh yeah, we're over the top,
(04:31):
man, We're super excited. Dayyesterday was Leslie's birthday and they came
by for actually dropped by for aninnocent's volleyball game and uh and surprised us
on Leslie's birthday so she could seeher little little little boy, little grandson,
and uh, he could see herSass. He's Sassy, So that's
her grandparents name, Uh, Sassyand Ace. I believe we've talked about
(04:55):
that before. So they're going withit. They're still calling us that,
So we're gonna roll with that.Very good, excellent. I need to
give them that some thought. Imean, we're still somewhere away from that
bay to think about. You know, what would I want my name to
be. It's probably going to bea toss up between James Bond or Harry
Potter, but keep it whatever.It's easy for a hind of announced.
Yeah, that would be all goodstuff. Well again, congratulations my friend.
(05:19):
That really is super monumental news.I know how excited you and Leslie
are and couldn't be happy if wefamily. So that's absolutely wonderful. Anything
else going on in your world?Anything alstroport on Anna and Ella as they
really are the focus of How Livesas it relates to this podcast, Well,
(05:40):
it's just like everybody, guest,it's it's softball season again. We
may have to rebrand this podcast andso yeah, it's soccer and softball.
I think it'd be that will beour spin off. No, I think
that we've started volleyball, so thatwasn't that's a new endeavor. And well,
how is second you have? Ididn't know that you talked about it,
(06:01):
but it is very unique and um, it's very interesting. But we're
we're again people who've been listening.We are one a school, very small.
We're the only one a school inthe state of Arkansas that has a
volleyball program. So we are tryingto find games. So we do it,
playing a lot of private schools andthings of that nature. And we
(06:23):
have one high school slated to play, but of course it's twenty twenty and
a hurricane hits Arkansas resolved. Yeah, so anyway, and ironically, all
the games leading up to this onehigh school that was going to play us,
um we we we did not expect. I mean, the girls took
(06:46):
to this stuff like, uh,you know I immediately. And we've also
had some transfers because Taylor has beenpicking up quite a few kids through school
choice and some of the girls,unexpectedly I think to the opponents have played
organized volleyball before, so that helpeda lot. So when we began playing,
(07:10):
we found that we were actually prettygood, and so far we're undefeated.
And so we have a junior varsityteam they haven't lost a single set
all season, and our senior thevarsity team has only lost three sets the
entire season. So when we triedto reschedule the game with that high school,
(07:33):
they declined rankings. Yeah, soyou know, our means nothing because
it's a new program. You can'tI don't know the rules totally, but
it doesn't count towards a district,regional or our state playoff or anything like
that. It's just right now,just just kind of building the program,
(07:56):
I think, pretty rapidly. Whateverthe rules are, we need to get
in there pretty quick. So it'sacting and Anna loves it, and of
course she's still doing She got shehad a try out. I think the
last time we talked, she wasgetting prepared for a tryout for an elite
softball team about an hour away intex Racanna, and she made the tryout.
So this is a fourteen and theunderteam. She beat out a few
(08:18):
ninth graders, so she was kindof stoked about that. First tournaments,
we had a first tournament Saturday,um and they won. They won that
one, the last game being aboutone am, And yeah, I know,
and you know how that kind ofstuff goes one day tournaments and things
like that, so you've been atthat level, but this is her first
(08:41):
time. We really get to tryout for something and be at that elite
level where you're going to see girlsthat eventually are going to play college softball
and things. So we're really happyfor her to be on the team.
So what about Ellen House and how'ssoccer going for her? So it's been
a little disrupted because of the aforementionedweather. This isn't the first storm we've
had in the last few weeks,so fields have been a little affected.
(09:05):
But Ella's actually going for volleyball tryoutsfinally. She mentioned that for a club
here, yeah, in Austin thisweekend, tryouts for this weekend. I'm
kind of excited. The club isactually run by a former UTI grad who's
also former All American volleyball player aswell, So this lady seems to know
her stuff. So it'll be interestingto see how tryouts go. And if
(09:28):
Alla makes the team, you knowwhat she might learn from from this lady
and from her coaching staff. Otherthan that, we you know, Ella's
starting to grow and starting to seechanges in attitude and physiology, and he
spending a lot of time with herthese last few weeks putting her room together,
(09:50):
because as she matures, she hasvery different ideas now and how she
wants her room to look. Andso thank you it's cool now. So
thank you Amazon Rapid Prime deliveries.Because it's been it's been one piece of
furniture or one wall display or shelvingunit or string of lights after another.
(10:11):
These last few weeks. But youknow what, I'm going to keep up
power to dry on all of that, I think, because there's lots of
good stuff in there that I thinkwe can feed into future episodes. Not
least of all that Kim, mywife went out of town for about a
week and so I was taking careof Ella solo. And yeah, there's
probably some good content in there aswell, So we'll circle back on that.
(10:35):
Absolutely, Yeah, absolutely, weneed to talk about some of the
changes Aniston going into junior high Now'sdifferent attitudes have changed little bits. She's
trying to take a few liberties hereand there, test under boundaries and had
to be reined in. So yeah, it's so there's a lot of stuff
to talk about that I want tocircle back around to an eventual episode.
(10:56):
I've thought this out there just tokind of put a bug in you about
There's been a lot of talk herelately, especially towards to Leslie, about
the I want to get your thoughtson the looping system. So that's for
a future episode. Mark that down. I want to talk about all this
big open source looping stuff that everybody'strying to do. So anyway, all
(11:18):
right, good, I mentioned thatthis little portion with us is going to
be truncated because we actually have Iguess, well, we have an interview
that we want to share with ourlisteners. And this is somebody we've been
pursuing or I've been pursuing for sometime now, so really really excited to
finally be able to bring this toour listeners. We had an opportunity to
(11:43):
visit with Jordan Morris. Now,that may not be a name that's super
familiar to all of our listeners,perhaps maybe on the fringes of you may
maybe sitting there thinking my second,I kind of think I know that name.
Why do we well, Young JordanMorris is quite the big noise is
in soccer, both domestically and internationally. He plays for the Seattle Sounders,
(12:07):
who are one of the most decoratedteams in MLS, which is the premier
professional soccer league here in the UnitedStates, and he's also represented the US
men's national team as well, andschools goals like crazy and it's quite the
stud Yeah, super exciting. Yeah. I hadn't want to listen to the
interview, and I was really proudof your skills. It was it seemed
(12:30):
like you had interviewed soccer players before. But I had I followed. I
could hear blah blah blah blah blahblah diabetes blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah. But the rest ofit. Yeah, but no, I'm
just kidding. It was. Itwas. It was very neat. I
loved it. I loved it.Yeah, well it got high marks from
(12:52):
Leslie and that's I mean, that'sstrife. So well, yeah, if
you can impress her that then becauseno podcast impressed four years now is yeah,
she can tell you to leave it, but no, no, if
you really When I was listening toit, I was just walking around in
the house with it, and shewas like, Hey, what did he
know? What did he say?And what fascinated her was the part and
(13:16):
I think people should really pay attentionto that part. I thought was interesting
because we've been asked this question,I think a couple of times, me
and you, because we talked aboutwe tend to talk about our kids sports
a lot. And he addressed thatbecause that was one of Leslie's questions that
she really wanted to ask. Itwas about the basil, what does he
(13:37):
do in preparation for training and forgames. That really resonated with her and
so I've rewhelmed and we listened tothat part of it again and yeah,
she really loved it and that wassuper helpful. So there's really good information
on here. And that's why Iwas I mean, I knew you're a
great interviewer. I've heard that before. I've heard you do it before.
(13:58):
I mean, but you really broughtout the right questions that end there is
very applicable informations that people will getout of this, and no doubt Mamat.
Yeah, well that's very kind ofyou. I appreciate you saying that.
I certainly have talked to a lotof soccer players in my previous life.
I guess it's a parallel life.I still do some of that stuff.
(14:20):
So it's very comfortable talking with Jordan, although I'd say he probably is.
He's the most distinguished soccer player thatI was spoken with. He's the
highest level. So I was alittle nervous. But obviously the reason we
talked with him is Alan's alluded toa couple of times out I didn't close
out the loop on that is thathe is a Type one diabetic. Jordan
(14:41):
is one of the most high profile, perhaps the most high profile T one
D athlete here in the United Statesand again on the international scene as well,
representing the US men's national team ashe does. So he really wanted
to visit with him about how heengages with his sport, how he stays
in that high performance zone. Alsowant to talk with him a little bit
(15:01):
about his relationship with his parents,with Anna and I of course being parents
of T one D ketos, andwe know that many of our listeners are
too. And I say the challengeAllen, having listened to Jordan do interviews
before and having read upon a bunchof his stuff regarding his foundation whatnot,
was to come up with maybe evenjust a couple of questions that he hadn't
(15:22):
had previously. And that was really, really hard. But I think I
think there are a couple of timesin the interview where I made him pause
and really consider his answer, andI think he came up with some really
good stuff. It was stuff certainlythat was helpful to me both as a
parent and also as a parent ofa kid who was engaged in a competitive
sports. So I'm hoping there's somegood stuff in there for our listeners.
(15:45):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah,no, And you do a really good
job bringing that out. And itsounded very personable. And if he had
been asked those questions a thousand times, so he did not come off that
way. He really just seemed likea cool guard talked to um and took
it to me. And and Idid like the personal touch at the end.
You know, he remembered spoil itand spoiling our listeners. I'm not
(16:10):
I'm not going to think them,but you can tell he remembered by the
fact that the person that put himin contact with you, you said their
full name and he chopped it offlike like a nickname, so he knew
exactly he knew, he remembered exactlywhat he did he had done on a
personal level. So that that saida lot to me about the kind of
(16:33):
person he is. Yeah, yeah, no, he seems like a really,
really good guy. And again Ithink it's some good stuff in now
for our listeners. I hope thereis for those parents who aren't big sports
fans, whose kids aren't really engagedin sports. I still think I hope
this interview will be of interest toyou. I asked you in a question
in regards to what is it likerepresenting your country? Because not you know,
(16:55):
very few of us are we goingto get to do that? I
thought, you know, that questionin and of itself elicited and interesting answer.
So I think there's some stuff inthere for everybody. But hopefully you
guys will enjoy that. All right, man, go ahead and run it,
all right. Diabets That's Da dashBee dash Tees is the brainchild of
(17:18):
a type one diabetes survivor and momwho wanted to increase awareness and visibility of
diabetes through cool, funny, uniqueT one D themed clothing. Diabetes also
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We need a cure, but untilthen, I want to have some
(17:40):
fun with our shirts and raise awarenessat the same time. Check out diabetes
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well. I am truly delighted ondads and Diabetes to be able to welcome
to the show. Somebody who Ihave been pursuing make I'm very stalkery.
(18:03):
That's not the case, but I'vebeen pursuing this guy for some time.
Because I am a real admirer ofhis success as an athlete and as a
soccer player. But this is perhapsthe most high profile athlete in the US
who also is Type one diabetic,and so of course that has a connection
to me and my family, andso again absolutely delighted to finally get him
(18:26):
on the show. Welcome Jordan Morristo Dad's and Diabetes. How are you.
I'm good, I'm good. Thankyou for having me. I'm excited
to be here. Not at all. That's really like I said, it's
really wonderful to have you on theshow. Those folks who maybe aren't as
familiar with Jordan, shame on youfirst and foremost. But that maybe because
you're not as familiar with soccer.I know it's a rapidly growing sport here
(18:48):
in the States, but still maybenot it's high profile as some others.
So quick background on Jordan. Hecurrently plays for Seattle Sounders in MLS,
for whom he has made over onehundreds, which seems ridiculous. Jordan,
because you're so young but still scoringthirty three goals, which I don't know
even know if you know this,it makes you the fifth all time top
goal scorer for the Sounders. Didyou know that. I didn't know that.
(19:11):
That's cool. It's pretty cool,right, So, yeah, So
Jordan is a goalhound. Whether he'splaying out wide or through the middle,
he knows his way to goal andhe's demonstrated that both for the Sounders and
also for the US men's national teamas well, for whom he has made
thirty nine appearances, scoring ten goalsso far. Jordan also won the MLS
(19:34):
Cup with Seattle Sounders in twenty sixteenand two nineteen. This last year's lay
Our current champs. And I've gotto tell you, Jordan, our connection
is through my daughter who is Typeone diabetic as well, and she and
I and some parents are not goingto appreciate this, Jordan, but she
and I were sat in a bar, she's twelve years old, cheering you
(19:57):
on from from Afar when you guystook that most recent title. We were
very excited to see you raise thecup and to come out of that victorious.
So congratulations and thank you very much. That was a that was a
fun one. It was in Seattle, so it was fun to plan for
our fans and uh and when atrophy it was exciting. Yeah, I
(20:17):
bet it was. I bet itwas so Jordan. As I mentioned earlier,
you're perhaps it's the most high profileUS athlete with type one diabetes,
and it just doesn't seem to haveslown you down at all in any way,
shape or form, both in termsof your career trajectory and quite frankly,
also your speed on the fields,which is ridiculous. You're one of
the fastest players I think I've everseen in MLS. But I know it
(20:41):
has been a challenge for you.So coming from a parent perspective as I
am and as many of our listenersare, just had a few questions for
you as it relates to your kindof early experiences with t ond that that
relationship with your parents and and alsothe impact it's it's had on your career,
and I'd love to explore those withyou for a few minutes. Yeah,
no problem. So first thing Iwant to ask you right out of
(21:03):
the game. You were diagnosed atage nine, and I know that you've
always played soccer. You've been involvedin other sports too, but you've always
been but if a phenom you werespotted early, and I know several coaches
suggested you go on to have aprofessional career. So I'm assuming that that
was that was one of your dreams. One of your dreams was to pursue
soccer and to be a professional soccerplayer. That being the case, once
(21:26):
you were diagnosed with type one diabetes, did that impact your thinking at all?
Did that negatively kind of affect thedreams that you had for yourself and
how did you overcome that? Yeah? I think definitely. I mean,
especially at first, I would definitelybe lying if I said that it didn't
affect me in those days where yourbudcheger isn't in the right spot, especially
(21:48):
at training. At first, Iremember just having some super frustrating times at
training because if your budcheger obviously istoo high or too low, it really
affects how you're feeling and on thefield, it's a big impact. So
when I was first trying to figureout how to manage my blood sugar and
deal with everything, I would havesome some rough days and some rough training
sessions where I felt like I didn'tknow if I was going to be able
(22:11):
to push through it. But Iremember something that stuck with me from the
very beginning was the very first questionmy mom asked the doctor when he told
me mad diabetes was uh, like, you know, Kenny, play sports.
That was what I love to do. And the doctors said the more
the better, um, just becauseit you know, keeps you active and
helps with a lot of things.And so I think I kind of took
(22:36):
that a little bit and ran withit. And like I said, there
are those tough days, but Ifeel like, um, I told myself
from an early age that I reallywasn't gonna like diabetes hold me back from
from accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, which was to play professionally. So
that's fantastic. Now again, thispodcast let's listened to by a whole myriad
(22:57):
of people asn't need it, youngand old, parents, kids, folks
with T one D, folks supportingfolks the T one D. We really
really run the gamut and in termsof our listenership, but we do know
that a bulk of our listeners areparents that supporting children with type one diabetes.
And so I'm wondering, speaking asa parent, were you aware as
(23:18):
a kid of the impact that typeone diabetes had on your parents, and
if so, what would you sayto type one kiddos and their parents and
as they kind of try and navigateand work through this new filter on their
relationship. So for your first question, pretty much not at all. I
(23:41):
didn't really really be effected my parents. I can't as I get older,
and I you know, kids forme are are definitely a little ways off.
But as I start thinking of thata little more, I can't imagine
how how difficult that is to watchyour kid go through something like that.
I have to deal with this ona daily basis, And so obviously as
(24:03):
a kid, I'm less inclined tolisten to my parents. They're telling me
to do all this. You knowmy dad. My dad's a doctor,
my mom's a nurse, so theyunderstand um diabetes and had a bunch of
helpful tips when I was younger.But um, as a kid, you
know, grown up, it's hardsometimes to listen to your parents. You
kind of think you can do itall on your own, or you get
a little annoyed, and I wouldbrush some of that stuff off, and
(24:26):
um, and I and now obviouslywhen I'm older, I'm so thankful for
all the help that they put in. My dad still helps me. I
don't know for the people that don'tknow. He's the team doctor for the
Sounders actually, so he's in thelocker rooms with me before games, and
I still, you know, consoldhim on what to do with with my
blesser before a game, whether um, you know how many cards I need
(24:48):
to eat um, or how muchI need to game myself by heading into
a game. So I and Iwould not be where I am to day
without them and my family. Andso obviously I always say as kids,
I understand and how difficult it issometimes listen to your parents, but that
they're doing it out of out oflove and support and they just wanted to
be healthy. And the big momentI think for me was that I remember
(25:11):
this pretty clearly. I think,you know, I always manage my butcher
here pretty well, but there wasthis one time after where I had a
pretty maybe one of my highest dayone season. My parents sat me down
or like, look, you needto take care of this for for your
health in the future. You know, I think we know that things can
come if you don't take care ofyour your diabetes. And they stap me
(25:33):
down and and kind of said thatto me, and it hit me where
I was like, man, Ijust I really really need to need to
take care of this. And soI think from that moment on, I
just had a really big focus,and I think of it. I'm a
very competitive person, and so everytime I go get my A ONEC now,
I wanted to be better than thelast time. If I think of
it, almost it's like that dailycompetition with myself that I'm going to keep
(25:56):
my butcherger in the right spot.But to all the kids out there,
I mean, just your parents aredoing it to help you and keep you
healthy. So it's interesting when yousay that, I had an echo going
through my head. So, asI mentioned, you're one of Ella's favorite
players from the men's game, afavorite player on the from the female side.
Obviously, it's any one of theLioness's obviously, but it's it's really
(26:19):
Kylie Lloyd. She loves Kylie Lloyd, and Kylie Lloyd has this adage that
she uses over and over again,and it's in her book. Right is
you're not in competition with your teammatesor the opposition. You're in competition with
yourself. Right You want to bea better version of yourself tomorrow than you
were today. And so when youwere saying that, you know, I
had those kind of echoes going aroundin my head. I think that's that's
that's very very talent. I dowant to get into the weeds with you
(26:41):
a little bit. You talked alittle bit about preparing for games effectively and
making sure that your blood sugar levelswhere they need to be, and you
know, I'd love to talk toyou a little bit about pregame preparation and
maybe some of the things you eat. I think some of that would be
really helpful too, well, certainlybe helpful to me from from a selfish
perspective. My daughter's playing competitive soccer, so I'd certainly be curious to know
(27:03):
some of what you're doing, andother parents would too. But before we
go into the weeds there, justbroadly speaking, what advice, just generally
would you have for a young athletewith type one diabetes who's thinking about how
to effectively manage their condition to ensurehigh performance. Because you can play with
diabetes with the blood sugar level atthree hundred. It doesn't feel pleasant as
(27:26):
I understand it. My daughter justdid that in Houston a couple of weekends
ago, and it was it wasone of those situations Jordan, She's going
through puberty. It didn't seem tomatter how much insulin you know, was
involved. We just couldn't get thenumber down. And she was determined to
play, and I monitored her likecrazy. Ultimately she played. We did
get the number down, but shecame off that field feeling as I'm sure
(27:48):
you can relate, wretched, right, she felt awful. So if you
want to try and ensure that youare managing those blood sugar level as well
so that you can have that highbeing, that kind of high performance range,
what are some of the things thatyou were thinking about? Yeah,
one hundred percent. I think Uh, first of all, Yeah, playing
with the high bucherer is the worst. And I think what I really struggled
(28:11):
with when I first got to Seattlewas I found that adrenaline played a big
role in spiking my butcher up.So I would come off the field,
um, like my bucher. Iwould go into a game at the right
level, you know, I liketo go in around like one forty one
fifty in that range, and uh, and I would come off the field
(28:33):
that like three hundred. I'm like, well, what how that doesn't make
sense? I'm out there running around, and I felt like it was adrenaline
coming back playing in front of sixtythousand fans. It was the first time
I'd ever done that, and orone, you know, play a few
times with the national team, butfirst time consistently doing that in the adrenaline
would cause the spike in my butcher. And so a couple of tricks that
I've worked with is I wear anomnipodum, which is the why the two
(28:56):
Bliss pumps. So I used towear a metronic where I'd have to take
the pump off while I played,so there was no no insult going into
my system. But I wear aMentronic now and I turned the basil rate
down to about twenty percent of itsof what it normally is at, but
it has that still that small amountgoing in while I'm playing. That has
seemed to help so much. Andcoming off the field at a at a
(29:18):
better level. Um like I've I'veworn it all of last year was really
my first year, and night andday I came off the field that a
at a better level. So justhaving that little bit of insulince still in
your system while you're playing is reallyimportant. And I guess if you're not
wearing an omnipodum, you know,giving yourself a little bits before the game
(29:41):
at halftime to just have that littlebit in your system. But like you
said, again, sometimes that doesn'twork. And that's the frustrating part about
diabetes as you do the same thingand sometimes it doesn't work. But I
think that's a big, big thingthat I've learned. Another one is obviously
diet, and that gets into yournext question a little bit. But what
I always yeah, what I alwaysrecommend for this is UM is getting into
(30:03):
a routine of what you eat IM because you understand how those foods are
going to affect your bud sergers.So it's not really a surprise. Like
if you eat different foods every singletime before the game one day, maybe
one game is gonna be high,one game is gonna end up low.
But if you have that routine thatyou get into or you kind of find
the foods that work for you goinginto training, going into games, you
(30:23):
aren't surprised by what your bluchergers aregoing to be and you know relatively where
you're going to go into the gameat. So for me, UM,
like with training, I have aroutine where UM you know, I have
like whole wheat toast and eggs andsome kind of protein, So you get
some cars in there, but youalso, um, not the really like
(30:45):
you know, sugary waffle cereal thatkind of stuff that are that's going to
cause the roller coaster effect on yourbutchergar. Spike it up really quickly,
then you give yourself instant it comesback down, that kind of thing.
So staying away from those kind ofcars, but um, having like some
holy toast and eggs and a proteinis kind of my I do that before
every training, so I kind ofknow how it's going to affect my blecherer.
(31:07):
And then you find the food againfor a game that you feel like
going into it, it is goingto get you into the right spot.
And so it's a little bit hardbecause it's different for everyone. Everyone's body
reacts differently differently to certain types offood. But for me, I always
stress getting into a routine like thatis so so important. And like also
(31:29):
how far before the game you wantto eat? So before a game,
I like to eat three hours beforebecause then like your big meal three hours
before because then going to the game, you don't have all this insulin on
board and you kind of again youknow hopefully where your blecher is gonna be
when you get into that routine.So I know that's kind of a lot
of information, but it's been somethingthat's helped me out a ton. No,
(31:52):
that's amazing. I mentioned that wasthat was primarily go training pre training
routine is do you do something similarfor games? Yeah, exactly, So
I do the exact same thing whereI eat three hours before a game and
I have you know, if it'sa night game, I have some pasta
chicken vegetables where you get the cardsin, but then you have like some
(32:15):
protein some vegetables there too, andit's you know, it's not going to
spike your bloods set up really quick. And then eating three hours before the
game, you don't go into thegame with a time in your system.
So yeah, it's really really helpful. I know a lot of our listeners
that can really appreciate you sharing somuch detail. That's fantastic. So we're
talking a lot about the things thatyou're doing right, the things that are
(32:37):
going on, and you're a kindof immediate world in regards to diet,
in regards to insulin management, myblood sugar management, and so on.
I want to open the question upa little bit. How have your teammates
over the years responded to your typeone diabetes and have you had any negative
responses from folks, and if so, how have you managed that or have
(32:58):
you been like you know what,I don't whatever? You know? You
do you what's been your attitude inthat regard if you have those situations.
To be honest, I have beenpretty lucky. I haven't had too many
negative UM responses. I think UM. I get a lot of these questions
about younger kids, especially to UMat school. You know, you go
(33:20):
back to school and younger kids arewondering what UM, what you're doing?
And maybe you know your kids aren'talways the nicest. They can make jokes
and things like that. So Iget a lot of questions about how I
handled that as a kid, orsimilarly, what I tell teammates, and
what I always tell kids or oror or athletes with their teammates is is
be open about it. I thinksometimes people are just curious. And I
(33:44):
know I went through phases where Ididn't want to explain what I was doing
or feel ashamed or whatever, andand I think that that is a really
difficult time. But what I learnedis just to be proud of myself for
dealing with with diabetes on top ofeverything else you have going on in your
life. You you you're dealing withthis this extra thing, and it's really
(34:05):
difficult, and I think just beingopen and being proud about it is UM
is something that that's really special andempowering. And so when I UM talk
to kids, talk to athletes aboutwhat to say, I'm just like,
always be open and honest, andif someone doesn't it is mean or whatever,
just just just don't worry about it. You're you're you should be proud
of everything that you're doing and everythingthat you're you're having to deal with on
(34:29):
top of UM, on top ofbeing an athlete. So UM Yeah,
that that's kind of my general generaladvice. The next question I have in
regards to advocacy, But before Igo there, I mentioned earlier in the
interview that you're one of the quickestplayers I've seen play in MOS. You're
rapid on the field, so Ithought it might be fine just to sack
a quick sixty seconds and do arapid fire around with you and to fire
(34:51):
some questions at you. It's oneall the other. Are you ready for
this? Yeah? Yeah, definitelycool. Here we go, all right,
Seahawks or Sonics Sonics. Oh okay, now this one, folks who
have type one, we'll get thispeanut butter or peanuts, peanut butter.
(35:14):
Okay, good, excellent, Gonnaput him in the smoothie, right,
get him in the smoothie? Allright? Yeah, okay. This next
one is a little obscure again forour listeners. You don't follow soccer,
but I think maybe you'll pick upthe thread here. Eleven or thirteen.
That's a tough one. I've beenthirteen my whole whole career growing up,
(35:35):
so that's a pretty special one.But playing for the national team is such
an honor, so but I guessI'll go with thirteen. All right,
I'll ask you at the national teamroom in just a second. But I
thought maybe you'd lean to thirteen.I think I know the answer to this
one too. But twenty sixteen ortwenty nineteen, oh my goodness, I'm
gonna go two thousand and sixteen justbecause it was the first one, and
(35:58):
it was it was super exciting.But I'm playing at home was cool too,
But winning that first one was specialokay, fantastic Starbucks or SBC Starbucks.
Yeah yeah, stuck all right.And the last one. I'm going
to put you on the spot herenow because I know you've an exposure to
one of these leagues already, butI'm just curious it's where your head's at,
because I know you're an ambitious guy. Bundesliga or English Premier League,
(36:22):
Premier League, Ah, yes,sure, very good. Yeah do you
have a team? No, notreally, not really. As a kid,
I followed Arsenal a bit, butI've never really had a huge allegiance
to any team. My grandfather wasan Arsenal fan, so I called myself
an Arsenal sympathizer. They're not myteam, but I can't follow there you
(36:43):
go? Who who's your Who's yourteam? Team in the Championship actually called
Nottingham Forest. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're you're too good for
them. But but maybe we caneat out Austin. I would love you.
Yeah, I mean, what wolfis there? He's I really like
Josh waf He's going to be He'sgoing to be great. So I think
(37:06):
so too. I think so too. Absolutely well, thanks being such a
good sport. With that, comingback to my last couple of questions here,
I mentioned earlier in the call thatyou are again probably the most high
profile US athlete with t wen Dcertainly one of them. What do you
consider, Jordan to be your roleor responsibility within the T one D community,
(37:27):
either as a role model in regardsto advocacy or education. It's a
bit of a leading question because Iknow what you're doing with the foundation.
I know want you to talk aboutthat, for sure, but I'd just
like to hear it from the horse'smouth. Where do you kind of see
yourself within that community and what doyou consider to be your responsibility within the
community. Yeah, definitely. Ithink when I came back from from college,
(37:49):
I with my family, we cameup with the idea to start this
foundation, and really with our mottoor mantra I guess you could say,
is to educate, inspire and supportkids living with with tund and so we
of course do some fundraising for eventsand things like that, but there's much
bigger and better organizations out there forfor fundraising for a cure, and really
(38:10):
my whole goal is outreach to kidsand um trying to inspire them to to
know that diabetes can't hold you backfrom doing what you what you want to
do. And I know as akid it would have been so I had
you know, people I looked upto they were playing UM professionally with diabetes,
but I was never able to talkto them. And so my whole
goal, my whole idea is tooutreach to kids to try and UM show
(38:37):
them that they can accomplish anything theywant to accomplish with with type one.
How could folks find out more aboutthe work that you're doing with the foundation,
Jordan, UM, we have awebsite, Just Jordan Morris Foundation dot
com. Um It has kind ofa list of all of our events and
pages and obviously this year it's alittle a little bit tougher to have those
(39:00):
events, but it kind of haswhat we've done in the past and UM
we're going to continue continue that inthe future. But yeah, Just Jordan
Morris Foundation dot com is a goodplace to go. Check it out.
One of the neat things that youoffer is the schedules allowing and everything if
everything lines up, you provide theopportunity for children with type one to meet
(39:21):
you after MLS games. Yeah,so that's that's one of one of my
favorite programs with the with the foundationand something that we started UM when when
I maybe my second year actually inthe league, UM where after every home
and away game I meet with aTND kid in their family and bring them
down on the field and UM justanswer their questions and let them experience that
(39:45):
time on the field a little bit. But it's been so rewarding for me
as well to meet all these thesekids and these families. So it's it's
been awesome. A bit of afunny story to tell you. So Ella
had signed up to meet you whenwe lived in Colorado. She was going
to be one of the Rapids games. I don't if you remember it,
but it was a game it gotsnowed out. Yeah, so we weren't
able to meet you, and sowe then moved to Texas and we live
(40:08):
in Austin. At the time,Austin didn't have a team, so we
asked if maybe we could switch acrossto an FC Dallas game and we drive
up for it and we got toldyet, no problem. So we did
that, and then of course Austinannounce say we're going to have a team,
and we said, yeah, canwe do Austin next year? But
that yeah, definitely, so lookingforward to meeting then, I hope my
(40:30):
final question for you, I guessI just want to give an opportunity just
to kind of share out this experiencebecause you've had to ch an incredible career.
You've done so many incredible things,perhaps the pinnacle of them being that
you have represented your nation. Rightyou're a member of the US men's national
team. The fact you have typeone diabetes is it's by the bye.
(40:52):
It's a challenge for you. It'ssomething that you have to deal with each
and every day. But it hasn'tslowed you down. It hasn't stopped you.
It hasn't stopped you getting to thevery pinnacle of your career. No
all of us are going to getthere. Those are T one d or
those that don't have type one diabetes. Not all of us are going to
represent either the US or in mycase, England at those very highest levels.
(41:12):
So can you just take a momentto explain to our audience, Jordan,
what that feels like. What doesit feel like to put on your
nation shirt and to take to thefield and hear the national anthem and know
you're representing your country. Yeah,it is, um such an unbelievable experience,
and I think, um, asa kid, of course, I
was dreaming about, um, youknow, saying my country and playing for
(41:37):
the national team. But I neverknew that that would or or you know,
I thought that that would that wouldcome true. There were a lot
of obstacles in order to get there, and not too many people get to
have that opportunity, and so everytime I put on the jersey, I
never take it for granted. It'ssuch a unbelievable honors, as I said,
(41:59):
and just amazing experience. So um, yeah, you know, it'll
it'll still sometimes doesn't feel real,and it's just um, such a such
a yeah, such an honor.It is just really how I can how
I can sum it up. Sothe next you know, my big goal
is is to hopefully one day playin a in a World Cup, and
(42:20):
that's, um, that's what I'mwhat I'm shooting for, So that would
be absolutely amazing. I know thereare some folks on the other side of
the pond who considered that, youknow, the Champions League to be the
competition, but for me, I'ma purist. I've always believed the World
Cup is the absolute pinnacle. Ithink you're playing a World Cup. You
know, you're playing at World Cupquarterfinal or semi final even and you know
if you can make to a final, I mean that for me would just
(42:43):
be I don't know how you caneclipse that. So the fact that the
opportunity is is remarkable, and you'vedone an incredible job to get there.
I want to just close very quickly. Jordan, on the story I mentioned
earlier, I think it's important ourlisteners hear this because this speaks to your
character, if they haven't already heardthrough this interview, just how much of
a stand up guy you are.This will drive home the point. So
(43:04):
at over a year ago, Iwas doing some media work in Colorado Springs
and got friendly with one of theplayers for the Switchbacks, an awesome guy
also called Jordan Jordan Schweitzer, Yeah, who's now with Phoenix in the USL
really really good guy. Anyway,he took an interest in my daughter because
she's a competitive soccer player, andhe knew that she had the challenge of
(43:25):
T one D And of course youand he are friends, and so he
had some experience of that and hehad an appreciation for what she was dealing
with, So, unbeknownst to Ellaand I, he reached out to you.
I don't know, I guess heasked you would you record a message.
A few days later, I receivea text from Jordan Schweitzer with a
(43:49):
video from you, and you recordedlike a minute and a half worth of
a video just speaking directly to mydaughter and telling her how proud you were
of her and you know how shecan do anything, and you think it's
awesome that she's playing competitive soccer andnever just let t one D slow her
down or stop her. And I'vegot to tell you that had such an
incredible impact on it, and atleast of all because that evening we went
(44:12):
shopping at the grocery store and youhappened to be on one of the cereal
boxes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was a couple of years ago.
I remember that. Yeah, absolutely, So that was so so very
kind of you to do that,and I just if it. Honestly,
I'm just very excited to have theopportunity to thank you personally for that,
because that meant a lot to mydaughter and to our family, and just
(44:36):
wanted to say thank you. Yeah, of course, no, no problem
at all. I think I definitelyremember that, I remember Schwitz reaching out,
and I didn't connect the dots directlybefore this interview, but that that's
amazing. I'm so glad that sheenjoyed it, and please give her my
best again, and that's just again, that's the real goal. And um,
what I enjoyed doing is is hopefullyproviding some sort of inspiration to two
(45:00):
kids. So I'm really glad youliked it, and please please give her
my best. Absolutely, I will, for sure, and hopefully we'll see
you this next year when Seattle cometo Austin and get beaten by Austin FC.
There you go, we have somethingto say about it. Jordan Morris,
it's been an absolute pleasure. Thankyou for being so generous with your
(45:21):
time today joining us here on dad'sand diabetes. Good luck next season for
Seattle Sounders. We'll be cheering youon from AFAR. Awesome sounds good,
No worries, Talk to you soon. Did you know seventy five percent of
EMTs can't give glucagon and that there'sseventy five percent use Gluco's jowl instead.
Additionally, did you know that ninetypercent of gewels on the market are for
(45:44):
endurance athletes, which means they don'tkick in for nearly twenty to forty minutes
to thrive and thrive. Junior Necklacesby Gluco's Revival enables he one D's although
supporting them to get quick access tofast acting, potentially life saving glucos.
To learn more about their unique necklacesand about why their t one d founder
(46:07):
created them, check out Glucose revivaldot com. That's Glucose revival dot com.
(46:31):
Hey, this is Shane Malcolm andthis is Jordan Schweitzer. We're the
creators of boot Bags. Fashionable,durable, washable boot bags are the most
convenient way to carry your cleats toand from training your games. Check us
out at bootbags dot do.
I just want to remind you,guys, this is just me and Mark
telling stories, and that nothing thatwe say here is intended to be medical
of basis is strictly from our pointof view as two dads telling the stories
of our T one D kiddos.We also want our listeners to know that
we're trying to maintain a perspective recognizingthem. Whatever Alan and I or our
families are dealing with, it doesn'tamount to a hill of beans compared to
(00:42):
that which our daughters or anyone diagnosedwith Type one diabetes has to contend with
on a day to day basis.Welcome to Dads and Diabetes. Just two
dads if T one D kiddos ona podcast, trying to figet it all
out. I'm Mark and I'm joinedas always by my friend and fellow dad,
(01:07):
Alan. Hey, Alan, how'sit going, mate? Going good?
How's everything with you? Bud doingokay? I'm hoping and I keep
a signal and stay on this podfor the duration. I know this is
going to be a short one andwe'll explain why in just a moment.
But there is a hilacious storm goingon right now here in Austin, Texas
and looking out my office window,I actually just saw our trash can start
(01:29):
to make its way down the streetunder the force of water. So really,
yeah, my stars, Yeah,it's but you know, I'm not
going to complain. It has beena really really good summer here in Austin.
When we got here last year,Alan, it was it was like
an oven and it was not Iwas not excited about my future summers in
(01:52):
central Texas. But this summer hasbeen really nice. It's been very few
days over one hundred degrees. We'vehad lots of rains. Everything is rush
and green, and yeah, it'svery pleasant. What's the weather like we
you are in Arkansas? It isbeautiful. I'm looking at my office window
right now. It is. It'sbeen in the you know, if it's
(02:13):
been in the low eighties, butmornings are getting to be around sixty eight,
sixty seven, sixty eight seven.It's nice. Yeah, get down
the round in the low fifties herein a couple of nights. Wow,
very well. You can't listen toa podcast that contains an Englishman without there
being some talk of weather, soyou're welcome, listeners. Well, this
(02:38):
is going to be a short one. At least this portion here with Alan
and I talking is going to betruncated, and we'll talk about why in
just a second. But before wedo that, we have some really exciting
news for our listeners. Something supersignificant has happened since our last recording,
and it's happened to the Naulty family. Alan, go ahead and share them
(03:00):
us. Uh, if you haven'tseen it on Facebook. I am a
new dad. I'm a new dad. Good night granddad. Don't edit that,
duddy. Yeah, man, ohyeah, that's I got my first
grandchild and super excited about that.That's awesome. Good looking a little dude.
(03:24):
Yeah, oh, it's awesome.It really is fantastic news. Um.
I saw pictures of little Lucas andhe is a stunner. I mean,
I know people always say that aboutbabies, but let's be honest,
at least half the babies who areborn, they don't come out photo already
and include my own kids in there. I'm not going to say who is
(03:46):
who, but Lucas really is abeautiful bouncing baby. So what were the
what were the stats on the youngman? He's um eight pounds, two
ounces, twenty one inches and shewent through thirty eight hours of labor,
Good Lord, and I feel badbecause I told her, you know,
and it may take a while,but not nothing, nothing like that.
(04:09):
Yeah, it was incredibly torturous andshe has very low tolerance for pain.
So I'm extremely proud of her.A man would never make any three that
no reason that the Good Lord didnot put us in charge of that category.
So, wow, you must beso proud, you must be so
excited. I'm sorry, Yeah,we're Oh yeah, we're over the top,
(04:31):
man, We're super excited. Dayyesterday was Leslie's birthday and they came
by for actually dropped by for aninnocent's volleyball game and uh and surprised us
on Leslie's birthday so she could seeher little little little boy, little grandson,
and uh, he could see herSass. He's Sassy, So that's
her grandparents name, Uh, Sassyand Ace. I believe we've talked about
(04:55):
that before. So they're going withit. They're still calling us that,
So we're gonna roll with that.Very good, excellent. I need to
give them that some thought. Imean, we're still somewhere away from that
bay to think about. You know, what would I want my name to
be. It's probably going to bea toss up between James Bond or Harry
Potter, but keep it whatever.It's easy for a hind of announced.
Yeah, that would be all goodstuff. Well again, congratulations my friend.
(05:19):
That really is super monumental news.I know how excited you and Leslie
are and couldn't be happy if wefamily. So that's absolutely wonderful. Anything
else going on in your world?Anything alstroport on Anna and Ella as they
really are the focus of How Livesas it relates to this podcast, Well,
(05:40):
it's just like everybody, guest,it's it's softball season again. We
may have to rebrand this podcast andso yeah, it's soccer and softball.
I think it'd be that will beour spin off. No, I think
that we've started volleyball, so thatwasn't that's a new endeavor. And well,
how is second you have? Ididn't know that you talked about it,
(06:01):
but it is very unique and um, it's very interesting. But we're
we're again people who've been listening.We are one a school, very small.
We're the only one a school inthe state of Arkansas that has a
volleyball program. So we are tryingto find games. So we do it,
playing a lot of private schools andthings of that nature. And we
(06:23):
have one high school slated to play, but of course it's twenty twenty and
a hurricane hits Arkansas resolved. Yeah, so anyway, and ironically, all
the games leading up to this onehigh school that was going to play us,
um we we we did not expect. I mean, the girls took
(06:46):
to this stuff like, uh,you know I immediately. And we've also
had some transfers because Taylor has beenpicking up quite a few kids through school
choice and some of the girls,unexpectedly I think to the opponents have played
organized volleyball before, so that helpeda lot. So when we began playing,
(07:10):
we found that we were actually prettygood, and so far we're undefeated.
And so we have a junior varsityteam they haven't lost a single set
all season, and our senior thevarsity team has only lost three sets the
entire season. So when we triedto reschedule the game with that high school,
(07:33):
they declined rankings. Yeah, soyou know, our means nothing because
it's a new program. You can'tI don't know the rules totally, but
it doesn't count towards a district,regional or our state playoff or anything like
that. It's just right now,just just kind of building the program,
(07:56):
I think, pretty rapidly. Whateverthe rules are, we need to get
in there pretty quick. So it'sacting and Anna loves it, and of
course she's still doing She got shehad a try out. I think the
last time we talked, she wasgetting prepared for a tryout for an elite
softball team about an hour away intex Racanna, and she made the tryout.
So this is a fourteen and theunderteam. She beat out a few
(08:18):
ninth graders, so she was kindof stoked about that. First tournaments,
we had a first tournament Saturday,um and they won. They won that
one, the last game being aboutone am, And yeah, I know,
and you know how that kind ofstuff goes one day tournaments and things
like that, so you've been atthat level, but this is her first
(08:41):
time. We really get to tryout for something and be at that elite
level where you're going to see girlsthat eventually are going to play college softball
and things. So we're really happyfor her to be on the team.
So what about Ellen House and how'ssoccer going for her? So it's been
a little disrupted because of the aforementionedweather. This isn't the first storm we've
had in the last few weeks,so fields have been a little affected.
(09:05):
But Ella's actually going for volleyball tryoutsfinally. She mentioned that for a club
here, yeah, in Austin thisweekend, tryouts for this weekend. I'm
kind of excited. The club isactually run by a former UTI grad who's
also former All American volleyball player aswell, So this lady seems to know
her stuff. So it'll be interestingto see how tryouts go. And if
(09:28):
Alla makes the team, you knowwhat she might learn from from this lady
and from her coaching staff. Otherthan that, we you know, Ella's
starting to grow and starting to seechanges in attitude and physiology, and he
spending a lot of time with herthese last few weeks putting her room together,
(09:50):
because as she matures, she hasvery different ideas now and how she
wants her room to look. Andso thank you it's cool now. So
thank you Amazon Rapid Prime deliveries.Because it's been it's been one piece of
furniture or one wall display or shelvingunit or string of lights after another.
(10:11):
These last few weeks. But youknow what, I'm going to keep up
power to dry on all of that, I think, because there's lots of
good stuff in there that I thinkwe can feed into future episodes. Not
least of all that Kim, mywife went out of town for about a
week and so I was taking careof Ella solo. And yeah, there's
probably some good content in there aswell, So we'll circle back on that.
(10:35):
Absolutely, Yeah, absolutely, weneed to talk about some of the
changes Aniston going into junior high Now'sdifferent attitudes have changed little bits. She's
trying to take a few liberties hereand there, test under boundaries and had
to be reined in. So yeah, it's so there's a lot of stuff
to talk about that I want tocircle back around to an eventual episode.
(10:56):
I've thought this out there just tokind of put a bug in you about
There's been a lot of talk herelately, especially towards to Leslie, about
the I want to get your thoughtson the looping system. So that's for
a future episode. Mark that down. I want to talk about all this
big open source looping stuff that everybody'strying to do. So anyway, all
(11:18):
right, good, I mentioned thatthis little portion with us is going to
be truncated because we actually have Iguess, well, we have an interview
that we want to share with ourlisteners. And this is somebody we've been
pursuing or I've been pursuing for sometime now, so really really excited to
finally be able to bring this toour listeners. We had an opportunity to
(11:43):
visit with Jordan Morris. Now,that may not be a name that's super
familiar to all of our listeners,perhaps maybe on the fringes of you may
maybe sitting there thinking my second,I kind of think I know that name.
Why do we well, Young JordanMorris is quite the big noise is
in soccer, both domestically and internationally. He plays for the Seattle Sounders,
(12:07):
who are one of the most decoratedteams in MLS, which is the premier
professional soccer league here in the UnitedStates, and he's also represented the US
men's national team as well, andschools goals like crazy and it's quite the
stud Yeah, super exciting. Yeah. I hadn't want to listen to the
interview, and I was really proudof your skills. It was it seemed
(12:30):
like you had interviewed soccer players before. But I had I followed. I
could hear blah blah blah blah blahblah diabetes blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah. But the rest ofit. Yeah, but no, I'm
just kidding. It was. Itwas. It was very neat. I
loved it. I loved it.Yeah, well it got high marks from
(12:52):
Leslie and that's I mean, that'sstrife. So well, yeah, if
you can impress her that then becauseno podcast impressed four years now is yeah,
she can tell you to leave it, but no, no, if
you really When I was listening toit, I was just walking around in
the house with it, and shewas like, Hey, what did he
know? What did he say?And what fascinated her was the part and
(13:16):
I think people should really pay attentionto that part. I thought was interesting
because we've been asked this question,I think a couple of times, me
and you, because we talked aboutwe tend to talk about our kids sports
a lot. And he addressed thatbecause that was one of Leslie's questions that
she really wanted to ask. Itwas about the basil, what does he
(13:37):
do in preparation for training and forgames. That really resonated with her and
so I've rewhelmed and we listened tothat part of it again and yeah,
she really loved it and that wassuper helpful. So there's really good information
on here. And that's why Iwas I mean, I knew you're a
great interviewer. I've heard that before. I've heard you do it before.
(13:58):
I mean, but you really broughtout the right questions that end there is
very applicable informations that people will getout of this, and no doubt Mamat.
Yeah, well that's very kind ofyou. I appreciate you saying that.
I certainly have talked to a lotof soccer players in my previous life.
I guess it's a parallel life.I still do some of that stuff.
(14:20):
So it's very comfortable talking with Jordan, although I'd say he probably is.
He's the most distinguished soccer player thatI was spoken with. He's the
highest level. So I was alittle nervous. But obviously the reason we
talked with him is Alan's alluded toa couple of times out I didn't close
out the loop on that is thathe is a Type one diabetic. Jordan
(14:41):
is one of the most high profile, perhaps the most high profile T one
D athlete here in the United Statesand again on the international scene as well,
representing the US men's national team ashe does. So he really wanted
to visit with him about how heengages with his sport, how he stays
in that high performance zone. Alsowant to talk with him a little bit
(15:01):
about his relationship with his parents,with Anna and I of course being parents
of T one D ketos, andwe know that many of our listeners are
too. And I say the challengeAllen, having listened to Jordan do interviews
before and having read upon a bunchof his stuff regarding his foundation whatnot,
was to come up with maybe evenjust a couple of questions that he hadn't
(15:22):
had previously. And that was really, really hard. But I think I
think there are a couple of timesin the interview where I made him pause
and really consider his answer, andI think he came up with some really
good stuff. It was stuff certainlythat was helpful to me both as a
parent and also as a parent ofa kid who was engaged in a competitive
sports. So I'm hoping there's somegood stuff in there for our listeners.
(15:45):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah,no, And you do a really good
job bringing that out. And itsounded very personable. And if he had
been asked those questions a thousand times, so he did not come off that
way. He really just seemed likea cool guard talked to um and took
it to me. And and Idid like the personal touch at the end.
You know, he remembered spoil itand spoiling our listeners. I'm not
(16:10):
I'm not going to think them,but you can tell he remembered by the
fact that the person that put himin contact with you, you said their
full name and he chopped it offlike like a nickname, so he knew
exactly he knew, he remembered exactlywhat he did he had done on a
personal level. So that that saida lot to me about the kind of
(16:33):
person he is. Yeah, yeah, no, he seems like a really,
really good guy. And again Ithink it's some good stuff in now
for our listeners. I hope thereis for those parents who aren't big sports
fans, whose kids aren't really engagedin sports. I still think I hope
this interview will be of interest toyou. I asked you in a question
in regards to what is it likerepresenting your country? Because not you know,
(16:55):
very few of us are we goingto get to do that? I
thought, you know, that questionin and of itself elicited and interesting answer.
So I think there's some stuff inthere for everybody. But hopefully you
guys will enjoy that. All right, man, go ahead and run it,
all right. Diabets That's Da dashBee dash Tees is the brainchild of
(17:18):
a type one diabetes survivor and momwho wanted to increase awareness and visibility of
diabetes through cool, funny, uniqueT one D themed clothing. Diabetes also
supports fellow survivors and fighters with JDRF, receiving a donation for every shirt sold.
We need a cure, but untilthen, I want to have some
(17:40):
fun with our shirts and raise awarenessat the same time. Check out diabetes
dot com That's da dash Bee dashTees dot com and share the diabetes love
well. I am truly delighted ondads and Diabetes to be able to welcome
to the show. Somebody who Ihave been pursuing make I'm very stalkery.
(18:03):
That's not the case, but I'vebeen pursuing this guy for some time.
Because I am a real admirer ofhis success as an athlete and as a
soccer player. But this is perhapsthe most high profile athlete in the US
who also is Type one diabetic,and so of course that has a connection
to me and my family, andso again absolutely delighted to finally get him
(18:26):
on the show. Welcome Jordan Morristo Dad's and Diabetes. How are you.
I'm good, I'm good. Thankyou for having me. I'm excited
to be here. Not at all. That's really like I said, it's
really wonderful to have you on theshow. Those folks who maybe aren't as
familiar with Jordan, shame on youfirst and foremost. But that maybe because
you're not as familiar with soccer.I know it's a rapidly growing sport here
(18:48):
in the States, but still maybenot it's high profile as some others.
So quick background on Jordan. Hecurrently plays for Seattle Sounders in MLS,
for whom he has made over onehundreds, which seems ridiculous. Jordan,
because you're so young but still scoringthirty three goals, which I don't know
even know if you know this,it makes you the fifth all time top
goal scorer for the Sounders. Didyou know that. I didn't know that.
(19:11):
That's cool. It's pretty cool,right, So, yeah, So
Jordan is a goalhound. Whether he'splaying out wide or through the middle,
he knows his way to goal andhe's demonstrated that both for the Sounders and
also for the US men's national teamas well, for whom he has made
thirty nine appearances, scoring ten goalsso far. Jordan also won the MLS
(19:34):
Cup with Seattle Sounders in twenty sixteenand two nineteen. This last year's lay
Our current champs. And I've gotto tell you, Jordan, our connection
is through my daughter who is Typeone diabetic as well, and she and
I and some parents are not goingto appreciate this, Jordan, but she
and I were sat in a bar, she's twelve years old, cheering you
(19:57):
on from from Afar when you guystook that most recent title. We were
very excited to see you raise thecup and to come out of that victorious.
So congratulations and thank you very much. That was a that was a
fun one. It was in Seattle, so it was fun to plan for
our fans and uh and when atrophy it was exciting. Yeah, I
(20:17):
bet it was. I bet itwas so Jordan. As I mentioned earlier,
you're perhaps it's the most high profileUS athlete with type one diabetes,
and it just doesn't seem to haveslown you down at all in any way,
shape or form, both in termsof your career trajectory and quite frankly,
also your speed on the fields,which is ridiculous. You're one of
the fastest players I think I've everseen in MLS. But I know it
(20:41):
has been a challenge for you.So coming from a parent perspective as I
am and as many of our listenersare, just had a few questions for
you as it relates to your kindof early experiences with t ond that that
relationship with your parents and and alsothe impact it's it's had on your career,
and I'd love to explore those withyou for a few minutes. Yeah,
no problem. So first thing Iwant to ask you right out of
(21:03):
the game. You were diagnosed atage nine, and I know that you've
always played soccer. You've been involvedin other sports too, but you've always
been but if a phenom you werespotted early, and I know several coaches
suggested you go on to have aprofessional career. So I'm assuming that that
was that was one of your dreams. One of your dreams was to pursue
soccer and to be a professional soccerplayer. That being the case, once
(21:26):
you were diagnosed with type one diabetes, did that impact your thinking at all?
Did that negatively kind of affect thedreams that you had for yourself and
how did you overcome that? Yeah? I think definitely. I mean,
especially at first, I would definitelybe lying if I said that it didn't
affect me in those days where yourbudcheger isn't in the right spot, especially
(21:48):
at training. At first, Iremember just having some super frustrating times at
training because if your budcheger obviously istoo high or too low, it really
affects how you're feeling and on thefield, it's a big impact. So
when I was first trying to figureout how to manage my blood sugar and
deal with everything, I would havesome some rough days and some rough training
sessions where I felt like I didn'tknow if I was going to be able
(22:11):
to push through it. But Iremember something that stuck with me from the
very beginning was the very first questionmy mom asked the doctor when he told
me mad diabetes was uh, like, you know, Kenny, play sports.
That was what I love to do. And the doctors said the more
the better, um, just becauseit you know, keeps you active and
helps with a lot of things.And so I think I kind of took
(22:36):
that a little bit and ran withit. And like I said, there
are those tough days, but Ifeel like, um, I told myself
from an early age that I reallywasn't gonna like diabetes hold me back from
from accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, which was to play professionally. So
that's fantastic. Now again, thispodcast let's listened to by a whole myriad
(22:57):
of people asn't need it, youngand old, parents, kids, folks
with T one D, folks supportingfolks the T one D. We really
really run the gamut and in termsof our listenership, but we do know
that a bulk of our listeners areparents that supporting children with type one diabetes.
And so I'm wondering, speaking asa parent, were you aware as
(23:18):
a kid of the impact that typeone diabetes had on your parents, and
if so, what would you sayto type one kiddos and their parents and
as they kind of try and navigateand work through this new filter on their
relationship. So for your first question, pretty much not at all. I
(23:41):
didn't really really be effected my parents. I can't as I get older,
and I you know, kids forme are are definitely a little ways off.
But as I start thinking of thata little more, I can't imagine
how how difficult that is to watchyour kid go through something like that.
I have to deal with this ona daily basis, And so obviously as
(24:03):
a kid, I'm less inclined tolisten to my parents. They're telling me
to do all this. You knowmy dad. My dad's a doctor,
my mom's a nurse, so theyunderstand um diabetes and had a bunch of
helpful tips when I was younger.But um, as a kid, you
know, grown up, it's hardsometimes to listen to your parents. You
kind of think you can do itall on your own, or you get
a little annoyed, and I wouldbrush some of that stuff off, and
(24:26):
um, and I and now obviouslywhen I'm older, I'm so thankful for
all the help that they put in. My dad still helps me. I
don't know for the people that don'tknow. He's the team doctor for the
Sounders actually, so he's in thelocker rooms with me before games, and
I still, you know, consoldhim on what to do with with my
blesser before a game, whether um, you know how many cards I need
(24:48):
to eat um, or how muchI need to game myself by heading into
a game. So I and Iwould not be where I am to day
without them and my family. Andso obviously I always say as kids,
I understand and how difficult it issometimes listen to your parents, but that
they're doing it out of out oflove and support and they just wanted to
be healthy. And the big momentI think for me was that I remember
(25:11):
this pretty clearly. I think,you know, I always manage my butcher
here pretty well, but there wasthis one time after where I had a
pretty maybe one of my highest dayone season. My parents sat me down
or like, look, you needto take care of this for for your
health in the future. You know, I think we know that things can
come if you don't take care ofyour your diabetes. And they stap me
(25:33):
down and and kind of said thatto me, and it hit me where
I was like, man, Ijust I really really need to need to
take care of this. And soI think from that moment on, I
just had a really big focus,and I think of it. I'm a
very competitive person, and so everytime I go get my A ONEC now,
I wanted to be better than thelast time. If I think of
it, almost it's like that dailycompetition with myself that I'm going to keep
(25:56):
my butcherger in the right spot.But to all the kids out there,
I mean, just your parents aredoing it to help you and keep you
healthy. So it's interesting when yousay that, I had an echo going
through my head. So, asI mentioned, you're one of Ella's favorite
players from the men's game, afavorite player on the from the female side.
Obviously, it's any one of theLioness's obviously, but it's it's really
(26:19):
Kylie Lloyd. She loves Kylie Lloyd, and Kylie Lloyd has this adage that
she uses over and over again,and it's in her book. Right is
you're not in competition with your teammatesor the opposition. You're in competition with
yourself. Right You want to bea better version of yourself tomorrow than you
were today. And so when youwere saying that, you know, I
had those kind of echoes going aroundin my head. I think that's that's
that's very very talent. I dowant to get into the weeds with you
(26:41):
a little bit. You talked alittle bit about preparing for games effectively and
making sure that your blood sugar levelswhere they need to be, and you
know, I'd love to talk toyou a little bit about pregame preparation and
maybe some of the things you eat. I think some of that would be
really helpful too, well, certainlybe helpful to me from from a selfish
perspective. My daughter's playing competitive soccer, so I'd certainly be curious to know
(27:03):
some of what you're doing, andother parents would too. But before we
go into the weeds there, justbroadly speaking, what advice, just generally
would you have for a young athletewith type one diabetes who's thinking about how
to effectively manage their condition to ensurehigh performance. Because you can play with
diabetes with the blood sugar level atthree hundred. It doesn't feel pleasant as
(27:26):
I understand it. My daughter justdid that in Houston a couple of weekends
ago, and it was it wasone of those situations Jordan, She's going
through puberty. It didn't seem tomatter how much insulin you know, was
involved. We just couldn't get thenumber down. And she was determined to
play, and I monitored her likecrazy. Ultimately she played. We did
get the number down, but shecame off that field feeling as I'm sure
(27:48):
you can relate, wretched, right, she felt awful. So if you
want to try and ensure that youare managing those blood sugar level as well
so that you can have that highbeing, that kind of high performance range,
what are some of the things thatyou were thinking about? Yeah,
one hundred percent. I think Uh, first of all, Yeah, playing
with the high bucherer is the worst. And I think what I really struggled
(28:11):
with when I first got to Seattlewas I found that adrenaline played a big
role in spiking my butcher up.So I would come off the field,
um, like my bucher. Iwould go into a game at the right
level, you know, I liketo go in around like one forty one
fifty in that range, and uh, and I would come off the field
(28:33):
that like three hundred. I'm like, well, what how that doesn't make
sense? I'm out there running around, and I felt like it was adrenaline
coming back playing in front of sixtythousand fans. It was the first time
I'd ever done that, and orone, you know, play a few
times with the national team, butfirst time consistently doing that in the adrenaline
would cause the spike in my butcher. And so a couple of tricks that
I've worked with is I wear anomnipodum, which is the why the two
(28:56):
Bliss pumps. So I used towear a metronic where I'd have to take
the pump off while I played,so there was no no insult going into
my system. But I wear aMentronic now and I turned the basil rate
down to about twenty percent of itsof what it normally is at, but
it has that still that small amountgoing in while I'm playing. That has
seemed to help so much. Andcoming off the field at a at a
(29:18):
better level. Um like I've I'veworn it all of last year was really
my first year, and night andday I came off the field that a
at a better level. So justhaving that little bit of insulince still in
your system while you're playing is reallyimportant. And I guess if you're not
wearing an omnipodum, you know,giving yourself a little bits before the game
(29:41):
at halftime to just have that littlebit in your system. But like you
said, again, sometimes that doesn'twork. And that's the frustrating part about
diabetes as you do the same thingand sometimes it doesn't work. But I
think that's a big, big thingthat I've learned. Another one is obviously
diet, and that gets into yournext question a little bit. But what
I always yeah, what I alwaysrecommend for this is UM is getting into
(30:03):
a routine of what you eat IM because you understand how those foods are
going to affect your bud sergers.So it's not really a surprise. Like
if you eat different foods every singletime before the game one day, maybe
one game is gonna be high,one game is gonna end up low.
But if you have that routine thatyou get into or you kind of find
the foods that work for you goinginto training, going into games, you
(30:23):
aren't surprised by what your bluchergers aregoing to be and you know relatively where
you're going to go into the gameat. So for me, UM,
like with training, I have aroutine where UM you know, I have
like whole wheat toast and eggs andsome kind of protein, So you get
some cars in there, but youalso, um, not the really like
(30:45):
you know, sugary waffle cereal thatkind of stuff that are that's going to
cause the roller coaster effect on yourbutchergar. Spike it up really quickly,
then you give yourself instant it comesback down, that kind of thing.
So staying away from those kind ofcars, but um, having like some
holy toast and eggs and a proteinis kind of my I do that before
every training, so I kind ofknow how it's going to affect my blecherer.
(31:07):
And then you find the food againfor a game that you feel like
going into it, it is goingto get you into the right spot.
And so it's a little bit hardbecause it's different for everyone. Everyone's body
reacts differently differently to certain types offood. But for me, I always
stress getting into a routine like thatis so so important. And like also
(31:29):
how far before the game you wantto eat? So before a game,
I like to eat three hours beforebecause then like your big meal three hours
before because then going to the game, you don't have all this insulin on
board and you kind of again youknow hopefully where your blecher is gonna be
when you get into that routine.So I know that's kind of a lot
of information, but it's been somethingthat's helped me out a ton. No,
(31:52):
that's amazing. I mentioned that wasthat was primarily go training pre training
routine is do you do something similarfor games? Yeah, exactly, So
I do the exact same thing whereI eat three hours before a game and
I have you know, if it'sa night game, I have some pasta
chicken vegetables where you get the cardsin, but then you have like some
(32:15):
protein some vegetables there too, andit's you know, it's not going to
spike your bloods set up really quick. And then eating three hours before the
game, you don't go into thegame with a time in your system.
So yeah, it's really really helpful. I know a lot of our listeners
that can really appreciate you sharing somuch detail. That's fantastic. So we're
talking a lot about the things thatyou're doing right, the things that are
(32:37):
going on, and you're a kindof immediate world in regards to diet,
in regards to insulin management, myblood sugar management, and so on.
I want to open the question upa little bit. How have your teammates
over the years responded to your typeone diabetes and have you had any negative
responses from folks, and if so, how have you managed that or have
(32:58):
you been like you know what,I don't whatever? You know? You
do you what's been your attitude inthat regard if you have those situations.
To be honest, I have beenpretty lucky. I haven't had too many
negative UM responses. I think UM. I get a lot of these questions
about younger kids, especially to UMat school. You know, you go
(33:20):
back to school and younger kids arewondering what UM, what you're doing?
And maybe you know your kids aren'talways the nicest. They can make jokes
and things like that. So Iget a lot of questions about how I
handled that as a kid, orsimilarly, what I tell teammates, and
what I always tell kids or oror or athletes with their teammates is is
be open about it. I thinksometimes people are just curious. And I
(33:44):
know I went through phases where Ididn't want to explain what I was doing
or feel ashamed or whatever, andand I think that that is a really
difficult time. But what I learnedis just to be proud of myself for
dealing with with diabetes on top ofeverything else you have going on in your
life. You you you're dealing withthis this extra thing, and it's really
(34:05):
difficult, and I think just beingopen and being proud about it is UM
is something that that's really special andempowering. And so when I UM talk
to kids, talk to athletes aboutwhat to say, I'm just like,
always be open and honest, andif someone doesn't it is mean or whatever,
just just just don't worry about it. You're you're you should be proud
of everything that you're doing and everythingthat you're you're having to deal with on
(34:29):
top of UM, on top ofbeing an athlete. So UM Yeah,
that that's kind of my general generaladvice. The next question I have in
regards to advocacy, But before Igo there, I mentioned earlier in the
interview that you're one of the quickestplayers I've seen play in MOS. You're
rapid on the field, so Ithought it might be fine just to sack
a quick sixty seconds and do arapid fire around with you and to fire
(34:51):
some questions at you. It's oneall the other. Are you ready for
this? Yeah? Yeah, definitelycool. Here we go, all right,
Seahawks or Sonics Sonics. Oh okay, now this one, folks who
have type one, we'll get thispeanut butter or peanuts, peanut butter.
(35:14):
Okay, good, excellent, Gonnaput him in the smoothie, right,
get him in the smoothie? Allright? Yeah, okay. This next
one is a little obscure again forour listeners. You don't follow soccer,
but I think maybe you'll pick upthe thread here. Eleven or thirteen.
That's a tough one. I've beenthirteen my whole whole career growing up,
(35:35):
so that's a pretty special one.But playing for the national team is such
an honor, so but I guessI'll go with thirteen. All right,
I'll ask you at the national teamroom in just a second. But I
thought maybe you'd lean to thirteen.I think I know the answer to this
one too. But twenty sixteen ortwenty nineteen, oh my goodness, I'm
gonna go two thousand and sixteen justbecause it was the first one, and
(35:58):
it was it was super exciting.But I'm playing at home was cool too,
But winning that first one was specialokay, fantastic Starbucks or SBC Starbucks.
Yeah yeah, stuck all right.And the last one. I'm going
to put you on the spot herenow because I know you've an exposure to
one of these leagues already, butI'm just curious it's where your head's at,
because I know you're an ambitious guy. Bundesliga or English Premier League,
(36:22):
Premier League, Ah, yes,sure, very good. Yeah do you
have a team? No, notreally, not really. As a kid,
I followed Arsenal a bit, butI've never really had a huge allegiance
to any team. My grandfather wasan Arsenal fan, so I called myself
an Arsenal sympathizer. They're not myteam, but I can't follow there you
(36:43):
go? Who who's your Who's yourteam? Team in the Championship actually called
Nottingham Forest. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're you're too good for
them. But but maybe we caneat out Austin. I would love you.
Yeah, I mean, what wolfis there? He's I really like
Josh waf He's going to be He'sgoing to be great. So I think
(37:06):
so too. I think so too. Absolutely well, thanks being such a
good sport. With that, comingback to my last couple of questions here,
I mentioned earlier in the call thatyou are again probably the most high
profile US athlete with t wen Dcertainly one of them. What do you
consider, Jordan to be your roleor responsibility within the T one D community,
(37:27):
either as a role model in regardsto advocacy or education. It's a
bit of a leading question because Iknow what you're doing with the foundation.
I know want you to talk aboutthat, for sure, but I'd just
like to hear it from the horse'smouth. Where do you kind of see
yourself within that community and what doyou consider to be your responsibility within the
community. Yeah, definitely. Ithink when I came back from from college,
(37:49):
I with my family, we cameup with the idea to start this
foundation, and really with our mottoor mantra I guess you could say,
is to educate, inspire and supportkids living with with tund and so we
of course do some fundraising for eventsand things like that, but there's much
bigger and better organizations out there forfor fundraising for a cure, and really
(38:10):
my whole goal is outreach to kidsand um trying to inspire them to to
know that diabetes can't hold you backfrom doing what you what you want to
do. And I know as akid it would have been so I had
you know, people I looked upto they were playing UM professionally with diabetes,
but I was never able to talkto them. And so my whole
goal, my whole idea is tooutreach to kids to try and UM show
(38:37):
them that they can accomplish anything theywant to accomplish with with type one.
How could folks find out more aboutthe work that you're doing with the foundation,
Jordan, UM, we have awebsite, Just Jordan Morris Foundation dot
com. Um It has kind ofa list of all of our events and
pages and obviously this year it's alittle a little bit tougher to have those
(39:00):
events, but it kind of haswhat we've done in the past and UM
we're going to continue continue that inthe future. But yeah, Just Jordan
Morris Foundation dot com is a goodplace to go. Check it out.
One of the neat things that youoffer is the schedules allowing and everything if
everything lines up, you provide theopportunity for children with type one to meet
(39:21):
you after MLS games. Yeah,so that's that's one of one of my
favorite programs with the with the foundationand something that we started UM when when
I maybe my second year actually inthe league, UM where after every home
and away game I meet with aTND kid in their family and bring them
down on the field and UM justanswer their questions and let them experience that
(39:45):
time on the field a little bit. But it's been so rewarding for me
as well to meet all these thesekids and these families. So it's it's
been awesome. A bit of afunny story to tell you. So Ella
had signed up to meet you whenwe lived in Colorado. She was going
to be one of the Rapids games. I don't if you remember it,
but it was a game it gotsnowed out. Yeah, so we weren't
able to meet you, and sowe then moved to Texas and we live
(40:08):
in Austin. At the time,Austin didn't have a team, so we
asked if maybe we could switch acrossto an FC Dallas game and we drive
up for it and we got toldyet, no problem. So we did
that, and then of course Austinannounce say we're going to have a team,
and we said, yeah, canwe do Austin next year? But
that yeah, definitely, so lookingforward to meeting then, I hope my
(40:30):
final question for you, I guessI just want to give an opportunity just
to kind of share out this experiencebecause you've had to ch an incredible career.
You've done so many incredible things,perhaps the pinnacle of them being that
you have represented your nation. Rightyou're a member of the US men's national
team. The fact you have typeone diabetes is it's by the bye.
(40:52):
It's a challenge for you. It'ssomething that you have to deal with each
and every day. But it hasn'tslowed you down. It hasn't stopped you.
It hasn't stopped you getting to thevery pinnacle of your career. No
all of us are going to getthere. Those are T one d or
those that don't have type one diabetes. Not all of us are going to
represent either the US or in mycase, England at those very highest levels.
(41:12):
So can you just take a momentto explain to our audience, Jordan,
what that feels like. What doesit feel like to put on your
nation shirt and to take to thefield and hear the national anthem and know
you're representing your country. Yeah,it is, um such an unbelievable experience,
and I think, um, asa kid, of course, I
was dreaming about, um, youknow, saying my country and playing for
(41:37):
the national team. But I neverknew that that would or or you know,
I thought that that would that wouldcome true. There were a lot
of obstacles in order to get there, and not too many people get to
have that opportunity, and so everytime I put on the jersey, I
never take it for granted. It'ssuch a unbelievable honors, as I said,
(41:59):
and just amazing experience. So um, yeah, you know, it'll
it'll still sometimes doesn't feel real,and it's just um, such a such
a yeah, such an honor.It is just really how I can how
I can sum it up. Sothe next you know, my big goal
is is to hopefully one day playin a in a World Cup, and
(42:20):
that's, um, that's what I'mwhat I'm shooting for, So that would
be absolutely amazing. I know thereare some folks on the other side of
the pond who considered that, youknow, the Champions League to be the
competition, but for me, I'ma purist. I've always believed the World
Cup is the absolute pinnacle. Ithink you're playing a World Cup. You
know, you're playing at World Cupquarterfinal or semi final even and you know
if you can make to a final, I mean that for me would just
(42:43):
be I don't know how you caneclipse that. So the fact that the
opportunity is is remarkable, and you'vedone an incredible job to get there.
I want to just close very quickly. Jordan, on the story I mentioned
earlier, I think it's important ourlisteners hear this because this speaks to your
character, if they haven't already heardthrough this interview, just how much of
a stand up guy you are.This will drive home the point. So
(43:04):
at over a year ago, Iwas doing some media work in Colorado Springs
and got friendly with one of theplayers for the Switchbacks, an awesome guy
also called Jordan Jordan Schweitzer, Yeah, who's now with Phoenix in the USL
really really good guy. Anyway,he took an interest in my daughter because
she's a competitive soccer player, andhe knew that she had the challenge of
(43:25):
T one D And of course youand he are friends, and so he
had some experience of that and hehad an appreciation for what she was dealing
with, So, unbeknownst to Ellaand I, he reached out to you.
I don't know, I guess heasked you would you record a message.
A few days later, I receivea text from Jordan Schweitzer with a
(43:49):
video from you, and you recordedlike a minute and a half worth of
a video just speaking directly to mydaughter and telling her how proud you were
of her and you know how shecan do anything, and you think it's
awesome that she's playing competitive soccer andnever just let t one D slow her
down or stop her. And I'vegot to tell you that had such an
incredible impact on it, and atleast of all because that evening we went
(44:12):
shopping at the grocery store and youhappened to be on one of the cereal
boxes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was a couple of years ago.
I remember that. Yeah, absolutely, So that was so so very
kind of you to do that,and I just if it. Honestly,
I'm just very excited to have theopportunity to thank you personally for that,
because that meant a lot to mydaughter and to our family, and just
(44:36):
wanted to say thank you. Yeah, of course, no, no problem
at all. I think I definitelyremember that, I remember Schwitz reaching out,
and I didn't connect the dots directlybefore this interview, but that that's
amazing. I'm so glad that sheenjoyed it, and please give her my
best again, and that's just again, that's the real goal. And um,
what I enjoyed doing is is hopefullyproviding some sort of inspiration to two
(45:00):
kids. So I'm really glad youliked it, and please please give her
my best. Absolutely, I will, for sure, and hopefully we'll see
you this next year when Seattle cometo Austin and get beaten by Austin FC.
There you go, we have somethingto say about it. Jordan Morris,
it's been an absolute pleasure. Thankyou for being so generous with your
(45:21):
time today joining us here on dad'sand diabetes. Good luck next season for
Seattle Sounders. We'll be cheering youon from AFAR. Awesome sounds good,
No worries, Talk to you soon. Did you know seventy five percent of
EMTs can't give glucagon and that there'sseventy five percent use Gluco's jowl instead.
Additionally, did you know that ninetypercent of gewels on the market are for
(45:44):
endurance athletes, which means they don'tkick in for nearly twenty to forty minutes
to thrive and thrive. Junior Necklacesby Gluco's Revival enables he one D's although
supporting them to get quick access tofast acting, potentially life saving glucos.
To learn more about their unique necklacesand about why their t one d founder
(46:07):
created them, check out Glucose revivaldot com. That's Glucose revival dot com.
(46:31):
Hey, this is Shane Malcolm andthis is Jordan Schweitzer. We're the
creators of boot Bags. Fashionable,durable, washable boot bags are the most
convenient way to carry your cleats toand from training your games. Check us
out at bootbags dot do.
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