November 29, 2025 • 54 mins
Thanks to Podmatch for connecting Scott Martin to us at OneLegUpAlex: here; here is more on Scott!
Scott Martin is an award-winning soccer coach, educator, and advocate for the disability community. Holding an advanced national coaching license, he has spent over 30 years coaching at the select youth, high school, and college levels, earning Coach of the Year honors four times and leading multiple teams to state championships. His expertise has connected him with top coaches in the U.S. and internationally.
Beyond the field, Martin is a dedicated educator in Wisconsin and the host of the Life’s a Road Trip podcast, where he highlights stories of resilience and disability advocacy. After surviving a life-threatening illness that led to the loss of his hands and feet, he became a powerful voice for amputee abilities and prosthetic advancements. His contributions to research at the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University have helped shape innovations in the field.
Recognized for his advocacy, Martin serves as a Global Advisor for Billion Strong, a worldwide disability organization. His journey has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive, and he is the author of Play From Your Heart (Library Tales Publishing), a memoir that chronicles his remarkable path of perseverance, reinvention, and the unwavering spirit that has guided him forward.
My Podmatch affilate link: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/onelegupalex
Scott Martin is an award-winning soccer coach, educator, and advocate for the disability community. Holding an advanced national coaching license, he has spent over 30 years coaching at the select youth, high school, and college levels, earning Coach of the Year honors four times and leading multiple teams to state championships. His expertise has connected him with top coaches in the U.S. and internationally.
Beyond the field, Martin is a dedicated educator in Wisconsin and the host of the Life’s a Road Trip podcast, where he highlights stories of resilience and disability advocacy. After surviving a life-threatening illness that led to the loss of his hands and feet, he became a powerful voice for amputee abilities and prosthetic advancements. His contributions to research at the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University have helped shape innovations in the field.
Recognized for his advocacy, Martin serves as a Global Advisor for Billion Strong, a worldwide disability organization. His journey has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive, and he is the author of Play From Your Heart (Library Tales Publishing), a memoir that chronicles his remarkable path of perseverance, reinvention, and the unwavering spirit that has guided him forward.
My Podmatch affilate link: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/onelegupalex
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, well here on the One Leg Up Network,
I have a very special guest on my show. As
you know, I like to talk sports and athletics and
adaptability and someone that does have all those qualities of
love and sports and adapting to his life circumstances. Scott Martin.
And Scott firstly, thanks for joining. I mean, I'm reading
(00:24):
your story here through Palm Match. You were a rising
college soccer coach, and I want to start there because
it seems like we cant bond right there on sports
and coaching. So tell us about your coaching career and
then how you had to adapt to disability through the process.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I actually got started in my coaching as a freshman
at college. The coach at the University of Jerry Stark,
and when I arrived, he knew that I was a forward,
and first training session he came over to me and said,
tell you what. I wanted to take everything you know
about attacking and flip it and run the defense, Like
(01:05):
what the hell? So I started doing a lot of
research and I came up with noticing how mathematics had
to play in soccer, and I started working with that
and presented to Jerry about my theories and what I
had learned from the mathematics side and applied it. So
(01:26):
he got me through the first couple of years of that.
And also he was the president of a youth soccer
club who he got me into coaching. And it was
with I think ten year olds. They didn't want to match.
They scored like three goals the year before or something,
so we turned that around. I think that maybe they
did five hundred first year, and everything was you know,
it was like starting. I actually went in alex with
(01:47):
a broadcast journalism degree in mind and I switched it
to education and physical education. So following that, you try
to get into coaching, but everybody was high for basketball
and football. Uh after I got out of school, but
I ended up in social studies. So anyway, I worked
at the high school level and also the club level
(02:11):
and just started working my way up the ladder and
proving myself and attending camps, going overseas because I came
into opportunities to do that, and coaching during summer and
doing quite well over there, and applying for a position
at the university level at a Division three instead of
being someone's assistant at a D one. I wanted to
do what I wanted to do, and.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, I'm so happy that you pursue that now, the
youth sports and the and the youth the kids watching
them later. Second, thank you, I'll add that out, Okay, Scott,
no I was saying, I've been around sort of camps
(02:55):
for baseball and watching how these athletes are giving back
to those younger kids, and it seems like you were
doing that at the college level. So when you're doing
these camps, what's it like to watch the youth sports
be really passionate. I feel like today's youth sports is
so different, just because maybe they're more on their iPads
and less on the field, So to be on the
(03:16):
field with these kids must be really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, you've got a really good point there. I think
that my last coaching stint was with some kids that
I feel probably were grew up right in the middle
of all of that, and you know, before the match turn,
you know, put your phone away, do this, do that,
and to try to gain refocus. But I also think
(03:39):
that the kids were growing up in the helicopter parents
stage where everybody got a medal, and that started rubbing
me the wrong way. Alex in that you know, there's
something in athletics about competition that you need to be
able to get out of it and just deal with it.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh absolutely, even when you're running a race like I
do a lot of time, I mean I want to
I might be a little slower, but I still want
to finish ahead of people. You know, it's like yeah, yeah, nature, yeah,
So okay, So you bring you have this coaching style,
and then you take the mentorship that you sort of
got from your mentors, right and bring into the programs.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It seems like yeah, but I didn't grew up with
a whole lot of specific soccer. It was picked up
in our front yards and just messing around and getting involved,
and I was just into everything. So we finally had
a German teacher that organized and was running a men's
(04:39):
program that was with twenty and thirty year olds. A
lot of them were coming from Europe, a lot of
them had played with professional teams, some even with their
national team programs and pulled us into it. At So
at sixteen, I was playing against all these guys that
were in their twenties and thirties, had a hell a
lot more experience. So I guess I was thrown into
(05:02):
the fire, thrown into the water, just thrown in and
figure it out sort of a situation. So my upbringing
with soccer specifically was a little different.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And how was it playing against these thirty I mean,
because some of these kids, even in college, looked like
they could be twenty five or thirty nine eight hits.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's literally scared the crap out of me. I remember
one of my first time starting was at our first
tournament and it was the semi final of a major tournament.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
What they did was this or was it which team
was this?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
This is with a club called the Wisconsin Rapids Kickers.
And at that time, back in the seventies, you had
North American Soccer League going, but they did not have
a feeder system. Their feeder system was guys in their
upper thirties coming from Europe.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And then my day job, I actually was talking about
the New York Cosmos. I think they were part of
all that st yes.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Oh yeah, with Beckenbauer and Pila of course, you know
you had Kroif that was playing one of teams. Just
so many people that I started watching and observing and
learning from. So it was just different back then, wasn't
very organized.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Right, and then obviously you take playing against these guys
and what did you learn from that the most? Like
what'd you got to have that the most?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Work your ass off in order to compete? Like what
you were talking about, Alex, I just want to go
out well, we want to win, and we end up.
Actually we're a small club in central Wisconsin. We won
three straight championships and we were beating all of these
teams because they didn't think anything much of us, you know,
(06:39):
fitting for everything that I got into.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Do you wish the MLS was around then? I mean,
could you have made it that far?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I would have wanted to try. We just didn't get
any exposure and no one again was digging down and
pulling us up. The avenue was college and there was
displacement between the North American Soccer League and pulling from
college players. And actually I was in college basically at
(07:08):
the time when the NASL was out coming out, that
was before MLS came in.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I know, I've been around. We just had a successful
campaign at we even get the conference championship at my
alma mater, Queen's College. So I've been around for fifteen years.
The soccer crew soccer guys are I don't say rowdy,
but you guys are a bit wild out. You know,
you have a lot of fun out there and very
competitive and in just a interesting bunch of bera. How
(07:33):
was around your teammates back and they were all a
bit rowdy or what?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I had my first beer in the van of Jeff
vaughters van. One of our teammates had first beer at sixteen.
And that first tournament I was mentioning I learned how
to drink out of a boot. Have you ever done that? Alex?
I'm not a real boat boat. It was at this tournament.
It was a tradition and all the team was to
(08:00):
sit around and whoever was the second to the last
person to finish had to buy the next boot. Well,
myself and my teammates we never had to buy, so
we proved ourselves on the field. We proved ourselves in
the pub.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I love that. And up in Wisconsin, was there, I
mean with the Badger or something you would go watch?
Was they a good soccer program back there back then?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Or I always I grew up Alex always wanted to
play in Camp Randall as a running back. Okay, my
actually my final match in college. We played in Camp Randle,
so I was able to do it. I remember we
were in the guest locker room, of course, but walking
down towards the field and here's you know, I'm in
(08:48):
Camp Randle and we're playing soccer. They had a good program.
There were some really good college programs at Division one, two,
and three when I was in.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I love it. And you know, it sounds like you've
been a Wisconsin kid your whole life, right, so you
kind of grew up there. So that's pretty special to
walk into that hometown field and just be part of that. Now,
what was your well, you said an attack or was
that your position or were you shifting around?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
What was your I actually, when Jerry shifted me back
to central defense, he allowed me to carte blanche on
how he wanted to do it. So I pulled Dave
Schadlin in front of me, and then I put Joe
Cartier to my left and Joe Avento to my right,
and then we picked players to put in the midfield,
(09:36):
and we played a system where it was always working
off of each other. Because I had Joel to my
left and Joe to my right. We had to work
out a whistle technique about being able to make sure
that everybody was doing But the key we found was communication.
Try to shut down the opponent in the midfield and
don't let him get into a position so they have
(09:58):
a better chance to score. And that was our focus
and that's what we did. We did slide tackles like
you didn't want to come and play us. Man, My
cheeks were just bloody all the time. So that's just
how we played, just down and dirty.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Well, you know, And of course i'd say how how
the card system went, because obviously sometimes you get the
car to get the where was it? Did you get
any cards in your career where you had one?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I had one yellow card and that was for standing
with one foot partially into the center circle when the
opponent was kicking off. What the hell? That's the only one. Now.
I have had a yellow card intentionally as a coach,
and two years ago when we won this Lady State
championship at a red card, intentionally to get myself kicked
(10:45):
out to turn the team around.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So they managers do that in baseball. They got injected
to turn.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The exactly round, I mean exactly we get.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I feel like we're gonna talk for hours because I
feel like we have some connection here. Now I understand,
and you said your coach now, but you have had
a long journey from when you were a rising college
soccer coach to being a coach. Now, tell us about your.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Journey, man. Well, I after my illness, I was four months,
five months in the hospital total and relearning everything. It
was during the season, so my assistant took over. But
towards the end, I transferred hospitals and our All American
goalkeeper would come over in the afternoons, throw me in
(11:26):
a wheelchair, take me out to her truck, put me
in her truck, put the wheelchair in the back, and
take me over to training sessions and I would train her.
So we had four more years as nationally ranked program.
But that's when I ended up just focusing too much
on working and that's when I ran square into depression.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And that's where Where were you coaching at the time?
Pardon my england on that. Where were you coaching at
the time?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
A University Wisconsin etoclaire.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Okay, so you were in the University of Wisconsin system.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So oh yes, oh yeah, oh I've stayed here within
I played in the University of Wisconsin system coach there.
So that's when I just ran into that wall of
depression and I just quit and I sold everything didn't
fit in my car, my cat and I headed out West.
I ended up at Gonzaga for a little bit, which.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I'm flesh eating scares the shit out of me personally.
So how did you? How did this come about? And
wasn't sort of like I always finding this kind of
illness comes about randomly, like one random day it starts happening,
or was this overtime that you'd start noticing things going back?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I had always wondered how the heck I contracted it? Well,
we were going to be heading to Europe. Friend and
I put together we had picked college players from across
the country and we were heading over to the three
major tournaments in Europe. And whenever I went over, I
had opportunities to play. The year before I got sick,
(12:57):
a guy I had met years before ran into him
now all of a sudden, he's the Olympic team coach,
and he asked me to play in an exhibition with them.
So I knew that I would probably get these opportunities.
So I was still in training. I think that what
happened was I was on a weight bench and sweating
(13:18):
and back at that time when I got sick, nobody
cleaned things off, so there could have been in someone
else's sweat the bacteria and maybe I had an open
pimple or something on my back, whatever it came in,
because what they ended up finding was the mass of
the illness, so to speak, was in my lower my
(13:40):
back muscles. So it kind of piecing that together, but
nothing ever came out of it for sure what the
source was.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
You say illness with a cringe, because I feel like
you don't feel into yourself ill. You don't have an illness.
It's just something that happened to you and you adapted
to it. And see I get from you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, well definitely another way. I haven't always been like this.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It just happened to you and you adapted to it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It took me a little while, Alex. I mean, you
know that the maleness we're brought up to, you know,
be that you know, tough guy and all that, and
you know we're supposed to skip everything around and we
can handle everything. Now. When I came out, it was stupid.
I didn't look I didn't focus on my head, and
I definitely didn't focus on what was going on with
(14:23):
me emotionally, and I ended up paying for it.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Are you look, we're at Thanksgiving right? Are you thankful
to be coaching now too many years later? I mean
that has to be a blessing to you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, I've never thought about it because I always
just do it. You know, I don't think, oh shit,
I have to go get ready for this or I
have to how am I going to figure this out anymore?
Because I put in my work just like as a player,
I figured everything out. So I am just this is
what I do. Man, So I don't think about it
(14:56):
at all anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So it's almost like second nature this. But you say
it took a while to get you there. I guess
that's why you wrote the book Play your Heart to
talk about how you got to where you are right now,
through the illness, through the disability, if you will.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I always had the statement, even when I went
back to my early days of coaching, I would always
talk to players about turn off your brain and play
from your heart. So, you know, shorten it up. A
title you don't have to turn off your brain doesn't
really fit, so play from your Heart Boom. That's a
killer title, and nobody else has a book out with
that title really to mention, so that just fit naturally.
(15:35):
It's it fit perfectly into what the book's all about.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I want you to have a palm Match for making this
connection because they have the right guess and the right people.
I mean, Scott, you are such a great story. You
have a great story, and you're a great teller of
your story, and pob match does that. I mean, I'm
sure you found a lot of different like minded people
on there that can want to talk to you about
this story. Here.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I've just been blown away from me reaching out and
finding people like you that are just yeah, let's do this,
And it's that sort of attitude, Yeah, let's let's record,
let's do this together, you know, same attitude that's going
into it. So I think I would I would love
to do an ad for podcasts. Maybe we're doing that
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Hey, you know you talk about winning state chambone, but
I think you just said that where are you coaching now?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If I'm go I ask, I am at Wisconsin. But
where I'm at right now, Alex is that I'm on
hiatus because I'm doing all the book promotions. The book
drops June nine, two days before the World Cup opens,
so I'm really just kicking back. I'm doing so much
freaking work. I don't have the time.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
All right that does this. Because it's clear you have
prosthetic hands. Do you have about prositic feet as well?
Or where to talk about the proast seasons part of it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I use what's called AFOs for their braces because they
I lost half of feature on my feet. You know,
the first thing I thought about when they told me
we ampitated your hands and partsy feels like there goes
my playing career.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I'm done, and you didn't know that till you woke up.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
In other words, exactly, my family actually had to make
the decision let me die, which is that's how sick
I was. I was supposed to. I only lived because
I was an athlete. That's what I was told. My
heart was beating one hundred and seventy beats per minute
for a week. I mean, the white blood cells that
were going through my body and every whatever. But yeah,
everything has just been extremely busy for me right.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Now opening up about this, I'd say the maleness of
this has to be quite a part of the journey,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, it gives me a chance to reflect. And there
are times in the book when I mentioned prior to
a match going over and intentionally shaking the posing teams
coach's hand. Most of the time it's a male, and
most of the time those males flinch or look and
(17:57):
do a double take. And and that's when I know
what I got as the opponent, because if they treat
me and don't it doesn't reflect on anything. Then I know, okay,
we're going to be a regular match. But I can
tell if they flinch or look at me or just
kind of get a smile, or oh, this guy's disabled,
I got him, shit, I got you.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Now that makes you want to actually beat the shit
out of them, then.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yes, exactly, there's the maleness again. Well, that's just the competitiveness,
that's all.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Absolutely, And it seems like that hasn't changed. Now in
those five months you had to recover from this, were
you worried you were going to lose your competitive edge
or did that competitive edge get you through this?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No? I lost forty pounds of muscle. Most of it
was muscle I was told I couldn't move. I thought it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Oh, and I mean competitive, I mean the mental competitive edge,
because I also feel, yeah, people with disabilities in general
have to have that competitive edge. That's what gets us
to the next level because people do look at us
like some kind of way. So if we have that
competitive mindset in our head, we're gonna get other than
the other guy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh yeah, well that's what got me into gaining those
forty pounds back. I was supposed to just be laying
when I was in ICU, just be recovering bull crap.
I started doing working on my muscles, working on an
abdomen so when I got over to rehab, I was
ready for even more training and I blew through everything
(19:22):
that they had. So that's the competitiveness I relied on
in order to get me through to the point where
I could go back to work. So I did it
all much faster than what they expected. So what you
were saying too, it definitely holds true that everything comes
back to just the competitive desire.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And I love it that you haven't lost that and
that you kind of regain that too along the way.
The story, I got so much I can go with this.
Follow soccer off the field, Like do you watch soccer
religiously as well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Premier League and US men and US women.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And I saw today the US men's team has had
a research and look, I think they saw what the
women and saying we're gonna like.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
What they just put on the Yeah, and Uruguay. Uh.
They know how to pass now, I mean nets come around,
They're able to go back, They're able to switch fields,
They're able to try to penetrate effectively and from different ways.
They like to come down to flanks, which tells me
I would be able to I would, you know, prepare
for that quite a bit. But I like what they're
(20:34):
doing US women. They're not retooling, they're taking on a
different persona of what's going to be coming. So the
next Women's World Cup, I think this is going to
be the best US women's team ever.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Do you wish like guys, guys in as like Donovan
and Me and Ham would stick around and consult Team USA.
I feel like they kind of distanced themselves with them,
are not really about them as much as they should be.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
But they've been well. Me and Ham hasn't been you know,
on the women's side, they're not distant or well. The
press is playing up some of the old guard from
the men's teams about how they go out and just
tackle and just play tough and and that sort, and
they they're they're bringing it out in the press that
the old guard is ridiculing the young guys, the new ones.
(21:21):
I can see it somewhat. But there's something about what
Patino was just put on the field for the last round.
I wish he had more time, though, Man, I wish
he had more time because he's got something going now.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
If even in in where you're at now, do you
ever have aspissions to coach beyond Wisconsin? Like, is there
some other goal you want to reach here?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
If a college contacted me and said, hey, let's talk.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, let's talk, and I would advise people not to
hire you based on a Tooken disabled coach, because there
is that situation going on too, like people get hired
because they're disabled because they are minor. No, we would
be high for our brains, damn it.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah. Well, you know what, though, if there could be
some ads out there that see the media side of
it as well, I mean the recruiting side of it
with the book, if the book pops, there's a recruiting
tool right there. It would open so many doors and
break through that. I have had players that first look
at me as what the hell is this? But after
(22:24):
we've been working with each other for a couple of weeks,
we got them. I get them to buy in, look
past this and look at me and what I'm trying
to present you.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And it's so interesting mention the handshake, because I feel
like that's a big part of soccer, right, the whole
handshake thing. So obviously it to you, it's a very
important part of soccer. Now you just do it a
different way and coach up to adapt to that, I guess,
or just you know, see you as you.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I think, so that itself takes some time. I mean,
when I came back to Wisconsin, I would come across
referees that remembered me even as a player. Uh oh, okay,
where you bean at. But there were so many coaches
that didn't know who I was, and I had to
prove myself well after a couple of seasons, especially after
winning state championship and stuff. But oh yeah, they look
(23:13):
past it. But there's still the maleness. It's still a problem.
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You mentioned your family made this decision and I'm sure
after that decision was very difficult. I mean, my goodness
to be in that position had to be very tough
for them. I'm ady right about that in the book.
And b B how supportively they've been ever since. I
mean it seems like, are they tighten it with you
or you tightened with them? How close are you with
your family today?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
When I resigned my position at from coaching and just
left and head of that West, everybody was wondering, Oh,
what's what's going on? You know, what's you going to do?
Because there was concern and I totally get it. You know,
we had a there was and there are two chapters
in the book about the ten million dollars UH lawsuit
(24:02):
against a physician that we say missed diagnosis. Following that,
there was very a great deal of concern for me
in how it would handle things because I had resigned
my position, and then we had the court trial, the
male practice trial, and and I left and everybody was
(24:23):
wondering what was going on?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So I get it that I was going to hear
a ten million dollar lawsuit with the doctors or what?
Who did you?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah? I originally showed up to the emergency room and
the guy didn't had a temperature of what one O
two point six one or two point eight and sent
me home, didn't take my blood test. If they would
have tested the blood, we you know, our side was
that it would have shown that there's a problem going
(24:55):
on with the white blood cell count. And because he
missed that, we lost two days before I went back
in the next day and fell into the coma and
somebody found it. All my organs were shutting down. Oh
so we look back at that day, you know when
he let me go.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Do you were in the hospital for five months? How
long was the coma?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
One month?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
One month? Yeah, and then the rest of the four
months were to get back out there and work your ass.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Well, I love hearing stories like that and people like
that that just won't let their circumstances define them and
stop them from living life. Now, do you travel with
your team?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
No, not at this We just around the state. I
mean we've gone out of state sometimes with the last
team that I had, I don't go to Europe anymore
with I don't do that anymore with kids from across
the country. Bring up a good point. I haven't done
that in a while, and I do miss that competitive
side going to some of the major tournaments over there,
(25:56):
But no, I haven't really gotten into the travel part
at all.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I want to. I want to ask you about your story,
and it seems like you want to do an awareness
as well or what you're dealing with necrotizing FLASHIAT is
what it's called.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Very good and you got it on the.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
First read too, but no, you're more than a coach.
I feel like you want to bring that awareness now.
And I guess that's sort of like the recruiting tool, right,
Like if we bring more awareness to this and catching it?
Is that what it is about catching it earlier or
catching it at all? Like what's your thought on it?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
As a media love to call it the flash any disease.
It doesn't eat flash. It's just what the body does
to protect us. And what happens because somebody the body
releases somebody white blood cells into the system. They tended
to gather up in the extremities and therefore there was
no blood flow or lack of blood flow, and that's
where the amputations had to occur because it was that's
(26:50):
what was killing me. It's not just necessarily bringing that
up because that's not in the media. There haven't been
any cases coming up. Well, hell, Trump takes over every
every inch of volume in the news that if there
were any it wasn't it wouldn't be able to get
out into the media. What I want to get into
is trying to help with the disabled community because talking
(27:14):
about Trump again, with some of the things that he's
been proposing and talking about his just his demeanor against
the disabled people, I want to try to help. It's
a splintered organization. I have friends over in Europe that
are involved in it, and here I see it as
being disorganized. I always say, follow what the LGBTQ community
(27:34):
has done and do the same thing. No one's approached
me on trying to become something while I am part
of one organization, but we haven't really done much. Going
back to what I was saying about it being splintered.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Coach, I've to go a coach now. Because you are
a coach, you are. I need to align you with
someone that's also up in the Minnesota area because she
is Jenna Uttenberg, who also found through Podmatt. She's about
accessibility and making the world more I gotta connect you
to and maybe you guys can collaborate. But the shutdown, right,
we have forty three days of shutdown, and to your point,
(28:08):
no one actually cared about the people disabilities. They only
care about the SNAP program and all that. I mean,
there were so many government services lost during those forty
three days. Only I felt like I was beating the
drugs saying hey, what happened to caring about the disabled community.
I mean, that's kind of where I came at it.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
About there's only if you just think about media, which
should be the same as looking at a newspaper. There's
only one front page, and there's only so much can
fit on that front page. So when Trump spouts this,
that and the other thing, he's taking up three quarters
of the page at least at least, and there's just
no room for anything to get out. Maybe I could
(28:44):
do something with this.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, I'm so glad you're introducing us on my platform
because I want to partner more and cool talk about
this now, adaptive soccer, So we've seen people playing wheelchair
soccer now and it's a little more prevalent. I mean
that's here in New York. Is there adaptive sports up
in Wisconsin? Sorry sound naive, but it just seems like
a distant concept for something like Wisconsin. Is there adaptive
(29:09):
sports up there?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Though? Actually I'm gonna I'm gonna venture off a little bit.
United Soccer Coaches is a huge organization. They're doing my
story in their winter edition of Soccer Journal. Once that
comes out, I'm going to use that platform to approach
US Soccer because they have their own program for this
(29:31):
and see if I can get involved. I've got to
prove myself first on podcasts like yours, and when this
story comes in in the Soccer Journal, it's going to
be huge. So then I can knock on doors and say,
by the way, did you read this and what can
I do to help? I actually did last week. US
Soccer has something coming out and I wrote to them,
(29:52):
and I don't have a platform yet, but I wrote
to them and give them my information. You know, we
got this book coming out. Let me know if there's
something I can do to help you. It's a different
part of US Soccer than the disabled side, which I
am going to be reaching out to them for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, Well, no, and he was updated on that.
I would love to maybe tag US Soccer in this
and just get them involved in cool who Scott Martinez
and and what he's up to. But yeah, the adaptive soccer.
I asked that because I feel like your competitive nature
you didn't want to stop playing. So have you looked
into playing again in that adaptive level.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The plastic surgeon when I went down for amputation day,
I don't know if it's two days, one with their
hands and the other one was the feet. I don't
know which one, but there happened to be a plastic
surgeon from very prominent plastic surgeon out of Madison that
day and he heard about me, and he looked into
the case and he came up with this crazy idea.
(30:55):
My right lower leg was so lost that nine of
surgeons would have just done a BK A blown the amputation.
This guy said, no, I have an idea, and he
took a muscle from my abdomen and skin from my
thigh because I was in a coma. They couldn't you
(31:15):
skin for my back, and he remade my foot at
least I have half a foot there. Wow, so there's
no way that I can run. I actually went through
and it's in the book. A couple of times I
had surgery on the foot and I was walking around
on my knees, for God's sakes, because the foot would
open up. But he thought, you're an athlete, and maybe
(31:38):
you can. You can run no way in hell, But
at least I didn't lose one more extremity.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Nor do you channel your obviously you channel it in
the coaching, but how do you channel the frustrations that
you still may feel today that you felt in that
five month period? Like, how do you channel it? Is
it writing? Is it going on podcast telling your story?
Is it even channeling it through coaching? Maybe a little
more aggressively on some days and others.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I don't know, But man, we're not even touching on.
One of the big things is discrimination. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I can't get it. You know, nobody would even interview
me for a full time teaching gig. I taught social
studies in history, I was teacher of the year and stuff,
and nobody plus through it and discrimination I faced in
trying to get into coaching. So man, there's just so
(32:31):
many things that I try to touch on that we
get into in the book.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Did all of this leak? Since you're a history guide,
all this leads you going into studying disabled history, A
little more and disability history, and wow, how can I
break the trend of what's been going on the last time?
Because we all know the ADA exists, right, but we
don't think it always serves us the right way, or
does it at all?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I mean, no, it doesn't. I mean I substitute at
high school right now, Alex, And for a while we
had one kid in a wheelchair, and I see how
distraught he was. Now he graduated, and we had a
good discussion before he graduated. And this year there's a
sophomore where I'm teaching, it's just sophomore, juniors, and senior.
(33:16):
So here's a sophomore and he's got the same I
don't know attitude, Like everybody looks at me differently, and
it makes it I just feel bad for him. Yeah, man,
I want to just and here I am. And I
think he maybe he recognizes, maybe it helps. Yesterday I
noticed there's a girl that's missing a hand. She wears
(33:38):
long sleeves, you know, to cover and I get that,
you know, I wear long sleeves, but part of it
is because I don't want my batteries popping out and
then losing him. But there is something that if the
book pops. Again. If the book pops, I think it's
naturally going to help the disabled community, especially people with amputations.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
All right, million million dollar questions. Firstly, is coaching now
versus coaching then? Is it rewarding in a different way
for you? Or is it rewarding the same way for.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
You, same, exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I want to win, baby, and watching the kids learn
from you has to mean the whole world.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I've changed the way I coach, though I have to
do it more cerebrally because I can't demonstrate, you know,
and then.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Or you can call the abuse it. I mean the
way that these coaches are being sort of what's the
word handcuffed from actually coaching, because god forbid, you make
the kids on a lap? All that's what do you mean?
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Ah? I'm all right, So, Alex, I'm in a classroom
with kids, soccer field with kids. And I think that
this generation great generation. I think they're some potential leaders
in it. I think that they feel that adults are
(35:07):
clamping them down and not trusting them and not placing
responsibility on them, especially parents, and the teachers are afraid
to I committed my positions and I don't care you want.
I expect them to be responsible for their actions and
their training and all these things. They respond to it.
(35:28):
I was amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I was talking to one of the trainers anonymously and
they're like, yeah, you know, some of these kids, even
though they're in college, come in and say I don't
want to play today. My workloads too much. And then
and the coach's idea is, well, if you don't want
to play, the next guy up's going to do better
than you and you may not play it again. Do
you have that mentality too, like, yeah, you don't want
to play today, I really could go and you can sit,
(35:50):
but you may not play again.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, exactly. Well, I also I have the benefit of
Central Wisconsin that work ethic there isn't work ethic. I
think it's tarnished a little bit though, but there is
a work ethic out there, you know. I would kind
of like to get back and see what check it
out across the country again, Like when I was coaching
at college and recruiting and competing against other teams on
(36:15):
how things are elsewhere. I've kind of lost that because
I've lost touch with that.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
But that when you were coaching then were you doing
conferences like do you are you a big conference guy
to get together with a lot of other different coaches
and say, yeah, let's brainstorm and see how we can
make our sport better.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Go to the NSCA National Soccer Coach Association of America
conferences and yeah, and rob Els was with that, but
a lot of it, I'll be honest, was putting together
a schedule that would get us into the national tournament.
You got to know.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
People, definitely, And I guess scheduling is a different thing
now your twelve year old. No, you're coaching twelve year olds.
I feel like the whole narrative today is, well, we're
putting too much pressure on these kids. They have school work,
they have this. Are you finding that, I mean, work
out the good side? Are you finding there's a lot
of pressure on kids? Say that maybe we didn't have
(37:11):
back then.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Oh heck, yeah, it doesn't belong so it shouldn't come
out on the soccer field. Soccer field should be their
their place to get away. Now, those coach, those kids
that I coached that are in the book, they were
the third team. The top two teams passed all these
kids over, so they had a chip on their shoulder,
so they had something else to prove or they I
(37:36):
don't know if they looked at it as pressure. But
once they broke through that and gained their confidence, they
had no pressure and that's when they really started rolling.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Very cool. Now, I see here a little fun fact,
and this is our first conversation, so this should be
a second one as well, that you've also adopted kids
through this whole time. I mean, what was the process
behind that? What? That's a rewarding thing to be a
parent of itself, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I When I went to Gonzaga, I won't get into that,
and then I let the athletic director know that I
was withdrawing my name from becoming the full time coach there.
It was because I had seen a news story on
a disaster in Haiti and there are a lot of
(38:26):
orphan children, so something went off of my mind. But
I thought more of the Soviet Union. Well, I had
been to the Soviet Union, and I've also been to Russia,
and there was something sort of a pull in that direction.
Ended up not adopting from their two little kids. A
brother and sister came home from Romania, and then a
(38:47):
year later, a little boy from Ethiopia. A year after
that a girl from Ethiopia, little girl from Ethiopia, and
two years after that another little girl from Ethiopia. All
those Ethiopians experienced their parents that I e eightes. So
here we had. Now I had a basketball team, you know,
five kids. I had a basketball team. Yeah, and all
(39:10):
just there was such an interesting mix.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Did they ask a lot of questions because you were
you disable at the time or was this before?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah? Oh yeah I was. Now they just saw me
as tata which is Romanian for father. No, that was it.
They didn't. But three of those kids were African Americans,
so they ran into discrimination as well. So we had
something there. I'll tell the story about real quickly, Alex,
about when my Ethiopian son got into car after I
(39:41):
picked him up from kindergarten one day. He got in
and said, Tato, when am I going to turn white?
Because we're in Olympia, Washington at the time, very white
bread and right then, man, everything I learned growing up
about Martin with the King and all, you know, ah
(40:03):
civil rights movement and everything just went out the window.
We haven't come that far. I mean, here's my six
year old son asking when he's going to turn white
because we haven't changed enough, and here we are. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Well, I also know that you have very positive spin
on things, clearly, and I know that you deal with
things in the realness. But when you are feeling at
your worst, and do you ever get to that point still?
I mean, or are you pretty much.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
When one when one of the hands breaks down, and
I'll tell you a little uh, zippers on pants are
not made for left handed people. Oh when the right
hand broke, that breaks down, you got a zip with
and it's not made for that. Man, that's when I
(40:53):
can get Yeah, and then if I can.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
You pull yourself out of it when you're in an
adultrum kind of state.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
There work, I go right back to that, you know,
listen to music. But probably work in the book has
been great because it's been now we're in the different
stage of the book, because the writing's all done.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
All right. The first time you got to even with
your hands even touch the soccer ball was at a
moment I feel like there's something there.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, wow, man, here's something I never lost because I
can't feel it right, I can't run, I can't I
can still all right, So if in training something weird
happens and a ball comes to me. I think, you know,
ball is like boom. I just still have the natural,
(41:44):
you know, use my shin to lay a ball down
or ease. And you know, my team, my players would
be like holy shit, you know, because they still view
me as being I have this these disabilities, but if
I pull off a move, wow, you know, that's just
national and it feels so good, man, it feels so good.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
One of my favorite things we were in practice, well,
they were doing practice before a game. I used to
do announcing for Queen's College soccer. So I used to
do all you know, and in practice, you know, the
soccer ball would just fly all over and I loved it.
I love it though, because I'd be able to show off. Hey,
you know what, I got one leg, but I can
kick the ball as better, you know, as much as
you can. And so the ball is coming to me
(42:30):
and I did a little showy I did for it
as well as goalie, you know, because I want to
show off a bit. It was cool. But no, I
remember one time we were made the play the finals
for the East Coast Conference Queen's College Women's soccer. I
don't know if you know the programs around here in
the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yes, I always I know.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I'm in front of a coach, Christian Carl Christian Forever.
I don't know if you know that name or not,
but he was my first guest on the podcast back
in twenty ten at twenty ten, so sort of full
circle with that soccer coach. Soccer coach. But I went
up there when they went to the tournament championship and
I in front of a crowd of people and I'm
gonna kick this field to kick the soccer ball into dead.
(43:12):
And I did in front of my crush at the time,
who was on the softball team, and then in front
of the whole fans. I'm like, this is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Cool, so do something and no one expects. Just totally
on a WIMU.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Is like it just it just is pardon me to
just show people. I call it smashing the stigma. That's
what I really call it, Scott.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
See, because you are helping those who are not disabled,
at least outwardly disabled physically disabled, help them learn a
little bit, helps them break through that a little bit
at a time.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
But like for you, the girl with no hand, she
could see you and say, oh my god. You know,
there's just so you're helping others smash it. We're both
helping people smash their own stigmas and their own worries
and insecure about being disabled.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I mean, yeah, I think that's our responsible. We have
a responsibility, and that's part of that responsibility. A small part.
There's a big one.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
And I know, Wisconsin, is it accessible? Is there a
fight that you have to do every day to make
it accessible for you?
Speaker 2 (44:15):
It's not too bad. I'll tell you. One place is
not accessible are the subways in Paris? Trying to get
luggage through a subway in Paris, try to hall stuff? No,
that just came to mind. Sorry to go off on
that tangent.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Hey, subways aren't always accepsible either. It's very tough.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, I mean no, I think in general, yeah, everything's
I think things have really come around. They've come a
long way since I've been disabled I remember.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
As a kid. Yeah, and I should say the ADA
is good. I just feel like it could be expanded
even more and people it's going be more trained on
how to utilize it and not weaponize it. By the way,
But I mean, businesses can actually utilize it more than
they do.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Sometimes, well, it is amazing. Sometimes you happen to see
a store and they have ten disabled parking spaces and
you wonder, and then somebody pulls in it, you know,
doesn't have the sticker. I never use one because I
should leave it for people, you know, decide to use it.
But yeah, it's being abused is one thing. Just having
(45:21):
things there to equalize. That's what the AD is all about, right,
It's to try to equalize level the playing field.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
And then you know I talked, I'm just saying them
now because obviously athletes love to watch film with themselves
and watch their old game tape. Do you do you
find yourself sitting down sometimes and watching your old tape
or not?
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Real? Wow? Got it? I mean, in preparation for the
book and doing the media stuff, somebody asked me to
pull some photographs together. You know, it goes back to
college and stuff and before and after when I was
during my playing days. Yeah, the memories, you know, just
before and I was talking about Joel and Joel and
(46:01):
Dave you know playing in the back together. Yeah, or
if one of them reaches out, are actually one of
my former players that coaches that they're now soccer parents
reach out to me on Facebook. Yeah, it just takes
a mind back.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
It is it is nice, It is nice. Yeah, it
is nice to Okay, I'm asking this was the goalie
and the craziest teammate because I feel like goalies have
such a mindset in that they're the wildest guys in
that egg. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, the good attackers can be arrogant. They better be
at least cocky arrogance though. I would always take advantage
of them when I was playing center back. But yeah,
goalkeepers are tend to be a little crazy.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh nuts. But but that's what makes them good. They're
their craft. I mean they have to be.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I mean you look at the athleticism and just you
can't think about diving. It's like doing a bicycle kick.
It just happens. He can't think about it. Or that's
when you can get hurt.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
All right. So you guys been involving in the college
scene and what's going on there. I don't feel like
NIL can impact soccer as much as going to impact
the college football and college basketball guys. Or do you
feel differently? Can the NIL make a positive fact impact
for soccer player?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I think US Soccer is going to be having the
biggest impact on college soccer. US soccer is trying to
tell the NCAA to last. I heard split into two seasons,
break it up because of what they're trying to do
with MLS Next. I lost one of my top players
(47:38):
last year. He signed with MLS next. That's what's going
to be hurting soccer is Major League Soccer.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
And but that's a good thing to me. That's a
good thing. Sports evolving and there's a pipeline there.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, but then you get into the politics and the
pay for play shit and how things are directed. You know,
it's nice to see there's a lot of color out
on that on the field for the national teams. Back
when I was doing reviews of players for US Soccer,
my list usually had a lot of players with color
(48:13):
on it, but they wouldn't go through because I wasn't
the head coach and they'd all come out on the
other end as a team of white kids. But I
think things are a change, and like you said, yeah,
it's going to be happening for the better. But we
might have some imbalance between what's going on with MLS
(48:34):
Next and pulling the younger players away and going on
the college or not. I think you're going to see
the level of college drop, and definitely the level of
high school players drop because players aren't they're not going
to want to play high school because they were playing
they've signed with MLS.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
And a bigger level. Then yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
That's where the quality of play I think has gone down.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
All right. Now, One other thing is you talk about
these kids and how they're gonna make the next step,
But how do you sort of say, well, no, before
you get there, not humble them, but how do you
get into their mind no, work level by level, don't
jump to that next level. I mean there's got to
(49:18):
be some kind of humbling or whatever you want to
say there.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
That player I just mentioned that went to MLS next.
I remember before he told me, you know, we were
we were in scrimmages before our seasons started, our state
league season started a couple of years ago, and we
just had you know, he brought it up for me
for the first time as possibility. So we had a
little heart to heart. But this is you have to
(49:43):
be careful. You should consider having an agent who will
watch out for you, that has experience by the way
you need to help you let me know because I
remember now, I worked on the recruiting side on both
angles when I was in coaching at high scho level.
I would work on trying to get my better players
into college when we could, and then on the college side,
(50:06):
it was trying to go after the better high school
players to get them. So there's I've got experience all
around on how to work this, and I hope the
heck that parents are smart enough to be able to
take things easy and not just be directed based on
that male ego with here's a contract. Oh sign it,
(50:31):
careful man, That's what I told this kid. Careful, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
I gotta ask you this because I feel like we've
talked about the minorities and how we want to make
life more accessible to those who are minorities. Right, So
I want to say about soccer as a coach, if
all I get to duty to make it accessible to
the inner city, to the parents and the kids that
may not afford the clique or the soccer ball, how
do we do that? How do we make it more
(50:56):
accessible for kids that may not have the financial means?
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Do all this break down the stigma of a kid
having to wear two hundred and fifty or three hundred
dollars cleats. I gave a speech. It's in the towards
the end of the book when we the club, everybody
got together to review their season and and there was
over a thousand people in this auditorium where we were,
(51:20):
and I got up on stage and I locked the
microphone into my hand and I talked about my way
of coaching is probably considered, you know, old school. Everybody
could used a little bit of old school. And back then,
you know, our shorts were short, and we had one
color cleat, you know, and you didn't have to have
(51:40):
all of this. So trying to break down that stigma,
I think is important, you.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Know, SMA, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Yeah, we've got to break the ship down. But I
don't think it's being helped by all the high level
expectations things. I would if I were to go about
it coaches college level Alex, I'd be looking at not
necessarily just going to USA Cup in Minneapolis, where all
the top players are going down to Chicago and some
(52:09):
of the bigger turns. I want to find some of
the grassroots, you know, send me some video. Let me. See.
You know, if you don't think tell me why rough
type of guy? You know, yeah, shit, give me. I
had a friend of mine once it said, give me
eleven orphan kids, I'll beat you because they have a desire. Yeah,
(52:30):
I think that's what I would go after.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Well, I consent, you have a desire to tell your story,
to change the narrative a lot, and maybe open up
the game of soccer. By the way, when you're not
talking soccer, what's on your mind? I feel like you're
a little political there when you need to be. And
then you got a little bit of news and y
and other any other things when you're not talking about
(52:53):
soccer that fires you up.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Man. There's so much going on with the book. I'm
just so freaking busy with the book. But you know
there are whenever I'm checking things out and I go
looking for stories or information, I look at three different categories.
One is disabled, one is inspirational, and the other one
is soccer. So I branch off and that's those are
(53:19):
the target areas that we're trying to hit with the book,
and those areas I want to try to have influence on,
you know, see if we can help out because through inspiration,
covers everything. But then you have the disabled community in
the soccer community.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I as you have a microphone, are going to a podcast,
I feel like you got a studio set up there
for you to do your own pod.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
Yeah. My wife helped me recently on trying to put
some stuff together to try to make you know you
got marketing. You got to have you know, the book cover,
the chip that's that's kind of me in reflection, and
then some of the trinkets.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I love it. It's a great setup you got. Well, Scott.
I so appreciate you coming on the show today, and
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving week. Big football
NFL day tomorrow, you big NFL guy. You're gonna watch
or what yep?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Packers playing noon against Allons. Yeah, I've got a fantasy
team that's I'm going up against the other guy I'm
tied with try to get in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
So yeah, right, Packer's on a weird game last Sunday,
but you know they're they're on the right track.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Yeah, see what happens tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
All right, Scott. Well, I'm so glad we had this
time and I'm gonna have you back on as the
book gets published and progresses and really launches.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, let's stay in touch.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Okay, definitely, thank you, Scott, all right, thanks you take
care of me. Scott Martin on the One Legup alex
Sports feature today, November twenty
All right, well here on the One Leg Up Network,
I have a very special guest on my show. As
you know, I like to talk sports and athletics and
adaptability and someone that does have all those qualities of
love and sports and adapting to his life circumstances. Scott Martin.
And Scott firstly, thanks for joining. I mean, I'm reading
(00:24):
your story here through Palm Match. You were a rising
college soccer coach, and I want to start there because
it seems like we cant bond right there on sports
and coaching. So tell us about your coaching career and
then how you had to adapt to disability through the process.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I actually got started in my coaching as a freshman
at college. The coach at the University of Jerry Stark,
and when I arrived, he knew that I was a forward,
and first training session he came over to me and said,
tell you what. I wanted to take everything you know
about attacking and flip it and run the defense, Like
(01:05):
what the hell? So I started doing a lot of
research and I came up with noticing how mathematics had
to play in soccer, and I started working with that
and presented to Jerry about my theories and what I
had learned from the mathematics side and applied it. So
(01:26):
he got me through the first couple of years of that.
And also he was the president of a youth soccer
club who he got me into coaching. And it was
with I think ten year olds. They didn't want to match.
They scored like three goals the year before or something,
so we turned that around. I think that maybe they
did five hundred first year, and everything was you know,
it was like starting. I actually went in alex with
(01:47):
a broadcast journalism degree in mind and I switched it
to education and physical education. So following that, you try
to get into coaching, but everybody was high for basketball
and football. Uh after I got out of school, but
I ended up in social studies. So anyway, I worked
at the high school level and also the club level
(02:11):
and just started working my way up the ladder and
proving myself and attending camps, going overseas because I came
into opportunities to do that, and coaching during summer and
doing quite well over there, and applying for a position
at the university level at a Division three instead of
being someone's assistant at a D one. I wanted to
do what I wanted to do, and.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, I'm so happy that you pursue that now, the
youth sports and the and the youth the kids watching
them later. Second, thank you, I'll add that out, Okay, Scott,
no I was saying, I've been around sort of camps
(02:55):
for baseball and watching how these athletes are giving back
to those younger kids, and it seems like you were
doing that at the college level. So when you're doing
these camps, what's it like to watch the youth sports
be really passionate. I feel like today's youth sports is
so different, just because maybe they're more on their iPads
and less on the field, So to be on the
(03:16):
field with these kids must be really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, you've got a really good point there. I think
that my last coaching stint was with some kids that
I feel probably were grew up right in the middle
of all of that, and you know, before the match turn,
you know, put your phone away, do this, do that,
and to try to gain refocus. But I also think
(03:39):
that the kids were growing up in the helicopter parents
stage where everybody got a medal, and that started rubbing
me the wrong way. Alex in that you know, there's
something in athletics about competition that you need to be
able to get out of it and just deal with it.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh absolutely, even when you're running a race like I
do a lot of time, I mean I want to
I might be a little slower, but I still want
to finish ahead of people. You know, it's like yeah, yeah, nature, yeah,
So okay, So you bring you have this coaching style,
and then you take the mentorship that you sort of
got from your mentors, right and bring into the programs.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It seems like yeah, but I didn't grew up with
a whole lot of specific soccer. It was picked up
in our front yards and just messing around and getting involved,
and I was just into everything. So we finally had
a German teacher that organized and was running a men's
(04:39):
program that was with twenty and thirty year olds. A
lot of them were coming from Europe, a lot of
them had played with professional teams, some even with their
national team programs and pulled us into it. At So
at sixteen, I was playing against all these guys that
were in their twenties and thirties, had a hell a
lot more experience. So I guess I was thrown into
(05:02):
the fire, thrown into the water, just thrown in and
figure it out sort of a situation. So my upbringing
with soccer specifically was a little different.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And how was it playing against these thirty I mean,
because some of these kids, even in college, looked like
they could be twenty five or thirty nine eight hits.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's literally scared the crap out of me. I remember
one of my first time starting was at our first
tournament and it was the semi final of a major tournament.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
What they did was this or was it which team
was this?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
This is with a club called the Wisconsin Rapids Kickers.
And at that time, back in the seventies, you had
North American Soccer League going, but they did not have
a feeder system. Their feeder system was guys in their
upper thirties coming from Europe.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And then my day job, I actually was talking about
the New York Cosmos. I think they were part of
all that st yes.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Oh yeah, with Beckenbauer and Pila of course, you know
you had Kroif that was playing one of teams. Just
so many people that I started watching and observing and
learning from. So it was just different back then, wasn't
very organized.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Right, and then obviously you take playing against these guys
and what did you learn from that the most? Like
what'd you got to have that the most?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Work your ass off in order to compete? Like what
you were talking about, Alex, I just want to go
out well, we want to win, and we end up.
Actually we're a small club in central Wisconsin. We won
three straight championships and we were beating all of these
teams because they didn't think anything much of us, you know,
(06:39):
fitting for everything that I got into.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Do you wish the MLS was around then? I mean,
could you have made it that far?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I would have wanted to try. We just didn't get
any exposure and no one again was digging down and
pulling us up. The avenue was college and there was
displacement between the North American Soccer League and pulling from
college players. And actually I was in college basically at
(07:08):
the time when the NASL was out coming out, that
was before MLS came in.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I know, I've been around. We just had a successful
campaign at we even get the conference championship at my
alma mater, Queen's College. So I've been around for fifteen years.
The soccer crew soccer guys are I don't say rowdy,
but you guys are a bit wild out. You know,
you have a lot of fun out there and very
competitive and in just a interesting bunch of bera. How
(07:33):
was around your teammates back and they were all a
bit rowdy or what?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I had my first beer in the van of Jeff
vaughters van. One of our teammates had first beer at sixteen.
And that first tournament I was mentioning I learned how
to drink out of a boot. Have you ever done that? Alex?
I'm not a real boat boat. It was at this tournament.
It was a tradition and all the team was to
(08:00):
sit around and whoever was the second to the last
person to finish had to buy the next boot. Well,
myself and my teammates we never had to buy, so
we proved ourselves on the field. We proved ourselves in
the pub.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I love that. And up in Wisconsin, was there, I
mean with the Badger or something you would go watch?
Was they a good soccer program back there back then?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Or I always I grew up Alex always wanted to
play in Camp Randall as a running back. Okay, my
actually my final match in college. We played in Camp Randle,
so I was able to do it. I remember we
were in the guest locker room, of course, but walking
down towards the field and here's you know, I'm in
(08:48):
Camp Randle and we're playing soccer. They had a good program.
There were some really good college programs at Division one, two,
and three when I was in.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I love it. And you know, it sounds like you've
been a Wisconsin kid your whole life, right, so you
kind of grew up there. So that's pretty special to
walk into that hometown field and just be part of that. Now,
what was your well, you said an attack or was
that your position or were you shifting around?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
What was your I actually, when Jerry shifted me back
to central defense, he allowed me to carte blanche on
how he wanted to do it. So I pulled Dave
Schadlin in front of me, and then I put Joe
Cartier to my left and Joe Avento to my right,
and then we picked players to put in the midfield,
(09:36):
and we played a system where it was always working
off of each other. Because I had Joel to my
left and Joe to my right. We had to work
out a whistle technique about being able to make sure
that everybody was doing But the key we found was communication.
Try to shut down the opponent in the midfield and
don't let him get into a position so they have
(09:58):
a better chance to score. And that was our focus
and that's what we did. We did slide tackles like
you didn't want to come and play us. Man, My
cheeks were just bloody all the time. So that's just
how we played, just down and dirty.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Well, you know, And of course i'd say how how
the card system went, because obviously sometimes you get the
car to get the where was it? Did you get
any cards in your career where you had one?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I had one yellow card and that was for standing
with one foot partially into the center circle when the
opponent was kicking off. What the hell? That's the only one. Now.
I have had a yellow card intentionally as a coach,
and two years ago when we won this Lady State
championship at a red card, intentionally to get myself kicked
(10:45):
out to turn the team around.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So they managers do that in baseball. They got injected
to turn.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The exactly round, I mean exactly we get.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I feel like we're gonna talk for hours because I
feel like we have some connection here. Now I understand,
and you said your coach now, but you have had
a long journey from when you were a rising college
soccer coach to being a coach. Now, tell us about your.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Journey, man. Well, I after my illness, I was four months,
five months in the hospital total and relearning everything. It
was during the season, so my assistant took over. But
towards the end, I transferred hospitals and our All American
goalkeeper would come over in the afternoons, throw me in
(11:26):
a wheelchair, take me out to her truck, put me
in her truck, put the wheelchair in the back, and
take me over to training sessions and I would train her.
So we had four more years as nationally ranked program.
But that's when I ended up just focusing too much
on working and that's when I ran square into depression.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And that's where Where were you coaching at the time?
Pardon my england on that. Where were you coaching at
the time?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
A University Wisconsin etoclaire.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Okay, so you were in the University of Wisconsin system.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So oh yes, oh yeah, oh I've stayed here within
I played in the University of Wisconsin system coach there.
So that's when I just ran into that wall of
depression and I just quit and I sold everything didn't
fit in my car, my cat and I headed out West.
I ended up at Gonzaga for a little bit, which.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I'm flesh eating scares the shit out of me personally.
So how did you? How did this come about? And
wasn't sort of like I always finding this kind of
illness comes about randomly, like one random day it starts happening,
or was this overtime that you'd start noticing things going back?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I had always wondered how the heck I contracted it? Well,
we were going to be heading to Europe. Friend and
I put together we had picked college players from across
the country and we were heading over to the three
major tournaments in Europe. And whenever I went over, I
had opportunities to play. The year before I got sick,
(12:57):
a guy I had met years before ran into him
now all of a sudden, he's the Olympic team coach,
and he asked me to play in an exhibition with them.
So I knew that I would probably get these opportunities.
So I was still in training. I think that what
happened was I was on a weight bench and sweating
(13:18):
and back at that time when I got sick, nobody
cleaned things off, so there could have been in someone
else's sweat the bacteria and maybe I had an open
pimple or something on my back, whatever it came in,
because what they ended up finding was the mass of
the illness, so to speak, was in my lower my
(13:40):
back muscles. So it kind of piecing that together, but
nothing ever came out of it for sure what the
source was.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
You say illness with a cringe, because I feel like
you don't feel into yourself ill. You don't have an illness.
It's just something that happened to you and you adapted
to it. And see I get from you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, well definitely another way. I haven't always been like this.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It just happened to you and you adapted to it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It took me a little while, Alex. I mean, you
know that the maleness we're brought up to, you know,
be that you know, tough guy and all that, and
you know we're supposed to skip everything around and we
can handle everything. Now. When I came out, it was stupid.
I didn't look I didn't focus on my head, and
I definitely didn't focus on what was going on with
(14:23):
me emotionally, and I ended up paying for it.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Are you look, we're at Thanksgiving right? Are you thankful
to be coaching now too many years later? I mean
that has to be a blessing to you.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, I've never thought about it because I always
just do it. You know, I don't think, oh shit,
I have to go get ready for this or I
have to how am I going to figure this out anymore?
Because I put in my work just like as a player,
I figured everything out. So I am just this is
what I do. Man, So I don't think about it
(14:56):
at all anymore.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So it's almost like second nature this. But you say
it took a while to get you there. I guess
that's why you wrote the book Play your Heart to
talk about how you got to where you are right now,
through the illness, through the disability, if you will.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I always had the statement, even when I went
back to my early days of coaching, I would always
talk to players about turn off your brain and play
from your heart. So, you know, shorten it up. A
title you don't have to turn off your brain doesn't
really fit, so play from your Heart Boom. That's a
killer title, and nobody else has a book out with
that title really to mention, so that just fit naturally.
(15:35):
It's it fit perfectly into what the book's all about.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I want you to have a palm Match for making this
connection because they have the right guess and the right people.
I mean, Scott, you are such a great story. You
have a great story, and you're a great teller of
your story, and pob match does that. I mean, I'm
sure you found a lot of different like minded people
on there that can want to talk to you about
this story. Here.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I've just been blown away from me reaching out and
finding people like you that are just yeah, let's do this,
And it's that sort of attitude, Yeah, let's let's record,
let's do this together, you know, same attitude that's going
into it. So I think I would I would love
to do an ad for podcasts. Maybe we're doing that
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Hey, you know you talk about winning state chambone, but
I think you just said that where are you coaching now?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If I'm go I ask, I am at Wisconsin. But
where I'm at right now, Alex is that I'm on
hiatus because I'm doing all the book promotions. The book
drops June nine, two days before the World Cup opens,
so I'm really just kicking back. I'm doing so much
freaking work. I don't have the time.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
All right that does this. Because it's clear you have
prosthetic hands. Do you have about prositic feet as well?
Or where to talk about the proast seasons part of it.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I use what's called AFOs for their braces because they
I lost half of feature on my feet. You know,
the first thing I thought about when they told me
we ampitated your hands and partsy feels like there goes
my playing career.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I'm done, and you didn't know that till you woke up.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
In other words, exactly, my family actually had to make
the decision let me die, which is that's how sick
I was. I was supposed to. I only lived because
I was an athlete. That's what I was told. My
heart was beating one hundred and seventy beats per minute
for a week. I mean, the white blood cells that
were going through my body and every whatever. But yeah,
everything has just been extremely busy for me right.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Now opening up about this, I'd say the maleness of
this has to be quite a part of the journey,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, it gives me a chance to reflect. And there
are times in the book when I mentioned prior to
a match going over and intentionally shaking the posing teams
coach's hand. Most of the time it's a male, and
most of the time those males flinch or look and
(17:57):
do a double take. And and that's when I know
what I got as the opponent, because if they treat
me and don't it doesn't reflect on anything. Then I know, okay,
we're going to be a regular match. But I can
tell if they flinch or look at me or just
kind of get a smile, or oh, this guy's disabled,
I got him, shit, I got you.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Now that makes you want to actually beat the shit
out of them, then.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yes, exactly, there's the maleness again. Well, that's just the competitiveness,
that's all.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Absolutely, And it seems like that hasn't changed. Now in
those five months you had to recover from this, were
you worried you were going to lose your competitive edge
or did that competitive edge get you through this?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No? I lost forty pounds of muscle. Most of it
was muscle I was told I couldn't move. I thought it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Oh, and I mean competitive, I mean the mental competitive edge,
because I also feel, yeah, people with disabilities in general
have to have that competitive edge. That's what gets us
to the next level because people do look at us
like some kind of way. So if we have that
competitive mindset in our head, we're gonna get other than
the other guy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh yeah, well that's what got me into gaining those
forty pounds back. I was supposed to just be laying
when I was in ICU, just be recovering bull crap.
I started doing working on my muscles, working on an
abdomen so when I got over to rehab, I was
ready for even more training and I blew through everything
(19:22):
that they had. So that's the competitiveness I relied on
in order to get me through to the point where
I could go back to work. So I did it
all much faster than what they expected. So what you
were saying too, it definitely holds true that everything comes
back to just the competitive desire.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And I love it that you haven't lost that and
that you kind of regain that too along the way.
The story, I got so much I can go with this.
Follow soccer off the field, Like do you watch soccer
religiously as well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Premier League and US men and US women.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And I saw today the US men's team has had
a research and look, I think they saw what the
women and saying we're gonna like.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
What they just put on the Yeah, and Uruguay. Uh.
They know how to pass now, I mean nets come around,
They're able to go back, They're able to switch fields,
They're able to try to penetrate effectively and from different ways.
They like to come down to flanks, which tells me
I would be able to I would, you know, prepare
for that quite a bit. But I like what they're
(20:34):
doing US women. They're not retooling, they're taking on a
different persona of what's going to be coming. So the
next Women's World Cup, I think this is going to
be the best US women's team ever.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Do you wish like guys, guys in as like Donovan
and Me and Ham would stick around and consult Team USA.
I feel like they kind of distanced themselves with them,
are not really about them as much as they should be.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
But they've been well. Me and Ham hasn't been you know,
on the women's side, they're not distant or well. The
press is playing up some of the old guard from
the men's teams about how they go out and just
tackle and just play tough and and that sort, and
they they're they're bringing it out in the press that
the old guard is ridiculing the young guys, the new ones.
(21:21):
I can see it somewhat. But there's something about what
Patino was just put on the field for the last round.
I wish he had more time, though, Man, I wish
he had more time because he's got something going now.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
If even in in where you're at now, do you
ever have aspissions to coach beyond Wisconsin? Like, is there
some other goal you want to reach here?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
If a college contacted me and said, hey, let's talk.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, let's talk, and I would advise people not to
hire you based on a Tooken disabled coach, because there
is that situation going on too, like people get hired
because they're disabled because they are minor. No, we would
be high for our brains, damn it.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah. Well, you know what, though, if there could be
some ads out there that see the media side of
it as well, I mean the recruiting side of it
with the book, if the book pops, there's a recruiting
tool right there. It would open so many doors and
break through that. I have had players that first look
at me as what the hell is this? But after
(22:24):
we've been working with each other for a couple of weeks,
we got them. I get them to buy in, look
past this and look at me and what I'm trying
to present you.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And it's so interesting mention the handshake, because I feel
like that's a big part of soccer, right, the whole
handshake thing. So obviously it to you, it's a very
important part of soccer. Now you just do it a
different way and coach up to adapt to that, I guess,
or just you know, see you as you.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I think, so that itself takes some time. I mean,
when I came back to Wisconsin, I would come across
referees that remembered me even as a player. Uh oh, okay,
where you bean at. But there were so many coaches
that didn't know who I was, and I had to
prove myself well after a couple of seasons, especially after
winning state championship and stuff. But oh yeah, they look
(23:13):
past it. But there's still the maleness. It's still a problem.
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You mentioned your family made this decision and I'm sure
after that decision was very difficult. I mean, my goodness
to be in that position had to be very tough
for them. I'm ady right about that in the book.
And b B how supportively they've been ever since. I
mean it seems like, are they tighten it with you
or you tightened with them? How close are you with
your family today?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
When I resigned my position at from coaching and just
left and head of that West, everybody was wondering, Oh,
what's what's going on? You know, what's you going to do?
Because there was concern and I totally get it. You know,
we had a there was and there are two chapters
in the book about the ten million dollars UH lawsuit
(24:02):
against a physician that we say missed diagnosis. Following that,
there was very a great deal of concern for me
in how it would handle things because I had resigned
my position, and then we had the court trial, the
male practice trial, and and I left and everybody was
(24:23):
wondering what was going on?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So I get it that I was going to hear
a ten million dollar lawsuit with the doctors or what?
Who did you?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah? I originally showed up to the emergency room and
the guy didn't had a temperature of what one O
two point six one or two point eight and sent
me home, didn't take my blood test. If they would
have tested the blood, we you know, our side was
that it would have shown that there's a problem going
(24:55):
on with the white blood cell count. And because he
missed that, we lost two days before I went back
in the next day and fell into the coma and
somebody found it. All my organs were shutting down. Oh
so we look back at that day, you know when
he let me go.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Do you were in the hospital for five months? How
long was the coma?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
One month?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
One month? Yeah, and then the rest of the four
months were to get back out there and work your ass.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Well, I love hearing stories like that and people like
that that just won't let their circumstances define them and
stop them from living life. Now, do you travel with
your team?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
No, not at this We just around the state. I
mean we've gone out of state sometimes with the last
team that I had, I don't go to Europe anymore
with I don't do that anymore with kids from across
the country. Bring up a good point. I haven't done
that in a while, and I do miss that competitive
side going to some of the major tournaments over there,
(25:56):
But no, I haven't really gotten into the travel part
at all.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I want to. I want to ask you about your story,
and it seems like you want to do an awareness
as well or what you're dealing with necrotizing FLASHIAT is
what it's called.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Very good and you got it on the.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
First read too, but no, you're more than a coach.
I feel like you want to bring that awareness now.
And I guess that's sort of like the recruiting tool, right,
Like if we bring more awareness to this and catching it?
Is that what it is about catching it earlier or
catching it at all? Like what's your thought on it?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
As a media love to call it the flash any disease.
It doesn't eat flash. It's just what the body does
to protect us. And what happens because somebody the body
releases somebody white blood cells into the system. They tended
to gather up in the extremities and therefore there was
no blood flow or lack of blood flow, and that's
where the amputations had to occur because it was that's
(26:50):
what was killing me. It's not just necessarily bringing that
up because that's not in the media. There haven't been
any cases coming up. Well, hell, Trump takes over every
every inch of volume in the news that if there
were any it wasn't it wouldn't be able to get
out into the media. What I want to get into
is trying to help with the disabled community because talking
(27:14):
about Trump again, with some of the things that he's
been proposing and talking about his just his demeanor against
the disabled people, I want to try to help. It's
a splintered organization. I have friends over in Europe that
are involved in it, and here I see it as
being disorganized. I always say, follow what the LGBTQ community
(27:34):
has done and do the same thing. No one's approached
me on trying to become something while I am part
of one organization, but we haven't really done much. Going
back to what I was saying about it being splintered.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Coach, I've to go a coach now. Because you are
a coach, you are. I need to align you with
someone that's also up in the Minnesota area because she
is Jenna Uttenberg, who also found through Podmatt. She's about
accessibility and making the world more I gotta connect you
to and maybe you guys can collaborate. But the shutdown, right,
we have forty three days of shutdown, and to your point,
(28:08):
no one actually cared about the people disabilities. They only
care about the SNAP program and all that. I mean,
there were so many government services lost during those forty
three days. Only I felt like I was beating the
drugs saying hey, what happened to caring about the disabled community.
I mean, that's kind of where I came at it.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
About there's only if you just think about media, which
should be the same as looking at a newspaper. There's
only one front page, and there's only so much can
fit on that front page. So when Trump spouts this,
that and the other thing, he's taking up three quarters
of the page at least at least, and there's just
no room for anything to get out. Maybe I could
(28:44):
do something with this.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, I'm so glad you're introducing us on my platform
because I want to partner more and cool talk about
this now, adaptive soccer, So we've seen people playing wheelchair
soccer now and it's a little more prevalent. I mean
that's here in New York. Is there adaptive sports up
in Wisconsin? Sorry sound naive, but it just seems like
a distant concept for something like Wisconsin. Is there adaptive
(29:09):
sports up there?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Though? Actually I'm gonna I'm gonna venture off a little bit.
United Soccer Coaches is a huge organization. They're doing my
story in their winter edition of Soccer Journal. Once that
comes out, I'm going to use that platform to approach
US Soccer because they have their own program for this
(29:31):
and see if I can get involved. I've got to
prove myself first on podcasts like yours, and when this
story comes in in the Soccer Journal, it's going to
be huge. So then I can knock on doors and say,
by the way, did you read this and what can
I do to help? I actually did last week. US
Soccer has something coming out and I wrote to them,
(29:52):
and I don't have a platform yet, but I wrote
to them and give them my information. You know, we
got this book coming out. Let me know if there's
something I can do to help you. It's a different
part of US Soccer than the disabled side, which I
am going to be reaching out to them for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, Well, no, and he was updated on that.
I would love to maybe tag US Soccer in this
and just get them involved in cool who Scott Martinez
and and what he's up to. But yeah, the adaptive soccer.
I asked that because I feel like your competitive nature
you didn't want to stop playing. So have you looked
into playing again in that adaptive level.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The plastic surgeon when I went down for amputation day,
I don't know if it's two days, one with their
hands and the other one was the feet. I don't
know which one, but there happened to be a plastic
surgeon from very prominent plastic surgeon out of Madison that
day and he heard about me, and he looked into
the case and he came up with this crazy idea.
(30:55):
My right lower leg was so lost that nine of
surgeons would have just done a BK A blown the amputation.
This guy said, no, I have an idea, and he
took a muscle from my abdomen and skin from my
thigh because I was in a coma. They couldn't you
(31:15):
skin for my back, and he remade my foot at
least I have half a foot there. Wow, so there's
no way that I can run. I actually went through
and it's in the book. A couple of times I
had surgery on the foot and I was walking around
on my knees, for God's sakes, because the foot would
open up. But he thought, you're an athlete, and maybe
(31:38):
you can. You can run no way in hell, But
at least I didn't lose one more extremity.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Nor do you channel your obviously you channel it in
the coaching, but how do you channel the frustrations that
you still may feel today that you felt in that
five month period? Like, how do you channel it? Is
it writing? Is it going on podcast telling your story?
Is it even channeling it through coaching? Maybe a little
more aggressively on some days and others.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I don't know, But man, we're not even touching on.
One of the big things is discrimination. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I can't get it. You know, nobody would even interview
me for a full time teaching gig. I taught social
studies in history, I was teacher of the year and stuff,
and nobody plus through it and discrimination I faced in
trying to get into coaching. So man, there's just so
(32:31):
many things that I try to touch on that we
get into in the book.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Did all of this leak? Since you're a history guide,
all this leads you going into studying disabled history, A
little more and disability history, and wow, how can I
break the trend of what's been going on the last time?
Because we all know the ADA exists, right, but we
don't think it always serves us the right way, or
does it at all?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I mean, no, it doesn't. I mean I substitute at
high school right now, Alex, And for a while we
had one kid in a wheelchair, and I see how
distraught he was. Now he graduated, and we had a
good discussion before he graduated. And this year there's a
sophomore where I'm teaching, it's just sophomore, juniors, and senior.
(33:16):
So here's a sophomore and he's got the same I
don't know attitude, Like everybody looks at me differently, and
it makes it I just feel bad for him. Yeah, man,
I want to just and here I am. And I
think he maybe he recognizes, maybe it helps. Yesterday I
noticed there's a girl that's missing a hand. She wears
(33:38):
long sleeves, you know, to cover and I get that,
you know, I wear long sleeves, but part of it
is because I don't want my batteries popping out and
then losing him. But there is something that if the
book pops. Again. If the book pops, I think it's
naturally going to help the disabled community, especially people with amputations.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
All right, million million dollar questions. Firstly, is coaching now
versus coaching then? Is it rewarding in a different way
for you? Or is it rewarding the same way for.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
You, same, exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I want to win, baby, and watching the kids learn
from you has to mean the whole world.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I've changed the way I coach, though I have to
do it more cerebrally because I can't demonstrate, you know,
and then.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Or you can call the abuse it. I mean the
way that these coaches are being sort of what's the
word handcuffed from actually coaching, because god forbid, you make
the kids on a lap? All that's what do you mean?
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Ah? I'm all right, So, Alex, I'm in a classroom
with kids, soccer field with kids. And I think that
this generation great generation. I think they're some potential leaders
in it. I think that they feel that adults are
(35:07):
clamping them down and not trusting them and not placing
responsibility on them, especially parents, and the teachers are afraid
to I committed my positions and I don't care you want.
I expect them to be responsible for their actions and
their training and all these things. They respond to it.
(35:28):
I was amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I was talking to one of the trainers anonymously and
they're like, yeah, you know, some of these kids, even
though they're in college, come in and say I don't
want to play today. My workloads too much. And then
and the coach's idea is, well, if you don't want
to play, the next guy up's going to do better
than you and you may not play it again. Do
you have that mentality too, like, yeah, you don't want
to play today, I really could go and you can sit,
(35:50):
but you may not play again.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, exactly. Well, I also I have the benefit of
Central Wisconsin that work ethic there isn't work ethic. I
think it's tarnished a little bit though, but there is
a work ethic out there, you know. I would kind
of like to get back and see what check it
out across the country again, Like when I was coaching
at college and recruiting and competing against other teams on
(36:15):
how things are elsewhere. I've kind of lost that because
I've lost touch with that.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
But that when you were coaching then were you doing
conferences like do you are you a big conference guy
to get together with a lot of other different coaches
and say, yeah, let's brainstorm and see how we can
make our sport better.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Go to the NSCA National Soccer Coach Association of America
conferences and yeah, and rob Els was with that, but
a lot of it, I'll be honest, was putting together
a schedule that would get us into the national tournament.
You got to know.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
People, definitely, And I guess scheduling is a different thing
now your twelve year old. No, you're coaching twelve year olds.
I feel like the whole narrative today is, well, we're
putting too much pressure on these kids. They have school work,
they have this. Are you finding that, I mean, work
out the good side? Are you finding there's a lot
of pressure on kids? Say that maybe we didn't have
(37:11):
back then.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Oh heck, yeah, it doesn't belong so it shouldn't come
out on the soccer field. Soccer field should be their
their place to get away. Now, those coach, those kids
that I coached that are in the book, they were
the third team. The top two teams passed all these
kids over, so they had a chip on their shoulder,
so they had something else to prove or they I
(37:36):
don't know if they looked at it as pressure. But
once they broke through that and gained their confidence, they
had no pressure and that's when they really started rolling.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Very cool. Now, I see here a little fun fact,
and this is our first conversation, so this should be
a second one as well, that you've also adopted kids
through this whole time. I mean, what was the process
behind that? What? That's a rewarding thing to be a
parent of itself, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I When I went to Gonzaga, I won't get into that,
and then I let the athletic director know that I
was withdrawing my name from becoming the full time coach there.
It was because I had seen a news story on
a disaster in Haiti and there are a lot of
(38:26):
orphan children, so something went off of my mind. But
I thought more of the Soviet Union. Well, I had
been to the Soviet Union, and I've also been to Russia,
and there was something sort of a pull in that direction.
Ended up not adopting from their two little kids. A
brother and sister came home from Romania, and then a
(38:47):
year later, a little boy from Ethiopia. A year after
that a girl from Ethiopia, little girl from Ethiopia, and
two years after that another little girl from Ethiopia. All
those Ethiopians experienced their parents that I e eightes. So
here we had. Now I had a basketball team, you know,
five kids. I had a basketball team. Yeah, and all
(39:10):
just there was such an interesting mix.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Did they ask a lot of questions because you were
you disable at the time or was this before?
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah? Oh yeah I was. Now they just saw me
as tata which is Romanian for father. No, that was it.
They didn't. But three of those kids were African Americans,
so they ran into discrimination as well. So we had
something there. I'll tell the story about real quickly, Alex,
about when my Ethiopian son got into car after I
(39:41):
picked him up from kindergarten one day. He got in
and said, Tato, when am I going to turn white?
Because we're in Olympia, Washington at the time, very white
bread and right then, man, everything I learned growing up
about Martin with the King and all, you know, ah
(40:03):
civil rights movement and everything just went out the window.
We haven't come that far. I mean, here's my six
year old son asking when he's going to turn white
because we haven't changed enough, and here we are. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Well, I also know that you have very positive spin
on things, clearly, and I know that you deal with
things in the realness. But when you are feeling at
your worst, and do you ever get to that point still?
I mean, or are you pretty much.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
When one when one of the hands breaks down, and
I'll tell you a little uh, zippers on pants are
not made for left handed people. Oh when the right
hand broke, that breaks down, you got a zip with
and it's not made for that. Man, that's when I
(40:53):
can get Yeah, and then if I can.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
You pull yourself out of it when you're in an
adultrum kind of state.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
There work, I go right back to that, you know,
listen to music. But probably work in the book has
been great because it's been now we're in the different
stage of the book, because the writing's all done.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
All right. The first time you got to even with
your hands even touch the soccer ball was at a
moment I feel like there's something there.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, wow, man, here's something I never lost because I
can't feel it right, I can't run, I can't I
can still all right, So if in training something weird
happens and a ball comes to me. I think, you know,
ball is like boom. I just still have the natural,
(41:44):
you know, use my shin to lay a ball down
or ease. And you know, my team, my players would
be like holy shit, you know, because they still view
me as being I have this these disabilities, but if
I pull off a move, wow, you know, that's just
national and it feels so good, man, it feels so good.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
One of my favorite things we were in practice, well,
they were doing practice before a game. I used to
do announcing for Queen's College soccer. So I used to
do all you know, and in practice, you know, the
soccer ball would just fly all over and I loved it.
I love it though, because I'd be able to show off. Hey,
you know what, I got one leg, but I can
kick the ball as better, you know, as much as
you can. And so the ball is coming to me
(42:30):
and I did a little showy I did for it
as well as goalie, you know, because I want to
show off a bit. It was cool. But no, I
remember one time we were made the play the finals
for the East Coast Conference Queen's College Women's soccer. I
don't know if you know the programs around here in
the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yes, I always I know.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I'm in front of a coach, Christian Carl Christian Forever.
I don't know if you know that name or not,
but he was my first guest on the podcast back
in twenty ten at twenty ten, so sort of full
circle with that soccer coach. Soccer coach. But I went
up there when they went to the tournament championship and
I in front of a crowd of people and I'm
gonna kick this field to kick the soccer ball into dead.
(43:12):
And I did in front of my crush at the time,
who was on the softball team, and then in front
of the whole fans. I'm like, this is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Cool, so do something and no one expects. Just totally
on a WIMU.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Is like it just it just is pardon me to
just show people. I call it smashing the stigma. That's
what I really call it, Scott.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
See, because you are helping those who are not disabled,
at least outwardly disabled physically disabled, help them learn a
little bit, helps them break through that a little bit
at a time.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
But like for you, the girl with no hand, she
could see you and say, oh my god. You know,
there's just so you're helping others smash it. We're both
helping people smash their own stigmas and their own worries
and insecure about being disabled.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I mean, yeah, I think that's our responsible. We have
a responsibility, and that's part of that responsibility. A small part.
There's a big one.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
And I know, Wisconsin, is it accessible? Is there a
fight that you have to do every day to make
it accessible for you?
Speaker 2 (44:15):
It's not too bad. I'll tell you. One place is
not accessible are the subways in Paris? Trying to get
luggage through a subway in Paris, try to hall stuff? No,
that just came to mind. Sorry to go off on
that tangent.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Hey, subways aren't always accepsible either. It's very tough.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, I mean no, I think in general, yeah, everything's
I think things have really come around. They've come a
long way since I've been disabled I remember.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
As a kid. Yeah, and I should say the ADA
is good. I just feel like it could be expanded
even more and people it's going be more trained on
how to utilize it and not weaponize it. By the way,
But I mean, businesses can actually utilize it more than
they do.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Sometimes, well, it is amazing. Sometimes you happen to see
a store and they have ten disabled parking spaces and
you wonder, and then somebody pulls in it, you know,
doesn't have the sticker. I never use one because I
should leave it for people, you know, decide to use it.
But yeah, it's being abused is one thing. Just having
(45:21):
things there to equalize. That's what the AD is all about, right,
It's to try to equalize level the playing field.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
And then you know I talked, I'm just saying them
now because obviously athletes love to watch film with themselves
and watch their old game tape. Do you do you
find yourself sitting down sometimes and watching your old tape
or not?
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Real? Wow? Got it? I mean, in preparation for the
book and doing the media stuff, somebody asked me to
pull some photographs together. You know, it goes back to
college and stuff and before and after when I was
during my playing days. Yeah, the memories, you know, just
before and I was talking about Joel and Joel and
(46:01):
Dave you know playing in the back together. Yeah, or
if one of them reaches out, are actually one of
my former players that coaches that they're now soccer parents
reach out to me on Facebook. Yeah, it just takes
a mind back.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
It is it is nice, It is nice. Yeah, it
is nice to Okay, I'm asking this was the goalie
and the craziest teammate because I feel like goalies have
such a mindset in that they're the wildest guys in
that egg. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, the good attackers can be arrogant. They better be
at least cocky arrogance though. I would always take advantage
of them when I was playing center back. But yeah,
goalkeepers are tend to be a little crazy.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh nuts. But but that's what makes them good. They're
their craft. I mean they have to be.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I mean you look at the athleticism and just you
can't think about diving. It's like doing a bicycle kick.
It just happens. He can't think about it. Or that's
when you can get hurt.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
All right. So you guys been involving in the college
scene and what's going on there. I don't feel like
NIL can impact soccer as much as going to impact
the college football and college basketball guys. Or do you
feel differently? Can the NIL make a positive fact impact
for soccer player?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I think US Soccer is going to be having the
biggest impact on college soccer. US soccer is trying to
tell the NCAA to last. I heard split into two seasons,
break it up because of what they're trying to do
with MLS Next. I lost one of my top players
(47:38):
last year. He signed with MLS next. That's what's going
to be hurting soccer is Major League Soccer.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
And but that's a good thing to me. That's a
good thing. Sports evolving and there's a pipeline there.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, but then you get into the politics and the
pay for play shit and how things are directed. You know,
it's nice to see there's a lot of color out
on that on the field for the national teams. Back
when I was doing reviews of players for US Soccer,
my list usually had a lot of players with color
(48:13):
on it, but they wouldn't go through because I wasn't
the head coach and they'd all come out on the
other end as a team of white kids. But I
think things are a change, and like you said, yeah,
it's going to be happening for the better. But we
might have some imbalance between what's going on with MLS
(48:34):
Next and pulling the younger players away and going on
the college or not. I think you're going to see
the level of college drop, and definitely the level of
high school players drop because players aren't they're not going
to want to play high school because they were playing
they've signed with MLS.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
And a bigger level. Then yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
That's where the quality of play I think has gone down.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
All right. Now, One other thing is you talk about
these kids and how they're gonna make the next step,
But how do you sort of say, well, no, before
you get there, not humble them, but how do you
get into their mind no, work level by level, don't
jump to that next level. I mean there's got to
(49:18):
be some kind of humbling or whatever you want to
say there.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
That player I just mentioned that went to MLS next.
I remember before he told me, you know, we were
we were in scrimmages before our seasons started, our state
league season started a couple of years ago, and we
just had you know, he brought it up for me
for the first time as possibility. So we had a
little heart to heart. But this is you have to
(49:43):
be careful. You should consider having an agent who will
watch out for you, that has experience by the way
you need to help you let me know because I
remember now, I worked on the recruiting side on both
angles when I was in coaching at high scho level.
I would work on trying to get my better players
into college when we could, and then on the college side,
(50:06):
it was trying to go after the better high school
players to get them. So there's I've got experience all
around on how to work this, and I hope the
heck that parents are smart enough to be able to
take things easy and not just be directed based on
that male ego with here's a contract. Oh sign it,
(50:31):
careful man, That's what I told this kid. Careful, all right.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
I gotta ask you this because I feel like we've
talked about the minorities and how we want to make
life more accessible to those who are minorities. Right, So
I want to say about soccer as a coach, if
all I get to duty to make it accessible to
the inner city, to the parents and the kids that
may not afford the clique or the soccer ball, how
do we do that? How do we make it more
(50:56):
accessible for kids that may not have the financial means?
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Do all this break down the stigma of a kid
having to wear two hundred and fifty or three hundred
dollars cleats. I gave a speech. It's in the towards
the end of the book when we the club, everybody
got together to review their season and and there was
over a thousand people in this auditorium where we were,
(51:20):
and I got up on stage and I locked the
microphone into my hand and I talked about my way
of coaching is probably considered, you know, old school. Everybody
could used a little bit of old school. And back then,
you know, our shorts were short, and we had one
color cleat, you know, and you didn't have to have
(51:40):
all of this. So trying to break down that stigma,
I think is important, you.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Know, SMA, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Yeah, we've got to break the ship down. But I
don't think it's being helped by all the high level
expectations things. I would if I were to go about
it coaches college level Alex, I'd be looking at not
necessarily just going to USA Cup in Minneapolis, where all
the top players are going down to Chicago and some
(52:09):
of the bigger turns. I want to find some of
the grassroots, you know, send me some video. Let me. See.
You know, if you don't think tell me why rough
type of guy? You know, yeah, shit, give me. I
had a friend of mine once it said, give me
eleven orphan kids, I'll beat you because they have a desire. Yeah,
(52:30):
I think that's what I would go after.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Well, I consent, you have a desire to tell your story,
to change the narrative a lot, and maybe open up
the game of soccer. By the way, when you're not
talking soccer, what's on your mind? I feel like you're
a little political there when you need to be. And
then you got a little bit of news and y
and other any other things when you're not talking about
(52:53):
soccer that fires you up.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Man. There's so much going on with the book. I'm
just so freaking busy with the book. But you know
there are whenever I'm checking things out and I go
looking for stories or information, I look at three different categories.
One is disabled, one is inspirational, and the other one
is soccer. So I branch off and that's those are
(53:19):
the target areas that we're trying to hit with the book,
and those areas I want to try to have influence on,
you know, see if we can help out because through inspiration,
covers everything. But then you have the disabled community in
the soccer community.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I as you have a microphone, are going to a podcast,
I feel like you got a studio set up there
for you to do your own pod.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
Yeah. My wife helped me recently on trying to put
some stuff together to try to make you know you
got marketing. You got to have you know, the book cover,
the chip that's that's kind of me in reflection, and
then some of the trinkets.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I love it. It's a great setup you got. Well, Scott.
I so appreciate you coming on the show today, and
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving week. Big football
NFL day tomorrow, you big NFL guy. You're gonna watch
or what yep?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Packers playing noon against Allons. Yeah, I've got a fantasy
team that's I'm going up against the other guy I'm
tied with try to get in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
So yeah, right, Packer's on a weird game last Sunday,
but you know they're they're on the right track.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Yeah, see what happens tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
All right, Scott. Well, I'm so glad we had this
time and I'm gonna have you back on as the
book gets published and progresses and really launches.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, let's stay in touch.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Okay, definitely, thank you, Scott, all right, thanks you take
care of me. Scott Martin on the One Legup alex
Sports feature today, November twenty
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