Aug. 12, 2023

The Impact of Mentorship, On The Ice And Beyond, With Bill Cahill And Pete Sears

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Season 1 Our Kids Play Hockey

Embark on a remarkable journey that started with childhood dreams and culminated in Olympic glory on this week’s episode of Our Kids Play Hockey as we explore the life of Pete Sears, a member of the 1972 US Olympic hockey team, alongside his close friend, mentee, and fellow hockey enthusiast, Bill Cahill.

Pete and Bill share their lifelong passion for hockey and the profound impact that mentorship has had on their paths. This isn't just a story of sports; it's a tale of friendship, resilience, and personal growth. Pete's journey from early skating days to standing on the Olympic podium is a testament to his unwavering determination, guided by his experiences in the military and his strategic insights into the game.

Delving into the mentorship dynamic between Pete and Bill, we uncover how their relationship has shaped their perspectives on coaching, teaching, and life itself. From pushing boundaries to understanding the value of rest, their insights provide universal lessons that extend beyond the hockey arena. Pete's road to the Olympics takes us through local rinks, military service, and a summer hockey league, illustrating the power of perseverance and grit.

As the conversation unfolds, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for the pivotal role mentors play in our personal and professional development. The importance of setting ambitious goals, striving for excellence, and cultivating a supportive environment becomes crystal clear through Pete and Bill's shared experiences.

Whether you're an aspiring athlete, a seeker of inspiration, or someone navigating life's challenges, Pete and Bill's narrative will resonate with you. Their story underscores that with dedication, resilience, and the guidance of mentors, the seemingly insurmountable can indeed be conquered. 

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00:52 - The Power of Mentorship

12:14 - Journey to Olympic Hockey Team

21:52 - Lessons From Military Service and Hockey

31:32 - The Importance of Mentor-Mentee Relationships

35:37 - The Importance of Effective Coaching

48:42 - Memories and Mentors

53:31 - Striking Silver

01:05:39 - Advice for Youth in Athletics

WEBVTT

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Hey, what's up everybody?

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Today's episode is all about mentorship and the importance of being a mentor also being a mentee, and we've brought in two people today that have shared a relationship like that for 40 years.

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Pete Sears is a silver medalist with Team USA in 1972.

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And boy does he share some amazing stories today.

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And Bill Cahill, who's a coach, was a mentee to Pete throughout his time playing in the game and these two share a really special bond and we dive into it today deeply and it's a fantastic episode.

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You're gonna love it.

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Just make sure to.

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If you love these episodes, if you love what we're doing, please give us that five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen.

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It really does help us.

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And also join our private Facebook group, our Kids Play Hockey.

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The conversation for these episodes typically expands there.

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After the episodes we also get a lot of questions.

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It's a great community of like-minded people that share a love for the show, share a love for hockey, share a love for their kids.

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So, without further ado, let's get into the episode with Pete Sears and Bill Cahill.

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Hello hockey friends and families around the world, and welcome to another edition of Our Kids Play Hockey.

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I'm Leo Elias, with Mike Benelli, kristi Kashi and Burns, is on assignment tonight.

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Today we are talking about the power of mentorship and are joined by two guests who have shared a 40 year journey as friends in the game.

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Pete Sears won the silver medal with the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, japan, as a gold tender for Team USA, and Pete was raised in Lake Placid, new York, and attended a Suigo State University where he also played outside of hockey.

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Pete served with the army and served in the Vietnam War, and he was also an experienced history teacher, having taught for 33 years at a Suigo High School.

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Get this.

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Pete has been named to the New York State High School Hockey Hall of Fame, the Suigo State University Hall of Fame, the Suigo State University Athletic Hall of Fame and this last one bit of a curveball pun intended the Suigo City Fast Pitch Softball Hall of Fame.

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We're also joined today by Bill Cahill, who was recently featured in this month's USA Hockey Magazine through an article by our own Kristi Kashi and Burns Make sure you check that out which discussed his mentee relationship with Pete, which started in the 1970s after the two were introduced to each other when Bill was just a young kid.

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So make sure you grab your magazine.

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I'm holding it up for those of you watching.

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It is in this month's USA Hockey Magazine for July.

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Bill is a proud husband, father and teacher at Volney Elementary School in Central New York and an advocate of character education, and he has played and coached hockey for nearly 40 years.

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We are really looking forward to diving in with you, pete and Bill.

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Welcome to our kids.

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Play hot.

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Thanks for having us.

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Hi glad to be here oh it's a pleasure to have both of you today.

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I always love having great stories.

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I love having Olympic medalists on the show, so we're going to have a good one today, pete.

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I'm going to start with you.

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Coaches sometimes forget the impact you can have on players, but you never forgot that.

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How come?

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Well, growing up in Lake Placid, which was a small community but a very close community, we had some adults that were I would call them just great not only great coaches, but great people, and they not only talked about the game but they talked about you know what kind of a person you should be and you should be representing your, your community, when you go away and how you should act.

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So I always carried that with me when I went to college.

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I had some great coaches.

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When I was at the Olympic team again, they just seemed to progress all the way up the line.

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The coaches were always instrumental in, I think, developing how I thought and how I wanted to carry myself and how I wanted to represent where I came from.

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So I was going to ask this question a little bit later, but you dove into it.

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One of the things that stuck out to me about you was that you've been around somewhat of an Olympic atmosphere your entire life.

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So, again, born in Lake Placid, a lot of people forget there were two Olympic games in Lake Placid in 1980, and one at the turn of the century.

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Right, and you were surrounded by those teams.

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You were on an Olympic team.

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Today the Olympics are looked at a little differently.

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Right, it's either NHL players or recently it hasn't been.

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We have access to unlimited information.

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The NHL is really the primary place that people look.

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So I want to tap into your youth a little bit and talk to the parents and the coaches and the kids now about maybe some of the differences that you felt from growing up in that kind of area, where the pride for your national team was a really big deal.

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Right, we tend to not think about that unless it's every four years of the World Junior Championship.

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Now, right, it kind of comes and goes.

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Tell us about that.

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Yeah, the people of Lake Placid have always, I think, been very proud of being able to have had the Olympics there.

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I think it was 1932 was the first one.

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It was yeah, and some of the facilities that I played in were there because of the Olympics in 1932.

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I graduated from high school in 1965, but we played in the what was called the old Olympic arena.

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We skated on Mirror Lake, which was outside.

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That's where we really developed a lot of our skills.

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We would go out in the lake, we would be playing.

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If I was 10 years old I would be playing with 18 year olds.

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We divide up into teams and the older kids would kind of take care of the younger kids and they would bring us along.

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But the tradition of the Olympics we used to hear about, you know, almost every day, and then we would see all of the Olympic facilities that were there, whether it was the ski jump or the bob sled run or the skating rink.

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That was there and there were pictures up, you know, in various areas.

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So it was always there and as a kid you would think about the Olympics.

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But I don't think I ever really thought about being an Olympian until I actually got into college and started saying I wonder if I'm good enough to try out for an Olympic team.

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And as it worked out, we may talk about it later.

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But as it worked out.

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That did happen, but I think as a kid you know the Olympics were there, but as far as you yourself, being an Olympian, I don't know if I was too immature or what, but I never really thought about it until a little bit later on about actually playing in the Olympics.

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You know, pete, I'll tell you it's kind of a common story, believe it or not, that some of the athletes that we interviewed say you know, I didn't really think about it till it really became a reality and I'm always amazed how many people do think about it in youth sports today, right?

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Another thing we're going to get into later in the show is the 1960 Olympic team.

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So obviously, you know, bill, mike and I all grew up with the 1980 miracle team.

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Everybody's very familiar with that.

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You know the 1960 teams dubbed the forgotten miracle team and I'm hoping they're going to make a movie about that one day because that obviously inspired a lot of American kids at the time, including yourself.

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But, bill, I want to turn to you for a minute.

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You know, this article that Christie wrote was actually a little bit outside the beaten path for her.

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Typically she focuses on, you know, tips and tricks for parents, but this article really focused on mentorship.

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So what was it about Pete's coaching style?

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I almost said peaches, but we're going to say Pete, that helped shape who you are today.

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Well, my first.

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I met Pete.

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I started playing hockey when I was seven.

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Our relationship started when he was my seventh grade social studies teacher in 1977, teaching European history.

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You know people like Vasco de Gaume and Henry Hudson and explorers like that.

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So he was coaching Bantam hockey at the time and I just would have been coming into Pee Wees, but that was.

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You know, everybody in minor hockey couldn't wait to get the opportunity to try out and hopefully play for this guy and that was no different.

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You know that was my goals.

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We called it road team back then.

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If you didn't make the road team, you played house league, you know, every weekend.

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So yeah, my first introduction to Pete was through academics, being my social studies teacher and just a real desire to make yourself as good as a hockey player as you could.

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So hopefully you can play for this guy.

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So I got to ask this question.

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Now it's kind of for both.

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I loved history in school.

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It was one of my favorite subjects, all right, and I know a lot of people that are bored by history.

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I guess I'm kind of bored when it comes to math, so this it's not for everybody at the end of the day.

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But can we discuss for the second, for a second the hit, the importance of history to culture, to upbringing, to perspective?

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Because you know, one of the things I really lean on, guys, especially if I'm having a hard day, is my mind anchors right to you know, world War two, vietnam, right?

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Just what?

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What young men had to go through prior to me so that I could get to sit here behind a microphone and talk hockey all day, right?

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So tell me about the importance of history.

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I don't know if you want it for me first or what, but when I was teaching I always would ask the students you know what is history?

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And you know?

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They would come up with various answers.

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But what I was always come back with is history teaches us how things got to be the way they are right now.

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And you kind of go back into all the various eras of history and say you know why did this happen?

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You know why did this happen, and so on.

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And some people will say, well, you talk about history so you don't make the same mistakes over again.

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Well, that's true to a certain point, but as you look around the world, it seems like we do make the same mistakes over and over again.

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But I just like to think of history.

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As you know, here we are at a certain time and a certain place.

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How do things get to be the way they are right now?

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Bill, I'd love your thoughts too, yeah.

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I'm glad that.

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I'm glad to hear it's a three hour show mic, so I'll get started.

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Sorry, apologies.

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You know my heart.

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I currently teach social studies and unfortunately, at least here in New York State, social studies and science has been pushed to the back burner at the expense of somehow ELA and math are deemed more important to our students, so they get ELA, math every day for multiple hours and in some places social studies one day a week.

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So it's tough to teach these lessons that we're talking about when you don't have the time in the classroom to teach them.

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And I think Pete's right.

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I don't think we learn the lessons of history very well.

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My heart breaks for Holocaust survivors and our World War two veterans who concern on the nightly news and see swastikas flying in the United States of America.

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So that's a slippery slope conversation as far as the First Amendment goes, but I certainly hate to see it and I can't imagine how those people that lived through that and sacrificed 80 years ago feel when they see that today.

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Well, I'll tell you both, there's nothing slippery about what you just said, right?

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I think we all agree.

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I know I do wholeheartedly.

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So thank you for your answers on that, because I think I think it is important as well.

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And you know, history is not limited, obviously, to this school, right?

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Just turning this back to hockey, I think a lot of people think USA hockey history started in 1980.

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And the truth is that that is not true, right?

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Usa hockey has a pretty darn amazing history when you look at it.

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Pete, I want to talk about 1972.

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I mean, a silver medalist approached in Japan, of all places, at a time where the sport is not anywhere near what it is in the United States today.

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Walk us through your Olympic experience, because I cannot wait to hear it.

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Okay, my Olympic experience goes back to 1968.

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I was going to school at a Swago State.

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I was at the end of my sophomore year.

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There were tryouts for the Olympic team in Massachusetts.

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Back then the whole way of making the Olympic team was totally different.

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Anybody could try out if they wanted to.

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You could walk in off the street and go into the rink where you're trying out and get out there and the coaches would take a look at you and either send you on your way or keep you there for another day.

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So I went down to I think it was Framingham Mass unannounced and they had a whole list of names.

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I had written my name, that I was coming down and apparently they had my name on the list.

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I was glad they did.

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We had practices, we had scrimmages, they put us through our paces and at the end of that the Olympic coach's name was Murray Williamson.

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He called me over and he said Pete.

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He said I'm going to tell you the truth.

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We already had our team picked even before we had this tryout.

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He says I like what I saw on you.

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Would you be interested in playing in a developmental league which is out in Green Bay, wisconsin?

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And I said who Olympic coach is showing an interest in me.

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I just said absolutely.

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You know, without even thinking, and you have to remember now the Vietnam War was going on at this time I had an exemption in school.

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As long as I stayed in school I wouldn't be drafted.

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As it worked out, I did go out to Green Bay in September and started playing in the league out there and there were some great players in that league.

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There were former Olympians in that league.

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There were some Olympians that had played on the 1960 team that were playing in that league and I didn't really know the history of everything.

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I didn't know who these guys were until I got out there.

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We started talking and I learned you know where they had been and so on.

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But in December I got my notice that I was drafted.

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So I was in the Army, I went to Vietnam, I came back, I went to school and I finished up my junior and senior year at a Swig of State and the timing of that was actually pretty good.

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It was 1971 when I graduated from school and 72 was the next Olympics.

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Same coach was going to be coaching.

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I wrote a letter to him saying to Coach Williamson I said you know, after you sent me out to Green Bay, I was drafted, I was in the Army, I went back to school.

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I would like to try out again.

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And in 1972, he says well, pete, he says I haven't seen you play.

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The only way that you would have a chance to actually try out for my team is if I saw you play again.

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So he said, would you be able to come out and play in a summer hockey league in Minneapolis that summer of 1971.

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And as it was, I was married.

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Then I got married my senior year.

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I had a very young daughter.

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I told my wife what the coach had said and she said absolutely, let's do it.

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That's awesome.

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She was always my biggest fan, my biggest supporter.

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So we traveled all the way out to Minneapolis and a little Volkswagen bug at my, all my hockey equipment, everything, and didn't have a.

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Really we didn't have more than, I don't think, $100 to our name and we went out there.

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I got a, got a job working in a factory.

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We had a.

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We met some people who let us live in their house for a few weeks until we could find a place to live and I played in a summer hockey league out there three or four nights a week, all division one players here.

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I am from a division three team of swig of state.

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Now I'm playing against division one players and I found out that I could play with those guys and that's really where I got my confidence to keep going at this dream of trying to be on the Olympic hockey team and once once that summer was over.

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I hope I'm not dragging this out too long for you, I'm in throw, keep going.

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Once the summer was over and that summer hockey league was over, I was hoping to hear from the Olympic coach, but I didn't.

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Didn't hear a thing.

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In the meantime I get a letter from the Buffalo Sabres saying we would like you to come to camp with us.

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That was in St Catherine's, ontario.

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So I, my wife and I, said Well, let's give it a shot.

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And she supported me.

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She went back to Lake Placid.

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I went to St Catherine's.

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Well, as in St Catherine's, I got a call from the Olympic coach.

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He found out that I was there.

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He says what are you doing there?

00:17:19.551 --> 00:17:20.895
I thought you're going to try out with us.

00:17:20.895 --> 00:17:26.115
I said, well, I didn't hear anything from you, so I just assume you weren't interested.

00:17:26.115 --> 00:17:31.356
So I got a call from from the Sabres, and that's why I'm here in St Catherine's.

00:17:31.356 --> 00:17:33.351
He said, well, you still want to try out with us?

00:17:33.351 --> 00:17:36.029
I said Absolutely.

00:17:36.029 --> 00:17:48.186
So I had to go to the coach of the Buffalo Sabres His name, you probably heard the name punch him like that's old time name, okay, big name and I said here's.

00:17:48.186 --> 00:17:49.692
Here's what happened, coach.

00:17:49.692 --> 00:17:54.732
And I said I have a chance to try out for the US Olympic team and I know I'm here.

00:17:54.732 --> 00:17:57.057
I want to be here, but I also want to try out the Olympic team.

00:17:57.057 --> 00:17:58.145
Instead of fire you.

00:17:58.145 --> 00:18:00.712
I would never pass that up, that opportunity.

00:18:00.712 --> 00:18:05.829
So I hop in the bull swag all by myself.

00:18:05.869 --> 00:18:14.551
This time I drive out to back out to Minneapolis from St Catherine's I never went back home to Lake Placid and we started tryouts out there.

00:18:14.551 --> 00:18:37.038
And again, this was a lot of the guys I played with on that summer hockey league were trying out to, so I knew some of them and the trials went for a little over a week out there in Minneapolis and then basically what they, the team did, they took some guys from that we're trying out there and we started traveling.

00:18:37.038 --> 00:18:39.729
We started traveling around the United States.

00:18:39.729 --> 00:18:41.993
We tried to start up into Canada.

00:18:41.993 --> 00:18:54.837
We're flying to various places and every day there were guys coming in and coming out and every day you were wondering if that was the day you were going to be sent, you know, with your walking papers to go back home.

00:18:55.925 --> 00:19:06.345
And as it was, I was with the team from September and then into October and then November and the December, never knowing from one day to the next what was going to happen with me.

00:19:06.345 --> 00:19:12.575
But I was still on the team Goals were coming in and out, coming in and out, other players are coming in and out.

00:19:12.575 --> 00:19:15.768
We were playing division one hockey teams.

00:19:15.768 --> 00:19:27.990
We were playing pro teams, but they were minor league teams from the Central hockey league, from the American hockey league and so on, and I can remember this so clearly.

00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:29.414
It was December.

00:19:29.494 --> 00:19:52.842
Right at the end of December we were going to be playing Dartmouth College and we had just practiced that morning and after practice I was down in the ice and takes extra shots and trying to do everything to make the coaches see me, and so on, even though it's still three or four months after I've been on the team and coach calls me into his room and man, I just thought I was gone.

00:19:52.842 --> 00:19:53.545
I really did.

00:19:53.545 --> 00:20:00.297
He said if you can do what I asked you to do, we want you to go to Japan with us.

00:20:00.297 --> 00:20:09.097
He said we have another gold tender who's going to be coming in, probably in a couple of days, and this was the end of December.

00:20:09.097 --> 00:20:11.666
His name is Mike current.

00:20:11.666 --> 00:20:14.089
He played with the US national team.

00:20:14.089 --> 00:20:17.895
He had been a think an all American at the University of North Dakota and so on.

00:20:18.356 --> 00:20:24.413
He was a few years older than I was and he said if you can do what I asked you to do, we want you to be on the team.

00:20:24.413 --> 00:20:29.167
He said this guy's going to be the starter, we want you to be the backup.

00:20:29.167 --> 00:20:32.173
And he says you've got to be ready at all times.

00:20:32.173 --> 00:20:34.837
If this guy gets hurt or something happens, you got to be ready to go.

00:20:34.837 --> 00:20:36.606
He said you, can you accept that?

00:20:36.606 --> 00:20:42.175
And I didn't have to think a second and I get very emotional talking about it now.

00:20:42.175 --> 00:20:43.798
That's how much it meant to me.

00:20:43.798 --> 00:20:46.627
And I said absolutely.

00:20:46.627 --> 00:20:49.090
And from that point on I was on the team.

00:20:49.090 --> 00:20:50.212
I knew I was on the team.

00:20:50.212 --> 00:20:55.640
I call up my wife to talk to her, both crying, like like I am right now, basically.

00:20:55.640 --> 00:21:03.173
And so we knew that all the sacrifices we had made we're now starting to come true.

00:21:03.173 --> 00:21:06.759
So basically, that was my story of getting there.

00:21:08.226 --> 00:21:17.857
So I'm imagining most of our listeners on this podcast are kids right in their car with their parents and I could just imagine like this isn't happening over text messaging instantly.

00:21:17.857 --> 00:21:25.348
Right, this is like a letter, like an actual handwritten letter like no cell phones, no email, no texting right, I'm just?

00:21:25.390 --> 00:21:30.974
imagining the weight right and just the uncertainty of like, okay, it's.

00:21:30.974 --> 00:21:31.394
Like.

00:21:31.394 --> 00:21:38.805
It's almost like kids now, if they don't get it, like if somebody doesn't see it's got delivered and somebody answered the text within 18 seconds, it was like a failure, right.

00:21:38.805 --> 00:21:41.507
So I'm just imagining, you know, like that letter goes out.

00:21:41.507 --> 00:21:46.635
You go about your business, you're like, okay, I'm gonna keep working hard and I hope I hear something.

00:21:46.635 --> 00:21:57.355
So it's a really amazing story of perseverance and, I guess, trust, right, and the fact that you're able to be in a situation where, like, listen, I think I'm good enough, I want to compete at this level.

00:21:57.355 --> 00:22:01.580
I'm giving up an opportunity to do one thing for another.

00:22:01.580 --> 00:22:08.618
I mean, you see kids experience this all the time, right, you just hope your gut tells you you're going to the right place.

00:22:08.618 --> 00:22:14.615
But it's an unbelievable story and I think you're just hearing just your emotion in it too.

00:22:14.615 --> 00:22:16.837
It just shows how important it was to you.

00:22:16.837 --> 00:22:19.638
But obviously you put the work in during that whole time.

00:22:19.638 --> 00:22:23.413
You didn't say like, oh, I didn't get a call, so giving up.

00:22:24.692 --> 00:22:31.682
Yeah, I have a lot of people ask me it must have been a thrill being with the team and so on.

00:22:31.682 --> 00:22:41.635
It was a thrill, but it was so pressure packed I was not able to enjoy it because every day I didn't know if I was going to be gone.

00:22:41.635 --> 00:22:54.817
And right up until the end of December when coach Williamson called me in there and I thought that was the day I was going to be gone, but luckily it was the day that he told me that basically my dream was coming true.

00:22:55.630 --> 00:23:01.239
Peter, I want to ask this too, and I do want to get into the games, but I'd be remiss if I didn't ask this.

00:23:01.450 --> 00:23:07.117
I've had the real honor of interviewing a lot of veterans war veterans, military veterans.

00:23:07.117 --> 00:23:13.656
A lot of the language you're using right now is similar to language they use when they talk about being in the service.

00:23:13.656 --> 00:23:26.917
Now, I'm not comparing war to hockey in the sense of the severity of it, but I would, if you're comfortable, love to discuss what being in the military taught you, what being in combat taught you and how you applied that to hockey.

00:23:26.917 --> 00:23:34.733
And then also, for those of you listening, there was so much pride on his face when he was telling this story.

00:23:34.733 --> 00:23:41.759
Right, and I think that is something we are losing daily in this country just to feel proud to be an American.

00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.175
Right, With all of its joys and faults.

00:23:44.175 --> 00:23:47.753
Right, Just to be proud to say that we're from here to leave from the front.

00:23:47.753 --> 00:23:50.537
However, anybody feels about that, right.

00:23:50.537 --> 00:23:58.694
So, yeah, I'd love to hear about how your experience in the military and in combat affected your hockey career or helped you in your hockey career.

00:23:59.789 --> 00:24:04.281
Yeah, I very seldom talk about my military experience in Vietnam.

00:24:04.281 --> 00:24:09.901
I hesitate to go into a lot of details.

00:24:09.901 --> 00:24:18.377
But being in the service, what you learn, I think, basically, is teamwork.

00:24:18.377 --> 00:24:22.398
You have to work together to accomplish a goal.

00:24:22.398 --> 00:24:36.356
There's always goals that you're trying to accomplish and you have to stick together whether things are going well or whether things are not going well, and I think those are probably the things that I learned from being in the service.

00:24:36.356 --> 00:24:38.916
I learned what hard work was all about.

00:24:39.750 --> 00:24:46.017
I always thought I was a hard worker, but I found out I was not nearly as hard a worker as I could be when I got in the service.

00:24:46.017 --> 00:24:49.311
They pushed you.

00:24:49.311 --> 00:24:53.141
You go beyond what you thought you could do.

00:24:53.141 --> 00:25:01.952
What they did is they took me out of what we would call your comfort level and you go way beyond what you ever thought you could accomplish.

00:25:01.952 --> 00:25:11.097
When you get into situations, whether which are life and death situations that's when you really find out what you're all about.

00:25:11.097 --> 00:25:21.556
I saw some big, strong guys who were big talkers when you got into actual life and death situations that were not able to come through.

00:25:21.556 --> 00:25:31.480
I saw some guys that were meek and mild, that never said anything, that you thought were maybe almost like geek times kinds of people.

00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:33.275
They were guys you could depend on.

00:25:33.275 --> 00:25:38.653
So you can't judge a person by how they talk or what they say.

00:25:38.653 --> 00:25:44.459
You have to see what actually happens when something starts and how they react to it.

00:25:44.459 --> 00:25:51.153
And I carried a lot of that over into my coaching and into my playing.

00:25:51.153 --> 00:25:58.536
I found out what I was capable of doing and I kept pushing myself beyond what I would call my comfort level.

00:25:59.550 --> 00:26:03.818
When I started coaching kids, I tried to bring some of those aspects into it.

00:26:03.818 --> 00:26:05.374
We set goals.

00:26:05.374 --> 00:26:10.142
We tried to take steps to reach those goals.

00:26:10.142 --> 00:26:14.976
It's one side to say, well, we would like to win a championship or we would like to win this game.

00:26:14.976 --> 00:26:20.919
It's another thing in practice doing all the things it's gonna take to be able to do that.

00:26:20.919 --> 00:26:24.219
And so I think the military helped me.

00:26:24.789 --> 00:26:25.974
Being on the Olympic team.

00:26:25.974 --> 00:26:38.637
We if you watch the 1980 movie with Herb Brooks and saw a lot of the conditioning things that they went through we went through those same things.

00:26:38.637 --> 00:26:42.797
Our coach had gone to Russia.

00:26:42.797 --> 00:26:46.579
He had talked to Tarasov, who was their coach.

00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:49.076
He learned what their training techniques were.

00:26:49.076 --> 00:26:51.778
He took those techniques and he applied them to us.

00:26:51.778 --> 00:26:53.494
What Herb Brooks was doing.

00:26:53.494 --> 00:26:57.695
He was taking those same kind of techniques and applying it to that 1980 team.

00:26:57.695 --> 00:27:08.479
I saw so much of that when I watched the movie and watch Herb Brooks some of the sayings that he used and some of the techniques that he used with the players.

00:27:08.479 --> 00:27:20.815
When you get with younger kids you can use some of those things within reason and because they're younger kids you have to be careful of how you approach things and some of the things you say.

00:27:20.815 --> 00:27:29.777
But again, you're trying to get them out of their comfort zones and try to make them realize they can do more than they ever thought they could.

00:27:32.255 --> 00:27:44.071
I was gonna say, bill, playing for Pete and being in that Lake Placid environment, I know, like the Keith Clarks and Chad Cassidy is the world and the guys up in Placid now that you can hear like their own.

00:27:44.071 --> 00:27:53.440
When they're talking about Lake Placid you can hear a lot of they love that town and they love that growing up in that environment.

00:27:53.440 --> 00:28:00.633
So I just wondering from you, I mean, did you feel that as a student and as obviously as a player, that there was not?

00:28:00.633 --> 00:28:15.432
I don't wanna say it's extra pressure, but there was that feeling like hey, we're in a place of greatness and it's gonna help us elevate what we do in our game and obviously having guys like Pete as a mentor in that situation.

00:28:15.432 --> 00:28:21.777
I mean, is that prevalent throughout that when you're growing up in your youth hockey kind of environment?

00:28:22.809 --> 00:28:25.071
Absolutely, isabanem.

00:28:25.071 --> 00:28:30.296
We played on the 80 rank one month after the Olympics, wow.

00:28:30.296 --> 00:28:35.335
A month before we all watched that unfold, and the next month we're playing there.

00:28:35.736 --> 00:28:35.916
Wow.

00:28:36.609 --> 00:28:46.141
So Lake Placid used to have the international tournament and the first year that I went as a squirt was 1976.

00:28:46.141 --> 00:28:59.378
So they were starting to build these facilities for the Olympics and that was very exciting in itself and I still have some of the mementos that I bought in the stores from that time period.

00:28:59.378 --> 00:29:10.058
But yeah, every coach I'm very thankful in a swiggo you went to Lake Placid every year and that was the best trip of the year.

00:29:10.058 --> 00:29:17.336
And then, after my relationship with Pete started, yeah, it did become more special.

00:29:17.336 --> 00:29:24.515
But just to go back to something you said about being careful with the training, I don't remember that.

00:29:24.515 --> 00:29:28.059
I don't remember that at all.

00:29:29.029 --> 00:29:37.655
It was called one of the things that the Russians taught that now Pete is putting kids in a swig in New York into is called fart lick training.

00:29:37.655 --> 00:29:39.253
Right, interval training.

00:29:39.253 --> 00:29:42.958
Get your heart rate way up high and rest to mimic a game.

00:29:42.958 --> 00:29:50.842
And he did teach all of us the same experience.

00:29:50.842 --> 00:30:07.317
I had no idea what the limits of my body were as a 12, 13 year old kid, so before I ever played for him, we're going to these summer workouts and I'd come home and my mother looked at me like I was a victim of child abuse.

00:30:07.317 --> 00:30:10.757
Your ass would just be dragging.

00:30:10.757 --> 00:30:32.143
But once you, like Pete said, once you have that epiphany moment that your body doesn't have limits and you can push yourself farther than you ever thought you could, that's just an incredible gift to give the kids and applicable well beyond the realm of athletics.

00:30:33.047 --> 00:30:33.930
Yeah, it was different, right, Bill?

00:30:33.930 --> 00:30:42.965
I mean, I do a lot of stuff on social media now and I got a lot of players that played for me to see my little blurbs on Facebook or Twitter or something like who the heck are you Like?

00:30:42.965 --> 00:30:43.815
That wasn't you Like.

00:30:43.815 --> 00:30:44.549
You never did that.

00:30:44.690 --> 00:30:47.855
Like how can you say that, but it's changed right.

00:30:47.855 --> 00:31:06.078
And I think just knowing that and knowing where your limitations as a coach can be, about how far and how hard you push kids, and then obviously guys like Pete and yourself know are able to see and say, okay, here's where the threshold is with this group of kids or this particular athlete.

00:31:06.078 --> 00:31:13.549
So I think that and that comes right with a lot of just your own experiences and just knowing like, where can I push these players?

00:31:13.549 --> 00:31:15.857
And then where do they want me to push them?

00:31:15.857 --> 00:31:26.914
And I think that's a great point for young coaches Just that you can't just institute something you saw in Europe or something you saw from a coach you're like, oh, that guy's crazy.

00:31:26.914 --> 00:31:33.218
But they know within their own world what the limitations are and what they can and cannot do.

00:31:34.621 --> 00:32:12.005
I was very fortunate to have Bill and the group of kids that he grew up with as my first teams that I was coaching on a Swiegel, because they, just like Bill, they all wanted to, I think, be winners and they all wanted to do everything they could to try to improve themselves, and so, whatever I tried to do with them, they actually wanted more and more, and I could see that and that's why I would push them to certain limits and it was just.

00:32:12.005 --> 00:32:32.569
I had some great moments, you know, coming up through hockey, but I still have to say that some of the best moments I've ever had with hockey was coaching these kids here in a Swiegel and how they responded to my coaching techniques and how they accepted me as a coach and how their parents accepted me as a coach.

00:32:32.569 --> 00:32:41.807
And some of the best friends I still have are still right here in this community, and this guy sitting here next to me he's one of them.

00:32:41.807 --> 00:32:46.086
He's probably as good a friend as anybody could have.

00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:49.730
I want to tap into a lot of things that were just said.

00:32:49.730 --> 00:32:54.890
You know so, pete, first I just want to thank you for sharing what you did about your time in the service.

00:32:54.890 --> 00:33:05.930
Look, I have the privilege to get to coach a lot of teams and a team building capacity, and I always start by saying the greatest team on the planet is the United States military.

00:33:05.930 --> 00:33:11.109
When I need advice on how to be a team, I look to the military and I get what I'm looking for.

00:33:11.109 --> 00:33:13.025
So thank you for all you did.

00:33:13.025 --> 00:33:16.228
You guys are my heroes, the ones that came before, after and everyone in between.

00:33:18.059 --> 00:33:28.705
The other thing I want to tap on is this we're talking about pushing people beyond their limits, and this comes down to kind of coaching the kid or the character of a person over just a player, something I like to say every four years.

00:33:28.705 --> 00:33:37.769
Every four years, without fail, a world of Olympic record gets broken every time, and I always say to everyone I coach and I mentor.

00:33:37.769 --> 00:33:53.631
We do not know as humans, what our limits are unless we continue to push them, and I think we're combating this today a bit, especially from a mentor-mentee relationship, a coach-to-player relationship, because there seems to be a lot of how do I put this right?

00:33:53.631 --> 00:34:03.029
A just casual thinking of I'm just going to relax and be fine and never push myself, and it's a really dangerous mentality to me.

00:34:03.029 --> 00:34:04.686
Now, don't get me wrong, everybody listening.

00:34:04.686 --> 00:34:06.205
You should relax every once in a while.

00:34:06.205 --> 00:34:24.483
There's nothing wrong with taking a day off or understanding that, but if you truly want to achieve greatness or pursue greatness which is also a wonderful opportunity that you have you have to be uncomfortable, you have to push your limits and you usually need someone, whether it's a parent or a mentor or a coach that's going to allow you to get there.

00:34:25.099 --> 00:34:28.985
So, bill, I'm going to start with you on this one, and you can use your experience of Peter.

00:34:28.985 --> 00:34:29.822
You can be general here.

00:34:29.822 --> 00:34:35.451
I want to talk about the importance of a great mentor and being a great mentee.

00:34:35.451 --> 00:34:41.391
Right, because I always say this too when the student is ready, the teacher will arrive right.

00:34:41.391 --> 00:34:42.686
It doesn't go the other way around.

00:34:42.686 --> 00:34:50.889
So before we dive into the Olympic Games and I actually want to get into the games too to finish the episode I want to talk about the importance of a mentor-mentee relationship.

00:34:53.380 --> 00:35:04.650
So for the kid or the player or the student, that individual has to be willing to turn over their mind and body to the mentor or the coach.

00:35:04.650 --> 00:35:10.748
See a lot less of that in the 21st century, which could be a whole other conversation.

00:35:10.748 --> 00:35:22.148
But the best teams teams are going to reach their potential when you have a coach that you don't want to let that individual down.

00:35:22.148 --> 00:35:28.690
You don't want to disappoint that person and, yes, you have your own innate competitiveness and you want to win.

00:35:28.690 --> 00:35:32.789
But then there's also that element of I don't want to let this guy down.

00:35:32.789 --> 00:35:48.644
So Pete's teams were always the best condition teams by far, because he knew that sometimes a less talented team there was better condition could be a more talented team, and that happened with us a lot.

00:35:48.644 --> 00:36:04.452
But the mentor can have the best techniques and nuggets of wisdom to pass along, but the mentee has got to be willing to accept and ingrain these things in themselves.

00:36:04.793 --> 00:36:06.750
Right, I want to jump in real quick.

00:36:06.750 --> 00:36:19.030
We have to have a quick discussion about this, because we get emails on this show all the time of parents trying to gauge whether or not they're in a situation where do I have a bad coaching environment or is this coach doing the right thing?

00:36:19.030 --> 00:36:25.605
Right, there's one of the I don't want to call it an issue, but one of the things that Mike and I see a lot today is kids going.

00:36:25.605 --> 00:36:30.048
Well, it's too hard here, I'm going to another team, I'm just going to switch clubs because I don't like the way this coach is coaching.

00:36:30.048 --> 00:36:38.871
And I'd say, more often than not, it's not that the coach is bad, it's the coach is pushing you and it's uncomfortable and you're not comfortable being uncomfortable, right?

00:36:39.579 --> 00:36:42.949
So we have a lot of conversations with people emailing us about.

00:36:42.949 --> 00:36:54.289
Well, I think that person is just trying to push you to be the best version of yourself, and I'm actually proud of the audience for emailing us those questions, because it shows that they're curious and how messed up the landscape has become.

00:36:54.289 --> 00:36:57.047
But can we talk about that for a quick second?

00:36:57.047 --> 00:37:02.527
That someone pushing you to be your best is not bad coaching, right?

00:37:02.527 --> 00:37:07.539
Bad coaching is someone trying to make a player maybe score 50 goals and that's all.

00:37:07.539 --> 00:37:09.284
They're focused on one that they're not capable of.

00:37:09.284 --> 00:37:10.306
That, which I've seen as well.

00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:15.239
You know, I don't want to be that guy that you know all things are bad.

00:37:15.300 --> 00:37:16.463
Be that guy be that guy.

00:37:17.880 --> 00:37:18.664
You know kids.

00:37:18.664 --> 00:37:25.184
Just they don't have the same experiences that I did, playing with the same group of guys for a decade.

00:37:25.184 --> 00:37:33.326
You know, year after year after year, and I, you know I've certainly seen it in my coaching career it's not always about pushing a kid.

00:37:33.326 --> 00:37:36.400
Kid doesn't get named captain.

00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:37.402
Well, I'm not.

00:37:37.402 --> 00:37:39.927
You know, I'm going to go play someplace else next year.

00:37:39.927 --> 00:37:43.427
Right, I'm not on the power play, I'm going to go play someplace else next year.

00:37:43.427 --> 00:37:46.985
I don't like my line mates, I'm going to go play someplace else next year.

00:37:47.719 --> 00:37:52.612
So you know, in the area that I grew up in, it was your job to adapt to the coach.

00:37:52.612 --> 00:37:59.092
If you didn't like the coach, you better learn to like him or you might not be playing on that team.

00:37:59.092 --> 00:38:08.905
You know Pete had a lot of guys play for him that you know, did turn themselves over to him and other guys didn't take the conditioning part.

00:38:08.905 --> 00:38:10.148
You know so seriously.

00:38:10.148 --> 00:38:13.586
And you know there are guys that got cut because of that.

00:38:13.586 --> 00:38:19.307
You know it was his way or no way, and I don't think that that's a bad thing at all.

00:38:19.307 --> 00:38:22.246
And you know it teaches perseverance.

00:38:22.246 --> 00:38:40.927
You know, once you get outside of your youth sports, perseverance is still one of the most valuable skills you can have and you know, pushing through something that wasn't ideal for you is a great gift to give to any kid, because they're going to need it.

00:38:41.260 --> 00:38:42.186
Oh, I love that you said it like that.

00:38:42.186 --> 00:38:43.364
It's a great gift.

00:38:43.364 --> 00:38:45.005
I love that you said it like that.

00:38:45.860 --> 00:38:54.242
You know, and Pete, you know, everybody knew his expectations and if you were going to play for him, you were going to meet those expectations or you weren't going to play for him.

00:38:54.242 --> 00:39:14.077
So, and he gave all of us, you know, that gift and you know that chapter that I wrote in Christie's book the original thing for her article, when I started writing about my coaches, I wrote about six or eight coaches and at least all my minor hockey coaches.

00:39:14.077 --> 00:39:25.768
Every single one of them modeled the hatred of losing, and if you're going to avoid this feeling when you lose, well then you've got to do some things to be better prepared.

00:39:26.481 --> 00:39:31.737
Of course it all kind of accumulated with Pete, with you know one of his.

00:39:31.737 --> 00:39:36.811
He's got a lot of famous things, but one of them is you want the same results, keep doing the same thing.

00:39:36.811 --> 00:39:38.262
You want different results.

00:39:38.262 --> 00:39:39.465
You better do something different.

00:39:39.465 --> 00:39:48.887
Whether that means you know you don't want your shots at very hard, you better do some more risk curls all summer long right you know things like that.

00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:54.025
So it's in the article right by failing to prepare, right Like yeah we know this right.

00:39:54.820 --> 00:40:06.326
So I'm very grateful all my coaches for modeling the hatred of losing and the group of guys that I came up with that Pete was talking about.

00:40:06.326 --> 00:40:09.621
It doesn't matter whether it's darts or horseshoes.

00:40:09.621 --> 00:40:13.489
It's not about enjoying playing.

00:40:13.489 --> 00:40:27.844
You're playing to win and that competitiveness you know carries over into life, and Pete's got a lot of successful former players that were more successful in life than they were on the hockey rink, much in credit to his teachings.

00:40:30.193 --> 00:40:31.701
Yeah, I mean, I think that you're.

00:40:31.701 --> 00:40:32.704
I mean I think there's so much.

00:40:32.704 --> 00:40:36.860
I mean, in hour three we can probably go over this, but I think, I think it's that, but I think there's.

00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:54.376
I think there's so much there right that that now the way we have to coach is, you know, the trilogy right of making sure our coach, our parent and our player understand you know what our mission is and what our goals are, so that we don't have these issues down the road and we're going to have them, and I think it's.

00:40:54.376 --> 00:40:58.974
I think it's just become so easy to get up and leave and to search and look.

00:40:58.974 --> 00:41:12.023
I mean, when we grew up or, you know, in other generations, you know you didn't have options, so you learn to adapt within you know the place you were and and coaches could, could coach a little differently.

00:41:12.023 --> 00:41:16.378
I could wheel the different hammer because you know, you knew the players didn't have choices.

00:41:16.378 --> 00:41:33.173
So I think a lot of us are just trying to find that line between okay, how much can I communicate with parents to help that, you know, to get them to help me connect with their player and help me connect with their athletes so that they're like you know, bill, that was a great, you know term is that they're mirroring, right?

00:41:33.173 --> 00:41:39.778
We want, we want the mom and dad or whoever's bringing the kids to the rink to mirror the same values that we're asking out of the kid.

00:41:39.778 --> 00:41:40.320
It can't be.

00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:42.012
Oh, that would happen in the rink.

00:41:42.012 --> 00:41:52.315
But now our value system is different here at home and I think we can get that mirroring and I love the fact that you know, like me, I play with the same kids for 10 years in a row.

00:41:52.315 --> 00:41:56.713
Right, and you got to and you got to watch kids that progressed and didn't progress.

00:41:56.713 --> 00:42:02.239
And now I mean, you're lucky if you have kids play with each other for 10 months in a row and and it's such a so.

00:42:02.438 --> 00:42:17.739
But again, we had and that's one of the reasons actually we got on these podcasts is because it allowed us to talk to some great people to figure out, okay, what, what are these are challenges, that this is the fact, right, and how can we, how can we adapt to the, to the world we're in now, which is not changing?

00:42:17.739 --> 00:42:26.052
So it's like, okay, well, how do we communicate with players and parents and and get the best out of our athletes?

00:42:26.052 --> 00:42:28.360
So that's that's you know, it's great that you're you know.

00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:30.960
It sounds like to me, I mean, based off of you know who you are.

00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:39.541
Now you're evolving as well, you know and what you do as a coach right, he can't just like well, that's the way Pete did it in 1978 and that's the way it's going to be.

00:42:39.782 --> 00:42:48.478
And I think, you know, we all evolve and then we just try to find the best of the people we've we've evolved with and then hopefully come out with a good product.

00:42:48.478 --> 00:43:00.681
And so I think and it sounds like you guys have been doing that, you know, and communicating with each other and working through those things and I think that's where that mentorship piece comes in is that the mentor is not there to just say, hey, this is how I did it, you do it this way.

00:43:00.681 --> 00:43:01.123
It's.

00:43:01.123 --> 00:43:03.677
Hey, this is how I did it, but now you're, this is your challenge.

00:43:03.677 --> 00:43:06.490
So how are you meeting that challenge and how are you evolving?

00:43:08.213 --> 00:43:25.358
I think that you know, as as time goes on, you know things do change and the way you look at coaching today is, I think, definitely different than the way we looked at it, you know, back when I first started in the late 70s, early 80s.

00:43:25.358 --> 00:43:33.141
So again, I think there's some good things that we can take from the past and keep applying them.

00:43:33.141 --> 00:43:41.461
And you know, like setting goals, working hard, coming out of your comfort zone, some of those things.

00:43:41.461 --> 00:43:46.059
But I think the bottom line is parents want their kids to play.

00:43:46.059 --> 00:44:01.532
I think you start running into problems sometimes is when you have a team's and you have some kids that are playing a lot more than other kids, or some kids don't get on the ice as much as you would like to see them on on the ice.

00:44:01.532 --> 00:44:14.860
If I'm a parent and my kids not getting on the ice much and we're traveling all over the place, you know all over the northeast to play games and my kids not playing as much as other kids, that can start leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

00:44:14.860 --> 00:44:30.849
So I think one of the things is, if you do what, what is your philosophy when you get started like the parents have to know it and and even even sometimes when they say okay, I agree with the philosophy.

00:44:30.849 --> 00:44:37.655
Once the season starts and they see their kids not playing as much, that philosophy seems to all of a sudden not mean much.

00:44:37.655 --> 00:44:47.500
So again, it's important, I think, that parents get their kids in a situation where they can play, where they can hopefully develop.

00:44:48.201 --> 00:44:50.134
And then what are those kids goals?

00:44:50.134 --> 00:44:50.777
What are, you know?

00:44:50.777 --> 00:44:53.068
Maybe they just want to go out and have fun.

00:44:53.068 --> 00:44:56.981
Maybe they're not there to, you know, have to worry about winning every single game.

00:44:58.547 --> 00:45:02.686
In the old days they have what we call house league and the kids went out and they played.

00:45:02.686 --> 00:45:04.072
They all played equal time.

00:45:04.072 --> 00:45:07.244
If they wouldn't find, if they didn't win, that's okay too.

00:45:07.244 --> 00:45:09.371
They start getting into routines.

00:45:09.371 --> 00:45:11.661
Now winning seems to be a little bit more important.

00:45:11.661 --> 00:45:15.512
Kids, some kids start playing a little bit more than others.

00:45:15.512 --> 00:45:20.043
And as you go up the line, that's what happens sometimes.

00:45:20.043 --> 00:45:29.445
Kids that are really good players at one level, as they go up the line, all of a sudden they become maybe role players, they're not playing as much and it's hard for them to accept.

00:45:29.445 --> 00:45:32.757
So again, I know things do change.

00:45:32.757 --> 00:45:53.382
If I was coming in as a coach today, I probably would be doing some things differently, but all I know is I did what I knew back then and I tried to get kids to buy into it, and a lot of the kids that I was with here on a swing or did buy into it and I appreciate the effort that they gave me.

00:45:54.391 --> 00:46:00.655
Well, and I'm gonna say this to Pete, you know there is one aspect of the game that transcends time right now.

00:46:00.655 --> 00:46:04.168
I think we would all agree that you know training today is evolved.

00:46:04.168 --> 00:46:05.614
It has evolved tremendously.

00:46:05.614 --> 00:46:11.195
Like you have to understand training in the 21st century to be a great hockey player if you want to do that.

00:46:11.195 --> 00:46:18.822
Other things to skill sets, right tactics, those all evolve across the board, all the interviews we've done.

00:46:18.822 --> 00:46:24.023
The one thing that has never needed to evolve is boy, do I love playing hockey.

00:46:24.443 --> 00:46:35.635
Gonna go all the way back to the beginning of the interview where you said yeah, man, and for those of you listening, watch this episode, the smile on your face when you said we used to play on Mirror Lake and we would just go out there and play and we loved it.

00:46:35.635 --> 00:46:43.378
If that is removed from the game in any way, we're in deep, deep trouble, your kids in trouble.

00:46:43.378 --> 00:46:45.447
You're in trouble as a coach, as a parent.

00:46:45.447 --> 00:46:52.713
It doesn't matter and I've seen it removed by parents, by coaches, even by the kids in some sense is because of the anxiety that they feel.

00:46:52.713 --> 00:47:01.288
If you cannot instill a deep love of the game and I mean deep and it cannot be enough just for the parents listening.

00:47:01.288 --> 00:47:02.672
You might have that.

00:47:02.672 --> 00:47:05.420
It doesn't mean your kids automatically have that.

00:47:05.420 --> 00:47:06.710
Not many of them do, don't get me wrong.

00:47:06.710 --> 00:47:14.315
But if you cannot help to cultivate that love, it doesn't matter what you do it would not.

00:47:15.117 --> 00:47:28.626
You know, when speaking of playing on natural ice out on mirror lake and Lake Placid back in the back in the 50s, you develop that love of the game.

00:47:28.626 --> 00:47:32.014
Everybody is out on the ice at the same time.

00:47:32.014 --> 00:47:35.871
You know you break up into teams of teams might be 20 players each.

00:47:35.871 --> 00:47:43.259
You know that huge surface of ice out there and you have to learn how to skate to keep up with the older guys.

00:47:43.259 --> 00:47:49.202
You have guys who are 17, 18 years old, that are junior and senior in high school, and here you are 1011 years old.

00:47:50.005 --> 00:47:58.454
So if I want to play in that game I've got to push myself without even realizing that try to keep up with those other kids and you're just loving it.

00:47:58.454 --> 00:48:02.784
And those older kids, they were some of our early mentors.

00:48:02.784 --> 00:48:08.661
They taught us you know how to play the game, they encouraged us and we had fun.

00:48:08.661 --> 00:48:21.715
I mean I couldn't wait to get up in the morning it might be 15 degrees out to go up and skate out on that lake to be with those older kids, and that was nothing better than the memories of doing that when I was a kid.

00:48:22.750 --> 00:48:23.914
I still don't think there's anything better.

00:48:23.914 --> 00:48:24.715
Sorry, go ahead.

00:48:26.389 --> 00:48:27.172
Jumping with the story.

00:48:27.172 --> 00:48:37.744
So you know Pete, always he likes worker bees and if you're working to develop your game, you know you were, you'd be in his good graces.

00:48:37.744 --> 00:48:42.400
So when I was a seventh and eighth grader, school get out it.

00:48:42.400 --> 00:48:45.188
When I had Pete, school get out of like 210.

00:48:45.188 --> 00:48:54.222
But the high school practice didn't start till maybe 315 and we would bring our skates and sticks to school, run to the rink which was four blocks away.

00:48:54.764 --> 00:49:04.215
The guy that ran the rink worked for the BTPW guy named Butch Ponzi, just passed away this past year, was a fellow softball Hall of Famer with Pete.

00:49:04.215 --> 00:49:05.764
Pete played a lot of softball with him.

00:49:05.764 --> 00:49:06.507
He would.

00:49:06.507 --> 00:49:09.420
He would let us on the ramp to be note it would be dead time.

00:49:09.420 --> 00:49:15.431
He'd let us out there when out of the high school guys are starting to trickle out because it's you know, it's their practice time.

00:49:15.431 --> 00:49:31.360
And Pete would, once the whole team got out there, he'd let us stay out there for like the first 15 minutes when they were doing some warm up type of things and some of those older guys would take us under their wing or maybe rifle a, pocket our ankle.

00:49:31.822 --> 00:49:40.072
But it was that to us was the coolest thing that we got to be out there on the ice and with the high school kids.

00:49:40.072 --> 00:49:43.226
But before that, you know you're, you're working on your game.

00:49:43.226 --> 00:49:50.853
Before three and three was a thing, you know, that's what we used to do hit the post because we couldn't get a goalie out there.

00:49:50.853 --> 00:50:09.137
So, yeah, so, and when that guy, when Butch Ponzi passed away, all of us kids that that he allowed to do that, we had a big texting thread going, you know, talking about those memories and, like you said, big smiles on our faces, some of the best times of our life you know it's funny.

00:50:09.157 --> 00:50:10.981
You're making me think of a story too that you know.

00:50:10.981 --> 00:50:18.639
When I was in high school, especially the younger years, at 1516 time period, most kids on Friday nights wanted to go out the movies, do stuff like that.

00:50:18.639 --> 00:50:28.740
I went to open hockey and my local arena and played with men you know what I mean and man, they, they put me on and they taught me a lot, right, and they could see.

00:50:28.740 --> 00:50:33.898
You know, here's a 16 year old out here that he's not doing what the other kids are doing and I remember I would.

00:50:33.898 --> 00:50:38.902
They were so much, you know, better because they were older, right, and they taught me so much.

00:50:38.922 --> 00:50:43.646
And it's funny is I can't say the rank because there's too many people in my local area that listen to this.

00:50:43.646 --> 00:51:01.998
But I remember Bill to your point, my father who, whom I love very much, used to bring I'll just say this he used to bring the rink and attendent at night a six pack of beverages and he would let me skate after the last skate till two, three o'clock in the morning sometimes.

00:51:01.998 --> 00:51:09.717
And some of my best memories are just being out there on the ice thinking how cool is this that I'm out here right now and my dad.

00:51:09.717 --> 00:51:11.222
My dad would help him put the chairs up.

00:51:11.222 --> 00:51:15.798
Like you know, I obviously, as a father now, I appreciate this much, much more than I did then.

00:51:16.340 --> 00:51:19.300
But you know those little moments, right it's, it's.

00:51:19.300 --> 00:51:21.409
We can't remove those from the game either.

00:51:21.409 --> 00:51:30.311
Right that you know it's important to play with other people, it's important to get different perspectives, it's important to play with people that are gonna, you know, overpower you in the right way.

00:51:30.311 --> 00:51:33.143
Right, and teach you how to, how to play these games.

00:51:33.143 --> 00:51:35.777
Because those are the things I remember, right it's.

00:51:35.777 --> 00:51:37.306
It's funny what you remember when you're done.

00:51:37.306 --> 00:51:40.844
Right, you remember the locker room, you remember the people you played with it.

00:51:40.844 --> 00:51:53.494
I mean again, pete, you might have some other memories too, with with an Olympic silver medal, but really the things that stick with you are the people and the process and and and how that works around, special stuff yeah, our Olympic team.

00:51:54.978 --> 00:51:55.938
We have reunions.

00:51:55.938 --> 00:52:03.443
I don't know how many teams do this on a regular basis, but every three or four years we get together.

00:52:03.443 --> 00:52:24.771
Somewhere might be down in Florida, might be out in Minnesota or whatever, but and and one of the things we do when we get together is we have a meal together one of the nights and everybody has to get up and tell what the experience meant to them, and every single guy on that and that Tina gets up, starts crying, you know.

00:52:24.771 --> 00:52:25.112
So it's.

00:52:25.112 --> 00:52:29.364
It shows how much the experience meant to us.

00:52:29.364 --> 00:52:34.619
And they also talk a little bit about you know how they got to be where they are.

00:52:34.619 --> 00:52:37.889
You know all the hockey experiences they had coming up through.

00:52:37.889 --> 00:52:46.300
So it's, it's a lot of great memories and at my age you start appreciating, you know, appreciating them even more.

00:52:47.242 --> 00:52:49.650
Have you guys read the book Striking Silver?

00:52:50.802 --> 00:52:51.905
No, but I'm gonna have to now.

00:52:53.621 --> 00:52:55.324
Written by my.

00:52:55.324 --> 00:52:58.271
You know, guys, I grew up across street from Tom and Jerry.

00:52:58.271 --> 00:53:11.460
Caracoli interviewed every member of this team and wrote a book called Striking Silver, the forgotten team, which the 72 team was, and I don't want to give it away to you.

00:53:11.460 --> 00:53:16.713
But you know, there's a couple of guys that he talked about the Vietnam experience.

00:53:16.713 --> 00:53:27.313
There's a couple of guys that were pulled out of Vietnam in Combat, well, to try out for the team and if they got cut they had to go back to Vietnam.

00:53:27.313 --> 00:53:31.891
Yeah, if they made the team, my god, the government's gonna give him an exemption.

00:53:31.891 --> 00:53:38.059
How'd you like to go into a battle drill in the corner with a guy that, if he gets cut, is going back to Vietnam?

00:53:38.059 --> 00:53:38.681
Can?

00:53:38.702 --> 00:53:39.222
you imagine?

00:53:39.222 --> 00:53:40.507
No, I can't.

00:53:40.507 --> 00:53:41.710
I'm gonna be really blunt with you.

00:53:41.710 --> 00:53:44.329
We grew up in an era where, if you get cut, you go back to Nintendo.

00:53:44.329 --> 00:53:48.311
Yeah, that's insane to me perspective right there.

00:53:49.195 --> 00:53:52.059
Yeah, for your listeners out there, it's called Striking Silver.

00:53:52.360 --> 00:53:54.585
I just looked it up on Amazon and I did see it.

00:53:54.585 --> 00:53:58.052
Now I'm going to be purchasing that immediately after we conclude here today.

00:53:58.052 --> 00:54:03.500
Look, the audience is gonna get on me if I don't ask you about the 72 games, pete.

00:54:03.500 --> 00:54:05.206
So we do have to walk through the games.

00:54:05.206 --> 00:54:09.108
You know, I was just looking here Just to paint the picture here.

00:54:09.108 --> 00:54:09.449
Right?

00:54:09.449 --> 00:54:13.507
So you're in Japan, you're playing the Soviet Union at the peak of their power.

00:54:13.507 --> 00:54:14.751
It's right in the middle of their run.

00:54:14.751 --> 00:54:16.125
All right, check.

00:54:16.125 --> 00:54:17.699
The Slovakia is another powerful team.

00:54:17.699 --> 00:54:23.280
I think it's also important to remind people the Olympics probably worked a little differently back then than they do today.

00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:25.887
There's no gold medal game per se, right?

00:54:25.887 --> 00:54:29.266
It's all about ranking at that time In the combined record.

00:54:29.266 --> 00:54:39.742
So why don't you walk us through in 1972, going up against Trecciak and I mean there's a lot of names on there from the 80 team, if you know what I'm trying to say and yet a Mark, young Mark, how, on your team?

00:54:39.742 --> 00:54:40.184
I believe?

00:54:40.184 --> 00:54:44.112
Absolutely right, yeah, to walk us through the Olympics.

00:54:44.740 --> 00:54:45.663
Okay, the Olympics were.

00:54:45.663 --> 00:54:53.170
They were a round robin kind of situation, but you still had to play a game to even get into the metal round.

00:54:53.170 --> 00:54:56.632
So we played Switzerland and we were behind.

00:54:56.632 --> 00:55:02.376
I think we were behind early in that game and we came back and won that game and that put us into the metal round.

00:55:02.376 --> 00:55:12.563
And then you end up playing around robin against teams like Czechs, slovakia, finland, sweden, russia, I think.

00:55:12.563 --> 00:55:13.364
Who else?

00:55:13.364 --> 00:55:14.686
Poland, I think, had a team.

00:55:15.588 --> 00:55:18.353
The Canadians were playing in that Olympics.

00:55:18.353 --> 00:55:28.206
Okay, because they were protesting that they couldn't use their professional players, because they said that Russia was using all professional players, right.

00:55:28.206 --> 00:55:30.490
Okay, that was a whole different era.

00:55:30.490 --> 00:55:32.474
Back then it was during the Cold War.

00:55:32.474 --> 00:55:45.550
You had, you know, russia versus the United States or Russia versus Democratic countries and so on, but all we wanted to do was play hockey.

00:55:45.550 --> 00:55:49.664
Okay, if the Canadians didn't go, we're gonna try to do the best we could.

00:55:49.664 --> 00:55:51.188
In the years earlier.

00:55:51.369 --> 00:56:00.867
We have not done very well in either US national play or in the Olympics After 1960, which they won the goal.

00:56:00.867 --> 00:56:02.030
We hadn't really done well.

00:56:02.030 --> 00:56:10.527
So we were picked, I think, the finished fifth or second fifth, I think, in the Olympics, which is just about last, and so we go in there.

00:56:10.527 --> 00:56:26.963
You know, we had a bunch of young guys, we we felt that we were pretty good, but yet most of us, or a lot of us, hadn't had a lot of international experience, so we didn't really know what to expect from some of the teams Before the Olympics.

00:56:26.963 --> 00:56:30.012
We did play to Russians a few times and they kicked our butts.

00:56:30.012 --> 00:56:41.000
We played them in New York City and Madison Square Garden, we played in the Philadelphia, we played them in St Louis, we played them in Minneapolis and we had played the Czechs also over here in America.

00:56:41.000 --> 00:56:45.652
They had come over to get some games in before the Olympics.

00:56:45.652 --> 00:56:52.748
And so you know, I played on the ice against the Russians, I played against Trecek, I played against the Czechs and so on.

00:56:52.748 --> 00:56:58.132
Most of those games they have beaten us by, I would say, at least eight or nine goals.

00:56:59.900 --> 00:57:19.911
My proudest moment was I played against the Russians in St Louis and I Went in halfway through the game, coaches splitting goalies and you had to be able to accept that, with your lighted or not, and we were behind, I think, six, nothing going in the I when I went in halfway through the game.

00:57:19.911 --> 00:57:25.126
At the end of the game I think the score was 7-1.

00:57:25.126 --> 00:57:26.599
So I played a happy game.

00:57:26.599 --> 00:57:29.092
I gave up one goal against the Russians.

00:57:29.092 --> 00:57:38.336
That was the same team that that the NHL All-Star team played against the Russians right after the Olympics in 1972.

00:57:38.336 --> 00:57:40.985
That was the same team and so I that was.

00:57:40.985 --> 00:57:47.710
I was really proud of how I played in that game and I think I showed my coach that if I had to play, you know, I could play.

00:57:49.280 --> 00:57:52.088
But we didn't have a lot of success against the Russians here in the US.

00:57:52.088 --> 00:57:55.500
We played against them four or five times and they really beat us bad.

00:57:55.500 --> 00:58:03.302
But uh, as the Olympics got started, uh, we, we, let's see.

00:58:03.302 --> 00:58:07.007
We beat Poland, we beat the Czechs.

00:58:07.007 --> 00:58:09.367
We lost to Sweden.

00:58:09.367 --> 00:58:12.789
So we had a great team, great players.

00:58:12.789 --> 00:58:18.690
We beat Finland and we lost to Russia.

00:58:18.690 --> 00:58:30.902
Russia beat us, I think, 7-3 in the Olympics that was Best score we had played against them and the Russians had to beat, let's see.

00:58:30.961 --> 00:58:32.766
When it came down to it, we played the Czechs.

00:58:32.806 --> 00:58:35.492
When we beat the Czechs, the Russians knew they had the gold.

00:58:35.492 --> 00:58:39.059
So that was a big game for us being the Czechs.

00:58:39.059 --> 00:58:43.271
It was a big game for the Russians, because the Russians always had a tough time with the Czechs.

00:58:43.271 --> 00:58:53.452
And when, when we beat them that night, they and their coach Came to our coach and they invited us over to their dorms.

00:58:53.452 --> 00:59:03.831
Their dorms were in a totally different place, in the Olympic Village, because they were communists, there was a cold war, they did not allow their team to associate with anybody else.

00:59:03.831 --> 00:59:10.914
But they snuck us into their dorm and the in the vodka was flowing and everything was going.

00:59:10.914 --> 00:59:13.226
You got to meet all of their guys.

00:59:13.226 --> 00:59:14.530
You got the shake hands with them.

00:59:14.530 --> 00:59:16.851
I met Tretchak.

00:59:16.851 --> 00:59:26.295
He gave me a little Uh, it was like a postcard with the Russian team on it and he signed the back of it and I've I've still got that.

00:59:26.295 --> 00:59:29.007
So that was, that was special for me.

00:59:29.619 --> 00:59:33.711
But they were thanking us for beating the Czech teams, which gave them the gold medal.

00:59:33.711 --> 00:59:40.411
And, as it was, everybody ended up beating everybody else except the Russians beat everybody.

00:59:40.411 --> 00:59:42.025
But you know, we beat.

00:59:42.025 --> 00:59:44.556
We beat the Czechs, but we lost to the Swedes.

00:59:44.637 --> 01:00:11.246
The Swedes, I think, lost, I don't think lost to Finland or lost to the Czechs, I can't remember now, but everybody beat it at people's beating, everybody else except the Russians beat everybody, and that ended up giving us the silver medal, and so that was really a tremendous thrill for us To be able to win a medal and, when we were not favored, to even, you know, finish in the top four or five, and so it was a great experience.

01:00:11.960 --> 01:00:20.467
Uh, there's about a three or four days left in the Olympics after our last game, so we got a chance to really Uh enjoy ourselves.

01:00:20.467 --> 01:00:42.311
After that we went to all the other Olympic events and so on, and uh, the the thrill that all of us on the team had Is carried over to this day, because, I said, we have Our reunions all the time and we talk about what the game is meant to us as individuals and uh, how it changed our lives, probably forever.

01:00:42.311 --> 01:00:57.192
Well, a lot of the things that have happened to me on my life have happened because of my Olympic experience, and uh, so it was uh Something that I'll take with me all the way to my graves, so it's just a great experience.

01:00:58.420 --> 01:01:00.204
You know, I love that you shared all that.

01:01:00.204 --> 01:01:40.012
I also love hearing these stories because I'm always amazed at Hearing the part about well, they invited us over and we had drinks together, you know, and and mike and I had the privilege Uh interviewing lou vero a few years back and he talked about his relationship with anatoly teresov and how they were really friends and then, in spite of the cold war, uh, hockey kind of prevailed over the international hatred, right, um, in the sense that you know people, I I always find that amazing that at the peak of the cold war, the hockey players found a way to hang out with each other and and learn from each other, right, just, it shows you the power of human spirit when you really think about it.

01:01:40.659 --> 01:01:53.913
Well, I think hockey players and the hockey community have always, uh, you know, been a tight knit group and it didn't make any difference whether you were playing the russians or whoever it was.

01:01:53.913 --> 01:01:58.351
Uh, hockey coaches are always willing to share ideas.

01:01:58.351 --> 01:02:00.800
They're always willing to share everything.

01:02:00.800 --> 01:02:24.545
I worked at summer hockey schools for many years and in one of the best parts of the school we enjoyed working with the kids on the ice, but at night we would sit down over a few beers and there was college coaches there, there were professional coaches there at the hockey schools, and we would talk hockey and I would be sitting there with my notebook and I'd be writing like crazy, you know, taking note down.

01:02:24.545 --> 01:02:24.867
You know.

01:02:25.108 --> 01:02:25.710
Well, what do you do?

01:02:25.710 --> 01:02:29.603
I'm, uh, when the other team has this power play, how do you, how do you try to kill it off?

01:02:29.603 --> 01:02:31.728
What do you do in this situation?

01:02:31.728 --> 01:02:33.052
All the different situations?

01:02:33.052 --> 01:02:34.987
What kind of drills do you use?

01:02:34.987 --> 01:02:40.239
You know, for various things, and I would come out of every summer at hockey school.

01:02:40.239 --> 01:02:48.132
I'd come out and there were notebooks of notes and information that I tried to use on my kids back home if it was appropriate.

01:02:48.132 --> 01:02:51.831
And, uh, I think that's the way hockey is all over the world.

01:02:51.831 --> 01:03:13.324
Our coach, mary williamson, with the olympic team, was very good friends with terrace off and I know there was other people in the western world that were good friends with them and, and, uh, I think many of the hockey techniques that we still even used today Were picked up from a lot of the russian Ways that they did their things.

01:03:13.324 --> 01:03:16.693
They actually did more work off ice than they did on ice.

01:03:16.693 --> 01:03:23.019
Uh, whether it was stick handling drills, shooting drills, whatever, they did more work off ice than they did on ice.

01:03:23.440 --> 01:03:28.432
Tell me, tell me the story about the going to practice or the bags in the back of the truck that they'd run in their equipment.

01:03:30.619 --> 01:03:34.400
Well, again, uh they.

01:03:34.400 --> 01:03:40.012
Their techniques, like I said, off ice were more uh extensive than on ice.

01:03:40.012 --> 01:03:42.661
And uh they.

01:03:42.661 --> 01:03:46.391
What billy was talking about was how they used to push themselves.

01:03:46.391 --> 01:03:49.686
Uh, and they worked year round.

01:03:49.686 --> 01:03:54.851
They would put things in the back of uh trucks, they would have to push the vehicles around.

01:03:54.851 --> 01:03:57.206
That was for leg strength, and so on.

01:03:57.206 --> 01:04:13.454
But uh again, after the 72 olympics, when the russians came over to uh north america to play the nhl all star team, they they found out how good the russians really really were.

01:04:13.454 --> 01:04:14.818
Right and uh.

01:04:16.202 --> 01:04:20.632
I don't know, if you remember the last game, I think paul henderson scored the gold to win it.

01:04:20.632 --> 01:04:23.289
So the nhl ended up winning the series.

01:04:23.289 --> 01:04:25.724
But uh, the russians had beaten those.

01:04:25.724 --> 01:04:30.385
Uh, the nhl all stars three or four games and uh, they.

01:04:30.385 --> 01:04:32.032
Now everybody wanted to find out.

01:04:32.032 --> 01:04:38.192
Well, what kind of techniques did the russian jews, what were they doing in their practices to get as good as they are?

01:04:38.192 --> 01:04:55.653
And uh, then I used, then I would see, uh, my, my olympic team in 1972 was using those russian ideas, and even today, if you go out on the ice, there's all so many things going on that I said, oh, those were things that the russians were using way back in 1972.

01:04:55.980 --> 01:04:57.885
You know it's funny You're supposed to seroken.

01:04:57.885 --> 01:04:59.690
Uh, pushing a truck, wasn't he?

01:04:59.690 --> 01:05:03.385
Hasn't gotten, hasn't gotten too far.

01:05:04.539 --> 01:05:05.382
Mike, I'll tell you this too.

01:05:05.382 --> 01:05:11.110
You know it's funny is we talked about history earlier, right, and that you, you read history, you know history, you can evolve and learn.

01:05:11.110 --> 01:05:16.693
And, uh, you know, the russians played in five man units and we're starting to see that In the game again.

01:05:16.693 --> 01:05:25.391
We're starting to see that, that, you know, there really are no positions sometimes in the offensive zone and and it's uh, it's amazing to see how the game kind of reinvents itself over and over again.

01:05:25.391 --> 01:05:34.728
But to your, to your point, pete, you know it's the ability to to learn from each other, not hold things back, to have an open environment of education and understanding and learning.

01:05:34.789 --> 01:05:46.987
And you know, when it comes to anatoly teresov and I've studied the man, you know Everything I've read says he was just a good human being in a, in a in a different country, in a different world, right, um, so it's amazing what he was able to accomplish.

01:05:46.987 --> 01:05:49.617
So I'm looking at the time here and I do.

01:05:49.617 --> 01:05:50.559
I have one final question, mike.

01:05:50.559 --> 01:05:54.163
I don't know if you have anything you want to ask too before I, before I jump into this, you do.

01:05:54.163 --> 01:05:55.208
Is that, is that a nod, or?

01:05:55.349 --> 01:06:05.193
yeah, no, for sure, I mean I really well, I got to answer because I know jaymey prince is going to get on me with coach digby and uh and uh Everybody up there in suigo but so so is cams.

01:06:05.193 --> 01:06:06.721
The best pizza in the suigo Is that.

01:06:06.721 --> 01:06:13.346
Is that it's hands down or you guys can answer that question, it's live in the court, guys, let's do it, we can cut it, we can cut it out.

01:06:14.079 --> 01:06:16.445
My, my golf league, my golf league partner.

01:06:16.445 --> 01:06:21.014
I got a tee off it four o'clock today is is nick canali senior.

01:06:22.242 --> 01:06:23.588
Oh yeah, okay, so wait, we could go.

01:06:25.300 --> 01:06:28.860
I got to go with canalia's pizza smart smart play safe flow.

01:06:32.266 --> 01:06:32.786
You guys are great.

01:06:32.827 --> 01:06:36.054
I really appreciate it, but there's a lot of good pizza places here.

01:06:36.054 --> 01:06:36.474
I know that.

01:06:36.960 --> 01:06:48.905
No, no pizza in new york, yeah, but so you guys, here's my final question, and and this one's really for the kids listening, right, maybe the young parents listening parents, if your kids are listening, you know, bring a little closer to the Speaker, make sure they're looking up.

01:06:48.905 --> 01:06:54.858
It's a question for both of you, right, you know, as teachers, as educators, as hockey players.

01:06:54.858 --> 01:07:05.166
Right, if you had to leave one parting message with today's children about the journey in the game, what would that statement of impact be?

01:07:05.166 --> 01:07:06.288
And, bill, I'll start with you.

01:07:09.175 --> 01:07:10.579
I'm saving the toughest question for last.

01:07:10.579 --> 01:07:20.335
You know, at the end, when your playing career is over, which you know as far as college, because then there's always the glory of men's league.

01:07:20.335 --> 01:07:26.322
But you know you want to look back and say did I put everything that I could into it?

01:07:26.322 --> 01:07:29.518
Did I leave anything, you know, on the table?

01:07:29.518 --> 01:07:31.454
Could I have been a better player?

01:07:31.454 --> 01:07:36.742
And you know you sleep better at night when the answer to that question is is no.

01:07:36.742 --> 01:07:38.454
I did everything.

01:07:38.454 --> 01:07:43.253
You know I could do and I can only.

01:07:43.253 --> 01:07:45.398
You know that's my answer to the question.

01:07:45.418 --> 01:07:47.282
You know, because of Pete.

01:07:47.282 --> 01:07:55.302
He taught me to push myself and how to better myself, not accept mediocrity.

01:07:55.302 --> 01:08:03.760
So you know, when my college days were done, I could say, yeah, I was the best player I could be.

01:08:03.760 --> 01:08:14.721
And then the fact that you know you find out that all these lessons are applicable and more applicable in your in non-hockey life than they are in the rink.

01:08:14.721 --> 01:08:17.885
You know it's pretty gratifying experience.

01:08:17.885 --> 01:08:28.115
So my message to a kid would be you know you got to work absolutely as hard as you can work so you can have a little peace of mind down the road.

01:08:29.671 --> 01:08:34.420
I think that athletics and school are very similar.

01:08:34.420 --> 01:08:39.858
I think that you know, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

01:08:39.858 --> 01:08:42.403
I think you want to have fun doing it.

01:08:42.403 --> 01:08:49.439
So it's always fun if you have coaches and teachers that try to try to make what you're doing.

01:08:49.439 --> 01:08:52.203
You know fun at the same time as you're working hard.

01:08:53.729 --> 01:09:01.376
But you know, as a kid, I think you have to ask yourself you know, what do I want to get out of athletics or what do I want to get out of hockey?

01:09:01.376 --> 01:09:13.565
And you know, if you want to set goals, to be make the high school team or make a junior team or make a college team, then you're going to have to work harder.

01:09:13.565 --> 01:09:15.296
That's just, that's the way life is.

01:09:15.296 --> 01:09:17.576
You just want to go out and have fun.

01:09:17.576 --> 01:09:19.172
Okay, that's okay.

01:09:19.172 --> 01:09:20.036
There's teams.

01:09:20.036 --> 01:09:21.260
I think that do that.

01:09:21.260 --> 01:09:23.774
So try to put yourself in the right situation.

01:09:23.774 --> 01:09:38.595
That's going to allow you to have fun what you're doing and that sometimes, as you're, as you're doing that you, if you're don't want to, if you don't have, you know, really high goals, maybe as you're going along, you find, hey, I'm starting to get better at this, I'm starting to improve at it.

01:09:38.595 --> 01:09:43.679
Now maybe I'm going to set some different goals and maybe you'll shoot a little bit higher.

01:09:43.789 --> 01:09:51.980
But the thing I think the important thing is you got to enjoy what you're doing and you got to try to put yourself in a situation that's going to be enjoyable.

01:09:51.980 --> 01:10:02.322
And I'm the same with the parents try to get your kids into a situation that's going to be enjoyable for them and you got to remember it's for them, not so much for you as a parent.

01:10:02.322 --> 01:10:18.220
I think a lot of parents look at their kids as their entertainment and instead of just having their kids go out and enjoy what they're doing whether they're winning or losing, or whether it's a road team or whether it's not a road team or whatever but I think that's where I would leave it.

01:10:18.220 --> 01:10:33.440
I know as I've gotten older, I've mellowed a little bit in my outlook toward athletics, but I still know that if you want to reach certain levels, that it's going to require a certain amount of effort to be able to get there.

01:10:33.440 --> 01:10:41.511
So I think I'll just leave it at that and just have parents try to get their kids into a situation that's going to be fun for them, ok.

01:10:42.569 --> 01:10:45.252
That's a fantastic answer, pete and guys.

01:10:45.252 --> 01:10:46.679
This has been an awesome interview.

01:10:46.679 --> 01:10:54.171
I appreciate all the stories, I appreciate all the history, I appreciate all the sentiments For two quick things yeah, please.

01:10:54.989 --> 01:11:02.862
Well, three, I was happy to be there for Pete's non-mellow years, which were vastly different from his current mellow years.

01:11:02.862 --> 01:11:11.775
The original thing that I wrote for Christie about coaches I wrote about six or seven of them and another guy that I wrote about.

01:11:11.775 --> 01:11:23.822
His name is Danny Ford and he was my Bannum coach for two years, so you could argue, the most formative of years of somebody's life, age 13 to 18.

01:11:23.822 --> 01:11:27.979
I had Danny Ford for two years and Pete Sears for three years.

01:11:29.170 --> 01:11:41.659
Any success that I've had in my life is directly attributed to the influence of those two guys over that five year period and I have the same type of relationship with Danny Ford today that I do with Pete.

01:11:41.659 --> 01:11:53.219
They're two of my best friends and guys that I still call up for guidance and everything great that's happened to me, everything horrible that's ever happened to me.

01:11:53.219 --> 01:11:56.304
Those two guys are constants in my life.

01:11:56.304 --> 01:11:59.954
Lastly, I got to give a shout out to my daughter, monica.

01:11:59.954 --> 01:12:10.201
After being on the Portland State Women's Team for four years, a few weeks back she was named assistant women's coach at Morrisville College.

01:12:10.712 --> 01:12:13.613
That's awesome, so she's starting a coaching career.

01:12:13.613 --> 01:12:17.452
Just in the last couple of weeks here Awesome.

01:12:18.569 --> 01:12:29.903
If I can, I just like to mention Bill mentioned Dan Ford, dan, I think he and I have a very similar outlook on coaching and working with kids.

01:12:29.903 --> 01:12:36.804
A lot of the success I had with my high school teams here I can attribute to some of the things that Dan did before.

01:12:36.804 --> 01:12:43.560
Just like Billy said, he played for Dan for two years and then I had Bill and a lot of the kids that Dan had coached earlier.

01:12:43.560 --> 01:12:47.280
So I would like to give Dan a lot of credit for that.

01:12:47.280 --> 01:12:50.719
So if Dan is out there, if he's listening, I'd like to thank you, dan.

01:12:52.292 --> 01:12:55.779
So, pete, I got to ask you this now Are you, like a grandparent, mentor to Bill's daughter?

01:12:55.779 --> 01:12:58.336
Is that transcending down?

01:12:59.158 --> 01:12:59.519
through the.

01:13:00.850 --> 01:13:01.112
It has.

01:13:02.010 --> 01:13:03.617
I mean, she only got hired two weeks ago.

01:13:03.617 --> 01:13:10.100
I'm teasing, obviously, but she has been on the phone with Danny Ford.

01:13:10.810 --> 01:13:11.212
There you go.

01:13:11.869 --> 01:13:18.215
Because when he was coaching at Aspago State, one of his primary jobs was recruiting, and that's my daughter's.

01:13:18.215 --> 01:13:19.880
One of her responsibilities is recruiting.

01:13:19.880 --> 01:13:25.921
So they've already had some conversations about the ins and outs of recruiting kids for their program.

01:13:26.542 --> 01:13:27.083
That's amazing.

01:13:27.083 --> 01:13:36.971
Look, rounding the episode out, we started out this way too the importance of mentorship, being a good mentee and really sending the elevator back down Once you get to the top.

01:13:36.971 --> 01:13:45.822
It's so important for not just yourself but the game right Is our ability to pass down the knowledge and the mentorship, and it transcends hockey.

01:13:45.822 --> 01:13:46.954
These are life lessons.

01:13:46.954 --> 01:13:58.317
These are things that make you a better human being, and that is really when I think about the hockey community and this could be true of a lot of communities, but when I think about the hockey community, the one I live in, that's.

01:13:58.317 --> 01:14:09.699
The greatest gift that it provides is the mentorship, the how to be a good person, the how to strategize your day around the ice, and I think that all of us in that guild are blessed.

01:14:09.909 --> 01:14:12.238
So I want to thank you both for coming on today.

01:14:12.238 --> 01:14:14.819
I want to remind the audience get USA Hockey Magazine.

01:14:14.819 --> 01:14:16.435
It's in this month's edition in July.

01:14:16.435 --> 01:14:20.359
The article is in there, going over a lot of the stuff we went over today.

01:14:20.359 --> 01:14:28.639
Make sure you look for that book, striking Silver, if you want to hear more about Pete's adventures over in Japan and Bill Pete fantastic episode.

01:14:28.639 --> 01:14:29.853
Thank you both for being here today.

01:14:31.077 --> 01:14:31.738
Thank you very much.

01:14:31.738 --> 01:14:32.360
I really enjoyed it.

01:14:32.689 --> 01:14:33.573
Thanks for having us guys.

01:14:33.573 --> 01:14:37.019
Thank you, and that's going to do it for this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey.

01:14:37.019 --> 01:14:39.237
Remember, all of the episodes are on ourkidsplayhockeycom.

01:14:39.237 --> 01:14:45.743
Make sure, if you love this show, go give it a five star review on Apple or wherever you listen.

01:14:45.743 --> 01:14:48.559
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01:14:48.559 --> 01:14:49.932
Everybody have a great week.

01:14:49.932 --> 01:14:54.180
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01:14:54.180 --> 01:15:03.400
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01:15:03.400 --> 01:15:08.461
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01:15:08.461 --> 01:15:13.140
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01:15:13.140 --> 01:15:14.221
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01:15:14.221 --> 01:15:18.511
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