Foosball Radio | On the Road | Texas-Cissi Whipple

[00:00:01] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio, Foosball Radio, On the Road. Hey it's Foosball Radio, On the Road. I'm Tom Robinson and we are hanging out all weekend long with the 2024 ITSF World Series of Tornado in Dallas, Texas at the Westin Hotel.

[00:00:31] What a weekend we've had, so many things happening this weekend, a great format, a completely European style of play. But everybody's been having a great time, lots of great comments about it and we are told that it's going to continue.

[00:00:45] We're going to see this again real soon and hopefully right here in Texas. At any rate, while we're here we are getting a chance to hang out with people that we haven't seen in a while which would include Sissy Whipple. Hello Sissy. Hi Tom.

[00:00:59] Sissy, you are probably one of the bigger supporters of Foosball in Texas. How long have you been supporting Foosball in this part of the country? Oh well, okay so I started playing at 14. 14?

[00:01:14] Yeah but as like a promoter and working behind the scenes, it's been over 30 years as a player and then beyond that behind the scenes. Okay and so I know we've had discussions about this in the past but refresh our memory.

[00:01:30] You at one time approached the government of Texas to make Foosball a recognized sport. Yes I did. How long ago was that? That was 2022. 2022. Yeah. And so the results were successful?

[00:01:51] I went to, yeah, state legislator Todd Hunter got it passed through legislation and table soccer slash Foosball is recognized as a sport in the state of Texas and it's the only state in the United States. The only state?

[00:02:05] Yeah so for this event to be here is like amazing. Yeah so how do you feel about this European style of play? Well being a World Cup member for several years I was used to this format. You've done it. I love it.

[00:02:21] It gives you time to rest, you know? I love the way the format's laid out. I like the way the tournament has run so smoothly. Right. And it's just, I love it. Yeah.

[00:02:35] Now it's so impressive in the sense that when you get here first of all the layout, the way they set up the stage for the spectators. You've got the pit area with these great graphics and there's just an amazing lighting and a lot of cameras. I am.

[00:02:53] It's really done to a very high level of expertise. Have you ever seen anything like this in the states before? No, only at World Cup. Yeah. I mean that's the stage. There's usually thousands and thousands and thousands of people in the stands in Europe. Fights, yeah.

[00:03:11] Here we had so many. I was overwhelmed with as many players that came out. No kidding, no kidding. Yeah. It was great. It's been great. It's always high tech with ITSF. Sure. It's international.

[00:03:24] Now I know that Word has it, I know in the last World Cup which was in France, nonce? Nonce France? Yes it was. There was what like 4,000 kids that showed up to watch? They did. How cool is that? That is amazing. That is. That's our future.

[00:03:41] I just can't fathom that, 4,000 kids. That's our future of players. Our future athletes right there. So what's happening here in the state of Texas when it comes to bringing kids into the sport? Well there's school programs. There's the Boys and Girls Club. They play as well.

[00:04:00] And then we have our juniors that I coach which is Evan Chavez, Aaron Chavez and Jane Lueris. And they all like went home with gold medals, silver medals, bronze. They like tripled, they doubled. They were up on the podium several times. I'm so proud of them.

[00:04:21] Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. Now this is the kind of thing that one of our previous guests this weekend, Jason Wicks who's involved with Foosball Sports Network, he's got some great concepts about how to bring this more into the public eye.

[00:04:35] And make it more attractive to let's say young kids who think, oh I want to do that. I want to be on camera like that person playing foosball. You know, the kids they have to concentrate on their school so much. Right.

[00:04:53] And then we have tournaments during like the holidays for school. Yep. So I always made it a no pass, no play. Okay. Like if you don't pass, you don't get to go to the tournament. And the parents are all on board with that. Oh of course.

[00:05:05] But you need to understand that like these kids get their talents from their parents. Yeah. So when they call me in to coach, it's like I'm just honing it, maybe breaking some bad habits. Sure.

[00:05:16] Teaching them strategy and teaching them how to play it like we would do at an international level. Oh yeah, got it. So they take direction very well. They respect me. They respect me like so much. No doubt. Like they're on my own. I love them so much.

[00:05:32] It's gratifying, right? So you can help to influence a young person's life and foosball has changed lives, right? It does. Changed my life. Yeah. Right. I traveled all over the world. Yeah. And think about it, I think the misconception of the public is that oh, that's just

[00:05:52] a toy that you would have in your basement at the house. I mean, it's a sport. Really? It's a sport. Yeah. And then once they see it, they're just like, yeah, wait a minute. Yeah. This is for real. These people are serious. Yeah.

[00:06:09] And the level of expertise, the level of performance on a professional level, it's astounding. It is. How about this? How about this? How do we make it more accessible for just non-foosball players? Because foosball players always want to watch, you know, because they know the

[00:06:29] they know the ins and the outs of the game. How do we make this more accessible to general public? I'm going to work really hard to get this out in the media as well. OK. Which you know I've done in the past. Sure. Sure.

[00:06:41] I'd like to try to get it out in the media. But also we need to be talking to a lot of promoters to start clubs for the kids because, you know, there's a lot of kids that play foosball. Yeah.

[00:06:54] But then like they bring their friends over and then their friends want to play. And then all of a sudden you've got a club of maybe 15, 20 kids because they all want to play. So. And then, you know, it's really great because they're not on video games.

[00:07:08] They're totally getting cardio. Yep. And they have their phones set aside. Yeah, their phones are set aside and they're so focused. It's great for kids with like ADD and stuff. It really is. It makes them slow down and focus because they have to sit on the ball for 15

[00:07:22] seconds or have to pass and take. Right. And they're like they're just honed in. It's it's in a way like we talk about the addiction of playing foosball. Right. You have to get them addicted to it to the point where they just they want

[00:07:39] to do it more and learn, learn and get better. Yeah. Jim Stevens kids are here and it was their first tournament today. Yep. By the way, happy birthday, Keon. Keon, yes. He turned 10 today. Happy birthday. And I was talking to his daughter while we were watching Keon play.

[00:07:55] Yep. And I said, so are you addicted yet? She goes, yes. I'm like Jim, we may have a problem. She's what? 10, 10, 11 years old? No, I think she's 11 or 12. Yeah, I got you. She's the older one. Right. Exactly. Now, Keon's here.

[00:08:12] I mean, I watched him playing with his sister. Yep. And he literally scored a point that went down the wall and, you know, the one that goes around the back in the hole. Yep. Yep. OK, so he made it and he goes, wow. Because he was like, yeah.

[00:08:26] So, yeah, it's like it boosts their confidence. Yep. It gives them so much like belief in themselves. Yep. They work so hard. They have to do a lot of teamwork because they've got to play with another person.

[00:08:40] Oftentimes with doubles, they've got to be able to communicate and rely upon each other. Communication. Yep. Yeah, it's huge. Sportsmanship. You've got to be a good loser. You got to win with grace and lose with grace. And when you're a champion, you have to be humble.

[00:08:54] There you go. There you go. So this is what I teach my kids. Yeah. Well, why wouldn't you? Right. I mean, it's a kind of thing. Yeah, the baseball has been around for many decades. Many decades.

[00:09:07] In fact, when I was 14 or 15, you know, I started playing through this ball in a local Italian restaurant. Really? And I mean, you know, it was we had no idea what it was, but we got into it. You were probably on a Bonzini or something.

[00:09:19] It was a Bonzini. Yeah. It was a Bonzini. In fact, the brothers that owned the restaurant were brand new. They had just emigrated from Italy and brought the table with them. Brought it on Bonzini. Yep.

[00:09:30] So, but they and they had so much fun killing us on the table, you know, but we as kids were like, well, OK, well, show us what you're doing. You know, we want to know more about this. And we all got addicted. Yeah.

[00:09:40] And we played I played all the way through college and several friends of mine also played for many, many years. Then, of course, you know, life happens. Yeah. You get married and things change, but it's it's it becomes the addiction and you catch them early.

[00:09:55] You know, they're they're, you know, 10, 11, 12 years old. And suddenly they find out they can really do it and they're good at it. Yeah. So that's when it's good to get them when they're young, because like I

[00:10:06] said, you know, you play with the older players or they play against the older players in their locals. Yep. And they'll pick up bad habits. So when you get them when you're when they're young, you're like, oh, no, no, no, no. You know, we can break that.

[00:10:18] Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Good instruction. So we've of course we miss John O'Brien, you know, Foosball clubs USA. Michael Stahl is now, of course, at the helm. Yeah. Michael's reached out to me. So yeah, right. So what do you think? Because he's been going out.

[00:10:35] He his concept was I'm going to I'm going to get this prize. It's an Xbox, brand new Xbox. And if you can come to this exhibition of Foosball and beat the pro. Yeah. If you can score on Michael Stahl, you could win the Xbox. Yeah.

[00:10:53] I mean, that's got to be my incentive here. And I started it like 30 years ago with the juniors when I would coach them and when I did when I was still playing but had time, you know, to mess with the kids because I love the kids. They're awesome.

[00:11:04] Yep. And it's like if you win, you get a Shirley Temple. OK. So Hannah Smith told a story. She's like at one point it was like we don't even care. We just want to win because they didn't care about the event.

[00:11:18] They were like, we want the Shirley Temple. As soon as Jayden and Aaron won the junior classic doubles, man, they just looked at me and I'm like, are you ready for your Shirley Temples? And they're like, yes. Of course. You realize you just want a gold medal. Right.

[00:11:37] Yeah. Wow. But the gold medal, whatever. Yeah. I want the Shirley Temple. That's, you know, that's their celebratory drink. Yeah. You know, so that's been going on for gosh. OK. Sullivan's what? Twenty one. Yep. That's a little bit longer than that. I started that tradition so long ago.

[00:11:54] That's so cool. And it's and it's something they always, always, always remember as adults. You know, the positive experience of becoming becoming proficient at the game. Of course, Sullivan Rue, we have to grant her whole family. Oh, they're the royalty of Louisiana. Yeah, no doubt.

[00:12:10] Well, the royalty of foosball. And you think about how many moms and daughters play foosball? Not many. There are more than you think. Like Tracy Brubaker and her daughter, Ali, play. Yes. You know, there's a lot more than you realize.

[00:12:24] You just we have in surface New York, Shelly Schaefer and her daughter. Yeah, yeah. I love Shelly. She's great. She's she's she's a fierce player. She is fierce. She is. We enjoy having her come down to our smashdown in Albany. And she brought a daughter last time.

[00:12:41] And she smashes it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Not only that, she's also great in the goal. So yeah, she can do both. Yeah, she's an all around player. She's great. No doubt. But yeah, I think this idea of sharing the experience with parents and kids, it's

[00:12:56] a way to bond. They come together. You know? Yeah, they do. So there's so many reasons for kids and parents not to bond. And of course, this whole idea of indoctrinating them into a sport that they can play in

[00:13:09] their own their own house, their own basement, whatever the case. It's a long time coming. But I think we're getting there. Yeah, but it also keeps the kids off the streets and in a good environment. Oh, yeah.

[00:13:23] I mean, because there's so much going on out there in the world nowadays. Well, there always has been. I know. But it's just like, you know, we live down two hours from the border. So we're just like, yeah, let's keep our kids indoors. Gotcha. Gotcha.

[00:13:38] But no, it's just getting them all together. Like the Chavez brothers. Well, we just are we still here plugged in? OK. OK, I think we're we're still recording. OK. No, there's some some power issues going on here.

[00:13:59] The arena just should say just in passing because we are having some I know the the actual stage where everything's taking place. They had a sound like maybe there might have been a fuse blown.

[00:14:11] But now it seems to be affecting some other parts of the of the room. Technical difficulties. Yeah. We can we can we can fix that. I was saying the Chavez brothers, they have their cousins that play that are older than them. OK. And their uncle plays. OK.

[00:14:28] Like these are all people I played with when they were teenagers and grew up and had children. And now I'm coach, you know, helping them coach their children, even though like they got all their skills like on the table firsthand from family members. No kidding.

[00:14:44] And then like Greg Chavez tells me, hey, we're like come close to my kids, man. Yeah. OK. I'm like, but they already had skills. They had ball control. Right. It was just like teaching them strategy and showing them different little things.

[00:15:00] They were a bit ahead of the curve. They were a bit of it. Yeah. Way ahead of her. Again, you know, the parents have a lot to do with that. We we watched, you know, a lot of kids come up with as second generation. Right. Yeah.

[00:15:15] Solomon Rue, even, you know, Sammy DeJohn. Jaden Lueris is a third generation. Third generation. His grandpa used to play back in the day with all of us like I used to play with his his grandma. No kidding. No kidding.

[00:15:29] And I got to talk to him on the phone when he won the other night and we hadn't seen each other in so long. Yeah. So it's his grandparents and then his uncle Daniel and his dad, Eddie Lueris. OK. Junior and then Jaden. Wow.

[00:15:42] And then Jaden's mom played Shayla. No kidding. I mean, not Shayla Shayna, but his cousin Shayla was on the World Cup team. Wow. So yeah, he comes from like, you know, just a really great family. Yeah.

[00:15:57] No, it's there once things like that as far as families are concerned, once they all get addicted and they want to and it's like, I don't know, some some families do board games. Other families play foosball. Absolutely. So it's a lot more fun than a board game.

[00:16:14] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot more fun. Probably more trash talking too. More than likely. I try to stop that between them when they're playing just because I don't want them to get into that bad habit. No, I know.

[00:16:27] But when you're off the table, y'all go ahead and say what you want to say. Right. But when they're on the table, you have to be professional. Like, this is how we roll. And so how often have you seen youngsters come to an event like this?

[00:16:42] Excuse me for the first time. And what is typically their reaction when they come to a place like this? Well, I guess the first time would be when we went to Europe, you know, so many years in a row. Yep.

[00:16:54] And it's well, even for us, it was like, wow, yeah, you know, this is overwhelming. Mm hmm. After you're there for a little bit, you're just playing. Yeah. You know, you learn to tune the crowd out. Yep. Yep. All the distractions.

[00:17:11] Yeah, because people are screaming over there like it's a soccer match. Right. And you just, you learn how to tune it out, you know? Okay. Because you've got to focus. But the first time I walked in, I was like, wow, all righty then.

[00:17:28] We're in a big arena and there's thousands and thousands of bands all around us. Right. And they're literally screaming against us or screaming for us. Right, right, right. Because we are like, the USA World Cup team is the most elite team in the world. Right. Oh yeah.

[00:17:44] And that's without a question from any country. For good reason. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, generally it's like they're either trying to out yell the Americans or the Americans and like other countries are for Americans. Sure. It just gets really loud.

[00:17:57] So that was the most, the one thing I remember was like how loud it really was. Yeah, no kidding. Well, it's interesting. I noticed in the last World Cup in Nantes, France, there was an exchange of jerseys from one country to the other. I have so many.

[00:18:14] Do you really? Yes, I do. That I thought was such a cool idea. You know, you walk up to somebody from another country, hey, I like that jersey. Let's trade. I used to buy four extra. Did you? Yeah. Okay.

[00:18:28] Because I knew I had to have my red, white and blue one to play in. Okay. So I would buy four of these different color because they like, they would want my jersey. Yeah. And they would be like, I have to play. Yeah.

[00:18:41] So, but we would exchange, like some of them gave me their jackets, you know. No kidding. Yeah. It's like I've got India, Netherlands. I've got so many. Japan. Australia. That's extraordinary. Yeah. I'm like, I have so many. South Africa. So here's an additional benefit, you know.

[00:18:57] Especially when younger kids are getting into this and they see if they go to a World Cup, let's say, on the junior team and they see the overwhelming number of people showing up just to cheer. Yeah. I mean that's got to be motivating.

[00:19:09] It's motivating, but for the kids, they're just, I just tell them keep your head down. Yeah. You know, stay focused. Yep. Do your thing. The other thing is, I think what is the most amazing thing about World Cup is you interact with so many different cultures. Right.

[00:19:27] That you would normally never be like, you know, that many of them around you in one place. Sure. So this weekend, like these kids got to intermingle with people from Armenia. Right.

[00:19:40] And people from Germany and people from Austria and kids their age and it was just like, they were like, wow. Here's the other thing that happened this weekend. Stefan from Austria, I've forgotten his last name, but Stefan was killing everybody the age of 17.

[00:20:00] Beats people like Ryan Moore and people like Brandon Munoz and well, he made it to the finals of the singles. Yep. Tony sprayed him and he took on Tony and then he went up against Tommy, your junior in the finals. Tommy got him.

[00:20:17] We kept it here in America. Well, I mean, the crowd was really rooting, you know, for Tommy, of course, but I mean that kid, he's never been here before. He's never been in a situation like this and yet he handled it beautifully.

[00:20:31] He was stoic and listen, these kids are so great. Ludwig. Yep. You know, from Austria, he came around the table and there was like a call on the table during a juniors match. OK. He was like, sorry. It's OK, buddy. And then. It's fine. Yeah, it's fine.

[00:20:54] And then Stefan, I talked to him for a little bit and I was like, he's like, what I should have won. I'm like, quit thinking about the negative. Do you realize how much you accomplished here? Yeah. Think about the positive part of this. Exactly right.

[00:21:08] And he's like, I didn't think to think like that, you know, and I'm like, don't be so down on yourself. You dominated. Yeah, my God. I mean, yeah, why would you? Why would you quit? Yeah. And his coach was like, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

[00:21:20] I'm like, you kind of encouraged him. Now these kids have a coach. Well, they have a leader or something. Yeah. And he's there and like he walked up on me and Stefan talking and he was just listening to what I was telling him.

[00:21:34] It's just like positive, you know, and he was just like, thank you so much. Sure. Like you don't want the kids to get down on themselves. Like you lose a match and all of a sudden their spirits crush. It's like get over it.

[00:21:47] Baggage next time, you know, go in the next one. So it's just it was amazing to watch Stefan. He's just truly talented. I mean, I hated him seeing beaten up on my people. I know. My former teammates. Here's the thing.

[00:22:02] This is something American players have had it easy for a long time, right? Because we play among ourselves. We you know, it's a big country and there's a lot of players and there's we have our echelon of people that are always at the top. Yeah.

[00:22:16] But now this is a new mix. We're bringing in more people that are going to be I mean, if you go back to the early days. We're not getting any younger. Right. You're going to have to replenish with the younger. Right.

[00:22:27] But the point is like back in the day, you know, in the early 2000s, you had somebody like Frederico Collignon who is shout out. Freddie. Yeah. Arguably the best player of all time. Yeah. So, you know, Belgian by origin.

[00:22:43] And so I think there's another Freddie or two or three or four that may be coming our way. And that means I wouldn't doubt it. That means on this side of the pond, we got to up our game. We have Jayden. We do. He's a junior.

[00:22:58] We've got Tommy Yor. We've got we've got Sammy DeJanne. I mean, these are all individual. We have Eric and Evan coming up from the juniors. Right. Now I remember when Tommy Yor was a junior. Right. Exactly. And listen, it goes by like that in a snap. Yeah.

[00:23:15] I mean, you're like, wait, you're just standing in a chair, Sullivan. And now you're 21. You know, they're all grown up like Blake Robertson. He was my partner and like my kid. He's like my kid. Yeah. On the road for many years. And we went so much stuff together.

[00:23:32] Right. And now he's just like a respiratory therapist. He's got a pretty tough job. Very tough job.

[00:23:41] So this this idea of generating new players and, of course, now because we're going to see more of a European or world influence of other players coming in, challenging the dominance of our players. That means we got to up our game.

[00:23:54] We got to get more kids and more more talent on the tables. Yeah. In Germany. People need to practice people. Yeah, practice. Because the next one, listen, they wanted more people in Germany. That's the largest federation in the world is Germany. Right.

[00:24:10] So when when they made this right after the one in Paris, there were like 250 angry German people because they wanted to come to you. So the next one, they have 250. I mean, I'm just guessing. But I'm just guessing.

[00:24:26] OK, because there's like, you know, thousand people in your version. So it's like they wanted to come. But they had the expense of the UK in England. They won there. And then the Paris was like the week after, you know, and then they had Bonzini.

[00:24:44] They've got a lot of. Yeah. OK, yeah. We have one international tournament here and that's this one this year. This year. OK, so the next tournament that they have in America, that's the international tournament, which will hopefully be next year. OK.

[00:24:59] I would expect a whole lot more people to come from overseas. Yeah. Yeah. It will be a lot. There is going to be a lot more. It's about the timing. So when the tournament is being held, of course, what's also happening in Europe simultaneously.

[00:25:14] So those other people that were at the Bonzini World Series can make it and be here. Yeah, you know, yeah, I guess 800 people showed up for the Bonzini World Series. Yeah. So how many of those people think do you think really want to come here? A lot.

[00:25:30] Probably everyone. Yeah, many, many of them, you know, because they realize, hey, you know, this is where now America is going to be a new arena. They all want to play on tornado. Yeah. They all love tornado. Yep.

[00:25:42] And they get here and they were like, these tables are great. Yeah. I mean, they're the best in the world. That's why I was so shocked at Stefan. The way he just walked, I said, this kid's got to have a tornado somewhere he's practicing. He must have prepared.

[00:25:56] Because the way he handled the table and the way he moved the ball around and the way he sets things. I was just like, no, he's been on a tornado. He didn't just start out. Yeah, like he's been on a tornado before. He's been on the rodeo before.

[00:26:08] Yeah. No question about it. No, it's amazing. Well, I got to say, you know, Sissy, this upcoming season, I know Texas State is still supposed to happen. Give us an update. What's happening with Bardo? Bardo is in negotiations right now. OK, gotcha. They're working on it.

[00:26:26] Update coming soon. Nice. I know last year they did it with the Kalahari Resort. Would that be a possibility again? Yes, we're in negotiations right now. Nice. OK, very cool. Everybody who went to that were like, wow, this place is really cool. It's really cool. It was.

[00:26:45] And shout out to Brad, Brad Loreen. Yeah. And how much work and time and effort it takes to put on something like that. It's a lot. Yeah. I mean, Brad is in California. I'm in Texas. Yup. Ben's in Texas. Yup.

[00:26:58] We all work together, you know, and I love Brad Loreen. He's like on top of me. Like we talk. He's a man in charge. Yeah, we talk. We have great conversations. OK, so to get it done. Yeah. Right. And it's like, OK. And you need that, right?

[00:27:13] You need somebody who's going to do that. And you know, we happened to share a birthday, so we totally get each other. OK, cool. Cool. Yeah, Brad's a great guy. I met him the first time in fact at Texas State in 2021, I think it was. Oh yeah.

[00:27:25] And yeah, I mean, we've been, you know, I wouldn't say good friends, but we've been compatriots since then. I've known him forever. I like Brad. Oh yeah. I've always been good friends with Brad and he's all heart.

[00:27:40] You know, people don't realize that because he has that rough exterior, but he's really a great guy. Oh yeah. Now it's the personalities, especially those who are doing the most they can to promote the sport. There's so many great personalities in the sport and really there's not a

[00:27:55] single person that I would say, oh, you know, they're not easy to work with. Everybody just wants to promote the sport and they're doing the best they can. Yeah. Not the least of which would be you. Yeah. Thank you. So thank you, Sissy for doing that.

[00:28:08] Thank you so much for taking time out. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. And it's good to see you in person. Oh, well thanks. I appreciate you saying so. Usually our interviews are like over the phone or over the internet. I know.

[00:28:20] It's like, hey, we can actually like each other. I still remember the first interview we did over the phone and it was a little rough at times, but hey, you know, this time we did it right. Yeah, it was awesome.

[00:28:29] But, you know, I'm looking forward to, I want to, I'd be personally, I'd like to get out to more tournaments, do just this, you know, just to talk to people. But this would be very helpful. Yeah, I think so.

[00:28:40] I mean, it would actually get it out there for people to see. Yeah. They'll run across somebody's page they know and go, what is this? Oh, wow. You know, and maybe their kids want to play. Right. Well, that's the whole idea, right?

[00:28:52] We've got to get more exposure to more people and of course families. Absolutely. I agree with you. And I thank you for that. Oh, not at all. That's amazing. It's, the reason we do this is just because of the fact, well, first of all,

[00:29:04] nobody else was doing it. But second of all, now other people are doing it, but we're staying in it because of the fact that, hey, this is fun. This is fun to do. Well, plus your foosball radio show is like the most favorite of everybody.

[00:29:17] Oh, that's nice of you to say that. Yeah, no, everybody listens to it. Okay. I mean, look how many followers you have. Well, I mean, it ain't too bad. No, it ain't too bad at all. But at any rate, you know. Like they listen to you in Europe.

[00:29:31] No kidding. Yeah. You know what? I did find that out. This is kind of an interesting thing. Very early on when we were doing, because we had done foosball radio for a while, then we did Foos Talk Live, which was the live thing.

[00:29:42] And one of our early fans was Reese Roberts from England. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So isn't he the best? He really is great. Really dig Reese. And I, we have not had an opportunity to get in the same room together, but I'm hoping that'll change soon.

[00:29:57] But yeah, so we, he was saying, well, you know, I listen to you guys when I'm going to work or, but he was staying up till three in the morning to actually listen to the live feed. So there's that. And I just don't even think of that.

[00:30:10] I don't conceive of that. They really do. They either like have to turn a recorder on or whatever. Right. And then when they can't. But like you're known globally, Tom. Oh, come on now. Come on. I mean, it's, I mean, well. You are. Okay.

[00:30:27] Take the compliment and it's true. Okay. All right. Thanks. You're welcome. But it's, it is, I never dreamed it would ever do this. Do what it's doing. It just started. Now with the ITSF, I mean, you've done it a lot in our country

[00:30:42] and like really brought a lot of attention to it. But now that you've done this. Yeah. Hang on buddy. You're going for a ride. You're going to be over there in Spain. They'll be calling you and Kazoo will be calling you. Come on.

[00:30:56] I guess I'm not retiring anytime soon. Oh, well. Okay. I retire, but have fun. Yeah, right. Again, shout out to people this weekend that I played with. Two people. Michael Veidt. Oh. Out of Boise, Idaho. Yeah. We played the the over 63 seniors had a blast.

[00:31:15] A lot of fun. And he put together special T-shirts for us to wear with. Oh, that's cool. Foosball radio logo. And then today played with Carl Fleischer, who's out of Denver, Colorado. Oh, okay. Yeah. He is terrific guy. Super, super smart person.

[00:31:31] And we had a really nice time connecting, talking in between matches. But you know, that's what this is all about. And they become your family. Like you see them so much.

[00:31:41] It's like I could call anywhere pretty much in the world and be like, hey, I need a place to stay. They're like, come on over. Exactly. That that's the vibe. Right. So and that just continues.

[00:31:54] Foosball players, if you want to use a euphemism, foosball players are not strangers. They're just friends you haven't met yet. Yeah. Pretty much. You're absolutely right. That's great. I love the way you say that. Yeah. So may they continue. Amen. At infinite.

[00:32:10] Thanks again, Cissy Boyne for being here for Foosball on the Foosball radio on the road. It's been a long weekend and things are starting to wind down. But looking forward to it. Aside from Texas based tournaments, are you planning on getting out to any other tour stops?

[00:32:26] Probably probably this year. Yeah, I was in Vegas. Gotcha. Yeah, it was for my birthday. Watched my girls. You know, it was a blast. Well, if there's anything we can do to help support what you're doing and get more kids out on the table, let us know.

[00:32:41] Thank you so much, Tom. You're welcome. Once again, Cissy Whipple of Texas joining us on Foosball radio on the road. More to come this weekend at the twenty twenty four I.T.S.F. World Series of Tornado.