FoosTalk Live | Ep 318 | 2026 Great Lakes Classic Wrap

[00:00:01] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio. It's FoosTalk Live. Are you talking to me? Compelling and lively banter. Are you going to talk to us? Talking Foosball. Foosball was how I measured my value as a man? You took that away! Players and fans, promoters and pros. Unedited and raw. Talk, talk, talk. Living in the moment. We have a lot of important things to talk about. All while practicing social distancing. Cool, we'll talk. No big whoops. Let's get this thing started.

[00:00:31] Foos Talk Live. Hi, this is Tom Robinson, and I want to personally thank our Patreon pillars for their support of Foosball Radio and Foos Talk Live. Here's our newest Patreon. Jason Deans. Nick Fierce. Larry Davis. Greg Taylor. David Goodwin. Dan Packer. Brad Lorene of Rodlock.com. Thanks to Randy Raposo. Thomas Dyke. Mike Veidt.

[00:01:01] Rob Cutler. James Sparky Castillo. Carl Fleischer. Jay Thiel. Brian Schmid. Cameron Burroughs. Jimmy Love. Dwayne Stewart. Judy Schober. And our friends from the 716 Buffalo Foosball Club. Thank you. Your support brings continued and expanding content from Foosball Radio as we cover the greatest sport on earth.

[00:01:31] Visit patreon.com forward slash foosball radio to find out how to become a Foosball Radio Patreon. Foos Talk Live is brought to you by Original Leonhardt. The Leonhardt Tournament model is the most popular foosball table at the ITSF World Cup. Designed and handcrafted in Germany, order online and have it delivered to your door.

[00:01:54] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FOOSTALK to save 10% off your purchase price. And yes, we're live right here. Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Doubletree Inn. And it's the end of the 2026 Great Lakes Classic and regional tournament or regional championship, I should say.

[00:02:24] I'm Tom Robinson. It's episode number 318. A little delayed this evening so we can kind of take care of business here with the end of the tournament and get a chance to rest and relax and finally go live. Thank you for joining us on Twitch TV and also on YouTube. So, well, I'm surrounded by microphones, but I'm also surrounded by mics. I'm surrounded by Mike Sr. and Mike Jr.

[00:02:52] So, Michael Stahl and Michael Stahl, thank you so much for joining us tonight for FOOSTALK Live as we wrap this amazing tournament up. First of all, congratulations to you both. I watched you play today. The both of you were just incredible. Really, really good playing. But, of course, we'll get to that. But congratulations on the tournament itself. This is the 2026 Great Lakes Classic.

[00:03:19] Just give me an overall, Michael Stahl Jr., give me an overall thumbs up, thumbs down. What say you at this stage? Oh, man. I mean, first of all, thanks for having us again on the show. And this weekend was really pure. It was a really great weekend, honestly. Yeah.

[00:03:44] You know, from getting all these kids to show up to making it all about them. Yep. And also just playing some foosball with my family. Like, it's just a special event. And it's super cool to partner with people who know what they're doing and have experience in areas that can enrich the process. Yeah. So I'm grateful for that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what more can I say? Yeah.

[00:04:14] And, of course, watching this happen, it's always a family thing for you guys. I mean, it's been so many years. Yeah. This is the sixth year that Foos Talk Live and Foosball Radio have come to this tournament. Tradition. Yeah. It's this conversation we've had how many times now? Several, yeah. As many as six. Yeah, yeah. Every year. So Michael Stahl Sr., of course, congratulations on your play today. He played awesome. Yeah.

[00:04:41] This is probably some of the best foosball I've seen my dad ever play. No doubt. Yeah. No doubt. For sure. So how are you feeling, Mike? What's on your mind? Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, I guess. Yeah. Now, there you go. He's being humble about that. But no, you're just, you're a fierce player. I just feed the monster. Feed the monster. We had fun. We had a plan. We executed the plan. We have a lot of table time together.

[00:05:08] And that's when good things happen. When you, you know, when you focus on the right thing. And I think as a team, we have really great chemistry. And we don't really feel, you know, the lows aren't so low. Yeah. Yeah. Understood. No, and you're just stalwart when it comes to standing up against the competition. You know your competition.

[00:05:37] You know each other. You know, obviously, family. I mean, blood is thicker than water, as they say. And man, it really showed on the table today. Yeah, it was fun. That was really exciting. Thanks, man. Really exciting. Yeah. Yeah. I think my favorite part of the weekend would probably be the team event. Yeah. The Champions Cup was really, truly special. Me too. I think that was my favorite too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was really cool. People really enjoy it. Yeah.

[00:06:05] There's something about being able to cheer for your squad. Yep. You know, stepping up there. That, obviously, they've been at this at the Nationals with the National Cup. And that's been, you know, a while. Is this a tradition you're going to continue when it comes to the cup competition? Yeah. I mean, it's one of the things that will probably never change about this tournament. The Champions Cup is just a cool concept.

[00:06:32] And a few years ago when we started to think, how can we have more of a regional impression? Yep. And, you know, changing it to the Great Lakes Classic and having this main event all about really camaraderie and just the team. Yeah. Is just, I think, what really brings people out. Yeah, that's it. It's exciting. I know, Michael, you had a front row seat.

[00:07:00] I noticed you brought your viewing chair. Yeah. I actually bought that chair for my dad a couple of years ago. He, he's lost like, I think, what, 40, 50 pounds? About 40 pounds in a year. Yep. Really? And so he was a little heavier. And my dad's got a really bad hip, too. He probably needs double hip replacement. Oh, wow. And hasn't had the opportunity or really have the things he needs to make that happen right away, but. Gotcha.

[00:07:30] He ended up too scared to do it. Yeah. That too. Well, I don't blame you for that. Yeah. Going with the knife is never, never an easy thing. My dad used to do karate kicks over people's heads. And so he was super active and. Yeah. Really. Super agile. Yeah. Well, there's a, yeah, you can only do so many spin kicks until you start having hip problems. But. Right, right. Understood. Wow. You know, in the last year. He's giving you a fist bump, man. Yeah, man. Take it easy. Thanks for coming. There's Lauren Gosling. He's just, just.

[00:08:00] To say, hey. The goss. Lauren from Central New York. Later, brother. The goss. And Lauren and I got a chance to play this weekend. We had ourselves a good time. Won a couple matches. That's awesome, man. We're happy. You know. Anyway. So to finish my thought really quick. Yeah. Why I brought that up is I'm so. Impressed and proud of my dad. For like. Taking the last year. Like last year at the Great Lakes.

[00:08:28] We didn't play as good as we felt like we could. Gotcha. We still took like the number one seed. And pro doubles. And I think we beat Sam. He came back and got us to get to the final. But. My point there is, is like. He hasn't touched a table. I think he played twice in the last year. And it was like in the last two weeks. Wow. And. He can just do that. Show up. Play like high level. High pro. Yeah. Master level. Goalie. Back there. And just.

[00:08:58] It was pretty cool. Cool to see. Oh, it's great. It's just a great combination. And it's a pleasure to say the least. So, okay. Overall, when it comes to this Great Lakes Classic. As far as the venue. How did you feel about the venue this year? How did that work out for you? Was it. Yep. Good size? Yeah. So we've had about. Roughly 17k in donations from the hotel. Wow. In the value of the ballroom. Rebates. Kickbacks. Yeah. They were our presenting partner.

[00:09:28] Nice. This weekend. They made it possible for us to have like a very low risk tournament. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's excellent. So that. That's what we needed. You know. And so. When you're running an event that's really. You know. A fundraiser. You have to find ways to be creative and get people involved. Yes. You know. Partners and sponsors. Mm-hmm. So. That's really the key here. I see this growing like a lot. Yeah. With the right partners.

[00:09:58] With the right sponsors. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think you get like a 25k payout. Really big tournament. You get like. We could. We could draw like 350, 400 players. Wouldn't that be something? This could be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This could be a big tournament. You know. Someday. At some point. I mean. It has been growing along the way. I mean. It's always been. Yeah. A little incrementally. Yeah. Now. Of course. This year. We're in a slightly different location. Obviously. Yeah. Lansing. Yeah. Last few years. But now we're in Grand Rapids.

[00:10:28] I mean. As far as the community goes. I mean. And we were just talking about this before we went on air. Yeah. Lots of places to go to eat around here. Just down the four tenths of a mile from the hotel. There was this great place called Cooper's Hawk. Great. Yeah. An awesome wine bar and restaurant. Fantastic food. So yeah. I mean. There's. This is a great. Great section of town right here. Yeah. It's funny. Our. Like the. Supervisor in the kitchen or something. His name is Mike.

[00:10:58] I was talking to him. He said that there's more restaurants per capita. Yeah. On this stretch of two miles. Okay. Than any other place in the country. Dude. Which is crazy. It's a cool location. It's great. Cheap. Cheap flights. That's what foosball players want. Yeah. There was some. A place to go. There was some east coast guys that said. Hey. We got a flight for under like 150 bucks. Nice. Round trip from the east coast. So it was. I think it's working better location wise. I think it's got more potential. We've got a ton of ballroom space.

[00:11:27] We could grow this. Yeah. From this space here. The hotel's been very happy with us. We. Hey. I think a lot of things that needed to happen. It happened. Okay. So that was good. Good. Good. Good. Yeah. So just give me a quick idea here. Michael. Michael senior. I'd like to know. What was your favorite part of the weekend? What. What. What did you enjoy the most to watch? Watching the juniors on our team. These. Yeah. These kids that. Yeah. Play.

[00:11:58] Better than I do. Give us a comfortable lead. In their leg of the competition. And. Thing is. There's so much strategy involved in. Yep. Designing a winning method. And he's. Yep. He's very good. Strategically. And. So you have four legs. Low singles. Low doubles. Mm. High singles. High doubles. Race to 20. Five points per leg. Or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:28] Yeah. So you have to. The high low. Yeah. You're. So you have to incorporate different skill levels of players. Mm. Which is another good thing. You get. Get a pro master and a pro. And a lot of mentorship. A lot of. Passing out of knowledge. You want your partner to win. And so you're sharing information. Mm. Mm. And you get to cheer on your team. Mm. And it's. Mm. And it's fun to see somebody else. I really didn't have much. To add to. It physically. I mean I did a few things at the end. Oh sure.

[00:12:58] But it was so much fun. Just to watch these kids play. Oh. Back to that question. That was. The coolest thing. Not only. Did they play. But they played effectively. And put us in a position to win. Yes. Super coachable kids. Yeah. And just great parents. Phenomenal group of kids we have out here. You know. There's. Roughly a thousand kids playing in Michigan. Wow. If you look at. All the different schools that we have. Right now. Yeah.

[00:13:27] There's a lot of kids playing in Michigan. And. There's a lot of potential for this to be. Much much bigger. I can see that. I was. I think I. I had a lot going on this year. Yeah. I didn't promote it as hard as I possibly could. I was kind of burned out this year. You know. Towards the end in August. Of course. In September. And so. We got a lot of work done. Yeah. And we. It's just. It takes a big effort. I think.

[00:13:57] Maybe that could be part of the. The lower turnout. You know. For sure. We had two. Two. Thirteen last year. We've steadily grown every year. Yeah. And this year we. Roughly like. One fifty. Okay. So. Yeah. Okay. It's. Here's a. Yeah. We were having this discussion off air too. Because. You know. Things. Economically speaking. Yeah. The price of a flight. To. Where I went to last year with Lansing.

[00:14:27] Was a. Was a third less. Yep. So. You know. That extra third. Added to the. The price of the flight. Now the hotel was. Actually cheaper. Which was great. That was awesome. It is cheaper. But. The food's cheaper too. They did like a really. Really. Nice menu. Lean menu. Oh. Yeah. Great. It was awesome. But nonetheless. I think there's. You know. A little bit of hesitation. But. Then you also have. A lot of the timing that goes on. And we've talked about this before. How do you.

[00:14:57] Squeeze yourself into a schedule. That's so jam packed. I mean. We're just about to see. A bunch of people go to Vienna. Vienna. It's very. Yeah. It's tough. We've had October for. Six years now. Yeah. So. It's. There's a lot of foosball happening. There's a Canadian tournament next week. Yep. You know. There's obviously. There was the Leonhardt Worlds. Yes. Indeed. World Series. Yep. Yeah. It's tough. I think. What good problems to have.

[00:15:27] Right. Well. But I will say that. Timing is everything. And I think getting the flyer out. A minimum. Six weeks before the event. Or six months before the event. Yeah. Is just. A non-negotiable. And it's something that in the last two years. I haven't been able to do. Yeah. And so. There's some things to clean up. Well. There's some work to do. But. Let me. Let me just clear the air a little bit here. Yeah. Because. You as a. As an individual. Okay. You're one person. And you're dealing with.

[00:15:57] Foosball clubs USA. You're dealing with this. This annual tournament. You're dealing with. The. The relationship you're building within the industry. And. And building. Of course. The. The youth of America. My God. Um. To. To say to yourself. Oh. I'm. I'm. I. I didn't succeed. Well. That's not true. I wouldn't say that. But I. I am saying that. Although things are good. They could also be great. Of course. And. I'm excited. And I think. What this has.

[00:16:26] Forced me to do. Is to be. A really good delegator. A really good partner. Someone who can communicate. The need. In the moment. So that we can. Achieve more. Yeah. So. I'm. Like any good foosball player. There's. There's always going to be that point. At which. You know. There's a. There's. Let's say you lose a match. And you go back and go. Okay. Why did I. Yeah. Lose that match. Same thing. When it comes to promoting foosball. Or being. At the top of the field. When it comes to promoting. Right. Foosball in schools.

[00:16:56] I mean. You are the man. It's not just me though. Like there's so many. I know that. I really appreciate the praise. And the love. And I felt it. So deeply this weekend. But. I just can't help but reflect. Yeah. At like. The group around me. And I think that that's. One of the biggest key indicators. Of success. Is like. Getting the right team. Around you. And. Right. Having the right people working. On the same side of a problem. Sure. So I think that. We've done that well.

[00:17:27] Your ability to collaborate. Is. Is. Is really impressive. Thanks man. Working with other people. You can't put it all on yourself. You have. For sure. You have to. Yeah. I mean. What a team you had here this weekend. Kristen Grogan. Kristen Grogan. Yeah. I mean. Mary Malie. We had a great registration crew. And just. I think they knocked it out of the park. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there was one ref called all weekend. Well. Was there one? I beg to differ. Was there one?

[00:17:56] In my rookie singles I called the ref. You did? Yeah. What about you dad? I never saw a ref called on any table. We were discussing earlier that that may have been the only one. Yeah. I think that's probably the only one. Like. This is such a lighthearted event. Oh. It's after worlds. You know. And like. There's just so many cool things about it. That make it fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I want to say to my opponent David. I'm sorry that I. That I questioned. But I had to do it. I had no choice. Sometimes you gotta do it man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But nonetheless.

[00:18:26] To have that kind of a weekend where a ref really wasn't necessary. You know. It's always good if you have that ability. To turn to somebody. To give you the official ruling. But. Yeah. I want to say too like. Reed Rector. Yeah. He is phenomenal. This guy is incredible. I'm super impressed by Reed. The more time I spend with Reed. The smarter I get. Yeah. Like. Yeah. This guy is just. He's. He's awesome. Yeah.

[00:18:56] Really is. And. No doubt. No doubt. Knowing the WFT and the fullness of their effort. Mm hmm. They've got a great dynamic. Yeah. Man. Do they have a great dynamic. Like. Ryan's driving. The driving force. Evetta is like super creative. Mm hmm. Very technical. Reed is just. Super intelligent. And like. Really gritty. And so. And everyone else they have working on that end.

[00:19:26] You know. Josh has been doing a lot of work obviously. Mm hmm. And. Joey Hesslinger. Yes. And like the content they're putting out right now. My goodness. That is the key. Yeah. If you can get. Really great content. And millions of views on Instagram. And socials. And. What else do you need? Over 50k followers in like. 14 days. No doubt. Or something like that. Yeah. That's. That's impressive. That's what we need to do. Yeah. And so that's. That's going to be a big focus for. Foosball clubs as well as. We're going to go viral at some point.

[00:19:57] It's. It. I shall always say. Suffice to say. That. If you're involved in promoting the sport of foosball. And you get on board. And. And. Get part of what's going on right now. Sure. You know. Jump on board. You're going to go with the train man. The train is. Is left to station. It's. It's heading for its destination. If you want to. You want to do this right. You want to get on board. World foosball tour. Yeah. Big. Big. Big train. And you want to get on board that. That's a good idea.

[00:20:26] It's pretty amazing to see. The work that's getting accomplished. Yeah. You know. In tournaments. It's just. They're. They're just getting better. Yeah. One thing I wanted to say. Because we kind of like. Moved on. A little quick from it. The team event. And watching those kids play. Noah Spray. Played so clutch. Oh my goodness. Cole Nessel. Just. Absolutely crushed. And watching. Kelton Grizzle. Yeah. Play singles. And just.

[00:20:55] Hold his own the whole time against. Yeah. The kid's tiny. And he's absolutely crushing it. He was just. It's just so cool to see. And they were. Well. Your team. I should say. Kids on the block are the ones that. The new kids on the block. That's right. The new kids on the block. They dashed our hopes. The shot jocks. You played great man. Well. You played great. We did well. But at the same time. You know. When we got up against you. I thought. Hmm. This is going to be really interesting.

[00:21:24] Because the depth of the talent. And I've seen. Yeah. I've seen Kelton. And I've seen Noah Spray. And I've seen these guys play. I'm like. Oh God. Look at this. This is a filled out field. For God's sake. It was fun. You played great man. You hit like a really nasty pole down the middle. On a big point. And I was like. Dang Tom. Okay. I see you. Yeah. I'm there. Well. I think there's. There's something to be said. When. When working. With a team. A group of people. Sure. You know. To. To. Hopefully.

[00:21:56] Accomplish something as a group. You know. It's so much more fun. It's so much more meaningful. And I felt more. More. Desire. To do right. You know. In that situation. You know. I hope. And for those listening at home. I hope you get a chance to come to this tournament. Yes. And play in the Champions Cup. Because. Yep. You know. This level of fusion. Of high and low tier players. And that. What that does. I think is magic.

[00:22:26] And then you get to have your own identity. Without any boundary. Of like. You're from the same state. Or a neighboring state. And I'm not saying. North American Cup. Is a bad idea. Or. It's really the only thing. We have to compare it to. Oh sure. For a team event. In the U.S. Yep. I think it's great. I think it's amazing. And I've always. We played in the. NAC. Back. My first nationals. Oh no kidding. We had a big team. It was. It's honestly what got me. Really jazzed about foosball. Yeah. Yeah. How many years ago was that?

[00:22:56] Some years ago. I was. Michael. Do you remember what. 13. What year that might have been? 2012. 2011. 2011. Yeah. Wow. I don't recall exactly. But. My dad. This is crazy. He was a kid. For sure. Yeah. My dad. My dad. And then a few years later. I went to nationals. But. My dad drove me. All the way to St. Louis for Michigan. What like. 10 hours or something. Wow. And then he dropped me off to be on the crew. I got free entry. Yeah.

[00:23:25] Stayed with Daniel Coulter. And Blake Robinson. And. Michael Bates. It was super fun. These guys were hilarious. And. You know. We worked and. Played for free. And my dad drove back. With my mom and sister. Wow. After driving back home. Like in one day. He drove there and drove back. Wow. And then he went to work for two days. Made some money to take his family back. To St. Louis. Yeah. And we all played. And it was super cool.

[00:23:53] And I teamed up with Daniel Coulter in the event. Did you? Yeah. In the DYP. We were like. Rest in peace. Third place or something. DYP? It was like a Roto something. Roto DYP. Roto yes. Yeah. Yeah. And he's like. Mike. What's your best shot? I'm like. Okay. He says. We'll do that every time. Yeah. Just do that one every time. Yeah. Yeah. We were very close to the finals. Very cool. Daniel was a cool dude. He was a. Yeah.

[00:24:23] Rest in peace. Very talented. Yeah. He actually came to Grand Rapids a lot. He did. He hung out in Michigan for a bit. Played the tournaments here locally. Sorry to hear of his loss. I think it was in Chicago at the time. So. Yeah. They're just across the pond. So they either take a boat over. They go down and around. But. There was a lot of Chicago presence back then. Yep. Daniel was actually a regular for a while. Speaking of Chicago presence. We had Don Shalip over here this weekend. Yes. Don. Don. Uncle Don. Yeah. About to be 77 years old. 77.

[00:24:52] And he's still playing. And still playing well. Yeah. Don's awesome. He's amazing. He. He brought. A bunch of. Tony Bacon memorabilia. Yep. And we had like this cool like. And this is the cool thing about Michigan. Is it's. Impromptu. Like. Memorial. For Bacon. And. Some other fallen fuzers during the ceremony. That was amazing by the way. It was really cool. Yeah. That ceremony. That was really well done. Cool. You're.

[00:25:21] You're a master of ceremonies. Oh man. I don't know. You are. No. No. No. No. You are. You are good at that. Thank you. You talk to the room. And you use your own personality. And gets everybody going. Everybody's involved. Very cool. That's. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. Now these are the kinds of things when it. When it comes to being a promoter. Being here at the tournament playing. It's not easy to do. Yeah. And then organizing all this stuff. And I think one of the. I think. The two things that I loved the most were.

[00:25:52] Not just the Tony Bacon stories. But. Sure. The two people that went into the hall of fame. Ron Olson. James Hunt. James Hunt. Yeah. I mean. Wow. Yep. And James had just been on the show last week in fact. Yeah. I listened to that one. That was cool. Awesome job. You know. They played open doubles together. Did quite well. Yeah. Right. I think they. I think they beat Brandon. They did beat him. Yes. Yep. Yes. I talked to James about that. He was. He was. Through the roof. Yeah. We beat Brandon.

[00:26:22] It was a special weekend for him. Ron is. A cool. A really cool guy. And he's. He's a staple of Michigan. Oh yeah. You know. Yep. He's our. Our only master. Well. You know. He's carrying the flag. Me. Mike. And Brady. You're close though. Yeah. You're good. That was. That's something else. You know. We should probably discuss too. Because. You're. You're. You've been a pro now. What. Four years. Five years. I've been a pro for over a decade. A decade. Yeah. Oh. Okay. Yeah.

[00:26:52] So. Stepping into the master. The realm of being a master. How's that going to change your philosophy about what you're doing currently? Are you going to be a different animal after that? I mean. What's going to happen? No. Okay. No. I'm going to. I'm going to be the same dude. Good. Good. I love playing foosball. And if. Not if. When I turn master. Yep. I think it's just going to be another like. Another thing. You know. For me.

[00:27:20] It's been one of the biggest goals of my life. Since I was. Yeah. 10 years old. It's the ultimate. It's taken 20 years. And I think after this weekend. I'm close. Right. But. For me like. I think it was so hard to become master. It took longer. Mm. Than maybe some folks. And it's because. You stop like. You think about. The ranking. And the. Accolade. And the thing of it.

[00:27:50] Mm. And you lose track of the process. And I think. I've really. I've really discovered the process again. Yeah. And it's. Yeah. It's been like the last. Year and a half. To two years. That I've really kind of like. Been coming back into my. Good. My game. Yeah. I think. Well. You're rededicating yourself to it. Yeah. You know. For. If. If we could just give you credit. And when it comes to points. If we could just give you credit. For being the. The amazing promoter. And of course. The.

[00:28:19] In charge of Foosball Clubs USA. I would. You would have been a master. Two years ago. Uh. You know. I don't. I don't know man. I don't think like that. I don't. I don't think. I know. Foosball doesn't work. Yeah. You got to earn the points. I get it. No. I don't think it's really taken away. I don't. I think it's really just kept me around. Yeah. Like I think. I lost purpose. And. I sought it. After feeling like I didn't have it for some time. And I found promoting as a way to feel good about.

[00:28:50] I'm a busy body. Like I like to get involved with. And feel good about being a part of things. So. Yeah. And there's a lot of you at home that do too. I mean. You. People showed up. And they. They care about what we're doing. Yeah. I think it just fuels you in a different way. Like. And if you can win a tournament every once in a while. Or play good. Yes. That's cool. But. It's really not the biggest focus. And I think that's what the process is about. Is just like enjoying the moment. Yeah.

[00:29:19] Playing foosball with your dad. Your sister. Your family. And just hanging out with people who care about what you care about. And I think that that's when you start to realize that like. Hey. This isn't just about being a master or winning. It's about just having a great life. As a. As a foosball player. Foosball promoter. You're. You're. You're really setting the bar very high. For those who. Who want to aspire to doing something what you do. I mean. That's a. It's a very. Lofty.

[00:29:48] Ambition. And you're. You're achieving it. And by the way. We should also mention this last summer. The amount of time you sacrificed. In your own life. To be in New York City. To run those eight tournaments. Super. Super fun. For McDonald's. And the. The tournaments there. That was just a. Phenomenal. I mean. I don't think there's ever a time in the history of foosball. Where that actually has occurred. With a number of. Things that showed up. Just. Wanting. Because they. They discovered it. You know.

[00:30:18] By going to McDonald's. And. And. And attended. That's. Phenomenal. It's going to be more common. It's going to become easier. Yeah. We're going to be doing more of these cool. Special events. Different. Sponsors. And. Corporations. Man. I. I'd like to see it happen a lot more. Um. I think that we've got. A really great. Plan. And we're. Working hard to execute it. There you go. Hoping we can pick up some more interest.

[00:30:48] From some different places. Um. And yeah. I mean. Running youth tournaments is fun. It's really fun. Yeah. I was just. Uh. Talking to the. The coach of the year earlier today. Aaron Croft. And. Aaron. Stopped in to chat here on foosball radio on the road. And. I said. Man. Did you see that coming? Coach of the year. That was cool. He got club of the year too. And he got club of the year. Yep. He did. Right. Yeah. So.

[00:31:15] These are individuals that are so dedicated to what they do. Um. And I watched him. While he was. While he was here with the kids. They're in. We're in a separate room. Across the hall from the main tournament. And in this room. Uh. There must have been at least 30 kids. Running around. Yep. And there's Aaron. Right in the middle of it. And he's guiding these kids. He's their coach. He's their. It's a different culture with. What Aaron is doing. Versus. Many clubs. Yeah.

[00:31:45] Right now. And I think that's. That's the piece that. We should really spend a lot of time in. If we're. Foosball clubs. USA. Yep. Is like enriching the program. And actually getting the culture. And the. And the buy-in that you need. To actually do it. Yeah. Not just simply dropping tables off. And. There's a lot of touch points. And those are relationships that have to be really. Nurtured. Yeah. Yeah. These coaches.

[00:32:14] Some do a lot. And some don't do as much. And so. How do you build that. Interest. And keep the stickiness. Yeah. So I think it. It requires a lot of. Like I said. Nurturing. There you go. And Aaron is great at that. Like he already loves it. And. I think that's the key. With these clubs. Is to get. Different Aaron's. Out there. Involved in. Yep. Having good communication. You need passionate people. Involved in. In situations where.

[00:32:44] Where it's so important. That kids are inspired. In some way. Shape or form. Inspired to put their phones down. To step up to the table. And. And learn the basic skills. And man. I just. I have to mention this young lady. Because. She stood out to me. Scarlett. I think is her name. Scarlett from Heartland. Yeah. One of Aaron's kids. Yep. I was so impressed. I watched her play. In a match. She's awesome. Yeah. And just 11 years old. Yep.

[00:33:13] And Scarlett was just. She was stalwart. And she. She was following the rules. And she's doing all the right things. And. I gotta say. A very impressive young lady. Yeah. So. Shout out to. Fuad Srauer. Fuad donated. A warrior. Home model. And we gave it to Scarlett. Nice. And then she. She ended up donating her table. To another classmate. Did she really? And she picked up the Leonhardt. And so she had the Leo. For quite a while. And was practicing for this tournament.

[00:33:43] On Leo. Every day. Good for her. So that was pretty cool. Yeah. But yeah. These kids are nuts for foosball. They love it. They. I mean. It was just so cool. Hearing all the different stories. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. We've. We've. We've. Again. We. I think we've made history. Once again. Here at this. This tournament. This weekend. And. So much more to come. And I'm just so psyched. What. Pray tell. What is it. You got up your sleeve.

[00:34:13] For 2027. I think we need to invest in. Getting. An overwhelming amount of content. In the public's eyes. And. Educating the public about foosball. And about our club system. And so we're going to be heavily focused on that. We're working on. We're working on really the infrastructure.

[00:34:42] Of a really strong. Engine. That. Allows us to really get more donors. And more. Engagement. From people who want to give back. Yeah. Yeah. So creating that engine. And then. Yeah. Nice to meet you. You know. Yeah. So that's. That's really our focus this year. Is doing as much of that as possible. Outstanding. Yeah. We plan to have some really great tools available too. To the clubs.

[00:35:11] That aren't currently. Public. Okay. So I've been working on a few things myself. Well we're anxious to see what that's all about. It's. It's to get more volunteers involved in schools. And to. Create better channels of communication. With the school. Okay. Because some schools don't. Have the best habits. Around communicating. You know. Even when they sign. An MOU. And they're like. Yeah. We're psyched about this. Yeah. Schools are overwhelmed. They are. Oh. So if we can. Create.

[00:35:41] You know. Great. Relationships. With volunteers in those schools. We open that channel up. And we take the burden. Off of the school. A little bit. Yeah. And make it easier to. Pull in data. To get engagement rolling. Yeah. To have. You know. Someone who's informed. An informed adult. Is different than. Someone we can just teach. Yeah. So it's. Yeah. Getting players in the schools. And then of course. Somebody who's there. Who can really be. Passionate. Yeah.

[00:36:10] Like an Aaron Cross. You know. That kind of person. In every school. You know. Yep. So we're. We're just process driven right now. And working on little things. And. We think you're going to love what we're doing. Yeah. We're. We're pretty confident. Nice. Well. Anticipation. We're anticipating. Yeah. A really good year in 2027. So. Michael Senior. I've got to ask you the question. What.

[00:36:40] What do you think now. In retrospect. What do you think. Motivated your son. To. To do what he's doing right now. What happens. Along the way. What. What do you. What. Was there a moment in your life. When you said. My God. My son is. Is it. He's not only a beast on the table. But he's also. An incredible human being. When. When did that occur to you. Well. It's. It's funny because. He had these visions of what goes on now. Mm hmm.

[00:37:09] Long before anything started. Really. Before he had any idea of what was going to occur. He was talking. About what he's doing now. Okay. And saying he was going to make a living at it. Whoa. And I thought to myself. That's probably not going to happen. But. He just. Kept pushing. Kept. Kept. Kept a belief. In his dream. Mm hmm. And.

[00:37:39] He spoke it into existence. There you go. There you go. Visualization. So that was a long time ago. Wow. I come back from a warrior tournament. There was a year that Mary Moore switched over to warrior. Mm hmm. It was a $50,000 tournament in Kentucky. They gave away a lot of warrior tables. There's a reintroduction of that table style. Mm hmm. To society. And I brought home two tables from that tournament.

[00:38:08] I did pretty well. Okay. And set them up in the garage. Nice. Then we put two tornadoes next to it. So we had four tables. This is while he's still in high school. Nice. Okay. Um. And so we started playing every day. In the gym. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we had our own little setup. And he was talking about. He just had a vision of it. Huh. He was. He would talk about it all the time.

[00:38:35] And it's crazy how he's doing exactly. Specifically. What he visualized. What he visualized. That's extraordinary. So. It's a success story that's going to be told many times. Uh. In the future. Uh. Oh man. Yeah. We're. We're. We're getting used to it. You know. But. Trying to think who was telling me that. Um. Pole kicker guy from. North of here. Indian tribe.

[00:39:04] Chief or something. Yeah. Are you talking about. The guy from Dubai. The one. No. The. The one that brought you the. Uh. Table. Jimmy Mitchell. Jimmy Mitchell. Okay. Was telling me. The story about. When. He gave Michael a ride to Chicago. And dropped him off at Don Shelfo's house. For a summer. Okay. And he must have been. I don't know how old he was. 15. Yeah. I was 15. With the time. Don's. And I told. I told him. I said look.

[00:39:34] You gotta look out for my kid here. And Don's an old friend of mine. Used to hang out at the gym. Mm-hmm. Played in Chicago a lot. You know. Tony Bacon's protege. Partner in crime. Basically. Winning open world titles with Don. And so. Michael went to the gym. And Jimmy Mitchell dropped him off. And Jimmy was just here. Yesterday. Or the day before. Telling me about how Michael was talking about. His vision.

[00:40:03] On the way to Don's. Then. Really? At the age of 15. Swear to God. Wow. And I'm like wow. Yeah. I do remember him talking about it. See. This is. Proof positive. Something I didn't even mention to you. I don't think. Yeah. What's. I just want to add one thing. Because like. This is all really cool. Praise and everything. One thing that. I'll say is that like. From the beginning. For me. I just wanted to. Be around foosball. Mm-hmm.

[00:40:34] And I knew that like. In order to do that. And to do work. In foosball. That I would have to find a way to. Like contribute to this. Like community. And. Be a part of it. I never thought that I would be doing it. In this way. Initially. And. I always wanted to be. Only doing foosball. Yeah. Yeah. And it's never been about the money. I think. I didn't think that I would be. It would happen so quickly. Well.

[00:41:04] But when you're process driven on something. And you're like hey. Like I care about this end goal. Mm-hmm. I think that. And you aspire to it. Like I truly believe that like. The universe conspires to give you what you. What you're after. And this is the law of attraction. Yeah. No question. I think it's through my faith. That it was possible. Sure. But I do think that we're. We're given this like. Inapt will. To do what we. Yeah. What we. You know. To hopefully achieve what we see in our minds. And to speak it into existence too.

[00:41:34] There's some biblical stuff there. And. About that. But. Yeah. I don't claim to be. You know. Overly. Um. Like. I think it's all great praise. And there's a lot of great things going on in foosball. But. But you're always thinking about the next. The next. Yeah. I don't. The next situation. How do. So. That's always going to be the case. Yeah. That's kind of like the blessing and a curse. Yeah. For sure. You know. You're in it. You're in it. Yeah.

[00:42:03] You're all in it. Reed told me this too this weekend. He's like. Have. Have you just sat there. And like really just relished in this moment. Yeah. Of like. Playing foosball with your dad. Mm-hmm. Because it's truly the coolest thing. And like the most earliest driving force was like. I want my dad to think I'm cool. Shit. And I want to hang out with him more. Because I always thought my dad was the coolest dude. That I knew. There you go. And so it was a cool way to be around him. And we just have so much fun. Like we're blessed with. With a really cool relationships with.

[00:42:33] Relationship with one another. Yeah. Yeah. That's. I don't know. I think. When you really work hard. And you love something enough. I think. Yeah. The world conspires to give you that in some way. And so. I'm really fortunate. It's materialized. You have. But you got to be able to continuously add value. Of course. And you got to do your job. You have to show up. You have to believe that you can do it. Mm-hmm. And then. And actually like. Do the work. And I think the work is really hard.

[00:43:02] It's very difficult. It's. But it's. The work is the teacher. Yeah. Sure. The work is the teacher. It shows you what works. What doesn't. Yeah. We've got a lot. We've got a lot to do. A lot to get done. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to be adding to our team. Yeah. At foosball clubs this year. Excellent. So that's. There's going to be some bandwidth that will open up. And we'll be able to do a little bit more. I think it's personally what I need. To really. Yeah.

[00:43:31] Continue to do this work. And hopefully to do it better over time. So. Listen. I just. I'm really grateful for the support. The people out there that have been so kind. And. You know. It's. I'm overwhelmed with it. You're. You're doing the work that. That needs to be done. To make the sport grow. Sure. You're. You're the gardener. You're. You're planting the seeds. We are. Like. We. We. We are though. Like. I. I. I think I hear it so much. People are like. Thank you Mike. I'm like. Man. You should.

[00:43:59] You should see all the people that got me here. Yeah. Like. You should. You should see the. The picture. And. And there's just so many. Of course. There's so many. Like. Of course. I wouldn't be in this position. If it weren't for meeting. You know. Dan and Cam. Yep. Mm-hmm. At the time that I did. Amazing people. Like-minded people. Working really hard. Really. Really. Smart. Dudes. And just. Same goal as you. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And so. We're going to continue to.

[00:44:28] Work through this mission. And give back. And find ways to. Just improve. Improve the series. Nice. You know. So. Yeah. It's just like your five bar. There's some wrinkles we're going to add. Yeah. Yeah. But we're getting smarter. And we're taking our time out. So we're going to get there. There you go. You know. Nice. Well. You know. It's. I. All the. Foosball euphemisms aside. Sure. This has become. For so many of the people that were here this weekend.

[00:44:57] It's their life. Man. Yeah. It's our passion. It's what we love to do. We want to support anybody like yourself. Who's. Who's. Making it happen for us. Man. I mean. Yeah. We just want to. We just want to come and play. For sure. I've got a terrific board too. By the way. Yeah. And I. I really urge the people at home. If you're curious about our team. And the work we do. Go to our website. Yes. I put together a team page. With the help of. I know Miriam was helping me a little bit with it. Okay. And we. We got a really great.

[00:45:27] Cool. Biopic. Of like all the board members. And you can kind of see like their backgrounds. And. Nice. We've got professionals that really are great. At what they do. And they work together in such a dynamic way. That it. I think. I feel strongly. That this organization is being. Led. The right way. So. Very cool. And I think you're. You know. To mention also. We spoke earlier today to Jim Provost. You know. President of the USTSO. Yeah. And promoter of the year. Yeah. Yeah. Promoter of the year. And.

[00:45:56] And he. You know. He. When you think about. His background. What he's done all his life. And how successful he's been. The guy is so smart. Yes. He understands people. He knows business. He. Like. He's. He's a gamer. Yeah. Like. There are these guys in business that are like gamers. And they. I think they really like. They're top team. They really like. Top team. Getting stuff done. And like. Yeah. It's just. It's good. And doing. Good work. Doing the good work. I mean. We talked a bit about his.

[00:46:26] His involvement with the Argentinian. Para foosball. I think para foosball is like the route. Yeah. I think. No question. There's a. There's some really great goals that we can have in foosball. And I think getting states to recognize. Indeed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As a sport. Individually. And then also. The Paralympic angle. Is super crucial. Because. It's a step in the direction of an Olympic foosball. Mm-hmm. Um. Opportunity.

[00:46:56] And so. It's. Yeah. I think there's a route there. I think we're. You know. We are. Uh. Just seeing the very early stages of a. Truly a golden age. Yeah. Sport of foosball. And thank you so much. Both of you. Yeah. For being such a huge part of this. Um. Thank you Tom. You're inspiring. And so. It's been fun. We're. We're coming back as. As often as we possibly can. To. Uh. To talk about this. And whenever you need. Uh. Any. Any assistance. Or anything that.

[00:47:25] You want to get out to the public. You know. You can count on us for that. We'd love to help you out with that. Of course. But. Thanks for having us on the show. Oh. Absolutely. And. We got some business we need to attend to. I think. Yeah. You guys are tearing down now. So. This is. It's been really fun. And. So. Michael Sr. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here. Yeah buddy. Michael Jr. Thanks Tom. Great to see you guys. Appreciate it brother. We'll. Donna give me one sec. I need to give this lady a hug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh. We are. We're going to wrap the episode for tonight.

[00:47:55] This of course. Yeah. Foos Talk Live. Thanks guys and gals. Coming to you live from. Take care everyone. From Rapids Michigan. And of course the Great Lakes Classic. Uh. We have. We'll be back again next week. For episode number 319. But thanks for tuning in on Twitch TV. And YouTube. And of course this will be a podcast coming your way very soon. But thanks again for tuning in tonight. Uh. My thanks to my guests Michael and Michael. Michael Stahl Sr. And Michael Stahl Jr. On uh. Foos Ball Radio. And uh. Foos Talk Live.

[00:48:25] Thanks for tuning in. Foos Ball tournaments are everywhere. Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you. With the Foos Talk Live. Tournament Beat. Here's what's up. OKC Foos presents. The OKC Halloween Open Foosball Championship 2026. October 30th through November 1st. Mr. Seas. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ITSF presents.

[00:48:53] The 2026 Quebec Leonhardt Open. November 13th through the 15th. Hotel Voyager. Quebec, Canada. Buffalo Foos Ball presents. The 10th Anniversary Tournament. November 20th through the 22nd. Bison Billiards. Buffalo New York. World Foos Ball Tour presents. The International Championships of Foos Ball. November 25th through the 29th in Vienna, Austria. The 2026 North Carolina State Championships.

[00:49:23] Thanksgiving weekend, November 26th through the 29th. At the Crowne Plaza in Asheville, North Carolina. It's the 20th Annual 2026 Louisiana State Championships. December 3rd through the 6th at the Holiday Inn, Metairie, Louisiana. Looking ahead to 2027. The World Foos Ball Tour presents. The Tour Kickoff. February 4th through the 7th. Nashville, Tennessee.

[00:49:50] The South Dakota State 2027 Foos Ball Championship. February 26th through the 28th. At Royal River Casino and Hotel Landro, South Dakota. The World Foos Ball Tour presents. The 2027 Hall of Fame Classic. April 7th through the 11th. In Las Vegas, Nevada. More exciting details soon to come. Each week, we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you.

[00:50:18] If you have an event you'd like to add, send us all the details at foosballradio at gmail.com. Tune in every week for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat. The Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat is brought to you in part by foosgadgets.com. Using technology to create a better foosball experience. And by Boise Foos Works. High-fidelity refurbished foosballs. Foos Talk Live is a product of Foosball Radio.

[00:50:48] With gratitude, we recognize our Foos Ball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor. original-leonhardt-usa.com. Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime, we'll see you foosin'.