Commissioner - Regular Meeting

Welcome to another episode of The Open Agenda, a podcast where we take you behind the scenes of local government and the people working every day to make Quance County a stronger community. I'm Bruce Groth.

And I'm Beth Malaski. Today we're talking about something that impacts all of us, investing in our youth and creating opportunities that help young people succeed, both on and off the field.

Our guest is Bobby Woolley, owner of the Edge Arena and founder of the Giving the Edge Foundation. Through athletics, mentorship, and community partnerships, Bobby has spent years creating programs that encourage leadership, confidence, and healthy choices for young people across Queen Anne's County.

We'll talk about his journey, the vision behind the Edge Arena, the work of the Giving the Edge Foundation, and how partnerships with our schools, local organizations, and the Drug Free Coalition are helping shape the next generation of community leaders.

So whether you're a parent, coach, educator, or simply someone who cares about the future of our community, we think you'll enjoy this conversation. Beth, I think it's time to open this agenda.

Lights on, mic check. What's happening with QAC next? Go behind the scenes with Bruce and Beth. The conversation shaping the county's future.

This is the open agenda.

You guys got me pretty good. Yeah, you're in the middle of it now. We should have been recording all of this.

This coffee is delicious, too.

I know.

Well, you got that on the record because we're recording.

This coffee that's not sponsoring us is amazing.

We need to reach out to them. Open seas.

Yeah. I'm singing with this stuff. You got one to three booked? I'm like, all right.

You can get it in the Mrs. Park. I bought it at Herbal Brew Bar. Oh, they have it?

Yep. This stuff is great. It's close enough to you, too. You can walk over. We'll be running. Somebody just launched me over there. All right.

Here we go, you guys. Drum roll? Drum roll on it. Kick it. Today, Beth and I are absolutely astounded and lucky to have our guest. We've been wanting to talk to you for a while. Business owner, community leader, high school champion coach, And I mean this with all sincerity, an absolute gem of a human being. Bobby, thank you for coming in today. Thanks, Bruce. You make me get all, you know, give me the chills already. It's just the episode now. We're going home happy.

Thank you.

But there's more to you than that. Bobby, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Robert Woolley, born and raised here, Kent Island, call it native, if you will. The first four or five months of my life were elsewhere. But since then, just love the place. And as I was driving here today, what a beautiful place we live in. So now, you know, many years later from my childhood. seeing how we can pour back into the kids of this community. And fortunately now, a father of two can see a lot of the reasoning of what we did before having kids come into light. And it's pretty amazing. Pretty special. So, yeah, grew up on Kent Island, Cloverfields. Went to all the public schools here. Got a firsthand experience of what it was like growing up in Queen Anne's County and all the good and where there were gaps to fill. And, you know, as I matriculated through and graduated from Kent Island High School, I was fortunate enough to have some athletic success and moved on to Salisbury University, where I graduated from with a degree in exercise science, minor in business, and knew in college that I wanted to come home and kind of fill the void of things that I didn't have, you know, in the way of connecting, you know, a child who has dreams and aspirations to, you know, whether it's athletics or beyond, to follow follow those dreams, just really aim to fill how we could help support those kids. And it was from there that we incepted and started the Edge Training Academy, which is, you know, done some marvelous things for kids as far as doing exactly what we set out to do, you know, allowing us to hear other kids' dreams and try to paint them a yellow brick road of how to get to them. And fortunately, after all these years of doing that, it's been cool to see how many kids have gone on and done special things. And, you know, no business stands still, so the Edge Training Academy, was able to pick up the Edge Arena and are giving the Edge Foundation that does a ton for the community, which I'm sure we'll touch on. So just a lifelong pursuit of truly wanting to help others and see how we can pour energy into a community that is at the root of who I am.

Well, I think you did a good job putting the degree to work. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, and you mentioned the Edge Arena, but we've got to go back to the whole beginning. So you said that, you know, when we talked before you came on the podcast, that before we could really talk about the Edge, we had to talk about where it all started. So if you could bring us back to the Edge Arena and Academy.

Yeah. So graduated college in 06 and then immediately came out, was given the head JV lacrosse coaching position at Callen High School for the boys program. And from there, got to see, you know, all those gaps of where my degree could certainly be put to good use, where kids wanted to do certain things. And, you know, six years, well, six years later, I guess, during that period, I had started and grown a landscaping company. from the ground up and ended up selling that off to a friend, which gave me a little bit of money that I could then drop into this, this idea, you know, so met with KRM out there in a business park on Ken Island and signed a lease and bought some turf and got to work training kids on skill development and pushing their dreams forward. And that was so cool because, you know, like everything you think you got it, You've got to plan until the plan is like, we've got to shift a lot. So our biggest success early on was really just seeing the growth of confidence in children, not just the athletic performance side of things. Sure, it was great because... what it did for them was people on sidelines noticed them made comments. Oh, mom and dad, you know, heard this on the sideline and they saw Johnny just suddenly looking so much different out there. That to a kid was like confidence right there in a, in a nutshell. So, um, that's where it started was, you know, college to idea to opening a small training facility, quickly growing that a year into it. And then, um, At the same time of opening the training academy, we're also blessed with an anonymous gift to put together a financial contribution that would allow us to launch the Giving the Edge Foundation, which at that point in time, I thought the common goal was going to be to help financially support maybe student athletes who wouldn't be able to afford training so that they could then pursue the dreams that we were talking about. And we quickly realized that there wasn't a whole lot of demand coming our way from community for that and maybe it was because we weren't marketing well or whatever it may have been but the foundation quickly shifted towards how do we turn some financial contributions into greater good for all kids and that's kind of where things started if you will from the training academy and the foundation kind of going hand in hand from the from the start

And this is crazy because it's over a decade now. You've been doing great things in the community. And a lot of people that probably use your services and reach out to you, they probably just think of this as it's always been around. And like you've been here because you have young families. But before you, you had talked about the gaps. What are the gaps that maybe people were not feeling back then?

Yeah, it's interesting you say that because it's been a decade, but I can literally rewind back and see, feel gaps. put myself back in my shoes very easily because I lived it, you know? It was like so raw to me. I think the biggest gap that at that point in time was present was really supporting those high school students who were in pursuit of recruiting assistants, that because they lived on the Eastern Shore and they had athletic prominence, they still never got seen. Yeah, the eyes weren't here. They were not seen. And it's so funny because I can remember my earliest coaching days. Ken Island was playing at Queen Anne's, and I looked over my shoulder, and Richie Meade, which was the head lacrosse coach at the Naval Academy, standing on the bleachers, like right behind me. And I'm like, that does not happen. That just doesn't happen. Not nearly as much as it should. And as now we, you know, fast forward a decade, you see that athletic dominance on the Eastern Shore is being recognized. all over so whether we played a small part in that um or not to kind of get eyeballs and focus shifted on this side of the bay um that for me was really special yeah that was where i was missing i was like i didn't get recognized i didn't really get the attention and now here i am I can play a part in maybe getting eyeballs.

Yeah. And you absolutely have done that because we just see it when we go to the schools, the amount of kids that are now graduating and going to play, whatever their sport is, is growing every year. And every year they have 10 kids and it's 11, then it's 14. And then the whole stage is full of nothing but athletes going on to the next adventure. It's really cool to see in the community.

For sure. I would say that's definitely the biggest thing that we aimed to fill in the very beginning was how we can get attention on the kids that deserved it.

Yeah. Well, but a lot of people associate athletics and training and all of that, but your mission is so much bigger than that. Can you talk a little bit about some of the other programs? Because that's how you and I met was through Drug Free Coalition.

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I wake up each day and just figure out how can I best support this community? I mean, truly, it's just kind of in the essence of who I am. So if you're looking to do that from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, there is just infinite potential on ways to support, especially when you're talking youth. So for me, yes, I think the edge for a very long time was known as athletes or for athletes. And You know, a few years back, we just really turned our attention to we have to break that mold. We just have to make people understand that what we're doing is so much more than that. And yeah, I think. just opening my eyes to where the community is yearning for help, where it may have an obvious need, and then see if myself, my staff, and our overall organization can look at that problem with a solution-based mindset and see if we are the match to making something great happen. That's really, I think, the essence of the broader mission.

But sometimes at the end of the day, kids just need a place to run, play, get energy out, right? It's true. We have that too. So what kind of programs do you do with that? You have this giant building with so many different sports going on.

Yeah. So far beyond sports, now it's grown to more of a... additional academic support location where, you know, we host field trips for schools. Today we had Dorchester County Public Schools in for, you know, one of their elementary programs came in and got to experience a day with us, you know, and for them it was probably the first time they've been in a facility, anything like it. Wow. Yeah, we host. That's really cool. No, I mean, it's true. I mean, it really is.

I think you hosted McArdle, too. So many years back when Ezra was at McArdle School, they closed. They were, I don't know, they had something going on in their building and they had to close for a few days. And you guys hosted them and they had their whole school day.

Correct.

At the edge.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

I mean, you think of it just being Quance County, but you're not. You're stretching far and wide. Dorchester's not that quick of a drive. So for them to come out, that's really cool.

Super cool. We hosted prom during COVID.

Oh, nice.

What? I love talking to people, man. You never knew these things were happening. It's a big enough space where we can put forth a lot of attention to whatever type of event it is.

Tides of Grace. They do their Christmas shopping event.

And I would say openly that that has been probably my most special moment when I walked into that event inside of where, you know, it's the building that I walk into every day, but... how do I say this? I, I've never felt the Christmas spirit per se, but standing there and just feeling that moment was, uh, it gets me choked up. Like it was, um, So special to see, you know, the type of impact that, you know, when the community comes together, you know.

Oh, it's impressive.

Puts it together. And so many people can be affected in a good way. So same kind of concept. You know, Leanne came to me and just was like, hey, what do you think? And I'm like, do it. Like, we got it. Whatever we got to do. Open the doors. Doesn't matter. Mm-hmm. no no exchange of monies no not like like let's just make this happen and um super cool i mean can't can't replace those moments yeah you guys really are literally doing everything you can with that space it's cool it is pretty cool i mean i could go on for lots of other things we've hosted you know i don't know family reunions birthday birthday parties out the wazoo and yeah um bridal showers yeah but say it's not just for kids but this this week we had the real the real estate rumble for like the third straight year which is a huge fundraiser i have not heard of yeah real estate rumble yeah come on beth i have not heard of that get down with it it's uh we need to come out and film one of those one year because you've been talking about this for a while that one we should come out and just go that's huge like they have a ton of fun do they wrestle So they actually play a bunch of like field games and it's all geared towards like, I was picturing realtors wrestling.

I mean, they might as well.

If you can picture an entire arena filled with real estate agents and yeah, there's hundreds of them. They're everywhere around here. So, you know, they're doing a lot of good, um, I think I forget what they raised that ton of money last year in their one-day event. And there again, we just host them and try to make it easy for them to keep coming back. It's cool. Never boring. No. Yeah.

Well, and then besides the stuff that you host at your arena, then you've got the after-school programs and your positive referrals and field days. So, I mean, take your pick. Like, what do you want to talk about? I mean, you have a leadership academy or meeting that you host.

Yeah. When do you sleep? It's funny because I honestly say, like, I sleep so well – I think because of that, like you just go hard, go hard, go hard. And that's the way I'm wired to then like, you feel good about what you were able to accomplish in the way of helping others and doing things to make, you know, the community hopefully a better place in some way, shape or form. And once I hit the pillow, it's like, it's over. Like, so up early and doing it again. Um, so I guess the direction of, um, It can go in any direction. I mean, the positive referral system was developed early on in the early years of the Giving the Edge Foundation because there was an obvious need inside of Ken Island High School to start, which they were just aiming to try to improve the overall school ecosystem. So for us, we were like, all right, well, we can put together a referral basis that nomination slip for anyone nominating anyone for positive behavior. You know, PBIS was always known for like student to student, peer to peer. This crossed that. It was like, you can nominate the principal for all we care. The principal can nominate a student. And it was totally ecosystem based where what we found was a ton of kids recognizing each other for the everyday simple things.

Oh, that's nice.

That then drove them consistent, consistently to better behavior. action which actually resulted in a more positive school ecosystem so it was a definite win and we tried to transfer that into other schools modified it a little bit based on each school's needs specifically and always gave out like our customary win the day t-shirts to whoever was receiving it and it was our win the day program yeah and And that was super cool to see how it grew legs and, you know, transferred into other schools. And the message was right.

Yeah.

Do good, you know, and be recognized. And, you know, as a child, you get recognized for something that is seemingly simple.

Yeah.

Holding a door for your teacher when you didn't have to instead of just focusing on your buddy yelling to you from the class. You know, there's so many little things that... You just make that good choice and it starts to become habit. And then you're looking around at how you can possibly make somebody's day better. And it's super simple, but often overlooked. So I think it was just the right time, right place for that to institute solid, confident change. Yeah. It was cool. That's PBIS. What else did you mention? After school programs.

Oh, yeah. After school programs. How long have you been doing that now?

A few years. We just finished our second year. I think it comes back to the mindset of, like, when the community calls, we answer. We're pretty much a yes, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, first, before we know what we're getting ourselves into. Truly, because... COVID taught me that, or about myself, you know, because there was obviously this need with virtual school being unknown. Is it going to go back or is it not?

Didn't you host, you hosted kids doing school?

We created an entire school model because our building and everything was just sitting vacant. So we held virtual school to support the public school.

I remember that.

So on a whim, not knowing if school was going to go back or not, this is actually... makes me giggle because in hindsight, I'm like, man, you're crazy. You're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. So we get the idea. I get the idea. a girl that had trained with me through high school and college was graduating as a teacher. Hey, coach, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think I should do? I've got a teaching degree, and I don't see whether school is going to happen or not. I was like, hey, Rach, we're going to put together a program so that you have summer employment, building a program, firsthand experience, however you want this thing to look in the way of what you would do if they say school doesn't come back. So we have two boardrooms established, ready to go, got all of our Maryland State education certification. The day before school announces, We're not going back. So we had a waiting list ready to go for 27 families. That's what we were able to permit based on the size of the rooms. And Rachel goes right into day one as an never before done virtual program teacher. that is working hand in hand as the kids are on their screens to make sure that those kids that were there got quality on hand like hands-on instruction in conjunction with the virtual schooling and for those parents that were able to experience that i think in hindsight none of them would say i'm speaking out of turn when it's like it was a blessing yeah you know for those kids um

I wish I could have sent mine to you.

Yeah.

I was working at home while he was doing virtual schooling. It was a nightmare.

Yeah. If we had 10, 10 classrooms, I think we would have filled them, you know, but we were limited in space and, you know, we didn't have 10 teachers to pull from. It was like, yeah, Rachel, we're going all in on this. And literally the licensing came through the day before from the state. And that was an edge. That was a summer. Yeah. That was a summer of effort that, that came to be on a, um, on a complete whim. I don't know where that direction went to from what we started with. So a yes, a yes mindset of, okay, we'll just figure it out and make it happen. Same thing goes for the afterschool program. Like it was being retired from the County public schools. You know, they didn't have the time, energy or I think resources really to continue to operate it the way that it was going. And, you know, we just sat in on a community forum, basically, of all of the potential people who could help see it forward with resources. with some project leads money that was left over with a consultant that the county had hired to try to find a path forward for afterschool programming, be it partnering for youth. And what we found out was meeting after meeting after meeting, the crowd lessened in the room so before we know it it's like us and the consultant yeah and we're like i guess it's us what are we gonna do with this like how do we how do we actually now see this as a a thing forward and from there it was create an entire offensive playbook of how do we see this going? You know, so hand in hand with the consultant to come to a reality, you know, and fortunately with all that body of work, again, we said, yeah, we'll do it. We don't know what's, what's going to be in it for us or what have you. And, Lo and behold, we end up getting the contract the first year. And humbly I'll say this, I feel as though we far outpaced and delivered on what was expected of us. And I say that more so the steering committee who meets to give us kind of the feedback on the program is very open with us to say it's been a great success. And then in year two, we decided to add a seventh school based out of elementary was like, hey, what about us?

Yeah.

And we're like, okay, well, we've got this funding component that is built on six schools. We're going to have to really figure out how to put this into existence. I'm sorry, not year two, semester two.

Okay.

So we take on this seventh school on a purely volunteer basis.

I do remember that. I remember that.

asking like inside the school, hey, what parents, who's in the, like, let's really navigate who we can get to make this a reality for Bayside. And sure enough, then that was rolled into year two. So we, this entire school year operated at seven schools. And I mean, not without, there's issues everywhere, but, you know, I think from a overall perspective, I feel very confident with what we've been able to do for that after-school space.

And it's elementary, right? Elementary and middle or just elementary?

All four middle schools and then three elementaries. Wow. Yeah, so we do all the competitive sports for middle schools. They compete at basketball, boys and girls, soccer, boys and girls, and then co-ed track. and they come together and host meets and do kind of the whole thing.

How many people work with you? Because it sounds like you need a staff of 1,000, but I don't think it's that high.

It's crazy. I refer to us as a little engine that could, and we have six full-time, basically. That's wild. Most of which are not really associated with There are people that are in full-time roles that actually don't have a clue about all of what we do.

Sure.

And that's just the six. What we do have is an army of people that we can community connect with. Field Day, for instance, it takes 200 high school volunteers to make that a reality. Those kids are amazing. Yeah, they're awesome. They were right there. Every time I see graduation and they walk the halls of their elementary school, I'm reminded that they want to be back at that school for field day like nobody's business. So they're a huge support for us. But you would think, OK, well, there's 200. And without them, field day doesn't happen. It doesn't take 10 of us to assemble 200 people for field days. It takes two or three people who are on top of it and detailed about it. So there's a lot of people that play really crucial roles for us that just don't have full-time titles. There's a lot of people involved when it comes down to how do you pull it off.

Go ahead and name them all. I have a candid question for you. It's kind of a curve off of what we were just talking about, but it relates. You're a dad, you're a business owner, you're a community leader, you're a coach. You get to see kids, your own kids, kids from the school, kids all ages come to you and your organization. What do kids need today that they might not be getting? And I'm not saying with you, but just in general.

Generally speaking, it is connection. It's connection. It's real human element connection. look them in the eye, you know, tell them you love them and, you know, hug them when they need it. You know, don't turn a blind eye on anything that you think might be happening. And you can't have that without having your finger on the pulse of what's going on around you. So the more you can see them where they are, kind of assess the situation, good, bad, and ugly, the more adults that I feel can be just aware and connected is just crucial. I think that's, you know, we can go into the whole element of where their focus is. And I was pondering leading into this.

Yeah.

I was pondering on what makes us have such a profound effect. And it's really... Finding things that fill their minds with good thoughts versus whatever the world's going to throw at them. Insert any of the things that they might be interested in that holds their attention so that they don't get deviated into a direction that they wouldn't be proud of. You know, at the end of the day, that's where I think We have a microscope on how can we potentially aim and create those targets for their minds to drift to. And they just need to be connected with. I think it's just really that simple. Just connect.

Yeah. Are there tools or things that you guys do that help with that?

Tools, be it our own self-awareness, you know, not overlooking the idea that we are in position to be a connector, right? Like know that as kind of a... a prequel, right? That's what we have been successful at doing is everything we've mentioned so far is an idea or a need in the community that has just become like right in front of us. And how do we navigate that forward, right? So connecting and being aware of the Drug Free Coalition needs and realizing that there are pretty big problems that need focused attention um and then tools are flat out effort like it comes down to effort the things that we do frankly are by choice nobody's handing out paychecks to the giving the edge foundation for the work that we do it's just not happening so it's more of a know that it's around you, be aware of it, see a kid for what is actually happening, and then try to put some energy into seeing that that kid comes out of it one positive side.

Yeah. And putting the energy, you say that, and that's so crucially important because when we talk to kids, I hear kids when we go out, they can see right through it. Yeah. If it's not real and the energy is not there, if it's just words and no fluff, no fluff, right?

Yeah. Show up, show up consistent, consistently, um, do what you say you're going to do repeatedly with constant and never ending intent and then you got them. Then they're looking at you as like, hey, what more do you have? How can I become a volunteer? You know, what ways can I become a better part of the community?

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, no, it's true. It's mentorship.

I mean, that's when I think of you guys, I think of mentorship. I think of leadership. And one thing I think I was going to ask you earlier, and I totally skipped over it, was who inspired you? Do you have some folks in your past or growing up that kind of inspired you to do all this community work. Cause I mean, this is like amazing, the things that you're doing. So you had to have had some great teachers, leaders, inspiration.

Ooh. All right. So then you get the emotional side.

Welcome to a new version. Go to YouTube and watch the tears.

All right. So I will say I was blessed with, you know, having family that, you could feel the love, right? There was, there was a, you could palpate it. My grandmother, like God rest her soul, like walk into a room where she was seated and you just felt it, you know, this loving care where as you, if you can, if you, if you can feel that in your childhood and you know, know that other kids don't have that same level of connection. And same goes for my mom, you know, like we were a broken family, but we, you knew you were loved. And I think for me, that was a way forward, right? Where I could have the sense and the feel of it. So when it wasn't present, I probably didn't, subconsciously navigated, how do we create a loving environment for others? You know, and I can go back to a simple, I won the, I was like eight, I think, maybe not even eight. And I won the football pool at my stepfather's work, like two Super Bowls in a row. I'm this seven or eight year old pace in the hallway.

So many adults were not your fan.

Yeah, no, maybe not like Mr. Bob's stepson. But I took that money, right? And I didn't have to do this. But my first thought was, Con Island Sports was this little sports shop right on the main stretch there on Route 50. And, you know, the community had a bunch of my friends and we wanted to play street hockey. Nobody had street hockey sticks. So I'm like, I'm going to head down there and I'm going to go buy everybody street hockey sticks and we're going to be able to play together. Well, that makes everything better for everybody. So I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I was just feeling the need. Like I got some money that I got from a football pool. Like what am I going to do with it? I'm going to put it to good use, you know? So I think there's that element of, being aware of what the need is and hitting it head on and making sure everybody's smiling afterwards.

Who would have known that you buying those sticks would have fed this dragon that you need to feed every day now to keep giving back to the community?

Well, fortunately we have such a great community that I think they're becoming aware of some of the good, right? So where we didn't have a whole lot of means for like, fundraising within the foundation itself we didn't really have a way to to go and do that now we've you know put forth annual fundraising events and you know all of it now kind of creates a a cycle where people do see the good happening so each year with some sort of I thought you would think that more people are going to be apt to then financially contribute in some small way that allows us just to continue to do more, you know, as the questions come up and, you know, needs arise.

Yeah. And there might be someone listening to this and they're like, I love that story. I feel the same way. I want to give back. How can community members, businesses, parents, anyone help support the foundation in your mission?

Yes, our foundation lives under Chesapeake Charities, which is our fiscal sponsor, like so many other local funds and online donation platform that is super simple to click through and find us. You can find our extension on our own website from theedge360.net, and you'll see Giving the Edge Foundation there, and that gives you a really nice depiction of some of the things we've talked about today, but more than that just gives them a full rundown of what all the foundation kind of touches and community events that we are able to host and the like. So it's easy enough to find it online and make donations that way. Very cool.

Well, and let's see, we've talked about, we didn't talk about field day. We kind of touched on it. Yeah, not much.

Yeah.

We kind of touched on it.

Which is one of the crazier things that you could pull off.

How many field days?

Field day in this county.

How many field days do you do now?

Oh, I think 12. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So it's basically all of the middle schools and elementaries. And most of the time on the same day. Oh, there's... It's anybody out there listening that is in the leadership roles at each of these schools, create a little variety. Get a little out of the box here and maybe find a day or two that wouldn't all fall in the same one. But, yeah, we are oftentimes taxed with eight schools, I think, is the most we've pulled off in a single day.

Oh, my gosh.

So it just divides us in such a way where the leadership of our core staff is only go so far. And then we've had to find those people that we've mentored in the past who are longing to come back into leadership roles themselves and put them into site coordinator positions for the day and make sure that they're the instrumental person on site that can then help navigate the volunteers into being on task, productive, keeping the kids having a good time. So it's It's a big undertaking. This year, I would say the biggest of all, because for whatever reason, I think we've been pretty successful weather-wise to not have to change dates. This year, it's added an element of, oh, there's a bunch of schools not happening on the said date. Then the afterscramble of, knowing that you had volunteers all set.

Oh, and then having to recommit.

Oh, wait a minute. That new date is on the date that I have to take all my finals. So there goes a half of your volunteer support, you know, so that whole back and forth. And then God bless Sarah. She's like, Sarah's our general manager. And she's taking it to the point of, we can't rely on email communications because most of them submit their volunteer submissions through their school email, which oftentimes bounces back.

We can't email school emails.

So with that, they have had phone numbers. So now we're having to like call each individual or connect with them to make sure that, Hey, the date has changed one and two, are you available for the next date? Oh, well we'll have to get back to you. You know, we're going to check my calendar, but that's for every person that was already previously committed on their terms for that day. Yeah. So it's a, I mean, there's a whole lot of back and forth there.

Oh my gosh. If I can, I need to blow some smoke because you were saying field day. And for, I bet a lot of the people that are listening, they remember field day like I do. And that we ran bases. Yeah. And then we did a 50 yard dash. And then we watched the Disney movie. Yeah. Your field day is crazy. You guys are doing activities that like I would have killed to do when I was a kid. Yeah. Then you have water balloon, you have water fights, you have tug of rope. You have so many cool activities and they're different.

yeah from school to school yeah so we do work with um usually someone is a point person at the school um and we don't claim to have all the answers so it's really leaning on them to say hey what are the most ideal activities that you'd like to see happen based on what they know about their student body and that shifts from year to year inside of each school but usually we're able to see those activities kind of pull from all of the supplies that we have at our own facility to create the most awesome experience possible and um yeah it's uh i drove here today and i i looked as i was passing stevenson stevensville middle school and lo and behold there they were having their their field day you know coming here i'm like this is full circle like they're having a blast right there as i'm coming here to talk to you guys about how awesome it is.

I'm jealous, man. These kids get this amazing day. How can we get a partnership between Kwans County Government and you so we can do a Kwans County Government field day?

So I have a confession. I used to skip field day.

Yeah.

I was one of those kids that I was a... Well, Bruce knows. I call sports, sports ball. I was not a sports person. I would skip gym class and field day was the one day a year my parents would let me stay home. I just did not like it. But you make it sound fun.

You're not allowed to skip.

If we pull off Quinn's County Government Field Day, you're not allowed to skip.

I won't skip.

I think there's two things there. We make it about more than the activity. It's about making sure that because of the T-shirts and there's all of this positive messaging around it, I think some of those kids, they'll still have kids that sit out. Of course, there's always going to be that. But I think there's just another element of inclusion that... makes them all feel more in, if that makes sense.

It does, even just the way you're talking about it. Like I said, it makes me want to be part of it, even though it's something that I would have been like, no, thank you.

Like teachers take the initiative where parents are, you know, people, they're tie-dying all the t-shirts together. They're making it a thing. You know, then they're probably talking about how cool the shirt is and then positive messaging on it. And Oh, the Jacob Sloan foundation is on the shirt. And what is that? And there's, I think there's just more to the, the intangibles around it that make it, um, more than just the day of and throwing water balloons. Um, but it kind of gives them a buildup.

Yeah.

It's not just, Oh, Hey, next Thursday, we're going to have field day and you might, you know, throw a Frisbee or two. It's so much more, I think, um, energy around it. So it feels like a big deal. And then obviously you're talking with kids, like we're just getting kids excited. Like at the end of the day, it's, um, it's pretty, pretty well received, you know? Um, there's that.

Yeah. I mean, you're impacting thousands of kids lives. Yearly, daily, monthly. You're helping parents. You're helping the community. You're helping other businesses. Is this exactly how you wrote it up? Is this what you thought it was going to be when you first started?

No. Not exactly like this. What I did see was the training facility. I saw that evolving into being a gym to the open public. How that happened in its own right is crazy. You could talk through that. We got the contract from the Baltimore Brigade that was a team in the arena football league that played in Baltimore. You know, Monumental Sports is this organization that is the front office for the Capitals, the Wizards, you know, all this, like, professional sports. Hey, we're looking for a practice facility. I'm like, well, come on down. I didn't know who it was meeting with at all. I had no idea. A whole crew of guys show up, and I'm like, okay. Like, this is kind of a big deal. They tour the facility, and they're like, yeah, this is everything we need. You know, we'll be in at 6 a.m. and out at 2 p.m. and it looked like we were never here and their whole front office moved in and it was crazy. But that contract allowed us to expand into not just a training academy for kids and the like, but it needed to be a bigger facility for team training for them. We always knew that the model was we wanted to open to the public or, you know, an everyday gym. That allowed that to happen, so. I think the, see it as that, I knew that the end vision of that was what it was. I didn't know exactly how it was going to happen. But the fact that that came about, it allowed that vision to come to life far sooner than if it was just an everyday grind. You know, that blessing landed in front of us and It was super cool to interact with, you know, professional football players every day and their coaches and, you know, me as a coach myself, it was, it was certainly a valuable experience to communicate with professional level coaches. Just inspiring probably allowed me to keep my fuel going to find the competitive advantage as I could apply them to my high school team and, So the vision's pretty close. I knew I wanted to have a sports arena, right? That kind of happened by chance with the previous operators coming to me and just putting their hands up and saying like, hey, we're done with this. It's kind of run its course. It was being run heavily as a adult-focused activity center, which, for what it's worth, was kind of good, kind of bad. I saw it as something completely different where the youth could be more the focus. transformed it into just that so it's an interesting story and how that even happened too but um be here all day the vision is typically yes and i knew that i wanted to be able to provide through a nonprofit, a way to help the kids in the community that I grew up in. So the framework is there, but did I see myself running after-school programs?

No.

I did not. Did I see these other things happening? No. The details weren't there, but the framework was.

I think it's definitely a good time to talk a little bit about mental health then because that's something we've been talking about a lot. And you're working with kids all the time after school and all of these programs. What kind of changes are you seeing and what are kids dealing with emotionally right now?

Jeez. Because you're on the front lines. Yeah. And oftentimes don't realize it until I, you know, stop and look around or get smacked in the face with an obvious like, wait, what? You know, someone is dealing with that and it becomes very real. So what are they dealing with? I would say. always being on, always being connected digitally, obviously, that for good or bad, I don't think they're being educated how to understand maybe where they are and how it's affecting their lives in real time. So they're being accessible, and I was kind of pondering this as well, There used to be an alpha in the school or someone that was known as, cliche, the bully. Yeah. Right? I think in today, and you could steer away from that person. Yeah, you could avoid them. Whoa, that's, okay, yeah. I know he or she's going to be there from first period to the end of the day, and I don't have to go choose to hang out with that person after school. None of that.

And they're not going to be in my bedroom at 9 o'clock at night.

There you go. So now we're being...

They can reach us any time.

They can be attacked. There's further, I think, attack mode that... that kids don't realize probably how to shut it off or get away from it. So the impacts are probably more in quantity and probably deeper and less avoidable. And they're just, they're in a position that they're accessible. And it's not just the kid in the school that you're avoiding that could very well be that person. It's now there's a hundred of them because now that I can attack you without being seen, there's this whole element of more bullies in the room. Oh, and by the way, you're attached to the entire world at this point. And God forbid we uncover, you know, the online predatorial type behaviors that now create a whole other avenue of, again, goes back to my like, how do you get their eyes and minds away from said thing that might be detrimental to their behavior? their choices. I mean, it's, it's, you got to kind of steer more because there's a lot more distractions in a negative way, in my opinion, that they're just exposed to. So they're facing a lot of things. And unfortunately, as we all know, and the statistics prove it now that right here, it's, it's kids are taking action on things that We may have been able to, you know, turn a shoulder or two and a blind eye and walk away. And it's just, it's deeper and more prevalent now than what it was. Yeah, we experience it. On the front lines, there's instances that have hit me square. Let's just leave it at, they've just hit me square as a very real instance of a child who is just not in a good spot.

Yeah.

And bringing that to light is nothing to take lightly.

Yeah.

And then having to follow up with, concerted action immediately to make sure that that embrace for that kid is, is had, um, is immediate. There's no, there's nothing more important in the day that surfaces when that shows up. It's, you know, let's, let's attack that and make sure it's, put them in a better spot. But yeah, it's different.

But yeah, I know a lot of parents struggle with that. It's different because, you know, we grew up without phones. Yeah. We knew what it was like to go out and play. And a lot of parents now are like, why don't they just go out and play? It's not that easy anymore. Totally. But is that why it's so important to have the community, not necessarily come out and play sports with you and your programs, but the community around it. How important is that?

It's, it's paramount. I mean, there's no two ways and there's no, there's no book on any of this because it's new and it's, there may be books, but you, you don't know what direction to like, to steer. And I come back to this.

Well, things are so different. I mean, usually you would kind of model your being a parent after your parents, but it's impossible. It's impossible. Our lives were so incredibly different growing up, you know, than what, than what my son is, is facing right now. It's like,

So I think it comes back to that concept of like seeing it, having your pulse on it. It doesn't have to be your child. It's the kid down the street. It's, it's a tomb ever having kind of your wherewithal of assessing it for real, like in real form and picking your head up and kind of just snooping around and that element of care, just that I think goes so far in a ripple effect through the community that, you know, there are a lot of people doing that. And I think that's probably why we're still such a quote unquote strong community despite the, um, the difficult things that we deal with. Right. Um, I think we, we do a really good job of dealing with them together on the front end and on the back end, if that makes sense. Um, Yeah, picking our heads up and just understanding that it is different. We don't know the ins and outs and all the answers, but, like, I know when there's something potentially seems a little off, kind of approach it. Yeah. You know?

I think that's all good advice for adults. Cause that was the other thing I wanted to ask you is like, what, what do you think? I mean, what can you tell to other people when they're dealing with young people? Like how can we support them in these times?

Don't overthink it. In my mind, like, yeah, you can, you can talk to every therapist and psychologist and all the things that would give you the professional opinion. And in my layman's view, it is don't overthink it, see it, sense it. And yeah, just try to try to care, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, just give them that element of like, Oh, you saw me here. I am like lighten my day. And there's so much of that that is, back to the ripple effect. You change one kid and then suddenly his or her best friend is starting to act a little bit more like that kid. They're very malleable. So leading with intent is probably the underlying message.

Yeah, and you get to lead with intent to a lot of different age groups through a lot of different roles, coach, business owner, teacher, mentor.

What's your favorite? Surprise question.

It's undivided. Like there is, there are things that I will measure in the way of what takes my attention. And I would lead that to maybe say that might be where my favorites lie, but that could also just be because it demands more of me, you know? So I don't really have a, I don't have a lane inside of all of it that, um, I would call my favorite. I feel extremely blessed and one with the whole. I just feel one with the whole body of work that it all points back to that underlying thing, which is so unique. Like I have essentially created not just my dream job, but I'm able to also do it with a level of impact that I know is real. So as I chase a state championship with 40 or 60 high school boys, I'm equally charged up on a Friday morning where I step into the school and witness leadership breakfast going on where those kids are not on my lacrosse team perhaps, but completely different faces that are also being like stirred up for greatness. And you're like, that's awesome. And that'll look. So yeah, there's like winning state championships, I would say has a, has a long-lasting effect on the children who experience it. So I think that one probably has a carrying capacity that may outweigh the kid who just wanted to go back to their elementary school and volunteer for a day and feel really awesome about that. So I think there's a psychological thing that the coaching element at the high school level gives me such a springboard of sorts, right? That is, is larger than most of the other things in the day to day is when they find success and they see themselves with all the kids that they grew up with and played together. And I mean, they're like, it's like a big family that we treat it as. And when that family sees success and I mean, the amount of joy in that moment that, get me choked up but that moment where they're able to hoist that trophy together yeah and feel that sense of accomplishment while doing something that they were passionate about and loved i'm like man that's that's pretty special so that one hits me probably um and then the celebrations that they get to ensue on instead of there's two ways we end the season right you're crying or you're crying really sad tears or crying in a way of joy. And for those kids who have been fortunate enough to, to experience that, that level of joy in their high school career is super, super special.

Yeah. Those memories are going to last forever because when we got to interview them, all they could talk about were all, they didn't talk about the game.

Yeah.

They did not talk about the championship game. They won. They talked about the whole season, the bus rides, the time together, that whole season, all of a sudden it is, So much bigger.

And again, it's that keep them connected. Yeah. Make sure that they're loved on. Tell them you love them. And we can talk X's and O's all day, but the bond in the bus, like that's what I always tell them is like, we keep this in the bus. This, the outside world is going to see the lights and see the cameras and all the crazy and a ton of excitement around you. But like you have to keep this, your sales focused on what's inside the bus. And when they do that, it's pretty cool.

Really cool. Now, normally when I ask someone what their favorite part is and they give me the whole speech, I'm like, oh, you copped out. But with you, for some reason, I just really believe it. Yeah. Yeah, for real. I mean, I've seen you when we get to interview when you're out with the kids doing a field day. And it's the same smile as you had when we interviewed the kids at lacrosse or the kids at the edge. And like you, you always have that bright. That's why I really do mean it when I said that you're a genuine human being, because you can see how much It means to you when you're with them. It's really cool. It's very inspiring. And since we already have you kind of tugged and we're getting close to the end. Dig in. Dig in. I think it's time for some personal questions.

Yeah.

All right. All right. Here we go. What's your favorite part of seeing kids grow up through these programs? Favorite part of it?

I would always say... Not being able to count the smiles that they experience. Yeah, smiles. Measure the day with the number of smiles that you can look back on.

See, if you could give one piece of advice to young people in the county, what would it be?

Pretend I'm young. One piece of advice. Beth, I am a... There's a lot that goes on in here in the way of positive and messaging and all the things. One piece of advice.

You can give two.

Oh, no.

I'm going to whittle this one down to never underestimate your own ability to make someone's day.

That's a good one.

And if you do it for someone else, you're probably going to have a pretty good day at the end.

That's really good.

All right. You have a lot of sports coming in and out. You have two kids. Yeah. Favorite sports for the kids. For the kids.

My kids are very, so I've been very strategic with this. Okay. You would think that I'd say, oh, I put a lacrosse stick in their hand probably.

How old are they? Because they'll run away from it.

If you do it too early, they'll run away. Two and four. Yeah. We have animals at home and they have this early budding interest of just doing farm-like chores.

Okay.

So the sports side of things for me with them... is going to be them yanking me by the shirt tail. But what I will say is both Mabel at two and Maverick at four certainly gravitate to the lacrosse sticks in the bin. And, you know, Maverick's four now, so, like, we just went... down the state championship run. And he was able to see prior trophies and all that stuff. So he knows when daddy's with his team and all that stuff. So now he's more apt to come in the locker room and Mabel's in tow. So I think it's guilty by association at this point, because is that like after the games, they're not just embracing me, but then they're looking for a stick to borrow from somebody to go like tool around with the ball. So I can see them kind of drifting in that way. But Maverick likes to swing a ball or swing a bat. Sounds like Beth playing baseball.

I was going to kick the ball in baseball.

I grew up as a baseball kid, so I appreciate the sports. Everything brings discipline in some regards. They'll be dragging me in one direction or another, but I do see the early signs of... Lacrosse. We may have... They have helmet. They have all this stuff that... It's just there.

Are you going to coach long enough that possibly you could coach Maverick in high school?

Your word possibly is the caveat. Yeah. I see no end in sight. And it's funny that I bring that to light because this is so weird.

I'll tell you it can be tough because I know my dad was the golf coach. And I do believe when my brother got to high school that he stepped down.

Yeah. We'll see.

He said that was tough. He thought it was going to be really awesome. So I'm just warning you ahead of time that it could be.

We'll bring you back.

We'll bring you back and see.

I will say.

Because you remind me a lot of him, like with the kids and the connection and all of that.

Well, I knew your dad.

And it was tough. And he did not want to be my brother's coach after a semester. He was like, no.

We'll see. I mean, I have no, it fuels my passion and it checks boxes for me that I just wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

Yeah.

I think there's so many reasons to say yes, I'll be doing it. And there was somehow a rumor surfaced this year that I was done after this year inside the team or something.

Oh, geez.

So this is funny. My wife... God bless her. I'm brushing my teeth one night and it's like towards the end of the season and she's in the bathroom next to me and she gives me this, babe. I'm like, oh no. Yes. Yes. She's like, do you have something to tell me? I'm like,

Do you have something to tell me?

No, no. Like cut to the chase. What are you? What? Yeah. Toothbrush. What are you, what are you, what are you coming at me with? Like, this is strange. Is this your last year? I'm like, huh? Like you wouldn't know. Like, of course not. Like, where's that coming from? Oh, well, somebody said this or that. I'm like, so then the next Saturday, it's like a Friday night or something. Saturday morning practice comes about and I'm like, all right, so whoever's got the rumor kicked around, let's put this one to bed. So I bring them all in the midfield right at the center of the field, and I'm like, my feet are firmly planted right here for you guys.

You don't have to think about whether I'm out of here.

you know and as cryptic as this was i was like the grave will take me away from you guys at this point so uh you're committed poured into them and just made sure that they realized that i have no intent of stepping away anytime soon well that's awesome because that's just the person you are i've seen you pour yourself into a lot for this community a lot for the children a lot for the parents you've done a great job man takes competitive endurance i think that's what it is it's like You know, it's easy to just do it, but to do it well and to feel like I'm giving them what they deserve because they are talented. You know, the team itself is unfortunate to have really good kids and families that support the program. So I feel the inner desire is true. Like I deserve this.

they deserve the best of me so that they get the best chance at doing exactly what we just talked about and that was holding that trophy and feeling the extreme joy so yeah i'm all in on that well it was great to sit down with you i can't wait to bring you back i know we have tons more that we could have talked about sure and next year when you're chasing that state title again we'll bring you in sure talk about what's like in the middle of the rush all right But if you want to learn more, I can't stress enough, please go online. Your website one more time for everyone?

Theedge360.net. There you go.

And if you want to see videos of the amazing programs you've done, we've got to visit you as QAC TV. So you can go to our YouTube. You can see their field days. You can see the academy. You can see the edge facilities. You can see all the interviews we've done for the past 10 years together since I've been here. You've kind of been in the area. and always check them out on Facebook and I know you guys are on social media you guys are always posting you're in the community all the time you're a wonderful wonderful gift to this community man I can't say that enough yeah thank you yeah and Beth thank you as always for putting together this episode she does all the questions and she was hunting you down to bring you in today she's an amazing producer and thank you to Chris who's in the booth who's doing all of our cutting and our live switching today and we can't wait to see you next time but for right now I consider this agenda closed

Lights on, mic check. What's happening with QAC next? Go behind the scenes with Bruce and Beth. The conversation shaping the county's future.

This is the Open Agenda.