Breaking Barriers: The Heart of Trailer Park Sports Network

You.

This is Sharpening your Edge with Chuck and Eric.

On today's episode, we have Will Stevens.

He's the creator and driving force behind the Trailer Park Sports Network, which is a rapidly growing platform known for its unfiltered passion, blue collar humor, and genuine, genuine love for the game.

Welcome to another episode of Sharpening youg Edge, presented by CB3 Hockey Development.

I'm Chuck Fertolino along with my co host, Eric Melanson.

And today we are pleased to welcome the creator and driving force behind Trailer Park Sports Network, or tpsn, the social media platform, Will Stevens.

Will.

Welcome to the podcast.

What's good, guys?

I appreciate you for having me.

Well, my man, it's.

I'm glad.

Glad to get you on the show.

I know Chuck and I are excited.

We got a lot to unpack.

First and foremost, though, I know a while back you shared a story or a post on there.

I wanted to check in.

How's your mom doing?

Oh, dude, she's.

She's almost walking again.

She's got the cane and she's moving around a little bit.

She's.

My mom's.

My mom's Irish, so she's stubborn.

Very, very stubborn.

So she's kind of just pissed right now because she's like, I feel like I should be recovered more.

And I'm like, mom, it has been three weeks, four weeks now since she had a full knee replacement.

So it's like, come on, come on, you're doing a lot better than you think you are.

Like, she was up walking with the cat with the walker.

Like, the.

Whenever I went to go see her, it was a day after she had surgery, and I'm like, all right, you know?

Yep.

Well, that's awesome, man.

I'm glad to hear it.

Glad to hear it.

Appreciate you for checking in on her.

Yeah, of course, man.

So we'll jump into it, man.

So you literally describe your Instagram handle as, you know, Trailer Park Sports Network.

Something that started between a cornfield and a cotton field in northern Alabama.

Yep.

That, you know, doesn't scream hockey hotbed.

So, like, how does being in a non traditional hockey market kind of, you know, how did that shape the way you discovered the sport?

You know, it's kind of interesting because especially, like, whenever you try and talk about hockey down here, nobody cares.

Like, I'll try and talk to my friends about it.

They're like, yeah, that's cool, but I'd rather talk about football.

You know, it's very interesting because it kind of just like popped into My face.

You know, the Four nations commercials just were on espn and I was like, you know what we got best on Best nation versus nation.

Canada and America already have beef right now.

Let's see if it bleeds into the hockey thing.

And it was really PK too, because, like, I saw a PK and I'm a big.

I'm a big fan of like, seeing folks that look.

You know what I mean?

That look like, oh, yeah, in the sport.

And then like, he was talking about it.

So I was like, let me give it a chance.

Let me see.

And now here we are.

Which is like, it kind of sucks to be in a non traditional hockey market to an extent, because it's like, I want to grow the game.

I'm doing anything in my power to grow it, but there's just such little access to it.

It's really, really, really hard.

Even when it comes to, like, trying to get people into, like, roller.

I mean.

Yeah, but still, it's super expensive to get a stick.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, like yourself, there's other Southern hockey fans out there.

What kind of.

What do you see that kind of makes you guys unique from the rest of the hockey fans that maybe, you know, the rest of the world's not seeing it, maybe we're not ready for yet, that you're trying to slowly introduce us to?

You know, what's your.

What do you guys.

What's your claim to fame?

I guess that's a good one.

I think there's a lot of Southern hockey fans that they bring their.

The way that they care about college football, the way that they care about, like, that.

I feel like they bring a little bit of that passion into hockey, which is why I think that's why Nashville fans the way that they are, you know, you got Tennessee football, you've got like Middle Tennessee State up there too.

Vanderbilt is in Nashville.

Then, like, you know, you drive a little bit south, you've got Tuscaloosa, you've got Auburn, got North Alabama too.

Like, you've got all of these colleges around here.

And most of those people are fans of the Predators.

That's just what they choose.

And I feel like they bring that, which is why, you know, even when the Predators aren't that good, the bridges rocking.

Like, I went up there and watched them play against the Ducks.

And mind you, first hockey game, and it's the one where Trevor Zegras was like, yeah, man, I could have played better if it wasn't for the congas.

It kind of like just like caught us off Guard.

Yeah, that game was my first game.

That place was still rocking even though, like they were losing essentially the entire game.

And that place is loud.

You know, I feel like they just bring a. I feel like they.

I feel like they bring the same energy that like some of the Canadians bring because, like, they love it.

They love this.

Like the ones down here that watch hockey, they like.

I feel like they live.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you seem pretty passionate yourself.

Oh, dude.

As long as you continue to do that and you bring that enthusiasm to what you're doing, I think the game is going to continue to grow and that it's amazing what you're doing.

So, like, committee, I noticed you're wearing your Sharks hat.

I was watching your.

You know, I'm gonna pick my team.

One of my, you know, we don't do.

We haven't done shout outs on here, but a great friend of mine, Kyle Dion, I played with him on the warriors hockey team, huge Sharks fan, lives out in Seattle now.

Wanted me to give you, you know, a what's up?

Because he follows you too, and he loves that you're a Sharks fan.

He made his year for sure.

Hey, man, shout out to him.

Shout out and love the Sharks dog.

Such a fun team.

It's such a fun team.

Oh, I'll tell you, you know, quick story.

In high school, so I went to high school in Boston.

My high school history teacher was Alex Thornton, who's Jumbo's brother.

So this was when Joe was playing with the Bruins.

So it was, it was pretty, pretty electric to have a.

He's just as tall and just as goofy as his brother.

So he'd be running down the hallway tapping people on the shoulder and trying to run by them the other side.

You know, six foot eight, dude with the long hair flowing out the back.

Oh, man, that's awesome.

That's so cool.

Will, you mentioned the Four nations cup last February, right?

There's moments in hockey fans lives that they'll always remember.

And we heard stories of, you know, them, the marketing team growing the game and just the electricity and the Chucks helped with that as well with their fights in the US Canada game.

So that was how you say you got introduced to the game and grew the love of it.

So what about it did caught your eye and said and convinced you I'm going to be a fan of this sport?

Look, so I'm gonna start a little bit before Four nations, right?

So my friend Fizz is like, yo, dude, you like, you love lacrosse.

You know, you should really.

And you, like, watch box lacrosse.

You watch a lot of box lacrosse.

You should start watching hockey.

It's literally the same thing, just on ice.

And I was like, dude, I don't care about hockey, bro.

I'm not gonna watch this thing.

And you know, do you see the commercials and stuff?

I'm like, all right, all right, all right.

Let me see what it's talking about.

And then the first nine seconds, usa, Canada.

I'm just sitting there like, see, where is his passion in football?

Where is his passion in baseball?

Where's his passion in basketball?

Like, they care.

They truly care.

Like they.

You.

You don't get this.

You don't get this level of passion in anything else.

You really.

And not to.

Not to cut you off, Will, but that.

It was an exhibition game too.

Yeah.

It wasn't like they were even playing for a Stanley Cup.

It was just exhibition games for your country, you know?

And like, that's what really got me was like, yo, this.

They're not even really playing for anything here.

They have a full season to actually play for something.

This is kind of just a. I feel like it's bad to say it, but a made up trophy.

This is literally just like a.

Hey, we came up with this thing a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the trophy for it.

You know, you guys can win this.

And then I'm like, yo, yo.

Then I made that video addressing hockey fans was like, yo, this hockey thing.

Yeah, I'm all in.

I'm bought in.

I'm here.

I don't care who is playing the hockey.

I'm gonna be showing up watching the hockey.

And then I had to address PK because I was like, hey, pk, you were the one that I saw that said to watch this.

And you didn't lie.

You said hockey is the best professional sports product.

You didn't lie.

It is.

And it's not even close.

The fans care.

The players care.

The coaches care.

Shoot.

The refs care.

Like every.

Everybody involved what's going on cares.

Except for Gary Bettman.

Oh, quote him.

Quote him.

That's like.

That's.

That's just.

It's not nothing.

The party line for hockey right there, that's.

That was Electric Man, I couldn't agree more.

I mean we got Olympics coming up in a little bit.

USA's got some injuries, some key injuries.

You want to give us a hot take on the Olympics which, what's your prediction?

I know it's a little early.

You get a hot take.

Bedzy and Macklin are going to be there.

100%.

Mack and Bedzy will be there.

It's not going to be Mack or Bedzy.

It's going to be Mac and Bedsy.

They're.

They both have a case and they're both going to be there.

I feel like team Canada, Hockey Canada would be screwing themselves over to not bring both of them.

And I also think Schaer has a shot.

Don't think he makes it, but I think he has a shot.

Yeah, the defensive core.

Yeah, defensive course, pretty stacked.

He's got some stiff competition, but yeah, he's definitely making a case for himself.

He deserves to at least be in the consideration whether he makes it there, you know, to be seen.

But I think he at least deserves to be in that conversation.

Side note, well, I'm a big Islanders fan, I'm originally from Long island.

So he's just, if you haven't seen enough of him, he's just electric.

The way he moves, just, just the way he skates.

It looks just so effortless.

I was at a photo shoot with Warrior in Montreal in August.

So I got to sit down, I got to sit down and interview him actually.

So that'll come out at some point.

I don't know when.

They have not told me when, but I got to sit down and interview Matthew Schaefer and ask him a bunch of like casual fan questions, which was cool.

They were like, yo, ask him non traditional questions.

He probably won't get asked.

And I was alright, cool.

Because I mean I even like, I got to sit down and ask him like, what is it?

When did you know you were gonna go number one overall?

Like most interviewers aren't gonna sit down and they're not really.

How does it feel to get.

What does it feel like on draft night?

What is that like, you know, the questions you're super casuals want to know, right?

But I got to sit down and be at that photo shoot and watch Matthew Schaefer go to work.

Him and Demidov.

Him and Demidov were skating around and doing their thing.

And dog, first off, Ivan Demidov has the biggest smile on his face every time he's playing hockey.

Like it is, it is.

It's the most Pure thing ever.

He just loves the game, like he really does.

And then Matthew Schaefer, the head on the kid's shoulder is crazy because I'm sitting there talking with him about, yo, man, like, I asked him a question like, who are you excited to play against?

He's like, dude, I'm still focused on trying to make the team, dog.

I still got to make the team.

And I'm sitting here like, dude, you just went number one overall.

You mean I got to make the team.

You just went number one overall to a team that definitely needs you.

You're talking about I still got to make the team.

That's.

You don't really see that with a.

At the time, he was still 17.

With a 17 year old, you just don't see that.

And I feel like you don't really get that in many other sports other than this one, where, like, they're like, they don't talk, they don't jaw at each other in interviews.

They don't do that because I'll handle it on the ice.

Yep.

I tell you, from what I've seen from Schaefer, you know, as young as he is, I think the way he carries himself, his leadership, his poise, his.

It's incredible.

You know, just the way he's already been giving back.

I think he, you know, he's obviously gone through a lot in life with the passing of his mom, but, man, talk about a kid that is just way mature beyond his years and that's.

That's going to be great for the future of the NHL.

I mean, if those are the guys that we're looking at to.

To be the face of this game, Game's in great shape.

Bedsy Mack.

And then you've got Schaefer.

Like, dude, that's a. Yep.

And you got another one coming up this year from.

From Penn State.

So I think it's going to be awesome.

It's going to be awesome.

So Chuck and I are both coaches for a long time now.

I guess I'm retired now.

Chuck, huh?

We've seen you out there stick handling, getting your work in.

You know, I think it's going pretty well.

What has been the most challenging thing for you to grasp?

You know, being new and just kind of dive in right on your own to back skating.

That was.

I think that was the hardest thing.

Skating wise, I'll break it into two.

I'll break it into two.

Skating wise, it's been the back skating because I've already had like a little bit of a foundation when it Came to skating, like, I, I knew how to rollerblade and I knew how to ice skate when I was a kid.

I just like, once I got really deep into playing football and was like, I'm going to go play college football.

I was like, yeah, I'm not doing anything that's going to like get in the way of me playing college ball.

So rollerblades, ice skates, we're not doing that anymore.

But you know, I had a solid foundation.

The back skating just doesn't make much sense.

It's like, how do people do that?

So smooth.

Like one of my friends, he'll come out there and try and help me.

He would start moonwalking.

And I'm like, you're flexing on me, dog.

Why are you doing this to me?

Like you're moonwalking right now.

Like, this is not fair.

But.

And then when it comes to stick handling, it's.

It's been the backhand.

Like going from forehand to backhand, like I always lose it.

Like going from backhand to forehand, like that's easy peasy, that's easy.

But like going from forehand to backhand for whatever reason, I.

Maybe it's just because I feel like if I would have tried to do it, if I would have tried to be a lefty and like cheated the system because I'm right handed, I feel like it'd be a lot easier for me.

But I was like, no, I learned.

I grew up like, you know, you played in school and stuff.

And I did it left, I did it like with my left hand being my top hand.

So like, we're going to do it this way.

I'm not going to cheat the system.

And it's just been a pain.

It's been a little bit of a pain.

I think you're looking good.

I think you're looking good out there.

You're not in a very, you know, populated hockey area.

What's the rink situation like down there?

We've got one.

Well, they're actually expanding on it to where they'll have, I think it'll be four sheets of ice now.

They've got two right now.

And I think they're gonna expand so they have four.

If it's not for, it's just gonna be three.

But they're expanding right now.

They're doing the construction.

We used to have a college hockey team in this city, but they deaded the University of Alabama and Huntsville program.

Now it's just club.

They at least still have an ACHA program which is like, you know, it's still, you got hockey, you know, but it's not sanctioned, not D1 anymore, which does kind of suck.

But maybe by doing what I'm doing, we can help re spark the like the love of hockey in the city.

Because we have the Huntsville Havoc.

There's a lot of people that show up at those games.

You can tell Huntsville, Alabama enjoys their hockey.

You can.

It's just not that accessible here.

I feel like if we were to.

It's just.

If we had the time to like put in that effort to build, to like uplift it.

For me, I. I'm thinking about trying to start a petition to try and get like a, a roller hockey rink maybe, because I think that would be a good way to grow the game down here.

Because that's been my thing was I understand ice hockey is going to be really hard to grow in the south, but we can grow street hockey, we can grow roller hockey easy peasy.

We can do that.

We can blow that up down here and then take the people that really love that and then transition them into ice hockey instead of like trying to blow up ice hockey.

And then you spend a bunch of money doing that and then people don't really want to do it and now you just do money into a money pit.

If you do it like with this the non traditional way, there's a chance that the people that really like that, they're like, yo, well, I want to get on the ice.

All right, let's do it.

You know, me and my friend Josh were, we want to.

We were thinking about starting a nonprofit for that one day.

That's what we want to do.

We want to start a non profit to get more people into like just stick sports in general, like lacrosse, hockey, field hockey.

We want to, we want to like funnel the people that are like from the oversaturated sports like baseball and basketball and football and be like, hey, well lacrosse, there's a bunch of openings in this sport and if you get a scholarship playing this well, shoot, you're going to like Duke or North Carolina and you're getting yourself a good degree.

Same thing with the hockey world.

If you go play hockey in college, you are getting a really good degree and it's going to set you up pretty well in life, you know.

So like we, we want to like get.

We want to help people, we want to help the world.

We are.

My goal as a kid was to change the world through sports and Trailer Park Sports Network seems like my way to do it.

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So what's been the toughest thing to learn about hockey in the past six months?

Dude, man, there's a list, I'd say, you know, and I guess this one may be one you probably don't hear much, but it's the amount of awards.

It's the amount of awards and what each one is for and the amount of trophies that there are in hockey.

Like, there's a lot of trophies that get handed out throughout like the postseason, you know, I mean, and like all the awards and stuff.

It's been hard to keep track of all that.

It's been really hard to keep track of.

Like, all right, I'm trying to make a list of like, who do I think is going to win this and that?

And it's like, dude, there's like a hundred of these things, dog.

This is crazy.

And the rules, some of the rules are, I think the weirdest one.

Why does the when they're on the face off, right?

Why does the one dude have to hop out sometimes.

That still doesn't make sense to me.

I still don't understand that.

I.

Sometimes they do.

Sometimes they'll like pick the puck up and like tell the dude to get out.

Or sometimes it'll just pick the puck up and just let him go.

And I'm just, I'm like, well, when does he hop out and when does he stay?

So the two biggest reasons is if the center gets the stick in before the ref tries to drop the puck.

So that's one of them.

Like he's cheating.

And also, if you notice the circle, the wingers have to stay on the outside or on the line of the circle.

So if they creep in, they'll kick the center out and bring a winger in.

You'll get it.

It takes time.

The more you know.

And regarding the trophies too, it just shows you the sport of hockey, how, you know, you don't have to be the highest scorer to be a great hockey player.

There are roles for everybody, offensive defensemen, things like that.

So goaltenders, different types of roles.

So it's not just you go out there and you play and you score goals and if you put them all up, you're the best in the world.

You know, hockey needs those role players as well.

Goaltender interference too, because it just doesn't like.

I promise you, they just flip a coin in Toronto.

I promise you, they just flip a coin in Toronto.

When I was at the Cup Final and they let me go in the situation room that they have like on site for the Cup Final, the whole time, I was just like, hey, is the coin is in here somewhere?

Like the coin y' all use to flip for Gold center interference.

I know it's in here.

It has to be in here.

The past year or two, that's been a.

A debatable rule.

You know, sometimes there's guys.

Originally it was if you're in the crease before the puck comes in, it's, you know, the whistle blows, the face offs outside the zone or now you see guys barely touching the goalie and then the goals get overturned.

So yeah, there's no clear cut rule on that.

It seems that one in the kick, that one.

And the kick is also another one because the Sharks had a goal taken off the board against who?

Was it Minnesota or.

No, it was against Utah.

We had a goal taken off the board against Utah because they said that Will Smith kicked it in.

But the first goal that Utah scored went off of somebody skating, went in and it looked like he kicked it in.

So I'm like, well, if that's not a kick, how is this a kick?

Because Will Smith had no idea where the puck was, and he just was like.

Wally was, like, sliding towards the net.

The puck hit his skate and went in, and it was just like he was looking down, trying to find the puck, too.

How are you gonna say he kicked it in?

We had no idea where the puck was.

Yeah.

That's another close one.

I think the rule states it's got to be a, quote, distinct kicking motion.

So.

But, I mean, you can, you know, turn your foot and direct it in and.

Yeah, that's the thing is you can turn your foot, but I don't know.

I don't know.

You know, referee discretion.

I guess it's what makes the game interesting, I guess.

Right.

All these different rules and interpretations.

Yeah.

You have no idea what's gonna happen on any given night because the referees may just be like, you know what?

Yeah, you know, we just.

We're just not calling goalie.

Well, goalie interference.

Yeah.

It doesn't exist to us today.

Nah.

High sticks, kinda.

But maybe you had some.

You know, from the mention of your first game in Nashville to, you know, just telling us about sitting in the Situation Room during the Cup Final, like, you've hit some pretty high marks in such a short period of time that I'm sure many, many fans out there are jealous of.

But, like, looking back on all of these things, like, what to you is the most, like, memorable, important, you know, the one thing that you were like, wow, you know, this is cool.

I was PK Suban.

It was when PK followed me and put my post on his story, because that is what started all of this.

Like, truly what started all of it.

Like, that video was blowing up, for sure.

It would not have hit the heights that it did.

And I wouldn't be where I am without the PK Suban cosign, because that in itself is confirmation bias to a lot of hockey fans.

Like, pk.

PK likes this guy.

All right, cool.

I don't need to know anything else.

I don't need.

I. PK follows him.

All right, cool.

You know, and I think that's why some of the brands have been around.

I think that's why, like, you know, some of the people that have came around have came around is because.

Like, that right there, you know, I mean, like, that was just an initial.

Like, that was a boost in itself.

It's kind of similar to, like, on TikTok, whenever I got followed by USA Bobsled and Flavor Flav you know, I mean, like.

Right.

That's cool, isn't it?

Like, it's just such a random one.

Like whenever I got those, like, there was a lot of other USA athletes that just started to follow me just because it's like, oh, well, this organization follows them.

So cool.

All right.

You at Team USA likes him.

Cool.

That's all I need to know.

I guess the other, the only other thing I could say is meeting Phil.

Meeting the cup was cool.

Meeting the cup was cool.

Meeting Phil.

He's a legend, a true legend.

Yeah, he sure is.

He said, I'm sure he's had some experience.

Yeah, that guy's lived life.

So shifting off of hockey for a second, if anyone follows you, they'll see that you cover what you said was all the random stuff, quote, that no one cares about.

Right.

Like you highlight underrepresented sports athletes, talk about your coverage of those and your passion for them.

So what drives you to bring these stories to light?

I grew up a swimmer, so, you know, I know how it is to do something at.

I mean, I swam competitively till I was 14.

I wouldn't say like I was great at it, but I was swimming at a pretty high level as a kid.

So I know what it's like to do something at a high level and have nobody care, not a soul care about it because it's not something that many people care about.

So whenever I started Trailer Park Sports Network, it was in the middle of the Olympics.

It was like Olympics and then Paralympics and then like a week later I was like, alright, I'm gonna name the account something because I have 20,000 followers and this needs to be something.

And in my head I was like, well, you don't show up to the Trailer park expecting regular things.

You don't show up to Trailer Park Sports Network expecting regular sports coverage, you know, so like there, I like to bring.

I like to bring a little bit of energy to things that don't get enough energy, like bobsledding, skeleton.

I was up at 1 in the morning.

I skipped the ending of the Sharks game, went to bed early so that I could be up at 1:30 so that I could watch the skeleton event so I could go support some folks that.

Do you really think there's many people that are willing to wake up at one in the morning to go watch them?

No.

Do you think there's many people that are going to wake up even that next morning and go on IBF sliding YouTube channel and watch the replay?

Probably not.

Right?

So I'm going to do it and I'm going to post about it so that at least my platform gives them a way to be seen.

You know, there's so many athletes out there that put in insane amounts of work and just nobody cares because it's not football, it's not basketball, or it's not baseball.

When they're like, when, like on the parasite, right?

When it comes to the parasports, those are elite athletes.

Those are.

Some of those are.

I would say those are more elite athletes than NHL players.

Like, those are truly elite athletes.

You know how hard it is to run 100 meter with a, with two amputated legs and still run it very fast at a pretty high speed.

You know what I mean?

You know how hard it is to do the long jump blind, you know, I mean, like, those are elite athletes and just nobody, they don't get enough attention.

So, like, if nobody's gonna care about it, I'm gonna care about it.

I'm keep showing up.

You know, Chuck Aoki had told me he made a video and he said, you know, being in a, being a Paralympian during the Olympics is really weird because it's like you're at this party and this party is super great.

Everybody's having a great time.

But in the back of your head, you know, I have a party coming up and I hope everybody shows up to this party the same way that they showed us that one.

You know, I really hope everybody shows up to mine and have the same amount of fun.

And that like, hit my soul and it lit a fire in me because I'm like, no, we're going to show up.

We're going to bring even more energy because that party was cool.

This party has way more events and this party is, it doesn't get enough respect.

So we're going to give it some respect and that's how we're here.

I love that.

You know, I love that.

You know, you mentioned a couple of things that gave me some questions in comments here.

Blind.

You know, the blind lam.

Junk.

If you've never watched blind hockey, I encourage you.

I watched it for the first time during the Warrior Classic championship and my God, it was amazing.

I could not stop watching.

It was a lot, you know, I was getting excited.

I was jumping up and down.

I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

It's unreal.

It's unreal that they can.

The amount of things that you can do blind, actually.

Yeah, it is wild.

And then, huge fan of swimming.

My wife, you know, Shout out to her.

Huge fan of swimming.

Side note, her high school, middle school boyfriend was Michael Phelps.

So, you know, shout out to him, you know.

Yeah, I think she, you know, I think she did all right.

She leveled up, you know.

You know, hey, you know, who wants all those Olympic gold medals, you know?

You know, Michael, he put.

He obviously, he put swimming kind of back on the map at least every couple years, right.

And now, you know, you got Katie Ledecky on the female side, who I think is insane.

Talk about an athlete.

She's getting older and her times are getting faster.

It's insane what she's doing.

And she swims the distances that nobody wants to swim.

Have you gotten in?

So I played collegiate rugby.

I played Division one at Norwich University.

It is.

I'm a huge rugby fan.

I don't know if you've gotten into it yet.

I got the rugby network.

Oh, man, I would.

That is talking about a fun sport, man.

A lot of rules.

Do you like.

What do you like more, sevens or union?

Probably sevens.

You know, I was a wing, so I like the speed and the pace and the amount of ball touches you get in.

Sevens vice, I'd say.

I don't favor one over the other just because I know, to me it's like box lacrosse versus field lacrosse.

They both serve their purpose.

You know, they're both the same thing.

It's just.

They serve their purpose.

Sevens is a lot easier to digest, though.

15s.

If you don't understand rugby, then you're just, like, looking at a mess.

Yeah, you lost me at 7.

Yeah, yeah.

See, that's.

We got to grow the game.

We, you know, we got to grow the game.

Ilona Mar is doing that.

She's doing a.

She sure is.

Yeah.

Yeah, she's awesome.

She, you know, shout out.

Freshman year, she went to Dorch University, and then we lost her.

But that's okay.

Yeah.

I mean, she's doing some awesome things.

So I guess here's my question before I turn it over, Chuck, Just because you mentioned all these awesome athletes, and this might be a long question, but I'll get there.

So you have all these non traditional sports that like lacrosse, right.

And rugby, and you see a lot of those guys make the transition to football fairly easily.

Right?

They.

You don't.

You see lacrosse player make the transition to the NBA fairly, you know.

Yeah.

Electric.

Yeah, electric.

You don't see that many players being able to kind of just jump ship and walk on the rink.

But if you could.

If there was any professional athlete out there that you follow, not in the NHL that you could see on the ice and you think would be, you know, the next coming out there, who is it?

There's a lot of really elite athletes out there.

I would say I would love to see Kyrie Irving as a hockey player.

I would have loved to see Kyrie Irving as a hockey player.

And it's not just because of what he can do, like basketball wise.

It's like when you look at the way he's built and like the amount of balance that he has and especially contact balance, I feel like if you would have got him into hockey at a young age, I think he would have had the potential to be elite.

Just because he has some of those intangibles like you just, you can't teach balance that he has.

You can't.

And you can't teach the hand eye coordination that he has.

You just can't.

Those are things that you just, those are gifts.

You have it or you don't.

And I'd say Cam Scatterbow, I think he would be, dude, dude, he'd be fun to watch on the ice, dog.

He would be fun to watch on the ice, man.

He, you know, it'd be one of those very short lived careers.

Very, very short lived.

Like crash, dummy.

Probably heard all the time he has one job and that's go clap something, maybe shoot every.

So if you're wide open, bro, just like rip a clapper just because you can, dog.

Just because you can.

But I, I think those would be, I think those would be fun ones.

And then I guess just to throw it out there, Just to throw it out there.

I'd say LeBron.

Just because I think it'd be funny just because I think it'd be funny to see someone that big on the ice.

I don't think he'd be, I don't think he'd honestly be that good, but I just think it would be very fun if he would have came up in the hockey world instead of basketball.

Just because it's like, that's a freak.

That's a genuine freak human being.

And as big as he would have been on the ice, that would have just been a problem.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

When you were describing Scatterbo, it.

My mind immediately went to PJ Stock.

I was thinking Matt Rempe.

There's no regard for human life.

I have one job and let's just go hit something.

I don't really do it in the smartest way and I usually get myself hurt in the process, but I threw a body.

And it was entertaining to watch.

Yep.

And I threw hands.

Yeah.

He hasn't been back since Revo.

That's what I was talking about earlier with the different roles.

Would anyone ever think a guy like Rempe would be in the NHL?

Right.

If you watch his skating, sometimes he looks just like, you know, a baby deer out there.

But everyone fits a role.

And he's.

He was.

He's in the NHL.

So that's what.

That's one of those things that I really do like about hockey and one of those things that I've started to not like about football and basketball is that they are willing to be role players in hockey.

I know that if I'm a third liner or a fourth liner, bro, I'm not giving up goals.

I'm just trying to, like.

I'm just.

Maybe I'm trying to put one up, but I'm just trying to, like.

Especially if I'm a fourth liner, I'm just here to make sure that my first line guys get back on ice.

And I'm not giving up a goal.

We're not doing none of that.

If we get one.

If we pot one, we pot one.

That's awesome.

That's a bonus.

But we're just.

We're gonna play good defense, and we're not gonna give up a goal.

And we're gonna make sure that.

Sir.

That our first line boys can get back out there and do their thing.

You know, like, everybody's willing to do their job.

Everybody's willing to individually do their job to the best of their ability.

And they have trust that.

Yo, my two if on the center.

I know my two wingers are gonna do what they got to do.

I know that they're supposed to.

They're gonna do.

They're gonna handle their job.

You sitting there as the goalie.

I know that my defense in front of me is going to do the best of their ability to keep the puck from getting near me.

And if it does get near me, I'm gonna do my job, and I'm gonna keep the puck from hitting the back of the net.

That's what I like about the sport.

Everybody is willing to do their individual job for the bigger goal.

You don't see that as much anymore in the other sports.

Just because they're like, I want to be the star.

Everybody wants to be the star in hockey.

No cares about being the star, dog.

They just want to make the show.

Whether it's as a fourth liner or a first liner, they don't care.

I just Want to make the show.

So I was going to shift over to your content and just talk a little bit about that.

Right, the content.

When you first started, what was one of the biggest missteps you had and how did you recover from that or how did you learn from it?

I couldn't talk to the camera, right?

That was.

And that's such, like, a weird one.

I couldn't talk to the camera correctly.

Like, was talking to the camera.

I was actively talking to the camera, and somebody left a comment on one of my videos one day when I started trying different stuff.

And she was like, it feels like I'm on FaceTime with you every time I watch your videos.

I'm like, cool, we're running with that.

Well, that.

That's the best way to think about it.

I'm thinking about it like I'm talking to my friends.

So, like, whenever you see my videos and the way that I talk, I talk the same.

I'm talking the same way right now that I do in the videos.

I talk the same way with my friends that I do in the videos.

I don't change anything for the videos anymore.

I felt like I had to, like, be a certain type of way.

No, just have fun, do your thing.

And also, I'm really bad at consistency.

When I started, the consistency was really hard.

So there was a time where I gave myself a challenge and I posted every single day for 180 days straight.

Like, I, like, made a video.

I was like, yo, this is day one, blah, blah, blah, blah, Blah.

And then for 180 days, I did that.

And that's how I got the consistency that I have now was I put a challenge for myself.

Was like, yo, every single day before work, I'm making a video.

Didn't really matter what it was about.

Just gonna make a video just to put something on the Internet, just to make myself do it.

And then it just becomes a habit.

And now it's just second nature.

Making a video is just, all right, cool, make a video.

Is there a creative process behind this, or is it just whatever pops into your head?

That's what I'm throwing out there.

It depends on the video, actually.

So for the ones that you see when I do the trailer intro and I'm like, walking outside and then bringing everybody in, I'm.

I sit down and think about those, and I usually write out, like, an outline for the video.

Not necessarily, yo, I need to say this, this, and this.

It's just like, yo, we need to mention this.

I need to mention This.

I need to mention this.

I should mention this too.

Anything else after that?

Cool.

But we just need to make sure that we mention these most important things and knock all of these things off the checklist, and then from then on.

Cool.

But a lot of the videos where I'm just holding my phone, those are just on a whim.

I probably just.

I.

Probably whatever I'm talking about in the video popped in my head five seconds before the start of the video.

I used to pace the house a lot.

That's part of why, like, the.

I started making videos was I used to just pace.

I'd.

I would just talk.

I would just talk to myself and have random sports takes or random takes about anything, and I would just pace and talk to myself.

I'm like, dude, let me just make videos about it, see what happens.

And then, you know, now we're here.

We are.

I mean, we're.

I think we're in a great spot.

You.

You have got over, like, 40,000 followers now.

You've easily already grown the game a bit, and that in such a short amount of time, it's, you know, tremendous.

We talked about your, like, favorite moment or, like, you're.

Oh, my God, I've kind of made it moment was the PK follow.

But, like, have you received some, like, meaningful ones to you?

Like, you know, thank you, or like, a man, this is awesome.

I love you.

Like, it's the most meaningful.

Those.

I'm gonna be honest.

I get a new one of those, like, every week.

That reminds me, like, this is why I do it.

There's, like, I'll just scroll through my dm.

Sometimes you just get, like.

And sometimes it's like a little kid.

Sometimes it'll just be like a little kid messaging you.

Like, yo, man, like, I didn't know anything about hockey before, but I'm getting into hockey now.

Like, I watched your videos.

You made it seem really cool.

And now I'm gonna go out and play hockey, and, like, they'll even send, like, you know, they'll DM me, like, their videos from their account of, like, them going out and playing hockey.

And I'm like, this is why I do it.

This is literally why I'm doing everything that I'm doing.

And it.

It reminds me that I am growing the game, that, like, there's a.

Yes, we do get the hate in the dm.

Sometimes people send the really questionable messages that they don't.

They don't realize that I'm just like, if you have your Facebook tagged in your account, I'm just gonna send it to your boss.

If you send some racist thing to me, I'm just gonna send it to your boss, and you can deal with that later.

It's not.

Got nothing to do with me.

If you want to do something like that, I wouldn't do it from, like, a super public profile where I.

Where you have your job there.

I'm just gonna send the very hateful message that you sent to me and to send it to your work and let them deal with it.

I've already had someone tell me, like, you cost me my job.

No, I didn't.

You did.

You did that.

I didn't do that.

But, you know, it's this.

It's like, every so often.

And I run a Discord server that has over 300 people in it, and every so often, you'll have, like, people join, and they're like, wait, I can talk to.

Like, I'm just.

You're just in voice chat talking with us.

I'm like, yeah, dude.

Like, and they'll just get to talking about, like, dude, I didn't have.

Like, there's a couple of people that have told me, like, dude, I didn't have any friends before I joined the server, and you've given me, like, a group of friends that I can talk to every single day.

And I'm like, this is why I do what I do, dog.

We're here to change the world through sports.

We're here to grow a community.

Like, Trailer Park Sports Network is not just an account.

It's a real community.

Like, we.

We have converse.

Like, I made my Discord server so that I could have conversation with people, so that if I made a bad take in a video, you can tell me I made a bad take in a video, and we can have a conversation about it instead of you just hopping in my comments and saying, this video sucks, we can talk about it.

You can say, oh, well, you should have said this, this, and this.

And you know what?

I'll.

I appreciate any type of criticism that I get, especially when it's like.

Like, when it's like, actual real criticism instead of, this sucks.

You know, there's a. I got.

I have these bracelets on, right?

And a couple of my.

A couple of my followers made these bracelets for me, you know?

And, like, whenever I've gone out to, like, different events, you know, like, they're like, oh, my God, this whale.

Yo, I made this for you.

And like, those stuff.

Like, that is, like, what means stuff to me.

Like, I'll Never take these off.

And I mean like, because they mean something to me.

They'll always mean something to me because my followers took time out of their day to do something for me, man.

The world needs more people like you, man.

Like, it's just real.

Like just be a good dude.

That's like 99 of life.

Like be a good person, right?

And now let's take a quick break to hear from our partners.

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The thing that a Lot of people forget is that I had 700 followers in February 19th before I made the video addressing the hockey community.

I had 700 followers.

I know exactly what it's like to be that dude.

That reaches out like, yo man, I know you'll never see this, but.

And type a whole paragraph.

I know exactly what it's like to be that person.

It's not like I'm just some dude that's always been famous, you know, I mean, or came out, came from, like, always had a bunch of money and always doing this and that.

Like I'm a regular dude.

I live between a cornfield and a cotton field in a single wide trailer.

Like, I don't have any reason to act like I'm bigger than what I am.

I'm Will.

That's it.

I have nobody special tattooed on me because it's a reminder that like, I'm just Will.

I am just who I am.

That is it.

I will never be.

I will never be more than that.

I'll never be less than that.

Will always just be me.

I love that.

Recently, this week, right?

Celebrities hat trick your posts.

Were you surprised how fast that went from your post from your phone to national tv?

Right, right, right.

Like I'm sitting there and I get a DM on, I get a tick tock DM and I rarely ever check my TikTok DMs.

But it's like one of those rare times I did it and someone's like, dude, you were just on the freaking Utah Mammoth broadcast.

And I was like, huh?

What do you mean?

I was on the Utah Mammoth broadcast.

And I was like, answer him.

I'm like, what do you mean?

He's like, d, they used your video, that Macklin Celebrini video.

And I was like, what?

What do you mean?

You use my Macklin celebrity, they use my Macklin Celebrini video.

So I had to.

So I just like cut off the thing I was watching because I was watching the game on the Sharks, bro.

I always watch the Sharks broadcast because NBC.

NBC does that hockey thing, right, man, NBC just does the hockey thing, right?

I love that crew.

But I was watching on there, so I'm all right, whatever.

I watched the Mammoth broadcast and run it back.

Then lo and behold, there I am.

And I'm just like, you know, this is cool.

This is awesome.

Definitely wish they would have asked.

Definitely wish they would have asked so I at least would have known.

Like it's more so.

So I would have known.

And just cuz the principle, you're gonna make money off of this.

You could at least say, hey, can we use your video to make ourselves some money?

That's cool.

They reached out and they apologized for just, like, yoinking the video and, you know, not asking for it, but it's still the craziest thing in the world.

It's definitely one of, like, it's definitely a top five moment.

I can't say it's.

It's not top three because I've been to the US opc, like, headquarters and the, like, the Olympic and Paralympic facility.

So, like, that's always gonna be like, I held an Olympic torch.

Actually, like, I've held an Olympic torch.

So, like, yeah, I don't.

So, like, there's.

When it comes to, like, the I've made it moments, there's.

Wait, there's a lot of those things.

So.

Yeah.

That'S amazing.

So, like, what is.

You know, I think you mentioned the celebrity clip being one of the greatest moments in TPS and history.

Like, what's your Mount Rushmore of, like, the greatest moments in TPS and history?

The Tyler Tafoli sending me a video welcoming me as a Sharks fan is definitely on the list.

Dude, that's a hard list to make.

The US Headquarters.

I'll just put the whole trip into one thing instead of, like.

Because the holding an Olympic torch, the.

Just that entire.

Just me being with the.

The USOPC and all of that, that was super sick.

So that's number two, Stanley Cup Final.

Just that entire experience in itself, touching the Stanley cup, like, all of that.

Meeting Phil.

That's definitely number three.

And I'll say number four, I'll put the.

I'll put the Macklin Celebrini video.

I'll put that one up there.

Being on tv, that's sick.

And then honorable mention meeting Chuck Aoki just because he's one of the most decorated Paralympians, like, that we've got.

Most decorated wheelchair rugby player in U.S. u.S. Paralympic history.

Super cool guy.

And, like, I've been working with his Paralympic collective for a year, and I just met him in August.

And it was, like, random too, because I was just like, I was flying back from Montreal and he's just.

We're just so happened to be in the same airport.

That's awesome.

That's why.

I mean, small.

Small world.

Yeah, super small world.

He's like, oh, yeah.

I'm like, I'm in the Chicago airport.

He's like, you're in Chicago?

I'm like, oh, yeah.

Like, dude, I'm in This airport, too.

I'm like, what?

What a. I'm like, where are you at?

And I said, I'm in.

I'm in.

Said whatever term terminal woman.

And then I looked over and he's wheeling up to me.

I'm like, yo, what's good, dog?

Such a cool experience.

Such a cool guy, too.

So in February, you were at 700 followers.

Now you're at over 40k.

Where do you see yourself and Trail Park Sports Network in the next two to three years?

Honestly, I don't know.

I haven't really planned that far ahead.

I didn't even think I was gonna make it this far, being honest.

I definitely have to start planning stuff out a little bit more.

But I. TV maybe, you know, maybe try and call games or, you know, be more involved with the growth of the game.

Try that.

But I don't know.

I've honestly.

I'm honestly just like, surprised I'm in this position that I'm in currently.

Absolutely.

So tv, you know, talking some potential collaborations.

I don't know if you've watched the LA county, the Fire benefit hockey game, the charity one they had out there.

That was electric.

I thought Snoop's commentary was electric.

That was such a cool, cool game.

But all these famous people, you know, if you could collaborate with any athlete, you know, you know, of any sport or any famous person to kind of level up that TPS and, you know, the impact, who would it be?

The Woodalls.

Definitely the Woodalls.

They're great people.

Tara and Hunter, they're such great people.

They do so much for the sports world, and they do an insane amount for the parasports world.

It would just be awesome to, like, be with them, even just interview them or, like, work with them on something.

Like, they're doing so much and they're.

Hunter's one of the more famous Paralympians out there, and he's doing everything he can to, like, give Paralympians a level of respect that they deserve.

And it'd be awesome to work with them to just, like, TPSN is great, but, like, I would love to boost Paralympic athletes with the platform.

I think that'd just be sick.

That's awesome.

I agree.

I think that would be huge.

Huge or I guess alone.

Amar Alonamar, too, for sure.

Yeah.

Dude, she's sick.

She's so cool.

She's.

She just, like, has.

She has the most fun ever, too.

Yeah.

Her and was a Danny Amendola on Dancing with the Stars together.

Like, awesome.

Awesome people.

Awesome people.

So we Talked about a bunch.

Hockey, your content, para sports.

Is there anything that we didn't mention that you might want to get the word out about or talk about?

TPSN merch dropped.

I guess that's.

I guess that's one.

Like, the only things is like, the TPSN merch is officially live.

I'm personally, at least for this first drop, I'm going to eat the shipping cost on everything.

It's.

Is it hurting?

Yeah.

Am I not.

Am I making any profit?

Nope.

Do I care?

Not really.

I just want people to be able to rock TPS and merch if they want to rock TPS and merch, you know, so I'm gonna eat the shipping cost and bring it to the people.

There's definitely gonna be a lot more stuff coming out later.

And also there's gonna be some podcast stuff.

I will be doing interviews with our USA bobsled and skeleton team before and after the Olympic Games.

So we're gonna get some, like, how do you feel leading up to it?

How do you feel, you know, now that it's all over?

Stuff like that.

They had their races last night at the brand new track in Milan, so that's pretty sick to see.

First races that Milan, that brand new track has hosted so far.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I know.

I'll be picking up some merch, that's for sure.

So on our podcast, you know, all the episodes we've done, we kind of wrap things up with, you know, one final question.

And I know you've got a lot going on.

You're trying a lot, you're doing a lot.

What is, you know, your definition of development?

And that could be like anything.

Like, because you've obviously had to develop quite a bit rapidly too.

My definition of development, it's an interesting one.

I just like growth in general going from, like, I don't really care if you're going like, slow.

Like, you're, you know, slow roll is better than no roll, you know, like, even if you're just barely improving, if you went from, you know, 5% to 6%, that's development to me.

If, you know, like any tiny piece of, like, improvement, self improvement, you know, even if, like, you improve something else, you know, that's developing in some way, shape or form.

To me, like, just moving forward, you need to continue to move forward and grow and move up.

You know what I mean?

I don't know if that.

I don't know if that necessarily answers your question, but.

No, it does it perfectly because Chuck and I talk about it all the time and one of the greatest companies on the planet that I work for on and off O2X human performance, who, oddly enough, help Dallas Cowboys Dax Dak Prescott brings them in every year to work with quarterbacks and receivers.

It's fantastic.

You should check them out.

But we talk about getting 1% better every day.

If you haven't checked out, a video talks about Team sky and their Olympics and the Tour de France to getting 1% better every day and how they went from being like worst to winning all these Olympic medals and Tour de France.

It's a cool video.

Oh yeah, it's always about getting 1% better.

It was one of those things we preached when I was in college.

My receiver coach always said slow roll is better than no roll.

He also said slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

That was something that I feel like more kids need to realize.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

All right, well, so Eric and I have been talking a while about getting you on having a nice conversation with you.

Man.

This is awesome.

Yeah, it was so.

Well, thanks for joining us on the Sharpening your Edge.

I appreciate you.

I appreciate you guys for the opportunity.

Hope I didn't talk your head off too much.

Nah man, this was a fun conversation.

I loved it and I had this hour fly flew by.

I love it.

Oh yeah, it is.

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