[Danielle Balocca]: Hey Medford Bites listeners. Before we get into today's interview, I wanted to give a brief update about Charter Review. The scheduled meeting of the whole to discuss the Home Rule petition was cancelled and has not yet been rescheduled. This is an unfortunate delay in the process of advancing Charter Review. The Medford Charter Review Coalition, a group seeking to get the ball rolling on a review, is meeting on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm. The Zoom link is in the show notes for those who would like to attend. Today's interview is a crossover with another local podcaster. I hope you enjoy. All right, thank you so much for meeting with me tonight. If you don't mind introducing yourself, just say your name, pronouns, and a bit about yourself.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, I mean, I'm Anthony Petrellis. I'm the host of Beyond Podcast. And thank you for having me. You reached out to me about coming on here. I'm from Medford. I grew up in Medford pretty much my entire life. So to be able to come on here and be a part of something from the city is kind of cool. So yeah, I'm really excited.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and could you share your pronouns a little bit?
[Anthony Petrelis]: He.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, awesome. Thanks. Yeah, and you also are a teacher in Medford?
[Anthony Petrelis]: I am a fifth grade teacher at the McGlynn elementary school. Yeah. So I've been, I've been at it for, this will be my 15th year coming up. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: So fifth grade.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Cool. So the question that I just, it's kind of like a common thread through every episode is just to ask what your favorite place to eat in Medford is and what you like to eat there.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, I mean that's a tough one. Um, you know, I hope I could give two answers here and I'll explain why but I mean I grew up in Mefford I grew up in South Mefford and a big spot that we used to go was Tony by George and that was a huge sub shop in the South Mefford area. I think it's like a pizza place now from what I've seen just driving by it but I used to get a cheeseburger twist there, which was like a wrap with cheeseburger, lettuce, tomato, french fries. And I mean, it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but it was very good. And so that would be my all time. But right now, currently, I would say, you know, I like going to Razzos and the Chicken Palm. I think that that's a really good size plate and a really fair price. So I would say that that's kind of my my go to place to grab a bite to eat.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, great. Thanks. I appreciate the thoughtfulness there. I know it can be sometimes the hardest question that people answer on the podcast.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[Danielle Balocca]: Awesome. So I was hoping we talk a little bit about your podcast. So if you could talk about how you got into it, how you decided to start it and what it's been like for you.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, so, um, during the pandemic and I'm sure everybody starts rethinking everything and like their lives a little bit and, you know, I was on top being a teacher I was also a high school football coach for pretty much like parallel to my teaching career so I felt like both really helped me get better at the other as far as like communication organization like all of that and so when I had babies and had twins I was a head football coach at Arlington Catholic High School and it was hard balancing it all like it really was because you know being a teacher and being a coach a coach is. really kind of like a full time gig in a lot of ways and how you run your program and it is year round in a lot of ways, even though it might not be on the field, there's so much that you do off the field too so once I had my own children I just realized that it was just too difficult to balance at all you know I kind of stepped away from doing that and in that process of being home and really thinking. Social media was like a huge part of like me recruiting and help getting kids to come maybe want to play football at our program, you know, because we were a school that attracted from a lot of different cities and towns. And I try getting people to come in and do like little documentaries and things like that, because I felt like that's a way of showing your program off. And I just found that there was really nothing out there like that. And it was hard to find somebody to come in and do that because it's a lot of work or cameras or whatever it is. And not a lot of people have that experience of doing it. Um, you know, I decided that I wanted to kind of venture into starting a podcast of interviewing coaches, um, of all sports, you know, boy, girl, whatever, you know, like, and, um, and I found that coaches were really eager, especially during the pandemic to want to talk about their programs and to keep themselves relevant. And maybe for those private schools or Catholic schools, like they're trying to recruit in and they don't have a season or anything to show for it. So, um, we got a really good, like. Like, people wanted to be on it and I was only on Twitter and YouTube for the first like five months and that was it. And then I realized how important Instagram was and then I realized how important like Spotify and Apple and all that and really getting it out there so I feel like last January was when I say I really started realizing the potential of it. And then we took advantage of like fall sports are coming back so let's, you know, go off high school football games and just catch the atmosphere and, you know, talk to the players and the cheerleaders and the athletic directors and the student section and. rate their concession stand like we had fun with it and what we found like every week somebody was like kind of reaching out to us being like hey, you know, would you come and do that here like we have a great home crowd and you know and so before you know it became a thing that high schools were interested in us coming in, you know, and that turned into this winter in which we've been just covering all everything. We covered gymnastics, basketball, hockey, swimming, like, you know, and it's just been, it's been fun and there's like a demand for it. So, um, we've really grown in the last year. It's a lot of work. It's, it's a lot of work on the side and this is not my full-time gig. So, um, balance and structure, I think again, talking about like, coaching and all of that and teaching, like I've learned that in my life. I've learned how to kind of do that. So it's been a little bit easy to transition into that, but it's a lot of work, you know?
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Wow. And it's, I think it's an interesting overlap, right? Like, like being with kids in school and also being around kids as a coach. And I guess I wonder like the focus on, on athletics, sort of what you kind of see as the importance of that for young kids.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, I think, I think, you know, athletics is a lot of work like you know when I was in school like it was always a joke of like athletes like oh they don't they're not like hold it in the classroom or whatever like there was always that little thing and I think that that's so false because. on top of balancing an academic schedule you're also acting you're balancing a full-time you know being on a team and being committed and and that includes your off season of getting into shape or maybe playing another sport and kind of really being on the go a lot and I feel like for myself that was always like the balance and structure in my life and helped me kind of always be able to handle a lot because you always were handling a lot, whether you realize it or not, like you were having fun doing that. And so once I've been in the coaching world and to see like what some of these kids do, and some kids that I coached on the academy, some of these kids have gone on to like Harvard and Yale, like very smart, smart individuals that you're coaching. And it was easy to coach them because you could give them a lot, you know? And so I just feel like being able to show that off that happens everywhere and it happens in all different sports and I just think it's great to highlight student athletes to see what they put into I mean we interview players pre game post game. And we really try to like. ask them questions that really make them shine because I think that that's important at the end of the day that people understand who they are as a person, not necessarily just like having one judgment on them you have a slew of things to be able to say wow, they're pretty good player they're pretty well spoken they're really nice person in school like it helps build them up to I think a little bit.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, totally. I think about like sports and like citizenship, that sort of connection of like, it reminds me of like, growing up, there was a show, I don't know if it's still on channel five, but it was called like high five where they would highlight either like one athlete or a team. I always wanted to like one of my teams to get on that show. But it was like about that right that balance of like yes like you're a good athlete and like you like are doing good things and you're contributing to your community. My dad was he was actually coaching the Middlesex League for like 30 years of like all the running sports. But he talks a lot about how that discipline, like the discipline about like around sports, you can see as runners, like they like they applied that to their academics and just their lives in general. And that and for me personally, like to that, that structure of playing sports through high school and college, like it's like you have that team. And I think that if you play a team sport or individual sport and that sort of like discipline and ability to work with other people and like, you know, sort of practice leadership in different ways really translates well to. Yeah.
[Anthony Petrelis]: And I think yeah like the number one thing is always like, you know, time management and I think that that's such a skill that's needed because I know people personally who are not very time manager like they're not very good at it and. As I get older, especially when I have kids, that's even more important to be able to understand balance. As much as I love doing this podcast, I love being dad too. And so I always make sure that I'm very balanced with that. I don't try to have this take away a lot from that. This is more done at night. My house is asleep. My wife's in bed. This is when now I get to really kind of work on this. time management for me is everything. So being able to show those qualities off and how important they are, I think is good for anybody, you know.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. And, and I guess I wonder kind of what you hope in terms of like an impact of your podcast. So like kids seeing this coaches like community members, like, what do you, what do you want folks to take away from you?
[Anthony Petrelis]: I mean, for me personally, I would really want to make a dent in being a person who is able to cover a program and all the good that it has. I think no matter what type of media it is, you hear it's there's always a negative twist to something. And that happens a lot. And I think that what we're doing here and highlighting coaches and highlighting athletes and schools and athletic directors and districts, like that's important. And I think that that's the message that I want to get out there is that everybody's kind of up against it. And since the pandemic, everybody even more so. So it is nice to shine light and shine positivity on student athletes and what their schools and districts and coaches do for them. I think that that's just, it's awesome and fun that I get to do it. I got to coach and that's what I did for a lot of my life is play sports and coach sports and build relationships. And that's what this is kind of all about. It's really putting what I feel like I do best all together.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that's awesome. And I appreciate the range of what you do cover in terms of sports. Like I think, you know, a lot of, like, I think that like a lot of media gives attention to like football and basketball. And like, you know, I appreciate the sort of inclusivity around like both boys and girls sports, the maybe less covered sports like gymnastics and swimming and things like that maybe didn't always feel so glamorous, but they're getting there.
[Anthony Petrelis]: And I think that that's what's so unique you know we did a gymnastics event, and that was literally my favorite I think was my favorite one I covered, because I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't really know what I was looking for. But I felt like I could just feel it when I was there and be like, Okay, I know I want to put a camera here. This is perfect to cover this angle like. And my wife came with me and and we had like a blast like she was helping me out and taking great video and she was, you know, she was a gymnast or she like understood like we can't stand here we got to be quiet like okay like you know so it was it was fun going in covering something that you really didn't know what you were going into until you did. I had a blast. I told the coach, I was like, this was like one of my favorite events because it was it was like a lot of athleticism. The kids were great. It was fun. It was a lot of fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's awesome. Are there any sports that you're that you haven't covered that you're sort of excited to or anticipate you might start covering?
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah you know in the spring like we have a lot going on so like we cover sports but we also have like a little bit of a range like we do do stuff with food and food establishments like a place to go after a game to grab a great bite to eat or drink and that's like one of our big things we did in the summer was called our beyond main course and you know we highlighted a few places and you know we're looking to kind of do a little something like that but we also want to start meeting with some of our guests a little bit live. And we thought what better way to do that a little bit is even if you brought on like a typical podcast episode for me is between like the 40 and 50 minute range, but we've done a couple live ones that we've done like 20, 25 minutes and like analytically it's been like very good. So I think, you know, that's kind of like, we do dabble in a lot of different things, but you know, as far as like the sports go, like, anything like I've never covered lacrosse has ever cut baseball like softball something I, I think would be a lot of fun like I think you could really do a lot with softball. I've watched girls softball and the energy is just awesome. And I think we would have a lot of fun covering covering that like the bench, everything, it'd be a lot of fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: Lacrosse is my sport.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, and I think lacrosse would be lacrosse to me is like the biggest challenge because I think in order to keep up with the game of lacrosse, you're going to have to be running in like you're kind of going to be going back and forth with the camera and catching things and I think that lacrosse is going to be a lot tougher than like I'm excited to cover it but I'm also really nervous to cover it because least gymnastics you're confined to an area and I can see the event that's going on like lacrosse. Everyone's running the balls moving it thrown it down feel like yeah it's gonna be a lot, that's going to be fun, but it'll be fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's cool.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Awesome. Are there any other things that you're working on that you want to mention or anything that I haven't asked about this.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Um, you know right now we have a couple fun things that are brewing you know we we have a fun episode coming out soon so so we are doing, I have another person who works with me on this he does a lot of my editing his name is john john sensor bar and he's he's awesome he's. so talented like he's kind of jumped on board once it really started taking off and my editing skills were very limited and and he kind of came on board and really like changed what we were able to get across and how we were able to get it across and I feel like you know we've been dabbling in a few different things as far as just like having fun because Sports is like you enjoy it like myself, but not not everyone does so we want to make sure that we have listeners and have range of listeners, because we cover different things so doing things like that with the food or, you know, we've like covered like like when we cover them polls and method during the the election like we went around and interview people holding signs and we had a lot of fun like a lot of laughs we met a lot of cool people and so. those have been some of our biggest views and that's how we've gained a lot of followers because people are seeing that we have a little bit of range and that we're not just kind of one little thing. Those sports is like the big chunk of it. Like we do dabble and have fun and you know, we've been on, we, we've been like wanting to collaborate with a few people. So we have a few collaborations that are coming up that crossover episodes are being on somebody's podcast like yourself and, Um, you know, being able to really get our message out there year two of kind of who we are and getting more exposure. So, um, that's kind of what we have brewing as far as big picture stuff. But again, we have a lot of sports teams that we're going to be working with in the summer for workouts. And, um, you know, we, we really want to be fun. We really want to be fun and be unique and different and, um, I feel like that's kind of the direction we're going and I don't know what it is or what the end point is but I just feel like every time we turn down one road, we find a couple more roads to travel like oh this is interesting like let's try this out so it's been fun kind of inventing yourselves a little bit along the way to.
[Danielle Balocca]: That sounds really fun. Is it, has there been any road that you've gone down that you've been like, well, maybe not anything that's been like challenging or.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Um, you know, I think the challenging thing is, is that when people are interested to do things with you, you just can't do everything, you know? And I feel like sometimes the biggest challenge is, is saying no to people, uh, because you look at it as one way to really help yourself out and get yourself out there more. but it also comes at a price. It comes with time and it comes with maybe editing and it comes with, um, you know, having to rearrange a schedule. So it's like, sometimes like that's, I find this really hard because you're so eager and passionate about, like, I'm sure you are that like, if you had the opportunity to step on the gas pedal and try to go, like you're going to whatever you can. So saying no, sometimes is really the hardest thing I find with this podcast.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, sounds like to like especially we're kind of trying to define what it is that like you know the things that you do want to focus on probably involves saying notice something.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. like I teach in Medford, so, you know, I also find it like a responsibility of mine to put a product out there that is very family and kid friendly, that really highlights, you know, these kids are teenagers when they're in high school, but I teach a grade of 10 and 11 year old kids. So they were there at one point. And so, These kids are 17, 18 years old, but six or seven years ago, they would have been a student in my class. So, you know, I also feel a responsibility that when I do this, like it's clean fun, it's enjoyable fun, it's family fun. And I know that kids eventually gonna have social media and I covered some teams in Medford that had students in my class that were on the team. And so it's cool to see them in that light. And I know they're watching it. So I have a responsibility to also make sure that I'm doing it very tastefully and that it's also entertaining and that can be hard to balance too. So yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: So do your students listen to the podcast?
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, you know, because we're on YouTube and YouTube's hugely good 10 and 11 year olds. I said this to somebody before that, like every year, you know, when you ask kids, like, what do you, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you, you know, what do you think you want to be? And every year you, and I've said this to somebody else before, but YouTuber is like, it's, it's growing, like it's growing as like a profession that kids want to be. And I, I guess I just didn't understand that world until I started doing this podcast and, You know I have like, I think like 173 or four subscribers like that's not a lot right like compared to some people like 10,000 you know a million or whatever. And these kids think I'm God that like I have 173 and I'm like, Oh my god, how am I going to get this up and these kids like you like how many do you have like seven I'm like, Oh, okay, you know, like, you know, it's funny that stuff's funny and and so they definitely listen to it and, you know, I've had parents like even reach out and Because we have a t shirts or whatever you know and so we had like a fundraiser that we did we had a one year celebration, and we raise money for the foodie foundation I have my twins are both diagnosed with autism and so that that foundation means a lot to us and the research that we've done on it and so, and we felt, you know, means Doug Flutie like he's like legend around here you know so and so we now work with them we were able to put like a communication board at the Wildwood school which is in Wilmington where we where we reside now and our kids attend that school and we use a lot of communication boards at home and you know that was how we've really like helped with the communication because during the pandemic it's like you're doing the like early intervention, you're doing all that stuff, but it's on zoom. And it's just like, it's hard to keep like your one and a half year old, two year old, like in front of the computer. So you really had to learn what they were doing and, and do it yourself, you know, and be like, okay, this is what we have to do with them, you know? And so, um, but so, you know, I really think that there's just a lot of positivity that you can put out there in a time that's, Not everything's positive so that's where I try to be different and and you know for some people that it's enjoyable and some people, it's not and that's okay and so, you know, I try to put a product out there that best represents me and what I want to represent so.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, it sounds like putting positivity out there and also like sort of having access to that positivity for yourself during this like pretty difficult time for all of us.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, and I think like if my kids are growing up, eventually, if I'm still doing this, and I'm actually end up being pretty good at it, like, yeah, I wouldn't want them to watch dad stuff that's like, not tasteful or not appropriate or not like respectful. So it's So, you know, I keep that in mind, and anything that I do but you know right now it's my students like it's cool that they watch it but I also, you know, I understand that comes with the responsibility and, you know, it's fine.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's cool. And I imagine someday some of their fifth graders will be on some of these high school teams that you're covering too.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah. And they have been like the basketball team. There was three kids, you know, and I have like the video saved it. I'm like, this is something I want to hang on to. Cause if I see these kids five years down the road, I'll be like, Hey, remember when I covered you guys and I have this cool clip. They'd be like, Oh my God, you have this clip of me when I was 18 in high school, you know, like they love, they eat that stuff up. So it's just, uh, Yeah, it's fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: Wow, that's really cool. Do you have any advice for for some of these like student athletes say anything that you would like want them to know?
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, I just think being a coach for for a really long time and in recently not like in the past way a long time ago. I just feel like if you really want to be something like as far as you like your goal is to play college football your goal is to be a college basketball player or your goals to play at that next level, no matter what it is division one division two division three. it's about putting in the work like everybody can say that's what they want to do and that's what everybody can try to do but you play at that next level it's tough and I just think that you know it's important to realize that and that there are important things in life like having your family and your friends and balancing your academics so you know if you're committed to wanting to do that it's not just balancing that it's balancing everything else because schools there's a lot of talented kids out there but schools are looking for the kids that are well balanced and well rounded and are humble and you know so when you kind of look to achieve your goals and what it is that you want to do and play at that next level it's not just about the on the field stuff it's really important about the off the field stuff too that would that would be my advice yeah that's great that's good advice that yeah to have that balance yeah yeah Yeah. So yeah, it's, it's, it's fun to cover that. And it's fun to put that message out there, you know, of, of being able to show that off. Like I've had a couple of coaches on there that have gone for interviews that I've been able to like send clips to them. So they have like, to be able to send to the athletic directors to be like, Hey, I was on this podcast and I was asked certain things about my program or what I would do if I had a head coaching job. here and I just feel like that's a cool leg up for coaches to be able to use that. So you know it in some cases it worked in some cases it didn't but to be able to also kind of provide that was like when they asked me I'm like yeah like and I'm like re-watching the episode being like I'm gonna send you like three or four of them and you can pick the best one you like you know because people did that for me way back when and not necessarily the video way but they vouch for you or they spoke for you or they write you a letter of recommendation like this is a virtual letter of recommendation that I can really kind of give them and I think it's like a professional development like there's other coaches listening to this and they're like oh wow I'm going to try that with my program or Like, it's just, there's so many ways you can go with it. And I think that that's why I'm having so much fun because I haven't, I'm not stuck. Like, it's just always something like, oh, we can, let's go down this road a little bit, you know? So it's fun. It is fun.
[Danielle Balocca]: I imagine that's helpful for the students too, to have like, if there's like videos or clips of them playing their sports for them to be able to use for recruiting purposes and things like that.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Oh, absolutely. You know, we've been able to do that. It's funny. You know what, and I'm not like this like oh I played sports, 25 years ago but you know but like when I like when I lost a game I was, you know, really bummed out about it, and not like caring about anything and maybe that's just like a young teen boy attitude or whatever you want to say when it came to sports back then but I feel like I cover games and teams will lose like a really close game and 20 minutes later it's like messaging me on Instagram like hey I saw that you were right there my three pointer do you have video that to send to me and I'm like wait that's what you're thinking. I would not be thinking about that, you know. And so I have found that, yeah, I've been able to do that, you know, put some clips together, uh, specifically in Medford for the football team, because we did cover them a few different times and, you know, they had a pretty good wide receiver who I, who I, he's playing, I think in like division two, but he's very good. And, um, you know, we kept the camera on him a little bit because I felt like every time they needed something, they kind of go to him and he You do it, you know, so it was fun being able to help out with things like that. But I also think like a fun part of it was covering like the student section of games like going in like kids are going crazy and you're just like talking to them and, you know, we covered one town in particular and Stoneham. And the student section loved us, loved us, you know, and we had gone back to a second game because they were playing like in a championship game, which just happened to be coincidence that we covered another team that they were playing. So we're like, well, let's go back and cover them both because we've already covered them one each. And now they're playing for like a league title. Like this is cool. Middlesex. So it was like Wilmington and Stoneham, like Middlesex league team. So that was kind of the game. And so And, and so the students section like the second time we went back there they were like loving it like trying to call us over there and then I cover the stonem hockey team this season the kid who was like the biggest cheer in the section was like captain of the hockey team so it was like kind of funny to then cover him. As like an athlete and like a really good leader and a really good captain and then to see him like leading like the student section in crowd chance and everything else like, so it is fun that you are covering a lot of different perspectives of it because I think that stuff is funny I think high school kids are really funny I think that. We live in a world that everything is media, everything's online, everything's on the computer, everything's on your phone. And in this type of business, like I follow a certain sports website that's like high school sports and their best clips are from your phone. Like someone catching something on the sideline or somebody like just locker room coming out of the locker room and people are singing or dancing or whatever it is. And that's like the best, that's my favorite stuff on there. And I just feel like I'm in a business that Like you can catch a lot of that with your phone and kids want to see it and. And so yeah so we know that we have these different avenues of high school sports with coaches and athletes and teams and programs that we can just go down and. We're taking our time doing it. We're not rushing it, but we know we have something that we can potentially just keep growing like a snowball down a hill. And so we'll see, hopefully this just keeps going.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. It's funny. You mentioned like social media. I feel like I like, I'm like crazy about women's soccer, like the women's national team. I like fall like, and I, and I like find from following them on social media, I know like so much about them and their lives and like, their sport, but I makes me think about like my parent, my dad, like he can tell you like anything about football from like, and hockey from like whenever, but how, but he, what did he get that from reading the newspaper? Like, I don't know. It's interesting to like, see how like, you know, that information, like the way that we source that information has changed. I don't know. It's funny.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Absolutely. And it's, it's just a whole, like, I never personally had social media until I did this podcast. Like I never had it, you know, I just felt like. I don't need to be connected into the world. I work, I do my job, I'm a good person. And people have opinions and I try to always stay clear of that. And so with this, it's been a little harder because I need that platform to get what I need to get out there. But I've got such an education in Instagram over the last year of so many moments of like, wait, you can do that? So many times, I'm like, wait, you can do that? And even last week, I figured out, when people put their stories, that my writing's always the same size. And I'm like, how do people shrink their writing? And I finally saw the thing onto the side, and I accidentally hit it, and I saw the writing get smaller. I go, wait, that's how you do it? And then my first post last night was shrinking the writing and fitting so much more in there. I'm like, this is unbelievable. So I'm still very basic at it. But I'm learning how to look at my analytics and views and all that stuff and mathematically understand that, being like, okay, I understand this is what a first 24 hours looks like of a trailer I put out, or this is how many views we have in this many hours, this is how long someone's actually watching it or listening to it. It that stuff's fun like that's that's I'm learning a lot from that and I feel like the more I'm learning from that, like the better I'm kind of doing as far as. the outside stuff of like, okay, now I need to do this. Got it. You need to do this. Got it. Like it's helping me figure it out a little bit more.
[Danielle Balocca]: You're coaching mind there.
[Anthony Petrelis]: I think it is. I think it's that like X's and O's mind, you know, but it's like the only thing I know, you know, so it's kind of weird in that sense too. Cause when I was a coach, I loved watching film. Like if you looked at my time watching film versus every other coach on the way, like on the site, It was like, it wasn't even close, you know, and because it was just, yeah, I'm just kind of mathematically analytically like very connected to that stuff I think that numbers don't lie with things and so, you know, seeing those numbers and then figuring out how to fix those numbers to completely different things but at least you have a direction that you're going right so that's how I look at this, you know.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, well, and I think your story, you know, how you're describing sort of your trajectory here is like, I think it's helpful for other people to hear where like, you know, because I think, you know, so many kids when they play sports, they're like, I want to be professional, you know, they have these goals, right? And being able to think about how you can apply all these different sort of like ways of thinking and ways of organizing and like that discipline to anything you want, right? And you've listed like so many creative things and so many ways of connecting with other people and like, you know, providing valuable resource that sounds like came out of that way of being and thinking. So it's cool.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah. And I think that that's, that's what's fun, right? Like, I feel like every little phase of every so often in my life, like I'm doing something different, or I'm following something different, or I'm passionate about something different. But I feel like like high school sports and the coaching world, the athletic world, that's always kind of been consistent with me. And it's always been my balance of like schedule and like, maybe that's just how my life's been. I've always had school and then sports and then school and then sports. And like, I just learned to understand how to balance my academics with that. And then eventually like balance my life around it. And so I think when you get into like the real world of job and rent and, responsibility and discipline. You've been doing it for so long that it doesn't really click to you until you're just handling things that maybe some kids your age have a lot of a hard time handling. And I felt like sports has always kind of had been my way of understanding what I needed to do versus what I wanted to do. And that's important.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, definitely. That's awesome. Yeah, well, before we wrap up, is there anything else you want to make sure you mention?
[Anthony Petrelis]: No. Yeah. I just want to say thank you for having me on. I'm really excited. I know having a podcast and how much work goes into it and scheduling. And so I know everybody has busy lives and schedules. So I appreciate you kind of working with me and doing it a little bit later because I got to wait till bedtime. So, yeah, so I, I appreciate your flexibility with that. And I think this is cool what you're doing. I know, um, you're really highlighting method, a place that I love and, you know, I teach and I grew up pretty much my whole life. So, you know, I wish you the best as you grow too, and, and, you know, go down the same road that I am as journey of podcasting and, um, yeah. And great success to you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, thank you so much. And thank you for taking the time for me.
[Anthony Petrelis]: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right. Thank you so much to Anthony. You can find more information about the Beyond podcast in today's show notes. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. And as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites!