This is Busted Pencils.
Fully Let It Education Talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Welcome to Busted Pencils fully.
Let it Education Talk.
Yeah, the new formatted podcast, Johnny Lupinacci.
Loving this now Friday, check it out, man.
Going by first downs Friday nightlights.
You know, we'll even throw in there.
If you like calling it Busting Balls,
but new Friday segment every week
that we are going to drop really focusing
on truly looking at public schools,
the extracurriculars, whether that's Friday night football,
whether that's the choir concert,
whether that's the spring social,
all of those things that go into a public school
and those extracurriculars that bring together the community.
Johnny Lupinacci, how are you, my friend?
Well, I'm loving it.
You know, the week is cooking.
It's good week.
Got these new drops.
Been loving getting together with our guests.
You know, I love this segment
because obviously, you know, my coach,
yeah, coach and a teacher.
And I love all the extra things
our public school systems bring
to not only our students education,
but to really like the whole town energy,
the families and community
and all the volunteers that go into it.
So excited that we got this segment, Tim.
Excited for our guests today.
I'm loving that it's fall.
I mean, football is cook and I love football.
But so many other things, too.
Man, let's jump right into it.
Jump in, man.
We've got civic media's own Jimmy Casca.
Jimmy, welcome to Busted Pencils, our friend.
Great to be back with you guys.
It's always fun to talk about things
in education and Wisconsin.
You guys do an amazing job of covering the topics
and I'm happy to be some small part of it with you guys.
Well, the whole idea is some small part of it.
Actually, this Friday night
or this Friday drop that we're going to start doing here
every week, though, this really has been motivated
by you, Jimmy, because I mean, hey,
first of all, give us the credentials
on this, the whole idea about, you know,
who is Jimmy Casca?
You know, background, what are you doing right now?
Yes, we know you're affiliated with Civic Media,
but introduce yourself to the Busted Pencil listener.
That's all right.
I've been with Civic Media for a little over a year to half.
I'm the sports director here at Civic Media,
really making a concerted effort
on all of our high school stations
or all of our stations that do high school sports broadcast.
One of the partnerships we have with Sports.NET,
we have anywhere between eight and 10 stations
doing high school football in a given week now,
which is about half of our stations.
So if you go to Whist Sports and you look at the Streamlinks,
you see Civic Media covering most of the page now
when it comes to streaming options.
I have been broadcasting high school sports since 2002
when I was a senior in high school.
I got hurt my senior year and needed an outlet.
So the radio station said,
well, you could sit here and talk if you want.
My first radio broadcast in high school,
I said three words.
I counted.
I said three words in the whole broadcast.
Do you have any headset?
I made those three words count.
I think I said good and awesome and sweet.
Those are sweet words.
You know, good words, right?
Yeah.
Great vocabulary as a 17-year-old, 18-year-old.
But I stuck with it, found a niche in it.
Early as a producer, got into some games,
started doing college sports, high school sports,
been doing that since then for stations that are clear
in Milwaukee and Madison.
So it's been really fun to do that.
I've done games for stations pretty much across the state.
I want to say I've been up to about 60 different sets
of call letters in the state doing play-by-play.
So I've done a lot of high school sports
at my time.
I did state broadcast for like the state audio network
for over a dozen years.
So I did that for a while.
And then right now, I'm actually coaching high school football
the last few years.
So I just said, go into those other connections too.
I mean, the big full package of Jimmy Kuska.
Yep, so now I'm coaching football as well on top of it.
I've always had a long appreciation
for what coaches and administrators do.
And I now being a part of it and helping manage a program
as a volunteer, because I'm on a school board,
as a volunteer to help a program.
And now coaching as a coordinator, even last year,
to the point that all the stuff I put together for our team,
just to promote it, market it.
Last year, the conference named me the assistant coach
of the year.
So it was in my second year of something
I was volunteering to do was, it really took me back
a little bit.
I was pretty humbled by it, because I
don't think of what I do as something that's
a word worthy recognition.
I just want the kids to have a good experience
and I want them to grow beyond, like,
can you throw a catch of football?
I want them to be in a program that embraces community
aspects, gets their grades up.
I mean, we had 91% of our team on the honorable last year
during football season.
Like, these are things I'm proud of.
And being at Civic Media has given me a forum,
a platform to take these ideas I hold about,
like, why I want to be involved in high school sports
and promote these things.
And it's really given me an avenue to take the good things
I do, whether it's coaching or what it was,
just play, play, broadcasting, and bring it
into something that's more community-minded and focused,
which is a huge reason why.
Not only this show, of course, but just Civic Media
in general has been just an amazing experience for me
to kind of take these things and push it forward.
So that's my background.
That's my elevator pitch.
And why I do these things.
But it's a lot of fun.
I really do enjoy this part of my life.
That's awesome.
So we could call you Coach K here on the show, huh?
Jimmy K.
The kids call me Coach K.
So why not?
I bet, awesome work.
Coach K, glad to have you here.
One of the things we talk about all the time
on busted pencils is, what's happened in an education?
And Tim, you've always said this, like, folks,
when we're talking about funding public education
or supporting it or having conversations in our community
about the importance of our school system, right?
As a better act of democracy.
I mean, it's all the things.
You always said, Tim, these aren't extra curriculars.
They're part of the core experience.
Jimmy, you talked about that from a coach's perspective.
But just kind of picking your brain while you're here
with us, introducing this segment, right?
We want to be able to connect folks
to the exciting things happening in their community.
Like, these are truly all hands on deck.
So Coach K, some of the experiences for our listeners,
like, how do you experience as a coach
and as an advocate for high school sports?
Like, the importance that that programming brings
to not only young people, but our whole community?
You know, broadly, whether it's sports, music, arts,
anything like that, having your community's name attached
to something that you have students going out and doing,
it's a moment of pride, right?
You want to support the kids that are in your community
doing big things that are above and beyond
what's asked to them as a student.
Like, you're asked to go to class, do your homework,
get your grades graduate.
But this is a case where you're taking exceptional students
that are taking the option to go above and beyond
they're participating in something,
they're growing skills, whether it's leadership,
team building, learning things that they can take
with them in life.
One of the huge things that I really believe in as a coach
that, as a football coach is, I don't want you coming
out of the football program.
Like, hey, you know, I caught seven footballs this season
and that was really good for me.
I don't care about that.
I want to see how you are interacting with teammates,
coaches, adults, are you coachable?
Are you someone that we can talk to and instruct?
Because when you go to a job and they tell you
have to do something, are you going to be someone
who stands up to it and says, well, I don't want to do that
because I never got challenged in my life.
Are you going to be somebody who says, you know what?
I'll do that.
Is there anything else I can do?
We want to grow people, young people,
in pillars in our community.
We want them to come back to the small towns
where we're in, because in Wisconsin, you know,
if you're in a city in an urban area,
there are a million more opportunities
and that takes you in all different directions.
And a smaller community, the joke is in a broadcast
that if they're on the road in the playoffs
that the last person out of town turns the lights off, right?
That's the old cliche, right?
And that's really true though.
Communities really get behind, especially in these smaller places
in Wisconsin, really get behind these schools.
Not that they don't in bigger places,
but if you go to a city of, you know, 1,000 or 2,000 people
and they're going to state in something,
like I guarantee you that here, you know,
there's nothing open its own on the day
that they're playing that game.
And that's one of the things that I think that people need
to, maybe they do, they know, but what people should appreciate
is that people take a lot of pride in where they're at
and when you have a group of young people
representing that community, especially if they're representing
it well and doing things, not just like winning things,
but like going out and doing things that reflect well
on a community, I think that brings us a certain amount
of pride to the people living there, quick anecdote.
We had an official review our JD football game last week
and in his card, he just noted that,
but you know, our cheerleaders, our coaches,
our players, our fans were all exceptionally well-behaved
and he said it was a great atmosphere
to what high school sports is all about.
And I just made a simple graphic
to kind of promote our program a little bit.
The WIA took that and shared a broader message
about sportsmanship and working within the community
to provide these opportunities for student athletes.
And I think that's what we've really embraced
is just that attitude, that idea that we can make this
a positive thing for our communities
and it doesn't just have to be about what's on the scoreboard.
There's so much more that goes into it as you guys know
and as I'm sure a lot of the people that are watching
or listening to this know,
there's so much more that goes into it beyond what's on a scoreboard.
So much more going into it.
In fact, you pointed this out and kind of Johnny were saying about,
yeah, extra curriculars, let's be honest,
these are essentials we're talking about.
Thinking of our friends and educators amplified,
they're always reminding us,
John, you teach your Hallean teacher, Joanna,
wait a minute, no, not extra curricular
and not extra essentials.
Because Jimmy, what you talk, it's high school football
and again to remind people,
I think you're right when it comes to particularly,
let's, you know, we're in fall,
let's talk about Friday night lights,
particularly all across Wisconsin,
all across this country, right?
This is an event that occurs everywhere you can go.
People going coming through when I was coaching my son,
you know, we would go to the high school football games
when he was playing seven year old tackle football
and there were three, sometimes four generations
of a family there watching that Friday night football
and it was at that point where it kind of really dawned
on me to say, you know, without the school,
without the public school, this long history disappears
these connections and so it really is as we're bringing this,
you know, first down Friday night lights,
busting balls, you put it together,
it's really that reminder too to say,
you love this, my next door neighbor,
you love Friday night football,
you love going there with your kids,
you love bringing your grandkids,
you love Jimmy, as you said, a small town of 2,000 people,
everybody getting on that bus, taking their car rides,
going two hours for a state playoff game like that
and coming together like that,
that's because the tool of supporting
and a great thriving public school system,
linking that back, and I know you also have
that other connection, Jimmy, I want to remind you,
you're also a school board member.
Public schools are really the heart and soul of the community.
You mentioned four generations, right?
Coming, coming out to a game.
So one thing that I really worked hard at this year
was to bring some recognition nights,
so we did a salute to service night to open.
Our last home game was an alumni night
and nobody's really tried this in football.
I took a college model of when, if you're an alum,
if you played football here in New York alum,
sign in as you come in through the ticket gate,
put your graduation year and we're gonna read you off
at halftime if we don't get 150 of you,
because then we'll have to extend halftime,
but we'll probably still be reading names right now
if that would have happened, and the game was last week.
But what was really interesting is that
we had a group that came through
and it was a great grandfather, a grandfather, father,
and then one of our freshman players, a quarterback,
and we had a four generation photo down in front
as part of the recognition,
and it just really shows just how deeply rooted
the in community in these athletic or music arts,
anything, just where people are
and bringing all these people together
for an event like this to recognize them,
and people appreciate that.
One of the things that we ended that alumni night
by the way was, hey, fans,
make sure you give one last cheer for these guys
who gave it all in the football field,
so they can hear the roar of the crowd one last time.
And that, to me, I've just seen a couple of them guys,
they kind of did one of these.
It kind of took a step back a little bit like,
wow, I forgot what this was like.
And I think that they take that,
there's a pride in that, they take that back
into the workplace, they take it back into whatever they're doing
if they're in town or around town,
even if they're coming from out of town,
they're taking that back and saying,
I think this town, in our case, it's Bosch,
I think Boschwell is a great place,
just look at what they're doing
for the people that have been there
and how they're treating the people that are still in town
and what they're doing at the program.
These are things that you can build a community with.
It's things that you can build a culture with.
And in our case, in a district that is
decidedly very low income,
we have a very high special needs population
in our school district.
We passed a referendum by about 80 votes.
You know, there's a perception
that we've really fought to change.
And one of the things I've done since I've moved here
in the last three, three and a half years is,
I'm not from this area, I'm from Northern Wisconsin.
So I'm in a whole new community,
is I really wanted to embrace that culture
and that community aspect of it and say,
hey, we're part of what you're doing.
We want you to be a part of what we're doing.
It shouldn't be this thing where this school
is just Elbatross that's off to the side in town
without even having science pointing to it in town
up until last year.
You didn't know where the school was if you weren't from here.
It took me a while to figure out
that we actually had four different buildings for schools
and that's how being consolidated to two,
which will help, I think, help with where people got to go.
But to the point that there isn't this wall
between city and school,
now everything's kind of ingrained.
The city's partnering with us on ball fields now.
So we're sharing space, we're working together.
We've got a beautiful, you know, beautiful facility
is part of a referendum that the city is helping.
It's just great to see it kind of coming together
in such a short amount of time.
And I think it really just speaks,
as you said, to just having a public school
in knowing that the people in the town,
they're in the city and your district,
they're the people supporting it
and that there's a lot of give and take back and forth
that we're all in this together
and we're doing this for the kids.
So yeah, that's awesome.
Thanks, Coach Kay.
You know, listen, this is why it's so important.
When we're talking about here,
chopping it up, you know, getting excited about,
we're talking about football on this episode,
but really like these essentials,
these things we call extracurricular
that is so much a part of the development
of the young citizens in our community.
And just kind of plug on it.
When we talk about public schools being a better off
of democracy, that's for local towns,
like whether you're a big city
or whether you're a small rural community,
these are part of our like our local economy,
they're part of opportunities
for more than just fans and athletes, right?
And coaches and folks who might have an affinity
for football or say wrestling or basketball
or any volleyball we could go on and on.
But really, we're talking about these events
are opportunities for all of your sons and daughters
or the young people you see out in the community
to be in a role, maybe the photographer,
maybe they're working with the broadcast team
on the high school radio station.
You know, maybe they're on yearbook.
There are so many ways that these events
are ways that our community interface with young people,
but young people get the experience to learn so many things.
And that's such an important part of this, right?
We think about, you go out for pizza,
you grab an ice cream.
These are parts of our local economy
that are really, I think, you know,
a stalwart in signatory note of what it's like
to be a youth, to be youth in the United States
and to have public schools provide that framework
and opportunity.
And where so many of our young people find passion
that complements their academics,
we all know it when students belong,
they do better in school.
And one of the ways we belong
is see ourselves in connection with others.
And that's the sort of thing
when sometimes we call them soft skills, right?
Our leadership skill learning,
all of those things happen through sports.
And we always think about it like the athletes,
the athletes, the participants on the field,
or maybe their family members
or the people directly related to the game.
But there's so much that goes behind the scenes.
You know, so many different volunteers
in our community, whether it's like Coach K,
talking about volunteering as a coach,
or it's like EMTs who are present,
you know, all the different folks
who come together to make these events possible.
Man, it's always been a highlight of me being a teacher.
I love being a coach.
I love hearing that.
And folks, it's every way part of education.
So you know, we talk about it here on Busted Pencil.
So if you have a question or a comment about these,
you can always give us a call or text
at 608-557-857-77
and expect to hear from us about these things every week.
And you know what?
Coach K is gonna be joining us for a lot of those
and a lot of his friends and folks in Wisconsin
and across this country who do similar work
gonna be on here as well.
Jimmy, thanks for being here.
Thanks for all that you do.
Hey, I appreciate you guys and what you're doing.
There's so many ways for community members to be involved
and we see it right here in our small community as well.
It is great to see so many people engage in a community,
engage in the schools and what we're doing.
And I can provide a million examples here locally,
but I tell you what, you know,
it's more than just what's on the scoreboard.
It's not a zero something.
We have gotta give kids opportunities to grow in areas
that sometimes we don't even expect them to.
You would be amazed at the leadership examples
that come out of these things.
I appreciate you guys having me for this.
Coach K Jimmy Cusca civics own right there.
Yeah, we're gonna be dropping this every Friday.
First downs Friday night lights, busting balls.
Coach K next week too, right away going right to one
and bringing in some coaches and some players.
Is it gonna be your town?
Hey, would you like to be a part of this segment?
Give us a call, 608-557-8577.
We wanna hear about your first downs, your Friday nights
and man, everybody, hang on.
Keep on busting pencils.
We'll see you next time.