Episode #128: We’re ramping up to basketball season and that means we’re talking to the Texas Legends crew. A few new faces have landed in Frisco and joined the Texas Legends ‘family’, and one of those new to the Legends staff is this episode’s guest, Joel Leach.
Joel grew up in DeSoto playing football, golf, basketball, and more. Watching his granny rehabilitate from a stroke put Joel on a path that included interest in physical therapy, law school and sports management. We discuss his trials and hurdles, internships, including WFAA and why he’s tight with the mayor of DeSoto.
Texas Legends: WEBSITE | IG @texaslegends | Twitter @texaslegends
Joel Leach: LinkedIn
Transcript: Automated via AI, please excuse typos
Kelly Walker
Welcome to Hustle and Pro, I’m your host Kelly Walker, we have a Texas legends family member here with us today. Joel Leach you are kind of new to the Texas Legends team, not team as in player right but team as in staff. So you came highly recommended when you when you started there they said hey get him on your show. Let’s talk to him. So, welcome to hustle and Pro. I’m excited to have you.
Joel Leach
Thank you. Thank you. I didn’t know was heavily recommended.
Kelly Walker
You were so yeah so I’m actually I don’t know a lot about you yet we haven’t met, so this is it. Everybody’s gonna hear us meeting and learning about Joel and what that means and why people wanted me to talk to you so let’s jump in. I really kind of want to know, just in general, your sports sort of vibe like what did you play as an athlete, and for how long like at what levels, What were your sports,
Joel Leach
okay so yeah my first sport that I ever played was football. I think I was about four years old, and my family threw me in a flag football and play for the DeSoto Wildcats. And I think that was my introduction to sports, but you know basketball was my first love, you know, watching Space Jam and at a young age and like Mike when like Mike came out and at PE, I thought I was like a basketball superstar so I think my first time playing organized basketball. I was five years old, play for the DeSoto tigers in DeSoto, Texas, and it was just love at first sight. You know, I continued to play, and a started playing. My freshman year of high school was my last year playing basketball, organize, and I moved into golf. I play golf for minor my high school years and now Dibble and dabble in a track and cross country and I did you know other things but your basketball and football, were by far my favorite sports growing up.
Kelly Walker
So what made you go from basketball that you love as a kid, then, to golf. That’s a strange transition in freshman year.
Joel Leach
That’s an extremely strange transition a lot of people find it weird. But that’s no my freshman year I injured my knee really bad. And so I injured I injured my knee and I didn’t work out for the for the remainder of freshman offseason. And you know I just kind of stopped coming around and no sophomore sophomore year came around and I was expecting to automatically be back on a basketball team because I did so well my freshman year and I played. So when I came back, my sophomore year ready to play and because of like you didn’t come to summer workouts, you know, you didn’t finish your end of freshman year workout so you know like, you can’t, you know, you have to work your way back, but it was like it was extremely tough they made it so hard. Yeah, I would have to go to like a basketball prep class I wouldn’t even be in a basketball practice, no, like, no, no in a blog of art in a bunch of our classes. It was like a whole nother class where it’s just like a lot of guys trying out to, to make the team and like I just had to go through like an extremely difficult process to get back on a team and you know I was committed to doing that but my parents, you know, didn’t want to sign off on that they were like, No, like why would you do all of that when you know we just started academies and like we had like an educational magnet school and I was in a health magnet school and it coincided with the basketball schedule and my parents are you know heavily into the academic background so they don’t really care too much about sports so you know when that when that happened and it was hard for me to play basketball, it was just like, well focus on education.
Kelly Walker
Yeah, that, that freshman to sophomore year jump seems to be a big one. I’m, we’re actually experiencing that in my household right now because we have a kid who, who’s a sophomore and so you know we’re a few months into sophomore year and the, the sports, jump to make, because here in Frisco, there’s freshmen teams, then there’s JV teams and there’s varsity make the freshman team sure, you know, you have to be a little competitive, but the jump to make JV is a whole nother world. And yeah, it is that like it’s go time. You’re working nonstop like this is your focus offseason, all the time like all summer all the time if you’re not there for summer workouts, there’s really no chance for you to make it exactly so that you feel that and your parents said, Okay, this is not going to be your focus, right,
Joel Leach
like I’m living proof that if you don’t go to summer workouts, it’ll be hard for you to, You know, thats High School. So, yeah, my sophomore year I didn’t play any sports, just focus on education, and my junior year came around and I was like, man, like, I really don’t like not being in any athletics at school like this is boring like well you know what’s the point I did come play football because my parents were just so against, you know putting my body on the line and playing football, so I was, I was always interested in golf and I knew that I wanted to be, you know, a professional who took meetings on the golf course and I just know Golf is a great conversation piece. So I say, you know, well let me learn how to play golf. Now let me kind of jump in and play at high school golf to get no, no introduction to it and see where it takes me so
Kelly Walker
yeah, I love that because golf is one of those sports that if you’re natural you can have a natural knack for it and then learn what you need to learn and then it work hard and excel at it. So you went to Tarleton.
Joel Leach
Yes, That’s the toughest state before I transferred. Okay, so out of high school.
Kelly Walker
Gotcha. Okay, so, so what was your college sports life and, like, it’s even like recreationally, did you do rec sports too.
Joel Leach
Oh yeah. I’ll play intramural basketball and flag football, softball, any intramural that we had, I was probably on the team there. So
Kelly Walker
those were all my same intramural sports, flag football, softball,
Joel Leach
soccer, soccer. I don’t think I did soccer.
Kelly Walker
Yeah we did coed soccer outdoor and indoor coed soccer. Oh wow, which is how I met my husband, it worked out. Yeah, his group of friends. Coach, some of our girls, little teams in different things intermurals but then we ended up on the same soccer team and back in 97 and the rest is history. We’re still, we’re still watching each other, play sports, and our kids mostly now but yeah. Okay, so, um, then you, you got your master’s in sports management so I’m guessing there was always this love and connection of sports, and you mentioned, like a health magnet school. And so how did all that come into play.
Joel Leach
Right, so my granny. My grandmother had a stroke, my sophomore year of high school. And so, when she had a stroke. I was kind of like, I had a, you know, side by side in the front seat to her therapy process, no learning how to walk again, learning how to talk again and just kind of learning how to do life as a, as a normal human being again. And seeing that know firsthand, I wanted to go into helping athletes or helping anybody go through physical therapy. So I wanted to be a physical therapist, based off of my experience with my grandmother. And when I graduated high school I kind of shifted, wanting to be a physical therapist to one on wanting to still work in sports, but like a law like what contract acts and everything of that nature. So I went through my high school my college experience. Hello, like focusing on going to law school and knowing, like doing that aspect of sports, but I struggle. I struggled my first year and a half in college, academically and just kind of socially, because I was in a new environment that was so different from the environment that I grew up in. So, no my grades weren’t the best and I just had a terrible experience at Tarleton State, and my parents were like well you know, I know you want to be a lawyer and that’s great and all but you know you’re very good at not being in the media, and kind of, you know, working in journalism and everything like that so, you know, why don’t you just focus on doing that because that’s what you’re good at, you know your grades will improve and things will be, you know, more fluid for you. And even though I didn’t really want to do it, it made a lot of sense to kind of shift my focus at the moment so I did I shifted my focus to, you know, sports media and journalism, and I did extremely well, not covered. Sports cover you know I did marketing for tos and I took pictures and did everything of that nature, and after my third year at Tarleton. I sat down with one of my academic performance coaches, and he said Joel, you know, from, you know the day you walked in here your freshman year to now man. You’ve grown so much, you know, academically, well cuz my first semester GPA was terrible. It was so bad, but at that point I got into a 3.25. So I had improved a lot. So he said, Hey, You know there’s nothing more that we can offer you here. You need to leave you need to get out and be exposed to a different environment, because like that’s the only way that you’ll grow, you know you’ve outgrown Tarleton. It’s all like man you know, okay, you know, where do I go from here. So, we sat down and we apply to UTA Texas State University of Houston, and North Texas. And out of those colleges I chose North Texas, and leaving Tarleton I had an internship WFAA, where I was introduced to ice cube and a big three and I kind of covers ports in there, but you know I did more set management and like marketing as far as commercials. When I got to North Texas, it was hard to get into their media department because you know that it was a like, a lot of gatekeepers, you know like North Texas proud, you know prides themselves and having a great media, You know, a great media university program. And, you know, coming into it, they were like hey, you know, you have a great, no background but you know we have a lot of guys who do the exact same thing so you know why include you and we already have our guys, and I was going oh man, okay. That’s what I do now right
Kelly Walker
from one college experience saying hey you’ve, you’ve stepped up you’ve outgrown us, go do something better and then you can try to go do that. And even after you had your W FAA internship, they’re still telling you, they need more,
Joel Leach
maybe more than you know, basically, in other words, but kind of a summarization of what that sounds like you know hey, you’re not good enough. We have guys who did this anatomy, like yeah like you have a cool background but no, like, it’s okay. So, you know, at that moment I was kind of shaking like well what do I do now cuz I transfer from taught and get into you guys media department and everything like that and now you guys are telling me like, like you know no and basically, I’m not good enough, you already have your group. So I took that semester and just kind of tried to figure out, you know where I wanted to go next with with my professional journey. And you know something just kept telling me hey well, no, looking at business study business and you know try to get into law school and even if you don’t go to law school, you know, just having a great business background in school, will you know will take you a long way. So I shifted my major and I did integrative studies, with a focus in business management, public administration and communications. You know a lot of my communications credit already transferred from Tarleton so I didn’t have to take know any more comms classes, so you know all my classes are basically rooted in marketing and business management and like negotiation. So my last two years I just know got extremely fluid in, you know my business terms and marketing principles, and like negotiation principles. And you know, once I graduated, I was focused on going to law school, but I just wanted to take a gap year to study sports management, just to see if it would really piqued my interest. And if not, I was going to go to law school and no focus on being a sports lawyer.
Kelly Walker
Wow, I mean because all that contract negotiations and oh, that’s so interesting, and I feel like that has blown up in the last, I don’t know 10 years, I don’t know, like, I feel like everybody I meet is like, oh my son’s gonna go do this, can you know what do you have advice for how much spending because I know nothing of that specific world in sports at all. I’m just a sports fan who gets to talk about it on this podcast, but it’s a, it’s a hugely popular area of study, and especially up here. So all of that blends together though well and brought you to the legends, which is you know, here in Frisco, they’re a huge part of this community so you might not have known Frisco yet if you’re mostly from DeSoto and, or were you already living here or did you move here for this.
Joel Leach
Oh no, I moved here, I’m out of Frisco for the legends, I was still in DeSoto, when I got the position.
Kelly Walker
So growing up in DeSoto you’re probably a massive fan. Definitely Mavs Fan for Life. next door yep so you’re probably all over that and so it’s a perfect kind of marriage between or bridge, I love I love how they really are bridge. I mean, Al Whitely was on my show earlier. A while ago but I think the title of that episode was like the bridge between the mascot legends because they truly do have this two way relationship. I mean literally relevant players, but that’s like the perfect fit for you, I would say, but yeah, I mean you’ll know this as you get into your job more and more how invested the legends are in this community, not just for school but even all the surrounding areas, so much that they do for kids. Kids camps, but also schools and stem projects and all kinds of things and just help out in so many different ways, in this community so you will probably love that as you get to experience that.
Joel Leach
absolutely, absolutely love that. And that’s one of the things that really drew me to the legends because you know I’m very interested in my community back home and, you know, Dallas and Oakcliff area. And so you know seeing that the legends are heavily involved in that community really warmed my heart because I didn’t want to be a part of any organization who didn’t, you know, do a lot for their community just because that’s one of my values. So,
Kelly Walker
yeah, well then it’s a good match. So I was creeping a little bit because I didn’t know you and I kept seeing that the mayor of DeSoto has commented on your stuff. So, how, what happened there.
Joel Leach
So, like I say, you know, very entrenched into like the DeSoto community, and just kind of doing outreach and now I’m very involved in our elections. So my dad is actually no campaign manager for a few of the elected elected officials and the Soto, and so you know, with him being a campaign manager and me just being so interested in you know in a community and in politics and everything of that nature you know anytime, and any opportunity I have to help and just kind of be around, you know I always took that opportunity in high school and college so, you know, in her election, you know my dad helped out and you know was a big part of our team and just wanted to be involved. And so, you know, as a part of that you know I would go to all the campaign rallies or, you know all the voting polls and just kind of stand outside with our shirt, and you know handing out cards Hey vote for Mayor Proctor you know she’s great, and I was just kind of, you know, tell him all the great things about her. So,
Kelly Walker
that’s so cool I thought that was cool and I saw her comment and like how do you know her, how our community is here to, like, it isn’t uncommon for the mayor to be, you know all these events, and community outreach programs, different things and a lot of people know him and so yeah I have a feeling you’re one of those, you know, movers and shakers that kind of knows what’s going on everywhere your pulses, you got your finger on the pulse of everything and. Sure, you probably have a voice right that you, you know, you’d like to put yourself out there and help and get involved. Sounds like
Joel Leach
a new way any way I can like I’m always trying to take the opportunity to help. And just to kind of be around and be present, you know, even in the Frisco community, you know, from when I first got here, you know I’ve joined organizations like 1 Million Cups, and I think that nation have to find out ways that I can volunteer and just kind of add value to their organization and see what just what I could do to be a helping hand. And that’s just like, you know the type of person I am
Kelly Walker
1 Million Cups is cool for those who don’t know what that is, it really opens your eyes to different business concepts, different entrepreneurs who are starting something need seed money need VC money whatever it is, and they kind of like have a chance to pit like a mini pitch session, where to tell this group of people, what, what they’ve got. And it’s like a community of business builders, helping you and doing whatever they can and the Legends is good at that too with their networking with the Owners Club, but the networking within the Legends is has been one of my biggest sources of knowing people in this community over the past four, maybe five years. It’s insane how many people. We’ve through that organization, and it’s basketball like all this stuff we just said, we don’t even mentioned the actual basketball part of it but are so much off the board. I mean they haven’t played a few years so you have to just kind of remember there’s all these other things going on, but so basketball, and we’re recording this last day of September, so we are rolling into the fall and basketball is about to happen. Finally in Frisco right. I mean, there’s a lot of talk with MAVs media day and all that so right after all that happens usually the legend starts ramping up. So, let’s talk about basketball for a minute. Who are you like, I don’t know, with your first basketball season here what are you most looking forward to, are there any players that you that you have your eye on or anybody we should be looking forward to seeing out there this year.
Joel Leach
So I’m very excited for I see them coming up. I’m very excited to see how to Lagos before. Especially Eugene, cuz I follow them at origin and I really liked what you did at Oregon so I’m definitely excited to see you know his contribution to the legends. I’m excited to see the tour guy I haven’t seen much of him in college. I’ve seen a few highlights, but you know I like what we’re doing, though.
Kelly Walker
Yeah, that’s one of my favorite things to do throughout the season, watching the players is seeing who’s standing out right and then seeing as they move as they move forward in their career, just being excited for them when they get the call us, even if it’s a temporary few game run or whatever because those things, then turn into much more down the road, guys, so it’s really fun and and having so much access to those players here in this town is awesome for me with a little boy who loves basketball and he’s just like an all after every game but he gets to go on a court and see these, you know, gigantic tall guys because he’s in love with these guys and it’s a really cool atmosphere. So we’re excited to get back out there so when are we actually going to see games in Frisco, is it not till November.
Joel Leach
November 12 first home game. Yeah, November,
Kelly Walker
November 12 Okay well I’m sure well I’m sure we’ll be there. Were there a lot. Alright I also read that Malcolm said that he can beat you in a one on one. Is this true,
Joel Leach
no he said that I can be anyone, and went on, okay,
Kelly Walker
okay I hugely misquoted him. You can beat anyone in a one on one.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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