The Shintaro Higashi Show - Financials of USA Judo - Matthew Parker

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

In this episode, Shintaro sits down with Matthew Parker to dive deep into the inner workings of USA Judo. Matthew, a former national team member and current candidate for USA Judo’s at-large board position, offers a unique perspective on the organization's challenges and future. They discuss the fragmented state of USA Judo, the need for improved coaching development, athlete support, and fundraising efforts. Matthew also shares insights into his background in finance, his vision for unifying USA Judo, and what needs to change for the sport to grow domestically. Whether you're a judoka, BJJ practitioner, or someone interested in the governance of sports organizations, this episode is packed with eye-opening details and strategies for USA Judo’s future. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:52) Matthew’s Judo Journey (00:03:11) Running for the At-Large Board Position (00:08:32) Matthew’s Main Positions (00:13:27) USA Judo’s Financial Landscape (00:17:45) Coaching Development and System Improvements (00:22:09) Matthew’s Relationship with Other Board Members (00:27:11) Current State of USA Judo Financials (00:33:00) USA Judo’s Election and Board Dynamics (00:38:15) Closing Thoughts & Final Remarks from Matthew Parker

pretty much invisible kata like i'd never see it you know every now and then i'll see like the uranage portion of the nagano kata like pop up my instagram and then it's at some competition but like i really don't know what usa judo is doing with uh kata stuff so you know yeah definitely underrepresented you know um they're gonna keep it for the next year and then we'll see what happens after that yeah i believe it okay oh so it's already been decided it's already been decided and what are the contingencies i i would hope, right? After, hey man, you said you're going to raise $4 million. You didn't. Now you got to raise a million dollars in the next six months or you're out. Like, do you guys have a very strict contingency? very special guest we have matthew parker here behind the scenes running all the stuff on all these different communities committees communities and committees and all the stuff usa judo back end we competed around the same time together right behind uh what was it around 2004 2005 did you say

yeah so i was a junior in that time frame and then i kind of uh at my peak i was around uh 2012 2011 and i retired right after that because of injuries yeah and you were on the international circuit so that's an amazing feat so you're a very accomplished judoka you fought 73 73 kilos yeah and how much you weigh now 90 yes uh i do weigh about 90 kilos it's a spot on. You know what's funny, man? The 73 guys are like, yeah, I'm 73. It's like, no, you're not. You're 200 pounds. And it's like, well, I used to fight 73, so I just say 73. He's like, no, you're 200 pounds. Yeah, yeah, I'm no longer 73.

You'd have to cut a lot for me to get back to 70. You don't want to do it anymore? Cutting weight? No, I do not want to cut when i compete in bjj i literally just weigh in as i weigh in i i've done the competition thing and i'm good i've i've had my fulfillment and i weigh in what is i weigh in and then you have a dojo out in colorado correct yeah it's a small it's a small club i i teach out of a brazilian jiu-jitsu nice awesome and you do jiu-jitsu yourself i do yeah um i i'm not good at it but i do it you know what when you're a judoka and you go to the ground then you got to learn all these new things like the spider grips and stuff like that it's like it's definitely a different sport but it's very similar you know

well what i found is really cool is uh you know, when I started learning BJJ and improving my groundwork, you know, I had a Jiu-Jitsu Katami and I had some turnovers when I was a kid. Nothing like BJJ, right? Obviously it's very different. But what I have found that's really cool is I'm able to share the same martial art with BJJ practitioners as Shiboka. And I think it's pretty cool that I can help them in the stand-up, and they obviously help me in the ground.

And it's a complete art when you look at it that way. Oh, yeah, it really is. It really is. You know, different rule sets kind of take you to different places, and you get to do some niche training in these specific places. It's awesome. So you're here today because you're so involved with USA Judo. And I kind of went down the rabbit hole about trying to interview all the people who are on the board.

Are you currently on the board now? Are you running for a position on the board? I am running for a position at the board. The position I'm running for is at large. So that's the position that anybody can vote for. Awesome. And so who is running for that position? So there's, I believe, five individuals, generally pretty older generations.

And then there's me. Let's see who's running. Looks like there is Jerry Cypret, Gary Goltz, H hector lawns eric sanchez and myself interesting oh and isn't grace jivin and also i'm sorry say that again grace jivin is also running for it does that is that i mishear that from somebody grace yeah i take a look yeah i don't think i don't see grace on the, on the board, but I think grace was, yeah, I'm not saying, I'm not saying.

So there's five people on the website anyway. Okay. So there's five people running for one slot. That's correct. Who would you say if we were to have like a poll, like a national poll, like they do in the real, like not real election,

but the American presidential election, they have a poll, right? Oh, this guy is popular. That guy's thing in the first place who do you say the top two for the at large yeah yeah so i'm a fan of jerry um you know obviously myself i i think i'm yeah bias on that but i like jerry um i think jerry's got a good background. I think he's a strong candidate. I like his post. I think the similarities between Jerry and I compared to the rest of the members that are being elected, on our statements, we try to say, hey, I'm really here for you.

like on our statements we try to say like hey i'm really here for you like these are these are things that i'm trying to accomplish but ultimately the at-large director is is responsible for the voice of the body of usa judo so that's not just elites that's that's elites that's paras that's kata that's uh veterans um and every other like kind of sub thing that usa judo does like the p3 program but you're on some committees already so you're not completely new to like the politics of usa judo behind closed doors because you said briefly that you already represent a certain group yes um so i am the both the chair and the veterans representative on the athlete advisory committee that was created a couple of years ago. And so that role encompasses like we are the voice of the athletes to the board. So if there's some areas of opportunity for athletes to engage with

improvements or they have ideas or suggestions, they come to us and then we go to usa judo and the board and say hey here's our recommendation based off of what athletes are saying to us yeah so um it's another way to get athlete representation and ensuring that athlete athletes uh rights are being met within board decisions. So if we're like, all right, we need a Brown Belt division for the Masters Nationals, we need a Purple Belt division for the Masters Nationals, we come to you and then you voice that to the group? Yeah, so you can definitely come to us and we'll listen and have your best interest. I will say that the AAC is specifically linked towards um the the high

competitive side so uh even like we have a kata representative and kata is looking at like how kata competitions are ran and what that matter how that uh impacts usa judo um it's a smaller sect of usa judo but they're still a representative on that side. Yeah. I mean, pretty much invisible kata. Like, I'd never see it. You know, every now and then I'll see, like, the Ura Nage portion of the Nagen Okada, like, pop up my Instagram, and then it's at some competition. But, like, I really don't know what USA Judo is doing with kata stuff.

So, you know, yeah, definitely underrepresented. You know, hopefully, right, those guys can kind of pick it up. How about Hector? I think it's Hector. You know i i don't personally know hector i will say the one interaction i've had with hector is the recent usa judo board and uh board meeting excuse me and they the board stated in the beginning of like hey this is not an open forum you are just to listen and they stated that multiple times and then hector chimed in um during the board meeting and he was trying to get his voice heard yeah um and and i totally understand kind of that

perspective but i also was like hey man like this is not the place for the time for for that so i don't know hector personally okay yeah because i had jimmy pedro so i'm doing my rounds now i'm trying to interview all these people and then you know i do have certain like i trained with jimmy i trained with travis i'm like i'm much more familiar with those guys but i try to kind of get everyone's perspective on this thing you know but having jimmy on he was like yeah hector's kind of my guy and like you know, but having Jimmy on, he was like, yeah, Hector's kind of my guy. And like, you know, he's like, I definitely endorse you guys to vote for him and stuff like that. So I'm familiar with Hector. Uh, what are some of your main things when you, you know,

as you're running for this thing? Yeah. So I'm a, I'm a financial guy, um, by trade, right? Like I joked about what pays the bills. And I'm a financial professional. So the first thing and foremost is that I want to see more attempts to get fundraising and sponsorships. And that helps grow USA Judo. Like there are organizations out there that literally have a position within their ngb that is just to get

sponsorships or just to get fundraising and we are not doing that as usa judo and i think that's a big big issue and hole that we could fill yeah especially leading into la 28 and how we can engage different communities for usa judo um so that's like that's my biggest uh idea and platform uh the other thing is is communication i think that and you know i think a lot of people say oh communication is ill or there's problems with communication and transparency with usa judo which i i don't disagree and And so if I were to be elected, I would make sure as the at-large director, I'm providing updates after every board meeting, anything that I can share publicly. How are you going to do that? Like an Instagram or something?

Yeah. So I plan to use social media to update my followers and let them know what's going on within USA Judo. And then that also allows feedback to me as the representative of USA Judo. True, yeah. It's a comment section that people write on. I don't know if you're on Judo Reddit, but man, there's a lot of feedback there, constructive or not. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's just

complaints just to complain which you know okay yeah well do something you could vote now right yeah yeah exactly yeah so that's so cool so that's that and then my third is really focusing on coaches and athlete development um so we have representation for the elites, the athlete representatives like Colton and Nicole and Marty and Ben. Those are the four athlete representatives. And so my idea is to say, OK, well, what about the rest of the community as well on top of the elites? So veterans are a big deal to me personally i'm an old man now and so i'm in the veterans community and veterans if you look at it on an international scale it's huge if you look at veterans uh france they they look they send teams of people and i

think usa geo has a unique opportunity this year because the world championships are in Las Vegas. And how often is a world championship in our backyard? So I think that's something that I would be like, hey, let's take advantage of this. And I'm already trying to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, I heard the IJF veterans world is, and I'm going to that as a commentator for the IJF.

But like I heard like USA Judo didn't have that much of a hand in like organizing the stuff. I mean, I don't know what that means even, you know, someone was like, oh, we didn't really do much to kind of capitalize on any of it. We didn't really promote it. And then I'm like, oh, that's kind of unfortunate, you know, but maybe if it happens again, you know, we definitely want to put our best foot forward and kind of make it a marketing thing. Right. We definitely want to put our best foot forward and make it a marketing thing, right? I've actually talked to USA Judo marketing. Is that Nicole Gimantus? No, it was Bill and Hannah. Okay.

All right. There's newer representatives within USA Judo, the NGB, for marketing. They hired a guy named Bill from another NGB for marketing. Um, they hired a guy named Bill, uh, from another NGB. So he's got, he's got marketing experience through NGBs. Um, and then Hannah, uh, um, is, is also going to be the social media expert that we have. And when I went to a veterans tournament recently, and I was talking to the guys that run veterans, Judo USA. I was like, Hey, so like, what's like, what support do you get? What support you do not get from USA judo? And they were candid with me. They were like, we don't get any support. And I was like, okay, cool. What do you want? Right? Like I, I, I'm happy to engage right.

As the AAC rep. Um, and they said, well, first we'd like to have social media representation. It's like, okay, great. Happy to talk through that. And so we did. And then I went back to USA Judo. Keith said, yeah, I'm on board. Let's make sure they have representation. And then I got our Veterans Judo USA guys introduced to Bill and Hannah

to engage in that. Interesting. Interesting. Okay, so let's go back to the financial stuff, right? So you said you have a background in finance. Like what in finance do you do? I'm a wealth advisor. So I'm a certified financial planner and I help, you know, both small business owners and, you know, I would say you can use the word affluent, but it's individuals that need help with tax planning, estate planning, you know, investment planning, whatever. Good. Okay. So you kind of understand money. That's always a good thing if you're trying to raise money. So like, what is the goal? Like how much do we need to raise and how are you going to

do it as opposed to the next guy? Yeah. So I think as the at-large director, my role is not to raise the money. My role is to make sure the board is on board for getting somebody within our organization or having a consultant explain to us like, okay, this is how you do it. Because clearly we haven't done very well like i i think keith uh as an example said in the beginning uh when he first got hired eight years ago he said i'm gonna raise four million dollars in the first couple years and then covet there was coveted and there was other things and he didn't raise that money however kudos where kudos are due he did clean up the books so we were in the red as an organization, and then now we're in the black. Okay, so that's a positive thing about Keith that I haven't heard yet.

So that's kind of a big one. Wow, okay, so he was going to raise $4 million. How much has he raised? I'm not entirely sure how much he's raised to date. I have no idea. That's for the audit committee to look at and okay and make decisions on so your at-large position on the board you have one vote out of 12 keep keith or not keep keith so the the most recent board member uh meeting is it was keep keith um they're gonna keep him for the next year

and then we'll see what happens after that yeah i believe it okay oh so it's already been decided it's already been decided so you renew this contract for six months to one year and what are the contingencies i i would hope right after hey man you said you're gonna raise four million dollars you didn't now you gotta you gotta raise a million dollars in the next six months or you're out like do you guys have a very strict contingency yeah they didn't. Now you got to raise a million dollars in the next six months or you're out. Do you guys have a very strict contingency? Yeah, they didn't publicly share what the contingency was on the board meeting. All they said was that we have elected to renew and there was a public vote just to show of who's yay, who's nay. And most of the board members said yay because there was some negotiation in a closed session

that I was not part of that they said should we keep Keith or should we not keep Keith and the decision was to keep Keith for x amount of months and Nicole probably didn't want Keith to stick around she's very vocal about that I'm pretty sure she voted nay yeah because I did interview her yesterday last night and she's had very interesting things to say so okay so what are some of your positions like there's certain like groups right like uh you know these guys train together these guys come from the same club you know do you have any like alliances on the board sort of that you've kind of like all right this is my thing i'm going to influence these guys and then we're going to

get this thing done i actually don't and and i'm pretty like uh i get along with everybody kind of deal i was at the when my when i was at my peak and training i was at the olympic training center and there's no more olympic training center and somebody you know was like oh so you're an ed guy and i'm like well not really yeah yeah otc's at Liddy yeah yeah and so like I love Ed as an individual but there were things that he did that I disagree with and I think that there's an area of opportunity for him to improve as well and I love him like I have a relationship with Ed that doesn't mean I can't provide constructive criticism to those that I love you know but Ed's not like in the board meetings like hey man Hey man, guys do this, do that.

Right. He's not, he's not on the board. No, I'll be honest with you. Yeah. Sorry. I apologize. Yeah. I don't know what his plans are for high performance is. And I think that's a transparency issue between USA Judo and the

community of what's going on. Yeah. So that's something I would like to see improved. Yeah. I think one of the things people are talking about, like how the cadet team coach, junior team coach, the senior team coach, and then the development throughout, and then like the coaching thing, and then the high performance, like they're all kind of like separated

and then like operating sort of independently of each other. You know, some people are really pushing for like, we need to make this whole thing like a united forefront of like pushing the best judokas out into the world from the u.s and growing this thing like do you have any ideas like that how to i mean i'm sure you're not going to disagree with that you know we are very fragmented i think everybody's on the same page what would be your plan to kind of unify things from within? I think it's creating a system. So I've,

I've, I've called a bunch of coaches and I've talked to a bunch of athletes. I'm, I'm lobbying here. Like I, it's, I stepped away from Judo for a while and now I'm back and I've been back for the past few years now,

but I I'm trying to understand where the body of USA Judo is with development and systems and ideologies. And I think the number one complaint that I'm seeing is there's a lack of system development in place. So like the coaching development, right? Pat Burris has been running the coaching thing for many, many years. And I've seen some coaches that say, hey, I want to see an update in the coaching curriculum. I want to see some, some development for us. Um, if you compare USA Judo to some of our international counterparts, our coaching development is, is, is, is pretty weak comparatively. Um, and then I also think the system of going from juniors to seniors, like cadets to that senior ranks is also, there's like a drop off and there's a miscommunication on how you develop those athletes between those two major programs.

And so I'd like to see a system put in place for going from grassroots all the way to the Olympic and Paralympic movement and I don't think we quite have one I think it's been piecemealed and so sure my idea is to create a system within USA Judo and so I have I have a rough idea of what I'd like to see now what I'd like to see it was realistic because of those bigger programs that say, oh, we want to be the club or we want money for XYZ or we want to promote a different athlete or whatever. Thinking of those big programs because they have power. Right. And so I think going through the programs and communicating and saying, okay, how do we approach this as a unified USA Judo? Not you're just a national training center or you're a regional training center or whatever. Interesting.

Interesting. All right. So as a person running for a position, can you vote also for the other positions or not? So if you meet the criteria, you can. So if you're a certified coach or if you're a 10 year athlete, you can register to vote for those specific, um, those specific slots. Um, if you are 18 years or older and usa judo then you can vote for uh the at large so there's really only three spots that you can um vote for um so that because the the the independence selected by the net of the governance body okay so there's only wow that's interesting three slots

so but can you vote as an athlete athlete's position um? I am no longer a 10-year athlete, so I'm outside of that window. But you're a coach? No, I don't actually have my certification for USA Judo. Oh, so you can't vote at all? My athletes, I do not vote. Yeah, I vote for the at-large. My athletes within my Judo program, they've competed at some local stuff but yeah they're they're bjj practitioners so you're not going to vote but you can't vote right you

don't qualify for those categories got it so okay if you were to vote though for the athletes representative spot who would you vote for and why this is a tough question i'm not trying to put you in the hot seat. I interviewed Colton. I interviewed Nicole. I'm waiting on Marty to get back to me. I'm very curious because I kind of see both sides and where they are. I'm kind of curious to see where you're aligned. I do like Marty Malloy.

I think Marty Malloy is a stronger candidate. I've seen what she's done in the background. I work with her on the Aac and that's not like what is the ac i should have probably asked that earlier but what is the ac i don't know athlete advisory committee okay okay okay yeah um and so like i see how she works i see how she works with others and marty and i disagree a handful of times i'm not saying we're, we're always off, uh, uh, off base with each other, but we have disagreements. And when we have disagreements, we communicate and say, okay, well, how, how do we get over this? Like, what's, what's the right call for the picture that we're trying to achieve today. Right. And so I really like how Marty works as a, as a professional.

And I think that's, that that's phenomenal and then on top of that she um she's been there and done it right like she she knows what it's like to be the the top of the top of the dogs and and i i think she's phenomenal uh from a like a second second person um you know i i think angelica Delgado is a strong candidate. I think she's got a unique take on it, and I would like to see what her thoughts are on how we grow USA Judo. I think Hannah Martin is also a good candidate. I think she does a good job with what she's done,

and she was over at Europe. And so she has a completely different system that she was part of over in Europe. So maybe she can bring some ideas over to us. So I think those are the two that I would kind of toss up for my second one. Yeah. I don't have a specific uh uh election point let's say i would definitely vote for this person or that person i think marty is the only one that i'm definitive on okay i think i think nicole brings good ideas i i think she's polarizing but i think that she is uh she is passionate and she brings good ideas to the table and says okay how do we accomplish this now sometimes i disagree with her but i i think

she's done a great job at being communicative with the community and being engaging and i think that's huge huge for the board of directors so i wouldn't throw her out of the equation either no i mean this is the whole reason how i got started on this was because nicole was on instagram saying get rid of keith bryan raise any money do this do that ah and then i was like you know what this is good because uh you know i like this what's going on behind closed doors i don't really know and then she's like he's contract up and these are the board members and we got to do something and you can make the change and i was like you know like all right let me look into this a little bit and then i spoke And then she's like, key's contract up and these are the board members and we got to do something and you can make the change.

And I was like, you know, like, all right, let me look into this a little bit. And then I spoke to Chris Round. And then now all of a sudden I'm deep diving into this world of USA. I identify as a journalist now. I just say YouTube. So, like, it's like this whole thing. So I did like that. And then, you know, having my conversation with her, she was like, hey, you know follow the rules the bylaws and yeah the bylaws aren't perfect but like you know conflict of interest was one of the biggest issues that she has with the people on the board like i mean you

seem so far you have zero conflict of interest what do you think about the people who have sort of a little bit of a conflict maybe maybe they have a contract at the esajudo where there's money being funneled into their private businesses. What do you think about that? I think that we have a committee that is supposed to look at conflict of interest and grievances. If we use that internal system and say, okay, XYZ person has a conflict.

Can we clear this? And if they say no, we can't clear it, then we should not clear it, that conflict of interest, right, for the best of USA Judo. So I think that there's a system in place to do it. Now, whether we utilize that system or not is a different question. Yeah, because sometimes all your boys are on the board, and it's like, hey, man, do this thing for me. And guys, one hand washes off. We all just looked all the way. Like,

you know, that happens not, you know, it happens everywhere. So it's like, you know what I mean? Yeah. So it's not unique to us. No, definitely not. So it's like, you know, uh, yeah, but you don't have a conflict of interest. No, I really don't. Um, I I'm, I'm pretty neutral as far as like what training sites I get along with almost everybody. I see the financials and I'm like, okay, this is how I would think about it. Right. Like I really do think I am biased obviously, but I really do think I am a good fit for the at-large director and specifically what the at-large director is supposed to achieve yeah so how does one what was i gonna say yeah so what do you think the current state of usa judo's financials look like because you clearly understand pnl and like looking at i mean it's not you know

10k or anything like that but like you understand these financial reports. When you look at it, take a snapshot view of it, you're like, good, bad, ugly. What do you think? Someone told me 80% of the budget comes from the Olympic Committee, right? Yeah. Is it the USOC? It comes from the USOC. USOPC, yeah.

Okay. What's the piece stand for? Oh, Paralympics so a while ago maybe one cycle two cycles two cycles ago they they moved from the usoc to the usopc for more inclusivity okay interesting i didn't know that yeah yeah some consultant got paid a lot of money for that you know there yeah like a consultant uh in new york was like hey if you use trash cans it'll help your trash collection like yeah okay thanks for that you got paid a lot of money to do that anyway um so you asked about financials and what do i think so

the the problem i can give opinions but the problem is on the usa USA Judah website is 2002 or 2022 financials. So they don't have the most recent stuff. So if I were to get elected, I would want to sit on the audit or the audit committee board to see the up to date financials. I think from a holistic, the way I'm talking to coaches, kind of what I've seen, there were some upset coaches when we, USA Judo specifically, purchased the American Judo system. And there was trying to be development there. And we spent, I think it was a million dollars on it. And there was some hesitancy or some opponents on saying, why are we spending this money there? Shouldn't it go to the athletes, right?

So USA Judo spent a million dollars on the American Judo system that Jimmy Page and those guys made? Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of money. A million dollars? I'm not going to say it's not a lot of money. It is a lot of money, right? I mean, I'm sure. I don't. Okay, so a lot of money is kind dollars i'm not going to say it's not a lot of money it is it is a lot of money right yeah i mean i'm sure i don't okay so a lot of money is kind of like this relative thing maybe they freaking put two million dollars in there they're taking a loss and they're doing

us a favor we don't really know right but right we you know a million dollars considering our annual budget yeah sorry considering our annual budget is $800,000, correct? Right. That's a big portion of our annual budget. Maybe their terms, do they have terms? Or is it like... What I don't know, we'll see. I think they just flat out purchased it, right?

So it's now their system. It's still the American Judo system, but USA Judo has full access to it. Moving forward, I'm pretty sure. I don't think it's like for x amount of years i could be wrong on that maybe maybe i'm wrong on that i i don't know specifically yeah um that being said um i i think that there was some hesitancy or some some uh challenges to spending that money um Um, and what I don't know is what, how did they budget? How did they allocate? How much did they fundraise for this? Right. Where, where did they get this money specifically? Um, and I think that is more of a question that I would like to know, like the more, the more intricate stuff,

because that stuff matters. So the board had to decide on a vote to buy this thing or no i don't know i i don't know if it was uh as keith keith's represent uh keith's role to say we're purchasing this as ceo or if the board of uh directors said voted on and said yes i would assume based off of how boards work and the ceo runs the ceo would have made that decision interesting so guy who couldn't raise four million dollars who's on a shoestring budget and the esa judo of 800 grand a year was like i'm gonna buy this thing for a million bucks you know again i don't know if they had specifically put money away in the budget over multiple years and said okay well we need this for an investment right like yeah and we

don't know if it's uh if there's terms right maybe it's like all right man we'll give you percentage of the you know membership fee over the course of the next 20 years who knows no one knows right that's different price than it is here's a million dollars liquid cash take it you know those two are very different things interesting okay so jimmy pedro's running for a board slot do you think there's a conflict there no i so i think that any coach that has a has a national training site or a um brigger program in the u.s of course they have a conflict of interest, because they're going to want to funnel money into their systems. Now, does that mean that their conflict should stop them from being on the board? Not inherently, right? Like, how do they work as an individual? How do

they work as a professional and say, okay, I even taking myself out of this situation and saying, okay i even taking myself out of this situation and saying um and saying i am going to recuse myself from this vote because i have a conflict or i am going to take my best interest and put it on the side and i'm going to vote for the greater of usa judo if if a if a coach like jimmy pedro can do that then i have no problem with them being on the board. And I think that's part of what coaches need to understand when talking to the coach representative and athletes need to talk about with the athlete representative and then the body for the at-large. Interesting. Interesting. All right. So what are some current issues right now going on that you were like, all right, if I'm in there, I'm going to do this, I'm going to change that.

You know, for instance, like the thing that just kind of recently happened was Joe Reagan, who I'm going to have a conversation with, also got removed from the board because of a conflict, correct? That's right, yeah. It's a technicality, sort of, right? Well, I don't know the full story, but I will share what I do know. I like that. My understanding of the Joe Reagan situation is that Joe was the independent representative on the board. And from a governing body standpoint, an independent should not have any relation to that specific sport or specific governing body. So you shouldn't be a judoka if you are on the board as an independent representative.

It is supposed to be completely removed from the sport to say, I am truly a neutral voice here. I'm just here to help right now a smaller ngb like like judo that's that may be hard to harder to get right yeah joe reagan was um he was i believe he's, he's fourth or fifth Don, right? So he is a Judoka and as a independent, I don't think he was eligible to be there. Um, looking at it neutrally, right? Like I, I think from a, from a, how a governing body works, I don't think that he was supposed to be there. And that's what the USOPC found too.

And so he's no longer on the board. Now he's running as a group director. And if he gets elected as a group director, I have no problem with that. Okay, so he's running right now as a group director. Yeah, let me make sure. Let's see here. Yeah, he is.

He's running against Jason Morris. Oh, that makes it even more interesting. I didn't know he was running for a group director. Yeah. Wow. So he's off as an independent, but was there enough time for him to be a viable candidate and run for this election?

Because he just got off the board last week. Yeah. I think he's got a constituent following. I think that he'll get some votes. I don't know. I think it's going to be... I actually... I think, to me, that's the most interesting race,

the group director between Joe Reagan and Jason Morris. Who would you vote for there? Oof. And why? Man man i should just be a journalist that's what i should forget me teaching judo moves i should just go around be like kamala what do you think biden what's going on i should like just do the debate you know i'll fact check both of them you know oh this is juicy man i might i might i might vote for uh i would might i would i might clip this real this portion just for the real just so you know just so i don't really i don't really decide my guy decides so all right let's see i i think i would vote for jason morris because i think jimmy pedro is going to get. And I think having two high prolific coaches on the board at the same time would be helpful for USA Judo.

And I also think that would help with conflict of interest as well. Interesting. Interesting. Man, that really is the most. Okay, so who gets to vote for the group B? It's every state president, right? Like New York State Judo gets one vote. Wisconsin Judo gets one vote.

There's like 25 organizations or state organizations that get to vote. I don't know why there's not all 50. That I'm not sure on why. I try to get clarification from a team. Yeah, I mean, some dojos don't have, some states don't have a lot of judo. So it's like, all right, let's just bundle these three states together

into one organization. You know, I get that, right? So let me, all right. So the president of the state gets- So what it is, is our governing, or our voting committee will send out the organization. So let's say Texas Judo, right? They'll send out an email to Texas Judo, and they'll say,

please select one representative to represent Texas Judo to vote. And so that individual will register as the group voter. Well, you know, Jason Moore is pretty involved in New York State Judo, so he's probably going to get that vote from uh voter well you know jason moore is pretty involved in new york state judo so he's probably going to get that vote from new york you know i would assume yeah and i was kind of like uh the same way it's kind of like if you're a republican you vote in new york nothing's gonna happen it doesn't matter because you know it's a very democratic blue state you know what i mean so it's kind of like that yeah it's kind of man that's so interesting and then so there's only 25 votes for group b yeah i think it's like 25 maybe maybe up to 30 but it's it's it's right in that right right around that number wow all right so for the people

who are listening right this is kind of for your own thing matt parker what has he done so far you know behind the scenes how can we know like he's gonna done so far, you know, behind the scenes? How can we know, like, he's going to do some certain things, you know, behind the scenes when he is in there, or if he's in there, what would you say to that? Like, these are the things I've done for you guys. Yeah. So I think that, uh, my advocation, you know, for my personal life, I'm not shy to, to share what my opinion is and answer questions. And, um, I am passionate about judo. Um, I think that USA judo is, is in a rough spot right now. And I think that I am able to assist with that. Can I fix it all as a one director? No, but I do think I am, I am because I have zero conflict of interest and I am going in with, with, uh, um, a perspective of, I want to work with everybody, not just one side

of the thing. I think I can help, uh, uh, men, some of the relationships within USA Judo. Um, I also think that from a communication standpoint, standpoint um if you look at the statements that are are made on usa judo i think i have the strongest um statement that's saying hey i'm here for you not this is what i've accomplished yeah so i i actually put down on my statement like hey i would like to bring a sponsorship individual in and help raise money for athletes. And I also want to create a development system for athletes and coaches where most of the other statements for the at-large director is saying I've done judo since 19X, right? And these are the accomplishments that I have. I listed my

accomplishments in very very high level right like i said i was in a former national team member and i'm a and i'm i'm the current chair of usa judo uh aac right and so uh i communicate with with people i've i've picked up the phone and i've called different organizations and and dojos and i've asked for feedback for me, right? Like I was an athlete. I can be, I can be coached if you, if I'm saying something or if you don't like something and you want to build on it, I'm all ears. I don't have all the answers. I do have the passion to make something happen though. How did people find you? how did people find you?

So you can find me at Instagram. Matthew Cray USA is what's my answer. Matthew what? Cray C R a Y. Yeah. Nice. Love it. Okay.

It's not, it's not Cray Cray. It's so my dad was a nerd and he, Cray supercomputers is. Ooh. Okay. Yeah. Good. That's a nice one.

All right, guys, if you're listening, thank you, Drew, Jason, and Lavon for sponsoring the show judo tv.com for all your IJF high level judo needs. It gets streamed.

It gets commentated. It's amazing. Use discount code Chintaro, Higashi brand.com. Matthew, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Great. You know,

best of luck to you. And yeah, everyone listen up. You got to vote. Okay. Registration closes the 27th. So by the time this airs, you know, we kind of got a late start on the whole thing. But I'm sure if you've already registered to vote, you know, now we have heard from a lot of these candidates and you can make a much more informed decision. That was the goal of this whole thing.

Thank you very much. One more word from you mr parker anything i just yeah just from a uh taking myself out of all of this i'm a big fan of your show so thank you for having me thanks man appreciate it yeah i can't wait to see the the other interviews that you're going to be doing in the future yeah and then from now on when you're if you're a board member you come back I guess what this guy said at the board meeting. I got you. That was a campaign promise, by the way. Hey, actually, if you want to commit to something like that,

I'm not putting you on the spot right here, right? But as part of communication and as part of my goal for the at-large director is to say, hey, these are what's going on. And I think you've got a great platform. So if you ever want to have me. Yeah, for sure, man, I've offered my services multiple times to the people, you know, at USA judo, Hey man, like look, the social media thing. Hey, let me, you know, there's this 500,000 people listening in on across all my platforms, whether it's a YouTube podcast, Apple, Spotify podcast, Instagram, 500 eyeballs per month. That's crazy. 500,000 I'm talking

about. I was like, can't you guys, whatever you guys want to put out there, I eyeballs per month. That's crazy. 500,000 I'm talking about. I was like, you guys, whatever you guys want to put out there, I'll help you. They're like, you know what, Higashi? You know, I actually think, you know, I'm like, come on. You know, this is a huge place to be able to like, you know, help grow Judo here domestically. Let me help you guys. And it's like, nah, we're good. So it's like, you know, I don't love how that was handled

at all. You know, obviously there's a monetary incentive for me too. Like I'm not doing it for free, you know, they should absolutely take advantage of you. Dude, you have a, you have a massive platform and for BJJ athletes that are listening in, right. I think there's a huge community within grappling that we can engage with right and we technically have a cross uh um membership with bjj but i don't even know what that means and so yeah i don't know there's an opportunity that we could say hey here's some things that we could do for the bjj community and grow usa judo through that venue too um and i just don't think that we're we're we're doing it.

I don't mean to keep you on too long, but I'm sure you have a 10 a.m. call. But, you know, so USA Judo membership versus IBJJF membership. IBJJF membership, there's no insurance. USA Judo membership acts as insurance. So if you're a registered club, and then every member in that room

is a registered member of USA J member in that room is a registered member of us as you know that person breaks the leg there's insurance covering right this liability thing there you know what i mean but if there's a usa judo slash bjj cross membership and then now all of a sudden that jujitsu gym has membership something happens right like that's a very very good benefit that's wrapped in with the membership that we don't really know about how many people have followed the claim like what is the benefit of usa judo you know and it's like you know what i mean it's like the the insurance is really interesting i know that's a i know that's a component but i don't know many people that have gotten um benefit from that yeah i know a few people no do you okay that that's yeah that's great i i personally don't know many people that have gotten um benefit from that yeah i know a few people no do you okay

that that's yeah that's great i i personally don't right even when i was looking at um you know when i was training with with individuals that made teams and and you know i was on the international circuit right like i don't i got hurt and i i never i tried to talk to USA Judo about, um, you know, what that insurance is. And I think there has to be very specific criteria to be met to use that insurance. Um,

interesting. And I don't, I don't know what that is. Um, I'd be interested to learn more about it. Yeah. To be frank with you. Yeah.

All right. Thank you very much, Matt. And then, uh, best of luck right thank you very much matt and then uh best of luck thank you very much for being on the show shatara i appreciate you man thank you so much thank you