The Xtra Time Podcast- Rocco Lopez

The Xtra Time Podcast by Xavier Sanchez welcomes Rocco Lopez to the show for its seventh episode. 

Lopez just graduated from Mount Carmel which is located in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. After an injury playing hockey, a friend introduced him to photography. Since then, he's gained over 3,000 followers on his shotsbyrocco Instagram account.

If there was an event especially in sports, Lopez was there.

Not only does he enjoy photography but it is at Mount Carmel where he cemented himself as a bright star in the many mediums like broadcasting and writing.

He is headed to Indiana University this Fall in hopes of continuing growing his connections and honing his skills and gaining some new ones along the way.

All that and more in this week's episode!

Check them out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/chicagowomenssportsclub/)

As always, follow XtraTimePod on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/xtratimepod/) and Twitter/X (https://x.com/xtratimepod).

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Extra Time Podcast. I'm your host, Xavier Sanchez. Welcome back for Episode 7. Before I start, I want to recognize Stacey King, who passed away at 59. The player, the broadcaster, and more importantly, the man. He was a three-time NBA champ and even earned second-team all-rookie honors, contributing for legendary Bulls teams. He was in the booth sharing his iconic voice for over 20 years with Chicago fans. He coined many elite phrases and nicknames. My favorites include too big, too strong, too fast, too good about Simeon's own Derek Rose. Next up, gimme the hot sauce, another favorite. And lastly, Jimmy G Buckett's The G Stans for Gets about the young kid at the time, Jimmy Butler. And lastly, we must not forget the man. His own Twitter account is their directory of his nothing but positivity sentiments. For years he would interact with fans on the app and would be out there before and after games taking photos. Thousands of people would be there with him and probably have a photo with Stacey King. A terrible loss for his family and the basketball community as a whole. Rest in peace, Stacey King. Today I want to welcome a young kid I met covering games at Mount Carmel. I'm amazed at the work he's done and the work ethic that will propel him into a great future. Maybe one day he'll even be uh like Stacy King. Or as we discover, the guy next to Stacy King. Uh tech problems were fought during this chat, so bear with me. But we had a lot of fun. Sit back, relax, and enjoy my chat with Rocco Lopez. Today I welcome on a young star known as Shots by Rocco. But he's headed to Indiana to explore his artistic range and media at Indiana University. Welcome to the Extra Time Podcast, Rocco Lopez.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, thank you, Xavier, for having me. Very happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Uh for those that don't know, I cover sports in the Southwest suburbs. I've got into walk the sidelines and baselines, and I've interacted with a lot of people. One of them is Rocco, one of the young stars. Uh many know him for his photos, but he does a lot. So to begin with, tell me a little bit about what you do did or at Mount Carmel.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Uh so at Carmel, I was the head student athletic trainer for the football team. Uh I managed the baseball and lacrosse teams, and I also was the head play-by-play broadcaster for the Caravan Broadcast Network, which is our student-run uh YouTube channel. We broadcast all the games, so I did basketball, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Now, uh what was your favorite one you did during the course of the years? What sport?

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Uh my favorite sport that I did was uh baseball, but my favorite game that I did was the it wasn't even a caramel game, it was the Ignatius Horse Curie uh sectional championship in 4A, you went into overtime, it was just an awesome game in general.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, that that was actually one of the questions I had. I was like uh a specific game I was wondering that you got to call. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah, it was definitely that game.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

And we're so lucky, there's so many games that of your own school, but then games that get put on to the campuses of the schools you frequent. Um is there uh one you prefer, color versus play by play?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Uh I like play by play. I like to talk a lot, so that's out that's definitely my favorite role.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

And uh back to the photography s uh section where a lot of people have seen your work. When did that when did you pick that up?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Uh it's actually a really funny story. So when I was a freshman in sophomore, I was playing hockey and lacrosse. Uh then I got hurt in hockey, and I was sitting in one of my classes sophomore year, and my friend Dave told me that he's selling a camera and that I should buy it off of him. And I was like, I thought about it, and I was like, Yeah, why not? And then I went to our varsity hockey game against St. Rita and then kind of just went and started doing it from there. And I haven't looked back since.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

What um, you know, when you look from now to then, uh, what what's something what's an area that you got really good at that you feel like you have to be in and you didn't quite know so well?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Uh I think editing. I used to not know how to edit, and then I kind of took some time, really sat down and really figured it out, and now I'm confident and I like my style that I have.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah, that's uh watching the just like slowly learning the photography space of the high school creators, you can tell. Like I know when you it when it's a I only have to look at the name, I'm like, okay, that's Rocco, this is this kids, this is that guy's. Uh and I like how everyone has their own thing and it works for them, and that there's a space for everyone. They I I shared recently in a post about how the space has changed so much. You used to only see you used to only see the newspaper guys there, or back then there was a little bit more TV stuff going on. Now you got ten different students and it might not be a kid from your school. What was um go if you had any comments?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

No, no, no, no, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Um what was that camera that you first picked up?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Oh, it was a Canon R ten with a kit lens on it, and then I started to once I kinda felt confident, I started to upgrade it, and then I upgraded the camera completely, and now my setup is a uh Canon R6 Mark II.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Can how do you like uh the Canon products? Anything particular that you like out of them?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Um when I started on a camera, I was using a crop sensor. Um the difference adjusting is kind of weird because the crop sensors are like way more zoomed in. Full frame sensor with the 48 megapixels, I have a lot more range of motion, I have a lot more opportunities to shoot in RAW and a lot more opportunity. I can shoot, I shoot in whenever I do videos, I shoot uh in Canon and C Log. So my old didn't have that, so it's kind of been fun learning that process and learning how to navigate all the different types of cameras.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Who um, you know, there's a lot of good people to speak with. I see it in my writing space and on the sidelines of for photography. Who's some of those people that you look towards and have helped guide you early on?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Uh one of the people that definitely I look forward to a lot is his name is Gerald Barry. He's the uh Mount Carmel photographer, kind of like the official photographer of Mount Carmel. Uh when I first started getting to know him, he was very welcoming, introduced himself to me, saw me right away, and kind of just building that relationship with him over these two years that I've been doing it has been kind of great.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Now, um with Mount Carmel, like I'm more from the Southwest suburbs. A lot of the kids I knew went to Maris, Brother Rice, Marita, uh, but I'm seeing a boom over there at Mount Carmel. How how did you decide to go there? And what other schools were in the mix?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

When I I went to a uh the Grimms Winter's called FXW. It's kind of a feeder school in the St. Ignatius. And I mean, if I look out my window right here, I can actually see Ignatius, like Ignatius Church right behind me. So when I was first in seventh and eighth grade, I was kind of like set on going there. And then my uh eighth grade high school, like my high school guidance counselor at my school told me to check out Mount Carmel because he thinks like that's a place where I'd fit in a lot. And uh, I shadowed and I've loved it ever since. It was kind of a kind of like a 360 or 180 turn out of nowhere with Carmel.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Uh and as you went to Mount Carmel, what have you noticed? What have you picked up on? How have you noticed that brotherhood amongst these guys? Both um from your current class like the classmates you were with to the alumni. I went to a few uh football games and it's packed with people young and old.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

I mean, yeah, it's a big it it's a it's a big family. It that's all I can really say is that it's a family. Um as the baseball manager, I traveled to Las Vegas with the baseball team, and I had a graduate come up to me who lived in Vegas, and he told me that he watched all of our broadcasts and that when he heard that the team was coming out there, he was hoping to get a chance to meet me, which was kind of weird hearing that. Like someone wanted to meet, like, hey, what did I what did I do? Who who am I? But that experience was kind of cool. And I mean, just like been in a relationship with alumni, guys like in the field that me and you are in, Xavier, guys like Eugene McIntosh and Sam Panay, Sam Panatoyovic, and Pablo Glacius, getting to know guys from Carmel who are in this field that my goal is to obviously go into has been a great experience getting to know them.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

And for those that don't know, you're you're big in photography, but broadcasting is number one. That's that's something you really want to hone and get to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah. Yeah, broadcasting is definitely number one for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

So when you grew up watching games, you were pretty much not just watching them, but you were listening to the broadcast. So who are some of those broadcasters that you like tuning into?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Uh Joe Buck, Steve Stone, uh John Schreife and the White Sox play-by-play guy. Uh he's one of my favorites. I've gotten to meet him a couple times. Um, I'm trying to think. Oh, well, obviously Doc Emmerich, one of the NBC uh NHL and NBC legend. Uh Eddie Olchuk, the color commentator for the Blackhawks, Connor Onion, a play-by-play commentator on Fox Sports. Uh he did a couple White Sox games. And then, I mean, obviously Stacey King, who was one of the one of the greatest, in my opinion, basketball broadcasters. His basketball knowledge was just insane.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, this week we lost Stacey King, uh a well-known guy on the championship team, stayed here, kind of made it his home. Uh a lot of different phrases that he kind of coined. What do you have one of them that was your favorite? Can't say I do. Some I I was I posted one and I always mess it up because there's similar words. It's like too big, too fast, too strong, too good. Uh-huh. Uh a Derrick Rose one. So many of those came around when Derek Rose was coming up. You were younger at that time, but I was way younger, yeah. Definitely seen some of them and heard them. Yeah. Uh a huge loss for the community. Uh so on the broadcasting front, how'd you what were you in between uh when it you you were going to go to Indiana? What was what else was in the mix there?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Uh I was between Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Ball State, and then uh University of Oregon. Those were my top five. Um I kind of narrowed it down at first. I narrowed it down to Iowa and Indiana. Um, and then I visited both of them and I loved Indiana. It was I felt like I really belonged there. I met a lot of really great people there. It was kind of just it's a beautiful campus and a beautiful town.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah, one of those elite uh college town atmospheres, especially uh somewhere close to home. It's probably one of those places that it's like far enough that you feel far away, close enough where you can come in back for the weekend. I got another one.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah, and especially especially with the recent success that they especially with the the recent success that Indiana's had uh on top of the sports world, and that's where you crawl, that's where you get attention from, and that's where you get the good experience at.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Now, as you navigate uh this next step, how how do you how do you look to utilize social media? Obviously you've been posting photos. Uh is there anything that you're looking to try out with your social media pages?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Uh probably make a I'm probably gonna make an Instagram account for like broadcasting, post like highlights and clips on that stuff, been utilizing LinkedIn, getting to know a lot of people, sending a lot of MDMs, following people on Instagram, texting them, hey, my name is Rocco. I really love the work you've done in this field. I'm trying to get into it. Is anywhere we can send up a call to talk, stuff like that. It's a tool that a lot of people should utilize, young, young kids and kids that are going to college, and people that are just looking for a job in general. Social media is really a great tool, and our world is changing very fast, and you kind of have to adapt with it. And social media is one of those things that I feel like most people do.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, at first I people like to look at it as like, I'm gonna post this just for fun, but it does open up so many windows, uh, and it's important that people recognize that sooner uh and use it to their benefit. Um, those uh is that something you learned on your own or something that someone told you in the school setting or outside of it to utilize something like a LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Well, for my school's newspaper class, articles about alumni who graduated from Mount Carmel, and my teacher told me to pick people that are in my field of guys like Sam Panatoyovic and Eugene McIntosh, who's the founder of the Biggs, and Pablo Glazi's who works at ESP and Madison. Those are guys that graduated from Carmel and were more than happy to give me 30 minutes of their time to not only do the interview for the new thing, give me tips about the field that we're going in, the field that I'm trying to go into.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I think one of the things I like to tell people, uh, and it's they always like the corny version is like you don't know unless someone says no. Um really, just whoever you're interested in meeting or talking to, all a simple message, and you never know uh what else they'll give uh doing these shows. We one time went into doing a show and we wanted 30 minutes of a guy's time. The the guy ended up giving us 90 minutes and just wanting to sh just talk back and forth and ask us questions, and he was a local, so he's like, Oh, how's the neighborhood? Yeah. And those people are out there, and it all it does is just by simple ask. Headed into uh Indiana, is there people are more than half? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Um, is there uh some skill What were you saying? Sorry. No, it's okay. Is there a skill set that you're trying to work on? Um whether it's through your voice, are you trying to become more technical with audio stuff and video? What's something that you're hoping to learn a little bit between now and next year?

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Um I'm really trying to find my style in the broad in broadcasting. I'm trying to find out what works for me and what doesn't work for me, what am I good at and what am I not good at? That's definitely the biggest one is just trying to f try out different styles of broadcasting, you know, really energetic, kind of more statistical. I'm trying to find out what works for me and what people like. That's the biggest one that I'm trying to find out right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

And you talked about John over there from the White Sox. He's a guy who uh, you know, White Sox have had some ups and downs, and they've had some changes in the booth, and you got young and old fans, and you had people had different opinions on the guy, and he's he's worked out a couple things and tried some new things, and he's slowly kind of finding his way in the booth for eyes and ears that were used to something like was there for twenty years, and that seems to be uh what you're trying to learn how to do.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Coin some new phrases too.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

What uh is there a preferred really like I Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

No, go ahead, finish.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I really like his style. I really I I really like the I really like the energy. You know, that's how that's how I was at Carmel, so that's kind of what I try to emulate is very energetic.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, I I don't know if how many uh broadcasts I got to check out, but I did really like that. It was pretty cool. You guys did those uh Twitter updates, I uh axe Twitter, uh when during the football season, I where you went those little short video clips, especially when you were out of town. I think those were huge.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Uh is that something you're for everyone, those those worked out a lot. A lot of people like those. I got a lot of positive feedback on those.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Is that something you came up with during pre-uh meetings or just on the fly?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Oh no. Um Matt Malloy, who was our lead play-by-player broadcaster in 2025, he goes to Nebraska now. He came up with those and kind of with the role of being with the team all the time and being in media, that was kind of like passed on to me. Matt was like, alright, now this is your job to do it, keep keep it updated. So I was like, alright, let's do it. So it'd be every quarter we'd do an update, or after every touchdown, especially when the team was in Ohio, or we were we went down to Belleville and the state championship up in Northern for all those who couldn't make it.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

You mentioned earlier about uh a favorite game you got to call, but was there a favorite game you've attended and like maybe photograph or just was there? Because you've got to go to Ohio, Las Vegas, all these different places with the the various teams you were involved in. Was there a most memorable game? Any of the sports?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

I mean, my most memorable football game is definitely the game against Moller in Ohio. I was right there when Quentin Burrell caught that game-winning two-point conversion. But, I mean, more recently, my favorite game that I've been to was the sectional championship against Brother Rice. I mean, Connor Allentani threw a no-hitter in the playoffs. We won by 10 runs. That was awesome. I mean, in Vegas, that was awesome. Playing all those teams out there. Vegas is definitely my most favorite experience with Carmel, but my favorite game was definitely either the Brother Rice baseball game, uh, the Sectional Championship, or the uh Archbishop Muller game in Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Now, going to Mount Carmel, it's definitely seems to be uh a destination for many. Uh I live out in the Southwest suburbs, and we're seeing more and more of the students in this area go out there. What's what's your pitch to those people that continue that? Uh talk about your experience and why someone should become a Mount Carmel caravan.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

I mean, there truly is something for everybody at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel truly is a big family. It's not all just sports, there's a lot of other things besides sports. I mean, look at me going into sports media and journalism. I know some of my friends want to be lawyers, some kids are going into psychology, athletic training. There's just a lot of experience. There's a lot of people at Mount Carmel who are more than willing to help you. And the alumni network at Mount Carmel is massive, and all those guys want to help Mount Carmel succeed, and they want to see the next generation of people succeed. And I mean, if you're a great athlete, if I don't know why you wouldn't want to go to one of the best sports schools or the best sports school in Illinois.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yeah, it's crazy. I always thought of Mount Carmel as just you know a football school, like big, big football team. And as I've got to cover them, no, you got baseball, basketball, all the other sports team to compete. They got the whole wrestling thing. Have you ever not wrestling, uh, the boxing thing. Have you ever been to that that they host?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Uh I went to fight I went to Fight Night all four years when I was at Carmel. Uh that was awesome. It's it's a great event. It's a great tradition that they do every year. It's one of the best invites. It is it's the best event in high school sports.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So I I went to Loris in Iowa, and we have a really old field house, kind of like how Mount Carmel has that old field house where they're hosted. And one year I got really into boxing uh and learning how to box, learning about the history of boxing, and then I see a few years later this event that's hosted uh at Mount Carmel. Like, wow, this is really cool. I like the idea of boxing, but then I'm like, that means I have to get hit. I'm like, uh I'm good, I'm good, I'm gonna have friends. But no, that's a pretty uh cool uh environment. So it's it's jam-packed, the whole thing's filled, and what what age groups is that for those that never heard of it or seen it.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

It's it's Mount Carmel students, so it's freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and the great thing about it is it's it's all friends. Every everyone is friends who is doing that, so they're all fighting it out, but at the end of the day. They all they're all best friends. They're all close to each other. They all love each other.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

They're all going for pizza after the event. Yeah. I got a couple more here. You know, in sports, everyone has just like a hot take on something. Uh do you have like a take that you take around places where you're like for a long time in high school sports, people are like uh the shot clock stuff was a big deal. Um you see you don't have to specifically go to high school, but now high school always they talk about um private versus public, things like that. You have a hot take, not necessarily high school, but in pro sports.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

I mean, I I think I think the White Sox are gonna win the World Series in the next three years. That's my definitely, that's one of my that's one of my biggest takes. The White Sox, and then especially Chicago sports in general, I feel like are on the uprise. The White Sox are good, the Bulls are not the best, uh, the Blackhawks are getting better, the Cubs are good, uh, and the Bears are very good. So I feel like Chicago sports are definitely coming back up like they were last decade. It was a wild break, but I feel like everything's kind of coming together now. All the rebuilds are kind of in their last phrases, in their last phases.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Now, the the White Sox, what what do you like about the White Sox right now? Who who are some of your favorites to watch on the team? Uh, what's something that you see that's like, okay, something's different from this year even to last year's like little end of the season run?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

They're having they're having fun. That's that they're they're winning baseball games and and they're having fun. They all truly, they all truly like each other. That's kind of what the beauty of that team is. I mean, lots of rookies, um, what's his name? Braden Montgomery just had a walk-off in his first in his first ever MLB game. His first ever home run is a walk-off home run. They're kind of they don't have the best, not everyone is the best player, but they're all playing like they are the best players. I mean, Colson Montgomery, Miguel Vargas, Murray Khan before he got hurt, those were all-star caliber players. Tristan Peters used to play for the Savannah Bananas, and now he's playing center fewer for the White Sox. So that's kind of awesome. And I mean, they're they're winning baseball games by having fun. Davis Martin is a is the ace. He's an all-star caliber player. And a couple years ago, no one knew who this guy was.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Yeah, uh, this White Sox team, I at first, though, there's the first like week, I'm like, ah, this is looking rough. And then they started to pick it up.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Another I yeah, I mean, after the Brewer series, I was like, oh wow, this is another, it's gonna be another year, but at least this murder comedy kid's pretty good. And then they started and then they started winning.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

And they are still winning. It's already halfway through June, and they still look to be competitive, even with losing out on guys. There in previous seasons when you saw them going to deficits early, there was no fight. It was like, okay, wrap it up, the game's gonna be over. But we're seeing that a lot of comeback wins from these guys, a lot of high energy late in the game where no lead is too big. I think they had a couple games where they were down five or five or so runs and still managed to come up and win those games.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah, they were down f I mean they were down four to zero last night and then won six to five, so they they have fight. They that's what they have, they have a lot of fight, and they truly they truly enjoy being together. The team chemistry on the White Sox is off the charts.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

They you know, a lot of these other cities, we got New York in the playoffs, uh, and the Spurs and New Chicago's always looked as like a backseat, like not a big city, even though it's one of the bigger cities, and they and their sports reputation, although they haven't accumulated as many championships as they probably should, this state you have all these teams that, if any of them are good, so many eyeballs, the everything else gets better. People want to shop here, eat here, go out to things more often, and hopefully one of these teams clicks. Of the of any of these teams, who do you want to see win next?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

The White Sox for sure. I've been a White Sox fan my entire life. Uh grew up going to games, grew up going to games with my parents, and now I actually now I work in the stadium, so I get to watch the games every single day. So I definitely want to see the White Sox win.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Um and who were those players that you grew up on watching that you really liked?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

My favorite player growing up was Paul Conerco. Uh I was at his jersey retirement ceremony was on my birthday in 2014 or 2015. Uh I was at that. Uh one of my favorite White Sox players of all time was Lucas Giolito. I have his jersey hanging up. I'm actually looking at it right now. I have his jersey hanging up uh in my closet. He was one of my favorite players of all time. I mean, now he's not that. I don't know why I liked him so much, but now he's really not that good on the Padres. Uh he was one of my favorite guys to watch growing up, and Tim Anderson obviously was one of my favorite players as well to watch.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

It's uh it's wild how like when you're a fan of a sports team, you just pick up on certain players, whether they're good or bad. Um I always Alexi Ramirez was my guy. For some reason on the Cubs, I really liked Mark Pryor and Juan Pierre during those years. Uh but Tim Anderson, that home run that he hit, I was in Iowa at the time for the uh other during the Field of Dreams stuff, and I don't think the White Sox have had a high quite like that in some time. So seeing the reaction of that moment, like the White Sox are foolish not to try to chase something like that again.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Yeah, and I mean Miguel Vargas's walk-off homer kind of reminded me of that. That moment kind of reminded me. That was one of my the the Feud of Dreams game was when I was in seventh grade. I remember my mom stayed up to let me watch it. Uh, because it went into extras and it was like 11, it was like 11 30, and I had school the next day. But and then Tim Hansen had that walk-off homer, and I was like, wow, glad I glad I got to watch that. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, they did them in uh uh on a Thursday, so they already have a rain date on Friday just in case. And we're watching this, and I was like, it went like back and forth for a little bit. Like looked like one person team locked it in, and you couldn't pick two better teams, the Yankees at the White Sox.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Uh to close it out here, uh, I've been amazed at the work that you and many of your peers have done. Uh what advice do you now leave this next generation of Rocco's that walk the halls of not just Mount Carmel, but any school? What should they know to maximize their time in high school and to level up in their career and like become who they want to be?

SPEAKER_00 29:02

I mean, all I can really say is do what you like to do and find something that really motivates you because if you're having fun, you're really not, you're really not working. So that's kind of my thing. I mean, I had so much fun my entire high school career. Uh, and I I mean, yeah, it just really, really just have fun and find what you like to do, and really find your people and truly make the most of high school because that was some of the best four years of my life. And now that it's over, kind of reflecting on that and reflecting on everything that I accomplished at Carmel, and reflecting on everything that Mount Carmel accomplished while I was there.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, it's it's been uh pretty incredible to see like all the schools I get to cover, but Mount Carmel, you know, when teams are good in any sport, they're like, Oh, then they should win every year, and that doesn't always happen, but Mount Carmel still continues to hold themselves to a standard and show that this is who they are, and they they do get to the end goal. They sh they show up in the championships, they continue to that, and not many others can say such a thing. And that falls from top down, whether you're on the you're playing the game or uh covering it or whatever, in the classroom they're competitive.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

So I want to say thank you, Rocco, for joining me. Uh great conversation.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Thank you for having me out.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

A great conversation. Hopefully your t your uh your buddies finish it off this weekend with a a win at at state and another cement to those group of seniors.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

That's the goal is to close out my Mount Carmel experience on a high note for sure. Alright, thanks. Of course. Thanks, Xavier, for having me.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Thank you to Rocco Lopez. The Spider Soul Internets, I enjoyed this conversation and be able to highlight the future. He'll be a future returner to the show, especially as he embarks on his college days. Uh we kind of discuss some ideas that we could might do for some special episodes uh to fill the void as we reach uh some fun seasons of sports. Go follow Shots by Rocco on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. You won't want to miss it. Also, I want to say thank you to the listeners once again. It's been a minute, and I'm glad to be back. I have lots to record with some fun people. Uh schedule conflicts happen, so I'm glad to get one out to you and hope this becomes a regular thing. Uh quick social update, up to 40 on Instagram and just above 30 on Twitter. Hopefully, see those numbers rise as I become a more regular show and have some fun names. So make sure to follow the Extra Time Pod and myself to not miss out on all the fun and happenings. Once again, I'm Xavier Sanchez, and thank you for listening to the Extra Time Podcast.