Grand Finale - August 29, 2023

Intro:
Are you ready? Let's go.
From AMI Central-
Now circling in The Neutral Zone.
Here's the pitch on the way.
36 yards for the win.
This-
Here comes the big chance. The shot.
Is-
Is this the tiger?
The Neutral Zone.
This is as good as it gets.
Now, here's your host, two time Paralympian, Brock Richardson.

Brock Richardson:
This is a newsworthy edition of The Neutral Zone today. We have a couple of news items to pass your way later on in the program. Let me just tell you what's coming up. On today's edition of The Neutral Zone, we release our final Canadian Paralympic Committee Summit interview. Today, we speak with New Brunswick Swimmer, Danielle Dorris in the second half. As I mentioned, we have a couple of special announcements. I'm joined by Cam Jenkins and Josh Watson. Let's get into our headlines for this week.

Intro:
Neutral Zone Headlines.

Cameron Jenkins:
Senior Women's National Team Wheelchair Basketball Coach Marni Abbott-Peter has stepped down from her position for personal reasons. Marni will remain part of the Women's Basketball Canada High-Performance Program as Head Coach of the Women's Under 25 team and lead the development of our next generation of young female athletes as they strive for excellence.

Brock Richardson:
We congratulate Team Canada wheelchair curling team for recently winning the Best Team Performance at the 2020 Paralympic Games. At this particular event, they won bronze. They have podium-ed in each of the five other times that wheelchair curling has been represented at the Paralympic Games. This team is the epitome of success at the Paralympic Games. Congratulations to them.

Josh Watson:
Toronto Maple Leaf Stars Center, Austin Matthews, has signed a four-year extension with the team. The contract is worth an average annual value of $13.25 million per season, making him the highest-paid player in the league. Good luck to the Leafs this year. Having Austin Matthews signed will certainly make the rest of the signings that are necessary more easy to figure out, we'll say.

Brock Richardson:
We released our final Canadian Paralympic Committee Summit interview. Today we speak with New Brunswick's Danielle Dorris, who is a Paralympic swimmer. Please enjoy the interview.
Danielle, we're going to start with the fact that you are New Brunswick's Female Athlete of the Year, being their first Para athlete that has received this award. What does that mean to you?

Danielle Dorris:
It means a lot. I think it was very special that they named me Female Athlete of the Year and not just Female Para Athlete of the Year because for swim in New Brunswick, we have awards and they have a specific one for Female Para Swimmer Athlete of the Year, and obviously, I'm winning that every year since I'm the only one. But being able to beat out the able-bodied athletes who were eligible for Female Athlete of the Year in New Brunswick and being able to win that, I think it's very special and very progressive. I felt very honoured to have that title.

Brock Richardson:
When you found out about this because you find out about these things before the rest of the world, what was your first reaction?

Danielle Dorris:
I was like, oh wow, this is amazing. Part of me didn't think it was going to happen because I had been nominated the year prior and I hadn't won, when I personally in my opinion, I think I should have won just because I had performed the best within my discipline versus the others in their disciplines. So having won the next year following, it felt very rewarding and very fulfilling I guess I would say.

Brock Richardson:
You're 20 now and you've been swimming for a while. It's easy sometimes to fall into the trap of I want to be a kid and I want to just be myself. How do you get yourself out of that track when you get there?

Danielle Dorris:
I don't think I've ever really been like, "I'm a kid, I need to go do kid stuff." I grew up very fast. When I made that first Paralympic team, I put myself in the mindset of I need to be an adult right now. Let's be professional. I guess in a sense the way that I'm still acting like a child is I hate replying to emails. It's probably the worst. I think it's my bad quality is that I suck at emails and it's very childish of me to just see them and read them but just not reply to them. I've gotten better at it. I've started replying to emails a lot more frequently. I've started to realize that it's part of being an athlete and it's a part of my brand to be replying to people and keeping myself engaged. I think in that aspect it's where I'm starting to grow more to be an adult.

Brock Richardson:
Sometimes we just don't want to adult in life.

Danielle Dorris:
Exactly.

Brock Richardson:
It's not even about being a kid. I just don't want to adult. I just want to do my job and go home. And the job for you is Para swimming.

Danielle Dorris:
Exactly.

Brock Richardson:
People say, "Well, why don't you be a little more personal?" Because I have to do a job. I'm here to do a thing and maybe I don't want to answer emails. That's not the answer I would've expected you to give me is that, I don't answer emails. I think that that's real. That's honest. For you, you are one of the top medal contenders for the next games in Paris. How do you not feel the pressure in this and say, "I just got to go and do what I have to do"?

Danielle Dorris:
Exactly like you said, I have that mindset of I just need to go in and do what I want to do. I'm not going to perform for others. I'm going to perform for myself. I want it to be, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to do my best at the best of my abilities and if it results in those medals, then it results in those medals. If it doesn't, then it doesn't, and I personally won't be upset about it. Others may be, but as long as I'm doing what I want to do, I'll be as happy as I can. I don't want to let the pressure of defending anything get to me.

Brock Richardson:
Is it hard because as athletes, we're so programmed and results-based? Is it hard? You said the words, which I appreciate, that you're not medal-focused. Is it hard to walk away from games or competitions and say, "This one wasn't my best, and I should have been here," or is it as easy as how you just said it, "I'm not medal-focused as much"?

Danielle Dorris:
I will say for me personally, whatever happens, happens. I can't go back and change that. Even though I wanted to give my best and the results weren't my best, I can't go back and change that. So why think about the past when I can look into the future and be like, "Hey, let's do better next time." That's the way I think about it all. I don't want to focus on what could have been versus what will be.

Brock Richardson:
Should have, could have, would have does not always work.

Danielle Dorris:
Exactly.

Brock Richardson:
I think as we progress towards the games here, for you, what has Swim Canada done for you personally in helping you advance in your career and be at the best you can be?

Danielle Dorris:
I think Swimming Canada has definitely started to help Para athletes a lot more. They have started matching the amount of money they've been giving to the able-bodied to us Para athletes so that things are more equal for our helping with training funds and equipment funds and travel funds. They've definitely started to help with the easing of how much things cost for our sport.

Brock Richardson:
It's all about the mighty dollar.

Danielle Dorris:
Exactly.

Brock Richardson:
What is your favourite thing about swimming?

Danielle Dorris:
I think my favourite thing about swimming is that... Well, there's two parts. There's the fact that anybody can do it. This is me trying to advocate people to come swim. This is anybody can do it. And then for my personal side, I think my personal thing is I feel weightless in the water, so it's like I feel like I'm just floating, even though I'm moving very fast. I feel like it helps de-stress everything. It's a big de-stressor for me. That's my personal love of swimming and then there's the professional side of me being like, "Everybody can swim. Come do it. Join me."

Brock Richardson:
Other than the money which we've chatted about, what is the most challenging part about swimming for you?

Danielle Dorris:
One of the most challenging parts is it is definitely probably the quality between able-bodied and Para where it's very sad to say that a lot of the times at competitions we are integrated but we're not too integrated to where all of our events are always at the end of everybody else's. All the fans are already leaving because they already watched the able-bodied. It's similar to with the Paralympics and the Olympics where Paralympics are after the Olympics.
I think they should be before because then we would hype the Olympics up. Whereas, in swimming we're always after the able-bodied events, so we're always having to cheer each other on versus the fans. But if we're before, I think it would allow for us to have fans to cheer us on. I think that's the way I would answer that.

Brock Richardson:
Is part of it due to the fact that we go through 18, 20 days of the Olympic Games and people just get Olympic'd out, whereas if we did it before they're going to do it? Or do you think it stems further from we're just exhausted from Olympic coverage?

Danielle Dorris:
Probably they're tired of watching the same thing that just happened, but just in a shorter timeframe. I think having the Paralympics first, it is shorter, so it wouldn't tire you to watch the Olympics because you get hyped from us and then you'd watch them. I think we're cooler to watch because there's so many different things that you're seeing, different sports. The Olympics doesn't have a goal ball or bocce ball and there's so many different things about the Paralympics versus the Olympics that I think we as the Paralympics could hype up the Olympics so that people would want to watch both. I just hope that's what happens in the future, that it switches.

Brock Richardson:
If somebody from one of the main networks is watching or whatever, what would be your message to them? If you were to pitch to them why they should cover the Paralympic Games, the way they cover the Olympic Games, what would you say to somebody if they said, "If you sell me on this, I'm going to do it."

Danielle Dorris:
I think it should be covered the exact same way to help educate the world that us as disabled people can do exactly the same thing as able-bodied people, just slightly different. The basis of the Paralympics, the meaning is parallel or equal to. So the fact that it's not, I think we need to change that and live up to that definition of parallel and equal to. As I was saying earlier, we're so much cooler to watch because we all look different. So kids who are watching us on TV who look like us could be like, "Oh, I can go do this."
As a child myself, I always thought, "Oh, I want to go to the Olympics, but I can't, don't look like them." But if the Paralympics had been on TV, I'd be like, "Oh, I can go to the Paralympics. I look like them and I can do exactly what they're doing." I think we need to start having that true saying of parallel or equal to.

Brock Richardson:
Very well said. Family is an important piece to what we do, and coaches. What has your support networks meant to you, done for you for the reasons you're sitting in front of me as a Paralympic hopeful medalist again for 2024?

Danielle Dorris:
I am a big family-oriented person. I had made the decision last year to move away from my family for the first time and I realized that I hated it and my mental health was very poor last year, so I made the decision to move back home and I'm way better now. I'm really happy. I'm back with my family. I'm back with my home coach who has helped me get to where I am today. He was there with me in Tokyo. He's going to be there hopefully with me in Paris. They just help keep me sane and really help ground me into the person who I know I am.

Brock Richardson:
How important is consistency in general, but consistency as far as coaches?

Danielle Dorris:
I think coaches' consistency is good, but also coaches learning at the same time and growing as coaches to be better coaches is good. My coach, I had met him when he had just really only started coaching, so he was learning as I was also learning. We learned together. I think that helped both of us grow into who we both are and I think as long as you're always willing to learn something, coach or athlete, it'll help better you as a coach or an athlete.

Brock Richardson:
You mentioned earlier that because of Parasports you've had to grow up quicker than the average person in your age. I was in a similar situation. For you, because you've had to do that, how do you carry the growth into your personal life aside from Parasports?

Danielle Dorris:
I would say that even though I had grown up faster in my Parasport life, I try to keep that life very separate from my personal life. My personal life growing up, I was still mature, it does transfer over, but I also tried to goof off as much as I could with my friends, even though I was still slightly more mature, slightly more dedicated, more punctual. I tried to not let the fact that I was growing up so quickly deteriorate the fact that my friends weren't. They helped me still act like a kid when I needed to be a kid, which really helped me in my sport life to be able to keep my professionalness to that and only that as I was growing up. Now as an adult, I can use that professionalness from my sport life and bring it into my personal life.

Brock Richardson:
When you woke up this morning and you were coming here and going to do a whole bunch of media, and listen to guys like me ask you a bunch of questions, you had to have had a goal in mind. We're really getting towards the end of the day as we record this. Did you accomplish your goal in what you hoped to achieve?

Danielle Dorris:
I think I've accomplished my goal. I just wanted to make people smile and laugh and tell my story about who I am and why I love sport and why Parasport needs to become more known. Having this many media people come in and ask us all questions is amazing. Honestly, I did not think there were just going to be this many interviews. It was so many. I think there's been 11 or 12 of them and it's been an amazing day. I am happy that we're getting Parasport out there.

Brock Richardson:
Awesome. Thank you so much for doing this interview.

Danielle Dorris:
Thank you for having me.

Brock Richardson:
We greatly appreciate it and it's so nice to meet you in person.

Danielle Dorris:
Yes.

Brock Richardson:
We've had you on the program before and yeah, we hope to have you on again soon.

Danielle Dorris:
It was lovely meeting you for the first time in person and thank you for having me.

Brock Richardson:
That was Danielle Dorris from Moncton, New Brunswick, Para swimmer, and she was talking about her career in swimming. We hope you enjoyed the interview and it was a pleasure putting together all of those interviews over the number of months that we've been able to release them. We have some big news to share on a couple of different fronts. First of all, for those of you that might've noticed, Josh Watson was not with us last week and that's because he was doing something pretty special. So I will let him take the wheel to tell us what he did last week.

Josh Watson:
Thank you, Brock. Last week, I was away from the show as we know. I had the chance to go to beautiful Grand Prairie Alberta and go visit my girlfriend Tammy. We met through Brock about two years ago almost. Two years on September 2nd. After a lot of consideration and a lot of just humming and hawing and not sure what to do, I finally just got up the courage and said, you know what, she's a wonderful woman and I'd like to marry her someday. So, I took the opportunity when I got out there to ask her to marry me and she accepted. She said yes. We are very excited. We're giving ourselves a year to plan and to get everything in place, and hoping for a September 2024 wedding. I really could not be happier. I'm a very lucky man. She's a wonderful woman.

Brock Richardson:
As you're about to find out over the next 30-plus minutes, this panel is an extremely close panel. Listen, I've been friends with Josh forever and we started as more of a acquaintances and then we reconnected when we got with Voices for Ability and he was doing some work with Melanie Taddeo. We've grown closer and closer as he's been a part of this panel. I could not be happier for two individuals who are probably two of the nicest people that I know, aside from Cameron and Claire of course, because you got to throw them in there as well.

Josh Watson:
Absolutely.

Brock Richardson:
I'm incredibly happy for the two of you. All the best in success. What a way to start off what is going to be a challenging next few minutes with positive news. Congratulations to you both and look forward to seeing the next chapter of your life open up. Congratulations.

Cameron Jenkins:
Congratulations, Josh. That's phenomenal news.

Josh Watson:
Thank you.

Cameron Jenkins:
You've been together for quite a while with her and you're both lovely people. I wish you nothing but happiness in the future.

Josh Watson:
I appreciate that, gentlemen. It's certainly been a challenge managing a long-distance relationship like this, but we both know what we want in life and we have similar goals and aspirations and so it's been a wonderful, wonderful experience and I could not be happier. She is warm, she's kind, she's everything I've looked for in a partner. I'm a very lucky man.

Brock Richardson:
Josh and I had a conversation. His fiance is a very private person, and so for him to be able to publicly announce this is something big for Tammy and Josh, because Josh is even a relative private person even though he is on with us every week, and we enjoy that as well. Such a great opportunity for us to be able to celebrate with you and share the news to our audience, which at this moment in the episode we're like 60 people or so shy of 5,000 downloads since we started this 48, 49 episodes ago now. It's really something cool. Congratulations.
This is the part of the show where we have another piece of news to share with you. I have to tell you that Cameron is a genius on social media because I didn't even realize that he had an audio thing attached to his Instagram post. Cameron, you might have to help me out here, but the song you posted on it, what was the name of the song?

Cameron Jenkins:
Oh, man. I'll have to figure it out and let you know. But yeah, I did it. I found that song and I thought it was a good way to give a little teaser, shall we say, for what you're about to announce. It was part of a story and that only lasts for 24 hours. Sorry, I don't remember what the name of the song was, but it certainly was a song about the show, about what we've done with the show. That's your job, Brock, to let people know what's going on. I don't want to spill the beans. I'll let you do that and give my thoughts afterwards.

Brock Richardson:
Well, I have delayed far too long probably in telling you that if you are familiar with AMI, you know that this is the end of AMI's fiscal year. Usually, we have somebody come on and share some news of where The Neutral Zone is going and what's happening. Today, I don't have that. I'm telling you this because this episode is called the Grand Finale because after more than 300 shows, six years and three months, this here is our final episode of The Neutral Zone here on Accessible Media Inc. I wanted to spend some time in talking about The Neutral Zone and giving it its due. I'm going to tell you that I have told Jordan and Mark, who do a wonderful job in editing this program and really make us look as done up and straightened up as possible, I've told them to let things ride a little bit on this next segment because we want to share with you and allocate the love and support that we have for The Neutral Zone.
And because of that, as we go through this segment, there may be some emotions that you may see and that's just because of the love and the admiration we have for this program. Let me start by talking to the second-longest serving member of this panel, and that is the one and only Cam Jenkins. He has been with this program since basically its inception when we go back to Voices for Ability. I want to get your thoughts. What comes to mind when you think of The Neutral Zone and what we've done over the last six years and three months, as I get that all twisted around?

Cameron Jenkins:
That's okay. I thought it was six months. Thought it was a long six months.

Josh Watson:
Very much so.

Cameron Jenkins:
It felt very long. So yeah, it's a bittersweet moment. I've really enjoyed doing this show with all of the hosts or co-hosts that we've had on and all the guests that we've had on too. I remember back even before the AMI days where we went to... It was in [inaudible] in Mississauga and we would have to walk upstairs to the studio. In those days, which isn't good for Brock's anxiety or his, whatever you want to call it, nervousness, we would just go up there on the day of and then all of a sudden we were like, "Okay, what do we want to talk about today?" Then we just started talking about whatever was in the news that week for sports. It could have been hockey. It could have been football. It could have been the Para Games. We just did it right there, recorded it. Everything happened in that hour and it was great.
It kind of was off for a while because I was back to work and I wasn't able to commit to it. Then Brock asked me to come back on the show and I think at that point it was still through Voices for Ability and we were able to record at nighttime. I remember that, and then Brock saying that he reached out to AMI and that they were wanting to have us on the show. I remember the very first show that we had. I used still have the picture of the original cast characters, I'll call them, in the AMI boardroom and us sitting there and taking a picture. I remember that first episode as well with Dave [inaudible], Brett, Brock and myself. I've learned so much as far as broadcasting or how a show works when you're either doing a live show or doing a podcast, which it's kind of had different iterations while being on AMI audio.
I don't want to single out any guests, but all of the guests that we've had, it's been wonderful having all of the guests on and we appreciate all of the guests that have come on to talk about Parasports and to try to put Parasports in the front to be able to get more excitement going about Parasports. That's what we originally wanted to do, is we wanted to put Parasports in the forefront and we wanted to promote Parasports, and to get it into the more mainstream and get people understanding more about Parasports. And talking about the pro sports as well. It's always fun to talk about that. I really love [inaudible]. Being the last show, I guess I can admit it now. Sometimes I would kind of go on the opposite side on purpose just to kind of-

Brock Richardson:
Wait, what? You're telling us this now?

Cameron Jenkins:
Absolutely. It's the last show. I might as well come clean. Just doing that and trying to get a discussion going or a back and forth, a bit of a conversation going rather than, "Oh yeah, Austin Matthews is great." That's boring. Somebody's got to go against the grain. That was me a lot of the times. I loved doing that. I remember a time with you Brock, when we were talking about the Blue Jays, and I think it had to do with the salary cap or lack thereof. I was saying to you, "Brock, if you were able to get a million dollars because of all the people watching you, wouldn't you take that?" I think you ended up having to say, yes. My memory's not the greatest, but I'm pretty sure you did.

Brock Richardson:
Yeah, I did. You actually took the words right out of my mouth because you said-

Cameron Jenkins:
Because you were saying, "Oh, I can't say anything. No, I wouldn't do that," blah, blah, blah. And then I'm like, "You're telling me..." And then, yeah. Just kind of that back and forth, having fun and seeing your smile right now when I brought it up. Or talking about the old manager from the Blue Jays. I had a hate on for him.

Brock Richardson:
Charlie Montoyo.

Cameron Jenkins:
Thank you, Montoyo and Kikuchi this year. He was my boy. Another honest truth, I didn't think he would do as well as he did, but I stuck with him and thank God he's done really well except for maybe the last game. I got lucky sometimes by some of the predictions I made or who I stuck by and stuff, but I'm glad I stuck with this program. Brock, it's been wonderful you being host and putting everything together. Although, sometimes I would've just liked to have just come up with a topic last minute and talk about it, but I know that's not necessarily good for your health and probably other people on the show.

Brock Richardson:
Oh, hell no.

Cameron Jenkins:
And Josh, us going back and forth too and talking about certain things. You know your stuff. You did a lot of research into a lot of things and that was great as well. And Claire, being able to have that women's perspective I think was a phenomenal way to add to our show as well during the years that she was on it. It's not necessarily goodbye forever. The show might be in a different iteration down the line. Who knows what's going to happen, but I've really enjoyed being on the show and talking sports and especially Parasports. So, thank you to AMI. When I say AMI, I mean all of the management team, other hosts, the people behind the glass. I don't want to say any names because I know that I'm going to forget certain names.

Brock Richardson:
I got you on that one later, so you're good.

Cameron Jenkins:
Yeah, thank you to everybody and to everybody that has listened and supported this show through the different iterations. We were on the radio, and I I don't know if you were an hour right away, but I think it was a half an hour and then it went to an hour, and then kind of went back to a half an hour, back to an hour and then video that we've done this year. So yeah, thank you for just being with us, supporting us and going through all the different iterations.
I think all of us have grown over the course of the show. It certainly helped me through some darker times, especially during COVID when we're all alone in our apartments and we're not allowed to really go anywhere. This show, I don't want to say saved my life, but it really helped me out to get through some tough times. That's something else that I'll always remember this show for, is helping me out and getting through some tough times.

Brock Richardson:
We're going to talk about the future of this program as we sit here today and what I can tell you, but we'll save that for a bit down the line. Josh, comments from you and favourite memories, if you could throw some of that in there.

Josh Watson:
Absolutely. It'd be a pleasure. First of all, Cameron, you are one heck of a devil's advocate. I give you props for that. Anytime I thought, "Okay, well we're going to talk about this and we're all going to be on the same page and everything's going to be fine," Cameron comes out of left field with something that creates a discussion point.

Cameron Jenkins:
But I could never get you going. You were so professional. You didn't even bat an eyelash or your tone of voice didn't even go up not even half an octave.

Josh Watson:
I had to practice very, very hard for that. But no, I appreciate that you always had the best interest of the show in mind, and even if that meant going with an opinion that wasn't always popular, it was well received. One of my first memories of doing the show after being asked to come on after Dave's departure was coming down to our studio down there in Toronto. And of course, waiting patiently for our turn to come into the studio after Kelly and Ramya, and not having really met Ramya before. The door to the studio opens and all of a sudden out comes Ramya attached to the end of this adorable dog. This dog had clearly been cooped up for far too long because all she wanted to do was escape.
Poor Ramya nearly ran straight into me with the dog because it wanted out and that was that. That was quite an introduction to what life at AMI might've been like. Unfortunately, shortly after that day we ended up in the pandemic mode and working from home as we are now. So there wasn't a lot more of those experiences in studio, but that certainly stood out to me and I hope that she managed to get her dog trained a little better so that he or she does not pull her down the hallway like she did that day.
I am always floored when I think about the number of guests that we've interviewed and the calibre of the guests that we've interviewed. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be involved with a program that would interview people like Devin Heroux and of course Scott Russell when we talk about Paralympics, Dan Schulman when we talk about Blue Jays, Justin Bourne when we talk about hockey. We got to talk to Steven Brunt about ghostwriting the Brian Burke book. There's just been so many wonderful, wonderful guests and not always professional media people either.
Some of the athletes we've interviewed have been incredible, and some of them it's their first time being interviewed and they're nervous and they're scared, but they come on here and they trust us and we are able to do our best with them to get them through. And we have a great conversation. Then of course we've been able to raise some pretty important issues on the show as well, just in terms of some of the issues that Claire deals with in the LGBTQ space and just some of the more ethical issues in sports. It's been a real, what's the word I want here?
It's been a safe space for ideas I think, and that is incredibly valuable because some of these issues may not come to light from a disability perspective if it's not for a program like this. And so it's been amazing to watch this show grow and progress. I made sure to follow the show as it left Voices for Ability and moved over to AMI. You gentlemen have done a wonderful job in growing this program the way you have, and it was really an honour and a privilege to be brought into such a great program a couple of years ago when I did join because I had shoes to fill and I knew I could and I knew that it was going to be fun, but I didn't realize how much it could grow.
My own skills when it comes to being on camera, when it comes to being on microphone have grown exponentially and it wouldn't have happened without this program. I'm truly eternally grateful for the opportunity to be here.

Brock Richardson:
Yeah, it's hard for me because we came to this. I brought a bunch of people that had had virtually zero broadcasting experience, and I thought to myself, this can be something big. This can be something that I know we can do, and I've still got 15 minutes left to do of this program. I look at this and I think, did I accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish? And the answer to that is no, because there could always be room for growth. There could always be room for better. There could always be room for whatever. Nothing is ever perfect.
But I can say my goal when starting this thing was literally to bring the light of three or four individuals, whatever the max number was that we had at the beginning of this and bring the light of disability, whether it was that we were talking about mainstream sports, whether it was that we were talking about Parasports. I felt that even if we were talking mainstream sports, the angle we were bringing was different than your average cookie-cutter program that could be the way that it was, and you could get them talking about the Leafs. I just thought that we brought a different angle to the program, and I know that we switched gears to Parasports.
I remember having a lunch meeting with the people that were involved with me then, and some of them looking at me going, "How the hell are we going to do this? Parasports isn't really readily available to us, as is mainstream sports." I said, "You got to trust me and you got to believe in what we're doing and what we're going to do." And everybody has trusted me and done that. For me, I'm forever grateful for that. There's a lot of times that these guys sit in here and I just go completely off the page and they follow me.
Marco Fuller last week who said, "Can you do this?" I didn't do what "this" was and I just blew right past it. At the end he was like, "So do you want to do the thing I asked you to do 25 minutes ago?" I was like, "Oh, yeah." I blew that. And we all just carried on. Cameron, I think you were going to add there.

Cameron Jenkins:
Oh, no, I was just laughing at you thinking of you blew it, but yeah, no, it's all good.

Brock Richardson:
Yeah. Something that I want to get from both of you is what did you learn about yourself that if it wasn't for this program, you would not have learned? Josh, start with you and then we'll move straight into Cameron.

Josh Watson:
I think for me it was just that I have some skills that I can add to my resume. I never would've thought of myself as a podcaster or as someone who could appear on television or radio. And yet, through this program and through some great coaching, through some amazing technical producers, I've been able to look and sound confident and competent at what I do. That's pretty amazing because most of the time, the only thing I'm bringing you is my opinion on something. I'm bringing no real education or knowledge of the particular topic. I'm just bringing forth my own thoughts and am able, thankfully and gratefully to be able to put those into words in a manner that makes sense to all of you. That's a skill I didn't know I had coming into this program.

Cameron Jenkins:
For myself, I think I learned... I've been thinking about this all week. I think a lot of what Josh said is very true. That is what I've learned as well. It's just raised my confidence when it comes to speaking on a show. I never imagined in a million years that I be doing something like this for so long. This even goes before AMI when I was doing it on Voices for Ability hosting a panel. It was just a matter of, okay, this is what we're doing, and Cameron, you're going to host the ability panel. So I was like, okay. You just learn through the school of hard knocks of what my style is for hosting a show and the questions to ask. A lot of the time it was just ad-libbing because I think one of the things I've learned to do is active listening.
When you're hosting a show, you want to be an active listener and hear what the person is saying that you're interviewing and then ask questions based on that because I think it becomes a lot more of a personal interview if you're able to do that. I would say active listening is definitely something that I've learned over the years and try to hone on that to become better. And just learning how to interview somebody as well, the types of questions to ask, what the audience is looking for as well, being that person to have an opposite opinion, to get a little bit more spice or to get a little bit more talking on the program.
I think I learned a little bit on how to do that as well. There's so many different things, and how to be a team player as well. I think I've learned that as well. It's been a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's been so fun, whether it's been a live show or a podcast just talking sports. It's been so much fun.

Brock Richardson:
There's one panel member missing today because she's at World Championships competing for Canada, and she has some thoughts that she'd like to share that I will throw to you right now before we conclude the program.

Claire Buchanan:
As I send this message and connect with you guys and our audience, I am here at the Women's World Para Hockey World Challenge, and it's kind of full circle. The Neutral Zone Gang brought me on as a guest and gave me a platform to talk about women's Para hockey and growing the game when no one really knew about us. A few weeks later, they reached out and brought me on as one of the crew. It's been an unexpected blessing and I've learned so much, and it's been one of the things that I look forward to the most each week, is hanging out with my co-hosts and being able to talk about sports. That's really how this all started even before I came on, is a group of us that wanted to bring not only mainstream sports out to our audience, but to really, really dive in and share the extraordinary world of Parasports.
I am forever grateful for the opportunity, and I know that this isn't the end for this group because I know aside from being co-host on The Neutral Zone each week, we have always been close friends and we were a group of friends before the show and we will continue to be a group of friends after the show. I've had some incredible memories just being a part of this experience in being able to not only highlight and speak about some of my favourite sports, but being able to talk to my idols and hear their stories and connect with them. I don't know what else to say other than thank you.
Thank you, Brock. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, Josh, and thank you everyone who gave me an opportunity to come on here and be a part of this. It's been special. I was definitely someone before this show that didn't exactly know how to use my voice and share my story and be able to give the space for other people to share theirs. It really shapes me into the person I am today. I never in a million years thought I would fall into the industry of broadcasting, and I wouldn't want to do it with any other group. I think we're going to move forward doing that.
I am excited to see what happens in the future with this group. In the sports world, we see a lot of excitement and a lot of triumph, but it also brings along a lot of heartbreak. This is one of those times that it's just heartbreaking that this has to come to an end. There's not a moment that I won't be grateful for what this show has given me. Again, thank you to each and every one of you.

Brock Richardson:
What's next for the program? Well, I can tell you that all four of us are committed to the brand. AMI has been incredibly gracious in giving us the brand of The Neutral Zone. And so we will be able to carry it on in whatever form. There are some things in the works that I am not privy to go into detail right now, but I can encourage you to follow us on our social media platforms in which are on other previous episodes that we have those stingers. We didn't run them today because we wanted as much time as humanly possible to do this closure.
So guys, before I close off here, I got a bunch of thank yous, just 30 seconds each. Just final thoughts before I do the complete closure of The Neutral Zone. Cameron, go ahead.

Cameron Jenkins:
Just thank you so much for allowing me to do this and for listening in and for being there just listening and being there for us. It's been an absolute pleasure being on this station. Hopefully, I'll see us moving forward, but if not, it's been a fantastic ride. This really made a difference in my life to get through some tough times and it was always fun talking sports, so thank you so much.

Josh Watson:
I absolutely echo both of those sentiments. This program has been a place to learn, a place to grow, and a place for four friends to all talk about sports. It's been amazing. I know the next little bit is probably going to be hard, but I know Brock's going to get through it just fine. We have a lot of gratitude to people at AMI, to the people at Voices for Ability who encouraged us to bring this to AMI in the first place, to all of our guests who appeared on our program over the years, many of whom I still have relationships with through social media, whether it be Brianna Hennessy or Aaron Young or some of our other Paralympian guests.
It's been an amazing ride. I remember sitting in on a couple of test episodes with Voices for Ability in Melanie's living Room, holding that tiny little voice recorder in my hand as we attempted to do this. And just watching you guys as you went through Voices and into AMI. You guys have done a hell of a job and you should be absolutely commended for that. I don't believe this is the end. I believe this is just see you later.

Brock Richardson:
And on that note, here come the thank yous that I have for you. First of all, thank you to Andy Frank, who literally took an idea over six years ago and took a risk and said, "Yep, I'll give you guys a platform." And he did, and he kept renewing us, renewing us, and renewing us. Thank you to all of our technical producers. Our first one, Nick Lisk, our second one, Sam Robinson, our third one, Matt Agnew, Jeff Ryman, Marco Fuller, and Jordan Steves. Without any of you, we would not look as good as we do or sound as good as we do. And for those that are working on the video podcast, wow, you guys made us look beautiful, which none of us ever thought would be a thing. Thank you very much.
To my mentor, Kelly McDonald, who has been with me since I graduated school and has been there since the inception of the program. My friend, you have made me grow as a person, as an individual, and for God's sake, you took us through a pandemic where nobody knew what the hell was going on, and you stuck with us in a 30-minute program, and the top of the end of day was added with doing The Neutral Zone. We greatly appreciate that. Finally, we thank the audience. Without you, we would not be able to do our program that we do. We appreciate the continued support of the program.
Derek Wessman, who was with us as a technical producer as well, putting in those lovely intros and voicemail IDs and all those sorts of things. Without all of you, we could not have done this program. So thank you. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and where I'm going to end this is tell you thank you and may God bless and until we meet again.