Sharks Mic Check: Trailer Park Sports Network

Sharks Mic Check: Trailer Park Sports Network

What now? What now? Mlin celebrating natural hat-tick and the game winner. Cinema. Absolute cinema. Pleasure to chat with Will from the Trailer Park Sports Network. I mean, I guess I could try and explain who you are, what you do, where you’ve been, but that’s not fair. Will, I want you to give me your bio. How do you describe how you have emerged on the sports scene on social media? Um, I don’t know. I guess you say you don’t come to the you don’t show up to a trailer park expecting normal things to happen. So, you don’t show up to Toyota Park Sports Network expecting normal sports. I’ve kind of sat there and filled a gap in the media world, I guess, is why. Yeah. Is how that’s how we’ve gotten here. And then, you know, now we’re with the hockey world. It’s pretty cool. And the accounts have blown up, by the way. Instagram, Tik Tok. Where else can I find you? Uh, I’m on YouTube as well. All right. But what was the turning point and how big have things gotten here? Like how big have the views and the audience and the metrics gotten within the last couple years here? Oh, we started in end of July 2024 covering the Olympics. And I went from like a thousand followers to 15,000 in the span of the Olympics. And I was like, whoa. And then flash flash forward, it’s I’m starting to post on Instagram a little bit. It’s February. I had 700 followers and then Four Nations happens and then boom, here we are now with 47 46,000 followers and I’m just like, how are what what is happening here? People like you. It’s as simple as that. Um I also note that you cover some maybe more obscure sports or the Olympic sports that not everybody is talking about. that I came across one of your bob sledding videos. Um, but that kind of brings me to how you found the San Jose Sharks. Or was it the San Jose Sharks that found you? How did you get attached here? I feel like it was the San Jose Sharks that had found me. I in the process of watching hockey. I was like, I’m going to watch as many games as pos I have to try and figure out a team to root for at some point, but I don’t want to do it in I don’t want to just like stick with the team that’s close to me. you know, I’m like, I feel like team’s just going to speak to you. And I’m watching games late at night and I’m like, I really like this this San Jose team. They’re they’re young. You can tell they’re young and they’re losing a lot of games. They’re not overly good right now, but it’s like they’re dude, they’re right there. You’re watching them and you’re like, they’re right there. They’re having fun. And you’re they’re having a lot of fun. And I like the fan base, too. The fan base was cool. They’re always just like happy. even though they were losing games was just like I mean yeah they’re losing games but do you did you see how much fun they’re having on the ice? You see how much fun Will and Mac and Mecklland are having on the like dude they’re doing the thing. They they may not be winning a lot of games yet but guys you just it just wait just wait and I’m like all right I’m I’m down with that. I like this team. They’re having fun. It’s a whim they got lots of whimsy you know you could sense it was coming right? Like all of us have instinct about things. You could sense something was about to turn the corner. I also love the fact that you’ve invested yourself so much in what maybe learning hockey or understanding hockey to the point where you went out and bought some rollerblades. Did I say that right? Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got some rollerblades. Uh Warrior sent me a stick and I’ve also got some gloves, too. So, I got there and like play. We’ve we’ve played like some street hockey games with the humies a couple of times. I’m terrible. I’m terrible. But like, you know, roads are playing real roller hockey at some point. Yeah. I want I want to get on the ice, but I’m in Alabama, so it’s not You got to start somewhere. You got to start somewhere. No. And to your point, like that’s how this area, the Bay Area used to be. Before the Sharks came around, there were only a few sheets of ice. And growing up, if you wanted to play hockey, it was definitely going to have to be on wheels. And even then, no coaching, no equipment, no internet back then when when I was coming up. I totally understand like where you’re at in all of this. So, let me just make make this point though. You’re in Alabama. Like, there are thousands of miles between us. There’s at least a few NHL teams like in a direct line between us. Has it ever crossed your mind like it would just be easier to be a fan of some other team? Oh, yeah. But my dad’s from Sacramento. He’s a 49ers fan. Okay. Okay. So, I was like, “My dad doesn’t really care about hockey, but I feel like if he did care about hockey, this is who he wants you to be a fan of.” Yeah. Yeah. This is this is who I feel like this is who he’d rock with. Like that was definitely up there. And I had a I had a whole like list of criteria and I was like, “Yeah, you know, I I I really like what the front office is cooking up. They people may say, “Oh, these are some crazy thing.” No, Mike Greer’s cooking. They’re cooking over there. And you just got to wait. You just got to wait and see. It’s got to give it time. And you’re looking at it now. It’s It’s starting to work itself out. It’s just got to be patient. Absolutely. Hey, so if we do this chat, we could both say, “Oh, Will and Mlin, and we could name Ascarov and we could talk about Akan. We can talk about all maybe the the most prominent named players on the Sharks and um you know, even adding a Skinner this year and and uh Alex Wenberg has been great this year. But if there’s a favorite under the radar type Sharks player for you, somebody who’s not getting enough attention because you’re watching a lot of games, you’re noticing. Is there somebody who you you’d want to shout out right here on that note? Man, I love I love Shaq. Yeah, I’m a I’m a I’m a big fan of Shakir Mukmulan. I I like the guy. I really I like his energy. I feel like he plays hard every time he’s out there. He’s a big boy, too. Yeah. Big dude. Yeah. Hefty guy. I I I love the guy. All right. Big fan of him. That’s a good one. See that? I I knew you’d have a good one. That was absolutely it. So, you had an instinct about this team. You started to follow them. You start to cover them. And you make a lot of opinion videos. You cover a lot of different things on your channels, which I do appreciate. As you’re starting to see the trajectory of the Sharks, is there a prediction that you have? Is there an idea of how and when some big milestone happens or what’s next for them or where this season goes? What’s a prediction you could safely make? The the thing that I’ve been sitting here waiting on is are the young kids going to hit a wall? Okay, that’s that’s the that’s the thing that I’ve kind of just been like they’re playing really well right now. They’re playing really well right now. Like there’s they’re starting to heat up, but it’s like are those young kids going to hit a wall? I think the crazy part is they haven’t yet. And they haven’t already and there’s no signs that they might, you know? Exactly. So they don’t hit that wall. I think I I I think they can make the wild card. I mean, I think that’s I think that’s a that might be a crazy crazy prediction, especially going based off the fact they won 20 games last year. Yeah. I feel like if they don’t hit that wall, they could actually really they could really make a wild card spot. For those who have not checked out your channels yet, um what’s what’s the pitch for you? What’s what’s the selling point? What’s your favorite part of doing the channels? Um what what do you get out of this? I get to find a way to uplift athletes that don’t get as much attention. Hockey players don’t get that much attention, but like outside of that, you have like the your Olympic athletes, your bobsled athletes. I’m a huge fan of the bob sled and skeleton world, the swimming world. I you I grew up a competitive swimmer, too. So, like, okay, that that’s something I want people to like care about. Like, people forget that that exists outside of the Olympics. There’s a lot of people that exist that forget that the Olympic sports, yo, they have to qualify for those. Like they they don’t just like magically show up at the Olympics like, “Oh yeah, we’re here.” You have to qualify to get there. Yeah. Like there’s there’s a whole process to this. Like they they compete outside of that. That’s how they get good in the first place. They’re not just like working at McDonald’s and then just like, “Oh yeah, the Olympics are coming up. I got to go drive a bobsled now.” No. I want people to to to see that world. the I feel like sports are for everybody. I genuinely believe that sports are for everybody. And there’s a lot of people that are like, “Oh, I don’t really like football or baseball or basketball or I may not like hockey.” It’s like, dude, okay, cool. Maybe you like cricket. Yeah, there you go. Maybe you like speed climbing, like competitive speed climb. Maybe maybe that’s your thing. There’s something out there for everybody. And I feel like if I continue to just cover random obscure things that just that I’m like, “Oh, I find this interesting. Maybe somebody else out there does. And there’s some people that are just like, “Yo, I didn’t care about sports, but I just maybe I just needed to see women play it.” There you go. I mean, there’s a lot there’s a lot of people that have said that to me. It’s as simple as even hockey, too. Hockeyy’s not as big as football, right? So, I mean, you’re you’re even doing that for hockey to a certain degree, an extent. Um, isn’t it amazing, by the way, of of what these platforms allow you to do? Most people would think to reach an audience, you traditionally would have to be in a big city and work for some television network or radio station or media entity. You’re literally doing this on your own from what I can tell in the middle of Alabama, right? So, like you are you are going against the grain, but my goodness, in our times, it’s so cool that you can do something like this. It’s it’s honestly crazy that I’ve managed to affect Yeah. like this many people, millions of people. Yeah. from a trailer in between a corn field and a cotton field in Alabama. Well, you keep up the good work. It is so good to chat with you. I just want to say that if and when the opportunity exists for you to come out here to California, we need to find a way to make that happen. And when it happens, we we need to do it right. You know what I’m saying? We need to give you all the access you want. So, I would love for you to experience this in person because you haven’t yet, right? No. The sharks are just something out in California that you’ve never tangibly experienced. Well, I guarantee when when that happens, we will not let you down. I promise you that. Oh man, I I got to get there. I got to get to the tank. Everybody says, especially whenever they start winning games. The environment is amazing. I got to get out there. I’ve seen them packing out the tank lately. Yep. And it’s Dude, the place looks electric. Yep. I got to get there. I can confirm that. I’ve I’ve seen the best of days there. Uh Will, I appreciate the time. Uh I’m following you on Trailer Park Sports Network and I can’t wait to see where that goes too. So we’ll we’ll keep in touch. You keep it up and thanks for this. Much appreciated, man. I appreciate you having me on.

Brodie Brazil sits down Will Stephens, the man behind Trailer Park Sports Network, to talk about how he got into hockey, became a Sharks fan, and the following he’s built.