Mattew Souza (00:00):
Reed in sweat. I’m like, fuck,
Sevan Matossian (00:02):
Are you eating? Just meat and
Mattew Souza (00:06):
Fuck. I wish I could just eat in general,
Sevan Matossian (00:08):
Are you eating just meat and vegetables?
Mattew Souza (00:10):
Nuts and seeds?
Sevan Matossian (00:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you doing constantly? Very functional movement. Executed high intensity.
Mattew Souza (00:17):
Yeah. Light on floor, laying on the couch, laying back in bed.
Sevan Matossian (00:22):
Hey dude, we’re tripping on two things. You own CrossFit Livermore for people who don’t know.
Mattew Souza (00:30):
Yeah. If I’m on, should I turn on my mic? I just didn’t want to cough into it. It was going to sound like shit.
Sevan Matossian (00:35):
No, you could do it. Do whatever you want, but Hey David. What’s up, dude?
David Attaway (00:39):
Hey, what’s up, man?
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
I’m tripping. That can Oh, oh, we don’t have three across. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m tripping that can people just pay money to show up at an affiliate gathering and pitch products to affiliates? I saw an email today and I asked someone about it and they go, dude, it’s been like that for a long time, so you could just pay. Oh, I hear an echo. Hold on. Maybe that’s me. Oh shit. Susie’s dying. You’re a cop. You’re not a medic.
David Attaway (01:22):
Breathe. I don’t know. Drink some water.
Sevan Matossian (01:26):
As a police officer, I know. Some fundamental lifesaving procedures. Drink water.
David Attaway (01:30):
Yeah, that’s all I got is the Echo Me. I have my other phone pulled up. YouTube. I have the sound down so I don’t think it’s me.
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
Whatever it is. It’s better now.
David Attaway (01:42):
Okay, cool.
Sevan Matossian (01:44):
Oh no, it’s there again. Maybe it is your phone. Hold up. Okay. Thank
David Attaway (01:49):
You. Try now.
Sevan Matossian (01:50):
How about, no, it’s still there. It’s weird.
Mattew Souza (01:55):
It’s weird. Is it me? No,
Sevan Matossian (01:58):
No. I’m pretty sure it’s David. David, did you pause the video on YouTube?
David Attaway (02:04):
I got out of it. I turned it off.
Sevan Matossian (02:06):
I’m going to, oh yeah, so it is him. That’s so weird that it’s causing that echo.
Mattew Souza (02:11):
Did you?
Sevan Matossian (02:13):
Maybe it’s, can you try without your head? Well, let’s just go for a little bit and if it still goes, we’ll try without your headphones.
David Attaway (02:19):
Okay. Let me know. And I could always go outside. It might be the office.
Sevan Matossian (02:23):
It’s only when I talk, oh, hey, if it starts annoying, you guys let me know. We’ll fix it.
David Attaway (02:31):
Yeah, I could always go outside if I need to.
Sevan Matossian (02:35):
So I’m hearing that people can just go, you guys have these affiliate gatherings, right? You guys have these people who represent, oh, it’s bad. It’s bad maybe. Or just take off your earphones. Maybe David. Oh yeah, it was the headset.
David Attaway (02:48):
Is that better?
Sevan Matossian (02:49):
Yeah, much better. Thank you. Okay, I can hear
David Attaway (02:51):
You guys good. So we’re good.
Sevan Matossian (02:52):
Okay, cool. You can hear me. So you have an local affiliate representative, right?
David Attaway (02:58):
We do. It
David Attaway (02:58):
Actually changed recently, I guess. It seems like they cut down and it’s like a region. Instead of having one, they cut down less affiliate reps than they used to have. So it’s someone different. They have a bigger area, I guess, now.
Sevan Matossian (03:12):
And your CrossFit, Oviedo.
David Attaway (03:15):
Oviedo, yes.
Sevan Matossian (03:16):
Oviedo. What’s that mean?
David Attaway (03:18):
It’s the city. I’m not sure what it means. We’re right next to University of Central Florida and Disney World. We’re near there.
Sevan Matossian (03:26):
And who’s your affiliate rep or your regional rep? I
David Attaway (03:28):
Don’t know. It was Shay Toso, but she was recently relieved of that duty and I was pretty close to her. I don’t know who the new rep is.
Sevan Matossian (03:41):
Not. I heard, I saw an email that was like, Hey, let me read it to you. It’s kind of crazy. I can’t even believe this is real. It says, happy Friday. My Southeast affiliate owners. Are you looking to add additional revenue stream to your affiliate? Have you ever tried selling supplements and it did not work or interested in selling supplements to your community?
David Attaway (04:09):
I actually did read that one. I do remember that going by. Not really interested.
Sevan Matossian (04:14):
How long has this been going on?
David Attaway (04:16):
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen it, to be honest. I mean, I know they’re a good resource, but for us, I mean, I don’t pay attention to too many of those.
Sevan Matossian (04:27):
What’s crazy too is it says as we’re joined by Carrie Ha. That’s a dude who used to be our building manager over at HQ in Santa Cruz. I mean, I worked with him for over 10 years. We were joined by Carrie Hare from Momentous, I’m guessing that’s a company which is the nutrition and supplement partner with CrossFit. So these people pay money to then get access to affiliates to then sell you shit.
David Attaway (04:57):
And our only benefit is if we choose to sell their stuff.
Sevan Matossian (05:00):
And it’s not because it makes your community better, it’s just to add additional revenue. I’m just tripping on
David Attaway (05:08):
That’s, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:09):
Does Don know that that’s a complete shift in the model that Greg programmed you guys to work with the excellence model?
David Attaway (05:17):
I can’t imagine. So.
Sevan Matossian (05:21):
Wow. I wonder what it sounds like content for Hiller.
David Attaway (05:25):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:27):
Hey, I’m all for them helping you. I’m all for them for finding ways to generate revenue. It is just as the sole reason to sell your clients’ shit. Generate revenue just seems off the mark.
David Attaway (05:40):
Yeah. I mean, again, like I said, I don’t know if this could be a negative, but I haven’t found a lot of use out of a lot of those emails for those affiliate reps, stuff in the gatherings. It’s good to meet and know other people in the area, but I’m not going to sell something they push to us.
Sevan Matossian (05:56):
The implication is that you should sell anything that makes you money and not under. Yeah, that’s the implication. I wonder if HQ has vetted all of the supplements and vets, all the people that come in. I wonder how they do that. I
David Attaway (06:10):
Wonder if any of the supplements would pop in athlete positive too.
Sevan Matossian (06:15):
I mean, they’re basic. Are they bringing wolves to their own? God, it’s such a trip. Yeah.
David Attaway (06:24):
Anyway, I got scanned and deleted.
Sevan Matossian (06:28):
Welcome to the show. David Attaway, police officer straight out of high school.
David Attaway (06:33):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (06:35):
Can you still do that to this day?
David Attaway (06:37):
Yes, you can. Yeah. Well, you have to be 19 where I’m at. So it was about eight months after I graduated high school. I turned 19 and I actually applied for Home Depot and law enforcement and Home Depot didn’t hire me, so I went with being a police officer. I guess it’s a better long term
Sevan Matossian (06:55):
And probably less crime as a police officer than in a Home Depot
David Attaway (06:59):
Probably.
Sevan Matossian (07:02):
Dude, how crazy. The crime at Home Depots is crazy.
David Attaway (07:05):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m lucky to live in a smaller town, so it’s pretty good around here, but it’s seeing the effect everywhere else is pretty sad.
Sevan Matossian (07:14):
How old are you, David?
David Attaway (07:16):
I just turned 39 Wednesday.
Sevan Matossian (07:19):
And you’ve been a cop for 18 years?
David Attaway (07:21):
Almost 20. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (07:23):
19 years.
David Attaway (07:24):
June will be 20.
Sevan Matossian (07:26):
Crazy. And how long have you owned Oviedo?
David Attaway (07:31):
I’ve owned CrossFit o Vito. This is our 10th year, and I took on a co-owner after two years, so now me and my partner run it. We’re in our 10th year.
Sevan Matossian (07:42):
Are you glad you have a partner?
David Attaway (07:44):
Oh, it was a blessing was I went through, I herniated the C six and seven disc in my neck, went through surgery, was get a quick CrossFit. I opened the gym, just kind of jumped into it with $5,000. Opened an affiliate way over my head as far as business aspect goes, but I know I wanted to help people and spread what CrossFit was and I was in love with it. And about a year and a half in, he was a 5:00 AM guy, he is like, Hey man, do you need some help with this? And you look stressed out and can I help you with anything? I was like, yeah, you waited a month or two and he offered again and I brought him in. He started helping and before I knew it I had a partner and we’ve been grooving since. It was a blessing.
Sevan Matossian (08:24):
So you were a cop for basically nine or 10 years and then somewhere in there you decided to open a gym?
David Attaway (08:32):
Yes. I went to several other affiliates, and I don’t think this is egotistical, but I saw the way some of ’em were running things and I was like, I think I could do this better. And I think I could do it in a way that Greg would probably like and meant for it to be, and we all need to make money and it’s a business, but I think there’s more than just a business with owning a CrossFit affiliate. And I guess I had just enough oos to try it myself. And I started in my garage after my surgery. I talked eight of my friends into giving me a thousand bucks each, and I built out my garage and I was like, Hey, you guys can come from two to five and five to four, four to five in the morning. You just buy this stuff, come anytime you want. That went pretty well. I ended up with 15 people coming and I was on Craigslist and saw a little 800 square foot warehouse for rent for 500 bucks a month. And I’m like, oh, I could afford that myself. So if worst comes to worse, I just pay it. And now I’m in 4,000 square feet. It’s small to medium CrossFit gym. It’s been anywhere between 70 and a hundred members depending on the time of the month. But it’s been a ride. We’ve gone ups and downs, but it’s been, I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.
Sevan Matossian (09:47):
Is that your second location or third location home, the 800 square feet. And then, yeah,
David Attaway (09:52):
So it’s funny home then the 800 square foot and then moved across the street in the same area. The landlord had some fire coating issues with the building. We got told we had to be out in 30 days, so we went back across the street to the 800 square foot, started looking immediately and then found this place. And we’ve actually expanded two bays over since owning it. It was originally one bay and then we took the neighbors and then the neighbors left. We took that and we’re hoping to get the whole building once our last group, the last neighbor lease. So that’ll be a positive for us.
Sevan Matossian (10:25):
Yeah, that’s crazy that, so it’s basically your fifth location basically. Yeah. You divorced a woman and went back to her.
David Attaway (10:32):
Yeah, yeah. That was a stressful time. And right about after that is when Pat came on my co-owner and he is like, you need help. I was like, I do. Yeah, that’s it.
Sevan Matossian (10:43):
And David, how long have you been married?
David Attaway (10:46):
Seven years. And I’ve got a little four year old girl.
Sevan Matossian (10:49):
Yeah. Congrats. That’s awesome, dude.
David Attaway (10:51):
Oh, it doesn’t get any better. That’s the only reason I do everything I do and work as many jobs as I do is for those two. So
Sevan Matossian (11:00):
Hey, I want to go back to high school. When you’re in high school, did you want to be a cop? And why did you want to be a cop?
David Attaway (11:06):
No, not at all. I wanted to be an NBA star
Sevan Matossian (11:10):
Of course. Oh yeah. How tall are you?
David Attaway (11:12):
I’m six four. I was tall then. And then halfway through high school I realized I didn’t want to play basketball anymore. So I started just doing all the extracurriculars, having fun, played volleyball. How
Sevan Matossian (11:22):
Did you realize that? How did you realize that? Why not two hard work or girls or lost focus? Do you wish someone would’ve kept you on track or what happened? No.
David Attaway (11:30):
Well, so I mean, I had a dad, but he wasn’t in my life. So it was just mom working a bunch of jobs and it’s just a teenage boy trying to figure out his life. And if I was now, if I was then the way I am now, I could have been whatever I wanted in the world. I just, everybody tell me to, and that’s not an excuse. And I coach a bunch of high school athletes as well. Not an excuse that’s on me, but I definitely think if there was a father figure around, it would’ve been a different start, but still wouldn’t change it. I had no idea what I wanted to do in high school. I was the guy checking the GPA to see if I’d be eligible for next week’s game. So school wasn’t really my thing either. I just liked to play sports and have fun with friends and oh, that’s one of the athletes I coach.
Sevan Matossian (12:11):
So this is a high school kid that you are now coaching?
David Attaway (12:14):
No, she actually is in college there now. So she went on and got a scholarship to lift at Lynden Wood University and I coached her in high school.
Sevan Matossian (12:23):
Crazy. You must be so proud.
David Attaway (12:25):
Oh, you have no idea. She’s starting her second year now. It’s one of the most fulfilling jobs, is working at the high school. So I’m the school resource deputy of the high school, but I’m also the weightlifting coach. I coach flag football and I’m an assistant athletic director at the school as well.
Sevan Matossian (12:41):
Hey, I know we have five stories open. Let keep drilling down and let me keep drilling down on this one. So you say that if you knew now I want to keep going with the high school thing and figure out what happened for kids who do get derailed, it sounds like you uncovered a diamond there. You’re in high school, you want to be pro basketball player. You changed your mind around your sophomore junior year, but now you’re saying if you knew what you knew now, you would’ve known that you could be anything you wanted to be. What did you eventually figure out?
David Attaway (13:09):
So I really didn’t figure out until I got hired at the sheriff’s office and I started to get some peers and some people I respected and I learned how to be a man there. So when you get hired at the sheriff’s office, I started at the jail. So at 19 years old, at 150 pounds, I was working a max security in a jail,
Sevan Matossian (13:27):
Six four. Just you were a sheet of paper
David Attaway (13:30):
Like this? Yep.
Sevan Matossian (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, a noodle.
David Attaway (13:32):
If they blew, I would fall over so their sneeze would knock me over. But working for the police department, the sheriff’s office is what raised me for the most part. And I had some other guys and some bosses that really kind of developed me into who I was and showed me I could be whatever I wanted to be. And one of my partners was a powerlifter, and he was like, we’re going to start lifting weights, you’re going to stop, you’re going to eat, you’re not going to go to the bathroom and you’re going to lift weights and you’re going to get big. I was like, alright.
Sevan Matossian (14:02):
I never heard not go to the bathroom. I like that. That’s a fucking
David Attaway (14:05):
Sauce. They said, cork it bro. Cork it and eat and lift. I’m like, alright, let’s go.
Sevan Matossian (14:11):
Hey, do you think that they knew that they were mentoring you? Did they?
David Attaway (14:16):
I don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (14:17):
Yeah. Isn’t that amazing? Those are the best mentors. They don’t even fucking know and you, they’re just how they carried themselves, what they said. How did they impart their information onto you?
David Attaway (14:28):
Well, it was one, getting me in the weight room for the first time and then just the way they were. I just watched, I like to watch and learn. So just seeing how they were respected people in a jail you’re working with, not necessarily the best clients and they would show respect, but they did hard work. They did their job, they didn’t slack on anything, and I just kind of followed the lead, which guess is lucky. If you had a different person that didn’t do that, I’d follow that lead as well. So I was very fortunate to have good people in my life that helped me develop into what I am now. And it hasn’t stopped. I started the school 10 years ago and same thing. I started learning different aspects of doing your job and being organized and how to run events and how to do things and don’t slack and don’t complain and call out. Your biggest thing is I’ve learned how to call out my friends if they’re slacking, keep the accountability for everybody around me. So I mean, if your friend won’t tell you you’re slacking, they’re not your friend. So
Sevan Matossian (15:23):
That’s a special skill to be able to do that.
David Attaway (15:26):
Oh yeah. I work with someone that does that very well. She will look at you dead in your face and go, you should have been over there, it doesn’t matter. So I’ve been fortunate in my life to have, because family, I moved out my junior year of high school, lived in an apartment, so I’ve never really had family as an influence in my life after sophomore year. So it’s, I’ve been very fortunate to find the right people to show me how to be.
Sevan Matossian (15:49):
And what’s interesting, I’m not sure what blade’s referring to out there, but he’s saying that could have gone south, glad he learned from hard chargers. And I guess what he’s saying is when you’re a young man and you’re open to being influenced, if you would’ve met the wrong crowd, you could have been misdirected.
David Attaway (16:05):
Absolutely. Especially in that line of work, you can get the wrong crowd. And I’m not talking the extreme where they’re doing illegal things, but there’s lazy and there’s not lazy. So I was very fortunate, hard charging for sure. I know Blade knows. So I was very fortunate in my life to every step of life that I went to was a good person to learn from. That’s 150 pounds.
Sevan Matossian (16:31):
So when you graduate from high school, how does being a cop pop on your radar at the same time as a Home Depot job?
David Attaway (16:38):
So my uncle worked a drug rehab program in the jail locally, and I was working out of Walgreens and put in for Home Depot and he is like, Hey David, listen, they pay $25,000 a year, you get insurance and you have a retirement. And then in 2004 that was,
Sevan Matossian (16:57):
So
David Attaway (16:58):
I put in for it and found out I was physically capable and I guess I had enough of a good person to pass all the polygraphs and everything else, and I could pass a drug test and they gave me a shot. So I feel very fortunate.
Sevan Matossian (17:12):
And then you go to a police academy?
David Attaway (17:14):
Yes. I actually went to two. So I went to the Corrections academy and then after a year I enjoyed and I met some great people there, but I knew patrol was probably where I wanted to be.
Sevan Matossian (17:25):
That’ll rot your soul eventually. If you stay in the prisons forever, it would break you.
David Attaway (17:31):
It. It depends on who you are. We have some people that have been there for 35 years and they’re still, I know. Oh yeah,
Sevan Matossian (17:37):
Yeah. God, I just can’t imagine that being good to be around, locked up humans,
David Attaway (17:41):
You learn a lot though. They’re not all bad.
Sevan Matossian (17:45):
I agree. I just mean the idea of locking a human being is a very
David Attaway (17:50):
Well, and you’re locked up.
Sevan Matossian (17:52):
Yeah, yeah, right. Are
David Attaway (17:53):
Locked. You have your hallway with your people, you’re over and you have your office and you sit there for 12 hours. So yeah, the organization I work for too, from the bottom down is just rockstar too. So if you lead correctly and there’s things, and our sheriff started in the jail too, so the boss has been there. But yes, it was good. So when I decide I want to leave, they have what’s called a crossover academy, so you can go to be a deputy sheriff as well, not just a detention deputy. So I went to two academies.
Sevan Matossian (18:28):
So when you’re at the Correctional Institute, do you go to the new academy simultaneously?
David Attaway (18:33):
Yes, I did. I actually,
Sevan Matossian (18:35):
It’s 80 hour a week, shit.
David Attaway (18:36):
Yeah, I would work six at night till six in the morning, take a nap in the car till eight in the morning, and then go to class till five and then take a nap in the other parking lot and go back to work.
Sevan Matossian (18:46):
Dang. And how long was the second academy? The sheriff’s academy?
David Attaway (18:49):
Six months.
Sevan Matossian (18:51):
And then so you finished that and you become a sheriff for what county?
David Attaway (18:56):
I’m in Seminole County.
Sevan Matossian (18:57):
And are you still a sheriff there
David Attaway (18:59):
I am.
Sevan Matossian (19:00):
No shit. You’ve been with the same group that long?
David Attaway (19:03):
Yeah, so in the state of Florida, I’m sure it’s probably the same in California, but we have Florida retirement system, so if you stay in a sheriff’s office, you’ll be in that FRS. And I always say I’ll never be homeless if I retire. At least have 60 KA year coming my way regardless, so I could always live in a box. And I got lucky again, like I said before, every step of my life I was guided. I don’t know how, but I was guided and I got the right one. So still there, but I’ve worked in corrections, I’ve worked in a courthouse, I’ve worked on patrol. I now work at a high school, so it’s lots of jobs to do.
Sevan Matossian (19:37):
So you go from the jail to street patrol, and then how does the option for high school pop up and why did you take that?
David Attaway (19:46):
Well,
Sevan Matossian (19:47):
Actually when you suit up and then go to a high school every morning. Yeah,
David Attaway (19:52):
Yep. Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s like the loophole, the secret nobody knows about. So actually herniated my neck went down for three months until I could get surgery and all that.
Sevan Matossian (20:03):
How did you do that? Again,
David Attaway (20:05):
Several things. One was I was working out on a bench press and I felt something pop and they said it was like a slight herniation. And six months later I was being vague. I was on a bicycle working and I went over the handlebars and finished off the other side
Sevan Matossian (20:21):
Doing
David Attaway (20:21):
Some stuff
Sevan Matossian (20:22):
You don’t normally hear about it. Up here in our community, you don’t usually hear about next stuff.
David Attaway (20:26):
No. So it had nothing to do with CrossFit. The initial was when I was doing juujitsu. I did juujitsu for 10 years.
(20:35):
I was doing normal bro workouts and it is just lots of guillotines and neck cranks and I think it just kind of went. And then, so while I was doing my surgery, I did a proposal to bring CrossFit to my agency. I was sitting in an office all day just doing paperwork. So I put this whole proposal together, proposed it, and ended up, it went another way, which is cool. No hard feelings. And I’m sitting in my hospital bed after my surgery and I’m looking at this proposal, I’m like, well, shit, I could just do it myself. I could do my own gym. Here’s the template that I’ve created. And that’s when I did the garage deal. And then it kind just escalated into, now I have a gym. So I kind of live in the moment. My whole life I planned, but it’s pretty much just where I’m at. And that felt right at the time, so I did it.
Sevan Matossian (21:23):
Those original investors, are they still members at your gym?
David Attaway (21:26):
A couple of ’em are, but not the original. Original. But they still talk to me all the time and reach out and tell me congratulations. And I tell ’em, Hey, anytime you want to come.
Sevan Matossian (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, you got a lifetime membership, come on in.
David Attaway (21:38):
Yeah, it’s amazing. That basically started with a couple thousand dollars and that’s still no debt, never been in debt, just reinvest.
Sevan Matossian (21:47):
I’m going to come back to the high school thing in just a second. I want to ask you a question about how did you meet your wife
David Attaway (21:53):
At the gym?
Sevan Matossian (21:54):
At the CrossFit gym? Yeah. Oh shit. That’s amazing. So can you give me more detail? Your training there one day and she walks in and you’re like, Hey girl, what’s up? You want to take a class?
David Attaway (22:04):
There she is. Yeah, no. So she actually came in with a couple of her friends and she’s super introverted, and so she got some friends to come and she was there for a couple months and she was dating. And I was dating and I don’t know what happened, but someone just, oh, so I was talking to her about, it was her birthday, and I’m like, what are you doing for your birthday? You going to go have some drinks? She goes, no, I think I’m just going to relax. I’m like, oh, well I’ll just take you somewhere. And she’s like, well, yeah, yeah, this was this guy at the gym, I don’t really know. And I got a message from her on a Sunday and she goes, Hey, stupid, I got tickets to Orlando City Soccer, I’m going to pick you up. And I was like, alright, wow. She picks me up and she tells me she’ll kill me, but she basically says when we get there, don’t be blocking me if any cute guys are trying to talk to me at the game. Wow.
Sevan Matossian (22:54):
We pull. Wow.
David Attaway (22:56):
I was like, she’s like, I was joking. I was into you. She tells me later, but then I was like, oh, well damn. All right.
Sevan Matossian (23:04):
That’s good shit. I
David Attaway (23:04):
Was crushed. I was like, I guess I’m alright. I got a sidekick here. All right. And then by the end of the night, the rest is history. We have not been away from each other a day since.
Sevan Matossian (23:17):
How fun. How cool, dude.
David Attaway (23:19):
Yeah. And we got married in three months.
Sevan Matossian (23:22):
No shit.
David Attaway (23:24):
It’s fun in your
Sevan Matossian (23:25):
Life. You approve of that. I don’t approve of that. That’s too soon. He gave it one of these, he’s like,
David Attaway (23:32):
Yeah, well, I’ve done things the right way my whole life and the norm. And she kind of did too. And once we met each other we’re like, I think one day, what did
Sevan Matossian (23:42):
Her parents say? What did her parents say?
David Attaway (23:44):
They’re about it. They were
Sevan Matossian (23:45):
Cool with the three months. I mean obviously now it’s awesome you guys, I mean, you’ve blessed your whole tribe with the daughter, but if some chick wants to marry my son after three months, I’m like, dude, are you fucking nuts? Something’s wrong with this girl.
David Attaway (24:00):
Yeah, they probably thought we were crazy, but they were super supportive. But it was just, we got five of our friends, we jumped in a car, we drove up to Nashville, we got a marriage certificate, we got married, went down Broadway after, and just had the time of our lives.
Sevan Matossian (24:15):
God, you’re a big dude, man. What do you weigh now?
David Attaway (24:19):
Between two 10 and two 20.
Sevan Matossian (24:21):
Yeah, you are a fucking big man. You like being that heavy.
David Attaway (24:25):
So now I’m trying to be a good, I guess I’m hanging around 2 0 8 to two 10 and gymnastics feels a lot better, obviously. And my strength is holding on, so it depends what I’m doing or what stage I’m at in the year.
Sevan Matossian (24:39):
Yeah. Go back to the high school thing. So you’re a cop for nine years, then this thing pops up like, Hey, you could work at a high school. Yeah, I would just think that you’re there just searching people’s lockers and shit.
David Attaway (24:54):
Well, so this was before the Stoneman Douglas shooting happened. I don’t know if you know about that. So that was a major, major school shooting. Very, very bad. Lots of people
Sevan Matossian (25:04):
Died in Florida.
David Attaway (25:06):
Yeah. And that was before this happened. This was back when we had one deputy at every school. So I was just working at the high school and the biggest thing our agency pushed is you got to kind of become family with the admin and get to know the people and be in the community. Don’t just be the cop there. I took that to heart and that’s why I pushed and started coaching and started getting some jobs there. So I’m employed by both. And then Stoke and Douglas happened and we were already ahead of the game. We were already on campus. We added another deputy. There’s two of us there. And it’s way more about developing relationships and being a positive role model than it is just arresting people.
Sevan Matossian (25:43):
Did anyone try to stop you from having the two jobs or no, you can’t do that?
David Attaway (25:46):
No, they loved it because
Sevan Matossian (25:48):
Oh, that’s cool.
David Attaway (25:49):
Yeah, that’s what they pushed. I was fortunate. Yeah, because you actually have to apply for other jobs. You have to request permission. And so I did for all of them. And they’re like, absolutely. So
Sevan Matossian (26:00):
Flag football coach and what’d you call it? School resource counselor.
David Attaway (26:03):
I’m a school resource deputy. That’s just the cop of the school. And then I’m an assistant athletic director. So my boss is over all of athletics and then the weightlifting coach as well.
Sevan Matossian (26:16):
When I was in high school as a boy, I didn’t think
(26:24):
So. If I just wanted to drink at school, I would just bring a bottle of Jagermeister or if I just wanted to sell weeded, I would just bag the weed up and come to school. I didn’t think, I wasn’t like, these are the consequences. I didn’t think this is bad. I didn’t think. And that’s just the way boys are. If you don’t keep them busy, they will, especially the entrepreneurs, they’re going to want to do what they want to do. I’m guessing that that’s just rampant in school, that there’s just really talented boys who don’t have direction and you just see them, it being expressed in impulse.
David Attaway (26:58):
The stuff we see, I’m like, do you realize you could run a Fortune 500 company if you just weren’t an idiot? And I’d like to think we all have a lot of impact on those kids. We try. I’ve at a very, very good high school.
Sevan Matossian (27:12):
Oh, you are?
David Attaway (27:12):
Yeah. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (27:15):
Yeah. And by good you mean they have both their parents at home,
David Attaway (27:17):
The lots top scores, great athletics, great staff. So I’m very fortunate. It’s not like gangs running around our schools and such, but even worse than all that is social media. So if you and I, I’m sure if we were in high school when social media was
Sevan Matossian (27:33):
Around, oh my God, oh my God,
David Attaway (27:35):
It’d be so bad.
Sevan Matossian (27:37):
And it’s, oh my God.
David Attaway (27:39):
So back in the day when two boys hate each other, you go fight and then you’re friends. Now they fight and then they talk shit about each other every day forever. And it just gets worse and worse.
Sevan Matossian (27:48):
Oh, on social media
David Attaway (27:50):
Can’t get away from it. That’s why there’s so many issues with mental health and stuff when it comes to those age groups. You can’t go home and just be at home and they can’t call you on the hard line and you just can’t get away from it.
Sevan Matossian (28:02):
What about people sending nudes, kids sending nudes? I can’t imagine giving kids cameras where you can send pictures around. I just can’t even fucking, my boys would never. I think it’s almost abusive to put that power in a boy’s hand as a parent.
David Attaway (28:20):
It’s funny, I always tell
Sevan Matossian (28:21):
Boys are because of just by nature what we are.
David Attaway (28:24):
Well, I use what you say all the time. When I tell people, I’m like, boys are different. Like you said before, girls aren’t in the park grabbing guys and pulling ’em in the bushes. And when you give that power and the immature status, the maturity level is
Sevan Matossian (28:37):
Just so zero. I barely have maturity now. I have to fake it.
David Attaway (28:41):
Yeah, a hundred percent. And like you said, that power, they get through those phones and kids don’t go to school anymore either, so you have seven periods in a day. The majority of our kids go three and then they’ll have virtual classes and college classes and OJT
Sevan Matossian (28:57):
Off campus, shit,
David Attaway (28:58):
Everything. Yeah, on and off all day long. So it’s like, and I’m like you, we homeschool our daughter and we probably will forever, but if you are going to do public school, there was something to having standards that you had to follow early in the morning and having to stay all day and having to do what you’re told. And when a substitute’s at school, you still went to school and you sat in the class. Now 500 people will call out subs and we’re not doing anything. I’m just going to go home. So there’s no rules anymore. I always say those small rules matter, the little things, the dress codes, the stuff like that, the
Sevan Matossian (29:31):
Dress code. There’s a high school and a junior high on my street that I drive by every day. I literally have to avert my eyes. Yeah, it’s bad. I cannot fucking believe what I see.
David Attaway (29:44):
Yeah, it’s tough. I have a little girl and she’ll be at home.
Sevan Matossian (29:50):
And if you had a boy, why would you send your boy to work in that environment outside? I’m not projecting any morals or anything onto it. I’m not saying.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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