#3: Simba Happy: From Zimbabwe to Topnotch Tennis Director

Simba’s tennis career began as one of the top junior tennis players in his native Zimbabwe, representing his country in international tennis tournaments. He joined the Florida A&M University tennis team on an athletics scholarship and began teaching there and he is now the Topnotch Director of Tennis - one of the leading tennis academies in North America. Hear his journey from Zimbabwe to Stowe.

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Hey there listeners, this is Mike Carey, co host of the Octagon podcast here with my co host Ted Thorndike. This is episode three and we've got a local legend, Simba Happy for those of you that have ever seen Simba at Top Notch he's one of the leading tennis pros here in town. His tennis career began as one of the top junior tennis players in his native Zimbabwe. representing his country in international tennis tournaments. He joined the Florida A& M University tennis team on an athletic scholarship and began teaching there. And he is now the top notch director of tennis, one of the leading tennis academies in North America. So welcome Simba. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Ted. It's a pleasure being here. So got to ask you the first question. How does a young kid from Zimbabwe end up in Stowe, Vermont, leading the top notch tennis program? I guess that's a short question with a long response, but I'm going to try and make it shorter. Summer 2012, or when I was approaching summer 2012, and I just finished grad school. And a friend of mine from Zimbabwe had worked here in Stowe that summer, top notch. He taught tennis that summer, so I was looking for a job. That's all. And I just reached out to him. I was like, Hey, I'm looking for a job. If you know anything, let me know. I don't know. So he was like, Hey, let's go hang out in store for the summer. And I came out for that summer in 2012 and I never left. So it's now 12 years later. So that's how, how I moved up to store. But I came to America through my, the tenure scholarship. I did, I got through a friend of mine, who's pretty much a brother of mine. He's based out of Chicago. He was the grad assistant coach at that point. He's somebody I knew in Zimbabwe. We went to the same tennis academy. He had been on a tennis scholarship at the same school I went to. So when he was the grad assistant, he recruited me and I came over to the U. S. and that was my first time in the U. S. It was when I stepped foot on Florida A& M campus. So that was my first time coming to the U. S. The back end of the story, how did I start playing tennis? I had a cousin who had a wooden racket back in Zimbabwe, and I remember he had the wooden racket. And for us, back home in the morning, during, when school breaks, parents would feed us. They were like, get out of the house. I'll see you for lunch. And we just get on this, we get on, we had the dashboard next door and we just draw a tennis court when you have one player with the racket would shape a tennis racket out of an asbestos sheet and two people had to hold, two people had to hold a line. If you lost, you had to hold a line, the champ got to keep the racket. So that's how I really started playing for fun, with a little soccer in there. And then In grade three, the local school I went to, they had P part of P was tennis once a week and the local tennis academy used to bring a coach once a week. So the graders used to play tennis and then from there I got selected to start practicing at the local tennis academy. And that's how I started playing tennis. Yeah. Very cool. That's cool. Did anybody in your family play? Any history like that? Just to, get you excited about it. It was my cousin, we had I grew up with a cousin of mine, my late aunt's son. So he was four or five years older than me. I don't even know how he picked up tennis. He's the one here, the wooden racket. So that's how we just started, using that wooden racket hitting against the wall, breaking a few walls, windows at home. Yeah. And would you say. That first time you picked up a racket did you know right away, I love this, I have a passion for tennis or is it something that grew over time? It grew over time. I think for me, I, everybody grows up playing soccer. And at some point I knew that soccer was not my thing. I just didn't like soccer. I liked playing soccer. I didn't love soccer. Yeah, I started gravitating just trying out the sports tennis cricket, and I played a little cricket as well, but it was first tennis. Tennis led me to playing a little bit of cricket. So it's over time. And for me, I grew up watching Pete Sampras. He's up to now. He's my favorite player for, favorite player. So I grew up playing watching games. I watched more tennis. It's like I wanted to become a pro tennis player. I grew up wanting to become, at least for me, I wanted to become a pro tennis player. So that's how I got into the game. It wasn't like a moment where I was like, I love the game. It just Over time, I just started loving the BM& S. I started having a little more success. My love for the game started growing a little bit more. So yeah. Very cool. And the tennis academy that you went to, is there like one of those in Zimbabwe or is there multiple? Is it like a, tell us a little bit about like that kind of. Yeah. These are the ladies name. There's a lady, she's still alive. Her name is Ann Martin. She started the tennis academy in Zimbabwe. I can't really give you the dates, probably back in the eighties. So she started this tennis academy where she pretty much had a tennis academy where there was a facility but she would send out coaches to all the local schools once a week where she would just we have coaches introduce the game to a lot of kids and from those school programs you'll pick a few kids to go to the afternoon school program and then from the afternoon school program you'll pick a few kids to come to the academy during the weekends and then once you became part of the academy, you started having more opportunities to practice and over time you could start playing tournaments. So that academy is still, up to this day, it's still running and My brother is going through the same academy, I have a few nephews who are going through the same academy. That's so cool. Awesome. We've had over the same, it's a small academy, we've had over 50 to 60 players probably get scholarships to come and play in the U. S. through this facility funded by Ms. Martin. Wow. Yeah. That's so cool. Could you maybe just give a, a broad picture of, what was life like in Zimbabwe, what were your parents doing for work and just, yeah what's life like there? It's obviously it's so far away and so different from Stowe, Vermont. So just give our listeners a feel for that. And that's no, I guess I have to say, firstly, for me, I was very fortunate to, I had parents, both my parents worked. My mom was a, she's up to now still a typist for one of the, in, in the army, she's a civilian in the army. So she's a typist for one of the army brigades. My dad is a cartographer. He works in the ministry of lands. So he maps out land. So they've always worked. But playing tennis was definitely not something they could definitely, afford paying. That was definitely a luxury for me. I was fortunate to have a lady like Miss Martin who started that tennis program. But for me, growing up in Zimbabwe was I want to say I didn't know more childhood, it's tennis is not something I thought I would ever play. Now I went to school, I went to a primary school through grade seven, a local school there that that that may, but all my siblings have gone to, and I went to a local high school. I went to a Catholic high school in Zimbabwe up to through high school and how to, but I grew up with a normal child. I'd say. I did not. Yeah. Yeah. What so I assume you're now, you're in the academy, you're one of the top players, I would guess in the academy. Did you ever think I'm going to go to America and I'm going to go pro? Was that I don't know, were you the top 10 players in Zimbabwe No, I said that one, there was, I guess I definitely had a moment of realization when at one point I had to make that decision because I started playing junior tennis for Zimbabwe and I started representing Zimbabwe in some of the top junior African tournaments and stuff like that. I remember one of the first time I went I went to Tunisia for the African Junior Championships. And I remember I lost in the first round and I was like, wow. wake up call. Yeah. And it was just like, man, I really thought I worked out, I did the right preparations. I'm one of the 12 juniors in Zimbabwe. I was like, I didn't think I was gonna lose fifth round. I didn't think I was gonna win the tournament. But it was like. So I told myself, I was like, if I really envision myself being going pro, I was going to have to be the top dog in Africa. You can't, but just for me, then I was like, I just maybe realized I had to keep working hard and I kept trying to work hard. But I think at some point I started, I realized for me at least Because of the limited financial resources I had, I realized I had to think of college. And so I, for me, I guess at one point, I think around grade 10 or 11, I realized I had to go try and play college tennis that would have more financial resources available for me just to practice and still try and pursue my tennis career. But at the same time, I knew it'd be an opportunity to get an education. And And have somewhat of a safety net if I wanted to pursue my tennis career. And as I play college tennis, I, again, it's when you get to that level, there's there's just another level. There's always someone who's better than you. And throughout college, I was never a top player. It's it just made me realize maybe the pro career path was not really for me. And I did try playing a few pro tournaments. I remember when I was a freshman my college coach encouraged us to play. My first time, I would play a few pro level tournaments, some future tournaments and I want to make sure to, but so that's yeah, that's how I ended up in the college. It's you're right. There's so many levels, right? Like you're here and then there's another group here and then to get to the top 20 is it's mind boggling, right? How good and how much work they have to put in. Yeah. And I think with tennis, sometimes the financial resources do absolutely make a difference. I've seen friends who I know, I've, I've been around kids in, in, in Africa where I'm like, they absolutely have the talent to be the top player. And sometimes I just wonder why can't, we don't have as many African top tennis players in tennis, but sometimes the financial resources do make a difference or it's just, it's a difference between sometimes being able just to travel and play more tournaments. And maybe coaching to be able to hire the top tier coaches. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Going to Florida A& M, I believe you said that was your first time coming to the United States. Yes. What was that like? No. So I for the name is a HBCU, historically black college and university. I coming from Zimbabwe, I did not know anything about HBCU. So that was a little bit, I won't say it was a culture shock. So when I stepped on campus, seeing many people of color to me right away, I was like, Oh. I was like, I was coming to America. I was expecting, right? So that was a little bit of a kind of a good shock in a way, I was like, oh, okay. But I remember my teammate was from Moldova is the, Eastern Europe and he had the same sort of the same show with me. And but so that's so it's that was how so life for me, honestly, I went to business school over there. And. I played tennis as a student athlete. I, it's the discipline, it's, I think being part of an athletic team, it helped me just being disciplined. I had teammates who also my friends, my coach, my assistant coach was from Zimbabwe, who had a very close relationship with the head coach. He's somebody, the head coach I already knew before I even came to school. So I felt like I, even though I was Coming to a new place, I felt somewhat I had friends and family around who could support me, who could be there for me. So it's just worked out and you learn and you adapt and you grow in those situations, you just have to be open minded. That's how things went on. Yeah. No, and I think, because you had that history with tennis and so passionate about it, I think having that connection at Florida A& M, I'm sure it was huge too, just to, you already have, you talked about your assistant coach and just players on the team just to have that as a, support network, I'm sure it was really important. No, it wasn't. Also, when you come in as a freshman, luckily for me, I came in with three other freshmen, right? It's we all from all different places, parts of the world, but we had a freshman from Phil Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was from Zimbabwe. We had one guy from Dover. But we all, freshmen we end, end of the day we're just trying to, looking for a place to where we feel comfortable, where we wanted to pursue our dreams. at least I was glad I had my teammates, to build from I guess as a friendship base. So we went, we had a support system and we went through the same challenges I remember my Eastern European friend having him trying to write essays, he, he was asking me, the guy from Zimbabwe, what's it in words, man, I was like, I don't know. It's let's open up the dictionary, but it's somebody who became my, one of my very best friends up to now, so it's it's amazing where life can take you when you're open minded. Yeah. It's a great point. Yeah. Great point. So let's just go, go into the top. So then you show up in Vermont and graduate. You're like, I'm going to find a job somewhere in tennis. You had this connection, you show up to Stowe. Tell us like what your first thoughts were of Vermont, right? Vermont's very different from Florida A& M. No, that is true. To be honest, when I came here I remember my friends, it's I had a few other tennis friends who were trying me to get to move and just hang out with them for the summer. And he was like, no, let's just come and relax. He's the money's chill. He's just going to teach tennis, relax. So I can't, I came for me, I guess when I first came in, I said, oh, I guess I was just coming out of school. I just wanted to work a little bit. So I remember my first summer, I, I worked quite a bit. I remember I was living around the Notch Brook store around that area. So I had to bike up that hill. I remember my first summer, we rented a house somewhere out there. It's a nice climb. No, it was, oh, I used to walk up, let's be honest. But that was my first, I came straight in working at Top Notch I honestly say I felt welcome the one of the first things one of the things that made me stay in store of the month was after my first summer when I was considering whether to stay. I just saw that people were welcoming. The people I met for me were welcoming. I remember when I first told a few people that I was going to be staying for the winter within the first week or two, I had five, six jackets. I was like, Simba, have you ever been, have you ever experienced winter? I'm like, no, I'm like, I'll be fine. I was like, I'm going to go get some winter gear. They're like no. Real winter. Winter gear. You gotta get winter gear. Boots. Boots are critical. Yeah. It's more things like that in a community that make people feel welcome. It's I remember I even got a couple of one pieces, one pieces from the seventies, eighties skiing gear. Do you still have them? Yeah. Back in style now. Yeah. One piece. Oh, I gave it away. My skiing is not up to par. So I just saw the people were welcoming when I, when, for me, when I moved up here I, especially during my first winter, yes, When I was just trying to feel, feel things out I think even if I remember, wow, Mike gave me my first keys, yeah. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. Yeah, Mike gave him my first keys. My care is, I was maybe one of the first houses I came into and I remember when I walked in, Mike, I'm going to put Mike on the spot. I was, I think this was like, Simba, do you want a beer? He was like, Mike is a beer snob and she took me to Mike's the beer fridge. So it's it's, again, it's those experiences in life where I was relatively new and to have people be comfortable and confident and inviting in their house like that, it makes you. Feel uncomfortable, yeah, I remember that We had sours. Yes, we had sour beer. And it reminded you of something I feel like that you used to have from Zimbabwe or something. So Mike is the reason why you're still here, sounds like Yes. Yes. The Vermont craft beer industry. You got me? Yeah. Do you still have this like beer cooler? I have a beer. Yeah, I have a beer fridge over there. I'll show it to you. How many different brands? You know what the beer thing has settled down for me. Okay. These days that can get expensive. Yeah. Yeah. It's settled down. Now I'm back to drinking lagers and pilsners. So full circle. That's a cool story. And I remember these days, right? You're new to Stowe and I think you were mostly teaching juniors. I not most, but I know you'd ran the junior program there. And I know you still teach a lot of juniors and you have a lot of connections with kids that have grown up in Stowe. Something you love about teaching juniors. This is, something that you connect with them. You think, or. It's funny how I guess when me, honestly, as I've gotten older, as I've, I realized tennis did so much for my life. And sometimes I just want to share that. It's, it's, that's how for me I really started. It's actually what we left when I, my first summer in the U S I, I was teaching at that's my school for the summer camp. That was my first experience with teaching. And I remember being frustrated teaching kids was I wanted, it's I wanted them to do things a certain way. And I thought I was like, I think I would never teach kids. I was like, this is challenging. It was, I really wanted, I wanted to have them rallying within a couple of days. And then the next summer I spent it in the Poconos teaching at Camberland and me, I was there. I thought I was just going to be a tennis coach. Check it up. Five. Being a camp counselor and with eight, having 12 kids in the bank with three instructors, that was honestly, for me, that experience really is what made me want to really work more with kids. It was like that summer I spent with the kids, I remember one of the kids I had seeing him crying on day one about wanting to go home. And then having the same crime, not wanting to leave the camp. It's one of those experiences it's, those things happen a lot. And when you teach kids, you have those experiences sometimes, which is just worth it. It's that's why it's honestly made me keep wanting to teach kids. It's seeing kids grow in confidence or making kids realize, Yes, you maybe are not the best skier, but you can play tennis and you can, this can be your thing. This is the area where you can shine and grow in confidence and you can make what you want out of it. And that's how, that's why I really keep, really enjoy working with kids. Just seeing the growth on the court and just as human beings. And now you see some of the kids I've taught in store 12 years later, they're now young adults, and you, as coaches, sometimes we take it for granted, we just think, Oh, I'm just teaching an hour of tennis. But sometimes those kids look up to us and and it's, it just makes the job worth it over time. No. And a lot of these kids in Stowe love tennis they may give it up for a little bit, but they have it in them, and I think that's really cool. Yeah. Our last guest was Mishi LeMay. Such similar themes that you're sharing what she loves about teaching kids how to ski and that skiing is just one part of it. Just like teaching tennis is one part of it. And you're teaching these kids so many valuable skills they can take with them in a lifelong sport. So she was literally saying all the same stuff and just how rewarding it is to to see the growth. Yeah. And to be honest, what's really also cool about Store, is when you have connection with the local communities, a lot of the parents have, you have the support of the parents as well. And it's what's, it's sometimes like I always, it's, I always find, sometimes I'm teaching kids, I always tell the kids, I know your parents, I have them on speed dial, it's It's sometimes having those connections with the kids you teach where kids, likely for us, we know, we don't, we know we, we have a good program. We don't have a lot of kids in our classes. So it's good to know each kid by name, and then you know, just a number in the academy. And most of the kids, we know the kids, so we've spent time with their house inside the house. So it just makes for sometimes a better coaching environment when it comes to. Interacting with kids and trying to get the best out of their practice session or just trying as you're trying to lead them and guide them in their tennis journey, it's a And you're brutally honest with kids. I see brutally honest with most people when I'm playing you're encouraging, but when you do something Stupid. You're like, come on. Yeah. He's brutally honest with me When we talk about my game and it's great. I need it. It helps No, it's, that's how you get better. You need to know what you're doing wrong. Brutally honest. I would say, no, it's, I want you today. I want you to get better. Yeah. In a good way. No, but you do it in a connected way. You're not like derogatory. You do it in a good way. Yeah, totally. So as Mike and I are avid players. We are a part of the heavy hitters group, which is the most famous tennis fraternity in the history of this town. But obviously we're super into tennis, between your plane and coaching career what do you think is the big difference for those players that they go that next level? Or maybe don't, obviously any sport is so mental, but are there any things you look for or things that you've seen in players that have been able to, take that big step and not even go pro, but just the next level, right? Yeah. You play a lot, but how do you get to that next step? Honestly, I think for me, I think it comes down to accountability for, for, as an individual, for yourself. I always. Sometimes even when I'm teaching kids, I always, for me, one thing I always want to try and do with kids is make, trying to make them accountable for whatever they want to do. If I have a kid who comes to me and tells me they want to be the number one state play, play in the state, I go, okay, fair enough. I like that. Let's go for it. All right. Do you think you're practicing enough for you to events out of those words? Oh, you practice once a week. Probably not going to happen. What? Okay. Then they come to me like, okay, I'm practicing 10 hours a week. Okay. Is it quality practice? I, it's when you can have, you can be self accountable. I think it's it pushes a different drive with you where, you start being able to push yourself. You can self assess, when things are not working or you can take a step back, so for me, I think accountability, it's yes, the mental piece of the game is very important, but I think if you can be accountable, especially for me, practice is more important, right? If you can hold yourself accountable in practice, the rest of the game should come easier. It's, you just go for me. I always say, just going to your memory bank and just collecting what you've already stored, but you didn't do a good job of storing that information. Good luck. Don't look at me. I'll just be like, okay. But I think there is, I mean there is, I think like a lot of people that take like lessons, lessons all the time, then they go play a match. With me or somebody else their match play Isn't up to par because you're not getting clean you're feeding cleaner shots to them, right and all of a sudden they're playing me and it's drop shots And it's a variety of stuff, right? So there's a lot of people like that all of a sudden they go to bridge the gap to match play and it falls short it's funny how that keeps you in business though, right? When they lose a match to somebody worse than them. No, it's a, I always say sometimes it's interesting. I always like asking backgrounds, when you're playing with players, like what's your sport background, not even just tennis. If you've lent, if you've lent where they was competing in ski racing instead of playing tennis, you're somewhat athletic. I'm expecting you the competition piece. You have it, right? We can work on the technical piece, right? So sometimes I feel like just different backgrounds are sometimes suited better to, right? Some people come without the competition background, right? And they sometimes they have to build that. And sometimes I just told players, no, you just have to go keep playing a lot of matches. You got to throw yourself into the fire, right? Play with that player you don't like playing with, who hits moonballs. You can't just be like, I want to play with the guy who hits the ball hard. It's so I would say some players come with a competition piece. But I feel like sometimes it's just a matter of the more you play, there's something about experience. Yeah. And whatever you do, whatever field you're in life, it's throw yourself to the fire. Now I know I can't do that. As you experience those things. Yeah. Yes, and I think to, just playing a decent amount is just how every opponent's different and it's like a reset and, a whole new analysis about, breaking down their deck game, coming up with some strategy and but I, that's what I love about the sport is that every opponent is different and you might need to take different approaches. And it's fine. For me, I sometimes have clients who, I always tell clients sometimes they don't. They don't like the idea of competing and it's also okay, I get you get it for me I would say what are you here? What are you playing the game for? Some people just want to play which is great Some people also like this is what I this is a long week I love just coming and hitting some hitting some balls And when you work with kids for me, I would say when I just provide that give them the base to take the game to wherever they want to take it. If they want to just play for fun, that's okay. If they want to play high school tennis, that's fine. If they want to push it to the next level, I just want to, for me, just provide at least some of the tools to help. You can create that whatever path that they want the foundation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tennis golf Those are like to me. Those are sports. They're all on you, right? Tennis you get but golf's even harder because you only have 80 to 100 shots Everyone has to be good tennis. You have a lot more shots You can make more mistakes and it's how you make a mistake and then bounce back sometimes You know, you don't dwell on it and have your head down. So anyway Oh, it's funny. You bring that up. i've heard about simba's golf game yeah, maybe, how'd you get into golf and that's, I'd love to hear more about that. No, I just took a golf. My last day in college, I had six free credits and that took a golf class and a tennis class. Nice. That's how my golf, the elective count. Yes. So I took some free elective in my last year of undergrad in school and that's how I played a little golf then and, my college coach when I, and I was the assistant coach the grad assistant coach in grad school. So me and my head coach, sometimes we used to go play golf when when we were traveling around the, with the team, we just give my golf, my head coach was a golf nut. So you just be like, Hey, if we got a tough match to go, let's go play some golf first before we talk to the players sort of thing. So that's how I started playing a little bit. And then then I moved to Vermont and I go off a lot at Ryderbrook. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, yeah. Johan fills me in on your, on how your golf game's going. And is it more an outlet for you? Like you'd spend so much time on the tennis court. Is golf more Hey, I'm outside. This is just having fun. Are you like, or are you really competitive about your golf games? No, I, it is an outlet, but it's also just for me, it's just it's fun for me trying a new sport, a new challenge. And I think for me, when I started really playing golf, it Honestly helped me connect to be a better tennis coach. My frustrations is I'm as I was learning how to golf even up to now, sometimes I you know I feel like I work on my golf game. I'm not getting better and I sometimes good as i'm coaching and I see some of my clients going getting through the same frustrations It has definitely helped me just become Be a little bit aware of how much the learning process Can be but I do golfing. I play more casual. Yeah. I just want to be decent. I don't want to embarrass myself when I, when somebody invites me to play golf, that's all. I just want to be a decent golfer. So we got to talk about a different sport pickleball, as tennis players, we tend to diss on pickleball a lot of us. And I know it's a fast growing sport in America. You got to tell us the truth. You've converted courts to pickleball at top notch. Do you like pickleball or not? I like the game. I have no quarrel against pickleball. I guess I always living in Vermont, I would say. If snowboarders can find their way on the mountain then pickles could find their way. Pickleball case, find this way on the tennis court. It's a similar thing. So it's, I get it. There's still, if people feel this way and that way about it. But I think honestly, in all seriousness, the might for me, it took a moment for me to think about it a while back. We live in Vermont and for me it's another avenue for people to get out of their house. Stay active. Yeah. Stay active. Yeah. Socialize. We live in one of the darkest counties in the U S I'm sure you guys are aware of that. And there we come with challenges where the seasonal depression and all that stuff. And so for me sometimes it honestly took me looking at it, those benefits as well. And and to be honest for the business, it's a it's a, it's another revenue source for the business. And And being that with me working in the tennis industry, we do not, we do need those other streams of businesses just to keep clubs afloat, it's so it's, I think it's it's essential. That's why you're starting to see more racket clubs, not just tennis clubs anymore, starting to see. Pedal, paddle, tennis, pickleball it's clubs trying to diversify their revenue stream. So it's, I know that I'm being a little, I'm taking the diplomatic route. Do you see pickleball players want more and take up tennis or is it people that never took up tennis? Like, all right, this is now a good sport for me. I think it's it's a combination of of both. I think pickleball is also an easier sport to pick up. It it, so it's it's a sport way, right? It's a core day in Vermont. It's easy to just say everybody can participate in play pickleball. Good luck trying to smaller core. Yeah. You can't do that with tennis. We can't do that with tennis. So I think it's it's things like that if with pickle ball and you have. You have people in the social piece of source is pickleball Every time you know, it's pickleball. There's usually people on the side courts, chit chatting and that's all good stuff Yeah, we need that. So I agree. We're giving a hard time to the pickleball players out there, but I agree It's like e bikes to me and more bikes the better, right? I have an e bike and I get attacked in this town for having an e bike because everyone's like what you're throwing the towel in Already with a motor you can ride you're just being a smart man I think I gave you a hard time. Yeah, everybody gives me a hard time. I stopped now I have to say it is frustrating seeing somebody go up the mountains faster than you when you think you're pushing You hear the little buzzing so here's how to think about they could be in a car That's how to think about it right instead. They're on their bike That is true, right that is true same way Have you I know Andrew Chamora just put in a pedal court. Have you played that in the past or at his court? I just tried it last week with Baker. With Baker, Ramsey and Arrow. We were all out there. Those are good players. Yes. It was fun. It was, I'm into it. I'm into it. So I'm looking to play. Hopefully I can go out a couple of more times before they shut down the court. I'm excited that yeah, they're planning on doing some pretty cool stuff. I hope that's a success. It's good Those are some good tennis Those are some good tennis players too like in your mind Who's the best who are some of the top tennis players in stowe right now? Like i'm sure you play with these guys sometimes besides my besides me. Yeah, of course heavy hitters top three you don't have to pick the top one like top three in your ladies Both. Yeah, both. I think we should just have an open tournament. Yeah, that would be a great idea Right now you got baker you got we got andrew is a really good player, we got arrow Ramsey jamie. Yeah, we have That'd be fun to have a tournament You know, we have all this yana Yeah, weird So now I think we should have an they had the Audi York tournament for many years. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah. The audio tournament. It was just the areas, best players. I know they used to have a local tournament back in, but when I first moved to Vermont, I know, was it ever used to host the tournament at wind bridge. Yeah. With the wooden rackets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Heard about that too. Yeah. But I never got a chance to play. So I think it's time. Yes. To solve. To resolve that debate. Let's do it. That'd be fun. I'll be more than happy to direct the tournament. No, you'd be playing. I'll play doubles. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Switching gears a little bit, we want to, hear a little more about, life in Stowe and what that's like for you. You told us a little bit of information, but did you say 12 years ago? Yeah. Yeah. It's been 12 years. Yeah. What was Stowe like 12 years ago? Obviously it's changed a lot, what was the town like? What was the vibe like? I guess for me, honestly. I guess for me, I can only speak for my story. It's for me, I've still maintained most of the same relationships, and I always say when you're local your way around. So for me personally, I feel like I've been able to maintain the same relationship I've had. And if I'm in a place where I don't feel comfortable, I'm not going to be there. It's a thing, fortunately, I'm in a. where that doesn't happen a lot. People, most people have been treated other people with respect for the most part. That's not to say we don't have, the occasional big eatery people in the community or any of that. So in terms of when I first moved here I feel like there were more, there were a lot of locals. I always, my, I always have, I had a lot of interaction with locals. For me, I still have the same interaction. So for me, it's. It's not a quite, it's almost like they're still here. There's just more everybody else on top. Yeah. And sometimes, I guess the more I think about it, it's sometimes my interactions with the locals have become less, it's like they, I used to go out a little bit more in town and I pick and choose my days and times when I want to go just depending on traffic, but I still do other cool stuff as well. with with my friends that's still a way off. Great activity, but still connecting, socializing with people. Just So that's still there for me personally, you know What I mean you've been here 12 years. What makes so unique to you? I mean you're happy here you do. Is it the activities? Is it the community is a combination? I think for me it's a combination of the community. And for me to I want to say it's if you're an active person I'm active so I like the active community That is definitely That was, that's part of the huge reason I stayed here, the community, just being able to do a lot of things and whether it's been, I picked up skiing in Stouffville, Vermont I picked up mountain biking in Stouffville, Vermont I was never big on hiking. I always used to say, I'm not, if I'm going to hike, I'm going to run, that was always my thing. I was like, why are you walking? I, you So I've gotten into hiking, the scenery, it's just it's just amazing. And I always say, one thing that I really like about being here for me, it's I feel like I reinvent myself with each season. Whether it's summer I golf a little bit more and I'm into golf, I mountain bike a little bit, I run. During the winter, I cross country ski, I downhill ski a little bit. And I, during the mud seasons, I try and take care of my body a little bit, do a little bit of yoga. These are all things I never really grew up doing in my life. And when I moved here through friends inviting me to do those things, those are things now I do and I enjoy doing. They also keep me healthy. They keep me happy. So thanks. Yeah, I love the variety of the seasons and i'm the same way, i'll have a hobby I'll get really into it and then the next season will come and you know Maybe i'll do a little more of one thing than the other thing and that's what one thing. I really love That's where we are, right? We're mid october, right? We're all like, okay Golf clubs are going away, you know all that and I also have a sage story the story is a head is a hidden gem of You There's a lot of brilliant people here, whether athletes, whether be whatever field you think of. Sometimes I meet and run into people where you're like, what are you doing here? It's a, that's why we have the Octagon podcast, highly successful people in their fields, and so it's pretty, yeah, it's you meet a lot of interesting people and you learn, if you're listening, sometimes you talk, you're interacting with the locals, interacting even with. Everybody was coming in. It's, there's always something to be learned if you keep your ear open. Yeah, no, that is our goal of this podcast is to, meet all of these interesting people and hear their stories, but coming from Zimbabwe and moving to, a very small homogeneous community, being a person of color, has that provided any challenges for you or what that, what has that experience been like for you? Yeah, I. I've been living in stone now for 12 years. And for me, it's there's something I've always understood in life. It's like the racism doesn't exist. There's it's, that's just always been clear in my mind, but that doesn't mean everybody, everybody's bigoted, it's so for me, I think I just try and treat people as individuals. If you treat me with respect, I'm going to treat you with respect. So it's that's not just say I've had. Incidences I've had through other, my friends of color have sometimes had incidences that may have happened that have happened. And I'm grateful. I don't think I have a big story to tell. That's not to say things are not happening. It's but I think for the most part, people have treated me with with respect and and I think I have more allies, I should say, I definitely feel like I have more allies. And and I think if, I think most people are fully aware that the state is not the most diverse state and that's for a variety of reasons, right? It's, so it's but as a person of color, for me, my stories, I feel like I've been welcome. Yes. This, there might be challenges in there from a few rogue elements, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I feel like I've come into like a welcoming culture and for the most part people do try and listen and Vermont is a very diverse state as you can tell it's, I know I've only lived in store and experienced mostly store. So my story is more of me living in store, but also being somebody who is ingrained in the society, I've, so it's, Most of my experiences have been positive. Yeah, that's good to hear. Yeah. So Stowe's changed a lot since you've been here. What are you worried about for Stowe or what do you hope to see like in the next 10, 20 years for Stowe? Is, what do you think about that? I think for me, I think it's it's just, I guess you just want, for me, I want to say continuation of the sense of community with especially the, the locals it's You just want that, it's right? We all know it's one thing that's constant is change. Change, change is always going to come. Sure, we want that change sometimes to happen in a way that's, it's not disruptive to, to, to our local communities. So I hope in the next 10, 20 years, I can still have these interactions where I can still walk into Mike's house, and just knock on the door and be like, Hey, Mike it's what new beer do you have in the beer snob fridge? Yeah. So it's a, it's even just sometimes when I go about my day to day life, I sometimes I'm able to get things done just because I know Mike, he assists me with this and that. And I hope that we can keep that. So it's, yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Very cool. So we're just about getting ready to wrap up, but we do ask all our guests this question. If Stowe did not exist, where would you live? I guess I'll just say, Hey, I'm a mama's boy, so I'll just have to say Zimbabwe. You probably have to say that. Yes. When your family listens to this. I guess I'll be with mom, but now that I've experienced it all, I would say Zimbabwe. I would start having to think about a place with some skiing, no, I've never thought that's something I would ever think about in my life, but I would have to start thinking about is there some skiing somewhere I might move to? Not that I ski a hundred days during the winter or anything, but it's it's something that, that I look forward to, every winter. So I have to say Zimbabwe. That's awesome. Yeah. Awesome. All right thank you Simba, that was an awesome episode. Thanks for being on the show today with me and Ted. Yeah, thanks Simba, that was awesome. No, thank you very much for having me. All right, bye. Hope you all enjoyed that most recent episode with Simba happy. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple podcasts, as well as Spotify. Also check us out on Instagram at octagon podcast Stowe and stay tuned for our next episode that will be dropping shortly with our guest, Rick Sokolov, who is the co founder of Stowe mountain bike club. See you all soon.