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In this episode, we talked to Tim Siegel, executive director of Team Luke Hope for Minds, whose

mission is to enrich the lives of children with a brain injury and give hope to their

families through support and education.

Please visit TeamLukeHopeforMinds.org and get involved with this wonderful organization.

Have a listen and let us know what you think.

Tell me who is Tim Siegel and what is Team Luke Hope for Minds.

Well, for me, Tim Siegell is a father.

That's who I am.

My identity to me has always been being a father.

I was a tennis coach.

That's what I did for a living.

But ever since my son had his accident, I have become or I was a caregiver.

And then we started in 2018, the Team Luke Hope for Minds, non-profit, where we support

children after brain injury.

For me, the most important thing that I do now is, I'm the executive director of Team Luke Hope

for Minds, which is a nonprofit that supports children after brain injury.

Prior to this, I was the tennis coach of Texas Tech for 23 years.

I actually resigned from Texas Tech in 2015 to spend more time with my family.

And 20 days later, my son Luke, who was nine at the time, had a golf card accident.

And Luke spent five months in the hospital.

And for the next six years, I was Luke's primary caregiver.

I took care of Luke every minute of every day.

I wanted to show doctors, neurologists, neurosurgeon that Luke could improve despite the fact

that we were told Luke would never use his limbs, use his voice, or open his eyes.

He eventually did all three.

But in 2021, August 19th, Luke passed away from COVID.

I always remember thinking that Luke was going to speak.

I was convinced that Luke was going to speak.

He was so close.

I would ask Luke, move your tongue, you would move his tongue.

I would ask Luke to let me hear your voice.

And he would try so desperately to open his mouth and make some sounds.

But I guess I can say now that Luke is speaking, he's just speaking through me.

And for me, I am passionate.

I always have been passionate about sports about our New Orleans Saints or Texas Tech.

But now I'm passionate about team Luke all for minds, which supports children after brain injury.

We started in 2018.

I became the executive director at that time.

I have a partner in Austin.

We have a staff all over, love of Texas and Austin and other places.

And we are blessed now to help so many families all over the country.

In 2021, we granted over half a million dollars the same last year in 2022.

This year we actually already have over 67 families on a wedding list.

Trying to keep up with the applications.

We're receiving application almost every single day.

Families whose children had a brain injury from golf cart like my son, ATV accidents at

home, car accidents, non-fatal drownings and so many more.

Just yesterday I spoke to a father who has six children and is sixth child had a non-fatal drowning.

That little little precious angel is only two years old.

Those are the kinds of things that I hear every day.

What I try to do, what we try to do is to give hope to families through education, through financial support.

We have support groups online.

I have a dad support group.

We have what I believe is our most important two days of the year.

We have a pediatric brain injury conference where we fly families and pay for their expenses

to come here, presentations, speakers, listen to other families who are going through similar things.

And there's a uniqueness to what team Luke hope for minds does.

I was reading a little bit.

You do a lot of work with NFL players or involved as well.

I've got Patrick Mahomes that works with you.

I've seen Drew Brees's name.

But this is different from the concussion work that the NFL does.

There's a uniqueness to what you guys focus on.

Yes, it is different.

You mentioned Patrick Mahomes.

He of course was the quarterback at Texas Tech.

He means the world to us, Luke knew him prior to the accident.

Patrick has never played a game for the chiefs without wearing on his right wrist.

Team the Gulf reminds.

Drew Breeze was Luke's hero.

Drew came to do an event for us.

We used to go to Saints games with Luke and Drew has just been incredible.

Actually, at Luke's funeral, Drew had a video that began the funeral.

We've had a lot of famous tennis players as well.

Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, John, you know, Isner, Brad Gilbert.

So many have taken their time to bring awareness and help raise money for team Luke hope for minds.

But yes, what we do is we as an organization, and now we're nationally well known.

We are in 46 states.

We provide financial support for families.

ours are, I would hate to say more severe than a concussion because a concussion is very severe.

But these are traumatic and an oxic brain injuries.

My son had an oxic injury, which means he lost oxygen.

I've seen seen so many of those as well as just traumatic brain injuries, where it's a bit easier to

recover from a traumatic brain injury, but also very severe.

I actually just spoke recently to Lee Steinberg, who of course is part of the most famous agent.

And he is so involved with concussions and helping the NFL players and organizations understand

more about concussions.

But we kind of take it a step further.

And because so many families, we are told I was told what Luke was never going to do.

But I also know what the brain can do.

The brain can heal.

The brain does heal.

Luke made the biggest strides.

The most improvement in year six and yet so many of us are told after about 18 months,

there's a flat line that that's as much as you can do.

There are so many different things in so many different ways to improve.

But I believe through therapies, through therapists, incredibly important.

But I also think that love is the most important.

I was there to provide love for Luke every single day, all day.

And I believe he improved tremendously because of all of these things I just mentioned.

And I can only imagine how that feels as a father.

I'm a new father myself.

And just to be able to hear you talk about it and talk about how that love matters.

And then the doctor said, hey, look, here's the math.

And the math is one thing.

But the love of a parent and somebody that says, no, I don't believe it.

We're going to be able to do more than anyone has ever done before.

And in that case, you took that to become a full-on life's mission.

Well, it is my mission. It's my passion. It's my calling.

It's now to me my responsibility because when a father or a mother calls me and let's me know that

their child was told that he should be in a home or that there's no way he's going to

improve. I can't speak with that person. I can only speak for what has happened for me.

But I have seen so many families and so many children improved from so many different areas.

But I know this that I spoke to Luke, not about Luke. I spoke to Luke every day.

We had our way of communicating. Luke was non-verbal. Luke was Tube fed.

But I began, okay, Luke, move your tongue if you think the saints are going to win.

And he began and it was tongue. And from that point on, I knew Luke understood.

You know, I would ask Luke, Luke, move your tongue if you want to listen to Dad's favorite Bruce

Springsteen. He would not want to go to tongue. Move your tongue if you want to listen to Ed Sheeran

or classical music and he would move his tongue. The thing for me though is that every single day

I, you know, I grieve tremendously. I am, I am in a lot of pain because my

nine year old who passed at 15 was my little hero. But I also know because of what happened to Luke,

Luke's injury has helped so many families and inspired so many people and made an impact

to so many. And for that, I'm grateful. It's got to be tough. I can only imagine, like I said,

and I'm curious, you are doing, from an awareness point of view, you do events. We know there's,

there's good, excuse me, there's good funding coming in. You guys are doing great work,

financially, to help the families. A lot of physical therapy, a lot of therapy in general.

And you're also doing tennis events. So if we bring this from a tennis point of view, you started

you came to this from being a tennis coach. And now we're doing tennis events. And no

Bobby, you were involved in, was it the previous two or the previous event here in Atlanta?

The last one that was held that I, it was windy Hill. I always forget what it is called now.

But yeah, windy Hill athletic club. We were there last July, Tim was it?

That's correct. Right before the, it was an open. Right before the opening. Yeah.

And it was an amazing day. And anybody who's watched this anybody knows me, I'm not silently very often.

So hit so close to him obviously, as Tim said, I identify first and foremost as a father as well.

You know, that, that is what I've done for the last 17 years, is be there for my daughter.

And I was just amazed not just by the presentation to make the family environment how his

Arkansas teammates come to be a part of this event, how his Texas tech former players come to be a part of this,

how you know, Luke Jensen was there. And I guess that was my introduction to Tim was through Patricia,

Jensen. And these guys, we were out there in the middle of summer, 90s, some are degrees,

middle of the day. And they were working like you couldn't believe. Just flying around like they were

teenagers. I call Patricia that night and said, now Luke is going to be hurting tomorrow because he didn't stop for four hours.

I mean, I laughed the first drill we did was the adults. And I had my court in after 25 then we had six

courts after 25 minutes. I think we were down to three courts because the adults were, oh my god,

this is a lot of work. And it was so much energy there that I just was like, well, okay, we need to do,

you know, I like to be more involved. I like to, you know, how else can we help? So Tim,

you know, there's, that's my experience with it. And besides sharing our passion for Bruce Springsteen,

we've continued to speak over the last year. And hopefully to do more here at Atlanta.

Well, and I certainly appreciate that, Bobby. And you know, the event that we had in Atlanta was was

wonderful. My former assistant, you know, Marcelo Ferra, who has done such a great job at Wendy Hill.

But as you mentioned, the tennis community because I played,

collegially, University of Arkansas, then played professionally, was fortunate enough to have been

played all the grand slams and and and keep in touch with a lot of those players, you know,

the tennis world has really supported what we're doing. And to have Andre Agasian and Eurotic,

among others, that have taken their time to have an event and to help us raise money and awareness.

That's what we want to continue to do. We have events all over the country from golf tournaments.

We've had Drew Breeze, Demario Davis from the Saints. We have the Eli Young Band. They're coming

to perform in May. So we do, we definitely have events that help raise money. We know that we

have to continue to raise money in different ways from mission partners to national partners. And certainly

tennis events is something that we look forward to because it's bringing back some old friends

to support such an incredible cause. I'm curious about the fundraising for you. What's

the best way? So as an executive director, that's one of your main jobs is when you financially

help everybody going on. So there's a lot of fundraising going on. And a tennis event is just one

of the things you do. It kind of a two-fold question. What's the best thing for you to bring in

those kinds of donations, that kind of support? What's the best way that happens and how can we

get that word out? What's your best case scenario? Is the tennis event brings in the most money in the

year? I would doubt it. What's your best option for raising money?

Well, I would ask everyone that's listening to go to teamluchofermines.org. And look at our website.

There's an opportunity to donate there as well. My personal page, Pray for Loot Seagull,

is an opportunity to learn more about our story. And then if people want to go to YouTube and just put

in Luke Seagull, they'll be able to see documentaries. ESPN did a story on us, the day that the

Mahomes and the Chiefs played the Saints and Drew Brees in 2020. Different opportunities to raise

money through our website, through events. People can even contact me at Tim@teamlukehopeforminds.org.

I'm happy to speak to anyone regarding that because as I said earlier, we never dreamed that after

four years, we would have granted over half a million dollars each of the last two years. This year

we're on track to get to grant almost a million dollars. The problem is we don't have a million dollars

to grant at this point. So we're continuing every day to raise money. We have become so well-known

because of Facebook groups, because of word of mouth, because of my personal page, because of therapies,

people that own these different types of therapies, they have sent people our way. So keeping

up is important. We don't want to have people on a wedding list. We don't want to tell a family

know, right now we're telling families hold on. But we do so many things other than just

offer financial support, you know, through education, through support groups online, our pediatric range

of your conference. And I speak to a family member almost every single day because they need to hear from

someone who's been through it. Yeah, that personal connection makes the huge difference. Yes, and I actually

also have written a couple of books. I wrote a book in 2019 called It's In Guys Hands. And I just came

out with another book. Here it is. It's called Fight Light Luke, Transforming Grief into Love Strength and Faith.

You know, so many of us have gone through different types of grief, whether it's a relationship,

a job, a child, a parent. And so this book came out in December and Patrick Mahomes has a quote

at the top of the book, "Rest in Peace Luke. The impact you made in my life will never be forgotten."

You know, so we have become the premier organization that does more than just out financial,

but those support groups that we do online are very powerful. I have a dad support group. We have

a sibling support group, a couple support groups, a support group where couples or parents can get on and

listen to speakers. So, you know, there are so many different ways that we can help families and in order

to help families financially we need your support. We need support from the tennis world, the tennis

community, and then just people in general that want to help because brain injuries among children

is so much more prevalent than anyone could ever imagine. I had no idea that so many children

are affected by brain injuries. And so I'm living at every single day, but despite my pain, despite my

briefs, I want to do all that I can to keep Luke's legacy alive. I love that. I love that. I know we want to

did a Bobby tell me we have an event from an Atlanta point of view. We say when can we get you here?

That's always one of the ideas that we have is okay. How does Atlanta help? And Bobby, did you tell

me there's something coming up here? Am I missing that? We're going back to Wendy Hill,

right in July, Tim. Rumor has it. There's a director at Windamere that's trying to convince his

property manager that this is a worthwhile event to not to worry about his liability concerns as much.

And I just read, are we going to do something to concourse as well? We're working on that. Yes,

we've got hopefully two or three events just prior to the Atlanta open. But yes, at Wendy Hill,

we will be there this Sunday before the open. And then hopefully a couple of other events right before that as well.

I like it. We will do everything we can to promote those. And again, we appreciate that because that's

there's always a goodness that comes from it. And we like covering what's good. We like talking about

things that are good. And I like what you said, "Well, yes, you're grieving every day, but you've

taken, taken comfort in how much help that others have received from everything you've gone through."

And like I said, I can only imagine, I look over at my new young son and all the thoughts.

And it's got to be something that nobody wants to go through. And I really appreciate the fact that

you're capable of having these conversations that you're capable of going through this.

Thank you so much for that. You know, it's, I guess I had a choice either, either feel sorry for

myself every day or try to make a difference in the world. And you know, there's not a blueprint for

families when they leave the hospital when their child's had the brain injury. What I'm also blessed to

do is getting front of people. I spoke to over 5,000 people last year and from companies to students at

schools to teams just yesterday, I spoke to the University of Texas 10. It's been 10 years since the

students were in the team today and the team is men's 10 years since tomorrow because they're playing

against Texas tech. And so when coaches reach out to me, they want to hear what I have to say.

And I have a sort of a model called seven inspirations from Luke. Number one is to find your passion.

Number two is to never quit. Number three is to lean on friends, family, siblings, coaches,

number four is to make good choices. Be careful. Five have faith. Six is to find forgiveness. And

number seven is to let a loved ones legacy live on through you. So those are the seven core.

And then I also talk about putting one foot in front of the other. I'll pick the one. I like that.

I like that number seven letting the loved ones legacy live on through you. I think that's often why

we have children in the first place is so hopefully they can do that for us also. But in this case,

that goes both ways for you. Yes, it's sure to us. I like that. Yeah, Bobby, I was going to

wonder if you've got something specific because I definitely am looking forward. I can have an idea

maybe that the response that we might get from my King of tennis question. But I'm curious what else

what else is on your mind, Bobby? Oh, I want to make a personal first second, too. In the fact that

Tim also has two other daughters. And Tim, you know, let's talk about the Bruce Springsteen concert,

Tim. So I'll add on on Facebook. And I know the difficulty I have with my daughter trying to get

and listen to the boss and try to get her to go to a concert. But I thought that was a great sharing

experience because despite everything life goes on and you do have your two girls. And Bobby,

I have actually I have three children, three daughters. And my oldest daughter is 31. And my daughter

has a five-year-old son and twin boys that are three and just had a baby girl two months ago. And

you know, another kind of, I guess you could call it a tragedy or, in our case, we're going to look

at as a blessing. My daughter has a little girl named Maddie and she has a syndrome, a very rare

syndrome called Odo. She was born without a middle brain. And so maybe I'm put on this earth to help

more than just my son who's had a brain injury, but also my granddaughter. But you know, what happened to

me is I've always been someone that's that just loved being with my children. I left Texas tech

to be with my children. And they actually didn't happen just 20 days later. But I have a 31-year-old daughter,

a 20-year-old daughter, an 18-year-old daughter. And I'm so fortunate. And I don't take for granted that

my girls still love being with their dad. And so we have a special bond with sports and also

with music. And I took my 20-year-old, an 18-year-old Kate Nellie to see Bruce Springsteen, Austin,

and February. And that was probably the first time where I thoroughly enjoyed my time and didn't

think about who wasn't there. And so the music and being with my girls, you know, had dinner last night with

my girls. I'm trying to make up for lost time. I think they have told me in the past that they never knew

if it was going to be mad dad, sad dad, happy dad or angry dad. And if dad was even really there

for them. And so, you know, I really, I do believe I'm in the healing process and that I'm just

getting a lot more time with my girls, my grandchildren. And I didn't know if I could ever find joy

again, but certainly they have given me joy back again.

That's what there's no blueprint for this. You know, that's the hard part. I mean, you're trying

to do it for other people. And the amazing part, as I said, it just being there,

on a tennis court and having the whole, everybody around you just silent listening this man,

speaking, it was so powerful. And you just, you wanted to get involved in, you know, the brain is such,

we don't know much about you. But let's say, we use an eighth of our brain or you know,

8% of the brain, the geniuses. So there is so much hope there's so much hope that you can unlock

with your passion and what you're doing. So, you know, there's so many other positive ramifications

that get, you know, they're going to come out of this. And, you know, we're just thankful that you,

you've taken this road. And thankful that you're still fighting a good try.

Well, I do. And you mentioned the word fight, you know, because I'm reminding everyone that I run into

to fight like Luke. You know, Luke's favorite number was three. And so, you know, I always tell people,

when you see the number three, think of three words fight like Luke. And my bracelet right now,

says, you know, team Luke all from minds on one side and fight like Luke on the other. And even when I speak

to tennis teams or students, you know, to every day, we have to fight, fight through adversity,

fight through things that may seem insignificant. But regardless, we have to fight every day. And,

you know, I am going to do everything I can every single day to fight like Luke.

And it's a great message. And it's a message in positive and in helping others, not just for self

game. And that's the great part about it. You're taking a lot of people on,

hopefully a very positive ride and something that is otherwise a very dire situation. And again,

we thank you for that. So we are, we're looking forward to July, as I said,

I got involved through Patricia Jensen. And again, Shaun, having spoken to Patricia,

just the golden retrievers were there last year as well, they helped out with the event. So it is a

really, again, under the circumstances, a really upbeat event that I believe Patricia is telling me that

as we were finishing, people were already saying, okay, I want to sign up for next year. So hopefully

we can continue to grow on this. We have a couple of conversations coming up. And because the other

venues is a group that I haven't even told you about who's taken that over. And you know,

something we're talking to you very seriously as well. So hopefully we'll be a big part of this

moving forward as well. And I did not pay Tim to mention TCU during the podcast just let's get that

other way. And let's be clear Patrick Mahomes. I think through for 700 yards against TCU while he was

at Texas Tech. So and Arkansas, can we talk about the argument? How did you end up at Arkansas?

Well, I'm from New Orleans and at the time in 1982, I had visited five schools, Texas, Clemson,

Arkansas, TCU, actually four schools at the time. And Arkansas was top 10 in the country. And so when I

went there, we were, I think we've made two sweet 16s and two elite eights. I had some great players on my

team. And I was just back in Fayetteville. I just loved my time as a college coach,

I love my time coaching in college as well. You know, coaching is something that I just love doing because

you are developing the game of tennis to them, but you're also developing them so that they're ready

for the real world, you know, to be on time, to be disciplined, to be respectful. And I think that

many of my players, I think, look back and they realize that although I was tough and demanding,

that maybe it helped them later in life and now that they have children, they understand more than ever,

you know, to love and enjoy every second of being a father because to me,

there is nothing better, nothing more rewarding than being a father. And I 59 years old,

you know, I'm not only now a father, but also a grandfather and I'll never take for granted

the joy that I have, although I don't have my son in front of me or with me, he's inside me and he is

in my heart every day. You have that to share and you have that love in your heart and you have a

thing that you'll always be with you and that's phenomenal. And like I said, again, thank you for

the strength because I can only imagine what it feels like to have to have this conversation every day

and be able to share that with everyone and that's your grief story, that's your grief journey.

And I'll tie that in if you don't mind, I don't know if this is a direction you would go

if you were, if you were king of tennis for a day and we always bring it back to tennis, of course,

if we can, or at least we start there. But in this case, we start with you and try to bring it into

tennis and say, if you were king of tennis, is there anything you would change? Is the typical

question and sometimes that answer is defined by obviously who we are or what we do and obviously

how we view the world and you've got a unique view of the world at this point in your life. So if you

were king of tennis, is there anything you would change anything you would do?

Well, I think there's a couple of things. You know, I know that there was, I'm not sure if it was

Tiafo or Fritz maybe one of them that mentioned, you know, to have a bit more fun, even even

it changeovers where you've got music and I would like to see more entertainment. But really the

number one thing, when I was a coach at Texas Tech, I was also a promoter. I wanted to market our sport.

We were two in the nation in attendance. We had over 500 to 1,000 people at every match because we

brought people in because it was such a great experience. I think professional tennis needs to do a

much better job of marketing our top players, marketing our American players much better.

Some of who's ranked 30 in the world make, make go on the street and not be recognized. But in Europe

because of soccer and tennis being the top two, they are. I just think professional tennis, it's

incredible what these players are doing. I think we are at a great time, both men and women,

whether there are so many good players, it's not so top heavy, anybody can win a grand slam.

Certainly the Alcaras is of the world. They bring such joy and excitement and energy.

He is just amazing. But with American tennis players are doing so well, I would just love to see our

sport market our players in a much better, much different way because I don't like seeing

tournaments where the stands are half empty. And it's so important now with certainly pickle ball

has become so prominent. But I think both can kind of help each other. But I just want to see

our sport thrive because there's probably never been a better time. You know the joke of it,

she's the Federer's and the dolls. The big three are solely going the way to about just the big one.

But joke of it now has some competition. We have so many great players now. And I think if you

pulled the average tennis fan, they may not even know what some of these guys and how great some of

these guys really are. So I certainly want to promote the sport. I'm doing that as much like

Canon and collegiate level. I attend the US Open. One of my former players Gonzalo Escobar

is 40 in the world in doubles. And I was there to support him with the US Open also. And last year

is Atlanta Open. I hope to do the same this year as well. Escobar is Ecuadorian. Yes he is.

Oh my goodness. Okay. I'm completely interrupting. I hope you don't mind. We can cut this out if we need to.

Geovy, can you come visit me for a second? All right. So my wife is from Ecuador. And we

struggle to find Ecuadorian players. Is there just not that many that come from the country?

And we found this one guy, Escobar. And I've only I haven't seen him play any singles matches. He's just

playing, been playing doubles. I had no idea he had a connection to you. Come here for a second.

I want you to meet Tim. We're going to say hello real quick. You know my brother back. So my wife Geovy,

Geovanna and my son Geovanni. He's six months old coming up in a few days. And we get so excited

watching the guy that is from Ecuador. It's like these the only one that we can find. I think there

were one or two total on the men's side of the game that are from Ecuador. But we get the Escobar

the guy we watch. blade college tennis. Is that right Tim for you? He played for me. It takes his

tech. Gonzalo actually made the finals of the NCAA doubles. Absolutely tremendous person,

a professional in every way. And I'll never forget the story. He wasn't sure he wanted to play professional

tennis. He didn't think he was good enough. He tried the singles side of things. Got to around

300 in the world. But I always told him he had the instincts and the talent to be great doubles player.

And the very first match in 2023. He beat Joe Kovitch and doubles. He's currently 40 in the world.

He is in Europe right now. We speak regularly. He is he plans to be in Atlanta this year. And of

course I'll also watch him at the US Open. But you guys follow him because he's not only a great player.

He's a great guy as well. Thank you so much for your time of course. We're honored that you're

willing to share your story again. And how does it? What's next for you? What's next? How can we

help at Lannas specific? Obviously, but then for sharing with everybody? Well, I think if the

Atlanta tennis world would be interested in helping us promote on their social media, whether it's on

Facebook or Instagram, Luke.Siegel on Instagram, Tim Seagull, T.T.U on Twitter, but also team Luke

Hope for Minds is on all three of those as well. Our website teamlukehopeforminds.org. You can find

merchandise, my book. But the tennis world is so important to me obviously. And so I look forward

to being in Atlanta. I actually go to Atlanta quite often now because my brother who lives in

Newton, Georgia, we just moved my parents and my other brother to Newton. So I'll be in Atlanta,

probably once every four to six weeks just visiting them. So looking forward to connecting with the

people in Georgia. Well, there you have it. We want to thank rejuvenate.com for use of the

studio and be sure to hit that follow button. For more tennis related content, you can go to Atlanta,

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