James Schofield dishes on racing, and tuning, and the stories are awesome. Join us to listen in on the fun and danger of off-road racing and more. Listen in on your favorite podcast app. Tune in and share Conversations with Big Rich with others.
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7:43 – if you didn’t play football, you’re nobody in the south
9:45 – the thing I learned in team sports is never quit
17:51 – you just had to have 4 wheels and a tank of gas
28:52 – that peace of mind to know that those parts are good
34:04 – don’t tie up a lot of people’s effort if you just want to be a participant
44:32 – that’s when you start bringing everything in house
47:17 – you’re basically treating it like a rental car with full coverage
52:06 – I was very clear, “this dude doesn’t need to know anything!”
56:20 – that’s the style of racing I try to do, where you just leave every single thing on the table
1:10:25 – it’s great to be able to shake people’s hands and tell them thank you and stuff like that
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:45.690] – Big Rich Klein
Today on today’s episode of conversations with big rich, we have James Schofield. James has been around the off road industry for quite a while. We’ll get into his long history. He’s been all over east coast, west coast, and actually he was a participant or actually witnessed one of the funniest moments in my off road career. And we’ll discuss that that happened in Alabama at a race. James, thank you for coming on and spending some time with us and talking about yourself.
[00:02:20.050] – James Schofield
Man, I appreciate you having me on the show.
[00:02:23.170] – Big Rich Klein
So let’s just jump right in and get started. And where were you born and raised?
[00:02:30.430] – James Schofield
I was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Grew up in a little town outside of that called Gambrells, Maryland. Went to grade school there up to fourth grade. And then my parents divorced and my mom moved to Alabama and my two older sisters and I ended up living with my mother. So we moved to Alabama in like 91 or something like that and grew up through the rest of elementary school and middle school and high school in Alabama. And then the real world hit when you have to get a job.
[00:03:12.790] – Big Rich Klein
Well, before we get into all that, let’s explore your childhood a bit, okay? You said Maryland outside of Annapolis. Was it rural or was it more suburban?
[00:03:27.790] – James Schofield
I would say back then it was probably pretty. I would say that town back then probably didn’t have that many people in it. But today it’s probably the same size as Annapolis and everything. The way the world is right now with growth. But back then I would say it was kind of a small town for sure.
[00:03:52.790] – Big Rich Klein
And did you have to walk to school? Did you get a ride to school?
[00:03:56.850] – James Schofield
Well, part about that neighborhood that my parents lived in, the school was like behind the neighborhood so you could walk to school. They didn’t have the bus. Like we live so close that you didn’t have to take a bus or your parents drop you off. My parents would go to work before we left to go to school, and then my parents would just assume that we made it to school every day.
[00:04:23.410] – Big Rich Klein
So more like when I grew up, I guess what we call it now is latchkey kids. You’d get yourself off to school and then get back and get home and hopefully have your homework done before you went out and played with your friends and your parents got home.
[00:04:42.350] – James Schofield
That’s right. And then if the street lights came on and you weren’t home, that was it.
[00:04:47.990] – Big Rich Klein
You knew what your timing was.
[00:04:50.330] – James Schofield
Exactly.
[00:04:51.890] – Big Rich Klein
So what about Alabama, who was that? Rural as well?
[00:04:58.190] – James Schofield
So we moved to a small town called Ufala, which is not a very big town, it’s more of like a three or four red light type town and very farmland type, I guess like industry. There would be more like paper mill farm type stuff or building buildings, like prefab buildings for metal building shops and stuff like that. But not a very big town.
[00:05:32.370] – Big Rich Klein
So rural again. And what did you same thing there? Walk to school bus.
[00:05:39.690] – James Schofield
So in elementary school I had to take a bus which we could walk to the middle school and then the bus that dropped off middle school kids would take you to the elementary school. So and then once I finished fifth grade and we went to six, 7th and 8th was middle school down here. So you could just walk to school and then walk home. And then the high school was kind of directly across the street from the middle school. So not a very big drive or walk to school either way. Okay, but once I got to high school, I drove.
[00:06:18.700] – Big Rich Klein
Excellent. So then what kind of things did you do as a kid besides school? How did you occupy your time?
[00:06:29.910] – James Schofield
So I guess like in middle school was just playing outside because my mother didn’t allow you to kind of come in and out of the house a million times in one day or she would just kind of lock the door after you walked outside. You’re out until your time to come in and just hanging out with friends. A lot of that doesn’t seem to happen nowadays, but you could tell whose house to go to on your way home from school just by where the bikes were and stuff like that in certain people’s yards. So a lot of that is kind of gone by the wayside but that’s what we did. You would walk home and you would pass through your certain yards or whatnot, and then you would stop and hang out for a little bit. But when you got back to your house, you have to do your school work or whatnot. And then once I got to high school so middle school, I played football 7th and 8th grade. And then once I got to high school man, you were just trying to figure out what you were doing with yourself. And football was the only thing that’s really big down here as far as sports go.
[00:07:43.470] – James Schofield
If you didn’t play football, basically, you’re nobody in the south as bad as it is, but that’s kind of how it is. And lucky enough, I got to play football. So when there wasn’t football going on, like, the coach would make you do like track and field just to keep you doing something, or soccer, just trying to keep you in shape to where you’re not starting over from scratch at the spring training when it comes around.
[00:08:09.760] – Big Rich Klein
And what position did you play?
[00:08:12.210] – James Schofield
I played nose guard and defensive tackle and then did long snapper for field goals and punts.
[00:08:19.770] – Big Rich Klein
Nice. You can make a career just out of being a long snapper.
[00:08:24.450] – James Schofield
100%, man, 100%. READ MORE
