Scott Kinville gets ready to record the first episode of Marty’s Illegal Stick, which will air on Thursday night, November 5th at 8 pm on My Little Falls Radio.
by Dave Warner
If you spend even five minutes with Scott Kinville, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that he is passionate about all aspects of hockey, from stats to players, to the draft and even fantasy hockey. Kinville lives in Little Falls and is a fireman for the Little Falls Fire Department.
He says, “I’ve been a hockey fan, pretty much my whole life, thanks to my father, who got me into it.”
Kinville grew up idolizing Wayne Gretzky, who was nicknamed “The Great One”, and has been called the greatest hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, and even the NHL itself.
The first traumatic experience of my young life
At the time, Gretzky was playing for the Oilers, which made Kinville one of the team’s biggest fans. “Then he got traded to the Kings and that was the first traumatic experience of my young life,” Kinville said.
This happened before the internet and 24-hour news channels were in existence. A friend of Kinville’s happened to be watching ESPN and called him to relay the news that Gretzky had been traded. “I said haha, they would never trade away Gretzky, they just won the Stanley Cup, but I turned the TV on, and there it was. It was a horrible day.”
He said that these days, if there’s going to be a trade of that magnitude, there are so many news and social media channels, that you’d pick up on it hours before it actually happened.
In 1990, he went out to Buffalo to see a game at the old Memorial Auditorium. “That was an old-school hockey barn. We were actually staying at the same hotel as the Kings and I got to meet Gretzky as they were all coming through the lobby. It was incredible. I met the whole team, and got pictures and autographs from them,” he stated.
Throughout school, Kinvelle played a lot of street hockey because there wasn’t a rink in Herkimer County. “Nothing was organized, it was all pickup. It’s weird because it’s like there’s this curtain between Oneida County and Herkimer County. On one side they’ve got rinks, and everything, but as soon as you head down here, there’s nothing all the way from Utica to Schenectady,” he stated.
He said that when he was a kid, there was youth hockey in New Hartford and Whitesboro, but it was very expensive and a long way to go. “We only had one vehicle and my dad took that to work, so how was I supposed to get to practice or anything like that?”
Kinville said that back in the 60s though, Ilion High School actually had a team. “They had an outdoor makeshift rink out in Russell Park. They had uniforms and played other schools, and that’s how my dad got into it. He was a goalie and it just stuck with him.”
He said that once his dad got him into it, it was in his blood.
This is a lot of fun and I want to continue doing this
About five years ago, Kinville helped organize an adult and youth ball hockey league, and one of his friends was already doing a podcast called ‘All pucked up’. “They happened to put out on Facebook that they were looking for an additional person to host the show and they wanted somebody to talk about the Western Conference in the NHL.”
A friend of Kinville’s convinced him that he should give it a shot. “I’d never done anything like this ever, but I went up there and it worked. We had really good chemistry together. It was only going to be a one-off thing, but they asked me to come back and we just stayed together until now.”
Kinville was on the show for a total of almost three years and got the ‘bug’ for doing a hockey show and podcasting in general. “That was a fantastic time and I was like, you know what, this is a lot of fun and I want to continue doing this, so here we are on My Little Falls,” he said.
‘Marty’s Illegal Stick’ is the first of two podcasts that Kinville is going to do, but he’s not going to explain how the name came about until he does the first show. “Our first episode will be coming out on November 5th at 8 pm. There are a ton of hockey podcasts out there, but to differentiate ourselves, I want to be able to spotlight local hockey players in the Mohawk Valley, and people that have connections to the NHL. That’s going to be our thing.”
Kinville also says they’re going to do a hockey history moment on the show and just touch on what’s going on in the leagues because there are already so many doing that. He says, “Another passion of mine is fantasy hockey, and there are a ton of people out there who play it, but there’s not a lot out there about it.”
He is going to create a second sister podcast, which is going to be called ‘Into the Boards.’ “That show is going to cover everything you need to know about fantasy hockey and our first episode is going to break down how scoring is done, how leagues are set up, and all of that.”
Both shows will air on Thursday nights
Then he’ll continue with top forwards, top goalies, draft strategies, and everything right up through the start of the season. “That’s the show to tune into to find out what’s currently going on in the league because we’ll tie it all into fantasy hockey. A little bit different than talking about what’s actually going on in the league,” he stated.
Into the Boards will also air on Thursday night, immediately following Marty’s Illegal Stick.
Kinville will have guests and sometimes call-in opportunities for the Marty’s Illegal Stick show, and some of his fantasy hockey friends will join him every once-in-awhile on Into the Boards. If you are interested in participating in either show, email Kinvelle at martysillegalstick@gmail.com.
“Anybody who has a story to tell is welcome to come on the show,” he said.
Editors Note: If you would like to do your own podcast, My Little Falls is here to assist you. We have a full podcast studio and will produce your show at no charge, airing it on My Little Falls Radio, and wherever podcasts are available. Just email news@mylittlefalls.com or call 315-508-5310 to discuss your show.