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TAR25: Michael Ward & Scott Strazzullo "Team Firefighters"

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georgiapeach:


Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' eliminees Michael Ward and Scott Strazzullo talk (Part 1)



               
 

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/13/2014


The Amazing Race eliminated Michael Ward and Scott Strazzullo during Friday night's third broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 25th season.
   
 
The "Firefighters" from Boston, MA, became the third team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's third Pit Stop at St. Ninian's Isle in Aberdeen, Scotland, in last place. 

Michael and Scott struggled with a task in which they needed to corral sheep. They then drove a while to the wrong location as they were heading to the Pit Stop. 



In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Michael and Scott talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion of their interview. 

Reality TV World: How far behind Tim Tsao and Te Jay McGrath did you two finally make it to the Pit Stop? 

Michael Ward: I think we were probably less than a half-hour -- around that area somewhere. But that was after going 25 miles or so in the wrong direction and then heading back. It was 50 miles just to get back to where we started.

Reality TV World: Were you two banking on a non-elimination leg or did you not really think about that possibility going to the Pit Stop mat?

Scott Strazzullo: We hoped that it wouldn't even have to come to that. We really thought showing up -- because you lose people and you lose [track] of time sometimes -- you never know. We were hoping that though, that we were still in it and that wouldn't even be in consideration.

 When we finally showed up and we counted all the vehicles, we knew that we were the last team. Of course, you know, in my gut I was hoping maybe, "Hey, maybe it will be a non-elimination leg," but unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Michael Ward: Yeah, [Phil Keoghan] always has his poker face on. So until we saw the cars, we didn't think we were last. Because we were seeing that other people went the wrong way too, and when we saw the cars, Phil likes to let you down before he lifts you up. So we kept our poker faces on too -- until he kicked us in the gut and gave us the bad news, you know?

Scott Strazzullo: (Laughs)

Michael Ward: But Phil's a great guy.

Scott Strazzullo: Oh yeah.

Michael Ward: Great people all across the board. Everyone was really dynamite to us. Like I said, we try to stay positive no matter what happens. Our whole goal is "team" -- being at each other's side and working together no matter what. We had some bad things go our way, but we had some good things go our way as well, and it just didn't work out that day.

 We kept throwing some nonsense out, saying this stuff and that when our backs were to the wall. But it is true, with other teams breaking down around us -- and we saw teams breaking down around us, and I'm sure in future episodes there will be some issues with teammates.

Scott Strazzullo: Yep.

Michael Ward: Oh yeah. And we didn't have those problems. We built each other up, and you know, in adversity, you can either face it and overcome it, or you can let it control you. And we tried to overcome it and find the good in people and in events.

Reality TV World: Scott, your ankle injury looked really bad but you kind of played it off like it wasn't. Did you end up getting it checked, and if so, what exactly happened? 

Scott Strazzullo: Yeah, I ended up going and getting it checked and X-rayed, and I'm still doing some physical therapy to better it. It's still weak, like I can't do the things I did, like hockey skate. I went skating to get ready for the Race and things like that. I haven't been able to skate or anything like that.

 So it has been -- you know, it's funny, I played a lot of football in my life but I never got injured, and I got injured on a street corner in London in the middle of the night when there's no one around. Like Mike was saying, we were running around crazy when there's a lot of people to dodge, and then when it's quiet and we're moving along, boom.

 But we really felt like we were going to take the lead. We came back from being four hours behind other teams and made it to sixth place. So we were really gunning to try to go as hard as we could. We put it all out there, you know, and unfortunately, it didn't work out to our advantage.

Michael Ward: We actually went around that mote, which was probably a mile. We did that twice. Our first one, I kind of did the breast-stroke from the front of the boat. We passed every single team and there were other teams that got caught, they couldn't get out of the current. We were flying through that; We did it a second time. We flew through the same people.

 So you know, it takes you a couple episodes to understand things, but if we had flipped those cakes a little better, we probably would have come in second or third with everyone on that first plane.

Scott Strazzullo: Yeah, but I don't even think it was flipping the cakes. When it came down to it, it was just full speed ahead. We took a cab -- we jumped into a cab -- which they really didn't show -- and then we got out of it, and if we had stayed with the cab, we would've been there even quicker.

 There's just a lot of things... But the whole thing is the tempo and we had to stay positive and keep our tempo up. And I know if we had kept the tempo up and moved along -- because we had to run to the train whether we knew we had to or not. We couldn't waste any time; We wanted to move forward. And that was our whole goal.

Reality TV World: If you two had stayed in the Race, Scott, how do you think your ankle would have held up? Do you think you'd have a shot to win the whole thing or did you foresee it as being a huge hindrance?

Scott Strazzullo: No, I'm used to pain. I didn't think the ankle was going to be a problem. I don't think the ankle would've eliminated us. I really, truly think it came down to bad directions. It was something we couldn't overcome.

 I think even if we got in a foot race with some of those people, we still would have won. But that's how we do things. That's how we are in our fire truck. We stay positive and we push through things, you know?

 I mean, everyone counted us out in the foot race with the blondes [Lisa Thomson and Michelle Thomson] and we beat them. It's what we do. I knew we would've succeeded if it was close quarters, but it was something that we just really couldn't get over -- that time that we lost.

Michael Ward: Scott rolled his foot two more times chasing those sheep. Yeah, you didn't see that. There were holes in that sheep pen, where the sheep dig their whatever. So that was two more times. It was much worse than you had seen on TV, but he was running through it. It definitely would've slowed us down.

 It did have to make us change our tactics, because even when everyone came off the train running for the ferry and they were running like animals, we were the first to get the ferry!

 And we were the first off it and we were the first team to the puffin as well. We were the first team, I think, with the Viking torches. I mean, there were a lot of things that we did good that day. It's just unfortunately the whole -- in the end, it wasn't enough to overcome bad directions.

Reality TV World: How long did the sheep task take you guys to complete? And I know you considered taking that four-hour time penalty, so once you decided to stick with it, how much longer were you there? 

Scott Strazzullo: I said that out loud, but that was not going to be an option of ours. I said that out loud to kind of like, you know, because what we do is, we brainstorm out loud to each other. We weren't stopping, we were just figuring, "How are we going to do this? Can we switch tasks? What do you want to do? Do you want to try?"

 We tried every option we could to keep motivated and keep thinking going forward. That wasn't something we were going to do. We were never going to quit on anything, and sometimes, you just say that in frustration. We'll say things like, "What do you want here? What do you want to do here?"

 That's how we work together and we mean a lot to each other. Because when we're back at the firehouse and we have 200 people in the truck and we're trying to take care of somebody that is injured or something like that, we give each other suggestions. We're not ego-driven; We're team-driven. And we always try to be that way, you know?

Reality TV World: So how long do you think you worked at that sheep task for? 

Scott Strazzullo: Gee, I don't know. We were there for a while, well over an hour.

Please check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Michael and Scott's exclusive interview

Read more at http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-the-amazing-race-eliminees-michael-ward-and-scott-strazzullo-talk-(part-1)-16917.php#btBwRldQv25WL832.99

Leafsfan:
Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' eliminees Michael Ward and Scott Strazzullo talk (Part 2)

Reality TV World: Why did you find that sheep task so difficult? What went wrong?

Michael Ward: The problem was, those sheep we had were very uncooperative at that place. So, we had to walk them all down the middle. We would get nine out of 10 or whatever number of them were. If there were 15, maybe we got 14 out of 15, or whatever the number. But once we got them all, we had to go back and get them all through that white fence.

And until we got them through the fences, we couldn't get them into the cage. They were spry young bucks there. They weren't [doing it] for us. So, you know, eventually -- it was frustrating, and Scott was running on one foot on a very steep incline, and it didn't help. So the foot obviously slowed us down, but he was going to work through it.

Scott Strazzullo: Yeah, I think that we also, you know, with time, you get better vision. Mike said, "Hey, the food is in the tent. So let's take that food and put it where we want to take them, and then put them in the pen."

And that helped out. I will tell you right now, sheep are out of Mike and I's [comfort zone]. We live in the city, we hang out in the city. Sh-t, I haven't seen a sheep in my life! (Laughs) Honestly, they're odd creatures. They're very weird to me, you know what I mean? (Laughs) We didn't know 100% how to handle them. They were crazy!

Reality TV World: You two seemed to breeze through the torch Detour task unlike, say, Brooke Adams and Robbie E. Strauss. So after watching the pony task on TV, I'm sure it's safe to say you made the right choice there?

Scott Strazzullo: Oh, definitely.

Michael Ward: We knew we couldn't do the physical task. If we had a choice, we were going to avoid it because of our clear limitations. So, when we were in there, we were laughing and having fun.

Everyone thinks [Tim Tsao and Te Jay McGrath] started talking to the vikings. We were in there first. We were joking with those guys, we were having fun, we were having a lot of laughs. We were enjoying making and building.

At that point, other teams were falling apart and you didn't see them all. There were teams arguing, like, "We don't work as a team! We don't do this! We don't know how to do that!" I can only anticipate they're going to be breaking up somewhere or arguing in future episodes.

Scott Strazzullo: Oh yeah.

Michael Ward: Because they haven't been getting along as crisply and politely as you might see.

Scott Strazzullo: We always got along and we always encouraged each other. The penny nail thing, Mikey knows the nails' names and things like that. He had done building before. That was right up our alley.

That was one of those things where, you know, I think we were almost one of the first teams out of there, which helps us out tremendously, because it kept the tempo up all day for us and I know there were four or five teams behind us. We were still beating them to the next challenge. So it was one of those things where, if we hadn't picked that one, we would've been in even worse trouble.

Michael Ward: Sometimes a dog chases a cat and they don't know why. You should've seen those people. They were like cats and dogs. They were running in circles and they didn't know why they were running in circles. We were using our brains.

But we did this whole race for a greater good, and it wasn't about us. We wanted the adventure and we wanted the excitement and we've got "Type A" personalities, and we're very competitive in challenges. Even though we're friends with everybody, when the whistle goes off, it's war (laughs) and you've got to defeat the opposition. So, you know, there's no hard feelings toward anybody. We are good friends.

But we went there for good reasons. We went there to thank people for standing by us in Boston when things went bad here and we wanted to raise money for the Wounded Warriors. That's where most of our -- a substantial portion of any funds that we won were going. It wasn't about us.

It was about the greater good. We didn't really get a chance to show that. We kind of looked, kind of, honestly, we looked a little incompetent. But we're not and we have fun when we do things. Why not? Why not be good to people?

Scott Strazzullo: When you see a lot of bad things in life, you tend to have more of a sense of humor on a lot of things. That was really -- that's just us. That's how we are. I think some people said we were a little bit aloof and not taking things serious, but we tried our hardest and we got some things that were tough things to get over.

Those directions at the end were really tough to get over. It hurts to lose and it hurts anyone to lose, because nobody likes to lose. Everybody has prepared for a long time and you've gone through a lot to get to where we were.

Michael Ward: Mhmm.

Scott Strazzullo: And yeah, we were laughing because we were there and what can you do? You know?

Michael Ward: I know I was waiting for [Phil Keoghan] to bluff us. I was hoping there was another little task left to do as a penalty, but it wasn't meant to be, you know? We do want to thank America for standing with us.

Scott Strazzullo: Exactly.

Michael Ward: We had a message to deliver.

Scott Strazzullo: We're hoping that people maybe saw that message and will give more towards the vets and support the people that come back. They give us the chance in our country to go out and play and have these unbelievable games and ideas and be part of it.

Reality TV World: You said a lot of the teams were bickering already. Which ones seemed to be self-destructing the most?

Michael Ward: Well, they haven't shown what they haven't shown, so we're not going to discuss that. Let's just say, it's not all cherries and ice cream out there.

Scott Strazzullo: Oh no. Not at all.

Michael Ward: And we're kind of listening to these people complaining, like, "We don't work together!" For us, it's kind of second nature. We work together and it's second nature for us to be in problem-solving mode. We take it for granted because that's what we do. Not everyone is created equal, everyone has their forte in life.

And, you know, we've been blessed and we're fortunate to do what we do and we enjoy it. But we find bad situations and we find the good in people. We meet some wonderful people. But I guess some of these other teams aren't used to being together, aren't used to being under pressure, and there's been a lot of fractures. Let's just say that. I can only imagine what's going to come later.

Scott Strazzullo: They're not as smooth as they [appear]. They're not as smooth as the butter they're pretending to be.

Reality TV World: How were you two cast on The Amazing Race? Was it your first time applying for the show and are you longtime fans of the series?

Michael Ward: Yeah, I mean, I've watched the show. But I don't think we can talk about the production end of it.

Scott Strazzullo: I think it's a brilliant show and brilliant people produce it. Everyone across the board has been so nice to us and kind to us. And Mike and I have always been tuned into it. It's sometimes tough when we're working to watch a whole season through, so this was a great chance for us to catch up on so many episodes as we were training for it. It's really just a brilliant show. It's truly an amazing race.

Read more at http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-the-amazing-race-eliminees-michael-ward-and-scott-strazzullo-talk-%28part-2%29-16937.php#xRedL7Tvz5c7fVGc.99

Leafsfan:
Despite ‘Amazing Race’ elimination, Michael and Scott ready for their next adventure
Between a twisted ankle and some unruly sheep, luck definitely wasn’t on Michael Ward and Scott Strazzullo’s side during a leg in the Shetland Islands. But in the end it was bad directions that led to the Boston firefighters’ elimination from “The Amazing Race.” Read what Michael had to say about their time on the “Race” below.
 
 
CTV.ca: You had some trouble herding the sheep in and talked about taking a penalty. Are you glad you kept racing?
 
Michael: Scott rolled and fell a few more times due to the terrain and ruts in the ground. I knew his foot was getting worse but I was confident that we could finish the task relatively soon. What was originally holding us up was that we had to get all of the sheep as a group through the white fences before we could try and round them into the pen. Every time we were close to getting them all walked through, one or two of them would jump outside the fence and we would have to run them back and start over.
 
I told Scott to lean on a post and rest his foot and I would do more of the physical work. Eventually our problem-children sheep cooperated.
 
CTV.ca: You guys are used to working together as a team – did that help you along the “Race?”
 
Michael: Understanding how each of us thinks and what our strengths are helps immensely, but I think what helps even more is knowing that we have confidence in working together to come to a solution. We never argued and we always encourage the other. Positive reinforcement is an effective tool to achieve desired results.
 
CTV.ca: What was it like to have this experience together?
 
Michael: This was an amazing experience. Scott and I love to travel, meet new people, and enjoy the excitement of life. “The Amazing Race” lets the viewers see not only incredible places that we were blessed to go to, but lets the viewers see that most people in the world are kind, helpful, and willing to see a person with a smile as a new friend.

CTV.ca: You wanted to show how strong and resilient people from Boston are – do you think you did that?
 
Michael:  Well I think Boston has already shown their strength and resilience to the world. We are proud and loyal, and one of my personal reasons for going on “TAR” was to thank those who stood by us in our recent time of need. I was involved when our resilience was tested at the Boston Marathon bombings, and Boston stood strong. But with the prayers and help of good people throughout the world, the true spirit of human goodness was witnessed by those who try to stop freedom, and liberty. Goodness is always more powerful than evil.
 
As one of Scott's tattoos says in Latin, "After darkness there is light".
 
CTV.ca: What is next for you guys? Would you do an adventure like this again together?
 
Michael: We would absolutely do another adventure like this. We would have to be crazy not to.
 
We have been back to work and we are fortunate that our line of work is a constantly changing adventure. I just got back from Texas, and then a few weeks in Italy. Scott and I were just in California, where we rented a convertible, learned to surf, had a million laughs with lots of new friends, and then drove with the top down through the desert to Las Vegas.
 
Life is an adventure waiting for you to enjoy it, and to celebrate with new friends in different places. Step out of your comfort zone and live your life to the fullest, and be good to people. When all is said and done, money will come and go, but travel, adventure, and the love you show others will always remain.
 
And thank you to the viewers for supporting this wonderful show. Without them “The Amazing Race” would not be possible.

Source:http://www.ctv.ca/TheAmazingRace/Articles/News/amazing_race_michael_scott_ready_next_adventuire.aspx

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