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March 14, 2025 • 14 mins
Sports Editor of the Grand Forks Herald, Tom Miller visits with Paul about the local sports teams and their chase of state tournaments, as well as House Settlement news, transfer portal, and Spring Football on the horizon.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is seven thirty nine. Got to get to the
sports editor the Grand Forks Herald. He may be a
little groggy after covering a lot of action. He and
his team were busy here and it will continue this
weekend and into the following weekend. But we're starting to
see a light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps,
Tom Miller.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Credit to you and your team. You got me up
to date.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
You were covering things is from the Betty to Fargo,
to the Twin Cities to Devil's Lake and more. You
guys have been a busy bunch as a sports department
here over the last let's just put it at fifteen
days or so, maybe maybe twenty days or so.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
How are things going for you, Tom?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, it's it's that time of year, right, But we
I thought we did a pretty good job yesterday trying
to get everywhere. You know. We had Max Marco and
Devil's Late covering region basketball there. Abby Sharp was at
the Betty Shaftsman's and Omaha, but he was pitching in
and I was in Fargo going back and forth between

(01:03):
the Fargar Dome and the Shack, and had had a
photographer down down in Minneapolis. Covering Sacred Hearts type one
there with Sleepy I Saint Mary's so busy day yesterday,
and like you said, you can kind of see it,
see the winter sports season winding down a little bit,
about ten more days of this.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
You know, storylines from yesterday kind of tough on us
from a local high school sports standpoint. A near miss
by Red Rivers girls against Mandad maybe a little of
a tough thing happening down the stretch there. Boy, the
Eagles from Sacred Heart who are young in places and
have kind of gone with this group kind of emerging. Boy,
they were right there losing in overtime. Those are the

(01:46):
couple of big ones that I take away from yesterday.
And then the Devil's like boys, they're primed for maybe
another run here at the Betty last night.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Those are the three big ones to me.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, you know, the the Ridverburgh girls, you know, I
I kind of viewed that game against Mandan as you know,
just it was a nice accomplishment for the Rid of
her girls to make the state tournament, you know, coming
off uh, you know, five years of Joscelyn Schiller leading
that group and not a lot of experience. Coming back

(02:18):
to make the state tournament was a nice accomplishment. And
then you know, they trailed by ten points at halftime,
you know, maybe like eleven, with I don't know, ten
minutes left, and then they made a heck of a
run and Reese Rams had a really nice game, the
young Hodney girl freshman had a nice game, and you

(02:39):
know they took a late lead and then uh, you know,
just got a real tough, tough break with three seconds left. Uh,
kind of a bang bang play and official made a
made it made a call and red River certainly going
to disagree, and and then Mandan stole Stole stole on
there a little bit a little though tough way for

(03:02):
that one to go. But real nice season. Impressed with
Kent Ripplinger's job there that he did coach in that group.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, and you know Abby wrote about the things happening
at the Betty Inglestead Sue Center. Thompson will still have
a shot at things coming up against Central Cast to
try to punch a ticket. It won't be easy, but
you know, Devil'sake just you got to commend them for
now in.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
This new division.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
You know, maybe they are the big bad bully because
they weren't a bad big school opponent many years and
many times. But they they have showcased the class here
in recent seasons and maybe on their way to yet
another state tournament title.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, it's a it's a good team, you know. Are
Are they a top two top three team in the
Big Division?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
You know, I just think they're They're a pretty complete group,
and they're gonna be tough to beat in A And
it's gonna, you know, ask the question and in the
off season, probably on whether or not Devil's Lake moves
to move to the DC again. You know that this
three class system, I think it's coming up on, uh

(04:14):
some potential realignment here, and that'll make for some uh
some handwringing, I imagine among quite a few. Although you know,
I think Devil's Lake might be one of those schools
that that you know, might be okay with getting at
that double A level because I think they know they
can compete.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I certainly could.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
But also it's always nice to to walk home with
that state title.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
You get used to that.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
It starts to, uh, it starts to feel pretty good
when you're cutting down nets and things, and that's stuff
to the community starts to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Then I don't blame them it.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
You know, it's not like Devil's Lake was swimming in
titles during their big school run for for many many years.
So who knows that will be an interesting one. There's
there's no doubt behind that. Following a number of other
storylines in the sports world. When when coach saither says, well,
I get to coach them for another game or two,
I think they think everybody knew at that point that

(05:10):
Trace and Eagles staff was playing his final such a
disparity one night from the next. That's that's kind of
how athletics work sometimes. You know, last Friday night was
you know something I'll never forget. I mean, it was
an incredible performance, single game performance, the best in college
basketball all year if you just look at your points
and and he's had two of the big ones on

(05:31):
the year. Actually, you know, that's just the world of
college basketball. That's the world of college sports right now.
You know, NDSU is dealing with their own situations. Other
other uh some League schools are as well, and that
that's where we're at.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
It.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
It's just it's it's tough because you look at the
North got to men's staff and they're probably looking around
and it was like, look what we've had. What we've had,
we clearly know what kind of talent it's going to
take to do well in our league. We've had the
bj Omotts, a first team perform, a tyree and natural
Freshman of the Year, and all some at league performer
as well. We've had the Trace and Eagle Staff and

(06:06):
all some at league performer, and yet it's just so
very difficult to keep them around. And we're not the
only ones.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
But that's just that's that's the tough tough thing where
we're at right now.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
It's a it's a yearly rebuild. Like you mentioned, I
guess the good news is that you are not unique
in that regard. You know, you lose Tracing, Eagle Staff
and Amar this offseason, but North Kota State's losing Jakari White,
you know, South Kota State's assuming that oscar Cluff has
gone South d Coota has had a couple talented kids

(06:42):
hit the portal. And so that's really what you're you're
holding yourself up against is how how are you stacking
up among the Dakota schools and it's just the like
you say, you know, it's it's almost it's even it's
even more exaggerated than say like a college hockey where
it was you know, Jackson Blake's good this year. Oh

(07:03):
he's too good this year. You know that was what
Tracing Eagle staff, you know, put together this junior season.
And so it's just a new reality. And you know,
you're recruiting pipelines sure seem to matter a little bit
less these days. You know, it's not. When Paul Saylor
took the job, it was probably more of a recruit

(07:24):
and developed type atmosphere. And now it's uh, plug and play,
and uh you just got to do it on a
year to year basis, And I imagine it's incredibly frustrating
and difficult, but it's just the reality right now.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's the world we live in. By the way, great call.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
You said it on this conversation a couple of weeks back,
when we're talking host settlement. You said some schools will
utilize it as an excuse to get rid of programs.
While I read that cal Paul acts as they're swimming
and diving program under the auspice auspices of house settlement. So,
and and I think a couple of schools in the
Saint Louis area did a track and field and other

(08:03):
things here just the other day as well, the University
of Missouri Saint Louis did, I think so. You called
it basically, the host Settlement would would force some schools
or allow some schools to start trimming non revenue sports
of the off their books. And it looks like we're
starting to see that.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, I mean, you're you're seeing Olympic sports really concerned,
whether it's the swimming community or the soccer community. You know,
there was that buzz about men's soccer, you know, like
USA Soccer coming in, and you know, does USA Soccer
need to financially support college soccer in order for that

(08:43):
to work? Just because the House Settlement is not going
to be great for college athletes, the House Settlement is
going to be great for men's basketball players and football players. Yeah,
and if if and how schools are forced regulate whatever
to implement that in Title nine fashion, you know that

(09:06):
that's basically why North Dakota is slow to jump into this.
It's because, honestly, to make the roster limit numbers work
with Title nine, you're probably costing thirty ish opportunities for
student athlete scholarships. And it's not football players, it's not

(09:27):
men's basketball players. You know, you're probably going down the line.
And you know, is that track and field is that?
You know? I don't know who it is. But if
you're not a marquee sport, you are not on confident
ground right now.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah, you're you're wondering if you too are like in
the crosshairs. And that's not just at mid major schools,
although I think you're going to see it a lot there,
Like you could even see it at some of the
big ones as well. And it's it's going to be
an interesting time here over the next several months. It
could be a sad time college sports because we've been
through this ourselves and it wasn't how settlements and it's

(10:06):
never fun and it sucks and it's just it's a
terrible feeling and I never want to experience it again.
And yet, sadly many schools across the country are perhaps
going to go down that road. On a different note,
Brad Schlossman, we've been following his writings. He's got everything
from Baxterena and Omaha. I truly believe that Nort's Goulda
can win this series. I also truly believe that it's

(10:29):
a great unknown with this hockey team this year. It's
a weird feeling, isn't it tough?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, you know, as somebody who kind of just casually
follows along, only because Slatsman covers it so well that
I don't need to dive in to some extent, but
somebody who just casually follows along, like it just seems
like a weird year in which there'll be a victory
and you think that's the one that turns it. That's
now they got to figure it out, and they just

(10:55):
don't string enough of those together to write the ship
or get you know, get themselves in a strong pairwise position.
So yeah, definitely a team that a team that can
beat anybody, but a team that has not proven that
they can do it days in a row, which is
kind of what we said about the men's women's basketball teams. Yeah,

(11:16):
they've proven they can do it, they just haven't proven
enough days in a row to win a tournament.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
And finally, before I let you go, next week when
we talk again, we'll actually be talking about spring football
and a practice that has happened, and you've been all
over the recruiting piece, like those new things that you've
been putting out. I know it's in its infancy, but
really appreciate you doing that. That leg work gives us
some more information. But I just get the feeling. And

(11:43):
we talked to coachmid on our Howktalk Coaches show from
the five or six pub on Tuesday night, and I
just get the feeling, like, boy, if you're on the
roster right now, you better make your mark this spring.
You know you so often it's about sitting out, and
some guys aren' gonna have a choice. Their their injury
and recovery is going to force their hand on that.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
But you got to make your mark.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
You've got to make your impression with so many new
coaches that are on staff and so many people. If
you're going to carve over a role, it's all to
play for your resume. Is going to be a lot
in the in the spring, don't you think. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
I mean we see some some boring spring balls, you know,
where maybe they had a long year and you know,
I remember there's I think back to, like you know,
it's like Evan Holmes sitting out, and Jordan Kennedy and
Jackson Turner and some of the veterans and and like
you said, you're still going to see some of that
to some extent because it is a recovery time for
some guys. But yeah, there's also the case that you

(12:42):
got to impress uh, the new Boston town. And not
only that, but some of these guys are going to
have to do it at completely different positions, just with
with the Swiss from a three four to a four
two five, there are guys that are going to be
playing some completely unique roles. And for some guys that's
gonna mean a major struggle and for some guys that's

(13:03):
gonna ignite their careers. And so it's going to be
a fascinating springball. With Simon Rumfo missing springball with an injury,
that's gonna even add to the intrigue with all those
new faces getting more snaps in practice, and then you've

(13:25):
got a ton of new wide receivers as well. So
that's just gonna make for what I think will be
a really entertaining springball.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
It should be. Indeed, we look forward to our visit
next Friday.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Survive Everything I know there's gonna be weather, and you're
sending people to go cover this, that and the other thing.
We'll be following in our editions of the Grand Forks Herald,
I strongly recommended the highest strongest recommendation I can give.
Get a subscription if you don't have one. This is
our local team. They follow and cover our local teams. Tom,
you and your team have does deserve plotts and kudos appreciated.

(13:59):
I can teach you to follow tomorrow and Sunday. Can't
wait to follow all these state tournament stories and more so,
have a great weekend at that and we'll touch base
again next week.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Sounds great, So I was good to talk to you, Paul.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Take care all right, There goes Tom Miller, sports editor
of the Grand Forks Herald,
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