Hour 1- September 22, Wes Johnson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And running on Monday. We're set to go. Last second.
We're good.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're good, Dave doing good. Weekend with no football, at
least locally. At least locally you.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Had no local football, No Tucson u of a football,
but a lot to watch anyway, no matter what.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, yeah, there was a lot of football yesterday's strange games,
last second field goals and miss field goals, block field goals.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, it was like the weekend of block kicks and
punt returns and those kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Interception returns.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Minnesota had what one guy had two of those for
long distances, right.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I didn't even see that game. It was such a blowout.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, there were just just a lot of that kind
of stuff going on.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yet, how do you watch? I watch a red zone,
so I do too. I do too.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I mean, every once in a while, I'll just if
something is kind of I really want to see that's
available locally, I'll switch over to it.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
But yeah, and then the Cardinal game was had every
chance to win it but didn't.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, so I don't know, I mean they had You're right,
they had that chance. I get that safety right in
the very end.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
And then well the third and one and a half,
one third and a buck and fifty seconds whatever. The
guy misses the pass or drops the ball on third
down to get that it's over.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, run the clock out.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of what football scene seems
to always come down to about, you know, two or
three big plays and if you can make them at
the end, you can finish the game off.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Maybe you couldn't do it. Yeah, I thought I had.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
My game last night was the big one with Denver
and not Denver. I'm sorry san Diego, San Diego, well
the last natch game Chiefs and the Giants. But I
did have the Chargers because that was the pick of
the week Chargers in the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Man. That was a good game too. That was good.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, you have a tie to Denver, but you're not
a Denver fan.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
I mean I have a tie only because my family
lives there, But no, not really personally other than that
as as being a fan goes. But I mean I've
always had Broncos fans in my family. Yeah, so you know,
in a game like that, I'm going to root.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
For the for the Broncos. Yeah. No, that was a
good game too. I wouldn't be saying if I didn't
have the Chargers. Yeah, but I like m Nicks. I
like him as a quarterback. Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I liked him when he was at Oregon. You know,
he seems to fit right in there with what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
So yeah, see, i'd acted him more than I like
Pennix and Washington owned them that in those games to
get to the finals.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So we'll see. Tonight's game. Should be fun. Baltimore Alliance.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I mean the Lions kind of came to life
last week, I guess after you know, not looking good
in their first game and Baltimore blew that game. What
the first game of the season the Bills lea against
the Bills, So yeah, it should be good Baltimore. It's
at home, so I'm sure they'll have a little bit
of an edge there.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, like usual, should be fun. Should be fun.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
No football game for Arizona this weekend, but a big
one on Saturday. By the way, we're going to have
a special edition of the Hundy Huddle here on Saturday
at one o'clock. Lamont will be here with me in
studio and Ricky will be on the road with the team,
so we'll hear from both of.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Them on Saturday at one o'clock. Nice yea at Iowa State.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
So really this is I guess you could say, other
than the Kansas State game, which everybody was, you know,
predicting would be a you know, a good one. It
turned out to be okay. But this is the game
I think everyone's kind of been looking at how good
are you early part of the schedule that there was
you know, a.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Quarter of the way through the season. Yeah, so far,
so good. It's the how good are we gain?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, because it's you know, we don't know yet right
still in Iowa States Party officer that one of the
better starts in a long time. We don't even know
how good they are because they've struggled a little. At
least that's the Arizona hopes hopes. But today it came
out some some show that they came out with some
strange news. Uh so the Oklahoma game. Did you see
the news on that one?

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Oh about the referees messing up? No, no, you tell
me that.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
But after this it's a noon game in the Oklahoma
Steaks here, Yes, does it come with sunscreen?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I was going to say, is the monsoon going to
be over.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Monsoon and the heat's going to be still a ninety
five on the field at least eight.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, you know they play those games in the South too.
Most of my guess from not during the day.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It is ain't the South, Dave. Where do I log
my protest?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I don't know. I'm not gonna I'm gonna Pulay be
in the studio. So twelve dot com the website.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, and you know there's the trash been there, mister
Rivera like everyone else Foxy. I could be wrong, I
could be I don't I don't know.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Because they also came.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Out with a strange time for the ASU game four
o'clock on the twenty second November. So I'm thinking because
I need to know for the game before with Baylor here, Uh,
why are they kind of doing this sporadically? Why did
they come up with the last game of the year
issue the issue games at seven? Okay, seven, I'm sorry,
I'm thinking times on eastern but yeah, yeah, so so

(04:48):
it's a late game, not a yeah, I thought it
was they I thought they'd give the seven o'clock, meaning
it was Eastern. But it's four o'clock. It's not four o'clock.
It's seven o'clock. I can't remember it. Maybe it happened.
They games like that past mostly there in the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I mean, do you remember late late game like that.
I do, but I mean we're going way back. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Usually usually they were like no later than the four
o'clock right, right, But who knows with TV these days
and there's so many big twelve teams, you know, that's
why they're throwing those games up on Fridays.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
And say, but here's the big question.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I thought when they came out with the time on that,
I said, if that's the case, they probably have the
time for the other ones too before that, because that's
the end of.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
The road, not four games in.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, well that's a big weekend for college football anyway.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
So there's so get your slots now there.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
I mean, if you can get it in, it's better
than that. What was that Michigan State USC game this
past weekend that started at eight o'clock in Los Angeles,
which is eleven o'clock Michigan time. So there are a
lot of complaints about that, like like they're fans, like
we're gonna stay up until you know, three o'clock in
the morning to watch this thing finish.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, they can bear to hear you maybe now I'm
pretty low. There we go, there you go. Yeah, okay,
you're just the soft spoken.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
I thought it was me. Now I sound great?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
It was you sound great all the time. I just
had a little low normal. As you can tell. The
kids are not here, so I'm running the show. We
had a hard time getting on, but we're on and
we're here. We're here. So yeah, So this weekend we
got the Baylor set for noon. Not Baylor, I'm sorry,
Oklahoma State here noon, I think. So that's next week.
Next weekend, they're selling tickets for fifteen dollars, and what's

(06:26):
that all about?

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Day one?

Speaker 2 (06:26):
People in the stance, go ahead, buy one for fifteen
bucks for now. Where are you going to be sitting?
I haven't decided, but it's likely it's likely going to
be in the press box.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
I think I'm going to the BYU game as a fan.
So that's the next week after that, so maybe the weather.
I don't even know.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Those aren't fifteen dollars tickets either. Oh no, no, that's
the only one that wasn't.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Okay, well, I'll.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Get a good crewdit you should get a good crowd,
don't you think, Well, you gotta win. I mean you
gotta win. They gotta win this or at least show better.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
I know that in the past.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
When BYU anything BYU comes through Arizona, it's a big deal.
You have fans all they'll have a fan state, so
it's not going to be a surprise. They can travel
down here. People live in the area that are big,
big fans.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, you weren't there for you were working at U
of A by this time when they played by U
in up North at the stadium, right, Oh, oh, yeah,
they have by U there a big crowd.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
They travel well.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yep, I mean I I was there when Arizona played
BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. Yeah, two thousand and seven,
I think it was. They both had both schools had
big crowds, but they had gigantic crowds.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
I was gonna go to Vegas for any reason, any reason.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
That was a Willie Twoetoma Gronkowski game.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, they had a basketball game the next day or
same day. It was the same day. I thought it
was next day. You could be I was covered.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
But I went to both games. I went to both games.
I don't think. Maybe maybe I was stupid and I
did both games.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
That was one of the great sports days for us
where we got to have you know, the basketball team
like at noon and.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
We were there.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Well no, but they just we're thinking about going to Vegas.
What's the big deal, Well there's two games, go ahead
and go I'm talking about the station rather, you know
how toy.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
But I mean, actually that was Those were the years
where we were actually going to road games all the time,
especially with a Bowl team, and that's what it was,
and we would cover them, you know, we would get there,
I don't know, four days before and do stories leading
up to the game.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
That was the stoops erap, right, and I think he
was up for a job or his name would have
been mentioned out of Iowa or somewhere and it was yeah,
it's possible, and then he obviously didn't take it in
the rest of his history. Yeah, the good old day
should have gone. The good lasted one more year exactly
exactly God's Altay, seventeen eighteen years.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah. No, uh, what were we saying?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
There should be a lot of BYU fans here, So
I would imagine that's going to be a you know,
a pretty good crowd number. Hopefully it's not going to
be at noon, no, right, but even in mid October
it should be better.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Let me ask you, this is a dumb question, because
someone pushed something on Facebook. They do realize that the
TV station that's going to be noon here in a
daring the October?

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Do they?

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Because you're in TV, I'm asking you because you have
history in TV, they don't consult with guys like you.
They just know these are decisions coming from New.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
York or where or conference.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Again, it's coming from the conference, maybe maybe in conjunction
with the TV networks, because they've got all that to
deal with.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Okay, so you're in, you're in wherever you are, Big ten,
Big twelve, Country or New York whatever.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Have you ever been to Tucson at this time of year?

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Which shine in anybody in the room from Tucson, anybody
from the Southwest.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
In Arizona and October, Well, it could be one hundred,
it could be seventy five.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, yeah, it could be perfect. Let's pray for that.
Let's go for the twelve o'clock slot. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
What do you think that's about the four o'clock slot?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Well, maybe it's before it gets really hot. Isn't the
hottest time of day usually around three or four? Yeah,
but just what that's the third quarter?

Speaker 4 (09:50):
True?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
True?

Speaker 3 (09:51):
I don't know if I want to be sitting in
those well really anywhere on the east on the unit.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's not gonna matter. You're gonna be in this no matter.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
What.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Did you go to the game? Twenty twelve is thirteen
ish USC game? It was supposed to be a big game,
and it was like nobody in the seats because it
was blistering. It was probably October something. It was on
the east side, on the east side. Yeah, you know
there were people, but what did they think?

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, well, I mean I go back to the days
if you if Tucson fans used to ever go up
to Sun Devil Stadium for Cardinals games and they had
those one o'clock stars.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Oh yeah, they were brutal right, I.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Mean you'd you'd sit there.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
I remember going up with them with my with my
kids and they were they were you know, young teenagers
or even younger midnight and They're like, let's.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Get out of here. This this is too much. This
is child child abuse.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
It was.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
It was rough, and I mean it's it's just the
way it is at that stadium.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
They have no, they never have a day game up
there anymore. Yeah, that makes sense, makes sense.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
I do remember a couple of those games that I
went to, and I'm thinking Thistle different.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
There was a U of a game.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
I remember the issue played UFA well, the famous game
where they were wearing there.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
But that was nineteen eighty nine. That was a day game,
I think eighty nine. They came out in the sun.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that, but that was still You're
still in November, so that's true.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's okay, yeah, but not now, not now, same situation.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
If you were watching the forty nine Ers game, that
stadium is set up the same way, so that one
sideline is just awful.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Side of the fields the sun is like yesterday. Yeah yeah,
but but what was the weather like? Because it's always
either hot or cold or both.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
The weather's not going to be bad weather temperature wise,
but the sun beat us in the sun all afternoon.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, no, I hear you, I hear you.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
You bring your son sunscreen and yeah, and your your
seat cushions and enjoy. So we'll see what happens with that. Hey, today.
We got some good guests. Mike leve At for seventeen
for sure, right and the UH and the new ish
national champion coach from the Ubay Triathlon.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Team, Wes Wesson.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yes, Wes Johnson will be on now in about five minutes,
so it's good to talk to him.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
They just had an.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Open meet here yesterday or over the weekend.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Did very well. So we'll talk about the season.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
You know, last year a little bit because we already
talked to him about that, but you know what's coming up,
his hopes, things like that.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, brand new program honestly had a great first year.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah, so how do you top that?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
I know what we're gonna do for your course within
it again hopefully. Okay, So we're gonna take the break now,
come back. You'll give us a quick call and talk
to we.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Thank you.

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Speaker 2 (16:47):
Hey welcome back to I the Ball Here a Fox
Sports fourteen cookie. I'm Steve Rivera in today with me
Dave Silbert. Wonderful we have Wes Johnson of national champions
Trey ath Valentina using.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
Coach one doing well, doing well.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
How are you buying? Thank you?

Speaker 12 (17:03):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Congrats from a I don't I want to see a
big meat. But it was a win winnable and you
did win it obviously, you know what kind of what
kind of thing was it in terms of win?

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Oh yeah, I would say it's a big win. You know,
this this season so far, we beat them in our
first one. They we had some crashes in our second
one and they ended up beating us and then we're
back on top now. So so it's it's a fun rivalry.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
No, I bet not a lot of meats though. How
is the schedule set up for something for a sport
like this. A lot of people just maybe unfamiliar with that.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, the season is pretty tight, you know, with traathlon,
every race is is pretty taxing, so it can only
really race so much within such a short period. But
that we're also you know, it's a lot of these
athletes are on their national team so we have to
fit in World Championships in just a few weeks in

(18:01):
October and they and that's in Australia, so so that
adds in another race that is actually double their distance
Olympic distance, standard distance, so it's so we fit that in,
which is three weeks before Nationals and one week before Regional.
So so it does end up being racing kind of
kind kind of a lot with with that and then

(18:21):
all the racing we had in September, So it's just
a small it's a short season, but it's it's kind
of packed for travelin at least.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
So how do you how do you prepare because, like
you said, it's taxing the season, So how do you
get them ready to perform given you know, being so taxing.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah, I think it all starts really the beginning of
the year, just building a strong foundation. And they don't
have a strong foundation. Every race just takes so much
more out of them. But if they're we do a
lot of kind of base training, call it. At the beginning,
we're a lot of easy volume set up all the
you know, the ligaments and connect the tissue and all that,
so they can hand little more frequent racing and more

(19:02):
frequent peaking at the end of the year. So it's
all about that front half of the year setting them
up so they their fitness kind of rides out through
the end of the year and they're able to race
more and race well frequently. So so there's a whole
big picture, you know, setting that up from the beginning
of the year in January to be able to do

(19:23):
well at nationals in November.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
As you put together a roster, what what are you
looking for? Are you looking for better runners, swimmers, cyclists?
I mean, how do you how do you put that
roster together?

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's tough, and sometimes we
find different strengths and weaknesses to balance out of team
as well. But in the end, you know, it is
the run that is won, and where the run is
wins the race. The swimming bike is positioning basically for
the run, and so we're definitely looking for for strong

(19:58):
runners or looking yet, you know, even just run form.
I can tell if they have the potential to build it,
you know, and sometimes a lot of athletes get injured
a lot with their running, so finding durable, resilient athletes
and then the athletes that already know how to swim
pretty well for the most part, and usually that means
finding lifelong tra athletes. A lot of more and more

(20:20):
athletes these days are growing up doing the sport from
a young age, especially in Europe. And then we're finding
the top talent of Americans that have doing this, done
this our whole lives as well. But then we find
also the Kelly wet Lens of the world that are
winning every race, so that have only been the sport
two and a half years, you know, and those are
the kind of those unicorns that we've would look for

(20:41):
as well. So there's a lot of different strategies of
recruiting in tathlon, and you know, we're we're looking at
all of it and looking at the characteristics that kind
of define that that unique character, you know, that unique
talent to be an elite.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Tra athlete, Well, you must have the eye for it
because you have the people and you the roster. How
many are international people, because I think that's one of
the things we talked about last time your own show.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
Yeah, it's it's.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
More than half.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Last year, nine of our fourteen were international, and I
can't remember this year, but it's it's I think it's
over half of them of the eleven are international, so
but it's close to about half and half with Americans
in international.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Did gave me his hand signal seven? Yeah, I was
looking at that. I was looked at the website seven
internationally pretty amazing. What is your what is your travel budget?
What is your recruiting budget?

Speaker 10 (21:38):
Like?

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Yeah, I mean interesting. I you know, with a lot
of these athletes on their national team, I get some
funding to coach them on their national teams sometimes, so
it does get meet as some other race races internationally,
which is just natural recruiting. And then you know I
will be going to the World Championships for recruit but
also we have four of our athletes going as well

(22:02):
in Australia, so that's like the number. That's where I
found most of our athletes at the World Championships, the
Junior World Championships and New twenty three World Championships every year.
So that's where for Margaret Margarette who took second this
last week and the third is Nationals last year, we
met her at Hamburg, Germany at the World Championships two
years ago where she took fifth and then just yeah,

(22:26):
now the athletes are you know, looking at us top
ten in the world at Junior World Championships, that's kind
of a sweet spot signing those athletes, but also watching
them race and see how they race, and see how
they're even just watching communicate with our coaches before and
after and their teammates. It says a lot. So it's
powerful to be there.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Is it a lot when you're recruiting on these women?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Is it a lot like football that can make make
a few trips or whatever? Or is it okay, you
want to come to Tucson. They probably you've never seen Tucson.
How do you sell this place?

Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah? You know, ironically, it's pretty known for traslon. I
mean a lot of a lot of professionals around the
world come here in the winter to train, So it's
it's no, it's very well known as a winter training
destination for a professional.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Traffic because because people, a lot of people all over
the world know that what's the what's the appeal? Then
it was like, because there's no water, weather, Well.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, it's the appeal is the weather the weather, But
also cycling here is pretty world class cycling. There's a
lot of there's a lot of big groups that go
every Saturday morning is this huge group ride that sometimes
has to two to three hundred people on it. It's
called the Shootout and that's you know, that's something that
stands out running. You know, all the run trails, all

(23:45):
the running is here is great. And then for our
specific university, we have the you know, one of the
most amazing pools in the country, so we were able
to take lanelines out and create open water you know, dynamics,
and we work on that all the time. So so
we kind of have everything we need here even though
we don't have a lake.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, no, that makes total sense. I knew the weather.
I was like, you know, I didn't need to call
a friend for that one. Thank you, Dave. But no,
but before you came on, Wes was okay, you won one.
Now you're as good as your last haircut.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
What's next?

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Yeah? Next? You know, we're we're really just invested in this,
in this current team. The unique thing is everybody who
scored a national championships last year has returned, and then
everybody on this current team if we don't lose anyone
this year, so you know, we're really just invested in
the resting all of our time resources energy into the

(24:42):
same group we had last year pretty much for the
next two years, and so it's just day and day out,
and you know, we we have the opportunity, I believe,
to get a couple of these athletes to the LA
Olympics in a three years time. So you know, we're
we're definitely national championships drives us that we're we have
a lot beyond that as well, and so we're not

(25:05):
we're not even close to being satisfied.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Pretty cool, pretty cool to start us, you know, to
start a sport really from scratch here, what do you
see this looking like? Saying five years are doin we
need more facilities or a lake?

Speaker 1 (25:19):
What do we need to just continue to.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
No, I don't think we need more. We just need
to continue building. I think I think in five years
hopefully we can say we have some Olympians out of Arizona, Treathlon,
and then going into the next one I think would
be you know, getting some medalists in the Olympics and
and continuing a legacy of of multiple years in a

(25:41):
row of winning national championships. So that's yeah, we're just
we're pretty hungry and eager. And even though we won
last year. We're we we just still feel like we're
just getting started.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
So explain to me or describe how the weekend was
in the big event here, given that it had never
happened before, and I know you raved about the whole setting.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, it was incredible just racing on campus. Everything was closed,
you know, closed to cars and everything all on campus.
We didn't leave campus for a single single discipline, So
I mean, just that's just really specially unique. We loved
this campus and you know, the athletes just having full
axs to just race the whole course and the mall

(26:30):
and on Cherry Avenue and just like, oh my gosh,
it was just we had media, you know, we had
all of our photographers and videographers capturing every moment of it.
And and then we had a lot of people coming
to watch, which I think they realized that this is
actually a spectator friendly sport where people often don't think
of traplon as a fun sport to watch. But if

(26:52):
you were there, I think everybody was pretty amazed with
how fun it was to watch because there's so many
locks on the bike and that they just got to
see the athletes frequently. And then everybody understands the ASU
Arizona dual very rivalry. So yeah, I think anyone here
just loved watching and it was so cool to you know,
for to feel the energy of the community at our

(27:14):
home rate.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
What about the high school level, is this sport growing
where you can start you know, maybe even recruiting kids
from Arizona.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Yeah, you know, it's a club sport, and so there's
a little these little pockets around the country where there's
big teams. There's like a huge team of several hundred
athletes and in Atlanta, Georgia. You know, there's all these
little pockets around the country. Fortunately, unfortunately Arizona doesn't have
anything big yet where we're trying to talk to, you know,
people locally to start something. You know, we are happy

(27:49):
to help it, just we're we're a little tied up
to fully run something like that, but we're we're hoping
we can you know, get something going here in Tucson.
And then you know, there are some things developing in
Phoenix area as well. So I'm vote full in the
next five years we can we can have you know,
more up and coming tra athletes from the younger age

(28:11):
coming from Arizona.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I think you said you had three women there that
COO would go to nationals? Who are or worlds I
think or whatever? Who are they and what are their chances?

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Yeah, we have four of them, actually we had So
we have three Americans, yeah, which is which is awesome.
Usually it's always been our internationals. We're sending a lot
of internationals that all right, We've got some amazing Americans
on the team as well. So we have three two
Americans in the junior so they qualified from getting first
and second in US Junior Nationals, so that was automatic qualification.

(28:46):
And then we have one that's in the U twenty
three so they're professional athletes that are under twenty two
years old, so that they basically the top seventy five
in the world on professional athletes under twenty twenty three
years old. And then we have one from Canada going
as well. It's great, Yeah, Malli, So it's Molly, Ellison,

(29:08):
Ruth and Na.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
So if I could real quickly, so you you're obviously
fresh and new here. Where did you come from? I
should know this And the same appeal for the for
the athletes is the same appeal for you weather and
all that, and did you see okay?

Speaker 1 (29:23):
This has a lot of potential, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
So I actually came from Salt Lake City, Utah, and
I was not at NCAA. I was working more through
national federations a lot with the USA Traaslon and the
Olympic team and development with all that I was. I
was also involved with Paralympics as well, and and then
junior national teams and all that and then but I

(29:48):
was coming here already every winter for training camps. So
I actually already knew twoth On pretty well. So I
was already a huge fan of tooth On way before
I took this job.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, totally, big sense.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
So the build up for LA twenty eight will will
be what for you.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
You think, Yeah, it's going to be you know, one
year out from the Games. There's always a test event
on the course, so the athletes can get to know
the course. But we have to we have to be
a high enough world ranking to get into the test event.
And so we've got basically less than two years till
that and next year force. You know, the top athletes
on the team, they're going to be just traveling all

(30:27):
over the world to get their world ranking high enough,
and they'll end up in a lot of those races
as well with them, and then then that next year
they need to be racing the highest level and winning
some of those, you know, the biggest races in the
world for the chance to get into to the Games,
you know, and depending on which country, depending which country

(30:51):
they're from, it's a lot harder to get in or easier.
So the Americans, the Americans, you know that they basically
have to be in the top thirty in the world ranking,
So that's definitely harder what we're seeing with you know,
athletes like Kelly Wetland. She definitely has the capability of
getting there. She just needs the chances to race at

(31:14):
the highest level and we have to get the world
ranking high enough to get into those races. So it's
just going to just means a lot of international travel
and racing over the next couple of years.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
So you bought up her name previously Kelly, So she
was kind of a diamond in the rough. How did
she become who she became if she wasn't kind of
was she on a radar before or no? And she
just turned into this person.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
Yes, you know, she was already on the Arizona swim
team actually and she had never done travel before she
grew up. She did run a little bit, raced on
the track. I think she was a New Mexico state
champion for cross country, but her main sport was swimming,
so she could swim and run, and then we just
had a teacher how to ride a bike and put
it all together. And she kind of work on a

(31:59):
lot of mechanical things for triathlon to run more efficiently
after biking, and so yeah, but she's definitely a diamond
on the rocks. And yeah, she'd be someone that would
probably love to chat with you. I think she Yeah,
she's she's a fun person to talk to and has

(32:20):
a has a really cool perspective of where she's been
and how she's where she's at right now and where
she thinks she can get to.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Let me ask you just real quick, where's she from
in New Mexico.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
She's from Los Alamos.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
So northern northern New Mexico and in the hills up there. Okay, yeah,
because I'm not too far from there on from Santa Fe,
So now I know, I know, okay, makes makes a sense. Yeah, no, yeah,
you found it. You found it, and they're out there
right just kind of people.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Who yeah, they're definitely out there. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Okay, Dave, anything else, I was gonna say, congratulations. It's
been fun to just kind of watch this thing grow.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
And you know, like I said, it's going to be
neat as the Olympics stories start coming out in a
couple of years to see how you know, the UFA
is connected to that, You're connected to that.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
So we fund a lot and I had one more.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I have one one more because you want it last
year and you have so many athletes back. Is there
a pressure self imposed or otherwise from out there to repeat?
And I kind of throw that out there before, but
is there?

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yeah, for sure, I think we I mean everybody that
scored a national last year is back this year. You know,
we're more better than we were last year. So you know,
we we definitely keep our focus on the day to
day process over the obsessing about the outcome. But I
think everybody knows that the expectation is to win again,

(33:43):
and I think most people are expecting us to do that.
But yeah, there's obviously we're you know, we're beatable. I mean,
we lost it just a couple of weeks ago, and
in Colorado, you know we have one for one of
your key athletes, Krash, and you know that changes the
game a little bit, so you know, anything is possible.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Well, Wes, appreciate your time. Congratulations so far, and we'll
keep in touch with what's going on with you the
rest of the way.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Okay, sounds great. Thanks thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Wes Johnson National Titles Tome lists. Yeah, from the triathlon.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
It's one of those sports you know, I mean, we
knew it was kind of coming and to have instant
success like that is really remarkable.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
So congrats to them. Yeah, no question. Thanks again. With
here we go, we got to go to Corruscia.

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Speaker 2 (38:39):
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Speaker 1 (38:46):
Good to talk to Wes Johnson.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
This is interesting, you know, especially when you flash into
seven to seven international people. I asked the question of Tommy,
and I didn't ask of Wes. Uh if if they
had any trouble, if they had any trouble getting the
international people.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Into school, what did Tommy say?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
He said that there was going to be he was,
I'm gonna say this, he he yes, he said, yes,
there was a chance, and it got cleared up in
it and they got on campus.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
So yeah, there was a one player from Africa.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
I know there's a couple I believe right on the roster,
but one of them just basically just got here.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yea too long ago.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yes, but they're all here and ready to go, and
we start here pretty soon. The Red Blues almost a
week from well it is a week from Friday, but
it's almost to what ten days now from from this time,
and then Friday night. Friday night, so it's a red
blue game. You want to go see Shaq and Tommy
E go to that. And then in the morning, guess what,
it's a noon game around right, they did have a

(39:46):
busy weekend.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yes, late night. I'll have the hundly huddle here at
nine o'clock in the morning and then get to the game.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
And what I hope is not a scorcher, but I
know it's going to be a scorch.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
But you're going to be in the press box. I
will be. I was gonna sit with the fans, but
I don't think so. Well, the game will be on
television too, So if you don't want to watch, well that.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
I don't want to hear that. I don't want to
hear that. It's on TNT. You said, tn T.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Yeah, okay, so yes, cn T is now getting some
football and some some packed Excuse me Big twelve since
there's so many Big twelve games. I mean, really, when
you can sit there all day and watch the Big Twelve,
there's so many teams.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
There was a there was a commercial that played during
this last segment. Uh, the HAARTM ghost shotters. Have you
seen him? I've ever seen them?

Speaker 3 (40:28):
I have seen him, Yes, Gosh, I saw him when
I was really young in San Francisco. I think I
saw him here. I think I saw you played at
the TCC. I believe pretty sure people might want to
question that one. Remember if that happened. Definitely saw him
way way back when. Why did I Why did I
interview Metal lark Lemon one time in Tucson. I'm trying

(40:50):
to remember. I think it was round. He might have
been with the Y M c A or something like that,
some kind of he was long tribute finished playing, but
I saw him play Curly Neil.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, well, those those are the gold Shutters we know,
at least our era knows, you know, with those trip
shots and stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Hey, we know a couple more personally.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
JB was Geene Edgress, Genia Edgerson and JB were both
Bope Shutter.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
I mean they introduced a lot of people around the
world to that sport, right, you know, just the way
they did their you know, their shows and things like that.
Of course, the sport has grown, you know, even more International.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I think just because of the.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Dream Team and Jordan in those years and taking the
game to you know, to Europe and Asia and all
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Now women we have and now women are part of
the roster. Yeah, so they're not coming to Tucson. The
reason brought it up is because they're not coming to
Tucson because they didn't say on the commercial. But they're
going to Phoenix, I think February twenty eighth and then
March first, playing at the Downtown Phoenix Arena and then
at the Desert Diamond Arena.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
I saw.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
The UA women's basketball schedule is now complete, so we're
looking forward to seeing Becky Burke's first team exit Vision
game October twenty third against West Texas A and M,
and then another one a week after on the thirtieth
against cal State LA. And then they open up with
a bunch of home I mean they play let's see,

(42:13):
I can't even look at this six.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I don't run thirteen straight home games.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Trying to give them that confidence. She was given that
brand new rosters. So I guess they're all going to
get a chance to see what McHale Center's like. But literally,
you know, the month of November. There's six home games
starting November sixth. Then in December there's on two, three,
six more until they get to conference play December twenty
second against Utah that's also here.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
So that's it.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
They're going to be home the entire month of November
and you know, all of December except for one game
on New Year's Eve at Colorado. But they've got a
lot of home games. So home cooking, baby, Do you
want to see the women's team? You had a lot
of chances.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
It's funny because when Adea was doing really well early
in her career and she was beating upcake kind of teams,
and I remember asking what I thought was a dumb,
smart question. Of course it was a dumb question because
he says, well, what's your purpose, what's your purpose of
doing this, because you know you're trying to improve blah

(43:14):
blah blahays well, Steve, I'm trying to get them with
the attitude we can win games, get them to used
to winning, get them used to winning, no matter who
it was, you know it was. And then they started
then didn't started to. Then they started to play against
teams that they were possibly gonna win, and they'd start winning. Yeah,
you know, and maybe put three or four years in
they started winning against good teams.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Well, looking at the schedule too, I mean it's you're right,
it's the same situation, the same setup. I mean, a
lot of teams that you know, they probably wouldn't normally
be playing, right, every basically every team. They do have
New Mexico coming in December seventh, they have NAU But
other than that, it's you know, Cal State, Bakersfield, Grambling, uh,
Southern Eastern Kentucky. So it's not the most marquee names.

(43:56):
But again, like like I said, I think she'd rather
go with that and you know, come out of it with, yeah,
you know, an eleven and two record going into conference
play and then go to the Big twelve and see
how that goes.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
See the how it goes. Yeah, it's your ball. You
can take it home. And you know, they've got some
Sunday afternoon games.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
I mean, you know, they kind of counter program the
NFL sometimes and maybe even you know, you've a other
sports men's sports, but they've got a couple of Sunday
games in November and also in December as well.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Let me ask a dumb question We're here in mid September,
near the end of September, and I was, well, you
don't get on Instagram blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Did this year go fast for you? This entire year? Yeah?
This year really, I mean it was good feeding my questions.
But that's okay.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Why because as we get older, things go faster. It's
just kind of ye just how it is because we're
getting older, and as we get older is kind of
the years pass by fast. I think this year, to me,
we're already September and January was just around the corner.
We saw the basketball team go through the Sweet sixteen. Yeah, yeah,
in March here we already start a new season. It
just seems like things ramp up as we get older.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Yeah, I mean they do. They do go by fast
trands for sure. I mean I just kind of look
at events that happened, you know, with us as a
family or you know everybody, what were we doing, and like,
well that was you know, that was in June.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
What do we do in July? What are we doing
all this?

Speaker 3 (45:17):
I mean, we seem to have something almost every month,
so at least from that standpoint, but sports tooth, the
calendar just never really stops.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
No, I mean it does here a little bit in
the summer. Well it does for us on the show,
because we're gonna go to the show. We got that problem.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
But we can also if we want to drift away
from you know, Tucson sports for a week or two,
we could do that.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
And look at other stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
What was the last time you were in last week?
That's Tuesday? Yeah, Tuesday. So we've had a couple of things. Uh,
the AFL, the Arizona fall leagues.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Coming into Tellier story. It was good, thank you.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Just another thing is, you know, baseball's coming around the
corner with the Mexican Baseball FISTA and then the national
team which what do they call it?

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Baseball team. I don't think they have a name yet.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Yeah, that's why is team or something to some baseball
or whatever. It is, so a lot of baseball. So
there's that. So we'll see what Arizona does or to
somethings do in these games if they.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Go or not, and they they should they should. Yeah,
I know.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
We have Michael Levon later and he wrote a nice
piece about you know, people have to make a choice.
On that Saturday, the b YU football game and then
that triple header of Arizona Fall League.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
So well, we'll talk more about that.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Tell me a game, you know we will. But again,
I just gave you the answer. Arizona Baylor no time
yet or there is a time for three game that
same day the b y U no game, no game, yes,
which makes you know they gave me the issues time
didn't give me this tention. But let's say it's a
four o'clock game or even a noon game. And not

(46:46):
to say that the audiences are the same, but yeah,
do you have a clash of decisions.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah, of what does how to spend your money?

Speaker 3 (46:54):
I hope that they do a good job of trying
to market the baseball games because that really is kind
of a one chance for Tucson to kind of, you know,
shine if they want to try to get spring training
or they want to try to get you know, something
else in the future, the minor league team.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
I mean, people have to show up.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
And they didn't specifically say this because they don't want
to and maybe they it's true, not that they say
that they're not it's not true. But this is just
a first step in getting the back, not no spring
training ideas at least not yet. You just want to
continue this relationship with the people in Phoenix, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
I mean I I was here during you know, all
the heyday of the Toros basically, you know, the very
successful years there and the Sidewinders winning championships, and they would.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Get good crowds.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
But you know, even today and I'll turn on like
MLB dot com or whatever, and they'll have minor league
games on there.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
And most of those stadiums are not packed, you know,
a weekday game.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
You're you know, it's not like there's thousands and thousands
of people clamoring to go to minor league baseball. But
you know, for the pride of the city and stuff
like that, it's important.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Where are those games at all over the Yeah, but
they're not in big cities right there in mid level
like are we a big city?

Speaker 1 (48:03):
No? No, no.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
But but I think still think that temperature plays a
big role. And I'm going to bring this up, but
only because I read it from Jeff Grammer and he's
always on the internet with with tweets about this. The Isotopes,
who are based in Albuquerque, worst team in Triple A baseball.
They finished last I think both seasons of this seasons,
still the number one attended Triple A team.

Speaker 4 (48:25):
Really.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, the weather's.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Nice enough, and that's why, that's why, that's why I'm.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Gonna go with Vegas or Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah, it's uncomfortable going to a game when it's one
hundred and ten hundred and five or ninety eight or whatever. No,
an Albuquerque back that it's it's ninety eight to start
and then you'll get to you know, Chris eighty. Yeah,
it's nice and comfortable. Yeah, it's even Sacramento where you know,
ye both and well you you yeah, it's but it's hot.
It's hot there too, hot, very hot, because I remember
covering the River Cats for a number of summers and

(48:54):
it was it was like, holy crap, It's like Tucson.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Yeah, can get pretty warm, but that's I mean, it's
summertime everywhere, you know, and it's humid and places like that,
and you know in the mid Midwest where there's a
team Texas, there's teams.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, well, we'll continue to monitor the baseball stuff and
still have them on. I guess we'll talk to to
mister lov here about his column. I did not read it,
but he was at the event that I was last week. Yeah,
everybody gathering their stories.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Yeah, I mean that's good. It's good, good publicity. And
you know, for those of us who've seen good baseball
here really for the wartime, I feel like we were
really missing out and not getting some of this stuff.
And so hopefully it's going to come back in some form.
And how this Mexican League team does that's going to
really be interesting too.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
You know, here I'm you know, listing all these women's games.
I mean, there's gonna be a lot of competition even
for that. For the average fan. Do you want to go,
you know, go to McHale and watch you know, Grambling,
or do you want to go watch Let's play against
the team from Mexico.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
The good thing is the audiences are different. They are,
except that the dollar is in So you know what, Dave,
what do you want to do? And not that not
you know, we got twenty dollars in your pocket.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
What do you want to go do?

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah, And that's some decisions. And who are going to
to the game with. Oh, I'm going to bring my
daughter or my granddaughter. Well, let's go see women's hoops,
you know, Oh, maybe they do want to go see
the bay. I mean there's a lot of choices and
a lot of dynamics going to that decision. And if
it's one hundred and five degrees like it is in
the summer, that's.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Where sometimes did just stay on you know, you know
on the show we go random here. But I got
about two minutes for you, dad. So what's the big
reason why you'd never left?

Speaker 1 (50:23):
To me? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Uh, most of it was my family.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
And it's a good place to live.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
It was they wanted to stay. They were growing up.
I mean they literally went from being born here to
graduating college, you know. So I never left, and I
felt like this was kind of my roots. The other
places that I was going to look at early in
my career would have kind of made it would have
been like a backwards move professionally.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Even though they might have been a bigger market. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
You know, by the time I was, what twenty seven,
I was already the number one guy on K Gun.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
You know what age did you show up? I was
twenty five? Oh really? Okay, me too.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
I was twenty three when I got here too, So yeah,
I would have thought you were older.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
So I'm like, well, do I I want to go
to Denver and be the number Just be the.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Number three guy. I've already I've gotten the number one guy.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
I got a great basketball program here, got packed ten football,
pack ten sports, minor league baseball.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
I mean, it was a pretty good market to just
stick around. Yeah, and it still is. It still is
a pretty good market to be here. And it's a
good pitch to live.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
You know, you know if I always that's not a joke.
I'm just saying, you know, hey, we're going to San Diego.
It takes six hours. We're going to you know, La.
It takes eight hours.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
When Phoenix is two two hours. Once you see major
league sports, big deal, two hours. I can do that.
But we just decided to stay. Yeah. No, And I
think a lot of people come here for that reason. Now.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
They just kind of kind of show up through the
events here, even if you have no allegiance to the
teams that are here.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah, just kind of maybe, you know, show up. It's
like those photos I.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Get when I, you know, go as a fan like
two weeks ago, and I showed the photo ten minutes
before the game.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
The stuff.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
The stands are empty ish empty ish, We're all the
fans and This is coming from people who aren't here.
Who aren't here, they're at the home watching the game.
Well that they're with you at home, you know.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
Yeah, So, I mean it's it's been that way forever, honestly.
With with television again, everything's on TV. There's no excuse
you can't you know, you can always see the game somewhere,
and beers are cheaper, are cheaper, and there's you know,
you can watch it on your phone.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
You can watch it anywhere these days. So let's go.
We got to take a break.