Tuesday, May 20, Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Fox Sports fourteenth fIF day powered by Nova Insurance Services
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
How about now there we go. Okay, here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Sorry, everybody, Welcome to Eye and the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and you're Dave Silver.
Welcome everybody for the little slight delight. Welcome to Tuesday. Dave,
how you doing.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm seeing you. Well, yeah, it's great. Everything's fine.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, looking forward to kind of the summer sort of starting.
I guess we've still got a few u of a
sports to talk about, and the high schools seem like
they're wrapping things up.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
So today's going to be Championship Tuesday, just for your
championship of schools.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
I know I need to kind of refresh my high
school coverage brain. I haven't really done too much of
that in the last number of years. But you know,
we've got a couple of great champions here from the
Tucson area.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Now that now that you're long gone from your your
TV gig, how when you did your sports did you
get feedback from college? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Did you get like gratings?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Of what was important to people locally and how where
did where did high school fit?

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, you know, in my mind, just because it's kind
of the bread and butter of what I did, I
thought it was important. But unfortunately, when we would get
a lot of research from whoever was doing that, high
school sports was was pretty low on the list. It
was kind of a shame because because it's just very
centralized to the teams and those people from those schools,

(01:46):
Like we go do a story, you know, on such
and such an athlete at you know whatever high school
and they're happy about it.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. It was hard. It was hard.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
So the bread and butter obviously was there Zona basketball, football, yeah,
the rest.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Yeah, but you know, I mean I grew up in
places where, at least from a TV standpoint, that that
was what I had to do was high school school.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Right. I would have to run out and find some stories.
Sometimes I didn't even know where I was going.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
I just get in the car and drive and you know,
show up at a school during basketball practice and you know,
turn around a story.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Well, nowadays, in the way the media is built and
concerning local, local, local, you know, if you have like
a small paper in town or whatever, and you cover
local stuff. That's what's kind of surviving or keeping papers survived,
you know, alive. I should say the daily story is
has its issues, right, but it's a bigger thing, and

(02:38):
it doesn't have the people to cover the high school.
It tries hard, obviously, but it's it's like you said,
it's it's it's more centralized. Like last night, CEO played
in the in the state title game up in Phoenix.
Channel four sent somebody up there. I don't know if
the other channels did too. I just got Channel four
and and they did a story and they led with
it because they lost the finals and they had graduation day.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh I saw that.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
So the story was, you know, here's ten or eight
nine kids, ladies who didn't go to graduation, but they
had a graduation for them after the game after the lost.
A cute story, right, a cute story. But to your point,
only the people probably a cdo care about that.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, but that was that that also breaks it out
where it is a little bit more than just the
softest results and the highlights and you know, the interviews
and things like that. But that's a that is a
good story. We would I would appreciate to seeing those
kinds of stories.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Too, Yeah, because that's what you're there for, right to
tell the story other than the score.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
I mean, you know, with high school sports too, it
is a shame that the high school coverage is lacking.
You know, not to bash the newspaper, but that was
a place you would always look on a Saturday morning. No,
we did it all the time. And you know, I
would call and we would have coaches call in and
parents call in with scores.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
And things like that.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
So it was a big deal, at least in my
day with with high schools.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Sure, that's when everybody was staffed fully right, or at
least to fully back then.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Yeah, and you know we would maybe we definitely played
it big with high school.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Football on Fridaday nights. But the usual partner was a film.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Had Phil Buehler, had Jake Knapp, had been our ned
had a few Serena Dorsey even way back when. So
we you know, we we you know, had a lot
of a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Going out there.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
We would you know, try to hit maybe I don't know,
between five and seven games, just kind of depending on
the geography where the games were being played. And how
much we could get and get back to the station
in time, right, you know, to put things together. So
it was a it was a priority, especially on Fridays,
but beyond that, it was hard. There are so many
high school basketball games during the during the week, you
could almost turn around as a game. There must be

(04:39):
a game tonight, let's go out and cover that. But
football was definitely concentrated on those.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Sure, sure, and I think if I can remember quickly,
you were one of the three that did the extended time.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, on Friday nights.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, thanks to our sales department, they could sell an
extra maybe couple commercial breaks, so we would go I
think to maybe ten forty ten forty five somethings like that.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
And that'd be at the end of the show, show
right right, and go extra.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Which was good because it was a scramble sometimes getting
all that put together in the highlights and writing it
out and you know, trying to describe all the plays.

Speaker 7 (05:09):
It was.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
It was a challenging day.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
But yeah, good news about the softball and baseball teams here.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, so we'll be getting the Empire softball coach. Coach
I just the lesson named Shannon. This is how bad.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I I've got it.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well Ridge, Well Rich Shannon Wooldridge, we communicated today. He'll
be calling us at three seventeen. And then Danny Prebble
from from the South Point. They won last night. They
easily eight zero up in Phoenix or against Phoenix team
all Free, I think it was. And so that was
a nice little win. I think you hadn't won the
title since twenty nineteen at some point, you know, once
again continues to be one of those schools down here

(05:53):
that as well, they.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Can compete, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
They can compete with the Phoenix area schools and they
always have.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
So it's nice to have at least, you know, maybe one.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Chance you know, in that in that uh what five
A or four A whatever they are four to be
able to compete, that's good.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
News, right right, Empire there was and then CEO. Like
I said last night, there was a few of the
teams locally had had a shot at winning titles but
didn't CEO. And I'm not sure how you might text
me with the other one. I think there was four,
I don't know which ones. If you got all Sports
to sound, maybe I can know that I'm controlling this machine.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Here Yeah, so we'll see.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Rough go for the Wildcats softball team, and they've already
started to lose a few players of the transfer portal already,
So give me the one game. Well, for sure, I
used to Silva is going one of the pictures left
handed pitcher.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, she's made an appearance Saturday. I think she was
the second one in after after the starter.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
She went to Mountain View speaking at local. Yeah, she
was a local product. But you know, losing Devin Nats
and losing Miranda Stoddard, you know, who knows what the
pitching's task gonna look like a year from now? It's
right right.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, we had a pretty good discussion yesterday with I had,
at least I did with with Troy and some people.
Maybe Vic can calling because he texted me after the
show talking about the show. He was pretty Troy was
pretty adamant in that the coaches mishandled the pictures. It's
been it's been a up and down year when you

(07:24):
only lose thirteen games.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
I don't know. I don't know enough about to talk
about that, but other people do.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
And talked about the coach how she's kind of like,
you know, it's middling now, it's not obviously the Candrea years,
which everybody compares everything to understandably or on or not
realistically whatever.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah, I mean, you know, she's a product of the
Carea system, and I think a lot of people expected
good things and it's been you know, it's been okay,
it's been good that you've gotten, you know, to some
pretty good spots in her time as the coach as
far as getting the World Series and winning championships and
you know, competing the Big Twelve, which was tough when
there's really one great, great pitcher who dominated a texta attack.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
So you know, still finished second in the conference, So
you know, there's a not Unfortunately, you know, you're judged
on how things end sometimes and you know, to lose
in the first round basically or the first weekend is
not good.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Sure, no, and we talked about that too. In basketball,
everything matters in March, yep and April if you get
to April, and everything in softball matters in May.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of how the team's going
to be remembered. Unfortunately, that's usually how things go. How
do they do that year? Oh wait, wait a minute,
they didn't make a past regional super regional that's going
to be. Yeah, yeah, that's the standard.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
That The funny thing about is Kendrea is the grandfather
of all this, right, he created this monster, and the
monster's eating the program.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, it just is because the SEC has now kind
of taken over.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah, well you could see that coming about ten years
ago when the SEC you know, got into it, into
the into you know, women's softball with these big football
stadiums and generating all kinds of money and it was
just that it had so much money to throw into
a Florida and Alabama and Georgia teams and that they've
had good success and you know, kind of passed by
the Pac twelve as it was.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Right, and they have a lot of teams in this tournament.
Oklahoma is now the darling because of what they've done
in the recent past. The number one team though, is
out with Texas A and M. But shocking, yeah, it is.
It is shocking. But here we are talking about softball
still in May, which is a good thing if you're
a nervor's old a fan, right, A bad thing if

(09:29):
you lose, you lose.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
Yeah, a little bit of a surprise. I think everybody
you know was shocked they lost that. What the second
game to Ole Miss and the second game of the weekend,
you know, kind of put them behind the eight ball
and had to go, you know, through the loser's bracket
and you know, club them big time on the first
game on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
And don't do anything in the second game. Just the
way it goes. So how you play that day, how
you play that game?

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting how it just did play out,
and that they really you know, they just destroyed them
in that first game, and there's all kinds of momentum
and then literally you flip a switch and like a
forty five minutes later, it was almost a different team
was out there offensively, couldn't come up with a big hit.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Right. You remember the glory days? Right? Did you go
to Oklaho? Oh many times? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I went early in the early nineties, first thing, and
then I covered the basket bustle.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah we went.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
We didn't go the first time they won a championship
because I don't think anybody even realized that they were
going to be that good. Yeah, and then all of
a sudden, it's like, oh wha wait a second, and
so then all of a sudden we started going. So
we we pretty much went every time that they were.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah, it was a good week because they were there
for a long time. Yeah, for a long time, like
a week or so. You were guaranteed, like you know,
four or five days there, no matter what.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, tornadoes, tornadoes.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Didn't have a tornado, but I think I remember one
year we got there just after a tornado. So, like
the neighborhoods around Oklahoma City were pretty well hit. But
we had some rainy days, rainy, and that would kind
of mess up the whole schedule too, because day lads. Yeah,
I mean even I remember going back even that way
back when when U A went to Omaha in eighty six,

(11:04):
for example, there was rain and issues and we joked
we were like staying at Camp Omaha.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
We were there for like ten days. Yeah, you know,
got in like four games and what's the paper and
what's the TV?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
You're coming back? Don't spend too much money, Yeah, what
you're still out there? Yeah, you know kind of thing.
I think they lose, didn't they win? But no, it
allows a long week. I think we were there twelve days.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, it might have been the longest trip I ever
took Probably with U of a sports.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
You wouldn't somebody else write your photographer. Probably back in
the day when you didn't have to worry about it,
you weren't the photographer. No, you know what I'm saying,
because nowadays everybody's their own photographer.

Speaker 5 (11:39):
True.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
True, I'm glad you're I'm sure you're glad you're out
of it. Oh maybe no, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah, well, you know what what would I have been
doing on Sunday night at ten o'clock this best Sunday out.
They're doing postgame interviews after they lose.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's not fun. The NETS interview was did you see it?

Speaker 3 (11:58):
She was, you know, down trying to upset, right, yeah, yeah,
And those are sad times to watch. But it's makes
for good video, good TV, you know what I'm saying.
Not that it's I'm trying to say that's good or bad,
but it's it's it's part of the story.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
It's dramatic, it's draumatic story, and you know, they feel
sure bad. It's it's been their life. Yeah, the last
four years.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
I don't know about you, and I think about this
at the time when I go into a losing locker room. Uh,
and it's not death obviously, that's the painful stories, all right, Uh,
unless the family wants to talk about it. You know
how I went through it just recently. But the worst
place to be is the locker room and been losing
team because one it's hard to get stuff and it's
hard to paint a picture. Although the pictures right there

(12:40):
with the towels over their heads and right, YadA YadA.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, I mean we were in some sad ones in
basketball for sure. Football too. Football maybe not as much
because then you know, you lose a bowl game whatever,
maybe you're you're nine to three year instead.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Of well rich, except if you're rich Router and you
lose a bowl game, he's still pissed.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
You're like the fresh festival.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, but basketball was rough, it was those were some
tough flucker rooms with you in eighty nine? Were you
there in dy nine Horse they lose and Seawan Sean's
in the corner holding his mom. I think it was,
uh Chicago, Rosemont, were you there?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
I was there?

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Okay, you were still working in two thousand and six,
and yeah, that was that was that was that was tough.
Was about as bad as a guy that was kind
of like the beginning of the interlude. You know, there
were some other rough one.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I mean, just do it.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Every time they would lose, it was a first round
loss or whatever.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
It was just tough to go in there and expect
to get anything.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Besides, you know, it's just kind of the same old response,
little tears.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
And we'll use this. That's our motivation for next year.
Don't build on this, you know. Sorry, we let down
the seniors. Right. No, No, that line is the standard.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
And every year with that line, we're going to go
and come back and wait for coach to give us
a quick call.

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This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Want to take part in the show? Call up Steve
now went by two, four, one, six, seventy four forty.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Hey, welcome back to tying about your Flox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave Silver where you coach to call?

Speaker 14 (19:14):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
He's calling me actually right now.

Speaker 5 (19:16):
So many tells call.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
So uh. This is what he says. So go ahead
and let me go ahead and talk, so we may talk. Yeah, sure,
you want to talk about well you were saying that, Well,
tell me the history of of uh of he.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
The won No, they've won the well back to back
championships and three a UH empire has and they've won
uh three of the last they won one in twenty
seventeen and then kind of came back in twenty twenty
four to twenty five, so they've had a little bit
of a dynasties on the line and that is him
on the line. Coach, how are you coach, Woolriche, how

(20:00):
are you doing?

Speaker 5 (20:01):
I'm doing great? How are you guys?

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Fine, Fine, congrats, it's been a little bit since you wanted,
maybe a little more than a week, right.

Speaker 5 (20:08):
But congrats, thank you, appreciate it. You won.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Dave was just rattling off some stuff. Dave, if you
want to do that again, Yeah, I think he knows. Well, no, no,
because that was not your first right is this?

Speaker 5 (20:22):
Were you the coach back at the beginning of this
as well in fifteen, seventeen, twenty four, and twenty five.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Oh this is you know, which is your favorite kid?
You've had so many?

Speaker 5 (20:31):
Oh man. So someone asked me this question last week
and I said the most recent one. But honestly, they're
all special for different reasons.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, what about last night or the last weekends? What
is special about it?

Speaker 5 (20:43):
We went back to back. You know, it's not easy
to do. I've never been a part of any any
championship well, I mean, all championship teams try to go
back to back. But I really felt like this season
we had the team to do it. We lost three
seniors last season and we had a great core coming back,
so I definitely felt like we could do it.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
Obviously, just looking at you know, some of the stories
about this last game and your season with with Kendall
twenty and one record sixteen strikeouts in the championships. So
maybe just maybe talk about her and how dominant she's
been all year.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
Oh man, she is. What a blessing she has been
to our program. You know, she she had a decent
freshman year, like freshmen do, and then you know, between
her freshmen and sophomore year, she really grew up. And
you know, I knew she'd be good for us, but
I never would have imagined that she would go go
on to do what she did, and you know, she
finished strong. I'm proud of her for that. You know,
sometimes kids will have a you know, good sophomore junior

(21:39):
year and then they you know, kind of take her
foot off the gas a little bit. But Kendall did
the opposite of that. She just really cranked things up
to a point where, you know, late in the season,
my daughter, who also coaches with us, that she's not losing.

Speaker 7 (21:53):
Dad.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
I don't know what to tell you and why I
know that, but she's not going to lose. And I'm like,
I hope you're right.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Was she was? She was? She raced last year? Was
she when you went to.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Yeah, she's been our race, the last since her sophomore year.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
So what does she do? M's been a record in
three years. Must be fantastic.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Yeah. I think she's only lost four times since her
sophomore maybe maybe her entire career. I think she's only
lost four times. And then I know she had some
I don't know, more than sixty lines or something like that.
But yeah, we're going to miss her, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
She's going to Weaver State in Utah, which is her
next next week.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Yes, she's going to Weber State, and Wever State's luck
either a getting a good one. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
So so after last year's championship, like you said, you
probably thought this year would be good too. How confident
were you, Although that's a dumb question for a coach
because you're never confident until you get there, right, So
you had the core coming back.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
Yeah, but you know, every year presents new challenges. That's
what I've learned, you know, And obviously the challenges this
year we're trying to fill the positions of those three seniors,
you know, their roles, and then we had some you know,
we had some new kids coming in, so trying to
figure out how they were going to fit in there's
always this process that you go through of you know,
when you come back together in February, just you know,

(23:14):
helping everyone you know jive and get connected, and you
know that always takes a little bit of time, but
you know, it took a little bit of time this year.
This year was no different than previous years. But you know,
once we got all all those relationships cemented, I feel like,
you know, we we were able to start taking off
and we kind of did that in a Badger Classic
when we're playing the Tucson High Tournament. That's when I

(23:36):
felt like we are clicking on all cylinders right now.
This is awesome.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
Hey, you know, tell us a little bit about maybe
just softball in southern Arizona.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
We've we've covered it.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
We know there's a great history, but I mean we're
talking now ten years in a row in three A,
a team from down here has won.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
The state championship. Why is that happening?

Speaker 5 (23:57):
Well, I mean, I think it's a credit to the
club circuit. You know, I think there's you know, quite
a few girls playing competitive ball and also the pitching.
You know, three A doesn't I don't think they get
enough credit because we've got We've had good pictures in
three for the last ten years, you know, pictures that
have gone on to pitch at the next level. And

(24:20):
this year in our own region, you know, you had Kendall,
you had Avery Neilson over at Sabino, and then Claire
over a Tanka Verdie. I mean that's three Division one
caliber pitchers right there. So the pitching has been really,
really good.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yes, well, you guys are making each other better to
facing the competition.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
Yeah, for sure. I mean definitely. When the bracket came
out and I saw that we were playing Sabino and
Tanka very I'm like, Wow, this ain't gonna be.

Speaker 15 (24:46):
But what it is?

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Right, So you've been coaching for a while now, you
continue a white change, right.

Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yeah. So I've been coaching the twenty five years and
I started in club and took over Empire in twenty thirteen.
You know, I'm fifty six and I still really and
I'm still fired up as ever, and I enjoy it.
And I'm going to miss our seniors like crazy. I've
cried once or twice, but you know, I'm already looking
the next year and what we got coming back, and
we got coming in and you know, we'll just try

(25:17):
and do it again.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
You mentioned you mentioned clubs, So now where do some
of these girls go during the summer.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Did they go on.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
And join us with a club, maybe play with other
players from around southern Arizona, other you know, other high
school kids.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
Yeah, I would say that, Like, yeah, so for example,
on our team, and I think we have five or
six different uh uh, five or six different clubs represented.
You know, some are with me, some are with our
assistant coach, and then various other teams. And yeah, the
thing is is that, you know, when high school teams
get together, a lot of them are club teammates. They

(25:50):
play each other throughout the year. So it's kind of
an interesting phenomenon really, but you know, it's it's kind
of neat. You know, you battle, and you can we're
all competing in the win, but then afterwards, you know,
they're still the best of friends, which is kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
So are you doing do you do? See what you
just said? You so you coach club as well after
the high school season is over, you coach in the summer, Yes,
I do. And how's that? And and you're talking about
I don't know if I missed this, but the pitching
because obviously in softball that's the number priority.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
If you have a good picture, you have a chance.
How are they becoming so good?

Speaker 5 (26:26):
How are the pictures becoming so good?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (26:29):
Oh, well, they work at it. You know, they all
have pitching coaches, and you know, most of them play
on club teams that play challenging schedules, which which pushes
them to be better. You know, there's just you know,
they're just you know, it's a cliche, but you know
they're putting in the time and their parents are paying
for their lessons, and that they're playing on teams at
push them.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
And as far as the exposure, did they get seen
more during the summer or do they get seen more
during the high school seasons these days?

Speaker 5 (26:59):
For Oh yeah, yeah, sorry to interrupt you, but yea,
as far as college exposure goes, yeah, it's uh, it's
all happening in the summer in the fall.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah yeah, So you must get in your club team.
Do you have a lot of the girls play for you?
Or you said your assistant has some of them too,
But how's that spread out?

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Yeah, it's just well, what do you mean how is
it spread out?

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Like if you have maybe fifteen in a roster eighteen.
I don't know what a high school roster contrives of
or comprises what like, you get maybe five and your
assistant gets five and just happens standardly go who they
want to play.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Well, we're both with different organizations. Her team's a little
bit younger, you know, she started with her team when
they were you know, she's got kids from you know,
not just Empire, but from all over they sure, you know,
that's that's the same way with me too. I mean
I've got uh, you know, kids from all over the city.
You know, not just this part of town, but you
know northwest part of town as well. It's just, you know,

(28:01):
we kind of look at as a place where kids
a competitive place where kids get to come play.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
So do you have a nucleus to make it a
three piece next year?

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Well, it's going to be entirely different year next year,
you know, because we're losing six starters. But we've got
some key kids coming back and some and some you know,
some new kids coming in. It's just you know, my
daughter reminded me she was on the twenty fifteen team,
but that was her favorite championships. She said, that's kind
of when the wheels were put in the motion that

(28:31):
you know, the expectation when you come to Empire is,
you know, we're going to compete for championships, and so
even though it'll be pretty much an entirely different team
next year, you know, the goal is still the same.
But you know, the goal is the same, but all
the little little things that we do during the season
to get us to that point, you know, that's honestly,
that's probably my favorite part more than anything. The championships
are awesome, but I love the journey, especially with the

(28:54):
kids that we get that Empire. They're just you know,
they're great kids, they're good students, and you know they're
buying into what you're doing. So it makes it all worthwhile.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Do you Part of that journey is probably having a
second picture, do you she gonna be the number one?
Is having them now turning into a number one picture.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
So next year we will have we're gonna have h
three or four, maybe five pictures in our program, which
will be Yeah, it'll be something new for us, So
you know, I don't We'll see how it all shakes out.
You know, in the past, we've if we've got a
hot hand. We you know, we ride the hot hands
and then but the man if we and there was
one year where we had two dynamite pictures and you know,

(29:32):
we have a back and forth. So I don't know,
we'll have to see who steps up next year.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeah yeah, And like you said, you're getting attention from
Division one schools and what other schools besides uh Leaver
State have looked at some of your players just out
of curiosity.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, no problem. So we have two kids that are
going to Northern Colorado, Abbey ZiT Bay and ave a Piece.
They're going to go to Northern Colorado. And then we've
got a girl up on the Arizon, a Christian. And
then our sh stop, Angie Taylor, is going to pem Up.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Oh nice, okay, great, yeah yeah. So let me ask
you a weird question. You're fifty six, which is relatively young.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Thank you, so you can thank you me.

Speaker 5 (30:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah, I'm sixty and I feel it's nice to feel
young coach, and you've been twenty five years. Has the
athlete to coach different than it was twenty five fifteen
years ago?

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Oh gosh, you know what, I don't know. That's hard
to say. You know, we all think that things are
different now right than they used to be, not just
with such sports, but just with a lot of things.
I don't know, you know, I don't know, you know
I would. I've been just very fortunate with the kids
that come through Empire. I just I feel like the
characteristics have been consistently the same. You know, in my time,

(30:50):
there just great kids, good students, hard workers, were willing
to you know, to kind of do what it takes,
subscribe to the team, and you know, try to help
team in games. So I feel like my experience, you know,
for the most part, the good kids that I worked
with twenty five years ago, or you know, the same
good kids that I'm working with today.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
Well, if I could real quick, does how does your
daughter being on the sideline help you? Because she's relatively
young I figured maybe twenty eight, twenty nine, and handling
the girls too, so you.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
Know, having her and then having Canvas who also is
a former player, and Alley Hill a former player. Honestly
all three of them because they have extensive softball background
and playing at a high level, you know, they bring
that to the table, and then just they just have
a you know, I feel like I relate to the
kids pretty well, but they just as women. They just

(31:47):
relate to the girls on a whole different level that
I cannot. And you know, so it's you know, one
thing I've learned too is so there's that piece and
just also you know, not being afraid to say, you
know what, you know, what do you think? Do you
think is this going?

Speaker 15 (32:03):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Do you have a better idea? You know, I'm just
you know, one piece into a lot of little pieces
that that make this thing go. And I just you know,
I really kind of rely on their experience, knowledge and
expertise to you know, basically just try to be the
best we can be and try to provide the best
experience that we can for the kids that we have.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Okay, well anything, congratulations, it's just been great to follow
and uh, you know, continued success.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
You're you're you get a lot of momentum going right now.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
You have you have Yeah, you have five fingers. You
need another one for the thumb. I guess I can
tell you.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
We're just worried about February ninth or whatever day of
the first practice is.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
You guys need to stop worrying about that stuff, but
enjoy the moment.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Enjoy the moment.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Thanks for sure. I appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Guys, thank you very much for coming on. Problem.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Uh all right, have a good Yeah, good to talk
to you. Talk to you again next time. Just time
with you again. Good, good time Ridge and a nice,
nice little career he's got going. Yeah yeah, hey, winning
one is top right, you're winning fours.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
That's good, quite good.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
Congrats to them at Empire because that's you know, it's
one of the newer schools here in Busan, and took
them a while to kind of get things going athletically,
but you know here they are.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Okay, let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
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Speaker 8 (36:46):
Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app, This is I on
the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Hey, welcome back to Ryan the Ball.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Here fock forts to fourteen fifty on Steve Rivera, Here,
Dave Silver and cause she did no day you go
here fifteen minutes.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
If you guys want to call it, that'd be great pick.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
If you want to call in talk about what we
talked about yesterday and you texted me yesterday, you could
talk about that.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
It was softball.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Obviously, everyone has their thoughts right when things could do bad,
everybody has their thoughts. They come out of the woodwork. Yeah,
everybody has an opinion.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
Well, you know one thing about it too, is you
actually see it on TV too. A lot of people
that didn't really watch maybe that closely up until yeah,
yes laest weekend. I O, hey, wait a seconk, what's
going on? Why is she pitching? Why is she taking
the right games? So I think a lot of people
were questioning that.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
True.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
But then again too, a lot of the games were
on television during the season. But you know, just the
way things wrapped up, Yeah, there's always somebody pointing fingers
to somebody.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Oh, do you know how to cook?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
I'm seriously, no, I was gonna say if you did,
do you know how to cook well? And tell people
how to cook? No, you know what I'm saying, Just
because you know how to cook doesn't mean you can cook. Well, yeah,
these people watch her whatever. And the funny thing about it,
I was always talking to Troy yesterday and he was
pretty tough on the team and tough on the coach
with Kaitlin, and I'm thinking I was I'm probably him

(38:10):
for basketball and not that I'm tough on the money
these critical and when people complain and complain and complaining,
I'm thinking I'm being an alibi guy. And yesterday I
was being an albi guy. And I'm thinking I don't
know enough to be an alibi guy. So yeah, I'll
just let him kind of run with it.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
Well, I mean, you're we've always been observers and we
kind of have an opinion on things.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
So with a phone call coming in, yeah, we got
to call who's this here on the air?

Speaker 5 (38:34):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Vic is back?

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Vic is back? So you you touched me yesterday? What
did you say to me.

Speaker 15 (38:41):
On the Arizona Tay Well, first, I want to kind
of interject on the Shannon Woolridge interview, which is great,
but he's a little bit modern on his travel circuit. Man,
those dudes work their chos off. He's got girls and
he's gonna probably be in California Colorado for the Big

(39:01):
Showcase tournament, and I think they even go to Texas nowadays.
But that he's the reason that these girls get recruited.
And a ton of these Tucson girls, like he said,
we're trying about that with parents, Steve the other day. Yeah,
they're they're playing out of Phoenix now, which where all
the high profile teams are. There's only a couple in

(39:23):
Tucson that are that are worthy of the national circuit,
which one of them is Shannon's team. But like that
girl he mentioned from Kek a Verty Claire, she's a sophomore.
Oh my god, Steve, You've never seen a kid work
as hard in your life as that girl and her
parents take her to Phoenix. Uh she's on one of

(39:44):
the premiere Phoenix teams.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (39:47):
Just she's the only one to beat Shannon this year.
His record I think was twenty something in one and
they lost to Tank a Verty in Claire.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
So let me before you go into what we discussed yesterday,
and like I hope you do. Uh, what is his
secret sauce? And if he's modest, because he's did sound that,
what is his secret sauce? You?

Speaker 15 (40:06):
Uh, it's tough. You gotta be tough, kind of one
of those ones that, uh the like the Pied Pipers
that the girls follow. Obviously, you have to have the
longevity and like I said, actually you've gotta be one
of those teams that plays in the right tournament. I mean,
there's teams in Tucson that are they're okay, but it's

(40:29):
like playing, you know, at a Mama's Day game. You're
not going to be seen unless you go with somebody
like Shannon or the Phoenix teams or the California teams.
I was talking Mondo Ketos. He drove Rebecca to California
every weekend for the Firecrackers every weekend. I mean, can
you imagine driving from Tucson to California every can go

(40:52):
weekend to play.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
She just couldn't get good enough games in Arizona or
at least in Tucson.

Speaker 15 (40:57):
No, you can't. You those teams are our high profile
and obviously when Mike Kendraan needs a player, he calls
the Firecrackers and Batbusters and Corona Angels, and there's just
not any of those teams in Tucson.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Okay, Okay, so.

Speaker 15 (41:13):
There's the players, there's players in Tucson, but there's you know,
few and far between, and you've got to leave the
city to go and play on those teams. And it's
kind of sad, but it's it's definitely a true statement.
In any softball person will tell you that.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Okay, so now that you've kind of proven that you
know the game, and I know you do because you
had you had girls in it. Our discussion yesterday, you
agreed with.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Troy is right now.

Speaker 15 (41:40):
I agreed with Troy all the way to point. But
you know what, guys, both of you guys know it's
it's tough. We're not at practice. We don't know why
those other girls don't get a chance. I know for
a fact that the fan base is fear yes with Conrad,
they to the point of they hate them, and it's

(42:01):
because he didn't use some of the pictures they wanted
or whoever. But we're not at practice, and then you
don't know if they're not. You know, he might say
take ten laps and they run nine, you know, and
then he says, okay, well you don't want it. You
don't want that mountain time some to that effect. I mean,
I'm being silly with that, but we just don't know

(42:24):
He's an analytics guy, that's for sure. He's one of
those guys that measures spin, raid and all that kind
of stuff. And and does that fly in the game
or do you go with your heart? I mean, people
have wanted Dave Roberts dead for the last what ten
years because he's an analytics analytics guy and takes the
lefty out to face the other variety and that and

(42:48):
people say, you know, hey, the guy four for four
leave the men. But but that's how Conrad is. And
and then you know, Caitlin, she has made some heads
gratchet movements. I mean in the Big Trump Championship. You guys,
you tell me this is just off the top of
our heads. She pitched her fourth maybe fifth pitcher when

(43:11):
she had nets ready to go.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Who does that?

Speaker 15 (43:15):
Like, you'd be crucified if I was back in Almani
and I pitched my second pitcher and not my eighth.
They burned me at the stake. Yeah, fourth or fifth pitcher,
not her second, not her third, her like her fourth
or fifth.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Okay, So so who in the heck does that?

Speaker 15 (43:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (43:34):
So okay, So that's two things.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Let me also say that De Troy was talking about recruiting,
and you know the girls out in California. He says,
I go to go to Texas, get out of California
as much or not as much as possible. But you
don't do that. But there are also kids everywhere else.

Speaker 6 (43:50):
You know this he was.

Speaker 15 (43:52):
Boy, he kind of hit it on the head when
he said, you have to start turning over stones and
other places. You know. Kennedy I think, comes from Kansas,
the Texas Tech girl, and Jordi Balls from Nebraska and
she's in the Supers. She's amazing. We do have a
picture coming in from Texas this year and she's supposed

(44:13):
to be you know, she's like the number four recruit
in the nation. So if she can come in and
maybe that'll turn Kaitlin towards recruiting in different places. And
I'm sure they do. And once again, going back to
that travel ball circuit, it used to be Batbusters, Corona Angels, Firecrackers,
and that was it. That's who won TGF and ASA

(44:36):
and Alliance. But nowadays it is there's Texas Glory and
East Cop Bullets and all those Midwestern teams and they
never used to have a chance, and now they come
in and they win those things down.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Okay, So he's right on that.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
The girl that's coming in is Riley Holder from Texas,
like one of the top pictures in the country.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Supposely, big tall girl, five foot eleven.

Speaker 15 (45:01):
He's like one of the tie as he hits too.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Okay, okay, So Vic, let me give you this to
uh that a that block in basketball, we know it exists.
It's a real thing in softball. I'm assuming it still exists,
or does it? And if it does, where does it
lie in the grand scheme of the levels of other schools,
Tennessee's and the Oklahomas.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Where is it?

Speaker 15 (45:24):
It's definitely at the top. And anybody that tells you not.
And you know what, Steve, you're one pitcher away. Imagine
if they had gotten Kennedy instead of going to Texas Tech,
then you're back on top and you're you're back on
the Holy rail. So you're one pitture away. She needs
to get one pitcher and you're back on top.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Well that's the.

Speaker 15 (45:49):
Look at Look at Florida. Florida was on top for
ten years and they haven't got that picture the last
few years. And I mean they still go to regionals
and maybe even Supers, but they're Florida is not what
they were because that pitching coach left and went to Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
So their recruiting call for next.

Speaker 15 (46:08):
You're just you're one pitcher away. That's that's what you are.
And then you're back on top.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
They've got an infielder coming in from San Diego they have.

Speaker 15 (46:16):
And he he hit that Hawaiian girl also hit bombs.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
And then hold her from Texas and Molly Daily from
Tucson here.

Speaker 15 (46:25):
So they they she's recruited. Wow, she has sniffing there. Uh,
she got to catcher from Washington and the portal Reagan
Shockey is just he's amazing. If you guys haven't seen her,
she's worth the price of admission to go to a game.
Our center fielder, he's just amazing. I mean, she should
run track at you.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
They also she's quick. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Well, and what you're saying is the case for every
team one pitture away.

Speaker 15 (46:53):
And and it's right, and I mean that's there's no
truer statement. They'll see, you're one pitcher away. You you
can hit ten bombs of game. And if you don't
have that picture, you're gonna lose. What happened there actually right.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
And the thing too is, you know, okay, so they
get this the girl here from Texas and everybody sees that.
Other pictures see that, and they don't want to come here, right,
They just don't want to compete against her.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Is that sometimes what happens.

Speaker 15 (47:18):
That that kind of you know, that's kind of a
true statement too. But then huck the Oklahoma hoards four
of them.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, well guess what, Nil, I'm assuming that's there's another.

Speaker 15 (47:29):
Issue another two statement.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Too, because that's hit that point and Oklahoma's wink wink
may have been playing paying them for a while at
least that I that's what I do.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
You know, even in the heyday, Mike Kendrea would he
would have you know, the a's like a you know,
Jennin to make Nancy Effens. But there was always a
number two picture who was pretty darn good too.

Speaker 15 (47:49):
So yeah, but in the old days day they they
went with one. Nowadays you do use two and three.
In the old days, Jenny Finch carried the bulk of
the load. Karen Mowatt pitched every Alisha Hallowell pitched every
single inning. Colannie Ricketts at Oklahoma pitched every single inning.
Now they do use a bullpen, and that's kind of

(48:12):
changed in the last five years. So there is you know, uh,
a necessity to get one or two pictures nowadays.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Yeah, well they have a few. One just left right
and still was left.

Speaker 15 (48:25):
The two just left man and left also.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Okay, that's that's what we were talking about that earlier.
We didn't know if that was official. So well, here
you go. So now people are gonna leave them have
to find a couple more.

Speaker 15 (48:36):
Yeah, so let's see what happened. And like Troy was
right and he was talking about Swaying the kid from
from Iowa State. I mean, you looked at her when
I first signed her, and it's funny that Troy said it.
I said, wow, she has a four point something e
r A like why are why are you looking at her?
And she got time didn't Pat? Oh terrible? Can I say,

(49:03):
I'm sure he's not listening.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Well, you're just being honest, Okay, all right, Vick, Yeah,
thanks a bunch as usual, giving your insight.

Speaker 15 (49:10):
No no worries, Steve, you guys have a great day,
great show that. I love that interview with Shannon.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
It was awesome, great, Thank you, thanks for giving us
that insight.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Okay, yeah, yeah, So when you asked Shannon about that,
you know stuff, you could tell that even in his voice,
he was really downplaying the success of him.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Well he didn't want to brag. Yeah yeah, but still,
I mean four, come on, that doesn't happen. Getting one's tough,
you know, getting for is pretty good. Yeah, and just
you know that because he he was just but not
a monotone, but he was you know, okay, this is
what we got.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah, very proud.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
It's interesting just to see them having success at that
level and the high school level maybe you know, not
the top of the high schools, and having all this
success just year after year.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
It's great.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
And then they're generating, you know, get some their education,
continuing somewhere else and playing somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
So that's just a great story, right, yeah, no question.
And of course, like you talked about southern areasone, uh,
it's pretty.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Good every year.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
I mean for years there was the CDOs and the
foothills and those you know, the Soe points and the
big schools like that that were generating the interest slowing wells,
I should say, you know, my kids went there and
you know, a bunch of their friends were coaching.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Off they went to play D one and a lot
of it has to do the coaching. They're getting good coaching.
You know Fouler up at CEO and I can't remember
her name at the South Point, very good.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
They won a number of titles. I think this was appy.
Sure they hadn't won in a while.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Yeah, we'll have another coach like that in baseball with Prebble.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Who's who's had a fantastic year?

Speaker 5 (50:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Eight zero round of flag Staff last night, So we'll
get to that as well. We have about I don't
know about a minute or so before we take a
break here, come back. I'm not going to give any
breaking news, but we do have some things to talk
about that. We have stuff that we haven't talked about
so far with breaking news, right, okay, anything else.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Dave, let's see just some of you have a guy,
you have a baseball player is named the Big twelve
All Conference team.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Oh seven players?

Speaker 5 (51:00):
Yea?

Speaker 3 (51:00):
So they start soon? When did they started a Thursday game?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
You guys talk about how they're going to move the
Big twelve tournament to Sphoenix. Yeah, yeah, price Price, that's
gonna be kind of fun.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
It was great when the big when the PAC twelve
was at Scott Still Stadium with a couple of games,
did it was good.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Surprise is kind of way out there. It's good to
be retired to day.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
No, this was when I was still you know, employed somewhere.
But no, I think it'll be fun to have right
in the middle of May. I don't know how the
weather is going to be. It could be. It's nice.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Way it's nice, yeah, right, and a hundred is not
that bad.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Must be one hundred this weekend, So we'll see how
that plays out next year.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
One hundreds are comfortable, a little bit comfortable here. It's
a dry heat, as we'll tell everybody.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Right, because Arlington is not. It's a little sticky.

Speaker 8 (51:42):
Oh, I know.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
Well, we'll tell all those people you know, coming from
like Kansas State or the Midwest, it's.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Okay, don't bring some sunscreen and you'll don't.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
Worry about those noontime games. It'll be beautiful out there
in surprise.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Right, So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
So we'll come back, Dave and I will share some
breaking news from a lot of the variety of areas
that we can talk about, and then we get our
coach Coach Purple here about four seventeen.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Thanks