November 11, 2024 • 52 mins
This week, Bill and Alex are joined by UND Deputy Director of Athletics Erik Martinson to talk about the creation of the Capital City Classic, the farewell sendoff for the Hyslop, and the excitement around this week’s grand opening of Memorial Village 1 (1:51). The guys then reflect on a week that saw multiple changes in plans for two road basketball games and an impressive start to NCHC play for the hockey team in Duluth. (32:31). On the B-Side (46:27), it’s all Premier League talk, as Spurs continue to find ways to lose to winless teams, while Man City shockingly – and delightfully – taste defeat for the fourth match in a row.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
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(00:22):
and more. Subscribe today at midcassports plus dot com. This
is how we do sports, and this is the Bill
Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Bill Shaves Podcast.
We are taping this on a Monday morning, the eleventh
of November. Happy Veterans Day, Bill Shaves.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, Happy Veterans Day to you, and obviously thank you
to all all that all those that have served, and
this is our day to remember that for sure. And
uh yeah, beautiful day and grand Forks, Alex. I know
we always start with kind of a little weather report,
but things have been okay.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
At the Hilarias Center on Saturday. That was the first
thing I think everybody said to me as I passed
through the sideline walking up to the press box. This
is such a great day, and it was kind of
an overcast day. Obviously it wasn't like this beautiful November day,
but it was pleasance in the fifties. We were coming
off a nice weekend and another nice week It's at
the forefront of your mind. So I don't blame you
(01:23):
for beginning the podcast with.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, what's interesting? And you know, again, what do we
always say that are some of our tenants here on
the pod, that Mother Nature and Father Time are undefeated.
And at the end of the day, not many times
was it literally sixty degrees in sunny and Grand Forks
and we couldn't make it to Texas for a basketball game.
(01:46):
I mean that actually happened.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We will discuss that coming up in the rewind And
just a little bit first that we got to introduce
our guests today. He is a repeat guest on the
Bill Shaves podcast, a pod favorite, if you will. I've
lost count the amount of times that we have had
this man on, and for good reason, because he's involved
in so many great things around und athletics and around
the NCAA as a whole. He's the Deputy athletic Director
(02:10):
for the University of North Dakota, our friend and yours.
It's Eric Martinson today. Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Eric.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hey, guys, thanks for having me. Excited to be back
on a.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Lot of things to talk about. One of the big
things though, that's really apt for this time, is the
fact that our basketball teams are going west to play
a home game essentially in Biz market. It's the Capital
City Classic coming up on Tuesday, November the twelfth. So,
as you're listening to this probably happening later today, how
did this all come about to get to play in
(02:39):
the Capital City of North Dakota.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, I think it's just through great conversation and you know,
we we head out to Bismarck, you know, probably once
or twice a year to go meet with alumni and
friends out in Bismarck, and you know, the conversation as I always, hey,
you got to get out here more, you.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Got to get out here.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
There's a lot of Undie fans out in Bismarck and
in that surrounding area. And as we were kind of
going through the different scheduling with with Jamie Stevens and
Paul Sather and Mallory Bernhard, we were just kind of
figuring out, you know, what's the best way to kind
of kind of have a schedule and maybe do a
mini destination game of some sort. And and we know
that we have so many fans out west that that
(03:15):
traveled to Grand Forks on the weekends and different parts
of the year, and you know, we just kind of
put it together and just say, hey, why why not,
like why not have a game out in Bismarck. And
you know, if we want to plant our flag on
the seven oh one Moniker and say that we are
the flagship of North Dakota, we should be all over.
So we've done different things, you know, back in I
(03:36):
think in twenty eleven we did kind of a game
out and wy not, and we've done we've done things
like this before, and we really just wanted to get
out there and and show, uh, you know that we
love the state and we're ready to to show off
what we have going uh to start the year.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you know, through conversations with the Bismarck Events Center.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
And the b BC that you know kind of worked
out and kind of played in our favor with the
scheduling that we had and what we could do for
both teams. So kind of just fell on our lap
after a couple of years of planning and trying to
make it work and here we are.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, I would say Alex that thanks Marty for that
one hundred percent. It's exactly how it came about. You know.
Obviously having three three students on our men's basketball team
from Bismarck obviously made a difference as well. You know,
we talked about what would make sense from an opponent standpoint,
(04:29):
and we do play some non Division one games, and
if we're going to take a game away from the
Betty per Se, what would make sense there? You know,
who knows when the next time it could happen again,
and it all comes together. But with coach Bernhard and
coach say there, they did a great job of trying
to kind of connect the dots because the non conference
(04:51):
scheduling in basketball, as we've indicated a number of times,
is always tricky. It's it's a puzzle. And and to
be able to put this huzzle piece in uh just
for a day, you know, we've got to kind of
move our whole staff there, and so it'll be interesting
and I think Eric probably that'll be kind of fascinating.
(05:12):
I think folks would like to hear, like how we're
doing that.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, I think, you know, just having a home game
that's that's not in the in the city that you're in.
There's a lot of logistical pieces to it, and it's
not something we haven't done before with you know, NCAA
Regionals for hockey or other destination games, different pieces, you know,
just having everyone kind of an all hands on deck
mentality with our staff and kudos to you know, guys
(05:36):
like Kirk Kelly for our Director of Ops and our
s I. D. S on a on A Watson and
Jacob pump Brie and just everyone that's kind of coming
together our game presentation, really going into a building that
you're not comfortable with and then making it feel like
a University of North Dakota basketball game. That's a that's
kind of a big deal and a big undertaking, but
with good communication, our staff is is really going to
(05:56):
come and bring that that vibes, the vibes to the
see and really show what we are made of from
a game presentation standpoint so we can put on the
best experience possible.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Obviously, the sponsor of this pod are great partners at
mid Co being able to show show the game the doubleheader,
I think that's an important piece too. So you know,
I folks have asked me, you know, what's my expectation
tomorrow and I I don't know. I mean, I you know,
we're we're doing it because it's the right thing to do,
and we feel like it's the right thing to do,
(06:29):
and we appreciate that the coaches are willing to do this.
Obviously a little bit even as we get into talking
about that UTSA game over the weekend, that became a
challenge in some ways too, as far as how how
we could reschedule that particular game, knowing that we had
a home game not at home, and so that became just,
(06:49):
you know, just another wrinkle in some of the things
that occur when when Mother nature make flexes or muscles.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
This game, of course, is going to happen Tuesday night,
as you said, a doubleheader against Dickinson, a five o'clock
start for the men, seven thirty for the women, and
as Bill mentioned, both of those games will be live
on Mid Coast Sports and streaming on Mid Coast Sports Plus,
so a great chance to watch if you can't get
out there. And then, certainly for our folks in central
North Dakota, what a perk to not have to make
the maybe the three or four or five hour drive,
(07:18):
depending on where part of the state you're coming from
to see a game midweek. You can just go down
the road. If you're living in Bismarck or Mandan or
places like that, min not a much closer destination to
get to. So we hope for a great turnout at
the BC coming up on Tuesday night, and a great
intertate rivalry between Dickinson and North Dakota getting to rekindle
a little bit here, Marty. That's not the only thing
(07:39):
going on this week that kind of kicks off what
is a busy week for you and D A ton
of stuff happening at the end of the week. One
of the big things is the goodbye to the Hitslop.
There's a big fan luncheon coming up on Friday. We
get to bid ad for a building that's been a
huge part of you and D athletics. Gosh, I mean
for almost for a long time. Let's just say that
it's been around for a long long time. A lot
of memories have been made in that place.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a busy week for for home events,
and then and then you throw the Bismarck Games in
there along with the pre party with the Champions Club
that's gonna be before the games out in Bismarck, and
the we're heading we're heading back as a staff right
after the games on Tuesday night. We've got to get
ready for a big weekend of a lot of home
events and including the special fan luncheon that will be
(08:21):
at the Hisslop. We're gonna have it in the arena
and it's gonna be a really unique setup that we
really want people to kind of come back and share
stories and look at old trophies and.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Talk to people that have played here.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
You know, Rich Glass will be back, and there's gonna
be a lot of different people that that have played
in that arena and cant and if the walls could
talk right, and we kind of want them to for
that event, So really yeah, we're gonna open the doors
at eleven o'clock and allow people kind of just to
come in and walk out.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's kind of a kind.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Of a farewell open house in a way to to
really look at the Hisslop and and the amount of
memories of the concerts that that people still talk about
to this day and the big game games and the
championship games that were held, and the different presidential speeches
and just there's so much that happened in that building
and we're so grateful for for what that building has
done for for not only you and the athletics, but
(09:12):
the university and the city of Grand Forks in the
state of North Dakota.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We really want to pay.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Pay its respects and pay homage to to that building
because it was more than just athletics.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
There was you know, O, T.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
P T.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Kinesiology, many different academic you know buildings, The wellness Center
was in there. The amount of raquetball games we've played
up and upstairs, and you know, volleyball getting their start there,
and just it's just there's so many stories and we
want to make sure that we pay the right respects
to that. And that's going to be really on Friday
for people to come in, and you know, we're gonna
(09:46):
try to try to have popcorn there and candy and
make it feel like a concession stand feel and you know,
we're just really excited about the stories that are going
to be told because that's that's the right way to
do it. And like I said that the doors are
going to open eleven, we'll start the fan luncheon at
twelve and then and then that'll go till about twelve
forty five and then we're gonna kind of as one
book closes, we're gonna open another book and we're gonna
(10:08):
start have a ribbon cutting at the His Slop and
Memorial Village, So people are going to ask people to
walk over from the old His Slop to the new
His Slop and we're gonna do a ribbon cutting at
one o'clock and the letter Winners Lounge at the new
Hiss Slap. So kind of a fun, eventful afternoon for
those that can make it. And and really we're gonna
have the open house at the new Hits Slop and
(10:29):
we want people to move around and really ask questions
to our staff that's going to be there and and
you know, say, what is this what does this space do?
How does it improve how does it get our student athletes,
you know, better in the classroom, which is going to
get them better on the courts and on the field
and on the ice. So it'll be just a great
afternoon as we prepare for the weekend of events.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
For competition.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, the other thing, Marti two and you can speak
to this and it's kind of a neat thing, not
necessarily i would say, and open to the public deal.
But it's awesome that we've got a number of swimmers
coming back as well. This weekend.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah, that's a you know, turning the page from Friday
to Saturday. We have another event kind of a one
More Swim. We we coined it, you know, like we
do the one More Shift with with hockey, with some
of our alums there, we're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
One More Swim.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
So there's gonna be an event of former swimmers and
student athletes and friends of the program for swimming and
diving that are going to get together. And the numbers
are tremendous. There's a great number of people coming back
for that, and they have tickets to to football and
hockey and the other events volleyball for some that that
are gonna happen too. So that's gonna happen Saturday morning,
(11:39):
and really we're just trying to have the doors open
and we want to have as many people kind of
come back as possible because you know, when it's gone,
it's gone, and you you lose a little bit of that.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So just trying to give the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
For those that have have grown up and have have
created so many great memories in those buildings.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
The pool will be a great part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
On Saturday, one more swim.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's that's fantastic. Obviously, the majority, well not just the majority,
everybody's moving from the Hisslop over to Memorial Village now
at the new Hislop essentially across the street. If you
could give people an idea of what is going to
happen with that Hisslop space and that building moving forward.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yeah, so we're really fortunate that you know, we've been
in we've been in some building mode and creating new
facilities and really kind of figure out what that next
iteration of you and the athletics is going to look like.
So within the Hisslop of Memorial Village, a really a
big shout out to the City of Grand Forks and
the Development group of Memorial Village with bearing associates, Dakota
(12:37):
Commercial Community Contractors and so many more that we're involved
in helping this public private partnership come alive. But the
Hisslop and Memorial Village is really that first level is
is for athletics. The first kind of two thirds to
the north of that first level is is all of
you know, our administration. There's a large letter winners lounge
where we can host kind of events and meetings.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
There's our academic.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Services and student support area that has a large area
for our student athletes to kind of come and make
sure they get their studies and their advisement and really
their learning piece of academics. There we have our kind
of our external area, our marketing communications, and then the
coaches kind of all of our coaches offices. There's a
theater with which seats one hundred and fifty dream seats
(13:23):
that are that are in their leather kind of seats
that we can have, you know. And then also there's
meeting rooms that are right next to it, so our
teams and our student athletes and our staff can all
have areas where they can can continue to learn and
grow on their journey while they're here at und Athletics.
And then upstairs on that bump out is our coaches
area for football, and they have their war room in
(13:44):
different offices there as well. So that's all kind of
within the Hisslap that's kind of the nitty gritty of
where those offices and where they can go. But the
coolest piece is is there's a hawkway connected to it,
and that's still seeing the actual existing rick that was
from the old Memorial Stadium and that actually attaches to
(14:04):
the Nodak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center, which will be
opening in January of twenty twenty five. So we're two
months away from opening that Noak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center,
which is going to be where our student athletes get bigger, stronger, faster,
where we're gonna have the biggest weight room in the Dakotas,
we're gonna have our locker rooms, and our sports met
(14:24):
area that's already connect that's connected into the Pollard Athletics Center,
which is one hundred and fifty thousand square feet where
our student athletes can can work out and train, you know,
three hundred and sixty five days a year. So this
master plan and this kind of this iteration of what
athletics is going to look like within our district is
really coming together, and it's coming together fast. So we're excited.
(14:47):
I mean, when you can have groundbreaking and ribbon cuttings
and and things you know, within you know, certain points
of time, like that's exciting for the future of what
we're able to do and what we're going to do
for our department.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What if you think about you mentioned the speed you
ribbon cut and open all brick Field in September. You
have this the new islap essentially being opened up now
in November, and then as you said, in two months,
the rest of it essentially is going to be ready
to go to Those are three huge things, and they're
happening really within a season, Like it's incredible, just the
(15:21):
rate of change and progression that has happened on campus
and in that specific space unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Bill. Then a fourth thing when Memorial Village two, the
field house at Memorial Village too, even though athletics per
se does not have square footage in that particular building,
it will overlook all brick Field. And what will happen
is this whole area, as Eric said, the district, if
(15:50):
you will, I'd say a year from now, for sure,
we're going to be able to know how this is
all going to kind of work and play in harmony
with each other, and it should be really really exciting.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, it's been many many many years in the making
and a lot of conversations and through great relationships and
through great leadership, I think it's really come together and
it's been a labor of love. Like there's there's not
a morning that we don't wake up and think about, Okay,
what's next or what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
How are we doing it? And then what's next?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And I think this athletics district has been on the
forefront of what we've been trying to get done right away.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
But we're not done yet.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
We have a lot of other things that we need
to continue to look at and continue to grow and
continue to put us in the best position possible because
we know that we have great support from not only developers,
but the city of Grand Forks, the state of North Dakota,
the University as a whole, and our great donor base
that really wants.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Us to see us succeed.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
And through facilities and through our master plan of where
we can do things and how we can do them.
We're trying to be creative as possible from our side
with again those with private partnerships, those philanthropic projects, and
then those strategic investment pieces through the university. When you
couple all those together, we're really trying to grow and
(17:11):
figure out what that means for us as an apartment
and how does that ultimately then benefit the student athletes
and our teams in competition.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Well, it's been phenomenal, just just again the work that
you guys have done and the progress that's been made
really obviously noticeable when you drive down when you drive
down University having across Memorial. We would be remiss to
not ask you a hockey question. We have the NCAA
share of the rules Committee on this podcast. We're about
a month into the season now. It was a rule
(17:39):
change year. Of course, you and the committee made a
couple of switches. What have you seen in that regard
for the first five weeks or so of the new
hockey season?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, I think you know, I was the chair.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I was on the committee for four years and I
had a great time, and it's a great group of people,
and you know, I was the chair for the last
year with that and I kind of sought out through
through the rule change props. And then on September first,
I had to relinquish that chair and I'm no longer
on the committee because the four year term was up.
But it's been fun to still be income communication with
(18:10):
the secretary rules Editor and the NCAA rep tie helping
and the current chair right now, Trevored Large from Canecious
and really just touching base with them and and still
being very involved in in kind of the the intent
of what we did. And there's been bumps and bruises
along the way and clarifications and and that's just that's
just business. That's just normal. And I think, you know,
(18:33):
the changes that we made were there were some pretty
wholesale changes with and and pretty some pretty big changes
that we did with you know, around contact in the
head and checked from behind, among a lot of other
minor changes that we made with like continuous play and
mis game stoppages and even on on the women's side,
you know, really redefining how our body contact was made
(18:56):
and what they are allowed to do and what they're
not allowed to do.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So I'm really proud of those changes.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And I think that you know, the first couple of
months you've seen some of the minor penalties, you know,
with at the man Cato series, we had a minor
penalty for check from behind, and really it's allowing the
officials more the more ability to to really call penalties
that that are dictated throughout throughout the game, and and
(19:22):
sometimes they were handcuffed if if there was a little
a little body check, but it was in the numbers
and in the back, they were forced to call a
five minute major for check from behind, where now we
can say, hey, that probably didn't warrant it right. Someone
was turning if they if the defense the defensive person
did everything in their ability to make a legal body check,
(19:42):
whether it was to the head or from behind, but
for some reason the elevation changed or the player that
they were going to hit did something to put themselves
into vulnerable position. It really was hard to to give
that person that did everything right a five minute major,
and a or a five minute major in a game
is conducts. So we cleaned up the language there and
(20:02):
really we felt like the NHL did a really good
job of really making you know, the onus is always
on the person delivering the hit, but there is responsibility
otherwise on the person getting hit as well.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So we want to make sure safety is paramount.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But I do think you know, some of the two
minute minor check from behind penalties that have been called
have been justified, and yeah, that probably is a two
minute minor, but it's not a five.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Right. So the head contact as well, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
If someone gets nicked in the cage and it's not
really to the head, does that really justify a five?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And the answer is probably not.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Again, we want to make sure safety and concussions and
the brain and the header are protected. But you know,
sometimes it's sometimes a body check is a body check.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
And you know, just because you hit your hit hitting the.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Chest and the head is a part of the body,
does not mean it's always head contact. So there's been
growing pains for sure, and I think it's just gonna
come with consistency. I still go back to the last
rule change or you know, a time ago where we
implemented the protocol penalty, and I think I had every
coach in the nation calling me saying, how dare you
(21:09):
do a protocol penalty? Why this doesn't this doesn't mean anything,
This is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Why would you do it?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
And I don't think we've had a protocol penalty in
probably a year and a half because you know what,
people adjust, People figure it out, and and really we're
doing what's best for the for the game. Of hockey
and sometimes when you through conversation, I think sometimes it'll
it'll figure itself out.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So I'm I'm excited.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
On on kind of how the game is a game
of hockey is changing and really they're figuring it out
where you can't just turn and get hit anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
You have there's responsibility on that. So I'm pretty I'm
pretty happy with it there.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Like I said, there's a there's a lot of growing
pains with it, but uh good on Jeff Fulton and
uh good on the commission or the directors of officials
within each conference that have been working through it all.
And it's a tough game to officiate, but I think
they're doing a good job.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It's a it's a tough one. The other thing I
would say, and the one thing Eric, you know, would
at least give me the information on is you know,
when you're doing the rule changes, you're doing it not
just for men's division, ie and and so that. So
you have to balance a lot of things out and
I would say that some of the rules that make
(22:25):
it through is to make sure that it's fair across
the board for all of the college hockey leagues. Correct.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, the purview is not just the NHC.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Like I'm trying to look out for the NCHD as
a person that's representing the NCHC. But ultimately, when you
when you look and you you put your hat on
of just a rule committee member, you're looking out for
Division three, Division one men and women, and and right
now today with just having one rule book for all
of that, that makes it difficult, right because when when
(22:57):
we talk about I know, for this podcast, talk say
a lot about video replay, but we all.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Have our thoughts on that.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
But just remember video replay is really pertinent in in
the game at Division one level, but there's a lot
of areas and and you know Division three, most they
really don't have video replay. So really when we're talking
about it, you're missing almost half of what your your
purview is. So that's where I that was my job
to really bring those things up and say this is
(23:25):
a big deal.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
This is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Where where I'm representing and we need to try to
fix figure things out from a video replay standpoint for that.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
But yeah, it's a it's a big charge.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, I the podcast, Just to clarify Eric's statement, we
uh don't even talk about it much anymore, because I
think we've said everything we need to say, and so
so all you do is have to say video replay
and you can look back and go back and figure
out where the pod might stand or a's at least
(23:56):
someone on the pod might stand.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
There you go, there, you go. That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Maybe it's just all the conversations we have outside of it,
but yeah, it's a video replaced part of the game
of hockey and part of the game of really a
lot of our places, you know, Like one of the
cool things is is even the game of softball. We're
looking at adding video replay for softball and other sports, soccer,
others that that really you know, it's just going to
be there and we got to.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Have to figure it out. So that's just part of
part of sports.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Just part of sports here in twenty twenty four today, well,
Eric Martins and you were a big part of U
n D sports over the years. We appreciate you in
your time today. How fun out in Bismarck. That's going
to be an awesome experience for our crew and our
fans and for our teams certainly, and then have a
great rest of the weekend, the great rest of the semester.
I'm sure we'll have you back on before too long.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Thanks for having me, we'll talk to you.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Thanks. Sic appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You can hear the pride in his voice when he's
talking about the athletics district and the changes that have
happened in that place. And I know, obviously he and
you and so many other people have played a huge
role in what's happened there. It has to be so
gratifying to see that come to fruition, to do ribbon
cutting after you had put a spade in the ground
not that long ago, and to see the fruits of
(25:10):
that labor come forward. It just it's a really special time,
I'm sure for you and Marty and others in your chair.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But yeah, no doubt. And you know a lot of
folks will say, you know, what does a deputy athletic
director do? You know? And so Eric, Eric basically is
our chief operating officer. So so a lot of the
operations of the whole entire department at times funnel through
his office. You know, it doesn't get to my office
(25:35):
too sure, I mean, but we're better, we're better when
we're dividing and conquering and so at times, if I
know Eric has something, then I don't necessarily have to
be in on it the entire way and vice versa.
And so so that's what we try to do. But
you're right, I think, you know, the facilities aspect, alex
(25:59):
is a whole like it's a whole thing until itself.
Like you know, you talk about games, and you're talking
about student athlete welfare, and you're talking about academics, you're
talking about community, you're talking about all of those things
that I would say that our chairs have traditionally done.
But then you add on these you know, opportunities that
(26:21):
we've had, and they're all encompassing. I mean, for sure,
think about building a house, right Like, at the end
of the day, there are just lots of nuances and
pieces and decisions, and every day there's something to kind
of figure out what is the best thing for us
to do for the next fifty years or you know,
(26:41):
in you know Hislop's case, you know, seventy plus years.
And so so at the end of there's a big
amount of responsibility that you have to kind of make
sure that it's not about the chair or the person
that's sitting in the chair that he's in or I'm in.
It's about what is it right for the University of
North go to long term.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
One of the things that Eric brought up as he
was talking about all the specifics inside Memorial Village One,
it made me wonder, how do you come up with
that plan of like, what do we want to put
in what would be beneficial for our student athletes, our coaches,
our staff, our teams. I'm assuming it's a lot of
canvassing people in those departments and then around the rest
(27:23):
of the country. How did you how do you go
about that problem?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the easy the
easy answer is, well, whatever you were displacing out of
Hisslop needs to go somewhere. So so I think that's
where you start. And then you just figure out what's
the square footage? What makes sense? You know, where where
do And I think when folks come in they're going
(27:48):
to say, well, there's actually a real rhyme and reason
to the flow of the actual you know how things occurred,
and so yeah, I think, uh, and then there was
just yeah, you learn from others that have done some things,
and so a lot of conversation though, I'll be honest
with you, and conversation when it was appropriate, because the
(28:13):
more folks that you bring in a room, the more
conversation and ideas you're going to have. At some point
you have to make decisions and you have to kind
of go with it. And you know, what we've said
even when we moved over here was we're going to
have to let this breathe a little bit too and
kind of figure out, hey, maybe we missed on something
(28:35):
or we just didn't think of something. So you know,
we can always kind of alter, but if it's not
a structural thing that we have to deal with, you know,
we'll be just fine. So, you know, it's kind of
lived up to everything that we thought it was going
to be and where we located folks, and so, but
we're not there yet because our teams are still having
(28:59):
a lot of rooms over at Hisslop Area in starture.
So even the traffic flow won't be real until we
open up the note Act Insurance Company Sports Performance Center.
So until we get that done, we don't really know
the flow at this stage of the game. So we're
almost in a fake year. We're in year zero, but
(29:21):
it's kind of like a fake year.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
You're getting there, though, we're getting there. I do want
to ask, as you're having those conversations and you kind
of finalize the plans for what's going to go into this,
what was the hardest, maybe the best idea that you
just couldn't make work. Was there something that was brought
to the table that just sounded awesome but in the
end of the day just hit the cutting room floor.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, really, really, really really good question. No, you know what,
I would say, this the reason why I'm struggling to
come up with something. So I'm not going to fake
it here. I'm just gonna say I kind of knew
what we needed to be in, so I guess my
expectation wasn't like, oh, we have a blank slate and
(30:05):
we get to bring everything in from from outer space.
It just wasn't that way. We knew that, we knew
the offices, the sports, we knew a lot of pieces
of the puzzle that needed to come over. So I
think my expectation was we just had to make sure
all of those pieces fit. And you know, as as
(30:27):
Eric said, you know, our developers have been just tremendous
to work with. And you know they they want, you know,
the best for Undy and und athletics as well. So yeah,
a good question. But it wasn't this whiteboard where you
could blue sky everything. It just wasn't that process. In
some ways, I think our addition was probably not necessarily
(30:51):
more challenging, but I think that one became more conversation
about how to structure something for the betterment of a
good chunk of our student athletes. But you know, I
still think like even as you come in and if
you look from Columbia and you look at at Memorial
(31:12):
Village one, you'll see that center area and you'll walk
in and that's where our letter winners lounges. I we're
just kind of scratching the surface right now as far
as what some of the things we can do there.
When we went to Iowa State, I thought it was
a really good template for us. Obviously, we know they're
in the Big Twelve, we know they're in the FBS,
(31:34):
But the way Iowa State does some of the things
they do, we can kind of take a page out
of their book. They're very economical on how they approach.
It's very very, very nice like but not anything audacious
or over the top, and I felt like that's kind
of how we structured this as well, very thoughtful on
(31:56):
how this can work on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You mentioned that facility there in ames like, walking from
where we were in the press box down to where
the postgame press conference is going to be, you walked
through a lot some of their facilities, and it was
the layout of it was very visually appealing but also
very practical, and just there was yeah, that's if that's
what this is going to look like, or at least
kind of in that same vein two thumbs up. It
(32:22):
was a very very cool space that they had put
together there next to the stadium. Well, we got some
more things to talk about, and we should probably get
to those things right now. Although it is fun to
talk about what's coming up next for you and the athletics.
We mentioned basketball is going to Bismarck. Of course, we
should probably talk about some of the uniqueness that has
happened to both the men and the women to start
the season, and the fact that you had the women
(32:43):
make it out to Youngstown to play their first game
and then have to come back without playing a game
because of a power outage. Talk about that circumstance out
of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Bill, You know what do we do in the theater world.
We do address perform rehearsal. Right, yeah, that was a
long dress rehearsal. So that was never once. I don't
think we've gone that far for a dress rehearsal. So yeah.
I So interestingly, every Monday, Eric, myself and Jody Hodson
(33:17):
we meet four o'clock, like clockwork today because it's a holiday,
we're going to meet it actually one o'clock, so, but
but four o'clock meeting. And I walked into the meeting
and I just said, Hey, can we be really give
me the top thing we're talking about here today because
I'm gonna I'm gonna be getting out of here, uh
(33:38):
to go watch women's basketball. It's starting at four thirty
at that point our time, five thirty Eastern time, and
they had a double header that day, Youngstown did so.
So sure enough, Eric looks out his phone and he goes,
it's like at that point in time, it's like four
twenty five. So I'm getting ready to leave, I'm packing up,
and he goes, Mallory's calling and I look at my phone.
(34:02):
I go, I missed a call from her, so so
we put her on. She goes, we're in the dark,
the very very dark, and we're not quite sure what's
going on. So I talked to Ron Strolo, who's my counterpartner.
I've known Ron for a long long time. I call
him and I know he's probably stressing at that point,
and he just said, holy cow, a transformer just absolutely
(34:24):
blue and it's part a good chunk of campus is out.
And so he goes, I'll call back when I know more,
And sure enough, the electrician came in and you know,
you know, good for Ron. He just said, hey, you know,
North Dakota, we got to play this game. You know,
the men. It's a non dy one game from someone
twenty minutes away. We can make that up. That's not
(34:45):
a problem. But the women. And he goes, yeah, you're
not playing tonight. I mean, so there you go. And so,
you know, I mean, and that's why you have good
relationships with folks, and you know, nothing you can do
about that, per se. And so you know, the only
thing I was concerned about is, you know, when you
don't play the game, you know, what is Youngstown thinking
(35:07):
the following year? You know, And of course Ron's such
a stand up guy. They'll be back in Grand Forks
next year. So you know, I just there's sometimes things happen, Alex.
I mean, I don't know what else to say, and
you just you handle it well and you try to
go on to the next which then led to men's basketball.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The men's basketball, who had not the exact same situation,
of course, because you didn't make it all the way
to Texas. But they're supposed to play on the ninth
against UTSA and San Antonio. Just bad weather down there, right,
like lightning strikes and things like that. All the airports
were struggling to get flights in and so now on
the women's side, of course, that game against Youngstown is
(35:46):
just canceled. There was no way to get back out
there this year. The men's game, at least there was
a way to work this in. So now you and
d will play at UTSA on the thirteenth, and then
San Antonio will come to Grand Forks just a mere
two days later. So a little it's like it's like
a series, little home and home series with a team
(36:07):
from Texas.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, you know, and again, you know, you just and
maybe the answer is Alex I'm just old. I tend
to have a lot of contacts. And so Lisa Campos,
who was who I knew when she was at NAU
as the ad back in the Big Sky days, and
so she's the AD at UTSA, and you know, I
call her and I just said, Hey, you're not going
(36:31):
to believe this, but our flight's canceled, and there's just
so then you start doing the like how do you
make this work? Like how do you get a group
of twenty two down to Texas in a short amount
of time? Now getting there is one thing, It's it's
actually getting back is another thing. And then when do
you get back? And we've got this thing going on
(36:52):
in Bizmarck. Would be one thing if it was at
the Betty, but we've rented a facility in Bizmarck, So
there's there were just some pieces of the puzzle we
had to figure out. And I know this. Our our
men's team wanted to get there and they tried. They
were thinking about bussing to Minneapolis to get a direct
into like but during this time of crossover, with a
(37:14):
lot of sports going on, our bus, our charter bus
was only scheduled to go to Fargo. I mean, you
just can't on a whim just go get a bus
to go to Minneapolis when you need that to be done.
And that was to even make a flight, even if
you could get on it to some degree. So it
just made sense the more we got into this conversation,
(37:37):
and I think, I you know, I was trying my
best to get utsa there in a sense of hey, look,
we want to be there. I mean, we want to
be there, but I'm just trying to be really real
right now, is like we might be better off trying
to figure out how do we get back down there
again and figure this thing out because you can kind
(37:57):
of move those you know, we use travel agents. You
can kind of move those those tickets to a future date.
And so that's what's transpired. So you know, yeah, you
know what it's It's almost in some ways it's like,
you know, the NBA plays a you know, home and home,
they do whatever. It just I mean, is it ideal, Eh?
Probably not. But what's more ideal is we're going to
(38:18):
get the game in.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
We talked about what was the right time framed even
during that week, and I think we play if I'm
I believe I'm correct with this. We play Weber State
and the Big Sky Summit League Challenge on that Saturday.
And I think putting it after putting it after Utah
Valley made a lot of sense for us for a
(38:41):
variety of reasons. But at least our students would be
in Grand Forks on Sunday and Monday, so especially that
Monday that to be in classes is huge, and then
take off on Tuesday, play on Wednesday, and then really
it's really Salt Lake to San Antonio, is not that
that that bad? And then you go play on a
(39:03):
Friday and then play back here in Grand Forks on
the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Not that bad.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
I'd say that it would have been really disappointing if
we couldn't have found a date. I think once we
found the date, I think it was more palatable for everyone.
And so yeah, so it's it really becomes like a
you know, a road, a road to two games on
the road where you're traveling the day in between, so
(39:29):
you know, and then you kind of come back and
you're playing the team you just played. So the scout
I think you saw the scout.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Yeah, you need to dig too much into that anymore.
That helps a little bit in terms of the preparation.
So that's what's going on for Paul Sather and Malory Bernhardt. Again,
lots of home games coming up. As we said, both
the men and the women will have multiple home games
coming up actually in Grand Forks, not just in the
state of North Dakota over the next two weeks before
we pot again the best of lect of those two
(39:58):
teams as they really kick off their season again. The
women already won to know after that win over Eastern Illinois,
the men getting set to really get rolling. This week
we should mention hockey at a phenomenal road weekend at Minnesotada.
Louth talk about a great way to kick off the
NCCHC season with a seven to three win and then
a four to one win over a team that has
been ranked and is traditionally very very good. Now they
(40:20):
get Denver to come into town like it. Just this
is not to say this is the last stretch of
this gauntlet for this team, but it has been just
week after week of these ranked teams rivalry games and
now you get the defending national champs, who, oh, by
the way, are ten and zero and scoring five goals
a game and giving up one what a great way
to really kick off now the NCCHC season at home
(40:44):
against the Pioneers. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I mean, obviously we know when it's Denver week, it's
it's always a special week for sure. And I think
if you go backwards, I think they come in having
won nineteen straight. I think that's going back. I think
that's accurate. And so yeah, what a great up opportunity
for our team. And I know they're going to be
real excited about the weekend for sure. So yeah, I agree,
(41:08):
you know, Denver's Denver's off to a great start, quick start.
So but we know it's a long season and we
just got to continue to get better. I mean obviously
getting getting at least Bergie back in the lineup was helpful,
no doubt about it. So now we just got to,
you know, figure out a way and you know, take
(41:30):
the ralph to to whatever level we need to take it.
This weekend.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
It is exciting to me at five of the next
six for this team are at home Denver this weekends.
Then Robert Morris of the Atlantic coming into town next weekend,
and then that home and away with the Midia State
over Thanksgiving. So a great chance for our local fans
to see this team who was really fun to watch
and plays hard and it's just been kind of banged
up at the beginning of the season. To see them
once again hit their stride here middle of the season football,
(41:57):
of course, tough, tough weekend against South Dakota State. One
more home game now coming up against South Dakota, a
really big one to try and see the seniors off
on the right note coming up this week.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I think that's right. And you know, i'd say
that the Jacks obviously very very good program at this
point in time. But what a great opportunity to have
another top five team coming in and USD and and
then the potential of going on the road at another
potential playoff type team. So you know, it's still you know,
and I know, folks, are you know disappointed a three
(42:27):
game losing streak for sure, but it's still in front
of us. And so we've just got to don't give
up this ship, man, Just don't give up the ship.
You got to get after it and it kind of
fix the things that need to be fixed, play with
a lot of energy and excitement and come out and
what a great opportunity we have at the Alere Center
at noon on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
You never know. If you do what you can do.
You beat two ranked teams, including one on the road,
one in the top five, you get to seven and five.
We have seen stranger things in terms of playoff implications.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
So I've seen it.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It's not over yet.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Actually I've not only seen it, I've lived it, and
I've lived it on both sides where you think you
are where you are and then you're not at the end.
And so it's just one of those things where you've
got to stay the course right now, stay the course
and stay together. And you know, we just need we
(43:23):
need as many folks to come and you know, help us,
you know, against a really, really good opponent, but one
that I know our guys will be excited to play against.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
It is a great way to send off a senior
class that has been a part of so many successful
seasons three of the last four years in the postseason.
A lot of those guys have played huge roles in
that good way to send them off, hopefully on the
right note again. Saturday coming up at the Alera Center,
speaking of seniors, Volleyball will celebrate their seniors Saturday morning
as well at eleven o'clock opening serve coming up this weekend.
(43:53):
Two home games left for und against Kansas City on
the fourteenth and then South Dakota State coming up on
the sixteenth. They did get a nice win against Earl
Roberts the other day to kind of snap another tough
skid for Jesse Tupac and company. Even though the postseason
is kind of out of the question, still a great
chance to try and finish the season out on a
high and go into the off season feeling good about themselves.
With some good teams come into town this week.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah, obviously the match against Kansas City is huge. Obviously
that's the next one on a Thursday night, and so
you know what, you just never know. I mean, you know,
come out and take care of business that day and
you just never know what could happen.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
By the way, they do finish the season on the
nineteenth at NDSU, So it is like this great gauntlet
of playing playing two big home games, not to go
to State, by the way, had been unbeaten until they
lost the other day to Saint Thomas, so a really
good Jack Rabbits team. And then you finish with your
biggest rival on the road hopefully they can finish strong
and close out this year well. Really talented group of
kids that have just had a tougher season than we expected.
(44:51):
Last thing I want to mention before we hit a
very quick p side shout out to cross country. The
men finished fourth, the women finished fifth. At these Summa
League Championships. Now two weeks ago we had two women
finished top four. Eleanna Malnuri and Naja Wiler finished second
and fourth respectively. Monte Rebaca finishes eighth. On the men's side.
Their season's not done. A lot of that crew will
(45:12):
go compete in Peoria, Illinois in the n CUAA Midwest
Regional coming up on the fifteenth. Even though the depth
didn't quite lift the team up to where they maybe
thought they could finish, it was still a pretty good weekend.
It's pretty good meet on Saturday down in Vermilion, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I didn't get to talk to either Gym or Tom,
so I didn't get the debrief, but but I agree
with you, Alex, no doubt about it. I think it
was a really nice day in Vermilion as well. So
you know, thanks to USD for putting on a great meat.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, congrats to Tom and company on finishing up sort
of the quote unquote regular ish season and other postseason
continues with those regionals coming up on the fifteenth. Anything
else from a und perspective.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's enough. We got enough going on, that's for sure.
You know what this is, This is one busy week
between all the home and i'll call it quasi home games,
and so uh, it's gonna be one of those, no doubt,
Onto the next, onto the next, onto the next. So
it's gonna be exciting week.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, just the basketball's, hockey, football, and volleyball at home,
that's all. And with the road with the road trip
to Bismarck that you're hosting in between, So it'll be good.
No wonder we're.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Potting on them with the ribbon cutting and just yes,
it's just a few things going.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
On, just a few things. So with that said, really
quick flip to the B side. I don't want to
end the pod on a downer, but it's it seems
Spurs have just had the propensity to be the team
that the teams who have not been able to win
seem to beat. And that was the case again this
weekend as you drop one to Ipswich Town.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, I find it interesting. If I were a neutral
and knew nothing about the Spurs, it is fair to
say they can beat anybody and they can lose to anybody.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
You beat City, although everybody seems to beat but you
beat city to city. You don't think they could drop
five in a row? Could they? Could they do that?
That would be That'd be amazing, Bill, if you could
do that.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I guess my answer on the pod today is and
I don't have much, but my answer is, we just
don't like to play before international breaks, and that the
reality of it is there's lots of them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
There's lots of them. This is the last one for
a little while at least. I think March is the
next international break for the men. So there should be
at least a little bit of a gap between now
and the next time that you have to wonder on
the doorstep of an international win.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Well.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
By the way, I just got a notification on my
phone from the Athletics Soccer podcast that I follow, and
the headline of today's episode was is ansball working at Spurs?
Question mark? That's where we're at right now with Tottenham hots.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
It was working well in the second half. They just
they just couldn't find a way to tie it. I mean,
I guess technically they sort of did in a way,
but not really. But yeah, it's yeah, you know it
good for again, the Premier League is very similar in
akin to the NFL, and if you're not ready, you
(48:19):
can get you can get clipped. You can get clipped anywhere,
and we see it every week. So you know, it's just, uh,
I don't know, I don't know what they're They've gone
through a little bit of a process where it seems
like they keep giving up the first goal and that
that's always interesting in soccer, right, like especially against a
team like Ipswich where they were gonna then play a
(48:42):
certain way if they could get the first.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
One, and they got the first and then they got
the second right before halftime, which is always a tough
time to concede. And yeah, it's a difficult stretch against Spurs,
struggling city struggling too. I can't tell you the joy
that it gives me to see on my fire. I
got a text from Chris Logan rep four kickoff of
the of the football game on Saturday, brighton exclamation board,
(49:05):
excelmation point, exclamation point and it just it makes me smile,
like just the joy that people have when a team
that just never loses loses a couple of times. So
funny to see Manchester City on the wrong side of fork.
That's never happens in Pep Cordiola's managerial career. Even the
greats Bill can have little spells where they struggled again.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
And I I thought though it was interesting, and I
hadn't I didn't watch much of it. I watched the
beginning of it in saw Erling's goal, and if you
haven't seen that goal, that is classic Holland. I mean
hit that man is so big and so strong. It's unbelievable,
really is. But yeah, here's here's what we know about City.
(49:46):
Oh let's just start around December whatever when they play Spurs.
They may not lose again.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
They may not lose again. That has kind of been
the mo of these teams where they kind of maybe
sleepwalk a little in the first half of the season
and then figure it out and then they don't usually
drop points for the rest of the way. So now
I'm not saying the titles one, I'm not saying that
this is over. They'll be heard from many many times
before all is said, Yeah, but it is kind of
fun to enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, but congratulations on the start to uh the Liverpool season.
I mean they've been very very good, very good.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Nice win again this weekend against Villa. Yep, up five
points on everybody else, So early days, bill, But yes,
it has been a great start. Twenty eight points out
of a possible thirty three.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Like you take that totally, pretty well, totally yep. Well,
here's here's the Spurs. Spurs are exactly where they should
be right now, mid table, mid Interestingly, they are second
and goal differential. Oh so that's a that's usually a
sign that they've underperformed. Their defense has been better than
(50:52):
last year. It just has been, so there are some
positives to it. It's such a long year, but you
just hate to give up points at all against a
team that you should not give up points to. I
mean they're just so valuable because literally, literally a win,
they were going to be in third place.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Yeah, isn't that crazy. It's still so early. Everybody's really
tightly bunched. A lot of teams with like twenty three
points to about seventeen points. Every game matters in the
Premier League, no doubt so ill every game matters this
week for you. Indeed, you got a lot of them,
almost all of them in the state of North Dakota.
So Bill will let you go to get onto the
next thing. But we appreciate you, appreciate Eric martinsen coming
on as well. Big thanks to Alex docker Johnson and
(51:30):
Paul Ralson on the back end getting this podcast up.
I'm Alex Sider, Thank you for listening. Enjoy a really
fun week. Thanks again to our veterans out there, and
we'll talk to you soon.
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. If you love college hockey, college football, college volleyball,
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It's the place to watch fighting hacks, football, volleyball, basketball,
(00:22):
and more. Subscribe today at midcassports plus dot com. This
is how we do sports, and this is the Bill
Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Bill Shaves Podcast.
We are taping this on a Monday morning, the eleventh
of November. Happy Veterans Day, Bill Shaves.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, Happy Veterans Day to you, and obviously thank you
to all all that all those that have served, and
this is our day to remember that for sure. And
uh yeah, beautiful day and grand Forks, Alex. I know
we always start with kind of a little weather report,
but things have been okay.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
At the Hilarias Center on Saturday. That was the first
thing I think everybody said to me as I passed
through the sideline walking up to the press box. This
is such a great day, and it was kind of
an overcast day. Obviously it wasn't like this beautiful November day,
but it was pleasance in the fifties. We were coming
off a nice weekend and another nice week It's at
the forefront of your mind. So I don't blame you
(01:23):
for beginning the podcast with.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, what's interesting? And you know, again, what do we
always say that are some of our tenants here on
the pod, that Mother Nature and Father Time are undefeated.
And at the end of the day, not many times
was it literally sixty degrees in sunny and Grand Forks
and we couldn't make it to Texas for a basketball game.
(01:46):
I mean that actually happened.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We will discuss that coming up in the rewind And
just a little bit first that we got to introduce
our guests today. He is a repeat guest on the
Bill Shaves podcast, a pod favorite, if you will. I've
lost count the amount of times that we have had
this man on, and for good reason, because he's involved
in so many great things around und athletics and around
the NCAA as a whole. He's the Deputy athletic Director
(02:10):
for the University of North Dakota, our friend and yours.
It's Eric Martinson today. Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Eric.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hey, guys, thanks for having me. Excited to be back
on a.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Lot of things to talk about. One of the big
things though, that's really apt for this time, is the
fact that our basketball teams are going west to play
a home game essentially in Biz market. It's the Capital
City Classic coming up on Tuesday, November the twelfth. So,
as you're listening to this probably happening later today, how
did this all come about to get to play in
(02:39):
the Capital City of North Dakota.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, I think it's just through great conversation and you know,
we we head out to Bismarck, you know, probably once
or twice a year to go meet with alumni and
friends out in Bismarck, and you know, the conversation as I always, hey,
you got to get out here more, you.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Got to get out here.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
There's a lot of Undie fans out in Bismarck and
in that surrounding area. And as we were kind of
going through the different scheduling with with Jamie Stevens and
Paul Sather and Mallory Bernhard, we were just kind of
figuring out, you know, what's the best way to kind
of kind of have a schedule and maybe do a
mini destination game of some sort. And and we know
that we have so many fans out west that that
(03:15):
traveled to Grand Forks on the weekends and different parts
of the year, and you know, we just kind of
put it together and just say, hey, why why not,
like why not have a game out in Bismarck. And
you know, if we want to plant our flag on
the seven oh one Moniker and say that we are
the flagship of North Dakota, we should be all over.
So we've done different things, you know, back in I
(03:36):
think in twenty eleven we did kind of a game
out and wy not, and we've done we've done things
like this before, and we really just wanted to get
out there and and show, uh, you know that we
love the state and we're ready to to show off
what we have going uh to start the year.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you know, through conversations with the Bismarck Events Center.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
And the b BC that you know kind of worked
out and kind of played in our favor with the
scheduling that we had and what we could do for
both teams. So kind of just fell on our lap
after a couple of years of planning and trying to
make it work and here we are.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, I would say Alex that thanks Marty for that
one hundred percent. It's exactly how it came about. You know.
Obviously having three three students on our men's basketball team
from Bismarck obviously made a difference as well. You know,
we talked about what would make sense from an opponent standpoint,
(04:29):
and we do play some non Division one games, and
if we're going to take a game away from the
Betty per Se, what would make sense there? You know,
who knows when the next time it could happen again,
and it all comes together. But with coach Bernhard and
coach say there, they did a great job of trying
to kind of connect the dots because the non conference
(04:51):
scheduling in basketball, as we've indicated a number of times,
is always tricky. It's it's a puzzle. And and to
be able to put this huzzle piece in uh just
for a day, you know, we've got to kind of
move our whole staff there, and so it'll be interesting
and I think Eric probably that'll be kind of fascinating.
(05:12):
I think folks would like to hear, like how we're
doing that.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, I think, you know, just having a home game
that's that's not in the in the city that you're in.
There's a lot of logistical pieces to it, and it's
not something we haven't done before with you know, NCAA
Regionals for hockey or other destination games, different pieces, you know,
just having everyone kind of an all hands on deck
mentality with our staff and kudos to you know, guys
(05:36):
like Kirk Kelly for our Director of Ops and our
s I. D. S on a on A Watson and
Jacob pump Brie and just everyone that's kind of coming
together our game presentation, really going into a building that
you're not comfortable with and then making it feel like
a University of North Dakota basketball game. That's a that's
kind of a big deal and a big undertaking, but
with good communication, our staff is is really going to
(05:56):
come and bring that that vibes, the vibes to the
see and really show what we are made of from
a game presentation standpoint so we can put on the
best experience possible.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Obviously, the sponsor of this pod are great partners at
mid Co being able to show show the game the doubleheader,
I think that's an important piece too. So you know,
I folks have asked me, you know, what's my expectation
tomorrow and I I don't know. I mean, I you know,
we're we're doing it because it's the right thing to do,
and we feel like it's the right thing to do,
(06:29):
and we appreciate that the coaches are willing to do this.
Obviously a little bit even as we get into talking
about that UTSA game over the weekend, that became a
challenge in some ways too, as far as how how
we could reschedule that particular game, knowing that we had
a home game not at home, and so that became just,
(06:49):
you know, just another wrinkle in some of the things
that occur when when Mother nature make flexes or muscles.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
This game, of course, is going to happen Tuesday night,
as you said, a doubleheader against Dickinson, a five o'clock
start for the men, seven thirty for the women, and
as Bill mentioned, both of those games will be live
on Mid Coast Sports and streaming on Mid Coast Sports Plus,
so a great chance to watch if you can't get
out there. And then, certainly for our folks in central
North Dakota, what a perk to not have to make
the maybe the three or four or five hour drive,
(07:18):
depending on where part of the state you're coming from
to see a game midweek. You can just go down
the road. If you're living in Bismarck or Mandan or
places like that, min not a much closer destination to
get to. So we hope for a great turnout at
the BC coming up on Tuesday night, and a great
intertate rivalry between Dickinson and North Dakota getting to rekindle
a little bit here, Marty. That's not the only thing
(07:39):
going on this week that kind of kicks off what
is a busy week for you and D A ton
of stuff happening at the end of the week. One
of the big things is the goodbye to the Hitslop.
There's a big fan luncheon coming up on Friday. We
get to bid ad for a building that's been a
huge part of you and D athletics. Gosh, I mean
for almost for a long time. Let's just say that
it's been around for a long long time. A lot
of memories have been made in that place.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a busy week for for home events,
and then and then you throw the Bismarck Games in
there along with the pre party with the Champions Club
that's gonna be before the games out in Bismarck, and
the we're heading we're heading back as a staff right
after the games on Tuesday night. We've got to get
ready for a big weekend of a lot of home
events and including the special fan luncheon that will be
(08:21):
at the Hisslop. We're gonna have it in the arena
and it's gonna be a really unique setup that we
really want people to kind of come back and share
stories and look at old trophies and.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Talk to people that have played here.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
You know, Rich Glass will be back, and there's gonna
be a lot of different people that that have played
in that arena and cant and if the walls could
talk right, and we kind of want them to for
that event, So really yeah, we're gonna open the doors
at eleven o'clock and allow people kind of just to
come in and walk out.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's kind of a kind.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Of a farewell open house in a way to to
really look at the Hisslop and and the amount of
memories of the concerts that that people still talk about
to this day and the big game games and the
championship games that were held, and the different presidential speeches
and just there's so much that happened in that building
and we're so grateful for for what that building has
done for for not only you and the athletics, but
(09:12):
the university and the city of Grand Forks in the
state of North Dakota.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We really want to pay.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Pay its respects and pay homage to to that building
because it was more than just athletics.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
There was you know, O, T.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
P T.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Kinesiology, many different academic you know buildings, The wellness Center
was in there. The amount of raquetball games we've played
up and upstairs, and you know, volleyball getting their start there,
and just it's just there's so many stories and we
want to make sure that we pay the right respects
to that. And that's going to be really on Friday
for people to come in, and you know, we're gonna
(09:46):
try to try to have popcorn there and candy and
make it feel like a concession stand feel and you know,
we're just really excited about the stories that are going
to be told because that's that's the right way to
do it. And like I said that the doors are
going to open eleven, we'll start the fan luncheon at
twelve and then and then that'll go till about twelve
forty five and then we're gonna kind of as one
book closes, we're gonna open another book and we're gonna
(10:08):
start have a ribbon cutting at the His Slop and
Memorial Village, So people are going to ask people to
walk over from the old His Slop to the new
His Slop and we're gonna do a ribbon cutting at
one o'clock and the letter Winners Lounge at the new
Hiss Slap. So kind of a fun, eventful afternoon for
those that can make it. And and really we're gonna
have the open house at the new Hits Slop and
(10:29):
we want people to move around and really ask questions
to our staff that's going to be there and and
you know, say, what is this what does this space do?
How does it improve how does it get our student athletes,
you know, better in the classroom, which is going to
get them better on the courts and on the field
and on the ice. So it'll be just a great
afternoon as we prepare for the weekend of events.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
For competition.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, the other thing, Marti two and you can speak
to this and it's kind of a neat thing, not
necessarily i would say, and open to the public deal.
But it's awesome that we've got a number of swimmers
coming back as well. This weekend.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah, that's a you know, turning the page from Friday
to Saturday. We have another event kind of a one
More Swim. We we coined it, you know, like we
do the one More Shift with with hockey, with some
of our alums there, we're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
One More Swim.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
So there's gonna be an event of former swimmers and
student athletes and friends of the program for swimming and
diving that are going to get together. And the numbers
are tremendous. There's a great number of people coming back
for that, and they have tickets to to football and
hockey and the other events volleyball for some that that
are gonna happen too. So that's gonna happen Saturday morning,
(11:39):
and really we're just trying to have the doors open
and we want to have as many people kind of
come back as possible because you know, when it's gone,
it's gone, and you you lose a little bit of that.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So just trying to give the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
For those that have have grown up and have have
created so many great memories in those buildings.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
The pool will be a great part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
On Saturday, one more swim.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's that's fantastic. Obviously, the majority, well not just the majority,
everybody's moving from the Hisslop over to Memorial Village now
at the new Hislop essentially across the street. If you
could give people an idea of what is going to
happen with that Hisslop space and that building moving forward.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yeah, so we're really fortunate that you know, we've been
in we've been in some building mode and creating new
facilities and really kind of figure out what that next
iteration of you and the athletics is going to look like.
So within the Hisslop of Memorial Village, a really a
big shout out to the City of Grand Forks and
the Development group of Memorial Village with bearing associates, Dakota
(12:37):
Commercial Community Contractors and so many more that we're involved
in helping this public private partnership come alive. But the
Hisslop and Memorial Village is really that first level is
is for athletics. The first kind of two thirds to
the north of that first level is is all of
you know, our administration. There's a large letter winners lounge
where we can host kind of events and meetings.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
There's our academic.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Services and student support area that has a large area
for our student athletes to kind of come and make
sure they get their studies and their advisement and really
their learning piece of academics. There we have our kind
of our external area, our marketing communications, and then the
coaches kind of all of our coaches offices. There's a
theater with which seats one hundred and fifty dream seats
(13:23):
that are that are in their leather kind of seats
that we can have, you know. And then also there's
meeting rooms that are right next to it, so our
teams and our student athletes and our staff can all
have areas where they can can continue to learn and
grow on their journey while they're here at und Athletics.
And then upstairs on that bump out is our coaches
area for football, and they have their war room in
(13:44):
different offices there as well. So that's all kind of
within the Hisslap that's kind of the nitty gritty of
where those offices and where they can go. But the
coolest piece is is there's a hawkway connected to it,
and that's still seeing the actual existing rick that was
from the old Memorial Stadium and that actually attaches to
(14:04):
the Nodak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center, which will be
opening in January of twenty twenty five. So we're two
months away from opening that Noak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center,
which is going to be where our student athletes get bigger, stronger, faster,
where we're gonna have the biggest weight room in the Dakotas,
we're gonna have our locker rooms, and our sports met
(14:24):
area that's already connect that's connected into the Pollard Athletics Center,
which is one hundred and fifty thousand square feet where
our student athletes can can work out and train, you know,
three hundred and sixty five days a year. So this
master plan and this kind of this iteration of what
athletics is going to look like within our district is
really coming together, and it's coming together fast. So we're excited.
(14:47):
I mean, when you can have groundbreaking and ribbon cuttings
and and things you know, within you know, certain points
of time, like that's exciting for the future of what
we're able to do and what we're going to do
for our department.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What if you think about you mentioned the speed you
ribbon cut and open all brick Field in September. You
have this the new islap essentially being opened up now
in November, and then as you said, in two months,
the rest of it essentially is going to be ready
to go to Those are three huge things, and they're
happening really within a season, Like it's incredible, just the
(15:21):
rate of change and progression that has happened on campus
and in that specific space unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Bill. Then a fourth thing when Memorial Village two, the
field house at Memorial Village too, even though athletics per
se does not have square footage in that particular building,
it will overlook all brick Field. And what will happen
is this whole area, as Eric said, the district, if
(15:50):
you will, I'd say a year from now, for sure,
we're going to be able to know how this is
all going to kind of work and play in harmony
with each other, and it should be really really exciting.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, it's been many many many years in the making
and a lot of conversations and through great relationships and
through great leadership, I think it's really come together and
it's been a labor of love. Like there's there's not
a morning that we don't wake up and think about, Okay,
what's next or what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
How are we doing it? And then what's next?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And I think this athletics district has been on the
forefront of what we've been trying to get done right away.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
But we're not done yet.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
We have a lot of other things that we need
to continue to look at and continue to grow and
continue to put us in the best position possible because
we know that we have great support from not only developers,
but the city of Grand Forks, the state of North Dakota,
the University as a whole, and our great donor base
that really wants.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Us to see us succeed.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
And through facilities and through our master plan of where
we can do things and how we can do them.
We're trying to be creative as possible from our side
with again those with private partnerships, those philanthropic projects, and
then those strategic investment pieces through the university. When you
couple all those together, we're really trying to grow and
(17:11):
figure out what that means for us as an apartment
and how does that ultimately then benefit the student athletes
and our teams in competition.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Well, it's been phenomenal, just just again the work that
you guys have done and the progress that's been made
really obviously noticeable when you drive down when you drive
down University having across Memorial. We would be remiss to
not ask you a hockey question. We have the NCAA
share of the rules Committee on this podcast. We're about
a month into the season now. It was a rule
(17:39):
change year. Of course, you and the committee made a
couple of switches. What have you seen in that regard
for the first five weeks or so of the new
hockey season?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, I think you know, I was the chair.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I was on the committee for four years and I
had a great time, and it's a great group of people,
and you know, I was the chair for the last
year with that and I kind of sought out through
through the rule change props. And then on September first,
I had to relinquish that chair and I'm no longer
on the committee because the four year term was up.
But it's been fun to still be income communication with
(18:10):
the secretary rules Editor and the NCAA rep tie helping
and the current chair right now, Trevored Large from Canecious
and really just touching base with them and and still
being very involved in in kind of the the intent
of what we did. And there's been bumps and bruises
along the way and clarifications and and that's just that's
just business. That's just normal. And I think, you know,
(18:33):
the changes that we made were there were some pretty
wholesale changes with and and pretty some pretty big changes
that we did with you know, around contact in the
head and checked from behind, among a lot of other
minor changes that we made with like continuous play and
mis game stoppages and even on on the women's side,
you know, really redefining how our body contact was made
(18:56):
and what they are allowed to do and what they're
not allowed to do.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
So I'm really proud of those changes.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And I think that you know, the first couple of
months you've seen some of the minor penalties, you know,
with at the man Cato series, we had a minor
penalty for check from behind, and really it's allowing the
officials more the more ability to to really call penalties
that that are dictated throughout throughout the game, and and
(19:22):
sometimes they were handcuffed if if there was a little
a little body check, but it was in the numbers
and in the back, they were forced to call a
five minute major for check from behind, where now we
can say, hey, that probably didn't warrant it right. Someone
was turning if they if the defense the defensive person
did everything in their ability to make a legal body check,
(19:42):
whether it was to the head or from behind, but
for some reason the elevation changed or the player that
they were going to hit did something to put themselves
into vulnerable position. It really was hard to to give
that person that did everything right a five minute major,
and a or a five minute major in a game
is conducts. So we cleaned up the language there and
(20:02):
really we felt like the NHL did a really good
job of really making you know, the onus is always
on the person delivering the hit, but there is responsibility
otherwise on the person getting hit as well.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So we want to make sure safety is paramount.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But I do think you know, some of the two
minute minor check from behind penalties that have been called
have been justified, and yeah, that probably is a two
minute minor, but it's not a five.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Right. So the head contact as well, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
If someone gets nicked in the cage and it's not
really to the head, does that really justify a five?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And the answer is probably not.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Again, we want to make sure safety and concussions and
the brain and the header are protected. But you know,
sometimes it's sometimes a body check is a body check.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
And you know, just because you hit your hit hitting the.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Chest and the head is a part of the body,
does not mean it's always head contact. So there's been
growing pains for sure, and I think it's just gonna
come with consistency. I still go back to the last
rule change or you know, a time ago where we
implemented the protocol penalty, and I think I had every
coach in the nation calling me saying, how dare you
(21:09):
do a protocol penalty? Why this doesn't this doesn't mean anything,
This is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Why would you do it?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
And I don't think we've had a protocol penalty in
probably a year and a half because you know what,
people adjust, People figure it out, and and really we're
doing what's best for the for the game. Of hockey
and sometimes when you through conversation, I think sometimes it'll
it'll figure itself out.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So I'm I'm excited.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
On on kind of how the game is a game
of hockey is changing and really they're figuring it out
where you can't just turn and get hit anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
You have there's responsibility on that. So I'm pretty I'm
pretty happy with it there.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Like I said, there's a there's a lot of growing
pains with it, but uh good on Jeff Fulton and
uh good on the commission or the directors of officials
within each conference that have been working through it all.
And it's a tough game to officiate, but I think
they're doing a good job.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It's a it's a tough one. The other thing I
would say, and the one thing Eric, you know, would
at least give me the information on is you know,
when you're doing the rule changes, you're doing it not
just for men's division, ie and and so that. So
you have to balance a lot of things out and
I would say that some of the rules that make
(22:25):
it through is to make sure that it's fair across
the board for all of the college hockey leagues. Correct.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, the purview is not just the NHC.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Like I'm trying to look out for the NCHD as
a person that's representing the NCHC. But ultimately, when you
when you look and you you put your hat on
of just a rule committee member, you're looking out for
Division three, Division one men and women, and and right
now today with just having one rule book for all
of that, that makes it difficult, right because when when
(22:57):
we talk about I know, for this podcast, talk say
a lot about video replay, but we all.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Have our thoughts on that.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
But just remember video replay is really pertinent in in
the game at Division one level, but there's a lot
of areas and and you know Division three, most they
really don't have video replay. So really when we're talking
about it, you're missing almost half of what your your
purview is. So that's where I that was my job
to really bring those things up and say this is
(23:25):
a big deal.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
This is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Where where I'm representing and we need to try to
fix figure things out from a video replay standpoint for that.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
But yeah, it's a it's a big charge.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, I the podcast, Just to clarify Eric's statement, we
uh don't even talk about it much anymore, because I
think we've said everything we need to say, and so
so all you do is have to say video replay
and you can look back and go back and figure
out where the pod might stand or a's at least
(23:56):
someone on the pod might stand.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
There you go, there, you go. That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Maybe it's just all the conversations we have outside of it,
but yeah, it's a video replaced part of the game
of hockey and part of the game of really a
lot of our places, you know, Like one of the
cool things is is even the game of softball. We're
looking at adding video replay for softball and other sports, soccer,
others that that really you know, it's just going to
be there and we got to.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Have to figure it out. So that's just part of
part of sports.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Just part of sports here in twenty twenty four today, well,
Eric Martins and you were a big part of U
n D sports over the years. We appreciate you in
your time today. How fun out in Bismarck. That's going
to be an awesome experience for our crew and our
fans and for our teams certainly, and then have a
great rest of the weekend, the great rest of the semester.
I'm sure we'll have you back on before too long.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Thanks for having me, we'll talk to you.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Thanks. Sic appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You can hear the pride in his voice when he's
talking about the athletics district and the changes that have
happened in that place. And I know, obviously he and
you and so many other people have played a huge
role in what's happened there. It has to be so
gratifying to see that come to fruition, to do ribbon
cutting after you had put a spade in the ground
not that long ago, and to see the fruits of
(25:10):
that labor come forward. It just it's a really special time,
I'm sure for you and Marty and others in your chair.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But yeah, no doubt. And you know a lot of
folks will say, you know, what does a deputy athletic
director do? You know? And so Eric, Eric basically is
our chief operating officer. So so a lot of the
operations of the whole entire department at times funnel through
his office. You know, it doesn't get to my office
(25:35):
too sure, I mean, but we're better, we're better when
we're dividing and conquering and so at times, if I
know Eric has something, then I don't necessarily have to
be in on it the entire way and vice versa.
And so so that's what we try to do. But
you're right, I think, you know, the facilities aspect, alex
(25:59):
is a whole like it's a whole thing until itself.
Like you know, you talk about games, and you're talking
about student athlete welfare, and you're talking about academics, you're
talking about community, you're talking about all of those things
that I would say that our chairs have traditionally done.
But then you add on these you know, opportunities that
(26:21):
we've had, and they're all encompassing. I mean, for sure,
think about building a house, right Like, at the end
of the day, there are just lots of nuances and
pieces and decisions, and every day there's something to kind
of figure out what is the best thing for us
to do for the next fifty years or you know,
(26:41):
in you know Hislop's case, you know, seventy plus years.
And so so at the end of there's a big
amount of responsibility that you have to kind of make
sure that it's not about the chair or the person
that's sitting in the chair that he's in or I'm in.
It's about what is it right for the University of
North go to long term.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
One of the things that Eric brought up as he
was talking about all the specifics inside Memorial Village One,
it made me wonder, how do you come up with
that plan of like, what do we want to put
in what would be beneficial for our student athletes, our coaches,
our staff, our teams. I'm assuming it's a lot of
canvassing people in those departments and then around the rest
(27:23):
of the country. How did you how do you go
about that problem?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the easy the
easy answer is, well, whatever you were displacing out of
Hisslop needs to go somewhere. So so I think that's
where you start. And then you just figure out what's
the square footage? What makes sense? You know, where where
do And I think when folks come in they're going
(27:48):
to say, well, there's actually a real rhyme and reason
to the flow of the actual you know how things occurred,
and so yeah, I think, uh, and then there was
just yeah, you learn from others that have done some things,
and so a lot of conversation though, I'll be honest
with you, and conversation when it was appropriate, because the
(28:13):
more folks that you bring in a room, the more
conversation and ideas you're going to have. At some point
you have to make decisions and you have to kind
of go with it. And you know, what we've said
even when we moved over here was we're going to
have to let this breathe a little bit too and
kind of figure out, hey, maybe we missed on something
(28:35):
or we just didn't think of something. So you know,
we can always kind of alter, but if it's not
a structural thing that we have to deal with, you know,
we'll be just fine. So, you know, it's kind of
lived up to everything that we thought it was going
to be and where we located folks, and so, but
we're not there yet because our teams are still having
(28:59):
a lot of rooms over at Hisslop Area in starture.
So even the traffic flow won't be real until we
open up the note Act Insurance Company Sports Performance Center.
So until we get that done, we don't really know
the flow at this stage of the game. So we're
almost in a fake year. We're in year zero, but
(29:21):
it's kind of like a fake year.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
You're getting there, though, we're getting there. I do want
to ask, as you're having those conversations and you kind
of finalize the plans for what's going to go into this,
what was the hardest, maybe the best idea that you
just couldn't make work. Was there something that was brought
to the table that just sounded awesome but in the
end of the day just hit the cutting room floor.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, really, really, really really good question. No, you know what,
I would say, this the reason why I'm struggling to
come up with something. So I'm not going to fake
it here. I'm just gonna say I kind of knew
what we needed to be in, so I guess my
expectation wasn't like, oh, we have a blank slate and
(30:05):
we get to bring everything in from from outer space.
It just wasn't that way. We knew that, we knew
the offices, the sports, we knew a lot of pieces
of the puzzle that needed to come over. So I
think my expectation was we just had to make sure
all of those pieces fit. And you know, as as
(30:27):
Eric said, you know, our developers have been just tremendous
to work with. And you know they they want, you know,
the best for Undy and und athletics as well. So yeah,
a good question. But it wasn't this whiteboard where you
could blue sky everything. It just wasn't that process. In
some ways, I think our addition was probably not necessarily
(30:51):
more challenging, but I think that one became more conversation
about how to structure something for the betterment of a
good chunk of our student athletes. But you know, I
still think like even as you come in and if
you look from Columbia and you look at at Memorial
(31:12):
Village one, you'll see that center area and you'll walk
in and that's where our letter winners lounges. I we're
just kind of scratching the surface right now as far
as what some of the things we can do there.
When we went to Iowa State, I thought it was
a really good template for us. Obviously, we know they're
in the Big Twelve, we know they're in the FBS,
(31:34):
But the way Iowa State does some of the things
they do, we can kind of take a page out
of their book. They're very economical on how they approach.
It's very very, very nice like but not anything audacious
or over the top, and I felt like that's kind
of how we structured this as well, very thoughtful on
(31:56):
how this can work on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You mentioned that facility there in ames like, walking from
where we were in the press box down to where
the postgame press conference is going to be, you walked
through a lot some of their facilities, and it was
the layout of it was very visually appealing but also
very practical, and just there was yeah, that's if that's
what this is going to look like, or at least
kind of in that same vein two thumbs up. It
(32:22):
was a very very cool space that they had put
together there next to the stadium. Well, we got some
more things to talk about, and we should probably get
to those things right now. Although it is fun to
talk about what's coming up next for you and the athletics.
We mentioned basketball is going to Bismarck. Of course, we
should probably talk about some of the uniqueness that has
happened to both the men and the women to start
the season, and the fact that you had the women
(32:43):
make it out to Youngstown to play their first game
and then have to come back without playing a game
because of a power outage. Talk about that circumstance out
of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Bill, You know what do we do in the theater world.
We do address perform rehearsal. Right, yeah, that was a
long dress rehearsal. So that was never once. I don't
think we've gone that far for a dress rehearsal. So yeah.
I So interestingly, every Monday, Eric, myself and Jody Hodson
(33:17):
we meet four o'clock, like clockwork today because it's a holiday,
we're going to meet it actually one o'clock, so, but
but four o'clock meeting. And I walked into the meeting
and I just said, Hey, can we be really give
me the top thing we're talking about here today because
I'm gonna I'm gonna be getting out of here, uh
(33:38):
to go watch women's basketball. It's starting at four thirty
at that point our time, five thirty Eastern time, and
they had a double header that day, Youngstown did so.
So sure enough, Eric looks out his phone and he goes,
it's like at that point in time, it's like four
twenty five. So I'm getting ready to leave, I'm packing up,
and he goes, Mallory's calling and I look at my phone.
(34:02):
I go, I missed a call from her, so so
we put her on. She goes, we're in the dark,
the very very dark, and we're not quite sure what's
going on. So I talked to Ron Strolo, who's my counterpartner.
I've known Ron for a long long time. I call
him and I know he's probably stressing at that point,
and he just said, holy cow, a transformer just absolutely
(34:24):
blue and it's part a good chunk of campus is out.
And so he goes, I'll call back when I know more,
And sure enough, the electrician came in and you know,
you know, good for Ron. He just said, hey, you know,
North Dakota, we got to play this game. You know,
the men. It's a non dy one game from someone
twenty minutes away. We can make that up. That's not
(34:45):
a problem. But the women. And he goes, yeah, you're
not playing tonight. I mean, so there you go. And so,
you know, I mean, and that's why you have good
relationships with folks, and you know, nothing you can do
about that, per se. And so you know, the only
thing I was concerned about is, you know, when you
don't play the game, you know, what is Youngstown thinking
(35:07):
the following year? You know, And of course Ron's such
a stand up guy. They'll be back in Grand Forks
next year. So you know, I just there's sometimes things happen, Alex.
I mean, I don't know what else to say, and
you just you handle it well and you try to
go on to the next which then led to men's basketball.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
The men's basketball, who had not the exact same situation,
of course, because you didn't make it all the way
to Texas. But they're supposed to play on the ninth
against UTSA and San Antonio. Just bad weather down there, right,
like lightning strikes and things like that. All the airports
were struggling to get flights in and so now on
the women's side, of course, that game against Youngstown is
(35:46):
just canceled. There was no way to get back out
there this year. The men's game, at least there was
a way to work this in. So now you and
d will play at UTSA on the thirteenth, and then
San Antonio will come to Grand Forks just a mere
two days later. So a little it's like it's like
a series, little home and home series with a team
(36:07):
from Texas.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, you know, and again, you know, you just and
maybe the answer is Alex I'm just old. I tend
to have a lot of contacts. And so Lisa Campos,
who was who I knew when she was at NAU
as the ad back in the Big Sky days, and
so she's the AD at UTSA, and you know, I
call her and I just said, Hey, you're not going
(36:31):
to believe this, but our flight's canceled, and there's just
so then you start doing the like how do you
make this work? Like how do you get a group
of twenty two down to Texas in a short amount
of time? Now getting there is one thing, It's it's
actually getting back is another thing. And then when do
you get back? And we've got this thing going on
(36:52):
in Bizmarck. Would be one thing if it was at
the Betty, but we've rented a facility in Bizmarck, So
there's there were just some pieces of the puzzle we
had to figure out. And I know this. Our our
men's team wanted to get there and they tried. They
were thinking about bussing to Minneapolis to get a direct
into like but during this time of crossover, with a
(37:14):
lot of sports going on, our bus, our charter bus
was only scheduled to go to Fargo. I mean, you
just can't on a whim just go get a bus
to go to Minneapolis when you need that to be done.
And that was to even make a flight, even if
you could get on it to some degree. So it
just made sense the more we got into this conversation,
(37:37):
and I think, I you know, I was trying my
best to get utsa there in a sense of hey, look,
we want to be there. I mean, we want to
be there, but I'm just trying to be really real
right now, is like we might be better off trying
to figure out how do we get back down there
again and figure this thing out because you can kind
(37:57):
of move those you know, we use travel agents. You
can kind of move those those tickets to a future date.
And so that's what's transpired. So you know, yeah, you
know what it's It's almost in some ways it's like,
you know, the NBA plays a you know, home and home,
they do whatever. It just I mean, is it ideal, Eh?
Probably not. But what's more ideal is we're going to
(38:18):
get the game in.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
We talked about what was the right time framed even
during that week, and I think we play if I'm
I believe I'm correct with this. We play Weber State
and the Big Sky Summit League Challenge on that Saturday.
And I think putting it after putting it after Utah
Valley made a lot of sense for us for a
(38:41):
variety of reasons. But at least our students would be
in Grand Forks on Sunday and Monday, so especially that
Monday that to be in classes is huge, and then
take off on Tuesday, play on Wednesday, and then really
it's really Salt Lake to San Antonio, is not that
that that bad? And then you go play on a
(39:03):
Friday and then play back here in Grand Forks on
the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Not that bad.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
I'd say that it would have been really disappointing if
we couldn't have found a date. I think once we
found the date, I think it was more palatable for everyone.
And so yeah, so it's it really becomes like a
you know, a road, a road to two games on
the road where you're traveling the day in between, so
(39:29):
you know, and then you kind of come back and
you're playing the team you just played. So the scout
I think you saw the scout.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Yeah, you need to dig too much into that anymore.
That helps a little bit in terms of the preparation.
So that's what's going on for Paul Sather and Malory Bernhardt. Again,
lots of home games coming up. As we said, both
the men and the women will have multiple home games
coming up actually in Grand Forks, not just in the
state of North Dakota over the next two weeks before
we pot again the best of lect of those two
(39:58):
teams as they really kick off their season again. The
women already won to know after that win over Eastern Illinois,
the men getting set to really get rolling. This week
we should mention hockey at a phenomenal road weekend at Minnesotada.
Louth talk about a great way to kick off the
NCCHC season with a seven to three win and then
a four to one win over a team that has
been ranked and is traditionally very very good. Now they
(40:20):
get Denver to come into town like it. Just this
is not to say this is the last stretch of
this gauntlet for this team, but it has been just
week after week of these ranked teams rivalry games and
now you get the defending national champs, who, oh, by
the way, are ten and zero and scoring five goals
a game and giving up one what a great way
to really kick off now the NCCHC season at home
(40:44):
against the Pioneers. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I mean, obviously we know when it's Denver week, it's
it's always a special week for sure. And I think
if you go backwards, I think they come in having
won nineteen straight. I think that's going back. I think
that's accurate. And so yeah, what a great up opportunity
for our team. And I know they're going to be
real excited about the weekend for sure. So yeah, I agree,
(41:08):
you know, Denver's Denver's off to a great start, quick start.
So but we know it's a long season and we
just got to continue to get better. I mean obviously
getting getting at least Bergie back in the lineup was helpful,
no doubt about it. So now we just got to,
you know, figure out a way and you know, take
(41:30):
the ralph to to whatever level we need to take it.
This weekend.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
It is exciting to me at five of the next
six for this team are at home Denver this weekends.
Then Robert Morris of the Atlantic coming into town next weekend,
and then that home and away with the Midia State
over Thanksgiving. So a great chance for our local fans
to see this team who was really fun to watch
and plays hard and it's just been kind of banged
up at the beginning of the season. To see them
once again hit their stride here middle of the season football,
(41:57):
of course, tough, tough weekend against South Dakota State. One
more home game now coming up against South Dakota, a
really big one to try and see the seniors off
on the right note coming up this week.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I think that's right. And you know, i'd say
that the Jacks obviously very very good program at this
point in time. But what a great opportunity to have
another top five team coming in and USD and and
then the potential of going on the road at another
potential playoff type team. So you know, it's still you know,
and I know, folks, are you know disappointed a three
(42:27):
game losing streak for sure, but it's still in front
of us. And so we've just got to don't give
up this ship, man, Just don't give up the ship.
You got to get after it and it kind of
fix the things that need to be fixed, play with
a lot of energy and excitement and come out and
what a great opportunity we have at the Alere Center
at noon on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
You never know. If you do what you can do.
You beat two ranked teams, including one on the road,
one in the top five, you get to seven and five.
We have seen stranger things in terms of playoff implications.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
So I've seen it.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It's not over yet.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Actually I've not only seen it, I've lived it, and
I've lived it on both sides where you think you
are where you are and then you're not at the end.
And so it's just one of those things where you've
got to stay the course right now, stay the course
and stay together. And you know, we just need we
(43:23):
need as many folks to come and you know, help us,
you know, against a really, really good opponent, but one
that I know our guys will be excited to play against.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
It is a great way to send off a senior
class that has been a part of so many successful
seasons three of the last four years in the postseason.
A lot of those guys have played huge roles in
that good way to send them off, hopefully on the
right note again. Saturday coming up at the Alera Center,
speaking of seniors, Volleyball will celebrate their seniors Saturday morning
as well at eleven o'clock opening serve coming up this weekend.
(43:53):
Two home games left for und against Kansas City on
the fourteenth and then South Dakota State coming up on
the sixteenth. They did get a nice win against Earl
Roberts the other day to kind of snap another tough
skid for Jesse Tupac and company. Even though the postseason
is kind of out of the question, still a great
chance to try and finish the season out on a
high and go into the off season feeling good about themselves.
With some good teams come into town this week.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah, obviously the match against Kansas City is huge. Obviously
that's the next one on a Thursday night, and so
you know what, you just never know. I mean, you know,
come out and take care of business that day and
you just never know what could happen.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
By the way, they do finish the season on the
nineteenth at NDSU, So it is like this great gauntlet
of playing playing two big home games, not to go
to State, by the way, had been unbeaten until they
lost the other day to Saint Thomas, so a really
good Jack Rabbits team. And then you finish with your
biggest rival on the road hopefully they can finish strong
and close out this year well. Really talented group of
kids that have just had a tougher season than we expected.
(44:51):
Last thing I want to mention before we hit a
very quick p side shout out to cross country. The
men finished fourth, the women finished fifth. At these Summa
League Championships. Now two weeks ago we had two women
finished top four. Eleanna Malnuri and Naja Wiler finished second
and fourth respectively. Monte Rebaca finishes eighth. On the men's side.
Their season's not done. A lot of that crew will
(45:12):
go compete in Peoria, Illinois in the n CUAA Midwest
Regional coming up on the fifteenth. Even though the depth
didn't quite lift the team up to where they maybe
thought they could finish, it was still a pretty good weekend.
It's pretty good meet on Saturday down in Vermilion, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I didn't get to talk to either Gym or Tom,
so I didn't get the debrief, but but I agree
with you, Alex, no doubt about it. I think it
was a really nice day in Vermilion as well. So
you know, thanks to USD for putting on a great meat.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, congrats to Tom and company on finishing up sort
of the quote unquote regular ish season and other postseason
continues with those regionals coming up on the fifteenth. Anything
else from a und perspective.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's enough. We got enough going on, that's for sure.
You know what this is, This is one busy week
between all the home and i'll call it quasi home games,
and so uh, it's gonna be one of those, no doubt,
Onto the next, onto the next, onto the next. So
it's gonna be exciting week.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, just the basketball's, hockey, football, and volleyball at home,
that's all. And with the road with the road trip
to Bismarck that you're hosting in between, So it'll be good.
No wonder we're.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Potting on them with the ribbon cutting and just yes,
it's just a few things going.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
On, just a few things. So with that said, really
quick flip to the B side. I don't want to
end the pod on a downer, but it's it seems
Spurs have just had the propensity to be the team
that the teams who have not been able to win
seem to beat. And that was the case again this
weekend as you drop one to Ipswich Town.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, I find it interesting. If I were a neutral
and knew nothing about the Spurs, it is fair to
say they can beat anybody and they can lose to anybody.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
You beat City, although everybody seems to beat but you
beat city to city. You don't think they could drop
five in a row? Could they? Could they do that?
That would be That'd be amazing, Bill, if you could
do that.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I guess my answer on the pod today is and
I don't have much, but my answer is, we just
don't like to play before international breaks, and that the
reality of it is there's lots of them.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
There's lots of them. This is the last one for
a little while at least. I think March is the
next international break for the men. So there should be
at least a little bit of a gap between now
and the next time that you have to wonder on
the doorstep of an international win.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Well.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
By the way, I just got a notification on my
phone from the Athletics Soccer podcast that I follow, and
the headline of today's episode was is ansball working at Spurs?
Question mark? That's where we're at right now with Tottenham hots.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
It was working well in the second half. They just
they just couldn't find a way to tie it. I mean,
I guess technically they sort of did in a way,
but not really. But yeah, it's yeah, you know it
good for again, the Premier League is very similar in
akin to the NFL, and if you're not ready, you
(48:19):
can get you can get clipped. You can get clipped anywhere,
and we see it every week. So you know, it's just, uh,
I don't know, I don't know what they're They've gone
through a little bit of a process where it seems
like they keep giving up the first goal and that
that's always interesting in soccer, right, like especially against a
team like Ipswich where they were gonna then play a
(48:42):
certain way if they could get the first.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
One, and they got the first and then they got
the second right before halftime, which is always a tough
time to concede. And yeah, it's a difficult stretch against Spurs,
struggling city struggling too. I can't tell you the joy
that it gives me to see on my fire. I
got a text from Chris Logan rep four kickoff of
the of the football game on Saturday, brighton exclamation board,
(49:05):
excelmation point, exclamation point and it just it makes me smile,
like just the joy that people have when a team
that just never loses loses a couple of times. So
funny to see Manchester City on the wrong side of fork.
That's never happens in Pep Cordiola's managerial career. Even the
greats Bill can have little spells where they struggled again.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
And I I thought though it was interesting, and I
hadn't I didn't watch much of it. I watched the
beginning of it in saw Erling's goal, and if you
haven't seen that goal, that is classic Holland. I mean
hit that man is so big and so strong. It's unbelievable,
really is. But yeah, here's here's what we know about City.
(49:46):
Oh let's just start around December whatever when they play Spurs.
They may not lose again.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
They may not lose again. That has kind of been
the mo of these teams where they kind of maybe
sleepwalk a little in the first half of the season
and then figure it out and then they don't usually
drop points for the rest of the way. So now
I'm not saying the titles one, I'm not saying that
this is over. They'll be heard from many many times
before all is said, Yeah, but it is kind of
fun to enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, but congratulations on the start to uh the Liverpool season.
I mean they've been very very good, very good.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Nice win again this weekend against Villa. Yep, up five
points on everybody else, So early days, bill, But yes,
it has been a great start. Twenty eight points out
of a possible thirty three.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Like you take that totally, pretty well, totally yep. Well,
here's here's the Spurs. Spurs are exactly where they should
be right now, mid table, mid Interestingly, they are second
and goal differential. Oh so that's a that's usually a
sign that they've underperformed. Their defense has been better than
(50:52):
last year. It just has been, so there are some
positives to it. It's such a long year, but you
just hate to give up points at all against a
team that you should not give up points to. I
mean they're just so valuable because literally, literally a win,
they were going to be in third place.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Yeah, isn't that crazy. It's still so early. Everybody's really
tightly bunched. A lot of teams with like twenty three
points to about seventeen points. Every game matters in the
Premier League, no doubt so ill every game matters this
week for you. Indeed, you got a lot of them,
almost all of them in the state of North Dakota.
So Bill will let you go to get onto the
next thing. But we appreciate you, appreciate Eric martinsen coming
on as well. Big thanks to Alex docker Johnson and
(51:30):
Paul Ralson on the back end getting this podcast up.
I'm Alex Sider, Thank you for listening. Enjoy a really
fun week. Thanks again to our veterans out there, and
we'll talk to you soon.
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