Bill Chaves Pod_EP 180

This week, Bill and Alex welcome Belfast Giants General Manager and Sporting Director Steve Thornton and UND Deputy AD Erik Martinson for more details regarding UND Hockey’s inclusion at the 2027 Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2:12). Then, the guys look ahead to the start of hockey season and look back on conference openers for soccer and volleyball and a pair of historic performances for cross country and men’s golf (29:46). On the B-side (42:38), the Red Sox are back in the playoffs, the Steelers are leading the AFC North, and Spurs score one of many late, late goals across the Premier League at the weekend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shafs Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Another fall sports season is upon us, and
Mid Coast Sports has it covered like no one else
this fall. Keep tuning in for live coverage of college
football in the Dakotas, including Fighting Hawks football broadcasts both
home and away, as well as you and the volleyball
and soccer and cross country and so much more. Watch

(00:21):
on Mid Coast Sports and streaming on Mid Coast Sports Plus.
This is how we do sports, and this is the
Bill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Bill
Shafes Podcast. We are taping this on the twenty ninth
of September, the final Monday of this month. I'm Alex Heindrich,
proud to be joined as always by you and the
athletics director, Bill Shaves, and multiple special guests for this episode, Bill,

(00:45):
which we're going to get to in a moment. How
are things in your world this week?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Bill, I'm doing very very well, Alex. Always good to
see you. You know what's interesting, we haven't had many
double guests. I mean no, We've done one hundred and
eighty of these and I'm not sure this we'd have
to go back in the archives to see where this
all fits. But eighty five degrees two numbers, one hundred
and eighty episodes, eighty five degrees Today in Grand four

(01:09):
it's Alex Heiner.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, isn't that crazy? Mid eighties like almost all week
and then just in time for hockey back into like
the sixties and fifties this weekend, so you can sell
the coming of October. Things will shift and it'll feel
a little more like fall, more so than it's been lately.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Mother Nature, undefeated nose when hockey starts, Father Time, undefeated
my third one, you know, the other one, it's undefeated,
billable hours. Those are the three things. Those are the
three things that are undefeated, at least in my lifetime.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
In your world, in your world, those are the things. Yes,
Oh well, we got a lot of stuff to talk
about today, certainly a lot of fall sports underway for
North Dakota Athletics. We'll get to that toward the tail
end of the podcast. First, though, there were some big
news last week in the Massachusetts State House. You and
Eric Martinsen made the trip across to the coast for
a fantastic presentation in Boston regarding a tournament that I

(02:05):
think you and the fans have heard about and have
kind of seen from a distance that in a couple
of seasons, you and the hockey you will be a
part of. Bill University of North Dakota is going to
be going to Belfast, Northern Ireland's in November of twenty
twenty seventh to take part in the Friendship four and
to talk about that. Not just you who were there.
Eric Martinson, our deputy athletics dirrector, but also the sports

(02:26):
director at the Odyssey Trust and kind of the man
that helps oversee all of this joins us actually from
across the pond. Steve Thornton is with the podcast this
morning as well, So big welcome. First off to Marty,
who's a multi time guest on this podcast, and Steve
pod debut. We're excited to have you both on to
chat about you and these incorporation into the Friendship four
in two years time.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Thank you very much, it's great to be here.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Thanks Elex, always happy to be on.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Awesome. Well, hey let me start. So it was last
Tuesday afternoon Eric and I were at the State House
and we were there for an announcement that would would
give us the next three fields, so twenty six, twenty
seven and twenty eight, and obviously we were a part

(03:09):
of the twenty seven announcement in that field. But Steve,
I really I was really moved by the whole ceremony,
a little bit of history on how maybe this got going,
really on a macro level, and you know, I came
away with one thing, just one thing. Everybody well sport

(03:32):
has a way of doing things, Nelson Mandela once said,
And at the end of the day, it seems like
the Belfast Giants are just a community asset when it
comes to rallying, rallying in a unified way. Did I
am I missing something?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Absolutely? Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (03:49):
Like when the Odyssey Arena of the SSEC Arena now
was built back in two thousand and there was a
crazy Canadian that had the idea to put an ice
hockey team into the people thought it would never last.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
They thought he was crazy.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
And the thing that actually kept us going twenty five
years on is how tight we are with the community
we're here. Sports are connected to one side of the
community or the other. So like if you play rugby, football,
field hockey or Gaelic sports, you know right away whether
you're going to be a Catholic or you're a Protestant,
And this was the only sport that came in that

(04:24):
didn't really discriminate it against race, religious, social class, gender.
That brought people together. Plus it's indoor, which helps, like
over the course of the September to April season and
so early days, like the fans will come to the games,
they had no idea what was going on, because still
to this day, there's only one permanent ice rink on
the whole island of Ireland. So that's what we're up
against here, Like there's just no history, no culture of it.

(04:47):
But we embraced the circus early days and we put
on a show. We entertain and we went a lot,
and we're very very tight with the community. We make
a difference and a lot of the all the contracts
we signed with the players includes elements of outreach where
they're making a difference in the community. And I think
that the fans and the people of Northern Island and
beyond have gravitated towards that and grabbed on tight.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's awesome. So just talk about the genesis of the
friendship four. Obviously it's been around now for a decade,
but just a little bit early days, and then what
we're potentially moving into when we go there, probably either
twelve or thirteen years on.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Well, it started on the back of an idea that
was generated when the Bruins played the Giants. The Boston
Bruins came across in twenty ten, and it was conversations
with Marty Walsh at the time, who was the mayor
of Boston and our mayor who formed a sister city relationship,
and so that game happened and then we were looking
as to what was next from it, and I played

(05:50):
in the Bean Pot. I was very fortunate to play
for Boston University. I knew the college hockey scene and
this was one of the things that we thought would
be a really nice fit. And Robert Fitzpatrick, who is
our CEO at the time, was the driving force behind
it all who you guys met in Boston. But it
was an idea and we got a ton of help

(06:11):
from the Boston community and people around.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Us to pull this off.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
And the main thing that we wanted to do early
days was make this so much more than just a
destination hockey tournament, which again I'm fortunate to have played in,
but a lot of the time you're as an athlete,
you're only really seeing the arena, the hotel and the airport,
and you're getting to mix a couple of meals in
in between. And that's that's It doesn't really matter where
you are, that's your kind of experience. And I know

(06:36):
that like the college athletes, certainly in hockey, you are
you're a full time athlete that you never get to
experience spring break. You don't really get a chance to
put a stack in your passport. You're you're, you're, you
don't get that real life of university students. We wanted
to combine the two, but not for not forget about
what made the Giants special to the community. So we
make sure that there's an element of outreach where then

(07:00):
to go. Players will get into primary school here in
Northern Ireland on one of the days that they're here,
and we asked.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Them to come for the full week, so there's the
experience in Dublin.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
Then you get the full week in Belfast, but the
games being on the Friday Saturday, bespoke Thanksgiving experience on
the Thursday night. We've had some wild and crazy ones
that have happened, including the.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Crumblin Road jail where Merrimack were.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Last year, they hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in that jail
with all their friends, family donors, alumni and their student
band who came across with the team. So and now,
like it's hard to believe, like we're ten years into it.
With the early struggles to get it off the ground
and encourage the teams to commit and sign up to it,
we needed to show that we actually had a rink

(07:43):
in Northern Island before we started. We've got a lineup
with teams wanted to come, and we could be quite selective,
and you know, right at the top of the list
it was you guys, and the conversations we had with
Eric before Naples, like where you had your meetings and
eating up to Naples and at Naples. We're to make
sure that we had a strong field and announcing three

(08:05):
years in advance to give a longer runway for people
to prepare for it, because I know Thanksgiving is a
tough time of the year to travel, but we want
to make this a Thanksgiving experience on the beautiful island
of Irelands.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
So if you if you got into some of the
details of the actual tournament itself, I know Eric has
some some thoughts and questions in regards to this, because
I know our fans do like to travel, and so
at the end of the day, it'll be really good
for them to know because we've done a lot of
destination games, but it's gonna be a little bit different.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
Yeah, I think, just jumping in here, I think, you know,
I remember kind of the first time meeting you, Steve
was at the Tampa Frozen four when we were there
and just discussing kind of the possibility and then you know,
the Naples and just being in constant conversation of of
what this, what this is, what it looks like. You know,
it's just really kind of fun to see this kind
of come to foruition and and really get to plan

(09:01):
it out and and really get the two year window,
like you said, for our fan base.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
You know, our conversations have always surrounded.

Speaker 6 (09:08):
Around our fan base, and it's the best college hockey
fan base and in all of the US and in
the n C Double A, and we're proud of that.
And you know, I use the examples of you know,
wherever we've gone, we've always you know, Val Sussex and
the Champions Club have always warned, you know, bars and
restaurants and pre parties and hey, our fans are coming.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Be ready.

Speaker 6 (09:28):
And I remember, you know, Madison Square Garden. Uh, the
bar was, you know, we were we were, we took
over and uh, different Frozen Fours, Final Fives, Destination Games,
I mean Orleans Center and and just the different stories
that we had. You know, we've learned from from our
our past that our fans travel and and and it's awesome.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
It's an awesome, uh piece.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
So you know, when we announced this, we knew we
needed to kind of be ready for a little bit.
And and your partnership with you know, the travel agency
and how we can guarantee tickets there.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
I think it's the best best route to do it.

Speaker 6 (10:03):
You know, I love you know, we were at the
at the press conference in Sarah from the Travel Agency
came over and said, your fans are already reaching out.
So I said, I told you, right. So I think
we just you know, just to see if you want
to talk a little bit about just kind of the
logistics piece of what's the best way to get a ticket,
how can you guarantee yourself at the event, and kind

(10:24):
of what that's going to look like for sure.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
I mean, and the reality is you've kind of touched
on it, Eric, is in your year, Your particular year
is very very strong, both in terms of the.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Talent of the teams and how heavy they travel.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
Northeastern it's been here before, they brought the dog Bound,
they brought the band, They've got students in Dublin, so
they do come heavy. But at PIAC they were here
before as well, so they know what they're getting into.
They've they've they've got like that. Itinery in place from
previous years that have worked. And you and Wisconsin are
two of the busiest teams in terms of fan travel

(10:57):
in college sports. So for us, we don't put our
tickets on sale until three to six months before the
actual event. So I think there's no guarantee that you're
going to be able to get a individual game ticket
if you don't put book the package, because we just
have no idea what to expect.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
It almost under like a.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Challenge Eric when we met in Tampa on like the
number of people that would travel in the beer sales
and all. So if we don't know what we're getting
into in terms of like the army that you guys
will bring.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
But I mean that guarantees the ticket.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
We also have three thousand season tickets with the Giants,
who we would do a pre sale for in advance
of like the general public sales. So like the fact
that we're able to secure tickets for the traveling teams
in advance, that they could start planning before the year
that they're coming is new to us and it was
the main reason we wanted that announcement, and with I'd

(11:53):
say your year in particular was probably the instigator for us.
It was a necessity really, so I'd go onto the website,
deal with Caro Travel. You know, book your book, your slot.
There's many different options like on you know, three day,
five days, seven days that you can see the whole
island of Ireland and come and enjoy a fantastic Thanksgiving
over here.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, it's so fun to think about it. And obviously
it's still two years away, but it's never too early
to start getting those plans in place. I should ask Steve,
so when fans do come, what should they expect? Can
you give us a little picture of what that might
look like over the course of the week.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
Well from from a city point of view, like I'd
say there's almost an over compensation of friendliness based on
like the history of Belfast, so like they're going to
come and they're going to obviously feel very safe and
love being here. The Christmas Market is on at that time,
so like the City Hall is taken over with like
a big Christmas market. There's there's tons of away from
like the area. There's tons of cultural places you can

(12:46):
visit the North Coast, the Game of Thrones, the Titanic Museum,
the Black Cabs Tour, so like away from the arena,
there'd be a lot of boxes to tech in the arena.
We're super proud that the twenty five year old venue
that we have is in fantastic condition for for these events.
We'll have about seventy four seventy five hundred people for
concerts were ten and a half to eleven. It's intimate

(13:06):
that we have hopefully some bands coming, so you'll get
the college experience with it. The afternoon game on the
Friday we fill with quite a lot of school kids
as well that never really get a chance to come
and see hockey games during the day and excuse to
get out of school as well. And it's almost like
that that frozen four festival atmosphere in the building, so
we try to make it into more than a tournament

(13:28):
for the fans off away from the arena as well.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's awesome. So last last one for me, Steve, give
our fans a little bit of the thought about ringing
the bell.

Speaker 7 (13:37):
The conversations we had early days about the name of
the tournament and we were copying the bean Pot, and
Marty Walsh was heavily involved in us copying the bean Pot,
like he actually stood on our ice at Center Ice
while he was.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
The Mayor of Boston and the BBC interviewed him and
he said that the beam Pot is moving to Belfast,
like he was talking about like a tournament coming and
he had a two day trip here and he had
to cancel the entire next day of his trip because
it was back page of the Boston Globe the Boston
Herald that the beam Pot was moving to Belfast rather
than like another tournament, so he had to unravel. So

(14:15):
we wanted to have a name early days that was
similar to the beam Pot, so we called it the
Bell Pot, and that's that was the original name that
we came up with to the tournament, and then it's
morph kind of into the French of four, but the
bell stayed like we wanted to have the bell. That
was the symbolic of of like the early days of
us pulling this tournament together. So the first time that

(14:35):
the team won it, we stood on the red carpet
at center ice and we handed them the bell, and
the captain didn't really know what to do. We had
to grab and pull them back and say you got
to go ring the bell, and they skated around the
ice ring and the bell and handed it off to
the next person who went and rang the bell, and
it's It became highlighted the week to the point where
three four, three or four of the winning teams have

(14:57):
tried to steal the bell.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
It's it's an old bell.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
So we were actually okay with it early days because
it meant to trip over back to North America to
come and get it back and watch a couple of
college hockey games. So like that, that is something that
we can negotiate beforehand if you want, if you're confident.
But I mean that is the history of the tournament.
The bell is very, very unique, and now we're so
proud of the fact that it's becoming one of the

(15:22):
top ENDCAA tournaments that's mainstream that teams are fighting to
get into that know what it is like people want
to want to ring this spell and win this tournament.
Quinnipiek went on to win the national championships when they
want in Belfast a galvanized their season. You maybe the
finals last year after winning it, so like it is
something that can help with the whole roadery of the team,

(15:42):
that can drive you forward with momentum at that time
of the year.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
The last last one it's on the bell though it's
on the bell it is and again there's a book
out there now, Ring the Bell, and so you can
you can brag on that a little bit in case
our fan base wants to pick that one up.

Speaker 5 (15:58):
Well, that was something we wanted to do, Like as
we're approaching the ten years of the tournament, so Joe Britannia,
who had just retired from Hockey East, worked with our
CEO on pulling a history of the tournament together and
trying to capture all these stories because as we get older,
we forget them and a lot of these little things
that happened along the way, you want to make sure
that they're documented.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Somewhere.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
So it's got the records of who's played in the
tournament the most, the most the highest scoring games, but
it also it's got the backstory of how it started.
And then we acknowledge some pretty important people that we've
kind of met along the way that have remained ambassadors
for us to help make sure this tournament exists, because
you know, in those ten years, there are some pretty

(16:40):
tying times where it would have been easy for us
to throw it in, like in particular COVID, where we
just didn't know whether how the world was going to look,
whether teams are going to travel again, and we took
a huge risk doing it again after that, and it
was because of the momentum we had in the early
days and the right people being involved.

Speaker 6 (16:58):
Yeah, I think kind of what Bill said earlier, Like
I was pretty pretty moved one on kind of the
just the Massachusetts State House, to have the governor there
and speak, you know how highly she spoke of the event,
and to do what we're all gonna do. It's just
gonna be pretty pretty awesome to be a part of
a great experience for our student athletes and our fans

(17:18):
to to learn about the history and the tradition and
the pride of Northern Ireland and Belfast and just kind
of that area is gonna be h It's gonna be
an awesome experience for everybody, So we're excited. Kind of
last question on you know, if there's there's questions issues
like I know, car travel, Sarah has been unbelievable and
just answering questions and being there for anything. Steve any

(17:39):
kind of recommendations or pieces that if if our fans
want to reach out, what should they be doing From
that aspect.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
I'd say it the early days, Sarah Stanton is the
number one person to speak to, and then if it
turns into larger groups and requirements for space over here
like tailgating posting, it comes straight to us. So we're
the first ones. We've actually we've accepted your.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
Challenge and we're getting ready for you, s So we're
going to make sure that we don't run out of
beverages or food, and we've got penciled in locations we
think would work for like your key stakeholders or VIPs
or alumni, your donors that would be at perfect location
like pre and post games, that would work well for you.
But Sarah would be the main one, and then ultimately

(18:25):
if we get into a point where there's some more
difficult questions that it comes to me that's awesome.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yeah, and you can look on Fighting Hawks dot Com
for our release those.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
The link and information we do have online. So it
should be exciting.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Let the planning begins. So Steve, before we let you go,
one last question, and you said, this is your ten
coming up this year, and we've seen the tournament evolve
a little bit. You used to be mainly East Coast teams.
Now we'll have Miami the first NCHC school that will
take part coming up this year. UMD will go next
year in North Dakota, then Omaha as well, So it's
that sort of subtle to get one or two Western
teams in. Talk a bit about why why you've kind

(19:04):
of expanded that reach from it being more of an ECAC,
more of the Hockey East based tournament to where it
is now a little more national.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, there's a good question. A couple of reasons for that.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
The early days we were so heavily reliant on Steve
Hagwell and Joe Britannia, who were the commissioners of ACAC
and Hockey East and they helped. They helped get this
tournament off the ground. There were some of the kind
of founding ambassadors of pulling everything together and they kept
us right on a lot of it. So we wanted
to go through and give all of their teams an
opportunity to play a part in it, which we did,

(19:37):
so we kind of ticked that box to make sure.
And then they both retired and we ran into a
situation one year pre COVID that there was an n
S doua, a four year rule where you're not allowed
to travel internationally until that four years is up, and
we were kind of running out of teams, like there
are certain teams that had been certain teams were building

(19:58):
an arena so they couldn't afford to do it. Another
team had already come and wanted to send their women's
team before the men's team went back. So we made
the decision to open the door at that point, and
the tournament became there was more interest from other teams
to get involved in it, Like people were reaching out
to me where we thought maybe the able main interest
was on the East Coast, So our aspirations grew and

(20:20):
so we've gone for some of the biggest ones we
could possibly get. We asked big early, like that's whatever
touched on when we flew out to Tampa. One of
the reasons we flew out was the meeting that we
had booked with Eric. I also at the time, du
was in that tournament and I told them if they
made it the FROs before, I do what I could
to get there. So it's a really good a fuse
to set up a meeting with Eric and try to

(20:42):
convince you guys to come across. And now we're in
a very fortunate position where we're being selective. In an
ideal world, You've got a team from each conference. And
I know that you guys love playing your conference teams,
but you also love playing new teams. And when you
come to Belfast, you want to experience new teams.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
You want to.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Focus on your strength of schedule, you want to have
a great experience.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
And we feel this is where the curnament is going.
We want to tick all of those foxes.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Well, it certainly looks that way with the fields you've assembled,
and even just in North Dakota's here you've got a
traditional rival in Wisconsin, You've got a team the North
Kota have played in the national title game of course
in twenty sixteen in Quinnipiac, who they just played a
couple of seasons back. And then Northeastern again, another great
beam pot team that is a main team in college hockey.
It's going to sit up for a great weekend come
November twenty twenty seven. And I should have mentioned too,

(21:28):
you mentioned the women as well. You've got a friendship
series that takes place in January and again heavy hitters
UMD and BU and Harvard and Quinnipiac and that tournament
coming up this year. It just feels like this has
continued to expand and gain popularity, obviously locally in Belfast
and across Ireland and in the States as well. I
should ask you, Steve now as we finish up a
decade of this, what has you so excited about being

(21:49):
a part of this event? What keeps you coming back
and keeps it Because obviously you love this I can
sell as a college hockey guy, this is something that
you're really passionate about. What about it really has you.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
There's a few things I'm super passionate about college hockey,
Like I think college hockey is the best hockey to watch.
I love seeing the up and coming players that are
that are going to be the future NHL stars. I
get so frustrated when I watch you guys practice on
our rink and seeing how hard you battle, like guys
are fighting for roster spots. And then I see my
pro team the next the next practice and it's not

(22:20):
quite the same.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
Like it's just the intensity and how hard how hard.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
They compete, they and they have the blocking shots with
their head. It's it's just insane how how good college
hockey is to watch. And the biggest thing for us
is like the Giants are doing incredibly well in in
this beautiful place and for us to drive like the
next generation of players, we need, we need infrastructure, we
need facilities, so we need we need to show this

(22:45):
as a viable sport. And for the French ship four,
for the instability to take the plunge and take the
risks to come across and play these tournaments to now
have a grow like this, it puts pressure and it
puts momentum on another ring popping up in Belfast, and
then a development in Dublin and then something else down south.
That makes it a lot easier because when I moved
back to Belfast. I lasted two weeks and my kids

(23:06):
were good hockey players. I lasted two weeks in hockey
because I had to travel twenty four hours to Scotland
for one game. So it's just becomes impossible unless you
have the time to do it. My kids found other
sports and they love it and we love it. But
just creating that opportunity over here would be fantastic. If
this tournament plays a small part of it.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
This certainly has been a great catalyst for that, and
it's cool to hear that this is a sport that
is growing in such a beautiful place. So well, we're
excited to certainly be a part of this in two
years time. Steve, and we really thank you again for
your time to come on and spread the gospel about
the friendship for what's going on in Belfast.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
We appreciate you. Thank you for having me. Looking forward
to seeing you guys in Belfast.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, that was great, well awesome to have Steve Thornton
on again. That's one of the heavy hitters in the
hockey world in the UK, the guy that really is
kind of pulling the strings to make this friendship for happen.
It was so awesome to hear his passion for this event,
and obviously great to have Eric Martins.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
On as well.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Just this is such a cool thing that the University
of North Dakota gets to be a part of. And
even though twenty twenty seven feels like it's a long
ways out, it's not too early to start thinking about, Hey,
I think this is something we would like to pursue
because when you are going over in ocean and you
need a little more time to plan this out. So

(24:18):
awesome that this is on the calendar now and folks
can really get excited about what's coming.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
That's right, Alex, and I think we wanted to make
it clear. And I guess I'll just follow up one
more time and say, this is a little bit different
than what say is going to happen when we're going
to Austin, Texas, or we've been to Vegas, or we've
been to Nashville. These are this particular event, if you will.

(24:41):
We're a participant in the event, we're not running the event,
and so I just want to make sure there's a
delineation for our folks. And that's why again, to be
able to guarantee a ticket to the game. For sure,
going through the travel travel agency is the best way
of going, or you risk potentially either not getting a

(25:05):
ticket maybe six months out or then maybe I don't know,
probably secondary ticket market and those types of things. But
long story short, if you are planning and you want
to plan ahead, that's probably the best way of going.
And we have that information on our website. As Marty said,
Fighting Hawks dot Com is the best way to look
at it, look at the release that we had, and
then the other thing you can do too is go

(25:27):
to Belfast Giants dot com and they also have on
their information regarding the friendship for just even context and
background of what that whole tournament has been and we're
excited to be a part of it. Culturally, Alex, I'll
tell you what it was. It was quite moving. It
was quite moving, and you know, he kind of mentioned,

(25:49):
you know, some of the things that have gone on
with Ireland and Northern Ireland. Obviously Belfast is in Northern Ireland,
and you know, you can look back historically and read
about those types of things. But the one thing that
again I'll go back to what Nelson Mandela always said
was sport's a great unifier and at the end of
the day, you know, there were some really fascinating stories

(26:12):
that families have gone through, but the one unifying thing
has been the Belfast Giants and so those are some
interesting things that I'm excited that our student athletes get
an opportunity to culturally really visit and I guarantee it
will be life changing.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, that was one of the things that came out
of that release. I think you heard some of the
stories of teams that had taken part in this before.
And as you said, it's not just a great place
to get to go play obvious anytime you travel abroad
like it's these are the things like our college students
should be doing, go experiencing a different culture, but especially
in a place like that where sports is sot sometimes divisive,

(26:51):
but in this case it's unifying. You mentioned the Giants
against Steve is the GM of the Belfast Giants. A
number of U and D alumps have gone through that
program in recent years. Jordan Kawagucci and Gabe Bass are
currently their bast actually is a two time All League
performer with Belfast, which is great. So it's great to
see Gabe having success and that is one of the
top teams in the United Kingdom's elite hockey league. But

(27:13):
in any case, this is such a unique thing. When
the Giants came in twenty five years ago and Steve
touched on it a little bit, because hockey was new,
it wasn't as though, well, this is a Catholic sport
or this is a Protestant sport, and you immediately had
this separation or this divide. No one knew who was
who when you came to the rink and just reading

(27:35):
a bit about the Giants, they selected their colors in
a way that it would have no affiliation with either group.
How all groups are welcome. We're not picking sides here.
We're trying to bring people together and that organization has
done that over twenty five years and now over the
last ten they've incorporated these incredible college hockey teams to
come across the pond and be a part of this.
It really is special. I think just that unification through sport,

(27:57):
and that's something that our student athletes and our fans
are going to get to experience in two years time.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, there was one story former head coach and from
from America that shared of the Belfast Giants that he
had heard that a family, let's just say they exchanged
Christmas gifts in and around Belfast Giants games because there

(28:23):
was split ideology within the family and so that that's
kind of some of those stories you hear, and those
are those are impactful types of things that I think,
you know, I think our whole community is going to
be able to see. And it's just it's always eye
opening when you get to go over and see different
cultures and different different ways of how people live on

(28:46):
a daily basis. But we're excited about it for sure.
Happy to have Steve on. I'm glad he was able
to do it. And he's a little bit later in
the day today, he's so he's he's heading towards uh,
he's heading towards bedtime, or at least my bedtime. But
about anyway, it was great to have him.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, no, fantastic. No, Steve is in Belfast. He was
coming to That's the first I think overseas guest we've
ever had on the pod built. By the way, you
talk about multi guests not.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Going on, what going on?

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Oh man, you never know what you're gonna get. But
that is again a tremendous thing for un d to
be invited and to be a part of this. And
as we said, Northeastern Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, it's a great field.
It's basically think think of it kind of like an
icebreaker situation, for it is a tournament. It's a true tournament.
Four teams coming over. You'll know your first round matchup,
and then the losers of those first games will play

(29:33):
each other for a third place. The winners will play
for the opportunity to ring the bell on a Saturday
night in Belfast. So just an awesome thing, something to
get on your calendar for Thanksgiving twenty twenty seven and
be fantastic, awesome, well fantastic. Kevin, Steve and Erica on
to talk about that. There are some U and D
things going on as well beyond that announcement from last week.
Just because we're talking about hockey, let's just stay in

(29:54):
that vein. We play hockey this week. Bill shaves North
Dakota with an exhibition against Manitoba this coming Saturday at
six o'clock puck drop at the Ralph. Here we go
off and running with the hockey season.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's crazy, that's right.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Alex One second calendar flips to October, it's hockey time,
so yeah, I mean back almost like Manitoba back and
it's like traditional spot in the first Saturday of October.
So yeah, I think that you know, everyone's excited about,
you know, the new team, and you know you've read
a lot. Certainly Brad Slossman does an amazing job and

(30:27):
Alex doctor Johnson, you know, introducing us to our team,
but obviously you want to see him on the ice.
So we're we're jassed up.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
I mean, let's go fifteen new guys to get to know,
and North Kota fans will have a lot of opportunity
to get to see them in person in the month
of October. Again, home date against Manitoba, then the home
opener officially on the tenth of Friday against Saint Thomas.
That's such a unique weekend as well, where again it's
a home and home. The front end will take place
in Grand Forks on Friday, the back end will take

(30:58):
place Sunday and Sat. Paul not an Excell Energy Center
anymore at Grand Casino Arena the new name for that
facility at five o'clock. But cool way to start with
the future NCHC member doing a home and home essentially,
and then two home dates against the Golden Golfers of
Minnesota coming up the week following, so a lot of
hockey coming our way.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I appreciate St. Thomas. We were going to be
doing a home and home with them, and then when
they were announced into the league, it just made sense
then to just kind of take away one of the
years and then we just in a sense went home
and home during a year just to do it prior
to them coming into the conference. And obviously you're not

(31:39):
going to schedule a conference foe now as a non
conference team. So anyways, long story short, that's if people
were wondering why we've got that working the way it was,
we had to kind of compromise once they were admitted
to the NCC.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Dan Jackson's team, by the way, we mentioned fifteen newcomers.
He spoke this past week during NCHD Media Day and
he talked a bit about the makeup of the team
and how he loves the character of this group and
how the guys are starting to come together. You can
start to see what this team is going to be
all about. But then he was quick to mention because
we have so much youth and because everybody's new, we
expect to be a lot better at the end of
the season than we are at the beginning. We want

(32:15):
to see growth over the course of the year, so
it makes for a fun season. I think that's what
you want to see as fans when you come to
the rink. You want to see teams that are figuring
things out and gelling together and taking steps in the
right direction. That's what is available for this squad this
season as they jump into.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
The new year.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
I think that's right. I think there's probably a number
of teams that might find themselves in a similar type
of situation because I think there's a lot of transition
these days for sure, or actually I said more transition
than maybe it's had over the course of time. But yeah,
I think our team, they're gonna play hard, they're gonna
play tenacious and see what ends up happening. You know

(32:52):
how important these games are. I mean, that's the one
thing that's incredibly exciting. And as Steve Thornton said, he's
watching the practices, well, that's what happens in games because
there's so few of them and you've got to make
your mark and as we all know, you know, the
U make Hay in the non conference.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, and that will start again next week, but again
exhibition test first and then Saint Thomas, then Minnesota, then
a trip out east take on Clarkson, and it just
it's going to be a great start to the year
for you and the hockey and we're excited to see
it all begin again this coming Saturday nights on the
fourth against Manitoba. Get out to the ralph and check
out this team, this new look team with a new
head coach. Other sports that are in action already include

(33:34):
women's soccer, who got things started with conference play this
past week, a one nil loss against Denver and then
a nil nil draw against Omaha and two of the
better teams in the league. Think Kenrick Sohne spoke after
the Pioneers game and just talked about how he was
obviously disappointed in the result, thought they played well, gave
up the goal, couldn't get the one back. The Omaha
game felt very, very even, very even match sort of

(33:55):
all the way through with you the number of chances
that could have gone one point through two matches. He
did keep their seventh clean shade of the year against
the MAVs on Sunday. They've allowed the third fewest goals
in the league so far against team that has won
six games through non conference play. Still looking for their
first winning conference after one weekend, but some positive signs
early on.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, I think that's right. And I thought that the
Denver game was pretty pretty even. They took advantage of
the one real good chance that they had and they
put it away. Good teams do that, and so yeah,
I think that's right. And you know, getting a point
against Omaha it wasn't the worst, but I you know
it was. I talked with him yesterday and you know,

(34:32):
again he's he's looking for more, obviously, and you're always
looking for threes, right. Threes are magic.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, in this league for sure. When you only play
everybody once, wins usually are the difference between who's playing
in the tournament and who's staying home.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
A couple of road matches now on the way this
coming week, some soft ones at South Dakota State at
South Dakota, and then they'll go to NDSU next week
with the single game week, so three big tests on
the road against Dakota opponents for North Dakota in the
coming days. Volleyball also started conference play this past week.
Nice victory against South Dakota a three one at home
back on Thursday, and then it's top three er loss

(35:08):
at North Dakota State on Saturday. Page Barber a career
high twenty three kills in just the four sets against
South Dakota on Thursday night. A lot of freshmen getting
some big court time for Jesse Tupac here as conference
play begins.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, I think that's right. And you know, as as
we watched us play NDSU, the one thing that I
think the differential between us and them right now is
we're still finding our way with certain lineup sets at
this point in time and not it's it's early. It's
early days in the conference for sure, and I think
I think Jesse in our coaching staff really wanted to

(35:43):
see what they had and because we're definitely are deeper,
it's just who's going to be rotationally the ones you're
going to lean on. I think, you know NDSU, if
I heard it correctly, I think they've like they've like
started the same seven every single every single match, and
so there's a little bit different at that point in time.
So I think, you know, I think we might be
a little bit different the next time we play them

(36:04):
up in Grand Forks.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, I think so. You've seen that in the results.
I mean, three wins now in the last couple of
weeks for North Dakota. After kind of a slow start,
this young team starting to come together a little bit.
They'll have some road tests on the way at Omaha
at Kansas City coming up this next week, and then
a couple of home matches against du and Royal Roberts
the following week. Cross Country, by the way, was off
this past week, but we got to talk about what

(36:28):
they did at the Grey Act two weeks ago. Jaden
Keeler became the first North Dakota Fighting Hawk to win
an individual title at a Power four meet. She took
care of a very talented field. She's undefeated now still
on the year three for three. She won the ron Pin,
she won the Minutes, the Minnesota State Morehead Dragon Twilight,
and then she goes out and win's the Grey Act.

(36:50):
She's the National cross country Athlete of the Week last week.
Very impressive for her. The women place third as a team.
The men placed fifth, first time either of those two
programs of least top five at this very prestigious events.
Talk about how good that performance was from those two
teams in the Twin Cities two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Well, I believe it was incredibly impressive. But you are
and again we know from doing these things now one
hundred and eighty times, we know where people sweet spot
is on this pod. You've got a better understanding I
think historically from a track and field standpoint. Tell me
if I'm incorrect with this, but I believe I'm correct.

(37:31):
There are just certain invitational or meets throughout the year
that people, i'll say, really show up for and this
is one of them, and for us to have that
type of performance I thought was tremendous.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, I would agree with that. We've talked a lot
about the schedule for cross country in years over the years,
like they don't have that many meets. Really, you have
maybe two or three in September, maybe two in October,
and you peak at the conference championships. I mean, really,
when you look at the schedule, North Dakota will go
to South Dakota State this weekend. They'll go to College Station,
Texas and take on a really talented field of Texas

(38:07):
A and M. In the middle of the month and
then it's the SA League Championships. So just the fact
that there aren't many of these meets period make each
one a little important. But this is one of the
very important ones of that small, limited schedule. This is
the one that you want to go out and win
and run your best and not that you ever want
a peak in September, but you peak and then you
Valley and then you peak again a conference. This is

(38:30):
sort of one of the ones that you target. And
so the fact that a North Dakota run again and
Jayden's fantastic and we've seen this. She's an All American.
She's done this at the ten k and the five k,
and she's a repeat some of league, you know, not
just All Conference performer, but like athlete of the Year
and her discipline. But this is still really impressive for
her to take down that level of a field and

(38:50):
to do so in a six k and difficult conditions.
I mean, you know, we just got done with the
Hall of Fame right week. Like the things that she's
doing this year are like, oh yeah, this is someone that,
if you continue on this trajectory, has probably already done
enough to be like a first ballot University of Northcote
Athletics Hall of Famer, and we're seeing her do this
in real time. Just the sky's the limit for that,

(39:13):
you woman, and again for the for the for the
other runners around her to have that kind of performance
as well. Really special for this.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
I think that's right. And I knew, you know, you
could articulate it much greater than I can. But and
again what I'm alluding to is not every meat you
are maybe bringing your entire team, or you're doing some
very thing. This one was one of those big ones.
And I would say, when you're actually watching this in
real time, you just want to make sure people are

(39:41):
really appreciating it.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, and they should. And I think I'm glad that
she's gotten the local and the national attention that she's
gotten this week for those sorts of accomplishments like it's
one person gets the national Likely to the Week nod
from the nc DOUAA, and she got that after this.
That's right race, after this victory because of how big
it is and against sky's the limit for her and

(40:04):
for this group. So again on the road to Brookings
this coming weekend, as they try and follow up and
continue to build on towards the Semi League championships coming
up on November the first, which is now kind of
just one month away in Omaha. So great job by
Tom Scott and the crew on the cross country side
football off this past week and open week a chance
to get healthy. Now the focus all shifts to Cedar Falls,
a big road trip to UNI as Valley Play begins.

(40:27):
That's a Panthers team under new leadership with former Drake
head coach Todd Stepsis stepping in. They're two and two,
but they've played it. They've played kind of a similar
schedule as North Dakota. They beat a Pioneer League team
pretty handily, lost to some teams they probably should have
lost to. It's going to be a big game again
for Eric Schmidt and company as they try and kick
off Valley Play and go one to O this coming week.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
I think it's pretty safe to say that every Valley
school believes they're going to win their home games, and
so I you know, so you know, regardless of what
you and I has done up to this point, I
believe if you're at home, you're gonna think, you know,
you should could get that one done. So we're gonna
have our hands full. And we saw, you know, a

(41:10):
couple of years ago we came off a great win
against NDSU and went down and unfortunately just wasn't our day.
And so so hopefully our gays are excited about the
coming back from the off week and away we go.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, the Unidome, A tough place to play, but again
a great opportunity to try and get things going and
keep that momentum going. From the fifty eight to seven
win against Balpo again, a really good non conference for
Eric Schmid, A couple of tough ones that just didn't
go their way, a couple of convincing wins, and now
Valley play starts again at You and I this Saturday,
then home against Youngstown State, who's now top twenty five.
They're three and one, a Penguins team that their only

(41:45):
loss was to Michigan State and they were in that game. Yeah,
so there's that seven ranked teams in the Valley this year,
and even though You and I is not one of them,
still a tough test on the way coming up.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
What else again?

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Last one and it's a biggie too, is our North
d Coota men's golf team went down to the Zach
Johnson Invitational and won their first Division one golf tournament
ever during the Division one era. And I'll tell you
what it's. I will say it's like been a long
long time coming to some degree, but Todd Schaefer's done

(42:17):
a phenomenal job with that program. And we've got such
an amazing group of young men mainly from the Upper
Midwest and either from North Dakota or Minnesota. And you know,
for them to go down there again and win a
tournament was was amazing. So you know, kudos and hats
off to that.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Group, golf colaps all around for the Ben's golf team
for winning that side well done. We had a lot
of B side stuff to chat about. Well see, we'll
see if we can cram it all in before this
podcast wraps up.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Where do you want to start?

Speaker 1 (42:49):
We got Red Sox making the postseason, we got the
Pittsburgh Steelers that's off the AFC North. We got Spurs
with late equalizers against the worst team in the league.
Where do you want to begin both?

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Well, I would say Red Sox Yankees, let's start there.
So good. You got to start with Red Sack Yankees.
And you know I had said to you, as we're
both Red SOAC fans. You know, a good season for
this team would be get back into the playoffs, get
back in there and get rolling. And you know, I

(43:21):
don't know if you you know, and again, in one
hundred and sixty two games, you have a lot of adversity,
a lot of adversity, and you know, who would have
ever thought that you'd lose your first basement. You're probably
relying on for twenty five thirty home runs, right, I mean,
right in the middle of your lineup. And then you've
got two pitchers that were actually gave you a lot
of dings last year, and Cutter Crawford and Tanner Hawk
and then you had the whole you know, whatever that

(43:44):
was with Raphael Devers and that that was a thing.
And so then there's just a lot of things that
have come But I give the team credit. They're they're
kind of a spunky group, and I think they're limited.
But I'd rather play the Yankees two out of three
and you got Crochet normal rest. Actually he's got extra rest.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
I agree with everything you've laid out, like the fact
that this team has taken steps to get back to
the postseason for the first time since twenty twenty one.
You would love it if they were fully healthy, but
they're not, and they've played with kind of that chip
on their shoulder for much of the season. They've had
to win a lot of games late. That walk off
triple that they had the other day to clinch the postseason,
that was their twelfth walkoff and though like the second

(44:23):
most in team history, which is crazy. But yes, now
they get the Yankees and you get your ace and
now I get obviously on the road of course, but
what place are you more familiar with than Yankee Stadium
over the years, Like this is we're used to this,
I would say, And the fact you get Crochet going
in Game one led the league in strikeouts this year.

(44:45):
Uh socks hat success against the yank this year took
nine to thirteen in the series. The Yankees are red
hot coming in. They've won eight in a row, they've
won eleven of the last twelve. They've obviously got the
bats and the home field. But it's gonna make for
a fantastic couple of days of baseball. And this is Tuesday, Wednesday,
and then if need be Thursday, all at five o'clock
Central Must see TV.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
This week.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
It's just fun to have this back. We haven't had
Socks Yankees in the postseason for a long time, though.
I'm really excited for as we all should.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
It should be fun and you know they uh yeah,
you're gonna have to get a good outing from Crochet,
get get a win, and then then roll the dice
the next two days. I mean, I you know, Beo's
been a trick or treat here recently, so he hasn't
been great, and so I don't know what you would
do in a Game three. I don't trust you you later.
Right now, I think i'd pitch early. I'll be honest

(45:35):
with you. I mean, that's he's been bitter. But you know,
who knows. It's it's fun to be back. I mean,
there should. It feels like the Red Sox should not
have gone through four out of five years where they
finished last place.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yes, feels that way.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
I mean it just does. And so so I think,
you know, we're all kind of jazzed up about that.
So yeah, so we'll see what happens. You know, the
American leads up for great for sure. I mean, you know,
I do think there's some pretty good teams in the
National League. But only one's gonna make it out of there.
I mean, think about it. The LA's good, Milwaukee's good,
Philly's good, Chicago's good. San Diego we saw San Diego.
They had a devastating bullpen. I mean, but Alex, only

(46:14):
one's coming out of there, and they're gonna probably beat
each other up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Yeah. And then we talked about this in the pod
weeks ago. If we get the opportunity to worry about
that seem coming out of the n album, We're there,
come late October. Bites your arm for that, that'd be fantastic.
So yes, big big socks Yanks series this week. You
were just in Boston. Of course, I know you. You
probably weren't really out and about very much. Was there
a little buzz? Was there a little buzz around the city?

(46:40):
This was pre clinch? But what were they talking about?
What were they talking about?

Speaker 2 (46:45):
And so Eric and I flew in. I think we
were there for like thirty six hours, forty hours. And
so we got in there late Monday night and it
was an off day for the Red Sox and they
were going into play their series with Toronto in Toronto
on Tuesday. So actually I think people are actually kind
of taking a deep breath at that point. I'm knowing

(47:05):
that the next six days could be a little interesting.
So yeah, it was a little calm before the storm.
But even the governor of Massachusetts I had to tell her,
you know, I'm from from northern Connecticut. Trust me, I'm
gott to living and dieing here myself. And she's just
we started talking Roman Anthony. So there you go. I mean,
if you if you're talking Roman Anthony, that's all you
need to know.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
That's all you need to know. He is not expected
to feature in this series, unfortunately, but you just obleaques man.
You just never know, might, might not, might not be
Romans postseason debut now this year, but we will see,
we will see. So socks Yanks enjoy that. Speaking of
Ireland again, the Steelers were just in Dublin. A weird game.
You found a way to get the job done against

(47:48):
the Vikings. Kind of some interesting late game decision making.
But how did you feel about the punsing on fourth
and one, up by three on the opposition forty yard line.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
So I feel like that, Yeah, I mean, if you're
just gonna say, really, from a macro standpoint, like the
strategy of it. You know, I could easily discuss that
I don't know everything about why they would do it.
To some level, they know their team way better than
I do. But as we all know, Alex, if you

(48:21):
can kill the game, you need to kill the game.
And they weren't able to kill the game. I mean,
they got a field goal blocked earlier in the game
that wasn't good. They could have been up three scores
a couple of times, and they seem not to be
so in that's when you leave it open. Sometimes you
get an issue like it happened with Addison. I mean,
it was actually great that our guy came back and

(48:43):
tripped them up. But at the end of the day
and that and and that killed some of the clock
to some degree, which helped. But but I would say
that it's a yeah, it was weird. You got to
play it all and got out of there with a win.
And in that league, it's pretty simple win games every league,
but that league. When you're three and one, you're three
and one, I mean you don't get style points.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
No, no, you do not. It is crazy.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
So you've got this lead atop the AFC North. I
think the Bengals will play tonight and can tell you,
but no team in the North has a positive point
differential through the opening four games. Everybody is negative in
that division. The Ravens are now one and three. You've
got a two game lead on Baltimore, two game lead
on Cleveland. Who you play next? Are you getting some ideas?
I know it's early.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Oh no, idea is just no.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
You know. The reason why is because I don't think
our offensive line is good enough. They've been heavily invested in,
and I just don't think they're good enough now. Maybe
maybe by November. I don't know. If you win enough games,
maybe you do gel and come together as a group.
They're just not good enough. I mean, but they're winning
some games, which is always nice.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
That's what Mike Tomlin teams typically do.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Can't lose this week.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Last thing, speaking of can't losing, Spurs finding a way
at the death to get one past Wolves Paulinia with
a lovely curling effort in the fourth minute of at
a time to preserve the points. Just your thought. It's
kind of been up and down, haven't they It was,
By the way, it was a weekend of late goals
in the Premier League yeah, but grat But.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
I would say that what has happened for them is
unlike what happened last year, in just a year ago.
If they're like in a fifty to fifty match, it
seems like they're finding a way to get a point
at least a point and not getting losses, which helps
in that league. So yeah, I mean when they came
back on the road against Brighton, that was good tie.

(50:39):
It's a good tie and so then you know you
don't want to do that with Wolves. But you know,
I just didn't like them coming in at all one five.
I mean, you knew they were going to play a
little bit better. I don't think that looks like a
relegated team. My son believes that Nottingham Forrest is on
the chopping box now. He feels like Ange is going

(51:00):
to get him to the championship.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
And not the good championship. In this when you're in
the Premier League, you don't want the championship, don't you
want nothing to do with the championship semantics. Yeah, they
are struggling. They are wounded duck right now. So I
know lake Oles really hurt Liverpool this weekend. Lake Oles
really benefited Arsenal. It was an interesting weekend in the
tidal race.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yeah, you know, and I look at it and I
think every team is trying to work through some things.
And I think Liverpool's uber talented, but they have so
many new players that eventually you're not gonna just turn
it on. I mean, and you know, they had won
some matches that quite frankly could have maybe gone a
different direction. It didn't. But then this this one. They

(51:43):
you know, Krystal Palace off to a great start.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Unbeaten an eighteens. No Palace is in third place right now,
which is crazy.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Only they're the only unbeaten team in the prem.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Mm hmm yeah, and Liverpool were. And so this past
weekend at Sellhr's Park, there were some whispers there of
like we're four games in and people like, oh, the
title race is over this, it's gone, Liverpool has already
won this. Like, come on, it's a thirty eight game season.
Let's all pump the bricks.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
People are so yeah, I mean, that's right, that's right.
I mean, to pump the breaks is exactly right. But
I'll leave you with this one, Alex in a it
seems like we have a budding rivalry with Bodo Glimpt.
We are heading back up to the art. Yeah, we're
heading a back up and you know Whatto glimped tomorrow.

(52:31):
How about that Spurs Boto Glimpt.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
It's it's a week of interesting Champions League travel dates.
Real Madrid is going to Cairat in Kazakhstan. This week's
Liverpool have to go to Turkey, which is not too unusual,
but they got to go play the Galatasaray in a
crazy environment. And yes, Spurs get to go back to
the Arctic Circle to take on the team they beat
in the Semis last year of the Europa League to

(52:58):
give them Champions League glory. You never know what you're
gonna get from the fixture calculator when it comes to
this new thirty sixteen Champions League should be fun, fun
week of midwek soccer. Bill enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
That's right, that's right, Well, Alex, I appreciate you as always.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
No, I appreciate you.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
Bill.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
It's it was a really fun pod. We should have
more of those double guest pods. We got something big.
Keep keep making fun announcements, Bill, We'll keep bringing people on.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Maybe there's a triple guest coming. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
That would be anarchy, that'd be too much. Let's not
get ahead of ourselves here. Big thanks so of course
to Steve and to Eric for joining the pod. Big
thanks to Alex Soccer Johnson and Paul Alson on the
back end for putting all this together. Bill, enjoy the week.
Excited for some football, some hockey, some soccer, some volleyball.
It's all happening this weekend. Enjoyed all we'll see in
Grand Pork soon.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
You got it, Go Hawks, Go Hawks.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Big thanks to Bill Shaves. As always, I'm Alex Hender.
Thank you for listening. Enjoy all the fighting Hawks athletics
action this week, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
Intend