Full Show - 1/3/2026

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, Janurary 1st, 2026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Varsity Blitz. High school sports show is
always presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores, coming live from the Donovan and Jorgieson Heating
and Cooling studios. So the first hour today we're talking
new Berlin West basketball without their head coach. Got one
of the assistants in guy I've known a long time
since his high school days. But we've got some players

(00:22):
and we'll go with them. Coach Scott Cook is on
his way, looking forward to seeing him. The second hour
of today's show. I was out at the Wby shootout
and got a chance to do some interviews out there.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
J R.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Blount and Kyle Green from Iowa State. I interviewed for
a while and a really good interview. Had a lot
of fun with those guys. Then Dan Miller, assistant coach
in Concordia, and then Caleb Whitley, an assistant coach from Lakeland.
And we're going to play those interviews the second hour
of today's show, and I highly recommend you stick around

(00:56):
for that that second hour, especially for that first that
first interview with Jr. And Kyle Green Iowa States having
a great year and those two guys together are really fun.
I coached J. R. Blount in high school at White
Fis Spade and Minnican and Kyle Green, his son plays
for the Milwaukee Bucks A J. Green and had had

(01:17):
a great conversation with those guys in studio with us
as we talk some Viking basketball, and we're gonna start
with Prophet and Evan. Evan Kern just became the all
time leading scorer at New Berlin West High School basketball history.
So congratulations Evan. How are you doing today?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I said, Hey, which one of you guys should I
start with? And the all point of Evan he talks
a lot, so we went with them. And when I
told Prophet to sit down and he goes me, I go, yeah,
nobody knows him by profit, but that's his first name.
It's Elijah. Pronounce your last name for me, Gammage. Okay,
it's nice to meet you. Yeah, how you been playing
this year? Good? I've been having a good season except

(01:58):
that one game we're not talking about. We are not
you guys. Let's just say, man, you guys have started
out really really well. Evan, did you come into this
year thinking, man, we got a chance to be really good?

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yeah? I knew that, especially coming off last year we
started seven and one, and I think that's where we're
right at this year and had I think I had
more confidence coming into this year knowing that we were
gonna have our same team that we had back in
seventh eighth grade and just probably have the most chemistry
that we had and probably the most talented roster we've
had in my four years in the high school.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
So I think this year I had the most confidence
going into it.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
A lot of offseat. You know, look, as I've retired
as basketball coach, it's twelve months now, and if you're
not a multi sport athlete, are you a multi sport athlete?

Speaker 4 (02:42):
I was up until I got a little more serious
with basketball.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
What other sport?

Speaker 5 (02:47):
Baseball?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay you miss it?

Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, I definitely do at times.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, you think maybe this year you'll play baseball. If
I'm the baseball coach, I'm coming over to your house
after this interview going what position did you play? It's
chance to be getting you back out one more year.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
I mainly just played first and then pitched a little bit.
But I think because I've taken such a long time off,
I won't be where I was but I think I
think I'm wanna play golf instead.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's awesome. I'm addicted to that sport right now. Yeah, yeah,
it's horrible. Two years ago I was gonna quit and
I hit the Brookfield Central Golf coach in studio and
he said, how long would it take you fundamentally to
teach me how to shoot a free throw? I go
five minutes. He was meet me at Storm's driving range
for thirty And when I'm done with you, give your
club's way, never play again, or get out there and play.

(03:35):
And I've been out there. I can't hit the ball
straight to say life, but I love it. Did you
know coming into this year you had a chance to
take over that that all time scoring record?

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yeah, our assistant coach, I think he texted me like
a month before the season let me know how far
I was away.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
But my main concerning coming the season was just win games.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, what's going on with you next year? Do you
know yet?

Speaker 5 (03:57):
I'm going to Steven's Point to play?

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Good for you? That's awesome, profit. How about you? What's
going on next year? Do you know?

Speaker 5 (04:04):
I'm playing baseball in Iowa black Hawks.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
It's a juco man.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Good for you what position, picture and outfield? You throw
it a little bit? Yeah, man, don't get me the
batters box. I'm gonna take you. You know I can't.
I can't even I can't. I could barely hit a
softball anymore. Did you know coming into this year that
you guys had a chance to be really good?

Speaker 4 (04:22):
I definitely think we had a good chance playing with
these guys since fifth grade, like Evan said, seventh eight,
just that chemistry built up, and I definitely thought we
could go far.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Hey, profit, how how quick did senior your company? You know,
I think about when you were a freshman and you're
watching Senior night and you're thinking, man, that's a long
way away. It's not right. It goes quick. They go quick.
They always say that it goes comes fast fast. When
old guys like me tell you that, you roll your
eyes at me, and then it's like, man, that old
man was right for sure. What position do you play?

Speaker 5 (04:54):
I'm the five mans like the center in a way,
you are really not.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
A lot of sides over knowing that one game that
we're not going to talk about, they had some size. Huh,
they had a lot of size. And if you're the five,
so you're playing. I haven't seen you guys play this year.
Are you playing with your back to the basket. Are
you guys playing five out where you get to face
the basket a little bit more?

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Five out?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, so you get a cha your slasher, then you
shoot it a little bit. Yeah, that's definitely improved on.
Everybody's laughing about that. In sixth grade you couldn't shoot
it much. Huh. A lot of times, a lot of
shots up in the gym. And what is baseball? Is
your sport? Then? But you love basketball? Man, that's awesome. Hey,

(05:43):
when Evan, you're going to be our Pick and Save
student athlete of the week, by the way, and four
point what zero good for you? They give away easy
grades over at New Burl and wester on what teachers
are picking. But that a boid way to be smart
with that. Next week, you and I and and hopefully
teammates and your family will meet at the closest Pick

(06:06):
and save to the school. I've got a beautiful plaque
for you your motivation for being such a good student athlete.
It's not it's not your right to be on his
basketball team. It's a privilege that you earned by taking
care of your grades and you obviously have done that.
Your motivation for being such a good student athlete, where
did that come from?

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Definitely my parents. My parents have always like said, school
comes first. Like basketball can only take me so far
in life. I can only play it for a certain
certain time, but school is going to set me up
in a long term.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
And they made sure that that was my priority from
day one.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Evan, what happens if you if you come late to
it to one of Scott Cook's practices, what happens?

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Run?

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Oh you? And it's not even you, it's the whole team.
So like you're not only some time to hurt yourself,
you're hurting everyone.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Now that he's walked into the studio eight minutes late,
I think the coaching staff, Jonathan Carson, all those guys,
maybe they should get on the line of right.

Speaker 5 (07:05):
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I could have you and I are on the same page.
Maybe during the break we get them out in the
parking lot, I get them run in some line or
something I haven't saying. Get on the line for a while.
I could take a takeover for it.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
I think you got it. You think you got it?

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Hey, when when you look at this conference, Evan, and
I don't want to put any bulletin board material up
in anybody's locker room, But but who's the team like
for you personally that you look and go, man, I'm
not losing these guys is here? Is there somebody in
the in the conference that you want to make sure
that you get a win before you leave?

Speaker 4 (07:43):
I think I ache in Pewaukee are probably the two
that are the most personal to me.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
Okay, with Ike Weave, we all know everybody over there.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
They you've played against them since fourth grade.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah, we've been because a lot of their team is
majority is basically all seniors. Our team we got a
couple juniors at play and then it's but it's majority
all seniors.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
So like it's it's more personal for us.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I think we did a game a Eisenhower West game
on the radio last year and there's a different vibe
in the gym. Yeah, it's a different And we did
it from I from Ike and both both student sections
fill out and everybody knows each other and it gets
a little chippy, and I loved that. That's the type

(08:29):
of environment that I missed coaching in. And I can
tell you that when you guys, you guys got up
a lot on them, and the starters were not happy
when when Cook was pulling them out because you were
up twenty five and wanted it to be thirty or
something like that. And and he look, you guys then
get to graduate and go. He's he's staying and he's

(08:50):
going to continue to coach. So he handled it correctly,
I thought, But that that vibe and then Pee Waukee, right,
I mean they had contr they had owned into that
conference for a while. Yeah, and there was a few
things I read in the paper. It's there's still there's
still we don't need to talk about it, but there's
still some stuff going on with that rivalry. For sure.

(09:13):
That was a good win for you guys. It's a
good game, right, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
That was pretty back and forth game the entire entire time.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Hey, what is the best part of your game? Is it?
Are you? Are you? Are you a shooter? Are you
a score? You a slasher? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (09:28):
You do?

Speaker 1 (09:28):
You think you're a better on the defensive end? You personally?
What's it? What do you think the best part of
your game is?

Speaker 5 (09:34):
My ability to shoot the ball?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Always been that, always been that. How about profit what's
his best part?

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think one it's his ability to get there and
make plays for not only himself but others. But then
it's also the energy he brings on both sides of
the floor, Like sometimes there's energy he brings that we
can't we can't match, Like, he brings it up and
he raises the level of play for everybody else.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Profit you like hearing that you're smiling. That's important to you, Huh.
That part of it as a senior leader, Now right,
you've you've had leaders, You've had seniors that you've been
part of the program. You've been at Versity for how
long by the way, three years? For three years? How
about you four four? So you guys have both seen
what good leaders are. Who are some of the guys

(10:18):
that that you played with that were a senior when
you were a sophomore a senior when you were a freshman,
that that you learned. Look, when I'm a senior, I'm
going I'm going to be a leader like this guy.

Speaker 7 (10:29):
Well, for me, since I was a sophomore as Jack,
he was our only senior when I was a sophomore,
and he really.

Speaker 8 (10:34):
Picked up the team when we needed it and became
a great leader in the program.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Yeah, mine would probably be Josh Career. When we were juniors, he.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Was always making sure everybody was doing what they're supposed
to do in the right spots. He wasn't as vocal
as Jack was, but I think taking a piece from
Jack and then pieces from Josh kind of just showed
us what good leadership is.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Are you a vote? Who's the vocal leaders at you
at this point? Probably? Yeah, if somebody show up for
a shoot around or in the weight room, or you
like call and going, hey man, where are you, let's go.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah, that's that's probably more my job.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
But also as well, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you guys.
I normally wait till the end of the segment to
do this with the seniors, but I'm going to ask
you this. You guys have something special going on this year,
and your coach and your assistant coach can tell you
this one hundred times and you kind of look and
roll your eyes a little bit. Do not allow anybody
to screw this thing up. Right. You can go to

(11:29):
parties in the offseason, You go to parties, you can
do all that stuff. Don't don't let anybody on this
team mess this thing up because of something stupid. All right,
take care of your grades. I know you're doing that
because you're a picking save student athlete of the week,
but make sure that everybody else is doing that. One
of the interviews that I just talked about, JR. Blant,
is a kid that I coached at Dominican. He would

(11:51):
would literally take guys by the back of the collar
and get him to the study table, and he'd be like, look,
I'm in your chemistry class and you're struggling. Let's go
to the study table. I'm gonna help you. That's what
he did, and we went back to back state championships
because he was the leader that said we're not going
to parties, We're not doing this kind of stuff because

(12:12):
nobody's gonna be ineligible, because we're gonna we're gonna go
deep into the playoffs and one back to back state
championships because that's the kind of leader he was. And
I'm looking at you guys in the eye, going, let's
not don't let anybody mess this thing up.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
We won't.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
There you go, there you go, Hey, why Stevens Point,
By the way, what about Stevens Point caught your attention
and we did you you go on campus?

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
It goods Man great campus, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Really good campus. It was just a second I stepped
on campus. It just felt like the right fit. And
then the coaching staff is incredible. They they want to
win just as badly as I do. Like they know
what the bar.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
The bar was.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Set like twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, they won back to
back national championships, so they know it's.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Randall and Jr. Plump by the way. And then a
point guard that Jonathanan know, Darrel Harris from Dominica, was
their point guard as a freshman when they won a
national championship and he said, man, it was unbelievable. It
was the whole the whole town came out and everybody.
He really liked playing there. And then he moved up
and he went with Lance to Saint Leo at Division two.

(13:16):
Because you wanted to see if you could play at
that level. If it wasn't Stevens point where what else
was on your radar screen?

Speaker 5 (13:25):
Lawis Platteville, Whitewater St.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Rbert's Man great programs. Yeah, if if you could pick
outside of the state of Wisconsin, go to any school,
who are you a fan of.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
North Carolina was always my favorite school growing up.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I'm a Duke fan. What do you know.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I'm only kid.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I'm only kid, and it's all good. I don't look good,
boy in my size, doesn't look good in that light.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Believe.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
I can tell you that. The If it wasn't the
school in Iowa you're going to play baseball, where where
would you have gone? Probably come a little closer to
the like if you can't, Oh, probably Highland. Okay, it's
in Illinois.

Speaker 9 (14:03):
There's another good school, but I just went with the
Iowa black Hawks.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Man. Good for you. When do you so? Do you
play travel ball? Baseball?

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Who do you play for? Midwest As? Okay? Yeah? I
know those guys over there? Yeah yeah, I was over
at their facility. The Let's Family. Pretty good people, man,
I can tell you that, that's for sure. Hey, same
question that I had asked before. Who do you circle
in your conference? Is? Is it the same? I mean

(14:32):
you're gonna give me Eisenhower right for sure? And Pewaukee
or is it somebody else? Yeah?

Speaker 10 (14:37):
For me, yeah, I think it'd be both.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, both are pretty good. You get fired up for
those games? Yeah, you know Pewaukee's coming your place next, right,
I think? Or were you at your Were you at
home last time against them? So you got to go
over there. They'll be waiting for you. They they, they
will be waiting for you. I saw their coach out
at the w I shoot. I let them know that
your coach is coming in. Just rolled his eyes. Said

(14:59):
anything you want me to ask him? He goes, no,
if you read the article, you know what I think.
I go, you got it, You got it for sure. Hey,
when you get done playing for coach Cook, what what
drill does he make you do?

Speaker 6 (15:14):
It?

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Practice that you never want to have to do again? Oh?

Speaker 2 (15:17):
God?

Speaker 5 (15:22):
Any defensive slides?

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Honestly, I've watched him play. He didn't know he defended
really well. Did you have any idea the kind of
player that your coach was back in the day. From
what I've heard, he was chippy and really good.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I'll tell you my favorite story with him. He was
playing an Immunion League game against my son and I
pull my son aside and said he's really good. And
my son was like, oh, okay, I go no, he's
really good. And the first half your coach didn't do
much and my son's team was up by four and
he came over it. My son came over to me
at halftime, Matthew, and he was like, I don't see it.

(15:59):
I go just five six minutes to go. My son's
team was up by six. He scored the next eighteen
or something, I'm telling you, and as soon as the
game was over, my son went, Okay, now I get it.
I get it. He just kind of like just played
let the flow come, and then just completely took over.
I can tell you I watched the film with him

(16:20):
in college and he was really good. And so when
he tells you to do these slides, get you doing
because he's done him one hundred times in his life.
For sure. Offensively, you guys, you like what you guys
are running right now?

Speaker 5 (16:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I think we've, especially recently, we've been really focused on
the tempo of the game and pushing the pace a
little bit more than we have in previous years, and
I think that's really contributed to our success on offense.
And then it also leads to a bigger focus on
the defensive end as well, making sure that we're all
locked in getting one stot one rebound and being able
to just run transition as often as possible.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Same question. You like what you guys are running offensively profit,
I'm going with prophet. I love that first name, and
they're like Johnathan's like nobody knows him, but that's really
his first name. Personally, I love that first name. So yeah,
you bet. Hey, your family come to you to watch
you play all the time? Oh yeah, they always be there.
Who do you hear the most in the cross? I
don't really hear when I play. I don't really hear nobody.

(17:18):
Be honest, Really, who do you think is the loudest
in the family.

Speaker 10 (17:22):
I would say it's either my grandma or my aunt.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
What's your grandma's first name? Dev Walt Dunn. Yeah, I'm
a grandfather with six and my grandkids would be like, oh,
it's our papa.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
You can hear him.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
He's yelling at the reps, he's yelling at us, and
I love that. How about you?

Speaker 5 (17:40):
Evan my dad, without a doubt.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
What's his first name?

Speaker 5 (17:43):
Steve?

Speaker 1 (17:43):
They're all laughing. Everybody knows that, Yeah, Steve's.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
He couched us for a couple of years growing up,
so they now how loud he can get.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, was he did? He play.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
Yeah, he played at Southwest Minnesota State and you beat
him one on one now, yes, without a doubt.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, hold on, you want to think about it, that's
your answer. If he's listening, I hope he is. I
hope he is. You know what he'll I'm telling you,
he'd see I'll take him down to the paint and
teach him where real men play. No, No, he's he
shoot it still.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
He's got had some shoulder issues, so I'm not sure
he can get his arms up enough for that.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
But he's he's lost a step so.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Talking smack on the radio, I know if he didn't
hear it, I'm getting him a copy of this. Boys,
we're gonna get to a break. Next segment, I'm gonna
have your coach join us. Somebody yell at him and Jonathan, well,
not Jonathan, he was on time. And then that last segment,
We've got three more players to talk to you, and
I want to I've got one question for one of them.
I want to know what it's like playing for his dad.

(18:41):
I gotta tell you, man, we're gonna find out. I
watched him last year and and uh, I don't know
if he's a better player than his dad was, but
he's really good. Yeah, he's really good. We'll talk to
a bunch of players in the third segment. Next segment,
we will have coach Scott Cook join us and one
of his assistants, a guy I've known since his freshman

(19:02):
year at Mesmer High School, was surprised to walk him.
To see him walk in, I love that. Jonathan Carson
will join us as well. This is the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and
Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local

(19:23):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Next week, our
Pick and Save Student Athlete of the Week Evan Kern,
Him and I and family and hopefully some teammates. He
will join me at the local Pick and Save store
in New Berlin as we will award him our Student
Athlete of the Week at a beautiful plaque. Will meet
in the floral department because there's no beer in the background.

(19:44):
That's why we're in the floral department, and we will
present him. He's a over a four point zero student,
big time basketball player. He's the all time leading scorer
in school history and a big time student athlete. Looking
forward to to giving him that plaque. We're now joined
in studio. He was late, went to the wrong place,

(20:04):
but that's all right. Scott Cook, how you been.

Speaker 11 (20:06):
I'm doing great. It's good to see.

Speaker 6 (20:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
The fact that they're going to make you run, get
on the line and run some some line drills because
you were late, I think that's pretty good.

Speaker 11 (20:16):
Right, It is good.

Speaker 8 (20:17):
And I think you're not going to let this one
down either. No, no, I was just telling the boys
when you step out, is this one's going to keep
coming back?

Speaker 10 (20:25):
Yeah? Yeah, I got Well.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I don't know my nieces and nephew's names, but I'll
remember this for forever. Jonathan Carson, how you been. I'm
good man. It's good to see you. Good to see
you too. Yeah, Happy New Year, Marry Christmas. Please sell
sale over to your parents for me. Yeah, your mom's
one of my favorite people in the world. I didn't
recruit him to come to the Comerican. I recommended and
highly suggested, and he went to my alma mater at

(20:48):
Mesmer High School. But man, a heck of a football
heck of a basketball player and great guy to have
on your staff.

Speaker 11 (20:54):
Yeah, he's he's been a big help this year.

Speaker 8 (20:58):
Actually kind of recruited him for about two years now
on the club side and then everything just kind of
fell in place on the high school side of things.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Man. He and look, he's not six seven six eight either,
but he owned the pate when he played. I can
tell you that. Hey, I don't know if you remember this,
but when when you got named the head coach at
New Berlin West, we had a phone call. I called you,
and they said, congratulations, what a great decision by New
Berlin West, and we talked about kind of the long

(21:27):
view of how to build a program, and man, you
know what, you have built a really good program that
people are now looking at going. Man, it's not just
a good team, it's a good program. And congratulations on that.

Speaker 11 (21:42):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (21:43):
I was a lot younger, obviously at the time, and
I thought it'd be three to five and it's longer,
and it takes a lot of buy in and just
having just these boys in the gym, in the gym,
in the radio station right now, they've been kind of
buying in since fifth grade and all their fruits of
their labor starting to starting to show now.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
And what happens then is, you know, these guys leave
and go to graduate. But when when kids that are
in fourth and fifth grade are coming out on youth
Night and every night going home going, oh, I'm having current.
They're in the gym trying to be him or trying
to be you know, the profit or whoever they are.
Those that's how you build a program. And these guys, now,
these kids can't wait to play a Friday night home

(22:26):
game with the cheerleaders and the band and and everything
that happens with that, and and and to build a
program and sustain it. Look, you you understand it because
you've been around really good quality programs. It does take
a while. It's not a two year feg no.

Speaker 8 (22:41):
And to be honest, when when you when you look
at programs, you're like, yeah, that coach is doing they're
doing a good job. And and that is to me,
that surface level, that's the fun stuff. But for a
program to be successful, there's so many people behind the
scenes that help along the way and during during the season,
and and we're lucky to have people.

Speaker 11 (23:02):
You know, my wife is huge. She does a lot.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, I was hoping she'd come in. I'm a big
fan of hers and her family, and I was telling
Spencer the Lasting family, you're either with them or you're
you know, you're the other side, and I'm like that,
I just want to come over Thanksgiving to watch them
compete in whatever, ping pong, football, basketball, whatever it is.

(23:25):
Nobody in that family wants to lose, and it's very competitive.
And look, I'm on that side.

Speaker 6 (23:32):
I love that.

Speaker 8 (23:33):
It's hilarious because I let them come to Some of
them that go to other schools come to my camp,
you know, because I'm in there, and it's sure and
we either have smiles ol teas with my family at
the camp, they the win or they either lose and
thet's see the smiles, all tears, and you.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Know what, you got to toughen the boys up a
little bit for sure. Hey, Jonathan, you've been around a
couple of programs. What made you finally come over and
start working with Scott? What was the you know, the
new Berlin West. It's a program on the rise, and
I think it's a great decision for you to be there,
But what was the ultimate decision. There's a lot of
places if you wanted to go somewhere else from Nicole,

(24:09):
from Milwaukee, Luther, from where you were, you could have gone,
but you picked New Berlin West.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (24:16):
Just the type of people that are at New Berlin West,
like Scott and his family. They brought me in with
open arms. They walked me in and the you know,
they knew what type of person I was, what type
of coach I was, and they just let me do
my thing, and I knew I'd be able to do
my thing, which is why I decided.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
To go over there.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
It's a good decision for you. Oh yeah, definitely, that's awesome.
You know, Scott, when I talked to other coaches and
I go, you know, basketball has become of twelve months,
even if you're just coaching high school basketball, but everything
else you do, basketball has been twelve months now for
a long time.

Speaker 8 (24:47):
For you, it has, and I think even you know,
I'm big in the AAU world as well, but yeah,
that's where I'm just for high school coaches, it is
twelve months for them too now, especially with the rule
changes last year, the opportunities get in the gym. So
for me, like some of the changes is you know,
I've got Jas, Evan, even even Zach. All these guys

(25:09):
all play AU, so it comes becomes a bit of
player management, you know, especially through the June period when
some leagues are going on, it's kind of like, okay,
well they've got some travel tournaments coming up, do you
want them to play? Do you You know, we went
through it with Evan a little bit. He did get
a significant injury in Summer League one year, and so
it's kind of like player managing as well and protecting

(25:29):
their bodies a little bit.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Where high school basketball is now with with with being
able to have more contact and things like that. Is
that similar to when what it was like for you
at the high school level where you grew up.

Speaker 11 (25:43):
Yes, so all you all you around in Australia.

Speaker 8 (25:46):
Our focus in Australia is club and not not the school,
So it's a little bit reverse there. Still as you
get older, school becomes important, you want your school to
win and so forth, but a lot of the time
is put in through through club system over there.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Do you, as the head coach at New berl and
West recommend these guys if they're going to play AU
and travel, that they they don't have to be part
of your crew.

Speaker 11 (26:13):
No, absolutely not.

Speaker 8 (26:14):
In fact, we're a small community school, you know, and
we've got to do the best with the bodies walking
through our our building. The biggest thing for me is
like keeping a bowl in your hand. The basketball is
such a finesse that that that touch is going to
be there all the time.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Can you can you get a six six kid to
walk through New berl And West one day? Or what
is it something in the water that there's no six six,
six seven?

Speaker 8 (26:41):
You know, whenever a new student comes in and I
see the emails coming through, I'm like, oh, this is it.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
This is one by his front first name when if
it's profit, I think he's six seven. But this kid
is not six.

Speaker 8 (26:54):
Sevens Presa answered with him, you know what, I you
know what I.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Loved when Evan said, look, keep the he brings. He brings,
the toughness, he brings, the energy. Look, he might he
shoots better now than he did in sixth grade, but
but he's not a guy that that we we need
to shoot the ball.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
What he needs to do is.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Get down and play the five spot at about six
to two. I would think and and and if that
and he's not Look, he's not the strongest kid in
the world. Been in the weight room a little bit,
but he's got to defend six seven, six eighty six nine.

Speaker 8 (27:27):
Yeah, his story is a pretty school, pretty cool story
in my mind. Like last year I did not let
him shoot a three and he bought into that and
he didn't. And right at the end of the season,
he was doing his thing at practice, knocking him down
and I said, you're allowed, like, if you're open, let
it go. And the way the teams were guarding him,
they were just sticking in the paint.

Speaker 11 (27:46):
So I was like, let it fly, kid.

Speaker 8 (27:48):
And now he's pretty consistent. I think he's actually with
minimum threes. He's leading now, he's leading. Now, he's leading
out chid.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Be careful because Burlington's listening right now, that's all right,
And they're gonna come out and if they come out
and high hand him, he's going to go around him
and right and then do that. Hey, we've had the
conversation on coaching our sons and this is the first
one here and I'm wondering how that's gone for you.

Speaker 11 (28:14):
I think it's going well.

Speaker 8 (28:16):
I would say the fifth and sixth grade years with
the toughest years, and you know, my wife and I
had multiple conversations. And one of the cool things with
with Erica when the boys walk in like she's on
the side.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Like that, my wife is on Matthew's side, and she
would yell at me a lot I didn't see. I
started Darrell Harris on our AAU team because he was
a better point guard. And I said to my son,
you don't have to be better than Jerrel, you just
have to be as good and you you win the
tiebreaker because you're my boy. And that didn't go over
well with his mom my wife a whole lot. And

(28:53):
the difference is, like, your wife is a big time
basketball player from a big time basketball family, and she
understands that side. But these boys have to know that
if they go home to mom and complain about their coach,
she's going to be on their.

Speaker 8 (29:08):
Side for sure. And I think that's a little bit important.
You need an outlet, you know. All the kids have
an outlet with their parents and so forth, or somebody
to talk to, you know, if I come down on them,
maybe they don't think that's fair or not, but you know,
all athletes need that need to be need an outlet,
you know, And.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
She does that did your dad coach you at all?

Speaker 8 (29:27):
He did up until probably tenth grade, I think. And
then move to the assistant side of things.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
How did that was it? Did you learn some things
from that?

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (29:37):
Biggest thing and maybe I'd take it too far earlier
in my career is like the accountability side is like
you can't. You got to hold them more accountable to others.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I was like that too, and that caused a problem
for Matthew and I. But I saw other guys that
went the opposite. Hey, my son's going to get all
the shots, whether it makes any of or not. You know,
that's the reason I'm doing this. We're gonna promote him,
and he's everything we run is going to be. When
I watched your team and I think your son was
either a freshman or sophomore when we did that game,

(30:12):
and I watched you get on him, and I thought, Okay,
he Scott's more like I am, because he would you know,
he'd have four assists and have one turnover and you
you were still talking about that turnover, you know, four
or five minutes later, and I thought, okay, he has
that same Because I always wanted people to understand he
has a lot of equity in the bank. You have

(30:34):
no idea how hard he was working where nobody was around.
And you see that with him as well. And he's
a really good basketball player. Does he got He's got
a little moxie to him too.

Speaker 8 (30:45):
He does, He definitely does. He's gotta got a chip.
Yeah that could have come from E the side of
the family.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Or both sides.

Speaker 11 (30:53):
But yeah, he puts. He puts in a lot of time.
He enjoys the game a lot.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah. I look, I watched the other the other players
how they responded to him, and then I watched how
he responded to them, Like if somebody got knocked down,
he was the first one to help him up. And
I thought, Okay, he's gonna lead this team one day.
You know, right now he's scoring a lot, but I
don't know if he's leading because there was a couple

(31:17):
of upperclassmen. But one day he will be that. And
and the fact that you know he's a junior right
now on a team that's having this kind of success,
I think he gets it for sure. Hey, Jonathan, tell
me about some of the things that you've implemented or
changed or at practice. Tell me what your day to
day is at this point are you working with the post?

(31:39):
Are you working with the threes, the twos, the one?
Where are you at at practice?

Speaker 7 (31:44):
Honestly, my main focus coming in here was the defensive
side of the ball. Like I knew what they were
bringing offensively. I've seen these dudes play in AAU and.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
So on and so forth.

Speaker 7 (31:52):
So when I when I got to call them, when
me and Scott sat down and talked, I told him
that I'll just do strictly defense, Like whatever you need
to do defensively, I'll do that because I know we'll
be able to score the ball. Because I've seen you coach,
I know you know the offensive side of things, and
I'm real I really like coaching defense. I find it fun,
like shutting down other team's best player and having him
struggle all games. So that was my main focus when

(32:12):
I got when I got the job.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Well, you look at at most of the scores this year,
fifty four, fifty four, fifty nine, sixty two sixty. You're
gonna win a lot of games if you're only giving
up fifty five sixty points. Jonathan's been a nice, nice
help on the defensive side.

Speaker 8 (32:29):
Yeah, I think he's also in the building and you're blowing,
which which helps with like relationships and just holding guys
accountable like consistently. And you know, defense is you got
to be disciplined and you've got to stay locked in.
And he does a good job. He communicates it well
to the guys. He's also a big dude, so he
kind of intimidates him. Yeah, so we ran a charge

(32:51):
drill the other day and no flopping, no flopping, no
flop count flop on that guy because he took a
few guys down.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah. Now, if we're doing a charge driller, am I
is he taking the chargeer? Or am I taking it
from him?

Speaker 5 (33:05):
You're taking a hit from me.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Man, I'm not doing that. I'd end up some hospital.
I'm not you would hold up because I'm an old grandfather.
Six though, that's awesome. Guys, we're gonna get to a break.
We've got three other players that we want to talk
to excuse me and kind of get the feel and
then I'm gonna have all five of them at the

(33:28):
end of the next segment. Just give me their favorite
memory of being part of the New Berlin West. They
get a lot of basketball to be played. The New
Berlin West program. What's their favorite memory throughout the years.
Hey Scott, I appreciate you coming in. You know Jonathan
does not getting in a line with you because he
was on time. It's yeah, I don't think your son

(33:49):
should have to do that either. You were driving right.
That's not all the time, but most of the time.
Most of the time. This is the Varsity Plitz Sports
Show presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores. Only have five sports ninety twenty in your
iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Politics high school

(34:09):
Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores. Coming live from the Donovan and Jorganson
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HVAC system go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. Trust me,
they've been to my house, been to family members, friends,
and a lot of listeners, and they do a better

(34:30):
job than anybody in this market. Go to Donovan Jorgenson
dot com. We're talking New Berlin West basketball. We've got
three more players to talk to. I'm gonna start with
Jase Cook. He is the son of the head basketball
coach at New Berlin West. Hey, Jays, how you doing.
I'm great, good. You're having a good year?

Speaker 5 (34:48):
Yeah, yeah, having fun, a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I talked to a couple of these guys and said,
did you know coming in you had a chance to
be pretty good? How about you? Did you have a
feeling in the offseason, Man, this team's got a to
be a really good basketball team.

Speaker 9 (35:02):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 12 (35:03):
I've always believed since I was a freshman that we
always have a chance to be really good.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Hey, are you a multi sport athlete? No, I'm not basketball.
Growing up, did you play multiple sports?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (35:13):
When I was younger, I played soccer, and then I
quit soccer, and then I played football instead, okay in basketball,
and then.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
I loved soccer players because they could run all day.
But you would not be a typical I never had
a soccer player that could shoot the ball lick, They
could defend like crazy, They could run up and down
the court all day long, So you would be different
as far as that coming from the family that you
come from, right, it's your family, It's the only family
you know. But from the outside, Matt, I would I

(35:44):
just want to come over for Thanksgiving, I keep telling
them with a lotsis that it's a competitive, competitive group.
And I've watched you play and you have that edge
to you. Do you think that's where you learned it from.

Speaker 9 (35:56):
Yeah, for sure, for my dad, my mom, and just
on uncles everything.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Man, some of those uncles can still take you off
the dribble, I think right. No, you're one on one
with your dad. Who wins that cam.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Man?

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I could sell tickets for this, man, I'm telling you,
I don't know. I think your mom beats all of
you though.

Speaker 10 (36:17):
Huh.

Speaker 9 (36:18):
She did be my dad shooting contest.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
I wish Rika was here. We would definitely have a
conversation about that. If you can move the microphone over, Zach,
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Doing great?

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Good? How long you've been at of vrcity all four years?

Speaker 6 (36:34):
Man?

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Good for you. What position do you play?

Speaker 5 (36:36):
I'm power forward?

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah, So so it's you a profit man in the
pain huh sir? Yeah, and that's awesome having a good year.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
I think so.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
And you knew you knew before the year started this
team had a chance. You guys have been playing together
a long time. Hey, are you a multi sport athlete?
I am my main sports football? Actually it is? What else?
What position do you play. I'm a wide receiver in safety.
Good for you, pretty boys, awesome, good for you. What's
going on with you next year? Do you know yet?
I'm a junior right now, junior.

Speaker 6 (37:05):
I didn't not know that, So you.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Got some time. How is the football team going to
be next year?

Speaker 13 (37:10):
I think it's gonna be great. Last year we had
a rough end of the season. I had mono towards
the end, so kind of ended my season short.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
So Jassick's a good coach man. He's a good Yeah.
I like him. Luke, how you doing? I'm doing good?
Are you playing well this year? Yeah? Yeah? What position
do you play as?

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (37:29):
I'm the one, but mix of the one and two?

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah? You give the ball? Who do you like passing
the ball? You think Avian or or one of these
other guards or profit who you just come down and
get it to the open guy or what? Yeah, whoever's open?
But I like giving it the ELI and transition because
he can he can dunk it. Who can't? Yeah, you

(37:53):
got some hops? What about the guy next year? He
can dunk it too. But that's awesome. Hey, when for you?
And I asked these guys, who do you circle in
the conference. And if it's the same for everybody, it's
Eisenhower and Pewaukee, then I can move on.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
Yeah, Eisenhower and Pewaukee for sure.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, stay the same for you guys. Yeah, absolutely, no doubt.
Your favorite memory of being part of this program. I
almost start with you. Your favorite memory, give me, give
me your thought. When I asked you that question, I
would say last last season when we took down Whack.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
We beat them by like ten or something. They were
ranked top ten in the state at the time.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
So that was definitely my favorite memory. And that's personal.
You know that that that is so personal. I've come
to one of those games and I watch and the
whole family sits together and they cheer for both teams
kind of but you kind of tell who's really cheered
for what team. That's a great memory. I love that. Hey,

(38:52):
Luke or is Zach? How about you?

Speaker 6 (38:54):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Probably Whack too.

Speaker 13 (38:56):
We play had eighteen in that game, and then we
came in the locker room after and we dumped the
ice bucket on him postgame, so that was that was sick.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Hey, what when you move on, Well, you got another year,
but when you move on, what drill does he make?
You do is just defensive slides that you never want
to have to do again. Ever.

Speaker 13 (39:17):
Probably we do some drill. It's called lane touches. Gotta
go back and forth touching lane lines, and that's it's death.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
And he keeps having you do it. Yeah, for sure. Hey, Chase,
you've been you've been at varsity for a bit. Your
favorite memory. Don't give me West Dallish Central, give me
something else.

Speaker 12 (39:35):
I was at West South Central, but I could also
say Whisco when I was a freshman, when we played
con Yeah, I think I had twenty seven or twenty
five of that game.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, that's a coming out party a little bit.

Speaker 9 (39:46):
Right, Yeah, that was That was a fun game to have.
But we did lose by twenty so.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
It's more fun. Well, it's more fun to talk about
that one than this year's. We're not going there. Your
your dad, coach said, let's just bypass that one, and
I great. Look that every once in a while the
ball doesn't go in and then everybody starts to press
a little bit, and and that that makes it really difficult.
Are you getting starting to get looks on possibly playing

(40:13):
at the next level.

Speaker 9 (40:16):
Yeah, I'm getting a decent amount, But haven't really.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
If you could close your eyes and pick any school
in the country, any school, where would you go?

Speaker 9 (40:27):
Maybe Gonzaga Santa Clara.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I like those two schools you want to get you
you don't mind going warm? Huh? Is that what you're thinking? Yeah,
that's so. That's kind of far for them to come
watch you play. What about you know, M S O
E or Concorded. They could come to every game.

Speaker 9 (40:42):
Man, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
No, I'm just getting I'm not looking at me, messing
with you. That's just how I do things, man, I
I would not do that. The the idea of of
this team getting deep into the playoffs and I haven't
looked at at Who's and you guys don't need to
do that. Let him look and work ahead rather than
look ahead. Do you have a pretty good feeling of

(41:05):
that by the end of the year that you guys
are going to be able to play well enough to
get deep into the playoffs?

Speaker 9 (41:10):
Yeah, for sure, I think we definitely can.

Speaker 12 (41:12):
And also having to play whisk as our last regular
season game, I think would get us ready for playoffs
for sure.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Man, A little payback coming for those right for those guys. Hey, hey, boys,
come on over here because I got to ask you
that question. Hey, Evan, when when right? You grab that microphone?
That's good, right there, Evan, your favorite memory of being
part of this program? What would you say to that?

Speaker 4 (41:37):
I think I would definitely say this year's game at
I I hit a game winner, which was really cool
to do there, and then I did make my way
over to their student section.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
It's just kind of stood there.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Could you happen to know a few of the girls
over there or what?

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yeah, and then a lot of the guys that were
standing over there were they were running their mouths the
whole game. So just to do that and kind of
silence him a little bit that that thought that was
pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Tell me about the play, did you it was your
time out? Was your you know? It was a tie
score fifty four fifty four?

Speaker 14 (42:11):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Tell me tell me about the play that you hit
the three.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
So the play actually wasn't designed for me to get
the shot.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
We were actually going to Jase because we thought he
was going to get a better look because the way they.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
Were playing him.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Okay, and it just kind of happened where Luke Luke
drove turned around, tried to get Jace coming off the
screen and the pass is just a little offline, and
then it kind of put Jason in a tough spot
to go make a play, and I kind of just
found open space on the floor and their defense and
Luke kind of rub cut off my guy. That gave
me space on the perimeter and Jase found me and

(42:45):
I was able to knock it down.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Did you know when you let it go it was going?

Speaker 5 (42:49):
Yeah, I shot it. I I did say this.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
I almost turned around because I thought, I it felt
so good off the hand, so I did.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
I was pretty confident was going in.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Uh, teammates all over you to that. Did the horn
go off with the ball in the air?

Speaker 5 (43:03):
I think right? It right as it went through the net.
I think it went off.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
I think there was maybe not even half a second left.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
You didn't sleep that night much, Right? You've watched a
video on that a few times during the break and
you show it to me, Yeah, I definitely can't. I'd
love profit if you can grab that one. Yep, your
favorite memory so far being part of this program, You're
gonna have to hold that. Look, you guys have a
lot of basketball yet to be played, right, but so far,

(43:30):
your favorite memory.

Speaker 11 (43:31):
Is what I would say.

Speaker 5 (43:33):
This year against Ike, I had a fast break dunk and.

Speaker 13 (43:36):
Then during the time out I pushed over one of
assistant coach Steve.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
It was pretty fun.

Speaker 6 (43:42):
Man.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
That's you're not pushing over the other assistant coach. You'd
have to take a running start to get him. I
can tell you that. To get a dunk against against
gais now er. They look. I know both both sides
talk a little bit, right, but when you're at their place,
that student section will get after a little bit. Do
they know your first name's Profit? Yeah, they could. They

(44:03):
yell profit stuff. I love that. And you get a dunk.
Did you look at the sex the student section after
you dunket it?

Speaker 15 (44:10):
No?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
I just went to the bench to my teammates.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
That's awesome, so Scott, I hope you look. They talked
about look I got a dunk or I scored twenty.
But their initial phone, their initial thing is look, we
beat West Alli Central, we beat Eisenhower. Our team did this.
You gotta love the fact that their first reaction was

(44:33):
as a team, this is what we did.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Now.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Part of the memory is because I got a dunk
on him, or part of the memory is you know
I hit a three to beat him, but all five
guys talked about, hey, we played pretty well against Wisconsin
Lucor and I got a chance to play against Knaka
Nipple who had thirty or something against the Bucks last night.
But every one of it was, look, we did this,
and you gotta feel good because that's what the program

(44:57):
in the culture needs to be.

Speaker 11 (44:59):
Yeah, I think it's a tribute to them.

Speaker 8 (45:01):
I mean we've we've we've built this this program where
any of the guys and he can can kind of
pop off and have a have a big night, Like
I think Eli has done it, Evan's done it, Jase
has done it. Zach had a big game against Plymouth
when we made a little switch with with Luke.

Speaker 11 (45:18):
He came out and had eight.

Speaker 8 (45:19):
So I think it was Pewaukee, right, you had what eight,
eight and five, like just a just a really solid
game on both ends. So any of these guys can go,
which is which is good for a coach and it's
tough on a scout.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Hey, do you do you think that they understand the
reason that you get invited to the Wisconsin Illinois border
battle and to the you know, to the Culvers Winter
invited stuff like that to the Luke Holman. Do you
think that these guys understand that that, you know, before
you took over and even maybe that first year or

(45:53):
two you didn't get invited stuff like that. And I
hope that they understand because of the work that these
these guys and other guys on this team and part
of this program and guys prior to them, the sweat
equity that they put into this program is the recent stuff.

Speaker 11 (46:10):
Like that happens one hundred percent.

Speaker 8 (46:11):
And I'll be honest, when when I took over the program,
my other assistant, Steve, he's not here. He obviously grew
up in Walkshaw, went to walk Shaw West. I mean
he had to educate me on those type of things.
I just wanted to win games and play, you know,
and he had to talk to me about the history
of the Luke Hohmen and some of these showcases Mark Miller,

(46:32):
you know, getting into the bat borders. And so for
me a little bit like I always I always grew
up watching this from from Afar, you know. And the
tradition of high school basketball, I mean, it's amazing, it's
it's next to none. And my love of high school
basketball has grown as we've grown as a program as well,
So are you?

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Did it surprise you the quality of coaching in the
state of Wisconsin, Like in your conference, there's some really
good coach's been doing it for a while and throughout
the state of Wisconsin. Whenever I talk to college coaches
from outside of the state and they go, look, when
you recruit a kid from Wisconsin, they go, look, they
they come ready to play at this level because of

(47:16):
how good the coaching is in the state.

Speaker 11 (47:18):
Yeah, you look.

Speaker 8 (47:19):
I mean the end of the day, if you're off
on on your on your scout or what you try
to identify and and you know, put into the game.
If if your players don't believe in you in the
into the game plan, it's not going to turn out
right or it's going to be a rough night. And
I think one thing that all the coaches do well
is get their programs to believe and we all have

(47:40):
our different you know, styles and so forth, and you know,
to get the players to believe in it and execute it,
they do a great job. That's why the Woodland's been
the top of the state for a long time.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
For a long time. Hey, Jase, when when when you
think maybe, look, I'd like to maybe try try to
run this or defensively. Are you are you able to
go and talk to the coaches, talk to your dad
and say, hey, dad, if we instead of running the
twelve press, if we were run a twenty two that
tempo presce, I think it could be more effective. Are

(48:14):
you able to have conversations with your dad like that? Yes?

Speaker 9 (48:17):
One hundred.

Speaker 12 (48:18):
Also, when we run offensive plays, sometimes he would call
it a play and then out to wave him off
because I already got the whole tire guys on another play.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
You gotta love that, right. I Look, you don't want
one of your players waving you off. But when it's
your son, who's who has done enough watching tape and
watching video knows you know what what's working right now,
you got you gotta feel pretty good that he understands
the game like that.

Speaker 8 (48:44):
Yeah, And I mean, at the end of the day,
this is what I want this group to be able
to do, Like come to me and say, hey, coach,
this is what we're identifying out there. Maybe maybe Coach Jono,
Coach Steve and I haven't even seen that yet. Like
that that communication back to the bench is important. And
and then you know there there are a lot of
times where you know, they'll say, hey, we've already got
outset right now, and I'm like, let's.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Go, hey, Evan and and seniors senior, senior, senior. I
hope that you guys understand the kind of legacy that
not only this class, but the last year's class, because
you guys are really good last year too, but the
legacy at New Berland West years ago. I wouldn't have

(49:25):
you guys in studio. It was a program that was struggling.
They had a couple of players that one like went
to a prep school, you remember, and the Scott told you, yeah,
the first year you took over and and that just
changed the dynamic. But understand the legacy that you guys
are leaving behind. And what I'm hoping is there's a
gold ball somewhere in the future and you guys can say, look,

(49:49):
that's our our our class is what did what what
started this thing? And and and the success that we're having.
And I hope that you understand that from afar. You
guys are in there, but guys like me that are
talking to other coaches and gym rats come up to
me all the time. Now would say, hey, have you
seen what have you seen New Berl West play yet?

(50:11):
And I not this year. I saw him last year.
And they go, man, I've gone to two games. This
team is for real. And so that's the kind of
thing that people in gym's outside of New Burlol and
West are talking to me about and them and I
hope you understand the kind of work that you guys
have put in. People are starting to notice.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Yeah, I think that's really cool. I think that's one
thing our team never really had throughout, like my entire
high school experience, we really never had like people like
acknowledging us being like, oh, this team can be really good,
like they're just young. Like that's a lot of times
what they would say, Oh, they're just young, they'll get there.
But then now that we're starting to get like recognition
for what we're doing, I think is pretty cool. But

(50:50):
our team believes in what we're doing. Our coaches believe
in us, like we believe in them. Like I don't
really think that the outside noise doesn't really make a
difference in what our team is doing. I think if
we stick to what we're doing as a team and
trusting each other and trusting our coaches and having them
trust us on the court. I think the outside noise
doesn't really mean a whole lot to us.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
It doesn't, Luca, I'm gonna ask you this, and you
might not feel it right now, but understand your coach
does you? Guys have always been the one hunting right Look,
we're the ones that all people are saying Eisenhower's better
than we are, window that they're better. Now you're being hunted,
and understand that Burlington, who you're playing tonight, has watched

(51:33):
way more film on New Berlin West than they would
have three years ago because of the success you guys
are having, and so now other coaches have to be
more prepared if they think they're going to get a
chance to beat you. Guys, Do you understand that that's
what you guys have done? Yeah, I mean you're smiling
you like that. Yeah, we've worked a lot hard for

(51:55):
this recognition. But we just need to keep on winning
games and hold it up and making sure you play
defensively or Jonathan Carson's gonna get out. You don't want
to have to do those charges all the time with them. Hey, guys,
thank you. It's really good to meet you, Evan. We'll
figure out. I think Wednesday might be the night after
your practice over at that Pick and Save in New Berlin.

(52:15):
But congratulations on being our student Athlete of the week.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
You bet guys, it's jays good to see you again. Profit,
It's good to meet you. Yeah, there's no doubt. Zach Luke,
well done, man. I appreciate you guys coming in. Coach,
thanks for getting here. Yes, thanks, yeah, thanks for getting
here for sure. Hey, stick around. We're gonna place some
interviews I did out at the Wby Shootout, and that
first one with Jared Blount and Kyle Green, two assistant

(52:43):
coaches from Iowa State, was a real good one. I
did not know Kyle Green was AJ's debt. We talked
a little bit about AJ, but we talked a lot
about Iowa State basketball with I think the best player
that I coached in thirty six years, JR. Blunt. We'll
get to that interview on the other Excited to break.
This is the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented

(53:03):
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
only on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 10 (53:11):
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
High school sports show is always presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores on Fox Sports
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming live from the
Donovan and Jorgansen Heating and Cooling studios again.

Speaker 10 (53:25):
Here at the wy Shootout.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Get a chance to talk to a number of coaches
that are here, and certainly one of my favorite and
you hear me talk about him a lot on this show,
the assistant coach from Iowa State. He is JR.

Speaker 10 (53:38):
Blunt and he's a boy. Can't come home, jer. How
are you doing.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
I'm doing good. I appreciate it good.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
It's really good to see you again. Certainly Mary, Christmas
and Happy New Year to you and your family. Iowa
State Cyclones playing pretty well.

Speaker 10 (53:51):
Man. I feel pretty good about how this team's playing.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Feel great, feel great. Could couldn't be in a better
position than we are in right now. I feel really
good about it. Guys play really hard for us and
got a good group of guys in the locker room.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Boy, that community comes out then. I mean, the fan
base for Iowa State is something. It's almost second and
none for me because I watch any chance I get
I watch you guys play, and not only at home,
but man, those that fan base.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Travels well travels. You know, we've been to a lot
of different places. I mean the Bahamas and Maui and
Las Vegas and they come out for us and this show.
And then obviously at home last night. I mean you're talking,
you know, twelve thousand people on a cold fridge in
December night.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yeah, free haircuts and meals. Every once in a while
when you go out through every.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
You need, you need, whoever needs to hit thing, just
come on through names tell me you know us.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
That's awesome. Also joined by an assistant coach, I Alowa stayed.

Speaker 10 (54:49):
Kyle Green, coach, how you been?

Speaker 6 (54:50):
I'm great?

Speaker 10 (54:51):
Thanks good. So I just found out that Age is
your son. Man, are you the one that taught you
about to.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
Shoot like that?

Speaker 6 (54:59):
Of course no, I can't take anything. I can say
that now because my wife's not here. Yeah, she gets
all the credit for his athleticism and his skill.

Speaker 10 (55:07):
Man, I love that. You gotta be really proud of him.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
He's an awfully good player and a really good ambashoardor
for City Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Bucks team.

Speaker 6 (55:15):
Yeah, I appreciate that yeah, we are. We're very proud
of him and fortunate to have him close to home
so we can still get to some of the games,
get around. And he absolutely loves Milwaukee. He does.

Speaker 10 (55:23):
Milwaukee loves him. I can tell you that.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I told you my son Matthew doesn't miss a Bucks
scamp and he just he doesn't think he plays enough,
just so you know.

Speaker 10 (55:32):
And again, my son Division.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Three player Premierdatha Baptist file. But he loves the Bucks
and and and he certainly really likes to watch him play.
How long have you been at Iowa State?

Speaker 6 (55:45):
So I came when Teacher got the job five years ago. Okay,
so I've been assistant coaching and now for.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Yeah, you floated and out of Wisconsin a little bit, right.
I'm just interested why you didn't offer Jr.

Speaker 10 (55:56):
One scholarship when you were a market.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
We're not just talking about it.

Speaker 6 (56:01):
He knows why. I prefer you guys who can shoot
the ball. I'm a big fan no scores. Ironically, you know,
we at Iowa State under Teacher, I have a great
defensive team.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Jared would have been a perfect fit. Right now, I'll
tell you this. I coached here for four years in
high school. You're right, maybe he did. He won the
best shooter we had, but he was the best finisher.
I can tell you that one loss in two years
as junior and senior year. And after that loss he said,
not again, We're not losing again. So I loved coaching him. Hey, Jay,

(56:32):
when when you go out to watch a kid play,
you and I have had this conversation. But when thirty
six years that I coached, when I would start telling
kids some of the things that you had said, they'd
look at me like, oh man, you don't know what's
talking about. Look when you when you fly in to
watch some kids at the w By shootout, you know
these kids can play, but you get here early because

(56:54):
you want to watch a lot of the dynamic and
the warm ups and how they interact with their teammates.

Speaker 10 (56:59):
How much goes into that because when you offer.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Somebody that's a that's an expensive date and you don't
want to miss on some of these.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
For sure, I think you hit right on it, you know.
I think a lot of it is more we know
they can play, Like, we know they're good at basketball.
They're probably the best player on the team, some of
the best players in the state. But the body language,
the interactions, how they fight through adversity. You know, sometimes
it's best to see how.

Speaker 6 (57:24):
They come in.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
They got two files early. How are they acting with
their teammates, how they interacting on the bench when it's
not going their way. So a lot of this is
we've seen them play over and over, especially in the summer,
So you're not coming here to evaluate necessarily their talent,
but more of the intangible things of what they're doing
on and off the court, and you know, how they
interact their teammates, how they take coaching, how they're interacting

(57:47):
with the officials when things don't go there well their way.
That's really important so that we can interact and see
how that looks when potentially they come to us.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
You know, I tell this story I had to coach
from I think it was like Rhode Islands, someplace who
listened to my show. Paul got a hold of me.
He said, I'm coming in to watch this kid. Would
you like to have dinner and go to the game
with me? I go, absolutely, he said, I got to
get there a half hour early, and so during dinner
I asked him about that we go and before halftime

(58:16):
he said I'm done.

Speaker 10 (58:18):
I have no interest in that kid.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
But you know this kid from the other team, and
I said, I do his family's right here. He said,
I'd surely like to meet them, and so he knew
fourteen minutes in done have no interest. And he said,
and we literally offered I'm pulling the offer now. And
I looked at me and said, this is a really
expensive dat I can't miss on these. And this was

(58:40):
the head coach, and he he said, fourteen minutes in,
I'm done. And they went after the kid from Saint
John's Prep and they didn't get him, but he went
after him pretty hard. And I learned a lot about Look,
you guys understand that I want to know during warmups
he is he talking to some cheerleader? Is he after

(59:00):
he gets his second file looking at his dad going
I didn't do that. So, hey, you've had a lot
of success. I'm getting kids from Wisconsin, right. TJ's Wisconsin guy, Right,
you got a lot of background in Wisconsin. When you
make that call to a kid and say, hey, look,
we'd like to talk to you about coming to Iowa state, Do.

Speaker 10 (59:20):
The kids know who you are? Do the parents know
who you are? Do they do a little background to
see where you came from kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Well, I think a lot of people around here know
TJ just because of what he's done and in short history,
and he's been around. And now I think it's more
Tyrese Haliburton and Milan and you know, getting guys that
have had success and even going back to Matt Thomas,
Deontay Garrett, Deontay Burton.

Speaker 10 (59:43):
So I Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
A lot of Wisconsin guys come back, so I think
they know I will stay in that sense. And then
it's funny because now I was getting to the a's
where guys my age are starting to have older kids.
It's like, oh, okay, yeah I played with your dad
or I played with your uncle and stuff like that,
but no one remembers basketball me. It's just more like, hey,
these are guys that are from the city, are from

(01:00:05):
the state, and you know they can kind of correlate
right there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Jay, I don't remember my nieces and nephew's names, but
I can tell you what you did against Brilliant Halfing Centro.
You know, on a Tuesday night at their place, that
were down six and you hit a bucket to get.

Speaker 10 (01:00:20):
Us to four and I took we took a time out.
I'm walking on the floor and you go, man, your
face is over relaxed.

Speaker 16 (01:00:25):
Were not losing the night, and there was two minutes
to go. He goes, relaxed, We're not losing the night.
And he went out and scored the next day and
we won. Kyle, how long have you been been coaching overall?
And did you start at the high school level?

Speaker 6 (01:00:38):
Actually started at the DE three level? You did like
I was a DE three player. This is my thirty
third season. Man, amazing because I'm only forty years old.

Speaker 10 (01:00:47):
You know we're not supposed to lie in the zone.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Honest.

Speaker 6 (01:00:53):
I take that back. Yeah, thirty thirty years.

Speaker 10 (01:00:56):
Where did you play?

Speaker 6 (01:00:57):
I played at Hamlin University. I'm a product of the
Twin Cities, Minneapolis Saint Paul.

Speaker 10 (01:01:01):
And saw some Vikings fans.

Speaker 6 (01:01:02):
I am, I am, I am sorry about It's one
of the hardest things has been to see my son
slowly converting because he grew up in Iowa to a
Packer fan. He's a big Brewer fan. He and his
wife put a lot of the games. So he starts
to talk about those things and I'm like, wait a minute.
We only talked about winnings. I talked, but yeah, we're
losing him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
We're losing him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Hey, what part of how TJ runs a program attracted
you to come to him and then stay for for
for the amount of time you stay.

Speaker 6 (01:01:31):
Yeah, I've got to know him over the last twenty
years just being in the same you know, coaching is
a small fraternity, and I understood by talking to him
this kind of the discipline, Uh, the way he'd want
to play the game, the way that they know those
types of players he'd want to coach, and then the
commitment that he would have to you know, the environment.

(01:01:51):
We'd have the commitment to the types of guys, we'd
have the commitment to the style of play, and then
it could be an opportunity to coach along with Jr.
And the other guys. That's one thing that's unique about
Coach is he allows us to coach. He's not one
of those head coaches that's going to run the show
and not delegate anything. You know, He's a relational guy.
He spends a lot of time developing relationships with our players,
getting to know them and their families, and allows us

(01:02:14):
to do a lot of stuff behind the scenes. When
it comes tack sinos and that was something I was
looking for at this point in my career.

Speaker 10 (01:02:18):
Man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
You know, guys, I look at from from where what
I do now for a living at college basketball, and
I love college basketball and football. But I'm afraid of
the future, and I think it's going to be figured out.
But right now it's like the wild Wild West.

Speaker 10 (01:02:35):
Do you like that part of a JR? Or you
just shaking your head, going, we got to just figure
this thing out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
I mean, for me, I kind of take the approach.
We just got to keep adjusting, you know, we keep
adjusting and figuring it out and maximizing what we can do.
You know, I think whatever resources we're provided here and
I will stay lucky and blessed to have a good,
significant resource pot that you know, we're able to substantially
help these guys. And you know, we have to embrace.

(01:03:01):
We have to embraces and keep moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Does that change, guys On the recruiting side of it,
where look, you're you're here in Milwaukee looking at some
high school kids that you guys are going after. I
hear college coaches go, look, we're not even going to
spend the resource looking at high school kids anymore.

Speaker 10 (01:03:18):
I'm looking at the transfer port of the fine guys.
Has that changed? Would you guys do at all? Now?

Speaker 6 (01:03:24):
That's not you know, we got into this Jay myself
coach to develop relationships with players, and that hasn't changed.
And I think the foundation of our program will always
be high school kids, but we'll supplement that with guys
in the transfer portal. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
You know, like I missed on j R.

Speaker 6 (01:03:38):
Back and the ya you did. You know, we tend
to miss We tend to miss every once in a while.
So when I missed on, I got like j I
got to go in the portal and find somebody else. Yeah,
but we still are going to always recruit high school
guys and develop the foundation of our program. You know,
Coach believes in playing freshmen, so getting them an opportunity
to play right away, and so if you can have
that balance, like this year we start freshman. We've done

(01:04:00):
that almost every under coach. But then we've got you know,
a grand transfers and older guys and putting that together.
I think it's been one of the reasons we've had success.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
You know, Now there's a kid from the D League
that's going back to play college right and now I'm
watching a lot of these coaches are like, absolutely not,
we're never doing that.

Speaker 10 (01:04:19):
But I heard that you'd never do one and done
four years ago, and now you're going after one and done.
So I think you're right here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
When when this kind of thing changes, you either roll
with the change or the Badger football team that didn't
get involved in this now and you see where they're
at and so now they're trying to play catch up.
I think if you're on top of it trying to
figure it out, but I just don't know what the rules.

Speaker 10 (01:04:41):
Are right now, they're fluid, fluid, they're fluid.

Speaker 12 (01:04:47):
It's you know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
I think the other big thing to is, like KG said,
is like still have establishing relationships. Whatever you're doing, whether
you're going to get a transfer, portal, high school, whatever, professional,
have to have the relationships. You got establish the relationship
because that's really important for our program. So we're not
going to bring in somebody no matter who it is
or where they come from, if we don't feel like

(01:05:09):
they're fit relationally for what we do, because we never
want to make it transactional. Everything's going to be about
relationships and then building our culture from that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Hey, how quick when you recruit a kid, do you
ask them how they how they like playing defense? Because
I watched the Iowa State games when when I would
stay aheads of basketball, you're.

Speaker 10 (01:05:26):
Just there and then all of a sudden, you can
have a turnover and you're your man. Now you're fully invested.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
So I'm just learning from my manner right here. And
you know, we we we're running this defense and it's
non negotiable, you know, OKG and I both worked on
the defensive side, and it's something that our players know
that that's the identity of our program. We want to
have great offense and we want to get it from
turning teams over on our defense. So it kind of
goes hand in hand of what we all want to do,

(01:05:53):
and our players know that and they recognize it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
And watching watching your plate your team play defense, I
don't see anybody communicate better like I watch your players
on how they communicate, whether they're off ball, whether they're shortcomer,
wherever they are. Everybody seems to be talking, pointing, and man,
they don't mind taking charges, right. I don't know if
you guys do little bonuses or something. But boy, boy,

(01:06:18):
I always stay takes a lot of charges, and that's
obviously being taught every day at practice.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
We want to be physical. We want to be physical,
we want to have collisions, we want to be disruptive,
every everything that that you can think would be flowing
and seamless for the offense, we want to take away.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Hey, you know he didn't play defense at Dominican the
way he's coaching it right now, just.

Speaker 10 (01:06:39):
So you know, he's pretty good defense otherwise. Really, yeah,
who do that? I think Ben Haley would stop her
on that. Maybe now, maybe you throw anybody out there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Even at even the morning or the day before his wedding,
he was still going after guys up and Eagle River, Wisconsin.

Speaker 10 (01:06:58):
You can't stop. Maybe I'm like, Jay, you're getting married
and you said, I don't care. You can't stop me.
He's talking. You can't stop me at all.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Hey, with with that Iowa State And look when I
look at it again from Afar, it feels like a
kid comes off the floor and everybody gets up in
high five. Everybody's hugging when guys come in off the bench.
And I've seen you guys in some games. You've blown
some teams out the guys that are starters are the
first ones to get up and they're all high five

(01:07:27):
and everybody talks about a family atmosphere. From sitting in
Milwaukee on my couch watching you guys play, kylege, it
feels like it truly is. Guys are playing for each other.

Speaker 6 (01:07:38):
Yeah, you want to celebrate the success your teammates. That
says a lot about you as a person when you're
able to do that and getting caught up in the
team something bigger than yourself. That's why a lot of
us got into coaching or playing or doing the things
that we do. And to what you and ja I
were talking about earlier, to get into the games early
and watching, Yes, that's where you learn that, right, it's
somewhat to learned behavior. But if they're doing in high school,

(01:07:59):
they'll do it in college. They're not doing in high school,
we're gonna have to you know, push prode pull their
teeth to get them.

Speaker 14 (01:08:04):
To do it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:05):
And that's not much funny either. We don't want to
have to do that, right, So we want guys who
are unselfish and sell with their teammate success and that's encouraged.
I mean That's what TJ teaches from day one, that
it's you know, how you do anything is how you
do everything, and that's the mantra of the team, and
that's how the guys play.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Hey, last question, I'll cut you, guys lose what And
I've not been on campus, but what is it about
about that city, that campus that whenever I talk to
players that went to visit come back and they go, oh, man,
I could see myself there. It's always the same. I
could see myself on that campus. I could see myself
playing for those guys. I could see myself part of

(01:08:43):
that team. And I'm wondering what the magic sauce is
about this campus that people from Wisconsin go over there
and go, look if they offer him going there?

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
No, I think besides Coach Green and his lovely face
and yeah, that's what it must be, the jokes that
he's been telling you. Further, you can get away from this,
you know it is though It's Iowa was unique because
there's no professional team, So I think Iowa State becomes
that professional team. And then that mantra of hey, we're

(01:09:13):
gonna come out, We're gonna do it, and the support
that you get so It's not something that we have
to necessarily fake, you know, as we can show them
a video or they can come to a game and
you're like, oh, there's fifteen thousand people here for us
to play whoever on a December night, And obviously when
you get in to play Kansas and everyone else, they're coming.
But sure they're coming for all the games. So you
get that support. You feel it around the community. It

(01:09:35):
is a special place, the passion that comes from it.

Speaker 12 (01:09:38):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:09:38):
I was never a big friend fan.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Oh right, Iowa, So whenever you guys played against them,
I wanted Iowa State because of you and because you guys,
And I thought, am I still going to feel that way.

Speaker 10 (01:09:49):
Once he's gone?

Speaker 15 (01:09:50):
I do?

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
You know what if anybody asks me, look, I got
an offer from Iowa State or Iowa, I'm going to
go to Iowas State.

Speaker 10 (01:09:57):
Good to Iowa statele. It's good to see you again.
She so, I was good. Happy New Year, boys. Keep
up the good work.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Thanks you.

Speaker 10 (01:10:03):
I appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
You bet we're going to get to a break on
the side of the break will continue. This is the
Varsity Blitz high school sports show presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores only on Fox
Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.

Speaker 10 (01:10:25):
Coming from the Donovan to Jorgansen Hitting and.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Cooling Studio's largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
of Wisconsin.

Speaker 10 (01:10:32):
So I'm recording some interviews at the Wby Shootout.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
I want to thank Mark Miller, and I want to
thank Sean Cassidy and the staff at Incordia for once
again just.

Speaker 10 (01:10:42):
Putting on a really class event. And I get treated
like a king when I come over here.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
And I got to tell Toy, I think everybody here
at the Wby Shootout for doing such a great job.
So yesterday I got a chance to hang out and
sit at the table with the Concordia and I've known
Dan Miller for a very long time, but I've not
had a chance to meet his wife. I think maybe

(01:11:08):
last year for a minute. But I got a chance
to meet his wife and two kids, and I had
a conversation with.

Speaker 10 (01:11:14):
His three year old daughter, Kendall.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
And the fact that I wasn't the smartest person in
that conversation is amazing.

Speaker 10 (01:11:22):
She was asking me like, Hey, what did you get
for Christmas? And Hey, do you have any kids? What
are their names?

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
And all of a sudden, in the middle of the conversation,
she said, hold on a second, hey, Logan, she's yelling
at one of the Concordia players.

Speaker 10 (01:11:37):
And I just had so much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
And then I got a chance to talk to Dan
for quite a bit and thought, man, what a great interview.
He's been at Concordia for I think fifteen years something
like that, and he's been Sean Cassidy's right hand man
for a long time.

Speaker 10 (01:11:52):
Hey, Dan, thank you for a couple of minutes of
your time.

Speaker 14 (01:11:54):
How you been absolutely, I mean, that's awesome.

Speaker 10 (01:11:57):
I appreciate this a lot. Hey, Kendall, something else. Brother.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
We talked about her and I'm like, she's she could
take my job today. Man, she just has that spark
about her. And your son was so nice and they
they seem to enjoy being part of the family here
at Concordia.

Speaker 15 (01:12:15):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a It's pretty common
to say family is a core value, especially in sports.

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
For us.

Speaker 15 (01:12:22):
You got to live it and I'm blessed to have
a family and a wife that that loves being in
the gym with me.

Speaker 14 (01:12:28):
Thank Goodness, love being Yeah, thank Goodness.

Speaker 10 (01:12:30):
Is right special place in heaven for coaches.

Speaker 15 (01:12:32):
Well absolutely couldn't could not do this without her, and
to be able to share it with them, even this
time of year again it's it's Christmas break, kids are
out of school.

Speaker 14 (01:12:41):
Just to have them come up, pop in the gym
for a couple of hours and hang out.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
When some people are going to Florida for their vacation.
You're here at seven o'clock for your practice and then
you're here all day for these days. Do you do
you like when the Wi dot comason Concordia.

Speaker 15 (01:12:56):
I mean I love the event. Yeah, I mean again
basketball junkies. I mean the jims fall all day, which
makes it fun and good basketball. Yeah, but it's it's
a lot of fun, and it's it's more about just
being able to reward those those athletes get a good experience.

Speaker 14 (01:13:11):
Again, this is such a big.

Speaker 15 (01:13:12):
Event for them, huge that to be able to kind
of share that with them and again try to put
Concordia on the map and show them what we can
provide them and.

Speaker 10 (01:13:20):
You, and you and Sean and the staff and the players. Man,
I watched you. I watched things right. I look, everybody's
watching the game, and I'm watching over.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Here as one of your players is helping somebody with
a walker to help her get up into the stands.

Speaker 10 (01:13:34):
And it just warms my heart because it comes from
the top.

Speaker 1 (01:13:38):
And and Sean Cassidy, for me, is one of the true,
really good guys in college basketball. And the fact that
you've been with him for as long as you've been
with him tells me a lot about the relationship that
you guys have. Look, I was an assistant coach and
a head coach, and I was a better assistant coach
than I was a head coach because we can get
after it in the in the coach's office, and I'm

(01:14:00):
sure you guys can too. But once that door opens,
he's the head of the program, and I'm gonna follow him,
lockstep right. And I watch the way you guys interact
and and and go about your business, not only have
practices that have come to watch, but certainly here at
the w By shootout, And it doesn't surprise me that
you guys have have coached together for as.

Speaker 10 (01:14:22):
Long as you have. Yeah, I would.

Speaker 15 (01:14:24):
I would definitely agree there to day is that that
we probably get on each other's nerves. We've been together
a long time, but we also know each other's thinking
and we know what we need to do to be successful.
Sometimes that comes in disagreement, and I have to remind
the guys that you know, we've been together a long
time and it's we're good and like you said, a
lot of times, you just walk out of that office.

Speaker 14 (01:14:46):
We're good. We'll move on and this is what we're
gonna do, and we're doing it together.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
Coach Wallersheim and I would would would go after it
and the locker room agreed to Martin Luther's the coaches
office right next to locker room, and they could hear us,
and I'd walk out and their eyes would be this thing.

Speaker 10 (01:15:01):
I'd be like what they'd be like, you guys are right?
I go, yeah, it's like we're married, right. My wife
gets mad at me. We're not getting to board. We're
still hanging out together holding hands. So I love that.
Can we talk a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
About your role here and kind of on a day
to day, especially during the season, what because it changes
once the season is over, but in the during the season,
talk to me about being an assistant.

Speaker 10 (01:15:24):
Coach here at Concordion what that means.

Speaker 15 (01:15:26):
Yeah, even the day to day can change, and it
can change pretty fast, which is again part of what
I love about it. Yeah, every day comes down a
little bit of everything. I mean, we spend time with
player development, so I may have a few workouts for
a few hours in the morning where I'm in the
gym with you know, small groups of guys, plenty of
time on film study, scouting reports, academic progress, plus just

(01:15:49):
the normal day to day, you know, having to follow
up with the emails, planning ahead to the next thing,
neil planning, coordinating all the different guys that are you know,
handling different problems. Maybe it's just a quick player meeting
with you know, two or three guys, something that's going
on in their lives.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
The academic side of it, you know that depending on
the team each year, that changes, right, I mean you
may have everybody on the eye roll of and you're good,
and then you've got kids that might need some extra help.
That part of what you do has got to be
really important. How difficult Over the years if you've had
somebody who has been academically eligible for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 10 (01:16:25):
That conversation that you have with coach Cassidy's got to
be difficult. It is.

Speaker 15 (01:16:30):
Thankfully, we're blessed to be able to have a group
and a culture that really values their education. We like
to tell them again, we've had I think now eleven
straight years with an ABC Academic Award with a team
GPA over a three point zero.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Wow.

Speaker 10 (01:16:47):
So it's really nice to know that. That's impressive.

Speaker 15 (01:16:50):
Yes, So it's really nice when you have, you know,
twenty five plus guys on the roster, almost all of
them are doing their homework. You don't want to be
the one guy that's not right to be able to
put them all in a room on their own and say, hey,
you guys have study table. I don't have to police
it very often. Right, They're able to just sit down
and study for an hour, which when you talk about
putting eighteen to twenty two year olds in a room
and expecting them to.

Speaker 14 (01:17:10):
Focus, they can do that.

Speaker 15 (01:17:13):
So that's really a testament more to the culture that
we've built. But more importantly then, yeah, when that does
come up, it's a hard conversation. Sometimes there's life lessons
that have to be learned in that I tried to
help you, I tried to guide you, you resist it.

Speaker 14 (01:17:25):
Now you have to come back to doing it my way,
and you know, put them in my.

Speaker 15 (01:17:29):
Office and we get to spend an hour together a
couple times a week and make sure you.

Speaker 10 (01:17:33):
Know, I would get kindled involved with that.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
I would.

Speaker 10 (01:17:38):
Sit down and do your homework.

Speaker 14 (01:17:39):
She would definitely hold them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
Account of Logan Lagers, who was a kid from Cedarburg
that that she was saying hi to. I can't imagine
that she could yell at him because she was so
excited to see him. So what about the breaking down
film and doing scouting reports on upcoming opponents?

Speaker 10 (01:17:57):
Is that land on you as well?

Speaker 15 (01:17:59):
Yes, yeah, again that's part of it. I mean maybe
I'm weird, but that's part that you love rights. That's
really the basketball side of it. So yeah, there's usually
a probably about ten to fifteen hours per opponent of
just watching video typing up SKYT reports. I actually spent
three years with Milwaukee Bucks where I got more of
an analytics background, so incorporating some of our analytics, being

(01:18:21):
able to kind of factor that into our game planning,
which then kind of goes into our practice planning of
you know, here's what we need to be building towards our.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Next I love that the travel part for you, you
know a lot of bush rides, a lot of making
sure that everything's on time, the food's ready to go,
making sure these guys are ready to play when you get.

Speaker 10 (01:18:41):
Off that bush. Do you like that part? Is that
a part that she's kind of like, Man, I wish
we didn't have a four hour bus ride.

Speaker 15 (01:18:48):
That's probably a part that I would love to not
have to constantly worry about. But again, we're blessed with
a really good staff here. We've got a straight assistant
who handles most of the scheduling and that kind of thing.
But yeah, that would be a part that's just an
extra strain that just I think that's also just comes

(01:19:09):
from experience of you always worry about that.

Speaker 14 (01:19:11):
Again, you said you were an assistant coach.

Speaker 15 (01:19:13):
Yeah, you always worry about is the bus on time?
Are we getting where we need to be on time?

Speaker 10 (01:19:17):
Right?

Speaker 15 (01:19:18):
Is the food going to be there? Do I have
somebody picking up the food? Where are we going next?
You're always you're always worried about.

Speaker 14 (01:19:24):
The next thing.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
It's a whole different level to being an assistant coach
at the high school level than the college level.

Speaker 10 (01:19:29):
But part of what you're saying, like in my gut
right now, I'm like, oh, man, I don't know if
I'm I don't miss it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
You know, thirty six years was long enough making sure
that that the subs were there on time, and two
of them had no cheese.

Speaker 14 (01:19:43):
There's nothing worse than the bus showing up late. Oh,
the world have no control over it, but the worst.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
And you look Coach Cassidy, Coach Wallers time in my
world right, two of the classiest people ever to coach,
and they like things done. The bus better vier five minutes,
relate the one. The two subs with no cheese, you
better have those already.

Speaker 10 (01:20:05):
All that kind of stuff. Hey, give me your background.
Where did you grow up? Where'd you go to high school?

Speaker 15 (01:20:09):
I grew up in Poisippi, Wisconsin, Okay, very small town
in was Shriraf County, about two hours north of here.
I went to Berlin High School and then I came
here for college and I've been here ever since.

Speaker 10 (01:20:20):
Really did you did you play basketball? And in high school?

Speaker 14 (01:20:24):
I played two years?

Speaker 10 (01:20:25):
You played two years? But to love the game, just
love the game, student of the game. Yes, and you
got a job with the Bucks and then after three
years came here.

Speaker 15 (01:20:34):
Yes, this became a full time position. Sean asked me
to join in full time and yeah, I been here.

Speaker 10 (01:20:38):
You've been here ever since. You know what I love?

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
Look when you when you talk to a lot of
assistant coaches that are always looking for that next step, right,
And I would tell people. I still get young guys
asking me, hey, you were an assistant and you were.

Speaker 10 (01:20:52):
A head coach and you coached in grade school, like
how did you make that transition? And what steps do
I need to make?

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
And I tell them the number one job of a
really good assistant coach is loyalty to the head coach.
I would still throw myself in front of a bus
for coach Wallershop. I'm not even you know, he's not coaching.
I'm not coaching, but that loyalty of Look, if I
want a head job, I'm not going to go after him.

Speaker 10 (01:21:14):
I'm going to go after another job.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
And I never hear anything from anybody saying, you know what,
Dan's trying to get that.

Speaker 10 (01:21:23):
Concordia job or dance.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
And I love the fact that I always hear from
Sean behind your back on what a great assistant coach
and the idea of being a good ambassador for him,
the school and the program. He just lays that on
you and what a great ambassador you are for the
whole program, and I love that. Do you think that
being a head coach in the future is something that

(01:21:45):
you want to do or is the place you're at
right now in your life exactly where you want to stay.

Speaker 15 (01:21:52):
No, I absolutely have a goal to be a head coach,
waiting on God's timing for that one.

Speaker 10 (01:21:57):
Amen.

Speaker 15 (01:21:58):
That's been a goal something I've been pursuing. It's hard, obviously,
the process is difficult.

Speaker 14 (01:22:05):
It's a lot very competition, competitive.

Speaker 15 (01:22:08):
Competitive role. Some have kind of come up over the
years and haven't been the best fit some things. That again,
when you a factor in family. Again, obviously, family is
very valuable to me. That's making sure that it fits
my wife and my kids and all that as well
is really important to me. But at the same time,
I'm blessed to be at a great university with a

(01:22:29):
great administration, great program that it's not easy to leave.

Speaker 14 (01:22:34):
So being able to find the right opportunity.

Speaker 10 (01:22:37):
Has to be a perfect fit, right, you know, Coach Cassie's.

Speaker 14 (01:22:40):
Not slowing down anytime soon.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
So and you are side of it, and you're not
going to be surprised by this. But I him and
I were sitting and you guys are so kind to
let me sit at your table. Mark is supposed to
have a table for me. But it's okay because you
guys are letting me sit at your table. But I
asked him when it was just him and I sitting
there yesterday. I put my hand on his arm and
and you're still having fun?

Speaker 10 (01:23:02):
He goes, mad, I'm having a ball. I'm having a ball.
And he's been doing this a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:07):
And and I haven't asked many head college basketball coaches
that question after they've been somewhere for as long, and
a lot of times it's like, you know, the whole
is transfer portal at nil now and and there's a
lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 10 (01:23:21):
And he just looked at me and he didn't hesitate,
and he goes absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
And I think from from that answer, what it tells
me is the administration here at Concordia and his staff
have have made.

Speaker 10 (01:23:33):
It so this is fun for him still. And I
love that. Yeah, it's a good administration here.

Speaker 6 (01:23:39):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
Yeah, they treat they treat you guys pretty well. As
long as you guys taking care of your business, you.

Speaker 15 (01:23:44):
Can you can go a lot of places and your
administration may not even know what's going on. Uh, We're
blessed again, Doctor Anker wrote. Our president is at most
home games, our chief of staff Steve Taylor, most home games,
and go through games and you've got you know, professors
in the crowd, food service workers, your maintenance staff, they're
all there. And again, it's pretty special that you can

(01:24:05):
play in front of all these people who care.

Speaker 13 (01:24:07):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
And you said early in this this conversation, you know
the word family, and people use that right, it's kind
of a buzzword.

Speaker 10 (01:24:14):
Oh we're a family. We're a family. When you say it,
it sounds different to me. And now I know why,
because if you've got the president in the crowd cheering
for your team, and you've got you know, people who
work here coming to watch these.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Guys play, it's that is different. And I felt that
when my son played at Maranatha, right, I felt that
when we came here or you guys came out by
us and there were more. There are more fans for
Concordia then for my boys team, and I just thought, Wow,
there's something, there's something special there. The other part is
you and and Sean are jim rats. Like I can't

(01:24:49):
go to a high school game without running in.

Speaker 10 (01:24:51):
To one of you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:24:52):
So you take that that recruiting the right type of
player seriously. And and it's not just you know, five miles,
not just at Homestead right right, A couple of miles
from here, I can be you know, late you have
a badger and I'll.

Speaker 10 (01:25:07):
Run into one of you guys. And I have a
lot of respect for how hard you guys continue to
work it. Do you like that part?

Speaker 14 (01:25:14):
Absolutely?

Speaker 15 (01:25:15):
You have to love it, like you said, I mean
you can tell that Sean and I you can tell
we love it because we live.

Speaker 14 (01:25:21):
It every day.

Speaker 15 (01:25:21):
That we want to surround ourselves with like minded guys.
That it's a lot more fun when you're shown by
guys that love it. If we have to pull you along,
it's not gonna be as fun.

Speaker 6 (01:25:30):
Then.

Speaker 15 (01:25:30):
Thankfully, again we've got a great group of guys that
love basketball, that love being together.

Speaker 14 (01:25:35):
That again, these are long.

Speaker 15 (01:25:36):
Days and they're they're working in the concessions they're they're
helping run the games and all that there.

Speaker 14 (01:25:42):
Jim their Jim rats, just like we are.

Speaker 15 (01:25:43):
Yeah, last night was a full gym and half of
my team was in there, whether they were working or not.
Just want to be in the environment, watch the games,
be a part of it. It makes the recruiting part fun.
I find the guys that love basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:25:54):
Damn.

Speaker 1 (01:25:54):
Thank you for your time. And we didn't talk at
all about this year's team. Guys, if you have interest, man,
come out watching Concordio play. You will love the style
of play. But I wanted to say thank you. It's
been years since we've we've known each other.

Speaker 10 (01:26:08):
I haven't had you on this show, and shame on
me for that. I just appreciate your time. It was Kendall,
by the way. I'm telling you. I went home and
talked to my.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
Wife about your daughter for like fifteen minutes because it
was so enjoyable for me. This young person that just
asked me all these questions and knew the environment and
started pointing to people, and I just enjoyed it.

Speaker 10 (01:26:30):
Hey, Dan, thank you very much. We're gonna get to
a break.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
Other side of the break will continue talking with a
couple of coaches that are out here at this year's
Wby Shootout. This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports
Show presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores, only on Fox Sports nineteen twenty and your
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save

(01:26:55):
and Metro Market Stores. Coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen
Heating and cool In Studios. So you got a few
minutes left in the show. And I just met Caleb Whitley.
He is an assistant coach at Lakeland, and I read
his bio and I thought, oh, I got to talk
to this young man. Graduated from Heritage Christian, played a
little bit of football there and then ended up walking

(01:27:17):
on at Lakeland and playing on their football program and
now one of the coaches, an assistant coach for the
basketball program.

Speaker 10 (01:27:25):
Caleb, it's nice to meet you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
How you Ben? I'm good?

Speaker 10 (01:27:27):
How are you man good? How's the year going so
far for the Muskies?

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
It's going all right.

Speaker 17 (01:27:33):
We were banged up a little bit, starting to get
a couple of guys back on kind of looking and
turning things over in the back half of our season.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Tough conference. You know, tough conference. You guys got some
really good, good coaches and players in that conference. As
we talked before we started to record. Your coach at
Heritage Christian your last one, Calen Boston, was Mike gart
when I coached the one year there. And I know
he's he's working in the real estate world and him

(01:28:01):
and I tuck every once in a while, not as
often as.

Speaker 10 (01:28:04):
We should, but he was a really good man. Did
you like playing for him?

Speaker 17 (01:28:07):
I love playing for him. We actually still stay in
touch to this day. Whenever I need advice. That's my
go to guy to reach out to.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
You know what, That's a good guy to go to
because he I loved coaching him. He was tough, he
was a really good finisher, could shoot it a little bit.
I wish we would have had a little bit more
success with that group. And I think if if I
could have had him in those guys another year, or
had them their junior year, I think the senior would

(01:28:36):
have played pretty well.

Speaker 10 (01:28:37):
So you're a.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
Basketball guy, then played football, and now you're back into basketball.

Speaker 10 (01:28:43):
How do you like coaching and the things that you
have to do as an assistant coach.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
I love it. I think my favorite part is just
working with the guys every day.

Speaker 17 (01:28:53):
My senior year, I was actually able to internship with
the basketball program, and so a lot of our senior
class was there when I started my first year. So
it's been great just to see the growth in them
and see where they're at now versus when I first started.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
Hey, how because you're a young guy, mat how hard
is it for you as probably the youngest guy in staff?
I would think that that benefits you rather than than
you know, Look, you were just one of these guys
a few years ago.

Speaker 10 (01:29:23):
Is that a benefit for you to know.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
Really closely on what they're going through as far as
being on campus, taking care of your school work and
getting to practice on time?

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
I would say so.

Speaker 17 (01:29:34):
Our other assistant coach, DeMarcus, is also the same age
as me, so overall we're pretty young staff, and I
think it makes it a lot easier to connect with
the guys that either are on the team or that
we're trying to recruit.

Speaker 10 (01:29:47):
So can you still shoot the ball a little bit?

Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
I never really have a good jumping man.

Speaker 10 (01:29:52):
Look at you being all honest with me. Thank you
for that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
Summer where you can get to the rack a little bit,
a little bit. Mostly did my work on the defense end,
just like other football guys.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
So man, I loved coaching those football boys. They give
me all five of those files, right, gritty, you gotta
be gritty. Do you live up on campus then yep, so.

Speaker 17 (01:30:11):
I still stay on campus, so I'm around on call
twenty four seven whatever the guys need them there.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
Hey, what is said? Did you realize what the life
of an assistant coach at the college level was going
to be like for you as far as your your
day to day opportunity to work with guys. But then
there's so much more right making sure the buses are
on time, making sure the meals on time, the scotty
reports to recruiting. You're at the w I shootout looking

(01:30:39):
at some high school kids. Did you know get going
in what the amount of time that it was going
to take to be a good assistant coach.

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
Honestly, going into it, I had no clue what to expect.

Speaker 17 (01:30:51):
I just knew I wanted to be around basketball, and
so kind of that first year really gave me an
idea of what I would be doing. And then in
this second year, I've kind of gotten really comfortable in
my role in understanding what I have to do and
how to stay organized and be really task oriented.

Speaker 1 (01:31:08):
Hey, when you talk to high school kids, how much
do you bring up the term student athlete in the importance?
Because I know enough about Lakeland to understand that that
they're not giving grades away. You got to do the
work to be able to stay eligible and to be
a good student athlete. Do you have that conversation with
these kids?

Speaker 17 (01:31:25):
That's probably the most important part is the academics. You know,
you're a student person. Basketball ends at some point, like
the whole purpose of coming is to get that four
year degree in enjoy it while playing hoops at the
same time.

Speaker 1 (01:31:40):
You know, we talked about about the alumni from Lakeland
and how if you if you stay there and you
finish and get your degree. Man, the alumni of Lakeland
are all looking out for each other. And look the
term it's kind of a family. I mean, it's just
everybody uses that term. But when I used to be
on that camp up set Lakeland, I truly felt that

(01:32:02):
and is it still the same there?

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
That was actually the reason I decided to go to Lakeland.

Speaker 17 (01:32:08):
If you want a place where you feel like a priority,
where you feel like the people genuinely care about you.

Speaker 3 (01:32:13):
Lakeland's the spot.

Speaker 1 (01:32:14):
Hey, when you talked about the student athlete side of it,
your motivation for that part of it, for being such
a good student athlete, where did that come from for you?

Speaker 3 (01:32:25):
Just the drive to be successful?

Speaker 17 (01:32:26):
I think I had really good people around me growing up,
like Kalen Boston, who really helped me turn around my
grades in high school. I wasn't a grade student to
start with, and he really prioritized that and kind of
gave me the push I needed to And then I
just ended up carrying that over into my college career.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
Man, I think I think Kalen for that because that
was important to him in high school as well, and
I never had to worry about him as far as.

Speaker 10 (01:32:52):
Is he going to be eligible or not. Some of
the guys on that team at.

Speaker 1 (01:32:55):
Heritage that Coast I had to worry a little bit about,
but Kleen Boston was not was not one of those.
Do you do you feel like coaching is what your
future is going to be? Would you like to continue
in that in that realm? And what did you graduate
from Lakeland? What kind of degree do you have?

Speaker 17 (01:33:11):
My degree is a sports management and leadership degree, and
I'm currently getting my m b A at the moment,
so I'll have my MBA come in really, and my
plan is to stay in sports.

Speaker 3 (01:33:24):
Love sports, So I just want to stick around.

Speaker 10 (01:33:27):
Where do you Where do you find the time? This time?

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
You're to get your homework and study and stuff, because
you guys are busy.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
It's tough. It's tough.

Speaker 17 (01:33:34):
You just got to stay organized on top of everything
and try and work ahead if you can.

Speaker 1 (01:33:39):
When you come to a thing like the w By
shootout and you get a chance to talk to some
of these players about the opportunity that Lakeland would have
for them, how do you start with with those guys?

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:33:52):
Do you talk a little bit about your experience on campus?
Do you talk about the conference? Where do you start
an assistant coach some of these guys.

Speaker 17 (01:34:00):
Because I recently graduated, I usually bring up my own
experience and kind of share.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
With them what my story is.

Speaker 17 (01:34:07):
Just try to be relatable and give them a good
feel for the vibe on campus.

Speaker 10 (01:34:13):
Man, that's awesome. Do you want to get a lot
of kids?

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
I would look at rosters a lot coaching, and I
want to know if they're giving our kids from the
state of Wisconsin a chance to play at the next level.
Lakeland looks it's kind of in the middle of nowhere
we talked about, but there's so many Division three schools
in this state of Wisconsin. It's hard sometimes for a
private school like Lakeland to get kids to come there.

Speaker 3 (01:34:39):
I wouldn't say it's hard.

Speaker 17 (01:34:40):
You know, we get the people that want to come obviously,
and then I just sell them on the fact that
you're you're going to be a priority at Lakeland.

Speaker 3 (01:34:48):
The people there are great.

Speaker 17 (01:34:49):
You'll build great relationships, and then you know, there's Lakeland
alums everywhere. We're really well connected with whatever you're looking
to go into.

Speaker 10 (01:34:59):
Yeah, I I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
And I told you about the guy who's the morning
show host on one of three point seven kiss at Them.
When I worked over there and Lakeland was a client
of mine. The woman I worked with called and said, Hey,
I've got a young guy that would like to get
an internship at a radio station, and he's now the
morning guy along with Ali Faith on one of three
point seven. And he was a football player at Lakeland

(01:35:24):
and one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Speaker 10 (01:35:27):
And I said, man, how could you be so nice
to be a football player? You said, I put that
helmet on and everything changed for me. Did you enjoy
being part of that program?

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
I loved it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
I loved it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:38):
I played under coach Bruin, who was amazing coach.

Speaker 4 (01:35:42):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:35:42):
It was a great experience my four years.

Speaker 10 (01:35:44):
What position did you play?

Speaker 3 (01:35:45):
I played receiver.

Speaker 10 (01:35:46):
Yeah, you're a pretty boy. Can you catch the ball?

Speaker 2 (01:35:52):
Man?

Speaker 10 (01:35:52):
That? That is awesome? How much do you miss playing?

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
I think about it every day every day?

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (01:35:58):
I had a guy once coach he had the saline
reporter for the high school football game of the week
on Channel twenty four, and had a guy come up
to me in a Mcgonago game who had been removed
three years from high school football, and he said, I
would give you anything I own except my truck and
my dog if you could get me one more week.
I want the full week of practice and the Friday

(01:36:19):
night home game. If I asked you that you would
love to get one more week, huh, one more week?

Speaker 10 (01:36:25):
Who would you play? If you could pick it? Who
would you play against?

Speaker 2 (01:36:29):
You don't like that?

Speaker 10 (01:36:32):
We're there now? We better say this quietly. Yeah, that
was the team you wanted to beat every year.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Yes, sir, that was our rival.

Speaker 10 (01:36:39):
Did you guys have success your four years against that?

Speaker 17 (01:36:42):
My first two years yes, and then my last two
years we didn't. It is not We'll love to run
that back for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:36:48):
Hey, a last question, and I'll cut you loose.

Speaker 1 (01:36:50):
When you finish your degree and you get your MBA,
do you see yourself staying at Lakeland or are you
going to possibly look for opportunities around the country.

Speaker 17 (01:37:00):
Open to anything. I wouldn't mind standing at Lakeland. I
would love to kind of stick it out another year
if possible.

Speaker 10 (01:37:07):
But any chance on getting it maybe on that football
staff as well. Can you do both?

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 10 (01:37:16):
I don't know how much time.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
Yeah, you better get your your master's first because you
couldn't do all three for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:37:23):
Hey, it's really nice to meet you. It's kind of
cool that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:26):
Your heritage Christian grad and your Milwaukee guy, and we
both we both have a lot of affection for Kale
and Boston. And I'm going to take a picture and
send it to him and say, look who I'm hanging
out with. And he said you should have let him
shoot the ball a little bit more stuff like that,
Hey coach, Happy New York's tanks to meet you. You got,

(01:37:46):
Thanks for listening. This is the Varsity Place high school
sports show, as always presented by your local Pick and
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