October 21, 2025 • 40 mins
Join Darren Headrick for BBN Radio, presented by Clark's Pump-n-Shop. Stunt Head Coach Blair Bergmann and Women's Golf Head Coach Golda Borst
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, and welcome into another action packed edition of
BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. It's another busy
week for UK Athletics and we've got a fun show
on tap here tonight as we're going to introduce you
to one of the newest sports on campus with Stunt.
We've got head coach Blair Bergman in studio with us,
and later on we'll check in with goldaborst from women's golf.
(00:23):
But before we do that, just real quick some news
and notes. Volleyball remains unbeaten in SEC play with a
five set victory over the Florida Gators. Their next match
will be on Friday at Mississippi State, but want to
come back by Craig Skinner's Wildcats yesterday to remain unbeaten
in league play. Women's soccer played to a draw against LSU.
(00:45):
They'll wrap up the regular season next Sunday at Texas
A and M before the SEC Championships, and men's soccer
bested South Carolina two to one at the Bell. They'll
be at Georgia's Southern Wednesday, and then of course this weekend,
a lot of excitement on campus as the men's basketball
team hosts number one per Due in an exhibition game
at six o'clock. That's Friday night at Reparena, and our
(01:08):
airtime on the UK Sports Network will be four to
thirty Football against the Balls. It's Tennessee eight week around
campus Tennessee and Kentucky this Saturday, a seven forty five kick.
We'll be on the air at five thirty. So that's
just a couple of news and notes to get us started.
Coming up next year on BBN Radio, we'll be joined
by Blair Bergman, the head coach of Stunt. We'll talk
(01:29):
to him and we'll introduce that sport when we come
back here on the UK Sports Network. Welcome back into
BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm Darren Hedrick.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
We got a special guest with us tonight to start
off the show, and it's Blair Bergman, the head coach
of Stunt, which is the newest sport on campus. Now
it's not their first year, they've been competing since twenty
twenty two, but we're excited to have coach with us
and thanks welcome. In twenty nine and three last year
you finished national runner up three straight years, so obviously
(01:59):
this pros off and running already.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
No, I mean it's been awesome just being able to
create something from the ground up and just having success
right off the bat. You know, even in our very
first year with a team full of walk Ons, we
were able to qualify for postseason play. So you know,
it's kind of unheard of for you know, a group
of that young of talent just to do what they did.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And then you know, since then we just built.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
And then these last three years we've gotten better and
better and better. And even last year I wanted, you know,
thirty and two I think would have been a little
bit better of a record, But you know, I think
we can definitely grow on the success that we had
last year.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
For casual fans who have not been to a game,
tell us a little bit about the sport, and I
guess maybe the description is a little bit of cheer
routines and a little bit of gymnastics everything rolled into world.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, So I think this is my favorite question because
I get it all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So the way to think about stunt right is it
is a little bit different than traditional cheerleading. The way
I like to describe it as yes, you know, you
have figure skating and ice hockey, right, so figure skating
is a little bit more performance based. You know, they
have the routine that they're exhibition, that's cheerleading. Stunt is
closer to ice hockey because we are a four quarter
game and with that four quarter game, each quarter is
(03:15):
a different category m So there are those traditional elements,
but none of the raw raw. So like in quarter one,
you know, we're we're playing stunts. So you'll see the
girls are lifting each other up, they're doing the flips,
they're doing all these different skills in sync. And the
way stunt works is both these teams perform the same routine,
so whoever does it the best, they get the points good.
So it's in real time you see, oh man, that
(03:37):
that was a good routine. They'll probably get the point.
So it's pretty cool to see, you know, that category go.
And then so we had our stunt category. Then we'll
go into uh, pyramids and tosses, which is quarter two,
and you know, I mean it's awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
You'll see them.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Stack on top of each other, You'll see people flipping
in the back, You'll see just all these really cool
intricate routines happening there. Then we have our ten halftime,
which goes straight into tumbling, and tumbling is a little
bit closer to like a gymnastics full routine. Or you'll
see the girls, they'll be doing jumps, they'll be you know,
doing those different tumbling type passes. And the cool thing
(04:13):
about tumbling is there's only seven girls on the mat,
so it gets to highlight some of these athletes that
you know, have really really technical tumbling abilities. And then
when you get to quarter four, Quarter four is pretty
unique because it combines the first three into one. So
instead of you know, like I was saying, with the
first three quarters you can score one point per routine played,
(04:35):
you can score three. So you know, we call the
routine the stunt category will go. You'll see a little
bit of transition happen. That'll go into the jumps and tumbling.
One more transition that goes into the pyramid. So the
really cool thing about quarter four is when they're playing
that round, you'll see like this sort of momentum, right,
this momentum bill because you know, the stunts will go,
(04:57):
they'll start building. You'll see the tumblers they'll be, you know,
adding excitement doing their passes doing all that.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Then you get to.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Pyramids, and while all this is going on, you see
girls coming on and off the mat, so as opposed
to kind of you know, the routine happening, and then
everyone leaves. You see this sort of hey, we just
killed it, we just did awesome, all right, go get it,
go get it right, and then Pyramids sort of that
exclamation point that really finishes the game.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
You know, it's a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
And you know, people once they see a stunt game
in person, like, oh my gosh, I can feel that,
I can feel the momentum shifts, I can feel how
exciting it is.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It sounds intense.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Oh yeah, it gets that way.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I'm sure it does.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So along those lines, what is practice and training like
for the student athletes?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah, so with us, it's just a whole lot of reps.
I mean, that's the simple way to put it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Because our sport is just so execution heavy, so we
need to make sure that we do the same thing
at the right time.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Perfectly, over and over and over.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So, you know, it's sort of similar to rifle, where
they need to make sure that they do the same
they have the same what is it?
Speaker 4 (06:06):
What's the word I'm looking for the same routine.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Routine.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There we go, the same routine when they're taking that shot.
It's a little bit similar to us because you can't
have somebody that's you know, really excited it's game day.
They could mess up the whole structure or the whole routine,
or they might give a little bit too much power
and tumble a little bit too fast and over rotate,
you know. So when it comes to practice, a lot
of it is just being intentional with the mental game, right,
(06:30):
just knowing, hey, I'm gonna do it correctly in practice,
I'm gonna make sure I'm doing it like this. So
then when we do have those really you know, exciting
intense games, like it's just another rep. So a lot
lot of being intentional and then just a lot of hey,
we're gonna do this probably a thousand times that you're
gonna be able to do it in your sleep.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So I was just sitting here imagining in my head.
Do you allow the student athletes to kind of be
creative on their routines and formed the way they want
to do things, or you have for the casual fans
play calls that you like to go.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, so kind of with the way stunt is structured,
so all teams are performing the same routines, right, so
we all get the same twenty four routines. And basically
what happens is in stunt there's possession. So at the
beginning of the game, there's a coin toss, and whoever
wins the coin toss can either elect to have possession
(07:27):
in the first half or in the second half. So
if you have possession, let's say I call I get
possession first, I get to call the first routine of
the game. Okay, so you know you normally I get
to call the first routine and the last routine of
the game. So what's cool about possession is, you know,
each quarter has four rounds, so possession ping pongs. So
(07:50):
like I said, I won the coin toss, I have possession.
I'll call maybe routine four. Both teams go out there,
perform routine four, and then whoever does it better gets them.
So with the with the levels too, you know one's
the easiest, it's the hardest, so you do have a
little bit of variety to choose from when you're actually
having a game. So if I know, you know the
(08:10):
other team's not very good at five. I'm calling five
all day now.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And determining who gets the point. YEP, tell me a
little bit about maybe the officiating, the judges, what they're
looking for to award the point.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So on top of there's a video, you know, the
the routines are videoed, and there's sort of a blueprint,
and on top of that, there's these sheets. They're called
an eight count sheet, and on the eight count sheet
it basically says what needs to be.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Done on every count.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So they have sort of, you know, this eight count
sheet that they see and it really comes down to
the ability and execution of the teams after that.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So the way our sports.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Kind of evolved is it is very very extremely technical
because it'll say this, you know, like tumbling and it'll
say this tumbler needs to start on one and then
you'll finish on one. So you'll be able to watch
them doing their tumbling pass. If they start on two,
you'll get ding there. If they land a little bit later,
get ding there. If they land and take a step,
get ding there. So there's different ways, you know, because
(09:11):
it's here's what you need to do, when you need
to do.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
It, and then it's just about having your own flair
doing it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And for folks at home that haven't seen the match,
you do have perfect games, right, that's where you get
all twenty four points.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Wow. Yeah, and you've done that. Your teams have done that.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Yeah, we did that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We did it a couple of times.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It was pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well, you and I were just talking before we started
this interview, and we're chatting with Blair Bergmann, the head
coach of the stunt team.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
About the roster size.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You have a lot of student athletes to get to
know and coach and manage.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
How do you do it?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You know, it's it's it can be tough sometimes, but
you know, one of the things as a head coach,
and just as we started getting going and our roster
was growing, I didn't like that there would be days where.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I wouldn't even have a conversation with one of the.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Girls, And as a co you're like, how am I
How can I be a better coach if I don't
even talk to my girls every day? So what we
started is there called greetings.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So what we'll do is we'll literally line up in
the middle of the mat. Everyone kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Uh, in two lines facing each other, and then we
say hi to everybody by name, so well, look make
sure we're good, we say, all right, go So then
we greet each other by name every practice. So it's
just a good way to be like, hey, how you doing.
Haven't seen you with tub you know with k Sheila?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We got to take a quick time out Here on
bb and Radio, we're presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. We'll
continue with Coach Bergmann after this here on the UK
Sports Network, We're back with Coach Bergman of Kentucky Stunt
Here on bb and Radio, presented by Clark's Pumping Shop
and coach. In the last segment, we sort of introduced
some fans that hadn't been able to see a stunt
game to the sport. And I mean it sounds intense
(10:53):
like we were talking about but this is going to
be your fifth year as the head coach, You're coming
off three straight runs of National runner up. Just kind
of tell me a little bit about the growth of
the sport that you've seen in such a short time.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I mean it's crazy because we were one of the
sports that I think we got through the emerging sport
pro process probably faster than most and you know, we're
right on track to be I think the fastest sport
to be granted championship status, you know, from emerging all
the way to championship status. So that just speaks volumes
because even you know, when I was we started stunt
(11:29):
here at UK, like we were right before the emmer,
we got the announcement that we would be emerging sports,
but all the writing was on the wall. Teams are
adding left and right, you know, and it's just such
an exciting.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Sport for people to get involved in.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
So just kind of seeing it, hey, like you know,
we're not uh in CAA just yet, but then it
was a quick turnaround where we were and then more
and more teams are adding more d ones, more D two's.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
So like it's just been it's just awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I In terms of young ladies that would like to
get into the sport, they can do it from several
different backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Right, And I think that's what's really cool about this
sport is it provides an opportunity for I think young
women that didn't have that opportunity before because there used
to be I think are just a traditional mold that
you had to check certain boxes to be able to
continue your.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Sport at the college level.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And with stunt, it's you can have so many different backgrounds.
You can have your uh, your gymnasts, you know, you
can have your traditional cheerleader. You could even have someone
that just does powerlifting, right cause we need some strong
girls on our team, so we can have a combination
of different backgrounds because with each category, people can come
on and off the mat, so you don't have to
(12:41):
be have to do it all. You can do a
little bit of everything, or we do have you know,
or hybrids as we like to call them, that just
do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Uh, I understand that you were already on campus as
an assistant coach on the cheerleading side of things when
stunt emerged as a new championship sport.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
How did that and your background in stunt and cheerleading
help prepare you to launch a brand new program from scratch?
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I don't think anything can prepare you to launch anything
from scratch. You know, that first year, I think what
we said, you know, we were building that plane as
we were flying it, so but we knew who we
wanted to be and I think just my background, you know,
I got to be at some pretty cool places, and
then just even being here and just understanding what it
is to be Kentucky. I think that really helped us
(13:28):
build the program the way we wanted to be cause
I knew, even from when I was offered the position,
I wanted us to be a team that was grateful
for the opportunity that we have, because this opportunity didn't
even exist a couple of years ago. So being able
to build a team off of being grateful, wanting to
compete at the highest level, being good people, those sort
(13:51):
of our building blocks. So finding kids that sort of
fit that mold and then bringing them together, I think
that really helped us. It really catapulted us forward.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And you can see the growth of the sport even
in your schedule. The first year you played fourteen games,
last year you played thirty two. And have you seen
more and more schools picking up the sport as you've
gone along and tried to make your schedule out.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Oh yeah, And I think that's what makes it exciting
because now we have more places to travel to. So yeah,
So I mean, on average, we're always gonna play at
least thirty games.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Now, yeah, and I was looking at your schedule from
last year too, and you play games. But yet there's
there's a lot of multi team events.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Right, Yeah, So a lot of our travel is when
we're going as round robin. So typically we'll see kind
of say who's going to be attending the tournament. We know, hey,
they might be the D two meter national champ, they
might be a runner up, they might be a good
Anaia team. So the nice part is we have that
flexibility to go to these tournament places, these really high
(14:51):
caliber teams, because if you want to be the best,
you gotta play the best.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
In terms of recruiting, what are some things that you
look for in the student athletes outside of skill?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, I think I kind of talked about that a
little bit earlier. You know, the gratitude, right cause we
don't one thing, you know, even when it comes to
recruiting when we're having the conversations like hey, if you've
been a jerk for eighteen years, I can't change you
them for so making sure that the people that we
do bring in that they understand what a privilege it
is to be wearing blue, to representing our university at
(15:26):
the highest level and to have the chance to do
something for the first time. That's what's I think was
pretty cool about starting a sport is you get to say, oh,
we got to do this for the first time. You're
not just another cog in the machine. You're the foundation
to this program. And having kids and talking to them
being like, hey, like we want to put that first
(15:46):
banner up. Are you gonna be the one that helps
us get that first banner? Are you gonna be the
first one that gets us that perfect game? So it
takes a different kind of kid to be like, oh,
I want to be the first to do that, as
opposed to hey, they're a good team. They've been a
good team. Like I think that really helped our growth.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And I mean, looking at your roster, you've got student
athletes from all over, so I'm just curious to know,
like maybe somebody from South Dakota or California, how do
they get on your radar?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, you know, it just kind of depends because with
as big as our roster is, you know, there's usually
a little bit of different puzzle pieces that we're looking for.
And I think that's the cool part too, that we
do have the ability to get people from different places.
You know, going back to year one when we were deciding, Okay,
(16:33):
how are we gonna build this roster and how we're
gonna build it quick talking to the we wanted the
kids to really represent Kentucky. Well, well, the best way
to do that is to have your homegrown kids, right.
Stunt isn't at the high school level, but everyone knows
what Kentucky is, right, especially at the cheerleader with cheerleading
and being so big here, So we wanted these homegrown
(16:54):
girls that love Kentucky to kind of be part of
that backbone. And then in Californi, where stunt is at
the high school level actually originated there, they've been doing
it their whole lives, So how do we mesh those
two to make something great? And that's kind of what
we went for and what we ran with, and now
it's now we can just kind of fit more puzzle pieces, like, hey,
(17:15):
there might be a girl from Florida that has the
ability these Kentucky girls or girls that have been on
the team, and our teacher what it what it means
to be on this team.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And that brings me to my next question, which is
about the roster this year, and you have a lot
of returning experience.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I do.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, I mean this is it was cool because last
year was our first class of girls that had been
on the team for four years, so my first four
year senior class. So this year, you know, we have
the group that actually got to experience the NCAA changes.
So having them on the roster and you know, having
that experience starting from knowing you know, Team One, which
(17:53):
you know was our our group of walk ons, our
forty walk ons, they you know, did something special to
now where it's like, hey, all, like we're we wanna
be the best. We were aiming to be the best
in all that we do. Like having that experience in them,
watching them teach the younger girls, it's cool because it
helps me not having to repeat myself so many times.
(18:14):
And it's just you know, they have some good ownership
and accountability and.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I imagine too, touching off what you just said, especially
with this first four year senior class. Yeah, with the
bright future ahead opportunities to compete and win championships, this
class is still gonna always be special because they helped
set the foundation.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Right Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, No, this is the first
for yeah, the first class that actually had an in
season and out of season, so.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you've got some newcomers too.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
What do you like most about the new faces on
the team.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh man, these newcomers, they're they're funny, they are they
all got personality though, right, yeah, they now the newcomers,
they have skill and I think they're fitting in right,
fitting in well because they're able to I think push
the older girls a little bit because they do have
the ability, but they're also hungry to learn. They wanna
learn like what makes us us and having a good
(19:09):
i think older class to show them like they've been,
they've been stepping up and giving them a run for
their money. So I'm excited that we kind of have
those you know, internal battles with like people being.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Able to do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So it's not like I think we're limited in the
capacity where like, okay, only half my team is probably
where I needed them to be. The other half or younger,
we gotta get 'em up to speed. I think we're
all moving together, which is nice.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Coach.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
We got a couple of minutes left in this segment,
but I wanted to ask about the training this time
of year and building towards the next season.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
What's that like for the athletes.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah, so right now we're kind of you know, we
got into our in season a couple of weeks ago,
so we've been working on routines, really really figuring out
some of these skills, cause you'll see it, it looks
like a circus out there with some of the elements
that they're throwing.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
So trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Some of these circus elements, starting to build up our
conditioning because you know, once Christmas rolls around, we'll have
a few weeks off there, so don't want to get
to a point where we're you know, we're really really
really in shape, can run these routines, take two weeks
off and then have to start over.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So it's really about.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Fine tuning, finding all our niche things that we need
to do, making it ours, getting to a good spot,
you know, conditioning wise, and then once we come back
in the spring, like it's.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Full go coach.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We appreciate you being on the show, and just real quick,
the schedule be coming out and coming weeks. Fans can
check that out on UCA Athlics dot com.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
That's right February first, we will be hosting Okay, very first,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
All right, February first. We're excited and looking forward to it.
Coach Bergman, thank you, thanks for having me. We're going
to switch over and catch up with Goldabors from Kentucky
Women's Golf when we come back. This is BBN Radio
presented by Clark's Pumping Shop on the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It's BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop here on
the UK Sports Network. And we just had a fun
chat with Blair Bergmann from the Kentucky stunt team. Now
we're going to visit again with Goldenborst from Kentucky Women's Golf.
She and the team are just back from a tournament
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Well rested and ready to go.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Coach, thanks for me, Yes, so well rested. I feel great.
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Just flicking back on the weekend. Your thoughts on, first
of all, how the team performed overall?
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Yeah, we could have played better, no doubt, but there's
always positives to take.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
We I keep saying it.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
We have a young team and you know they're getting
more and more battle tested by every round by every tournament.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
This was a hard golf course.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
We didn't execute the way we wanted to, but again
there's bits and pieces and it's really exciting for what's
to come.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Sophomore Carly Campbell paced the team. She becomes the third
different player to be the top finisher for the club.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
This is a competitive group.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
It is a very competitive group.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Yeah, they love to beat each other, let me tell
you so, No, they really do. They compete with each other.
They want to be the Each one of them wants
to lead us and so it's really great to see
and yeah, I think that there's a lot more left
in the tank.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Well what did you see out of Carly this weekend
and how she was able to be the top finisher.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, she was way better off the tee and then
her approachase were also a little bit better. Gave herself
more opportunities. She could definitely have made a few more putts.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
She's usually a really.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Strong putter, but just struggled to find the bottom of
the cup. So yeah, good stuff to come.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
All the teams that were competing in Chapel Hill this week,
and I imagine battled some weather conditions too, because it
was a pretty potent system moved through Lexington while you
guys were down there.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Yeah, we got the winds, we got the wins. Thankfully,
we were off really early the last day and so
we got it on the tail end of the round.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
But yeah, I gusted pretty good.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
And again that golf course is hard as it is,
which is a great test. But yeah, we definitely battled
in some good wins.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So the wind and weather, that's something you can't control
and every team has to deal with it. I mean,
I imagine that's the one thing when you practice that
you really can't prepare a team for until they're in.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It right correct and just to be able to execute
the shot under pressure. We can do it at the
U Club usually it's it's sort of gusty and windy,
but to do it on a different type of grass
right we were in Bermuda conditions.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
The rough was ridiculous. I mean you could barely we
took some pictures you.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
Could barely see the top of the ball, and so
trying to hit those shots in the wind is yeah,
it can be tough.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, this weekend you're going to close out the false schedule,
I believe in Wilmington, North Carolina. So right back on
the road, what do you want to see the team
do in this last tournament before you take the break
for spring.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
I would love to see it's just as consistent off
the tee. That really helped us this week. We got
a position, and I would argue that we hit our
approaches pretty well too.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
It's just a matter of getting those key up and downs.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
A few times we're barely off the green and maybe
the lies a little funky, and we got to be
able to execute those better and then make the pipe.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Coach, I know we've had you on here before and
we've talked about practice times when you go to these
tournaments to get kind of a feel. But I was
just wondering the way maybe a baseball or football team
scouts their next opponent.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Is there a way that you.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Can kind of scout the next course that you're about
to face.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
My assistant, Will Sale does a great job scouting it.
He does the Google Earth thing, He maps it all out.
I mean, we are very prepared as we head into
the golf course, and we have friends that have been
there before. A good friend of my longtime friend is
a member there, and so we've had phone calls and
just apparently they've redone their greens and so it's really
(24:39):
really firm. So it's great to come from North Carolina
Chapel Hill where those greens were firm and fast, and
then we're going right into that in Wilmington, same type
of grass and everything.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
So yeah, we are very well prepared.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
One thing I was going to ask you about too,
and we were chatting about this before we started this
interview is the travel, Because the golf roster is how
does that allow for you to do different things and travel,
whether it's planes, automobiles, but also picking restaurants out while
you're in a town.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Are you calling us out?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
No?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
So yeah, we we try to go to local spots.
We try to find some you know, we of course
I love chains, but we also try to find some
local food.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
And so we asked a lot of questions where to
go and where to eat.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
And this last week the tournament was sponsored by rus
Chris and it's funny how that works. It's a former
UNC player and he sponsored it now for twenty years
and he has a dinner for the head coaches the
night before the first round. It's a wonderful thing. They
have a speaker and so we learned from actually the
UNC lacrosse coach. That was really cool. But yeah, we
(25:45):
did take the team to Ruce Chris. We did have
gift cards. Yeah, just for the budget, we did have
gift cards match and so we enjoyed that very much.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yes, Sirtain, but yeah, I mean I would imagine it's
fun trying to find those those local places to go into.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
But also just the close knit.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I guess chemistry that that creates because you're traveling in
vans maybe to a tournament or you're flying somewhere as well.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
It's a great time.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
So we usually have a bigger event that we take,
but we've taken rental cars for we've driven the last
the first three events, and so we switch vans and
try to mix it up so everybody gets to ride
together at one point.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
But there's a lot of laughter.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
We had a giggle, We had the girls giggling in
the back yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
We had a stink bug in the car.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yes, yeah, it was really actually really funny, but my
assistant Julie got it for me and saved me, saved
me literally.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
No, it's it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Now I just have to ask, is I'm sure there's
some music that's played. Is there anybody on the team
that's a DJ when it comes to pigging the music?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Listen c A. Carter, Okay, listen.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
She the last couple of rounds, we gave the phone
to her in my car and I said, okay, dial
it up and you would be shocked at the music thing.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Was being in played.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
We had walka Flaka Wow, right, that's I believe that's
his name. Yeah, we had some we had some good songs.
We had some football tunes and there is great We
played the fight song try to get us kind of
amped up.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
We have a really good time.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
But other than that, it's a lot of country, a
little bit of a you know, singing out loud playlist
and back porch country.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
So well, like we talked about your getting ready for
your last tournament of the fall in Wilmington, North Carolina,
but then going into kind of that down period until
your season starts again in the spring. What is training
and practice like in you know, November, December and January,
especially when the weather starts turning winterning.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
Yes, it does so for us, our I mean, our
girls go spring, summer, fall, and so we try to
figure out what's best. You know, it's it best to
take a little bit of time off in November early December,
or do you continue to go hard and then take
the December month off because you got the holidays and
things like that. They do need a break, but we
(28:07):
try to be really intentional about each specific person, making
sure they get whether it's a swing change or really
working off fundamentals, working on speed. It can be a
few different things, but we try to space it out
to make sure that each player knows what they're doing
and talking to their swing coaches and things like that,
and then we ramp back up, try to play as
much as we possibly can to know regardless of what
(28:28):
the weather's doing. With a great simulator in our golf house,
that's been a great addition for us and it allows
us to still play even though we might have bad
weather outside.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What is that like when you have a golfer that's
trying to make some swing changes Because I'm kind of
thinking in my baseball background, a hitter that might change
his swing path and working with them to make it.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
A habit, A lot of reps, a lot of mirror work,
really for us, and then visualizing to you know, I
think a lot of them also go down south, so
whether they go to Sea Island or Florida. We have
a couple of girls that have you know that live
down in Florida over the winter, so we try to
get them to encourage them to compete. Ana Station's gonna
(29:11):
play in the Patriot Invitational in in December.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
I think it is or January early January.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
She got invited to that, and so Folds of Honor
hosts that. So if they can stay active and continue
to compete through the winner, that also really helps, cause
it's a long break. But we try to take the
the early months in the off season to work on
the swing changes if that's something that they need to do.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And then once you get into January and those spring
tournaments are coming around, what are some things you do
to ramp the team back up and get them ready
to go.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Yeah, we we play in that simulator and we do
a lot of games on the track.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
Man.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
We work a ton on distance control, cause that's what
we can actually control, so how far are.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
We hitting it?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Making sure our patterns are good, and then we we
chip and put a lot in our indoor and as
soon as we can be outside, we're gonna be outside.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It might be cold, but it's.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Gonna make us tougher, so we're gonna be out there grinding.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Well, Coach, One thing I want to talk to you
about when you mentioned the technologies and the simulator and
all that, is just the growth of the sport.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
But we got to take our last break, so we'll
do that.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
On the other side, we're chatting with Goldabors from Kentucky
Women's Golf. This is bb and Radio presented by Clark's
Pumping Shop on the UK Sports Network Vital segment of
our show for this week. This is bb and Radio
presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. I'm Darren Hedrick, joined by Goldibors,
the head coach of Kentucky Women's Golf and coach. Right
before the break, you mentioned that the team's going to
(30:30):
do a lot of stuff on the simulator and track
man through the winter months getting ready for spring. In
terms of the development and technologies to allow them to
do this. When you think about the overall growth of
the sport, just how far has it come even in
the last few years.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
It's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
I mean even yeah, three four years for us to
be able to add the simulator has been huge. We
didn't have that a few years back, and we have
our Putt View two and that's been really good. So
it's this thing that you can move the slopes and
things like that, work on your putting inside and work
on your actual stroke and ampoint and things like that.
It's definitely helpful as we develop our kids. But then
(31:08):
we also see the players coming in. They are more
ready to go than ever.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I was going to ask you thinking towards the future,
kind of big picture with the growth of golf, and
I know you have a young family that's getting into
the sport now with two daughters. How have you seen
the sport grow for girls and young women.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's impressive.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
It's hard to put into words, honestly, because yeah, we're lucky.
I have two smaller kids and they actually like the game,
which is really fun, and so you know they're getting
specialized earlier. But there are around more girls. I see
way more girls playing and there's a lot.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
More tours coming up.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
I mean I grew up playing in Sweden, so I
didn't have anything necessarily like this, but there's a little seven,
eight nine year olds out there playing in the PJ
Junior League and there's so we have those public courses
here in Lexington and we have them in other places too,
and there's just a lot more opportunities and I think
parents are catching on that golf is a really great
(32:11):
sport to start early. So if you have any parents
out there with young daughters, get them in early because
it's a sport that they're going to be so thankful
later on. They might not like you right now, but
they're gonna like you later on because you can go.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
In business and everything.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
You can go play it doesn't matter the age, and
you can hold a conversation and you're disciplined and you
have to. Yeah, it's a really good game.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I'm glad you brought that up with parents that have
young daughters and getting them involved. What are some things
you think they can do to encourage them and find
those opportunities you mentioned.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
In terms of golf. Yeah, yeah, I think just taking them.
You know, whether you are in the golf or not.
There's several places. Again, we got a great kind of
public golf course system here in Lexington that if you
want to get introduced to golf. You can do that
whether you want to find a female coach or a
(33:05):
male coach. There's just a lot of those opportunities through
the City of Lexington. And so just getting golf clubs
in the hands of when they're really young, just whack
the ball, even if you know they play softball or
other sports, right, like learning how to hit the golf
ball when it's just sitting in front of you.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And I also think about the evolution of just when
you add in pop culture and society to any sport,
but maybe golf. I think about all the like the
content creators that are out there and the influencers. Kentucky
golf has somebody who's in a lum and Marisa Windsler
an outstanding golfer in her own right, but now she's
(33:45):
also a content creator, and so I guess my main
question for that is how do you maybe work with
Marissa to cultivate that into getting people interested in Kentucky
golfer recruiting even.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Yeah, it's something that we're still exploring.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
She just signed with Good Good, which is and I
just saw that they just signed. They're gonna, you know,
host a men's PGA tour event. So it's pretty exciting.
You know, she's really taken off and taken ownership of it.
She's always been very good at call it that stuff.
But yeah, she's wonderful at content. I think she's great
(34:21):
at connecting with people, and I think it's something that
we can all be better at. But how we tap
into that, we're still working through that with our good
friend cammyally and trying to work through that and seeing
what makes sense for her and what makes sense for us.
But she's a wonderful resource and the first person that
I called to ask for help with stuff.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
And yeah, she's really good.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
An ambassador and influencer terms that we're all getting used
to this.
Speaker 6 (34:48):
DAYA no kidding, No, Yeah, it's crazy, Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, we're chatting with Golden Bors from Kentucky Women's Golf.
Got just a few minutes left in the show, but
I wanted to bring up Laney frot big moment for
her to earn her LPGA card. First of all, for
folks who might not know how that process works, it's
very competitive. Can you kind of give us an idea
of just what a golfer would have to do go
(35:15):
through to earn that in the avenues.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Yeah, So her senior year at Kentucky she went to
LPGAQ School and so she made it far enough where
she got status on the Epsentur.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
She didn't earn her card.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
Right away that way, but she got enough status on
the Epsentur to play a full season on it, and
she played well enough and consistently enough that she got
the fifteenth tour cards, so to speak. So there's fifteen
cards and one through nine get full status and ten
through fifteen get a little bit of status, so she
(35:49):
will have some status to kind of step in and
create opportunities for herself to earn better status on the
LPGA Tour. And that's a huge step because that's where
you want to be. That's where she's trying to win,
and she's you know, she went through all the different
avenues and she has really really flourished, and we all
knew that this was possible, and it's just very cool
(36:10):
to see her step into the person that she could
be and to have the support system that she has
in her family and in Lexington, And it's really neat
to watch a player just succeed at their craft and
what they've been working on for so long.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
In order to get these statuses to earn these cards.
Basically is it competing in maybe more regionalized tournaments and
performing well.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
How did they go through those steps?
Speaker 6 (36:35):
So the LPGA is the final goal, right, and then
the EPSOM Tour they compete all over the country, same thing.
So it's like a step down tour from the LPGA,
But that's the path.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
That's the avenue that.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
The LPGA Tour wants to use to prepare their players
so that they can compete on the LPGA Tour once
they finally get there. So she has traveled all over
the country, she's had her caddy with her, and she
has played very consistent and has finished obviously top five,
top ten. Really it's done very very well. But I
think that's the piece, the consistency. You know, she has
(37:10):
played at a very high level all summer and into
the fall.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
We were talking about the growth of the sport and
you mentioned EPSOM now with fifteen cards, that shows part
of it. They're handing out more and more trying to
grow the sport.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
Yeah, they are, and they're doing a great job, and
I think that tour is stepping up. You've got the
Onica Women's All Pro Tour. I just spoke to a
lady that runs that, and I shouldn't say lady, she's
a girl. But they're also trying to grow, you know,
there's so many women's golfers out there and it's great
to see that they have a place to go. And
then they're trying to feed into the EPSENT Tour. So
(37:43):
you know, when you play in one of those events,
if you're finish top two, you get an exemption into
an Epsent Tour event, you know, and if you can
play well at that Epsent Tour event, then you can
continue to under status to.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Maybe get your EPs and cards.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
So it's it's kind of a trickle up effect, which
is what they're trying to do. And at the end
of the day, they're just, yeah, trying to prepare the
players for when they get to.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
The LPG Tour.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Speaking of women, more and more women picking up golf
clubs and playing the sport. You had a chance to
spend the day with the women's basketball team on the course.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
How fun was that.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
I didn't think you're gonna bring that up yet. That
was really fun. Jordan can play man, he can play no.
She has a really good golf swing. I thought Tony.
Tony had never held a golf club, so she just
putted a little bit. She had a few shots, but
she's a little hesitant. But I was very impressed by
Jordan and it was a really nice time to get
to know her better. I'm excited to start seeing her
(38:33):
on the court too. Hopefully I can go to a
practice and see how she competes in practice, how the
whole team does. I really respect coach Brooks and and
love what he's doing with the program.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah, and it's it was so fun because I think
the women's basketball staff they love to spend down time
on the course, so this was right up their alley.
Speaker 6 (38:53):
Yeah, it's We've gotten to know them very well and
they're they're an awesome, awesome staff, And I didn't really
nice how much they love golf. And obviously we have
the same media person and Camy Moore, and Cammy is
wonderful and she just kind of connected us and we've
just all hit it off. And golf is is It's
a fun game, and I love how into it and
(39:15):
how passionate they are.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
I had my kids out there and they were hitting
golf balls and they were in awe and what my
kids were doing with the club, and I was pretty
impressed by what they were doing. And it's just it's
kind of been organic and we have a ton of
fun and laugh and again I'm I'm pretty impressed by
what Jordan did and how well she hit it. And
but it just goes to say, right, what we just
(39:38):
talked about earlier, if you can get your young daughters
into different sports just to try it, that's something she's
gonna be able to do for a really long time.
We just got to get her putting stroke down a little,
get the routine, I get the routine, under ball striking well.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Coach.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
We appreciate the time. Best of luck in Wilmington this weekend.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You can see that head coach Goldenborst of Kentucky Women's Golf.
That's our show for this week. We'll catch you next Monday.
This has been BBN Radio presented by Clark's Puppin Shop
on the UK Sports Network
Hello everybody, and welcome into another action packed edition of
BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. It's another busy
week for UK Athletics and we've got a fun show
on tap here tonight as we're going to introduce you
to one of the newest sports on campus with Stunt.
We've got head coach Blair Bergman in studio with us,
and later on we'll check in with goldaborst from women's golf.
(00:23):
But before we do that, just real quick some news
and notes. Volleyball remains unbeaten in SEC play with a
five set victory over the Florida Gators. Their next match
will be on Friday at Mississippi State, but want to
come back by Craig Skinner's Wildcats yesterday to remain unbeaten
in league play. Women's soccer played to a draw against LSU.
(00:45):
They'll wrap up the regular season next Sunday at Texas
A and M before the SEC Championships, and men's soccer
bested South Carolina two to one at the Bell. They'll
be at Georgia's Southern Wednesday, and then of course this weekend,
a lot of excitement on campus as the men's basketball
team hosts number one per Due in an exhibition game
at six o'clock. That's Friday night at Reparena, and our
(01:08):
airtime on the UK Sports Network will be four to
thirty Football against the Balls. It's Tennessee eight week around
campus Tennessee and Kentucky this Saturday, a seven forty five kick.
We'll be on the air at five thirty. So that's
just a couple of news and notes to get us started.
Coming up next year on BBN Radio, we'll be joined
by Blair Bergman, the head coach of Stunt. We'll talk
(01:29):
to him and we'll introduce that sport when we come
back here on the UK Sports Network. Welcome back into
BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm Darren Hedrick.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
We got a special guest with us tonight to start
off the show, and it's Blair Bergman, the head coach
of Stunt, which is the newest sport on campus. Now
it's not their first year, they've been competing since twenty
twenty two, but we're excited to have coach with us
and thanks welcome. In twenty nine and three last year
you finished national runner up three straight years, so obviously
(01:59):
this pros off and running already.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
No, I mean it's been awesome just being able to
create something from the ground up and just having success
right off the bat. You know, even in our very
first year with a team full of walk Ons, we
were able to qualify for postseason play. So you know,
it's kind of unheard of for you know, a group
of that young of talent just to do what they did.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And then you know, since then we just built.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
And then these last three years we've gotten better and
better and better. And even last year I wanted, you know,
thirty and two I think would have been a little
bit better of a record, But you know, I think
we can definitely grow on the success that we had
last year.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
For casual fans who have not been to a game,
tell us a little bit about the sport, and I
guess maybe the description is a little bit of cheer
routines and a little bit of gymnastics everything rolled into world.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, So I think this is my favorite question because
I get it all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So the way to think about stunt right is it
is a little bit different than traditional cheerleading. The way
I like to describe it as yes, you know, you
have figure skating and ice hockey, right, so figure skating
is a little bit more performance based. You know, they
have the routine that they're exhibition, that's cheerleading. Stunt is
closer to ice hockey because we are a four quarter
game and with that four quarter game, each quarter is
(03:15):
a different category m So there are those traditional elements,
but none of the raw raw. So like in quarter one,
you know, we're we're playing stunts. So you'll see the
girls are lifting each other up, they're doing the flips,
they're doing all these different skills in sync. And the
way stunt works is both these teams perform the same routine,
so whoever does it the best, they get the points good.
So it's in real time you see, oh man, that
(03:37):
that was a good routine. They'll probably get the point.
So it's pretty cool to see, you know, that category go.
And then so we had our stunt category. Then we'll
go into uh, pyramids and tosses, which is quarter two,
and you know, I mean it's awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
You'll see them.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Stack on top of each other, You'll see people flipping
in the back, You'll see just all these really cool
intricate routines happening there. Then we have our ten halftime,
which goes straight into tumbling, and tumbling is a little
bit closer to like a gymnastics full routine. Or you'll
see the girls, they'll be doing jumps, they'll be you know,
doing those different tumbling type passes. And the cool thing
(04:13):
about tumbling is there's only seven girls on the mat,
so it gets to highlight some of these athletes that
you know, have really really technical tumbling abilities. And then
when you get to quarter four, Quarter four is pretty
unique because it combines the first three into one. So
instead of you know, like I was saying, with the
first three quarters you can score one point per routine played,
(04:35):
you can score three. So you know, we call the
routine the stunt category will go. You'll see a little
bit of transition happen. That'll go into the jumps and tumbling.
One more transition that goes into the pyramid. So the
really cool thing about quarter four is when they're playing
that round, you'll see like this sort of momentum, right,
this momentum bill because you know, the stunts will go,
(04:57):
they'll start building. You'll see the tumblers they'll be, you know,
adding excitement doing their passes doing all that.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Then you get to.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Pyramids, and while all this is going on, you see
girls coming on and off the mat, so as opposed
to kind of you know, the routine happening, and then
everyone leaves. You see this sort of hey, we just
killed it, we just did awesome, all right, go get it,
go get it right, and then Pyramids sort of that
exclamation point that really finishes the game.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
You know, it's a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
And you know, people once they see a stunt game
in person, like, oh my gosh, I can feel that,
I can feel the momentum shifts, I can feel how
exciting it is.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It sounds intense.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Oh yeah, it gets that way.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I'm sure it does.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So along those lines, what is practice and training like
for the student athletes?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah, so with us, it's just a whole lot of reps.
I mean, that's the simple way to put it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Because our sport is just so execution heavy, so we
need to make sure that we do the same thing
at the right time.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Perfectly, over and over and over.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So, you know, it's sort of similar to rifle, where
they need to make sure that they do the same
they have the same what is it?
Speaker 4 (06:06):
What's the word I'm looking for the same routine.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Routine.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There we go, the same routine when they're taking that shot.
It's a little bit similar to us because you can't
have somebody that's you know, really excited it's game day.
They could mess up the whole structure or the whole routine,
or they might give a little bit too much power
and tumble a little bit too fast and over rotate,
you know. So when it comes to practice, a lot
of it is just being intentional with the mental game, right,
(06:30):
just knowing, hey, I'm gonna do it correctly in practice,
I'm gonna make sure I'm doing it like this. So
then when we do have those really you know, exciting
intense games, like it's just another rep. So a lot
lot of being intentional and then just a lot of hey,
we're gonna do this probably a thousand times that you're
gonna be able to do it in your sleep.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So I was just sitting here imagining in my head.
Do you allow the student athletes to kind of be
creative on their routines and formed the way they want
to do things, or you have for the casual fans
play calls that you like to go.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, so kind of with the way stunt is structured,
so all teams are performing the same routines, right, so
we all get the same twenty four routines. And basically
what happens is in stunt there's possession. So at the
beginning of the game, there's a coin toss, and whoever
wins the coin toss can either elect to have possession
(07:27):
in the first half or in the second half. So
if you have possession, let's say I call I get
possession first, I get to call the first routine of
the game. Okay, so you know you normally I get
to call the first routine and the last routine of
the game. So what's cool about possession is, you know,
each quarter has four rounds, so possession ping pongs. So
(07:50):
like I said, I won the coin toss, I have possession.
I'll call maybe routine four. Both teams go out there,
perform routine four, and then whoever does it better gets them.
So with the with the levels too, you know one's
the easiest, it's the hardest, so you do have a
little bit of variety to choose from when you're actually
having a game. So if I know, you know the
(08:10):
other team's not very good at five. I'm calling five
all day now.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
And determining who gets the point. YEP, tell me a
little bit about maybe the officiating, the judges, what they're
looking for to award the point.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So on top of there's a video, you know, the
the routines are videoed, and there's sort of a blueprint,
and on top of that, there's these sheets. They're called
an eight count sheet, and on the eight count sheet
it basically says what needs to be.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Done on every count.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So they have sort of, you know, this eight count
sheet that they see and it really comes down to
the ability and execution of the teams after that.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So the way our sports.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Kind of evolved is it is very very extremely technical
because it'll say this, you know, like tumbling and it'll
say this tumbler needs to start on one and then
you'll finish on one. So you'll be able to watch
them doing their tumbling pass. If they start on two,
you'll get ding there. If they land a little bit later,
get ding there. If they land and take a step,
get ding there. So there's different ways, you know, because
(09:11):
it's here's what you need to do, when you need
to do.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
It, and then it's just about having your own flair
doing it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And for folks at home that haven't seen the match,
you do have perfect games, right, that's where you get
all twenty four points.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Wow. Yeah, and you've done that. Your teams have done that.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Yeah, we did that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We did it a couple of times.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It was pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well, you and I were just talking before we started
this interview, and we're chatting with Blair Bergmann, the head
coach of the stunt team.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
About the roster size.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You have a lot of student athletes to get to
know and coach and manage.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
How do you do it?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You know, it's it's it can be tough sometimes, but
you know, one of the things as a head coach,
and just as we started getting going and our roster
was growing, I didn't like that there would be days where.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I wouldn't even have a conversation with one of the.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Girls, And as a co you're like, how am I
How can I be a better coach if I don't
even talk to my girls every day? So what we
started is there called greetings.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So what we'll do is we'll literally line up in
the middle of the mat. Everyone kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Uh, in two lines facing each other, and then we
say hi to everybody by name, so well, look make
sure we're good, we say, all right, go So then
we greet each other by name every practice. So it's
just a good way to be like, hey, how you doing.
Haven't seen you with tub you know with k Sheila?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We got to take a quick time out Here on
bb and Radio, we're presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. We'll
continue with Coach Bergmann after this here on the UK
Sports Network, We're back with Coach Bergman of Kentucky Stunt
Here on bb and Radio, presented by Clark's Pumping Shop
and coach. In the last segment, we sort of introduced
some fans that hadn't been able to see a stunt
game to the sport. And I mean it sounds intense
(10:53):
like we were talking about but this is going to
be your fifth year as the head coach, You're coming
off three straight runs of National runner up. Just kind
of tell me a little bit about the growth of
the sport that you've seen in such a short time.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I mean it's crazy because we were one of the
sports that I think we got through the emerging sport
pro process probably faster than most and you know, we're
right on track to be I think the fastest sport
to be granted championship status, you know, from emerging all
the way to championship status. So that just speaks volumes
because even you know, when I was we started stunt
(11:29):
here at UK, like we were right before the emmer,
we got the announcement that we would be emerging sports,
but all the writing was on the wall. Teams are
adding left and right, you know, and it's just such
an exciting.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Sport for people to get involved in.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
So just kind of seeing it, hey, like you know,
we're not uh in CAA just yet, but then it
was a quick turnaround where we were and then more
and more teams are adding more d ones, more D two's.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
So like it's just been it's just awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I In terms of young ladies that would like to
get into the sport, they can do it from several
different backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Right, And I think that's what's really cool about this
sport is it provides an opportunity for I think young
women that didn't have that opportunity before because there used
to be I think are just a traditional mold that
you had to check certain boxes to be able to
continue your.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Sport at the college level.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And with stunt, it's you can have so many different backgrounds.
You can have your uh, your gymnasts, you know, you
can have your traditional cheerleader. You could even have someone
that just does powerlifting, right cause we need some strong
girls on our team, so we can have a combination
of different backgrounds because with each category, people can come
on and off the mat, so you don't have to
(12:41):
be have to do it all. You can do a
little bit of everything, or we do have you know,
or hybrids as we like to call them, that just
do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Uh, I understand that you were already on campus as
an assistant coach on the cheerleading side of things when
stunt emerged as a new championship sport.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
How did that and your background in stunt and cheerleading
help prepare you to launch a brand new program from scratch?
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I don't think anything can prepare you to launch anything
from scratch. You know, that first year, I think what
we said, you know, we were building that plane as
we were flying it, so but we knew who we
wanted to be and I think just my background, you know,
I got to be at some pretty cool places, and
then just even being here and just understanding what it
is to be Kentucky. I think that really helped us
(13:28):
build the program the way we wanted to be cause
I knew, even from when I was offered the position,
I wanted us to be a team that was grateful
for the opportunity that we have, because this opportunity didn't
even exist a couple of years ago. So being able
to build a team off of being grateful, wanting to
compete at the highest level, being good people, those sort
(13:51):
of our building blocks. So finding kids that sort of
fit that mold and then bringing them together, I think
that really helped us. It really catapulted us forward.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And you can see the growth of the sport even
in your schedule. The first year you played fourteen games,
last year you played thirty two. And have you seen
more and more schools picking up the sport as you've
gone along and tried to make your schedule out.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Oh yeah, And I think that's what makes it exciting
because now we have more places to travel to. So yeah,
So I mean, on average, we're always gonna play at
least thirty games.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Now, yeah, and I was looking at your schedule from
last year too, and you play games. But yet there's
there's a lot of multi team events.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Right, Yeah, So a lot of our travel is when
we're going as round robin. So typically we'll see kind
of say who's going to be attending the tournament. We know, hey,
they might be the D two meter national champ, they
might be a runner up, they might be a good
Anaia team. So the nice part is we have that
flexibility to go to these tournament places, these really high
(14:51):
caliber teams, because if you want to be the best,
you gotta play the best.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
In terms of recruiting, what are some things that you
look for in the student athletes outside of skill?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, I think I kind of talked about that a
little bit earlier. You know, the gratitude, right cause we
don't one thing, you know, even when it comes to
recruiting when we're having the conversations like hey, if you've
been a jerk for eighteen years, I can't change you
them for so making sure that the people that we
do bring in that they understand what a privilege it
is to be wearing blue, to representing our university at
(15:26):
the highest level and to have the chance to do
something for the first time. That's what's I think was
pretty cool about starting a sport is you get to say, oh,
we got to do this for the first time. You're
not just another cog in the machine. You're the foundation
to this program. And having kids and talking to them
being like, hey, like we want to put that first
(15:46):
banner up. Are you gonna be the one that helps
us get that first banner? Are you gonna be the
first one that gets us that perfect game? So it
takes a different kind of kid to be like, oh,
I want to be the first to do that, as
opposed to hey, they're a good team. They've been a
good team. Like I think that really helped our growth.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And I mean, looking at your roster, you've got student
athletes from all over, so I'm just curious to know,
like maybe somebody from South Dakota or California, how do
they get on your radar?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, you know, it just kind of depends because with
as big as our roster is, you know, there's usually
a little bit of different puzzle pieces that we're looking for.
And I think that's the cool part too, that we
do have the ability to get people from different places.
You know, going back to year one when we were deciding, Okay,
(16:33):
how are we gonna build this roster and how we're
gonna build it quick talking to the we wanted the
kids to really represent Kentucky. Well, well, the best way
to do that is to have your homegrown kids, right.
Stunt isn't at the high school level, but everyone knows
what Kentucky is, right, especially at the cheerleader with cheerleading
and being so big here, So we wanted these homegrown
(16:54):
girls that love Kentucky to kind of be part of
that backbone. And then in Californi, where stunt is at
the high school level actually originated there, they've been doing
it their whole lives, So how do we mesh those
two to make something great? And that's kind of what
we went for and what we ran with, and now
it's now we can just kind of fit more puzzle pieces, like, hey,
(17:15):
there might be a girl from Florida that has the
ability these Kentucky girls or girls that have been on
the team, and our teacher what it what it means
to be on this team.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And that brings me to my next question, which is
about the roster this year, and you have a lot
of returning experience.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I do.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, I mean this is it was cool because last
year was our first class of girls that had been
on the team for four years, so my first four
year senior class. So this year, you know, we have
the group that actually got to experience the NCAA changes.
So having them on the roster and you know, having
that experience starting from knowing you know, Team One, which
(17:53):
you know was our our group of walk ons, our
forty walk ons, they you know, did something special to
now where it's like, hey, all, like we're we wanna
be the best. We were aiming to be the best
in all that we do. Like having that experience in them,
watching them teach the younger girls, it's cool because it
helps me not having to repeat myself so many times.
(18:14):
And it's just you know, they have some good ownership
and accountability and.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I imagine too, touching off what you just said, especially
with this first four year senior class. Yeah, with the
bright future ahead opportunities to compete and win championships, this
class is still gonna always be special because they helped
set the foundation.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Right Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, No, this is the first
for yeah, the first class that actually had an in
season and out of season, so.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you've got some newcomers too.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
What do you like most about the new faces on
the team.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh man, these newcomers, they're they're funny, they are they
all got personality though, right, yeah, they now the newcomers,
they have skill and I think they're fitting in right,
fitting in well because they're able to I think push
the older girls a little bit because they do have
the ability, but they're also hungry to learn. They wanna
learn like what makes us us and having a good
(19:09):
i think older class to show them like they've been,
they've been stepping up and giving them a run for
their money. So I'm excited that we kind of have
those you know, internal battles with like people being.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Able to do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
So it's not like I think we're limited in the
capacity where like, okay, only half my team is probably
where I needed them to be. The other half or younger,
we gotta get 'em up to speed. I think we're
all moving together, which is nice.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Coach.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
We got a couple of minutes left in this segment,
but I wanted to ask about the training this time
of year and building towards the next season.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
What's that like for the athletes.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah, so right now we're kind of you know, we
got into our in season a couple of weeks ago,
so we've been working on routines, really really figuring out
some of these skills, cause you'll see it, it looks
like a circus out there with some of the elements
that they're throwing.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
So trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Some of these circus elements, starting to build up our
conditioning because you know, once Christmas rolls around, we'll have
a few weeks off there, so don't want to get
to a point where we're you know, we're really really
really in shape, can run these routines, take two weeks
off and then have to start over.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So it's really about.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Fine tuning, finding all our niche things that we need
to do, making it ours, getting to a good spot,
you know, conditioning wise, and then once we come back
in the spring, like it's.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Full go coach.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We appreciate you being on the show, and just real quick,
the schedule be coming out and coming weeks. Fans can
check that out on UCA Athlics dot com.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
That's right February first, we will be hosting Okay, very first,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
All right, February first. We're excited and looking forward to it.
Coach Bergman, thank you, thanks for having me. We're going
to switch over and catch up with Goldabors from Kentucky
Women's Golf when we come back. This is BBN Radio
presented by Clark's Pumping Shop on the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It's BBN Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop here on
the UK Sports Network. And we just had a fun
chat with Blair Bergmann from the Kentucky stunt team. Now
we're going to visit again with Goldenborst from Kentucky Women's Golf.
She and the team are just back from a tournament
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Well rested and ready to go.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Coach, thanks for me, Yes, so well rested. I feel great.
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Just flicking back on the weekend. Your thoughts on, first
of all, how the team performed overall?
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Yeah, we could have played better, no doubt, but there's
always positives to take.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
We I keep saying it.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
We have a young team and you know they're getting
more and more battle tested by every round by every tournament.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
This was a hard golf course.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
We didn't execute the way we wanted to, but again
there's bits and pieces and it's really exciting for what's
to come.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Sophomore Carly Campbell paced the team. She becomes the third
different player to be the top finisher for the club.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
This is a competitive group.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
It is a very competitive group.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Yeah, they love to beat each other, let me tell
you so, No, they really do. They compete with each other.
They want to be the Each one of them wants
to lead us and so it's really great to see
and yeah, I think that there's a lot more left
in the tank.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Well what did you see out of Carly this weekend
and how she was able to be the top finisher.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, she was way better off the tee and then
her approachase were also a little bit better. Gave herself
more opportunities. She could definitely have made a few more putts.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
She's usually a really.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Strong putter, but just struggled to find the bottom of
the cup. So yeah, good stuff to come.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
All the teams that were competing in Chapel Hill this week,
and I imagine battled some weather conditions too, because it
was a pretty potent system moved through Lexington while you
guys were down there.
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Yeah, we got the winds, we got the wins. Thankfully,
we were off really early the last day and so
we got it on the tail end of the round.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
But yeah, I gusted pretty good.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
And again that golf course is hard as it is,
which is a great test. But yeah, we definitely battled
in some good wins.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So the wind and weather, that's something you can't control
and every team has to deal with it. I mean,
I imagine that's the one thing when you practice that
you really can't prepare a team for until they're in.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It right correct and just to be able to execute
the shot under pressure. We can do it at the
U Club usually it's it's sort of gusty and windy,
but to do it on a different type of grass
right we were in Bermuda conditions.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
The rough was ridiculous. I mean you could barely we
took some pictures you.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
Could barely see the top of the ball, and so
trying to hit those shots in the wind is yeah,
it can be tough.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, this weekend you're going to close out the false schedule,
I believe in Wilmington, North Carolina. So right back on
the road, what do you want to see the team
do in this last tournament before you take the break
for spring.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
I would love to see it's just as consistent off
the tee. That really helped us this week. We got
a position, and I would argue that we hit our
approaches pretty well too.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
It's just a matter of getting those key up and downs.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
A few times we're barely off the green and maybe
the lies a little funky, and we got to be
able to execute those better and then make the pipe.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Coach, I know we've had you on here before and
we've talked about practice times when you go to these
tournaments to get kind of a feel. But I was
just wondering the way maybe a baseball or football team
scouts their next opponent.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Is there a way that you.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Can kind of scout the next course that you're about
to face.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
My assistant, Will Sale does a great job scouting it.
He does the Google Earth thing, He maps it all out.
I mean, we are very prepared as we head into
the golf course, and we have friends that have been
there before. A good friend of my longtime friend is
a member there, and so we've had phone calls and
just apparently they've redone their greens and so it's really
(24:39):
really firm. So it's great to come from North Carolina
Chapel Hill where those greens were firm and fast, and
then we're going right into that in Wilmington, same type
of grass and everything.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
So yeah, we are very well prepared.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
One thing I was going to ask you about too,
and we were chatting about this before we started this
interview is the travel, Because the golf roster is how
does that allow for you to do different things and travel,
whether it's planes, automobiles, but also picking restaurants out while
you're in a town.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Are you calling us out?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
No?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
So yeah, we we try to go to local spots.
We try to find some you know, we of course
I love chains, but we also try to find some
local food.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
And so we asked a lot of questions where to
go and where to eat.
Speaker 6 (25:24):
And this last week the tournament was sponsored by rus
Chris and it's funny how that works. It's a former
UNC player and he sponsored it now for twenty years
and he has a dinner for the head coaches the
night before the first round. It's a wonderful thing. They
have a speaker and so we learned from actually the
UNC lacrosse coach. That was really cool. But yeah, we
(25:45):
did take the team to Ruce Chris. We did have
gift cards. Yeah, just for the budget, we did have
gift cards match and so we enjoyed that very much.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yes, Sirtain, but yeah, I mean I would imagine it's
fun trying to find those those local places to go into.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
But also just the close knit.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I guess chemistry that that creates because you're traveling in
vans maybe to a tournament or you're flying somewhere as well.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
It's a great time.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
So we usually have a bigger event that we take,
but we've taken rental cars for we've driven the last
the first three events, and so we switch vans and
try to mix it up so everybody gets to ride
together at one point.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
But there's a lot of laughter.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
We had a giggle, We had the girls giggling in
the back yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
We had a stink bug in the car.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yes, yeah, it was really actually really funny, but my
assistant Julie got it for me and saved me, saved
me literally.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
No, it's it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Now I just have to ask, is I'm sure there's
some music that's played. Is there anybody on the team
that's a DJ when it comes to pigging the music?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Listen c A. Carter, Okay, listen.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
She the last couple of rounds, we gave the phone
to her in my car and I said, okay, dial
it up and you would be shocked at the music thing.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Was being in played.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
We had walka Flaka Wow, right, that's I believe that's
his name. Yeah, we had some we had some good songs.
We had some football tunes and there is great We
played the fight song try to get us kind of
amped up.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
We have a really good time.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
But other than that, it's a lot of country, a
little bit of a you know, singing out loud playlist
and back porch country.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
So well, like we talked about your getting ready for
your last tournament of the fall in Wilmington, North Carolina,
but then going into kind of that down period until
your season starts again in the spring. What is training
and practice like in you know, November, December and January,
especially when the weather starts turning winterning.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
Yes, it does so for us, our I mean, our
girls go spring, summer, fall, and so we try to
figure out what's best. You know, it's it best to
take a little bit of time off in November early December,
or do you continue to go hard and then take
the December month off because you got the holidays and
things like that. They do need a break, but we
(28:07):
try to be really intentional about each specific person, making
sure they get whether it's a swing change or really
working off fundamentals, working on speed. It can be a
few different things, but we try to space it out
to make sure that each player knows what they're doing
and talking to their swing coaches and things like that,
and then we ramp back up, try to play as
much as we possibly can to know regardless of what
(28:28):
the weather's doing. With a great simulator in our golf house,
that's been a great addition for us and it allows
us to still play even though we might have bad
weather outside.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What is that like when you have a golfer that's
trying to make some swing changes Because I'm kind of
thinking in my baseball background, a hitter that might change
his swing path and working with them to make it.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
A habit, A lot of reps, a lot of mirror work,
really for us, and then visualizing to you know, I
think a lot of them also go down south, so
whether they go to Sea Island or Florida. We have
a couple of girls that have you know that live
down in Florida over the winter, so we try to
get them to encourage them to compete. Ana Station's gonna
(29:11):
play in the Patriot Invitational in in December.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
I think it is or January early January.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
She got invited to that, and so Folds of Honor
hosts that. So if they can stay active and continue
to compete through the winner, that also really helps, cause
it's a long break. But we try to take the
the early months in the off season to work on
the swing changes if that's something that they need to do.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And then once you get into January and those spring
tournaments are coming around, what are some things you do
to ramp the team back up and get them ready
to go.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Yeah, we we play in that simulator and we do
a lot of games on the track.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
Man.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
We work a ton on distance control, cause that's what
we can actually control, so how far are.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
We hitting it?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
Making sure our patterns are good, and then we we
chip and put a lot in our indoor and as
soon as we can be outside, we're gonna be outside.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It might be cold, but it's.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Gonna make us tougher, so we're gonna be out there grinding.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Well, Coach, One thing I want to talk to you
about when you mentioned the technologies and the simulator and
all that, is just the growth of the sport.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
But we got to take our last break, so we'll
do that.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
On the other side, we're chatting with Goldabors from Kentucky
Women's Golf. This is bb and Radio presented by Clark's
Pumping Shop on the UK Sports Network Vital segment of
our show for this week. This is bb and Radio
presented by Clark's Pumping Shop. I'm Darren Hedrick, joined by Goldibors,
the head coach of Kentucky Women's Golf and coach. Right
before the break, you mentioned that the team's going to
(30:30):
do a lot of stuff on the simulator and track
man through the winter months getting ready for spring. In
terms of the development and technologies to allow them to
do this. When you think about the overall growth of
the sport, just how far has it come even in
the last few years.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
It's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
I mean even yeah, three four years for us to
be able to add the simulator has been huge. We
didn't have that a few years back, and we have
our Putt View two and that's been really good. So
it's this thing that you can move the slopes and
things like that, work on your putting inside and work
on your actual stroke and ampoint and things like that.
It's definitely helpful as we develop our kids. But then
(31:08):
we also see the players coming in. They are more
ready to go than ever.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I was going to ask you thinking towards the future,
kind of big picture with the growth of golf, and
I know you have a young family that's getting into
the sport now with two daughters. How have you seen
the sport grow for girls and young women.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's impressive.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
It's hard to put into words, honestly, because yeah, we're lucky.
I have two smaller kids and they actually like the game,
which is really fun, and so you know they're getting
specialized earlier. But there are around more girls. I see
way more girls playing and there's a lot.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
More tours coming up.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
I mean I grew up playing in Sweden, so I
didn't have anything necessarily like this, but there's a little seven,
eight nine year olds out there playing in the PJ
Junior League and there's so we have those public courses
here in Lexington and we have them in other places too,
and there's just a lot more opportunities and I think
parents are catching on that golf is a really great
(32:11):
sport to start early. So if you have any parents
out there with young daughters, get them in early because
it's a sport that they're going to be so thankful
later on. They might not like you right now, but
they're gonna like you later on because you can go.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
In business and everything.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
You can go play it doesn't matter the age, and
you can hold a conversation and you're disciplined and you
have to. Yeah, it's a really good game.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I'm glad you brought that up with parents that have
young daughters and getting them involved. What are some things
you think they can do to encourage them and find
those opportunities you mentioned.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
In terms of golf. Yeah, yeah, I think just taking them.
You know, whether you are in the golf or not.
There's several places. Again, we got a great kind of
public golf course system here in Lexington that if you
want to get introduced to golf. You can do that
whether you want to find a female coach or a
(33:05):
male coach. There's just a lot of those opportunities through
the City of Lexington. And so just getting golf clubs
in the hands of when they're really young, just whack
the ball, even if you know they play softball or
other sports, right, like learning how to hit the golf
ball when it's just sitting in front of you.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And I also think about the evolution of just when
you add in pop culture and society to any sport,
but maybe golf. I think about all the like the
content creators that are out there and the influencers. Kentucky
golf has somebody who's in a lum and Marisa Windsler
an outstanding golfer in her own right, but now she's
(33:45):
also a content creator, and so I guess my main
question for that is how do you maybe work with
Marissa to cultivate that into getting people interested in Kentucky
golfer recruiting even.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Yeah, it's something that we're still exploring.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
She just signed with Good Good, which is and I
just saw that they just signed. They're gonna, you know,
host a men's PGA tour event. So it's pretty exciting.
You know, she's really taken off and taken ownership of it.
She's always been very good at call it that stuff.
But yeah, she's wonderful at content. I think she's great
(34:21):
at connecting with people, and I think it's something that
we can all be better at. But how we tap
into that, we're still working through that with our good
friend cammyally and trying to work through that and seeing
what makes sense for her and what makes sense for us.
But she's a wonderful resource and the first person that
I called to ask for help with stuff.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
And yeah, she's really good.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
An ambassador and influencer terms that we're all getting used
to this.
Speaker 6 (34:48):
DAYA no kidding, No, Yeah, it's crazy, Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, we're chatting with Golden Bors from Kentucky Women's Golf.
Got just a few minutes left in the show, but
I wanted to bring up Laney frot big moment for
her to earn her LPGA card. First of all, for
folks who might not know how that process works, it's
very competitive. Can you kind of give us an idea
of just what a golfer would have to do go
(35:15):
through to earn that in the avenues.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Yeah, So her senior year at Kentucky she went to
LPGAQ School and so she made it far enough where
she got status on the Epsentur.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
She didn't earn her card.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
Right away that way, but she got enough status on
the Epsentur to play a full season on it, and
she played well enough and consistently enough that she got
the fifteenth tour cards, so to speak. So there's fifteen
cards and one through nine get full status and ten
through fifteen get a little bit of status, so she
(35:49):
will have some status to kind of step in and
create opportunities for herself to earn better status on the
LPGA Tour. And that's a huge step because that's where
you want to be. That's where she's trying to win,
and she's you know, she went through all the different
avenues and she has really really flourished, and we all
knew that this was possible, and it's just very cool
(36:10):
to see her step into the person that she could
be and to have the support system that she has
in her family and in Lexington, And it's really neat
to watch a player just succeed at their craft and
what they've been working on for so long.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
In order to get these statuses to earn these cards.
Basically is it competing in maybe more regionalized tournaments and
performing well.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
How did they go through those steps?
Speaker 6 (36:35):
So the LPGA is the final goal, right, and then
the EPSOM Tour they compete all over the country, same thing.
So it's like a step down tour from the LPGA,
But that's the path.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
That's the avenue that.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
The LPGA Tour wants to use to prepare their players
so that they can compete on the LPGA Tour once
they finally get there. So she has traveled all over
the country, she's had her caddy with her, and she
has played very consistent and has finished obviously top five,
top ten. Really it's done very very well. But I
think that's the piece, the consistency. You know, she has
(37:10):
played at a very high level all summer and into
the fall.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
We were talking about the growth of the sport and
you mentioned EPSOM now with fifteen cards, that shows part
of it. They're handing out more and more trying to
grow the sport.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
Yeah, they are, and they're doing a great job, and
I think that tour is stepping up. You've got the
Onica Women's All Pro Tour. I just spoke to a
lady that runs that, and I shouldn't say lady, she's
a girl. But they're also trying to grow, you know,
there's so many women's golfers out there and it's great
to see that they have a place to go. And
then they're trying to feed into the EPSENT Tour. So
(37:43):
you know, when you play in one of those events,
if you're finish top two, you get an exemption into
an Epsent Tour event, you know, and if you can
play well at that Epsent Tour event, then you can
continue to under status to.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Maybe get your EPs and cards.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
So it's it's kind of a trickle up effect, which
is what they're trying to do. And at the end
of the day, they're just, yeah, trying to prepare the
players for when they get to.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
The LPG Tour.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Speaking of women, more and more women picking up golf
clubs and playing the sport. You had a chance to
spend the day with the women's basketball team on the course.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
How fun was that.
Speaker 6 (38:12):
I didn't think you're gonna bring that up yet. That
was really fun. Jordan can play man, he can play no.
She has a really good golf swing. I thought Tony.
Tony had never held a golf club, so she just
putted a little bit. She had a few shots, but
she's a little hesitant. But I was very impressed by
Jordan and it was a really nice time to get
to know her better. I'm excited to start seeing her
(38:33):
on the court too. Hopefully I can go to a
practice and see how she competes in practice, how the
whole team does. I really respect coach Brooks and and
love what he's doing with the program.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah, and it's it was so fun because I think
the women's basketball staff they love to spend down time
on the course, so this was right up their alley.
Speaker 6 (38:53):
Yeah, it's We've gotten to know them very well and
they're they're an awesome, awesome staff, And I didn't really
nice how much they love golf. And obviously we have
the same media person and Camy Moore, and Cammy is
wonderful and she just kind of connected us and we've
just all hit it off. And golf is is It's
a fun game, and I love how into it and
(39:15):
how passionate they are.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
I had my kids out there and they were hitting
golf balls and they were in awe and what my
kids were doing with the club, and I was pretty
impressed by what they were doing. And it's just it's
kind of been organic and we have a ton of
fun and laugh and again I'm I'm pretty impressed by
what Jordan did and how well she hit it. And
but it just goes to say, right, what we just
(39:38):
talked about earlier, if you can get your young daughters
into different sports just to try it, that's something she's
gonna be able to do for a really long time.
We just got to get her putting stroke down a little,
get the routine, I get the routine, under ball striking well.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Coach.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
We appreciate the time. Best of luck in Wilmington this weekend.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You can see that head coach Goldenborst of Kentucky Women's Golf.
That's our show for this week. We'll catch you next Monday.
This has been BBN Radio presented by Clark's Puppin Shop
on the UK Sports Network
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