Come join us for some Varsity Hoops talk as we sit down with seniors Hudson Vellinga, Jake Gerrits, Ben Beetham, and Head Coach Jared Redell. Together, we explore the promise of a 6-2 start to the season, highlighted by wins over Zeeland East, the Holland Dutch & the Jenison Wildcats. Coach Redell speaks to developing resilience and growth through wins and losses, and how his seniors are crucial in the team's current success. Hudson and Jake open up about improved team dynamics, while Ben reveals how he stays cool under pressure when it matters most.
But it's not all high-stakes drama on the hardwood! We share a chuckle-worthy moment about a kid who scattered Cheetos across the court, reminding us of the lighthearted spirit of sports. The episode shifts gears to talk about how transitioning from parent-led to player-led coaching in Little Panthers has transformed community relationships and youth engagement. Hudson and Ben speak candidly about their coaching philosophies, emphasizing fun and keeping players active. Plus, we shine a spotlight on young talents like Darian Stewart, JT Gill, and Makai Campos, whose loyalty, potential and leadership are setting the stage for future success.
As our seniors reflect on their high school journey, they share personal stories of growth, challenges, and triumphs. Hudson recounts being cut from a travel team in middle school and the resulting heartbreak that fueled his passion, while Ben reminisces about days spent perfecting his craft at Winstrom Park. Jake juggles the demands of basketball, football, and making pies at Peppino's Pizza, illustrating the dedication and crazy mad skill required to flip dough to perfection. The conversation wraps up with thoughts on navigating losses, the push for a great senior season, the togetherness needed for success, and the hopes for leaving a legacy, all underscored by the unwavering support of a close-knit team and community.
This episode was recorded on December 31, 2024.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, obviously winning games is definitely one
of my goals for these nextcouple months, but also just
leaving this place, knowing thatwe've changed the program and
then coming back next year, thenext couple years, and seeing
some of my old teammates likeobviously JT, darian the
freshman, and some of thesophomores, playing good and
(00:21):
going back and making a staterun, I hope and you know we're
actually making like- a staterun, I hope.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives of studentathletes, coaches and other
faces in the Panther sportscommunity, bringing you the
stories you might otherwisenever hear.
(00:48):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Every high school athlete gets to the inevitable.
Your senior season, your lastchance to play with your friends
in front of that home crowd,with dreams of making a run at a
district title.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Today we sit down with the Panther Boys basketball
program.
Seniors Hudson Valinga, jakeGerrits, ben Beetham and Coach
Jared Riddell join us themorning after a victory over the
Jenison Wildcats.
We talk about being leaders ona young team and the season that
lies ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
A promising 6-2 start has players, fans and coaches
alike optimistic on what theseason could be as they now
begin the ever-difficult OK Redschedule and the challenge of
finding continuity with a younggroup mixed in with veteran
leadership and playing togetheras a ball-sharing group of five.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Hudson Malinga, jake Gerrits, ben Beetham and Jared
Riddell up next on the 29.1Podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, hey everybody, Welcome back to the 29.1 Podcast
.
We are officially back fromwhat I'm going to call our
holiday hiatus.
Holiday hiatus I don't knowwhat I said the first time.
It's been a few weeks sincewe've been able to record Bill.
Apparently, December is reallybusy at a high school.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Very busy.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah.
So between practices and gameschedules, snow days and such,
our plans to record just keptgetting squashed.
So it's why we missed a fewepisodes.
But we are glad to be back andare excited to have weekly
episodes from now through theend of the school year.
Today we welcome three youngmen who have a long history
together.
They've known each other sincethey were little boys.
(02:40):
They played lots of differentsports together when they were
little AAU basketball, we didsome stuff over at courthouse.
The boys played some littleleague baseball and you know you
guys were the little guys whosat in the stands at football
and basketball.
We're almost through what thefirst third of our senior
varsity boys basketball seasonhere at West Ottawa high school.
(03:01):
After back to back six winseasons over the past couple
years, there is a markedimprovement so far into this
young season, as they sit at 6-2.
And it's my pleasure to ask whois it?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Hey Garrett.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Hudson, valinga Ben Beetham and Coach Gerard L.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Nice to have you here .
Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Awesome to have you all in the fact that we're we're
doing this and kind of jammingit into a crazy schedule.
We're doing this beforepractice, the morning after a
victory over jenison last nightover at cornerstone.
Did you guys enjoy playing atcornerstone?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
yeah, I'd say so.
I really like the court.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Okay, it was good yeah, I just say it's fun to
like play on those type ofcourts and the environment was
good.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You guys, uh, coach, you guys have won three out of
your last four 83, 63 victoryover West Catholic.
57, 49 in town rivalry winagainst Holland Dutch.
Uh, then you lost to Allendale63, 51 and then came back and
had that big fourth quarter lastnight 57, 54 win.
Fourth quarter last night 57-54win over Jenison.
What's that been like so far?
(04:06):
You're on a little bit of a,maybe not the weekend you wanted
exactly, but nice comeback winlast night.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Yeah, I thought last night we won a game in a way
that we haven't won one all year, and probably not in the three
years that I've been here wherewe struggled offensively First
half I think we only had 19points turning the ball over.
Good aggressive turnovers,turned it over in ways that
usually we're really good intransition and we weren't taking
(04:35):
care of the ball and usuallywhen our offense is struggling
our defense really falls and Ithought, being down 10 going
into the fourth quarter, whenwe're not scoring, for us to gut
back the way we did and kind ofchip away, chip away, chip away
and then eventually being ableto score and win the game.
I thought it was a win that wehaven't seen and hopefully one
(04:55):
that will help propel us intothe future in those situations,
because you can't always expectto score 70, 80 points to win a
game Right, which is kind of theearly part of the season.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It was like we're running, we're gunning, and
there was a lot of points scoredearly.
Ben, you made two big freethrows down the stretch last
night.
What's it like to be able tocome through for your team in a
situation like that.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
So yeah, fourth quarter.
I was able to cheer on my teamfrom the bench, and then I got
subbed in late to make a coupleplays.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I was able to get a rebound and knock down big free
throws.
Hudson and Jake, you guysbasically have played a lot.
Hudson, you played varsitysomewhat as a sophomore.
What's it like to have six winsalready?
Two years ago you got yoursixth win in late February.
Last year it was late Februaryas well.
Got your sixth win last nightand it's only December 30.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable.
You have a lot more fun with it.
It's not always easy to belosing a bunch of games in a row
.
It's way more enjoyable whenyou're getting wins and
everybody's fighting and comingtogether.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Jake, you're kind of a spark plug out there.
What's it like for you to?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it just feels great.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
I'm really proud of our team.
We've uh we've been, um, workinghard and I feel like I can tell
that it's paying off.
We're more locked in and, uh,getting more wins.
It's great.
Yeah, I can tell that you guyshave been working hard.
I've, you know, pop intopractice here and there, cut
through the gym just to seewhat's going on.
Coach, can you talk to us alittle bit about kind of the
practice setup that you guysespecially especially early in
the season, where you have theJV kind of running cross court
on one and then the varsity, alot of energy in the gym, a lot
(06:30):
of coaching going on?
Maybe talk to us a little bitabout what that practice looks
like?
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Yeah, especially early in the season.
We also have a unique situationwhere we have five sophomores
on our team and three of themare playing some with the JV.
So with that, you know, we'vebeen, we've been going cross
court and then the last halfhour we've been kind of
combining with the JV and someof those swinger guys that we
have, or we'll spend some timewith us and they'll spend some
(06:56):
time with the JV, and I think itjust really brings great energy
into the gym.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You know just just a lot of people, a lot of
excitement and I think it's beena really good setup so far.
Yeah, speaking of energy, thesehome games so far have been
really, really fun.
The crowds have been reallygood.
At West Ottawa, hudson, what'sit like for you seeing that
black hole jump in?
It's been a couple of yearssince we've seen it full and
it's getting there.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Yeah, it's definitely fun just to see the crowd into
it and I like to say the normalcrowd as well like um coaching
Little Panthers.
A lot of kids come from thattoo, and everybody's bought in,
wants to watch this, so it'sreally cool yeah, it's always
great when the community comesout.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
All your families come out.
Garrett family, beathams areall out there.
Uh, as a parent, I get to talkwith all these people after
games and we're having a lot offun.
It's nice to be able to win.
You have a very up tempo style,ben, as a team.
Do you guys like playing thatfast pace?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I do like playing fast.
It gets tiring but we're ableto sub.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think our bench does a great job, yeah coach,
you're almost getting everybodyin on every game I've noticed
yeah, I don't think we've had agame that, um, everybody hasn't
played and we talk about that.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
you know, we're 13 deep and we have 13 important
players and I thought last nightwas a great example of two guys
.
Jonah Watson came in and he'sonly been playing seven, eight
minutes a game as a sophomoreand he probably played 12
straight minutes down thestretch at the end.
And then Abel Anaya, same thing.
He came in and gave a hugespark for us during the third
(08:22):
quarter and I mean that's whatwe are.
We are 13 guys that you know,on different days some guys have
it going, some guys don't, andyou know it's it's up to the
other guys to step up and Ithink they've embraced embraced
that as a team and I'm superproud of them.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
so yeah, it's uh, it's something to really have
that many guys come out andsometimes you make some
adaptations in a game.
You know that's certainly notkind of what you're planning on
going in.
But when you're down 10 goingin the fourth, you got to adapt,
find a group that's working andkind of stick with it and go
going back to that full gym.
I remember when the three ofyou were those 12 year old boys
(08:57):
sitting in that front row.
Do you remember those times,jake?
yeah, I do yeah yeah, it feelslike it wasn't that long ago
either right, it wasn't reallyright and we were playing
courthouse ball and then comingout here and watching who were
some of your guys favoriteplayers growing up.
Do you remember some names?
Uh, obviously like xavier wayne.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I remember watching him he was, he was really good.
It was fun to watch and, uh,like the the patterson boys,
yeah, they were good I just likethat whole team.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Uh, tyler Bosman, they were all really fun to
watch.
They had a lot of lobs, a lotof fun plays.
That was right, it was Dunk.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
City a lot almost every night, wasn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, and you know, you have a little person sitting
over there, a little guy.
You don't know if you're evergoing to make a varsity team.
What's it like being out on thefloor now and being those guys?
Ben, you're.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
you're now the guy that those little 12 year old
boys are looking up to.
Um, yeah, it's, it's different,um, seeing the little kids in
the stands, like the way theylook up to you, like you used to
look up to the kids back then,like giving them high fives and
seeing the smiles on their faces, you can tell that you're just
like their inspirations so oneof the things that probably has
helped solidify that bond withyou and that younger group is
Little Panthers, and you guysare coaching those teams and
(10:09):
coaching those kids.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Do you feel like you have a little group of dudes
that is just like they're yourguys?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Yeah, I have my own little team.
They all like they were askingme to play Fortnite with them.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
We got really close.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Some of them come up behind me on the bench during
the game.
They're trying to give me highfives.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I'm like not right now, not right now but yeah, it
feels like you're withcelebrities a little bit when
you're that age right, whenyou're playing with the highs.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Yeah, I say like when you were little, like you'd see
those guys, you were like you'dbe shocked.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You're in.
They got all this talent andskill, hudson, your team won.
Did you guys win thechampionship?
Speaker 6 (10:45):
you wanna give some props to your boys?
I mean I drafted the Warriors,I chose that team.
I think it was a good selection.
I mean we had we got Blake andwe didn't have him for two weeks
.
Blake Riddell, his son andchampionship.
We were up like 30 in the firsthalf he was gone for a couple
weeks.
Yeah, so it made us look like weweren't entirely a great team.
Oh gotcha, we'd have four orfive guys some games, and then
(11:08):
he came back.
He dropped a big number in thelast game, right, yeah, riddell
was telling him to stop shooting.
We had to make it look a littlemore fair.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
And what were you telling him to do?
Let it fly.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Let it fly, that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, he gets hot.
You let it fly, jake.
What?
Real quick, jake.
What was, what's it been likecoaching, and maybe has it given
you any perspective of whatcoach riddell is going through
on a day in, day out basis withyou guys yeah, definitely it's
been fun.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Uh, I also was the champs for the third and fourth
graders and it was awesome theywere.
They're really excited to seeme every week and it showed
they're actually having fun outthere, which is good, which is
hard to see for some of these uhlittle kids, you know, to get
them into a sport at a young age.
It's really good.
Yeah, it was fun and uh, yeah,the coaching part, um, it can be
difficult because you alwayswant you got people complaining,
(11:56):
not playing.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
You got no, never jared have you heard of that
before.
Is that something that actuallygoes?
I actually goes.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I always get the coach.
Coach, put me in, please.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Or you get that.
Look down the bench to that sadface.
You know, yeah, exactly.
What about me.
Hudson, you had a reallyinteresting thing with the
Cheetos.
Can you tell us about that?
The Cheetos in the pocket?
Speaker 6 (12:18):
Yeah, there was some little kid that had Cheetos in
his pocket, like right beforethe game hot cheetos they're all
falling out all over the court.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Little plastic bag in the side pocket right yeah,
like a ziploc bag.
They're all falling out in hispocket I mean that's great to
bring that out into the courtand have that readily available
very jealous.
Yeah, that's pretty awesome,crazy.
It's pretty awesome that he wasdoing that can I actually add
something to?
That go for it.
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
So I think last year this is our second year where
the kids were actually coachingthe team.
In the past it's always beenparents that have been coaching
and I think I've seen a hugechange community-wise by the
players always just ref before,and so now, with them coaching,
they're really developingrelationships with kids.
And I have a little neighborboy who's in second grade and he
(13:03):
goes to every game now and hewants to go see his coach and he
goes and talks to his coachevery time and I think that is
that is the community side thatwe're building, and I think
you're starting to see it in thestands because they're all
bought in and that's what wewant to do is we want to bring
the entire community into theprogram.
So it feels like there's aswell, because eventually you
(13:24):
know, know, those are the kids,they're going to be out there
one day for you guys.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
That's pretty fun too , did you?
When you were younger?
Did you feel you got that alittle bit when they were
reffing, or it's probably nicerwhen they're coaching?
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I would think, yeah, I still got a little bit of the
reffing, but not not to the sameuh level that they have now
like being their coach.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Are you guys, uh, running offenses?
What are they?
They just freewheeling outthere.
What's it like, ben?
What are that?
What do you guys do as a coach?
What are some things you'reimplementing?
What's your system?
Speaker 5 (13:50):
um, I'll be trying to call like sets and stuff, but
but I just usually have themlike few ball screens just
trying to cut.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That's really it keep them moving around the court.
Yeah, not standing still right,all those kind of.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, I got a few ball screens in there too, but
nothing nothing too crazy allright.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, I saw some scattered papers around the
house at times with somedrawings I can't believe hudson
doesn't have like plays forthrees, because you know it
spurs in there or something.
There you go hey, definitelygotta have it.
You have some starters on yourteam that are fairly young.
Let's talk about threeparticular young players, if we
can, and maybe we can take turnstalking about them.
(14:25):
We got uh, we got jt gill, ofcourse, we got darian stewart
and we got makai campos hudsonpick one of those guys to talk
about.
What's it like having theseyoung, this young infuse of
talent on your team?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
I'll go.
I'll go with darian yeah, yougot he's a big, big goofball.
Yeah, goofball.
Uh, probably one of thefunniest dudes I know, but
really loyal.
When you get in game like hereally wants to win, super
competitive in game, and justreally loyal, he's got your back
, no matter what.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
How old is?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Darian, how old is he 14.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
Darian is a.
Everybody thinks he's like anold freshman.
Darian doesn't turn 15, I thinkuntil May.
He is a super young freshman andso you sometimes you see that
with Darian, with his you knowgoofballness, but, like Hudson
said, like you have your back.
When we had a team retreat andyou know the one thing that he
(15:17):
wanted his team to know is that,you know, I probably in any
situation I'll have your back.
And that's kind of that'sDarian.
Even though he is that goofball, when it comes down to it he's
a loyal kid and a great teammate.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And he's got so much potential Even in this first
third of the season, Bill, he'sreally grown a lot, don't you
think?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I mean he just jumps off the court.
As I mentioned earlier sittingwith Johnston from Jenison
yesterday.
He's like man who's 32?
He's only a freshman.
You're gonna see him for a bit.
I just I look at darian and Isee him and I think of what he
will look like as a junior andsenior.
You know he's in pantherstrengths class right now as he
(15:57):
continues to work in the weightroom.
You lived with him right hudsonyeah, he's in my peak group.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I drafted him.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean, if that kid gets after it in the weight room
, he'll be unstoppable.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Yeah, he will be unstoppable.
We got Ben in there too.
Most of the basketball guys inthat class are all in one group,
so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So you're building some relationships in those
classes too, then right, yeah,we'll talk about that in a
little bit more about too.
Then, right, yeah, because yeah, let's talk, we'll, we'll talk
about that a little bit moreabout building relationships
with the age gap.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Let's maybe, ben, you want to talk about jt gill a
little bit.
What's it like to have jt onthe team?
Uh, yeah, so he's also reallyyoung.
Him and darian are like, theylove to mess around in practice.
But the immaturity of thesefreshmen, hey guys, once they
get too close together they'realways like slapping each other,
like making jokes.
Once again, the game.
Jt is like.
He really does his thing.
He gets his own buckets.
He's actually he moves the ballreally well.
(16:50):
For how young he is, he's agreat playmaker.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's really.
There's a sign of maturity inJT, kind of when if you talk
about you know you talk aboutpeople and go that person's got
an old soul soul.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
He's got an old basketball soul.
What do you think, coach?
Yeah, um, you know, I'veobviously, you know, since I've
come here known jt since hisseventh grade and last night was
a great example like it was notone of his best games, you know
, but I remember pulling him outat the end of the third quarter
and talking to him and sayinglike hey, you're in at the end
of the game and you get a shotat the end, like I know you're
gonna make it because that's him.
Like we, we came and I'll letthe guys kind of talk about
theirs a little bit, but we wewent through roles and they all
(17:28):
got names and jt's was theassassin oh really, we're
hitting this up next because, jt, you know, in any situation
like that he could be 0 for 10and he has full confidence that
he's gonna make that shot whenit matters and I have confidence
and I've seen him do it five,six times in AU games where you
(17:49):
know, came down to the end andjust hit tough big buckets and
made big plays, and I know youknow he has that in.
So I would love for them toshare their.
They can talk a little bitabout their little nicknames and
their little and their littleand their roles.
I think it's uh, you know weput coach palmer and I, and
especially him on the roles, uh,put a ton of time and we
probably spent 10 hours goingthrough the roles and just
(18:09):
really trying to lay it outbecause we thought it was
something, when you're playing13 guys, for them to have very
specific roles on the thingsthat we need them to do so do
you?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
do you know all three ?
Don't say anything.
You know all their nicknames,right?
Or do you think you know?
Speaker 7 (18:24):
We just did this.
You just did it.
We just did this.
All right, I know Hudson's forsure.
I know Palmer was here.
He would have all three of them.
All right, because he was theone that came up with the names.
Have binders had pictures withthem?
It was really cool and they Ithink they thought you know it
was, it was, I don't know ifthey thought it was corny.
Um, they were kind of gigglinga little bit, but I hear them
(18:47):
talk about them a little bit.
You know, like during practice,like, oh, like you say
something to guys, jake.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
What's hudson's nickname?
Speaker 6 (18:53):
uh, he couldn't even say it, the sniper he's a sniper
, all right, takes you back toyour fortnight a little bit,
hudson, I'll play fortnight toomuch so talk to them about what,
not just obviously, obviouslyhudson's a sniper as a shooter,
but talk a little bit about whatthe sniper is too yeah, when we
(19:15):
talked about palmer was talkingabout how like yeah, shooter,
but um, like big on leadership,um, and like when they and
snipers in general they likelead, uh, they communicate very
well and they tell like wherethe enemy is and all that stuff,
so like really big oncommunication oh, that's pretty
cool actually yeah, wow, that'spretty you know what jake's?
(19:35):
Jake is the leopard it's soit's about the leopard come on
Speaker 1 (19:42):
leopard um, yeah, I'm the leopard.
Um, yeah, so, like, just my uh,my main role is, um, obviously,
I uh come off the bench.
I'm the sixth man, so, um, Ijust come into the game and I um
run wild yeah, pretty much anduh just bring the energy up, you
(20:03):
know, and um compete.
That's what I really like to dois just compete.
That's what um actually really,that's what like really makes
me enjoy.
Basketball is because of howcompetitive it is compared to
other sports, you know.
So, yeah, just competing and uhhaving that mindset where, like
, all I want to do is win youknow the role that you're
playing on this team.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
this is gonna take you back, maybe a little bit.
Reminds me a lot of Blake Bosmaas a sophomore.
He would come off the bench,but it was energy dive for loose
balls, grab the rebound, makethe extra pass, do all of the
stuff that the stat sheet'sprobably not going to show, but
(20:42):
if you're there and youappreciate watching basketball,
the leopard is going to get itdone, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I want to see stuff in the black hole now.
I want to see some leopardthing.
Somebody's got some crosshair.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Well, you can't do that now, right, it's flagged.
Well, just to.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, we can't do that.
Hudson.
What is Ben's nickname?
Well, it's incomplete.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
It's Ben the Bear.
Complete, like it's Ben theBear.
He's not the Bear, it's Ben theBear, ben the.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Bear Ben the Bear, ben the Bear.
Yeah, so he has me nicknamed asthe Bear, pretty much just like
once I'm locked, like once abear is locked in.
Yeah, like nobody can like beatit Like you kind of want to
fall down.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
So a bear.
A lot of times it's very docile, like you know, and that's kind
of Ben's personality.
But when you piss a bear offyou better watch out and so
that's why that was why Ben isthe bear.
And with the leopard, with Jake,there's this.
We played this video of youtalked about a leopard like um,
(21:48):
there's this.
We played this video of youtalked about a leopard like he's
going to go after his prey, nomatter what.
He doesn't care about you knowhis physical, um, you know,
potentially getting hurt.
There was a video of thisleopard chasing a goat that we
played and he jumps off a cliffand he gets the goat in his
mouth and he literally rollsdown the mountain and never lets
go of.
(22:09):
I've seen that, and so that wasthe reason because when jake,
when you watch jake play, jakewill go flying in for every
rebound.
He doesn't care if he's goingto get hurt.
He puts his body on the line.
So when I talked about like theamount of time that we put into
the roles, like a big part ofthat was that like oh yeah, he's
a leopard.
It's kind of funny, but therewas a specific reason because of
what a leopard does, because ofwhat a bear is in terms of, you
(22:32):
know, personality, but thengets, uh, you know, fearless in
competition and then as anassassin, with you know hudson
obviously shooting.
But as jt oh, sorry, I mean thesniper as a snipe, as a sniper
with hudson yeah, obviously hisshooting, but you know he is our
leader when it comes tocommunication on the court and
and a sniper's job is to protecthis team by communicating and
(22:56):
letting people know where it'sat.
So you know the roles are funnyand they laugh about him.
But there was, you know,specific, the reason for the
name, very specific because ofyou know who they are and their
personalities.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I really like it as a coaching technique.
It it's a nice reminder of whoyou are, what you're supposed to
be.
Let's talk about Makai Campos,because we haven't mentioned him
yet.
Jake, you played, of course,varsity football with Makai
Quite an incredible athlete, tobe honest, to be a sophomore and
really be like the startingquarterback Starting guard.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
And starting.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You want to talk about Makai a little bit, Jake.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, and starting guard and starting.
You want to talk about Makai alittle bit?
Jake?
Yeah, of course, for last yearhe obviously played varsity and
you could already see hismaturity last year and his
leadership.
But I feel like this year it'sjust definitely doubled and I
feel like I can really see himas a leader now fully.
And, yeah, he's fun to playwith.
Everyone always talks about hisscoring.
He's a great scorer, I think,but I think, um, his defense is
(23:52):
also what gets it, what gets thegame like it helps us a lot,
bill, and I always talk sports alot.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
and one thing we always talked about makai,
especially when he, when heplayed football, as, uh, playing
on the j team, he sees the gamealmost played in slow motion at
times, right?
Would you think so, bill?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah, you can tell.
I mean, this is a kid thatplayed 23, 25 games-ish last
year as a varsity basketballplayer, started a full season in
the well, you know a couple ofgames early in the season where
he was kind of coming off thebench but then played a full
season of football at thequarterback position where you
have so much responsibility.
(24:32):
So I can only imagine thatthings get a little slower.
Just with that experience.
Everything tends to kind ofslow down, and I would say that
about JT as well.
You look out there and you seethe two guards are a freshman
and a sophomore and if youdidn't know, they were a
freshman and sophomore.
By the way they play, theydon't seem that way.
Coach, can you maybe talk aboutthe level of composure that
(24:55):
those two young men have?
Speaker 7 (24:57):
Yeah, I think a big part of it is they've played a
lot of basketball.
A lot of basketball, I mean,since eight years old.
Those kids are playingyear-round and so, yes, they're
young in terms of age, but interms of experience
basketball-wise, they've playeda lot of it and so that
definitely doesn't feel like themoment's too big for them, and
(25:19):
that's one of the most importantthings with them.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Hudson.
It's a real mix of young andold this year.
At times you guys I mean youguys are in your senior season.
Personally, you're just tryingto have a good season yourself.
You're trying to get minutes,you're trying to play, you're
trying to score, you're tryingto get rebounds, assists, you're
trying to get on the floor.
Have you felt like mentors attimes?
A little bit to these youngfellas.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Do they call you gramps?
Yeah, you definitely help themwith some things If they ask you
some questions about differentsituations or you might explain
to them, like, what to do in acertain situation.
Um, obviously this is theirlike, other than uh.
For jt and darian, it's theirfirst time playing varsity
basketball, so oh yeah and it's,you know, with a lot of these
(26:01):
guys, everyone's played a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
you guys have all played aau right, everyone is
plays in these different roles,in these different teams.
A lot of times in AAU becomethe main score.
Well, not the main score maybe,but you do a lot of scoring AAU
it's kind of free flowing.
It's a little bit loose.
Then you got to come into ateam situation and start playing
as what I like to call a groupof five.
I think it's the hardest thingin basketball is playing as a
(26:26):
group of five.
Coach, can you speak to that alittle bit?
Speaker 7 (26:29):
Yeah, I think you go back to the AAU.
Yeah, there's a lot of scoring,there's no scouting, there's no
defense.
There's not a lot of defense,there's not a lot of game plan
with it In high school.
It's very specific and soyou're not going to just get
easy baskets, and so it is superimportant that that you are a
well-connected team and we'vetalked about the 2018 team with
(26:50):
Bosma and all them, and wetalked the other day as a team.
What made them special was howthey shared the ball.
They were connected and theywere a group of kids that had
been playing together forever.
I remember specifically watchingthem play in an AAU tournament
against the LeBron James AAUteam out of Ohio with like eight
(27:10):
or nine division one playersand beat them.
Beat them because not that theywere better players, but just
they played so well as a teamand we definitely play a
different style as them.
You know we're very fast-paced,but I think you can see, at
times with our team, sometimesit looks like it, sometimes it
doesn't, but at times we canreally really share the
(27:33):
basketball and really move thebasketball.
And when we play like that, Iknow we're young and I know we.
You know we have seven youngguys and only three seniors, but
they've they've mixed so welltogether.
I've never had a team of thismany young kids and for that,
for the field to be the way itis I mean, our three seniors
here have a lot of times you canhave some feelings of with so
(27:56):
many young guys, like I don'twant to.
You know, this is our seniors,are my minutes.
These guys have beenunbelievable and you know, like
uh bill said, you know they'retalking about our youth, our
youth, their youth.
Yes, our youth is good and yes,our youth is good and, yes, our
youth helps us.
But we don't get anywherewithout these three guys in here
and their leadership.
We talked about mentorship andall those things.
(28:18):
They've been through it.
They're the reason why we'regoing to have a chance to do
something this year.
It's because of these threeguys in here.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, there's a lot of ups and downs with a team
with like this right.
You can see kind of in some ofthe games you've played the
Holland Christian game that washere at home, which we ended up
losing, but from a fan's pointof view it was one of the most
spectacular basketball gamesI've ever seen on our home court
.
It was such high level.
The rhythm of your team wasreally high end coach right.
The rhythm of your team wasreally high-end coach right, and
(28:47):
you've had a few games likethat.
Then you get into this pastweekend where the rhythm's off
right, whether it's thisChristmas break or whatever the
case may be.
Ben, what's it like to be inrhythm?
And then what's it like to beout of rhythm as a team?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, in rhythm definitely just like playing,
not even thinking, Everyone'sjust moving the ball's moving.
Open shots, but moving theballs.
Oh yeah, open shots, um, butwhen it's not in rhythm you can
just tell the ball stopping.
I feel myself personally onoffense, just standing just
trying to move the balls.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, everyone's dribbling too much looking for
their own shots yeah, it's ahard thing to figure out.
Uh, hudson, when you're outthere, when you're in a
non-rhythm game I mean in rhythmit's like you're like for a
shooter for you in a rhythm game.
You're sliding from spot tospot, right, you're finding a
little space In a non-rhythmgame.
You can stand there and it'slike you just watch.
What's it like to be in and out?
Speaker 6 (29:34):
Yeah, like Ben said, I find in those games, like
these past couple games where Ihaven't been in a great rhythm,
I find myself just standing andI'm like I've been probably here
for five seconds.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Like I got to something.
So, yeah, but yeah, it'sdefinitely and that's part of
being kind of on a younger team,right, you're learning that and
you're going to have thosenatural up and downs.
Yeah, and I you know, lastnight things were not always in
rhythm offensively but, coach,you alluded to it earlier our
guys on the opposite end of thecourt that's the beautiful thing
of basketball, right, you getto play both offense and defense
.
You guys affected and changedthe game really by sitting in a
stance and and getting afterthem on the defensive end 21-8
run to close the game.
Really by sitting in a stanceand and getting after him on the
defensive end 21-8 run to closethe game.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah fourth quarter was that what I know?
We were down 21-8.
I know we were down.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
You were down 10 going into the fourth um and
scored I think was it 22 in thefourth, after only scoring 33
for the game, or?
Something like, or for thefirst three quarters, thanks.
So we'll take it right.
That definitely was a that forthe first three quarters.
We'll take it right.
That definitely was anoff-rhythm first three quarters
and finally got it going at theend, which was great to see.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Finding rhythm is all that.
Let's talk about you guysindividually, because this is
your senior year and we weretalking in the car the other day
.
You have six home games left.
Unless we get some districtstuff, it goes by in a hurry.
We're through the first thirdof the season already.
I think you have 15, 16, 17games to go.
It's hard to believe, isn't it,to be at this spot, jake, in
(30:59):
your senior life as a basketballplayer.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, it's kind of sad.
Already it goes by in a hurry.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
The feelings that I had at the end of the football
season.
You know I can.
I can feel that it's comingalready.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
So there's no guarantee you guys are ever
going to be here.
You guys were the little kidshoping to play varsity
basketball one day.
You have your ups and downs.
Hudson, let's talk about you alittle bit.
You put in so much work for theyounger basketball player
that's listening.
The volume of work that some ofyou guys put in on basketball
is quite something.
Can you go through a little bitsome of your summer shooting
(31:35):
routines and some of the stuffthat you do that nobody sees?
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Yeah, I mean the past couple of years, but a lot of
this summer.
It was a lift in the morningwith Frank and then I'd either
shoot by myself after that,before that, and then have
jordan uh two or three times aweek um, get on the gun maybe at
night, and then go uh work outwith leo um at devos.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
So, and that's your aau coach, yeah, yeah, so you do
stuff with him.
Uh, getting to this spot too,though, you sometimes have
things that don't go your way.
When you were a young player,hudson, you got cut from a team.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Yeah, seventh grade, Ben and I went to try out for
Lake Shore in seventh grade.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Yeah, I got cut.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
And Ben made the team and Ben made the team you guys
are still friends.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
I didn't get no minutes, though.
No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, that definitely uh that definitely started like
made me feel, yeah, you andyour pillow got to know each
other quite well.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Your face was buried in it for a day or two.
Yeah, I was pretty upset.
Yeah, I mean, at first you'reangry and you say you're ruined
and you're like all right, well,gotta do something about it.
So yeah, just from there thatstarted, I think, where, like I
learned, uh that that motivatedme uh a lot and started like
started my grind to get betterfor the younger athletes that
(33:00):
are out there.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
It's a lot of work to play at this level.
Ben, you've done a lot of thesame stuff you played.
How many years have you playedAAU?
Too many to count.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Four, maybe five, right, something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And you've played a lot of.
You've done stuff with Myrick.
You've done yeah, Tell meplaying at Winstrum Park over
the years.
What's that?
That's a kind of go-to placefor you guys, right.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
That was a big yeah Before I was able to gym every
like every summer like freshmanyear, especially going into my
freshman year and sophomore yearI go.
I go to winstrom every day.
Sometimes I go with hudson inthe morning.
We we'd bike over there.
The courts would still be likeof course it'd be a little wet
and we just get.
We find like a traffic cone, weput the cone on the court, we
just do some drills with that.
That was huge, went there somuch yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
That's like that was huge.
Before anybody could drive orcould get into a gym, windstorm
was a spot to go to.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Right, you're biking around with your basketball in
your arm.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Yeah, we'd text group chats and stuff.
We'd have runs.
We'd have the freshman teamwhen I was a freshman we'd have
everyone on our freshman teamand then the JV team ahead of us
.
We'd all come and we'd play 5-5against each other.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
It was just big.
Yeah, that's awesome, jake.
Your summer prep for basketballseason looks a little bit
different than these guysbecause you also play football
in the fall, so where does yourbasketball time, I guess, kind
of fit into that busy summer?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
obviously I got football like every day, usually
every day, and uh, it'sdefinitely difficult work for
football so it makes it a lotharder to get my work in for
basketball.
But yeah, usually I just tryand find time to get into the
gym and then, yeah, just likethese two I used to go play with
quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
You guys have gotten pretty big over the years too.
Like Jake, you're a force ofnature now.
I mean you're always kind ofthis guy, to be honest with you,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
I should have hit the gym more this year, though.
Oh, you haven't hit the gym.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I'm like, oh, I wouldn't have been able to tell.
I think it might be fat.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Well, speaking of fat , I talked to your parents about
you and you do.
Now, with all of what, whatjake does, he's doing all this
basketball football stuff youstill keep a job during the year
right, yeah, I do, I work.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I try and work at least one day a week.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, I put pinos yeah, and you're not just
anybody at pipinos, I heard thatyou are.
You have quite the skill for,uh, flipping that dope in there.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah, I'm a good pizza maker.
I'd say yeah, I make some goodpizza.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
I think we need a Pepino's sponsorship here for
the basketball team.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Well, they're getting some love on the 29-1.
Speaker 7 (35:34):
I mean, if Jake's a weekly worker there, I think
it's time to get some Pepino'ssponsorship.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Some free pizza here, I could try and make something
work.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
You usually work Sunday nights right, yeah,
usually.
If I get a Pepino's pizza on aThursday and we Hudson, we both
like that Supreme for Pepino'sand if you have their Supreme
pizza it's high end for sureWould we be able to tell that
you did the dough on a Sundaynight versus?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
a Thursday night pizza?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, you got the skills yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
All right, we're letting the Thursday night crew
know that they got to pick it upBecause you're way better at it
, jake, with your role.
This is really interesting, butthis goes way back when we did
courthouse back in the day.
You kind of at times struggleduntil you, we, we talked a
little bit and you took on thiscool role that you have just
embraced.
Can you talk about howimportant it is for a team to
(36:22):
have a player and now this isnot about you per se, but a
player doing the things you doon a court and Hudson maybe talk
about how important his role isand what he's doing?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
yeah, I'd say it's really important.
Like he just comes in andbrings energy, brings a spark.
Um, like moves the ball reallywell, defense is a dog, like
picks up like he's a dog.
And like offensively too, likeit's not, like he can't score
correct, like he can score he'sscore.
He has a really good finishingpackage.
He just does the small thingsthat a lot of guys don't want to
(36:54):
do.
He does those things reallywell.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Coach, what's it like to have Jake out there with
stuff he's doing?
Speaker 7 (36:59):
Yeah, Jake talked about how he's the sixth man.
We said we have six starters.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 7 (37:12):
We have six starters on our team and you just can
only start five of them.
You know, and as you saw lastnight, like jake was in almost
the whole fourth quarter at theend of the game, and that's
that's what he does.
And jace jake is we also.
We talk all the time that he'sa connector.
He's a connector of guys, he's.
He's the person that's outthere that you know.
He's always looking foreverybody else and, yeah, he can
score.
I remember going back to uh, Ithink it was east kentwood, your
jv year that I remember and Ithink 20 ball he had.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Like, yeah, he did he had like 20 something.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
I remember that and they couldn't, I hope you
remember it.
Um, he, they couldn't stop him.
And jake, jake gets to the rimreally, really well and you know
, and you see that in thevarsity game, son, he just, he
just doesn't.
He's not doing it in everysingle possession because he's a
connector and he understandswho needs what shots.
What do we need to do?
And that's a huge part of ourteam and we wouldn't be where
(38:00):
we're at without having thosepeople.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, it's nice when a player knows what their shot
is and sees when thatopportunity cracks open.
And I feel that's kind of whatjake does.
Jake will see that little wind,you'll see that window open up
and you'll all send the ballsinto the basket.
Yeah, definitely with your team.
You guys are the, the seniors.
There's a continuity when youall kind of know each other.
But at times, with theseyounger, you got to put yourself
(38:24):
second.
At times, too right like yougot to go out and make your
impact on the game and thensometimes you're like, oh,
someone's on a roll here, I'mjust gonna kind of let them go.
What's it like to kind of likesometimes you got to maybe step
back for the team to succeed.
It's not always easy as asenior to do that.
Then what's it like for you?
Because there's a lot of likeyour position, you have multiple
talented players in that spotand sometimes the night it's not
(38:45):
you right, that's a littletough.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
Yeah, so all our guards score really well, so
when I'm in I can see thatthey're flowing.
I really just take pride,especially on the defensive end,
just making sure my guy doesn'tget in front of me, just
staying in front and thengetting steals, hopefully, and
then just looking for whoever'shot at the moment, even if it's
not me.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Hudson, you had that a little bit over the weekend
like this.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
This past game wasn't your best game, but your team
wins and you gotta be happyabout that I'd say when, like
when, your main priority iswinning, um, when everyone's
bought into winning, the thoseproblems don't arise.
Guys know that sometimes it'llbe there nice, sometimes so well
, and if the main thing iswinning, then everything will
keep flowing yeah, even afterlast night game we got in the
car.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
we're like, hey, we, hey, we won that game.
That's the most important thing, yeah.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
Yeah, I think you know it's not always an easy
thing to do to get the kids tobuy in, especially when you have
it's not just the five guys youknow that are starting but
buying into.
Hey, listen, we got eight, nine, 10 guys that on a given on a
given night, one of those guys,or two of those guys, might be
the ones that are in at the end.
I've never had a coach that waybefore and it's definitely an
(39:56):
adjustment no-transcript.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Yeah, there's so many different guys that can
shoulder the load on any givennight.
It was zealand east ben and Ihad a huge night against zealand
east here, 22 maybe holland I'msorry, yeah, I'm thinking back
to beginning of break yeah,holland, holland, that's a great
example I was like senior night.
Speaker 7 (40:21):
So yeah, holland, yes , holland was like senior night.
So yeah, holland, yes, hollandwas like senior night.
Like Ben was like 9 or 12 fromthe floor and Hudson hit four
threes, all in the second halfwhen it was a little bit of a
tight game.
And that was their nightscoring-wise, where they stepped
up, good example.
And we had other guys thatdidn't.
Last night, ben ended up with10.
(40:41):
I didn't even realize it.
He was perfect from the floor.
He was three of three or fouror four or something like that
little jared goff huh, yeah, butit wasn't.
He wasn't one of those.
The main guys that game and and.
And I think that the best thingfor these four of these three
guys is when it's not theirnight.
They've been great teammatesand we couldn't do that without
(41:04):
them yeah it's hard to do thatwhen the clock's ticking right.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
That season clock starts up boom boom, boom boom.
You guys have some really coolstuff on instagram, so I'm going
to pull that up for a minute.
Who's doing that instagram foryou guys, by the way?
Speaker 7 (41:18):
so that is brian daikama, um karen daikama, our
athletic administrativeassistant.
He's that's what he went toschool for and he hasn't really
done a ton of it recently and weI talked to him before the
season about, you know, bringinghim around more and he's had
some.
He's had some great videos,great videos.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
The kids love it.
It's so fun to watch thoseafter a game A little slow-mo,
blurry background.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Yeah, I'm actually going to meet with him next week
because I want to startbringing him on to do more stuff
for the athletic department.
But I want to make sure thatyou know we're taking care of
him on the backend as well,cause he is super talented.
He's got youth that I don'twrite Like.
I do all of the social mediafor the high school, but I'm
limited because I'm a47-year-old guy.
(42:06):
Right, he just has a little bitmore juice and creativity when
it comes to the video stuff.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, we've learned a lot in doing some of this stuff
at the high school, like havingus in charge of music not the
best move.
So that's why these Woe Benstudents have come in and really
kind of really started makingthings up way more than we could
.
I mean, how many times can welisten to fish?
Speaker 4 (42:28):
all right, yeah, you guys don't want no, even in
grateful day, going on andwarm-ups the looks on the faces
are like ben's like what's fish?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
billy strings.
That's right, billy strings man.
Yeah, bill has his favoritestuff.
So we have done a good job ofmoving toward younger people
doing it.
They do these features on youguys, and there's some cool
things that you said.
One thing that, jake, you saidwas we talk about after a tough
loss.
And there's different thingsthat you say.
Jake, you said remember howgrateful I am to even be playing
(43:00):
For Ben after a tough loss,you'd like to watch film and
learn from it.
And then, hudson, we have athing in our house too, because
when you were little, a loss wasdevastating and would go on for
too long, and we do somethingcalled the 24-hour rule.
Can you guys maybe speak to howyou kind of deal when things
don't go your way and how youdon't stay in that spot forever,
(43:22):
right, you move out of it.
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Maybe Jake go first.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, obviously it's hard after losing, especially
against HC.
I remember that I was prettyupset about that.
But then you just wake up thenext day and realize you got
more basketball to play.
So just life moves on.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
What about you, Hudson?
Talk us through the 24-hourrule.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
Yeah, kind of going off that, like I mean obviously
a tough loss.
Like yeah, han, christian was areally tough loss, didn't sleep
very well.
But then you wake up and it'slike all right, well, we got a
game next week.
So you're either going to keeppouting and being down about the
game from last Friday or you'regoing to move on, show up to
practice and get ready for thenext week.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
You can't stay back and stay in that same place.
Yeah, basically what Hudsonsaid, like after, after the loss
, like especially on Christian.
But yeah, I was down for awhile like I didn't want to hang
out with anybody, I don't wantto talk to anyone.
It was a Friday night too, solike yeah, asked me to hang out
and I just like stayed in myroom all night because I fouled
out that game too.
So I was pretty upset, but likeI woke up the next morning it's
like I gotta learn, got tolearn from it.
Like learning from a game likethat, like it's just going to
help us get better.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
And I would say, let's go to some of this, this
older group.
Now I'll tell you this when Iwas younger and if I lost a game
, it wasn't 24 hours, it was 24days.
I mean, you know this, jared,right, you're probably a little
bit of the same where thoselosses linger.
Speaker 7 (44:49):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean linger with me.
Um, I I'm trying to get betterwith a similar, a similar
mindset, I think obviously theboys.
After saturday's game at nightI was, uh, a little upset and I
came into, uh, sunday practice,um, definitely calmed down,
evaluated, evaluated myself.
You know, talk to the kidsabout, you know, my frustrations
with the team, but also myfrustrations with myself and us
(45:11):
as coaches and things we couldhave done better.
And I think I think learningafter you don't play well is not
just the the kids learning whatthey need to do better, but
it's us as coaches going andself-evaluating and saying what
did we not do, that we couldhave done better, and I thought
we did a good job of doing thatafter the game on Saturday and I
(45:33):
think you saw some of thosechanges a little bit on Monday.
So, just just constantlylearning and that's going to be
a theme of the season with the,you know, mix of of old and
youth that we have on the teamis that we continue to get
better and we learn so we'replaying our best basketball when
, when the tournament comes inmarch hudson, what's that mean
(45:53):
to you to hear coach say I'm notjust evaluating the team, but
I'm evaluating us as coaches?
Speaker 6 (46:00):
yeah, it's a pretty cool thing.
A lot of coaches are like seethemselves as above all and they
can never be wrong, but I mean,we got two coaches that they're
not afraid to um be like yeah,you know what we messed up.
It's not just on you guys, andit's a really cool thing, I feel
like I was impressed.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
the other day hudson came home from practice coach
and he told me you brought a oldretired coach in from wayland
and maybe talk about this for aminute, because I thought this.
When he told me this, I'm like,oh okay, I was impressed with
that, that Wayland coach comesin and is going to teach you his
own.
And what did you specificallydo?
You kind of stepped away andwent to the side.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 7 (46:37):
Yeah, so I am a primarily 90% man-to-man defense
guy and on teams I like to havesome sort of change-up.
But I was trying to figure outwhat fit this team and this
personality really well.
And I remember playing againstWaylon back when I was coaching
at East Grand Rapids when MikeHudson was the coach there and
(46:58):
he had his boys, wes Hudson andAvery Hudson really good teams
that they had and they playedthis really funky zone that had
a lot of pressure, which fitsour team, with a lot of speed
and a lot of pressure, and it'sjust, it's different, it's
harder to game plan against.
So I called them up and justsaid, hey, would you be willing
to come in and teach the zone tous, because I know what I don't
know and that's.
(47:18):
You know I could spend lots ofhours and research it, but
you're a resource of someonethat knows what they're doing
really well with this and so tobe able to come in one day and
to be able to have it talk toour guys.
And I just kind of stepped backto the sideline and said, mike,
this is your practice, run it,and I'll step in and ask him
questions and confirm thingswith him.
(47:40):
And I thought it was a.
It was a huge help for us to beable to implement something in
one day that would have taken alot longer for us to try to
figure it out, to do it on ourown.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
What a young Jared Riddell coach brought somebody
in.
Speaker 7 (47:59):
Maybe not, I mean I.
So I used to bring.
You know, I coached with SteveMarley at Rockford for a few
years and he used to come andwhen I was at North Point he
used to come and do some stuff.
So I think that was.
You know that was a mid-agecoach, jared, but he was also my
mentor.
So that was a lot.
(48:19):
You know that was a lot easier.
I patterned a lot of my stufffrom him.
So this is the first time Ibrought someone from the outside
that.
I've known Mike in the coachingworld for a long time.
I wouldn't say we don't hangout, I don't know him that well,
but I know he's a really goodcoach and I know he did
something specific that Istruggled against when I played
(48:39):
it.
And so I was looking at it andsaying, well, what would be a
better way to do it than tobring the guy in that's taught
it?
You know, multiple times and hewas, he was happy to do so.
Um, he's no longer coaching atwayland.
His son, wes, is the girlscoach at wayland and he helps
him out a little bit.
Um, and I thought there wassomething interesting that he
said at the at the end ofpractice and he saw what our
(49:02):
guys could be.
We really shared the ball ballthat day like the way, the way I
know we can.
And he, he turned to coachPalmer and I and said this this
has a chance to be a specialgroup and he said thank you for
letting me come in to be here atpractice, because it was fun to
be around the.
You know these kinds ofathletes and who they are,
(49:22):
because they can, they, they,they can be a special group and
I've loved coming to practiceevery single day and just love
being around these guys.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
Well, that kind of gets us moving in the direction
of the inevitable.
The OK Red schedule is upon us,fellas Friday it starts right
here, hudsonville.
Coming to town, hudson, maybetalk to us a little bit about
playing in the red.
Speaker 6 (49:49):
I mean, yeah, it's a really competitive conference.
There's no nights off, there'sno team.
You're like, oh, that's it,none of that.
Every game is going to be atough game, and then you know
it's going to be a battle, butit's fun, that's what you want
to be in.
So I couldn't get any better.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Sometimes too, if you Well, we'll talk about this.
You were playing your Allendaleteam and we think it's going to
be a little easy, wasn't Lost.
You get in these, ok Red games.
You're never going into a gamegoing.
Oh, this is going to be easytonight.
Speaker 7 (50:24):
I night.
I didn't think it was gonna beeasy.
I know you did it, but we allknow how players might yeah, so
that that'd be the trap.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
The players?
Yeah, it's a trap.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
Maybe some, maybe some parents trap game community
.
Like it's easy to say, like oh,you know they don't have this
star player that's on their team, but they got two really good
high school players that, um,that are, that are tough as heck
, and I think that some of thatis the maturity of our team and
maybe the immaturity of our teamto.
(50:49):
You know, you go into a gameand think maybe this isn't as
good of a team and you know ithappens.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
It happens.
It happens to every team, everysport, every season.
You can see it coming and youstill can't stop it.
Speaker 4 (51:07):
When we first were in setting up earlier, rodney and
I were talking about the weekendand the games, and the thing
that I've noticed in high schoolathletics as a whole, across
all sports, is that the marginshave become really thin in
literally every sport.
If our tennis team doesn't showup and they think it's, they're
going to mail it in, they'regoing to get beat.
(51:29):
The margins are so small and itdoesn't matter how big or how
small school is, and thosemargins get even tighter as we
enter our conference season.
Jake, can you talk about, uh,what you look forward to maybe
as we get into the red season?
Speaker 1 (51:45):
I would just say the competitiveness that the OK Red
brings.
It's always fun, it's battling,it's usually a back-and-forth
game and it's really physical,which I really enjoy as a
football player.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Yeah, you're a good physical player Good physical
player.
What do you guys, as we finishup here, we've got about two
months left in your high schoolbasketball careers, guys.
It's crazy.
What are your like aspirationsfor the next couple months?
What do you hope to achieve asa team this year, ben?
Speaker 5 (52:14):
um, definitely win a district.
Uh, winning record.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Just I just want to let everyone know how special
this team was and just, yeah,just keep winning, get the
community bought in Hudson umyeah, I would say just um, keep
getting wins, like, keepbuilding as a team um and
building up for uh yeah, windistricts and build up for a for
a run in March yeah, obviously,um winning games is definitely
(52:40):
one of my goals for these nextcouple months, but also just
leaving this place knowing thatwe've, like, changed the program
and then, you know, coming backnext year, the next couple of
years, and seeing um some of myold teammates, like obviously JT
, darian, the freshman, and someof the sophomores playing good
and you know um going to actionand making like a state run.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
I hope it's gonna be wild.
You're gonna be a junior incollege and you're gonna come
back and Darian and JT are stillgonna be out playing basketball
.
Speaker 5 (53:08):
Hustle have that full beard now just because he can
grow it.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
How miles let it grow ?
I can.
Yeah, well, we hope you guyshave a good season.
We hope you, like you, can findthat togetherness and find that
on a regular basis and reallyhave a good year.
Finishing up, we play thisFriday.
It is the last day of the year.
By the way, we're recordinghere on New Year's Eve.
If you're listening to thisyou're going back to last year
(53:34):
to listen, but this Friday wehave Hudsonville at home at 7.
Next week, I believe we haveGranville.
Is it Granville on Tuesday?
I believe Granville.
Is it Granville on Tuesday?
Speaker 7 (53:43):
I believe.
Granville on Friday, justGranville on Friday.
Oh, just Granville Friday.
We don't have a Tuesday nextweek.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
Okay, so we got Hudsonville at home and then, by
the time this airs, we'll beplaying at Granville.
If you are listening, come on,make the trip.
Granville's not that far away,just head on over West Ottawa.
We are a community, we are eachother and we love having you
guys in.
Thanks for coming in, it's beena blast.
Thanks, guys, thank you?
Speaker 5 (54:07):
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for having us on.
Alright, we'll see you later,thank you.
Yeah, obviously winning games is definitely one
of my goals for these nextcouple months, but also just
leaving this place, knowing thatwe've changed the program and
then coming back next year, thenext couple years, and seeing
some of my old teammates likeobviously JT, darian the
freshman, and some of thesophomores, playing good and
(00:21):
going back and making a staterun, I hope and you know we're
actually making like- a staterun, I hope.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives of studentathletes, coaches and other
faces in the Panther sportscommunity, bringing you the
stories you might otherwisenever hear.
(00:48):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Every high school athlete gets to the inevitable.
Your senior season, your lastchance to play with your friends
in front of that home crowd,with dreams of making a run at a
district title.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Today we sit down with the Panther Boys basketball
program.
Seniors Hudson Valinga, jakeGerrits, ben Beetham and Coach
Jared Riddell join us themorning after a victory over the
Jenison Wildcats.
We talk about being leaders ona young team and the season that
lies ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
A promising 6-2 start has players, fans and coaches
alike optimistic on what theseason could be as they now
begin the ever-difficult OK Redschedule and the challenge of
finding continuity with a younggroup mixed in with veteran
leadership and playing togetheras a ball-sharing group of five.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Hudson Malinga, jake Gerrits, ben Beetham and Jared
Riddell up next on the 29.1Podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, hey everybody, Welcome back to the 29.1 Podcast
.
We are officially back fromwhat I'm going to call our
holiday hiatus.
Holiday hiatus I don't knowwhat I said the first time.
It's been a few weeks sincewe've been able to record Bill.
Apparently, December is reallybusy at a high school.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Very busy.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah.
So between practices and gameschedules, snow days and such,
our plans to record just keptgetting squashed.
So it's why we missed a fewepisodes.
But we are glad to be back andare excited to have weekly
episodes from now through theend of the school year.
Today we welcome three youngmen who have a long history
together.
They've known each other sincethey were little boys.
(02:40):
They played lots of differentsports together when they were
little AAU basketball, we didsome stuff over at courthouse.
The boys played some littleleague baseball and you know you
guys were the little guys whosat in the stands at football
and basketball.
We're almost through what thefirst third of our senior
varsity boys basketball seasonhere at West Ottawa high school.
(03:01):
After back to back six winseasons over the past couple
years, there is a markedimprovement so far into this
young season, as they sit at 6-2.
And it's my pleasure to ask whois it?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Hey Garrett.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Hudson, valinga Ben Beetham and Coach Gerard L.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Nice to have you here .
Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Awesome to have you all in the fact that we're we're
doing this and kind of jammingit into a crazy schedule.
We're doing this beforepractice, the morning after a
victory over jenison last nightover at cornerstone.
Did you guys enjoy playing atcornerstone?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
yeah, I'd say so.
I really like the court.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Okay, it was good yeah, I just say it's fun to
like play on those type ofcourts and the environment was
good.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You guys, uh, coach, you guys have won three out of
your last four 83, 63 victoryover West Catholic.
57, 49 in town rivalry winagainst Holland Dutch.
Uh, then you lost to Allendale63, 51 and then came back and
had that big fourth quarter lastnight 57, 54 win.
Fourth quarter last night 57-54win over Jenison.
What's that been like so far?
(04:06):
You're on a little bit of a,maybe not the weekend you wanted
exactly, but nice comeback winlast night.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Yeah, I thought last night we won a game in a way
that we haven't won one all year, and probably not in the three
years that I've been here wherewe struggled offensively First
half I think we only had 19points turning the ball over.
Good aggressive turnovers,turned it over in ways that
usually we're really good intransition and we weren't taking
(04:35):
care of the ball and usuallywhen our offense is struggling
our defense really falls and Ithought, being down 10 going
into the fourth quarter, whenwe're not scoring, for us to gut
back the way we did and kind ofchip away, chip away, chip away
and then eventually being ableto score and win the game.
I thought it was a win that wehaven't seen and hopefully one
(04:55):
that will help propel us intothe future in those situations,
because you can't always expectto score 70, 80 points to win a
game Right, which is kind of theearly part of the season.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It was like we're running, we're gunning, and
there was a lot of points scoredearly.
Ben, you made two big freethrows down the stretch last
night.
What's it like to be able tocome through for your team in a
situation like that.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
So yeah, fourth quarter.
I was able to cheer on my teamfrom the bench, and then I got
subbed in late to make a coupleplays.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I was able to get a rebound and knock down big free
throws.
Hudson and Jake, you guysbasically have played a lot.
Hudson, you played varsitysomewhat as a sophomore.
What's it like to have six winsalready?
Two years ago you got yoursixth win in late February.
Last year it was late Februaryas well.
Got your sixth win last nightand it's only December 30.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable.
You have a lot more fun with it.
It's not always easy to belosing a bunch of games in a row
.
It's way more enjoyable whenyou're getting wins and
everybody's fighting and comingtogether.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Jake, you're kind of a spark plug out there.
What's it like for you to?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it just feels great.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
I'm really proud of our team.
We've uh we've been, um, workinghard and I feel like I can tell
that it's paying off.
We're more locked in and, uh,getting more wins.
It's great.
Yeah, I can tell that you guyshave been working hard.
I've, you know, pop intopractice here and there, cut
through the gym just to seewhat's going on.
Coach, can you talk to us alittle bit about kind of the
practice setup that you guysespecially especially early in
the season, where you have theJV kind of running cross court
on one and then the varsity, alot of energy in the gym, a lot
(06:30):
of coaching going on?
Maybe talk to us a little bitabout what that practice looks
like?
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Yeah, especially early in the season.
We also have a unique situationwhere we have five sophomores
on our team and three of themare playing some with the JV.
So with that, you know, we'vebeen, we've been going cross
court and then the last halfhour we've been kind of
combining with the JV and someof those swinger guys that we
have, or we'll spend some timewith us and they'll spend some
(06:56):
time with the JV, and I think itjust really brings great energy
into the gym.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You know just just a lot of people, a lot of
excitement and I think it's beena really good setup so far.
Yeah, speaking of energy, thesehome games so far have been
really, really fun.
The crowds have been reallygood.
At West Ottawa, hudson, what'sit like for you seeing that
black hole jump in?
It's been a couple of yearssince we've seen it full and
it's getting there.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Yeah, it's definitely fun just to see the crowd into
it and I like to say the normalcrowd as well like um coaching
Little Panthers.
A lot of kids come from thattoo, and everybody's bought in,
wants to watch this, so it'sreally cool yeah, it's always
great when the community comesout.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
All your families come out.
Garrett family, beathams areall out there.
Uh, as a parent, I get to talkwith all these people after
games and we're having a lot offun.
It's nice to be able to win.
You have a very up tempo style,ben, as a team.
Do you guys like playing thatfast pace?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I do like playing fast.
It gets tiring but we're ableto sub.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think our bench does a great job, yeah coach,
you're almost getting everybodyin on every game I've noticed
yeah, I don't think we've had agame that, um, everybody hasn't
played and we talk about that.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
you know, we're 13 deep and we have 13 important
players and I thought last nightwas a great example of two guys
.
Jonah Watson came in and he'sonly been playing seven, eight
minutes a game as a sophomoreand he probably played 12
straight minutes down thestretch at the end.
And then Abel Anaya, same thing.
He came in and gave a hugespark for us during the third
(08:22):
quarter and I mean that's whatwe are.
We are 13 guys that you know,on different days some guys have
it going, some guys don't, andyou know it's it's up to the
other guys to step up and Ithink they've embraced embraced
that as a team and I'm superproud of them.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
so yeah, it's uh, it's something to really have
that many guys come out andsometimes you make some
adaptations in a game.
You know that's certainly notkind of what you're planning on
going in.
But when you're down 10 goingin the fourth, you got to adapt,
find a group that's working andkind of stick with it and go
going back to that full gym.
I remember when the three ofyou were those 12 year old boys
(08:57):
sitting in that front row.
Do you remember those times,jake?
yeah, I do yeah yeah, it feelslike it wasn't that long ago
either right, it wasn't reallyright and we were playing
courthouse ball and then comingout here and watching who were
some of your guys favoriteplayers growing up.
Do you remember some names?
Uh, obviously like xavier wayne.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I remember watching him he was, he was really good.
It was fun to watch and, uh,like the the patterson boys,
yeah, they were good I just likethat whole team.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Uh, tyler Bosman, they were all really fun to
watch.
They had a lot of lobs, a lotof fun plays.
That was right, it was Dunk.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
City a lot almost every night, wasn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, and you know, you have a little person sitting
over there, a little guy.
You don't know if you're evergoing to make a varsity team.
What's it like being out on thefloor now and being those guys?
Ben, you're.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
you're now the guy that those little 12 year old
boys are looking up to.
Um, yeah, it's, it's different,um, seeing the little kids in
the stands, like the way theylook up to you, like you used to
look up to the kids back then,like giving them high fives and
seeing the smiles on their faces, you can tell that you're just
like their inspirations so oneof the things that probably has
helped solidify that bond withyou and that younger group is
Little Panthers, and you guysare coaching those teams and
(10:09):
coaching those kids.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Do you feel like you have a little group of dudes
that is just like they're yourguys?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Yeah, I have my own little team.
They all like they were askingme to play Fortnite with them.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
We got really close.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Some of them come up behind me on the bench during
the game.
They're trying to give me highfives.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I'm like not right now, not right now but yeah, it
feels like you're withcelebrities a little bit when
you're that age right, whenyou're playing with the highs.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Yeah, I say like when you were little, like you'd see
those guys, you were like you'dbe shocked.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
You're in.
They got all this talent andskill, hudson, your team won.
Did you guys win thechampionship?
Speaker 6 (10:45):
you wanna give some props to your boys?
I mean I drafted the Warriors,I chose that team.
I think it was a good selection.
I mean we had we got Blake andwe didn't have him for two weeks
.
Blake Riddell, his son andchampionship.
We were up like 30 in the firsthalf he was gone for a couple
weeks.
Yeah, so it made us look like weweren't entirely a great team.
Oh gotcha, we'd have four orfive guys some games, and then
(11:08):
he came back.
He dropped a big number in thelast game, right, yeah, riddell
was telling him to stop shooting.
We had to make it look a littlemore fair.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
And what were you telling him to do?
Let it fly.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Let it fly, that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, he gets hot.
You let it fly, jake.
What?
Real quick, jake.
What was, what's it been likecoaching, and maybe has it given
you any perspective of whatcoach riddell is going through
on a day in, day out basis withyou guys yeah, definitely it's
been fun.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Uh, I also was the champs for the third and fourth
graders and it was awesome theywere.
They're really excited to seeme every week and it showed
they're actually having fun outthere, which is good, which is
hard to see for some of these uhlittle kids, you know, to get
them into a sport at a young age.
It's really good.
Yeah, it was fun and uh, yeah,the coaching part, um, it can be
difficult because you alwayswant you got people complaining,
(11:56):
not playing.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
You got no, never jared have you heard of that
before.
Is that something that actuallygoes?
I actually goes.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I always get the coach.
Coach, put me in, please.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Or you get that.
Look down the bench to that sadface.
You know, yeah, exactly.
What about me.
Hudson, you had a reallyinteresting thing with the
Cheetos.
Can you tell us about that?
The Cheetos in the pocket?
Speaker 6 (12:18):
Yeah, there was some little kid that had Cheetos in
his pocket, like right beforethe game hot cheetos they're all
falling out all over the court.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Little plastic bag in the side pocket right yeah,
like a ziploc bag.
They're all falling out in hispocket I mean that's great to
bring that out into the courtand have that readily available
very jealous.
Yeah, that's pretty awesome,crazy.
It's pretty awesome that he wasdoing that can I actually add
something to?
That go for it.
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
So I think last year this is our second year where
the kids were actually coachingthe team.
In the past it's always beenparents that have been coaching
and I think I've seen a hugechange community-wise by the
players always just ref before,and so now, with them coaching,
they're really developingrelationships with kids.
And I have a little neighborboy who's in second grade and he
(13:03):
goes to every game now and hewants to go see his coach and he
goes and talks to his coachevery time and I think that is
that is the community side thatwe're building, and I think
you're starting to see it in thestands because they're all
bought in and that's what wewant to do is we want to bring
the entire community into theprogram.
So it feels like there's aswell, because eventually you
(13:24):
know, know, those are the kids,they're going to be out there
one day for you guys.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
That's pretty fun too , did you?
When you were younger?
Did you feel you got that alittle bit when they were
reffing, or it's probably nicerwhen they're coaching?
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I would think, yeah, I still got a little bit of the
reffing, but not not to the sameuh level that they have now
like being their coach.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Are you guys, uh, running offenses?
What are they?
They just freewheeling outthere.
What's it like, ben?
What are that?
What do you guys do as a coach?
What are some things you'reimplementing?
What's your system?
Speaker 5 (13:50):
um, I'll be trying to call like sets and stuff, but
but I just usually have themlike few ball screens just
trying to cut.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That's really it keep them moving around the court.
Yeah, not standing still right,all those kind of.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, I got a few ball screens in there too, but
nothing nothing too crazy allright.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, I saw some scattered papers around the
house at times with somedrawings I can't believe hudson
doesn't have like plays forthrees, because you know it
spurs in there or something.
There you go hey, definitelygotta have it.
You have some starters on yourteam that are fairly young.
Let's talk about threeparticular young players, if we
can, and maybe we can take turnstalking about them.
(14:25):
We got uh, we got jt gill, ofcourse, we got darian stewart
and we got makai campos hudsonpick one of those guys to talk
about.
What's it like having theseyoung, this young infuse of
talent on your team?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
I'll go.
I'll go with darian yeah, yougot he's a big, big goofball.
Yeah, goofball.
Uh, probably one of thefunniest dudes I know, but
really loyal.
When you get in game like hereally wants to win, super
competitive in game, and justreally loyal, he's got your back
, no matter what.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
How old is?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Darian, how old is he 14.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
Darian is a.
Everybody thinks he's like anold freshman.
Darian doesn't turn 15, I thinkuntil May.
He is a super young freshman andso you sometimes you see that
with Darian, with his you knowgoofballness, but, like Hudson
said, like you have your back.
When we had a team retreat andyou know the one thing that he
(15:17):
wanted his team to know is that,you know, I probably in any
situation I'll have your back.
And that's kind of that'sDarian.
Even though he is that goofball, when it comes down to it he's
a loyal kid and a great teammate.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
And he's got so much potential Even in this first
third of the season, Bill, he'sreally grown a lot, don't you
think?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
I mean he just jumps off the court.
As I mentioned earlier sittingwith Johnston from Jenison
yesterday.
He's like man who's 32?
He's only a freshman.
You're gonna see him for a bit.
I just I look at darian and Isee him and I think of what he
will look like as a junior andsenior.
You know he's in pantherstrengths class right now as he
(15:57):
continues to work in the weightroom.
You lived with him right hudsonyeah, he's in my peak group.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I drafted him.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean, if that kid gets after it in the weight room
, he'll be unstoppable.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
Yeah, he will be unstoppable.
We got Ben in there too.
Most of the basketball guys inthat class are all in one group,
so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So you're building some relationships in those
classes too, then right, yeah,we'll talk about that in a
little bit more about too.
Then, right, yeah, because yeah, let's talk, we'll, we'll talk
about that a little bit moreabout building relationships
with the age gap.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Let's maybe, ben, you want to talk about jt gill a
little bit.
What's it like to have jt onthe team?
Uh, yeah, so he's also reallyyoung.
Him and darian are like, theylove to mess around in practice.
But the immaturity of thesefreshmen, hey guys, once they
get too close together they'realways like slapping each other,
like making jokes.
Once again, the game.
Jt is like.
He really does his thing.
He gets his own buckets.
He's actually he moves the ballreally well.
(16:50):
For how young he is, he's agreat playmaker.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's really.
There's a sign of maturity inJT, kind of when if you talk
about you know you talk aboutpeople and go that person's got
an old soul soul.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
He's got an old basketball soul.
What do you think, coach?
Yeah, um, you know, I'veobviously, you know, since I've
come here known jt since hisseventh grade and last night was
a great example like it was notone of his best games, you know
, but I remember pulling him outat the end of the third quarter
and talking to him and sayinglike hey, you're in at the end
of the game and you get a shotat the end, like I know you're
gonna make it because that's him.
Like we, we came and I'll letthe guys kind of talk about
theirs a little bit, but we wewent through roles and they all
(17:28):
got names and jt's was theassassin oh really, we're
hitting this up next because, jt, you know, in any situation
like that he could be 0 for 10and he has full confidence that
he's gonna make that shot whenit matters and I have confidence
and I've seen him do it five,six times in AU games where you
(17:49):
know, came down to the end andjust hit tough big buckets and
made big plays, and I know youknow he has that in.
So I would love for them toshare their.
They can talk a little bitabout their little nicknames and
their little and their littleand their roles.
I think it's uh, you know weput coach palmer and I, and
especially him on the roles, uh,put a ton of time and we
probably spent 10 hours goingthrough the roles and just
(18:09):
really trying to lay it outbecause we thought it was
something, when you're playing13 guys, for them to have very
specific roles on the thingsthat we need them to do so do
you?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
do you know all three ?
Don't say anything.
You know all their nicknames,right?
Or do you think you know?
Speaker 7 (18:24):
We just did this.
You just did it.
We just did this.
All right, I know Hudson's forsure.
I know Palmer was here.
He would have all three of them.
All right, because he was theone that came up with the names.
Have binders had pictures withthem?
It was really cool and they Ithink they thought you know it
was, it was, I don't know ifthey thought it was corny.
Um, they were kind of gigglinga little bit, but I hear them
(18:47):
talk about them a little bit.
You know, like during practice,like, oh, like you say
something to guys, jake.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
What's hudson's nickname?
Speaker 6 (18:53):
uh, he couldn't even say it, the sniper he's a sniper
, all right, takes you back toyour fortnight a little bit,
hudson, I'll play fortnight toomuch so talk to them about what,
not just obviously, obviouslyhudson's a sniper as a shooter,
but talk a little bit about whatthe sniper is too yeah, when we
(19:15):
talked about palmer was talkingabout how like yeah, shooter,
but um, like big on leadership,um, and like when they and
snipers in general they likelead, uh, they communicate very
well and they tell like wherethe enemy is and all that stuff,
so like really big oncommunication oh, that's pretty
cool actually yeah, wow, that'spretty you know what jake's?
(19:35):
Jake is the leopard it's soit's about the leopard come on
Speaker 1 (19:42):
leopard um, yeah, I'm the leopard.
Um, yeah, so, like, just my uh,my main role is, um, obviously,
I uh come off the bench.
I'm the sixth man, so, um, Ijust come into the game and I um
run wild yeah, pretty much anduh just bring the energy up, you
(20:03):
know, and um compete.
That's what I really like to dois just compete.
That's what um actually really,that's what like really makes
me enjoy.
Basketball is because of howcompetitive it is compared to
other sports, you know.
So, yeah, just competing and uhhaving that mindset where, like
, all I want to do is win youknow the role that you're
playing on this team.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
this is gonna take you back, maybe a little bit.
Reminds me a lot of Blake Bosmaas a sophomore.
He would come off the bench,but it was energy dive for loose
balls, grab the rebound, makethe extra pass, do all of the
stuff that the stat sheet'sprobably not going to show, but
(20:42):
if you're there and youappreciate watching basketball,
the leopard is going to get itdone, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I want to see stuff in the black hole now.
I want to see some leopardthing.
Somebody's got some crosshair.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Well, you can't do that now, right, it's flagged.
Well, just to.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, we can't do that.
Hudson.
What is Ben's nickname?
Well, it's incomplete.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
It's Ben the Bear.
Complete, like it's Ben theBear.
He's not the Bear, it's Ben theBear, ben the.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Bear Ben the Bear, ben the Bear.
Yeah, so he has me nicknamed asthe Bear, pretty much just like
once I'm locked, like once abear is locked in.
Yeah, like nobody can like beatit Like you kind of want to
fall down.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
So a bear.
A lot of times it's very docile, like you know, and that's kind
of Ben's personality.
But when you piss a bear offyou better watch out and so
that's why that was why Ben isthe bear.
And with the leopard, with Jake,there's this.
We played this video of youtalked about a leopard like um,
(21:48):
there's this.
We played this video of youtalked about a leopard like he's
going to go after his prey, nomatter what.
He doesn't care about you knowhis physical, um, you know,
potentially getting hurt.
There was a video of thisleopard chasing a goat that we
played and he jumps off a cliffand he gets the goat in his
mouth and he literally rollsdown the mountain and never lets
go of.
(22:09):
I've seen that, and so that wasthe reason because when jake,
when you watch jake play, jakewill go flying in for every
rebound.
He doesn't care if he's goingto get hurt.
He puts his body on the line.
So when I talked about like theamount of time that we put into
the roles, like a big part ofthat was that like oh yeah, he's
a leopard.
It's kind of funny, but therewas a specific reason because of
what a leopard does, because ofwhat a bear is in terms of, you
(22:32):
know, personality, but thengets, uh, you know, fearless in
competition and then as anassassin, with you know hudson
obviously shooting.
But as jt oh, sorry, I mean thesniper as a snipe, as a sniper
with hudson yeah, obviously hisshooting, but you know he is our
leader when it comes tocommunication on the court and
and a sniper's job is to protecthis team by communicating and
(22:56):
letting people know where it'sat.
So you know the roles are funnyand they laugh about him.
But there was, you know,specific, the reason for the
name, very specific because ofyou know who they are and their
personalities.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I really like it as a coaching technique.
It it's a nice reminder of whoyou are, what you're supposed to
be.
Let's talk about Makai Campos,because we haven't mentioned him
yet.
Jake, you played, of course,varsity football with Makai
Quite an incredible athlete, tobe honest, to be a sophomore and
really be like the startingquarterback Starting guard.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
And starting.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You want to talk about Makai a little bit, Jake.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, and starting guard and starting.
You want to talk about Makai alittle bit?
Jake?
Yeah, of course, for last yearhe obviously played varsity and
you could already see hismaturity last year and his
leadership.
But I feel like this year it'sjust definitely doubled and I
feel like I can really see himas a leader now fully.
And, yeah, he's fun to playwith.
Everyone always talks about hisscoring.
He's a great scorer, I think,but I think, um, his defense is
(23:52):
also what gets it, what gets thegame like it helps us a lot,
bill, and I always talk sports alot.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
and one thing we always talked about makai,
especially when he, when heplayed football, as, uh, playing
on the j team, he sees the gamealmost played in slow motion at
times, right?
Would you think so, bill?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Yeah, you can tell.
I mean, this is a kid thatplayed 23, 25 games-ish last
year as a varsity basketballplayer, started a full season in
the well, you know a couple ofgames early in the season where
he was kind of coming off thebench but then played a full
season of football at thequarterback position where you
have so much responsibility.
(24:32):
So I can only imagine thatthings get a little slower.
Just with that experience.
Everything tends to kind ofslow down, and I would say that
about JT as well.
You look out there and you seethe two guards are a freshman
and a sophomore and if youdidn't know, they were a
freshman and sophomore.
By the way they play, theydon't seem that way.
Coach, can you maybe talk aboutthe level of composure that
(24:55):
those two young men have?
Speaker 7 (24:57):
Yeah, I think a big part of it is they've played a
lot of basketball.
A lot of basketball, I mean,since eight years old.
Those kids are playingyear-round and so, yes, they're
young in terms of age, but interms of experience
basketball-wise, they've playeda lot of it and so that
definitely doesn't feel like themoment's too big for them, and
(25:19):
that's one of the most importantthings with them.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Hudson.
It's a real mix of young andold this year.
At times you guys I mean youguys are in your senior season.
Personally, you're just tryingto have a good season yourself.
You're trying to get minutes,you're trying to play, you're
trying to score, you're tryingto get rebounds, assists, you're
trying to get on the floor.
Have you felt like mentors attimes?
A little bit to these youngfellas.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Do they call you gramps?
Yeah, you definitely help themwith some things If they ask you
some questions about differentsituations or you might explain
to them, like, what to do in acertain situation.
Um, obviously this is theirlike, other than uh.
For jt and darian, it's theirfirst time playing varsity
basketball, so oh yeah and it's,you know, with a lot of these
(26:01):
guys, everyone's played a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
you guys have all played aau right, everyone is
plays in these different roles,in these different teams.
A lot of times in AAU becomethe main score.
Well, not the main score maybe,but you do a lot of scoring AAU
it's kind of free flowing.
It's a little bit loose.
Then you got to come into ateam situation and start playing
as what I like to call a groupof five.
I think it's the hardest thingin basketball is playing as a
(26:26):
group of five.
Coach, can you speak to that alittle bit?
Speaker 7 (26:29):
Yeah, I think you go back to the AAU.
Yeah, there's a lot of scoring,there's no scouting, there's no
defense.
There's not a lot of defense,there's not a lot of game plan
with it In high school.
It's very specific and soyou're not going to just get
easy baskets, and so it is superimportant that that you are a
well-connected team and we'vetalked about the 2018 team with
(26:50):
Bosma and all them, and wetalked the other day as a team.
What made them special was howthey shared the ball.
They were connected and theywere a group of kids that had
been playing together forever.
I remember specifically watchingthem play in an AAU tournament
against the LeBron James AAUteam out of Ohio with like eight
(27:10):
or nine division one playersand beat them.
Beat them because not that theywere better players, but just
they played so well as a teamand we definitely play a
different style as them.
You know we're very fast-paced,but I think you can see, at
times with our team, sometimesit looks like it, sometimes it
doesn't, but at times we canreally really share the
(27:33):
basketball and really move thebasketball.
And when we play like that, Iknow we're young and I know we.
You know we have seven youngguys and only three seniors, but
they've they've mixed so welltogether.
I've never had a team of thismany young kids and for that,
for the field to be the way itis I mean, our three seniors
here have a lot of times you canhave some feelings of with so
(27:56):
many young guys, like I don'twant to.
You know, this is our seniors,are my minutes.
These guys have beenunbelievable and you know, like
uh bill said, you know they'retalking about our youth, our
youth, their youth.
Yes, our youth is good and yes,our youth is good and, yes, our
youth helps us.
But we don't get anywherewithout these three guys in here
and their leadership.
We talked about mentorship andall those things.
(28:18):
They've been through it.
They're the reason why we'regoing to have a chance to do
something this year.
It's because of these threeguys in here.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, there's a lot of ups and downs with a team
with like this right.
You can see kind of in some ofthe games you've played the
Holland Christian game that washere at home, which we ended up
losing, but from a fan's pointof view it was one of the most
spectacular basketball gamesI've ever seen on our home court
.
It was such high level.
The rhythm of your team wasreally high end coach right.
The rhythm of your team wasreally high-end coach right, and
(28:47):
you've had a few games likethat.
Then you get into this pastweekend where the rhythm's off
right, whether it's thisChristmas break or whatever the
case may be.
Ben, what's it like to be inrhythm?
And then what's it like to beout of rhythm as a team?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, in rhythm definitely just like playing,
not even thinking, Everyone'sjust moving the ball's moving.
Open shots, but moving theballs.
Oh yeah, open shots, um, butwhen it's not in rhythm you can
just tell the ball stopping.
I feel myself personally onoffense, just standing just
trying to move the balls.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, everyone's dribbling too much looking for
their own shots yeah, it's ahard thing to figure out.
Uh, hudson, when you're outthere, when you're in a
non-rhythm game I mean in rhythmit's like you're like for a
shooter for you in a rhythm game.
You're sliding from spot tospot, right, you're finding a
little space In a non-rhythmgame.
You can stand there and it'slike you just watch.
What's it like to be in and out?
Speaker 6 (29:34):
Yeah, like Ben said, I find in those games, like
these past couple games where Ihaven't been in a great rhythm,
I find myself just standing andI'm like I've been probably here
for five seconds.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Like I got to something.
So, yeah, but yeah, it'sdefinitely and that's part of
being kind of on a younger team,right, you're learning that and
you're going to have thosenatural up and downs.
Yeah, and I you know, lastnight things were not always in
rhythm offensively but, coach,you alluded to it earlier our
guys on the opposite end of thecourt that's the beautiful thing
of basketball, right, you getto play both offense and defense
.
You guys affected and changedthe game really by sitting in a
stance and and getting afterthem on the defensive end 21-8
run to close the game.
Really by sitting in a stanceand and getting after him on the
defensive end 21-8 run to closethe game.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah fourth quarter was that what I know?
We were down 21-8.
I know we were down.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
You were down 10 going into the fourth um and
scored I think was it 22 in thefourth, after only scoring 33
for the game, or?
Something like, or for thefirst three quarters, thanks.
So we'll take it right.
That definitely was a that forthe first three quarters.
We'll take it right.
That definitely was anoff-rhythm first three quarters
and finally got it going at theend, which was great to see.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Finding rhythm is all that.
Let's talk about you guysindividually, because this is
your senior year and we weretalking in the car the other day
.
You have six home games left.
Unless we get some districtstuff, it goes by in a hurry.
We're through the first thirdof the season already.
I think you have 15, 16, 17games to go.
It's hard to believe, isn't it,to be at this spot, jake, in
(30:59):
your senior life as a basketballplayer.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, it's kind of sad.
Already it goes by in a hurry.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
The feelings that I had at the end of the football
season.
You know I can.
I can feel that it's comingalready.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
So there's no guarantee you guys are ever
going to be here.
You guys were the little kidshoping to play varsity
basketball one day.
You have your ups and downs.
Hudson, let's talk about you alittle bit.
You put in so much work for theyounger basketball player
that's listening.
The volume of work that some ofyou guys put in on basketball
is quite something.
Can you go through a little bitsome of your summer shooting
(31:35):
routines and some of the stuffthat you do that nobody sees?
Speaker 6 (31:38):
Yeah, I mean the past couple of years, but a lot of
this summer.
It was a lift in the morningwith Frank and then I'd either
shoot by myself after that,before that, and then have
jordan uh two or three times aweek um, get on the gun maybe at
night, and then go uh work outwith leo um at devos.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
So, and that's your aau coach, yeah, yeah, so you do
stuff with him.
Uh, getting to this spot too,though, you sometimes have
things that don't go your way.
When you were a young player,hudson, you got cut from a team.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Yeah, seventh grade, Ben and I went to try out for
Lake Shore in seventh grade.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Yeah, I got cut.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
And Ben made the team and Ben made the team you guys
are still friends.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
I didn't get no minutes, though.
No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, that definitely uh that definitely started like
made me feel, yeah, you andyour pillow got to know each
other quite well.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Your face was buried in it for a day or two.
Yeah, I was pretty upset.
Yeah, I mean, at first you'reangry and you say you're ruined
and you're like all right, well,gotta do something about it.
So yeah, just from there thatstarted, I think, where, like I
learned, uh that that motivatedme uh a lot and started like
started my grind to get betterfor the younger athletes that
(33:00):
are out there.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
It's a lot of work to play at this level.
Ben, you've done a lot of thesame stuff you played.
How many years have you playedAAU?
Too many to count.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Four, maybe five, right, something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And you've played a lot of.
You've done stuff with Myrick.
You've done yeah, Tell meplaying at Winstrum Park over
the years.
What's that?
That's a kind of go-to placefor you guys, right.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
That was a big yeah Before I was able to gym every
like every summer like freshmanyear, especially going into my
freshman year and sophomore yearI go.
I go to winstrom every day.
Sometimes I go with hudson inthe morning.
We we'd bike over there.
The courts would still be likeof course it'd be a little wet
and we just get.
We find like a traffic cone, weput the cone on the court, we
just do some drills with that.
That was huge, went there somuch yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
That's like that was huge.
Before anybody could drive orcould get into a gym, windstorm
was a spot to go to.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Right, you're biking around with your basketball in
your arm.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Yeah, we'd text group chats and stuff.
We'd have runs.
We'd have the freshman teamwhen I was a freshman we'd have
everyone on our freshman teamand then the JV team ahead of us
.
We'd all come and we'd play 5-5against each other.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
It was just big.
Yeah, that's awesome, jake.
Your summer prep for basketballseason looks a little bit
different than these guysbecause you also play football
in the fall, so where does yourbasketball time, I guess, kind
of fit into that busy summer?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
obviously I got football like every day, usually
every day, and uh, it'sdefinitely difficult work for
football so it makes it a lotharder to get my work in for
basketball.
But yeah, usually I just tryand find time to get into the
gym and then, yeah, just likethese two I used to go play with
quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
You guys have gotten pretty big over the years too.
Like Jake, you're a force ofnature now.
I mean you're always kind ofthis guy, to be honest with you,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
I should have hit the gym more this year, though.
Oh, you haven't hit the gym.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I'm like, oh, I wouldn't have been able to tell.
I think it might be fat.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Well, speaking of fat , I talked to your parents about
you and you do.
Now, with all of what, whatjake does, he's doing all this
basketball football stuff youstill keep a job during the year
right, yeah, I do, I work.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I try and work at least one day a week.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, I put pinos yeah, and you're not just
anybody at pipinos, I heard thatyou are.
You have quite the skill for,uh, flipping that dope in there.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah, I'm a good pizza maker.
I'd say yeah, I make some goodpizza.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
I think we need a Pepino's sponsorship here for
the basketball team.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Well, they're getting some love on the 29-1.
Speaker 7 (35:34):
I mean, if Jake's a weekly worker there, I think
it's time to get some Pepino'ssponsorship.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Some free pizza here, I could try and make something
work.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
You usually work Sunday nights right, yeah,
usually.
If I get a Pepino's pizza on aThursday and we Hudson, we both
like that Supreme for Pepino'sand if you have their Supreme
pizza it's high end for sureWould we be able to tell that
you did the dough on a Sundaynight versus?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
a Thursday night pizza?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, you got the skills yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
All right, we're letting the Thursday night crew
know that they got to pick it upBecause you're way better at it
, jake, with your role.
This is really interesting, butthis goes way back when we did
courthouse back in the day.
You kind of at times struggleduntil you, we, we talked a
little bit and you took on thiscool role that you have just
embraced.
Can you talk about howimportant it is for a team to
(36:22):
have a player and now this isnot about you per se, but a
player doing the things you doon a court and Hudson maybe talk
about how important his role isand what he's doing?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
yeah, I'd say it's really important.
Like he just comes in andbrings energy, brings a spark.
Um, like moves the ball reallywell, defense is a dog, like
picks up like he's a dog.
And like offensively too, likeit's not, like he can't score
correct, like he can score he'sscore.
He has a really good finishingpackage.
He just does the small thingsthat a lot of guys don't want to
(36:54):
do.
He does those things reallywell.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Coach, what's it like to have Jake out there with
stuff he's doing?
Speaker 7 (36:59):
Yeah, Jake talked about how he's the sixth man.
We said we have six starters.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 7 (37:12):
We have six starters on our team and you just can
only start five of them.
You know, and as you saw lastnight, like jake was in almost
the whole fourth quarter at theend of the game, and that's
that's what he does.
And jace jake is we also.
We talk all the time that he'sa connector.
He's a connector of guys, he's.
He's the person that's outthere that you know.
He's always looking foreverybody else and, yeah, he can
score.
I remember going back to uh, Ithink it was east kentwood, your
jv year that I remember and Ithink 20 ball he had.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Like, yeah, he did he had like 20 something.
Speaker 7 (37:35):
I remember that and they couldn't, I hope you
remember it.
Um, he, they couldn't stop him.
And jake, jake gets to the rimreally, really well and you know
, and you see that in thevarsity game, son, he just, he
just doesn't.
He's not doing it in everysingle possession because he's a
connector and he understandswho needs what shots.
What do we need to do?
And that's a huge part of ourteam and we wouldn't be where
(38:00):
we're at without having thosepeople.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, it's nice when a player knows what their shot
is and sees when thatopportunity cracks open.
And I feel that's kind of whatjake does.
Jake will see that little wind,you'll see that window open up
and you'll all send the ballsinto the basket.
Yeah, definitely with your team.
You guys are the, the seniors.
There's a continuity when youall kind of know each other.
But at times, with theseyounger, you got to put yourself
(38:24):
second.
At times, too right like yougot to go out and make your
impact on the game and thensometimes you're like, oh,
someone's on a roll here, I'mjust gonna kind of let them go.
What's it like to kind of likesometimes you got to maybe step
back for the team to succeed.
It's not always easy as asenior to do that.
Then what's it like for you?
Because there's a lot of likeyour position, you have multiple
talented players in that spotand sometimes the night it's not
(38:45):
you right, that's a littletough.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
Yeah, so all our guards score really well, so
when I'm in I can see thatthey're flowing.
I really just take pride,especially on the defensive end,
just making sure my guy doesn'tget in front of me, just
staying in front and thengetting steals, hopefully, and
then just looking for whoever'shot at the moment, even if it's
not me.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Hudson, you had that a little bit over the weekend
like this.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
This past game wasn't your best game, but your team
wins and you gotta be happyabout that I'd say when, like
when, your main priority iswinning, um, when everyone's
bought into winning, the thoseproblems don't arise.
Guys know that sometimes it'llbe there nice, sometimes so well
, and if the main thing iswinning, then everything will
keep flowing yeah, even afterlast night game we got in the
car.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
we're like, hey, we, hey, we won that game.
That's the most important thing, yeah.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
Yeah, I think you know it's not always an easy
thing to do to get the kids tobuy in, especially when you have
it's not just the five guys youknow that are starting but
buying into.
Hey, listen, we got eight, nine, 10 guys that on a given on a
given night, one of those guys,or two of those guys, might be
the ones that are in at the end.
I've never had a coach that waybefore and it's definitely an
(39:56):
adjustment no-transcript.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Yeah, there's so many different guys that can
shoulder the load on any givennight.
It was zealand east ben and Ihad a huge night against zealand
east here, 22 maybe holland I'msorry, yeah, I'm thinking back
to beginning of break yeah,holland, holland, that's a great
example I was like senior night.
Speaker 7 (40:21):
So yeah, holland, yes , holland was like senior night.
So yeah, holland, yes, hollandwas like senior night.
Like Ben was like 9 or 12 fromthe floor and Hudson hit four
threes, all in the second halfwhen it was a little bit of a
tight game.
And that was their nightscoring-wise, where they stepped
up, good example.
And we had other guys thatdidn't.
Last night, ben ended up with10.
(40:41):
I didn't even realize it.
He was perfect from the floor.
He was three of three or fouror four or something like that
little jared goff huh, yeah, butit wasn't.
He wasn't one of those.
The main guys that game and and.
And I think that the best thingfor these four of these three
guys is when it's not theirnight.
They've been great teammatesand we couldn't do that without
(41:04):
them yeah it's hard to do thatwhen the clock's ticking right.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
That season clock starts up boom boom, boom boom.
You guys have some really coolstuff on instagram, so I'm going
to pull that up for a minute.
Who's doing that instagram foryou guys, by the way?
Speaker 7 (41:18):
so that is brian daikama, um karen daikama, our
athletic administrativeassistant.
He's that's what he went toschool for and he hasn't really
done a ton of it recently and weI talked to him before the
season about, you know, bringinghim around more and he's had
some.
He's had some great videos,great videos.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
The kids love it.
It's so fun to watch thoseafter a game A little slow-mo,
blurry background.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Yeah, I'm actually going to meet with him next week
because I want to startbringing him on to do more stuff
for the athletic department.
But I want to make sure thatyou know we're taking care of
him on the backend as well,cause he is super talented.
He's got youth that I don'twrite Like.
I do all of the social mediafor the high school, but I'm
limited because I'm a47-year-old guy.
(42:06):
Right, he just has a little bitmore juice and creativity when
it comes to the video stuff.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, we've learned a lot in doing some of this stuff
at the high school, like havingus in charge of music not the
best move.
So that's why these Woe Benstudents have come in and really
kind of really started makingthings up way more than we could
.
I mean, how many times can welisten to fish?
Speaker 4 (42:28):
all right, yeah, you guys don't want no, even in
grateful day, going on andwarm-ups the looks on the faces
are like ben's like what's fish?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
billy strings.
That's right, billy strings man.
Yeah, bill has his favoritestuff.
So we have done a good job ofmoving toward younger people
doing it.
They do these features on youguys, and there's some cool
things that you said.
One thing that, jake, you saidwas we talk about after a tough
loss.
And there's different thingsthat you say.
Jake, you said remember howgrateful I am to even be playing
(43:00):
For Ben after a tough loss,you'd like to watch film and
learn from it.
And then, hudson, we have athing in our house too, because
when you were little, a loss wasdevastating and would go on for
too long, and we do somethingcalled the 24-hour rule.
Can you guys maybe speak to howyou kind of deal when things
don't go your way and how youdon't stay in that spot forever,
(43:22):
right, you move out of it.
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Maybe Jake go first.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, obviously it's hard after losing, especially
against HC.
I remember that I was prettyupset about that.
But then you just wake up thenext day and realize you got
more basketball to play.
So just life moves on.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
What about you, Hudson?
Talk us through the 24-hourrule.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
Yeah, kind of going off that, like I mean obviously
a tough loss.
Like yeah, han, christian was areally tough loss, didn't sleep
very well.
But then you wake up and it'slike all right, well, we got a
game next week.
So you're either going to keeppouting and being down about the
game from last Friday or you'regoing to move on, show up to
practice and get ready for thenext week.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
You can't stay back and stay in that same place.
Yeah, basically what Hudsonsaid, like after, after the loss
, like especially on Christian.
But yeah, I was down for awhile like I didn't want to hang
out with anybody, I don't wantto talk to anyone.
It was a Friday night too, solike yeah, asked me to hang out
and I just like stayed in myroom all night because I fouled
out that game too.
So I was pretty upset, but likeI woke up the next morning it's
like I gotta learn, got tolearn from it.
Like learning from a game likethat, like it's just going to
help us get better.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
And I would say, let's go to some of this, this
older group.
Now I'll tell you this when Iwas younger and if I lost a game
, it wasn't 24 hours, it was 24days.
I mean, you know this, jared,right, you're probably a little
bit of the same where thoselosses linger.
Speaker 7 (44:49):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean linger with me.
Um, I I'm trying to get betterwith a similar, a similar
mindset, I think obviously theboys.
After saturday's game at nightI was, uh, a little upset and I
came into, uh, sunday practice,um, definitely calmed down,
evaluated, evaluated myself.
You know, talk to the kidsabout, you know, my frustrations
with the team, but also myfrustrations with myself and us
(45:11):
as coaches and things we couldhave done better.
And I think I think learningafter you don't play well is not
just the the kids learning whatthey need to do better, but
it's us as coaches going andself-evaluating and saying what
did we not do, that we couldhave done better, and I thought
we did a good job of doing thatafter the game on Saturday and I
(45:33):
think you saw some of thosechanges a little bit on Monday.
So, just just constantlylearning and that's going to be
a theme of the season with the,you know, mix of of old and
youth that we have on the teamis that we continue to get
better and we learn so we'replaying our best basketball when
, when the tournament comes inmarch hudson, what's that mean
(45:53):
to you to hear coach say I'm notjust evaluating the team, but
I'm evaluating us as coaches?
Speaker 6 (46:00):
yeah, it's a pretty cool thing.
A lot of coaches are like seethemselves as above all and they
can never be wrong, but I mean,we got two coaches that they're
not afraid to um be like yeah,you know what we messed up.
It's not just on you guys, andit's a really cool thing, I feel
like I was impressed.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
the other day hudson came home from practice coach
and he told me you brought a oldretired coach in from wayland
and maybe talk about this for aminute, because I thought this.
When he told me this, I'm like,oh okay, I was impressed with
that, that Wayland coach comesin and is going to teach you his
own.
And what did you specificallydo?
You kind of stepped away andwent to the side.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 7 (46:37):
Yeah, so I am a primarily 90% man-to-man defense
guy and on teams I like to havesome sort of change-up.
But I was trying to figure outwhat fit this team and this
personality really well.
And I remember playing againstWaylon back when I was coaching
at East Grand Rapids when MikeHudson was the coach there and
(46:58):
he had his boys, wes Hudson andAvery Hudson really good teams
that they had and they playedthis really funky zone that had
a lot of pressure, which fitsour team, with a lot of speed
and a lot of pressure, and it'sjust, it's different, it's
harder to game plan against.
So I called them up and justsaid, hey, would you be willing
to come in and teach the zone tous, because I know what I don't
know and that's.
(47:18):
You know I could spend lots ofhours and research it, but
you're a resource of someonethat knows what they're doing
really well with this and so tobe able to come in one day and
to be able to have it talk toour guys.
And I just kind of stepped backto the sideline and said, mike,
this is your practice, run it,and I'll step in and ask him
questions and confirm thingswith him.
(47:40):
And I thought it was a.
It was a huge help for us to beable to implement something in
one day that would have taken alot longer for us to try to
figure it out, to do it on ourown.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
What a young Jared Riddell coach brought somebody
in.
Speaker 7 (47:59):
Maybe not, I mean I.
So I used to bring.
You know, I coached with SteveMarley at Rockford for a few
years and he used to come andwhen I was at North Point he
used to come and do some stuff.
So I think that was.
You know that was a mid-agecoach, jared, but he was also my
mentor.
So that was a lot.
(48:19):
You know that was a lot easier.
I patterned a lot of my stufffrom him.
So this is the first time Ibrought someone from the outside
that.
I've known Mike in the coachingworld for a long time.
I wouldn't say we don't hangout, I don't know him that well,
but I know he's a really goodcoach and I know he did
something specific that Istruggled against when I played
(48:39):
it.
And so I was looking at it andsaying, well, what would be a
better way to do it than tobring the guy in that's taught
it?
You know, multiple times and hewas, he was happy to do so.
Um, he's no longer coaching atwayland.
His son, wes, is the girlscoach at wayland and he helps
him out a little bit.
Um, and I thought there wassomething interesting that he
said at the at the end ofpractice and he saw what our
(49:02):
guys could be.
We really shared the ball ballthat day like the way, the way I
know we can.
And he, he turned to coachPalmer and I and said this this
has a chance to be a specialgroup and he said thank you for
letting me come in to be here atpractice, because it was fun to
be around the.
You know these kinds ofathletes and who they are,
(49:22):
because they can, they, they,they can be a special group and
I've loved coming to practiceevery single day and just love
being around these guys.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
Well, that kind of gets us moving in the direction
of the inevitable.
The OK Red schedule is upon us,fellas Friday it starts right
here, hudsonville.
Coming to town, hudson, maybetalk to us a little bit about
playing in the red.
Speaker 6 (49:49):
I mean, yeah, it's a really competitive conference.
There's no nights off, there'sno team.
You're like, oh, that's it,none of that.
Every game is going to be atough game, and then you know
it's going to be a battle, butit's fun, that's what you want
to be in.
So I couldn't get any better.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Sometimes too, if you Well, we'll talk about this.
You were playing your Allendaleteam and we think it's going to
be a little easy, wasn't Lost.
You get in these, ok Red games.
You're never going into a gamegoing.
Oh, this is going to be easytonight.
Speaker 7 (50:24):
I night.
I didn't think it was gonna beeasy.
I know you did it, but we allknow how players might yeah, so
that that'd be the trap.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
The players?
Yeah, it's a trap.
Speaker 7 (50:28):
Maybe some, maybe some parents trap game community
.
Like it's easy to say, like oh,you know they don't have this
star player that's on their team, but they got two really good
high school players that, um,that are, that are tough as heck
, and I think that some of thatis the maturity of our team and
maybe the immaturity of our teamto.
(50:49):
You know, you go into a gameand think maybe this isn't as
good of a team and you know ithappens.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
It happens.
It happens to every team, everysport, every season.
You can see it coming and youstill can't stop it.
Speaker 4 (51:07):
When we first were in setting up earlier, rodney and
I were talking about the weekendand the games, and the thing
that I've noticed in high schoolathletics as a whole, across
all sports, is that the marginshave become really thin in
literally every sport.
If our tennis team doesn't showup and they think it's, they're
going to mail it in, they'regoing to get beat.
(51:29):
The margins are so small and itdoesn't matter how big or how
small school is, and thosemargins get even tighter as we
enter our conference season.
Jake, can you talk about, uh,what you look forward to maybe
as we get into the red season?
Speaker 1 (51:45):
I would just say the competitiveness that the OK Red
brings.
It's always fun, it's battling,it's usually a back-and-forth
game and it's really physical,which I really enjoy as a
football player.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Yeah, you're a good physical player Good physical
player.
What do you guys, as we finishup here, we've got about two
months left in your high schoolbasketball careers, guys.
It's crazy.
What are your like aspirationsfor the next couple months?
What do you hope to achieve asa team this year, ben?
Speaker 5 (52:14):
um, definitely win a district.
Uh, winning record.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Just I just want to let everyone know how special
this team was and just, yeah,just keep winning, get the
community bought in Hudson umyeah, I would say just um, keep
getting wins, like, keepbuilding as a team um and
building up for uh yeah, windistricts and build up for a for
a run in March yeah, obviously,um winning games is definitely
(52:40):
one of my goals for these nextcouple months, but also just
leaving this place knowing thatwe've, like, changed the program
and then, you know, coming backnext year, the next couple of
years, and seeing um some of myold teammates, like obviously JT
, darian, the freshman, and someof the sophomores playing good
and you know um going to actionand making like a state run.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
I hope it's gonna be wild.
You're gonna be a junior incollege and you're gonna come
back and Darian and JT are stillgonna be out playing basketball
.
Speaker 5 (53:08):
Hustle have that full beard now just because he can
grow it.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
How miles let it grow ?
I can.
Yeah, well, we hope you guyshave a good season.
We hope you, like you, can findthat togetherness and find that
on a regular basis and reallyhave a good year.
Finishing up, we play thisFriday.
It is the last day of the year.
By the way, we're recordinghere on New Year's Eve.
If you're listening to thisyou're going back to last year
(53:34):
to listen, but this Friday wehave Hudsonville at home at 7.
Next week, I believe we haveGranville.
Is it Granville on Tuesday?
I believe Granville.
Is it Granville on Tuesday?
Speaker 7 (53:43):
I believe.
Granville on Friday, justGranville on Friday.
Oh, just Granville Friday.
We don't have a Tuesday nextweek.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
Okay, so we got Hudsonville at home and then, by
the time this airs, we'll beplaying at Granville.
If you are listening, come on,make the trip.
Granville's not that far away,just head on over West Ottawa.
We are a community, we are eachother and we love having you
guys in.
Thanks for coming in, it's beena blast.
Thanks, guys, thank you?
Speaker 5 (54:07):
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for having us on.
Alright, we'll see you later,thank you.
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