November 4, 2024 • 43 mins
The 29/1 continues our conversation with Karl Von Ins this week, highlighting his almost four-decade-long career in coaching in basketball and track and field, and PA announcing in basketball. Step back in time and discover the meticulous craftsmanship that went into organizing track meets before the digital age with mimeograph invitations and typewritten schedules, and how his family's values infused a strong sense of community into these events.
As we uncover the origins of the West Ottawa Relays and the Von Ins Invite, we see the larger role Karl played in shaping the athletic culture of West Ottawa, from fostering fairness and commitment to creating an unforgettable atmosphere that brought together athletes and spectators alike.
Finally, we celebrate the vibrant history of West Ottawa athletics, recounting the legendary moments and personal stories from Karl's experience. He also passed on the love of sports announcing to his daughter Amy and son-in-law Darrin, ensuring that the spirit of connection and family tradition continues. Join us in reliving these cherished memories, as we reflect on the human element that makes sports truly special.
This episode was recorded on October 25, 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):
Tyler Bosma.
He was a big man down low andthey would foul him all the time
and he never lost his cool.
He was just a gentleman all thetime.
But Tyler took a beating andthe officials missed many, many
fouls on him because every timehe handled a ball he would be
(00:22):
fouled Because you could, youknow, every time he handled a
ball, he would be fouled.
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 intothe lives of student athletes,
coaches and other faces in thePanther sports community,
bringing you the stories youmight otherwise never hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
(00:52):
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Hey everybody, it's part two ofthe Carl Von Inns interview.
We talk some basketball, wetalk some track and field, we go
down memory lane and we discusshow public address announcing
has become a family institution,with daughter Amy doing track
(01:16):
and field at West Ottawa andson-in-law Darren announcing
basketball at Hope.
We recorded parts one and two ofthis interview in one sitting
with Carl, but he played alongwith us to make it sound like we
did them a week apart.
It's Carl Von Enns up next onthe 29.1.
(01:40):
Let's get it Well.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe 29.1 podcast.
We are in part two of the CarlVon Inns interview.
Carl, thanks for coming back.
You're welcome.
Let's talk basketball.
You know, for all the footballyou've done, which we talked
about last week, you have alsodone basketball here for a very,
(02:01):
very long time.
You started that later thanfootball, though, right.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
When did you start doing basketball?
Oh, maybe 62 or 63.
And I started coachingbasketball.
I coached with Norm Bovee oneyear because I wanted to get
involved in basketball.
And then there was an openingin the.
That was seventh grade, andthere was an opening in the
eighth grade.
But Herb Montman, our firstathletic director, said to me
well, I'll give you thebasketball job, eighth grade, if
you're willing to take coachingthe field events in track.
(02:35):
I said I don't know anythingabout track and he said well,
our coach will show you.
Well, that was Norm Bradawayand he was very patient with me
and I coached field events for39 years and and I got the
eighth grade job because I Itook the coaching, the field
events in the varsity team andhigh in track, but I I wanted to
(03:01):
coach basketball.
I wound up coaching basketball16 years and track for 39.
So I found a niche in track andI studied a lot and learned a
lot, went to a lot of clinicsand it was just—.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You did like VHS, tapes and books.
Right, you did a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, I bought all the copies of each event, learned
how to coach it and how to do itand I had four state champions,
three in the pole vault and onein the discus.
And the discus is kind of astrange but wonderful thing.
In 1960 or 75, the coaches andthe state was talking about
(03:45):
adding the discus in 1976.
So I took $45, bought threediscs and they were $15 a piece
and gave them to my best, mybest, three best shot putters.
Well, they went home and one ofthe fathers was really
interested in it and so he builthis son a discus circle.
(04:08):
Well, he wound up being thestate champion the next year and
we took first, third and eighthwith a senior, a junior and a
freshman at the state meet.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Was that Sam Angel?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sam Angel right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We timed that up perfectly.
That was good.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's awesome.
So just out of, you're like,hey, they're going to add this,
I'm going to want to erase it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But I must have been one of the few people who bought
discs and gave them to the kidsand just say you know, if
you're on your driveway orsomeplace, go and throw this for
a while.
Well, we got back to school inthe spring of 76 and they added
it, and the rest is history inregard to the way we finished in
the state that's awesome andyou were.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
can you talk about the early days of the West
Ottawa Relays as well?
I was talking to yourson-in-law, darren, and your
daughter Amy, the other night.
The West Ottawa Relays, whenthat got started, was really
something.
I mean the volume of teams wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the most.
We had 51 teams here, boys andgirls, at one time.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's a long track meet.
Bill Kennedy just made it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, yeah, it was a long track meet, but again,
there were a lot of people here,and then that was in 1967.
The reason I started the Relayswas because we had a very good
team and there were very fewrelays to go to.
So I figured well we could haveone, and so I started planning
it and my wife did all thepaperwork for it and we wound up
(05:38):
having a pretty good relay.
And as we got older, you know,it got changed and it became a
track meet, which is now the VonEnns invite, which is fine.
I mean.
Somebody asked me do you careif we change it?
Well, I didn't care, because itwas just.
It was what was people thatwere worth going to now, and
(06:00):
relays kind of died out andtrack meets using your whole
team became the normal.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So but that's why we did it can you tell a little bit
about how you prepped for thosemeets, because there's no
computers yeah, typewriters,yeah typewriters.
But you as a family.
Amy shared me that you as afamily would do a lot of prep at
night.
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Well, we really nice we sent aninvitation.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'd send a postcard or a letter inviting teams and
they would return the postcardand those were on mimeograph and
ditto in those days, which is,you know, you didn't have
copiers, and then my wife wouldarrange it.
I knew, yes, you'd roll, crankit and them out and we just it's
(06:46):
the way you had to do things,because everyone did it that way
.
So you know, that was the bestway to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It was modern tech at the time, Right you know we
moved from a ditto to amimeograph machine.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
We thought that was you know.
Nothing could be better thanthis.
But copiers came and thencomputers came.
And now you know, in the olddays when you type something if
you made a mistake, you had toput that correcting ribbon in
there and type over what you had.
Oh, yeah, now it's computers,you just backspace and if you
make a mistake, yeah, Do youguys remember the pressure of
(07:18):
sitting at a typewriter, Bill?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Do you remember like being in either high school?
I know I'm older than you, butI remember being in high school
and college going.
Man, this is a lot of pressureright now.
I did not want to make an error.
Typing it was.
I'd slow it down, I'd pigeon,I'd pigeon all those keys.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, we had a typewriter growing up and I
remember writing papers on itand getting so frustrated you
get down to like the middle ofthe page and you'd make a
mistake and, yeah, you'd have toget the white out Right.
Get that sucker lined upperfectly and try to fill in the
new letter.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That's right, Getting that lined up even with the
letter before it and you got toroll it back in.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But you know, amy said too, so you know we needed
help.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, they look back on it fondly.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Can you?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
erase any guilt that you have.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Oh, I don't really feel guilty about it.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well, and Amy has been involved in West Ottawa
track and field in some capacityfor a really long time 46 years
, she said.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, she's.
I remember when winter or,excuse me, the spring of 1915 or
79, she was we were making ourown t-shirts.
Well, one of our art teachers,lee Story, was very talented and
he would design and then hewould silkscreen the t-shirts
(08:44):
and she had her winter coat on.
I still have pictures of that,selling them out of a 024.
My wife would drive the youknow boxes and she would sell
t-shirts and two t-shirts were adollar then, or, excuse me, two
dollars.
You know, everything haschanged and and I think in the
beginning you know, you couldcome to this track meet and it
(09:05):
didn't cost you anything, youknow, and then it costs a dollar
.
You know, again, things werecheaper in those days, you know,
a pack of gum five cents, candybars five cents.
So things have changed.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
When you got started doing that, you didn't have a
lot of experience in it, right?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
What was?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
it like for you just to.
I know you did all that stuffand learned that when you look
back on it now and you havesomebody that's new at something
, what would you say about?
Hey, take something on that youdon't know anything about?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Well, we just did what we thought was the right
thing to do and we found thebiggest thing we had questions
about.
People would question itbecause their strengths would be
in certain areas like sprintrelays.
Why don't you have this onenext to this one, so we'd have a
sprint event and then adistance event and so on, trying
to let kids come back, you know, refreshed, not rested.
(09:58):
And people who had sprintevents good, 800 teams and 400
teams, sprint medley peoplewould say that they want you
know their strength, they wouldlike to have more rest with
their kids.
You know, let's have the 400 atthe beginning, shuttle hurdles
near the end, because we use thesame kids.
Well, we try to make it fairregardless.
(10:21):
You know we won a number oftimes because we were good, but
a lot of people.
That was before Zeeland Westbecame Zeeland West.
John Shillitoe is quite a coach.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
That is for sure.
Yeah, the Vaughn Inns hasalways been a fun event for us.
It's always that kind ofbeginning of May every year.
The weather starts to change,we get out on the track.
It's become really almost likea local invite now.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Because we get the Zeeland schools, holland,
holland, christian comes.
We've had Byron Center, thelast number of years.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, Holland's been here A long time.
Yeah, a long time, Probablyforever.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Holland Christian, so it's been really good.
I know Dan Diodana loves itbecause he's able to send a
reporter and he can cover allthe teams in his reporting area,
so that's a bonus for him.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I have a little history.
When was it turned into theVaughn Inns Relay?
What year was that?
I'm only asking.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It wasn't ever the Vaughn Inns Relay.
It was the Vaughn Inns Invoid.
It was when Bill was here, soit's not very long.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Okay, not very long.
So I have a story.
That's where my wife and I'splatonic relationship went.
Romantic was at one of the VonInns relays.
This would have been in 1994.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Bill wasn't here then .
Speaker 3 (11:35):
There you go.
No, so you have affected mylife, carl.
I was a junior in high school.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
This is kind of funny , but I didn't know anything
about track and field and I wassupposed to time people and I
had kids running record times.
It was really something,because I just listened for the
gun, which is about a halfsecond slower than the smoke,
and I'm like, hey, you can set aPR, let's go.
He's all hype Three secondslater.
(12:04):
You didn't set a PR.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
You were working, yeah.
So I helped out at a high schoolat the time and I was helping
out with the track team.
I didn't, I didn't know a thing, but the thing was I was, I was
timing them and silly, silly meis oh, I heard the gun, I heard
the gun go off.
I guess I'll start it, butthat's not how you time track
and field.
So there, there you go.
So we all have kind of ourthings with that.
(12:25):
Let's go to basketball a littlebit.
Basketball is kind of like oneof those things with football
where you not only coached itbut then you started announcing
it.
When did you start doing theannouncing?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh, I think 1978.
Again, people had done itbefore I started and I started
announcing in 78, but I hadcoached 14 years up to that time
and the best thing of it is Ihad never had a losing season.
But it was because the kids Ihad, not because of the coaching
(12:55):
.
It was just you know, I had kidswho could play basketball, but
the game has certainly changed.
In those days it was two guardsoutside a center and two
forwards and you'd run stuff offthe center, pick and roll and
scissors and stuff like that.
Well, now it's so fast andthere was no three-point line
and it's just different.
(13:16):
And I coached girls for acouple of years, and the first
year we were really good and thesecond year we were not very
good, and so I retired fromcoaching girls basketball
because, well, the worst thingwas in those days at halftime
you'd go in the girls' lockerroom.
Well, I'm in the girls' lockerroom talking to the girls' team
(13:40):
and all of a sudden I hear atoilet flush.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I get very— I'd get a little uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yes, I was very uncomfortable and it was a girl
who wound up living with us forabout three months and she
thought it was funny to flushthe toilet and I said we'll
never go in the locker roomagain at halftime and we never
did.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Sure yeah, when you started announcing games at the
Martini Ball Gym, it may nothave been called the Martini
Ball Gym then.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It was before Marti Ball.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Did you announce from that press box up in the corner
?
We?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
started there, but that lasted about maybe two
years.
And when I started, no, we didit down second on the floor.
It was very pretty, but it wasnot practical was it ever really
used for anything?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
that's the one thing that first time you walk into
that gym.
That thing just stands out.
You're like they have a pressbox in the basketball right.
Yeah, you couldn't see.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
you know the north end of the floor because the
building you know was just built, so you couldn't see anything
that happened on your end of thefloor.
You had to stand up and look.
So the athletic directorsrealized that, and so the
scoring table was first, andthen behind it was the
statistics and the announcer andstuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So that spot just like kind of sit empty after
that.
Yeah, really.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, and it's still to this day.
I mean you go in there andthere's like I don't know, they
use it for storage.
Eventually it'll get reworkedwhen they start work over there
to finish up that end of HarborLights.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, I remember coming here first of all and I
was the same thing too.
I was like, wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
They got a press box, but it was never the first year
it was used and when it wasbuilt they asked me to monitor
that press box.
Well, that lasted about twoyears and then it was a great
place to watch a game, becauseyou couldn't hear anything.
You know it was airtight, butit was it was.
You know you could see thingsbut you couldn't be involved in
the game.
(15:46):
So really it was locked upafter that and, just like Bill
said, stored things there.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
What was the atmosphere like in in that place
back in the day, on Fridaynights or whenever they played?
You know, it's certainly moreeveryone's, everything's a
little more tight.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
What was it, like, you know, back then, you know,
announcing those games in that,in that gym?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Well, we had some pretty good teams in those days
in the sixties I wasn'tannouncing but I was, you know,
going to the games and we lostin the district to Unity
Christian and they went all theway to the finals and they lost
to River Rouge.
In those days River Rouge wasthe team in Michigan to beat.
(16:29):
We lost to the people whoplayed in the finals.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You probably didn't lose by much, I'm guessing.
No, I think three points yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
And we, you know, in those days, our best team and
the pattern they played was thequestion are they going to hit
it 100 points?
Jv team Not, you know well, andwe used to play in the armory
before we had the gymnasium,where you know where the Holland
(17:00):
Armory is, on 9th Street.
It became a.
Now I do yes, okay, yes, well,that's where I do yes, okay, yes
.
Well, that's where we playedour first basketball games.
So, and we had that was 63 thatwe had a great team in 62, 63.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And there were some players.
Do you remember some playersfrom those years?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Oh I remember starting lineup.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, let's go, let's hit it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Well, leroy Vedder was a center, roger Borgman was
one forward, norm Koop wasanother forward, koop Koop, yeah
, k-o-o-p.
And then Lloyd Driscoll was oneguard and Bill Phelps was
another guard, people whostarted, so that was 63.
But we had a great team and inthose days Hudsonville, zeeland,
(17:46):
west Ottawa, holland, christianthere were five teams in our
district and four of them wereranked in the state.
And so to get out of ourdistrict, unity Christian was
the other team and they got outof the district and they went to
the finals.
But in those days it was, youknow, if won a district in the
Holland area, you got to go farbecause this was rigged.
(18:11):
Four of the teams were rankedin the best teams in the state.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
That's wild.
I always think that Martin EbalJim, it just looks like it
would be really loud on a Fridaynight.
It's got that drop ceiling.
Yeah, it kind of it just seemslike that place.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Got those stained tiles up there these days.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
It just seems like it would have been a loud place to
play a basketball game.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, that's all we knew.
Yeah so that's what we livewith, but Marty Ball was a great
supporter of athletics for WestOttawa and it just, you know,
the thing to do is name it afterhim.
He died very young, and it'sjust.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
How young was he when he passed away?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, he was high school principal.
I don't know he was.
I mean to me 50 is young.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Sure, but that's still young yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To me 50 is young, sure, but that's still young,
yeah.
So, carl, one of the things andwe'll kind of connect the past
with the kind of somewhat recentyou got to see Karen Beverwick
play in her high school career.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right.
When they came back they hadplayed in a state tournament.
I think the quarterfinalsplayed in a state tournament, I
think the quarterfinals andduring a boys game because the
girls played in the fall.
In those days the girls walkedinto the gym, they had lost and
everybody stood and gave them astanding ovation because they
were.
That was a team that graduatedin 87, and they were really good
(19:41):
and Karen was the best player.
But one of those people is nowthe traverse city girls coach.
Jenny ritzmo is her name, andbut you know, it was just.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It was different, but it was good and then last year
we got to see kind of thisreally cool moment when karen
came back to be at zealand, whengabby, uh, reynolds broke the
school.
What was it like?
Kind of being able to wow.
I called games for both ofthese.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Well, it's just the way it was.
You know you didn't thinkanything special about it, other
than they were both greatshooters and in those days there
was no three-point.
You know, basket.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh my, now you think about the all-time scoring
record two points at a time,right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Respect, yeah, my.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Now you think about the all-time scoring record two
points at a time Right Respect.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, we just got some banners taken care of, so
we're going to be hanging thosein the gym pretty soon to honor
both of those ladies, so it'sgoing to be pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Any difference for you calling football versus
basketball?
Do you approach it differently?
Is it similar?
What's that like?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
No, you try and I guess try and do it the same way
.
There's girls basketball ismuch slower than boys basketball
.
You know, I noticed thatthere's less boys basketball is
so fast compared to when Icoached it, and I'm certain I
couldn't coach it now because II couldn't keep up with.
(21:07):
You know the techniques and allthe things you do, but again,
the three-point basket makesquite a difference in basketball
yeah, it really does.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah, the game is is really fast, really really fast
and especially when we play ineast kentwood.
Right like right, they are runand gone.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Right all the time.
So it's just different.
The style is different.
It was set up in those days.
You know you set up for yourbaskets and you know who your
scorers were and the guards.
Again, you had two guards and,unless one of them really is a
good shooter, you just got theball inside to your center or
your forwards and they did themajority of the scoring.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You also were able to witness one of the very best
teams to come through WestOttawa the team that was just
before my arrival here, that2018 boys team.
Can you talk to us a little bitabout that year and what the
excitement was like in the?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
current gymnasium.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I've heard stories, bro, that was a year the current
gymnasium- I've heard stories.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Bro, that was a year Go ahead, Carl.
I was there, too, I was a fan,but it was something else.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But it was just.
I mean, it was not whetherwe're going to win, but how much
we're going to win by and TylerBosma, he was a big man down
low and they would foul him allthe time and he never lost his
cool, he was just a gentlemanall the time.
(22:32):
But Tyler took a beating and,you know, the officials missed
many, many fouls on him becauseyou could, you know, every time
he handled a ball he would befouled and he just did a great
job playing basketball.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
You start to look at who was on that team and the
talent that was there Loaded.
I mean Xavier Wade, who had agreat football career at Ferris.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
State Ferris yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
You have Liam Cavanaugh, who's actually
playing football right now atDavenport.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He took some time away but had a year of
eligibility left he did and cameback he was a beast, by the way
oh yeah he's.
He's built different um and heand, and, and, speaking like he
was a piece on that team a piecebecause if he played now here
he'd be a dominant force yeah,your go-to.
(23:22):
But on that team that was sotalented he was a piece.
Yeah, so you also had DrewPedersen, and then kind of the
underappreciated player on thatteam was Nick Weirmeyer, who
played a role and played it sowell.
Carl, you could appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
No, I'm Nick's godfather or, excuse me, his
father's godfather, and so Iremember when they were born and
when their father got marriedand so on.
So that's family to me ratherthan basketball.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, and there were so many.
But I always appreciated himthat year because there was so
much talent on that team and hehad the ability to do more, but
he purposely stepped back andfacilitated all the time, and
that's how you build a team.
Is there a game from?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
that year that stands out to you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
The final game Foster Lawyer, lying on the floor
shooting baskets.
I mean lying on the floorthrowing up a three-pointer and
going in.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Dropped 40.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
He never yes, he never had a game like that in
college, but he went to state.
He never even cracked.
He never had a game like thatin college, but he went to state
.
He never even cracked thestarting lineup.
I mean, you know, for a longtime he got to start but he left
state and I think, geez, hekilled us in high school but our
kids were, you know, goodsportsmen.
(24:43):
I mean, we lost to a betterteam but we lost a foster lawyer
.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, and it was a great run.
It was one of those momentswhere the whole community got
together.
I remember driving to Lansingthree times in like five days.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
We played in that old gym in Lansing too Lansing
Eastern Remember that LansingEastern they had bleachers going
up 500 feet, it seemed like.
You're halfway to heaven.
If you're sitting at the topright, you couldn't breathe
unless you know and it was.
It was an old, dingy gym, butin those days it was huge and we
(25:17):
got, we played in that gym andagain it was.
It was just one of those things.
We were going to be in thestate finals.
We didn't know it, buteverybody here went to the
basketball games, regardless ofwhere we played.
But that was a great team.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Packed every game here, both sides, black hole to
the max, black hole out all thetime.
Those were good times, man.
A lot of fun Just before me.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And Kennedy come in.
I know Ruined it all.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, no, but no, you know, you get your ups in
sports.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You get your years where you have a whole bunch of
athletes.
That was a great football year,too, 2018.
Yeah, clarkson also got us.
It was just a good athlete.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You know we lost to Clarkson in Clarkson.
Clarkson yes in the playoffs.
I know we played them duringthe year and they threw a pass
over one of our kids for atouchdown and had we been able
to knock that pass down, wewould have been undefeated
because it was a close and theywon the next game.
Well, it was 3-2, somethinglike a field goal and a safety,
(26:25):
so it was a great team.
To have a team like that is alifetime event.
You know those kids willremember it and everyone who saw
it like you, rod, you knowyou're talking about it.
You remember things that Idon't remember and.
I was calling the game.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yeah, and that's how I look back at or how I imagine
I will look back at last year'sgirls basketball run.
Right, it was a communityunifier and and that's really, I
think, at the heart of all ofit Right Is we all are involved
in athletics here at West Ottawaand it is a community unifier.
It's what brings this communitytogether.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, there is no downtown like the city has.
You know, it's just, gabby wasour Caitlin Clark you know
really, so I mean girlsbasketball became an event to go
to.
In other words, there are twoyears.
You know boys would play firstand girls would play first.
Well, nobody got up and leftduring the girls game.
(27:22):
You know it was.
You know, is Gabby going to hit30 points and are we going to
win the game by a lot or by alittle, and so on.
You know so.
It was Magali.
You know have to score, but wehad just an outstanding team.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It was a nice team, a lot of pieces that complement
each other as well.
Let's talk about a couple otherthings.
For basketball, one thing, tony, about you, about sports, we
could literally just let the sungo down and the moon come up,
and we don't have to stop.
One thing is that yourson-in-law, darren Dijsdermars,
(28:01):
who calls Hope College's gamesand we'll talk about that in
just a second, because this isreally cool but you actually,
before he was your son-in-lawwhen he was a sophomore at
Holland.
Christian, do you remember thisat all?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, when he scored his.
Yeah right, I remember JayCortright was our big scorer and
Darren Dystermars was HollandChristian.
Well, I don't have a whole lotto say about Holland Christian.
My wife went to school thereand Darren went to school there.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Darren talks very fondly about it.
It was his very first basket.
He was in his sophomore seasonand he got called up, and sure
enough he's.
I forget where it was.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
It was at our place it had to be at our place.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
obviously I guess that makes sense.
But actually he said he wasboxing somebody out and then he
was offensive rebounding, boxingon a defender, and then Marty
Codzillo.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, Codz.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I had to say that name because when I heard about
the name I'm like this is agreat name.
But Marty Codzillo was behindhim and he actually touched it.
But Darren was so close to theplay that he got credit for the
basket.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So, there you go Future father-in-law calls that
shot.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I didn't know it then .
No, didn't know it then Untilthey were seniors at Hope.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
When I sat down with Darren and Amy the other night
and you're just going to have tolisten to this, Sorry, Carl
Every once in a while you'regoing to have to.
But Darren said you know he gothis start very similar to how
you got your start in it.
Does he shared that with you alittle bit before or talked
about?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
it somewhat.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So they needed someone to do jv at hope.
They didn't have anybody.
They said darren, can you wantto do it?
Sure enough, darren steps andstarts doing jv, and now you
have season tickets tobasketball.
Hope girls basketball right, soyou go there a lot.
What is it like for you?
Because you know you're asports guy, you're the announcer
(29:51):
for a while, but then you'realso in the stands.
How cool is it to have Darrendoing such a nice job at Hope.
What's that like for you?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Well, I I mean, I just expect him to do a great
job.
He does a better job than I doin regard to—.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm not going to let you say that, but keep going.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Well, calling a game.
I mean, he doesn't makemistakes and we talk about that.
And when I say things I say itand then it's gone.
And somebody said you know, yousaid the wrong person.
Well, I don't know that becauseI don't listen to myself.
You know, I don't know thatbecause I don't listen to myself
(30:41):
.
You know, I just announce it.
But I watched Darren andlistened to Darren and he said I
told him.
I said you never make mistakes.
He said you don't realize it.
He said but I make mistakes tooand I thought you know you
don't.
And the reason we startedgetting season tickets is when
his brother, brad, played forHope and he was really good and
Hope was good and we startedbuying season tickets.
And now it's just routine.
We buy four tickets Amy andLauren.
Now I don't know if Lauren'shusband will probably have to
(31:04):
get another ticket, but we sitin the top row right by the
doors yeah.
And you know when the game isover, we're out the door into
the car.
Although we stay for themajority or all the games, I
just don't like it when peopleleave early.
But sometimes you know, if weget killed by 30 in the last
(31:24):
minute, I leave a hope gameearly.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh, you do leave early now.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Not often.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
No.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So this is a sticking point for my wife and I when we
go to games.
She's like a let's get out andbeat traffic and that's not how
I was raised.
My dad is like we paid for thisticket.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
You preach it, Bill Kennedy.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
We paid for this ticket.
We are staying, bill Kennedy,we paid for this ticket.
We are staying for the end.
Yes, we are.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Right, we had some of our best moments growing up.
It's a shame to admit Stayinglate.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We left early last week from Smart State with like
a minute and 30 left.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
And that was your wife's doing.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That was the wrong of the game and, sure enough, the
only people around are us,because it's so late.
Who's driving out?
Spark Anderson's coming out.
We're talking a Sparky Postgame.
(32:20):
Staying late has its benefits.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's one of them when I was a kid.
The Tigers didn't make muchmoney, so on the off season they
would go around and visitcities like Holland and they
well, the Knickerbocker Theateris there now.
It was the Holland Theater andHarry Heilman, you remember that
name.
He's in the-.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I remember that name.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
It's on the wall.
He was the announcer then, andGeorge Kell.
I was in the eighth grade and Iwas the same height as George
Kell.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
He was an all-star, you made it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Right.
But Fred Hutchinson and JerryPretty and so on, and they
walked out in the hallway in theback and a number of us kids
followed them out and asked forautographs and I got George
Kell's autograph.
Harry Heilman wouldn't sign anyautographs.
(33:13):
He's in the on the hall of fame, but he wasn't announcing in
those days and he wouldn't justwouldn't, sign any autographs.
He'd probably done it oftenenough.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
So yeah it's.
You know it's hard to hold them.
They got to be great all thetime.
Now they're tired, they justwant to go on once in a while.
You know it's really cool too,like Amy, of course, announces
track.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
How nice is it to just have your daughter doing
something you do Like it's kindof a shared experience.
Like you, darren, and yourdaughter have this shared
connection.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, well, amy was always helping in the press box
and I would announce the trackmeets.
Well, I told her.
I said I've got to be on thetrack to make sure the hurdles
are in the right place andeverything.
Starting blocks are moved.
You know where they have to bemoved.
And I said how about youannouncing?
She said okay, so she took overwhile I was still coaching and
(34:02):
she announced you know the trackmeets and the calls.
You know you make three calls.
You know on up on deck and inthe hole.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
And so she did that and I was on the track, so we
worked together and it's fun.
Yeah, it's fun, and she was.
She was good at it, she knows,she knew what track is just like
and whatever she announces,just because she had been there
long enough and she didn't makemistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Nothing for me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Well, you know the thing is.
Here's the thing.
When you're doing what you'redoing, Carl, everybody is making
mistakes and from the crowd Doyou hear many of them?
I don't know.
We're once in a while.
Maybe there's a stickler thatdoes no I know I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know, in the occasions that I do get to
announce, I'm super critical ofmyself, right.
Like oh, I just bumbled overthat name or that name was tough
and gosh.
I feel bad that I said thatname wrong or whatever it might
be.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
There was an eighth grade yeah, an eighth grade,
seventh grade football team andthey were playing and one of the
running back is in mydaughter's class and he said to
her your dad mispronounced myname three different ways, you
know, last game or last night,and I said well, how do you
pronounce it?
(35:23):
Well, she gave me thepronunciation.
It's the way it's spelled.
So and I just screwed upbecause it was not the way I saw
it.
But once I learned how topronounce it, it was very, very
simple.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, everybody makes mistakes.
I'll share one funny storybecause this is just too good.
So if you feel bad about makinga mistake, listen to this story
.
This past spring we're doingjenison baseball game and I had
talked to the coach and got allthe names right and I come up to
the booth, I'm transferringnames over so I can be nice and
organized.
So now batting for jenison,number so and so paul ginsler,
or ginsler crowd, let's go,paulie, let's go big, like
(36:02):
they're just really supportingthis kid.
Next time up now batting for theGenesis in the first baseman,
paul Gensler.
Again, people going bonkers forthis kid.
Let's go, pauly, you got it.
Big boy, all kinds of crazystuff.
Right, we get to the next time.
He's coming up and this is alittle bit before and Kevin
Roloff is in the booth with medoing the, the uh, the clock and
he goes.
Who did this?
(36:23):
And I go, did what?
He goes.
You put his name down.
This guy's name's down wrong.
His first name is pierce.
So people are going crazy.
Third time up now batting forblah blah, the first baseman.
Thousand one thousand, twothousand three pierce ginsler,
and everybody goes crazy.
(36:44):
so mistakes are fine, you knowwhat I mean, like you're going
to make them when you're doingthat and just embrace it.
But what I've always likedabout you, carl, is if you do it
, you just keep moving.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, because you don't listen to yourself and
I've got to tell you a story.
All right, it's a basketballstory.
At times in the old building,in the old gym, we'd have kids
announce the teams and you knowthe team we're playing against,
and that lasted until this, theend of this year, and we were
(37:16):
playing Holland Christian andthe boy I won't say his name
because he's an adult now, butwe're playing Holland Christian
and he introduces them theChristians of Holland Maroon.
And I said what?
And I looked and he didn't knowthat he had said that.
You know, he thought theHolland Christian Maroons, the
(37:38):
Christians of Holland Maroon.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
So that was the end of kids announcing yeah, and
that happens to anybody that hasdone that type of work.
I've looked up a lot ofannouncers.
I went online, I Googled it, Idid that.
I can't find anybody other thanVin Scully, who went longer
than you, but I can't findanybody that's done PA longer
than you.
So it's just like I just saylike, let's just, you know,
(38:02):
enjoy it, like, embrace it.
It's really cool that you'vedone it this long.
Bob Shepard of the Yankees 56years.
There's another gentleman inthe Grand Rapids area, bob
Beckett Hopkins.
He's done it for 53 years.
So I don't know, it's reallycool.
Have you ever figured out howmany football and basketball
games you've done?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I was afraid you'd ask that.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
No, I don't have any clue all right, I did some early
math so I, but I figured it'salmost around a thousand
football games after all theseyears and close to 2300
basketball games.
Is that some?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
It's a lot of games it's a lot of games, but it's.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It's the game that we're doing, thinking humble.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I love it, we're, we're doing at that time is the
game, and I know I go up and askkids how do you pronounce your
name?
Because quite often coaches sayI don't know, I just call him
Pat or something like that.
And so I ask the kids.
I said I don't want to get yourname wrong, and parents come
(39:02):
down sometimes and tell mesometimes not happily, you know,
my kid is number 13.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I love the impersonation.
Let's go.
I love it when you do that.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
But you know, I try and get it right because I mean
I'm Von Inns.
To me it's I-N-S, is Inns, i-n,but it's Von Inns and Voninns
and so on.
So I know what it's von einsand vonens and so on.
So I know what it's like tohave your name mispronounced.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And the original pronunciation is von ins Von ins
right you told me that storyonce.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, it's a place.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I am not like the others.
I have never had my namemispronounced.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Ladies and gentlemen, William Lee Kennedy it's such a
nice American name, Carl.
You've been doing this for solong.
What inspires you to keepannouncing?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Why do you keep doing it?
Honestly, I don't know that I'dshow up every time at all the
games if I wasn't obligated, ifI didn't have something to do,
that I'm expected to be there ontime.
I mean I get there an hourbefore the game just because
that's what I need to prepare,and if I leave my glasses at
(40:16):
home, I can call and my wife isstill home and I said will you
bring my glasses?
Because she said I can't findthem.
Well, they were in my bag and Ihad them all the time.
But you know, you do things andBill shows up and sometimes I
said where is the roster?
Well, he's had to go back.
He said it's in my office.
(40:37):
Very calmly, he opts in hiscart and drives back to the
office.
But that's happened a coupletimes, but not often.
It's just I'm obligated.
I mean, I said I would do this.
Therefore I do it.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Well, I've been working on the schedule for
basketball the last couple ofdays and the easiest slot to
fill is always who's myannouncer in the main gym.
It's very easy Von Ince.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, there it sits.
There it sits.
You've had a great career.
Here we are just I know likethis is being part of a
community, Like whatever anybodydoes right out of school,
whether you're coaching orteaching or doing PA or doing
concessions you're just doingyour part, right, that's how you
feel about it.
(41:30):
Yeah, and we just want to saythank you for doing your part.
Right, that's all part of thisand doing what we're doing.
Speaking with Darren and Amy,we talked about your attention
to detail.
You're very like good at beingorganized and putting things in
their place and it really showsin the things that you do.
And they said that you got thatfrom your mom.
They called her.
It's Grandma Margaret, right,yeah, can you talk about your
mom and maybe how you got someof that from her?
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Well, I don't know, she was a teacher and there was
a right way to do things and anot right way to do things.
And when I didn't do things theright way, she would tell me
and no, when I didn't do thingsthe right way, she would tell me
and no, you know she wouldn'thide it.
She would come out and say youknow, you do it this way or you
(42:14):
don't, don't do this.
And once, you know, when I wasgrowing up, I was in eighth
grade and I I said something toher and she said don't talk like
that.
And I said I'm a big kid, I cando that.
And I ran away and I trippedover a log and she caught up
with me and she wailed on mybutt.
So so I didn't, you know, I justI mean there's a right way to
(42:38):
do things and an easy way or anot the right way to do things.
And I just, I don't know, ifyou don't do it right and you
know that you're not doing itright, you feel guilty about it.
I mean, when I go home from agame and my wife will say how
was the game?
And I tell her and I said but Imessed up a number of times and
(43:03):
I don't know if Bill will letme do the next game.
But then I see him standing atthe end, you know, talking to
somebody.
Well, he didn't hear me screwup that time.
I mean, that's just, that's howI feel.
I feel I want to do itperfectly, but I can never do it
perfectly.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yeah, there are a few perfect games as an announcer,
announcer.
But what you've done over theyears, if you, you've always
done it with class and withdignity and really to honor the,
the kids that are out on thecourt competing each and every
day, um, and we can't thank youenough for all the years that
you've put in here at westottawa yeah, you've always put
the kids first, carl well, thankyou and uh, we'll take that
(43:41):
with us as we move forward.
Yeah, thanks so much for comingin and sitting down with us Well
, thank you.
It's been a pleasure Thanks man.
Tyler Bosma.
He was a big man down low andthey would foul him all the time
and he never lost his cool.
He was just a gentleman all thetime.
But Tyler took a beating andthe officials missed many, many
fouls on him because every timehe handled a ball he would be
(00:22):
fouled Because you could, youknow, every time he handled a
ball, he would be fouled.
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 intothe lives of student athletes,
coaches and other faces in thePanther sports community,
bringing you the stories youmight otherwise never hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
(00:52):
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Hey everybody, it's part two ofthe Carl Von Inns interview.
We talk some basketball, wetalk some track and field, we go
down memory lane and we discusshow public address announcing
has become a family institution,with daughter Amy doing track
(01:16):
and field at West Ottawa andson-in-law Darren announcing
basketball at Hope.
We recorded parts one and two ofthis interview in one sitting
with Carl, but he played alongwith us to make it sound like we
did them a week apart.
It's Carl Von Enns up next onthe 29.1.
(01:40):
Let's get it Well.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe 29.1 podcast.
We are in part two of the CarlVon Inns interview.
Carl, thanks for coming back.
You're welcome.
Let's talk basketball.
You know, for all the footballyou've done, which we talked
about last week, you have alsodone basketball here for a very,
(02:01):
very long time.
You started that later thanfootball, though, right.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
When did you start doing basketball?
Oh, maybe 62 or 63.
And I started coachingbasketball.
I coached with Norm Bovee oneyear because I wanted to get
involved in basketball.
And then there was an openingin the.
That was seventh grade, andthere was an opening in the
eighth grade.
But Herb Montman, our firstathletic director, said to me
well, I'll give you thebasketball job, eighth grade, if
you're willing to take coachingthe field events in track.
(02:35):
I said I don't know anythingabout track and he said well,
our coach will show you.
Well, that was Norm Bradawayand he was very patient with me
and I coached field events for39 years and and I got the
eighth grade job because I Itook the coaching, the field
events in the varsity team andhigh in track, but I I wanted to
(03:01):
coach basketball.
I wound up coaching basketball16 years and track for 39.
So I found a niche in track andI studied a lot and learned a
lot, went to a lot of clinicsand it was just—.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You did like VHS, tapes and books.
Right, you did a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, I bought all the copies of each event, learned
how to coach it and how to do itand I had four state champions,
three in the pole vault and onein the discus.
And the discus is kind of astrange but wonderful thing.
In 1960 or 75, the coaches andthe state was talking about
(03:45):
adding the discus in 1976.
So I took $45, bought threediscs and they were $15 a piece
and gave them to my best, mybest, three best shot putters.
Well, they went home and one ofthe fathers was really
interested in it and so he builthis son a discus circle.
(04:08):
Well, he wound up being thestate champion the next year and
we took first, third and eighthwith a senior, a junior and a
freshman at the state meet.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Was that Sam Angel?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sam Angel right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We timed that up perfectly.
That was good.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's awesome.
So just out of, you're like,hey, they're going to add this,
I'm going to want to erase it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But I must have been one of the few people who bought
discs and gave them to the kidsand just say you know, if
you're on your driveway orsomeplace, go and throw this for
a while.
Well, we got back to school inthe spring of 76 and they added
it, and the rest is history inregard to the way we finished in
the state that's awesome andyou were.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
can you talk about the early days of the West
Ottawa Relays as well?
I was talking to yourson-in-law, darren, and your
daughter Amy, the other night.
The West Ottawa Relays, whenthat got started, was really
something.
I mean the volume of teams wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the most.
We had 51 teams here, boys andgirls, at one time.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's a long track meet.
Bill Kennedy just made it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, yeah, it was a long track meet, but again,
there were a lot of people here,and then that was in 1967.
The reason I started the Relayswas because we had a very good
team and there were very fewrelays to go to.
So I figured well we could haveone, and so I started planning
it and my wife did all thepaperwork for it and we wound up
(05:38):
having a pretty good relay.
And as we got older, you know,it got changed and it became a
track meet, which is now the VonEnns invite, which is fine.
I mean.
Somebody asked me do you careif we change it?
Well, I didn't care, because itwas just.
It was what was people thatwere worth going to now, and
(06:00):
relays kind of died out andtrack meets using your whole
team became the normal.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So but that's why we did it can you tell a little bit
about how you prepped for thosemeets, because there's no
computers yeah, typewriters,yeah typewriters.
But you as a family.
Amy shared me that you as afamily would do a lot of prep at
night.
Can you talk about that alittle bit?
Well, we really nice we sent aninvitation.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'd send a postcard or a letter inviting teams and
they would return the postcardand those were on mimeograph and
ditto in those days, which is,you know, you didn't have
copiers, and then my wife wouldarrange it.
I knew, yes, you'd roll, crankit and them out and we just it's
(06:46):
the way you had to do things,because everyone did it that way
.
So you know, that was the bestway to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It was modern tech at the time, Right you know we
moved from a ditto to amimeograph machine.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
We thought that was you know.
Nothing could be better thanthis.
But copiers came and thencomputers came.
And now you know, in the olddays when you type something if
you made a mistake, you had toput that correcting ribbon in
there and type over what you had.
Oh, yeah, now it's computers,you just backspace and if you
make a mistake, yeah, Do youguys remember the pressure of
(07:18):
sitting at a typewriter, Bill?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Do you remember like being in either high school?
I know I'm older than you, butI remember being in high school
and college going.
Man, this is a lot of pressureright now.
I did not want to make an error.
Typing it was.
I'd slow it down, I'd pigeon,I'd pigeon all those keys.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, we had a typewriter growing up and I
remember writing papers on itand getting so frustrated you
get down to like the middle ofthe page and you'd make a
mistake and, yeah, you'd have toget the white out Right.
Get that sucker lined upperfectly and try to fill in the
new letter.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That's right, Getting that lined up even with the
letter before it and you got toroll it back in.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But you know, amy said too, so you know we needed
help.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, they look back on it fondly.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Can you?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
erase any guilt that you have.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Oh, I don't really feel guilty about it.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well, and Amy has been involved in West Ottawa
track and field in some capacityfor a really long time 46 years
, she said.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, she's.
I remember when winter or,excuse me, the spring of 1915 or
79, she was we were making ourown t-shirts.
Well, one of our art teachers,lee Story, was very talented and
he would design and then hewould silkscreen the t-shirts
(08:44):
and she had her winter coat on.
I still have pictures of that,selling them out of a 024.
My wife would drive the youknow boxes and she would sell
t-shirts and two t-shirts were adollar then, or, excuse me, two
dollars.
You know, everything haschanged and and I think in the
beginning you know, you couldcome to this track meet and it
(09:05):
didn't cost you anything, youknow, and then it costs a dollar
.
You know, again, things werecheaper in those days, you know,
a pack of gum five cents, candybars five cents.
So things have changed.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
When you got started doing that, you didn't have a
lot of experience in it, right?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
What was?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
it like for you just to.
I know you did all that stuffand learned that when you look
back on it now and you havesomebody that's new at something
, what would you say about?
Hey, take something on that youdon't know anything about?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Well, we just did what we thought was the right
thing to do and we found thebiggest thing we had questions
about.
People would question itbecause their strengths would be
in certain areas like sprintrelays.
Why don't you have this onenext to this one, so we'd have a
sprint event and then adistance event and so on, trying
to let kids come back, you know, refreshed, not rested.
(09:58):
And people who had sprintevents good, 800 teams and 400
teams, sprint medley peoplewould say that they want you
know their strength, they wouldlike to have more rest with
their kids.
You know, let's have the 400 atthe beginning, shuttle hurdles
near the end, because we use thesame kids.
Well, we try to make it fairregardless.
(10:21):
You know we won a number oftimes because we were good, but
a lot of people.
That was before Zeeland Westbecame Zeeland West.
John Shillitoe is quite a coach.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
That is for sure.
Yeah, the Vaughn Inns hasalways been a fun event for us.
It's always that kind ofbeginning of May every year.
The weather starts to change,we get out on the track.
It's become really almost likea local invite now.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Because we get the Zeeland schools, holland,
holland, christian comes.
We've had Byron Center, thelast number of years.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, Holland's been here A long time.
Yeah, a long time, Probablyforever.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Holland Christian, so it's been really good.
I know Dan Diodana loves itbecause he's able to send a
reporter and he can cover allthe teams in his reporting area,
so that's a bonus for him.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I have a little history.
When was it turned into theVaughn Inns Relay?
What year was that?
I'm only asking.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It wasn't ever the Vaughn Inns Relay.
It was the Vaughn Inns Invoid.
It was when Bill was here, soit's not very long.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Okay, not very long.
So I have a story.
That's where my wife and I'splatonic relationship went.
Romantic was at one of the VonInns relays.
This would have been in 1994.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Bill wasn't here then .
Speaker 3 (11:35):
There you go.
No, so you have affected mylife, carl.
I was a junior in high school.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
This is kind of funny , but I didn't know anything
about track and field and I wassupposed to time people and I
had kids running record times.
It was really something,because I just listened for the
gun, which is about a halfsecond slower than the smoke,
and I'm like, hey, you can set aPR, let's go.
He's all hype Three secondslater.
(12:04):
You didn't set a PR.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
You were working, yeah.
So I helped out at a high schoolat the time and I was helping
out with the track team.
I didn't, I didn't know a thing, but the thing was I was, I was
timing them and silly, silly meis oh, I heard the gun, I heard
the gun go off.
I guess I'll start it, butthat's not how you time track
and field.
So there, there you go.
So we all have kind of ourthings with that.
(12:25):
Let's go to basketball a littlebit.
Basketball is kind of like oneof those things with football
where you not only coached itbut then you started announcing
it.
When did you start doing theannouncing?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh, I think 1978.
Again, people had done itbefore I started and I started
announcing in 78, but I hadcoached 14 years up to that time
and the best thing of it is Ihad never had a losing season.
But it was because the kids Ihad, not because of the coaching
(12:55):
.
It was just you know, I had kidswho could play basketball, but
the game has certainly changed.
In those days it was two guardsoutside a center and two
forwards and you'd run stuff offthe center, pick and roll and
scissors and stuff like that.
Well, now it's so fast andthere was no three-point line
and it's just different.
(13:16):
And I coached girls for acouple of years, and the first
year we were really good and thesecond year we were not very
good, and so I retired fromcoaching girls basketball
because, well, the worst thingwas in those days at halftime
you'd go in the girls' lockerroom.
Well, I'm in the girls' lockerroom talking to the girls' team
(13:40):
and all of a sudden I hear atoilet flush.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I get very— I'd get a little uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yes, I was very uncomfortable and it was a girl
who wound up living with us forabout three months and she
thought it was funny to flushthe toilet and I said we'll
never go in the locker roomagain at halftime and we never
did.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Sure yeah, when you started announcing games at the
Martini Ball Gym, it may nothave been called the Martini
Ball Gym then.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It was before Marti Ball.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Did you announce from that press box up in the corner
?
We?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
started there, but that lasted about maybe two
years.
And when I started, no, we didit down second on the floor.
It was very pretty, but it wasnot practical was it ever really
used for anything?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
that's the one thing that first time you walk into
that gym.
That thing just stands out.
You're like they have a pressbox in the basketball right.
Yeah, you couldn't see.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
you know the north end of the floor because the
building you know was just built, so you couldn't see anything
that happened on your end of thefloor.
You had to stand up and look.
So the athletic directorsrealized that, and so the
scoring table was first, andthen behind it was the
statistics and the announcer andstuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So that spot just like kind of sit empty after
that.
Yeah, really.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, and it's still to this day.
I mean you go in there andthere's like I don't know, they
use it for storage.
Eventually it'll get reworkedwhen they start work over there
to finish up that end of HarborLights.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, I remember coming here first of all and I
was the same thing too.
I was like, wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
They got a press box, but it was never the first year
it was used and when it wasbuilt they asked me to monitor
that press box.
Well, that lasted about twoyears and then it was a great
place to watch a game, becauseyou couldn't hear anything.
You know it was airtight, butit was it was.
You know you could see thingsbut you couldn't be involved in
the game.
(15:46):
So really it was locked upafter that and, just like Bill
said, stored things there.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
What was the atmosphere like in in that place
back in the day, on Fridaynights or whenever they played?
You know, it's certainly moreeveryone's, everything's a
little more tight.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
What was it, like, you know, back then, you know,
announcing those games in that,in that gym?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Well, we had some pretty good teams in those days
in the sixties I wasn'tannouncing but I was, you know,
going to the games and we lostin the district to Unity
Christian and they went all theway to the finals and they lost
to River Rouge.
In those days River Rouge wasthe team in Michigan to beat.
(16:29):
We lost to the people whoplayed in the finals.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You probably didn't lose by much, I'm guessing.
No, I think three points yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
And we, you know, in those days, our best team and
the pattern they played was thequestion are they going to hit
it 100 points?
Jv team Not, you know well, andwe used to play in the armory
before we had the gymnasium,where you know where the Holland
(17:00):
Armory is, on 9th Street.
It became a.
Now I do yes, okay, yes, well,that's where I do yes, okay, yes
.
Well, that's where we playedour first basketball games.
So, and we had that was 63 thatwe had a great team in 62, 63.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And there were some players.
Do you remember some playersfrom those years?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Oh I remember starting lineup.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, let's go, let's hit it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Well, leroy Vedder was a center, roger Borgman was
one forward, norm Koop wasanother forward, koop Koop, yeah
, k-o-o-p.
And then Lloyd Driscoll was oneguard and Bill Phelps was
another guard, people whostarted, so that was 63.
But we had a great team and inthose days Hudsonville, zeeland,
(17:46):
west Ottawa, holland, christianthere were five teams in our
district and four of them wereranked in the state.
And so to get out of ourdistrict, unity Christian was
the other team and they got outof the district and they went to
the finals.
But in those days it was, youknow, if won a district in the
Holland area, you got to go farbecause this was rigged.
(18:11):
Four of the teams were rankedin the best teams in the state.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
That's wild.
I always think that Martin EbalJim, it just looks like it
would be really loud on a Fridaynight.
It's got that drop ceiling.
Yeah, it kind of it just seemslike that place.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Got those stained tiles up there these days.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
It just seems like it would have been a loud place to
play a basketball game.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, that's all we knew.
Yeah so that's what we livewith, but Marty Ball was a great
supporter of athletics for WestOttawa and it just, you know,
the thing to do is name it afterhim.
He died very young, and it'sjust.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
How young was he when he passed away?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, he was high school principal.
I don't know he was.
I mean to me 50 is young.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Sure, but that's still young yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
To me 50 is young, sure, but that's still young,
yeah.
So, carl, one of the things andwe'll kind of connect the past
with the kind of somewhat recentyou got to see Karen Beverwick
play in her high school career.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right.
When they came back they hadplayed in a state tournament.
I think the quarterfinalsplayed in a state tournament, I
think the quarterfinals andduring a boys game because the
girls played in the fall.
In those days the girls walkedinto the gym, they had lost and
everybody stood and gave them astanding ovation because they
were.
That was a team that graduatedin 87, and they were really good
(19:41):
and Karen was the best player.
But one of those people is nowthe traverse city girls coach.
Jenny ritzmo is her name, andbut you know, it was just.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It was different, but it was good and then last year
we got to see kind of thisreally cool moment when karen
came back to be at zealand, whengabby, uh, reynolds broke the
school.
What was it like?
Kind of being able to wow.
I called games for both ofthese.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Well, it's just the way it was.
You know you didn't thinkanything special about it, other
than they were both greatshooters and in those days there
was no three-point.
You know, basket.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh my, now you think about the all-time scoring
record two points at a time,right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Respect, yeah, my.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Now you think about the all-time scoring record two
points at a time Right Respect.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, we just got some banners taken care of, so
we're going to be hanging thosein the gym pretty soon to honor
both of those ladies, so it'sgoing to be pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Any difference for you calling football versus
basketball?
Do you approach it differently?
Is it similar?
What's that like?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
No, you try and I guess try and do it the same way
.
There's girls basketball ismuch slower than boys basketball
.
You know, I noticed thatthere's less boys basketball is
so fast compared to when Icoached it, and I'm certain I
couldn't coach it now because II couldn't keep up with.
(21:07):
You know the techniques and allthe things you do, but again,
the three-point basket makesquite a difference in basketball
yeah, it really does.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah, the game is is really fast, really really fast
and especially when we play ineast kentwood.
Right like right, they are runand gone.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Right all the time.
So it's just different.
The style is different.
It was set up in those days.
You know you set up for yourbaskets and you know who your
scorers were and the guards.
Again, you had two guards and,unless one of them really is a
good shooter, you just got theball inside to your center or
your forwards and they did themajority of the scoring.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You also were able to witness one of the very best
teams to come through WestOttawa the team that was just
before my arrival here, that2018 boys team.
Can you talk to us a little bitabout that year and what the
excitement was like in the?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
current gymnasium.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I've heard stories, bro, that was a year the current
gymnasium- I've heard stories.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Bro, that was a year Go ahead, Carl.
I was there, too, I was a fan,but it was something else.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But it was just.
I mean, it was not whetherwe're going to win, but how much
we're going to win by and TylerBosma, he was a big man down
low and they would foul him allthe time and he never lost his
cool, he was just a gentlemanall the time.
(22:32):
But Tyler took a beating and,you know, the officials missed
many, many fouls on him becauseyou could, you know, every time
he handled a ball he would befouled and he just did a great
job playing basketball.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
You start to look at who was on that team and the
talent that was there Loaded.
I mean Xavier Wade, who had agreat football career at Ferris.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
State Ferris yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
You have Liam Cavanaugh, who's actually
playing football right now atDavenport.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He took some time away but had a year of
eligibility left he did and cameback he was a beast, by the way
oh yeah he's.
He's built different um and heand, and, and, speaking like he
was a piece on that team a piecebecause if he played now here
he'd be a dominant force yeah,your go-to.
(23:22):
But on that team that was sotalented he was a piece.
Yeah, so you also had DrewPedersen, and then kind of the
underappreciated player on thatteam was Nick Weirmeyer, who
played a role and played it sowell.
Carl, you could appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
No, I'm Nick's godfather or, excuse me, his
father's godfather, and so Iremember when they were born and
when their father got marriedand so on.
So that's family to me ratherthan basketball.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, and there were so many.
But I always appreciated himthat year because there was so
much talent on that team and hehad the ability to do more, but
he purposely stepped back andfacilitated all the time, and
that's how you build a team.
Is there a game from?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
that year that stands out to you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
The final game Foster Lawyer, lying on the floor
shooting baskets.
I mean lying on the floorthrowing up a three-pointer and
going in.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Dropped 40.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
He never yes, he never had a game like that in
college, but he went to state.
He never even cracked.
He never had a game like thatin college, but he went to state
.
He never even cracked thestarting lineup.
I mean, you know, for a longtime he got to start but he left
state and I think, geez, hekilled us in high school but our
kids were, you know, goodsportsmen.
(24:43):
I mean, we lost to a betterteam but we lost a foster lawyer
.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, and it was a great run.
It was one of those momentswhere the whole community got
together.
I remember driving to Lansingthree times in like five days.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
We played in that old gym in Lansing too Lansing
Eastern Remember that LansingEastern they had bleachers going
up 500 feet, it seemed like.
You're halfway to heaven.
If you're sitting at the topright, you couldn't breathe
unless you know and it was.
It was an old, dingy gym, butin those days it was huge and we
(25:17):
got, we played in that gym andagain it was.
It was just one of those things.
We were going to be in thestate finals.
We didn't know it, buteverybody here went to the
basketball games, regardless ofwhere we played.
But that was a great team.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Packed every game here, both sides, black hole to
the max, black hole out all thetime.
Those were good times, man.
A lot of fun Just before me.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And Kennedy come in.
I know Ruined it all.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, no, but no, you know, you get your ups in
sports.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You get your years where you have a whole bunch of
athletes.
That was a great football year,too, 2018.
Yeah, clarkson also got us.
It was just a good athlete.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You know we lost to Clarkson in Clarkson.
Clarkson yes in the playoffs.
I know we played them duringthe year and they threw a pass
over one of our kids for atouchdown and had we been able
to knock that pass down, wewould have been undefeated
because it was a close and theywon the next game.
Well, it was 3-2, somethinglike a field goal and a safety,
(26:25):
so it was a great team.
To have a team like that is alifetime event.
You know those kids willremember it and everyone who saw
it like you, rod, you knowyou're talking about it.
You remember things that Idon't remember and.
I was calling the game.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yeah, and that's how I look back at or how I imagine
I will look back at last year'sgirls basketball run.
Right, it was a communityunifier and and that's really, I
think, at the heart of all ofit Right Is we all are involved
in athletics here at West Ottawaand it is a community unifier.
It's what brings this communitytogether.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, there is no downtown like the city has.
You know, it's just, gabby wasour Caitlin Clark you know
really, so I mean girlsbasketball became an event to go
to.
In other words, there are twoyears.
You know boys would play firstand girls would play first.
Well, nobody got up and leftduring the girls game.
(27:22):
You know it was.
You know, is Gabby going to hit30 points and are we going to
win the game by a lot or by alittle, and so on.
You know so.
It was Magali.
You know have to score, but wehad just an outstanding team.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It was a nice team, a lot of pieces that complement
each other as well.
Let's talk about a couple otherthings.
For basketball, one thing, tony, about you, about sports, we
could literally just let the sungo down and the moon come up,
and we don't have to stop.
One thing is that yourson-in-law, darren Dijsdermars,
(28:01):
who calls Hope College's gamesand we'll talk about that in
just a second, because this isreally cool but you actually,
before he was your son-in-lawwhen he was a sophomore at
Holland.
Christian, do you remember thisat all?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, when he scored his.
Yeah right, I remember JayCortright was our big scorer and
Darren Dystermars was HollandChristian.
Well, I don't have a whole lotto say about Holland Christian.
My wife went to school thereand Darren went to school there.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Darren talks very fondly about it.
It was his very first basket.
He was in his sophomore seasonand he got called up, and sure
enough he's.
I forget where it was.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
It was at our place it had to be at our place.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
obviously I guess that makes sense.
But actually he said he wasboxing somebody out and then he
was offensive rebounding, boxingon a defender, and then Marty
Codzillo.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, Codz.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I had to say that name because when I heard about
the name I'm like this is agreat name.
But Marty Codzillo was behindhim and he actually touched it.
But Darren was so close to theplay that he got credit for the
basket.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So, there you go Future father-in-law calls that
shot.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I didn't know it then .
No, didn't know it then Untilthey were seniors at Hope.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
When I sat down with Darren and Amy the other night
and you're just going to have tolisten to this, Sorry, Carl
Every once in a while you'regoing to have to.
But Darren said you know he gothis start very similar to how
you got your start in it.
Does he shared that with you alittle bit before or talked
about?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
it somewhat.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So they needed someone to do jv at hope.
They didn't have anybody.
They said darren, can you wantto do it?
Sure enough, darren steps andstarts doing jv, and now you
have season tickets tobasketball.
Hope girls basketball right, soyou go there a lot.
What is it like for you?
Because you know you're asports guy, you're the announcer
(29:51):
for a while, but then you'realso in the stands.
How cool is it to have Darrendoing such a nice job at Hope.
What's that like for you?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Well, I I mean, I just expect him to do a great
job.
He does a better job than I doin regard to—.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm not going to let you say that, but keep going.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Well, calling a game.
I mean, he doesn't makemistakes and we talk about that.
And when I say things I say itand then it's gone.
And somebody said you know, yousaid the wrong person.
Well, I don't know that becauseI don't listen to myself.
You know, I don't know thatbecause I don't listen to myself
(30:41):
.
You know, I just announce it.
But I watched Darren andlistened to Darren and he said I
told him.
I said you never make mistakes.
He said you don't realize it.
He said but I make mistakes tooand I thought you know you
don't.
And the reason we startedgetting season tickets is when
his brother, brad, played forHope and he was really good and
Hope was good and we startedbuying season tickets.
And now it's just routine.
We buy four tickets Amy andLauren.
Now I don't know if Lauren'shusband will probably have to
(31:04):
get another ticket, but we sitin the top row right by the
doors yeah.
And you know when the game isover, we're out the door into
the car.
Although we stay for themajority or all the games, I
just don't like it when peopleleave early.
But sometimes you know, if weget killed by 30 in the last
(31:24):
minute, I leave a hope gameearly.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh, you do leave early now.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Not often.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
No.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So this is a sticking point for my wife and I when we
go to games.
She's like a let's get out andbeat traffic and that's not how
I was raised.
My dad is like we paid for thisticket.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
You preach it, Bill Kennedy.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
We paid for this ticket.
We are staying, bill Kennedy,we paid for this ticket.
We are staying for the end.
Yes, we are.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Right, we had some of our best moments growing up.
It's a shame to admit Stayinglate.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We left early last week from Smart State with like
a minute and 30 left.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
And that was your wife's doing.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That was the wrong of the game and, sure enough, the
only people around are us,because it's so late.
Who's driving out?
Spark Anderson's coming out.
We're talking a Sparky Postgame.
(32:20):
Staying late has its benefits.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's one of them when I was a kid.
The Tigers didn't make muchmoney, so on the off season they
would go around and visitcities like Holland and they
well, the Knickerbocker Theateris there now.
It was the Holland Theater andHarry Heilman, you remember that
name.
He's in the-.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I remember that name.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
It's on the wall.
He was the announcer then, andGeorge Kell.
I was in the eighth grade and Iwas the same height as George
Kell.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
He was an all-star, you made it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Right.
But Fred Hutchinson and JerryPretty and so on, and they
walked out in the hallway in theback and a number of us kids
followed them out and asked forautographs and I got George
Kell's autograph.
Harry Heilman wouldn't sign anyautographs.
(33:13):
He's in the on the hall of fame, but he wasn't announcing in
those days and he wouldn't justwouldn't, sign any autographs.
He'd probably done it oftenenough.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
So yeah it's.
You know it's hard to hold them.
They got to be great all thetime.
Now they're tired, they justwant to go on once in a while.
You know it's really cool too,like Amy, of course, announces
track.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
How nice is it to just have your daughter doing
something you do Like it's kindof a shared experience.
Like you, darren, and yourdaughter have this shared
connection.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, well, amy was always helping in the press box
and I would announce the trackmeets.
Well, I told her.
I said I've got to be on thetrack to make sure the hurdles
are in the right place andeverything.
Starting blocks are moved.
You know where they have to bemoved.
And I said how about youannouncing?
She said okay, so she took overwhile I was still coaching and
(34:02):
she announced you know the trackmeets and the calls.
You know you make three calls.
You know on up on deck and inthe hole.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
And so she did that and I was on the track, so we
worked together and it's fun.
Yeah, it's fun, and she was.
She was good at it, she knows,she knew what track is just like
and whatever she announces,just because she had been there
long enough and she didn't makemistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Nothing for me.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Well, you know the thing is.
Here's the thing.
When you're doing what you'redoing, Carl, everybody is making
mistakes and from the crowd Doyou hear many of them?
I don't know.
We're once in a while.
Maybe there's a stickler thatdoes no I know I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know, in the occasions that I do get to
announce, I'm super critical ofmyself, right.
Like oh, I just bumbled overthat name or that name was tough
and gosh.
I feel bad that I said thatname wrong or whatever it might
be.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
There was an eighth grade yeah, an eighth grade,
seventh grade football team andthey were playing and one of the
running back is in mydaughter's class and he said to
her your dad mispronounced myname three different ways, you
know, last game or last night,and I said well, how do you
pronounce it?
(35:23):
Well, she gave me thepronunciation.
It's the way it's spelled.
So and I just screwed upbecause it was not the way I saw
it.
But once I learned how topronounce it, it was very, very
simple.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, everybody makes mistakes.
I'll share one funny storybecause this is just too good.
So if you feel bad about makinga mistake, listen to this story
.
This past spring we're doingjenison baseball game and I had
talked to the coach and got allthe names right and I come up to
the booth, I'm transferringnames over so I can be nice and
organized.
So now batting for jenison,number so and so paul ginsler,
or ginsler crowd, let's go,paulie, let's go big, like
(36:02):
they're just really supportingthis kid.
Next time up now batting for theGenesis in the first baseman,
paul Gensler.
Again, people going bonkers forthis kid.
Let's go, pauly, you got it.
Big boy, all kinds of crazystuff.
Right, we get to the next time.
He's coming up and this is alittle bit before and Kevin
Roloff is in the booth with medoing the, the uh, the clock and
he goes.
Who did this?
(36:23):
And I go, did what?
He goes.
You put his name down.
This guy's name's down wrong.
His first name is pierce.
So people are going crazy.
Third time up now batting forblah blah, the first baseman.
Thousand one thousand, twothousand three pierce ginsler,
and everybody goes crazy.
(36:44):
so mistakes are fine, you knowwhat I mean, like you're going
to make them when you're doingthat and just embrace it.
But what I've always likedabout you, carl, is if you do it
, you just keep moving.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, because you don't listen to yourself and
I've got to tell you a story.
All right, it's a basketballstory.
At times in the old building,in the old gym, we'd have kids
announce the teams and you knowthe team we're playing against,
and that lasted until this, theend of this year, and we were
(37:16):
playing Holland Christian andthe boy I won't say his name
because he's an adult now, butwe're playing Holland Christian
and he introduces them theChristians of Holland Maroon.
And I said what?
And I looked and he didn't knowthat he had said that.
You know, he thought theHolland Christian Maroons, the
(37:38):
Christians of Holland Maroon.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
So that was the end of kids announcing yeah, and
that happens to anybody that hasdone that type of work.
I've looked up a lot ofannouncers.
I went online, I Googled it, Idid that.
I can't find anybody other thanVin Scully, who went longer
than you, but I can't findanybody that's done PA longer
than you.
So it's just like I just saylike, let's just, you know,
(38:02):
enjoy it, like, embrace it.
It's really cool that you'vedone it this long.
Bob Shepard of the Yankees 56years.
There's another gentleman inthe Grand Rapids area, bob
Beckett Hopkins.
He's done it for 53 years.
So I don't know, it's reallycool.
Have you ever figured out howmany football and basketball
games you've done?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I was afraid you'd ask that.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
No, I don't have any clue all right, I did some early
math so I, but I figured it'salmost around a thousand
football games after all theseyears and close to 2300
basketball games.
Is that some?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
It's a lot of games it's a lot of games, but it's.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It's the game that we're doing, thinking humble.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I love it, we're, we're doing at that time is the
game, and I know I go up and askkids how do you pronounce your
name?
Because quite often coaches sayI don't know, I just call him
Pat or something like that.
And so I ask the kids.
I said I don't want to get yourname wrong, and parents come
(39:02):
down sometimes and tell mesometimes not happily, you know,
my kid is number 13.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
I love the impersonation.
Let's go.
I love it when you do that.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
But you know, I try and get it right because I mean
I'm Von Inns.
To me it's I-N-S, is Inns, i-n,but it's Von Inns and Voninns
and so on.
So I know what it's von einsand vonens and so on.
So I know what it's like tohave your name mispronounced.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And the original pronunciation is von ins Von ins
right you told me that storyonce.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, it's a place.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I am not like the others.
I have never had my namemispronounced.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Ladies and gentlemen, William Lee Kennedy it's such a
nice American name, Carl.
You've been doing this for solong.
What inspires you to keepannouncing?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Why do you keep doing it?
Honestly, I don't know that I'dshow up every time at all the
games if I wasn't obligated, ifI didn't have something to do,
that I'm expected to be there ontime.
I mean I get there an hourbefore the game just because
that's what I need to prepare,and if I leave my glasses at
(40:16):
home, I can call and my wife isstill home and I said will you
bring my glasses?
Because she said I can't findthem.
Well, they were in my bag and Ihad them all the time.
But you know, you do things andBill shows up and sometimes I
said where is the roster?
Well, he's had to go back.
He said it's in my office.
(40:37):
Very calmly, he opts in hiscart and drives back to the
office.
But that's happened a coupletimes, but not often.
It's just I'm obligated.
I mean, I said I would do this.
Therefore I do it.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Well, I've been working on the schedule for
basketball the last couple ofdays and the easiest slot to
fill is always who's myannouncer in the main gym.
It's very easy Von Ince.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, there it sits.
There it sits.
You've had a great career.
Here we are just I know likethis is being part of a
community, Like whatever anybodydoes right out of school,
whether you're coaching orteaching or doing PA or doing
concessions you're just doingyour part, right, that's how you
feel about it.
(41:30):
Yeah, and we just want to saythank you for doing your part.
Right, that's all part of thisand doing what we're doing.
Speaking with Darren and Amy,we talked about your attention
to detail.
You're very like good at beingorganized and putting things in
their place and it really showsin the things that you do.
And they said that you got thatfrom your mom.
They called her.
It's Grandma Margaret, right,yeah, can you talk about your
mom and maybe how you got someof that from her?
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Well, I don't know, she was a teacher and there was
a right way to do things and anot right way to do things.
And when I didn't do things theright way, she would tell me
and no, when I didn't do thingsthe right way, she would tell me
and no, you know she wouldn'thide it.
She would come out and say youknow, you do it this way or you
(42:14):
don't, don't do this.
And once, you know, when I wasgrowing up, I was in eighth
grade and I I said something toher and she said don't talk like
that.
And I said I'm a big kid, I cando that.
And I ran away and I trippedover a log and she caught up
with me and she wailed on mybutt.
So so I didn't, you know, I justI mean there's a right way to
(42:38):
do things and an easy way or anot the right way to do things.
And I just, I don't know, ifyou don't do it right and you
know that you're not doing itright, you feel guilty about it.
I mean, when I go home from agame and my wife will say how
was the game?
And I tell her and I said but Imessed up a number of times and
(43:03):
I don't know if Bill will letme do the next game.
But then I see him standing atthe end, you know, talking to
somebody.
Well, he didn't hear me screwup that time.
I mean, that's just, that's howI feel.
I feel I want to do itperfectly, but I can never do it
perfectly.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yeah, there are a few perfect games as an announcer,
announcer.
But what you've done over theyears, if you, you've always
done it with class and withdignity and really to honor the,
the kids that are out on thecourt competing each and every
day, um, and we can't thank youenough for all the years that
you've put in here at westottawa yeah, you've always put
the kids first, carl well, thankyou and uh, we'll take that
(43:41):
with us as we move forward.
Yeah, thanks so much for comingin and sitting down with us Well
, thank you.
It's been a pleasure Thanks man.
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