September 4, 2023 • 13 mins
Oakland Golden Grizzlies Director of Athletics Steve Waterfield discusses the upcoming athletic year and takes questions from Oakland fans with "The Voice of the Golden Grizzlies" Neal Ruhl!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back everyone to another episode ofthe Bear in Mind Podcast. My name
is Neil Rule, the voice ofthe Golden Grizzlies. Remember you can subscribe
on iTunes and on SoundCloud as well. The latest episodes go right to your
phone and you are all set inthere. It is a new season of
athletics here for the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, and we'd like to do this check
(00:21):
in with our guide director of Athletics, Steve Waterfield, just to kind of
get the state of the program,where things are going and all those types
of things. And Steve, Iappreciate your time as always, And how
was the summer for you? Man? First off, that golf game,
you're pretty sharp right now? Right? I wish I could say it was
pretty sharp. Again. I alwaystell people that, giving the amount of
golf I play, I don't getthat much better and so and usually when
(00:44):
I do get better, it's timeto go to things start picking up here
with events and all that. Buthad a good summer. It's good to
be back. I mean, studentathletes are coming back, moving in,
I mean, teams are playing.It's that energy is back and with that
is one of the reasons why Ilove getting into athletics, and a way
we go the twenty three twenty fouracademic year, absolutely and away we go
with the podcast here Steve, andyou know, just as we do this,
(01:06):
as we fire up another season ofeverything, what's kind of I like
to use this phrase, what's yourthirty thousand foot view of where everything is
going? And I know because youand I have touched on it a lot,
like the madness that's going on aroundcollege sports and conference realignment and all
that kind of stuff. Through itall, the world just kind of keeps
turning, doesn't it. Yeah,we're strong in a turbulent situation. I
(01:26):
mean, name, image, likenessisn't dying down, probably won't die down
anytime soon. I mean, conferencerealignment hasn't hit kind of the Horizon League,
this level of conference to the degreeit's hit the Power five. But
you've got that. The transfer worldis and they're trying to dial that back.
And now you hear people that aren'tgetting waivers that are expressing disappointment and
criticism about those and but we keepturning away and it's it's we're in a
(01:52):
good spot, but but things neverchange. I mean, just recently,
our head softball coach took a greatopportunity at Marilyn Lauren Carn and she's headed
there. But that's part of athleticsin that type of variety, and change
always happens, and we'll get readyto go and look to get the McCafferty
Trophy this year and win some championships, and speaking of that too, with
Lauren Carn obviously moving on to Maryland. When those things happen, I think
(02:16):
the way I feel as an alarmas an employee is when you're here at
mid major, that's a part ofthe life, and I always think that's
the roughest part of mid major lifeis you get people in your department that
you have a lot of respect forthat are excellent at what they do,
which certainly Lauren was. But theother side of that coin is high majors
(02:36):
of Big ten University of Maryland.But that's what you want, right Steve,
as you Steve Waterfield City here asthe athletic director, it is a
good problem to have a because there'sprobably some banners someplace number one, but
number two, it goes to showyou that here at Oakland we've had good
people that high level places would wantyou're really right now. It's when I
(02:57):
talked to Lauren and she told meshe was going to take the job,
and I said, hey, I'mproud of you. He did a great
job, and I really hope youdo well. It's a tremendous opportunity.
Having worked at schools in the bigteam, I get it. I mean,
there's reasons why you may not wantto take the job, but there's
a lot of reasons you would.And it gets her closer to home.
And I was just really excited forand I said, hey, you've made
my job easier too, because aswe look to find our next head coach,
(03:19):
people are going to see that youcan be the head coach at Oakland
and hoach our softball team and makeit to a Power five job. That's
what you want to do if youwant to stay here. We've got a
great, great school, great qualityof life. We're just redoing the we're
putting turf into the outfield. Theystarted bulldozing that this week and so it
is that rub. But I'm justso proud and happy for I can't wait
to see how she does. Butreally my attention immediately focused on our women
(03:40):
in the student athletes we got agreat team coming back. They were close
to going back to back with theHorizon League championship this past year. I
know they're hungry. It's like,how can we make sure they're in the
best position possible to have a greatexperience and win a championship this year.
And that's what we're doing. We'reworking through some things and we'll announce kind
of what the plan is from aleadership standpoint this year and we go.
And speaking of that, Steve justkind of popped in my head. This
(04:02):
wasn't something that I talked with youabout, but it begs the question because
I'm curious about it. When youare hiring coaches, take us through that
process for you, What does thatlook like? What are you looking for
in a coach as well? Youknow, obviously you hired Jordan Banfield.
The baseball program seems to be ahit, no pun intend It seems to
be a hit. What does ittake to kind of replicate that process and
(04:26):
what are some of the things thatyou look for. Yeah, I think
each search is different, and Ithink each program here, although we're all
at Oakland, I think each programsat a different stage of worth. Things
are what they need and what's goingto let us get to what we hope
is the next level or sustained thelevel like in Mitch Alter's cases coming in
as a swimming and diving coach,like, hey, how do we continue
it and then even build on itthere? And so much of it's getting
(04:46):
feedback. I really get feedback fromthe student athletes on the team. What
do they want? What are theylook for? And end of the day,
you're looking for teachers. You're lookingfor good people, and then you
look for people that you can lookat and say, you know what,
they're going to do a great jobleading, but then also being a great
teammate within the department. And Idon't sit back and say, well,
they're so good they could leave ina few years. Well, if to
(05:08):
your point before, if that happens, that means they've done pretty well here.
Yeah, and we'll do the bestwe can to keep them. And
if they go, they go,and if not, keep them here.
But hey, I can't worry abouthaving great coaches that win championships and then
we're about they're going to leave.Talking with Steve Waterfield here, director of
athletics for the Golden Grizzlies, onthe Bear in Mind Podcast. Remember you
can subscribe on iTunes and sound claudMy name is Neil Rule of Voice of
(05:30):
the Golden Grizzlies, the Special assthe ad part of that. We will
get to that coming up in justa couple of minutes. You had some
questions for Steve on social media kindof foreshadowed a little bit with the facilities
angle, which we will get tothat. But as we kind of roll
in to this fall here, Steve, what are some of the things I
guess Golden Grizzlies fans can look forwardto. You know, we are we
(05:53):
are off and kicking it with soccer, certainly, cross country, volleyball,
all those things are in full swing. As you look across the landscape right
now, as we get rolling intofall, basketballs around the corner, obviously,
what are some of your expectations andwhat can fans look out for.
Yeah, I think what we're tryingto do is continue to get so many
(06:13):
of the great stories that involve ourstudent athletes and our programs and getting that
to the general public through different formsand fashions media, social media, videoing
segments and trying to see what Ialways say is the best part of Oakland
Athletics as our three hundred and thirtyor so student athletes, and so it's
trying to do that. We're lookingat ways to expand and enhance our online
(06:34):
apparel shop. There was a blacktopshirt that came out in August that did
really well, and looking for waysto work with our partner to get more
in different things out and there'll bethings that people will start to see in
the in the coming weeks about somedifferent products there. And then also trying
to continue to provide our student athletesas much as we can within the resources
that we have from a student athletesstandpoint, experience standpoint, and looking for
(06:56):
ways to do that nutrition, academicservices, the turf field for softball,
and looking for upgrades where we cando that. All right, well y,
you touched on it facilities. You'reready for the asked the ad part.
Let's go all right? Yeah,I went to Twitter. You guys
responded as you always do. ANate on Twitter had a couple of questions.
He actually went back to back,so he's got a couple of things
he wanted to he wanted to touchon and his question speaking of that was
(07:21):
from a facility standpoint Number one,the basketball practice facility, something that you
and I have talked about a lot. Nate said, I feel as though
we may be falling behind from afacility standpoint in terms of other mid major
basketball programs. Where does that sitright now, Steve? Because I know
there's a ton of moving parts tothis. Obviously, it's something that's at
(07:43):
the very front of your plate,the very front of your porch, you
know, as an athletic director.Where does that stand? Yeah, I
mean it's been I think discussed hereon this campus since the early two thousands,
and it's still a thing that weneed to get done. And I
don't disagree that from a competitive standpointto recruit and retain the best athletes for
our basketball programs, independent practice facilityis critical. And we've looked at campus,
(08:05):
we looked at off campus. There'sa lot of pieces to it.
There's a cost involved. It wasit was about nine ten million, and
before I arrived, was kind ofa concept. I mean that's was about
fifteen to seventeen million right before thepandemic. I'm sure it hasn't gone down
in price there. And so howdo you find it a way to provide
a great resource facility, locker rooms, etc. At a price point that's
(08:28):
sustainable and we can need to dothat, and that's our number one facility
goal is to get that practice facilitydone and provide that to our student athletes.
Nate went back to back. Hehad a question too about branding and
the logo of some changes to thelogo as of late, just kind of
the thought process behind that. Whatare some of the goals And you mentioned
(08:50):
before kind of an online an expansionof the online merchandising presence. Yeah,
so everything seems to be like wasit before the pandemic, in the pandemic,
right after the pan so I'll sayaround in the pandemic. So we
looked at creating a symmetrical bearhead.So the bearhead that we had used was
peeled off of the climbing bear ifpeople are probably familiar with the climbing bear
(09:11):
and so for a lot of reasons, a lot of it through our graphics
folks here is creating a symmetrical bearhead. So in house, we worked with
our university communications folks to create asymmetrical bearhead. In the process, the
trademark process, you go through allthat piece of it, and so that
will be that symmetrical bearhead will bethat primary mark. But there's also and
it's common with institutions, they havekind of marks that are in the vault.
(09:31):
You see the climbing bearhead, that'sgoing to be in our vault.
We have to use it to keepthe trademark, so you'll see that climbing
bear head continue to be used.We've got kind of a call it the
baby bear which we use for thekids club. But you'll start to see
more as things get built created thatthe symmetrical bearhead is going to be that
mark and we'll use that. Andthen we have a secondary mark which is
(09:54):
the interlock you know you, whichwill see on some of our uniforms as
well, which I think is acool mark and looks really good. So
that's kind of the reason why nowwhere you can get the things. So
we have an online store that we'vepartnered through a company that local and Detroit
that allows our fans and others toreally get customized product by sport, by
(10:18):
what they want, by color,by logo, and they turn it on
pretty quickly. And so that seemedto us the best way to deliver product
to our fans and provide some typeof diverse offerings that they would look.
You go into stores, yeah,custom offerings, you go into stores.
A lot of that's just based onthe buyers that store. So if you
go to Meyer and you say,why do they have Oakland stuff? Well,
(10:41):
the buyers need to work with thecompanies that create it, and you
go through that and hopefully as wecontinue to win and win more in basketball,
they do that. But the onlinestore really has been away for us
to get it to whether their recruitsor people that have stuff that want volleyball
or swim or a cross country oryou name it, they can do it
that way. And then it allowsus to pull out the black top T
shirt that came out in August.There's going to be some more customized things
(11:05):
that are special. So that's reallythe best way to do it. The
more we win, obviously, Ithink studies show that the more folks buy
things and the more your brand androyalties go up, and that's your economic
minute with Steve Waterfield, the moreyou win, the better you tend to
do that. That's a nice onefor someone that took economics about twenty some
years ago at Kenyon College. Alittle dice, I'm not going to go
into my grade there, but that'sit. Yeah, there you have it,
(11:28):
Steve. Kind of a follow upto that, and this is from
my own personal knowledge because you talkedabout symmetrical bearheads and I've noticed this when
you look around the quote unquote logolandscape of college athletics. Cost of production,
cost of reproduction, ability to producethings. Those are all factors.
Like when you come into a know, you're figuring out a logo in a
(11:50):
situation like that, what's the costto put it on? Stuff? That's
that's certainly something I mean, let'sbe real, that's at the forefront.
Two, yeah, cost to putit on, how many colors? If
you're going to print it, whatis it going to look? And then
really relying upon subject matter experts thatdo this kind of stuff. I mean
I didn't take art till after Imean high school art. I didn't even
take and art was my worst gradein elementary school. So the graphics folks
and you have to take that intoaccount because they're doing it and ways to
(12:13):
make it easier, and so muchof its digital social media, as we
all know, how do we createa logo that's able to be replicated?
And done in a quick fashion forthe folks that are doing it. Final
question here for the Steve Waterfield mailbag, Tom asked about the golf practice facility
concept. What's the current status ofthat? Yeah, so we're looking at
different places to put that. Oneof the things that's been really exciting is
(12:35):
the advent of technology and golf allowsgolfers of all skill level pros to really
use things that look at balls allthe numbers. You chase the numbers and
it doesn't really require you to lookat the ball flight. Because you look
at the numbers, you know whatthings are going on. And so looking
for ways that we can create anindoor facility that would allow us to have
them be able to hit using thekind of the data the numbers, but
(12:58):
also chipping and putting, and there'ssome differ and options, trying to get
some thoughts on the viability of certainones, because when you try to take
space that was one thing and turnit into something else, there's a lot
of stuff that you don't see thatyou got to figure out and what is
it going to take to make sureit's going to be usable. But excited,
still very optimistic we can get somethingdone for our golf teams. Absolutely,
(13:18):
we're always excited to get a chanceto talk to you, Steve.
Thanks for sitting down and taking acouple of minutes and we'll check back in
with you around basketball seasons. Atfair sounds great and you're looking forward to
it all right. For the directorof athletic Steve Waterfield, my name is
Neil Roll. Thank you all forlistening to the Bear in Mind podcast.
Well see you later.
Welcome back everyone to another episode ofthe Bear in Mind Podcast. My name
is Neil Rule, the voice ofthe Golden Grizzlies. Remember you can subscribe
on iTunes and on SoundCloud as well. The latest episodes go right to your
phone and you are all set inthere. It is a new season of
athletics here for the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, and we'd like to do this check
(00:21):
in with our guide director of Athletics, Steve Waterfield, just to kind of
get the state of the program,where things are going and all those types
of things. And Steve, Iappreciate your time as always, And how
was the summer for you? Man? First off, that golf game,
you're pretty sharp right now? Right? I wish I could say it was
pretty sharp. Again. I alwaystell people that, giving the amount of
golf I play, I don't getthat much better and so and usually when
(00:44):
I do get better, it's timeto go to things start picking up here
with events and all that. Buthad a good summer. It's good to
be back. I mean, studentathletes are coming back, moving in,
I mean, teams are playing.It's that energy is back and with that
is one of the reasons why Ilove getting into athletics, and a way
we go the twenty three twenty fouracademic year, absolutely and away we go
with the podcast here Steve, andyou know, just as we do this,
(01:06):
as we fire up another season ofeverything, what's kind of I like
to use this phrase, what's yourthirty thousand foot view of where everything is
going? And I know because youand I have touched on it a lot,
like the madness that's going on aroundcollege sports and conference realignment and all
that kind of stuff. Through itall, the world just kind of keeps
turning, doesn't it. Yeah,we're strong in a turbulent situation. I
(01:26):
mean, name, image, likenessisn't dying down, probably won't die down
anytime soon. I mean, conferencerealignment hasn't hit kind of the Horizon League,
this level of conference to the degreeit's hit the Power five. But
you've got that. The transfer worldis and they're trying to dial that back.
And now you hear people that aren'tgetting waivers that are expressing disappointment and
criticism about those and but we keepturning away and it's it's we're in a
(01:52):
good spot, but but things neverchange. I mean, just recently,
our head softball coach took a greatopportunity at Marilyn Lauren Carn and she's headed
there. But that's part of athleticsin that type of variety, and change
always happens, and we'll get readyto go and look to get the McCafferty
Trophy this year and win some championships, and speaking of that too, with
Lauren Carn obviously moving on to Maryland. When those things happen, I think
(02:16):
the way I feel as an alarmas an employee is when you're here at
mid major, that's a part ofthe life, and I always think that's
the roughest part of mid major lifeis you get people in your department that
you have a lot of respect forthat are excellent at what they do,
which certainly Lauren was. But theother side of that coin is high majors
(02:36):
of Big ten University of Maryland.But that's what you want, right Steve,
as you Steve Waterfield City here asthe athletic director, it is a
good problem to have a because there'sprobably some banners someplace number one, but
number two, it goes to showyou that here at Oakland we've had good
people that high level places would wantyou're really right now. It's when I
(02:57):
talked to Lauren and she told meshe was going to take the job,
and I said, hey, I'mproud of you. He did a great
job, and I really hope youdo well. It's a tremendous opportunity.
Having worked at schools in the bigteam, I get it. I mean,
there's reasons why you may not wantto take the job, but there's
a lot of reasons you would.And it gets her closer to home.
And I was just really excited forand I said, hey, you've made
my job easier too, because aswe look to find our next head coach,
(03:19):
people are going to see that youcan be the head coach at Oakland
and hoach our softball team and makeit to a Power five job. That's
what you want to do if youwant to stay here. We've got a
great, great school, great qualityof life. We're just redoing the we're
putting turf into the outfield. Theystarted bulldozing that this week and so it
is that rub. But I'm justso proud and happy for I can't wait
to see how she does. Butreally my attention immediately focused on our women
(03:40):
in the student athletes we got agreat team coming back. They were close
to going back to back with theHorizon League championship this past year. I
know they're hungry. It's like,how can we make sure they're in the
best position possible to have a greatexperience and win a championship this year.
And that's what we're doing. We'reworking through some things and we'll announce kind
of what the plan is from aleadership standpoint this year and we go.
And speaking of that, Steve justkind of popped in my head. This
(04:02):
wasn't something that I talked with youabout, but it begs the question because
I'm curious about it. When youare hiring coaches, take us through that
process for you, What does thatlook like? What are you looking for
in a coach as well? Youknow, obviously you hired Jordan Banfield.
The baseball program seems to be ahit, no pun intend It seems to
be a hit. What does ittake to kind of replicate that process and
(04:26):
what are some of the things thatyou look for. Yeah, I think
each search is different, and Ithink each program here, although we're all
at Oakland, I think each programsat a different stage of worth. Things
are what they need and what's goingto let us get to what we hope
is the next level or sustained thelevel like in Mitch Alter's cases coming in
as a swimming and diving coach,like, hey, how do we continue
it and then even build on itthere? And so much of it's getting
(04:46):
feedback. I really get feedback fromthe student athletes on the team. What
do they want? What are theylook for? And end of the day,
you're looking for teachers. You're lookingfor good people, and then you
look for people that you can lookat and say, you know what,
they're going to do a great jobleading, but then also being a great
teammate within the department. And Idon't sit back and say, well,
they're so good they could leave ina few years. Well, if to
(05:08):
your point before, if that happens, that means they've done pretty well here.
Yeah, and we'll do the bestwe can to keep them. And
if they go, they go,and if not, keep them here.
But hey, I can't worry abouthaving great coaches that win championships and then
we're about they're going to leave.Talking with Steve Waterfield here, director of
athletics for the Golden Grizzlies, onthe Bear in Mind Podcast. Remember you
can subscribe on iTunes and sound claudMy name is Neil Rule of Voice of
(05:30):
the Golden Grizzlies, the Special assthe ad part of that. We will
get to that coming up in justa couple of minutes. You had some
questions for Steve on social media kindof foreshadowed a little bit with the facilities
angle, which we will get tothat. But as we kind of roll
in to this fall here, Steve, what are some of the things I
guess Golden Grizzlies fans can look forwardto. You know, we are we
(05:53):
are off and kicking it with soccer, certainly, cross country, volleyball,
all those things are in full swing. As you look across the landscape right
now, as we get rolling intofall, basketballs around the corner, obviously,
what are some of your expectations andwhat can fans look out for.
Yeah, I think what we're tryingto do is continue to get so many
(06:13):
of the great stories that involve ourstudent athletes and our programs and getting that
to the general public through different formsand fashions media, social media, videoing
segments and trying to see what Ialways say is the best part of Oakland
Athletics as our three hundred and thirtyor so student athletes, and so it's
trying to do that. We're lookingat ways to expand and enhance our online
(06:34):
apparel shop. There was a blacktopshirt that came out in August that did
really well, and looking for waysto work with our partner to get more
in different things out and there'll bethings that people will start to see in
the in the coming weeks about somedifferent products there. And then also trying
to continue to provide our student athletesas much as we can within the resources
that we have from a student athletesstandpoint, experience standpoint, and looking for
(06:56):
ways to do that nutrition, academicservices, the turf field for softball,
and looking for upgrades where we cando that. All right, well y,
you touched on it facilities. You'reready for the asked the ad part.
Let's go all right? Yeah,I went to Twitter. You guys
responded as you always do. ANate on Twitter had a couple of questions.
He actually went back to back,so he's got a couple of things
he wanted to he wanted to touchon and his question speaking of that was
(07:21):
from a facility standpoint Number one,the basketball practice facility, something that you
and I have talked about a lot. Nate said, I feel as though
we may be falling behind from afacility standpoint in terms of other mid major
basketball programs. Where does that sitright now, Steve? Because I know
there's a ton of moving parts tothis. Obviously, it's something that's at
(07:43):
the very front of your plate,the very front of your porch, you
know, as an athletic director.Where does that stand? Yeah, I
mean it's been I think discussed hereon this campus since the early two thousands,
and it's still a thing that weneed to get done. And I
don't disagree that from a competitive standpointto recruit and retain the best athletes for
our basketball programs, independent practice facilityis critical. And we've looked at campus,
(08:05):
we looked at off campus. There'sa lot of pieces to it.
There's a cost involved. It wasit was about nine ten million, and
before I arrived, was kind ofa concept. I mean that's was about
fifteen to seventeen million right before thepandemic. I'm sure it hasn't gone down
in price there. And so howdo you find it a way to provide
a great resource facility, locker rooms, etc. At a price point that's
(08:28):
sustainable and we can need to dothat, and that's our number one facility
goal is to get that practice facilitydone and provide that to our student athletes.
Nate went back to back. Hehad a question too about branding and
the logo of some changes to thelogo as of late, just kind of
the thought process behind that. Whatare some of the goals And you mentioned
(08:50):
before kind of an online an expansionof the online merchandising presence. Yeah,
so everything seems to be like wasit before the pandemic, in the pandemic,
right after the pan so I'll sayaround in the pandemic. So we
looked at creating a symmetrical bearhead.So the bearhead that we had used was
peeled off of the climbing bear ifpeople are probably familiar with the climbing bear
(09:11):
and so for a lot of reasons, a lot of it through our graphics
folks here is creating a symmetrical bearhead. So in house, we worked with
our university communications folks to create asymmetrical bearhead. In the process, the
trademark process, you go through allthat piece of it, and so that
will be that symmetrical bearhead will bethat primary mark. But there's also and
it's common with institutions, they havekind of marks that are in the vault.
(09:31):
You see the climbing bearhead, that'sgoing to be in our vault.
We have to use it to keepthe trademark, so you'll see that climbing
bear head continue to be used.We've got kind of a call it the
baby bear which we use for thekids club. But you'll start to see
more as things get built created thatthe symmetrical bearhead is going to be that
mark and we'll use that. Andthen we have a secondary mark which is
(09:54):
the interlock you know you, whichwill see on some of our uniforms as
well, which I think is acool mark and looks really good. So
that's kind of the reason why nowwhere you can get the things. So
we have an online store that we'vepartnered through a company that local and Detroit
that allows our fans and others toreally get customized product by sport, by
(10:18):
what they want, by color,by logo, and they turn it on
pretty quickly. And so that seemedto us the best way to deliver product
to our fans and provide some typeof diverse offerings that they would look.
You go into stores, yeah,custom offerings, you go into stores.
A lot of that's just based onthe buyers that store. So if you
go to Meyer and you say,why do they have Oakland stuff? Well,
(10:41):
the buyers need to work with thecompanies that create it, and you
go through that and hopefully as wecontinue to win and win more in basketball,
they do that. But the onlinestore really has been away for us
to get it to whether their recruitsor people that have stuff that want volleyball
or swim or a cross country oryou name it, they can do it
that way. And then it allowsus to pull out the black top T
shirt that came out in August.There's going to be some more customized things
(11:05):
that are special. So that's reallythe best way to do it. The
more we win, obviously, Ithink studies show that the more folks buy
things and the more your brand androyalties go up, and that's your economic
minute with Steve Waterfield, the moreyou win, the better you tend to
do that. That's a nice onefor someone that took economics about twenty some
years ago at Kenyon College. Alittle dice, I'm not going to go
into my grade there, but that'sit. Yeah, there you have it,
(11:28):
Steve. Kind of a follow upto that, and this is from
my own personal knowledge because you talkedabout symmetrical bearheads and I've noticed this when
you look around the quote unquote logolandscape of college athletics. Cost of production,
cost of reproduction, ability to producethings. Those are all factors.
Like when you come into a know, you're figuring out a logo in a
(11:50):
situation like that, what's the costto put it on? Stuff? That's
that's certainly something I mean, let'sbe real, that's at the forefront.
Two, yeah, cost to putit on, how many colors? If
you're going to print it, whatis it going to look? And then
really relying upon subject matter experts thatdo this kind of stuff. I mean
I didn't take art till after Imean high school art. I didn't even
take and art was my worst gradein elementary school. So the graphics folks
and you have to take that intoaccount because they're doing it and ways to
(12:13):
make it easier, and so muchof its digital social media, as we
all know, how do we createa logo that's able to be replicated?
And done in a quick fashion forthe folks that are doing it. Final
question here for the Steve Waterfield mailbag, Tom asked about the golf practice facility
concept. What's the current status ofthat? Yeah, so we're looking at
different places to put that. Oneof the things that's been really exciting is
(12:35):
the advent of technology and golf allowsgolfers of all skill level pros to really
use things that look at balls allthe numbers. You chase the numbers and
it doesn't really require you to lookat the ball flight. Because you look
at the numbers, you know whatthings are going on. And so looking
for ways that we can create anindoor facility that would allow us to have
them be able to hit using thekind of the data the numbers, but
(12:58):
also chipping and putting, and there'ssome differ and options, trying to get
some thoughts on the viability of certainones, because when you try to take
space that was one thing and turnit into something else, there's a lot
of stuff that you don't see thatyou got to figure out and what is
it going to take to make sureit's going to be usable. But excited,
still very optimistic we can get somethingdone for our golf teams. Absolutely,
(13:18):
we're always excited to get a chanceto talk to you, Steve.
Thanks for sitting down and taking acouple of minutes and we'll check back in
with you around basketball seasons. Atfair sounds great and you're looking forward to
it all right. For the directorof athletic Steve Waterfield, my name is
Neil Roll. Thank you all forlistening to the Bear in Mind podcast.
Well see you later.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.