January 20, 2026 • 30 mins
Auburn senior Jake Yohn didn’t just choose the referee life — he inherited it.
“I’ve always felt at home here, just really enjoy the campus, the people and what Auburn's all about,” said Yohn.
As a student assistant in Auburn’s competitive sports program, the Montgomery, AL native is responsible for daily operations, as well as officiating intramural and club sports games.
Wearing the referee stripes runs in the family. His father David held the same position at Auburn back in the 80’s.
“It’s been cool to do the whole full-circle family thing,” Yohn said.
Today’s collegiate competitive sports aren’t your daddy’s pickup flag football — they’re faster, fiercer and on a whole different level. This rise in popularity has given campus recreation departments increasing value among students and stakeholders.
“Honestly, I saw the Sportsplex facility when I first came and visited and the ability to offer competitive sports there is really what sold me,” said Keegan Ashbee, who arrived at Auburn five years ago to become the director of competitive sports.
Auburn’s recreational facilities are second to none. The 240,000 square-foot Recreation and Wellness Center has a 1/3-mile indoor track, two 50-foot climbing towers, six basketball courts, weight and cardio spaces, group fitness studios, a leisure pool, tennis and racquetball courts, and more. The Sportsplex and intramural fields offer more than 15 acres of lighted green space, multipurpose fields, two softball fields, and sand volleyball courts. There’s also Auburn Outdoors where students can rent tents, bikes, kayaks and sleeping bags for adventures in nature.
“We give tours daily – it’s a major stop on the college tour process,” Ashbee said.
Auburn has more than 40 intramural sports, everything from flag football and basketball to sand volleyball, soccer and more. There are 44 club sports, including baseball, bass fishing, ice hockey, lacrosse, pickleball, rowing and ultimate frisbee, to name a few.
Participation in Auburn’s competitive sports program is open to all currently enrolled students, regardless of skill level. Emerging technologies like digital group fitness management tools and live steaming of championship games are elevating intramural and club sport popularity. Last year, almost a quarter of Auburn’s student population participated in intramural and club sports.
For Ashbee, it’s about more than just the game. The Delaware native’s main role is hiring, training and developing employees and student assistants like Yohn to run programs in the evenings - and help them see success both on and off the field.
“I can highlight student after student and their personal growth,” said Ashbee. “They go from keeping to themselves to being out front and leading."
Yohn, a political science major, is one of about 100 students employed by the Rec Center.
“It's such a unique job that teaches you so much,” said Yohn. “You learn how to talk to people, how to make connections and really just empathy.”
The Rec Center also offers about 80 group fitness classes each week, including Tiger Pump, yoga, Cycle 45 and more.
“If you're new to fitness, we've got personal trainers, wellness coaches and class instructors that can help you,” explained Ashbee.
Ashbee says the Rec Center’s website is your one-stop-shop for getting in the game!
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(00:05):
Welcome into everything Auburn.
Welcome back to New Year.
I was told that it'sthe first time you see somebody.
You can still say,Happy New Year.
So happy New Year.
I want to be the last oneto tell you all year.
And we're excitedto start a new year
of everything Auburn.
We're super excitedto have some new guests.
The podcastwhere you get to speak
to members of the Auburn familyevery single month,
and we're starting offwith another fun one today.
I have Keegan Ashbee,the assistant director
(00:27):
of competitive sports.
Got it right.
Yes, sir.
And I have student leaderextraordinaire
and program assistant.
But you're smart.
Student leader extraordinaire iswhat we're campaigning for.
Your new title JakeYohn joining me today.
Welcome to the EverythingAuburn podcast.
Thanks for having us.
We appreciate it.
Well, we're hereto talk everything.
What Rec and Wellness.
We thought January peoplehave New Year's resolutions
(00:48):
and everybody has.
I'm going to run, ride a bike,go out, workout,
play some sport.
So why not get some recand wellness competitive sports.
You don't do noncompetitive sports.
So no friendlycard games correct.
You're just competitive.
Competitions is where we excel.
And yeah awesome.
Well welcome.
And joining us today.
So walk us throughwhat is your life's like.
(01:08):
What do you thatyou do here at Auburn.
With competitive sports.
Let's start over there.
Yeah. SoI help higher train develop,
the students and employeeswho run the programs
in the evening.
Our programs run
from about 5 (01:22):
00 at night
until 11 (01:23):
00 at night.
So we need people thereto make sure they're safe,
to make sure it'sfair competition,
to make sure thatif there's any injuries,
they're thereto take care of them.
So we have about 100student employees.
What would you say?
That people go pretty hard.
And intramural sports,I mean, injuries,
never once intensity.
It happens.
I don't think anyone's evertaken it too far.
(01:44):
No, no. Never out.
They're trying to winthat cheap t shirt.
Trying to win that t shirt.
So yeah,again, sports brings out
something different in people.
Obviously.
And it's it's a passionthat people have had.
They've played for forever.
And they may not have decidedto continue
their athletic endeavorsafter high school
and come to a great schoollike Auburn,
(02:04):
and they can come outand play flag football
or basketball.
And, there's a lot of passionout there for sure.
And one of the coolthings you get to do
is you hire the peopleto actually get to do it.
Yeah.
And as you've told me already,Jake is the one who runs it
here. Yeah.
So what, you said that?
Yep. That's what he said.
That's whyhe said that writing thing.
Yeah, that's why you're here.
So walk me through what you'reas a as a student.
(02:27):
I'm sure you have a veryinteresting perspective,
but also someonewho kind of oversees
these major endeavors.
It's definitelyan interesting job.
Your your reffing,your classmates, your people
that you see on campusall the time.
My job specificallyis program assistant.
So I'm kind of the bridgebetween the adult
full time staff and the studentsthat are just there, you know,
less than 20 hours a week.
(02:47):
So I help run the trainings and,you know,
prepare for all differentkind of stuff that could happen,
out there on the fields,whether it be the,
the Sportsplex, the,the Enfield's, the rec center,
down the street.
And but Istill get to reference,
I get to do kind of the jobthat I started out in as a,
like an assistantand a supervisor.
So that's been really cool.
People still like,I run the people
(03:08):
that I've run for,you know, for years.
And they ask me, like,are you going
to be at basketballthis year? I'm like, yep.
Just like every yearyou so you mentioned it
earlier already is one thingthat we've talked about before,
which I think isone of my favorite things
that I'll do is the playfor the shirt concept. Yeah.
Which is so cool.
So if you could tell usa little bit about that,
because I just, I think that isI never got one.
I think in my entirethree years of participating
(03:30):
in arena sports,I think across 3 or 4 sports
over 3 or 4 years,I think we won one game period.
We were not a good team,but we tried.
We were really good triers.
Yeah, but we didn't win a shirt.
It is.
Yeah.
I think, that isa really cool part of it.
Just because you seepeople on campus with, you know,
depending on the year, like,you know, this style,
we have one for each semester.
(03:50):
So it usually iskind of the same design,
but one's a different color.
So like blue and orangefor like the fall in the spring.
And so when you seesomeone on campus
with that shirt, you can kind offigure out like, oh, what sport
they were playing.
You can kind ofstart a conversation.
And it it is obviously kindof a little bit
of a social kind of creditin class.
I see people wear all the time,at the, at the rec, like if
(04:11):
we're playing pickup basketballand you have a shirt
on, like I'm probably going toadd you to my team.
My first pick.
Yeah, yeah,you're probably gonna
be the first pick, as a ref.
Like I'll get some.
You know,if you're a ref in that game,
you'll get you'll get to, like,grab one.
So I have all the,all the old ones
from, from a while ago.
So I guess it'sa little less cheap
that I have them, but,there's got to be some perks,
you know?
Yeah,you have to have something.
(04:31):
We have to get something.
It's.
I mean, it's a hard jobto to referees.
Absolutely.
You see them going to classon a Monday morning
and then Monday eveningyou're refereeing
or the basketballor flag football and, and, it's
a pretty cool thing to do.
And I mean, 5 or 6 week leagues,depending on the sport,
go into a playoff bracket.
And it's it's it's a lot of fun.
(04:51):
We try to make itexciting for them.
We try to make itinto an event for them.
We try to live streamgames, things like that,
that anything that we can do.
So, yeah.
Got to get Mom and dadto watch my,
watch my highlight reel.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Or just show up a lot.
A lot of parentsand grandparents
I've seen show up. I've.
I know someone that had theirtheir dad and fly out
and think they're, you know,going to visit
for a little bit longer,but you know,
they coming out for the game.
(05:12):
Yeah of course.
Yeah.
He's got after the game.
So we've talked a lotover the last few months
just in looking at somereal stuff and clubs
for stuff and Keeganyou've had some
really interesting, insightas to like a, the
amount of peoplethat participate. Yeah.
And just like the sheernumber of students
that participateas well as some of the,
we'll call them unexpectedbenefits of participation
(05:34):
that, you know, you don't thinkplaying football or basketball
on a Tuesday night can help youin your math class,
but maybe maybe it can.
Yeah, there's a lot ofstudies out there.
If you want to break it downabout how obviously activity
can help you insideand outside the classroom,
I'm really big on that.
Obviously it's January, right?
We got a lot of resolutionsout there, a lot of things,
(05:57):
new year, new me type things.
I really love it.
You take aan hour away from studying,
you go out, you run around,you get some activity.
Not only do you get to hang outwith your friends, you get that
physical activity,and it really kind of helps
kind of reset you.
So when you're done, you can goget hopefully a good dinner,
go back to studying,get ready for your classes,
or test whateveryou may have the next day
(06:17):
or that night.
So there'sdefinitely some studies
that show that, that physicalactivity is huge and it doesn't
have to be run a marathonevery single night.
That's that's good for you.
I'm glad because, again,every person's going to have
their own thing, right?
Some people love to run.
I'm not a runner.
You will not see me just outrunning around campus
just because that and it's notsomething I'll do.
But finding your own placein your own way to to stay fit
(06:40):
and stay active isis really huge.
And one of the,the side effects of
intramural sportsthat we really appreciate.
Oh that's well that's wonderful.
And and you know I doI'm kind of in the
I usually willrun if I'm being chased.
But yeah, getting out anddoing some touching grass.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a it's a great time.
But so, you know,we have intramural sports.
So another thing that you'realso heavily involved
(07:02):
in is club sports,which is a whole nother
just territory of what you'rekind of
encompasses in your world.
Yeah.
What's the clubsport element to rec
and wellness, to the universityand to the life
of the university students?
So the way we like tobreak it down is,
if you think about it,I believe Auburn
varsity sports is about18, 17, 18 sports.
(07:23):
Just under 2018.
So yeah.
So there's 18 sportsthat obviously
they're playing foran SEC championship,
a national championship.
And we've had plenty ofthose here at Auburn. Right.
They are practicing going toclass every single day, hours
upon hours, scholarships,those types of things. Right.
The next level would beour club sport athletes.
Our club sportathletes were high level
(07:44):
athletes at high schoolthat love whatever sport
they may enjoy.
We've got 44 different clubs.
So your lacrosse is your soccer.
Volleyball, pickleball.
I mean, there'sso many different sports
that we offer.
And they were high levelathletes at high school
that want to continuethat, may have had opportunities
to play at Division twoor Division three
(08:05):
or even Division one,but they decide, you know what?
Auburn is a place for me.
So we have the opportunityto continue playing
and they practice two,three, four days a week.
Depending on the club.
They still travel regionally,they still travel nationally.
They complete competefor national championships
in their governing body.
We've had a handfulof national championships
(08:27):
in the last few years.
We've had, individualnational championships
like swimming and divingtype things.
We've had our rugby team won,I believe it was about 4
or 4 and a half years ago.
They won thenational championship.
We've had bass fishing's onenational championship.
We'vewe've got a lot of different
national champions.
And it may not be the SEC,but it's the governing body
for that sport.
(08:47):
And they can competeat a high level.
And then you haveour intramural sports
where like we talked aboutsome of them,
they really want to winthat t shirt.
They're out there practicingthree nights a week.
They're out in the fields,whatever it might be.
But a lot of themshow up 25 minutes
before their game.
You do a little bit of stretchand do a little jog
and hopefully, hopefully,hopefully do something. Yeah.
(09:08):
And then they,they play for the 45 minutes
to an hour that the game takesand they're done for the week.
And there's a placefor everybody.
And obviously with club sportsthere's, there's 44 of them.
We've gotsome amazing facilities that
on the weekends,I mean, we've got thousands
of people coming to watchour different games,
especially at that,the brand new,
gorgeous facility overthere, one of the, the I was not
(09:31):
a club sport guy,but I had three roommates
in college here who were there,all three of them.
It was so interestingbecause they all
were on the rowing team.
Yeah.
And I knew all three of themin high school as well.
And they weren't rowers.
And then they joinedthe rowing club team.
It was their family.
And I really lovedat like 4 a.m.
when they got upand I heard their car start
(09:52):
and they were getting upand I was like, I'm
going back to sleep.
Yeah,because I'm not doing that.
And they went into it.
And then they wereit was at one point
they were president, vicepresident and secretary.
And it wasthey loved it as their whole.
It became a personalitytrait of theirs.
And it changed like their lifebecause they did this club sport
and it was so cool to watchand especially cool
not be getting up at 4 a.m.
for me personally.
(10:13):
But, well,I would also be curious from
both your perspectives, youyou think you have
an interestingperspective on how,
intramural sports, club sports,how it's grown,
how it's changed over your timebeing involved with it,
you know, hopes and aspirationsof where it will go
and what you've kind of seenand what you've put into it
to make it grow.
Yeah, I think from, frommy perspective, it's, it's it's
(10:33):
weird being a senior nowand realizing
how long I've been hereand how many semesters
of like, intramural sportsI've been a part of.
I still thinkeven from the start,
I was very competitive.
I think what I've noticed,recently is kind of
the personalizationand like kind of
the branding of each team.
Now I see a lot of Instagramlike hate pages. Yes, sir.
I see a lot more kind of buy in.
(10:54):
That's my kind ofterritory, right?
Like thethe reels and like the edits.
And I thinkthat's just kind of coming
with the times.
But I think I see a lotmore kind of buy
in from these people's like,friends and family groups
and that kind of stuff.
And so you see a lotmore connection with the campus
of like different organizationsnow have, I think, a lot more
consistent teams.
So you'll see likedifferent clubs have, you know,
(11:15):
they're always goingto have this team
play this and this and this.
And I think that's really cool.
Just because you get tomeet a lot more people
as much as a ref.
You get to there's so many timesI go to class
or like for the first timeor just walking
on the concourse,and I kind of make, like,
make eye contact with someone.
I go, we know each other.
And eventuallyyou grow that relationship
where you can, you know,know each other by name.
(11:36):
And so it kind of makesthe whole experience better.
But yeah, definitely,from the start, it was always
really competitivewhen I first got here,
but I think it'sdefinitely gotten a little more,
you know, brand focused and,and hopefully
we can kind of build on thatand just kind of
make more connectionswith different groups.
Keegan talked earlier about,you know, live streaming,
the Champ games and with like,you know, wiggle
(11:56):
and those things like that.
I think that's somethingthat I want to see kind of grow
a little bit more. Yeah.
Making championship nights,more and more exciting,
including more sports,clubs and things like that.
Like the we talked toabout getting the stats club,
involved. And so,as long as I like,
inflate my basketball stats,I think can
they can be involved, but,things like that.
(12:17):
So like havingthe Plainsmen out,
you know, coveringplayoff games,
like who's going to winhis or who's
who's got a good storyline.
I think y'all,with marketing has done
a really good job of,you know, highlighting to us
this this semester and,and hopefully that
will kind of build.
And that's kind ofwhere I see us going
when when I was a student,we had a group of people.
It was it wasI was in student media.
So I did Weigland I did Eagle Eye.
It was just a studentmedia group though, did it.
(12:38):
And that was it was really cool.
It ingrained me into this groupand really made me stay.
And part of the reasonI do what I do is
because I did the stuff herewhen I was a student.
But like I said,we were not very good.
We knew that it was mostlythe sports staffs of here
that did those.
It did the individuals.
And we knew the sportsreally well.
We were really good.
We knew the strategy.
(12:59):
We knew the concepts.
I knew the routes, man.
We really should stick the TV,I think is what
we should have done.
But in then.
Keegan, I be curiouswhat your respective, you know,
come and seeing whathow it's changed,
how it's grown,where you want to see it.
Especially coming outof like 2020 into now and how
it's really changed a lot.
But you have you told me what?
(13:20):
I can't remember the numberand put you on the spot
and what the number is,but you have an insane
amount of participantsand it's grown every year.
It continues to grow.
I believe last yearwe were something over
7500 unique people participatein intramurals and club sports.
I mean, almost a quarterof the student population.
That's absolutely insane.
So, yeah,obviously we've changed a lot
(13:41):
since I've gotten here.
And Jake talked a lotabout the participant side
of things.
And I wholeheartedly agree.
We want to make it.
We want to make it an event.
We want to make itsomething that they enjoy,
that they want to come to.
For me, the big side has beenthe staff.
I mean, we've gotwhen I first started, I think
the first staff meeting,we had seven people.
Wow.
And I thinkour last staff meeting,
(14:03):
we were at 94,I believe that's a
that's a bit of alittle bit of growth.
A little bit, a little bit.
So and the cool thing for me isthe people in that room,
the students in that room,they may graduate
and never put on a pairof stripes ever again.
But I think the, the thingsthat being an official
(14:23):
really help with, right?
There's no other job on campusthat your fellow students
are yelling and screamingat you 50% of the time.
That's on a good nightor a good night. Yeah.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
So having thathard conversation with your,
your fellow student of hey,I agree this was a tough play,
but this is what I saw.
(14:43):
And it may not be right,but this is what I saw.
Having those students grow.
And we've seen, Jake and I canhighlight student
after student after student,their personal growth rate,
students who are very,keep to themselves
may not be outgoing.
And then a semester with us ora year with us
and they are out in front.
(15:04):
They're leading,they're growing.
So in that those arethe things that I love.
So obviously,I mean, we're in the middle
of of registrationright now for basketball.
I think we're already over140 teams.
That's 15 or 20more than we had last year.
Awesome.
Being in everything schools.
Great, right?
You love seeing differentsports, but, like,
I get to help studentsevery single night kind of
(15:25):
go through that growth.
To become a successful studentonce they graduate.
That's beautiful.
Well, then,with that in mind, Jake,
and put you on the spot.
Now, if you could make kind of,you know,
we want people to participateany way, we can't, right?
What is why would you suggeststudents get involved
in the leadership side,in the organization side,
(15:48):
to be a ref, to bepart of the behind the scenes
that actually puts thismassive endeavor on?
Yeah.
Like Keegan said, I mean,it's such a unique job
that teaches you so muchevery night is different.
Just this was likeeasy stuff off the top,
like it's on campus joband they work with your hours
really, really.
Well, I think that's juststraight up.
(16:09):
There's going to beour best SEL.
But, more than that,when you really get into it,
I mean, you learn so muchabout how to deal with people,
how to talk with people,how to make those connections,
understanding,you know, where other people
are coming from,putting yourself in their shoes.
My mom supports empathy and shealways talks about that.
And you really have to bereally empathetic to say, like,
(16:30):
hey, maybe this guyhad a really rough night,
a rough day, in the classroom.
You know,he really wanted to win
this game, and it's not goingwell for him.
He's like, you know,for seven from three.
And how are yougoing to talk to him and be the,
be the bigger personin that situation
and really kind of connectand say like, hey, I understand
you're frustrated, but like,how are we going to pass that?
Those skills, it doesn't matterwhat you're going to do.
I mean, there's thatthat is really, really helpful.
(16:52):
I'm like Keegan said, I'mprobably not going to ref
much after college, if any.
And, you know,my stuff is I'm going to
hopefully work in politics andand that's really what that is.
People are passionateabout that.
You know, thatthat is a really good point.
I've never had any you know,no arguments in politics
whatsoever.
You know,there's no correlation,
no translatable qualities.
(17:13):
And but like Jake said, weI mean, we've got
we've got peopleof all spectrums and all majors
that are working for us.
And it's really cool because,I mean, if you have an engineer,
you have to take the informationthat's provided with you,
make a decisionand go with it. Absolutely.
And that's what they doin a basketball game
200 times a night.
And being comfortable withmaking those decisions
(17:35):
is, is tough.
And it's a skill to grow.
And something like officiatingthe skills that our students
learn is justis awesome for their growth.
Wonderful.
Well there's anotherslight left turn here.
But another thing I knowyou've been studying up on.
And make sure you got itright here.
It's more than justintramural sports.
And club sportsis other programing
(17:55):
that exists out therethat you can participate in.
If you're.
If playing footballis not your thing.
Yeah. Totally. Fine.
You know, what are some ofthose other activities
that there are that you guysalso kind of kind of help put on
and make sure that studentsget the appropriate return.
Yeah.
The center hasso many different things
that you can do.
And likewe talked about earlier,
everybody has their own wayto to move into, to be active.
(18:17):
I mean, we've got the outdoorprogram,
we've got group fitness.
But I'm notgoing to mess this up.
War Eagle Squadtrying to say that
five times fast.
I will not,workout of the day. Right?
So you come, you work out,you move that.
There's certified instructorsthat can help you.
Whether this is your first timeworking out ever
because it's 20, 26.
(18:38):
We want to get better, right?
Or you are a fitness championwho's been doing it for ten,
15 years.
We have certified groupfitness instructors
in the room with you.
Guiding you through the workoutand helping.
The thing I loveis they plan the workout
and they just tell mewhat to do.
So I don't have to get a planand get a program,
and you write it off.
Exactly. Right.
(18:59):
We have other things.
Union, yoga.
So some stretching,some flexibility.
Be comfortable out there.
Obviously, if you're sittingin a classroom
for 2 or 3 hours or whateverit might be, you can go in and
and get flexibleand kind of get back
and ready to go for here.
Stretching is important.
It is it is.
I've heard that that isthat is the case.
(19:19):
So yeah, groupfitness classes are awesome.
I think there's over80 each week throughout the day.
So there's opportunitiesfor people to participate
in whatever waythey're interested in.
And I think that's really cool.
It's the opportunitiesAuburn students have at the Rec
and Wellness Centerjust keep growing.
We take feedback.
We new machines, new equipment.
(19:41):
If you want to go and pick upthe 125 pound dumbbells,
go for it. I'm good.
I think you're ready for it.
Yeah. You know, I mean, practiceand listen, listen,
my two year old up, but,you know,
she's not quite that way.
Not yet. Not yet.
I've been feeding her,but not that much.
All the protein.
Yeah, but yeah, there's so manydifferent options.
And, the best thing is you canif if you're new to fitness,
(20:04):
if you're new totrying to be active,
we've got personal trainers,we've got wellness
coaches, we've gotany different things
that can help you feelmore comfortable in the gym
because you walk intoa big space of 250,000ft²,
and it can be intimidatingthe first time, I would imagine
that's probablyone of the biggest barriers,
is just starting.
Yeah, for sure.
(20:25):
Having a wellness coachor a personal trainer
or even a groupfitness instructor to lead you
through some things,I think that's the best way
to get started, because you havesomeone who knows
what they're doing,who's going to make sure
you're safe while doing it.
And then onceyou get comfortable,
then you can startbranching out on your own.
There's so many different waysto, to, to work out
or to be active nowadays.
(20:46):
And we've got empty spacesand people go in
and there's dancingand there's there's
all kinds of movementthat people do in our facility.
So it's really great to see,the different options
that they have, you know,and this is a
wonderful opportunityto to brag a little bit
because I know that Recand Wellness
Center is a initiative reasonwhy a lot of people pick Auburn,
because this is anincredible facility.
(21:08):
As well as I'm a bit jealousbecause I didn't have it
when I was a student.
But the newI am facility as well,
yeah, is alsoabsolutely incredible.
We get the turf fields,all the LED lights out,
the it's reallysome incredible investment
can put into it.
And that's that'sone of the things
that I'm glad you brought upbecause the Sportsplex
five turf fields,multipurpose fields,
(21:28):
it's open to students.
If you can get inthe rec center, you can get in
the Sportsplex.
Now we have obviouslyour club sport practices
that kind of reservecertain times because they're
they're competingstate, region nationwide.
But, there's usuallywe try to keep an open field
so people can go playwhatever they want.
There was there was a gentlemanwho was always out there
(21:50):
in the fall who lovedkicking field goals.
Bring it on, man.
He'd go down to the rugby polesor rugby, goals,
and you'd see themjust for hours,
just kicking field goals.
It's what he loved to do.
So, you know, go for it, right.
He's an Auburn student.
He's allowedto get in great form.
Awesome.
So yeah,that facility is awesome.
Love, love being out there.
And our club teams are, like,begging for other clubs to come
(22:12):
and they want to come see itbecause it's
just our maintenance team.
Our facilities are great.
Yeah, well, we're getting uphere on time here,
but I want to getone more question
for you each year.
And this is,for some the easiest question
for some of thehardest questions.
We'll see how it goes,which but it's my favorite.
It's the thingI love to ask people,
which is why you're here,you know, how is it
you got to Auburn?
(22:33):
You know, what's the pathit took you to get here?
What brought you here?
What's keeping you here?
What are some of those things?
Why you pick Auburn?
So, you know,Keegan's been talking a lot,
so we'll give Keegan voicea break for a second. Here.
And how did you end up hereat Auburn?
You know, looking backsenior year, you know, it's
coming to a closementioned in that bring back.
I don't want to putpressure on email
about graduation this morning.
(22:54):
Oh, that's the professor'sschedule.
That's that'sreally like oh man.
It's it's already gone.
It's already closing up.
There was an option to say likereport is spam or anything.
So I guess Iactually have to like go
get a process that,I have a pretty,
pretty, you know,normal Auburn story.
I think, and I don't thinkthat's a bad thing.
I think it's more indicativehow special this place is.
I, I grew up in Montgomery,too, a very through and through
(23:15):
Auburn family.
My dad,his two brothers went here.
My brother was graduating,college as I was graduating
high school, and I didn't lookmany other places, but I was,
I would come up hereon the weekends and,
you know, visit my brother and,one of the one of the coolest,
you know, interestingtie ins, actually, was that,
one of the times he was like,let's go to the I am champ night
and watch basketball.
(23:36):
And the otherweird thing about my family
is that my brother,you know, worked for Keegan,
had the same jobI do as, you know, a referee.
And he got that he got that jobbecause my dad did the same job,
when he was here at Auburnin the 80s. Who?
His older brotheralso had that job.
So for some reason,I have runs in the family.
For some reason,it runs in the family,
which is reallyzebras in this house.
(23:57):
A little strange, but,I always felt at home here.
I always,you know, really enjoyed,
the campus and the people and,kind of what Auburn's
all about the creedand all those different things
and, and and so I've,you know, come here,
got pretty involved with,you know, obviously this job
but other things on campuswith like, you know, student
government and, I was a studentrecruiter for a little bit.
(24:18):
And so justreally enjoy being in.
And so it's been cool to kind ofdo that full circle family thing
and be back herenow as a senior.
But thank youfor bringing up that.
I'm a senior.
I really appreciate it.
I do it to usand I hate to do it too,
but you know,it's just starting.
So, you know, you get the wholesemester to, you know,
live it up and enjoy it.
I loved being hereso much that I came back.
(24:38):
Yeah.
Not as a student, but like,I left Auburn for
has had gone for a couple years.
And then opportunity came backto work here again,
and we had me and my wife both.
We had we had to come backbecause it's it's my
it was my it'sboth our favorite place.
So it justbecause you're done doesn't
mean you have to leave.
You know,that's all I gotta say there.
We talk about graduation,and it's happy and sad for us
(25:00):
because, again,his brother worked for us
and he was oneof the first employees
I met when I got here.
And we want them to graduate.
We want them to grow.
But there's also some of themwe would love.
Just hold onto them for another year
or so and keepworking for us. But, yeah, I
was looking for a newopportunity, a new challenge.
Honestly, thatI saw the Sportsplex
when when I first cameand visited
(25:23):
and the opportunity to offer,club sports, intramural sports
at that facilitywas one of the biggest things
that sold me.
So you talk about the recruitinghard to beat, man.
You talk about thewellness center and how people
come on their visits.
And, I think that that'sone of the unique things
have been to manydifferent institutions
across the nation through ourgoverning body and
the amount of peoplethat come just to walk
(25:44):
through the recreation center.
We have membershipstaff that give tours daily.
Oh, yeah.
And it is a majorstop on the college
tour process.
My, my cousin came down and,and he was between here
and another schoolthat we won't name.
And he saw this facilityand just loved it
and just loved it. So,it's really cool
(26:06):
opportunity to help programand to we've grown I believe
we've added about 18 clubssince I've been here.
And don't quote meon that number.
But we we started outa little smaller
and then we continue adding,continue growing.
So like I said, thethere's there's
only great thingsat the Sportsplex
and trying to be a part ofthe Auburn students and how
we can make them successfulon the field and off the field.
(26:28):
And that was one of the coolthings I love listening
and and hearing.
When I was on my interviewabout the The Creed,
that really hit hard for me.
And believing in that and,wanting to help people.
And I think that's somethingthat was really interesting.
It's been a commonthread on this podcast
in a year and a halfI've been doing it is people
talking about the Creed andand I've worked
(26:48):
for other university,been been elsewhere
and I'd go to anotheruniversity of work
and I look for the Creedlike, well, what's yours, Creed,
what's yours, I think and I theI don't even know what you do
either.
And I'm like,I realize how unique that was.
I didn't realize howunique it was here
because I've grown upmy whole life hearing it
and to live somewhere.
And they don't have that likethis is what we believe.
(27:10):
This is justthis is the Bible that we
this is it right here is veryI was very surprised
that other people don'thave that sort of thing.
And it really resonated morewhen I didn't have it.
And then when I did,it was very strange.
And then, yes, you're right,the rec and wellness,
I have a personal painpoint of people saying,
oh, we're the best,but I'm like, nope.
When you say you're the best,there's only one best.
(27:31):
Not everybody can saythat's the best.
So I don't like saying the bestunless it truly is.
And the rec and wellnessis one of those things
that, like,you can really say it about
because it is an incredible,incredible area and facility.
Well, then last thingI kind of want to talk about is
how do we get involved, right?
So if I want to be involvedas a student worker,
if I want to be installedas a participant,
(27:52):
how do I register?
Where do I go?
What are my next steps?
Yeah, thethe Recreation Wellness
website is going to be youryour one stop shop. Right.
We have a,portion of that website
called RWC connect.
When you log onto RWC connect, you'll see
it's about 12 different options.
It's intramurals, it's clubs,it's outdoors,
it's group fitness.
(28:12):
That'll be where you log in.
You register, whether you wantto create a team,
whether you want tojoin the team,
whether you want to join agroup fitness class,
whether you want to gokayaking or whatever might have
that we offer,that is the place to go. So,
we obviously are here tohelp our membership team
at the front deskat the Wellness Wellness Center.
(28:32):
They can answer anyquestion as well and get you
in touch with the personyou need to be in touch with.
But our RWC connectis definitely the place
where you can get registered.
Has all of ourcontact information
and how to get moving.
And if you know you're lookingto make a team, or if you don't
have enough peopleto make a team,
for like basketball,you know, you need a lot.
But, there's also optionsto register as, like,
(28:53):
a free agent, on I Am leagues,which is a really cool
part of it.
So that, you know, we can,you know, put you on
another team,that needs some people
so we can connect you if you.
And if you don't have a whole,you know, roster of friends
to, you know, do itwith awesome free agency.
Love it. Yeah.
Talk talk about sports world.
Yeah.
Talk of the sports world.
That one.
Oh you know I knowand I am yeah.
(29:14):
No no no no. Yeah.
We're not done yet.
That's next year.
Yeah. Awesome.
Well gentlemen I appreciateyou spend some time with us
and, and chatand, and appreciate all the work
that you both do.
It's hard work,but it's, it's it's very it's
very thankful that we have ithere at Auburn and,
and it's really,it's really awesome stuff.
And then,you know, enjoy your friends
semester mathI don't want to again.
Enjoy it.
Yeah.
(29:34):
I mean, I got to keepbringing that up. Okay.
The last time, I promise.
And, I appreciate it, guys.
And thank you guysfor listening.
We'll be back againnext month with,
more members of the Auburnfamily and talk and have a
great conversation.
And until then,see you around. War Eagle!
War Damn Eagle! War Eagle!
Welcome into everything Auburn.
Welcome back to New Year.
I was told that it'sthe first time you see somebody.
You can still say,Happy New Year.
So happy New Year.
I want to be the last oneto tell you all year.
And we're excitedto start a new year
of everything Auburn.
We're super excitedto have some new guests.
The podcastwhere you get to speak
to members of the Auburn familyevery single month,
and we're starting offwith another fun one today.
I have Keegan Ashbee,the assistant director
(00:27):
of competitive sports.
Got it right.
Yes, sir.
And I have student leaderextraordinaire
and program assistant.
But you're smart.
Student leader extraordinaire iswhat we're campaigning for.
Your new title JakeYohn joining me today.
Welcome to the EverythingAuburn podcast.
Thanks for having us.
We appreciate it.
Well, we're hereto talk everything.
What Rec and Wellness.
We thought January peoplehave New Year's resolutions
(00:48):
and everybody has.
I'm going to run, ride a bike,go out, workout,
play some sport.
So why not get some recand wellness competitive sports.
You don't do noncompetitive sports.
So no friendlycard games correct.
You're just competitive.
Competitions is where we excel.
And yeah awesome.
Well welcome.
And joining us today.
So walk us throughwhat is your life's like.
(01:08):
What do you thatyou do here at Auburn.
With competitive sports.
Let's start over there.
Yeah. SoI help higher train develop,
the students and employeeswho run the programs
in the evening.
Our programs run
from about 5 (01:22):
00 at night
until 11 (01:23):
00 at night.
So we need people thereto make sure they're safe,
to make sure it'sfair competition,
to make sure thatif there's any injuries,
they're thereto take care of them.
So we have about 100student employees.
What would you say?
That people go pretty hard.
And intramural sports,I mean, injuries,
never once intensity.
It happens.
I don't think anyone's evertaken it too far.
(01:44):
No, no. Never out.
They're trying to winthat cheap t shirt.
Trying to win that t shirt.
So yeah,again, sports brings out
something different in people.
Obviously.
And it's it's a passionthat people have had.
They've played for forever.
And they may not have decidedto continue
their athletic endeavorsafter high school
and come to a great schoollike Auburn,
(02:04):
and they can come outand play flag football
or basketball.
And, there's a lot of passionout there for sure.
And one of the coolthings you get to do
is you hire the peopleto actually get to do it.
Yeah.
And as you've told me already,Jake is the one who runs it
here. Yeah.
So what, you said that?
Yep. That's what he said.
That's whyhe said that writing thing.
Yeah, that's why you're here.
So walk me through what you'reas a as a student.
(02:27):
I'm sure you have a veryinteresting perspective,
but also someonewho kind of oversees
these major endeavors.
It's definitelyan interesting job.
Your your reffing,your classmates, your people
that you see on campusall the time.
My job specificallyis program assistant.
So I'm kind of the bridgebetween the adult
full time staff and the studentsthat are just there, you know,
less than 20 hours a week.
(02:47):
So I help run the trainings and,you know,
prepare for all differentkind of stuff that could happen,
out there on the fields,whether it be the,
the Sportsplex, the,the Enfield's, the rec center,
down the street.
And but Istill get to reference,
I get to do kind of the jobthat I started out in as a,
like an assistantand a supervisor.
So that's been really cool.
People still like,I run the people
(03:08):
that I've run for,you know, for years.
And they ask me, like,are you going
to be at basketballthis year? I'm like, yep.
Just like every yearyou so you mentioned it
earlier already is one thingthat we've talked about before,
which I think isone of my favorite things
that I'll do is the playfor the shirt concept. Yeah.
Which is so cool.
So if you could tell usa little bit about that,
because I just, I think that isI never got one.
I think in my entirethree years of participating
(03:30):
in arena sports,I think across 3 or 4 sports
over 3 or 4 years,I think we won one game period.
We were not a good team,but we tried.
We were really good triers.
Yeah, but we didn't win a shirt.
It is.
Yeah.
I think, that isa really cool part of it.
Just because you seepeople on campus with, you know,
depending on the year, like,you know, this style,
we have one for each semester.
(03:50):
So it usually iskind of the same design,
but one's a different color.
So like blue and orangefor like the fall in the spring.
And so when you seesomeone on campus
with that shirt, you can kind offigure out like, oh, what sport
they were playing.
You can kind ofstart a conversation.
And it it is obviously kindof a little bit
of a social kind of creditin class.
I see people wear all the time,at the, at the rec, like if
(04:11):
we're playing pickup basketballand you have a shirt
on, like I'm probably going toadd you to my team.
My first pick.
Yeah, yeah,you're probably gonna
be the first pick, as a ref.
Like I'll get some.
You know,if you're a ref in that game,
you'll get you'll get to, like,grab one.
So I have all the,all the old ones
from, from a while ago.
So I guess it'sa little less cheap
that I have them, but,there's got to be some perks,
you know?
Yeah,you have to have something.
(04:31):
We have to get something.
It's.
I mean, it's a hard jobto to referees.
Absolutely.
You see them going to classon a Monday morning
and then Monday eveningyou're refereeing
or the basketballor flag football and, and, it's
a pretty cool thing to do.
And I mean, 5 or 6 week leagues,depending on the sport,
go into a playoff bracket.
And it's it's it's a lot of fun.
(04:51):
We try to make itexciting for them.
We try to make itinto an event for them.
We try to live streamgames, things like that,
that anything that we can do.
So, yeah.
Got to get Mom and dadto watch my,
watch my highlight reel.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Or just show up a lot.
A lot of parentsand grandparents
I've seen show up. I've.
I know someone that had theirtheir dad and fly out
and think they're, you know,going to visit
for a little bit longer,but you know,
they coming out for the game.
(05:12):
Yeah of course.
Yeah.
He's got after the game.
So we've talked a lotover the last few months
just in looking at somereal stuff and clubs
for stuff and Keeganyou've had some
really interesting, insightas to like a, the
amount of peoplethat participate. Yeah.
And just like the sheernumber of students
that participateas well as some of the,
we'll call them unexpectedbenefits of participation
(05:34):
that, you know, you don't thinkplaying football or basketball
on a Tuesday night can help youin your math class,
but maybe maybe it can.
Yeah, there's a lot ofstudies out there.
If you want to break it downabout how obviously activity
can help you insideand outside the classroom,
I'm really big on that.
Obviously it's January, right?
We got a lot of resolutionsout there, a lot of things,
(05:57):
new year, new me type things.
I really love it.
You take aan hour away from studying,
you go out, you run around,you get some activity.
Not only do you get to hang outwith your friends, you get that
physical activity,and it really kind of helps
kind of reset you.
So when you're done, you can goget hopefully a good dinner,
go back to studying,get ready for your classes,
or test whateveryou may have the next day
(06:17):
or that night.
So there'sdefinitely some studies
that show that, that physicalactivity is huge and it doesn't
have to be run a marathonevery single night.
That's that's good for you.
I'm glad because, again,every person's going to have
their own thing, right?
Some people love to run.
I'm not a runner.
You will not see me just outrunning around campus
just because that and it's notsomething I'll do.
But finding your own placein your own way to to stay fit
(06:40):
and stay active isis really huge.
And one of the,the side effects of
intramural sportsthat we really appreciate.
Oh that's well that's wonderful.
And and you know I doI'm kind of in the
I usually willrun if I'm being chased.
But yeah, getting out anddoing some touching grass.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a it's a great time.
But so, you know,we have intramural sports.
So another thing that you'realso heavily involved
(07:02):
in is club sports,which is a whole nother
just territory of what you'rekind of
encompasses in your world.
Yeah.
What's the clubsport element to rec
and wellness, to the universityand to the life
of the university students?
So the way we like tobreak it down is,
if you think about it,I believe Auburn
varsity sports is about18, 17, 18 sports.
(07:23):
Just under 2018.
So yeah.
So there's 18 sportsthat obviously
they're playing foran SEC championship,
a national championship.
And we've had plenty ofthose here at Auburn. Right.
They are practicing going toclass every single day, hours
upon hours, scholarships,those types of things. Right.
The next level would beour club sport athletes.
Our club sportathletes were high level
(07:44):
athletes at high schoolthat love whatever sport
they may enjoy.
We've got 44 different clubs.
So your lacrosse is your soccer.
Volleyball, pickleball.
I mean, there'sso many different sports
that we offer.
And they were high levelathletes at high school
that want to continuethat, may have had opportunities
to play at Division twoor Division three
(08:05):
or even Division one,but they decide, you know what?
Auburn is a place for me.
So we have the opportunityto continue playing
and they practice two,three, four days a week.
Depending on the club.
They still travel regionally,they still travel nationally.
They complete competefor national championships
in their governing body.
We've had a handfulof national championships
(08:27):
in the last few years.
We've had, individualnational championships
like swimming and divingtype things.
We've had our rugby team won,I believe it was about 4
or 4 and a half years ago.
They won thenational championship.
We've had bass fishing's onenational championship.
We'vewe've got a lot of different
national champions.
And it may not be the SEC,but it's the governing body
for that sport.
(08:47):
And they can competeat a high level.
And then you haveour intramural sports
where like we talked aboutsome of them,
they really want to winthat t shirt.
They're out there practicingthree nights a week.
They're out in the fields,whatever it might be.
But a lot of themshow up 25 minutes
before their game.
You do a little bit of stretchand do a little jog
and hopefully, hopefully,hopefully do something. Yeah.
(09:08):
And then they,they play for the 45 minutes
to an hour that the game takesand they're done for the week.
And there's a placefor everybody.
And obviously with club sportsthere's, there's 44 of them.
We've gotsome amazing facilities that
on the weekends,I mean, we've got thousands
of people coming to watchour different games,
especially at that,the brand new,
gorgeous facility overthere, one of the, the I was not
(09:31):
a club sport guy,but I had three roommates
in college here who were there,all three of them.
It was so interestingbecause they all
were on the rowing team.
Yeah.
And I knew all three of themin high school as well.
And they weren't rowers.
And then they joinedthe rowing club team.
It was their family.
And I really lovedat like 4 a.m.
when they got upand I heard their car start
(09:52):
and they were getting upand I was like, I'm
going back to sleep.
Yeah,because I'm not doing that.
And they went into it.
And then they wereit was at one point
they were president, vicepresident and secretary.
And it wasthey loved it as their whole.
It became a personalitytrait of theirs.
And it changed like their lifebecause they did this club sport
and it was so cool to watchand especially cool
not be getting up at 4 a.m.
for me personally.
(10:13):
But, well,I would also be curious from
both your perspectives, youyou think you have
an interestingperspective on how,
intramural sports, club sports,how it's grown,
how it's changed over your timebeing involved with it,
you know, hopes and aspirationsof where it will go
and what you've kind of seenand what you've put into it
to make it grow.
Yeah, I think from, frommy perspective, it's, it's it's
(10:33):
weird being a senior nowand realizing
how long I've been hereand how many semesters
of like, intramural sportsI've been a part of.
I still thinkeven from the start,
I was very competitive.
I think what I've noticed,recently is kind of
the personalizationand like kind of
the branding of each team.
Now I see a lot of Instagramlike hate pages. Yes, sir.
I see a lot more kind of buy in.
(10:54):
That's my kind ofterritory, right?
Like thethe reels and like the edits.
And I thinkthat's just kind of coming
with the times.
But I think I see a lotmore kind of buy
in from these people's like,friends and family groups
and that kind of stuff.
And so you see a lotmore connection with the campus
of like different organizationsnow have, I think, a lot more
consistent teams.
So you'll see likedifferent clubs have, you know,
(11:15):
they're always goingto have this team
play this and this and this.
And I think that's really cool.
Just because you get tomeet a lot more people
as much as a ref.
You get to there's so many timesI go to class
or like for the first timeor just walking
on the concourse,and I kind of make, like,
make eye contact with someone.
I go, we know each other.
And eventuallyyou grow that relationship
where you can, you know,know each other by name.
(11:36):
And so it kind of makesthe whole experience better.
But yeah, definitely,from the start, it was always
really competitivewhen I first got here,
but I think it'sdefinitely gotten a little more,
you know, brand focused and,and hopefully
we can kind of build on thatand just kind of
make more connectionswith different groups.
Keegan talked earlier about,you know, live streaming,
the Champ games and with like,you know, wiggle
(11:56):
and those things like that.
I think that's somethingthat I want to see kind of grow
a little bit more. Yeah.
Making championship nights,more and more exciting,
including more sports,clubs and things like that.
Like the we talked toabout getting the stats club,
involved. And so,as long as I like,
inflate my basketball stats,I think can
they can be involved, but,things like that.
(12:17):
So like havingthe Plainsmen out,
you know, coveringplayoff games,
like who's going to winhis or who's
who's got a good storyline.
I think y'all,with marketing has done
a really good job of,you know, highlighting to us
this this semester and,and hopefully that
will kind of build.
And that's kind ofwhere I see us going
when when I was a student,we had a group of people.
It was it wasI was in student media.
So I did Weigland I did Eagle Eye.
It was just a studentmedia group though, did it.
(12:38):
And that was it was really cool.
It ingrained me into this groupand really made me stay.
And part of the reasonI do what I do is
because I did the stuff herewhen I was a student.
But like I said,we were not very good.
We knew that it was mostlythe sports staffs of here
that did those.
It did the individuals.
And we knew the sportsreally well.
We were really good.
We knew the strategy.
(12:59):
We knew the concepts.
I knew the routes, man.
We really should stick the TV,I think is what
we should have done.
But in then.
Keegan, I be curiouswhat your respective, you know,
come and seeing whathow it's changed,
how it's grown,where you want to see it.
Especially coming outof like 2020 into now and how
it's really changed a lot.
But you have you told me what?
(13:20):
I can't remember the numberand put you on the spot
and what the number is,but you have an insane
amount of participantsand it's grown every year.
It continues to grow.
I believe last yearwe were something over
7500 unique people participatein intramurals and club sports.
I mean, almost a quarterof the student population.
That's absolutely insane.
So, yeah,obviously we've changed a lot
(13:41):
since I've gotten here.
And Jake talked a lotabout the participant side
of things.
And I wholeheartedly agree.
We want to make it.
We want to make it an event.
We want to make itsomething that they enjoy,
that they want to come to.
For me, the big side has beenthe staff.
I mean, we've gotwhen I first started, I think
the first staff meeting,we had seven people.
Wow.
And I thinkour last staff meeting,
(14:03):
we were at 94,I believe that's a
that's a bit of alittle bit of growth.
A little bit, a little bit.
So and the cool thing for me isthe people in that room,
the students in that room,they may graduate
and never put on a pairof stripes ever again.
But I think the, the thingsthat being an official
(14:23):
really help with, right?
There's no other job on campusthat your fellow students
are yelling and screamingat you 50% of the time.
That's on a good nightor a good night. Yeah.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
So having thathard conversation with your,
your fellow student of hey,I agree this was a tough play,
but this is what I saw.
(14:43):
And it may not be right,but this is what I saw.
Having those students grow.
And we've seen, Jake and I canhighlight student
after student after student,their personal growth rate,
students who are very,keep to themselves
may not be outgoing.
And then a semester with us ora year with us
and they are out in front.
(15:04):
They're leading,they're growing.
So in that those arethe things that I love.
So obviously,I mean, we're in the middle
of of registrationright now for basketball.
I think we're already over140 teams.
That's 15 or 20more than we had last year.
Awesome.
Being in everything schools.
Great, right?
You love seeing differentsports, but, like,
I get to help studentsevery single night kind of
(15:25):
go through that growth.
To become a successful studentonce they graduate.
That's beautiful.
Well, then,with that in mind, Jake,
and put you on the spot.
Now, if you could make kind of,you know,
we want people to participateany way, we can't, right?
What is why would you suggeststudents get involved
in the leadership side,in the organization side,
(15:48):
to be a ref, to bepart of the behind the scenes
that actually puts thismassive endeavor on?
Yeah.
Like Keegan said, I mean,it's such a unique job
that teaches you so muchevery night is different.
Just this was likeeasy stuff off the top,
like it's on campus joband they work with your hours
really, really.
Well, I think that's juststraight up.
(16:09):
There's going to beour best SEL.
But, more than that,when you really get into it,
I mean, you learn so muchabout how to deal with people,
how to talk with people,how to make those connections,
understanding,you know, where other people
are coming from,putting yourself in their shoes.
My mom supports empathy and shealways talks about that.
And you really have to bereally empathetic to say, like,
(16:30):
hey, maybe this guyhad a really rough night,
a rough day, in the classroom.
You know,he really wanted to win
this game, and it's not goingwell for him.
He's like, you know,for seven from three.
And how are yougoing to talk to him and be the,
be the bigger personin that situation
and really kind of connectand say like, hey, I understand
you're frustrated, but like,how are we going to pass that?
Those skills, it doesn't matterwhat you're going to do.
I mean, there's thatthat is really, really helpful.
(16:52):
I'm like Keegan said, I'mprobably not going to ref
much after college, if any.
And, you know,my stuff is I'm going to
hopefully work in politics andand that's really what that is.
People are passionateabout that.
You know, thatthat is a really good point.
I've never had any you know,no arguments in politics
whatsoever.
You know,there's no correlation,
no translatable qualities.
(17:13):
And but like Jake said, weI mean, we've got
we've got peopleof all spectrums and all majors
that are working for us.
And it's really cool because,I mean, if you have an engineer,
you have to take the informationthat's provided with you,
make a decisionand go with it. Absolutely.
And that's what they doin a basketball game
200 times a night.
And being comfortable withmaking those decisions
(17:35):
is, is tough.
And it's a skill to grow.
And something like officiatingthe skills that our students
learn is justis awesome for their growth.
Wonderful.
Well there's anotherslight left turn here.
But another thing I knowyou've been studying up on.
And make sure you got itright here.
It's more than justintramural sports.
And club sportsis other programing
(17:55):
that exists out therethat you can participate in.
If you're.
If playing footballis not your thing.
Yeah. Totally. Fine.
You know, what are some ofthose other activities
that there are that you guysalso kind of kind of help put on
and make sure that studentsget the appropriate return.
Yeah.
The center hasso many different things
that you can do.
And likewe talked about earlier,
everybody has their own wayto to move into, to be active.
(18:17):
I mean, we've got the outdoorprogram,
we've got group fitness.
But I'm notgoing to mess this up.
War Eagle Squadtrying to say that
five times fast.
I will not,workout of the day. Right?
So you come, you work out,you move that.
There's certified instructorsthat can help you.
Whether this is your first timeworking out ever
because it's 20, 26.
(18:38):
We want to get better, right?
Or you are a fitness championwho's been doing it for ten,
15 years.
We have certified groupfitness instructors
in the room with you.
Guiding you through the workoutand helping.
The thing I loveis they plan the workout
and they just tell mewhat to do.
So I don't have to get a planand get a program,
and you write it off.
Exactly. Right.
(18:59):
We have other things.
Union, yoga.
So some stretching,some flexibility.
Be comfortable out there.
Obviously, if you're sittingin a classroom
for 2 or 3 hours or whateverit might be, you can go in and
and get flexibleand kind of get back
and ready to go for here.
Stretching is important.
It is it is.
I've heard that that isthat is the case.
(19:19):
So yeah, groupfitness classes are awesome.
I think there's over80 each week throughout the day.
So there's opportunitiesfor people to participate
in whatever waythey're interested in.
And I think that's really cool.
It's the opportunitiesAuburn students have at the Rec
and Wellness Centerjust keep growing.
We take feedback.
We new machines, new equipment.
(19:41):
If you want to go and pick upthe 125 pound dumbbells,
go for it. I'm good.
I think you're ready for it.
Yeah. You know, I mean, practiceand listen, listen,
my two year old up, but,you know,
she's not quite that way.
Not yet. Not yet.
I've been feeding her,but not that much.
All the protein.
Yeah, but yeah, there's so manydifferent options.
And, the best thing is you canif if you're new to fitness,
(20:04):
if you're new totrying to be active,
we've got personal trainers,we've got wellness
coaches, we've gotany different things
that can help you feelmore comfortable in the gym
because you walk intoa big space of 250,000ft²,
and it can be intimidatingthe first time, I would imagine
that's probablyone of the biggest barriers,
is just starting.
Yeah, for sure.
(20:25):
Having a wellness coachor a personal trainer
or even a groupfitness instructor to lead you
through some things,I think that's the best way
to get started, because you havesomeone who knows
what they're doing,who's going to make sure
you're safe while doing it.
And then onceyou get comfortable,
then you can startbranching out on your own.
There's so many different waysto, to, to work out
or to be active nowadays.
(20:46):
And we've got empty spacesand people go in
and there's dancingand there's there's
all kinds of movementthat people do in our facility.
So it's really great to see,the different options
that they have, you know,and this is a
wonderful opportunityto to brag a little bit
because I know that Recand Wellness
Center is a initiative reasonwhy a lot of people pick Auburn,
because this is anincredible facility.
(21:08):
As well as I'm a bit jealousbecause I didn't have it
when I was a student.
But the newI am facility as well,
yeah, is alsoabsolutely incredible.
We get the turf fields,all the LED lights out,
the it's reallysome incredible investment
can put into it.
And that's that'sone of the things
that I'm glad you brought upbecause the Sportsplex
five turf fields,multipurpose fields,
(21:28):
it's open to students.
If you can get inthe rec center, you can get in
the Sportsplex.
Now we have obviouslyour club sport practices
that kind of reservecertain times because they're
they're competingstate, region nationwide.
But, there's usuallywe try to keep an open field
so people can go playwhatever they want.
There was there was a gentlemanwho was always out there
(21:50):
in the fall who lovedkicking field goals.
Bring it on, man.
He'd go down to the rugby polesor rugby, goals,
and you'd see themjust for hours,
just kicking field goals.
It's what he loved to do.
So, you know, go for it, right.
He's an Auburn student.
He's allowedto get in great form.
Awesome.
So yeah,that facility is awesome.
Love, love being out there.
And our club teams are, like,begging for other clubs to come
(22:12):
and they want to come see itbecause it's
just our maintenance team.
Our facilities are great.
Yeah, well, we're getting uphere on time here,
but I want to getone more question
for you each year.
And this is,for some the easiest question
for some of thehardest questions.
We'll see how it goes,which but it's my favorite.
It's the thingI love to ask people,
which is why you're here,you know, how is it
you got to Auburn?
(22:33):
You know, what's the pathit took you to get here?
What brought you here?
What's keeping you here?
What are some of those things?
Why you pick Auburn?
So, you know,Keegan's been talking a lot,
so we'll give Keegan voicea break for a second. Here.
And how did you end up hereat Auburn?
You know, looking backsenior year, you know, it's
coming to a closementioned in that bring back.
I don't want to putpressure on email
about graduation this morning.
(22:54):
Oh, that's the professor'sschedule.
That's that'sreally like oh man.
It's it's already gone.
It's already closing up.
There was an option to say likereport is spam or anything.
So I guess Iactually have to like go
get a process that,I have a pretty,
pretty, you know,normal Auburn story.
I think, and I don't thinkthat's a bad thing.
I think it's more indicativehow special this place is.
I, I grew up in Montgomery,too, a very through and through
(23:15):
Auburn family.
My dad,his two brothers went here.
My brother was graduating,college as I was graduating
high school, and I didn't lookmany other places, but I was,
I would come up hereon the weekends and,
you know, visit my brother and,one of the one of the coolest,
you know, interestingtie ins, actually, was that,
one of the times he was like,let's go to the I am champ night
and watch basketball.
(23:36):
And the otherweird thing about my family
is that my brother,you know, worked for Keegan,
had the same jobI do as, you know, a referee.
And he got that he got that jobbecause my dad did the same job,
when he was here at Auburnin the 80s. Who?
His older brotheralso had that job.
So for some reason,I have runs in the family.
For some reason,it runs in the family,
which is reallyzebras in this house.
(23:57):
A little strange, but,I always felt at home here.
I always,you know, really enjoyed,
the campus and the people and,kind of what Auburn's
all about the creedand all those different things
and, and and so I've,you know, come here,
got pretty involved with,you know, obviously this job
but other things on campuswith like, you know, student
government and, I was a studentrecruiter for a little bit.
(24:18):
And so justreally enjoy being in.
And so it's been cool to kind ofdo that full circle family thing
and be back herenow as a senior.
But thank youfor bringing up that.
I'm a senior.
I really appreciate it.
I do it to usand I hate to do it too,
but you know,it's just starting.
So, you know, you get the wholesemester to, you know,
live it up and enjoy it.
I loved being hereso much that I came back.
(24:38):
Yeah.
Not as a student, but like,I left Auburn for
has had gone for a couple years.
And then opportunity came backto work here again,
and we had me and my wife both.
We had we had to come backbecause it's it's my
it was my it'sboth our favorite place.
So it justbecause you're done doesn't
mean you have to leave.
You know,that's all I gotta say there.
We talk about graduation,and it's happy and sad for us
(25:00):
because, again,his brother worked for us
and he was oneof the first employees
I met when I got here.
And we want them to graduate.
We want them to grow.
But there's also some of themwe would love.
Just hold onto them for another year
or so and keepworking for us. But, yeah, I
was looking for a newopportunity, a new challenge.
Honestly, thatI saw the Sportsplex
when when I first cameand visited
(25:23):
and the opportunity to offer,club sports, intramural sports
at that facilitywas one of the biggest things
that sold me.
So you talk about the recruitinghard to beat, man.
You talk about thewellness center and how people
come on their visits.
And, I think that that'sone of the unique things
have been to manydifferent institutions
across the nation through ourgoverning body and
the amount of peoplethat come just to walk
(25:44):
through the recreation center.
We have membershipstaff that give tours daily.
Oh, yeah.
And it is a majorstop on the college
tour process.
My, my cousin came down and,and he was between here
and another schoolthat we won't name.
And he saw this facilityand just loved it
and just loved it. So,it's really cool
(26:06):
opportunity to help programand to we've grown I believe
we've added about 18 clubssince I've been here.
And don't quote meon that number.
But we we started outa little smaller
and then we continue adding,continue growing.
So like I said, thethere's there's
only great thingsat the Sportsplex
and trying to be a part ofthe Auburn students and how
we can make them successfulon the field and off the field.
(26:28):
And that was one of the coolthings I love listening
and and hearing.
When I was on my interviewabout the The Creed,
that really hit hard for me.
And believing in that and,wanting to help people.
And I think that's somethingthat was really interesting.
It's been a commonthread on this podcast
in a year and a halfI've been doing it is people
talking about the Creed andand I've worked
(26:48):
for other university,been been elsewhere
and I'd go to anotheruniversity of work
and I look for the Creedlike, well, what's yours, Creed,
what's yours, I think and I theI don't even know what you do
either.
And I'm like,I realize how unique that was.
I didn't realize howunique it was here
because I've grown upmy whole life hearing it
and to live somewhere.
And they don't have that likethis is what we believe.
(27:10):
This is justthis is the Bible that we
this is it right here is veryI was very surprised
that other people don'thave that sort of thing.
And it really resonated morewhen I didn't have it.
And then when I did,it was very strange.
And then, yes, you're right,the rec and wellness,
I have a personal painpoint of people saying,
oh, we're the best,but I'm like, nope.
When you say you're the best,there's only one best.
(27:31):
Not everybody can saythat's the best.
So I don't like saying the bestunless it truly is.
And the rec and wellnessis one of those things
that, like,you can really say it about
because it is an incredible,incredible area and facility.
Well, then last thingI kind of want to talk about is
how do we get involved, right?
So if I want to be involvedas a student worker,
if I want to be installedas a participant,
(27:52):
how do I register?
Where do I go?
What are my next steps?
Yeah, thethe Recreation Wellness
website is going to be youryour one stop shop. Right.
We have a,portion of that website
called RWC connect.
When you log onto RWC connect, you'll see
it's about 12 different options.
It's intramurals, it's clubs,it's outdoors,
it's group fitness.
(28:12):
That'll be where you log in.
You register, whether you wantto create a team,
whether you want tojoin the team,
whether you want to join agroup fitness class,
whether you want to gokayaking or whatever might have
that we offer,that is the place to go. So,
we obviously are here tohelp our membership team
at the front deskat the Wellness Wellness Center.
(28:32):
They can answer anyquestion as well and get you
in touch with the personyou need to be in touch with.
But our RWC connectis definitely the place
where you can get registered.
Has all of ourcontact information
and how to get moving.
And if you know you're lookingto make a team, or if you don't
have enough peopleto make a team,
for like basketball,you know, you need a lot.
But, there's also optionsto register as, like,
(28:53):
a free agent, on I Am leagues,which is a really cool
part of it.
So that, you know, we can,you know, put you on
another team,that needs some people
so we can connect you if you.
And if you don't have a whole,you know, roster of friends
to, you know, do itwith awesome free agency.
Love it. Yeah.
Talk talk about sports world.
Yeah.
Talk of the sports world.
That one.
Oh you know I knowand I am yeah.
(29:14):
No no no no. Yeah.
We're not done yet.
That's next year.
Yeah. Awesome.
Well gentlemen I appreciateyou spend some time with us
and, and chatand, and appreciate all the work
that you both do.
It's hard work,but it's, it's it's very it's
very thankful that we have ithere at Auburn and,
and it's really,it's really awesome stuff.
And then,you know, enjoy your friends
semester mathI don't want to again.
Enjoy it.
Yeah.
(29:34):
I mean, I got to keepbringing that up. Okay.
The last time, I promise.
And, I appreciate it, guys.
And thank you guysfor listening.
We'll be back againnext month with,
more members of the Auburnfamily and talk and have a
great conversation.
And until then,see you around. War Eagle!
War Damn Eagle! War Eagle!
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