August 3, 2024 • 7 mins
Heather Tarr, Washington Huskies Softball Head Coach, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the program and entire school moving to the Big Ten, what it means for the travel situations, recruiting the entire country, and the Pac-12 successes.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
No our nouns up coverage joke. Seahawks training camp continues
from the Virginia Mason Athletics Center, brought to you by
Northwest Handling Systems and the twenty twenty four Boeing Classic
Gaugu's fifth through the eleventh. Now Beck to Saftian did
Gun Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, Dick, you know what today is? What is today?
Dave day?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
One of the Big Tenay for you, Dub and for
Heather Tar they are now officially members of the Big
Ten Conference.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My god, how about this?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
The head coach of your Husky softball team joins us
right now to talk about being members of the Big
fricking ten.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Coach, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I'm doing good, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh God, I can't process all this. I just can't.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I mean, for somebody like you that grew up here
in this area, Purple and Gold, the Hallway, West Coast
Pac ten PAC twelve, give me your thoughts on just
the brain buster, the brain scrambler that all this has
been for you and now in the Big Ten officially today.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, I think for the last what hasn't been like
the last year months? Yeah, Okay, I got it right.
Last twelve months, I've been somewhat in denial because until
it really happens, you're like, okay, well, I think just
seeing the big ten logos on our backstop the other day,
I was like, all right, this is no joke. It's real.
So it is a little bit different, I think geographically,
(01:27):
so to speak, like that's the biggest thing for me personally,
But I think it's just because what we're used to,
Like we're used to aligning ourselves up and down a
west coast without a time zone change. So it's like
that's what's abnormal to me. It's going to work itself
out and it's going to be awesome. But the interim,
like you said, all of us from around here were
probably a little bit mind blown.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, the last time we had you on a couple
months ago, I mean there was obviously some frustrations. You
were raw at that time, and we had a good
conversation with you. Have some of those frustrations been lessened
compared to when you were on the last time with us.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I mean, I think anybody that's competitive gets over things
pretty quickly, you know, Like you can get upset, you
can have your feelings about it, but then you're just like,
all right, recover. So I feel like at this point
we're just in all right, let's go mode. I'm excited
for the football season. I'm excited for the fall sports
at Washington to kind of pilot this whole process. But
(02:23):
now it's like kind of exciting. I mean, you look
forward to a lot of the opportunities that we get
to see in our football schedule. Specifically, So on my
birthday October fifth, you dub host Michigan and football.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
That's pretty cool. That'd be a good present for you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That'd be a good twenty eighth birthday present for Heather
Tars looking forward to that.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
But coach, yeah, I'm not gonna admit how old I
am on that day.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Listen, Yeah, all of us are with you, all right,
We're all with you on that, but Heather tars with us.
And you know, a lot has been made about to travel, right,
no question. I mean that's been the biggest thing that
people have talked about. What about the non revenue sports,
the Olympic sports. These these poor kids are gonna have
to go across the country and then go you know,
to another town and another town and be on the
road for a week and a half whatever. The cole
(03:07):
Van Dyke was with us from the soccer team about
an hour ago, and they really just have the two
road trips I think to the Midwest and the East Coast,
and then they're done.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I haven't even seen a schedule for you guys yet.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Have you seen any kind of a mock schedule or
have any idea what kind of travel commitment you're going
to have to make?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Well, I probably echo coach Nicole Van Dyke. I mean
ours is pretty much the same. You're going to have
the four road trips. One of them is going to UCLA,
that's normal, and then the other three is Illinois and
Michigan State, Penn State. So you can kind of stomach that.
We'll figure out how to get there, how to get back.
As you know, our program travels like we live in
(03:45):
a place where the weather's not as favorable as it
is maybe in Arizona, let's say in the spring, but
we're kind of used to it. So I'm kind of
interested to see how we parley this next adventure.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
How much will you pick the brain of your colleagues,
your other coaches at you, because like you mentioned, I
mean that they're going to go through this before you
do in the spring. So how much will you sit
down with them and say, Okay, this worked, this didn't work.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I think we're lucky. We have quite a few
coaches that I guess are going to bring some experience
to us, whether that be in their own ways. Our
actual director of operations, she spent a lot of time
in upbringing at Purdue. So there's a lot of people
that we reference. You know, you hear you hear the
(04:32):
stories about trying to get the Happy Valley, let's say,
or certain things. But I think it's just like anything,
you got to learn it and you got to figure
it out and then create your advantages around it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, here there's oars with us, and I'm just thinking
to myself, I don't think you or the softball team
historically needs to worry about your recruiting footprint because you've
been to Australia, for God's sakes, for players right right right?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Well, and you, yeah, it brings us to the East Coast,
like people know about us beyond the way. It's actually helpful.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, that's I was going to say.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So now you feel like you've always had that international presence,
but now there might be a little bit of a
bigger footprint a footprint domestically, Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, I think it's a bigger footprint. I mean, I
think being in the East Coast time zone is an advantage.
Of course, the weather you can kind of point to
it like a you know, you got that piece for
softball in a spring sport. But I think just generally speaking,
we can get into Illinois, we can get into the Midwest,
which we've done a good job of. And shoot, we
have a player this fall that comes from New York
and her like mindset, she's a transfer from Florida State
(05:36):
was like, my parents can actually easily come watch me.
So there you go.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Right. You know, the PAC twelve has just been so
dominant in your sport for a long long time. So
give us an idea of what the Big ten's going
to bring as far as competition.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, it's a little bit weird. I mean, the PAC
twelve has been a little bit of a niche conference
with regards to softball. It's been the I guess the
queen of softball for you know, this the time that
softball has been in the NCAA. But now you know,
you kind of are starting to see like the super
conferences really almost monopolyzed the different schools. So you've got
(06:11):
Oklahoma and Texas going to the SEC, which brings them
better teams, and then US Oregon and UCLA getting into
the Big Ten, which brings them you know, more clout
in the Big Ten. So it'll be interesting to see
how both conferences kind of play off each other in
a good way. But certainly PAC twelve softball has been
known forever as been the conference of champions, not only
(06:32):
in you know, softball, but in every sport.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah, Heather, I don't know how much of you seven
thirty seven is. Dick was asking off the air if
we should just buy a plane for all the non
revenue sports, if you guys just fly around the country.
But I mean, is there a chance that you guys
one day will be flying charter and not have to
fly commercial.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, I think the opportunity exists, of course, you know,
until the revenue share gets to its full capacity. We
are sensitive to the university and what they have to
do all things consider, but I feel like we're pretty
pretty well supported. If those things are needed, then certainly
they're gonna the school is going to support what we need,
so that feels good for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I just found a U seven thirty seven for five
point five million, by the way, so.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
That right.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Make sure, make sure it's tight. You know, the door's
got to stay on.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Oh, shot, softy laid rim shot. They're gonna make me
find my rim shot and sleep on the job.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I didn't think i'd have to use it for the
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
There it is, Heather, great stuff, Welcome to the Big
ten and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
All right, okay, sounds good.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
All right, Heather tar with US and Olympics update from
Paris right now.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Courtesy at Westwood One
No our nouns up coverage joke. Seahawks training camp continues
from the Virginia Mason Athletics Center, brought to you by
Northwest Handling Systems and the twenty twenty four Boeing Classic
Gaugu's fifth through the eleventh. Now Beck to Saftian did
Gun Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, Dick, you know what today is? What is today?
Dave day?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
One of the Big Tenay for you, Dub and for
Heather Tar they are now officially members of the Big
Ten Conference.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My god, how about this?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
The head coach of your Husky softball team joins us
right now to talk about being members of the Big
fricking ten.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Coach, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I'm doing good, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh God, I can't process all this. I just can't.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I mean, for somebody like you that grew up here
in this area, Purple and Gold, the Hallway, West Coast
Pac ten PAC twelve, give me your thoughts on just
the brain buster, the brain scrambler that all this has
been for you and now in the Big Ten officially today.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, I think for the last what hasn't been like
the last year months? Yeah, Okay, I got it right.
Last twelve months, I've been somewhat in denial because until
it really happens, you're like, okay, well, I think just
seeing the big ten logos on our backstop the other day,
I was like, all right, this is no joke. It's real.
So it is a little bit different, I think geographically,
(01:27):
so to speak, like that's the biggest thing for me personally,
But I think it's just because what we're used to,
Like we're used to aligning ourselves up and down a
west coast without a time zone change. So it's like
that's what's abnormal to me. It's going to work itself
out and it's going to be awesome. But the interim,
like you said, all of us from around here were
probably a little bit mind blown.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, the last time we had you on a couple
months ago, I mean there was obviously some frustrations. You
were raw at that time, and we had a good
conversation with you. Have some of those frustrations been lessened
compared to when you were on the last time with us.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I mean, I think anybody that's competitive gets over things
pretty quickly, you know, Like you can get upset, you
can have your feelings about it, but then you're just like,
all right, recover. So I feel like at this point
we're just in all right, let's go mode. I'm excited
for the football season. I'm excited for the fall sports
at Washington to kind of pilot this whole process. But
(02:23):
now it's like kind of exciting. I mean, you look
forward to a lot of the opportunities that we get
to see in our football schedule. Specifically, So on my
birthday October fifth, you dub host Michigan and football.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
That's pretty cool. That'd be a good present for you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That'd be a good twenty eighth birthday present for Heather
Tars looking forward to that.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
But coach, yeah, I'm not gonna admit how old I
am on that day.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Listen, Yeah, all of us are with you, all right,
We're all with you on that, but Heather tars with us.
And you know, a lot has been made about to travel, right,
no question. I mean that's been the biggest thing that
people have talked about. What about the non revenue sports,
the Olympic sports. These these poor kids are gonna have
to go across the country and then go you know,
to another town and another town and be on the
road for a week and a half whatever. The cole
(03:07):
Van Dyke was with us from the soccer team about
an hour ago, and they really just have the two
road trips I think to the Midwest and the East Coast,
and then they're done.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I haven't even seen a schedule for you guys yet.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Have you seen any kind of a mock schedule or
have any idea what kind of travel commitment you're going
to have to make?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Well, I probably echo coach Nicole Van Dyke. I mean
ours is pretty much the same. You're going to have
the four road trips. One of them is going to UCLA,
that's normal, and then the other three is Illinois and
Michigan State, Penn State. So you can kind of stomach that.
We'll figure out how to get there, how to get back.
As you know, our program travels like we live in
(03:45):
a place where the weather's not as favorable as it
is maybe in Arizona, let's say in the spring, but
we're kind of used to it. So I'm kind of
interested to see how we parley this next adventure.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
How much will you pick the brain of your colleagues,
your other coaches at you, because like you mentioned, I
mean that they're going to go through this before you
do in the spring. So how much will you sit
down with them and say, Okay, this worked, this didn't work.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I think we're lucky. We have quite a few
coaches that I guess are going to bring some experience
to us, whether that be in their own ways. Our
actual director of operations, she spent a lot of time
in upbringing at Purdue. So there's a lot of people
that we reference. You know, you hear you hear the
(04:32):
stories about trying to get the Happy Valley, let's say,
or certain things. But I think it's just like anything,
you got to learn it and you got to figure
it out and then create your advantages around it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, here there's oars with us, and I'm just thinking
to myself, I don't think you or the softball team
historically needs to worry about your recruiting footprint because you've
been to Australia, for God's sakes, for players right right right?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Well, and you, yeah, it brings us to the East Coast,
like people know about us beyond the way. It's actually helpful.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, that's I was going to say.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So now you feel like you've always had that international presence,
but now there might be a little bit of a
bigger footprint a footprint domestically, Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, I think it's a bigger footprint. I mean, I
think being in the East Coast time zone is an advantage.
Of course, the weather you can kind of point to
it like a you know, you got that piece for
softball in a spring sport. But I think just generally speaking,
we can get into Illinois, we can get into the Midwest,
which we've done a good job of. And shoot, we
have a player this fall that comes from New York
and her like mindset, she's a transfer from Florida State
(05:36):
was like, my parents can actually easily come watch me.
So there you go.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Right. You know, the PAC twelve has just been so
dominant in your sport for a long long time. So
give us an idea of what the Big ten's going
to bring as far as competition.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, it's a little bit weird. I mean, the PAC
twelve has been a little bit of a niche conference
with regards to softball. It's been the I guess the
queen of softball for you know, this the time that
softball has been in the NCAA. But now you know,
you kind of are starting to see like the super
conferences really almost monopolyzed the different schools. So you've got
(06:11):
Oklahoma and Texas going to the SEC, which brings them
better teams, and then US Oregon and UCLA getting into
the Big Ten, which brings them you know, more clout
in the Big Ten. So it'll be interesting to see
how both conferences kind of play off each other in
a good way. But certainly PAC twelve softball has been
known forever as been the conference of champions, not only
(06:32):
in you know, softball, but in every sport.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah, Heather, I don't know how much of you seven
thirty seven is. Dick was asking off the air if
we should just buy a plane for all the non
revenue sports, if you guys just fly around the country.
But I mean, is there a chance that you guys
one day will be flying charter and not have to
fly commercial.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, I think the opportunity exists, of course, you know,
until the revenue share gets to its full capacity. We
are sensitive to the university and what they have to
do all things consider, but I feel like we're pretty
pretty well supported. If those things are needed, then certainly
they're gonna the school is going to support what we need,
so that feels good for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I just found a U seven thirty seven for five
point five million, by the way, so.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
That right.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Make sure, make sure it's tight. You know, the door's
got to stay on.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Oh, shot, softy laid rim shot. They're gonna make me
find my rim shot and sleep on the job.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I didn't think i'd have to use it for the
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
There it is, Heather, great stuff, Welcome to the Big
ten and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
All right, okay, sounds good.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
All right, Heather tar with US and Olympics update from
Paris right now.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Courtesy at Westwood One
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