Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I've gotten quite an education in the last day
(00:02):
or two on squash, and I'm not talking about vegetable
preparation either. We have the Louisville Colts, that's Louisville's pros
squash team. They've got a match coming up Thursday night,
six till eight pm. One of the Colts is here
and one of the Atlanta Tornadoes, the opponent is also here.
(00:23):
Ben Smith, good to have you in a studio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You were from around Leeds, England?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yes, correct, beautiful place, right right place, best place in
the world.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You're back. So you're on our Louisville Colts roster. Yes,
what does that mean? You come here a few times
a year and play?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, three times a year.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'll be over, but sometimes it's in a way match
so it won't be based in Louisville. That Yeah, it's
good to be drafted from this season.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, so there's a whole draft that goes with this league.
What's the league called.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The NSL, The National Squash League.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Very nice and also in the studio with us as
a young man from France. Baptis's good to see you.
I almost say your last name right, Yeah, am I close?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
What's the name of your town in.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
France, Laochelle, So this is the best city in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sorry, but.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
The food's better at yours.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I mean, yeah, no questions, come on.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's how that goes. So squash is obviously there's a
lot of international appeal that goes with this. And so
this National Squash League, you mean it's an American thing,
this this particular league, but these leagues are everywhere, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, So you'd have like the nsl's the American version.
Then you'll have like the French League, Dutch League, German League,
so you have them sort of.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
All over the world as well.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Ryan a Reef is also with us from the studio.
How are you good? You're a collegiate student here in
Louisville and you play on what level?
Speaker 5 (01:50):
I play at the US junior level, So I kind
of compete at tournaments in like different states around the country.
So I have like a national ranking of like eighty
one in the country.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And then yeah, excellent, And are you hoping to Are
you just graduating now from collegia?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Yeah, I'm just graduating now. I'm gonna go to Dennison
in Ohio to play.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Very nice. So you play college and then hope to
get into a league like these guys are doing.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That'd be great.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, that would be awesome, awesome. How intense is this game, Ben?
I mean, this is serious business. Is like fast moving
and this will take your breath away, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Absolutely, it's a fast paced. But it's also good because
it means anyone can play. It's open to all levels,
so it lets everyone get involved. But yeah, it's a
brutal game all around for sure. Uses all components of
the body and the mind, which is a great, great
thing to use.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
You guys were telling me about these You guys were
practicing already twice today.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, it's it's two trainings a day basically. I usually
have one gym session as well, three times a week.
So it's pretty demanding.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, yeah, you gotta You have to work on all
your aerobic stuff too. Your lungs and your legs have
to be pumping your heart obviously, everything's got to be
running hard. Because do you substitute for each for a player?
How does it work when you're on the floor.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
During gnsl Yes, So I think Ben is going to
be the So this is my first time. Okay, playing GSL,
but Ben played it, so he might be better at
answering that question.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, so you just out.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
You have three periods and each period is whoever wins
the most point wins it. But you have two subs
per period, so you can the coaches and managers can
decide to sub in and out whenever they want.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So yeah, so if you're worn out, I'm.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Tired, then they can just sub me off and bring
the next person in. So then carry on.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So is there a coach, some screaming loud mouth with
a whistle, I'm doing it right.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, there's like a team.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Every team as a coach, so they'll talk about like
tactics before the match and how they want it to
work out and sort of base it around their strategy
and then go from there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
But this is there's creativity involved in this too. There's
you can't coach everything. It's a matter of you reacting right.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah, you're right, yeah exactly. And and this thing is
with the NFL, it's the only type of a league
that the scoring change, like the scoring they have and
the time and everything, the thing that you can sub everyone,
it's the it's the only you only see this here basically,
(04:19):
like I play French League and it's no way near
as good as here.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
You know. Oh, I like hearing man, I'm actually surprised
to hear that.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Ye like that.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
How did you pick up this game as a kid?
I mean did you learn learn it at high school? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Through my dad? Because in England it used to be
a huge thing. It's still known, but it in friends.
It's like you, most of the players knew the game
through parents or it's school sometimes. But my dad used
to play. Is still playing at the moment.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, we were in England and France actually on the
same trip. The World Cup is going on at that time,
and we know what what really dominates world sports attention
and you're countries. I mean people were transfixed. You could
just walk down a sidewalk and I thought that people
were statues because they were steering at a at a
monitor because that was going on. So how does squash
(05:11):
fit into the spectrum of importance? Is it in there?
Is it up? Is it behind? Obviously we know World
Cup or soccer just football in general.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, in England it used to be quite high up there,
but it's died down in the past few years.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
But it's slowly getting up there.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
But obviously in England a lot of places you play
are sort of open to the community, whereas like in
America it's a very private, private club base. But Louisville
Center where we're playing, the Community Center, is the first
one in the country where it's you can walk in
and it's paid to play. You don't have to be
a member. Oh nice, So it's great. So you can
just walk in any level, any standard and get involved
(05:50):
and see what you think of the sport.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So Ryan, you're playing for a collegiate or do the
other high schools have squash teams or are they picking
it up now?
Speaker 5 (05:57):
There's some like KCD CNX manual. Obviously, collegiate's kind of
like the up and going one that's like the most prominent,
and like the other ones are just kind of kids
like playing for fun, which is great because it's getting
more people involved. So like the Community Center, it's nice.
It's not like a country club obviously, like Ben was saying,
you don't have to pay and be specific member. You
can kind of just go with your friends and have
a good time, which why I think it's really cool
(06:19):
too to get more people engaged because that's also bringing
like the National Squash League up higher. It's also letting
like people in America kind of know what squash is
more because we get a lot of people coming from
outside of the country, but like now we're kind of
getting more US players, like getting the higher level. So
it's kind of cool to see like what we my
coach Lie Scott has built like a community kind of
like and we open the Community Squash Center for anyone
(06:41):
to come and play.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So it's kind of cool. Yeah, So when the draft
comes up, how do people know about you guys? I
know you're you're ranked, You're ranked in the eighties or whatever,
you're ranked A hundreds and whatever it is? Is that
what it is that you guys are all around the
globe and whoever the team managers or owners are say
I'm gonna take you without even knowing, or do they
interview you in advance.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
There's a bit of both.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So I know our coach league, so I used to
coach me back in England as a kid, so I
have that personal connection there. But sometimes it's just they'll
pick who they want, Like if they see someone play
on squash TV and they're like, oh, yeah, he looks exciting.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
We want him in our team. That's it.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
If they get the chance, they're drafting him in. So
they get they get a list of all the players
that are in it, and then they can just choose
from there and it can be based on a personal
connection or just purely on what they've seen on skill.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But also, isn't chemistry involved in this too, Baptiste. I
mean you have to be like in sync with the
other players on your squad, right.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, exactly. The team Tim spirit is very important and
this is why Cell. Yeah, the coach of Antlinta took
me because she thought I could be like a good,
good player for the team, like Tim Spirit. So yeah,
and I know her. She's from friends actually, so this
is how I connected with her. So yeah, thank you
Sadio again for choosing me.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
All Right, We're gonna have to wrap up here in
a second. I'm glad you guys are here. And I
think this is interesting. I've learned a lot about it
in the last few days. The Louisville Colts take on
the Atlanta Tornadoes six o'clock on Thursday. Brian, tell me
again where the location is for the facility.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
The Barker Brown Athletics Center on your champions Trace Lane.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's Newburgh Road, Bachelor Man Lane right around that area. Okay, good.
What about America for you, Baptist? What what does it
you have to have that you get when you're here
that you don't get at home, because France has everything
in terms of food, Like is there something that you think, Oh,
I'm here, I want to try this? Have you done
(08:38):
that while you're here?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
What am I loving here? I mean Saint Louis, I
like the fight spirit with Mohammed Ali, so I think.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Oh yeah, oh the fighting there. But like, is there
a food or a drink or something else from here? Yes? Oh,
I can't lie. Don't lie because that's what we like.
My wife and I love. We go to France and
it's just like we eat these meals and look at
each other and go wow.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
So I'm sorry America.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
No no problem. I like the honesty. Yeah, what about you, Ben?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Chipotle chick Fili is class chick.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
I think Baptist is lying a little bit because he
was just like he got an extra sandwich at Chick
fil A earlier today, So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I'm noting that.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
He doesn't want somebody back home to hear about that.
That's what that is. You ate chick fil ay? What
it's wrong with my son? My Gusson.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Is great.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Oh that's hilarious, except I know you guys laugh at
the portion sizes in America. It's like what me and
four other people.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Drinks.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Everything is gigantic, ridiculous. Well, welcome to Louisville's good to
have you guys here, and thanks for being on our
Louisville Colt squad man. That's all.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Are you gonna be able to handle these Atlanta tornadoes?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, we'll get We'll get them done, go through to
the playoffs. That's the abum.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That's the only other thing we didn't talk about. Do
you guys talk smack when when these matches are going on.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, there's always a little bit of trash talk, and
you can't you can't not try to get in the heads,
get the edge.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I like it. What's the website for this league?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's live on YouTube on the live stream at National
Squash League six pm on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Great to see all you guys. Thanks for visiting, really
appreciate it. Has a great time, all right, Ryan and
Ben and Baptiste. All right back in a minute. You're
on news radio. Wait forty w a chance