Bill Chaves Pod_EP 172

In this week’s episode, Bill and Alex discuss changes in leadership at UND for hockey and women’s basketball and how difficult the job of head coach has become in the modern NCAA landscape (1:46). The guys then look back over what’s been an historic stretch for Fighting Hawks softball, track and field, tennis, and golf (27:48) before flipping to the B-Side (44:43), where the Red Sox are fun AND good – but VAR remains problematic.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Spring is here, and the place to keep
up with everything happening around the U and D sports
scene in the spring is mid Coast Sports Plus. Watch
live U and D softball and tennis and track and
field and much more, all by signing up at Midcoast
sportsplus dot com today. This is how we do spring,
and this is the Built Shapes Podcast. Welcome to another

(00:24):
edition of the Bill Shapes Podcast. We're taping this on
a Monday morning, the seventh of April. Alex Sinner Bill Shaves.
No special guests this week because we've got a lots
of unpack. It's been a busy three weeks since our
last podcast. Before we get into the details, Bill Howard,
things in your world right now on a Monday morning.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, things are great, Alex. Always good to see you. Yeah,
busy weekend that we had a lot of home events
and uh, you know, I thought the weather held off
just enough for us. And you know, we like we
like the fields, like temperature. That's the latest kind of

(01:04):
verbiage you have to use around softball.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
We will dig deep into that because there was again
fantastic start to life at all Brick Field after the
home opener got canceled or postponed, i should say, till
later in April because of some weather. Things just got
warm enough for the ladies to take the field and
had tremendous results, awesome atmosphere. We will talk about that.
A lot of other successful things happening around und spring sports,

(01:27):
with track and field having some incredible record setting performances
out in California, and men's and women's tennis just continuing
to roll as they get set to take on the
league in the Assemi League Championships Assemble league title on
the line coming up this next week in Grand Forks
for the men, so we'll chat about that. Golf got
a championship as well, a lot of good stuff to discuss.
We will start though, with the reason why we have

(01:48):
been delayed a little longer than usual from our previous pod,
which was back in the middle of March. Some leadership
changes going on around un D athletics. Bill, let's talk
about what's been going on in your world in that
regard with hockey and with women's basketball as well.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, for those of you that might just be listening
to their first time on the pod, so to speak.
We try to do this twice a month or every
two weeks. I mean, that's that's kind of our cadence.
But when things do happen, you know, departmentally, we sometimes
have to push things over. And yeah, you know, last
week we had a couple of leadership changes in the

(02:22):
sports of hockey and women's basketball. And you know, the
one thing I've learned over the last week or so, Alex,
is that I think sometimes folks from I'll call it
the outside will will conflate all of our head coaching
situations as if they're one. And what I've tried to

(02:45):
at least try and explain to folks whether they whether
they can kind of you know, either agree with it
or understand it from the chair that I sit. We've
got thirteen, you know, head coaches that you know, they
all have different different things going on in their particular sport.
And today we're recording on April seventh, literally the House

(03:10):
Settlement is having a hearing today. I would say a
lot of changes have occurred over the last three or
four years in intercollegiate athletics, leading to the fact that
today we really don't have rules of engagement. I mean,
that's just the truth. I mean, we we're going to
get there. I believe that. I firmly believe that. But

(03:33):
I think it's been incredibly difficult, especially on certain coaches,
to try to navigate this terrain. And so I look
at all of these situations individually, and you know, if
if you want to kind of lump them all together,
you can do that. But I look at each of
our programs on a separate in a separate way, and

(03:56):
then I look at our head coaches in a separate,
individual way.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So with that in mind, following the frozen face off,
you had a meeting with Brad Berry and you made
a decision so part ways with Brad as he was
getting set to enter the final year of his contract.
You've been with the program, you know, for twenty three
years total, ten years as the head coach. And now
you addressed this, of course at the press conference this
past week, But just talk about that decision making why
I think this was the right time to make a change.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, and you know, Alex, I'm going to be sensitive
to i'll say, a personnel situation, and at the end
of the day, I think many people would want me
to say, in some ways everything that I know that's
not fair, and what's not fair is ever discussing someone's

(04:44):
personnel situation in some way, shape or form. I don't
think anyone would enjoy that in any walk of life
or any discipline that you're in. And so I think
as we had conversations about what's happening moving forward, and
again Front Windshield felt like this was the right time
to move in a different direction. You know, as I

(05:05):
said in the release, you know, we thank coach Barry
for his decade long service obviously to the University of
North Dakota as head coach and then obviously in obviously
more years beyond that as an assistant coach and as
a player as well. So so you know, I've stayed
kind of in that box because I'm not sure it's fair.

(05:29):
I'll be honest with you to really go, you know,
much deeper than that, and you know, folks might say, well,
Bill's pumping on that or he's not being as transparent.
I feel like some things are better left in some
ways unsaid. And then ultimately, you know, congratulating what was

(05:50):
and then looking ahead to the future.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
And that future was determined quickly you had to kind
of move fast on this, you know. Again, that first
decision was made on the twenty third, and then Dan
Jackson will and saw as a new head coach on Saturday,
March the twenty ninth. Talk about the expediency of that process,
why it was so important to get a new head
coach in place quickly.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
I think it's part of that division one landscape that
we talked about, you know, back you know, just Steven,
let's call it five years ago. I'm not sure we
were contending with you know, transfer, portal dates, a lot
of other things that might affect a sport, and so
we had to be really conscious to that in both

(06:31):
of the situations that we're in. And that was the
other thing. You know, we were fortunate to be able
to move very quickly on coach Hutter on the women's
basketball side because we had gone through a search just
previously that landed him on coach Bernhard's staff, and so
at the end of the day, we moved and you know,
we we we handled that a little bit differently again

(06:52):
because of the situation we're in in college athletics right now.
I think across the board, Alex, you've seen even in
our fellow to code to schools that they have moved
awfully quick as well in certain instances and many you know,
much of the reason is because of where we are
from a roster construction standpoint.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
The longer you don't have a coach, especially this time
of year, that will put you behinds. For you, as
you look at these changes now with a new head
coach for men's hockey, a new head coach for women's basketball,
what are the things that you do as an ad
to kind of help those two coaches now in new
roles have success well.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
And obviously let's add in the fact that we have
a new women's soccer coach and new football coach and so,
and I think there's been, rightly or wrongly a conflation
of going down a path thinking all sports are created
one way, and I'm not sure that's necessarily the case.

(07:55):
And so I think tremendous support from our staff is
need it in all of those areas. And I'm really
really lucky to have just an incredible senior leadership here.
And you know, whether you're talking the financial or human
resource side, Chad Kartheuser does a great job. If you're
talking internal, whether it's you know, you know, scholarship, housing,

(08:18):
grant and aids, nil those types of things. Liz Jarnigan
does a great job, I would say, very broadly across
the board. Eric Martinsen, as we know as the Deputy
ad and chief operating officer, is incredibly supportive, and Nicole
Latowsky as well. And you know, the one thing that
we've been able to provide and I think it's been

(08:40):
incredible benefit and it's already serving. I thought what would
transpire is the addition of Bubba Schweigert onto our senior
staff as well. He can provide support from a head
coach standpoint with how should I say not having head
coaches worried about some of the conversations they're having because

(09:02):
head coaching positions can be incredibly lonely because it's hard
to bounce things off of people, and to have someone
that has been in that chair for a number of
years is incredibly important. So I think, you know, our
senior staff has had to really you know, dig in
and really help as we're moving forward during a frontier

(09:23):
that is new for everyone, ever changing, and it will
continue to change. So that's why the plan that you
have today you have to be malleable to be able
to figure out, Hey, that plan may be good for today.
Tomorrow we might need a new plan.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
The Great Ones sudjusts Bill. That's what they say.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
The po the POD's been on it from the beginning,
hasn't it. This is true. This is very true. So
the pod has some tenants, that's one of them.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
That is one of them. Yes, that is one of them.
And that is very true. Again in this landscape, and
as you said, things will probably change potentially before people
from the time of recording to when people will listen
to this, which is not a long gap. Usually this
will be up later today. It's another creature changes already.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
It's crazy. And so we're recording, as Alex said, on
a Monday morning at eleven o'clock, and there is that
house settlement hearing today. I don't necessarily expect anything earth
shattering happening today. That's at least what I'm reading. As
far as the tea leaves are concerned. I think the
settlement might happen after this hearing at some point in time, whenever.

(10:33):
That might be tomorrow. There's another congressional hearing regarding intercollegiate
athletics and so there's just a lot of plate spinning
when it comes to college athletics right now. And so
back to being a coach and having to in some
ways re recruit your roster on an annual basis, recruit

(10:56):
your roster on an annual basis, and then just know
that that's always the case until maybe there's a level
of stability in that In that world, it's a challenge
to be a coach right now.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, hundred percent. You mentioned, by the way, when stability
might come. Not to step away from this coach conversation.
We'll get back to this in a second. Do you
foresee it time in the near future where things will
settle down that we won't have again. I know we're
we're this is forecasting, so we don't have any strong
information on this. But in your in your mind, in
four or five years from now, do you think we

(11:32):
might not have necessarily everyone having to do this every year,
have new rosters, have everyone who is an all conference player,
leave this constant flux. Do you think we're gonna potentially
get away from that or is this just in your
mind probably gonna be the landscape we're going to be
in for a while.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, I don't think so, because I don't. I think
we will get to a different place because if it
continues on this way, for I'll call it several more,
I think it's unsustainable. I just think how we're operating
right now, and again, for many, this is more behind

(12:09):
the curtain type stuff. You know, college athletics in some
ways has never been more popular. And you could also argue,
as we always like to talk on the B side
about say English Premier Soccer or the NBA, the off
season sometimes is more popular than the season itself, and
so maybe the transaction game, because that's what it's become

(12:31):
very transactional, and it used to be very transformational. And
I'm not suggesting that it's not transformational for some, but
I think the transaction game in some ways it needs
to level out. And you know, wherever we are right now,
I just don't see it being sustainable moving forward as

(12:54):
as as constituted today. So we've got to figure that out.
And I think we're going to need congressional help because
you need all fifty states actually abiding by a level
of rules, if you will, that are the same. And
I thought Greg Sank, the Commissioner of the SEC, said

(13:17):
it pretty well over the weekend. Is that eventually this thing,
meaning the final four, I'm not sure everyone's going to
show up if there's different rules for different different states.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
When you say sustainability, by the way, do you mean
just the sense of it's not sustainable that we have
such a different playing field for the institutions that are
trying to play the same game. Do you mean more
from like a financial sustainability area where we're kind of
funneling money in different ways, or do you just mean
from like an interest standpoint that people are going to

(13:49):
get tired of having to figure out who's on whose
team every single year.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
In Yeah, I don't know how many industries actually work
without some sort of framework of rules. I mean, I'm
trying to think about it. I mean, I think the
communications area, I think has the FCC, the aviation has
the FAA. I think there's many many world's financial world.

(14:16):
There's compliance rules that you have to adhere to. There's
many things you have to do right now today today, today,
we have no rules in college athletics because they're not
being policed and they're not being monitored. You could say
we have the rules, but if they're not literally being
policed or monitored. We have no rules, and so what's

(14:36):
happened is we've had waivers occur over the course of time.
And as one of my colleagues said, when you have
a waiver, that means you don't have rules. So that's
what I'm thinking. From a stability standpoint. I think at
some point this all comes crashing down in some way

(14:57):
because there's no agreed upon p segures or rules. And
right now, we've got members in our association that if
something goes against us, we sue. We sue ourselves, and
so that's okay if you've been aggrieved, I mean, I
get it, But literally, if you've broken one of the
rules that you've agreed to, it seems weird to me

(15:18):
that you're then suing because you don't like the rule
that you agree to. That's where we're at right now.
That is where we're at.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
I appreciate you going into depth on that, because I
think there is just there are so many levels to this.
It could be taken a lot of different ways of
determining what's wrong and what needs to be fixed, and
that's I think that's probably a good place to start.
Is just that base level of what are the rules
of engaging.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, and so Alex, let's talk about something that folks
tend to say, and I'm going to push back in
a mighty way. Well, it's it's just like pro sports. No,
it's not. No, it's not. College athletics is nothing like
pro sports. I mean, I would say it's the absolute

(16:02):
opposite in some ways, because pro sports has one sport
they're dealing with. That's number one. We're dealing with a
multitude of sports. The other thing is they have a
collective bargaining agreement, they have players Association, they do have
rules of agreement. You know, I'm a Steeler fan. If
you've gone to the B side to some degree, I

(16:23):
don't think the Steelers today could have Patrick Mahomes on
their roster unless the Kansas City Chiefs acquiesced.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
I think that's accurate.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yes, that is not what we have right now in
college athletics. And so, how do you then get a
CBA amongst certain sports? How do you do it in
the umbrella format? It's tricky. You know, a lot of
smart people, lots of them are inside the beltway, so
to speak. Now, maybe people will say no, not so much,

(16:57):
given what's transpired. Sure you can have that opinion, but
I think when folks jump into this fray, they figure
out pretty quickly it's like, whack them mole, Why don't
you just do this? Boom boom. Two more things show
up on the other side, unintended consequences. So it makes
it really hard to quote unquote fix or evolve what

(17:18):
college athletics is. Now. My last talking point is it
is important for our Olympic movement to make sure we
get this right. Like that's why Congress needs to get
involved with this thing, because at the end of the day,
you know, we've done this thing in college athletics for
one hundred and fifty years. We're bush going through a moment.

(17:39):
It'll on the timeline, it'll just be a moment, but
there's no question we're going through a little bit of
a timeline time frame that has been challenging, to say
the least. Then you bring it all the way back
to coaching, been really really hard to kind of maneuver
through that. And you've seen some people making decisions, many

(17:59):
of them on their own, to say, you know what,
maybe I'm good right now. A lot of my colleagues, Alex,
they've taken, they've they've moved on, they've gotten out of
the industry for a variety of reasons. But those are
all personal decisions.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
From a listening standpoint, Thanks for allowing us to go
macro for a little bit, because it is I think
all the micro decisions that have been made over the
last ten days really around und athletics or for the
last however long, a lot of that is a small
microcosm of what is really happening at the NCAA level
at large. So those two things are really closely connected.

(18:36):
So again, thanks for allowing us to sort of zoom
out for a little bit before we zoom back into
what's happening in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Just to finish
the thought on hockey. So Dane Jackson again, who's now
going to be in his twentieth season as a coach
in this program, will be leading the charge. What do
you see in Dane what makes him the right man
to lead this program now moving forward in the year
of Our Lord twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, so first and four, most I'm gonna say Dane
earned earned the right to uh to be the head
coach at the University of North Dakota, the seventeen head coach.
We went through, as you said, an expedited process, but
a process nonetheless. And I think I was looking for
a solid plan during these times, these uncertainty, uncertain times.

(19:21):
You know, what's your thought process? How are we going
to handle a lot of uh, you know, one uncertainty,
how are we going to handle you know what's ahead
of us? You know from the nil standpoint, you know,
how do you handle a lot of different pieces to this.
I think that he articulated a vision and he I thought,
did a really really good job at the press conference

(19:43):
suggesting what his vision is. And I think, you know,
it's back in him in his mind maybe I don't know,
reidentifying what undy ice hockey is and uh and then
the actual players you want in that locker room. So
I I think he did a tremendous job in that regard.
And you know, in some ways, Alex, I would say this,

(20:05):
if you are on the inside, in some ways you
have an advantage and in some ways you might have
a disadvantage. So I think you actually have to work
through that. But I thought he did a nice job
again articulating a vision for him and then still bringing
the connectivity to our lums, and then of course the

(20:26):
energy and the passion as well.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
It feels like a great blend of that old school
North Dakota mindset of we're going to be hard and
tough and physical and difficult to play against, while also
embracing this new era of hey, we're going to hire
a general manager as one of our assistant coaches to
help with the world that we're in and identifying players
that now are available to us from the CHL that
never were before, but also keeping track of what's happening

(20:51):
within the USHL and the NAHL and around the greater
college hockey landscape, because as you mentioned, everybody becomes a
free agent basically every off season. So it was I
think a higher than a lot of people who are
close to the program. I think celebrated and you couldn't
ask for a better guy. Again, just it's another check

(21:12):
on the box of great man leading this program all
down the line for over the last however many years
of just good people being in that chair to try
and develop these young men not just as players, but
as men. Excited to see what he will do with
this group of guys moving forward.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, we know that und is a blue blood program.
And you know, I've suggested if if I guess, if
you'll indulge me for a second, I think there's probably
maybe six blue blood programs. I would say maybe BUBC, Michigan, Minnesota,

(21:46):
US in Denver, and I think the one thing that's
different about us, we're one of one. I lived in Boston.
You can be a bit anonymous at BUBC, you can
be you know, Denver obviously a little bit different. But
at the end of the day, it's a four sport
pro town. Five if you include the MLS and then

(22:09):
again Minnesota and Michigan, you know, big ten schools. And
I would say number one on the hip parade is
probably football on their campus. Probably you could argue probably
basketball after that. I don't know. I mean, I've never
been on their campuses. But North Dakota is one of
one in that regard. And so I think, you know,

(22:30):
folks understanding the history, the tradition, what transpires and grand Forks,
I think is incredibly important.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
It's a special thing, special and unique, and that's the
program now that Dan Jackson will lead moving forward women's basketball.
You could say a lot of the similar things about again,
the great tradition inheritageis program being a national championship team.
Mallory Bernhard now steps down after five seasons as the
head coach in charge of for Alma Mater. Dennis Hutter
steps in. We talked a bit about how Dennis came

(22:58):
to the program in the first what made him the
right candidate to join this program last year as associate
head coach, and why you feel comfortable with him now
stepping into the role of head coach moving forward.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, a couple of things, you know, And again, Coach
Bernhard can certainly speak for herself, you know. I mean,
I don't have to put necessarily words in her mouth,
but you know, I think her strong endorsement of coach Hutter,
having been with him for the last year, spoke volumes.

(23:30):
And obviously we've played against coach Hutter teams as well,
and so so we know what he's about. Especially being
local in the nd US system. That's another thing that's
probably really inside baseball, but it's true. And so it
has been an end US employee for the last you
know whatever, close to twenty years, and so I just

(23:52):
think it made a whole lot of sense at this
point in time. And I was should I say, how
about surprised and not surprised when a coach makes a
decision to step away, and you know you need to
support the individual personal decision, but then quickly you have
to figure out what's in the best interest of the

(24:14):
program moving forward. So we're excited. At one o'clock on Wednesday,
we will be introducing Dennis Hutter in the Betty Lobby.
So we're excited about that. We had to kind of
work through the last week or so. What ended up
happening again, just the reason why we have a pod.
Why would you know this? He was handed the baton

(24:36):
and then heading into the final four is a dead period.
For those of you that are unaware of what a
dead period is is you basically can't recruit during that
period of time. So for him at that point in time,
he needed every day leading up to that dead period.
And then that's why we waited to this week to

(24:58):
formally introduce him. So again, lots of inside baseball, Alex,
but that's actually what ends up happening. That's why it is.
Each sport is its own and they are all under
their own cadence, and we have to be thoughtful and
respectful to what's going on at that point for each
of those sports.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
There's just a lot happening. I think that's again a
good reminder a why the pod exists for conversations like this,
but then yes for the fan at home to think about, Yeah,
there's a reason why there's an order of this or
why things happen when they do. So, So Dennis Hutter
now in charge, could you give us just a little
taste of what type of person he is, what type
of basketball style he's going to bring to the table.
What do you see in this group moving forward?

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, I've heard nothing but amazing things about Dennis. He's
going to coach you. He's going to coach you pretty hard,
and all under the auspices of making you better and
again making you better as a player. And again, I
think everyone has thumbnail sketch of a player that they want,

(26:03):
and I think, you know, he kind of has that
thought process. You know, he really had to dig and
dig and dig at a school like Mayville, and he
just had really an amazing run at the end. And
obviously we saw it right, we saw it in the
Betty and so I think he will having the last

(26:25):
nine months here Alex is incredibly beneficial. I can't describe
to you how beneficial it has been that he has
been through the track almost one revolution. Because you're coming
just from an Naia school, even though it's in the system,

(26:45):
even though it's only what twenty miles away, it might
as well in some ways have a canyon where you're
trying to close the gap a little bit. Now he's
been to every Summit League school. He understands kind of
the i'll call it the level on a on a
night in and night out basis, and really can hit
the ground running, which he has, and so I think

(27:09):
there was a lot of positives to it, and so
that's why we went in that direction. But yeah, he's
gonna he's gonna, I think, want to get out and
run a little bit. I think you you know, his
teams have had hallmarks of being really good shooters, and
so I think that's what we have to look forward to.
You know. Now, obviously we had a number of players
hit the portal, which is you know, their prerogative. So

(27:32):
you know he's got some work to do to fill
some roster spots.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, that work begins now, like you said, now that
the final four is over, so now you can begin
that process or continue it. So best elected Dennison as
he assembles a staff and then begins to put this
roster together for the new season. So we're going to
talk a bit now about what happens around spring sports
and set it's own for what's going to be a
really exciting conclusion to the spring sports season for a
number of our programs. I think beginning on the softball field,

(27:59):
all field was officially opens with regular season competition this
past weekends. The plan initially was to get a game
in earlier in the week in non conference game. The
weather didn't allow that to happen. So thankfully you talk
about Jordan Stevens paying attention to the fields like temperature,
it had to be at least twenty eight degrees that's
the SEMMA League rule to hit the threshold to be
able to play the field was fine because again it's

(28:21):
going to withstands. North Dakota winters a lot better. The
temperature was able to rise far enough for Kansas City
to make the trip and for the games to be played,
and what games they were talk a little bit about
the weekend that was it all Brickfield for North Dakota
Softball Bill.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, so you know the reason why Wednesday would have
been awesome for us to play and again, mother Nature
you know, won that battle for sure, but undefeated, undefeated, undefeated.
But I I would say there's a lot of pieces,
internal pieces and operational pieces that were still working through.

(28:55):
Would have been great to be able to kind of
run through a couple of those things that we found out,
you know, this weekend. Fine, I mean some things that
were just you know, we were able to Midco was
awesome to be able to do both games on Saturday
and then Sunday we were doing you know, our own
kind of broadcast on mid Co Plus in the Summer

(29:15):
League Network. But at the end of the day, there's
just some again internal components that unless you do it, Alex,
there's no substitute for doing it. And that's why Wednesday
would have been great. But we live and we learned.
So we apologize for anybody that unfortunately had technical difficulties

(29:35):
at the beginning of the game on Sunday, but we
we got it kind of sorted out midway through the game,
and I think we're in good shape moving forward. When
we're are mid Co linear folks, are not doing the games,
so neither here nor there. Yeah, I thought it was good.
You know, Kansas City came in, and I don't think
there's much of a difference, Alex, as far as I

(29:57):
can tell, from top to bottom in the summit leaks
OFFTA and I you know, and so today Kansas City's
you know, going through a little bit of a rough patch. See,
that's one of those those series. You got to try
to get two out of three, and we're fortunate enough
to get all three. And so but you know, as
we now move forward in the league, I think every

(30:19):
weekend literally literally, I think you could go three and oh,
two and one, one and two or zero and three.
Those are all the combinations.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Those are the combinations.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
I mean, that's it. I mean, I've just enlightened our
audience that that's what could happen.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Well, as you said, you and you did sake all
three against the Kansas City team. They improved a five
and four now in the summer, after taking one game
on the road at Omaha that South Dakota in the
previous two weeks, they're still twenty and eighteen on the season,
still above five hundred. The games this weekend were incredibly entertaining,
like just down to the wire, like great plays at
the plate and in the fields. Some great pitching as

(30:56):
well from North Dakota. It was some I mean some
highlight like Sports Center Top ten stuff going on with infield.
There's bare handing balls and firing and double plays and
plays at the plate. So I know that that experience
to watch this team play live at all brick Field
is night and day to what it was at Apollo.
All due respect to Apollo, but again, this is just
a different This is a different big time feel now

(31:19):
and this team is really good. I just again, a
lot of home games are on the way starting this week. Again,
there's a home game mid week against Jamestown. North Dakota,
will be on the road at North Dakota State this weekend,
but then right back at home against Saint Thomas right
before Easter. So a lot of opportunity to see this
team play in this awesome facility. It's right on campus.
I would just strongly encourage people to come out and
enjoy this because it is special this first year for sure.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, no doubt about it. I thought, you know, I
thought what was really special over the weekend as well,
as Jackie Albrick taking the hill on the on the
first game, and you know, it's been it's been a
it's been a tough year for Jackie. You know, she's
had some just just a tough year at this point
in time. And I think she be the first one
to admit it. But you know, she's had you know,

(32:04):
some really good games over the course of her career.
So it was kind of an aberration, no different than
when Raphael Devers started the year. However, he started well,
you know, you end up usually finding your equilibrium, and
I think hopefully this is a start for Jackie to
have a great run in for the rest of the year.
But to pitch a one hitter an opening day of

(32:26):
I would say, the official opening day where a game
actually accounts historically. You know, you're going to look back
and who was the first you know, winning pitcher at
All Brickfield, It will be Jackie Albert.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Yeah, that's really special for her, for her family. Yeah,
just an awesome, awesome moment for the softball program in general.
So I'm running upward for the Fighting Hawks on the
softball side again, a lot more games to go before
the semi league championships. In May, but again, really good
start for them in their summer league season. Really good
season discontinues for track and field. Jim Farrenkamp's group continues

(32:59):
to school records and are now in the top twenty nationally.
In a couple of different events. The team split up
a little bit, as they normally do in the outdoor season,
but everybody was more or less. In California. This past weekends,
we saw Ethan Thomas set a new school record by
five feet bill in the shot put out at the
Triton Invite. Five feets.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
I mean, that's ridiculous. I know that happened. I mean,
you know, other than the fact that he is literally
right before our very eyes, he's just growing literally right
from a student athlete standpoint, and just an amazing work
that the coaching staff has done with Ethan for sure

(33:41):
and others obviously for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Ethan, by the way, if you're not familiar this, he
was a young man who prepped at Grand Fork Central,
and this past year one the shot put, the discus
and the javelin at the Class A State championships, and
that hadn't happens in a century. It was something crazy.
I don't remember the exact line between when it had
happened previously, but basically something that just had not been
done in the modern era. So this is a special

(34:05):
kid to begin with. But yes, to break this school
record that had been set in twenty twenty one by
five feet, his throw of sixty feet seven and a
half inches nearly twenty meters just incredible stuff. That's now
number five in the entire nation at the D one level.
So shout out to Ethan, big things ahead for that freshman.
And then Jaden Keeler the night before out at Stanford

(34:26):
goes out and breaks the North Dakota record in the
ten k over by about a minute and breaks the
Canadian you twenty three record. Just incredible and that's top
twenty in the nation as well this season.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
So you, being the track expert, trust me, I am
not put that in some perspective like what would that
be like in terms of help me?

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, I know, it's hard to really say how good
that is like to be again, to beat it, to
beat a school record in a throw by five feet
is unbelievable. Like usually you see these minimal gains by
a couple of inches maybe exactly, And then same thing
in a distance race like that, Like obviously a ten
k is run over the course, it takes a while,

(35:13):
like this isn't a short race, but a minute still
that is a massive gap. And this was Yanka Kutlak,
who had set this the year previous, who was some
league champion in cross country, multi time outdoor champion in
some of the distance races in our league, like a
very good runner. It's that impressive what she did. And
there were two other records out there as well. Mate

(35:34):
Rabaka broke the men's record in the five k, and
then Lewis Lisvenucci broke the record in the fifteen hundred.
Like all of these athletes, distances, throws, et cetera. Are
just having these incredible springs and it's been so fun
to watch those numbers pop. And again we're just at
the start of the outdoor season. Usually you peak in June,

(35:55):
and it is early April, so really neat to see
what this group is gonna do when we hit some
of the outth thor Championships in Vermillion in the middle
of May, and then the NC Double A Championships come
early June.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
I'd be remiss to say, and I think Jim would
say this too. You know, kudos to the assistant coaches too, right,
Elijah Talk and Tom Scott and Molly vayren Camp. I mean,
you know, Jim jim self admittedly I'll call it the
CEO of the program, he does amazing good great coach
track coach too, but but amazing job of looking at

(36:28):
the macro but really allows his coaches to coach, and
you can you can see they can coach. And then
you know, Andy Armacast would say this to President Armacaste,
is that you know, it is about the people. Always
it's about the people, but it is about facilities, and
it is about having the right spaces to be able

(36:49):
to do the things you need to do to push
yourself to the x, you know, to the nth degree.
And as you're seeing, you know, some of the opportunities
our student athletes have right now, you can get it
done at the University of North Dakota. And I'll say further,
sometimes you're best served to be at a place like

(37:11):
the University of North Dakota rather than somewhere else. You
never know, I mean, And so again I think you're
seeing some of our student athletes really excelling and again
having these moments that are almost like I see it
and I read it and I'm perplexed, Like I'm like,

(37:32):
holy cow, it's amazing what they're doing right now.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
The great thing again, if you really want to see
our young men and women compete, they're going to be
in Fargo this coming week at the NDSU Spring Invite.
The multi event athletes will be out in California at
the Brian Clay Invitational. But there's some opportunities close to
home to watch these outstanding individuals compete, and it all
comes at Drake. Relays are coming up later this month
in Des Moine. Some of the outdoor championships are in

(37:57):
the middle of May and Vermilion, so some big meets
on the way. Congrats again to that group on all
their success. Congrats again, by the way, to men's and
women's tennis who are nearing their championship season. The men,
as we have been talking about through the entire spring
on this podcast, just continue to dominate. They are four
to zero in the Summit League. They have won now
fourteen matches in a row. They're coming off a really

(38:18):
big victory over Illinois States at home this past weekends.
They now get to face off against Denver, the perennial
champions in this conference, for a regular season tidle at
home coming up on the thirteenth. It's kind of winner
take all. If you win, obviously you win the regular
season championship. Both we'll move on to Denver next week
for the Summer League championships. But I don't know if

(38:41):
it's it's hyperbole. This feels like this is the biggest
match in men's tennis history with the University of North
Dakota program. Would you agree with that feels that way?

Speaker 2 (38:49):
It would be hard probably to argue. Maybe it's how
about this, we probably have to factor out eras D one,
but let's just say the D one air. I think
that's fair. That's very very fair. But yeah, it's it's
going to be interesting. Here here's a little tidbit for
you that I learned yesterday. Depending on the weather, could

(39:12):
be an outdoor match.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Hey, you imagine that it is supposed to be beautiful
and the Dakotas this weekend.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah, I think that's great. I think that's great.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
So well, that would be something either way.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
I mean it just it's exciting either way. And yeah,
I went to the Illinois state match and you know,
for those of you that have never been to one,
and we always encourage you to come, but college tennis
really has figured it out over time. I really like
what they do with the doubles point. Obviously, three matches
go on, if you win two of them, you get
a point, and then you play six singles matches and

(39:46):
they're all worth a point. But that doubles point comes
in into play more times than you would think because
there's a lot of matches at end four to three,
but you go into singles and you're down a point
that could you know, it's funny, it can work on
you a little bit. But boy, we did a nice
job in singles.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yes, yes you did. Yeah, five to two again the
win over Illinois State to sand beaten. So again it's
the thirteenth against Denver regular season finale at Choice, get
out and support like it's gonna be. Denver obviously is
very very good as well. They are undefeated into summer.
They really good, and so it really sets up to
be a grand stand finale before going out to the
Rockies next weekend. Kind Of a similar story for the
women who are fourteen and six overall, three and two

(40:25):
in conference they picked up a massive win against South
Dakota for three that will prove again only four make
it to the championships, and that win, it doesn't quite
guarantee their spot. I don't think like there is still
some some of the teams still have two duels left
and some just have one to go. I don't I
don't know for sure. I don't think they have automatically qualified.

(40:47):
But that gives them a great chance now to lock
up their spot. If they lost that, it'd be abouphill battle.
The fact that they won against the Coyotes and followed
it up with the seven to nothing win over Minnesota
State non conference has them feeling good going into their
regular season fin against Denver coming up on the top.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I would say, Alex, it's a It's one of those
if you see you know the percentage of this team
will win, right. It's like you're up by oh, let's
just say fourteen with eight minutes to go, or you're
up by whatever with thirty seconds to go or ninety
seconds to go. Your percentage to win was probably quite high,

(41:24):
but it doesn't mean you win, right.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Just ask John Shire and the two Blue Dolls from
this past weekend but that's for another time.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Again.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Awesome opportunity again to come out watch some high level
tennis again, the women pushing for Assembleague championship spot. They've
had a fantastic season. The men, same story again the
twelfth and thirteenth against Denver, just here in Sound. Can't
beat it coming up for you and deep men tennis,
and then shout out to golf as well. The men's.
These golf seasons have really gotten going now. They've mostly
been in the in the Southwest, enjoying nice weather. They

(41:57):
were in Illinois in Silvus, Illinois TPC Deer Run this
past weekend, the Western and the Way Intercollegiate Open. The
women had a good showing. The women won the thing.
Kylie Warner won the individual championship, the women won the
team crown. Good things happening on the golf side as.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Well, Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, of course,
getting out into the the actual grass is always interesting
for our golf teams. But they've gotten off to a
really good start. And yeah, kind of a cool thing.
That's where the John Deere Classics played. And I think
it's Zach Johnson maybe is Zach Johnson maybe is kind

(42:32):
of from that area. So anyways, kind of a sort
of a from a golf nerd standpoint, I think it's
it's a cool, cool place to play. So good for
our teams.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Yeah, very good, very good. So more of that to come,
of course, a lot more golf on the way is
they'll have their championships coming up down in Arizona next weekend,
so big opportunity there for the men and the women,
and then football of course too. Springball continues to roll
on another week in the books as they press on
towards their ring wrap up. What have you heard from
what's going on around the HPC from Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
So I was able to pop in on Saturday morning
and we actually ran I would say we ran seventy
five plays scrimmage place. And you know, I think it
probably makes some sense because you get a new coaching
staff in. I think it's one thing to see your

(43:24):
student athletes and meetings, weight room, what they're doing in
the class, what they're doing in the community. But at
the end of the day, you do need to play football,
and I think this staff is probably you know, making
assessments at this point in time. Now would this be
the same case I haven't talked to coach Schmid about this.
Would he do this two years from now, who knows,

(43:45):
But I think he needs to make assessments at this
moment in time. And there's only one way to really
figure out some football pieces is to play football.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
So they're doing now over there, and they've got the
facility to do so. I'm sure they'll pop outside if
they can.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, I think so, I think so.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Yeah, So good things happening there though, as we get
ready to get a little clip every day just a
little closer to the first season.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
And you know, women's soccer and volleyball they're in their
kind of non traditional seasons as well, so they they've
got some things happening here that are occurring as well.
So yeah, just it's one of those times where outside
of the basketballs, it feels like in hockey maybe you know,
they're the ones not playing at this point in time,
but they feel like they're in roster construction mode. So

(44:31):
so there's a lot of plates spinning right now, Alex,
lots of plates.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
No off days, right It's there's always something happening either
on the quarter off for all of our sports. So well,
good stuff on that run rounds of what's happening around
the spring sports at North Dakota. Do you want to
do a quick.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Clip or let's do a quick flip. Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
I think we could go a couple different directions. I
think because we're talking spring Stock. Red Sox baseball started
just a couple of weeks ago, like an opening day
was great. At the end of March, after winn the opener,
Socks lost four in a row, all close games, all
like kind of narrow losses. One thing or another happened.
And since again all those games are on the road.
Now they've won five in a row. They had a

(45:10):
perfect home stand to start against Saint Louis. It's not
a perfect team by any stretch, but it's a fun team. Bill,
We've got a fun team once again.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
They're gonna be exciting to watch with potentially some other
young players coming up in the pipeline as well, So
that's gonna be really great. Yeah. You know what was
interesting to me, and again I'm just this is more
from an administrative standpoint, I felt like it was sort
of weird the scheduling they had to go to Mexico.
Then right at the end of spring training right before,

(45:41):
right before going to Texas, and then after the Texas
series they had to turn around and go to Baltimore
no day off in between. Weird, and they've they've played
a lot of games in a row, no day off
after Baltimore to go then play their their home opener,
and then you know, they got a day off because
of Mother Nature on Saturday and had to play a

(46:03):
double dip, and so it's kind of fascinating. Like usually
at the beginning of the year, you usually get one
day somewhere where it breaks up either going on the
road or coming home, and they've had to go like
full bore right away. And truth be told, they're pitching,
and I know everybody's going to go through pitching issues

(46:23):
to some degree. So I'm not crying here or I'm
not whining. I'm just saying, like they got to get
a few guys back because right now, you know, they're
playing a lot of games early in the year without
not a lot of days off.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
On the positive side, and we talked about some of
the youth that have stepped up or some that are
on the way. Christian Campbell's been great just and they
locked them up to a long term dal. They also
locked up Garrett Crochet to a long term deal as well,
Like it feels like there's a vision here and they
can see here are the pieces that we want to
make sure are a part of this long term. Really,

(46:57):
I mean, it feels so different. The feel of the
team just has there's I don't know, there's just something
different about it this year than there has been the
first time in a while. Bill, it feels like there's optimism.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
And I think you got to give Alex core a
credit on this one. He was a big proponent to
push for Alex Bregman, and I do think Bregman brings
just a just a you know, a veteran presence that's
done a lot of winning and I just think he
solidified some things. And as much as it's been tough
for Devers probably to transition from third base to DH,

(47:32):
although it's been better, I mean it's been better, but
at the end of the day, the statistics didn't lie.
He was literally the worst defensive third basement in baseball literally,
and then you actually replaced him with a gold Glover
from last year. That's a big delta made a difference,

(47:56):
and you got a Christian Campbell that's really athletic and
is able to do some things. It's really kind of wild.
You got Saddan Rafaela who can play both infield and outfield.
You've got Christian Campbell can play infield and outfield. They're versatile,
they're athletic. In Alex they're still a basis too right.

(48:17):
I mean, they're they're threats all over the diamond and
will You're a braid has been terrific.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
It is It is such a night and day, night
and day situation then what it had been. I I
just I'm still like coming to grips with like, oh,
these guys, they're good. These these guys can all play.
They're getting it's they're being aggressive, they're playing good defense,
like all the things that we haven't really associated with
Boston Red Sox baseball.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
You know who's been really good too, Uh, sneaky good
is a world as Chapman and uh, he's he's been excellent.
And you know we all know his issues when he
has issues is control and he'll walk he'll walk people.
Now if he absolutely does not walk people, it makes
a big difference. When you've got that anchor in the

(49:02):
ninth inn and So there's just been some you know,
really really good fun games already and they look like
they're entertaining to watch, and some of the guys haven't
even gotten going yet.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Yeah, I know, that's the exciting part. I think the
fact that what they are right now, again, assuming pitching
can get healthier and get better, they're going to look
a lot better come from July, like come July August.
I just feel like this is a team that will
continue to improve over the course of the season, and
that's going to make for a fun summer bill.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, Tristan Tristan Cassis hasn't gotten going yet, and you know,
he he's you know, among all, he's a quirky guy,
but at the end of the day, he's pretty good.
I mean, he's pretty powerful and once he gets going
in the middle of that lineup, and you know, and
Trevor's story's been okay, but he hasn't really gotten going yet.
So the one hole that they literally have right now

(49:53):
is really Catcher.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
You hope they can potentially address that over the course
of the summer, but we'll see if if they don't. Again,
it wasn't gonna be a world series or bust type
heer anyway, but you just want to see them take
steps and it feels like they are they are doing.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, and they traded obviously their up and coming catcher
to the White Sox to get Garrett Crochet, and it's
a deal he had to make. You got to get
an anchor. He's a twenty five year old anchor who's
just really really good and I think he will be
good moving forward. And to lock him up for another
six years during the prime of his career, obviously he's
exciting as well. So and then you wait for Roman

(50:28):
Anthony and Marcelo Mayer at some point to come up
and see what happens there. So it's a lot to
be looking forward to. If you're a socks.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Man, you are looking forward to a big match on Thursday,
as we go from the diamond to the pitch. Spurs
get the take on Eintrach Frankfurt in the Europa League
quarter finals. I don't want to see the season kind
of comes down to this, but this is a big
deal you have, you have a big game bill on
the way.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, I would be interesting to see what happens. I
don't know much about Frankfurt. I know they lost two
nothing over the weekend. I don't know if they were
actually resting players or not that I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yeah, I think I think they had one eye, maybe
two eyes on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think it'll be exciting.
I mean, so we'll see what happens. At least they
felt good about scoring some goals yesterday. But then again,
lots of teams have scored goals against Southampton, so it's
really sad that they gave up a goal is probably
more the issue, but you know, but at the end
of the day, they did what they had to do

(51:27):
and yeah, should be fun. Should be fun. So back
to back Thursdays.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Great, that's right, two legs. You get to host the
first and you have to go to Germany for the second.
So it's a big opportunity for Ange after what was
yes a tough week with the loss of Chelsea and
some of the var sadness. You'd sent me a great
podcast from Spurs their athletic podcast on the Athletic dot Com.
The guy's talking about how this just probably needs to go,

(51:52):
like we're never going to reach peakvar, like there's no
perfection out there that we're going to strive towards it
will always be flawed and it's kind of ruining the game.
And that's certainly what anspasta Coglu's sentiment was following the
loss to Chelsea where they had a goal disallowed one.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Yeah, so I'll say this is I think the maybe
the highlight line for me was it's fantasy to think
that we're going to get to getting it right because
getting it right doesn't exist. And we saw it in playout. Well,
Spurs had a goal taken away yesterday which I don't know.

(52:26):
I think someone's fingernail grew over the night and that
was the differential between the goal counting or not. Okay,
however that goes. But the Arsenal game match the day
before or that, or maybe it happened, I don't know.
I can't remember. But this weekend they allowed there was

(52:47):
a penalty and it was someone getting taken down. Let's
call it near the box. Was it in the box?
Was it out of the box. I thought it was beautiful.
Get back two announcers they both saw something different. You
can see the same thing and it just happened, and

(53:12):
one said absolutely, that's a penalty and the other one
said absolutely not yeah, and so I just looked at
it and went, hmm, that's exactly where we're at right now. Now.
Some of these things, I don't know, maybe like again,
ball in, ball out again, to some I like, I
think it's the Arson Vanger idea to put some light

(53:36):
of day when it comes to off sides, because the
off sides were just someone's a little bit of their
shoulder or elbow is off. Boy, I think we're taking
away a lot of potential excitement, and I think we've
kind of, as they like to say, it's destroying the game.

(53:57):
And you know, that's probably I don't know, maybe excessive,
maybe not.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
That was your manager's opinion, it's killing the game, mate,
I think you said that four or five times in
the postgame mixer, just the frustration of knowing because I
think in his opinion too, that goal that was disallowed
against Chelsea, it took him about four minutes to determine
that there had been a foul in the build up
that wasn't spotted on the initial run, like we're just
we're reofficiating, and he was upset this wasn't clear and obvious.

(54:25):
If it took us four minutes to reach that conclusion.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Did you see what happened in the Spurs game yesterday
that was five minutes. Yeah, so the definition of clear
and obvious should happen in less than a minute. Make
it up. I mean, and again you could argue I
don't have the right view or I need to see
all the views. I think you reach a point where,
if you haven't had the decision overturned at this point

(54:50):
in time, don't you just go go with us?

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Move on, move on? What's called on the field of playstands.
The same thing happened a little bit in the Everton
Liverpool game midweek where there was an I don't know
if you saw this or not, but James Tarkowski absolutely
almost broke Alex McAllister's leg like it was it was awful,
but he got the ball and they gave him a yellow.
And it was the same thing. We had three different
commentators all say either, yes, that is absolutely a red card.

(55:16):
That is a high reckless challenge into like into the
man's shin, like it was halfway up his leg, and
another one of the commentators was like, well to me,
it's a yellow. It's just a yellow to me because
he's following through what do you do? It was just
it was interesting to see that dynamic play out. And
it's it's subjective versus objective. Right, You've got people's opinions
coming into this, their representation of what they see, and

(55:39):
we're just never going to get there.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
And the pods had this over and over again. When
when it's objective, ball in, ball out, got it good?
If you have the view and the camera angles correct,
all of that, got it? Got it. When it's a
motion sport, boy, it's subjective.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Just wait till we start doing semi automated off side
later this season. How much fun that will be to
see the results. And on that note, we will close
the book on this edition of the Billshers Podcast. Bill
good stuff Again, thanks for your candor and just talking
to us through a lot of big decisions over the
last couple of weeks with you and d athletics, and

(56:19):
for the excitement moving forward now.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Well and I look forward to Thanks. Thanks for the questioning,
and we will continue to have updates on what's happening
with this settlement and what's happening with Congress, and those
are real things that are going to affect the University
of North Dakota moving forward, So just know I've got
my ear to the ground. I'm calling many colleagues and
my phone, my rolodex if you will, and so more

(56:44):
to come on the pod.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
On that more to come, as always, stay tuned as
the spring rolls on. So good stuff for this edition again,
thanks as always to Bill, Thanks to Alex Socker Johnson
and Paul Austin. On the back ends, I'm Alex Synder,
thank you for listening. We will talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
The proximate pot skeps in the Proximate poscar, the proposcap
in the Proximated in Hospitals