bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 0:00

Welcome to tracking the cats the podcast. That's all things cat amount we've been going about a month month and a half now and I have a number of viewers and we're thrilled to have you guys on it's normally my co host is steve white and due to some technical difficulties Steve is there, but we can't see or hear him. So we're going to go without him as always we are presented by By stanbury insurance for all your insurance needs in north and south carolina and the western carolina region kevin stanbury is going to have a tailgate going on over before the campbell game this weekend So if you're near the stadium look for the stanbury sign stanbury insurance on east main street in silva today. We are welcoming. A great Guests that we've been looking forward to having on on board. Yes, Mike, it's true because you're kind of like the godfather of folks in the athletic department with your tenure over there. We have Mike Taylor, who is the equipment manager for all of the athletic equipment at Western, and he's been around for 30 years. Is that right?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 1:17

Right about. Yeah, sure.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 1:19

Very cool. So with that much tenure and you are longer, I think, than anybody else on the staff. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you came to be the equipment manager and some of the things.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 1:35

a, it's a real simple story. It really is. I wanted a free t shirt, you know, with, there was a bunch of us up in the dorm and I'm not even kidding, living in Harold and we're thinking, those t shirts of football guys have a really cool, I wonder if we went down there and volunteered to work, they'd let us have a t shirt and of course all agreed to meet down there and I'm the only guy that showed up, And of course they snatched me over the door and said, yes, yes, we, yes, you can have a t shirt and we'll, you know, and they lied to me. Now they but Joe Miller was the equipment manager at the time. And it's still just a, an excellent guy. I really love him and his wife, Sandy, good people. They took care of us and it was a little family, you know, and especially in the eighties, you know, the, the football coaches, Treated you like family. You were part of the team and they, they looked after you and it was just, it was that feeling. And then, so after school, you know, I just, they offered me the job. Joe had moved on to the facilities and they had a guy here, Randy, that lasted about a year and they wanted somebody that knew how to set the headsets up. And because I had been here for a couple of years as a student manager, They said, you can do it. We'll hire you. And I'll say, all right, well, that's how it started. It was that simple. Sort of fell backwards into it because I wanted a free t shirt. So that was that was really it. It was just the greed is what got me in it.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 2:56

Well, that's funny because the way I got my start in broadcasting, which was a short term and I hadn't done it about 30 years, but I was in red old storm waiting for Harold to be completed and open up, which we ended up there, but when I was up in Reynolds, the station manager at the time for WCAT, which is now what WWCU,

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:19

Let me Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:20

they he walked in my room and said, Hey do you have, do you have a radio? I need to check the signal for carrier current, which means it only goes in the dorms through the electrical system. So the next day I was on the radio and had never done it before. And so I kind of got dragged into it like you, but it became a passion. And I actually met my wife when I was DJing over at Wise in Asheville. So

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:45

Okay. Okay. Now, was it still in more building when you went?

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:48

no, it was down in Killian when we were there and then

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:52

did

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:52

it moved up to more. Oh, right.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 3:59

we used to always joke because we had the little wheel and we had to play the music that matched that wheel, the color chart, and everybody followed the rules except for round man, because he had drive time and he would take all the hits. I mean, it would just be gone. And you'd be like, it's a hit after hit. It was like Casey Kasem or something. He just played the top 40, like right after us. but I had a good time. I think my fraternity brothers listened. They were about the only people that cared on the air, but I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. It was W W C U. We rock your knobs off, which I was like, okay. or the five watt blowtorch of the Southwest

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:33

Right.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:33

coming at you live right here from Moore building. It was a lot of fun

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:37

That's great.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:37

voice.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:38

We had a guy with a radio voice out of Charlotte who did a, Promo for us at the top of the hour, four watts of music power for Western Carolina University. But yeah, yeah, but

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:53

fun.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 4:53

back to what we're here for, that is the the equipment management. So what all do you do? I mean, it's not just football equipment and is there stuff that's like, not in a typical job description that you have to handle?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 5:08

Well, that's where they get you to it's other duties as assigned, which means, you know, moving tables, wiping up spills, you know, whatever. But the, the largest part of the job is actually staying abreast of all the equipment changes that happen in all the sports and being able to help the coaches. Decipher what it is that's important. talking to the athletic director, when we're looking at doing purchases for different, you know, vendors, like if we're going to stay with Nike or go with Adidas or look at Under Armour and what we might expect to pay for those things and what are those changes going to be and sort of giving them a sort of a cost analysis, stuff like that. But the day to day operations is basically laundry repair and, you know, Making sure that everybody's ready to go. You're basically a logistics quartermaster for an army that, that moves.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 5:57

Right.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 5:58

we, the football team, we're going to be playing seven games on the road this year, so a lot of it has to do with, with making sure that everybody's got what they need when they need it. And what do we do if it breaks when they need it? So that kind of thing. And it's a lot of inventory. Certainly a lot of laundry. There's a lot of laundry, but we have, we have lots of student help that are sort of, that they're tasked for some of that stuff as well. So we have, we have some help, which is nice.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 6:26

That's, that's amazing. Now, are you involved speaking with other sports? Like I really liked the vertical stripes on the lady soccer uniforms last couple of years. Are you involved in selecting any of those designs or how does that come about?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 6:41

You know, that is basically your sport administrator, the coach and our sales reps that they bring in, they show them the designs and they let them look at them and they have what's called a uniform builder and they can actually look at the and I've been in those meetings, but I'm really not a part of them usually unless they need me in there. You get a new coach that doesn't know the ropes or something, but coach Miller is certainly a very Well, well versed in putting this stuff together and they, they get together on a uniform builder and say, okay, now show me this Jersey with the purple accents of, you know, versus gold versus when you put a number in it, you know, if we put a flag over here, how does it look? And then he'll give us a rendering which is. Not a hundred percent true to form, but then they'll give you a picture later on that you can see exactly what it would look like with everything added, so kind of logos and all that. So you sort of go from that they're all custom made, so there's no actual cloth to look at the meantime, you can look at how it's made from other jerseys. But when they, when they sit down with the, with the uniform builder, they get, they sort of get an idea from it and then they get a picture later on.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 7:43

And the uniform builder, is that an employee of it at currently Nike or

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 7:48

It's well,

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 7:49

representative?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 7:50

those currently right now. Nike does have a uniform builder that we, that we utilize with our salespeople, our sales pro Glen Carlock comes in and he knows that, Hey, look, those uniforms you have now are currently running out. We won't be making that platform until 2022, 2026. So we know that we have to build in new uniforms the next couple of years. So he'll come in and they, they just have a uniform day and look at it and it sort of finalize it within a week.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 8:17

Speaking of design something that got a lot of comments is the new football helmets with the cats script on, on one side and the number on the other and watching the game last week out of Raleigh was it was unique. Like I said, there's been a lot of positive feedback on those. How did that come about?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 8:36

You know, that is the cats is a very old, it comes from the seventies and Steve has that history. I think he and a of the football coaches from the seventies with coach water staff actually designed this logo. took it to a local design firm and had them sort of thicken it up and beef it up a little bit. the sad part is we don't actually own the logo, but Don't tell that out loud people. But you know, when we were looking at new helmet designs at the very end of I think it was the 19 season, we were looking at changing over to Nike. And so the color purple that we had on the helmet sort of matched the Adidas uniforms in terms of tone and depth and, and hue. And, but when we looked at it with the Nike uniforms, it didn't, it was really off. So we changed the color. match that. And we let the coaching staff have it as what color, what tone, how do you, how much how do you want it? Matt, that whole sort of thing. And we went to a paint company, they showed it to us. during that process Dan Gibson, whose birthday it is today, Dan Gibson, happy birthday I was tasked with coming up with different logo designs for the helmet and which I was a part of that as well. And one of them was the cat head that we used, the big giant sort of Boise State looking cat head. And, and then one of the other designs that really sort of stuck out was a big giant, the cats and script, which really says a lot about Western Carolina. Well, the, the, the helmet decal that was chosen was the cat head. but we went ahead and got some of the cats as well. we said, Hey, look, what if we put it on for the first game, which was the white out and, and then we'll, cause it goes really well with the white uniform.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 10:21

Right.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 10:21

And the answer was sure, let's go ahead and do that. And then we want to get back to the cat head. and so every year for the past four, we've had one or two or sometimes more games where we wear that decal decal, sorry. And this year, I think was the first year we really heard some sort of, Hey, wow, that was really neat. I'm like, well, we've been wearing it for four years, but this, I mean, when you play well at NC state on national television and more people see it. I think it got a little more notoriety, so it's a really good look. The players like it, the coaches like it, and it gives us a different look without having to actually change helmet colors and it's just something fun for the kids and we we've enjoyed it.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:03

It's cool that they've embraced it because older guys like me and, and Steve who were around when that was the official logo on the helmets for many years, when Coach Waters was there,

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:15

of those on myself. Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:16

Yeah we love it. So it's a unifying thing if the new young folks like it as well. And yeah, I actually wore my, the cat's purple shirt in one of the previous episodes, and you'll see it again in upcoming episodes as well.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:33

the cats going. It's a, it's a, it's a big thing for a

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:35

And. I might wear it this weekend if it wasn't for white out. So now I got to wear my white polo, which will be just fine excited about that. So another thing that we want to ask you is like road trip days. So, You're on the road with these, these guys for football specifically. Do you go with anybody else? And what is that like?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 11:58

There's a whole troop of people that come with us. We're going to take, you know, generally at the early part of the year, we're going to take more guys till we figure out everybody's role. And you end up, there's a couple of guys that all they do end up doing is eat, ride, and watch. But a lot of the. A lot of the team we're going to take is right around 70 to 75 people, depending on where we're going and what we're doing. So that takes a lot of folks and there's, there's filmers and there's athletic trainers and there's student athletic trainers and student equipment managers, me and my assistant. And of course, all the myriad number of people that come with us to help us get that stuff on the road. But for us, week starts for travel on a Wednesday after practice. our helmet night. We're going to bring all our student managers in and then currently we're wearing these guardian caps, which help. Take care of the helmet a lot, but we'll take them off. We look at all the stripes, the decals, the numbers, any sort of helmet repair that needs to happen at that time. That happens Wednesday night. And it takes us about two and a half, three hours to go through every guy, everybody that's traveling and get their helmet looking right. Make sure that everything's looking great. Snaps are taken care of. Everything's buttoned up and ready to go. Then Thursday night after practice, we issued them their travel suit, their travel bags, and their travel shoes. And then they're going to pack immediately after practice. And we have a U Haul truck out back, parked up back, which we've been packing all day with the different trunks and the different trainers items and things that we need on the road with us, the extra shoulder pads, shoes, and all that stuff, uniforms, the player's going to pack their immediate equipment, their cleats and their helmets and the shoulder pads, their bags, everything they need gloves, and then they bring them out to the truck. And after practice. And we, we cross them off our list, make sure we've got, you know, got to have Cole Gonzalez on there. Don't, don't forget Cole. So we know that we've gotten everybody. we closed the door. It's usually pretty late. Everybody goes to eat dinner. We come back in the next day, seven o'clock on a Friday, we're down the road to wherever it is we're going. this year we've got a lot of five hour trips, which is it's fun, but it's also stressful. We get to the stadium ahead of the team. We're going to set it up, and we're going to set up our press box as well. We're going to set the locker room up in player grouping. So if you're an offensive lineman, you're going to be sitting right beside the guys you play against all day long play with all day long and the quarterbacks, one area so that when the coaches meet with them at halftime, they're all in one area, ready to go. We're going to have their Jersey out with the shoulder pads set up, ready to go. So you walk in, it's really ready to play. depending on where we're at, coach is going to have a walkthrough. So we're going to have a walkthrough loop for them to change into out of their travel suit, come back in, they, they, they go back, they take their shower, get changed back in their travel stuff. We collect up all the dirty clothes our work is never really done. And then we head out back to the hotel, get a good night's sleep. We're there on Saturday, about four and a half hours before kickoff, getting everything set up, the sideline communications, making sure the locker room's right, the sidelines are right, our athletic trainers, all of our filmers are all there doing their thing. The team comes in, we're there to take care of whatever needs they have, and then of course we, we're there for the game. After game. Pack it all up, roll it back on the truck, shoot it out down the highway, get back to Cullowhee, and then we unload. our laundry, we unload the truck, back in on Sunday, put everything away, fix the holes, unpack bags, all that fun stuff. And then, fortunately, after all that, we have Monday off. So, which is nice. We need a day off during the week to sort of everybody recuperate.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:33

Wow.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:34

bit of our road trip

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:35

So, and are you are y'all going to head out to Montana on Friday or will it be Thursday to get a little extra rest? How is that plan?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:44

fortunately for us, we're able to fly on the plane. We have a little bit of a cut down in terms of what we take.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:51

Sure.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 15:52

we don't take as many trunks. We pack some stuff in softer bags. So we're going to go to the airport with the team. the, the airplane crew has the weights ahead of time, so they'll, they'll load it up off the truck. move the truck for us. We get on the plane, we go through, you know, the airport security stuff like we always do. And we fly there. When we land, there's another truck waiting for us. They load that up, we drive it to the stadium, the team goes in, does their thing, then we set up and it's a very similar, very similar to travel, we're just going to take a plane instead.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:24

Yeah, and it's a charter. It's you're not flying with a bunch of other folks.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:28

No, we don't, yeah, it'd be a little hard to get 125 people through the TSA on time, we'd take up a whole plane.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:38

Yeah, cool. That's great. I like to hear it. So you have worked with a bunch of different personalities, a bunch of coaches. You've

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:45

My

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:46

seen a bunch. So are there some fun folks who, who stand out either coaches or staff or even media personality?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 16:55

the years that sort of, Have have made a difference and people that just sort of stick in your mind. I think one of the ones that they were really good and played. But Todd Harkins, who's now a car dealer down in Statesville is is an awesome guy. We remembered him. He was really a stand around a pile. One of those guys, you know, but it's just an excellent dude. And then, of course. of the, one of the guys who's my fraternity brother, Eric Lautenheiser. And then now his son Eli works for me. so there's, there's lots of memorable guys and I hate to not mention one or the other, but some of the coaches that were fun were coach Setzer and coach Wyke used to enjoy imitating them and obviously working with Fred Kandler, Fred Kandler basically taught me who was our athletic trainer that became our logistics guy and senior associate athletic director. And he basically was everything to the department. I mean, from. Helping to build the buildings, you know, to on the road with the football teams.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 17:49

That's a long term name. Yeah, he was what, 20, over 20 years with the program? 33. Wow. Yeah. Great guy.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 17:58

those days where I would go into his office. And if he had on jeans and a T shirt, was a work day. We knew we were going to go out and do fixed stuff. I mean, we're everything from the tennis court with the wind, blew the screen down to, you know, going to softball and making sure it was motor raked or, I mean, that was Fred. It was just all hands on. Let's get it done. Thanks. know, and that was, I learned so much about athletics from Fred and then of course Cheryl Plemons, how to do. The, the different things we do in the office and how to make sure you do the paperwork and make sure you're covered with the, with the state and with the school and how to do things. So, so many people and, and lovely Miss Ellie, she was our was our team secretary for so long. And then, then the assistant upfront for all of athletics. And, and I've just, matter of fact, I just had lunch with her yesterday. So it's a lot, it was fun to even remember all those good times that we had.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 18:51

That's cool. Going back to road trips, two other questions I have on that. One is, can you think of any, Oh crap moments? Like, Oh no. This isn't happening or this got left behind or something like that.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 19:09

thank you very much to Daniel Hooker, who usually comes a day later. If you're an equipment person, you'll or a logistics person, if you ever packed anything, always going down the road, going over your list in your head. Did I get that? I did get that. I did get that. Even though you checked it off, making sure. Oh, wait a minute. have always had. A time or two where we didn't, we forgot something. It's usually when we change our schedule, we were going to Georgia Southern and the offensive line coach was complaining about the guys having to pack their knee braces, offensive line, packing their knee braces they were wet, they were soaking wet. So we, oh, I got an idea. We'll stick them under the dryer. There's a nice, great place there and it'll help, you know, there'll be a little lint, but there'll be dryer. we forgot them. We left them sitting there. And I called Hooker and I said, dude, you got to save me. He went in there and those things smell like they've been dipped in rhino and they were horrible. And it's a five hour ride. And he had like eight pairs of knee braces. It just smelled like the inside of a gym sock. And. and all the guys that he was bringing down just choked and gagged. They stopped, like got Febreze and sprayed it. I'm telling you, he never will let me forget that. He's always willing to help us, but he said, I will never carry knee braces for you ever again. Thank you. Luckily they pack them in their, in their, in their bags now. But yeah, that was a, that was an old crap moment. What am I going to do here?

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 20:43

And it was probably like 90 degrees and they wanted to have the windows open.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 20:49

not a fun thing. Not a fun

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 20:51

yeah. So is there a a facility that we travel to, let's say Southern Conference, that, that you like or don't like going to for any particular reason?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 21:04

impressed with some of the Southern Conference stadiums. They're just really, East Tennessee is the prettiest little stadium you've ever seen. It's really beautiful. And they've done a great job being good hosts after they left and then came back. They're really nice. Really, I love Chattanooga. Furman has a nice stadium. I mean, there's really nobody here that doesn't have a great place. I love the history of VMI. Going up there and on that field and just so many, there's so many people have done that and then the history of it and then the Lexington, the town. So, and Charleston, I mean, Citadel, who wouldn't want to go there? I mean, beautiful places we get to go. And I think selfishly, I think that ours in October is some of the most beautiful scenery you're ever going to see. So you get

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 21:48

Absolutely.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 21:49

screaming purple and white cat fans, given such an advantage. And then you see the gorgeous mountains. just think the Southern Conference has a lot to offer in terms of, you know, views and places to go and be.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 22:00

It's that's great. I love color. We've been going there since 1971 when I started up there. And it was in Memorial Stadium. So I'm, I'm looking forward to the 50th anniversary of Whitmire this year.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 22:14

Oh,

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 22:15

the Western Carolinian played the radio station in a fundraising football game the year the stadium opened and being a Florida boy. I thought, well, I'll just, I'll play in my bare feet. That AstroTurf, I had blisters on the bottom of my feet

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 22:33

was a mistake. Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 22:34

playing that tag football game. But yeah, my goals are to, the only stadiums I haven't been to are Citadel and VMI. Really want to get there. I've been to ETSU stadium and looked out at it. While I was working, but haven't been to a game there yet. So those are the ones that I still need to get to. You've worked with different uniform providers over this time. I can think of Russell, Adidas, and of course, Nike. Now what's it? Is there major differences working with those? And were there any other uniform providers you used during those years?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 23:11

Sure. I mean, we use the company out of Berlin, Wisconsin called Rippin and they're, they were fantastic. I met them through one of my. We were together as former student managers together. Mark Peeler, he was, he's now the head equipment manager at Wisconsin. go badgers. He invited me to come up to go with him and we went and saw their plant and I got to meet the owners. And so the great thing was when we decided we were going to work with them, we had a problem, we just called the owner. I mean. That was just crazy. Like he was like, are you having problems with the sleeves? I was like, yeah, he goes, send them up. We'll take the sleeves off, put new sleeves on. We'll have them back to you in four days. I was like,

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 23:52

Wow.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 23:53

Oh, I mean, that just wasn't, wasn't done. I do miss working with Russell. was a completely vertical company. and when you got stuff, it was, it was just perfect. It was made exactly the way you wanted to. I've enjoyed all the companies we've worked with. And really the issue is working with the people you work with, the salesmen and the reps for those companies. You know, we we've, we've done. We've done wonderful business with those folks and they're really, they're the, they're the, they're the glue that holds it all together for you. They can get it done and, and, and make sure that you're getting what you need to get. And the one thing is to make sure that the players are happy and they don't have to think about their uniform on the field. They're just, they put it on, a lot of people don't realize. These are not shirts you want to wear around. These things are custom made and they're super tight. And if you put one on, it would squeeze the life out of you. Seeing these guys get them on and then. Worst yet, get them off is, is an unbelievable thing, but we've been, we've enjoyed all the companies. Really? There's, there's no one that we would like better than the other. It's the salespeople who really make it for us.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 25:01

And what about safety equipment? You know, how helmets have had to change

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 25:06

It's,

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 25:06

the last 15 years.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 25:09

When I first started the shoulder pads were giant. I mean, if you watch video tape from back then, it looks like everybody's walking around with the two bags of potatoes on their shoulders. I mean, it's huge. And now that with the way they've made foam and the the air management systems, and they sit down so low. And they sit down so nice and they're so protective that the guys really don't even realize they're wearing them. And it just, it's a, it's a hard transition for me. Some days you see these little guys and you think, well, I have to put him in this side. No, you have to go smaller, smaller, smaller. the one thing it's a, it's a balance making sure that everything's covered that needs to be covered, but still gives the guy The ability to work, work inside of it. So it needs to be functioned as well as fit, but yeah. And that in helmets, crazy thing about helmets is the more protective they make them, the more they become the first point of contact. So, know, which came first, the chicken or the egg, how do you get the head out of the game? how do you still protect it? So the rules they're seeing now where you're seeing these guys for targeting, it stinks if you like that team and your guy gets kicked out. But what you're trying to do is protect everybody and create a change in how people do things. So while still protecting your athletes by giving them a very, very protective helmet. A

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 26:22

That's great. That's great. One last question. And that is other sports. We have, we've mostly focused on football, of course, because that's got the most amount of Uniform and and equipment, right? And they get a lot of focus, but you've got all these other sports, you know, volleyball, soccer, basketball. How does that fit into your role? What kind of time does that take up for you?

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 26:47

I tell you what, I, they're one of the sports that I didn't expect to love as much as I did as softball. That is just an absolutely fast paced That's so exciting to watch. I mean, and if anybody who's ever stood in front of a A collegiate pitcher thinks they can hit them. You're crazy. She lets the ball go about 15 feet from your face. So, I mean, and it's really fast. You have no time to make up your mind, but the sport is fantastic. And I, I love working with with coach, coach Jim Cliff and, his staff. They they're fun to be around when they have specific questions. They come to me, we work with them in terms of trying to get the batting helmets painted. They have a specific look they want to achieve or some kind of decals. And then we'll talk about uniforms. And we've had some issues with quality over the years where we've had to go back and take pictures and, and do lots with the company and say, Hey, here's our issue. We need, we need some help. And so far we've been, we've been very fortunate that way. I love volleyball so much fun. To, to, to go out there and watch them. Cause it's, you talk about fast now that's really fast. And then of course our women's soccer team has been so successful here lately. And we're just fingers crossed. They're going to do the same thing this year, but they're a lot of fun. just, I love, I love the other sports. I get to go to baseball sometimes cause we have spring ball, but. coach Beck's team is one of one of my favorite things because it's such a relaxed time to have to worry about, you know, is there a whistle blowing next or what are we doing next or headsets and that kind of thing but it's all a lot of fun and it's fun to work with all of them

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 28:18

And I love baseball too. I've been to probably more baseball games than anything else other than football. Although I love all of them and I've been to all of them.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 28:28

Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 28:29

it's a little tough. I live in Atlanta. I drove up to a baseball game a couple of years ago. Nice spring day, beautiful in color. We will, like we talked about fall at football spring and baseball is amazing. And we get to the seventh inning stretch. And I kind of waved at Hook when I got there and Hooker is on PA and he says time for the seventh inning stretch led today by Bob Saban. And I start singing and nobody else would sing, right? They're just all kind of looking at it. Who is this idiot? But.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:06

me out to the ball.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:08

Yeah

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:08

yeah.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:09

but that's hooker, right? You know, he'll throw a curve at you.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:13

Oh, baseball is so much fun throwing a curve, that's funny. It's so much fun to be there, especially when the students come and the team's just, you know, ripping and snorting. It's, I mean, we really, we get on that jag where we start hitting good and it always seems like we get that friendly catamount breeze out to center field, you know, when we get up and the balls just start flying out. It's just, there's nothing like it. Nothing like it at all in the spring.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:37

well we kind of keep our, our, our podcasts to 30 minutes and we're kind of wrapping up time here.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:43

I could talk too much.

bob-sabin_1_09-04-2024_120026: 29:45

No, I love this. This has been, this has been fun. And this is what, what we want out of the podcast. As a matter of fact, I wanted to say, you know, if you're watching or listening to the podcast and you've got some comments or some suggestions. Right now, our main social media channel is on Instagram, tracking the cats at Instagram. We've got more social media channels coming with Facebook and Twitter X. And then we're going to have an email address, hopefully by the time the next podcast comes out in another couple of weeks. But Wish Steve had been able to be here cause he knows you pretty well and y'all would have had a couple of laughs, but we'll get him back on for the next one. I definitely appreciate your time, Mike. It's been a great half hour. Again, track tracking the cats is sponsored by Stanberry insurance on East main street in Silva. Look for our next podcast in about two weeks and it's available. So tell your friends if you want them to listen, it's available on Spotify. Bye. Amazon, Apple, and our, our main Buzzsprout channel is where a lot of y'all see the link, but we also have a YouTube video that we put out if you want to watch it video wise, rather than just listening on YouTube with Tracking the Cats is the channel that we have on YouTube. So Mike, thanks again. I appreciate it, y'all. We'll see y'all again in a couple of weeks.

squadcaster-474a_1_09-04-2024_120026: 31:09

Thanks for having me.