Tracking the Cats
Wide ranging discussion of Western Carolina University athletics hosted by long time alumni and supporters, Bob Sabin & Steve White.
Tracking the Cats
WCU Sports Wrap + Volleyball Coach Karen Glover 9/4/2025
Welcome to Tracking the Cats. I'm Bob Saban, along with my co-host Steve White. We're here every couple of weeks and this week we've got coach Karen Glover from the Western Carolina Volleyball team. She's gonna be talking to us in a few minutes, but first, let's get started a little bit talking about the other sports over the last week we're brought to you as always by Stanbury Insurance. They now have four offices. They're in Silva, their home office, Highlands, Waynesville, and over in Clyde. Not too far away either. So if you ever need any insurance Stanbury Insurance will be there to help you out. Steve. Wow. Talking about a. Surprise and disappointment, among other words that we could use to describe it that aren't quite as nice.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yes.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:The opening football game was, let's say, just frustrating.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, it was great for a half
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:and there were a few moments in the second half, but not that many. Right. I don't, I don't think wow is a good word. It might be Whoa, whoa. Something. That might be a better word. Yeah. That's and, and again I know everybody can talk, you know, about what we did. Wrong and so forth. But believe me, I, I'm telling you, I was I, Gardner Webb going into the ball game, Bob, I was telling everybody there 45 transfers on that team and about 23, I think from FBS level schools, a group of five, you know, which is the same level at East Carolina and Appalachian State and Charlotte are on. And then even some of the Power Four conferences, transfers, and that was not. The same Gardner web team as everyone saw last year. I think they were four and eight. That is a legitimate one aa FCS, whatever you want to call it football team. And in fact, they're already in the national rankings this week after they beat us. So maybe that's, people were they thank a lot of us the fact that Mark Gardner Webb beat us and so forth,
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, yeah, because.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah. Mm-hmm.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:still in the coaches poll at, at number 25. Barely in there, but you know, my thing is, okay, Gardner Webb, have a great season. Go on and be 10 and two or better if possible. That can only help at least diminish the disappointment from this past Saturday. I mean, allowing 600 yards. And according to Coach Bell, most of those were on like 12 plays. That, that we just let them get loose. I dunno.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Just, just little, little things, just momentum changes things that that, you know, not adjusting to this or that, and a lot of that comes with a quarterback who is, you know, both quarterbacks making their first repair. Well, I think maybe, going back just a bit, Bennett, Judy, maybe, maybe taking 10 or 12 snaps
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:I don't think he had a full quarter of action previous to this.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Lee hadn't, did not appear in a game last year. So that, that a little bit and a new defense, a whole new concept under Jerry Odom. Everything changed around and so yeah. Let's, let's just let's go with that for the time being.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, if, as you had mentioned, off air, the, the, the fumble down deep in our own territory, giving the ball up and allowing a score to just,
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:the momentum. Just
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:yeah. So I'm going to Winston-Salem to see the Wake Forest game this weekend. I don't, I think you've got some other plans, but I'll be up there. Coach seems optimistic about the future of this team. You know, whether or not we're gonna be able to walk away from Wake Forest with a win. I don't know about that, but he seems to think that that the future is bright for the cat mounts your thoughts.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:and right. And again, it's again, just so many new players on defense. The now look at that. There's not really one guy that started last season on offense. The entire offensive line is new. You know, your quarterback obviously is new. Your running backs are actually the starters. Were all new. The YC everybody. It's, it's a new look back there, so you maybe get those little things, not making excuses, but these are little things that maybe a week can make a difference. And I'm not, I'm, I do not want to say losing a game was a blessing, but don't ever want to even be quoted on that one. But maybe. Got everybody's attention and maybe matured them a little quicker than they had anticipated. So we'll, we'll see how that one goes, but
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:I think there may be two teams that were more disappointed than Catamount fans this weekend. That'd being Mercer, losing the Presbyterian and Alabama getting thumped by Florida State.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah, yeah. Mercer losing the preseason to win the Southern Conference. Offending champion loaded with players coming back from last season that championship season and against Presbyterian. A non-scholarship program. Ncaa, well, you don't call'em division three. They're FCS, just like us, but they're non-scholarship. Then they're with Davidson, the Pioneer League, Jacksonville, all
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:non-scholarship programs. Now, this is the program when these guys were freshmen and sophomores at Presbyterian. Do you remember what happened when they came up here a few years ago? We just, yeah, I think it was the senior's freshman year at Presbyterian. What'd we put up? 70 points on them? Something like
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah. Yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:So the, the coach was commenting about that, about, and he used our game in particular to talk about that and said how much they had matured and learned and so forth. So it can happen.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah, that was one of our biggest Ros ever. I remember that game.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah. Well now, Furman on the other end I thought impressive against William and Mary. William and Mary out of the coastal conference. Whether they've renamed, it used to be the colonial they're always in the the playoffs always nationally ranked Furman playing very well against them especially on defense. Very impressive. East Tennessee, a very impressive win against Murray State. Now, granted, Murray State was picked. 10th in the Missouri Valley Conference. Pretty tough football league out there. But they looked very impressive much more than I think they expected and so forth. But again, some of the other teams not very impressive in the league. Wofford losing to South Carolina State, and of course Citadel just getting thumped by one of your top five teams in the nation every year, North Dakota state up. So again sort of a mixed bag. Chattanooga did not look. Very well against Memphis, and so we'll just wait and see how this all pans out, but not much. Went according to whole, as they say in the first week of the
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Right.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:football race.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, yeah. And Jerry Love has a purple and gold Catamount members board where people post a lot and he does a weekly football pick'em. And there were nine games that the Southern Conference played this past week. I picked three winners.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, you were probably one then. You probably were the winner.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah, there were a, a number of teams that didn't do as well as expected, you know, Sanford, west Georgia again. But anyway let's move on to soccer a little bit. And a team that is performing according to expectations they were picked to win the Southern Conference.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:yeah. I tell you, we're coming off defending regular season champions in soccer. Lost of course in the tournament championship game. Again, they're going on the road for their next five matches after playing several matches here early in the season. Look good in a couple of high point, look very good lost to Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. Sort of mild upsets you might see, even though they're on another level. They the group of five level and of course losing to the number two team in the nation, Tennessee. Think it was a lot closer than everybody expected. Three to nothing lost Sunday night to Tennessee. But this team, again, also rebuilding a little bit defensively from last season. And maybe looking for the right mix. Now, the, the formula that they had last year. But I have a lot of confidence in coach Chad Miller that he can put this thing together. I've seen happen too many times, and as the season goes, our women's soccer team usually gets stronger and stronger.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, he was pretty disappointed in the loss to Georgia Southern. We should have won that game.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:He was
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:and I, I understand that although we did get an upset win on NC State last week, which was good, the stats didn't show that, that we. Performed that well. But the la the way the ladies played showed that, that we did deserve to win that. And as a matter of fact, we had Gabrielle Ano who was picked Southern Conference Player of the week, partly because of her performance with a goal and an assist against NC State. So that was pretty cool.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:talk about offensive. I guess, what do you want to talk? We had three shots on goal. on all three of them against Tennessee State defensively. They took 21 shots. only scored twice. So that tells you that we, what we can do. And NC State a solid, solid division one soccer program.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well we've, we had six people pre-season picked out of 11 on the first team pre-season selections. Six of them were cat mounts, including our goalkeeper who is returning, and she's fabulous. So, I'm, I'm pretty optimistic about the chances with soccer this year. One other thing is you mentioned five games on the road. The fourth game on the road is our first Southern Conference match against Stanford, who beat us, like you said, in the the tournament for the finals last year and went on to the playoffs where we deserve to go. But it is what it is.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:It it usually comes down to Western Carolina and Sanford of the last several years to win the Southern Conference Championship. But like I say, five straight matches on the road starting tonight at Longwood, up in Farmville, Virginia.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yep.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:I know everybody knows exactly where Longwood is, you
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Just like everybody knows where color we is.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:That's right. Very similar.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:So we got cross country that's getting started as well. Tell us a little bit about that.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Well, cross country last weekend actually had their first meet of the season and with UNC Asheville over in the Bryson City Swain car county area, through the mountains over there, and actually came up a little short in that one, but. Again, I know it was UNC Asheville, but they have a very strong track and field program and cross country program over here. And they don't put their money into a lot of sports, but that is one that they do put money into. And again I thought last, the last, cross country season and track and field season. Really strong for Western Carolina. Really showing, turning the corner and getting back to those days when Danny Williamson was here coaching us into all those championships, but his protege there doing a pretty good job of rebuilding this program.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:And you know, we, we haven't done distance well in the last 10 years or so, but it looks like we're starting to build on that golf. Women's and men's, their women's opened up and they opened up ninth out of 11 teams last weekend in the, is it Clemson Invitational? Yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:right? And a very, very tough golf course. I'm telling you down there. I've played it before. And ave the competition was very, very stiff. They won't many, many times this season faced that kind of competition. So
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:The men's team opens this weekend, right?
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:Yeah, they're down at Polly's Island the golf Week real good tournament down there at TrueBlue. And I've played that course and I did not, I will not tell you what my score was down there, but it wasn't very good. But a very, very tough venue to be playing on down at Paul's Island the south part of Myrtle Beach.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:Followed by the next tournament, which is the hosting by Western. The JT Poston tournament is at two weeks now, so.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:right. Yeah. J jt again, does a great job of, of helping our golf program and his appreciation for what it did for him. And he'll be getting cranked up here again. I think he's gonna be playing some in the fall schedule. He won a tournament last year during the PGA falls her out in Las Vegas, and I don't see that. That tournament on the schedule this year, but it they might have moved the date or they might have renamed it, I'm just not sure.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:He is having a pretty good year. He is ranked 49th internationally, which is good. So
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:And he just missed the FedEx tournament area and,
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_3_09-04-2025_133439:the championship tournament down in Atlanta. We, we saw him went down to watch him perform a couple of years ago in Atlanta and had a great time.
bob-sabin_3_09-04-2025_133439:That's good. Alright, well that about wraps it up for the round the world. Look at Catamount Sports.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:And now let's bring in today's guest. Steve, would you like to introduce her?
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yes. Karen Glover. Takes her volleyball team over to Asheville this weekend to play in the Blue Ridge Volleyball Classic at the Harris Casino Center, the old Asheville Civic Center in Asheville against the College of Charleston Bradley. And we call it, I, I still call it UNC Charlotte. They don't like to be called that. They just like to be called Charlotte. But coach is with us, he's right now the. I, well I hate to say this, but the eldest member of our coaching staff, 15th season here at Western Carolina, the longest tenured head coach currently involved at Western Carolina, and she's been named the Southern Conference coachee the year twice as coached. We actually coached our first team to post-season play back in 22 when we hosted southern Mississippi. The Ramsey Center,
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yep.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:and that was, believe me, that was an awesome atmosphere in the Ramsey Center a couple of years ago. But again, women's volleyball is our second oldest sport here at Western Carolina. Started in the early seventies up in old Bruce, Jim. Now, I'm sure coach, you know where Bruce Jim is and Bob. Probably still remembers it too. The, that was where our basketball teams played up until 19 58, 59, so forth. And,
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:had two swimming pools on campus.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:had a swim. They filled that one in with they put concrete in the old swimming pool. That's where I took water safety instruction up there, which was like going to boot training. But those, that early teams under the guidance of Coach Betty Peele, we've got a great tradition here in volleyball at Western Carolina. Several volleyball players in our athletics Hall of Fame. Coach give us maybe a, a sort of a track your path to Western Carolina University from the time you left college and I know you were in out west in Arizona for many of those years. I.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:That's a, that is a, a path. So I graduated college and just wanted to go somewhere different. So I moved out to Arizona got into, started working in group homes and things, and was coaching like a rec team got into teaching at Cactus Shadows High School. I got a coaching gig there as the volleyball coach, so I was teaching at the middle school for a few years and then I moved up to teaching the high school, but I started coaching the high school team at Cactus Shadows, and we did really well. I also helped coach softball. While I was there with the volleyball team, we were really successful. We won state two, two times, so that was nice. It was a lot of fun. A lot of really great people came through that program. And then I got a job at junior college called Phoenix College, which was right downtown Phoenix and went there for a couple years and did well. And then that was A-N-J-C-A Division two School, and then Arizona Western, which is in Yuma. If anyone has ever heard of that came calling, I went over there'cause that's a division one N-J-C-A-A or Yeah, that's a division one school. So I went there for a couple years. I had a friend who got the head coaching job at University of Louisiana Monroe, and he was like, Hey, if I get this job, I want you to come be my assistant. I'm like, what? He's like, no, you've always been a head coach. You can help me with that part. I've always been an assistant. You wanna be at division one so we can help each other out. So I was there for a year just looking at jobs in this place Western Carolina shows up as open. And I went out with friends of mine. One of'em was one of the assistant basketball coaches and his wife. And I was telling her, I was like, yeah, I was thinking about applying to this job at Western Carolina. She goes, shut up. That's where I'm from. And I was like, no way. She's like, yeah, Kelly Tar was from here. her mom still lives in the area, so shout out to Jill. Helped me a little bit when I moved here. Helped, helped me find a place and things. But yeah, came out, applied for the job, came out for the interview. I must have done something right they hired me. I just, I remember coming in and going, wow, this place is so pretty. Like, it's just so different from places where I've been before. It was just cool. Really, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of snow. My players would would say that's fine, but I really thought, I'm like, I'm moving to the mountains. We're gonna have. Snow all the time? No, no, not so much. But it is, it's just a pretty place and it's a really great area, great athletic department, a really supportive community, all those kind of things. So, I really liked, I liked high school. I liked the junior college. It was a really good situation. I liked where I was, but I really liked the four year really getting to work with'em the whole time. That's kind of what I missed from leaving the high school to go to junior college. You basically get'em in, have'em for a year and a half, and you're trying to get'em recruited on. So you don't really get to see that full development of how they go from freshman to senior. And I really wanted to get back to that. I think that's, that's part of the beauty of it of coaching is you really get to see what they're like from the heck you start recruiting'em when they're sophomores, so summer after their sophomore year now, and how they are as a junior in high school, senior in high school, and then how they go through their college career to when they leave and how much they've grown and developed and matured and all that kind of stuff. I just think that's really, that's just so fun. I, I enjoy that part of it so much, and so nice to be at the four year level where I can see that happen.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:That's great and you know, the transfer portal has been big on the o on the men's sports, in particular, basketball and football, but it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem for volleyball and soccer. would you say that is correct?
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:I still think it's big, like there's still more people in the portal. The numbers have probably doubled from what it was before it, but it wasn't as huge of an issue because volleyball was always allowed to transfer once and not have to sit out. Unlike some of the other sports that you immediately, if you transferred, you had to sit out. So when they took that restriction away, that was a big difference. That really hadn't been an issue for volleyball. You were allowed to transfer and, and play right away. So, and I think female athletes are looking at it from a different perspective. Sometimes there's not as many professional opportunities for them to continue the sport, so a lot of times they have a different focus on why they're in school and might be a little more focused on the educational piece and some other options for after school rather than professional sports. It is changing. We've got a couple of professional volleyball leagues now in the us. They're doing great. And that's an exciting part to be able to have that go on. so the transfer portal has become a bigger deal. I'm not a huge fan. I don't, I don't love it. Like I, there are reasons that you should transfer. There are, there's reasons that people will transfer. It's, you find a place that's not a good fit or, you know, things happen, that's okay, but I don't think you should just transfer just because coach yelled at me today, or I didn't get to play. I didn't get to start when I was a freshman or had the role that I wanted as a freshman. Like, we talk about the, the life skills that you learn from sports, and I think sometimes the. The easy transfer and how quickly they can go and do other things. away from that. You know, the, the ability to deal with conflict and, you know, things don't go your way and be resilient and all that. I think those are really important life lessons that, you know, we always talked about how, how sports teaches that you know, this maybe is not the best thing for that. I'm hoping that we can kind of find some better ways to, to make this work out to where it makes more sense.'cause I know the. The fan perspective that say, well, the coaches can leave whenever they want to. Well, just leave whenever they want to. Most of them, not all, most of them have coaching contracts and there's buyouts and there's cla. There are a lot of clauses and things that go into that of when they can leave and what they can do. And you know, and people are, this is their job in their career and this, this is something they're gonna do for the rest of their life potentially. So I think we just have to get a better system in place of what this is so it's not just a crazy bidding war for people and you know, and the student athletes still making sure they get their good education and they get to get to learn all those life lessons that they learned before. And you know how to be a good teammate when things aren't going your way. You know, when you're the backup, when you're used to being the star. Like that's the hardest transition for, from high school to college for all of'em. They're all used to being the star
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Right.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:and they've gotta come and figure out how to. Either maybe they have that role, maybe they don't, and how they deal with that. And there's just a lot of stuff that goes into it. So, you know, the transfer portal's there I think it impacts all the sports a little bit differently. Yeah, I'm glad, I think I'm probably glad I'm not a basketball or football coach at this moment.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well coach your counterpoints these here in the Southern Conference we're not impressed with your. Current team before the season started. They picked us down at the bottom of the league a few weeks ago in the preseason poll. However, a couple of impressive wins over Texas Tech and Kent State. I think maybe have changed their minds a little bit. Might have changed the narrative a little bit. Your thoughts on the preseason poll and what's happened since then.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, I think that SoCon for volleyball for sure is. It's always kind of a, it could be anybody could win on any given day. So I think it's hard to really say. It's not like, oh, this team is always at the top of the, and this team is always at the bottom. There's a lot of parody in our league. And so I think it's hard to, to pick that somehow. And, you know, a lot of factors go into it. You know, people knew that we lost some players to transfer, and so just not knowing. We have a, we have a very young team. we have six freshmen, sophomores, three juniors and two seniors. So I think that's plays into that of just, we were kind of a big question mark of like not really sure where they're gonna be. So can't really rank'em that high. Then we just put'em wherever, go from there.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:once we get through a first few weeks of playing and how things shake out, you'll see a little bit better of where the league falls.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, you've already gotten a Southern Conference player of the week.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Katie bony, our setter. She did a great job this past weekend. Running a five one, really kind of taking over that, that spot, that number one setter spot she's played before, but we did a lot of, a lot of her sharing time with UBA who graduated and running a six two rather than a five one. But she's done a really great job of running the offense and you know, and also she's one of the leaders and one of the captains on the, on the team, which is great. And that's, it's a really good thing to have your setter be one of your leaders. And she's doing a good job of providing that leadership and that stability on the court. She doesn't have the real highs and lows. She's not the real emotional player. She's not, probably not the big cheerleader on the court and the one that's gonna be as fiery and feisty as some others. But she does a good job of keeping us kind of even keel.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well coach looking at your roster you have young ladies from nine different states in one foreign country. To me that says something about your ability in WCU to attract players from outside the region.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, volleyball, recruiting
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:I.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:makes it a little easier to get people from, from kind of all over. We do, our recruiting is primarily through the club. Season, and club tournaments. There are some really massive club tournaments in Atlanta that get teams from all over the country, and it's so easy to go down to Atlanta to recruit there, or even up to Louisville, Kentucky. Like, we'll, we can drive up there and there will be these tournaments with teams from all across the country. And so it's nice to be able to see that. I'm still, I'm always a little leery about people who can't get if their parents can't get here driving or like a quick trip. They tend to be a little more homesick sometimes, that kind of thing. You know, really wanna know that if they're going far away from home, that they're prepared for that or the parents are prepared to visit a little bit more often.'cause it gets lonely. I mean, if you ask eda, she's our girl from Turkey. Like her, her mom came once last year and she'll come once this year. And then the one thing I love about this team and the teams I've had in the past, they do a great job of kind of taking those. Players that their parents aren't as close really under their wings and the families that are close by will kind of mini adopt them and take them with'em or maybe take'em home on short holidays or long weekends, things like that, which is just awesome for, you know, how the team supports each other. But it is of nice to be able to, I don't have to go to California to look at kids from California. I can go to. Louisville and Atlanta and you know, Kansas City and some other places and still see players from all over the country. But they let you know. North Carolina is a big draw, especially we have a lot of Floridians. They were very happy to go down to Florida for our first weekend tournament. A lot of family and friends were down to watch them. But you know, the Floridians, they, a lot of'em really like coming up here to the mountains of North Carolina to check it out and that it's pretty, and they. They're familiar with it, and so it kind of feels like a second home. And they know when you come here to Western and you come on a visit and you get a feel for it, you just, you feel that, like we talk about it in recruiting all the time. Every player wants to know like, Hey coach, can you describe your team? What are they like? Are they kind of a family? And I'm like, every single coach is gonna tell you their team's a family. No one's gonna be like, no, we hate each other. don't like each other. No, we don't. We just show up and no, everyone's gonna say that, but you'll really feel which teams feel that way and which teams don't. And what schools kind of feel that way, like we are a. A bigger school with a really small school field, the professors want to be part of your life. The administration wants to be part of your life. Like you get that feeling of like, yes, these people do wanna support me. The other athletes wanna support each other. It's, we're not in little silos where no one talks to each other and it doesn't interact. Like there's a lot of. a lot of camaraderie and the athletes supporting each other, and you get that feel when you come on a visit, and that makes a difference for the players to, to be able to feel like, and it makes a difference for the parents to feel like I can feel safe taking, letting my kid go there and feel like they're gonna be taken care of and they're in this great community and this safe environment and with people who do care about them and don't just care about a certain sport or a certain person.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:So we, we see how people are drawn to Western and Colory, and that goes across the board, whether it's baseball, football, or just going to school as a student as I was, but. What do you look for? Of course you're looking for the good athlete, the outstanding high school player, but is there a particular profile either in physicality or academics that, that you look for?
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:I mean, first and foremost, I want good people. I want you to be a good human. I think that's important. You know, we've, we wanna sit and I, I, we deal with each other for a lot, a lot. We spend a lot of time together. I don't wanna spend time with people I don't like and enjoy being around. you know, getting to know the players and knowing that they are good humans is a big deal to me also. Then of course, you have to have the athletic skills. You've gotta be able to have some athleticism. You've gotta have good movement. You gotta have good volley. Knowledge you have to have good volleyball skills. But I think the, the thing we try to find, and it's, you know, never an exact science, but I think that edge, that competitiveness and it's, it's hard sometimes for female athletes because so often you're, they're taught to play nice. Play nice, play nice, play nice. Everything is, you have to be nice. You have to be nice and like, yes, you can be good people and be a nice person, but when you step on the court, you can, you can have an edge and you can get after it. And so this year we're talking a lot about you go be that superhero. When you get on the court, you have the confidence of a superhero, you step on. You are that other person. You are no longer Diana Prince, you are Wonder Woman. when you're attacking at the other team, I'm like, you're allowed to be a super villain and cause chaos. Like, get after it. It's okay. And at the end of the game, you shake hands and you're a good sport and you can, you're still a good person, but in the moment, you're allowed to be an athlete
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:like it.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:allowed to get after it. So, you know, get your, get your alter egos going.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, coach, look at this right now, going back to the Southern Conference and so forth. How does it stack up this season? Who do you think right now be the teams that you have to point toward? I know you point toward every game, every, every, every opponent, every match, and so forth, but how do you think it stacks up right now looking at the, the, the top and who you think are the better teams in the league and so forth?
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:I mean, I think it's really hard from this first weekend because you know, it's like Wofford was at the pick to the preseason, conference champion and they had a really tough first weekend. Like they played some really tough competition. So I don't know that that's really representative of what they're gonna be like. For the season. So I think it's hard. We need a few weeks to kind of see how some things shake out and really look at it. Because really if you look at the results, the teams that were picked in order more towards the bottom. A lot of them were the ones who did really well, whereas some of the teams picked at the top didn't fare so well. But some of that has to do with level of competition you're facing and things. So I go back to all the time, I think there's so much parody in the SoCon. Especially in volleyball, that you really do have to be out there and prepare for every, every match, every time, and be ready to, you know, bring your best every time, or you're gonna, it doesn't matter who you're playing, you can easily blow it.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Your season is continuing this weekend right around the corner in Asheville. You've got four good teams involved. Tell us a little bit about the tournament itself. How did that come about? And it's, it's really good for us and a couple of the other teams to have such a local venue to bring.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, I think, well, a few years back they got the bid to host the SoCon tournament, and that was supposed to happen this past year and clearly with the, the hurricane and what happened from there, they weren't able to do that. And part of what they, the city of Asheville wanted to do was to also host a preseason tournament. And, you know, volleyball is growing in the area and they've got a little bit of a volleyball community and they want to, they've got some, you know, some businesses in the area that really do like volleyball and wanna promote and want to, you know, be invested in as sponsors and things like that. So they've been wanting to do a preseason tournament and so I just. Started talking to the person who was like the liaison for the SoCon tournament and said, all right, here's, kind of how it works. This is what we normally do. What are you thinking? are we going And you know, and we just kind of went through it and I was like,'cause they would love to grow it. They want next year it to be a bigger event and have more teams and, you know, play for more evenings and you know, really grow this into a premier type of tournament. I'm like, well we gotta start. The way most of'em start with the four teams, play it out and see how it goes. So they've got it. They've got a TerraFlex court there, which is great. It's really good for recovery. it's nice on their joints and things. It just gives some extra cushion that, you know, like sport court is what people are used to in the club scene. But the TerraFlex is like the premier surface, so they've got that for it. I think it gives us a little bit of edge. We'll be used to playing in that facility. Well, you know, won't be the first time we go when it comes around to so on play, but I just think it's nice to. We can't host a home tournament, so it's nice to only be just down the road. I think we can have some fans. I think it's easy for some of our parents and stuff to get into town to see it, but I just think it's great. And I think you've seen, like Matthew Rodriguez has done a lot of work for it and some of the other people that he's working with, they're. They're really, you know, coming together as a group to put this, to pull this off and, and put on the best thing they can. And they may have some bumps. It's the first time they've done it, but I think it's good to have this prior to the SoCon tournament too. And so then you can work out any kinks and, you know, know, you don't know what can go wrong until you do it. Like you talked about your podcast before. You know,
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Right.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:get some glitches along the way, but then you can work'em out. But we're excited for it. I think it'll be fun. It'll be cool to play in that venue. Like a neutral site is kind of neat. like I said, just to be in that community. They've done some club stuff there and some, I think, adult tournaments. So, you know, getting into the college tournament thing will be a good, a good thing for them.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, I'll tell you, I'd love to get the Southern Conference Baseball tournament back to Asheville. They're rebuilding in the McCormick field. It's gonna be a beautiful venue down there next year. The. Spending a lot of money, the city of Asheville and, and the, and the club itself. And of course the volleyball tournament coming to Asheville. I thought we made a big mistake back in the nineties when we moved the tournament out of Asheville. Still don't understand that. We were like vagabonds, wandering around for about 10 or 12 years and finally some brains overwhelmed everybody else, and we got the tournament back. To, to Asheville. But I, I really like that of course for selfish reason too. It's a lot closer to our, our fan base Coach. One thing I'd like for you to comment on talking about down at soccer earlier in the season and continued on since then. That first batch down there with with High Point. Looked around and each team had, in some cases it looked like the entire teams were there to support our women's soccer team. You know, baseball, basketball, volleyball even a lot of football players were down there and, and I just thought that was really unique. Is this something you see a trend enters that something, an emphasis that we are placing on to get our other teams to support the team that's actually playing at that time, I think is really neat.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, so we do back the cats. and so that was kind of our welcome back event and a back the cats thing. So, every sport will have a back the cat game the athletes earn points if they show up and post on socials and all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of fun to have that environment and I think it's good we try to do it. Tyler Pope coordinates I, I think he tries to do it at early games, so that way you see early on the season, oh wait, like volleyball's pretty fun. Like I was gonna say, I would encourage people to come out to Asheville this weekend because I think. A lot of people don't understand the rules of volleyball and they're, they're like, I'm not really sure and this, but if you just watch it, it's exciting. It's fast paced, the things that we like, fast paced. There's a lot of scoring, there's a, you know, that kind of stuff happens. It's. It's just a fun environment. The game is quick. It's, it's athletic. They're making some good moves, like, and, and you'll learn it pretty quickly. They've gotten rid of some of the, some of the rules that have made it harder. There's a lot of, there used to be a lot of double contacts and now we just don't call double contacts as long as the ball stays on your side. So they kind of let the game continue to play, go from there. But but that's what I think the athletes still. Do like coming out and supporting each other. And I think that's a pretty cool thing. There's even a trophy for back the cats. It's actually in my office'cause we won last year. So, you know, that's always a good thing to have because it's easy, you know, everyone wants to go to football games, you know,
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:body wants to do that. But pushing the student body to the athletes and the rest of the student body to come to other games is huge. And I think once they come, they're like, oh, this is actually pretty fun. We should come again. And so they've, we've done a lot more also pushing at freshman orientations.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah. You got,
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:talking to
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:yeah,
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:it
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:right.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:hanging out stuff about schedules and collecting some email addresses and things so we can email people about games and you know, Brian Boyer, who is basically Snapchat famous make sure to Snapchat and you know, put out on all his social media things when we have games and all that kind of stuff. And I think that helps get fans, butts in the seats is what we want. And we wanna
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:of people. It's fun.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah. I live in Atlanta, and so I get to colory often enough, but I, the, the ESPN Plus thing is amazing. You know, if they raised the price to 50 bucks a month, I'd probably support it because I started watching volleyball a couple years ago and I was impressed about how quickly it goes and how skilled players on both sides of, of the net are.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah, I got their home schedule opener coming up. Coach next Tuesday against UNC Asheville as sort of a local rival, six o'clock at the Ram. Center, it's gonna be beach night and they say that the first 300 will get a pair of Malibu sunglasses and so beach night. So I'm sure that's gonna track some extra people, some people who need some sunglasses if they don't like volleyball. So that, that's, I'm sure y'all are looking forward to that and just see how that goes. Yep.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well, if you're a student and you don't have sunglasses and you go to football games, you're in trouble.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yep.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:say, I was looking out at, at the guy, at everybody on the east stands on Saturday, just, you know, kind of with the, with the sun in their eyes. question for you, kinda off the wall. So do you ever eat Speedy's pizza?
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:no, I've never heard of it. What is, what, what is that?
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well, Bob's got a good story about Speedy Pizza now. Yeah.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:you're involved with Speedy's Pizza because your husband now runs it right?
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well, so. He, he and his family ran it for about 19, 20 years. and then with the road project that was going through town, they took the building. So they were kind of outta luck. And then for temporarily, Roger's brothers had. Made a deal to where they could sell Speedy's pizzas and just had kind of a, a deal going with that. And then that restaurant didn't quite make it luckily the place that was called Junction Pub, that's owned by the same people that own River and Rails started talking with Charlie and his family. it and ended up, they have purchased Speedy now, so Charlie and his family are not running anymore, but it is the Speedy's Ovens and it's the Speedy's recipes. And Charlie went in there for about two weeks and helped get everything set up and you know, of did some quality control. We went in there, we took a recruit in there while we were at it. But I'm, we're really excited. I think it was, they were excited to be able to kind of pass it along. Charlie's parents are excited to absolutely be retired now and not have to keep doing that. And Charlie was doing some other jobs that he really liked and able to manage kind of some of the rentals we have and stuff like that. So it's been a win-win for everybody and we're excited that Speedy's is back in Silva, a good location. And you know, I think Craig and Natalie will do great. So, yeah. Yes, I'm very familiar. That is actually how I met Charlie. That's how I met my husband was at Speedy's Pizza, so
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:well. I didn't meet my wife at at Speedy's, but I did drive one of those little 1974 Vega trucks
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:no way.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Speedy's pizza. And actually one night had only been working for Speedy's for about. Two weeks and I'm driving on campus to deliver a pizza, and the cross country team was coming back on campus from a meet in an old station wagon, and the guys were facing the, the rear of the station wagon. And so I knew my roommate was in there and I pulled right up on him and I was playing bumper tag with them coming up on campus by the old sign. And I look in the, their, they all of a sudden their eyes all got real big. I looked in the rear view mirror and, trooper Battle was right behind me with the lights on.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:In fact, yeah. And Bruce Prentice who was the original owner of Speeders Pizza here, down by the bridge in Callway,
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:sir.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Tried to buy, I had a Vegas station wagon, my wife and I, and when. First got married and they tried to buy it as part of their delivery, but we just couldn't work out a deal on it. But that was a legendary. There's Vegas station wagons that Bob used to drive delivering Speedies pizza.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yep.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Well, coach, it's been great having you on here today. We appreciate it. We look forward to a successful volleyball season for you and the ladies and good luck this weekend in Asheville. So folks, that about does it for another track in the Cats. We'll see you in two weeks. Brought to you as always by Stanbury Insurance. Now with four location, Waynesville, Clyde Silva and Highlands.
squadcaster-e8ad_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yes. There you go.
bob-sabin_1_09-04-2025_125813:Thanks folks. We'll see y'all again soon.
karen-_1_09-04-2025_125813:Yeah.
