_1_06-19-2026_143016 0:12

Welcome to Tracking the Cats

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 0:14

I'm Bob Saban, along with my co-host, Steve White, uh, who has been through, uh, some very interesting couple of weeks, and he may get a chance to talk a second about that. We- we'd like to let you know that every time we do this, we are sponsored by Stanberry Insurance. They have offices in Sylva, Waynesville, Highlands, and Clyde, and they can cover all of your insurance needs. We're gonna continue with our summer series of Tracking the Cats today. Uh, we've got a good guest on. You've heard him before with us. It's Kyle Peiffer, the athletics director for Western Carolina, and he is joining us on location. You may hear some background noise. He's i- actually in a Starbucks in Greensboro, North Carolina. But by golly he's wearing Catamount gear. I am not, because we're, as we record this, we're about an hour away from Team USA facing off against Australia on Friday afternoon, June 19th. And so I'm in the World Cup mode. But we'll have Catamount gear back on next time.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 1:19

Bob, you know what they used to call that, some of the locals here in Jackson County called soccer, don't you? Co-

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 1:27

no.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 1:28

football. Communist football.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 1:32

Yeah. The Babylon Bee has a good time making fun of soccer as well w- welcome to the program, Kyle. It's good to see you, sir

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 1:41

it. Thank you. And I do apologize for the background noise, if there is any. I'm in I'm in full soccer mode myself. We're looking forward to the US team, but my daughters are over here playing in a tournament, so that's where-- that's why I'm on the road

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 1:53

Very good

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 1:54

That's great. We've got a bunch of questions lined up for you, and I'm gonna let Steve get it all started

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 2:00

Okay, now I'd just like to have, I know everybody asks you this probably everywhere you are w- just an update progress on the Sky Box and the proposed scenario for the first weekend of the football season. Where are we right now? You feel confident? Any issues that you might see in the for- in the immediate future?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 2:20

And I see a lot of issues, Steve, but they're all gonna work out. So the new field is down, the team's out running around on it and breaking it in a little bit. The video board was taken down Monday and Tuesday this week, and so right now if you walked out there, it's just the open structure. The boards are slowly going back in. That's a tedious process to put the panels up. But that will be ready to go by end of June. And then the lights are up. We haven't turned the power on yet, but the lights are there, so we're ready to start testing those any day. And then the construction itself they've got some work to do, and I did a walkthrough just recently. The coaches areas have glass, and the press box has glass maybe don't touch the walls when you walk up there the first time on that, that Saturday game. That might be some wet paint. But I've asked them to really focus on the areas that are usable, make it functional. But I don't think we'll have any issues. They've been as- assuring me all along that they're doing fine. They haven't had much weather, so knock on wood that continues, and we can have a great time for that. We have a Friday opening ceremony and then the game on Saturday.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 3:15

Cool. We've got that old scoreboard coming down. I've got a big basement and, if they need any place to set that up, I'd be glad to ex-

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 3:23

That's a big basement now, Bob. When I walked by on Friday, it was-- the old pieces were literally laying in a pile by the road. So you better hurry, Bob, if you wanna go pick those up.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 3:35

Yeah, the, the--

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 3:36

I'm a little techy, but not that techy to

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 3:39

Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 3:39

Reassemble. But speaking of the scoreboard Steve and I were wondering two things. One, is it going to be bigger? Is it going to have-- I think it's gonna have more information built into it. But also that netting that's in front of it, hopefully they're gonna figure out how to retract it when somebody is not kicking at the board

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 3:57

a couple things about that. One, it's the same width, okay? So like the structure, we couldn't go wider. That's just the way that the engineering is. So before we had the fixed digit scoreboard below, that is gone, and we're gonna extend the video board all the way down, and that's what you'll see the built-in information, some of that. The netting is permanent right now, and we're gonna turn it on and test it before we make a decision on how to put that net up and down. We have the truck there. We have everything else. So we're gonna take a look at it and see what it means. I do wanna make sure I protect that brand-new board. It's a nice piece of equipment. I don't want the first day to have a field goal bang it right in the middle someplace. So let us test that a little bit, Bob, and we'll let you know

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 4:34

Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 4:34

Okay, sounds good

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 4:36

that talking about other work in the stadium Kyle, the digging on the north

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 4:40

Yeah. Yeah

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 4:41

side, the seating area, I understand that's being done to accommodate the band moving from the west side to the east side. Maybe tell us what that's all about, what that's gonna look like

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 4:52

Yeah the band used to sit over there, but I think that the band has grown since then, and there was some concern about, one, timing, getting that many people up and down those narrow kinda aisles and walkways. So we're gonna extend... It's a bigger work zone than I expected, but we're gonna extend that staircase that's towards the field house by about 10 feet and allow two at a time, maybe even enough space to get the tubas and everything else up there in a timely manner so that they can get up and down for the halftime show as well. So that's happening. And then down at the base, we're actually adding another access point to the field itself, so the band can get on the field a couple different ways.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 5:28

Okay. That, that explains that. It's, like I say, it's just I understand when they were digging out those junipers over there, they found a lot of those little airline illegal beverage bottles thrown in there. And that started back in the '70s. And the first time we went in there w- they were doing something, spraying in the junipers, and some guy came out, he had about 400 little airline alcohol beverage containers. So I don't think they do that anymore, but still,

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 5:57

don't. But

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 5:57

I have no recollection of any of that. We might have had a metal flask with us with some Southern Comfort in it, but

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 6:05

I knew Steve would have a joke about it somehow, so good job, Steve

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 6:08

No. Also, one other thing we were talking about at the stadium is any plans to utilize the old press box once we get into the skybox on the other side and the chancellor's box? Will that remain the same, or you're gonna be able to do anything with that?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 6:23

Nothing immediate. W- we're talking about changing some of the seating areas in the old chancellor's box maybe. Some of the railings there and some of the They've got some a countertop that kind of sits in front of some of those seats. We're I don't see anything immediate. The old press box we can't put stands there. There's n- it's not ADA accessible, so adding something to that was just, it didn't make feasible sense for, from a financial standpoint. So nothing for now. In fact, back to our first point, I don't wanna do anything for the first game just in case. You always have to have a backup plan. We have to run that first game from the old press box. I hope that's not the case, but we wanna make sure that's still a backup plan if necessary, but nothing for now. Thank you, though. The old chancellor's box, we're actually selling those seats. and if there's some left, if you're interested in sitting there, Catamount Nation, please contact our ticket office. But we will have people sitting in there. It should be a nice covered area. That's where the chancellor used to sit, and there's some concessions a- availability. It's a good spot

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 7:18

Yeah, that could be some premium

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 7:20

Good

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 7:20

up there.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 7:21

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 7:24

And speaking of seating there's gonna be about an extra three, 400 seats over on the west side. Are those currently blocked out for season tickets? Or how-- Is there anything designated for those areas? How is-- How will seating configuration change overall?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 7:40

talking about where the band used to sit. Is that what you're talking about, Mark?

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 7:43

Correct.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 7:44

no

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 7:44

Yeah

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 7:44

those up for season ticket, single games when necessary, but they're going really well. I think people wanna sit by our team. And I think there's a shade issue, too. You'll be sitting on the east side versus the west side. So they are gonna be high commodity seats, and we're selling those quite well. But yeah, those are gonna be seating for the public

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 8:01

And one other question on seating is I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of interest on the first game in particular. When are single game tickets going to go on sale?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 8:12

I don't have a date right now, Bob. I'll have to get that to you, but we usually wait until a little bit later. Let some season ticket purchases happen through the summer a little bit. Again, I'll get you a date. I don't re- I don't wanna even misspeak and even guess at one right now.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 8:26

Okay. And a plug for season tickets. They're still very very much a good value in my book. We just picked up ours last month and looking forward to getting up there

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 8:36

Yeah, looking forward to that first game too

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 8:38

about construction, yeah, right there next to the west side stands, that is I assume that's gonna be the new west side entrance there right near the west side stands quite different from being down in the corner. That, is that exactly what that is?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 8:52

That's exactly what that is. Yeah, that, that construction site spans the whole west side of that stadium right now. So there'll be a kind of a half wall that extends down there from the sky box, but then there will be a... The new ticket booth is actually up. I saw it the other day, so it's ready to go. And then the gate next to it will be three, four open double doors that opens right into that, that, that area to that hog pen the small turf field down there

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 9:17

Yep, gotcha

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 9:18

Very cool.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 9:19

cool

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 9:19

Looking into the future and, this is a step-by-step process, and we knew this thing going into it. The-- Is the next plan the strength and conditioning of re-- up-upgrading that building there on the end, the Jordan Phillips Fieldhouse building?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 9:34

is our next priority, yes. If a donor came to us and wanted to do something else with the money that... We can talk about that. But anytime we raise fund-fundraising for facilities, that is the next idea. We've got some renderings, about a 10,000 square foot space. It would go over the top of the small, field that's down there, right kind of adjacent to the current, the field house, and all new racks, all new systems that make that something that all of our athletes can enjoy and make that kind of a recruiting piece because every athlete touches the weight room. There's no doubt about it. The one we're in now it's functional but you can't fit a whole team in there sometimes, especially not our football team. So having something that can make us a little bit more modern, is probably the word I'm looking for. Again I don't want it to be fancy. I want this thing to be a strength factory. I want people to come in, work hard, get stronger, get their work done, and get out. So that's the idea around it, and we're still working with design firm construction team around finalizing some numbers, but it's, it's-- that's our next pro- project, and we're looking forward to it.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 10:35

Yeah, I hear that the current strength room is in use like 16 hours a day or something, having to schedule people from early in the morning till late in the evening

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 10:44

so that's true. They start around 6:00 AM and go to about at least 6:00 PM, if not later. We also are do- we did something small in the Ramsey. So we've got some racquetball courts that are over there, and the campus allowed us to take one of those over, lay some flooring down. We're gonna put four weight racks in there, and that should be able to handle our basketball and volleyball rosters that size and kind of spread us out a little bit. And I know our next priority is the next weight room, but this is something that can do an immediate impact to our teams and maybe spread out maybe our teams don't have to work out at 6:00 AM. Maybe we can get some more sleep, which is super important to our college athletes. I'm really excited about that. That should be opened up b-by July. So the equipment should be arri-arriving this month.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 11:26

Any other facility upgrades other than football right now that'll impact the other sports right? Anything we have going on that hasn't been announced or we don't know about and so forth?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 11:36

Nothing that's... No, I'm not trying to hide anything. There's nothing else. We're focused on this football bite two or the weight room is what we say internally, but those are the ones that we're after right now. Nothing else is happening that I can think of or that we're actively after. We're getting ready for

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 11:51

Okay,

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 11:51

season coming up. That's a big piece.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 11:54

Yes.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 11:56

Let's talk about things that aren't as comfortable to talk about, and one of those is sports betting in North Carolina. It's been controversial. It re- it continues to be controversial. We're seeing headlines all the time about players being involved in those kinds of things. But it's also a revenue source, an additional revenue source for us. So explain a little bit about that, if you could.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 12:18

will. It is definitely a two-sided thing for us within North Carolina right now. We get a share of the gambling tax that is spent on the online gambling in North Carolina. Division I system within the UNC system does, except for Chapel Hill and NC State right now. There's some proposals within the House and Senate that might change that, might not. We'll see what's happening this summer with the state. But, I do believe it's an issue. I think it's so easy bet, to gamble. It's-- You're a couple of clicks away, and you are gambling on play-by-play games, multiple games. And w-we've seen the headlines with some of the things that have happened with an NCAA athlete here recently in Texas, and that's a struggle. And I don't think that young man's alone. I think that there's a lot of people who can fall into that trap really easy, and it's becoming kind of its own culture. So whatever we can do to educate our athletes to stay away from that. We had a young man come tell his story. He was He was one of the Kentucky schoolies and got drafted by the Yankees. And he came to tell his story where his signing bonus was spent within six months. And just to show the pitfalls and really help our student-athletes understand how easy this is. Now, he didn't gamble on sports specifically. He was more in a casino, but it's all related. And I think that it really hit home with some of our student-athletes about how easy it is to get hooked, to get into debt, and it becomes a downward spiral really fast. So yeah, it's a two, two-sided coin to that one for sure. It's a significant reve-revenue stream for Western Carolina University Athletics, and not one that I don't want to go away. We use it to our teams operate, pay our scholarships, do all the things that, that come through. But there are pitfalls with it for sure.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 14:01

Is there a particular dollar amount that we're looking at over these first few years as income?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 14:06

So the-- w-we're, we're actually on our third year. The first year was just a little over a million dollars, and these last two years have been over two million plus. This current year, FY26, is gonna close up here in a couple days. We should be in the two point five million dollar range for the revenue that we receive from the gambling. So again,

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 14:23

that's

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 14:24

it's a lifeline. That's a big, significant piece of our budget.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 14:28

Yeah. On the other hand, like you were saying, I heard that I think it's 70% of young men 18 to 30 now have betting apps on their phones that they use

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 14:39

Bob. Honestly, I would have guessed it was even higher than 70% because that is the target audience. I've tried to educate myself on this, and it's young men in America are the targets of these betting organizations

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 14:53

And it's frustrating because, the biggest sports corporations are doing it, whether it's Fox or ESPN, aside from all these other betting companies that have shown up

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 15:03

absolutely right. ESPN embeds it right in their, the bottom of their broadcast. They even have shows dedicated to gambling and odds, and honestly, sometimes they're, they've, they'll-- I've actually lost track of the language. Some of the things they say I don't even understand. I have to continue to educate myself. I've never been a gambler. I haven't been able to my whole career because I work for the NCAA. And to try to understand that from the outside is difficult, but our student athletes can easily fall prey to what's out there. It's just so available and so enticing. I think that, I think it is entertaining. I'm not trying to say it's not, but it's dangerous for sure.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 15:36

Yeah I remember you talking about betting everything. We used to have our NCAA m- basketball pools back in the old days, back in the '60s, '70s, '80s And we finally, our compliance officer says, "That's illegal. You can't do that anymore." So we couldn't even

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 15:51

Oops.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 15:52

the tournament. That's what, that's A lot of people think but that is something that's very positive from the NCAA. Speaking of one that's turned up not being very positive according to a lot of people is the NCAA basketball tournaments, the men's and women's expanding to 76 teams next season, and you can look at that as a plus or a minus, adding eight more teams. And I just read Sports Illustrated a couple of nights ago, and they ripped the NCAA basketball committee, saying they're just trying to take care of the Power Five conference desire to make even more money. Your thoughts on maybe how it's going to help the SoCon mid-level teams and, or is it, do you think it's just to help the big boys and girls as far as funding is concerned?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 16:38

Yeah, I th- I think there's two sides to this one, guys. One, making it to the men's and women's basketball tournament is the goal of many places, right? And expand to this new number allows for a higher percentage to participate and I think that's a good thing. And I think that the ex- expansion over the years, it used to be, 36, 48. We've risen, rose this number up over the years I think that's good. I think allowing more student athletes to experience that is a positive. I do-- the automatic qualifiers are protected SoCon will still have ours, Big South, ASA. So everyone will still have their automatic qualifiers, and I don't think it's gonna be any surprise that the more at-large bids will go to the Autonomy Four, Power Five, what-whatever you wanna call them. I think that those teams are the next... Usually, those are the ones that are left out of the tournament, are those the bigger teams. The Miami of Ohio was a great story last year. Lot of wins, and I think that a team like that has a better chance in the new system of making it in. I think there's a lot of questions about whether or not they should or shouldn't be there. And for these new first rounds, it doesn't change the calendar. It's still gonna be on that Tuesday and Wednesday for the men and then Wednesday, Thursday for the women. It's just more games, those games come with units. So let's just say we'll use our SoCon champion from this last year when Furman won our tournament as a six seed. There's a chance they play in that new opening round, and they play against a team they have a real chance of beating, and that's a unit that our now conference can earn as far as the distribution goes from the tournament later. So again, I do think that more of the larger schools the Au- the A4 teams will be included in the tournament, but the SoCon's still gonna have its place. I think there's a higher chance of getting a second seed in if we have two teams that are battling it out in the SoCon. So I think there's some positives there, but I also understand the angle that was taken in that Sports Illustrated article. I read that as well. And that's the reality. I think we do-- I... Those have the larger media markets, and I think that we should pay attention to that

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 18:40

To me and I'm gonna be a naysayer here, it's overkill. The FIFA World Cup has gone to 48 teams this year, and it's hard to keep track of all those teams, right? And h- how and when are they going to be actually getting in? Is a Curaçao or a Cape Verde actually going to advance beyond the first round? But, that's an argument for deeper and other times. So

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:06

didn't know that we have more than 48 countries in the world. I didn't know

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 19:13

But

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:13

Yes.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 19:14

I

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:14

Yes, Steve, there's only 48 and every

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:16

flunked

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:17

is now invited.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:18

D-minus in geography. Yes.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 19:20

But I love that Cape Verde story at the same time, Bob.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:24

Yes,

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 19:25

against Spain was fantastic, and I've watched the highlights, and it

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:28

It w- it

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 19:28

So I you'll have more games that you'll wanna watch. I do agree, it'll be hard to watch every game every time, and the World Cup is an example of that. Five games a day is tough to keep up with.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:40

we need

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:40

Yep

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:41

the United States playing in the World Cup finals this year.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:44

That'll settle it.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 19:45

interesting.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 19:50

Oh, boy. We've got one other thing we wanna talk about briefly, and that is the golf tournament that's the NIL fundraiser for Coach Craft for basketball. Tell us a little bit about that

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 20:02

this is its second year. It's happening on Monday at the Waynesville Golf Club there in Waynesville. Out, there's still room. It is getting full. We've got a pretty good of teams that are scheduled to play in it, and the proceeds for that go directly to the men's basketball team. And I'll give it to Coach Craft and his staff, they are hustlers. And I've said this a couple times in a couple of different meetings, but anything that they can do to improve their program, and they know that this is what they need to do to compete, th- this is what they'll do. And so come out, enjoy the day. I do, I know there's some weather that's potentially forecast, so we've got a backup day for it, but come on out and have fun. It's gonna be a great day. I'll be there and just we've got the mu- the weekend, the week after down in Charlotte, bringing that one back. I'm really excited to see how we can grow that back into what it was. But yeah, Monday's gonna be a fun day.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 20:50

Yeah, my teammates told me that my desire, they, I could hit off of the first tee. I can tee it up at the tee box, but they really, it's optional for me. They really probably do not need my drive. But they want me to putt now. Putt and chip, I that's fine. But they c- I can maybe rest up, practice putting on the side while they're hitting their drives because mine doesn't go very far anymore. That's

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 21:14

Yeah

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 21:15

Hey, th- there's a reason why you're the state sub-regional divisional champion of the West

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 21:23

It's senior, gold senior citizen, yeah.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 21:26

No, looking forward to a, look-looking forward to a fun day out there. I get to play in it this year fortunately, and I'm... it'll be fun

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 21:33

It's a great layout. It's a lot of fun. It's been redesigned. Went from 27 holes to 36 now, and they did a great job of redoing that golf course. It's I've played it for 40 years, and I really enjoy playing over there. Yeah

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 21:47

I played it recently. If they could do me a favor and cut the rough a little bit. Man, I lost a couple balls just right off the fairway because it's a tough course. But,

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 21:56

Yeah.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 21:56

they can help us out for a friendly.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 22:00

Good. You are the athletics director. The big picture is not football, basketball, it's everything. Men's, women's sports. Help us understand how things are going overall as Catamount athletics right now.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 22:16

appreciate you asking me that. We had a very positive season. We have a interdepartmental goal of having one champion and having six top three finishes. We did that this year. Women's track and field won the SoCon championship at the end of the year there. Baseball was close. They had a great season with a s- with a two seed going into that tournament, and ran into a Samford game and a rain delay that, unfortunately knocked us out. But I think across the board you're seeing some positive momentum. Softball was third, and they ran into the host team unfortunately in their SoCon championship. And so I'm looking forward to what our teams can build on for next year. I think our soccer team will continue to be really strong and competitive. basketball, I've looked at their recruits, and I'm excited about that team. That's gonna be a-- They've reloaded really well with some players who have gotten some good minutes and averages out there. Women's basketball, I love their new... i've met a couple of their incoming recruits. He's doing a great job, Jonathan Sippus. And last year we had some injuries on that, that kinda held us back. But across the board, we're all excited for football. That's the first one coming up here in August. But you're right, like that's not the only one that we focus on. Let's see what we can do this year. I think we can bring home a couple of championships and make us proud.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 23:22

That's great One last thing we want to talk about, and that is the Catamount Club. And this may be more of a thing for development for James Hogan or Ben Pendry, but we are looking for a new director of the Catamount Club right now. We've got a good strong interim director in Brittany Kicklighter. Where do you see that going? Is there an imminent decision? Are they still looking? What do- what's your thoughts on that?

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 23:49

on the search committee for it, so I'm involved quite a bit. We've had a couple of interviews, and I think we've got one, maybe two more interviews left. We're kinda going through a couple of people who applied late. I'd love to get this person in and on board before the start of the football season. That first game's coming up, and to go through a game... Brittany is great, and we would do a great job. I'm not saying we would miss a beat, but if we are gonna have somebody, let's get them here and get them started as soon as possible. So we're talking on June 19th. Do I think someone will be here July 1st? Probably not, but somewhere in July is my goal for a new employee to come in and take over the cattle micro.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 24:25

It's great

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 24:27

You got any questions? Steve, anything left?

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 24:29

wanted to tell you, talk about sports betting. I know Kyle was out with me in in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, a week and a half ago. And, talk about betting, how enticing it is. Any place you go in that hotel, we were at Mandalay Bay, you had to go through the casino, and that took you about 10 minutes of walking because both sides of the street. It is very attractive to people when they're walking through, so that just permeates to everything.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 24:56

definitely in your face there more than anywhere. And

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 24:59

that's

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 24:59

I'm glad you brought it up, Steve, because I did not wanna get off this podcast without mentioning how great of a ceremony and how proud we are of you, Steve, for getting into the CSC Hall of Fame. That was a great day. I know you got to go last because of alphabetical order, but you closed the show great. We're so proud of you, and I was happy for you, Steve. I'm glad I was there to watch that

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 25:17

Great interview

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 25:18

I just saw those other people up there. I'm not sure they were having a great time, and I said, "I gotta change this narrative a little bit here, change the focus since I'm gonna be the last one." And a lot of people have been sitting there for about two hours, so we need to liven it up a little bit, and I think we did. I think

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 25:33

You did a great job. I was sitting by Steve

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 25:36

at

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 25:36

ceremony, and he kept leaning over "Okay, they need to hurry up so they're ta-- they're cutting into my time." And I was like, "Oh, Steve's ready. This is gonna be great."

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 25:45

It was a great time, and I really appreciate your support of bringing out there with several of the staffers. We had about what, 18, 20 Western Carolina people there, and actually ran into some more. Lamont Seaward, for example La- Latonyia Lamont, a former coach. We saw- I saw three or four Western Carolina people out there, had nothing to do with our current organization. But that was just great to have the support out there, and we had a great time, and

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 26:12

It was a great trip.

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 26:13

meal on Sunday evening. It was super. It really was. Yeah.

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 26:16

Yeah, it was fun. I'm glad we were there

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 26:18

Yeah. Yes.

bob-sabin_1_06-19-2026_132713 26:20

Yep. Congratulations. Great job. Kyle, we, as always, we appreciate your time. It's been a good half hour with you here today, and we really appreciate the fact that you stepped away from family commitment and was able to join us remotely from Greensboro. Hope the kids had a great week with the soccer tournaments. And we are about to wrap this thing up, brought to you as always by Stanberry Insurance, offices in Silva, Waynesville, Highlands, and Clyde. And we will see y'all again in two weeks as we continue our summer edition of Tracking the Cats

squadcaster-a78d_1_06-19-2026_132708 26:54

appreciate it. Thank you, guys

squadcaster-had2_1_06-19-2026_132712 26:55

Thank you