The 29/1
Official Podcast of the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program. 29 Sports, One Team. The show that brings you into the lives of student athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther Sports Community. Bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join Rodney Vellinga and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as they dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
The 29/1
A Senior Season: Varsity Boys Basketball with Jake Gerrits, Hudson Vellinga, Ben Beetham & Jared Redell
Come join us for some Varsity Hoops talk as we sit down with seniors Hudson Vellinga, Jake Gerrits, Ben Beetham, and Head Coach Jared Redell. Together, we explore the promise of a 6-2 start to the season, highlighted by wins over Zeeland East, the Holland Dutch & the Jenison Wildcats. Coach Redell speaks to developing resilience and growth through wins and losses, and how his seniors are crucial in the team's current success. Hudson and Jake open up about improved team dynamics, while Ben reveals how he stays cool under pressure when it matters most.
But it's not all high-stakes drama on the hardwood! We share a chuckle-worthy moment about a kid who scattered Cheetos across the court, reminding us of the lighthearted spirit of sports. The episode shifts gears to talk about how transitioning from parent-led to player-led coaching in Little Panthers has transformed community relationships and youth engagement. Hudson and Ben speak candidly about their coaching philosophies, emphasizing fun and keeping players active. Plus, we shine a spotlight on young talents like Darian Stewart, JT Gill, and Makai Campos, whose loyalty, potential and leadership are setting the stage for future success.
As our seniors reflect on their high school journey, they share personal stories of growth, challenges, and triumphs. Hudson recounts being cut from a travel team in middle school and the resulting heartbreak that fueled his passion, while Ben reminisces about days spent perfecting his craft at Winstrom Park. Jake juggles the demands of basketball, football, and making pies at Peppino's Pizza, illustrating the dedication and crazy mad skill required to flip dough to perfection. The conversation wraps up with thoughts on navigating losses, the push for a great senior season, the togetherness needed for success, and the hopes for leaving a legacy, all underscored by the unwavering support of a close-knit team and community.
This episode was recorded on December 31, 2024.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
Yeah, obviously winning games is definitely one of my goals for these next couple months, but also just leaving this place, knowing that we've changed the program and then coming back next year, the next couple years, and seeing some of my old teammates like obviously JT, darian the freshman, and some of the sophomores, playing good and going back and making a state run, I hope and you know we're actually making like- a state run, I hope.
Speaker 2:Hey, everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program and you're listening to the 29.1 podcast 29 sports, one team, the show that brings you into the lives of student athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther sports community, bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join myself and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as we dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
Speaker 3:Every high school athlete gets to the inevitable. Your senior season, your last chance to play with your friends in front of that home crowd, with dreams of making a run at a district title.
Speaker 4:Today we sit down with the Panther Boys basketball program. Seniors Hudson Valinga, jake Gerrits, ben Beetham and Coach Jared Riddell join us the morning after a victory over the Jenison Wildcats. We talk about being leaders on a young team and the season that lies ahead.
Speaker 3:A promising 6-2 start has players, fans and coaches alike optimistic on what the season could be as they now begin the ever-difficult OK Red schedule and the challenge of finding continuity with a young group mixed in with veteran leadership and playing together as a ball-sharing group of five.
Speaker 4:Hudson Malinga, jake Gerrits, ben Beetham and Jared Riddell up next on the 29.1 Podcast. Let's get it.
Speaker 3:Well, hey everybody, Welcome back to the 29.1 Podcast. We are officially back from what I'm going to call our holiday hiatus. Holiday hiatus I don't know what I said the first time. It's been a few weeks since we've been able to record Bill. Apparently, December is really busy at a high school.
Speaker 4:Very busy.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So between practices and game schedules, snow days and such, our plans to record just kept getting squashed. So it's why we missed a few episodes. But we are glad to be back and are excited to have weekly episodes from now through the end of the school year. Today we welcome three young men who have a long history together. They've known each other since they were little boys. They played lots of different sports together when they were little AAU basketball, we did some stuff over at courthouse. The boys played some little league baseball and you know you guys were the little guys who sat in the stands at football and basketball. We're almost through what the first third of our senior varsity boys basketball season here at West Ottawa high school. After back to back six win seasons over the past couple years, there is a marked improvement so far into this young season, as they sit at 6-2. And it's my pleasure to ask who is it?
Speaker 1:Hey Garrett.
Speaker 5:Hudson, valinga Ben Beetham and Coach Gerard L.
Speaker 3:Nice to have you here. Go ahead, Bill.
Speaker 4:Awesome to have you all in the fact that we're we're doing this and kind of jamming it into a crazy schedule. We're doing this before practice, the morning after a victory over jenison last night over at cornerstone. Did you guys enjoy playing at cornerstone?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'd say so. I really like the court.
Speaker 6:Okay, it was good yeah, I just say it's fun to like play on those type of courts and the environment was good.
Speaker 3:You guys, uh, coach, you guys have won three out of your last four 83, 63 victory over West Catholic. 57, 49 in town rivalry win against Holland Dutch. Uh, then you lost to Allendale 63, 51 and then came back and had that big fourth quarter last night 57, 54 win. Fourth quarter last night 57-54 win over Jenison. What's that been like so far? You're on a little bit of a, maybe not the weekend you wanted exactly, but nice comeback win last night.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I thought last night we won a game in a way that we haven't won one all year, and probably not in the three years that I've been here where we struggled offensively First half I think we only had 19 points turning the ball over. Good aggressive turnovers, turned it over in ways that usually we're really good in transition and we weren't taking care of the ball and usually when our offense is struggling our defense really falls and I thought, being down 10 going into the fourth quarter, when we're not scoring, for us to gut back the way we did and kind of chip away, chip away, chip away and then eventually being able to score and win the game. I thought it was a win that we haven't seen and hopefully one that will help propel us into the future in those situations, because you can't always expect to score 70, 80 points to win a game Right, which is kind of the early part of the season.
Speaker 3:It was like we're running, we're gunning, and there was a lot of points scored early. Ben, you made two big free throws down the stretch last night. What's it like to be able to come through for your team in a situation like that.
Speaker 5:So yeah, fourth quarter. I was able to cheer on my team from the bench, and then I got subbed in late to make a couple plays.
Speaker 3:I was able to get a rebound and knock down big free throws. Hudson and Jake, you guys basically have played a lot. Hudson, you played varsity somewhat as a sophomore. What's it like to have six wins already? Two years ago you got your sixth win in late February. Last year it was late February as well. Got your sixth win last night and it's only December 30.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable. You have a lot more fun with it. It's not always easy to be losing a bunch of games in a row. It's way more enjoyable when you're getting wins and everybody's fighting and coming together.
Speaker 3:Jake, you're kind of a spark plug out there. What's it like for you to?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just feels great.
Speaker 4:I'm really proud of our team.
Speaker 4:We've uh we've been, um, working hard and I feel like I can tell that it's paying off. We're more locked in and, uh, getting more wins. It's great. Yeah, I can tell that you guys have been working hard. I've, you know, pop into practice here and there, cut through the gym just to see what's going on. Coach, can you talk to us a little bit about kind of the practice setup that you guys especially especially early in the season, where you have the JV kind of running cross court on one and then the varsity, a lot of energy in the gym, a lot of coaching going on? Maybe talk to us a little bit about what that practice looks like?
Speaker 7:Yeah, especially early in the season. We also have a unique situation where we have five sophomores on our team and three of them are playing some with the JV. So with that, you know, we've been, we've been going cross court and then the last half hour we've been kind of combining with the JV and some of those swinger guys that we have, or we'll spend some time with us and they'll spend some time with the JV, and I think it just really brings great energy into the gym.
Speaker 3:You know just just a lot of people, a lot of excitement and I think it's been a really good setup so far. Yeah, speaking of energy, these home games so far have been really, really fun. The crowds have been really good. At West Ottawa, hudson, what's it like for you seeing that black hole jump in? It's been a couple of years since we've seen it full and it's getting there.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's definitely fun just to see the crowd into it and I like to say the normal crowd as well like um coaching Little Panthers. A lot of kids come from that too, and everybody's bought in, wants to watch this, so it's really cool yeah, it's always great when the community comes out.
Speaker 3:All your families come out. Garrett family, beathams are all out there. Uh, as a parent, I get to talk with all these people after games and we're having a lot of fun. It's nice to be able to win. You have a very up tempo style, ben, as a team. Do you guys like playing that fast pace?
Speaker 5:I do like playing fast. It gets tiring but we're able to sub.
Speaker 3:I think our bench does a great job, yeah coach, you're almost getting everybody in on every game I've noticed yeah, I don't think we've had a game that, um, everybody hasn't played and we talk about that.
Speaker 7:you know, we're 13 deep and we have 13 important players and I thought last night was a great example of two guys. Jonah Watson came in and he's only been playing seven, eight minutes a game as a sophomore and he probably played 12 straight minutes down the stretch at the end. And then Abel Anaya, same thing. He came in and gave a huge spark for us during the third quarter and I mean that's what we are. We are 13 guys that you know, on different days some guys have it going, some guys don't, and you know it's it's up to the other guys to step up and I think they've embraced embraced that as a team and I'm super proud of them.
Speaker 3:so yeah, it's uh, it's something to really have that many guys come out and sometimes you make some adaptations in a game. You know that's certainly not kind of what you're planning on going in. But when you're down 10 going in the fourth, you got to adapt, find a group that's working and kind of stick with it and go going back to that full gym. I remember when the three of you were those 12 year old boys sitting in that front row. Do you remember those times, jake?
Speaker 3:yeah, I do yeah yeah, it feels like it wasn't that long ago either right, it wasn't really right and we were playing courthouse ball and then coming out here and watching who were some of your guys favorite players growing up. Do you remember some names? Uh, obviously like xavier wayne.
Speaker 1:I remember watching him he was, he was really good. It was fun to watch and, uh, like the the patterson boys, yeah, they were good I just like that whole team.
Speaker 6:Uh, tyler Bosman, they were all really fun to watch. They had a lot of lobs, a lot of fun plays. That was right, it was Dunk.
Speaker 1:City a lot almost every night, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know, you have a little person sitting over there, a little guy. You don't know if you're ever going to make a varsity team. What's it like being out on the floor now and being those guys? Ben, you're.
Speaker 5:you're now the guy that those little 12 year old boys are looking up to. Um, yeah, it's, it's different, um, seeing the little kids in the stands, like the way they look up to you, like you used to look up to the kids back then, like giving them high fives and seeing the smiles on their faces, you can tell that you're just like their inspirations so one of the things that probably has helped solidify that bond with you and that younger group is Little Panthers, and you guys are coaching those teams and coaching those kids.
Speaker 4:Do you feel like you have a little group of dudes that is just like they're your guys?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I have my own little team. They all like they were asking me to play Fortnite with them.
Speaker 1:We got really close.
Speaker 5:Some of them come up behind me on the bench during the game. They're trying to give me high fives.
Speaker 3:I'm like not right now, not right now but yeah, it feels like you're with celebrities a little bit when you're that age right, when you're playing with the highs.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I say like when you were little, like you'd see those guys, you were like you'd be shocked.
Speaker 3:You're in. They got all this talent and skill, hudson, your team won. Did you guys win the championship?
Speaker 6:you wanna give some props to your boys? I mean I drafted the Warriors, I chose that team. I think it was a good selection. I mean we had we got Blake and we didn't have him for two weeks. Blake Riddell, his son and championship. We were up like 30 in the first half he was gone for a couple weeks.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so it made us look like we weren't entirely a great team. Oh gotcha, we'd have four or five guys some games, and then he came back. He dropped a big number in the last game, right, yeah, riddell was telling him to stop shooting. We had to make it look a little more fair.
Speaker 3:And what were you telling him to do? Let it fly.
Speaker 6:Let it fly, that's right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he gets hot. You let it fly, jake. What? Real quick, jake. What was, what's it been like coaching, and maybe has it given you any perspective of what coach riddell is going through on a day in, day out basis with you guys yeah, definitely it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Uh, I also was the champs for the third and fourth graders and it was awesome they were. They're really excited to see me every week and it showed they're actually having fun out there, which is good, which is hard to see for some of these uh little kids, you know, to get them into a sport at a young age. It's really good. Yeah, it was fun and uh, yeah, the coaching part, um, it can be difficult because you always want you got people complaining, not playing.
Speaker 3:You got no, never jared have you heard of that before. Is that something that actually goes? I actually goes.
Speaker 1:I always get the coach. Coach, put me in, please.
Speaker 3:Or you get that. Look down the bench to that sad face. You know, yeah, exactly. What about me. Hudson, you had a really interesting thing with the Cheetos. Can you tell us about that? The Cheetos in the pocket?
Speaker 6:Yeah, there was some little kid that had Cheetos in his pocket, like right before the game hot cheetos they're all falling out all over the court.
Speaker 3:Little plastic bag in the side pocket right yeah, like a ziploc bag. They're all falling out in his pocket I mean that's great to bring that out into the court and have that readily available very jealous. Yeah, that's pretty awesome, crazy. It's pretty awesome that he was doing that can I actually add something to? That go for it. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 7:So I think last year this is our second year where the kids were actually coaching the team. In the past it's always been parents that have been coaching and I think I've seen a huge change community-wise by the players always just ref before, and so now, with them coaching, they're really developing relationships with kids. And I have a little neighbor boy who's in second grade and he goes to every game now and he wants to go see his coach and he goes and talks to his coach every time and I think that is that is the community side that we're building, and I think you're starting to see it in the stands because they're all bought in and that's what we want to do is we want to bring the entire community into the program. So it feels like there's as well, because eventually you know, know, those are the kids, they're going to be out there one day for you guys.
Speaker 3:That's pretty fun too, did you? When you were younger? Did you feel you got that a little bit when they were reffing, or it's probably nicer when they're coaching?
Speaker 6:I would think, yeah, I still got a little bit of the reffing, but not not to the same uh level that they have now like being their coach.
Speaker 3:Are you guys, uh, running offenses? What are they? They just freewheeling out there. What's it like, ben? What are that? What do you guys do as a coach? What are some things you're implementing? What's your system?
Speaker 5:um, I'll be trying to call like sets and stuff, but but I just usually have them like few ball screens just trying to cut.
Speaker 3:That's really it keep them moving around the court. Yeah, not standing still right, all those kind of.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I got a few ball screens in there too, but nothing nothing too crazy all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw some scattered papers around the house at times with some drawings I can't believe hudson doesn't have like plays for threes, because you know it spurs in there or something.
Speaker 3:There you go hey, definitely gotta have it. You have some starters on your team that are fairly young. Let's talk about three particular young players, if we can, and maybe we can take turns talking about them. We got uh, we got jt gill, of course, we got darian stewart and we got makai campos hudson pick one of those guys to talk about. What's it like having these young, this young infuse of talent on your team?
Speaker 6:I'll go. I'll go with darian yeah, you got he's a big, big goofball. Yeah, goofball. Uh, probably one of the funniest dudes I know, but really loyal. When you get in game like he really wants to win, super competitive in game, and just really loyal, he's got your back, no matter what.
Speaker 3:How old is?
Speaker 6:Darian, how old is he 14.
Speaker 7:Darian is a. Everybody thinks he's like an old freshman. Darian doesn't turn 15, I think until May.
Speaker 7:He is a super young freshman and so you sometimes you see that with Darian, with his you know goofballness, but, like Hudson said, like you have your back. When we had a team retreat and you know the one thing that he wanted his team to know is that, you know, I probably in any situation I'll have your back. And that's kind of that's Darian. Even though he is that goofball, when it comes down to it he's a loyal kid and a great teammate.
Speaker 3:And he's got so much potential Even in this first third of the season, Bill, he's really grown a lot, don't you think?
Speaker 4:I mean he just jumps off the court. As I mentioned earlier sitting with Johnston from Jenison yesterday. He's like man who's 32? He's only a freshman. You're gonna see him for a bit. I just I look at darian and I see him and I think of what he will look like as a junior and senior. You know he's in panther strengths class right now as he continues to work in the weight room. You lived with him right hudson yeah, he's in my peak group.
Speaker 6:I drafted him.
Speaker 4:I mean, if that kid gets after it in the weight room, he'll be unstoppable.
Speaker 6:Yeah, he will be unstoppable. We got Ben in there too. Most of the basketball guys in that class are all in one group, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:So you're building some relationships in those classes too, then right, yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit more about too. Then, right, yeah, because yeah, let's talk, we'll, we'll talk about that a little bit more about building relationships with the age gap.
Speaker 5:Let's maybe, ben, you want to talk about jt gill a little bit. What's it like to have jt on the team? Uh, yeah, so he's also really young. Him and darian are like, they love to mess around in practice. But the immaturity of these freshmen, hey guys, once they get too close together they're always like slapping each other, like making jokes. Once again, the game. Jt is like. He really does his thing. He gets his own buckets. He's actually he moves the ball really well. For how young he is, he's a great playmaker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's really. There's a sign of maturity in JT, kind of when if you talk about you know you talk about people and go that person's got an old soul soul.
Speaker 7:He's got an old basketball soul. What do you think, coach? Yeah, um, you know, I've obviously, you know, since I've come here known jt since his seventh grade and last night was a great example like it was not one of his best games, you know, but I remember pulling him out at the end of the third quarter and talking to him and saying like hey, you're in at the end of the game and you get a shot at the end, like I know you're gonna make it because that's him. Like we, we came and I'll let the guys kind of talk about theirs a little bit, but we we went through roles and they all got names and jt's was the assassin oh really, we're hitting this up next because, jt, you know, in any situation like that he could be 0 for 10 and he has full confidence that
Speaker 7:he's gonna make that shot when it matters and I have confidence and I've seen him do it five, six times in AU games where you know, came down to the end and just hit tough big buckets and made big plays, and I know you know he has that in. So I would love for them to share their. They can talk a little bit about their little nicknames and their little and their little and their roles. I think it's uh, you know we put coach palmer and I, and especially him on the roles, uh, put a ton of time and we probably spent 10 hours going through the roles and just really trying to lay it out because we thought it was something, when you're playing 13 guys, for them to have very specific roles on the things that we need them to do so do you?
Speaker 3:do you know all three? Don't say anything. You know all their nicknames, right? Or do you think you know?
Speaker 7:We just did this. You just did it. We just did this. All right, I know Hudson's for sure. I know Palmer was here. He would have all three of them.
Speaker 7:All right, because he was the one that came up with the names. Have binders had pictures with them? It was really cool and they I think they thought you know it was, it was, I don't know if they thought it was corny. Um, they were kind of giggling a little bit, but I hear them talk about them a little bit. You know, like during practice, like, oh, like you say something to guys, jake.
Speaker 3:What's hudson's nickname?
Speaker 6:uh, he couldn't even say it, the sniper he's a sniper, all right, takes you back to your fortnight a little bit, hudson, I'll play fortnight too much so talk to them about what, not just obviously, obviously hudson's a sniper as a shooter, but talk a little bit about what the sniper is too yeah, when we talked about palmer was talking about how like yeah, shooter, but um, like big on leadership, um, and like when they and snipers in general they like lead, uh, they communicate very well and they tell like where the enemy is and all that stuff, so like really big on communication oh, that's pretty cool actually yeah, wow, that's pretty you know what jake's? Jake is the leopard it's so it's about the leopard come on
Speaker 1:leopard um, yeah, I'm the leopard. Um, yeah, so, like, just my uh, my main role is, um, obviously, I uh come off the bench. I'm the sixth man, so, um, I just come into the game and I um run wild yeah, pretty much and uh just bring the energy up, you know, and um compete. That's what I really like to do is just compete. That's what um actually really, that's what like really makes me enjoy. Basketball is because of how competitive it is compared to other sports, you know. So, yeah, just competing and uh having that mindset where, like, all I want to do is win you know the role that you're playing on this team.
Speaker 4:this is gonna take you back, maybe a little bit. Reminds me a lot of Blake Bosma as a sophomore. He would come off the bench, but it was energy dive for loose balls, grab the rebound, make the extra pass, do all of the stuff that the stat sheet's probably not going to show, but if you're there and you appreciate watching basketball, the leopard is going to get it done, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:I want to see stuff in the black hole now. I want to see some leopard thing. Somebody's got some crosshair.
Speaker 4:Well, you can't do that now, right, it's flagged. Well, just to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we can't do that. Hudson. What is Ben's nickname? Well, it's incomplete.
Speaker 6:It's Ben the Bear. Complete, like it's Ben the Bear. He's not the Bear, it's Ben the Bear, ben the.
Speaker 5:Bear Ben the Bear, ben the Bear. Yeah, so he has me nicknamed as the Bear, pretty much just like once I'm locked, like once a bear is locked in. Yeah, like nobody can like beat it Like you kind of want to fall down.
Speaker 7:So a bear. A lot of times it's very docile, like you know, and that's kind of Ben's personality. But when you piss a bear off you better watch out and so that's why that was why Ben is the bear.
Speaker 7:And with the leopard, with Jake, there's this. We played this video of you talked about a leopard like um, there's this. We played this video of you talked about a leopard like he's going to go after his prey, no matter what. He doesn't care about you know his physical, um, you know, potentially getting hurt. There was a video of this leopard chasing a goat that we played and he jumps off a cliff and he gets the goat in his mouth and he literally rolls down the mountain and never lets go of.
Speaker 7:I've seen that, and so that was the reason because when jake, when you watch jake play, jake will go flying in for every rebound. He doesn't care if he's going to get hurt. He puts his body on the line. So when I talked about like the amount of time that we put into the roles, like a big part of that was that like oh yeah, he's a leopard. It's kind of funny, but there was a specific reason because of what a leopard does, because of what a bear is in terms of, you know, personality, but then gets, uh, you know, fearless in competition and then as an assassin, with you know hudson obviously shooting.
Speaker 7:But as jt oh, sorry, I mean the sniper as a snipe, as a sniper with hudson yeah, obviously his shooting, but you know he is our leader when it comes to communication on the court and and a sniper's job is to protect his team by communicating and letting people know where it's at. So you know the roles are funny and they laugh about him. But there was, you know, specific, the reason for the name, very specific because of you know who they are and their personalities.
Speaker 3:I really like it as a coaching technique. It it's a nice reminder of who you are, what you're supposed to be. Let's talk about Makai Campos, because we haven't mentioned him yet. Jake, you played, of course, varsity football with Makai Quite an incredible athlete, to be honest, to be a sophomore and really be like the starting quarterback Starting guard.
Speaker 5:And starting.
Speaker 3:You want to talk about Makai a little bit, Jake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and starting guard and starting. You want to talk about Makai a little bit? Jake? Yeah, of course, for last year he obviously played varsity and you could already see his maturity last year and his leadership. But I feel like this year it's just definitely doubled and I feel like I can really see him as a leader now fully. And, yeah, he's fun to play with. Everyone always talks about his scoring. He's a great scorer, I think, but I think, um, his defense is also what gets it, what gets the game like it helps us a lot, bill, and I always talk sports a lot.
Speaker 3:and one thing we always talked about makai, especially when he, when he played football, as, uh, playing on the j team, he sees the game almost played in slow motion at times, right? Would you think so, bill? Yeah?
Speaker 4:Yeah, you can tell. I mean, this is a kid that played 23, 25 games-ish last year as a varsity basketball player, started a full season in the well, you know a couple of games early in the season where he was kind of coming off the bench but then played a full season of football at the quarterback position where you have so much responsibility. So I can only imagine that things get a little slower. Just with that experience. Everything tends to kind of slow down, and I would say that about JT as well. You look out there and you see the two guards are a freshman and a sophomore and if you didn't know, they were a freshman and sophomore. By the way they play, they don't seem that way. Coach, can you maybe talk about the level of composure that those two young men have?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think a big part of it is they've played a lot of basketball. A lot of basketball, I mean, since eight years old. Those kids are playing year-round and so, yes, they're young in terms of age, but in terms of experience basketball-wise, they've played a lot of it and so that definitely doesn't feel like the moment's too big for them, and that's one of the most important things with them.
Speaker 3:Hudson. It's a real mix of young and old this year. At times you guys I mean you guys are in your senior season. Personally, you're just trying to have a good season yourself. You're trying to get minutes, you're trying to play, you're trying to score, you're trying to get rebounds, assists, you're trying to get on the floor. Have you felt like mentors at times? A little bit to these young fellas.
Speaker 6:Do they call you gramps? Yeah, you definitely help them with some things If they ask you some questions about different situations or you might explain to them, like, what to do in a certain situation. Um, obviously this is their like, other than uh. For jt and darian, it's their first time playing varsity basketball, so oh yeah and it's, you know, with a lot of these guys, everyone's played a lot.
Speaker 3:you guys have all played aau right, everyone is plays in these different roles, in these different teams. A lot of times in AAU become the main score. Well, not the main score maybe, but you do a lot of scoring AAU it's kind of free flowing. It's a little bit loose. Then you got to come into a team situation and start playing as what I like to call a group of five. I think it's the hardest thing in basketball is playing as a group of five. Coach, can you speak to that a little bit?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think you go back to the AAU. Yeah, there's a lot of scoring, there's no scouting, there's no defense. There's not a lot of defense, there's not a lot of game plan with it In high school. It's very specific and so you're not going to just get easy baskets, and so it is super important that that you are a well-connected team and we've talked about the 2018 team with Bosma and all them, and we talked the other day as a team. What made them special was how they shared the ball. They were connected and they were a group of kids that had been playing together forever.
Speaker 7:I remember specifically watching them play in an AAU tournament against the LeBron James AAU team out of Ohio with like eight or nine division one players and beat them. Beat them because not that they were better players, but just they played so well as a team and we definitely play a different style as them. You know we're very fast-paced, but I think you can see, at times with our team, sometimes it looks like it, sometimes it doesn't, but at times we can really really share the basketball and really move the basketball. And when we play like that, I know we're young and I know we. You know we have seven young guys and only three seniors, but they've they've mixed so well together.
Speaker 7:I've never had a team of this many young kids and for that, for the field to be the way it is I mean, our three seniors here have a lot of times you can have some feelings of with so many young guys, like I don't want to. You know, this is our seniors, are my minutes. These guys have been unbelievable and you know, like uh bill said, you know they're talking about our youth, our youth, their youth. Yes, our youth is good and yes, our youth is good and, yes, our youth helps us. But we don't get anywhere without these three guys in here and their leadership. We talked about mentorship and all those things. They've been through it. They're the reason why we're going to have a chance to do something this year. It's because of these three guys in here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of ups and downs with a team with like this right. You can see kind of in some of the games you've played the Holland Christian game that was here at home, which we ended up losing, but from a fan's point of view it was one of the most spectacular basketball games I've ever seen on our home court. It was such high level. The rhythm of your team was really high end coach right. The rhythm of your team was really high-end coach right, and you've had a few games like that. Then you get into this past weekend where the rhythm's off right, whether it's this Christmas break or whatever the case may be. Ben, what's it like to be in rhythm? And then what's it like to be out of rhythm as a team?
Speaker 5:Yeah, in rhythm definitely just like playing, not even thinking, Everyone's just moving the ball's moving. Open shots, but moving the balls. Oh yeah, open shots, um, but when it's not in rhythm you can just tell the ball stopping. I feel myself personally on offense, just standing just trying to move the balls.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everyone's dribbling too much looking for their own shots yeah, it's a hard thing to figure out. Uh, hudson, when you're out there, when you're in a non-rhythm game I mean in rhythm it's like you're like for a shooter for you in a rhythm game. You're sliding from spot to spot, right, you're finding a little space In a non-rhythm game. You can stand there and it's like you just watch. What's it like to be in and out?
Speaker 6:Yeah, like Ben said, I find in those games, like these past couple games where I haven't been in a great rhythm, I find myself just standing and I'm like I've been probably here for five seconds.
Speaker 4:Like I got to something. So, yeah, but yeah, it's definitely and that's part of being kind of on a younger team, right, you're learning that and you're going to have those natural up and downs. Yeah, and I you know, last night things were not always in rhythm offensively but, coach, you alluded to it earlier our guys on the opposite end of the court that's the beautiful thing of basketball, right, you get to play both offense and defense. You guys affected and changed the game really by sitting in a stance and and getting after them on the defensive end 21-8 run to close the game. Really by sitting in a stance and and getting after him on the defensive end 21-8 run to close the game.
Speaker 3:Yeah fourth quarter was that what I know? We were down 21-8. I know we were down.
Speaker 7:You were down 10 going into the fourth um and scored I think was it 22 in the fourth, after only scoring 33 for the game, or? Something like, or for the first three quarters, thanks. So we'll take it right. That definitely was a that for the first three quarters. We'll take it right. That definitely was an off-rhythm first three quarters and finally got it going at the end, which was great to see.
Speaker 3:Finding rhythm is all that. Let's talk about you guys individually, because this is your senior year and we were talking in the car the other day. You have six home games left. Unless we get some district stuff, it goes by in a hurry. We're through the first third of the season already. I think you have 15, 16, 17 games to go. It's hard to believe, isn't it, to be at this spot, jake, in your senior life as a basketball player.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of sad. Already it goes by in a hurry.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The feelings that I had at the end of the football season. You know I can. I can feel that it's coming already.
Speaker 3:So there's no guarantee you guys are ever going to be here. You guys were the little kids hoping to play varsity basketball one day. You have your ups and downs. Hudson, let's talk about you a little bit. You put in so much work for the younger basketball player that's listening. The volume of work that some of you guys put in on basketball is quite something. Can you go through a little bit some of your summer shooting routines and some of the stuff that you do that nobody sees?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I mean the past couple of years, but a lot of this summer. It was a lift in the morning with Frank and then I'd either shoot by myself after that, before that, and then have jordan uh two or three times a week um, get on the gun maybe at night, and then go uh work out with leo um at devos.
Speaker 3:So, and that's your aau coach, yeah, yeah, so you do stuff with him. Uh, getting to this spot too, though, you sometimes have things that don't go your way. When you were a young player, hudson, you got cut from a team.
Speaker 5:Yeah, seventh grade, Ben and I went to try out for Lake Shore in seventh grade.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I got cut.
Speaker 3:And Ben made the team and Ben made the team you guys are still friends.
Speaker 5:I didn't get no minutes, though. No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that definitely uh that definitely started like made me feel, yeah, you and your pillow got to know each other quite well.
Speaker 6:Your face was buried in it for a day or two. Yeah, I was pretty upset. Yeah, I mean, at first you're angry and you say you're ruined and you're like all right, well, gotta do something about it. So yeah, just from there that started, I think, where, like I learned, uh that that motivated me uh a lot and started like started my grind to get better for the younger athletes that are out there.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of work to play at this level. Ben, you've done a lot of the same stuff you played. How many years have you played AAU? Too many to count.
Speaker 5:Four, maybe five, right, something like that.
Speaker 3:And you've played a lot of. You've done stuff with Myrick. You've done yeah, Tell me playing at Winstrum Park over the years. What's that? That's a kind of go-to place for you guys, right.
Speaker 5:That was a big yeah Before I was able to gym every like every summer like freshman year, especially going into my freshman year and sophomore year I go. I go to winstrom every day. Sometimes I go with hudson in the morning. We we'd bike over there. The courts would still be like of course it'd be a little wet and we just get. We find like a traffic cone, we put the cone on the court, we just do some drills with that. That was huge, went there so much yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 6:That's like that was huge. Before anybody could drive or could get into a gym, windstorm was a spot to go to.
Speaker 3:Right, you're biking around with your basketball in your arm.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we'd text group chats and stuff. We'd have runs. We'd have the freshman team when I was a freshman we'd have everyone on our freshman team and then the JV team ahead of us. We'd all come and we'd play 5-5 against each other.
Speaker 4:It was just big. Yeah, that's awesome, jake. Your summer prep for basketball season looks a little bit different than these guys because you also play football in the fall, so where does your basketball time, I guess, kind of fit into that busy summer?
Speaker 1:obviously I got football like every day, usually every day, and uh, it's definitely difficult work for football so it makes it a lot harder to get my work in for basketball. But yeah, usually I just try and find time to get into the gym and then, yeah, just like these two I used to go play with quite a lot.
Speaker 3:You guys have gotten pretty big over the years too. Like Jake, you're a force of nature now. I mean you're always kind of this guy, to be honest with you, yeah.
Speaker 1:I should have hit the gym more this year, though. Oh, you haven't hit the gym.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh, I wouldn't have been able to tell. I think it might be fat.
Speaker 3:Well, speaking of fat, I talked to your parents about you and you do. Now, with all of what, what jake does, he's doing all this basketball football stuff you still keep a job during the year right, yeah, I do, I work.
Speaker 1:I try and work at least one day a week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I put pinos yeah, and you're not just anybody at pipinos, I heard that you are. You have quite the skill for, uh, flipping that dope in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a good pizza maker. I'd say yeah, I make some good pizza.
Speaker 7:I think we need a Pepino's sponsorship here for the basketball team.
Speaker 3:Well, they're getting some love on the 29-1.
Speaker 7:I mean, if Jake's a weekly worker there, I think it's time to get some Pepino's sponsorship.
Speaker 1:Some free pizza here, I could try and make something work.
Speaker 3:You usually work Sunday nights right, yeah, usually. If I get a Pepino's pizza on a Thursday and we Hudson, we both like that Supreme for Pepino's and if you have their Supreme pizza it's high end for sure Would we be able to tell that you did the dough on a Sunday night versus?
Speaker 1:a Thursday night pizza? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you got the skills yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, we're letting the Thursday night crew know that they got to pick it up Because you're way better at it, jake, with your role. This is really interesting, but this goes way back when we did courthouse back in the day. You kind of at times struggled until you, we, we talked a little bit and you took on this cool role that you have just embraced. Can you talk about how important it is for a team to have a player and now this is not about you per se, but a player doing the things you do on a court and Hudson maybe talk about how important his role is and what he's doing?
Speaker 6:yeah, I'd say it's really important. Like he just comes in and brings energy, brings a spark. Um, like moves the ball really well, defense is a dog, like picks up like he's a dog. And like offensively too, like it's not, like he can't score correct, like he can score he's score. He has a really good finishing package. He just does the small things that a lot of guys don't want to do. He does those things really well.
Speaker 3:Coach, what's it like to have Jake out there with stuff he's doing?
Speaker 7:Yeah, Jake talked about how he's the sixth man. We said we have six starters.
Speaker 3:That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 7:We have six starters on our team and you just can only start five of them. You know, and as you saw last night, like jake was in almost the whole fourth quarter at the end of the game, and that's that's what he does. And jace jake is we also. We talk all the time that he's a connector. He's a connector of guys, he's. He's the person that's out there that you know. He's always looking for everybody else and, yeah, he can score. I remember going back to uh, I think it was east kentwood, your jv year that I remember and I think 20 ball he had.
Speaker 6:Like, yeah, he did he had like 20 something.
Speaker 7:I remember that and they couldn't, I hope you remember it. Um, he, they couldn't stop him. And jake, jake gets to the rim really, really well and you know, and you see that in the varsity game, son, he just, he just doesn't. He's not doing it in every single possession because he's a connector and he understands who needs what shots. What do we need to do? And that's a huge part of our team and we wouldn't be where we're at without having those people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's nice when a player knows what their shot is and sees when that opportunity cracks open. And I feel that's kind of what jake does. Jake will see that little wind, you'll see that window open up and you'll all send the balls into the basket.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely with your team. You guys are the, the seniors. There's a continuity when you all kind of know each other. But at times, with these younger, you got to put yourself second. At times, too right like you got to go out and make your impact on the game and then sometimes you're like, oh, someone's on a roll here, I'm just gonna kind of let them go. What's it like to kind of like sometimes you got to maybe step back for the team to succeed. It's not always easy as a senior to do that. Then what's it like for you? Because there's a lot of like your position, you have multiple talented players in that spot and sometimes the night it's not you right, that's a little tough.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so all our guards score really well, so when I'm in I can see that they're flowing. I really just take pride, especially on the defensive end, just making sure my guy doesn't get in front of me, just staying in front and then getting steals, hopefully, and then just looking for whoever's hot at the moment, even if it's not me.
Speaker 3:Hudson, you had that a little bit over the weekend like this.
Speaker 6:This past game wasn't your best game, but your team wins and you gotta be happy about that I'd say when, like when, your main priority is winning, um, when everyone's bought into winning, the those problems don't arise. Guys know that sometimes it'll be there nice, sometimes so well, and if the main thing is winning, then everything will keep flowing yeah, even after last night game we got in the car.
Speaker 3:we're like, hey, we, hey, we won that game. That's the most important thing, yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think you know it's not always an easy thing to do to get the kids to buy in, especially when you have it's not just the five guys you know that are starting but buying into. Hey, listen, we got eight, nine, 10 guys that on a given on a given night, one of those guys, or two of those guys, might be the ones that are in at the end. I've never had a coach that way before and it's definitely an adjustment no-transcript.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's so many different guys that can shoulder the load on any given night. It was zealand east ben and I had a huge night against zealand east here, 22 maybe holland I'm sorry, yeah, I'm thinking back to beginning of break yeah, holland, holland, that's a great example I was like senior night.
Speaker 7:So yeah, holland, yes, holland was like senior night. So yeah, holland, yes, holland was like senior night. Like Ben was like 9 or 12 from the floor and Hudson hit four threes, all in the second half when it was a little bit of a tight game. And that was their night scoring-wise, where they stepped up, good example.
Speaker 7:And we had other guys that didn't. Last night, ben ended up with 10. I didn't even realize it. He was perfect from the floor. He was three of three or four or four or something like that little jared goff huh, yeah, but it wasn't. He wasn't one of those. The main guys that game and and. And I think that the best thing for these four of these three guys is when it's not their night. They've been great teammates and we couldn't do that without them yeah it's hard to do that when the clock's ticking right.
Speaker 3:That season clock starts up boom boom, boom boom. You guys have some really cool stuff on instagram, so I'm going to pull that up for a minute. Who's doing that instagram for you guys, by the way?
Speaker 7:so that is brian daikama, um karen daikama, our athletic administrative assistant. He's that's what he went to school for and he hasn't really done a ton of it recently and we I talked to him before the season about, you know, bringing him around more and he's had some. He's had some great videos, great videos.
Speaker 3:The kids love it. It's so fun to watch those after a game A little slow-mo, blurry background.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm actually going to meet with him next week because I want to start bringing him on to do more stuff for the athletic department. But I want to make sure that you know we're taking care of him on the backend as well, cause he is super talented. He's got youth that I don't write Like. I do all of the social media for the high school, but I'm limited because I'm a 47-year-old guy. Right, he just has a little bit more juice and creativity when it comes to the video stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've learned a lot in doing some of this stuff at the high school, like having us in charge of music not the best move. So that's why these Woe Ben students have come in and really kind of really started making things up way more than we could. I mean, how many times can we listen to fish?
Speaker 4:all right, yeah, you guys don't want no, even in grateful day, going on and warm-ups the looks on the faces are like ben's like what's fish?
Speaker 3:billy strings. That's right, billy strings man. Yeah, bill has his favorite stuff. So we have done a good job of moving toward younger people doing it. They do these features on you guys, and there's some cool things that you said. One thing that, jake, you said was we talk about after a tough loss. And there's different things that you say. Jake, you said remember how grateful I am to even be playing For Ben after a tough loss, you'd like to watch film and learn from it. And then, hudson, we have a thing in our house too, because when you were little, a loss was devastating and would go on for too long, and we do something called the 24-hour rule. Can you guys maybe speak to how you kind of deal when things don't go your way and how you don't stay in that spot forever, right, you move out of it. Can you talk about that a little bit? Maybe Jake go first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously it's hard after losing, especially against HC. I remember that I was pretty upset about that. But then you just wake up the next day and realize you got more basketball to play. So just life moves on.
Speaker 3:What about you, Hudson? Talk us through the 24-hour rule.
Speaker 6:Yeah, kind of going off that, like I mean obviously a tough loss. Like yeah, han, christian was a really tough loss, didn't sleep very well. But then you wake up and it's like all right, well, we got a game next week. So you're either going to keep pouting and being down about the game from last Friday or you're going to move on, show up to practice and get ready for the next week.
Speaker 5:You can't stay back and stay in that same place. Yeah, basically what Hudson said, like after, after the loss, like especially on Christian. But yeah, I was down for a while like I didn't want to hang out with anybody, I don't want to talk to anyone.
Speaker 5:It was a Friday night too, so like yeah, asked me to hang out and I just like stayed in my room all night because I fouled out that game too. So I was pretty upset, but like I woke up the next morning it's like I gotta learn, got to learn from it. Like learning from a game like that, like it's just going to help us get better.
Speaker 3:And I would say, let's go to some of this, this older group. Now I'll tell you this when I was younger and if I lost a game, it wasn't 24 hours, it was 24 days. I mean, you know this, jared, right, you're probably a little bit of the same where those losses linger.
Speaker 7:Yeah, definitely. I mean linger with me. Um, I I'm trying to get better with a similar, a similar mindset, I think obviously the boys. After saturday's game at night I was, uh, a little upset and I came into, uh, sunday practice, um, definitely calmed down, evaluated, evaluated myself. You know, talk to the kids about, you know, my frustrations with the team, but also my frustrations with myself and us as coaches and things we could have done better.
Speaker 7:And I think I think learning after you don't play well is not just the the kids learning what they need to do better, but it's us as coaches going and self-evaluating and saying what did we not do, that we could have done better, and I thought we did a good job of doing that after the game on Saturday and I think you saw some of those changes a little bit on Monday. So, just just constantly learning and that's going to be a theme of the season with the, you know, mix of of old and youth that we have on the team is that we continue to get better and we learn so we're playing our best basketball when, when the tournament comes in march hudson, what's that mean to you to hear coach say I'm not just evaluating the team, but I'm evaluating us as coaches?
Speaker 6:yeah, it's a pretty cool thing. A lot of coaches are like see themselves as above all and they can never be wrong, but I mean, we got two coaches that they're not afraid to um be like yeah, you know what we messed up. It's not just on you guys, and it's a really cool thing, I feel like I was impressed.
Speaker 3:the other day hudson came home from practice coach and he told me you brought a old retired coach in from wayland and maybe talk about this for a minute, because I thought this. When he told me this, I'm like, oh okay, I was impressed with that, that Wayland coach comes in and is going to teach you his own. And what did you specifically do? You kind of stepped away and went to the side. Tell us about that.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so I am a primarily 90% man-to-man defense guy and on teams I like to have some sort of change-up.
Speaker 7:But I was trying to figure out what fit this team and this personality really well.
Speaker 7:And I remember playing against Waylon back when I was coaching at East Grand Rapids when Mike Hudson was the coach there and he had his boys, wes Hudson and Avery Hudson really good teams that they had and they played this really funky zone that had a lot of pressure, which fits our team, with a lot of speed and a lot of pressure, and it's just, it's different, it's harder to game plan against.
Speaker 7:So I called them up and just said, hey, would you be willing to come in and teach the zone to us, because I know what I don't know and that's. You know I could spend lots of hours and research it, but you're a resource of someone that knows what they're doing really well with this and so to be able to come in one day and to be able to have it talk to our guys. And I just kind of stepped back to the sideline and said, mike, this is your practice, run it, and I'll step in and ask him questions and confirm things with him. And I thought it was a. It was a huge help for us to be able to implement something in one day that would have taken a lot longer for us to try to figure it out, to do it on our own.
Speaker 3:What a young Jared Riddell coach brought somebody in.
Speaker 7:Maybe not, I mean I. So I used to bring. You know, I coached with Steve Marley at Rockford for a few years and he used to come and when I was at North Point he used to come and do some stuff. So I think that was. You know that was a mid-age coach, jared, but he was also my mentor. So that was a lot. You know that was a lot easier. I patterned a lot of my stuff from him. So this is the first time I brought someone from the outside that. I've known Mike in the coaching world for a long time. I wouldn't say we don't hang out, I don't know him that well, but I know he's a really good coach and I know he did something specific that I struggled against when I played it.
Speaker 7:And so I was looking at it and saying, well, what would be a better way to do it than to bring the guy in that's taught it? You know, multiple times and he was, he was happy to do so. Um, he's no longer coaching at wayland. His son, wes, is the girls coach at wayland and he helps him out a little bit. Um, and I thought there was something interesting that he said at the at the end of practice and he saw what our guys could be. We really shared the ball ball that day like the way, the way I know we can. And he, he turned to coach Palmer and I and said this this has a chance to be a special group and he said thank you for letting me come in to be here at practice, because it was fun to be around the. You know these kinds of athletes and who they are, because they can, they, they, they can be a special group and I've loved coming to practice every single day and just love being around these guys.
Speaker 4:Well, that kind of gets us moving in the direction of the inevitable. The OK Red schedule is upon us, fellas Friday it starts right here, hudsonville. Coming to town, hudson, maybe talk to us a little bit about playing in the red.
Speaker 6:I mean, yeah, it's a really competitive conference. There's no nights off, there's no team. You're like, oh, that's it, none of that. Every game is going to be a tough game, and then you know it's going to be a battle, but it's fun, that's what you want to be in. So I couldn't get any better.
Speaker 3:Sometimes too, if you Well, we'll talk about this. You were playing your Allendale team and we think it's going to be a little easy, wasn't Lost. You get in these, ok Red games. You're never going into a game going. Oh, this is going to be easy tonight.
Speaker 7:I night. I didn't think it was gonna be easy. I know you did it, but we all know how players might yeah, so that that'd be the trap.
Speaker 3:The players? Yeah, it's a trap.
Speaker 7:Maybe some, maybe some parents trap game community. Like it's easy to say, like oh, you know they don't have this star player that's on their team, but they got two really good high school players that, um, that are, that are tough as heck, and I think that some of that is the maturity of our team and maybe the immaturity of our team to. You know, you go into a game and think maybe this isn't as good of a team and you know it happens.
Speaker 3:It happens. It happens to every team, every sport, every season. You can see it coming and you still can't stop it.
Speaker 4:When we first were in setting up earlier, rodney and I were talking about the weekend and the games, and the thing that I've noticed in high school athletics as a whole, across all sports, is that the margins have become really thin in literally every sport. If our tennis team doesn't show up and they think it's, they're going to mail it in, they're going to get beat. The margins are so small and it doesn't matter how big or how small school is, and those margins get even tighter as we enter our conference season. Jake, can you talk about, uh, what you look forward to maybe as we get into the red season?
Speaker 1:I would just say the competitiveness that the OK Red brings. It's always fun, it's battling, it's usually a back-and-forth game and it's really physical, which I really enjoy as a football player.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're a good physical player Good physical player. What do you guys, as we finish up here, we've got about two months left in your high school basketball careers, guys. It's crazy. What are your like aspirations for the next couple months? What do you hope to achieve as a team this year, ben?
Speaker 5:um, definitely win a district. Uh, winning record.
Speaker 1:Just I just want to let everyone know how special this team was and just, yeah, just keep winning, get the community bought in Hudson um yeah, I would say just um, keep getting wins, like, keep building as a team um and building up for uh yeah, win districts and build up for a for a run in March yeah, obviously, um winning games is definitely one of my goals for these next couple months, but also just leaving this place knowing that we've, like, changed the program and then, you know, coming back next year, the next couple of years, and seeing um some of my old teammates, like obviously JT, darian, the freshman, and some of the sophomores playing good and you know um going to action and making like a state run.
Speaker 4:I hope it's gonna be wild. You're gonna be a junior in college and you're gonna come back and Darian and JT are still gonna be out playing basketball.
Speaker 5:Hustle have that full beard now just because he can grow it.
Speaker 3:How miles let it grow? I can. Yeah, well, we hope you guys have a good season. We hope you, like you, can find that togetherness and find that on a regular basis and really have a good year. Finishing up, we play this Friday. It is the last day of the year. By the way, we're recording here on New Year's Eve. If you're listening to this you're going back to last year to listen, but this Friday we have Hudsonville at home at 7. Next week, I believe we have Granville. Is it Granville on Tuesday? I believe Granville. Is it Granville on Tuesday?
Speaker 7:I believe. Granville on Friday, just Granville on Friday. Oh, just Granville Friday. We don't have a Tuesday next week.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we got Hudsonville at home and then, by the time this airs, we'll be playing at Granville. If you are listening, come on, make the trip. Granville's not that far away, just head on over West Ottawa. We are a community, we are each other and we love having you guys in. Thanks for coming in, it's been a blast. Thanks, guys, thank you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having us on. Alright, we'll see you later, thank you.
