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
WOBN & Game Day: Pushing Buttons & Boundaries with Quinn VanderKamp, Cody Schurman, Fatima Correa Morales & Lindsay Walcott
Three years ago, the fan football experience at West Ottawa was traditional – you'd watch the game, listen to the Public Address Announcer, and perhaps enjoy some music from a CD player. Fast forward to today, and the difference is remarkable. With the addition of West Ottawa Stadium in fall 2022, a mobile live streaming studio already being utilized this year, and recently announced video scoreboards coming to the main gym in 2025, the Panthers are revolutionizing how their community experiences high school sports.
The transformation of the game day experience at West Ottawa High School has begun, involving students and adults in a purposeful, collaborative partnership.
The West Ottawa Broadcasting Network (WOBN) stands at the center of this transformation. Led by broadcasting teacher Lindsay Walcott, who has been with the school for 20 years, and supported by Athletic Director Bill Kennedy, the program has grown from just 13-14 students two decades ago to a full day of broadcasting classes. Students like Quinn VanderKamp, Cody Schurman, and Fatima Correa-Morales are the faces of this revolution – handling everything from play-by-play commentary to switching camera angles, creating graphics, and managing the music that energizes the crowd.
What makes this program truly special is how it combines authentic learning experiences with genuine contributions to the school community. These students aren't just practicing broadcasting in a classroom setting; they're running actual live events watched by hundreds of fans.
Perhaps most impressive is how these students have leveraged their creative control to enhance the game day experience. They've created video content for the Daktronics Jumbotron, coordinated with the band for live drum rolls, and curated music playlists that appeal to every demographic in the stadium – from current students to administrators to parents. As Bill Kennedy noted, "There's no one that even comes close to what we're pulling off."
As West Ottawa prepares to expand their video capabilities to the gymnasium in 2025, the foundation laid by these pioneering students will benefit future classes for years to come. While they won't be there to enjoy the new technology themselves, they take pride in knowing they helped build something lasting. As Quinn put it, "In football and baseball, we always say that we're building a program not for us, but for the people below us."
WOBN represents what's possible when schools invest in both technology and student empowerment. By trusting students with real responsibility and allowing them to make meaningful contributions, West Ottawa has not only enhanced their athletic events but also created authentic pathways to college and careers in broadcasting, sports management, and beyond.
This episode was recorded on March 11, 2025.
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.
Katten plows right through that offensive player and forces the moving screen call as she passes it in to Honeycutt. As she brings it up the floor, honeycutt passes the corner. Brooke gets her own rebound after that shot and puts it up and makes the two what?
Speaker 2:a rebound and score there. Ward for three.
Speaker 1:No good Seems as though she cannot make a three on that side yet.
Speaker 2:Stolen by Branch. Here she's trying to look up court but Catton's defending her pretty heavily. That will stay with EK. That's a foul on Taylor Catton.
Speaker 1:Great effort from Catton there getting on the floor to go get that ball.
Speaker 3:That was the sound of history the first ever live stream basketball broadcast at West Ottawa High School with play-by-play color commentary, multiple camera angles and high-end graphics delivered to you by our very own West Ottawa Broadcast Network. Hey everybody, welcome back to the 29.1 Podcast. I'm your host, rodney Velinga, and I'm joined once again by Panthers Athletic Director, bill Kennedy. A little less than three years ago, most West Ottawa sports were delivered to you, the fan, like they always were you watch the game, listen to some PA announcing, maybe grab a hot dog and there's a little music thrown in.
Speaker 3:But with the addition of West Ottawa stadium in the fall of 2022, the just announced addition of three video scoreboards inside the main gym for the fall of 2025 and the implementation of a mobile live streaming studio already being used this year, the game day experience for fans and players alike has changed and is changing tremendously. Being a fan at football, soccer or a lacrosse game is very different, with all the amenities and the in-game experience with music, scoreboard videos and lights makes the downtime between plays that much more fun. And now indoor sports from volleyball to basketball to competitive cheer will take on a new look for years to come. However, it's going to take a lot of people, a lot of content and a lot of tech in order to pull this off. And it's our pleasure to welcome from Wobien, otherwise known as the West Ottawa Broadcasting Network, today's four guests. And who might it be? Quinn Vanderkamp, cody Skerman.
Speaker 4:Fatima Correa-Morales, lindsay Walcott.
Speaker 5:We are so pumped to have you all here. One of the great pleasures this year has been getting to be around you all and kind of see things through from the very first night, kind of walking into a football press box and being like holy cow there's a lot going on to now. You guys are like Cody broadcasting a basketball game, doing play-by-play and color commentary, so really pumped to have. You. Guys are like Cody broadcasting a basketball game, doing play-by-play and color commentary, so really pumped to have you all here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a year where, for the first time ever, you guys have really been involved and it's really been fun for us to do it. Let's go back to that live stream Cody, who was on the mic that night.
Speaker 2:It was me and Connor Knapp.
Speaker 3:You and Connor Knapp doing the first live stream ever Play. It was me and Connor Knapp. You and Connor Knapp doing the first live stream ever play-by-play. What was it like? I know you've always wanted to do things like that. What was it like to actually be doing it?
Speaker 2:I mean at first, you know it was a little nerve-wracking because never really been in front of the mic like that live ever. So the first few minutes was a little rough. We were getting used to it. But once we really got into the game, and especially in the second half, we were just rolling and just kind of saying whatever came to mind and it worked out pretty well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had it on in my office yesterday as I was doing some work and I'm like, oh, they're really kind of getting their groove. You guys kind of got into that third quarter. It kind of picked up a little bit. But I thought you guys did great from the beginning and, to be honest, one of the hardest things to do in broadcasting is play by play. Whether you're recording, you know something, a will be in a show or whatever you know. You can go back and edit it, all that stuff. But live is a whole different ball game and for the first one ever you guys were great. Quinn and Fatima guys were there too. What were your jobs that night?
Speaker 6:quinn, you might want to start us off my job was to run the score bug and make sure everything was running smoothly. If anything went wrong, I kind of felt like I had to take control of that and did you a couple.
Speaker 6:You had a few things happen right yeah, I mean well, this recently before in live streams we had buffering like we would just go out, and that mean, if that would happen, I would have to try that. It still went out many times, but we couldn't really do anything about it that's okay, though you're pushing the envelope.
Speaker 3:How about for you, fatima?
Speaker 4:I was in charge of switching cams and making sure that the camera was on the ball the entire game. So I was mainly just switching between the cameras cam one, cam two, cam three, switching up positionings like that. We want to zoom into a different viewpoint of the players. I would be in charge of that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a really sweet setup over in the corner there.
Speaker 5:Bill, it's a long way away from. Hey, I would get text messages on game nights. Hey, there's a live stream running tonight and I would have to go into our huddle camera and make sure that it was pushed out. Now we're engaging students, and what an experience for you all really to take forward in life.
Speaker 3:So Lindsay Walcott, I can call you Wally, right, I can do that. Absolutely Everybody else does, so I figure I can pop in. What was it like for you? You know, this is your life's passion, this work, and there's a mobile streaming studio. You have three live broadcasting students and who's the mobile streaming studio? You have three live broadcasting students and who's the gentleman's name? Who does IT?
Speaker 7:Logan Thompson.
Speaker 3:Logan Thompson. So Logan Thompson's up there too. What's it like for you? Just to you know wherever you started off in this broadcasting and now you're seeing that, what's it like for you.
Speaker 7:Well, when I started at Woe 20 years ago, I think I had 13 or 14 students in broadcasting total. 20 years ago, I think I had 13 or 14 students in broadcasting total and today I teach broadcasting all day and it's just such a joy to have the addition of this live broadcasting class. So grateful, the district stood behind us and supported us not only with the addition of the class, but also a very significant investment both in my studio and control room, as well as the mobile studio you referenced earlier, and it is a joy to walk alongside these students. I mean, we are chatting with the trailblazers right here and they are awesome.
Speaker 5:Yeah, wally and I have obviously known each other for a number of years and we would have conversations about man. It would be really cool to engage students, but a lot of times we were limited by, first and foremost, hours that we both work, because we both pour a ton of hours into our jobs already and it's taking on something else. But then the technology piece. You know, we could have never pulled this off at old panther stadium. I mean, we were running music with a cd over there.
Speaker 3:That's three years ago, guys, we were running music with a cd well, you gotta tell them how I used to do it, because I didn't have the cd player running for me.
Speaker 5:So I first met rodney. He was doing girls lacrosse games for us because his daughter, claire, played girls lacrosse and he would come up and he would run the scoreboard and he would do music and announce. He did it all right in one spot and I walk up there one night to see how he's playing music. He had his mic laying underneath a coat, with his cell phone next to the mic, and the coat would go over top so that we could have a conversation and not come over the pa announcement.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was great, yeah, and there was times I even like I brought up the tech. I'd bring in a beach towel we could have a conversation and not come over the PA. Oh, it was great, yeah, and there was times I even like I brought up the tech, I would bring in a beach towel which was heavier, that could dampen the sound more. So we did that. It was always pretty fun, it's pretty crazy. Yeah, okay, I'll start. Yeah, yeah, be yourselves. Be yourselves for that.
Speaker 4:So we actually start prep fifth hour, which is me and Quinn's live broadcasting hour, we pull up all the stuff. If it needs to get pulled up from the classroom to the elevator, get it upstairs on the indoor track and then we take another two hours just plugging in things in, undoing wiring and things like that.
Speaker 6:A lot of prep time. Undoing wiring takes about an hour by itself because it always gets tangled, because we shove it all into a box you shouldn't shove it all into a box.
Speaker 7:Quinn, I did send you a video on how to properly coil and uncoil our cable.
Speaker 6:You told me about that, quinn we do our best to do it, it's like an under overover method and it's very difficult because these wires are extremely expensive, expensive, and when they're expensive they're stiff and they don't roll up easily.
Speaker 4:And they're sensitive yeah.
Speaker 3:When I was going up to visit you guys. That one time I think I almost tripped over that wire because I didn't know it was going to be there. One time I think I almost tripped over that wire because I didn't know it was going to be there. I'm like, oh alright, there's a lot going on up here now, so it was pretty cool. Let's get to know the three of you a little bit, though, because you guys are all athletes as well. Fatima, you're lacrosse.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:You went out as a sophomore or did you do it from freshman year?
Speaker 4:I did not do it freshman year. I started sophomore year. I didn't do cuts. I joined for fun and it was an easy sport to get into, for West Ottawa at least.
Speaker 3:And you had kind of a long vision with joining lacrosse as well, right, kind of a resume type thing. Yeah, yes, yes, I did Talk to us about that.
Speaker 4:So I was talking to Kayla and she was like, yeah, we need extra girls, just come, we don't really make cuts or anything, we actually need girls. And I'm like, well, I do need something on my resume, so I guess I'll join. There wasn't much thought process going through my head when I joined, like I didn't even know how to play the sport.
Speaker 3:You're a nice player too, if I can say, like I watch you play.
Speaker 4:I wouldn't have guessed that. Yeah and um started off on JV, obviously, but I was actually JV captain because I knew the reins of it pretty well and I came to every single practice. So I was awarded that little title for my first year playing, which was really awesome and Cody, your tennis player, played doubles all these years.
Speaker 3:You've been playing since little dude right. How old were you when you got started?
Speaker 2:um, obviously I started playing for school in sixth grade, but I think I mean honestly, I don't remember a time like I wasn't at.
Speaker 3:Probably DeWitt Tennis Center taking lessons and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I was doing like like the summer camps at West Ottawa since, like I can remember, like my whole life.
Speaker 3:I guess Right. So your tennis season is done, you have lacrosse coming up, and then, quinn, you've got baseball coming up this spring. How pumped are you for this baseball season?
Speaker 6:Words can't describe it. I'm more than pumped. I'm ecstatic. It's not doing it justice.
Speaker 3:It's not doing it justice. You guys had a big win against well, not a win, but you lost but against a powerhouse. At the end, yes, and you pushed them Some great pitching game.
Speaker 6:You got a lot of people coming back. A lot of people, I mean everyone who played in that game is coming back.
Speaker 5:We've got some big games on the schedule. I was actually talking with my cohort over at Forest Hill Central today to make sure we had the umpires lined up for our doubleheader at LMCU, which is going to be really cool to get into that kind of stadium to play a game.
Speaker 3:So what's it like for you guys to be athletes and now you're going to be graduating senior athletes? But what's it like from an athlete's perspective to know that this type of you know whether we're going to cover games and all that type of stuff is coming up. What does it make you feel for future athletes, quinn?
Speaker 6:Well, I'm really excited because I feel, with the coverage, I mean you can do whatever you want. I mean that you can. It doesn't end Like we could push this out to social media. You could be awesome is what I see. Everyone could watch you. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4:I think it's a very cool way to like look back at the way you played. It's a lot more visually. You can see the mistakes that you made and then like, desect from that. Coaches have a lot more easier way of seeing how the opponents team also played too. You're not just looking at an open field or an open court, you're looking at the actual side of the court of the opponents and you're looking at the goalie and everything in terms of that you can see. You know, oh, I made a pass, I can do something different, I can do another playback, or things like that. I find it more like tactical in terms of planning for next future games. It's a lot more useful.
Speaker 3:I love the way people's minds work. That's awesome. How about you, Cody?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it's super fun that we're going to get like I mean assuming there's going to be a lot more people like watching our athletes play. Now, as a tennis player, you don't get a lot of people coming to your matches. It's high school tennis and it's your parents.
Speaker 3:It's live stream that second doubles match. Let's go First doubles, second doubles.
Speaker 2:I love it when people come and watch my match. I just think it's going to be a lot of fun for kids to have a bunch of people watching them, because to me it is always the more people the better.
Speaker 5:For years we've hosted the Daktronics Summits in the summertime Usually those are in June and we'd see these groups. There's a school in Wisconsin and they're live streaming and with color commentating, like seven different sports and I'm like man, that would be really fricking cool to get to a point where we can do that stuff.
Speaker 5:And now you know, in large part because we had people that were pushing us right, Wally, we had, we had some students who were eager, and I'm so thankful that we had those students, because now we look at where we're at and where we can go from here. It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, is it ever a little overwhelming? Quinn mentioned this. There's so much we can do and it's almost like you can just keep pushing, but it takes resources to pull that off. What's it like trying to be in charge of this?
Speaker 7:So I like to say that it's both. It's both very rewarding and invigorating, but it is also extremely challenging. Just when you figure something else out, a new hurdle or issue presents itself.
Speaker 3:All true.
Speaker 7:And this is life. Right, it's a really accurate representation of life in that regard. But we just keep pushing through and the students have been really helpful. Logan Thompson, who we referred to earlier, has been tremendously helpful, but on any given day I'm running several lines of communication with different people and different resources and trying to figure things out, from graphics to new locations, to oh my goodness, we need some new cabling out at the stadium. It's a lot.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a lot, but seeing our kids attack it and the joy that they're getting out of it, just okay, I'm going to handle this. We're going to add this to the plate and we're going to figure it out as we go along. It's not always going to be perfect, but that's how we learn, willingness and acknowledgement that not everything is always going to be perfect.
Speaker 7:I think that that's a real key to our success, because obviously the first time it's like not great and stuff doesn't always work, and that I'm just grateful for that.
Speaker 5:So thank you.
Speaker 7:Bill.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. What's really cool about doing this type of stuff is that everybody in this room right now you just don't like this stuff. You love this stuff, right? Truth be truth. Yeah, yes. So, Quinn, I'm talking to your dad the other day and he said you've always been a tinkerer since you've been little. Is that fair enough?
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, all right so.
Speaker 3:Legos right.
Speaker 6:Legos.
Speaker 3:Legos have been a big part, so I don't know where the devious comes from yet, but definitely that tinkering comes from there and you're like the tech guy around the house. For you moving into a role like this and doing this type of work, do you find it was almost inevitable for you?
Speaker 6:Absolutely. I mean, well, I'm a part of the band. I have a band. We play country music.
Speaker 3:Do the promo Go ahead.
Speaker 6:Well, Little House on the ahead.
Speaker 6:Well, little house on the lake little house on the lake 24 on instagram. Um, come check us out, we're awesome, um. But yeah, well, I run all the cabling and I've been trying, we're recording music and we're doing all this stuff and I mean, I've been just been plugging away at it and it's all been plugging stuff in. So it just kind of fits naturally that I would be setting up live streaming stuff and doing this and building legos and being in year three of wood shop and all these things, because it's just what I kind of do right, it's just something you love to do, and I found him as well.
Speaker 3:You are very prominent, bill. Maybe you want to speak to this because you know more. Yeah, I mean you're everywhere.
Speaker 5:You're like miss west ottawa. You hosted survivor um. You hosted the first generation, our first voice generation event. You attend board meetings yes you weren't always as outgoing, though, from what I understand, no, I was not.
Speaker 4:No, I was like I don't know. I was very to myself at. So, starting off high school and then probably like prior to that as well, so anything before sophomore year, I was just a very quiet kid, didn't really do much. And then soon enough I just flipped a switch and was like I'm going to change stuff junior year and senior year and just go out there and do whatever I can, and whatever I can is honestly everything that West Ottawa provides. So I started taking on WBN extracurriculars, things like that, and I just kind of hit the ground running.
Speaker 3:And then, when you were much younger this shocked me when you told me I couldn't believe it, but you had some stuttering issues as a young kid, right.
Speaker 4:I did. Yes, I had a very bad speech impediment. You couldn't really understand a single word I was saying as I was speaking, and it was a very hard thing for me to like overcome. And a lot of therapy, a lot of speech therapy had to be put into play throughout my education, honestly, which is probably one of the biggest factors as to why I was so quiet and very to myself. And then, soon enough, I started kind of gaining confidence in high school when I soon enough learned how to mask my stuttering and I just kind of had to work through that mentally and then just start taking on every opportunity I can.
Speaker 3:Well, you got a nice smile on your face. Can you comment on that?
Speaker 7:I just love these students so, so much. They all are such hard workers and it's a joy to work with them and see their success. Wouldn't be here without them. It's a good time to work with these guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really special, cody, for you talking to your mom about you a little bit. You've always been engaged in tennis. That's kind of been your main passion being at school. But she said watching you be involved in this is something that you're just as animated. One thing that she told me she shared with me was you were up in the booth for football and you took a picture when you were up there and I think you sent it to your parents yeah what, Uh, what did and what was that all about?
Speaker 3:Tell me about that.
Speaker 2:Um, so I'm pretty sure that picture was of me running the music, Um, and I mean just being up there for that. That might've been the first time. Um, it was just like man, like we're at this like super nice stadium and we're like running like all this stuff here and like just being in charge of music or the scoreboard or whatever, like it was just super fun and like being able to really be a like be a part of the fan experience. That's something I'm passionate about and yeah, it's kind of a.
Speaker 3:She said you. I think you put in the line uh, this is a or this needs to be my life.
Speaker 7:Yeah Something like that to that effect.
Speaker 3:Right and it and it has been I always.
Speaker 5:I always, uh, tell people and students to figure out what your passion in life is and then find a way to get paid to do it. And if you do those things, it's not going to feel like work right, it's going to be. You don't have to go to work, you get to go to work. There are days that I'm challenged in that aspect I see the most.
Speaker 5:I see that side of you but for the most part I am super passionate about athletics and the things that it provides, and then you start to branch out into this kind of stuff and it just it fires me up even more so up until this year this will be in athletic department.
Speaker 3:Collaboration didn't exist, and now it's started. One thing that's great about west ottawa it's a school of opportunity. It's a school about collaboration. It's a school of we're gonna go do this. Can you guys just talk, maybe just real briefly, about how that came about?
Speaker 5:so in the stadium, um, we were in the design process and we knew that we were getting some boards through daktronics. Daktronics is the biggest name in stadium scoreboards. Uh, you go to ford field, it's daktronics. So I knew that there was like some curriculum stuff that came with the video boards. At that point and wally and I sat down and we chatted at that point and it was kind of like so that graphics package yeah, so it was more than that it was a little bit more into it than that.
Speaker 5:But at that time there were some challenges that wally was facing just in the wobe end studio with technology and the limitations that were there, and it was kind of we kind of kicked the can down the road a little bit and said, hey, once, once we get this studio stuff figured out, then we're going to be willing to kind of take it on.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I, I think the first step, as I recall and we've had a lot of conversations about this- bill over the years and you're older, so you're not going to remember much, but I think Bill and I have been dreaming about this for many years and I've had conversations with administrators before Bill was even here like this is where we should be headed, this is where we should be going. I just couldn't do it by myself, so we're in a different situation now. I think the first step that we took, or the plan we made, was for my advanced broadcasting students to make videos to be used at those football games, and that was a smashing success.
Speaker 5:Huge, I mean it adds so much to the game experience. Having five questions with the student athlete or bottom is uh 29. One hype video, all those little pieces just make a game. Night at west ottawa is just different than anywhere else you go. I can say that because I'm at all of our games all of the times and there's no one that even comes close to what we're pulling off, which is why I'm so excited about this gym project.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's also another piece. There's also some light comedy, some dry humor that was done at West Ottawa Stadium. Let's hit it.
Speaker 7:I don't know about this video. What is happening right now? Quinn, what did you do?
Speaker 8:Breaking news West Ottawa's black hole has gone missing. They were lasting around West Ottawa Stadium at 6 pm today. Hold on, we're getting word that they have not disappeared. Let's send this to our expert, cody Skirman, with more on this.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Quinn, when you take a look at the black hole, you may not see anything. This is because our students are equipped with camouflage. This is an example of a camouflage shirt, just like the camouflage shirt. You may not see our students, but you sure can hear them.
Speaker 5:It was pretty funny.
Speaker 4:I just know that if Quinn and Cody's name is mentioned in the video, like they're up to no good.
Speaker 3:Well, it's so much true what I really liked about it, and the fact that you don't even know about it is even better. To be honest with you.
Speaker 7:I'm not at every game, you guys are graduating anyways.
Speaker 3:But the great part about this, I remember you guys. Hey, we made this video. Can we play it? I'm like I guess, Sure, Whatever they asked you instead of me.
Speaker 7:Well, it was already made.
Speaker 3:It was already made and I think you guys played it for me Not really looking for my approval, more or less going is he going to be offended or not? And I wasn't. And then it was great because you guys played it. The cool part about that is number one. Nobody asked you to do it, no, and it really added an extra I don't know just an extra layer to the black hole in the student. What was it like for you guys to make it? Cody?
Speaker 2:well, quinn came up with the idea and, um, we just kind of went into the wobian studio, got in front of the green screen and, um, you know, it took a few tries to get the lines down well, we kept laughing, yeah, while we were recording it, so, yeah, but yeah, we got it down and then, uh, quinn put it together, uh, and then you know, we threw it on there. And then Quinn put it together, and then you know, we threw it on there. It was great, it was hilarious. You guys wrote that together.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was just us.
Speaker 3:If you're doing stuff and it's not a class requirement, you're definitely in then. Yeah, timed that up, perfect, all right. Well, that was really fun to do. It was a great part, great memory, even a great memory for me right now. And, uh, wally, maybe some extra class credit. You know, bring the grades up a little bit. If that's okay, let's go to the first time you guys are in the press box oh my god because it's a big, big deal yes, go ahead because you're on it yeah, I was brimming with excitement actually when we had first entered into that booth stadium.
Speaker 4:Uh, wally was like, okay, grab a notepad, bring a a pencil, start taking notes. And I took that very seriously. I don't think Willing even understood. I was literally peering over his shoulder. I'm like Wally, look he's clicking on these buttons and the stuff pops up on the jumbotron. I need to figure this out, and I was just having a blast just trying to figure out things before anybody ever told me I was so into it.
Speaker 7:I remember telling these guys okay, bill has secured a couple of spare seats for us, and just I didn't want them to be disappointed, right? So, like prepping them for we're basically gonna have to sit in the corner and snuggle up there's not a lot of room Bring a writing utensil and paper and I'll let them tell you. But by the end of the game the situation in the booth was very different than what I prepped them for.
Speaker 6:Well, when we got in there, some people weren't prepped that we were going in there. And then the statisticians they took a quick exit when they saw us, so we had a little more space to stretch out.
Speaker 3:It did open up a little bit.
Speaker 4:It did yeah.
Speaker 3:Now the fun part about that is whenever, like, we have shared, I say this group right here has a shared mind about this stuff, and I'm just going to say it. I'm looking over my shoulder and I'm watching you write stuff down. I'm watching and it's almost like it's not just one thing. I'm watching you write stuff down. I'm watching and it's almost like it's not just one thing, it's everything.
Speaker 2:He moved the mouse to the right at 45 degree angle.
Speaker 3:I was like all right. And then we all looked at each other I think at all at the same time and it's like why don't you come down here and do this?
Speaker 4:I was in shock, like I didn't think you'd actually let me, and I was like, yeah, home football game number one of the season. Yeah, yeah, I was so excited like I was just happy to be there, but I did not know anything about football.
Speaker 3:Oh, we're going to get to that now. Yeah, so let's get into it All right, I have a category in this podcast where we talk about our fails, but if Fatima wants to do her fail now, that's a fail.
Speaker 4:I think that's a learning opportunity. Yeah, it's the same thing.
Speaker 3:They go together, they go together. Oh okay, so all right. So one of the jobs up. Fatima, you want to give this a try, Cause we're trying to do different jobs and she's like what's a down? I was like oh man and I'm on the fly.
Speaker 4:I'm like and the game is going like telling me this yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, you know what, you know what a down is. A down is a turn, and a team gets four turns to get 10 yards. And then you were good yeah, it was good.
Speaker 4:Like I was set after that and then you're like just focus where the refs like stay and then that's when like they're gonna go back to like that position. If you know, like there's some like there's a foul or something, and I'm like, okay, I'll just focus on the refs. And I was just I didn't realize how many refs there were at the football stadium as the game was going, so it was like so many things I was learning as the game was going.
Speaker 5:But yeah, it was fun does it make you watch football differently now that you?
Speaker 4:you know what it really does. It does, yeah. It's not like, oh, there's just a couple of guys on the field tossing ball. It's like there's so much production that goes behind the scenes. I've learned a lot from and it's like now I know I can even implement some of that knowledge and what I view on the TV, from professionals to WBN and what we're doing right now.
Speaker 3:Cody, you're up there. You were up there the first night too. I don't think Quinn, was that first time right, or were you? All three of you were.
Speaker 2:I was there the second night you were the second time.
Speaker 3:Okay, so let's go to what you're up there the first night. What's that like for you, quinn?
Speaker 6:Chaos. There are people yelling across the booth, rodney is, or Mr Valinga is running the scoreboard and then he's playing some music and Mr Van Inns decides to start talking and he's got to bring it down and there's just a lot going on and people are all talking to each other and can hear everything that's being said at once.
Speaker 3:When you first jump in there, it's total chaos.
Speaker 4:I loved the atmosphere, though that was just a point where I knew where I wanted to be at that moment.
Speaker 5:And that crew up there has been together for a very long time John Merriman, carl Von Enns, jim Keekover those three have been together for 40-plus years, together doing football games, and so to have this new group kind of inject themselves into that, I was standing back like a mad scientist, like, oh, I can't wait, I'm going to go down on the sideline now. I can't wait to hear how this goes.
Speaker 7:They really did, from my perspective, enjoy having these young kids up there, these young adults, I should say I could tell it kind of invigorated them.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and they're all educators at their core right. Carl was a longtime teacher, john Merriman was a teacher, so, yeah, I think they came to love it.
Speaker 3:Cody, when you're up there the first night, I believe you were doing graphics the first time, right?
Speaker 2:I believe so yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that was our first ever update, so we had this idea to do an update in the OK Red and I think you did that that night or a different night? I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like around the Red and it was all the scores for all the games going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not like you press a button, it's automated and it's done. You had to build that. You know you're building the graphic but getting the store scores, putting it in and it's on a I mean it's on a crunch time type of thing and then to look all through like kennedy's files and everything's a mess and you're just like, so where do I?
Speaker 4:put what?
Speaker 5:it's when you guys need to organize my files. More is what.
Speaker 4:I'm hearing yeah, you should, you really should All right Part of being up there is actually.
Speaker 3:I felt this way the first time I did it, because back in the day I didn't do anything here until I started doing it, and I remember the first time it was like, oh, you can go in the football booth. And I was like what Beside Karl von Inns?
Speaker 2:Seriously. And I remember going up there feeling like it was hallowed ground. Yeah, totally, I was like man, I really don't want to mess anything up here Because, like you said, they've been doing it for like 40 years together and you don't want to ruin their groove. You want to be that guy.
Speaker 3:And when you're up there you kind of learn some of these unwritten rules. Let's see if you guys figured out some of those, what they were. Quinn, you want to jump on that?
Speaker 6:Don't talk over Carl.
Speaker 4:Yeah, don't talk over Carl, and sometimes he'll give you a glance and that's like okay, turn on the music, hurry up and turn on the music and don't have the music playing as he's speaking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we always talked about that too. We talked about that, the competing sounds. Do you want to maybe speak to that for a minute, Cody oh, with the band.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, just in general, like being in the booth if you're running music and there's a band and there's an announcer one of the biggest faux pas is competing sounds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like no one is paying attention to you, like you have to pay attention to everyone else. It's like it's like you're the quarterback. You need to know what everybody else is doing. So like if you mess up like that's no one else's fault, that's yours. So I guess there's a little pressure, um, just to make sure there's nothing else going on when you're playing your music.
Speaker 3:So and then so we know you start doing stuff and you start participating. A great learning curve is when you jump in for freshmen and JV football or some soccer, Because you can just do it. If you mess up it's not a biggie and that's a real place to learn. You guys go from participating to what I call contributing. It's a pretty big difference. Let's go to some of your greater contributions this year. These things never would have happened if you wouldn't have been up there, and it just made everything better. Fatima, let's go to you first. We have a great story. Hopefully you remember this one. It's homecoming night at West Ottawa.
Speaker 4:Stadium. Oh, yes, I remember yeah.
Speaker 3:And Quinn, you want to set this up, do you remember?
Speaker 6:I do. Well, we were discussing about what our plan would be for the halftime ceremony. We were like, oh, we'll just do some music and it'll be nice and easy. And you, Mr Villinga, wanted a drum roll. Yeah, so we're going to get to the 2024 Homecoming King and Queen R drum roll. So I was looking on Spotify and we just thought, well, what if we have the actual band do a drum roll?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you came in. We're talking about that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you guys are talking. And I came in and I'm like hearing, oh, we can have the band play. And I was like, oh guys, hold on, I can definitely go down there and figure things out. And we had no source of communication with one another whatsoever. Like complete trust was given to me to carry out this. Like little mission, should I say, of letting the drumline majors know hey, can you do a drum roll when we have our person do the announcement and they're. I talked to mr hammond and he was like, yeah, sure, we can definitely do that. I'm like, okay, perfect. And it took me a while because I was also doing like other side tasks. Like I was not only talking to the band but I was trying to take pictures of every homecoming group they. That was already a huge task on its own, but and we're sitting up there too.
Speaker 3:So we have the spotify drum roll ready to go just in case and like, well, we're gonna. We feel like she's gonna come through right absolutely right.
Speaker 6:no Right, no doubt.
Speaker 3:So we get to that point, and then homecoming 25 is, and then that live drum roll from across the way.
Speaker 4:They were loud. We could hear them from the booth.
Speaker 3:And just experiencing it from where we were. I just got chills.
Speaker 7:And.
Speaker 3:I was like, yeah, this is where it's, at Like on the fly, in the moment you doing it, us trusting you and it coming through.
Speaker 4:It was so cool to have like student involvement, like that was entirely based off of students and saying, yes, we'll do it.
Speaker 5:True enough right. And you came through with all the photos too, because they all are inside my messy files now.
Speaker 3:Well, this was a cool thing too. That was done on the fly that night. So you have what? Every 10 yards, you have a couple on that field, but you did something to make it richer. What did you do?
Speaker 4:So I felt like people are nominated to represent their class and they deserve a little bit more than just being out on that field, like sometimes you can't see them when you're so far up in the in those bleachers. So I was like, well, I will take a picture of every grade as a group and have us click on it as we're announcing these sophomores, freshmen, juniors and seniors. Because I just felt like not everybody's gonna get get that shout out of like oh, I'm homecoming king and queen. So I felt like, in order to equalize that out, it was putting their face on the jumbotron, that way their loved ones can see them and they're recognized by that huge, because that is a huge accomplishment. They're being recognized by their student body Like this is who we want to be represented by at that football game.
Speaker 3:And then coordinating with the two of you to add graphics to it. You guys want to speak to that.
Speaker 6:Well, Fatima, she made the graphics on Box Out.
Speaker 4:I did. Oh, you did that too. Yeah, I was hustling.
Speaker 6:Goodness, she made all the graphics, but we had to click through them and we made them all in order, which was a surprise. Honestly, we didn't lose anybody in there, and this is happening fast.
Speaker 3:It's fast, I mean there's and just for the regular person listening, there's a list of stuff that has to already be happening and it's like we're really throwing this in. Yes, we are and you guys all come through and it's executed perfectly.
Speaker 4:It was really fantastic but like seeing everything get, like seeing everything come together. It it's such a satisfying feeling. It's like my work is being put on that jumbotron. People are getting the recognition that they deserve. It's an empowering feeling.
Speaker 3:Let's go to some contributions from Cody and Quinn. You guys were both kind of DJ music guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And what was fun for us. Bill, maybe you want to speak to this.
Speaker 5:The coolest part, I think. So I'm going to come at music from a certain lens, right Old man, lens Well, it's going to be grunge music and classic rock.
Speaker 3:I stay away from the band type I'm so happy Really, they're warming up. I stay away from my jam.
Speaker 5:I'm so happy, I mean really they're warming up. I stay away from my jam bands because I know that you know that's just not people's jam. But what was really cool this year as we're as music is happening is I would see young kids dancing to a song and then the next song would come on and I would be standing next to our superintendent and he'd be like, oh man, what a great song this is. And then KJ's there on the sideline and she's like, oh, I love this song. So it wasn't focused at any one demographic within our stadium. It was literally there was something for everybody over the course of an evening. It changed the whole feel of a Friday night game.
Speaker 3:Cody, how do you put that together, because you've been going to a lot of stadiums for a long time? There's a certain set of songs that are played.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you went away from that and it made it so much better. Talk about that.
Speaker 2:I mean, I just felt like, you know, you just hear the same songs to every game you go, like, whether it's high school football, like even like a Lions game, like it's the same, it's the same stuff. So I just kind of went through my music you know, I'm an 18 year old, I'm a, I'm a teenager, like stuff that we all like. I just went through my music and I, you know, mixed it up with some of the stuff sometimes you hear at games and then just jammed it all together and hit the playlist. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Even now if we're in a pinch. So if we're at a basketball game and none of you are there, bill and I are like where's Cody's playlist? Where's Cody's playlist?
Speaker 5:I use it at basketball. The couple of nights I had to do music this year, I used Cody's basketball playlist.
Speaker 3:I just remember coming over to you a lot and going what are you playing right now?
Speaker 2:Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, I do.
Speaker 3:I don't know. After a while I was like I'm going to see if I can get him up. I'm going to play something else.
Speaker 5:That would be you I think the most excited I was is when I heard my gosh.
Speaker 3:We've got black sabbath playing in the stadium and then we got quinn's approach and you guys are a little bit different from each other.
Speaker 6:Go ahead, quinn uh, my approach was scrolling through my own spotify and apple music and trying to find and my friends really, because I I don't really listen to the new stuff, I'm a little more oldie and then I scrolled through my dad's spotify too and that's where a lot of it came from because, I mean, my dad has an amazing music taste, I have to say he does, we're very, we're very similar um, and just the music I've picked up, just pat yourself on the back the music I've picked up from the last couple years, listening in the car with him and, like greta van fleet, black sabbath, uh, I want pearl, all of it.
Speaker 6:I mean, when I put it all together I was like this is awesome, I love this stuff. And then you just play what the vibe is in the stadium and it all works together. You just got to have a good feel for what the time is right.
Speaker 3:That's a really important part because you know, doing this work, it's always like well, should we like plan the whole thing out? I've always come back to no, because every night's different and every person. If you're good, you can feel the vibe of the night and really make a contribution is and what you guys did this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I will add um with also gathering some of my other music. Uh, I got it from like playing nba 2k 15 when I was in like third grade and like the influence of 2k yeah, I just I played that day and night and I knew all the songs that were in their game and the ones I liked. So I mean a lot of 2k and, uh, other games soundtracks contributed to to the playlist a lot of fun with all those things.
Speaker 3:Let's go to some of what an educator might call your learning moments. I have them down as your epic fails which is fine, because I have them too. I have them too. Now, what's funny thing is, I couldn't remember any from you. Was there anything that you did up there where you're like oops, I don't?
Speaker 4:know I feel like Quinn has seen me like trip up a couple of times here and there on the Jumbotron. Oh, black screens.
Speaker 7:I, there was a lot.
Speaker 4:Not a lot of black screens, but it was just. Sometimes I would blink out and I'm like when am I supposed to click again?
Speaker 3:Well, that's a program program error, cause they're supposed to like something's supposed to run through and pop back, but we'd had some little issues.
Speaker 4:Okay, so yeah, little issues okay.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's actually, but it was like fault.
Speaker 4:You gotta yeah, you gotta be on that, be on that, but is but no, yeah, you are supposed to be on it, but that's probably like my biggest thing. It's like don't trust the system completely. Have a backup, you know. Always remember to click that button at least once again once the timer's up, so that way you don't have a black screen on that jumbotron and you have something that the audience can always look at yeah, yeah, don't get caught looking at the game too much or pulling out your phone or whatever the case may be, because mistake is coming quick.
Speaker 3:Cody and Bill, you have a shared history on one thing, cody. Do you remember getting the anthem prepped and something happening that didn't go your way? If you have wiped this from your memory, that's really good on your brain to take this out.
Speaker 2:Think I did so.
Speaker 3:I think you gotta, you gotta tell me again all right, so it well, this happened to bill kennedy.
Speaker 5:Yeah, mr, yeah, so when you're using, using spotify for music and you think you got the anthem lined, all ready to go and you hit play and you still have the other song low in the bottom bar that's actually going to play. So I'm trying to think back to what song it was. Oh.
Speaker 3:I know which one it was.
Speaker 5:It's Welcome to the Jungle.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:So, ladies and gentlemen, now please stand for your national anthem, and it was. Welcome and I quick was like oh pause, get the anthem loaded.
Speaker 3:Now, Cody, I thought that happened to you, but you don't remember it. You've wiped it from your memory.
Speaker 2:I don't know, Give me some context. Maybe Do you remember that's the context.
Speaker 4:You played a video instead of the national anthem. I don't remember the hype video? No, it wasn't the hype video.
Speaker 5:It was just the song because of the way that. Spotify loads them up.
Speaker 3:And I have to be honest here, you're not the only two to do it, because I've been in lacrosse booth by myself and it also happened.
Speaker 5:So it does happen to everybody. That wasn't when you were running it through your cell phone.
Speaker 3:No, that was at a new stadium. Those are two really good. You know two or three really good stories, but it doesn't match up.
Speaker 4:It was probably so traumatizing that they just wiped it off.
Speaker 3:Probably. That's probably what happened. It doesn't come close to the light incident.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 6:at the light incident.
Speaker 2:That was rough.
Speaker 6:Well, at the start of the season I saw Auburn, the university, do something like going into their going into like their third quarter, where they turn off all the lights and make them go blood red and they're playing a song and I think it's sweet, okay. So I was like, oh, that could be awesome. And so I make a mashup of like an air raid, siren, and then it transitions into power by kanye west and it. It worked really well, and then you and then I would do all the flashing lights and this would go right into the third quarter and it got everyone super pumped for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you ran it by me. It's like hey do you think we can do this? We can probably pull this off.
Speaker 4:You're all about it. Did you guys practice this at all?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I had run it every home game.
Speaker 6:And this was going into week nine against Hudsonville, and earlier in the game when we scored a touchdown I flashed the lights and there was a little bit of delay, not enough to where I really got concerned, but I was like that was weird, something's off, oh boy. And then I'm going through it and I click the lights. Well, I click the music, so it's going and I click the lights following. So then they start flashing and you're supposed to the way I do it as you go to the different settings to give it some variety, and it didn't switch, it was stuck on one of them, like the pole chaser or something for probably two minutes.
Speaker 6:Yeah, would not switch and I instantly grabbed the radio and I'm like the lights are broken.
Speaker 4:The lights are broken. They're not switching off and Mr Kennedy goes.
Speaker 6:Well, you've got to hit high. I'm like the screen's not working and I just sat down on the mouse. I'm like I'm not going to touch anything and I just leaned back in my chair. I'm like this is past my pay grade.
Speaker 4:Which is nothing, which is nothing. You're on volunteer opportunities, yeah, so.
Speaker 5:I was down on the sideline and I'm like, oh, this is sweet Place is going crazy. Student sections are both into things. I'm like, all right, man, these lights seem to be running a little longer than normal. Then I hear Quinn call, so then I called Jordan. Jordan Foster is our facilities guy. He's always on duty on Friday nights because he's a jack of all trades. He just happened to be up on the roof of the concession stand because one of Hudsonville's kicking balls went up onto the roof.
Speaker 4:So he's just casually on the roof.
Speaker 5:Well, he went up to get this ball down for Hudsonville, so I call him Two minutes might have been five. If that wasn't the case, he's like I'm just on the ladder coming down, I'll go and reset it. And so now we know. We know where the lights always have been the actual manual controls. So he just went in, turned them off, turned them back on and we were good to go.
Speaker 6:Although while he was on the roof he got a pretty sweet video of it going on.
Speaker 5:Yes, he did, I saw it on his Instagram yes, he got a great video and then come to find out there was a server crash for Musco, who was our lighting company. So there were server crashes and Musco lighting systems across the country were affected. It just happened to time up and then. Since then we have also found I did not know that we had a wire.
Speaker 6:That was basically defective, so we've had that replaced and we should be good to go for the well, it's not my spring season.
Speaker 3:Main story was not quinn's fault what I liked about that a lot, so people are going to call it a mistake. I love the fact that you're pushing boundaries, number one, which always comes with a Quinn Vanderkamp mischievous smirk. You guys all know about this, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Your dad says we have him on a pretty good path, but I always have to remind him to keep it in. The rumble strips is the line. So, quinn, you're always pushing stuff, but I always appreciate it actually, and what I really liked about that moment is nobody lost it, everyone just remained relaxed. Everybody, the whole booth, bill, jordan getting it done, and for the people in the crowd that night, if you're listening to this podcast and you're at that game, you remember it and guess what?
Speaker 3:that was fun yeah so sometimes these mistakes don't really mean anything.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was down on the sideline. I always go and visit the visiting ADs. I'm pretty tight with Ben Farkas over at Hudsonville and I remember standing with him. It was like first quarter and he's like dude, this is quite the production you have going on. And I am like, yeah, and it's all run by students right now and was just like you have got to be kidding me. You have students running your video board. You have students running the music. Yep, we sure do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember the one guy from Granham goes how do you prevent them from playing bad music? I go, you just got to work together like you got to trust him.
Speaker 4:I think being a student and given that trust, it's like a huge accomplishment, because then you're being prepared for a career that you are interested in and you just kind of take the reins of it and that's the most best feeling ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5:So one of the really cool parts that have kind of been pushed by this group is something that I've been championing for for a couple of years now. One of the real bummers about having these beautiful boards out in the stadium is that once the winter season hits, you come back inside and, in all honesty, it gets kind of boring because it's just scoreboards and some music and that's really it, but because we've been able to kind of connect our students into the process.
Speaker 5:At last month's board meeting, board project was approved for the main gym. So we're going to have video boards in the gym which now allows us to do boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, competitive cheer, competitive dance. Our assemblies will be completely different. We won't have to, like last week at the unified assembly, wait for the baskets to be lowered because it's in the way of the projection screen. It's going to change kind of what we can do and really add more opportunities for you all. I know that you're all bummed out that it's happening after you leave, but maybe talk to us about, um, how that makes you feel that you guys all bummed out that it's happening after you leave, but maybe talk to us about, um, how that makes you feel that you guys were really the ones that kind of maybe pushed us in this direction to have this project happen it's exciting for the people below us.
Speaker 6:Um, in football and baseball, we always say that we're building a program not for us, but for the people below us, so I was happy to be a part of building another program that is hopefully going to take off. And, yeah, I wish I was a junior or a sophomore.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I just obviously I wish I was a junior too, um, but it's, it's super exciting and I hope that, like you know, I I can come back. You know five, six years and it's super exciting and I hope that I can come back five, six years and it's just completely student-run, super smooth. I hope to come back and just see how amazing production is and how far we've come.
Speaker 4:I think it's really exciting to just imagine the opportunities are going to be given to younger generations it's a completely different field that they're entering into and to be given that learning opportunity, to learn what it's like being at the booth, learning how to control jumbotrons and even like those screens at a basketball game. It's empowering for students to know that, hey, like I'm able to do this, imagine what more I can do later on in my future. And it's like a completely different know that hey, like I'm able to do this, imagine what more I can do later on in my future. And it's like a completely different perspective that they're given for everyone listening.
Speaker 7:I think it's really important to remember, too, that most schools don't have this. I mean, let's go back to basics. Most schools don't have a broadcasting class. Most schools do not have a studio in a control room and a podcast studio. Most schools don't do any of this, and it's just another way that makes West Ottawa so incredibly special.
Speaker 3:We got the spring season coming up, you'll be doing you know you're playing sports and doing some live broadcasting, so some other people will move into some different roles. I know, cody, you don't have a spring sport, so we got some really great opportunities that we're going to probably work on with you.
Speaker 5:We're going to get you behind the mic. You're going to announce some games this spring.
Speaker 2:I'd love to do that yeah, oh yeah, it's happening.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about where you guys are moving forward to. You know, you're always welcome to come back we've had Connor Woolley.
Speaker 5:Connor Woolley man. He'll be back in the spring to do some stuff for sure, but as you guys, move forward.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about you, cody. You're going to move into sports journalism.
Speaker 2:This is something you want to try and do, yeah so right now the plan is if I get into michigan, right, that's where I'm going.
Speaker 2:I got deferred, but if I get in, I'm going to go there and probably do sports management there, because unfortunately they don't have okay, journalism or sports journalism, but otherwise I'm going to Tennessee and going to do sports journalism there and I hope to go to school there, have some fun and really meet some people, get an internship, hopefully with maybe it's a team, maybe it's a sports broadcasting company like CBS Sports, espn. Yeah, that's the path I want to go down and I think that's my path to happiness later in life.
Speaker 3:That's really awesome, Quinn. You're heading off to Hope.
Speaker 6:That's right.
Speaker 3:You already have some opportunities there because of some of the things you've been doing here.
Speaker 6:Well, I went on an Anchor Day visit and I was lucky enough to be able to secure a meeting with Freddy Vasquez. He is the live stream coordinator at Hope College and he talked to me about how all their live streams are student run and I was like, wow, this is awesome, I want to be a part of this. And me and my mom were like, wow, this is going to be a huge pull for Hope College, as if I wasn't going to go there anyway and yeah, so then that was a huge thing. And then at the end he mentioned and you get paid $11.50 an hour. And that blew my mind because I wouldn't get paid to do this. I would do this for free.
Speaker 5:Find a way to get paid to do what you love.
Speaker 4:As of right now, I'm planning on going to michigan state. I haven't gotten actually any answer from the university of michigan so I'm still waiting. So, like late april, I'll figure that path. But I definitely know that whatever comes to paths with universities, I'll end up going to state. They have so many opportunities in terms of like communications and broadcasting and I know that with just like pulling some strings and getting some connections, I could definitely work at stadiums and athletic centers. So, like gymnastics, football, stadium basketball, I feel like, whatever happens, like I'm definitely going to go into the broadcasting world. I'm very determined to make the most out of Michigan State and definitely work at it. I really want to work in the sports realm. I just don't know what. I know that I'm completely dedicated to communications.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just watched some Robin Roberts videos. Do you know who she is?
Speaker 4:You always mention her and I fail to look her up All right, so you will after this.
Speaker 3:So check out Robin Roberts. It's a great story. She just you remind me of a young her like I knew, a young her which I did not, but you know your involvement here has been nothing short of inspiring. You know, going to school, though we talked about this a couple weeks ago by the scorer's table.
Speaker 4:I got the promise scholarship yeah. I got the, which is essentially a full ride to whatever college or university in the state of Michigan, which which is a huge, huge, huge help, and honestly I just view it as another opportunity for me to like, advance and secure my spot of achieving my dreams, essentially, and it's like it's mind blowing to know that I have that capacity and there's a community behind me that views that capacity in me.
Speaker 3:When we were talking that night too, you also said for a long time, though, you didn't dare dream of it no, speak to that if you can.
Speaker 4:I really didn't think college was an opportunity for me. I really thought I would just get out of high school, start working and then live that type of life Not saying it's not bad, but it really did prevent me from thinking of a career path that I would actually enjoy. Life was mostly about working, get your money, pay the bills and call it a day. So getting that Promise Scholarship it's given me the opportunity to look beyond that and really dream more about what it is that I'm passionate about, and I finally allowed myself to really immerse myself into broadcasting, because it wasn't just something that I can get out of high school, it's something that I can get in college. And the word college was just so foreign and it was almost like taboo, honestly. But now that I have that promise, it's like I know what I want and I'm not afraid to dream even more beyond broadcasting and sports, journalism and everything around that realm.
Speaker 7:West Ottawa grads. Wherever you go, there are going to be lots of opportunities. The only thing standing in your way is you going after them and you doing what Quinn did in the conversation at his Hope visit Like I want to do this. You just have to say it, you just have to communicate it. You just have to communicate it. So it's a really great reminder. Do that at West Ottawa High School, but don't turn it off. Do it right when you go to your next place.
Speaker 3:Hopefully a lot of young kids are listening to this. You guys have really brought a lot of. If you dream it, you can do it to today, Taking a chance and doing something like this and making it happen. Thanks to all four of you for coming in. You're all very inspiring. We love the work that you do and let's just remember we are.
Speaker 6:West Ottawa we are community and we are each other.
Speaker 5:Thanks guys, thanks so much guys.
