Bench Warnings And New Albany Desserts - Senior Basketball Players

Five New Albany seniors walk into the White Fence Living Podcast with nerves, jokes, and the kind of honesty you only get after the season ends. We start with a legendary “three fouls in twenty seconds” moment, then pivot into what really defined their year: surviving rough patches, leaning on teammates, and learning how to play free while still staying disciplined when the stakes rise.

We dig into Ohio high school basketball at its most demanding, including a regional final against a team known for full-court pressure and nonstop pace. The guys explain what preparation looks like day to day: walkthroughs, film study, scouting reports, and why a deep coaching staff can feel more like a college program than a typical high school bench. They also share how a loud gym and a student section right behind the bench can tilt momentum, plus the bench energy that turned into a real identity during the playoff run.

Player development comes through in concrete terms. We talk AAU basketball, building a repeatable shooting routine, finding one elite skill to anchor your game, and staying patient when you are not where you want to be yet. One senior breaks down his decision to commit to the University of Toledo and what he looks for in a coaching staff, development plan, and winning culture. We also get real about senior pressure at New Albany, academics, and why stepping away from social media can be a competitive advantage for your focus.

If you care about team culture, leadership, recruiting, or raising a young athlete, this conversation lands with plenty of laughs and a lot of usable takeaways. Subscribe, share this with a New Albany fan, and leave a review with your favorite part of the conversation.

Transcript

Welcome And Setup

Luke 0:16

You guys nervous? I'm not gonna lie a little bit.

Who Fouls Out First

Justin 0:22

Uh well man, I'm sorry we could be in the studio. This studio's cool, um, but little scheduling conflict. So um this is kind of neat though to do it a little different than I've done it before. Um the quality of audio is probably not gonna be as good, but so just make sure you like speak up. Um, but welcome to White Fence Living Podcast. Thank you for having us. Nah, thank you guys. Um, it's uh these are like my favorite ones to do. So I started podcasting like just on a whim. Like I had no, I still don't know what I'm doing. But uh, so I've met with like quite a few different businesses, nonprofits, and um like doing this is cool because as I told you, I used to teach and I coach, and um so it's super fun. So I appreciate it. I know scheduling wasn't easy, um, but uh we made it happen. Here we are. Um I'll start I'll start the kind of the same way I did with the girls. Um, let's start with uh who's most likely to foul out. I mean, do you guys already think about this?

Luke 1:20

We we did, and it's Jackson a hundred percent. We have a little story about that too if you'd like me to tell. Absolutely. Okay, so over the summer our junior year, we're playing at Ohio State in like a summer basketball games thing.

Jackson 1:38

Scrimmage over the yeah, over the summer.

Luke 1:40

Yeah, and it was it was our it was our first scrimmage of the day against Pick Central, and about halfway through the third quarter, or uh halfway through the second half, it was in the half. Uh Jackson goes in and in 20 seconds he picks up three fouls, and we just haven't let it go. That's we just haven't let it go.

Jackson 2:02

So that's you know, I remember the second one. The second one was complete crap. They called they called him now on me before they ended on the ball. That's that one was a little hesitant in me. But yeah, I don't really remember the first and third one, but the second one was before it even got in. So yeah, cool.

Justin 2:20

Um that's great. Well, uh, so let's go, we'll go this way. Just your name, position, anything you might want to say.

Luke 2:28

Uh I'm Luke Ford, I'm a senior, and I uh shooting guard, point guard, just whatever the team needed me to be, you know. Yeah, uh yeah.

Jacob 2:36

I'm I'm Jacob, I'm a senior, and I was a four and five. Okay. I'm Marco, I'm a senior, and uh I'm a guard. I'm Caden, I'm a senior, and I was point guard.

Jackson 2:47

All right. Um, I'm Jackson, I'm a senior, and I was uh power forward and center. All right, all right. Where's all the big guys, not seniors? All the post?

Caden 2:56

I'm looking at them. Our biggest, our biggest team is a G. Yeah.

Regional Final Against Westerville North

Justin 2:59

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um you guys are all much taller than I am. Um I'm gonna peek at this real quick just to make sure everybody's good. Yeah. Um well tell me, uh, tell me about the season, man. Tell me, so regional finals, right? Um, who'd you guys play? West War North. Okay. Um, how were that like how was that game?

Luke 3:22

How'd it how'd it go? So, I mean, Westworld North was kind of like the team to beat in D Division II in the state. They played every team that they've they were beaten every team by like 30 and uh playing like the number one teams in D one close. So like they were always the team to beat, and we knew we're gonna have to see them at some point. Yeah, yeah. And so we played them strong. I mean, and talking about them, they we they did a great job handling their pressure because that's what they do. They try to turn it turn you over and run. So they still do they press a lot?

Marco 3:54

Yeah, that that's like that's like kind of their niche. Like they they press you the entire game, they got up early, and but uh we cut it to six at halftime, they were up 15 in the first half, got it to six at halftime, and then uh got it all the way down to three like two different times, but they just kept hitting shots. Yeah, yeah, we couldn't couldn't ever close it.

Justin 4:14

I I got a good North story for you. So I told you I coached freshman basketball. Like I was I was trying to get a teaching job, so I was just coaching everything I could. Yeah, played basketball like in seventh grade one year, yeah. Uh maybe it was eighth grade, I don't know, but it wasn't very good. I probably made the teams up fast and hustled, but so I'm coaching and they need a freshman coach. I knew the varsity basketball coach pretty well, so he's like, Hey, can you do this for me, man? You'll do fine. So I called a buddy who was a good basketball player and said, Hey man, will you help me out? And he's like, Yeah, sure. So fast forward, we're in the we're playing north at north, and they are pressing us. I'm not kidding. It was like 20 to nothing. We like we hadn't even got the ball across the board. Like they're just pressing us, turn over bucket, press like it was. I lost my mind on these kids at halftime. Like it was yeah, yeah.

Luke 5:04

That's there, that's what they do.

Jacob 5:06

Last year they beat a team in districts by 90.

Luke 5:09

Yeah, that yeah, they just kill teams, like teams that can't handle pressure at all, they just get smoked. Yeah, that was us. Yeah.

Justin 5:19

Um, well, tell me, like, I'd love to talk about how coaching's been, right? So uh you get it, you get Coach Casey, was it two years ago? This is our sophomore year.

Jacob 5:29

Yeah. So this was our third year.

Justin 5:31

Third year with him, yeah. So were you guys all around freshman year? Yeah, okay. Like what's what's changed? Like what's different?

Jacob 5:38

Just like the culture, like I would say the culture is the biggest thing. Like, Coach Casey came in from like a very established program in Upper Arlington, yeah. And he kind of came right into New Albany and kind of made it his own, like right away. And like playing for Coach Casey these last three years, it was uh difficult at times. It was a lot of hard work, but like he like he absolutely gave us the best chance to win in terms of his preparation, in terms of his practices that he took us through. Like, he's just 1000% committed to winning and committed to the guys and committed to the program. So yeah, I mean I've heard he's like the expectations are high. Like, I mean, I I think he's the best coach in the state of Ohio. Yeah, I guess I think we can all agree on that.

Luke 6:22

And it it's really easy to play for him just because you know he's putting in just as much work as we are that he asked from us. So it's not like he's a coach who just comes to practice, just wants to beat us up and he's not doing anything. He's going home, he's watching film, he spends time on practice plans. So it's really easy to play for someone who you know is just making putting in all that work, yeah. You know, so like you feel like you owe it back to him.

Student Section Right Behind Bench

Justin 6:47

And a bunch of assistant coaches, right? The girls said you guys have like a million coaches. Yeah, yeah, eight on the bench. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaking of the bench, I think it is crazy how the student section's right behind you. Like, what is that like what is that like for you guys to be like they're literally like in touch you, right? Yeah, yeah.

Luke 7:08

Do you guys like that or is that yeah, it's fun having all like your boys and friends, you know, like right there cheering you on. I think it's really fun. Not distracting at all.

Caden 7:18

And it's like uh, you know, in the first half, it's great because uh the other team's going that way, so they can't hear a thing on offense and we're on defense, yeah. You know, just getting fired up. So I would say a lot of the first halves were holding teams to minimal points.

Justin 7:35

They had a lot to do with that. Yeah, yeah.

Jacob 7:37

Yeah, it made a difference for sure.

Justin 7:39

I don't know if I was mature enough in high school. Like if they'd have put us behind our bench, I don't it would have been shenanigans. Um any funny stories about that? Like anything, any goofballs behind you doing dumb stuff?

Luke 7:52

Um didn't okay. What game did someone it wasn't our student section, but we were playing somewhere, and some it was Gehanna, our our junior year at Gahana. Someone threw a water bottle on the court and they had to like stop the game for a second, and like the the student section got a technical that's awesome. Yeah, so that was funny. That was a time of students actually got a little too involved in the game.

Team Superlatives And Roles

Justin 8:17

Yeah. Um, so I I did this with the girls. I did like superlatives. So um I'm just gonna like say like some most likeliess, and it could be any, it doesn't have to be somebody here. So we started with vow out, right? Um, let's do some like like like who's the who's the funniest?

Jacob 8:42

What what m what what's he do? What's he's just always cracking us up, like if everybody's just like say it's like a tense moment in practice, or it's like he's just always the guy to just like calm us down and just like just just like like oh no, he's always making everybody laugh. Really just some stupid stuff. Yeah, he's he's just individual.

Justin 9:05

Yeah, yeah. Um, that's good, that's good. Uh most likely to play in college.

Luke 9:10

Well, maybe that did that.

Justin 9:13

Yeah, so where are you headed? Toledo. Nice, yeah. Heck yeah. Um, the Rockets. That's pretty cool. I I didn't know that. Yeah, nice. What other offers did you get?

Jacob 9:24

Uh I had OU, Miami, Toledo, um, Evansville, uh, Brown, Cleveland State, and Wright State. Nice. Yeah. Uh, why Toledo? Uh, coaching staff. I fell in love with the coaching staff. Uh just they're committed to winning. They finish at the top of their conference every year. Um, super personable staff, uh, developed their players really well who just seemed like the right fit for me.

Justin 9:50

Cool, cool. That's awesome. Is anybody else going to play? No, no, no. Even like, do you think do you think any like uh the juniors are have aspirations playing?

AAU Basketball And Summer Growth

Luke 10:00

Yeah, yeah. Um, Cam Collar is a junior this year, and he's really looking to pick up some D2s, possibly D1s. Yes, AAU season. But yeah, he's really excited. Nice about it, yeah. Did you guys all play AAU? Yeah, yeah.

Caden 10:13

I actually did not because of baseball season.

Luke 10:15

Yeah. Um you used to though. I used to back in the day. Middle schools, mid-ohio foods. You were you ran this team. Yeah.

Justin 10:24

What's AAU scene like? Like how I mean you got you always get you enjoy it.

Luke 10:28

It's gotta be fun. It yeah, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun. Yeah, if it was kind of just like a drag, it wouldn't be worth it. But yeah, I had a lot of fun playing AAU. It's just like a time to kind of like worry a lot. There's a lot less pressure on you. You kind of just let break free and play.

Justin 10:44

Yeah. So yeah, yeah. Um, who played together?

Luke 10:47

Any any like we played together for like two years. Um that's like freshman sophomore year. Uh the you guys played together at a young age.

Speaker 6 10:58

Yeah.

Luke 11:00

I've always been with uh my own kind of team. Like the whole thing. Yeah, Jackson's always been like a little wolf. Like if you could say it like that, like he's always just been on his own, like in his own world. Who had the better AAU team? Who had the best team? Probably me.

Justin 11:18

Oh, he didn't. Yeah, that was probably why. Yeah, yeah. Who else who else were there any big names on your team?

Jacob 11:27

Uh, my point guard, he he goes to Bishop Hartley's signed to Kent State. Okay. Um, his name's Shakai. Uh, we have a Rhode Island, we had a Rhode Island commit. Um, his name's Tim Martin. He goes to a school in Cincinnati. That's right. Um, yeah, and then there's a ton of guys. We had a few D1 football guys, and then some other guys that are playing D2 basketball.

Justin 11:48

So cool. Yeah. Cool. Did anybody else play other sports besides?

Jacob 11:52

I've always been basketball and plays baseball, that's about it.

Justin 11:54

Nobody else?

Luke 11:55

Yeah. High school, I've just been all basketball.

Justin 11:57

Yeah. Oh, but it seems like that's the like that's just what it is.

Caden 12:01

Now from the hard to play a winter sport and another sport because it's right in the middle. So you're missing, yeah. You're missing something. Yeah. Um, honestly, I get a late start for baseball every year, which is kind of annoying, but yeah, basketball's worth it.

Justin 12:17

Yeah, because I mean you're just out like when was the regional final game?

Caden 12:21

A week ago.

Justin 12:22

Yeah. So did you did you take any time off or just right into it?

Caden 12:26

Um, you know, I well, I had a foot issue. I have a small break at the top of my foot. But uh yeah, took a couple scrimmages off. Actually, just yesterday, I got a couple at bats. So other than that, I'm trying to rest.

Justin 12:39

Yeah, yeah, take some some sort of time off. Yeah. Um, all right, so what'd we do? We did uh most likely to play in college. Uh let's do um most likely. How about most likely to succeed? Like who's gonna be the most success?

Luke 12:58

Cole. I I yeah, I gotta give to Jacob to me. Uh I I every guy in this room is really like setting himself up. Yeah, that's a great answer. Every guy in this room, we all work hard, you know. Yeah, yeah, we're all gonna put ourselves in positions that you know why are you gonna be the most successful?

Jacob 13:18

Um he's the most naturally smart. Yeah, just leave it that way. I'm the smartest guy in the room. Okay.

Luke 13:27

I don't doubt that, at least from my perspective. It's always the quietest guy. That's a that's what I've learned over time. Like the quietest guy never involved.

Jacob 13:35

A close second is probably like Jackson.

Justin 13:37

Yeah, you know what's funny is that my son, like, so I'm not very tall. My wife's not tall, none of my kids are gonna be tall, right? So my son, Vinny, is like today at the table, and he's in seventh grade. Like, he's got he's young, and he was like, I'd rather be tall than smart. And I'm like, I don't know about that dude. The odds of you going to play any sport like in college, let alone professionally. So I was like, so then I started like looking up stats of like how few people get paid to play a sport, you know? Yeah, I was like, dude, you'd rather be smart. Yeah, you agree with that, yeah.

Jacob 14:16

When you're talking about taller, you're talking about like six eight.

Justin 14:19

Yeah, that's so that's the other thing is like he thinks six foot's tall because he's looking at his five foot nine dad, but six foot, he's like, um, yeah, that's funny.

Luke 14:28

Uh there's always a chance though. Yeah, I think my my dad's five nine, my mom's five three. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I got lucky.

Jackson 14:34

I got really lucky. I didn't get very lucky. My dad's six three and my mom's six foot. Yeah, mom's been right at six foot. So yeah.

March Madness Brackets And Fandom

Justin 14:41

I mean, it like obviously genetics play a lot of it. It's not everything, you know what I mean? You see, you know. Um, all right, let's talk a little NCA tournament. How's brackets doing?

Jackson 14:52

I got the best bracket here right now. I thought you did the smartest, though. Yes, I do. I think I have the worst. And I'm like right, me and J are first. I looked at the points like mine is terrible.

Justin 15:02

So you guys do you have one with the basketball team? Uh uh. Or you just like frame groups.

Jackson 15:07

Yeah, yeah.

Luke 15:07

But this is like already our whole frame group. Yeah, um, except for like three dudes. Yeah, yeah. Our frame group is a basketball team, pretty much. Yeah. Um, my bracket's terrible. I just picked too many upsets here for no reason. Is that like doing any research at all?

Justin 15:23

I feel like the bigger the bracket, like the bigger the group, like the more risk you gotta take because you gotta score more points. Like if you're in something small, you could be a little more conservative. Um, yeah, I think my son and I are tied in the our family one, which is he does he doesn't have a phone, but he like loves this, so he wants to play commissioner. So he prints all the brackets out. So we're handwriting all of our name. And he's probably like in his room right now cheating, like scratching stuff out. I made him take pictures and like send it. Uh so like I I don't even have I don't even have a picture by bracket. So I'm watching games like who did I pick? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh but it's fun, they all get to do it.

Luke 16:00

It's are you pawing for any team specifically? Don't sweat it.

Justin 16:03

Uh Arizona. Yep, that's who I picked. That's what I need. Anybody but Duke?

Luke 16:10

You're like a big basketball fan right there.

Jacob 16:12

He's going to Michigan, so that's are you?

Luke 16:15

Yeah. All right. All right. Our dad said that like we're gonna watch the game together if it's a Duke, Michigan National Championship. Yes, we could. Yeah, yeah. That's not gonna happen. We'll see. Duke's not getting there. Michigan will be there. We'll see.

Justin 16:35

I mean, they better start playing better.

Caden 16:37

They played pretty good yesterday, and I was happy with the second half.

Justin 16:40

Yeah, the second half was a lot better than the first. Yeah, who else you guys pulling for?

Jacob 16:44

I have uh Michigan won my record. I have Michigan as well. I have the one no way. Interesting. Very interesting. Watch them win. Or they won both games by 20. We're little compared to me, bro.

Luke 17:00

Watch them win it all.

Shout Outs To Coaches And Family

Justin 17:03

They're not going to mean crazy things happen. Um what's uh so another thing uh that that I did that I thought was kind of fun with the girls was like a shout-out, right? Um I just think it's cool for you guys to take a chance to thank somebody, or um, I mean, it it's a grind to get to where you guys are, and especially like AU and youth, and I'm sure you guys played other youth sports. So if there's a coach, uh whoever it is, like just the stage is yours. We could go in order, we could bounce around when you're ready, doesn't matter. Um we start. Yeah.

Luke 17:40

I want to think one of our assistant coaches, uh Coach Dub, um kind of W, he just um, you know, best guy on the team. You know, he's so happy, he comes to practice with a smile every day. You know, he's he and he loves the team. So it's like having him on our side, he's handling all the behind-the-scenes stuff. The amount of work that you don't see the amount of work he puts in, yeah, but it's like it's there, and like we're impacted by it every practice, every just every event, every day. How long's how long's he been there? So he's he came with Coach Casey. Him and Coach Casey have been like a duo for 20 plus years.

Jacob 18:13

Like he uh he won assistant coach of the year in the state of Ohio this year. Oh wow, yeah.

Luke 18:19

So he's super well deserved. Yeah, great dude. Uh huh. So yeah, if I'd I'd say big thanks to Coach Dub.

Jacob 18:27

Yeah, yeah. I actually wanted to say the same thing about Coach Dub, but the different way to say, like, I feel like he's our team's glue. Like he's the glue guy. Yeah.

Justin 18:36

Yeah. What position does he put uh does he coach a specif specific position or just kind of he kind of just handles behind the scenes stuff?

Luke 18:43

And you know, he's just like he's calling out what he's what he sees in practice.

Jacob 18:47

He does like all the communication stuff with parents, so we know like when practices are, he coordinates like all of our meals, he schedules all of our games for in the offseason. He like takes care of all that stuff. He makes the graphics for our social media, he does all that stuff. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Justin 19:02

Heck yeah.

Jacob 19:03

It's really nice to have that on the team.

Justin 19:05

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, because then Casey can focus on like 100% the basketball.

Jacob 19:11

Yeah.

Justin 19:12

Same.

Jacob 19:12

Uh, I'm gonna shout out a different assistant coach, Coach Smith. Um, he's he was here since our freshman year and uh just developed a really good relationship with him right away. Just a super good dude who um he's one of the smartest basketball brings that I've ever been around, like a super X's and O's guy. He knows like like scouting reports, he knows like how we should attack teams. Like he's just been so uh beneficial to our program and just having someone to be able to talk to as a coach, but also just as cares about all of us as individuals above all else, and makes that really clear. I've just developed a really good relationship with him.

Luke 19:54

He's been a big time role model for us, you know, as a as a man and as like you know, from like a basketball perspective too, for sure. He's a guy we can look to. That's awesome. Thank you.

Caden 20:04

Um, I'll probably shout out my dad. Uh he uh coached me all the way up until he couldn't anymore. Uh taught me everything he knows about basketball, you know, like junior senior year, he probably spent more time watching film than I did. Just because you know, I gotta get my schoolwork done and everything. So he'd help me out with that. I'd tell him who I'm guarding, he'd tell me a little scouting report. And uh, yeah, he's he told me he's gonna miss it a lot watching me play.

Justin 20:31

So yeah, yeah. He your dad is uh, I mean, he just last year, I think, right, with your brother, was like his kind of youth coaching career came to an end. Um, but he's he's he's a great guy and does a phenomenal job. Like does a real got to coach with him, and he did an awesome job. Yeah, so you're fortunate, man. You're lucky. Yeah.

Jackson 20:52

Um, I want to shout out Coach Stummy. Um he came in this year. We we just met him this year, just great guy. I was uh sideline basically like a lot of the year because uh I also had a foot injury. Okay, and I mean he came in and just talked to him every day when I was sitting out of practice, always motivated me, got me stretching. When I didn't want to bike, I would bike. Yeah, and he kind of just helped me rehab and make me still have my mind on basketball. So yeah.

Justin 21:21

So how much of the did you miss some of the season then?

Jackson 21:23

Um I missed the first game, played the second game, and then fractured my right foot in that game. Man, and then missed all the way till Gehanna.

Luke 21:34

Yeah, and then just had to play on it the rest of the year. So yeah. Coach Tony's a guy who's like you were feeling down at practice, you had a bad practice, he's gonna come up to you and like help you out, you know, make you feel better, you know, to give you that motivation that you need, make sure you're not getting too down on yourself. You know, I can tell you a few times I was having a bad practice, and he came over to me and he like really helped me, you know, kind of not lose confidence in myself. So just like every assistant coach we had on our team did something great for the program. Like everyone was extremely helpful and contributed so much. Yeah. So like our you know, our playoff run and our our success as a team.

Justin 22:11

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think when you have somebody like Coach Casey, like Good people are gonna be around, you know what I mean? Um, because you watch basketball now. Like when I did I didn't play when I was around basketball, like you didn't have like even our varsity staff was maybe like three or four guys, and you maybe had two or three of those guys like on the bench. You watch like college basketball now, like it's a gang of people sitting there, like the players are all the way on like baseline. Um so it's kind of cool to hear like inside of that because sometimes I think like this is just again, because I didn't play, like man, how can so many like obviously they all have a role, but then you know, like, is it like the guys start to like have conflicting ideas and like nah we should try and do this? But I think if you got a good leader like you guys do in Coach Casey, like it's it probably works.

Jacob 23:03

It's a really good system and like me playing college basketball, like Coach Casey, the way that he operates, the way that he runs things, like he's been known for sending guys into college and helping them be college ready as a freshman because like a lot of high schools don't prepare the way that we do. Like we had walkthroughs before every single game. Our scattering reports are always detailed, we always watch film, like just the way that we did things. I think he's really gonna help me have a smooth transition into the next level, just yeah, the way he runs things.

Justin 23:35

I'd love to meet him. The girls, even after we, I think it was after we recorded, I was like, hey, like who should I have on? And they were like, Coach Casey, like we love him. He talks to us too. Like he must have gone and spoke to them a few times. Like yeah, I'd like to meet him.

Luke 23:48

Seems like the girls' head coach this year, who kind of like I'm not saying he's the reason for all their success, but he came in and turned that program around. You know what I mean?

Jacob 23:56

Yeah, I mean, they were expected to have like five ones this year, and then they made it to a regional.

Luke 23:59

And that that coach coached under Coach Casey for a few years. Ah I didn't know that. So yeah, just like seeing a bunch of different things that they were doing, like they were doing walkthroughs this year. Yeah, I was like, that's that's Coach Casey.

Justin 24:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool to see that like lineage of coaches, right? Which you see like the professional in college, like it's all like watching guys who coach under somebody move on as well.

Luke 24:22

Well, the Bradley head coach who just took Hilliard Bradley to the state final as a coach under Coach Casey. Dang, yeah, yeah. So he's got people all over the place.

Favorite Games And Tough Gyms

Justin 24:31

That's cool. That's really cool. Um, do you guys have like a most memorable get memorable game?

Caden 24:36

Like like I would say uh our junior year uh distro championship uh was like really special for me and like all of us because we hadn't won one like 19 years or something like that. So I mean I was nervous going into that one, but it was it was at the expo center and good crowd and brought it home. So yeah, that was a sweet one.

Luke 24:58

Do you guys like playing at the expo?

Caden 25:00

I love it.

Luke 25:00

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I still the backdrop still kind of messes with me, but I bet once you're playing, like, yeah, it doesn't really get in your head. But yeah, it's a great or it's a great place to do it. It's cool, I think it's awesome.

Justin 25:11

Yeah. Uh I talked to the girls a little bit about that. Like it like maybe not again, not that I have any kind of shot, but I feel like that would like that would throw me off. It would take some time to get used to. Yeah, that's uh going to watch games there. That's what I've always thought. Like, it's gotta be tough. It's just so much different than a like a high school gym. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Where was your guys' favorite place to play outside of the expo?

Caden 25:36

Any other any like the Mount Vernon now Sarine Gym?

Luke 25:39

That was a good gym.

Jacob 25:41

Gohanna's old gym was always pretty loud. Gehanna's old gym was always my favorite. That was a fun game. It was always like so like muggy in there, and it was just it was it was almost like 129 degrees in there. It was always like sold out, like small court, just packed. That's the problem. They're gonna just I hated that locker room though. They made us walk up these steps, and it was a million degrees in that locker room.

Luke 26:04

Their new gym is you know, on paper a lot nicer, like their new school in general, but it's not the same. Yeah because it's so spacious and big that like it's not nearly as loud.

Justin 26:16

Yeah, I could see that. I I went to uh I was at a wrestler at wrestling, I was at a swim meet at UA, and like I had never been inside there and wandered down to the bat the bath the gym.

Jacob 26:27

Crazy school huge massive UA. We used to during the preseason, we would go down there and like scrimmage against those guys like once a week, like every Wednesday or something. And they're I mean, not even their gym, like their school just looks like an airport, like when they walk through there. That's crazy. Their school feels like a college campus, like walking through the door.

Playoff Bench Energy And Antics

Justin 26:48

It does, it yeah, it does. Uh, it's pretty crazy to like to be in New Albany and look at that and be like, holy crap, look how nice that is. But uh cool. Um any other funny moments, funny stories? Oh, there's plenty.

Jacob 27:03

Um talk about our benches run through the playoffs.

Luke 27:09

Oh, yeah. Um during the playoffs, we kind of like so we had a rough patch during the regular season, right? Where like your just team was just down, morale's down. We were losing games, we shouldn't be losing. And so it's just as much, you know, as the guys on the bench at as the guys on on the court. So we decided like kind of towards the end of the season that we were gonna make a change, and we're gonna, no matter what, we got we had to get a bench warning every game. Yeah, we had to get one. And um, I think it started with Springfield, is when we started like like getting that bench a bench warning because that's was that Kelby's dunk? Remember his crazy dunk in the middle? Was that Springfield? Uh or was that Kettering Fairmont? It was Fairmont. Fairmont, Kelby had this crazy Kelby Moore, he's a junior. He had this crazy dunk uh down the middle, and we just the bench kind of just like walked on the corner like going crazy, and we and the rest had to be like like back it up, back it up, back it up. And so every game after that, we've just been going nuts, doing dances, just doing the craziest things, getting our team, getting our team going. You know, if our student section wasn't doing what they needed, like we were gonna do it. So we kind of took that responsibility upon ourselves. That's cool.

Justin 28:21

I mean, New Albany's gym's not big, like our gym's, like it's it's loud in there. Yeah, number two. Yeah, it can't be an easy place to come play, I can't imagine.

Luke 28:29

Yeah, and that's that's to our students and your community. They they show up every they show up and show out every game. So yeah, it's cool. Yeah, they they make it that hard place to play.

Pregame Rituals And Locking In

Justin 28:39

Yeah. Uh pre-game rituals. Who's got the craziest pregame ritual?

Luke 28:47

Jackson Jackson. Jackson does a 12-inch meatball sub before every game. So I didn't know that.

Jacob 28:59

Caden starts stretching the night before.

Caden 29:02

I do, I do take my stretching seriously. Stretch for at least an hour before.

Luke 29:08

Yeah, that's that's crazy. That's crazy. Do you take a band out there with you?

Justin 29:11

That's in the locker room.

Luke 29:12

I was stretching. Oh, this is a funny story. I forget when Gang, we were going out early, and you like got to stretching late, and everyone was out there except for you, and I looked back in the locker room. I was like, Caden, like we're going. Like, give me a minute. And then I was trying to get a stretch of it.

Jacob 29:30

Yeah, I'm just a I'm just a pregame nap guy. That's oh really that's kind of my thing. I need to sleep for at least 45 minutes before every game. That's what I've done since freshman year.

Justin 29:40

So really, yeah. You sleep in the locker room?

Jacob 29:42

Uh we well, usually we have to walk through right after school. It actually helped a lot uh being a senior this year because I get out of school early. Oh, yeah. So I could go home right after school, take a nap before walkthrough, build a walkthrough. I was showered after walkthrough. I don't I don't know if that was like I always like just like wipe it clean like for for the come to game time. Like that was just always something I did, take a nap and shower, take a nap and shower.

Justin 30:12

Uh you guys listen to music in the locker room before you come out? Yeah.

Luke 30:15

Less this year, yeah. Than in the past. Like we had a few games where uh Kelby got on the speaker. Coach would get on us though. Yeah, coach wants us to be locked in before games.

Caden 30:26

He didn't want to speak turn like the music turns into goofing around. Yeah.

Luke 30:30

Uh-huh. And we we had we didn't play as well in games where we were goofing around before, yeah. Then uh being serious. So we had to like kind of make it an effort to be locked in. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Justin 30:44

I know we got some more funny stories. I'm trying to think.

JV Memories And Coach Stories

Luke 30:48

There's a lot from our sophomore year. Oh, yeah. So uh I was putting on JV our sophomore year, and we had a really young coach, this guy named Coach Metzger, he's a great guy, and he's coaching, he's coaching somewhere in Flagler, I think, D2 in um okay, in Florida. And he was a really young coach. We were his first like head coaching gig ever. And he was like 22. So like he was like my sister's age, which is crazy to think about. And um, we just had a lot of fun. Like, like it was like we got stuff done at practice, but it was so much fun having a young coach and a bunch of our boys on the team. Yeah, practice.

Jackson 31:25

He would uh at like not towards the end, but like if we weren't playing defense, he would uh send us into a 1v1 with him.

Luke 31:32

Yeah, um yeah, because he played at Ash on it. Yeah, we'd have to stop him, and it was uh it was pretty hard sometimes. Should we tell your story with him, Jackson? Oh, so like I'll draw like we're like a couple practices in just made JV stuff when you're like new coach, like talking to him, he's chill.

Jackson 31:52

Um, but yeah, five practices in. I'm looking at him at the end of practice, he's looking at me, I'm like, what do you want? Like as a joke, obviously. And he's like, and he's like, Don't I know? I was like, don't make me wrestle you. And he like I he looks at me and says, bro, what are you talking about? So then I lunge forward, and then he actually we we started wrestling each other with a brand new coach, like three practices in.

Luke 32:13

Oh, it's hilarious.

Jackson 32:14

He I will say he got me, but then I gave him a wedgie. So that's just like butter.

Luke 32:22

That's still like it was the craziest, like like I did not see that coming. Like they were they just started wrestling each other at the end of practice and then wedgie wedgied him.

Justin 32:32

Well, you guys didn't, he's still coaching, so you guys didn't ruin him.

Jackson 32:35

Yeah, he went uh he actually went back to play after uh because he had one more eligibility, so he was like a player coach. Yeah, oh wow, it's Bill Russell. And apparently that's kind of cool. He he got a decent amount of time though, because they need their guard went out, so I think they need to. Yeah, that's pretty sweet.

Caden 32:50

Oh one more story from sophomore year. Uh I think it's like one of the it's either like one of the last games of the regular season, or it might have been in a playoff game at home. We are up 25, 30 points, like a minute left in this game, and I'm in. Uh, I drive the ball in and they end up calling a charge on me. So it's like going the other way. So it was a pretty bad call, if I remember. And Coach Casey has like a paper that he's always holding that has like the list of plays and key stuff for the game, and he throws it at the rep. This paper is like in the middle of the court, and we're up like 30 with like 50 seconds left. It was on the real. He never lets us play up the game.

Jacob 33:36

We lost to Springfield this year, and uh uh it was a game that we shouldn't have lost. And I remember there was a really bad call down the stretch. We had like one more shot to win the game, and I drove in and I I got separated from the ball. I got separated from the ball, which it was a foul, but they didn't call a foul, they called like a jump ball or something. It was still our ball, but I don't think Coach Casey had time to process it. Punched a hole in his board, and now it's framed up in his office. And it's like it's like he wrote on using an expo marker on his board, it's like board 23 Springfield with the date, and he like all his broken boards.

Luke 34:12

That's crazy. 23.

Jacob 34:14

Yeah, so he's been coaching a long time.

Luke 34:16

Jacob has a story.

Jacob 34:18

Oh no, I can't remember if it was you or you. I think it was you. It was junior year, and one of them got subbed in. Us what a game. I can't I can't remember what game, but I know it happened. And they were running up to the table to sub in and you knocked over Coach Wiker.

Luke 34:36

Oh, that was me. I was like, I like went to go sub in to the table, and they called timeout. So uh I didn't realize, and I just turned around and Coach Dub was right behind me, and I trucked him over, and I like I didn't realize that I did it, so I just went and sat down and he was like laying there. I felt bad. I felt really bad watching it on film. I was like, I I knew I felt something, I didn't see, I didn't see him. So I just went and sat down and I'd actually accidentally knocked him down. That's hilarious! Yeah, that was funny.

Justin 35:07

Heck yeah.

Luke 35:08

We had a we had a we uh every day was humble.

Advice For Young Players And Parents

Justin 35:11

Oh, I yeah, I'm sure you guys could tell stories forever. Yeah, yeah. Um so uh, you know, you guys are all seniors, right? There's you got underclassmen playing underneath of you, you got a ton of young guys coming through, you got kids in the rec program. Like, what do you what advice do you have for them? Like, what advice do you have for them, their parents? Maybe it's a young family that's got a kid that wants to play basketball. Um what what what advice do you have for them?

Luke 35:38

I would say be consistent, right? Like get get like a plan and stick to it. Like, I know what I did, and my best thing was I was a pretty good shooter. Yeah, and in fourth grade, I was pretty sucky. I was like the worst player on the B team. Yeah, yeah. And so I decided like me and my dad just got together and we were like, all right, I'm gonna make 200 shots every day. Yeah, and try to make 10,000 in two months over the each summer. Yeah, and we stuck to that till my sophomore year did that every summer out in the driveway. And yeah, I mean, I I think it paid off. I thought it was a pretty good shoot, but uh it's just something like like you need like a routine. And if you're consistent, like if you put in the like honest, good work, you're you're gonna get results, you know.

Justin 36:22

Like I like that perspective because like being involved in youth sports and like and even with my own kids, um, like if you like I see kids that love a sport, but they're not the very good or the best at it, but they love the sport, and it's like, man, you're in fourth grade, like it comes down to five, right? There's only five of you, like this is pretty consistent. Um, you guys are all great basketball players, but there might have been somebody in your class that maybe what could have been better or was better that it just didn't pan out for whatever reason. Like, so that's that's I like that. Yeah, yeah.

Jacob 36:58

Just for basketball in high school in general, like every moment matters. Like, don't take any of it for granted. Yeah, never know when it's gonna be over, for sure, for sure.

Caden 37:07

Yeah.

Jacob 37:08

Uh I would say like find one thing you're really good at and just focus on that one thing. Cause I mean, not everybody needs to score the ball, not everybody, like I mean, for example, like he was a knockdown shooter all year. Uh these two, especially, they rebounded the ball really well and they just made hustle plays. And I mean, Caden, he was kind of like our rock this year. He handled the ball, like everybody found their one thing, and that's that's the biggest thing, and just uh support your teammates, and I mean that's that's the biggest thing. Just find one thing that you're really good at and stick to that thing.

Justin 37:46

Yeah, and not only that, like you got you got a bench full of guys, like how were the guys coming off the bench?

Jacob 37:52

I mean, everybody came everybody that came off the bench this year just played their role really well. Yeah, and I mean that's the biggest thing if you want to be successful, because I mean, not not everybody can do everything for sure and if you focus on that one thing, then your game's gonna gradually expand over time. That's just how it works.

Luke 38:08

And like building off what you said, I think it's really a lot easier to get better when you have your skill and then you can focus on other things, you know, instead of building everything up like kind of like evenly, it would take longer. Like if you're a really good driver, like no one can stay in front of you, yeah. Then you know just work on your shot, work on your shot, and then once you're a good shooter and you still you're still that same driver, it just takes your game to another level, having to be able to work up work up like that.

Caden 38:36

Yeah, yeah. I would say uh you can learn as much watching as you as you can playing. Like I fell in love watching college basketball at a pretty young age, yeah. Probably credits to my dad with that. Uh you know, I just seeing how people move, move the ball, shoot the ball, drive, pass, like all this stuff. Uh like you just pick up on tiny things. You don't know you're doing it, but you pick up on stuff, and I I feel like that was a big thing.

Justin 39:04

Did you guys all watch a lot of basketball?

Caden 39:07

I watched a lot of Colorado basketball.

Luke 39:09

All right. Yeah.

Caden 39:10

That doesn't help out.

Luke 39:12

Yeah. Maybe not as much as Dude, but uh learned a few things.

Justin 39:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good advice. Because I do, I think I don't know. I s I mean, I think kids watch a lot of it. Like basketball's easy, right? So you so you got March Madness, like that's easy to sit down and watch. Um, but when it's not March Madness, like watching regular season and um but like like yeah, for for sports that aren't as prominent on TV, like I think it's important to like just be a fan of the sport, right? Like, yeah.

Luke 39:42

I would say, um what's I gonna say? Uh don't be like sad about like where you are if it's not like where you want to be. Like because like I don't know how to describe it, but like I was with him on the same team. We were on the marine team, and I mean I was really small, like super short, but yeah, I mean a lot of guys quit, but I'm happy I stick to basketball. Yeah, yeah, it's like don't be discouraged, right? Like half the guys that quit the team are because they get discouraged that they're not playing how they want to play right now, yeah, and that prevents you from seeing how good you would have been, like you said earlier, right?

Caden 40:19

Yeah, for sure.

Luke 40:20

Guys that quit early. I mean, you might be bad then, but you work at it, you could be really good when you're older. So like I just don't get discouraged.

Justin 40:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I always try and tell my kids like there might be a like a stud that they're playing with like right now, and it's like you like you're eight, nine years old, and ten years old, like you have no idea what you're gonna turn into. So um, yeah, and it's like a longevity thing, man. It's hard to get to your senior year playing a sport, it's not easy, especially sports that the rosters are small, you know what I mean? Um yeah, cool. Uh any other any other funny stories you want to share? Oh, we gotta find one more. Who's winning, who's winning one-on-one if you guys play?

Luke 41:02

It depends on where it depends on where we're playing.

Justin 41:05

You guys already have this debate too.

Luke 41:07

Yeah, I'm we've come, we've the five of us have come to an agreement that if it's at a readers, so we have our buddy, our buddy has his own gym in his backyard, yeah, and it's called Readers Readers Court. And um, if we're playing there, it's gonna be me every day of the week. But at New At New Albani. Did you guys come to an agreement with that? The five of us, the five of us, the five the five of us agreed on that. But then outside of it, I would say Marco, maybe Caden on a good day. Did you guys play a lot of basketball? Like outside growing up?

Jacob 41:44

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've never seen it.

Luke 41:46

Yeah, yeah. Just like we'd be hanging out, you know. We all have most of us have hoops on our driveways, right? We'd just be outside playing. Um, yeah, yeah.

Caden 41:54

When we play at Luke's house, I mean, if if you're not on Luke's team, you're not gonna win. Even if he doesn't miss one, so I got pretty used to.

Luke 42:01

Well, you've shot how many shots on it? I I've probably made like if I did that from since fourth grade to something like 60,000 around. Yeah, I just I and it's I owe it all to my dad. He he he he's a really disciplined guy.

Speaker 6 42:19

Yeah.

Luke 42:20

So he there were days I would wanted to just not do it, and he'd be like, nope, you're doing it. I'm rebounding for you. And he remounted for me like most of the day. So like that's yeah, big shout out to him. Yeah, he helped out tremendously with that process. Yeah, yeah.

Justin 42:36

Um all right, one more one more thing that I I try and do on most of the episodes that I'm gonna try and keep it more consistent is like some rapid fire, just things about New Albany. So um, one word, as fast as you can, favorite restaurant.

Luke 42:52

Give me the bucket.

Justin 42:53

Bucket.

Luke 42:55

Noodles and company. Where is noodles and oh the one so like everywhere else in the world? It might might not count as a new Albany restaurant.

Jacob 43:08

That's cool.

Justin 43:09

What do you like there? I've been there forever. I used to go to the one in Westerville.

Jacob 43:12

I'm a pretty picky eater, so but buttered noodles is some parmesan chicken. That's awesome.

Caden 43:22

That's awesome. I'm a bucket guy. Bucket. Yeah, I like melon mushrooms pizza. Yeah, man.

Luke 43:27

For fast food, I would say Qdoba. Qdoba. That's pretty like I don't know. Is Qdoba a region, like a regional thing? Is that only in like the Midwest?

Justin 43:37

Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, I don't know. I know it's owned locally by somebody.

Luke 43:44

Uh I like it because I get they do free guk, free queso. Free guac, man. That's crazy. It's pretty nice. Yeah. Did you ever get thewesome, Jackson?

Justin 43:52

Did you ever get the bowl? Yeah, I get the bowl every time. Oh, really? Yeah. What's yours? No, not the not like just a bowl. Like oh, the like shell bowl? Yeah. I'll have to try that. Oh man. Crazy. We got your ears now. Uh we love my family loves melon mushroom. They got the hey dude. It wasn't on the menu for a while, now it's back, like the jalapeno's chicken ranch. I've had that. It's money. Hey dude. Yeah, it's money. But like fast food. I can eat tropole every day.

Luke 44:18

You know what's a me and my dad said the and my my family all agree that the best dessert in the world is at Hutz 29. What it was with Texas sheet cake. Have you had that before? I don't think so. It's like uh it's like a chocolate like fudge cake, and they put a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top. It's the best dessert I've ever had at a restaurant before. I'm gonna have to do it. Can you guys agree with that? Like that's like it's so good.

Caden 44:44

Definitely.

Luke 44:44

Yeah.

Caden 44:45

I love something hot with something cold. Yeah, I know, I know.

Justin 44:49

Like the uh puzzle, like some places have the puzzookies, like the warm cookie throws ice cream on there.

Luke 44:54

B dubs. Yeah, honestly, the best dessert though. Carvel cake. Have you ever tried that? No.

Jackson 45:00

It's like more of a Connecticut thing. Where do you get it? Um I don't know where my dad gets it, but he always every birthday is Carvel cake. Carvel cake, what is it? It's uh ice cream cake. Okay, so that's super good.

Speaker 6 45:12

All right, heck yeah.

Jackson 45:13

Yeah, so I might have to disagree. Yeah, I just agreed.

Luke 45:19

Uh favorite teacher? Brazwell. That's Brazwell. Monk.

Jackson 45:24

Brazwell.

Luke 45:25

Shock.

Jackson 45:26

I'd say Brazwell or Maestro. Mace Roll had this year in always making the class laugh. It's pretty hilarious.

Justin 45:35

Um, yeah, well, you so you guys get out early. How early do you get out? I get out at 12. Okay.

Luke 45:41

So it depends on what you need to do. Do we all have two opt-outs?

Speaker 6 45:45

Yeah.

Luke 45:45

Yeah. Uh no. Jackson.

Jackson 45:47

I no, I have opt-out on Monday and Friday because I do senior SEM. So some days I get out at 1.25, the other days I get out at um 2.15.

Luke 45:56

But I get to school every day at 8, 8.20. Yeah. Okay. It depends on how you schedule your opt-outs because I have first and last. So I get to school late and leave a little bit early. And then he has double.

Jacob 46:09

So I do I do both mine at the end of the day, so that I have enough time to like come home and take a nap. But that means I have to like, that means I have to wake up early. I have to wake up like an hour before these guys are school. Uh so that's kind of cool.

Justin 46:21

So you have somewhat of a cho an option.

Luke 46:22

Yeah, nobody's really good about all that stuff. Yeah, being a senior, and it's been great. This has been my favorite year, high school, I think. Yeah, yeah. It's been do you guys get to leave for lunch or no? No. No, that's the only thing they don't do. Yeah. It's probably good for my bank account that we can't leave because I mean, your food is so good though, isn't it? Yeah. I would say like the pizza. You can't get away with Jets pizza. Like, yeah. Or like Bellasinos. Like you can't, you can't put complaint there.

Justin 46:50

When I was in high school, we were able to leave for lunch and there wasn't a ton of options, but our our cafeteria food was like, it was awful. It was like what you would think like school cafeteria. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there's no options.

Luke 47:02

I've heard that that since COVID, the cafeteria has really took a hit. I know my my sister was in high school before COVID. It's because they're giving away for free forever. Yeah, and and there was like there was like real, like live cooked like sushi. You would get like like like good, like real, like good food before, and then I think COVID just messed it up. I still think our school lunch is good, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I can't I can't complain.

Jacob 47:25

Yeah. Panini every day. Yeah, yeah. I get a panini with an increstible every single day.

Justin 47:31

That's great. Yeah, I it's probably it uh kids will get in trouble. Like I know kids, a lot of a lot of guys that I knew like got in trouble being able to leave. Because like leaving and then wanting like listening to the or go home, take a nap, not wake it up. Like doesn't sound too bad. Yeah. Um favorite spot to hang out, New Albany.

Luke 47:58

Other than like a friend's house. I would say just like a like one of my buddies' house. Yeah, yeah. Specifically, shout out Jay Hoover, great basement, great basement. Yeah.

Jacob 48:09

Um, probably Caden's movie theater room. All right, good times. I'm gonna second Jake Hoover's uh basement. All right.

Caden 48:21

I like the playground in the middle of winter.

Luke 48:25

That's my good one. That's a good one. They need they need some renovation, but it's fine. Wait, I thought they did renovate it recently.

Justin 48:35

I thought they did.

Jackson 48:39

I would say his house or Jade's house as well. All right, Jade's basement.

Luke 48:44

It is there's nothing like watching three different March Madness games on the three TVs in Jade's basement.

Jacob 48:50

He has the whole setup, he has like a huge square right here, and then like two little ones right here, like a really nice couch. Heck yeah. Just a spot. Oh, yeah, that's sweet.

Justin 48:59

Yeah, sweet. Um what's another good one? Uh favorite ice cream spot in New Albany.

Luke 49:08

This is hard. I'm ice cream. Luke's a big ice cream. I'm a huge ice cream guy. Um I would say my go-to like thing to get is I like coffee milkshakes from Johnson's. Those are that's it's really weird and specific, but I love those. But I would say graters is the best like ice cream you'll get.

Justin 49:29

And it's coming, right? I think there's one coming.

Caden 49:32

Yeah, yeah, it's right across from like Blue Agave. Seriously. Yeah, that's cool.

Luke 49:37

That's wonderful news.

Justin 49:38

You don't have to go all the way down and run into Gehana people.

Luke 49:42

Yeah, I hate them.

Jacob 49:48

He's gonna go as far away as greaters, and I'll say Cold Stone. All right, I've had cold stone.

Luke 49:53

Yeah, it's good one little bro.

Jacob 49:58

I don't eat ice cream, so really yeah. Are you like a super healthy eater? No, I just don't like ice cream or cake.

Luke 50:04

It's just never really he loves peanut MMs. There's always peanut MMs on his bedtime table whenever I go with.

Jacob 50:15

No, that's not true.

Luke 50:16

I don't think I've ever purchased peanut MMs in my life.

Jacob 50:19

I thought it was Swedish bitch. What do you you like candy though? I'm uh like if I can pick any candy, I get like the Reese's Take Five bars. Oh, it's not far off.

Luke 50:30

That was good.

Jacob 50:33

I guess. That's like every time I'm at a gas station, I have to pick one up.

Justin 50:39

Is it the like Reese, like the fast breaks or whatever they're called?

Caden 50:42

Yeah, yeah.

Justin 50:42

Yeah, those are good.

Caden 50:44

I am a greater black raspberry chocolate chip. Yes, every every time.

Jackson 50:49

It's world famous. It is world famous. Uh I would say Rita's, but Dairy Queen, I get something from there every time. It's a cotton candy blizzard. So good. Yeah, bro.

Luke 51:03

You're 17 talking about a cotton candy blizzard, bro. Like, you need to get a job, bro. Do you like what all you can do? Yeah, you're 18. You need to get a job, bro. You need to get a job, Lil Bro. Lil Bro, do you like the Superman ice cream? No, I do not. I haven't he's talking about I heard the Superman ice cream was good. I actually want to try it. It's good. So is it like three different flavors?

Justin 51:27

Yeah, it's just like some kind of weird. Yeah, it's just there's not like a real flavor in it. I don't know what it is. But it's good, yeah, it's good. I mean, it's ice. What ice cream is it? That's true. I'll have to try it. I think soon. Graters is my favorite, but Johnson's a close, like if I'm feeling ice cream, like and I don't want to go to Graters, Johnson would be it.

Luke 51:46

Johnson's I like I like going outside, even though there's not really like a good like seating setup, like go and get Johnson and just sitting outside on like that brick like yeah, like thing that they have. It's just good vibes.

Jacob 51:57

Good times.

Luke 51:58

It was I don't know. I don't know. Not since it's been cold. I would say like in the fall, probably. Yeah, I like how this is getting tense, though. This is good. We should keep debating. It's because like Jackson's just like a little bro a little broke appeared to me.

Jackson 52:11

So hey, if you if you walk outside, you will see him running away from you. I promise, yeah.

Luke 52:17

Jackson Jackson will reach adulthood pretty soon. What yeah, your birthday's coming up. Yeah, it is. Are they saying this because you're younger?

Justin 52:26

Yeah, I'm pretty young for the grade. All right. Do you guys all drive? You all have cars? Yeah, yeah. I graduated with a bunch of guys that like never got drove or got cars. Did you have yours? Yeah, like I was old for my class, so I was driving when I was a sophomore. Yeah.

Luke 52:44

I don't now that I have my license, I don't understand how I like lived without it before. Like in high school, like I can't imagine having to get like dropped off by my parents to like hang out with friends now.

Speaker 6 52:55

Yeah.

Phones Social Media And Growing Up

Luke 52:55

Like now I'm just like, yo, mom, I'm like, I'm going to my friend's house. Who was the last one to get a cell phone? Uh I got mine in fifth grade. I have no idea. I forget when I got mine. Were you young? It might have been me. I think I was in six.

Caden 53:10

Yeah, I got mine for like six years. I got mine really. I didn't get an iPhone until freshman year. No, but here's what it was.

Luke 53:17

I was late, I didn't get social media until freshman year. So, like, remember, I never had snaps. So I was like never in like that's where I swear to god, you can ask that that's just true. That's that's yeah, that's actually yeah, because I I couldn't like they would have to text me like on text. Because your parents wouldn't let you. No, every parent thinks social media is like evil until like you're like a certain age for some reason. My parents did that with my sister, but just snuck it on. Yeah, they didn't. I think it's evil.

Justin 53:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think my son he's in seventh grade, doesn't have a phone yet. And like he's yeah, he's rugged.

Jacob 53:52

I think that's when I got my first phone in seventh grade.

Luke 53:55

Yeah, I think that's when it's important just from like a communication with your friend standpoint, you know, like knowing what your friends are up to, you know, like being able to text your friend, you know, like you guys come trying to go hang out or something. Snap and whatever else it is you do. Yeah, I would say you don't need snap. Like it's it's nice, everyone has snap still the thing, people still. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like you would say, Let me get your snap before let me get your number. In high school, yeah, yeah, 100%. He's actually taking a six-month Snapchat detox. Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, I'm trying to like.

Justin 54:26

Oh, but there's nothing wrong with social media.

Luke 54:27

Yeah, I'm just trying to cleanse my brain because like there's so much pressure on everything, you know. Like I just have to like get off, get it get away from a little bit. Yeah.

Justin 54:36

Let's talk about that for a minute. Like, like pressure as a senior, like even a junior senior, like academics, athletics. Did you guys do did you feel like there's a ton of pressure? And is it specific to like New Albany? Because it's such a like, like, it's such a a great school.

Luke 54:52

And I don't I like I'm curious what that's like now. I would say I bet New Alban New Albany is a great great academic. I would say it's probably harder. Academics are probably harder at New Albany than most other schools. For sure. I would say junior year is a grind, right? Yeah, that's like year before you doing college applications, you're trying to get everything you can, you know. Yeah, and then adding that with sports. I remember junior year being uh grind. You got classmates like going to Harvard and Yale. My junior year was light.

Jackson 55:22

I can tell you about a class if you want to hear it QR, it's like uh advanced quantitative reasoning. That sounds great, right?

Luke 55:31

Yeah, first day in class made uh as tall as a tower as I could with marshmallows and you would like walk by his class and they'd be like building with like blocks, and we uh did something called Barbie bungee jump. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah.

Jackson 55:49

Got a rubber, got a ton of rubber bands, Barbie and bungee jump.

Jacob 55:53

Yeah, the difference between us four and Jackson, we were all in AP Calc junior year. So it would be like you'd come into our class and we'd be like derivatives, integral, stuff like that. And then Jackson class is like he is the toy building class.

Jackson 56:09

Not true, but that's where I just wants to throw a shot.

Luke 56:13

Oh hey, throw a shot back, it's getting serious.

Justin 56:18

Uh I I think so I have this uh like because my son is is you know, most half of New Albany are in like advanced courses, right? So uh but we talk about all the time. Like, if my kids were grew up in like the school that I went to, I didn't know many kids that were taken. Like, I probably like he's taken like pre-algebra. I probably didn't take that till I was like a sophomore.

Luke 56:42

Yeah, it's it's a definitely different culture in New Albany. You know, there's just so many opportunities for you to like better your academics that like and parents know. I think parents since New Albany's such a successful place, for sure, they know how important it is. I might my parents like from early age, like like really hound me on my grades. Yeah, and I'm very thankful for it that my grades didn't slip in middle school and it's affecting me now. You know, they kept me on it, so for sure.

Caden 57:07

Yeah, colleges know too that new always as good as it goes.

Host College Path And Coaching Lessons

Justin 57:11

Oh hundred percent absolutely. Um yeah, no, I think uh it like I I enjoyed like seeing you get like you're in a community, you're in a school where like those things are, and maybe it wasn't my school and I was just too much of a clown to pay attention to, but like I knew I thought I wanted to play football in college and like had some like division two school interest, but mostly division three, and and like I wasn't sure I was it wasn't until my senior year that I decided where I was gonna go. I had no clue what I was gonna do. And I was gonna I thought about walking on Ohio State's track program and probably could have competed indoor there, but I started the application, it was like three essays, and I was like, no, not doing it. Yeah, so then I was like, my brother was like, Have you ever heard of Autobahn? I was like, no, he's like, it's really cool, it's like in the area, like you'll love it. Uh so I applied, got accepted, had never even seen it. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like, that's where I'm going. It's the only school I applied to. You loved it? Uh yeah, so I ended up running track there, not playing football. I loved it. Yeah, yeah.

Jacob 58:08

That's where my dad went.

Justin 58:09

Oh, really? Okay, yeah, yeah.

Luke 58:11

I have a buddy who goes there and he he loves it.

Justin 58:13

Yeah, it's it's a cool, it's a cool little campus. Like, yeah, it's I had fun. It's expensive, but is it? I didn't know. I mean, yeah, it's pretty expensive.

unknown 58:21

Yeah.

Justin 58:23

What'd you major? Health and physics. Yeah, so I taught. Health help I taught health and physic for like six years, maybe, and then decided to get out of teaching and yeah. I wasn't a very good teacher. I don't know. I loved coaching, like that's yeah, like I always joke that like I coached or I taught to pay for my coaching, but I was young and dumb then. Uh like I was that your your coach you had, like, that was probably me. I was I was a junior in college when I was the head freshman basketball coach. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Junior or senior, no, some I was somewhere around there because I student taught for the head basketball coach. It must have been shortly after that, but I was young. I didn't know that. Yeah, uh-huh. I was just yelling at kids. And all we did was dribble drive. It was the easiest offense.

Jacob 59:13

That's why we ran freshman year. Yes.

Luke 59:16

I actually I I'm not mad at it. No, it's it's hard to guard when you run it really well. Yeah, yeah. We didn't run it very well.

Justin 59:24

Um, well, man, I appreciate you guys coming on. Um, yeah, I appreciate you guys' efforts and and the success the basketball program had, man. I know you guys worked your tails off of being easy. And um, this is just like a small thing I could do to like give you guys a little spotlight.

Luke 59:38

Thank you so much for having us. This is awesome.

Justin 59:40

Yeah, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you so much.