S2.Ep32 - Welcome "Señor Urka" and guests Logan Batchelder and Lukas Vasquez

On this episode of the Viking Coaches Corner, Kurt sits down with coach and teacher, Marcus Urka, Junior Lukas Vasquez and sophomore, Logan Batchelder.  Coach Urka currently is involved with boys and girls JV golf and JV basketball.  Coach Urka also teaches Spanish and is in his 11th year at LPS.  Coach Urka is often named as a "favorite teacher" amongst students who participate in this podcast.  We are happy to bring you another episode that highlights the Lakewood Public Schools!

Thank you LHS for use of the media center for this interview.  The comfy seats were great!

Remember to come out and support your Lakewood Vikings sports!  And stick around and check out the success your Vikings are achieving.   

GO VIKES!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Did you guys see today that Michigan got a seven foot two guy in a transfer? Yeah, yeah, from uh Cincinnati. And then they got uh what like a sixty eleven guy the other day? From LSU. Reloading. That's the name of the college game. That's how it is, yeah. Let's just hope NIL doesn't come down to high school. Well it's it it is. Yeah, I just gotta make sure it comes to PA announcers, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:24

We'll hook up Logan and uh Lucas here for NIL. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

We gotta make sure Kurt gets NIL though, too.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome to this week's episode of the Viking Coaches Corner with your host and voice of the Lakewood Vikings, Kurt Ackerson. Join Kurt as he sits down with coaches and athletes and discusses everything from rosters to pregame rituals. We're glad that you have joined us now. Onto this week's episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Welcome to the Viking Coaches Corner. Today is Friday. I know it's day two of the NFL draft, but what is the exact date today, Mr. Producer Mike?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Friday the 24th.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Friday the 24th. We are in the Media Center at Lakewood High School. I've been here a few times at the school board meetings and the LAA meetings. This is very nice of Marcus Urca, the Spanish teacher, and actually he coached the three sports, so let us come in here. Marcus, welcome to the show. You have a couple guests. Could you introduce them, please?

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Yeah, it's good to be here. Thanks for having us. I have uh to my left, I have a junior, Lucas Vazquez, uh, and I have a sophomore, Logan Batchelder.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

And they are both current students or former students?

SPEAKER_05 1:36

They're yeah, I had them I had them both last year for Spanish 2, and this year I coached them both in basketball, and I'm also coaching Lucas in golf.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

So, how long have you been teaching here at Lakewood?

SPEAKER_05 1:49

At Lakewood, uh, this is my 11th year.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Wow. Time flies. Yeah, it does fly, yeah. I think you started after I began announcing in 2012, but we Yeah, I my first uh year was uh fall of 2015.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Um I came here, my my own kids were basically babies. Uh one of my favorite pictures is I have the three of them in my classroom, my brand new classroom to me. And uh, you know, all three of them are sitting in desks and they they can't even see over the top of the desk. They're so small.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So for the so the for the listeners that do not know, when you say all three, he means triplets. Yes, I have two boys and a girl triplets. Yep. Yes, 12 years old. I bet they're a handful. And they go to Grand Ledge, though, right?

SPEAKER_05 2:28

Yeah, we live in Grand Ledge, and so yeah, that we uh they have um they're in sixth grade and they're in different classrooms. We had them in the same classroom up through fourth grade just to kind of keep it easy on uh myself and uh my wife as far as meetings and that kind of thing, but they're finally in their own classrooms and they're enjoying that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

And where did you go to college at? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

Um I graduated from Grand Valley in 2008. I had an opportunity to stay around and I I was offered a teaching job um in West Michigan, uh, but I just I decided to go and try something new

Photo #1

SPEAKER_05 3:01

and uh decided to move to South Carolina and uh took a job down there teaching elementary Spanish, which was Oh, really? That's cool. Yeah, I my my degree is secondary ed, but with with language, you're allowed to teach, at least in South Carolina, you're allowed to teach K through 12. And so the first job I found was um at a um K through five setting in Columbia, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So what do you teach them at that age? Just to count like in the ABCs?

SPEAKER_05 3:27

Yeah, you do the ABCs, you do numbers, you do colors and animals and those kind of fun things. And you know, it's there, it's it was part of like the related arts. So they'd go to art one day, they'd go to music one day, they'd go to Spanish one day, they'd go to gym one day. So um it's it was it was interesting because I'd have it was a school of 700 kids in an elementary, and I would see every kid throughout the week, you know, K through five. So I'd I had to memorize 700 names, uh, and it sounds daunting, but it after about two weeks I got I had them all memorized pretty good. Wow, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, Logan and Lucas. So you both had how many years of Spanish with Marc?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

I had two years. I just had one. I had uh I took my first year of Spanish with Mr. King in the middle school.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And do you guys go on like any class trips?

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Yeah, so Lucas, since he's had me for two years, uh Spanish one, they you know, we learn about foods and drinks and how to say things and order restaurant stuff. And uh so we do a spring trip to Cancun in Grand Ledge. Um, so he went on that one with us, and then Spanish two last year uh they both went on the trip to um Potter Park Zoo because we did an animal unit where you can go.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Oh, that's in Lancing on Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. Correct. Yep, yeah. I remember that part.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

Yeah, in fact, last year was the first year I ever did that trip. It was somebody in that class that's like hey, why don't we, you know, we're learning animals, why don't we do a field trip to the zoo?

SPEAKER_02 4:50

It wasn't me.

SPEAKER_05 4:51

And was it Logan? I think it was Michael Gunner. Okay. It might have been, yeah. He kind of talked me into it. I thought it was a good idea. So uh I called Potter Park and said, you know, could you host, can we bring 50 or so students? And uh so we it we had an assignment. We had to take pictures of certain animals, and uh once we were back to school, we did a slideshow of like you know the animal name and what it eats and where it lives and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Now, as a foreign language, is that a requirement nowadays or no?

SPEAKER_05 5:18

Yeah, to graduate, um you need uh either two years of a foreign language or there is a way to get one of the two credits through a visual or performing art. Um so some kids will do one year of a language and then one year of an art class or two years of world language.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

So do you guys plan on doing one more year of Spanish? Ah, probably not. Come on, fellas. Uh no.

SPEAKER_05 5:42

They both did very well. They didn't, it's you know, it's not for you know lack of understanding, they both did very well.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

I had two years of Spanish back in high school. That was many, many moons ago, though. But I had a lot of Spanish conversations while working for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

There you go, put it to use.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So you also, besides teaching at Lakewood 11 years, you coached three sports, correct? Girls golf is one of them, I know.

SPEAKER_05 6:08

Yeah, at Lakewood I coach. Um, I just started uh coaching girls' golf um last fall, JV golf. I coached JV basketball last couple years, and I'm coaching right now, I'm coaching JV boys golf. So keeps me busy. Um also get to coach my own kids in their sports as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Oh, really? For at Grand Lynch?

SPEAKER_05 6:29

Yeah, I coach my boys in basketball, and um I've coached my daughter in softball in the summers. This year I'm not doing that because uh we're doing a I'm helping chaperone the Europe trip for Lakewood.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

I think that one might be one my wife's going on. She's going on about three trips, I know. So both of you guys play for Coach Urk golf. Basketball.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

I I know the golf. Lucas is the golfer, and they both played basketball, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Well, let's talk a little golf right now, first, start out. So you are currently Marcus, the JV coach at Lakewood?

SPEAKER_05 7:04

Correct. I coach with uh Jason Solga, he's the varsity coach, and uh this year we're off to a good start. We hit you know we had to battle some rain, had some cancellations, but um last week we had our first uh JV competition, and um Lucas was there and we took first place in conference. Lucas is smiling. Yeah, Lucas, tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Uh I they were telling me all week like you're gonna add a couple strokes to your score, and nerves are gonna get real, but it was just worse than that. Went out there. I think I shot 52 or 53, it's like plus 16 or whatever. Scored in it count, it was just terrible.

SPEAKER_05 7:39

It it's a different, it's definitely different going from practice to you know a competition, and you have some nerves, and you there are some parents that come out. In fact, we had, I think, four um different parents come out and support, which is kind of neat. Uh so you have the extra kind of a high school gallery to watch you. Um so yeah, it's different.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

So do you guys practice with the varsity when you can or yeah, we yeah, we practice all together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:04

Same time. Yep. The the driving range hasn't been opened yet because of the rain. So we're basically chipping and putting for a little bit, and then we'll go out and play nine holes most of the time. And uh, you know, usually the varsity guys will play together, but you know, usually you go out in a three somewhere for some, and so we'll mix in a couple JV guys with the varsity guys.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Now, do you use all three nines? Because they have sunset, sunrise, and what's the other one?

SPEAKER_05 8:26

Uh midday. Midday, yeah. Yeah, well, usually they'll try to keep us to one of the nines for practice so that they have the other two available for the the general public. So which one do you usually play on? It just depends on the day. Yeah. I feel like we play sunrise quite a bit. Um, but yeah, it could be any of them.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Now, have you had a home match yet then or not yet?

SPEAKER_05 8:47

Uh no, but this coming week we have our first one. Um, and Lucas is gonna get some redemption there, I think, on Tuesday. I hope so. Yeah. So uh come on out, uh, one o'clock at Centennial.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

So, how long have you been golfing, Lucas? I've been golfing for about seven years now, but I just started this year playing for the school.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

What inspired you to pick up a club and start golfing? Because that's actually a sport you could play your entire life in this.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Uh, just my entire family plays, my dad plays. I used to go out there when I was little and then got my own set, started going out when I was probably 13, really started enjoying it. But I was playing baseball at the time and didn't want to give that up quite yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Now, do you have a hard time like I do? I played 15 years of softball. Played against your dad too, Bobby. But it's kind of hard sometimes to give up that softball swing.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Uh, I used to struggle a lot with my slice. Right now, I'm kind of drawing it, and I'm not sure why, but I've kind of gotten over the whole setting it 30 yards to the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

So, what is your favorite iron or club to use, or a couple of your favorite clubs?

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Um, I like my 60 degree a lot, and then probably my three would. They're most consistent.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

What's the strongest part of his game that you see, coach, and areas that he he needs to work on, maybe?

SPEAKER_05 10:07

Yeah, I I would agree with. I mean, he said it's 60 degree wedge, so his chipping's really good. He's got good touch around the green. Um, and yeah, you know, I would say all of us can work on our our driver and just being more consistent. And you're not gonna hit every fairway, of course, but try to make those misses as small as possible so that you're not in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I can hit every fairway, but it's not usually not the one I'm supposed to hit.

SPEAKER_05 10:29

Right, right. I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

And Logan, you play basketball. Let's talk a little basketball this past season. You seem to have a lot of court time. You were actually a good hustler in my mind. Yeah. Gave a hundred percent. And you guys actually improved throughout the year. What are some of your qualities you see that Mr. Urca installed in you?

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Um well, I think about himself, I think he has really good like uh game IQ. Like I think uh like towards end game situations when we would like dig ourselves in the hole and we gotta get ourselves back out. Um and then it comes down to like the last few plays, Urka's always draw drawing us up a play or something to do. But stuff he uh like installs on us. Um I know at practice a lot we always work on rebounding, and I feel like that's one of my biggest attributes is rebounding. Um that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Are you gonna go out for basketball next year? You'll be a junior next year, correct? Yeah, should have a really good team. I hope so. Lucas, what are some of your individual goals for golf? Not only this season, but the rest of your high school career.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Um, I just want to lower strokes. I want to play smarter. A lot of the time I get out there and think I can do things that I can't do, and it just kind of ruins it. Like, I'll be hitting for the other day I was probably a hundred yards out and thought I could get my 56 there, and I gave her too much and shanked it into the water and turned into a double bogey. So I just want to work on playing smarter golf and being more consistent.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And what about putting? What would be a smarter way to putt?

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Uh, just for me to take more time, reading the lines, not rushing, steadier hands.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Coach is shaking his head because that's a great answer. Logan, what are some of your individual goals for basketball?

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Uh I would say my mindset. Like uh, I think at times I can get like super mad, upset, and it's easier for me to just lose myself. So I'd say that. And uh I think uh I could probably hustle a little more, and I think my my last goal before I graduate high school is to be able to dunk. I'm almost there. I haven't been trying much.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

You're about the same height as him. So I think he's got a little more hops than me though. It's close. But you're probably a little bit taller, maybe. Yeah, it's hard to say, but you're up to it. Yeah, I'm taller than him, but I don't got the hops. So, what kind of training do you guys both do for your sports or all your sports individually? Like by myself?

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah, or weight room or yeah, so I try to every day or five days a week, I'll go to the gym, try to run a mile every other day lately, not so much in the my freshman and sophomore year. But now that I'm realizing like how much work you have to put in, I'm definitely trying to do run

Photo #2

SPEAKER_03 13:40

every day, cardio, uh, weightlifting, get stronger, just work all around my body.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Hey, cross country is always looking for more guys, too.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

I don't know about all that.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Logan. Uh I know you probably have a lot of training with Schwar too. I haven't been going up there that much.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

You know, I not in a bad way. I've just been working. Oh, yeah. Everyone knows that. He's a working man. Working man.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Where do you work at?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Right over there. My grandpa's shop.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Oh, I did not know that. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yep. So that's what I do every day after school. I I mean I try to get I try to lift when I when I get the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

And I kind of just like, if I'll be honest, I'm motivated too, but I just like um yeah, I'd rather just sit on the couch and so is that where you got the burn on your arm at your top across the door? Yep. You know? That's a doozy right there. Oh, I know. Did you get that checked out? That looks almost like a third-degree burn.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Yeah, it probably is. It'll leave a good scar. It'll heal, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yep. Okay, back to golf, coach. Who are some of the top teams in in the league for junior varsity and even varsity?

SPEAKER_05 14:52

Well, it's early, it's hard to say. Um, like I said, we only had one event so far, and we did come out on top, and we um, in fact, the second place team was 14 strokes behind us. Um so I would say we're the team to beat. We're um Ionia was I think second place. Um Portland was top three or four. Um so yeah, those are probably the our biggest competition at J V. Uh, I'm not sure about varsity, to be honest with you. I don't know if it was Catholic maybe that got first.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So who are some of the guys on the JV team?

SPEAKER_05 15:25

Well, we have a huge team. I mean, way bigger than we've had in years past. Um so we we technically have 25 guys out between you know JV and varsity.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 15:37

It is good. It's it's great to hear to see that kind of interest. Out of those 25, you know, there's five that are kind of slotted for varsity, and that leaves me with about 20 guys on a given day to kind of uh work with and you know try to give them some some pointers and also trying to give them some kind of competition opportunities. Um so you know, we have probably uh seven or eight kids that are new or close to new to the sport, and then we've got at the JV level probably about a dozen kids that are really solid, and so um, you know, we've got guys that we can compete with and kind of mix and match lineups, and and I think we can compete at any time with with uh you know five guys. And you take five out just like varsity, right? Yeah, if it's uh if it's a league match, it's five. Um we're doing uh we're hosting an event at Morrison next Saturday, and that'll be take six, and you uh score your top four out of six. But most of the time it's five.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And that's the Ionia County shootout, correct? Yes, with Belvin and Ionia.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

Yep, Portland, and I think uh St. Pat's is gonna be there too, so we'll have five or six teams there.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

We haven't really talked football yet, Logan. So what are your individual goals for football and team goals for football this year?

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Uh first off, my individual, uh definitely stronger, faster, and probably start on defense. That's my biggest goal.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Like it's uh safety linebacker, corner, outside linebacker.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Outside linebacker. Outside or inside. I mean, I don't know if I'm really bulky enough to be inside, but uh you gotta get that arm healed up first. It'll be healed up in a week or so. It'll be fine. And I'd say that's my biggest individual goal. And definitely team goal. I think everyone's got the same goal as make playoffs. Everyone's looking, we're looking forward to it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

That's one of my goals. I want to announce the playoff game. Yeah. It's been a while. So I think you guys I feel guy you guys have the team to do it.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Lucas, let's switch back over to basketball. What's your individual goals for next year?

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Uh honestly, I just want to be like, I'm not, I don't have like the skills to be an amazing player. I realize that now, but I just want to be looked at like as a very hardworking person on the court. Like, I want like parents and people coming to watch the games, I want them to like, if I get put in the game, they're not like, oh man, not him. I want them to look out and be like, yeah, he's gonna work hard and try his best out there and try to change the game.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

And Marcus, you also coach basketball. What are some of your favorite memories? And you coach boys and girls basketball over the years. What are some of your favorite memories as a basketball coach?

SPEAKER_05 18:27

Um, really, the last couple years have been excellent. Um, we've had a really good group of kids. Um we've had some success at the JV level. Um this year's team was a really close-knit team, and it was it was a unique team because we had a mix of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, and so um everybody really worked together and um just had a great team chemistry, team culture. Uh, but it was it was a great year. Um and uh you know, these are two of the you know, two of the main parts of it as far as leaders. They were um hardworking and vocal leaders, and um they deserve a lot of the credit for you know the success that we had.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

I gotta really say I enjoyed watching the JV games. I'd sit down and watch the whole game before I got ready to announce the varsity games. You guys were did appear to be a very tight-knit group, hard-working groups.

SPEAKER_05 19:21

So yeah, I agree. There was, you know, there's no no egos, and um, you know, whoever was in the game at the time, whether it was a freshman or a junior or a sophomore, I mean, the the guys on the bench were supporting them fully. Um, so it was it was a really good um tight group.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

And who are some of the top teams you see? It's I know it's probably hard to tell this time of the year because kids transfer and stuff, but some of the top teams in the league next year for basketball.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

Well, I mean, if we're basing it off of JV, because you know, next year's juniors, I would say, you know, every game that we played for the most part was pretty competitive. Um, you know, Sexton was kind of on top for varsity and JV. They're losing a lot. That's what I hear. Yeah, they're they're losing some pieces, but they'll, you know, I think they'll be they'll be bringing up some sophomores and juniors that'll be pretty solid, too.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

JV team was pretty good, though.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

They were very good, yeah. Um, you know, beyond them, I like I said, we we kind of we split with several teams, you know, split with uh Charlotte, split with uh Eaton Rapids, um Catholic. Split with Catholic, yeah. So it was, you know, we were um pretty even. We uh I think we swept Ionia, right? Mm-hmm. Um per usual. Yeah. So but it was you know, good competition, a lot of close games this year, and so I think it'll be a competitive league next year.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I really feel as though Lakewood's gonna be right up there near the top. Yeah, football, basketball, and golf. It's like the future and present right now is really good for Lakewood sports. Yeah, I agree. Let's switch up the classroom, back to the classroom once again. I'm gonna ask you both, what's your favorite class or class is in school? I don't know, by gym. I don't really gotta do anything in there.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Who coaches that or who teaches that, Harmer? Moak teaches that. Mr. Moak.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

He's a good guy too.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

He's great. I wish I wish Urca taught a different subject in Spanish, because I'd definitely be in there.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

But I I wouldn't say I really have a favorite class.

SPEAKER_05 21:29

I mean they're all great, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Yep. Yeah. No, I actually do like all my classes. Um I come to school, I show up, I guess. Like, there's nothing special about any of them.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

So who's some of your favorite teachers?

unknown 21:41

Erca.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

For real. I think I only have like two teachers who are like, man, I could see them every single day, and it's probably Urca or Moak. I'd probably say I do like Miss Roundtree.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Um what does she teach? Uh English. English. She's uh new English teacher. She came in for uh Miss Well Wilhelm. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Gotta add on too for my favorite teachers. I do quite like Mr. Briganthi. Same thing about like round tree, like, not a lot of people seem to like enjoy his class, but I don't know. He's always been pretty like I like him a lot. And what does he teach? He teaches Econ and Gov that I know of. I don't know if he does anything else.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I think he does some of those things, but you mentioned Lucas that Marcus is one of your favorite teachers. Maybe you should consider taking Spanish too next year. Spanish three next year.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

Yeah, if he taught a different subject, I would be in there, but uh I'm not doing Spanish no more.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

I'm not gonna be able to take Spanish three or four because I'll be I'll have to take core classes next year. Um because I'm gonna do uh LCC or Eaton Risa.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Off season, Lucas. I'm sure you golf in the summer quite a bit. What are some of your favorite golf courses? Some of my favorite golf courses.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

So I just recently went on vacation over Spring Break to Georgia, and they have a course called the Great Dunes there. That's probably the nicest course I've ever been on, coolest place. It's like it's just off the coast, so it's just so windy. And then like Centennial is a really nice course, our home course, so I definitely like going out there. But I haven't been to a lot, like I haven't been to like 50 different courses. I've only been to probably like 10.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

And what about you, Logan? Do you ever golf at all? Have you ever picked up a golf? I dabble.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

I don't like I've played I don't know, probably five times in my life.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I'm not good at all, but I mean Grayson LaBurge never picked up a club till this year, and he's is that right? Yeah, okay. And he's a lefty too. It's hard for lefties to learn. It's hard for lefties to get a good club or even a discount on a club.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

Yeah. Actually, one of my sons is a lefty, and so it's it is hard trying to find clubs, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

What about you, Marcus? You'd coach golf. Have you golfed before?

SPEAKER_05 23:51

Have I golf before? Yeah. Um, now that my boys are getting into it, we play probably once or twice a week in the summer. Um, usually um just in the area like Willowwood or uh Ledge Meadows.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Which reminds me, shout out to my daughter, Tiffany Ackerson, the former girls golf coach. She's at Ledge Meadows right now.

SPEAKER_05 24:11

Yeah, well, yeah, I got to work with Tiffany for one season and uh learned a lot from her. She's she was great with the girls, um you know, knows the game inside

Photo #3

SPEAKER_05 24:22

and out, obviously, and just knows how to relate to the girls and how to you know teach things in a you know clear way and you know keeps the atmosphere positive.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Golf is her happy place. She golfed in college. She actually has the only all than one in Lakewood girls golf. Oh, really? Nice. What you know what course that was? Yes, it was uh in the East Lansing something hills, was it Walnut Hills, I think? Yeah, Walnut Hill Okay, yeah. And she it was raining, but more incredibly, she shot a 73 that day. Oof. So she kept it together and just had a great round. I can't say I've ever hit a 73. And I missed it though. I was working in corrections at the time. But yeah. Then she had another one at Morrison Lake on hole 18.

SPEAKER_05 25:07

Really? She's had two hole ines?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

I just missed that. I was pulling into the parking lot. Oh man. I just missed it. Wow. Did you play sports in high school?

SPEAKER_05 25:18

Yeah, actually, I golfed and I played basketball. Um I golfed uh I think three out of the four years, and then I played basketball all four years. Um I played baseball through my freshman year, um, and then kind of gave that up after freshman year.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Let me guess, you were a point guard. Correct. You weren't? I wasn't not a center, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

So uh you don't see too many five foot two centers. So that was a little bean. Five foot. Five five, Kurt. Five five centers.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, uh I went to Mason County Central up in uh by Ludington.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Hey, someone else went there.

SPEAKER_05 25:58

Chad Plannis. That's right. Yeah. Um Chad and I were five years apart. So when they when they made their state finals run, I was in seventh grade.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

You gotta talk to Chad too. I'm trying to get him on a podcast. Yeah. He's got a lot to talk about. He's gone on to play as Central Michigan and drafted by the Blue Jays. I think he's in the Central Michigan Hall of Fame. Yep, that's right. He's currently our assistant varsity boys coach.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

He helps out with everything.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

I mean, he's an assistant varsity baseball coach. Yep. And then he does some youth soccer and youth baseball, I believe.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

So yeah, he was all-state in all three sports in high school football, basketball, baseball.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

You could stack three of you on top of each other.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

All right, Kurt. All right. Okay, just two, maybe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

So, Lucas, what are some of your favorite golf memories over the years? And it doesn't even have to be high school golf. You've been golfing, you said, for seven years. Um it could be a really bad shot or whatever, some good memories.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

It was actually a really cool shot. It was for Birdie. It was my first time ever breaking 80. I was out there with my dad at Morrison, which isn't very impressive to break 80 out there, but still, I needed to hit shoot, I needed a birdie to break 80. And I was about 50 yards out on the hole nine.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Oh, hole nine, that's got that slope. Yeah, it's got that really slope.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

So it was kind of accidental. I kind of shanked my uh wedge shot in, and it landed up that slope and just started trickling in. It was just went in the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

That is a cool shot. What's some of your favorite sports memories, Logan?

SPEAKER_02 27:43

I'd say it was eighth grade year, travel basketball, red cedar, when we won uh the league championship, and then we went to States. We didn't do very good at States, but that was a good one. Who was the coach? Brandon Wilkins. Okay. And there was really good competition there, and we just kind of struggled. And I'd also say this uh inside joke for any uh any players listening, but uh anytime we play Ionia, yeah. That's uh that's the uh that's fun.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

That was fun beating them in football. I remember doing the post-game interview, and you were a little excited. Our producer probably still has that tape, and he might have to pull this up and make this part of our podcast. You were pretty animated. What about favorite, and I'm gonna ask all three of you this favorite school memories? Marcus, yours could be, we'll start with you. It could be a grade school, high school, college, or even here at Lakewood as a teacher. But some of your favorite memories as a non-coach, just a teacher or student.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

Okay, going back to when I was in school. Um It's not that far back. Yeah. Um probably just bat playing basketball in general. We had a great group um of friends, and um we had a pretty solid team. I think we were uh 35 and 10 over the two-year period, so we were pretty solid. So we were yeah, Mesa County Central um up by Luddington, and uh yeah, there was a we we played against uh Shelby, Shelby Tigers. That was kind of our big rival back then. They were pretty good at basketball too. And uh one of my best friends hit a buzzer beater to force overtime. Uh, and then sadly we ended up losing the game, but it was just a really exciting game.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Did you guys go on to pretty far in the state tournament?

SPEAKER_05 29:39

Uh we won district in our junior year and then um lost in the regional. We were we were up by like 12 in the second half and ended up losing. It was kind of tough. But um and then senior year, we were probably the favorites to win districts, but um uh we ended up losing in overtime to uh Manistee in the district final. It was pretty tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

What about you guys favorite? I'll start with you, Logan. Favorite memories, non-sport memories.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

I don't know. I'd honestly just say like I feel like just lunchtime, lunchtime in general, like just uh the conversations, the I'm just gonna say straight up the food fights that we had. Like we have some fun at lunchtime. What about you, Lucas?

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Uh honestly, I'm probably just thinking about this because we already talked about it. But when we went to that zoo last year, I don't know if I ever told Urca this, but uh well. It was not it's not the bad, but it was just really funny because like I didn't really always like understand what he was saying, but I did under like he was just going around the zoo in his poncho. It kind of looked like a little he looked like a little kid, just pointing an animal and he'd just say their name in Spanish, just running around. It was just really funny to watch. I think Urca had the best time there, honestly. Yeah, we got soaked.

SPEAKER_05 30:58

It it rained like the whole time we were there, but uh it was still a good time. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

So give me ten animals teach. These guys, these guys gotta do it, yeah. Uh I'll say the animal and you guys are. Oh, you say in Spanish. Dog.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

Horse. Caballo. Cat. Gata. Mouse. Ooh, that one might be tougher then. I don't know. Uh El Ratan. Ooh, Raton, there you go. Elephant.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Elephant elephante or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

See. Bear. I don't know if we were learned that one, did we? I think we did. Starts with an O. El Oso? Oso. Oso. There you go. I was gonna say Olo.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Here's a great one. Wolverine. Oh. That one I don't even know, actually.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

Well.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Okay, well, how do you say go blue? Azul. Something like that.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Vamos azul.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Vamos azul.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

No Azul.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Snake.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

Serpiente. Wow, look at these guys. A year later, still got it. Cow. Uh it starts with a V. Uh Vaca. Vaca.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

That's not bad. They passed. The tiger.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Gotta be the tenth one. T Tigre. Alright, great job. Not bad. Not bad. So what'd they get? 90%. 90%. Yeah, we'll take that look at that. We'll take that. Yeah. It's kind of early. You guys are still got one more year and two more years of school, but have you thought about future plans yet? Yeah. After high school.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

So right now I'm kind of looking towards going into construction, like where my dad is at, and I think I can find a pretty good idea.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Or a road road?

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Uh maybe. So they they don't always do apprenticeships, and that's kind of what I'm looking towards, either an apprenticeship or a trade school. Not really a traditional college, but something probably along those lines.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

And that seems to be a common tread amo amongst liquid graduates lately, which is actually good.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

I mean I think about like where we live, like kind of the area we live in, it's like definitely pushed towards that like you don't have to go to college. Like because I feel like years in the past, it's like looked at if you don't go to college, you're not as smart or you're not gonna accomplish as much, but now the trades are in really high demand and you can make really good money.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

It's all about money. I mean, even college nowadays with NIL, it's about money, money, money, money. What about you, Logan?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Um, I would say the same thing. Well, right now I'm I'm working with my grandpa's and I think I'm gonna try and stay over there as long as I can and potentially take over the business.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

So is that your grandpa's new house that they're building? Yes. That is sweet. What message do both of you have to coach Urca?

SPEAKER_03 33:49

I just really like appreciate all he's kind of like done for us, how much he cares about us. He he definitely cares a lot, like, about his kids that he coaches. You can tell that he's always like I don't know if there's ever been like a kid that he's like maybe not liked, but like one he's not like cared for. Like he's never been like, man, I just can't do it with this kid. I don't believe in him or anything. He's always believed in every kid he's coached, from what I've seen. And it's just been great, like, experiencing that. I've had Urker for three years now, and

Photo #4

SPEAKER_03 34:22

it's just every I've never like been mad about a year.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

I gotta say, I think, coach, you're the only coach here at Lakewood. I could be mistaken that coaches all three seasons and coaches both boys and girls, and that's pretty incredible that you can reach out to that many people and touch that many lives. They all respect you.

SPEAKER_05 34:42

So yeah, I mean absolutely I appreciate it. Um yeah, whether it's boys, girls, you know, um I've coached obviously with my own kids, youth all the way up to varsity. So it's you know, no matter the age or or gender or whatever, it's you know, it's a pleasure to work with uh kids and trying to help them get the most of their abilities.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Because you also used to be the varsity girls basketball coach.

SPEAKER_05 35:03

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Um for a couple of years I was uh girls' coach.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Logan, back to you.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

All right, I would almost just agree with Lucas. Um I like the fact that he takes on like almost as many jobs as he can, like coaching roles wise, and just um what he does as a teacher. And then obviously what he does with his kids, like he's got three kids to take care of and he goes home, he coaches those kids. Like you can tell, like he just has a a passion for coaching, and like when anybody who looks at him or like sees him coach, like you can tell that he's got a passion for it.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

And I gotta say, I don't think I've ever met your wife, Marcus, but thank you, Mr. Zerka, for allowing him to do all this. Yeah, she's secondary. It sounds like she has to.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

She's the MVP for sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

So, what hobbies do you guys have just to get away from sports? What's kind of your happy place?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Fishing, working. Like ice fishing or all kinds of fishing. I like all kinds of fishing. Um, we well, obviously this year and last year the ice was good, but it was prior prior years it hasn't been that good. But me and my dad have been trying to get out ice fishing a lot, and uh last summer me and my dad started going to uh Canada to pike fish and walk pike and walleye fish with uh a big group of guys, so that's that's fun. We're doing that again this year, so I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

If you ever catch extra walleye, keep me in mind.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

I don't know if I'll have some extra. I'm like giving it myself.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

Lucas. Um I don't know how stupid this is gonna sound, but it makes sense to me. But like if I have a bad day golfing for school, like in the summer, not not even for school, just if I have a bad day, I just like to go golfing.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

You know, and someone else said that, and I can relate to that.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I mean it's even if you even if I have a battery out there, it's just a better part of my day that I can look at, like, yeah, I enjoyed this, and you're gonna have a good shot that you're gonna chase and just feel good about it.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I mean, golf is a sport, but it's also a hobby. Um let's talk about websites for your sports, how people can reach out to like the golf. Do you have a Facebook page and a basketball page?

SPEAKER_05 37:19

Uh there is a uh Lakewood Boys Golf um for basketball and for golf. Um so yeah, like if you just uh type in Lakewood Boys Basketball. Um I know our new coach actually texted me about that today, so he's got that going and um he'll be posting communication through that. And uh yeah, there's also a Lakewood Boys Golf page you could follow on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

And what kind of fundraisers do you have for each sport?

SPEAKER_05 37:45

Uh well for basketball this year, um actually we had some really generous um community members that that helped support us and um and sponsored us and got us some shooting shirts and uh got the varsity some uh uh like uh tracksuit type thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

And um so yeah, so I remember right rec Lending was one of them, and of course, uh as always the LAA, they're one of our biggest supporters for sure of all sports at Lakewood. Yep. We appreciate both of them. I know I'm missing some more, but what are some of your hobbies? It's probably hard for you to get away from three kids and coach with coaching and stuff.

SPEAKER_05 38:28

Um, yeah, Michigan sports baby. Michigan sports is fun, yeah. It's been a good you know, four or five year run here for football and basketball. Um, you know, like I said, my boys are getting into golf, so we go golfing in the summertime once or twice a week. Um we enjoy traveling when we can. Um we just did a spring break trip out to California to see one of my old um college roommates out in southern California. So that was a good one. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Wow, that's cool. Yep. What part of California?

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Uh he lives just north of San Diego in Carlsbad. So we were out there for about five days.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Did you see Jim Arball by chance?

SPEAKER_05 39:04

Didn't see didn't see Jim. Didn't see Jim. But we got to go golfing one day, and uh you know you might not think about it as like being a hilly place, but like Southern California is very um like hilly and mountainous, and so the course we played was it was tough. It was like every shot was either an elevated green or you know elevated T-Box, and you gotta be very accurate.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

So, do you guys do team bonding? What do you do for team bonding for golf, Lucas?

SPEAKER_03 39:33

I don't I don't really know. Like who I usually go out with, I usually go with like Connor or some other kids, and me and Connor just know each other really well, so we kind of just tend to stick together.

SPEAKER_05 39:45

Yeah, he and Connor Persigned, you know, they they played basketball obviously this year together.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

So uh they've kept that connection going for golf.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

We uh we do you both show 4-H cattle, so we're all both there all for a couple weeks in the summer hanging out.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

So I own you? Yeah. We have a lot of Lakewood students that show livestock and cattle and chickens and rabbits and goats. Logan, what about team bonding for you? Football, I know you have some camps and stuff coming up.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Yeah, football, I guess we'd I mean camps. Um I know the last few years, uh when we have like days off of school and we have a game or something, we'll go out. I know one year, the first year Swar got here, we did uh we went bowling and went to CNRs for breakfast. But I guess like we don't really have too much team bonding, I'll say. I mean, basketball, we played some Fortnite together. We did play Fortnite together. That was that was fun.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Now, do you guys go to basketball camp? I know the girls go to Hope Camp every year, but right.

SPEAKER_05 40:47

Um, no, but uh last year we didn't. Um two years ago we went to a Grand Valley uh competition, you know, I think it was a weekend, and some good competition there at Grand Valley. But um last year they did go up to um I think it's Montcalm Community College for a couple a couple times uh last last summer. And so we'll see what we get, you know, scrimmaging wise this summer with our um new head coach.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

I know football football goes to FCA camp um down in Spring Harbor too.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

What message do you all have to youth that are thinking about like possibly going out, picking up a golf club, playing basketball, playing football? What message do you have to the youth?

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Uh I would say just every time you do something, like do it 100%. Uh always work as hard as you can. And not even with sports outside of life, always do something right the first time. You don't gotta go back and do it again.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

That's some great advice. Logan. How about you, Lucas?

SPEAKER_03 41:54

Uh honestly, just try it. Like, I was this year I was really scared to drop baseball because I've been doing it so long and to pick up golf, but I don't think I've regretted it once. Like, just go out. If it's new, try it. Don't like and I guess there's some different sports that like people don't see so much as sports. But like, if you like something, go do it. You don't have to be embarrassed to do something.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

I might get in trouble for saying this, but for golf, do it. You get out of school more than it. There's a lot of long days. That's true. Long days for golf. Yeah, that's a fact. What about you, Marcus?

SPEAKER_05 42:29

Some message to the youth. Well, first of all, those are two really good answers, right? That was that was great. Um for youth that are interested in sports. I mean, that yeah, like like Lucas said, try it. And then, you know, if you're in a team setting, a team sport, you know, be the best teammate you can. Um, everyone's kind of responsible for creating that culture, and culture matters. So um be a good teammate. Like uh Logan said, be you know, work as hard as you can, give 100%. You don't want to regret um, you know, your level of effort. You'll never regret working as hard as you could.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Okay, I'm gonna go a little off the wall with this question, but uh this is for all three of you. All right. If you had to eat one food per day for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Can it be like it has to be the same every day for the rest of your life?

SPEAKER_03 43:25

So like if I were to like choose like a say pizza, like would I be able to like change the toppings on that? Because like I've thought about this question before.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Yeah, that'd be cool. So like I could do like an Alfredo and do like chicken Alfredo, shrimp Alfredo, steak Alfredo. Yeah. That that's what I'm doing right there. Do it. I'd probably lock it in.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

So lock in a steak or Alfredo for Logan.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

Um and for Lucas, you were talking pizza, or you still think uh not pizza, but I would just like to go off of it. I would probably choose like some kind of taco. Oh, that's which is really still messed up. Like you you can customize that with like different meads and tappings and everything, so it'd like really be good. It's gotta be authentic though.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Like Los Primos. Do you like their tacos?

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Um I I don't mind them. If I'm going there, I'll probably get something else.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

I feel they used to be bitter.

SPEAKER_05 44:18

Yeah, they're a little when they first opened a little dry. Marcus? Uh he stole my answer. I was gonna say tacos, because you yeah, you you can get you know steak tacos or tacos al pastor or chicken or you know, any kind of uh meat or fish tacos. Yeah, fish tacos, yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Okay, before we close the show, who would you all like to thank for your years in sports or your years just being on earth? People that have meant a lot to you, people that have had a great influence on you. Start we'll start with you, Logan.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Uh I guess speaking of being on earth, I just like to thank God, you know. He lets us be here every day and wakes us up every day. Amen. Um, and then definitely my family coming up or showing up to my game, supporting me no matter what and what I do. Lucas.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Um going off batch, yeah. All glory to God. Thank him every day you wake up for every second you get. But my family definitely I'm gonna shout out my sister though. Like when she was older in high school in golfing, I didn't go to as many matches as I should have, and I regret that now.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

See, she my daughter coached her. She did, yeah. My daughter loves her. She went to states.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

I think I went to I it's gonna sound bad, but two of her matches her entire golf career, and one of them was her states. But she's always been there. Like she showed up for me, took me places when I couldn't drive. It's just always went out of her way to try to be helpful, give me snacks, drinks, make sure I'm all good. It's just it's like a second mother, really.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Yeah, she's great. Marcus?

SPEAKER_05 45:53

Uh yeah, I would go with my parents. Um my dad, you know, taught me, he was my t-ball coach on up, and you know, taught me basketball and golf. And um he's just a really patient guy and uh nicest guy you'll ever meet. And uh my mom was she's actually not the biggest sports person. Um she didn't play sports growing up, but she never missed our games. And she was always like the loudest mom there, supporting, you know, um, cheering for everybody, not just us, but cheering for my teammates. And so knowing that she's like she probably would have things she'd rather do, you know, but um she always made it to every game and was just super supportive.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

I'm sure she's loving those triplets right now.

SPEAKER_05 46:37

Yeah, and she and she goes to all the grandkid games too, so yeah, she's as much as she can. They like they live up in London. Mrs.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Urke, you did a great job with your son here.

SPEAKER_05 46:46

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Okay, that pretty much wraps up today's show. We want to thank you, Marcus, for allowing us to and getting us in here at the Media Center at Lakewood High School. This is a really nice place. Thank you, Lucas. Thank you, Marcus, thank you, Logan. Good good luck to the rest of your season, good luck to the rest of your high school careers. Good luck.