Conversation with Deke Stanek

Aquinas head coach Deke Stanek joins the show to talk about his team's journey to their first ever WIAA Team State title!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast with your co-hosts Teak Fenwick and Steve Lurkwick.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. I'm your host, Teak Fenwick, coming to you, not live from Holman, coming to you from Holman, joining me as always from Koshkinon. My co-host, Steve Lurklin. Steve, great to be here.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

Pumped to be to be here, Teag. Two weeks off, and this is officially our first episode of season number seven, correct?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Season seven of the Steve era. Season eight, I think, if you uh include the BS era. The BS.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Before Steve. Full of BS. You know, it's funny you thought you said they from Koshkenong. I was refinging at youth state this weekend. I'm sorry, youth uh regionals this weekend, and I had three different people come up to me and say, hey, Steve from Koshkenong. Oh it's starting to start to stick. Yeah. Yes. Good stuff. Good stuff. But T, I we've had two weeks off, and I am pumped to be back. Excited for this show. Excited to get this uh series going.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Yeah, of course. We uh kick off uh the new season, our new season uh with uh four-timer interviews, state champ uh coaching interviews, and we have a fun one tonight. Uh we had him on the show before, so not a team, not just a team state champ coach now, but probably more pumped that he's a recurring guest on the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. And uh I just uh above all that, just an all-around great dude. So I'm uh I always look forward to chatting with him. Folks know who it is uh by now at this point. I'm talking about none other than the three-time Wissa State champ who went on to wrestle at North Dakota State and then played football and wrestled at UWL. Now a team state champ coach for the Aquinas Blue Golds, who he has coached for 18 years. Talk about none other than Mr. Deek Stannik. Deek, glad to have you back on.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah, hey, thanks guys for having me on. I appreciate the coverage.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

So and Deek, you know I love you because as much as it kind of itches my skin to wear this, I am uh repping my blue gold gear tonight.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, I appreciate that. I know you're a Holman guy through and through, but I appreciate the one-time wear gear.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Yeah, you know, uh don't tell the Holman people this, but it is a pretty comfy sweatshirt. It is.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

It's I I was just telling Deeke off air is that that is like one of my favorite sweatshirts. I wear it all the time. And right before the podcast, I couldn't find it. So T, I went with No Shirt. Oh, Gary's Meat Market.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Gary's Meat Market. This episode brought to you by somehow slipped that reference in there. Love it. I do, I'll say this. I I come in uh for every Holman Aquinas duel, I have a Holman Wrestling shirt that I wear. But I do wear my Aquinas socks underneath, so it's uh it's a true neutral. Perfect. Deke, we have a lot to talk about tonight. The last time we had you on was the sectional preview series, and there's always a lot to unpack with that. But since this is your first time on in uh the quote unquote offseason, we get a little more time to chat, and whenever we have our team state champ coaches on for the first time, we get to hear about their wrestling story. So from day one, when you first put shoes on, let's get the wrestling story of Mr. Deke Stanick. Um, so you want me to start way back when, like youth wrestling?

SPEAKER_02 3:58

UK, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you were born at a young age. The night was dark, you usually are. So got started here uh in youth wrestling on lacrosse um back when I was about five years old. So there were no clubs at that time. The only kind of the only show in town where you could wrestle was the lacrosse boys and girls club. And they had a lacrosse boys and girls club Southside that was hosted at Central, and then they had a lacrosse boys and girls club uh north side, which I think was hosted at Logan High School. So I was part of the Southside Club, and we practiced, I think, two or three, three days a week. And um, it was at Central High School in this really tiny little old wrestling room that they had. And um, I'm gonna drop some names here that the young guys aren't gonna recognize, but um, I remember like waiting out in the hallway to start practice, and um out of the central room would come Eric Jatan, who was a four-time state finalist and a two-time champ for Central. He ended up being a three-time All-American for the Badgers. Uh, Chris Barr would walk out, and um, he was a state champ for Central. He went on to wrestle at Northern Iowa. Um, Brian Colburn, he might be one of the most electric wrestlers I've ever watched wrestle. I think he was a two-time state runner-up, never, never won at all, but another great wrestler. So um, those guys are like my heroes when I was a little kid and uh really looked up to those guys and uh wrestled for the lacrosse boys and girls club all through our youth. I was not not good at all. I I was actually, I would say I was pretty bad when I started.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Um uh quick quick quick question, Deke. Is Barr is that the father of Jevin Barr? It is not.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

I think he is a relation to like uh Devin's dad, but I I I don't know that you know they're they're real closely related. There's a ton of bars up on the ridge here outside of the cross, and um, I think they're you know distantly related. So good question.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Okay, bunch of bars, and we're not talking about the ones with refreshments, we're talking about the wrestling family. Yeah, all right. So continue. We left off. You were you were not good at wrestling at this juncture in your career.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yeah. So when I was young, I like I remember going to my first tournament, getting beat up, and like wanting to quit, like telling my dad I hated wrestling, didn't want to wrestle anymore, and he made me stick it out, and I'm obviously glad he did. Um, tried qualifying for U State many times, never did. Um, and then freshman year, um, so I was uh uh went to Aquinas Middle School, then went to Aquinas High School, was really blessed with some really great teammates and great coaches there. Um my head coach was John Wissing, who was a teacher at the high school. Um, and then head his head assistant was Tony Liga, who was uh the coach at Central for many, many years. Um and I uh actually coached Eric Chatan on those guys um during that time period and um uh kind of came, I would say, into my own, probably my sophomore year. I spent a lot of time in the offseason between freshman and sophomore year, um uh wrestling at camps. Um, you know, there still wasn't really any clubs in the area. Um, I was blessed that um my dad was pretty good friends with Greg Lanning, who was the head coach at the time at UW the Cross. So in the spring, once my freshman season was over, I would just walk from Aquinas over to UWL and the college guys would just beat me up. And I would meet there would be always be a few other high school kids that would go and practice there. Um John Lorenz, uh, who was the state champ for Logan, Zach Calfair, state champ for Logan, he would be there. A few guys from Caledonia, Minnesota would come down and we trained together. Um and uh was blessed to be able to, you know, basically practice with the college guys for three springs through my senior year. Um, and uh uh did okay in high school, made it to Fargo my senior year, went one and two out there, um, didn't have a great tournament, but um uh NDSU recruited me um after I had won Northern Plains, um, went out there and spent my first two and a half years out there, and I loved it. Like NDSU is a great school. I had great coaches, awesome teammates. Um and when I was out there, they had a really good football team. And in the summer months, uh, because of like I worked at Fleet Farm in the summer out there, because of when I got off, I would end up training with the football guys in the afternoon. And um I just always remember thinking I still had a kind of a passion for football and um wanted to do both. Approached the head coach at the time at NDSU whose name was Bucky Maughn. He's a Hall of Fame uh coach has since passed, but um he uh uh because I was on scholarship out there, they they couldn't let me play football. So transferred back to UWL um and did Russell then played football for my last two and a half years there. So um I don't know if you guys saw, like I I have a unique, I think, story. I I wasn't I was a part-time starter at NDSU um for a little while um when the starting heavyweight uh got dinged up a little bit and kind of same thing at UWL. I had a couple starts uh but was never like the full-time guy. I was uh behind three different national champions. Um at NDSU, that Nick Severson was a two-time national, D2 national champ when I was there. And then uh right when I transferred back uh to UWL, Jason Ott was in his final semester. Um so obviously sat behind him, and then there was this little 197-pound freshman uh who I didn't even know who he was, and uh turns out he ends up being a four-time national finalist, a three-time champ has since been inducted and very deservingly so into the D3 uh Hall of Fame, DWL Hall of Fame, all those things. Ryan Allen, obviously a coach of Iowa Graham. I consider him a great friend. Um, he's one of the funniest guys I know, and and I love seeing him at wrestling tournaments. I I honestly hate coaching against him. Um not not it's because I have a ton of respect for him and somebody's got to lose, and I hate that it's gonna be one of us.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

So how how'd you handle that, Deke? Yeah, I mean, obviously, uh when when Ott left, who was a stud, right? Were you kind of like, hey, it's my time, and then all of a sudden this punk comes in where you I mean, how'd you take that? I mean, that's that's not easy on the eagle, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Yeah, it was it was hard. Like it was really hard. Like I kind of thought of myself as like a starter, and I'm sure Alan did as well. Um, and I came in after that football season was over. I think we made a deep run that year, it would have been his uh you know, redshirt freshman year. We made a deep run in the football playoffs, so I got in the room pretty late. Um, and um even even not in shape, like even when I was in shape, I I knew that this was gonna be a tough road to hole. Um, he had improved tremendously from his freshman year to his redshirt freshman year, his second year in college. And uh obviously the results aren't what they are. You can't argue with them. And and uh um, you know, he he beat me out, and uh and here we are, you know, 25 odd years later, still talking about it. So, but yeah, it was it was hard, but I it didn't, it didn't, I don't think it hindered our our friendship. Um, you know, he I still got along with him great. I was his practice partner for two years there. Um, I made sure that I went into the room and I I worked him as hard as as I could push him. And um, and uh, you know, he you know, there was never any bad blood. Um, you know, so I I I I don't think that there was any bad blood from him to me as well. And like I said, I still consider him a friend and um I think he does a great job. He's I think as good of a coach as he was a wrestler.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Yeah. Well, that's one of those hard things too, where you kind of look around the state to the W the other WIAC teams and you're like, gosh, I could be a starter there, I could be a starter there, but I'm behind this freaking stud, you know. That's not that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah, and I I, you know, those thoughts obviously cross your mind, but I honestly I wouldn't trade it. Like I had a great experience wrestling at UWL, I had a great experience playing football, and and uh um I I wouldn't trade it for anything. If you could ask me to go back and if would I do something different, I don't think I would. Like um it obviously it's shaped me who I am, and I never got to be the starter, but I felt like I was a pretty high-level wrestler. Um, you know, being able to wrestle Ryan Allen every day, like how blessed was I to be able to be in a room with three different national champions and you know to get beat up by those guys, and and uh it was pretty special.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

So, Deke, knowing around that time range, that was early mid-2000s, you've been the head coach for 18 years. Yeah, there can't have been too long of a gap between you being done wrestling and you coaching, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah, so I I graduated in December of 04 from the cross, and then my first teaching, um I graduated with a biodegree thinking I was gonna go into healthcare, and um went to a semester of actually nursing school, believe it or not, decided it wasn't for me, and then I went back and got my post baccalaureate um at Viterbo um and got my teaching license there, and then uh got my first teaching and coaching job actually in Ocontemwalk, Wisconsin, of all places. So um taught and coached there for two years, loved it, had some great manners. Steve Olson was a head coach there at the time. Bob Blursch was his head assistant, and those guys were full of knowledge, and I learned a ton from those guys. Um, and then um my wife finished dental school down at Marquette, and we um when she finished, we knew we wanted to move back to the cross. Um, and it just so happened that there happened to be a teaching position, open at Aquinas, and my head coach, John Whiskey, was stepping down from the head coaching position. I think he had coached for about 15 years and was just ready to step away. And and so it was just perfect timing for us uh, you know, moving back and for me to slide into that position.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Yeah, we I know we kind of talked about it on that sectional preview, but kind of speed running through your your tenure at Aquinas. I know you guys made Team Sectionals a couple times in the early 2010s, and then uh there there's a little lull between the next run of Team Sectionals, and I bring this story up, not uh not as like uh to rub dirt in or anything, but Deke, this was almost 10 years ago, and I don't know if you'd remember this, but Holman went to Aquinas and the duel was in the little gym. They kept the team score on the whiteboard for perspective folks. This was nine or ten years ago, Holman won that duel 82 to zero. Like we went in there, we were trying to get 84, and uh I'll only bring that up because here we are now talking about a team state championship. And uh what do you think, Dcap, like during your run of coaching, what do you feel like changed from the first half of your career to this back half now?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

You know, I I I it's never just one thing, right? Like, yeah, you know, I don't think there's like a one big thing that made the change. I think it was a lot of really small things that added up into a big thing, right? So um I think first of all, me like teaching in the school, I you know, I think that's a big deal. Like I get to see the kids every day, um, and plus I teach in the seventh grade, so I get to see them right when they get into the middle school there at Aquinas. Um, I took over the middle school football program in 2015, and I did a ton of recruiting off of the middle school football team. I got my hands on those guys for eight weeks in the fall, and I I convinced a lot of them, kind of strong arm a lot of them into coming up from middle school wrestling. Um, we started our own youth club at Aquinas, my second year there. Um, and I I actually ran the case second program myself for 15 years. Um, you know, I saw my sons go through it, um, and then I actually coached it for two years after I didn't have any of my boys through it. Um, you know, and I think just the sticking with the process, even though it didn't pay off immediately, like we knew what we had coming down the pipeline um, you know, in our youth wrestling clubs, and and uh by getting those kids out in middle school wrestling, um and just building our numbers. You know, I started with nine kids my first year. Um I think by my third year I had close to 25. And then I at our peak, we had right around 35. And we're I think this year we're sitting at 30 in the room, and I project to be about 30 to 35 again next year, you know, with a school of about 300 kids, just a little more. That's that's pretty good numbers. So and we're trying now, we're trying to build the girls program, you know. So um we uh we're we're trying to make headway there um as well. But I think you know, just being patient and seeing the process through of all those little things has kind of got us to where we are today.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

So Deke, um, and help me on this one too. Um, two years ago, I ref the Aquinas football game in Columbus. That was a really good game, by the way. And uh and the coach, uh, I remember that one very vividly. I talked about often, that's where Timar uh ran me over, uh, and I told him not to do that again. Steve survived somehow. Yeah, well, it was more not right, it wasn't a flat. I mean, I was able to like brush it, you know, and he knocked me over, and then uh I came back and I said, uh, yeah, let's just not do that anymore. That's a good idea. Um, but the co I was talking to the football coach before the game, and he said that the program, the football program a while back wasn't that good. Um that so that's amazing. Like we look at Aquinas wrestling now, we look at Aquinas football, and everybody gets oh, Aquinas football. But yet we're we're talking about 10-15 years ago, they were they were kind of where the wrestling program was.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah. Tom Lee's done a great job there, and like he he is so supportive of Aquinas wrestling and encourage those guys to come out. You know, there's been multiple years here, you know, especially when they were making their state championship run, uh, where all five offensive linemen were wrestlers, where the starting three guys with their hands down on the line, they run a three, a three five, um, were all wrestlers, and the grand majority of the linebackers were all wrestlers. And so he has a healthy respect for wrestling, and and we kind of feed each other. We're both big proponents of being multi-sport athletes. Um, and uh I kind of I feel like our X Factor, and I hate even saying this, um, we've got a great speed and strength program with Eddie Hodges. He runs this um, it's called three reverse performance here out of the cross. And we were the first high school that he started working with when he came back to the cross or started his business here in the cross. And we've got a great culture in the weight room right now. Um this morning when I walked by the ray room uh going up to my classroom, there had to be 40 kids in there. And the baseball team was doing speed work uh in the big gym. Uh the girls' soccer team was doing some speed work as well. Um, you know, so I think that's kind of a been a big X factor for us as well, is the kids have have really bought into it, uh, that speed and strength program. And and um, while they're not on the mat wrestling when they're doing that, they're still getting faster and stronger and more athletic. And I think that's made a big difference for all of our programs at Aquinas.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

So oh yeah. I I'll say this. So also, Deke, I know I kind of like jumped ahead a little bit. So if you have anything else on the 2010s, feel free.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

No, I I had some, I tell you what, I had some really nice kids back then, but they they we just didn't have any wrestlers, you know. Like we had guys that played football and wrestled, we had guys that did soccer and wrestled, and which is great. Like, you need those guys too, and and those guys, I think uh wrestling still benefits them in their other sports. And when we started getting guys who are wrestlers, you know, I like and I I I tell everybody like Joe Pinky was kind of like our first wrestler, and he really kind of changed the culture of our team. We're doing like the freestyle and greco kind of became the norm instead of the exception. Um, and now we've got a ton of guys doing Greco and Freestyle and wrestling in the spring and doing spring tournaments, and um, you know, I I think when he kind of stepped in the room, he uh changed that culture, and and thankfully, you know, that culture has stuck around and we've had great, great leadership. I talked about our senior leadership, I think, at length after the team state title, and it hasn't been just this group. I've had great seniors, I think, for many, many, many years.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

So Joe Pinky and now uh national all-American, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:04

All American, all American Joe Pinky. Yeah, I gotta put some respect on that name now. He still can't beat me.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

So there might need to be a catch weight for that one. I don't know. No, I'm gonna keep my weight on. If I got a drop down to him, I think he's gonna he's gonna get the best of me.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

But I'll I'll close out as we round into like the 2020s and get more recent here. Uh funny story for you. Well, it's funny to me. I hope it's a little funny to you guys, but for the longest time I didn't know that Deke's name was actually Deke, and I'll explain that in that I heard, you know, I heard his name was Deke, and uh my brain uh logically like jumping a couple too many steps. I thought that he was because that like Lula said Deke, and I'm like, oh, it must be short, like he must be saying Deke, like it's short for deacon, like he's deacon Stannick. Like I was thinking like a deacon was a position in the church. I'm like, okay, yeah, he coaches like he coaches for a private school, so it makes sense. Like he's deacon Stannic. So it I'd say for like two to three years, Deek, I did not know that was just your name. I thought you were a deacon Stannik of the church. Yes. I got you. Oh, I get you now.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Okay, yeah. That's funny. My dad was a huge fan of Deacon Jones. And T, you're probably too young to remember who that is. Uh I don't know if Steve, do you know remember Deacon Jones from the Los Angeles Rams? Oh, I would I thought he was the Cowboys, but yeah, I remember who he is. Yeah. My dad was a fan of him, like the name, and and that's kind of where it came from. So um, but yeah, no, not not a lay priest or anything like that. So I can't baptize you.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

So religious man, but the name is not of religious origin. Okay, there, yep, there it is. Uh yeah, I just had to get that out there. And I thought it was I held that one in. I'm like, that is so embarrassing on my part. Uh well, Deke, we kind of get to the culture change now. You guys start going on a run of team sectionals up in the early 2020s, and we'll we'll talk more about you. If you want to talk about those teams right now, you can, but I think maybe we can touch back on them here once we get to the postseason stuff. So however we want to go about this, we want to hop right to this year.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, yeah, you you guys you guys take it how you want it. So we we can talk about those teams later too.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

So you got yeah, we'll we'll we'll trail back to them because trust me, there's a lot of all-star names that I'm sure we'll reference back to at some juncture. So going to this year's team, Deke, the the million-dollar question when did you uh think or realize that this year's team had the potential to be team state champions?

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah, so we uh you know I I knew we were gonna be a really good tournament team. You know, I I I knew we had those those studs in our lineup, but we had some kind of I'm not gonna say question marks, but just some unknowns down low with some of our young guys that you know Peter White at 106, Mason Clark at 120. We had some other guys, you know, Isaac Miller at 190. We knew was going to be solid, but um we didn't know if we were going to be able to put together 14 weights in a role that would be able to contend for a team state title. And so you asked me when I knew, I think when we hosted our quad uh in the middle of January, and we had Wy Weiga Fremont come down, uh, we had uh Marathon come down, wrestled uh West Salem Bangor. And so when when we when we wrestled and beat Marathon and Wy Weiga at the quad, I then I had some confidence that I'm like, hey, we're we're gonna be in the mix. And and I knew that teams were gonna look different in the postseason. So and I knew it both duels were close enough where I wasn't like super confident that we were gonna go in there and walk through it. Um and and I knew we'd have to continue wrestling our best and keep getting better throughout the season. But I I would say at that quad, I felt like I'm like, I know we can do it, like we're gonna be able to do this this year. And and uh uh but that was kind of the moment or the the the tournament that I I knew uh that we were gonna be in the mix.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

About the middle of the year, okay. So we'll hop back to the start then. We kind of touched on offseason stuff already, a lot of guys doing three river stuff, a lot of guys doing freestyle Greco. How how involved do you stay uh during the offseason? Because I know you guys go to uh Malachek, right? We we used to.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

So now we host um and Malachek's was great, like we loved it. Um we just kind of we've been there for quite a few years and we kind of want to switch things up. So now we host um our own our own camp at Aquinas. Um, so this is the first day we're gonna host this year, we're hosting Mitchell Mazenbrink uh for a couple days in June. Nice um and so we we kind of run our team camp with that. So what we do is um we'll have like so our boys are you know, and everybody from the area will come in and Mitchell and his dad John will run camp. And then on like day one, we'll go paintball after that. Um, and then on day two, uh Peter White's family is super generous, and they've got this 80-yard slip and slide uh off this steep hill. So like we'll do that on day two, and then on day three, we'll go in and lift and we'll probably just go in and wrestle because it's just a two-day camp with those coaches, and then we're gonna go down to like Landon Natura, um, which is down in the Dells at Man Made Lake, and they've got a bunch of inflatables. So that's kind of our team thing now, and it's so it's not a ton of wrestling, but I think the team building aspect of it is probably as, if not more important than the actual wrestling part of things. Um, you know, getting those young guys, those incoming freshmen, and we actually bring some of our middle schoolers too, if they want to sign up for the camp, uh, but getting them comfortable with older guys and you know, having older guys kind of welcome those young guys in, I think that is a big um part of like getting a good solid culture and making sure everybody feels welcome. You know, I think that that's a big part of having a successful team as much as the rest of the respect. Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Well, socially it puts you guys way ahead to start the year. Like you're not making a lot of introductions at the start of the season as opposed to yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

And I take their cell phones away from them over the course of those three days. Like when we do team camp, and I tell you what, the bus rides are a lot louder, but I I would rather have that than those guys staring at their screens all the time. So that's good.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

I love that you do that. I know you always did that for Malachak, and uh I I think more teams for team camps to definitely implement that.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

Do you do you let them have it for five minutes so they can uh keep their Snapchat streaks going?

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Uh no, so that and that's always the big complaint. They're like, Coach, I got you know 300 days of you know a string with this guy, and I'm not a Snapchatter, so I don't even really know what they're talking about. Um, but I tell you what, by the end of camp, like some of those guys, uh because I'll give them back to them on like the last day on the bus, and some of them are like, Coach, I don't even want it. Like, you know, so I think that they they recognize I think that they uh enjoy their life more without it, especially around their buddies. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Yeah, I'm not gonna go old man complaining here, but you know, I uh I get I feel that I'm on my phone a lot, so I think sometimes I need to do that. So you guys do the team camp, any other like do you guys do open maths then throughout the season and whatnot? And like how uh are you the type of coach where you're on someone where it's like, hey, why weren't you at open mat this time? Or how how do you carry yourself through the offseason?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yep, so in the spring, um, so I like we do exit meetings after the season's over. So like I'm actually I I did four exit meetings tonight after school. So we I try and schedule about four to five until I get through all my kids. Uh I try and get through in about two weeks, but uh this year it'll stretch into next week as well. So, but at the exit meeting, we talk about like this season. Um, we talk about like what they're gonna do this spring in terms of a sport or a club or whatever it might be. Um, and then like if they're interested in offseason work, um, I will let them know that. Um, I don't do any coaching in the spring, um, but I let them know about opportunities. Obviously, Law uh runs a great Greco freestyle program. Tyler Gable's kind of getting his AWA thing off the ground here in lacrosse. Um, so there's a lot of really good opportunities for our guys to get better, and I kind of make them aware of that. Um, and then the guys who want to wrestle, I kind of bring them all in after the exit meetings, you know, because um they actually fill out like a Google form questionnaire. And the all the guys and gals who are interested in doing spring and summer offseason like competitions and training, um, I'll just make them aware more specifically of the opportunities, show them where to sign up and do some of that stuff. And obviously, my my son Lincoln, you know, does freestyle and Greco. Um, and so I'm involved there with him, but now he just got his driver's license, which has been heavenly for us as parents. Um, so I don't gotta you know drop him off and pick him up anymore. So he's actually at practice right now as as we have this um until seven. So um and then I'll I'll travel to the tournaments just to watch, but I minus Lincoln, I don't corner anybody. The you know the club coaches corner those guys, and and our you know, law and and uh you know Tyler do great jobs, so I have complete trust in those guys. Um so I I I encourage them to compete. Um, the ones that um you know aren't doing it are generally out for a spring sport, whether it be I got a lot of guys playing baseball, um, I got some guys playing golf. Um there's um you know other guys who like just want to be a part of the team November through February, and I'm okay with that. Like you need those guys too. Um and so I'm I'm completely fine with that. Um in the summer, um, we run open mats in the mornings after our lift. And that wasn't new just this last year. We used to have open mats in the evenings, and um what I found was you know, work gets in the way, family stuff gets in the way, you know. Um a lot of those guys, if they're working construction, they're pretty exhausted by the night. Where I I find we so our boys lift from 6 to 7:30 Monday through Thursday. And so we started doing open mats Tuesday and Thursdays um just at our facility um from uh like 7:45 until nine o'clock. So just an hour and 15 minutes, mostly technique based. And our our numbers went way up, um, our participation rate went way up. So that was a good change, I think. And so we're gonna do the same thing this summer. And I don't run it. Um, I generally try and like have a clinician come in and run it just because I feel like they hear my voice enough during the season. And it's nice for them to hear, you know, somebody else give technique. And there's so many good guys in our area who are willing and available uh to do that. That um I'd I'd be I'd be remiss not to take advantage of their expertise. And I and I learned stuff by watching them too. And actually, what I do then during the open match for our high schoolers is on Tuesdays, I'll run our K second group, and it's just for an hour. And to call it wrestling is probably a stretch. It's mostly like games and acrobatics, and and we do a little bit of wrestling, and I call it Ruffhousing, like instead of calling it live. Um, and then on Thursdays, our third through sixth grade will come in and I'll run that group on Thursdays for from eight to nine a.m. So it's one day a week. They get on the mat, and again, it's mostly games, uh, and it just kind of keeps them on the mat and having fun. And my goal for those kids is just to fall in love with the sport, so then when they get to high school, they love it, and we can crank up the intensity and and uh do all that at that point. So nice.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

I love it. That's gotta be great energy in those those K through six practices.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

I so I'm I tell people I'm super passionate about coaching high school and I love it, but the most fun part of my job is running that K second group. So they are they are a ton of fun and they you know they yeah, it's just it's great. Like, and they keep me young too, you know. It's fun. It's good.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

So the guy uh I peeked in your notes and I tried not to look, but I couldn't help myself because I'm nosing you because our next thing we're gonna be talking about is scheduling. Yeah, uh I'm intrigued, and I'd be interested to know how many coaches do this. But what do you uh what do you try to prioritize when you make your schedule throughout the year?

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Yeah, and you know, so I'll I'll start by saying every team is different, and how I did my schedule when I first started coaching to how I do it now is like completely different. Um, you know, when when I started, we were very inexperienced. You know, we we actually pulled ourselves out of the by state for a few years. God bless Jason Lulla, kind of holding us a spot. Um, just because for a few years, like I knew I wasn't gonna have anybody make day two. We ended up going to the Northern Badger for a couple years. Where it's just not as many teams, and I hate, I'm not dogging on the Northern Badger. They've got some quality teams there, and those guys that make the semis and finals are fantastic wrestlers, but we just felt like we we could compete. So, but now with the teams that I've had, I'm I'm really big on quality over quantity. Um, you know, there's a 50 match limit here in Wisconsin, and I we weren't we're not even that's just for the regular season. Like we aren't even close to reaching that. I mean, some of my guys are close to 20 matches away from that, and they haven't even missed uh a single match. Um, and so I'm a big believer in you get better in the practice room. For me, everything up until poll season is about evaluation. So, you know, we went to the Dan Gable Donnie Brook. That was our first competition this year down in uh Coralville, Iowa. It was a very humbling experience for all of our guys. Um, nobody left there without at least one loss. You know, Tyson Martin got the chance to wrestle the number one ranked heavyweight in the nation down there, and and he got tech falled, you know, as good as we all know Tyson is and have all watched him wrestle, like that was uh that was a really good experience for him. Um and he got better because of it. And so we went back to the practice room and we evaluate and we get better. And so I like spending more time in the practice room than than than competing, um, especially with with the program where we're at right now. Um, and so um, you know, Tyson Martin wrestled every single match for us this year, and I think he was 46 and one. So he had 47 total matches, and I think if you asked him, he would it'd be like, Hey, did you feel cheated by not having 55 or 60 matches going through Team State? He would say no. I think he was very happy with our schedule and and how much he wrestled, and knowing that he had great competition at the grand majority of the meets that we went to, and I think most of my guys would say the same thing. So um I want to get better in practice and I want to get exposed by good teams and good wrestlers. Um and we do that by you know, scheduling the chat fields and having Holman, you know, in our conference, how blessed are we that we get to wrestle those guys every year? Um, you know, the Bise tournament is a great tournament to get exposed in, the Duffy, the Highlander, which obviously was canceled this year, but um, you know, because of weather. But you know, that's why we go to those tournaments is is to get exposed. And then we come back to the practice room. We're like, hey, here's where we need to get work as a team, and and then individually we break things down to like, hey, you struggled on bottom this weekend. Let's let's make that a focus here after practice this this week for you.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

So now going through your season a little bit, we're starting at the Donny Brook. The first question I do have to ask is how is the experience team Dra Shaw and Ross wrestle in person because I tell you what, I you know, I I think people throw around the term like athletic freak fairly loosely, but like that that's what he is.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

You know, I I stood next to him right before Tyson's match uh in in the corridor, and he's probably my height, you know, 6'3. He only weighs 230 pounds. He's not super heavy, but he's got super wide shoulders, a real narrow waist, and he is as explosive as any athlete. Like he looked like Jake Fitzpatrick wrestling at heavyweight, is how I would describe him. You know, like he was that agile and explosive, and um, and uh quite frankly, minus one match, he was really fun to watch. Like, I enjoyed watching him wrestle, except against Timear.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

So I remember like they posted the video on Facebook, like IA Wrestle or whatever posted that match, and people were like, Wow, like this guy's ranked number one, or like is this guy even trying to defend his shots? And I'm just saying, like, I don't think you guys realize how good this dude is.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Yeah, yeah. There are there are levels to wrestling, and and obviously Drayshawn is on another one. I think Tamar is on another one too, but you know, Drayshawn is just maybe right now, anyways, on on one above him.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

But and in the big picture, that's probably better for Tyson, too.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Absolutely. Like, I I tell my guys, if if if you're undefeated at the end of our season, I didn't do my job as a coach. Um, you know, like I think Jake Fitzpatrick, I think, is the only guy that went undefeated. And we tried. I tried, I bumped him up with the clash against some really good kids, and he always just kind of came through that year. But um, we're chasing losses. Like we want to get exposed, we want to know where our weaknesses are. So when we walk into the state tournament, um, you know, we've we've shored up those areas where they might have been lesser strength for us. Um, and two, we walk into the state tournament like confident that you know what, we've we've seen good competition before, and my guys walk in, I think, pretty confident, maybe even knowing that this might not even be their toughest tournament of the year, you know. Right. So like Roger Fleggy took two pretty tough losses down at the Donnybrook to two really good kids. So um, you know, that that was a humbling experience for everybody, but we got better because of it.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

We're on the Donny Brook and Deke, we can just take some time now. You can take some time if you just want to talk through your schedule a little bit. I have the schedule up as well, so I'm sure it might interject, might have some questions. You did the I mean, yeah, we've got to go right to the duels and the Dells, man. That's right. Talk about good dual experience that gets you guys ready for the end of the year. That that's the place to be.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

We we love that tournament. That is so it's a great run tournament. There are great teams there. This year we ran into Reedsburg in, I think, round two. Um, and I they you know they beat Mount Horror Barnville, I think, in a duel earlier this year. They had a really nice duel team. So, really, uh, from duel two all the way through our last duel, we wrestled some really quality teams. We love going there, it's a great event. Um, I don't see us leaving for a while, um, if at all, in my tenure. I I mean if they keep running it, we'll keep going. Um, and actually that weekend, we were wrestling without Roger Fleggy and Isaac Miller. Um, Roger Fleggy was leading a religious retreat called Kairos that that weekend, and Isaac was attending it. You attend as a junior and then you you lead it as a senior. And so um I kind of had my coaching chops cut up for me that weekend, like bumping guys and sliding guys. And I I had a young man named Owen Skemp. He uh um he was a 157-pounder. We weighed him in at 175 to wrestle 190 for us that weekend. Um he did an admirable job. Uh, we wrestled really well every duel. Um, we lost to Marshfield in a great duel. Cody C's uh kids are always obviously always really well coached. Um and then um beat Shy Octin in the was that the third place match? Third place, yeah. Third place match, yep. So beat Shy Octin in a great duel. They got some good kids. We got tested in a few weights there. Um so uh was really, really happy with with how my guys wrestled um and competed, you know, even being down a couple guys uh that we were. So um yeah, love that tournament. And the my boys just love staying overnight in the hotel and swimming. Yeah, you know, and then hotel breakfast for the heavyweights, that's a big hit for those guys.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

So I gotta say, pretty pretty cool thing for uh for Roger and Isaac to be gone for. And you brought up Isaac Miller. When I think of when I think of Isaac Miller, uh may not be a household name to the rest of the state, but that dude is like the ultimate glue guy for you guys. I I kind of picked up on it as the year went along, where it's like, I don't know if Isaac Miller is supposed to win this match or not, but all I know is he is going to do uh better than anticipated to help the team out in this dual setting.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Yeah. He's he's you said ultimate glue guy, ultimate team guy. Like um, he uh he really started wrestling really well the second half of the season at 190. He's actually an undersized 190, probably weighs 184, 185. You know, he doesn't have to drop any weight. Um and there were, you know, kind of kind of starting at Y Week, it was kind of his coming out uh in our quad, was kind of his coming out party. We sent him out there. We're like, hey, we just need you to lose this match by decision. Wrestle really smart. You know, that guy ended up being a state qualifier for him, and he lost by decision, and that sealed the duel for us. Um and uh had a big win against Iowa Grant for us. We bumped him up to 215 against a really good 215 punk kid. Uh got a takedown in the last seconds at Team State, wrestled outstanding again against state qualifiers and a guy who won matches down at state, he gave up decisions instead of getting you know majored or tech or pinned. Um and I tell you what, that I think that's where as a team we've probably got made the most improvement was learning how to lose well in duels. And I think that we improved there really, really well. Um, and and ultimately I think that's as much as you know, our our big guys got us pins and everything, a lot of the guys that won us a duel were the Peter Whites, moving him up to 113 against Cedar Grove, Belgium and only getting decision, you know, getting that last that late takedown to only give up a decision. Like, I think if you would have just watched the sidelines after that match, you would have thought we won that match instead of lost it. You know, and um Isaac Miller did a great job of that that second half of the season and you know had some nice wins, but probably even lost better. Um, you know, had had bigger losses for us in the way that he lost.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Peter White, is he related to stud running back Kyle White? He is not. No relation there.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

No, no, no relation.

SPEAKER_03 39:55

Wow, I'm missing the mark on these similar last names.

SPEAKER_04 39:58

You are not, yeah. Well, it's a pretty common name, Deeke. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Oh, wow. I I am just now, I don't know if Steve or I caught this when we did our weekly recap this week, but I'm just now looking at the the Chatfield dual result, Deke. And it it looks like maybe aside from the win, you got what you wanted from that duel.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

And yeah, got got exposed to some really good kids. And they they were, you know, they were good, like where we were really good. Um, and so we we eked out some like close decision wins that we had to earn, and our guys, I still I thought we wrestled really well. Um uh they had some really good kids up top. Um, and uh at 215 they had a really good kid. Um, and you know, they're from 106 until really 150, they don't have a hole in their lineup. Um, even my even like Waylon Hargrove and Marcus Clark, my 65 and 75, those guys like had to earn their wins. Like, you know, uh Chatfield does really well coach. Mosseth does a really good job with that. And um, again, like the fact that we lost, I didn't care. I thought we wrestled really well, and I told the guys as much um after the duel. And I said, you know, this is these duels are are gonna what is what's gonna help us win Team State later down the road. You know, we learned from that. And we had a couple matches there where we didn't lose well, and so that was kind of a point of emphasis moving forward from that duel was hey, we got to learn how to lose better versus giving up some bonus points at some of the weights that we did.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Deke, where do you stand at? And it's gotta be kind of tough because you you're always bringing a full roster, but where do you stand at in some duels, especially the chat field duel? Are you ever a guy where you'll bump a kid up just to get a good match, regardless of what it could do for the dual result? Yes. Does that depend on the duel, I guess?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

You know, it does depend on the duel. Conference duel, if it's close, you know, I I think that means something to the kids a lot of times. You know, they want to win that duel. So then at that point, you know, if if it's advantageous for us to move away from a good match, we'll do that. Um, you know, just to get that team win. But against a team like Chatfield, where in the long scheme of things, obviously, besides the pride, it doesn't mean anything except for us just to get better. Then then I I have and will keep guys down just to get a good look, you know, maybe trying to match up Martez with one of their good guys or Tyler Paulson or Roger um against one of their better kids just to get those matchups. So, you know, we we wanted to be Chatfield. It uh it wasn't in the cards that night. They wrestled better than us, and and uh um, but um, you know, in a duel like that, would I keep a kid down instead of trying to go for win? I it would, yes, I probably would.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

Just curious. I always like asking people that it's always fun to have people's thoughts on different perspectives, yeah. Yeah, all right, by state. When did you guys make your return back to by state, by the way?

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Um, I I want to say I had a group of young men who I I recruited off the football field in middle school that kind of came all the way through. They were really good athletes. Um, you like you guys won't remember these names, Zach and Noah DeGroot, Charlie Long.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

I remember the DeGroots. I had we had some big JB battles back in the day. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

So those guys, those guys were really good athletes, but I never wrestled until middle school. And kind of when they came up, I knew that we were turning the corner, and I knew what we had coming up in our youth, and I and I knew it was probably a good time for us to get back in there. We still didn't get a lot of guys to like day two. Um, and so um, you know, during those years, but I knew what we had coming. So we we just I we only did Northern Badger for two years. So when those guys came through, it must have been, and and Loloff would probably have a better idea, but it was probably around 2018 or 2017 when we when we jumped back in.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

So and for you, you gotta there's gotta be some sentimental value to that tournament as well.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Oh, for sure. Yeah, I had it got to wrestle in it myself, was on a couple of really good teams. Uh, when I was in high school, you know, when I was at Aquinas, we took second in D2 my sophomore year, and then we won D two my junior year and took third overall behind. Uh Rapids and uh Oatana, Minnesota, who back in the day was really, really good.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

So Deke this is a great opportunity for uh a little trivia question. Aquinas, not the first state championship. Uh Aquinas actually had how many Witha state championships? Two. No. Deke, how many, how many? I got them for you. I got eight.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

This is what I was gonna say 66 and 67 were the first two. Oh, I didn't have that.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Wow. Oh yeah, those were the um I didn't write those down because that was like a different category. So that technically 10. Uh 10 before this.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

And then in the 80s, in the 80s, I think they won six straight. Yeah, 85 to 90. You are correct. Yep. Okay, and then it would have been 97 and 99. So it'd be my sophomore and senior year. And actually, our best team that we had was my junior year, and we didn't win it. So that was the team that was GPT.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

Might have been more then. So we got uh if you had 99, I didn't have 99. So uh might be more than that.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah, it would have been 99. Yeah, 97 and 99.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Uh we gotta open the yearbook for a second here. When uh was that dual or uh team like state scoring?

SPEAKER_02 45:20

So it was just state scoring my sophomore year, and then there was like state scoring my senior year, but they all the my senior year they also had like a team state championship for WISS, which we won as well.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

So the you had your best team ever. I can you think of which school would have beat them, Steve? Or is that a trivia question?

SPEAKER_04 45:40

In 99? Oh, I didn't I didn't look at that. 98 we took second. Second. Um which Wissa team would have beat you? I mean I'm gonna go with uh Fox Valley Lutheran.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Oh wait. I'll I'll guess Winnebago Lutheran Academy. Just shout out to the battery. No, I don't even think they had wrestling.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

I'm gonna go with a Metro Milwaukee team. Metro Milwaukee. Oh, Wisconsin Lutheran? No. Oh my god. Yeah, Bill Young. Bill Young coached him.

SPEAKER_04 46:15

All right, Steve, this is your territory now. Oh, yeah, I should have won with that. Yeah, nope, wouldn't have got that.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Oh, wow. I didn't know Catholic Memorial rolled that strong back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Yeah, they had they had some good kids, good individuals, and just it was we had a bad weekend. As good as we wrestled at by state, we had two finalists my junior year at by state. Um, we had a I took fourth. Um, we had another guy in the third place match, and then I think we had seven or eight place winners out of 13 weight classes. I was back before there was four teams. So we had a solid team and really good dual team. I think we lost one duel. We tied Holman that year, I believe. And then, or no, we lost to Holman in the first duel of the year, and then um I think tied another one against another really good team. So now I'm dating myself. Let's move on. Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_04 47:03

Anyway, so this year's by state. I asked, I asked Trivi a question.

SPEAKER_03 47:08

So no, that was that was perfect. Uh this year, so this year's by state go jumping ahead. Uh I can't can't say the years. Um uh jumping ahead, what 30-ish years we'll say. Steve, or sorry, not Steve Deke. How do you how do you attack by state? Because obviously it it is a big deal, but it's also just a mid-season tournament, and it's kind of hard to gauge a team goal because you could have five studs and win it. So how do you attack by state? How do you get the kids like what do you tell the kids to like get mentally prepared for the tournament?

SPEAKER_02 47:43

So I I I tell them the same exact thing. I tell them before every competition. I said, this is not a big competition, it's just the next competition. Um, I think when you start making events bigger, you know, or like more important than any other event, I think it gets it caused the kids to wrestle tight. Um and so, like, and I tell like we bring in them in, you know, the you know, after a hard warm-up, and I give them a speech, and I'm gonna I tell them the exact same thing every time. And I even I even say, hey, I have nothing monumental to say. I'm gonna say the same thing I said last time. You know, go out, win first contact, wrestle hard, be proud of your effort when you came off the mat. You know, I keep it short and simple. Um, and uh um, you know, the the way that my guys train, I was confident that I didn't have to be a big rah-rah guy with them. Um, and uh, you know, I knew that they were ready. Um, so um, I don't I don't try and make any event any bigger than it it is, including Team State. Like I said, hey, this is just the next event, all right, and we're gonna continue wrestling well because we've wrestled well all year. And I knew that if we wrestled well, we'd have a good bye state, which we did. I thought the guys wrestled outstanding.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

So can you expound on win first contact real quick?

SPEAKER_02 48:48

Yeah, so I I talk about winning first contact. So we do everyday drills uh in our room, and I and I think the guys get bored with them, but they they buy in and because they know they work. We do hand fighting drills. That's the first thing we do after, you know, they kind of do their calisthetics and aerobics and stuff like our acrobatic stuff. Um, when we get with our partner, you know, we do stance work and then uh we talk about winning first contact, means being physical with the hand fight, uh, but being patient, you know, let that guy reach first, we're you know, and then we're grabbing wrists, and then we're climbing the ladder and we're being heavy on the head and we're moving those guys around. And that that first 30 seconds in a match is really, really important. Um as much as like the you know, I think you can have a game plan, um, but I think a lot of times it's sometimes good to be physical just to be physical as well. And that's what I mean by winning first contact. Go out there and let that guy know that you're coming to wrestle. So love it. I like it.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

I'm making notes for if I ever take over a program.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

Hey, I I stole that from somebody else, so that's that's not an original thought of mine.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

So couple uh a couple of notes from by state. Martez Sheared, I won't try to jinx it, but currently halfway there to joining a very short list of four-time by state champions. A good wrestler seems like he turns it up a notch at by state.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Yeah, he's he's like you talk like when I think of Martez, I think of a guy who is hyper competitive from uh playing handball before practice. Like uh we and then there's another game we we play called chess. He loves to play chess and he's hyper competitive in chess. Um and uh just loves to compete. He's a guy that loves to compete. You know, he he signed up for the King of Wisconsin, you know, week after the state tournament and had a great match against a very tough kid from Baraboo. Um he he's like an anytime, any any place kind of guy. Like he wants to wrestle and compete all the time. If he if he could wrestle every night, compete instead of practice, he probably would. So he just loves it.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

He's a gamer, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

And uh Tyson Martin and Grant Matthews. I I was very much looking forward to this math, uh this match. And I'll I'll preface this, Deke. We are very big Grant Matthews fans. Oh, he's a great yes, what overall great dude, excellent wrestler, and still felt confident about the result in Tyson winning. Uh how do you approach a match like that where Tyson might be on a different level, but also Grant Grant's still a dangerous wrestler, very much in his own right.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Yes, we yeah, he's very dangerous. And like and I I'm I was very honest with Tymar and I Tymar knew that already. It wasn't like I was you know uh saying anything monumental to him. He had watched Grant wrestle. Um, and uh so we just talked about um if you get into a tie that you don't like, we just clear it. Like take the stall call, clear the tie if you have to. Because we I knew eventually he was gonna get to his attacks. Um if he just kept pulling the trigger, you know. Grant, it's he's so incredibly strong. I it's like wrestling a refrigerator. I mean, that's what I imagine it would be like being out there against a kid.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Just and sneaky athletic, not sneaky athletic, he's just athletic.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yes, he that young man can move. Um, and you wouldn't know it by looking at him, but and he's he's incredibly strong. And so Timeart just had to kind of choose his spots a little bit there, and he did a good job of that. You know, wasn't successful on all of all of his attacks, but I knew that if he kept pulling the trigger that that he eventually he'd get a couple takedowns.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

And we almost had uh a crash off the mat, and which I was very concerned for the Matt side workers.

SPEAKER_04 52:20

By state folklore, I've heard it happened one time on the elevated stage, and I'm like, man, my my fourth year here, and I almost got to see the second time.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Hey, and they they weren't doing their job. A lot of those guys on the Matt side, they were running away. They weren't gonna catch Grant and Timeware as they almost fell off of things. I was gonna write a letter to Lolo about it.

SPEAKER_04 52:38

You know what they were running for? A clean pair of shorts is what they were running for. I did talk to the one guy, Teague, and I I uh you probably remember his name, but I saw him at Team State. Uh, we were in between, won't tell you where we were. Uh, it was a place with some uh festivities going on, but he said he yelled at everybody because he was the one guy that everybody ran, and he was the one guy that stayed there. He said, I did my job, and he was pretty proud of it.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

Stood his ground, yes. Anything else uh on your boys from by state, Deke before I have one more question involving this week.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

Yeah, you know, like that's you you talk about, you know, if you make day two and you place in that top 12, like those 11, 12th place guys, I don't think you get enough respect because there are some of those guys who end up placing at state. Like, that is such a hard grinder of a tournament over two days. You know, Waylon Hargrove, I think, ended up wrestling like nine matches over the course of two days. Like he was exhausted, uh, and he had some really, really tough matches, had some close losses at the end, and but again, got better because of it. And and uh, you know, but you that what a what a grinder of a tournament to really test yourselves against the best kids in our state in Minnesota. And so we we love the bye state, we love going there and testing ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

Have you always been uh big on having the kids wrestle during that holiday break week? I know I'm only asking because uh Machik just went to his first holiday break tournament in like a long time. So yeah, how do you navigate that schedule?

SPEAKER_02 54:10

You know, it's it's hard. And so as a coach, I I have to be respectful of, you know, some families have um you know are traveling, they've got family that are out of state, and so they got to travel, and so I'm fully respectful of that. Um the the expectation for some of our practices are that they're varsity only over that time period as well. So I'll kind of give the JB guys a little bit of a reprieve. Um, you know, and then um this year with the way the clash fell after by state, we ended up not going to the clash because it was so close. I have a ton of respect for Evansville that did both. Um that you know, I'm sure it wasn't easy to do that. Um, and then I honestly after by state, I usually give them about three days off. I just I tell them don't wrestle, stay off the mat. You know, especially those guys that made day two. Um they need to get you know better physically a lot of times, and and uh just kind of get them a little bit of a mental break from the mat before, you know. I think we came back just the first day of school, which I think was January 2nd or 3rd this year, um, you know, after after by state was over. So I think a good break from the mat is a good mental break for him and a good physical break as well. So um but I got I do I am respectful of you know families traveling and things like that too.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

So well, and and a good break because you didn't go to the clash, but you went to uh the Duffy, which a very solid tournament.

SPEAKER_02 55:25

Yeah, uh Angelo LaRosa, you know, head coach at Port Wash, runs a good tournament. He had brings in high quality teams, they've got a great coach's room, they had tackles this year, it was excellent.

SPEAKER_03 55:35

Um how do you end up across the state at a tournament like that?

SPEAKER_02 55:39

So Angelo and I were college teammates at UW Lacrosse, and I again consider him a great friend, good dude, just a great human being. And uh he reached out to me a couple years back, um, and we were kind of looking at switching up our schedule again. We were kind of like knew we were gonna be getting pretty competitive, and uh he's like, hey, we got a really good tournament. It's Friday night. I'm a huge fan of Friday night tournaments, huge fan of Friday night tournaments. Um, and uh he's like, and I looked at the teams, who was coming back, and I'm like, hey, we're in, you know, we're in. So um have been going, I think this was our third year, I believe. The first year we made the mistake of going down and back in a school bus. That would might have been the most uncomfortable bus ride back uh in my life and cold. Uh so now we take a coach bus step.

SPEAKER_04 56:21

You drove down and then back in the same, like you wow, in the same hotel.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

Wow. No, no, yeah. So same day, I think the guys wanted to strangle me uh on the bus ride back. You know, we got back, I think, around 2 or 3 a.m. Um, but again, I'm a huge Friday night guy because then um they have their whole weekend off, even though they you know are up late or you know, if you want to say early in the morning on Saturday, they get to sleep in. If they want, they can take a break from the the mat. You know, some of my guys will wrestle on Sundays. Um, but uh um I do appreciate those Friday night tournaments and then having that weekend off.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

I I have a trivia question for Steve here. But uh oh yeah, before I ask Steve the trivia question, because it's not totally wrestling related. How'd you uh how'd you feel about the Duffy performance?

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Uh it was you know it was good. Um I think we walked away with two champs in Tyson and a Tez again. Uh Roger Fleggy made the finals against Newbert. And I mean, we all know what what we got in Newbert. And you know, I thought Roger went and um you know quitted himself very well. He was he was wrestling aggressively, you know, and he was wrestling to try and score points. Um and I I'm I'm hoping Newbert appreciates that because I'm thinking some guys probably go out there and are a little bit more defensive where Roger was you know trying to move forward, and you know, he that Carson is is just such a good kid. And we talked about levels, you know, I think he's just on a little bit different level. But again, that's why we go to tournaments like that. Roger got exposed in a couple positions on his feet specifically with hand fighting and stuff, um, but he got better because of it. Um and everybody took some lumps. Um, you know, Whalen got to wrestle gage gross, you know, and um I honestly wasn't super aware of gauge. I apologize, young man, if you're listening to this or watching this, but boy, he when after that match was over, I was like, he won the award for who the heck is this kid? You know, like it was like he kind of tore Whalen up there at the end of the match and was looking really good. And I I don't know if Whalen has has um taken a defeat like that in a long time, you know, where he got kind of picked apart, especially at the end of the match. Um that young man was really good. But um overall, I thought we wrestled well. Um Marcus Clark, I thought, put together a really nice tournament. Um uh some of our other guys had a tougher tournament. Peter White went 0-2, um, you know, ran into a couple of solid kids and just didn't wrestle that well. And and we had a discussion about that. And you know, he was real positive moving forward, and you know, we knew he was gonna get better. And he's a freshman, and sometimes freshmen just have off weekends for a reason that they can't describe and you can't describe, and and we just kind of chalked it up as one of those, and we moved forward, and he was positive about which is his mindset is so good. I I love that young man.

SPEAKER_03 59:01

So when Gage Gross won a title on Saturday night, you were probably like, Oh yeah, maybe I kind of saw that one coming.

SPEAKER_02 59:08

Yeah, yeah. It made Wayland feel a little bit better for sure. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

I'll Roger Flaggy's match schedule this year. Uh you guys wrestle a tough team schedule, and I think Roger just always ended up if you look at like if you made like a top seven list of the toughest opponents, Roger's top like seven list would have is immensely impressive.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

Yeah, yeah. I mean, between his Chatfield opponent, uh whose name is Polakowski, I think he wrestled him twice uh this year, um Birdishaw in the semifinals of state, um Kiel Quainton's in our duel against um Marathon, you know, returning state champ. Um Newbert in the finals of the Duffy loses to Weigel uh in the semifinals at by state. Um yeah, you're right. Like every it seemed like every duel you know that we were at, he was wrestling the other kid's best team. And luckily Rogers, one of our best wrestlers, and a lot of times came out on top, not always, obviously, but um, you know, and down in down in uh at the Donnybrook, boy, he wrestled a kid from Montini that um we actually from that match kind of stole a ride that that kid used, and we started kind of practicing that in our room and kind of made it our own a little bit. Um, and uh we'd not we just call it the Montini right now, and he held Roger down, and Roger doesn't get held down a lot. Um, and uh Roger got rolled out, I think, the whole third period against that kid in the fifth place match.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

So we're going, I'm gonna jump ahead here a little bit, Deke. And if you have anything between this point and the Duffy, feel free to hop in. Well, you had the quad. We talked about the quad a little bit at the start where huge duel between some of the top D3 teams in the state, and then West Salem also made the trip and towed the line. You guys came away at three and all at that. Of course, a little bit of a team state preview, as we'll come to find out. Gotta jump ahead to the Holman duel, gotta ask about that, because that's uh I think looking at the lineup, Steve had the box score written up. I was taking a look at it. That we just knew that was gonna be a grind them out affair for both teams. And that's really I think a quiet and Holman has become one of the better rivalries this decade.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:16

Yeah, ton of respect for Holman. You know, I when I took over, Lolof was head coach and uh, you know, another good friend of mine, a college teammate of mine. So um, and uh like I I look at it this way like I even when we were getting beat up by him, like we were blessed to be able to wrestle him because we knew that for order for us to be successful, we were gonna have to raise ourselves to their ourselves to their level, not hope that they come down to ours, because that wasn't gonna happen. So that was a big motivating factor for me as a coach was hey, we got to keep getting better until we can compete with just the teams in our conference, you know. Um, and uh, and you know, if it finally came along, and and so it it's a great, they got great kids, their kids are great, they wrestle at the same clubs that my kids do, and you know, a lot of a lot of these guys are friends with each other, so um ton of respect for that program. So uh good duel. Like, and again, I I thought we lost, you know, maybe minus one match. I thought we lost really well. Peter White only gave up a decision to a kid that tech'd him in the first period at by state. Um, you know, uh Lincoln went out and um I think gave up a decision to to Brock Needham, a you know, state runner-up, really good kid, um, great wrestler. You know, so I thought I thought we didn't get the mat all the matchups we wanted, and that's just the way that duels go sometimes. Um, and uh, you know, Holman wrestled well, and but I wasn't disappointed with how we wrestled. I thought that we actually wrestled well. Um, it you know, it just wasn't our night, and Holman beat us and was the better team that night.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:39

I know it's a true rivalry, and I have to give you guys your community props, Deke, because Holman is a large school that fits 1,200 people in the bleachers, and the blue gold faithful pack that side of the gym.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

Yeah, we we have great fans. That that's one thing that has built, I think, with our our own team culture is like our fans. Like we have alumni that come to our meets, we've got people that graduated 20 years ago, 30 years ago that come to our meets. Um, you know, they'll pull me aside afterwards. Um, I had some handwritten notes before we went to Team State from people that I had never heard from before, but were at Linus alums. Uh so it was so I I I I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support that we get from our friends, families, and fans.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

The last regular season question I have, and you can talk more on anything if you want, but man, what is in the water in lacrosse, aside from a lot of the minerals, because I do know it's hard water. Um but you guys are five deep at heavyweight every year, it seems like. I know during the year there's a there was a week where what your your backup beat the Boysville estate place winner, and that same weekend your third string guy was a finalist at JV Stale. How do you handle all that, Deacon? Like even more poorly, how do you keep them all out? Especially when Tyson is at the top of the depth chart.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

Yeah, yeah, you know, it's honestly it's it's it's not easy. It's a little bit, I would say, like the Ryan Allen, you know, and me at at UWL, but like um, you know, that like you we'll talk about Chase Schams. You know, he beat uh the Boysville heavyweight, great, great athlete, you know, great heavyweight. I think he ended up taking third at state or fourth. Um, Chase, that was, you know, that was no fluke. Chase actually beat him the year before, too, um, at at the Dell's duels. And uh, and we we knew what we had in Chase. Like when he beat him, like I wasn't surprised. Like, I I we knew we know Chase, and we knew he was gonna be really good. Um, and uh um it's just unfortunate that you know for him that timar moved up. He's I I would call him a generational heavyweight type of kid. Um, and yes, and I think you just keep him motivated. You A, you let him know that you you love them and you need them still. Like they their role and their value are two different things. His role was to be a great practice partner and a great teammate, but his value was unmeasurable. Like his value to the team was greater than his role, right? Like he provided great leadership, he was a great kid. Um, he was a great practice partner for Tymar. Um, and uh, you know, he was a dislocated elbow away from being the guy, you know, like Tymar get injured last year at State. And that I told him that I said, you know, you you're one injury away from being the guy and being a podium guy this year. And and Joel Corger, you know, runner up at JV State, he's all of 285 pounds. And you know, his big motivation is to get better for football. And uh, we brought him to a varsity tournament at the end of the year, which he won. He won the cash tournament. Um, and so he loves wrestling, he loves being part of the team.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:42

Um can you imagine those shark bait drills? Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:46

Yeah, yeah. And again, like sometimes I gotta remind myself in practice not to be a fan. Like I gotta coach these guys up still, but it that those goals are fun to watch for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:55

So I uh that's golden. I gotta use that for my own track coaching. Your role is different than your value. That is good. I love, yeah. Aldeek, anything else for you for the regular season before we hop into the postseason action here?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:10

No, I'm just looking, I'm glancing at, you know, some good quality teams, you know, middle point, always well coached.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

Um, I I just got to make a comment on that because the match of the century occurred at Mineral Point, and uh I got to witness it. It was one of the greatest spectacles in sports I've ever got to see. So obviously great duel. Uh, you know, you guys wrestled um you said you didn't, I don't, I and I said it too. I mean on Mineral Point is a great team going down there, great atmosphere. But uh when uh Timar wrestled Ryan Shale, that was proud. I literally, when it was over, I was crying. Scott Schmitz has just smiled away. And uh I gotta know, did uh did Tyson know that was I I didn't think he knew it was happening. I thought he just thought he was gonna get his forfeit. He probably knew that. I I thought I was telling the Scott Schmitz. I'm like, I don't think he knew it was gonna happen. Did he did he have an idea that was gonna happen?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

He knew, yeah. So uh Curtis asked me at Wayne's, he goes, Hey, do you got anybody that would want to wrestle this young man and kind of gave me the his backstory? And I like I told him, and I was honest, I'm like, I got 10 guys that would do that. And uh he goes, What about Tyson? And I said, That's an awesome idea. I said he would absolutely love to do that. And it was funny that uh Ryan stepped off the scale, and I think we I think Curtis told him who he was gonna go wrestle. I pointed Tymar out, he's hard to miss, you know, he's big blonde hair. Um, and uh and I I looked at Ryan, I said, Hey, go up to him and flex. And so he walked right up to Tymar, put a big flex up in front of him, and uh, you know, our whole team's got a big kick out of it. And uh, you know, so I um and I did, you know, like doing what Tymar did, like again, I wasn't surprised. Like, as great of a wrestler as he is, he is a better human being.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:49

So Ryan or uh Tyson when he when he got pinned and he put his hands up over his head and watching Ryan, and it shows you the the how great of a kid Ryan is as well, because he deeply felt for Tymar and went over and helped him up. And uh I I was like, man, that was just I'm getting the I'm just literally crying thinking what it was that I just I'm so glad I got to see that live.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

Yeah, timar might win an Emmy for his acting. So he uh yeah, he did a good job. So, but yeah, that was that was a ton of fun. Great to see, and again, not surprised, and uh ton of respect for the Mineral Point community and and their fans and and their wrestlers as well, you know, for that. So they they gave Tamar a lot of love after that.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:30

And a good and I know uh respect to you guys. I know sometimes like Timar is the product of he's probably gonna receive forfeits and duels at times, and uh took it like a champ, especially it was his 150th win, and to come back around and do that. I think uh I think that was probably more important than a lot of wins he'll uh have in his career.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

Yeah, I I I told him, I said, hey, this this kind of puts things in perspective about what's really important. And and he agreed that I I it it certainly puts things in perspective when you see things like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

The flex before the match, that adds Ryan knows no fear. All right, you guys, you got me misty-eyed here. Uh, yeah, the mineral point duel is great. I think it speaks again, Deke, to you talk about the the strength of your schedule. And uh I I like I mean, 14 events is a lot. So that you you you have your 11 events, you get what you need out of it the end of the postseason. I think that's uh I think that's something good for coaches to especially if a newer coach is building a schedule. You don't need to try to get to 14.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

Yeah, yeah. You don't need to try to get to 50, in my opinion. You know, I um and I our last comp regular season competition was January 28th, you know, and that's close to two and a half weeks from uh individual sectionals, you know. So um we use that time to a heal uh if we got if we're if we're dinged up at all. Um and then um we actually I give them some time away from the mat. So the day after we wrestled home and we went bowling, um, and then we came back on Monday, Tuesday the next week and had some good training sessions and uh um had some kind of our hard, our last really hard practices. I gave them Wednesday off. Um, and then we came back Thursday and Friday that week and uh had another couple good training sessions and um and then that next week we went five straight days, you know. So having two weekends off in a row, I think, is really big, just more mentally than physically. Um I think sometimes late in the season when you've had the schedule like we had, it's it's good to take a little time off and away from the mat. Um and your better kids are gonna find places to wrestle. A lot of my guys go up to the law on Sundays. Um, you know, so um it's uh but I I do think that's why we wrestle fresher in the postseason um, you know, than if we had to maybe schedule an extra tournament or something um, you know, later on. I did I did schedule one uh in the last weekend of January, but only for some JV guys and like my guys, like Lincoln, who was injured early in the season just to get some more matches to sell.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:59

Deke, heading into the postseason, sectionals at Brookwood. We have the new postseason format. And uh I had a theory when Steve and I Steve and I do like 12 hours of commentary, so I think we came up with a lot of theories at that point. But is there a different feel not having regionals and just going right into like this is the qualifying tournament? Because I I thought about the fact that guys have to have a higher sense of urgency right away. This isn't like, oh, you can take a lost regional semis, wrestle back, just make it to the next weekend. It's A, you have to win your first round match, and then B, you cannot lose early or your fate is in another person's hand. Does not having regionals kind of change that sense of urgency for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

You know, I I I if it does, my guys didn't show it. Um, and again, we didn't approach it any different. Uh, it this is gonna be kind of a poor interview exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:54

That's another tournament.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

Yeah, it's just the next thing. But you make a good point, though. Like that first round, like if you are a low, lower seat, you got to wrestle really well. Otherwise, you're done. Like you, you know, you you're not moving on, and with even the possibility of of wrestling back to try and you know make it to state or score some team points for you, some important team points there. Um, and so um, you know, I I would say I would be lying to say if my guys weren't thinking that, because I'm sure they were, but they didn't vocalize it. And you know, I um I think with how we wrestled, I don't think that they felt an extra added sense of pressure or anything like that either.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:27

Um big props to you guys because you did go uh whether it was buys or not, you went 14-0 in the first round.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:34

Yeah, and we had some big wins, like we had some lower seeded guys beat. You know, I think we had like a 10 be to 7, you know, um some guys with some losing records won in that first round. So, but yeah, we we we came out hot at at individual sectionals for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:48

Any other uh notes uh that we all know individual sectionals is an absolute emotional roller coaster. So any match of note, any uh thoughts on wrestlers, anything like that from sectionals at Brookwood?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:02

Yeah, I mean I I think we you know people asked me, like, hey, how many do you think you'll get through? And I said, you know, if we wrestle to par, I think we can get we should get five through. If we wrestle really great, uh, you know, and or catch some breaks, you know, that happens sometimes. Um, I think we can get eight through. And we got six through. Um, and it wasn't because of a lack of not wrestling well. It just um, you know, I think of a guy like Jacob Pence over at 150, he's a freshman for us, and he wrestled Mason Hurd twice earlier the season. First time he got pinned, second time he lost 7-0, and he lost just an absolute heartbreaker. You know, he was in on the winning takedown and got to give Mason Heard credit. He had some really stingy defense, and the second that we put our hip to the mat, he stepped over and and secured the takedown instead of us getting it. And then Mason ended up losing to Brewer from Riverdale in the finals, and so he didn't we didn't get a wrestle back there. So my my heart broke for Jacob because he I think had shown so much growth and we felt like he could place. Um, and and while I was disappointed for him, I think Team State for him kind of vindicated his. If people didn't know who Jacob Pencecover was because he didn't make it to state, I think they knew who he was after Team State. Like he had some really nice wins for us, and not just wins, but like dominating wins against some really good kids. Um, you know, so your heart breaks for those kids. Peter White took third. We kind of thought he had a shot, and then uh, you know, Griffin Wesnesky ended up moving down from 13 to 6, you know, at weigh-ins, um, and and you know, kind of had you know sealed that spot up. And Pete took third. And you know, I we're gonna we're expecting big big things from him next year. Um uh but overall I was really, really happy with how we wrestled. So um every guy scored points for us there. Every guy won at least a match. Um, you know, and and uh you know I think that was really important to get us feeling good about ourselves heading into team sections the following weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

Credit to I know he didn't wrestle with that ski, but credit to Griffin, man. Wow, what a what a second half of the season that dude had.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:56

Yeah, yeah, that that young man came to wrestle, boy, at the state tournament. He I you know flawlessly in the semifinals and in the finals, like I'm not he wasn't mistake free, but he was pretty darn close to being mistake-free wrestler. He put together two really good, you know, semifinals and finals matches for himself.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

So Steve O, anything else on individual sectionals?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:18

No, I was looking over. I'm excited for uh the team sectional commentary here.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:22

I am also excited for the team sectional commentary. And Deke, I I consider us, you know, I would say we were friends at we're friends at this juncture. And this is the media dramatic side of me. Uh coming into team sectionals with this decade, it is there like was there like an air over team sectionals at all, or was this just another tournament again? No, yeah, I think coming into this year, it's still like a boogeyman that we're looking to slay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:52

Our language to our kids didn't change, nothing changed, you know, just the next thing. And um, you know, and again, like you you say that, and but I think the kids know different. They and I think they believed, you know. I think after our quad they started believing that we were gonna be. But Iowa Grant's had our number, and those guys, I think the last two years now they knocked us out um at sectionals. And um you you guys are gonna have to do a little fact checking here, but I think, and obviously sectionals were different this year, not because they changed a little bit, but I think our sectional has won D3 team state since 2019, 2018.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:27

Uh it would be 20, I think Coleman won in 2020. And then wasn't it mineral point? Mineral point won COVID year, and then Fenomore, Fenomore, Fenomore, Mineral Point.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:42

Okay, yeah, so I mean, so we we knew if we got out just out of the sectional, like that we were gonna be in the mix for Team Satan. Yeah, Ryan came up to me like he has several years, like, I don't know if we got what it takes to beat you guys. Like, shut up, Ryan. Exactly. It was probably a little more colorful, you know, and I can talk to him that way because we're friends. And and uh, you know, I um I think the duel started at at uh 175 with with Hinderman. And uh, you know, we we actually weighed in Marcus Clark, who had qualified for state for the first time at 165. We weighed him in at 175 to try and get him away from Busy and Hinderman, and it happened to work out with the way the flip worked. We were able to bump him up to 90, and he beat, you know, got us going with by beating their state qualifier, a really quality kid. And then Isaac had a really big win for us at 215 in the last probably 10 seconds secure to take down the win. And I I think those two wins got us fired up and got us going. Um, and uh, you know, got us kind of sprinting, sprinting towards the victory after that point. So um, you know, but the Iowa grandkids that went out and wrestled, they don't quit. Man, those guys keep moving forward and grinding it. They're just like Ryan. Like, I I'm a big believer that teams kind of take on the personality of their coach. And Iowa grandkids are tough, they're mean, you know, but they're not they're not uh flagrant about it. They just wrestle hard and mean, and and they that's just how I remember Ryan wrestling, and I think they kind of took take on his attitude. I got a ton of respect for that program in those kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:10

After after that win against Iowa Grant Highland, it did you, I mean, first time going to Team State, did it feel like there was uh did it feel like there was a little weight lifted off of you, Deke?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:22

Yes, certainly a monkey off the back. You know, it was uh I I would say the relief was the right word. It just I got to finally like do this big exhale, like we finally made it. We finally got through, and uh, you know, I it was it was a good feeling. I I told the boys, I said, hey, we're gonna, I'm gonna feel good really good about this for the next 24 hours, but on Monday we're gonna come back in, and then we got to focus on individual state and keep getting better before team state, you know. So and this was new for us too, because now all 30 of our guys were practicing all the way through team state, which hadn't happened, you know, since I've I've been here, and that was a great experience for everybody. And honestly, like now my backups got two more weeks to wrestle, you know, and and get better, you know. So I I think that's an advantage for us for next year as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:06

I do think uh it's fitting and it's kind of full circle that IGH was your duel to win to get to team state.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:13

It does. I yeah, I I was just thinking that as well, and just knowing that it was at Cashton, because that is where Genwick's uh journalism career came to an end uh at Cashton High School.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:28

Yeah, I hey if you can, T, please just keep picking against us because that seems to be working.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:33

Do you do you remember that? Um maybe you pushed that out of your head, but when I did the blog hyping up you guys versus Fenomore, instead if that duel doesn't happen, I'll quit wrestling media.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:44

Yeah, and that yeah, IGH knocked us up. We didn't get to Fenomore that year.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:47

So was it was it Brock up against Brady or something like that? That just oh my lord, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:54

Heavyweight, I think we were pinning their kid, and then we end up getting pinned, and that it was like the first match of the duel, and that was the duel.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:01

Oh yeah, you guys had the the dudes playing college football now. Flopmire.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:06

Came out for three weeks. Yeah. I'm pressing by Jackson to do what he did. Yeah, yeah, great young man. Now I I was not surprised. Again, not surprised that he would do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:16

So going on before we do team state, individual state, and uh Deke, you guys you know, as a team, it seems like you guys have the Cole Center uh pretty well scouted because it it just seems like you guys wrestle well at the coal center, and I think I've come to learn it's a you you treat it like it's just another tournament. But I do have to say, is it a little harder with a group of high schoolers now? You're at state, like the the Mecca that everyone's looking to wrestle at. Is it hard to drill that message through to your kids, or did it help that this was kind of a veteran group?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:54

Yeah, no, veteran group certainly helps. A lot of these guys have been down there before multiple times. Um, and so they they they knew what was going on, they they know how everything runs. So that certainly does help. Um, you know, I I think too, like we go back to our schedule, like going to the Donnybrook, wrestling at by state, the Duffy, um, you know, wrestling all those great duels. Like my guys walked in, some of them with four, five, six, and I think Whalen had nine losses. Um, you know, and and uh, you know, every time that we lost, I think we got better because of that. And um, I don't think my guys were intimidated or phased by any of the other wrestlers or teams that were there. Um, and we knew that there were some guys that were gonna be better than us, and we stepped out in the mat. We tried to come up with the best game plan possible to put us in a position to win a match uh late, whether it was with technique or just strategy. Um, and and to our guys' credit, they they really wrestled, you know, in those close matches, they wrestled almost flawlessly, you know, in terms of strategy. I thought our guys did Tyler Paulson comes to mind, you know. Um first round, he beats a kid that beat him in the duel against Mineral Point. Um, second round, he knocks off Quaint's in uh overtime, right? And then he beats a really good kid in the third place match um from Cedar Grove. You know, and so again, uh close matches, but you know, he that guy that kid loves to wrestle. He is a student of the sport, he's really really smart in terms of his wrestling IQ. Um and I think his wrestling related to Trevor. What's that? Did I say Trevor?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:24

No, I said Tyler, related to Trevor. Yes, yeah, brothers.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:28

Yes, Trevor sophomore, yeah, just a soft, just a soft. So um, yeah, real high high wrestling IQ and and loves loves to wrestle. Like the day after Team State, he was at a wrestling clinic. Um, you know, the next day, didn't take a day off, went to the wrestling clinic the next day, and you know, he just loves to wrestle. But I all of our guys I thought wrestled outstanding at the state tournament. Like um, you know, we could wrestle that 10 more times. And you know, we I don't know if we do that well again, but I you know, I think you know, we we kind of caught lightning in the bottle there a little bit with placing five of our six guys in the top three. That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:04

Well uh yeah, I think a big indicator, Mar Martez sheared. Uh and what I would say, Martez doesn't have a lot of 50-50 matches. I would say Liam Carey going in is a 50-50 match, and uh Martez kind of just made a statement right away in that match.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:22

Liam Carey, what a that kid is is you talk about gamer, that kid's a gamer, and he is a tough out, that kid is a tough wrestler. Beat Martez in the duel. Um, you know, one only one of Martez lost twice. The other one was to a kid from Montini, you know, down at the Donny Brooks. So um we knew that was gonna be a great match. Um, Martez is really good on his feet, but I peep I think people sleep on his top work. He is so tough on top. He pins a lot of kids and a lot of really good kids. He runs a really nice bar half series. And I hope I'm not giving away his trade secrets here, but I don't think it matters. Uh I talk about his competitiveness in practice. He net when we go live, he never stops moving and he is so hard to score on. And I think that last sequence was the epitome of how he wrestles in practice. You know, we saw Liam Carey, I think, get to almost like standing rear behind him. And, you know, Tez he never quits in practice when he's competing and going live. And, you know, when he hit that roll, you know, and then got the kind of not a reversal, but got the takedown then. Um, you know, when when most guys would have been dead rights against Liam, you know, I think Liam scores that um 99 times out of 100, or maybe against anybody else. So um, but Martez did a great job of continuing wrestling through that sequence.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:36

And your other state champion, Tyson Martin. I know uh all all the wins, especially like the state championships, feel good, but man, Tyson's had to have felt just a little different because that's uh that's a dude, and I I know the thing is Tyson doesn't view a state championship win as a huge, huge win. It's just another step in his you know his walk of life. But for me, I was so happy to see him come out with an individual state title.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:06

Yeah, you know, we use the term relief after like qualifying for team state. I I I as a coach, I think I felt a sense of relief after that just because I know how much time and effort he puts into honing his craft and how much he loves to wrestle. Um, and you know, he I think he does downplay that a little bit, but I it in the same sense, I think it meant a lot to him to finally also get that monkey off his back. Although you would never know that talking to him or in any of his interviews that he gave afterwards. Um, you know, he's just so humble and he's got such a good perspective on wrestling. Um, if anybody has watched like an interview with Yanni Diakamales, you know, former Cornell, four-time national champ, I feel like Tyson has got almost a viewpoint like that where he just sees wrestling as a martial art and he's just testing himself against himself and wants to be the best that he can be. And, you know, competition is just a way for him to measure himself and whether he wins or loses. Like, you know, when he walked off against Trayshawn, right away he's like, you know what, I gotta get better, I gotta get better with my shot defense. That was like the first thing he said, you know, where most guys would have been maybe throwing a fit or feeling sorry for themselves. Like he just has a really unique positive perspective on wrestling that I wish more kids would have. I think they would enjoy wrestling more, um, you know, just for the wrestling sake versus like the winning and losing part of it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:18

And I think very fitting too, again, I mean this fitting as a form of respect, but that his last match against Grant Matthews and uh again, big shout out to Grant Matthews. Uh him and I messaged his dad a little bit after, and I the thing I love about Grant is I think he loves wrestling because of his friends. And uh his dad told me he's like, you know, he uh we never wanted to put too much pressure on him. You know, we don't want our kids to hate us, and he he stuck it out. He felt relief once it was all done, but you know what, he did he did everything he could. And yeah, that's uh that was two two guys that are class acts in their own ways, and like you know, the show of respect they had for each other at the end. I think it was it was just so emblematic of those two people. Like it almost made me like emotional without calling it on air.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:11

Teague is Grant the ice fisherman.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:13

Is that the uh he's the one where his dad said, like, yeah, I think he'd rather be out fishing than at a time right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:19

Yeah. Well, and and uh going back to Tyson, uh Deke, I remember I was at Bye, I was sitting next to you at Bice. I was trying to do the uh Teague made me do uh phone video stuff, which was uh new for me. And uh I literally my jaw hit the floor when you said I just assumed watching Tyson on the football field, oh yeah, he's going to play football somewhere. He probably could have had his pick of the litter where he wanted to go. And when you said nope, he absolutely loves wrestling. That was uh uh one um a surprise to me, but then I'm like, Man, you just watch him wrestle and you can see his development. And I I think the I think his I think he has a high ceiling uh when he goes to college yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:56

We have we haven't seen the best of him yet. Yep. No, I I I think. We're gonna be watching him on TV here in a couple years at the NCAAs. I like I firmly believe that he's a student of the sport. We talked about a high wrestling IQ for Tyler. I mean, Tyson is as smart and as analytical about himself as any kid I've ever uh had the pleasure of coaching. You know, he he really critiques himself hard. And and the thing about him is like he searches out the best practice partners, best competitions on his own. Like he drives across the state to find great practice partners. And again, he's an anytime, anywhere time kind of guy. You know, he wasn't the first pick um for that um uh you know king of king of Wisconsin duel that they that they held. Um and then I think Lice gang backed out, you know. I don't know why, but for whatever reason, and they they called timer up. He's like on a two days' notice, he's like, absolutely, you know, wanted to wrestle uh Grookey. You know, we uh we were hoping to see him at uh the Highlander, and unfortunately that got canceled, but yeah, I think he was really looking forward to that match and was excited. He was down at D3 Nationals the night before and drove through the night in that snowstorm and made it to Ketamoraine and and and wrestled and wrestled well. So wow, nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:02

Well, hey uh teague, good opportunity for my second trivia question. I are we are you done with individual? Because this this can be a good transition to uh team state. That's a good question for Deke. Deke, are you done with individual?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:15

Yeah, no, I'm done with individual. Yep, yep. Yeah, Deke, congratulations. It was a great weekend at individual state for you guys. Uh we know the journey's not done yet, so we're gonna take a quick break for the team state coverage.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:27

Oh, all right. I apologize. So I gotta talk about Roger Flaggy. You know, like I'm gonna follow up with him at at Team State too, but like, you know, he was so dominant, you know, a good chunk of the year, except for like the absolute best kids, you know, losing to Newbert, losing down at the Donny Brook. He had a couple losses down there, um, and was dominant on his run to the state finals. And you know, I that that booson is very good. Like, and I watched some film on him. I'm like, this kid, where did this kid come from? You know, like you know, we was undefeated going into state, and I'm like, this kid is flying under the radar. But I felt like, without saying it to Roger, I felt like this kid was one of the best kids in the state. And I think we saw that then at the King of Wisconsin the following weekend. I think Woody Russell Emil was from Kiwasta. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and the 12-5 score, you know, looked really good doing it. Um, you know, and and you know, we we game plan, we I thought we had a nice game plan walking into that. And um, I don't know if my heart has ever broken for somebody more um after Roger lost that match, just because that kid turned over every stone, took advantage of every opportunity to get better, and and still fell short to this goal. Um, and I and I told the newspaper I was like, you know, it's almost like a death in the family. Like it just it, I think it affected him that much where he was he was pretty tore up um for a little while. And he would tell you the same thing. And I so I'm not saying anything groundbreaking here. Um, but um that young man was the heartbeat of our team this year. Like, let our warm-ups. I don't I'd like I don't lead warm-ups, I don't do any of that. My my captains do, my seniors do. And Roger was that guy for us this year. He got our guys going, he policed the team if they needed to be policed. Um, and he really was the heartbeat of our team. So that that was a heartbreak for him. Um, but I I I think and I hope that that winning that team state title, I think, kind of put a little bit of salve on those wounds for him, and he and he got to you know leave a leave a champion. So I mean he's a champion anyways, you know, like in my mind.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:22

So well and I'd say D g for how Roger must have been feeling during that week, you you wouldn't have known otherwise seeing him at Team State. And so that's yeah, that speaks to the type of person he is.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:36

Steve, trivia? No, yeah. Hey, so here it is. So uh Dee, and I'm I'm I'm gonna throw a softball to you. You ready for it? Yeah, Aquinas has seven state champ individual state champions. Can you name them?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:53

Martez, Tyson, Maline, Harold Oh, because he lost his stealth, that's right. Yeah. Alright. Fitzpatrick, so I got four.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:13

Um well you got timar and you got timar sheard. Yep, and then you got uh David. Yep, Malene, Fitzpatrick. You got Fitzpatrick.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:29

Um I don't think I'm wasting an upperweight guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:33

We have five state champions that have won seven titles.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:36

Yes, that's the um, did David win too? Yeah, right. Okay. And who else won two? It's Eag. Oh, it has to be Fitzpatrick.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:49

Fitzie won two. Yeah. You're missing the guy that was a one-timer. He just gave me this haircut today.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:55

Wait, who meant uh Pinky. No, it wasn't Pinky because he lost a 2023 at 152 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:05

Oh my lord. Oh, it's uh older flaggy, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:09

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:10

Yeah, Tate.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:13

He gave me the haircut today, gave me the fresh cut. Uh hit him up on Instagram at Tate's Trims. Give him a like.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:19

Tate's Trims, everyone. You heard it here first. That's wow. All reasons, and wow, even the names I met. Yeah. That's a wild.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

Also an all-American. Also an all-American for you WL took fifth this year, so at 184. So he he hit a girl spurt in college. I think graduated at 57 and wrestled 184 right now. And looks good. Look like put on some muscle.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:47

So all those champs then in the last five years. Yeah, I I was wondering if I was a little bit of a few.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:56

Yep. This is WIA era. This is 1999 enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:02

See, my trivia question for you, and I think well, Deke should know this one. Oh, great. But Aquinas went to the Duffy.

unknown 1:34:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:11

If Deke wanted to take the blue gold on just one highway from lacrosse to Port Washington, what highway could he have taken?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:23

Oh my gosh. Well, Teek, uh, as a geo gla geographical expert of the state of Wisconsin, that would be Interstate 94. No, Deke, you know what highway it is? Wait, are you talking? Wait, hold on. Highway or interstate 94. Oh, you're talking. Oh, is it uh is it 27 that runs across the state? No, no, no, no, no. Uh let's go 33, T. 33, yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:49

Yep. Yeah. Nice. We're taking probably an extra hour and a half, I think. It would, it'd be it'd be a beautiful drive, but yeah, probably get a few deer on the way, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:59

I apologize. I thought we were talking interstate, so uh highway, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:03

All right, that's that's what I got. So man, that is a stacked list. Lakey Fitz, Martin, Sheard, Maline, man. And uh how many of them? I think all of the grads were at Team State, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:19

Yeah, so UWL wrestling team, their team was like the escort for all the teams. And so thankfully, Malichek assigned us Joe and Tate. So that was pretty special getting those guys down on the floor because with their teams, you know, with Joe's team and Tate, when Joe was a senior, that was the year we tied Fenimore in the team section found on loss on like the fifth criteria or something. And um, so that was a heartbreaking loss uh back then. So it was nice that those guys were down on the floor right on our bench and got to share that with us. I gave both those guys a big hug. And you know, they were a big part of our culture change. And you know, it it wasn't just this team, but all those teams that came before that, you know, shifted that culture change and and uh you know just got us to where we are today. So they were they were as much a part of as part of it as the current wrestlers are.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:05

And I think we're all zero percent shocked that David made the trip to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

Yeah, yeah. How special is that? He actually just texted me. Yeah, he's on spring break next week, wants to grab a meal. So we'll uh I'll I'll buy him lunch or breakfast at some time when he's back uh for spring break. David's such a good dude. Yeah, one of the best, guys. One of the best there.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:24

All right, Deek. Speaking of team state, yeah. I so hey, preseason, I thought going in, hey, acquiesce is number one. I don't think there was ever a doubt. Were you surprised? Was that am I read? Is this five were you the five seed or four seed? Five seed.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:40

The hardest hitting question we'll have all night, Deke. How'd you feel about the five seed?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:45

No, I to say I was surprised would like probably be an understatement. And I was just a little confused. And so I called Loloff and we we had a good conversation. He kind of squared me away. And after that, I was like, yeah, we got the five seed. Like we, you know, just the way that the seeding is done, um, I understood it. There's no team factor that's a part of it. There's like no team, you know, the fact that we beat Wy Weiga and Marathon and Chi Octon in duels prior, like had no bearing on seeding. It's all they kind of go through your lineup and they compare you to like they compare your 106 pounder to all the other seven 106 pounders that are at state, and then you get like a a point based on if his criteria, his individual criteria would beat the other teams 106.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:25

And they go through the lineup, and you know, and the way it worked out, the way that I had sent my team in, you know, and um was we were the five seed and we earned it, you know, like that's that's just the the nature of the beast. But what like the seeding can't measure is like how much you can move guys, you know, like your depth, you can't measure that stuff. Um, you know, and that's obviously certainly played a role for us in our ability to move guys around and where we weighed guys in at, you know, compared to where maybe they weighed in for individual sectionals and states.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:52

Because you did not wrestle your lineup straight up, I think, in any duel. Not any, not at the none of the duels. Okay, yeah. Now that we got that question out of the way, now we can talk to wrestling.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:03

Oh, I didn't was I not supposed to ask that to you?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:05

I oh no, because I wanted to ask it too.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:08

So I asked it. Yeah, I hope I did it diplomatically. Yeah, I didn't say like what the hell, you know. Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:16

We ended up in a good spot in the bracket. And um, it like as a coach, what a great opportunity to use some chalkboard material. You know, um, I it kind of lit a fire under our guys a little bit. I think they, you know, I didn't I didn't use the term disrespect, but I think they might have, you know, if they did, I didn't hear it. But um, they certainly seemed motivated that week of practice uh going into it. Um and I they were fired up and ready to go. So um uh I thought we've I thought we fell in a really good spot in the bracket just with uh the timing of weigh-ins and who we were wrestling when, and um, it certainly did work out in our favor.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:51

Well, and I I know Teague told me that he's told you afterwards or at the uh after round one or whatever, round two, I can't remember, but I I told Teague off air. Maybe actually I might have said it on air when we were doing the broadcast. Deek, and I'm gonna tell you this. We've covered, you know, we you obviously know we've gone down to team sectionals and we've covered you numerous times. This is the absolute best, most fired up, most like intense I have ever seen your team wrestle in all aspects of it. And not to and you talked about it already before. Team wrestling, this is the best team wrestling I've ever seen you guys do, and that was not giving up points or getting those extra bonus points and just wrestling all the way through the whistle. So, whatever you did to get those guys ready, and I know it was just hey, this match is no bigger than any other one. I'm kind of I'm kind of going wink wink there, right? But uh I I thought you whatever you did for preparation on this, you you did awesome. You guys look fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:46

Yeah, you know, I I thought we came out hot against Marathon and we wrestled really great against those guys, you know, from the get-go. Um, and you know, I've I the I you know I think the big matchup that we knew was gonna happen after that, and I think everybody in the in the lacrosse center knew too was gonna be the semifinals on on Saturday morning. Um, and I was glad it started where it did because I knew Pete was gonna have a shot against that young man um uh who was a great wrestler in his in his own right. And Pete had really been wrestling really well at individual sectionals. He looked great. Um he wrestled Tram in a really good match in the semifinals and lost a close one. And Tram's a great little wrestler for Riverdale. And so we knew he was peeking at the right time and had improved a lot. And uh, you know, we we had a game plan for him. He stuck to it, he listened really well, and um, you know, we we didn't want him to win it in overtime, obviously. We were trying to win it in regulation, but he I think he had a locked hands and uh, you know, a couple of penalty point in there too, but uh got that takedown in overtime and and that got us you know sprinting towards that win. I think he fired us up emotionally. Um they did follow up with a few pins in a row, but then you know, we turned around and got some of our own between Martez and Tyler Paulson, had a big pin against one of their better kids. Um, you know, so I I thought um that middle stretch of our lineup did a good job. And I'm gonna talk about Wayland Hargrove here. You know, he took a loss to Colin Ham in the semifinals at state, and I think was one point short of getting tacked. I think he lost by 14 at state. And the fact, and I I told him to go, I said, wrestle to win. I said, wrestle to win this match, let's score early and let's get up on him. And then and Wayland is excellent on top, and I said, let's get on top and let's wear him out. And Wayland got that first takedown, he wrote him for a while, and I think that just kind of changed the tempo of the match. Um, and while we still lost, and Ham is a fantastic wrestler. That kid is might go down in history as one of Wisconsin greats. He's on track to win three, potentially be a four-time state finalist. I'm not trying to jinx the young man here, but he's he's a great wrestler. But the fact that Wayland kept that to a decision, again, I I think if you would have looked at our sideline, you know, you might have thought that we won that match after that was over. You know, I think everybody on our sideline, you know, knew that we had to kind of keep that match to a decision in order for us to still be in the hunt later. That was huge. Huge, yeah, huge. Yep. And then uh, you know, I think about a guy like Marcus Clark. You know, we bumped him up to 190 almost all weekend. Here's a guy who uh honestly walks around at probably 164 in a street close during the week, like was cutting 0-8 this year. Um, and so he had to eat to get up to 175, um, especially with the allowance, and then wrestled 190 all weekend, and we bumped Isaac Miller up to 215 in all of our duels. And again, we asked those guys to lose by decision. They did a great job of that. Like Isaac, especially, you know, a light, a light 190 going up against guys who are almost 30 pounds heavier than him. Um, you know, super proud of his effort as well. And Marcus is again a great leader, true team guy. He's probably my best case second coach that I have of high schoolers that stay in help out. Um, again, just a great young man, great human being, and and wrestles so hard for you. Like he our our guys like truly love each other. Like, I think they truly love each other, they love being around each other. And you can see it in their you can see it in their wrestling at team state, just how much they they fought for each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:00

Real quick note on the on the marathon duel. Um, how how nice was it that you did not have to let the duel come down to the underwood brothers at the end?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:11

Yeah, I mean, I if if we would have if that duel would have been within 12 or less, I knew we were gonna be in trouble, right? So um, and talking about the underwoods, what great kids. Their dad is a stand-up guy, great coach. You know, he does such a good, he had a great senior class this year. Um, you know, they they're just outstanding young men as well. And and I honestly I felt bad forfeiting into them. Um, and when they came through the line, I I I stopped and talked to those guys. I said, hey, I said it's no disrespect to you guys. I said, I would have felt like an idiot if I sent my guy out to wrestle again. He came off with a broken finger or something, you know, inadvertently, and we wouldn't have been able to wrestle. We're not real deep down there, you know. Um, and so I I wanted to keep my guys healthy and and they they got they understood. They there was no hard feelings. Those those guys like, yep, we get a coach. And um, so a ton of respect to the Underwood family.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:59

Well, and I did notice Deacon, uh uh huge sign of respect for you is that when Blake came out, obviously that was Blake's last match, right? He's probably going on to, I don't know where he's officially going on to wrestle, but I noticed you went to the table specifically to uh shake Blake's hand and tell him, hey, listen, you know, this is what's up, but I just thought that was a great class act and a great sign of respect for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:22

Yeah, great kid. And I I like I said, I I I felt terrible not wrestling against him, but I just I had to do what was right by my team at that in that moment. And you know, uh any other any other situation we would have wrestled though, but just not not that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:37

I wanna add so why we get for oh before talking about the final duel. Sheared at 32. What uh what was the rationale behind it?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:46

Obviously it worked out, but yeah, we just felt like matchup, we felt matchup-wise that was the best chance for us getting bonus at those weights. Um, and we knew we were gonna try and slide um Tyler away from their 38-pounder. Uh, please forgive me, his name escapes me. Um Tyler Russell Who's that? Uh Bus? Yeah, no, wait. No, nope, not Bus. Bus Russell's for Wy Week. Um, oh, I'm sorry. What wait are you talking? Uh for Cedar Grove, right? Is that are you talking about Wyiga? Are you talking about Cedar Grove, yeah. Cedar Grove Carson. Carson Voskell. Voskell, yes, Carson Voskell. Yep. So we we um you know, Tyler beat Voskell in a in a very tight match at state. I you know, I think we won by 6'2, some score like that, but it was a close match. Um, and we we felt like we could get bonus with Tyler Uppawait. And Lincoln, who had kind of an injury shortened season, the the one thing about Lincoln, and um he he's a he's a tough kid to pin. Lincoln, if he does get turned, he fights his rear end off to fight off his back. Um, you know, he he understood what was online in line for the team, and and he went out against Vosco basically with the instructions like, hey, wrestle smart, trying, let's keep it on our feet. Um, time up, hand fight well, keep your feet moving. Um, and and to Vosco's credit, he got on top and he turned Lincoln left and right. And to Lincoln's credit, he you know, he kept fighting his rear end off and didn't give up a pin. And I think that got our guys fired up as well when he came off that man. I he was a little beat up. I think he had a bloody nose, but four different times. Um, and uh, but you know, he didn't give up six. Did give up six. You know, and I think as as big as that is for the point total, I think it's better. It's almost even bigger emotionally for your team uh when you have something like that happen. You know, Peter White going against their really good 13 pounder, those brothers, one of those brothers that they've got down there, um, you know, and and get and securing the last takedown to keep it to a decision instead of a major, because up to that point it was a major. And when he secured that takedown, it brought it back to a decision. So again, emotionally, that makes a big deal for your team. Um, and then bumping Tyler up, uh, you know, we slid him up to 44, Roger up to 50, Jacob up to 57. Um, we knew if we could secure bonus there, we could send Whalen out at 165 instead of against Race at 175. And if Whalen pinned, which we were confident he could do, that then that would seal the deal, seal the duel for us, knowing we had time R at heavyweight.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:12

You know, we were kind of obviously not saying it's an automatic bonus, but we felt you you feel confident with with a time R at the end of your line, which that worked out perfectly for you guys in the semis and finals. Like it's like a little cooking.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:28

But yeah, you're feeling pretty good, coach, when it comes down to Tyson Martin winning a match in the end.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:33

There's not not a better closer in high school wrestling in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:36

So before closing off the Cedar Girl Balletum duel, I should have asked this at the start, but man, how pumped were you that uh team state got to be in lacrosse? I I was very excited.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:49

Awesome event. I tell you what, like the field house was special. Like I think we can all agree on that. Like tight venue, like everybody's on top of each other in those steep, you know, steep stands. But the WA knocked it out of the park. You know, Meldown, Jason Loloff put on a great event, you know, with the lights and the music and the the entrance and the finals, like the on Alaska Drum Corps, you know, they I thought they did a great job and really brought a lot of energy to it. And I, you know, it the um the lacrosse center, I afterwards I said is big enough where it's comfortable, but small enough where it's intimate. And I and I felt like that was a nice description, you know, like where it felt really intimate. Your fans were right on top of you still, um, but it was big enough where everybody was still comfortable.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:34

Yeah, I I joke with everyone that I enjoyed it because of my drive, but I think it ended up no one who was behind the production value. I knew they were gonna knock it out of the park, and it was it was awesome. I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:47

And I don't think you can over-emphasize the home field advantage of like putting your head on your own pillow at night. You know, we got to practice in our own facility all week, and and you know, they had the meet, you know, to roll around a little bit, so it went really well. So I I I was nice having it at home.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:04

Deek, in this Cedar Girl Belgium duel, I feel not that the not that this ended the duel right away, but the things seemed promising right away with White and Heimerman. I when he when Peter only gave up three at bumping up, which is Pete's a good wrestler. Yeah, but Heimerman, as I learned this week, is a bonus point machine. So uh nothing was off the table. I that that felt like a huge win in itself, and your crowd's reaction showed it.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:34

Yeah, well while it wasn't a win in the win column for Pete. Like again, like and I've watched that video. I've I've gone back and watched it. When you see our bench, you would have you would have sworn we won that match, or Pete won that match. Like our guys were fired up. We knew what was on the line there. Um, and you know, he got to start us off against Wy Week of Fremont. He was a spark for us there, and he did the same thing against Cedar Grove Belgium against an excellent kid. You know, bumping up weights, you know, for I would say the mid. And heavyweights isn't as big of a deal, but when you're a 106-pounder, bumping up set, you know, I'm sure Heimerman was probably weighing at 117 or 118. That's you're talking about eight pounds, it's almost 10% of their body weight. It's you know, it's it's I think it's more difficult to do when you're a lightweight than it is for like a middle or a heavier weight guy to do that in terms of just strength and and body size. But Pete Pete's tough. I coached him in middle school football, and he was my center. Um of his toughness and how gritty he is, and maybe he is. He's he's not the fastest-footed guy. Otherwise, I probably would have put him at cornerback or safety.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:35

But snap the ball and just I I can just see him rifling out there and just pick a ball. Blocking through the whistle. He was a blocking through the whistle machine. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:47

How oh again, and I just keep having all these questions pop up. I'm rusty from the last year, Steve. We haven't done these in a year, but how much different is it recruiting wise or scouting wise with eight teams in a bracket? Like, how do you uh how'd you go about the scouting? Do you like do you it's not like you can scout all seven teams fully in depth because that's a lot to truly do, but how do you game obviously uh sheared at 32 worked out in all three duels. How do you game plan your lineup and uh what do you I mean I don't know, what do you try to plan for? How do you go about planning for wrestling three duels against potentially seven different teams?

SPEAKER_02 1:51:28

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, like, so I I I've had a coach here at Aquinas, uh, his name's Eric Smith. He's coached with me for my whole 18 years. He started as a high school assistant of mine, and and now he he has done my middle school for uh many, many years. Um, and he um he kind of takes a little bit of that burden off of me. He does a lot of scouting for me. And he obviously we knew we were gonna wrestle Marathon. We had a really good idea we were gonna wrestle Wyowiga. Um, and he was confident that Cedar Grove was gonna come out of the bottom side. Um, and obviously Auverdale had different plans that that duel came down to heavyweight, and I think could have gone either way. So, you know, we we were scouting marathon. Obviously, their weights had changed, and it's hard too because you don't really know where they're gonna weigh guys in at. Like, you have to kind of anticipate what other teams are gonna do. Like, I put myself in Coach Underwood's. I'm like, okay, if I'm Coach Underwood, how am I gonna beat Aquinas? And where am I gonna weigh guys in it? And they they did it perfect, like they covered those upper weights really well. Um they weighed in uh both Salbert and Sonantag, I think at 75, so they could wrestle them at 75 and 90. And Stencil, I think, weighed in at 65. Um, and so we, you know, that I would have done the same thing to beat us, and so he was really smart in doing that. So we kind of had to anticipate where those other teams were gonna weigh guys in at. Um, and then um the same thing with Ham, like Ham wrestled 57 at state. Um, we felt like they were gonna weigh him in at 65, and I which I believe they did. Um, and so we we had at least anticipated correct, but sometimes you guess and you're wrong. Um, it just so happened that what we kind of guessed and we were right, and and then we made adjustments to what we thought that they were gonna do and weighed guys in at certain weights. Um Owen Skemp, I talked about him earlier at the Dells duels. He walks around at 155, and we had he had to qualify for 175. Um, and so he had to drink above the one six, you know, one one six one fifty seven weight limit, which was at the day two was one sixty two, sixty-three. And so, you know, he was eating and drinking to uh it was probably harder than losing weight, you know, was trying to gain the weight that he had to gain for us. So um, but uh you know, so it it is a lot of skeleton, and you but there's only so much you can plan for. Ultimately, you just gotta go out and wrestle too. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:45

I think I'm running out of questions here. I think it's might just be that time. I mean, I mean we are at that time. How did it feel when a timar got the win and you guys uh clinched the duel, you won your first uh WIA Team State title, Coach Stanley.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:03

Yeah. I honestly a lot like it felt like after I grant like a sense of relief, just like again, monkeys off our back. We've been right at the cusp of qualifying and getting to Team State for so many years and just haven't been able to seal the deal for a variety of reasons. It seems like it was almost like something different every year, and we finally were able to put it together. So a sense of relief, um, and then a sense of gratitude right away. Um, you know, grateful that I get to coach these young men at a high level like that. Um, you know, they they are some high character kids. Um, and I was really grateful to coach them, grateful to coach alongside the coaches that were with me this year. I've had some outstanding assistants in my whole tenure here, and this year was no different. I had uh some longtime assistants in Jane Van Mounten, who does an awesome job with our guys and is a great technician. And then we had some real young guys from UWL, Cameron Denny from Marshfield, you know, so like a winning culture there. Matthew Haldeman from Milton, you know, you talk about a winning culture, there's another one. Sam Schutz, uh, originally a local kid, but then went to Luxembourg Casco. He's been when his mom got the superintendent job there. From CSC to LC. Marshfield, Milton, you know, so those guys all brought, you know, a winning mindset, and uh, you know, I think it rubbed off on our guys as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:14

So and one moment, Steve, you told me about this moment, so I'm sorry for kind of taking your thunder here. But one moment that Steve brought up that that made me really happy to hear, but there was a moment after the duel was done, we were waiting for the Holman Kakona duel to end, and you were hanging out with Erica, just kicked back in the bleachers, and you just he said you were just kind of seemed like you were light as a feather, just smiling and chatting. Do we get to hear about any of that conversation?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:46

Yeah, no, absolutely. Um you know, it like I I was looking for her up in the stands, and I'm kind of looking at towards our crowd, and some were like, and I'm like, where's Erica? And they pointed her out and I waved at her and told her to come down. You know, we snuck her through security, and and uh uh, you know what? And I I think the only people who like truly know how much work goes into building a program and like the ins and outs of like just the everyday activities that go along with wrestling, it's more than the two hours that you spend in the room. Then the fact is, it's the the work outside the room is probably more than the two hours you spend in the room. If it was just that, like man, this job would honestly be easy. But like there's other things you got to deal with in terms of grades and you know, weight descents and dealing with kids who you know might be struggling in school or and everything else, and the you know, the late-night phone calls with some kids who you know are struggling mentally or whatever it might be. Like the only person who truly sees that is your wife or your significant other, whatever it might be. And so she's been so supportive, you know, from day one when I had nine kids, and she saw the years where we won one duel, you know, and barely, you know, barely won one duel. Um, and to where we got now. And so she's seen all the work that's gone into that, the youth club and the open mats, and the you know, getting guys to train freestyle and greco, going out to Fargo. Um, you know, she's been had a had a first row seat and has you know always been so supportive and never questioned anything I've done in terms of like what I'm doing in my in approach to wrestling. And I I hope she knows that I appreciate her. I tell her, I try and tell her that as much as I can. And I that was just a special moment for us. I got to sit there and and kind of like bask in the moment a little bit for because I don't think we probably do that enough um when something like this happens. And I just I wanted to share that with her. So that was, you know, because she was honestly as much a part of our success as as um as I was and our as our kids was, because without her, like I wouldn't be able to do what I do. You know, she she picks up the slack at home during the wrestling season. She's the one making the meals, you know, and um, you know, she's and now with Lincoln wrestling, you know, she's in the bleachers every weekend watching watching the boys wrestle and or taking Porter to his tournaments while we're away at a different tournament, you know. So um it's uh it's certainly a family affair at our house.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:01

So love it. And last big question here, as we're hey, we hit the two-hour mark. Thanks for thanks for sticking around with us for two hours, Deke.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:11

Yeah, because we have to put a lot of trim some of the fat off of this.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:14

Oh, we're not, no, we're not doing any of that. I don't think there's a whole lot of fat to trim, to be honest. But I uh the one thing Steve kind of touched on it earlier after the first round, and I thought one of my first thoughts after the marathon duel, Deke, and I've seen a lot of Aquinas wrestling. You guys have had some incredible, uh, an incredible collection of talent, especially this decade. But I just thought, man, this this group of kids is just different in a way. And without taking away from what those past groups have done, and you brought it up that you know there's been there's been a lot of heartaches over the years with the duels and whatnot. Was there anything that this team did differently, or was there anything that you feel you did differently, whether it whether it be in regards to mentality or dual approach that you think kind of helped this moment come together this year? Because you guys always had a really talented team, and it this year there was talent and grit and great dual wrestling where I after that first round, it almost felt like it it was inevitable for you guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:20

Yeah, you know, I you know looking back, you know, I've been blessed with with a lot of great older coaches that have kind of been mentors to me. And and um, you know, Todd English uh was a wrestler at Aquinas 10 years before I was, and was a longtime middle school coach. And uh his dad was my math teacher and was the first wrestling coach at Aquinas. And he would he would um talk to me about, hey, he's like, you know, look what look what Fenimore does so well. Look what middle point does, like when those guys lose, they're losing by a decision. And I think early on, maybe in my career, when we started getting good, I let my pride maybe get a little bit in the way where we would maybe try and game plan a win for a guy who maybe wasn't likely to win, and then that would backfire on us because when you try and game plan for a win against a guy who might be better than you, like chances are you're gonna put yourself in a position to give up more bonus. And so I I think I I finally started listening well, maybe to Todd and some of these other guys that were coaching, and and um and and really I think doing a better job preaching like how to lose well and how losing well is important, and it's as important as getting bonus points sometimes, is losing well, right? Like, you know, you look at Peter White and that Cedar Grove Belgium duel, not only does it save you team points, but it gets your guys going. And we're we're not afraid to talk about that with our guys now, or maybe before, because uh maybe was too proud, um, or or maybe wasn't comfortable talking to my guys about losing. Like, that's it's hard, I think, when you have to talk, tell a kid like, hey, you're you're you're not maybe as good as this guy, so we need you to go out and we need you to slow the pace down, we need you to shoot shoot him off the edge, we need you to stay active on bottom, um, you know, and do like very specific things to try and make this match go the distance. And that's a hard conversation, but ones that we've been having, and once we started having them, it really wasn't that hard to have them. The kids get it, you know, they're smart, um, and they bought into it. And I I think that was a big reason. Um, you know, maybe the difference between some of our earlier teams that were real close to winning versus the the like this team, you know. Um, I if if we wrestled in a duel against like our 2022 team or 2023, like I I don't know if I'm confident enough to put money on one of them. And they're they're all great teams in their own right. You know, I I just think that I was able to maybe swallow my pride a little bit and and uh teach these guys how to lose well. And they and they to their credit listened well, you know, and and they executed well and did a good job. So I would say that's maybe the big difference between those teams earlier on and them is I probably just didn't coach as well, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:48

Not to discount like the talent of the teams that you guys were going against, too. There were some great duels. I even think one thing I noticed too is you guys chasing pins. I remember there I thought about it like the Team State weekend. There was a duel where Holman, it was like it was like the 41-28 duel at Holman where like David and Calvin were like picking up tech falls, and I was kind of like, oh, I think like Holman will gladly take the tech fall here. I'm surprised they like didn't go for pins more. And then like this year it was like you guys got it. Like, and I I wanted to ask you this, and a lot of respect for those past teams, but like to hear about your growth and like for people to hear this and see like it is hard to win a dual team state. Like, you just there is so many little things that you have to do correctly, and to hear about like you're a great coach deacon for you to say, like, hey, I've done a lot of growing these last five years, I I think I think that that's just awesome to hear. I appreciate you like you know having the humility to say that.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:54

I'm constantly learning, constantly, and I'm constantly stealing stuff from other teams. Dave Malichek is I consider him a friend and a mentor of mine as well. I'm constantly picking his brain. So um, and sometimes you pick up tidbits from just from watching guys, and sometimes you do it from talking to them. And I I I try and be a student of the sport, you know, and and uh I think with age you get a little bit of wisdom and you realize you probably know less than you think you know. So I I feel like hopefully I've hit that point, at least now. So um, and then that way you just kind of keep having a growth mindset.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:22

What's the what's the theory that we always talk about, Steve? Uh I don't know if it's a theory. I I a famous person, I don't know who it was, but they said the more I know, the more I learn, the more I uh wait, how's it go? The more I learn know. Oh gosh dang it. The more I learn, I realize I really don't know much.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:40

The Dunning Krueger effect is what I yeah, there it is. Yeah, yeah. Where like the more you know about something, the more you realize you don't know about that.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:48

Yeah, yeah, boy, am I just not very smart in this area.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:51

So all right. Penultimate question, Deke. That second to last one. Uh outlook for next year now.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:00

Yeah, so we we lose five seniors, you know, four starters off, you know, and and four like really good seniors. So you talk about Tyson Martin, Roger Fleggy, Marcus Clark, Waylon Hardgrove. So like some you you can't really replace guys like that. Like you, there's not anybody that's gonna step in and fill time our shoes, but we got Chase Shams waiting in the wings, you know, and he's gonna be really, really good for us. And I think he, you know, knock on wood, bar nin injury, he's gonna be a high podium guy for us. And so I feel really good about that. We've got some nice freshmen coming in with this eighth grade, some good athletes. Um, and uh, you know, our guys are already back on the mat. Um, you know, the Tyler Paulsons, uh Martez, um the Nicklay boys, Lincoln's wrestling already, they're doing their freestyle and Greco stuff up at law and and at AWA. And so um they they're not resting on their laurels. And you know, I'm having these exit meetings and I've got a lot of guys that are wanting to do offseason stuff, which is great. Um, and uh so I I I don't I I don't necessarily think we're going anywhere anytime soon, um, but it's all it's still always a challenge, right? Like you still have this challenge in front of you. Um and so um it's not like a professional team, you know, like an NFL team that can kind of stay mostly intact from year to year. Every year in high school you graduate good kids when you're in a good program, and you've got to figure out a way to continue to wrestle at and compete at a high level, even with the loss of those guys, and you do that by constantly challenging yourself, constantly trying to get better and and and just making small adjustments from year to year because every team is a little bit different as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:28

Okay, follow up to that question. Sorry, because you gave a really good answer on it. But aside from the team state title, what are you gonna remember about this team 20 years from now? And more into that, what are you gonna remember about the senior class?

SPEAKER_02 2:05:44

They're goofy, these guys are so goofy, like the the things they talk about and like the bus rides, the things and Tyson Martin's Instagram name. Yeah, yeah, and like they sing, they're singers, they'll like beasts like when I take their phones away on the bus, all of a sudden the back of the bus is breaking out into a T Swift song um at the top of their lungs. And uh, you know, they they they're really funny. All these guys got great senses of humor. Some of them are dry, some of them are more over the top. Um, but they all loved each other, and but just the way I think that just the way that they got along and and the bus rides, I'll remember, you know, and like during our exit meetings, one of my questions is what was your best memory from this year or for your seniors, your career. Not one of them yet has said winning team state. So I thought that that was very telling. And like, you know, the this is really more about the memories you create versus winning the titles. Obviously, we we work as hard as we do to try and win the titles, but ultimately as a coach, I think when you see questions answered like that, it gives you some perspective like, hey, the the team camps and the bus rides and the overnights, like those are the things that the guys remember. The the what did you say, the 80-foot slip and slide? Yeah, 80-foot slip and slide. You know, they the paintballing was a huge hit because uh they got to so Jake Fitzpatrick was and I were one team against 28 of our guys. We were at the top of a hill, and we didn't stand a chance. But I I had five of my wrestlers uh this year tell me that paintballing was was their favorite part.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:11

Beating Coach Sandik and paintballing was their favorite part, so that's amazing, and that's what yeah, great group and the senior class. It's not just the talent, but the type of guys they were. I that's uh you know, they're gonna lead their legacy with the culture, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:30

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean they they they hold themselves to a high standard of conduct, both on and off the mat. Uh, these guys are very deep in their faith. These seniors, they uh have all done these religious retreats. A lot of them have led the religious retreats. Um, and then how they practice. Like when you practice hard and you compete hard in the practice room, it rubs off on those young guys. Those young guys then understand the standard, and then you just hope and pray that those young guys continue to hold that standard moving forward. And it's hard not to because they understand what the standard is, you know, and and uh they know that if if they don't do it, then they're not gonna pass that on to the next guys.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:07

Now, the real last question. Any any advice, Deke, for for younger coaches or in another way to spin it, if you had to give advice to day one at Deke Stanick, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_04 2:08:20

Well, and I I think I think you've kind of already answered that. But yeah, I'm I'm excited. I'm excited to hear this.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:26

Be patient. Like if you're gonna do it and if you're gonna do it right, it takes time. Um, you know, and it it's it's not gonna be one monumental thing. Um, it's gonna take a lot of little things and surrounding yourself with really good people and really good support to get things off the ground. Like, I I can't do everything in our program to make us successful. Like, I've got really good guys running our K-second program, I've got a really good group running our third through fifth program. Um, the most important coaches in your program, in my opinion, should be your middle school coaches. And I've got some great middle school coaches. Um, and uh when you do that and you can kind of take things off of your plate and put them off to people that you trust, um, know that still it it's it's gonna take time, but as long as you are always moving in a positive direction, um, get those numbers up first, the quality will follow. And and I um and I you just gotta stick with it. Like this is 18 years in the making, you know, it wasn't done overnight. And um, you know, we I've certainly been blessed with some good kids and some good teams, but it took us 18 years to get here, and and uh I'm certainly glad I saw it through. You know, I mean that there were I tell you what, there were some times earlier in those years, I'm like, what am I doing still doing? This is crazy, but I'm glad I suck it out. And um, I I've I've been very blessed to have been associated with some outstanding young men and not women that are in our program that um like I I I I've been so blessed to have my boys get to hang out with like David, the David Malines and the Tate Fleggies and the Joe Pinkies and the Zach and Noah DeGroots, and I'm I could say a hundred different names and I would still be leaving guys out. So, but I've been blessed. You know, I if my sons turn out to be like those young men that I just listed, I'll be a very proud father.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:03

We gotta give the obligatory shout out. I know we mentioned him once already to the OG glue guy, Trevor Paulson. Yeah, yeah, wrestling at Lawrence now.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:12

He's doing really good. Going in the epitome.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:14

He epitomized good dual wrestling right there.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:17

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he he would listen to us, we'd game plan, and he would stick to that game plan to a T. He would not deviate. It was awesome. He was a great team guy, great glue guy, great kid.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:28

So well, Deke, I want to thank you uh, you know, not just for all you do for the kids, and uh thank you for the time for coming on, but you are uh I was happy for you guys. I know there's the Holman Aquinas rivalry, but you are a good dude and you raise such a great, nice, young group of kids. Like I think I've never had a negative interaction with an Aquinas wrestler or any Aquinas coach. And uh I was happy for the team, but I was very happy for you as a person when you guys end up winning the title. And that was uh I'm I'm glad we got I think that's why I went over two hours because I just I think selfishly I wanted to indulge in this moment a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:08

Well, I appreciate I appreciate what you guys do for wrestling in Wisconsin. You guys give the whole state great coverage and and uh you you get good storylines out there and and make make it interesting and do a good job of covering and and uh you know we get to watch a lot more wrestling you know through you guys that we wouldn't be able to otherwise.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:26

Thank you, Deke. Appreciate you, brother. Steve O, you got anything?

SPEAKER_04 2:11:30

No, I appreciate it. It was it was great. I was just uh uh your your um your openness to share what you shared was was fantastic. If I was a young coach, I'd be listening to it and I'd be taken to heart and implement implementing it, implementing it in my program. So thanks for giving that blueprint out there. And um thanks for giving us two hours of your night. And let us know if your wife is in the finals, by the way, in her volleyball championship.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:56

She's not home yet, so she made the finals. So otherwise she would have been home already. So her her and Gaba Malechek are probably in the Malichek's gotta be in the front row, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:12:06

Yeah, you only you only watch if she makes the final. So no, I guess now you have to go watch.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:11

Yeah, Malichek's probably doing his fire it up. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:16

Well, fellas, it was uh it was a fun one. And uh I don't know what we're doing next because we fly by the seat of our pants here, but Steve and I'll probably talk about that uh at the conclusion of this one. But thank you once again for coming on, Deke. Thank you everybody for tuning in, and until next time, we will catch you on the flip side.