DOWN THE ALLEY is a weekly podcast focused on Minnesota Lacrosse that is aimed to provide coverage of the MSHSL High School season and exposure for MN’s top lacrosse athletes. You can support our team by subscribing to our channel and following us on social media!
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For Team and Corporate Apparel: https://www.36threads.com
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Lacrosse Training: https://36lacrosse.com/sdp/
DOWN THE ALLEY is a weekly podcast focused on Minnesota Lacrosse that is aimed to provide coverage of the MSHSL High School season and exposure for MN’s top lacrosse athletes. You can support our team by subscribing to our channel and following us on social media!
For opportunities to get on the field with us: www.36Lacrosse.com
36 Lacrosse Store: https://team36.secondslide.io/
For the coaching software check out; www.LacrosseLab.com/DOWNTHEALLEY and use the coupon Code "DOWNTHEALLEY"
That will save the coupon in their browser cache until the proceed to the buy screen. The coupon is for 10% off your first 3 months of use.
For all the Down The Alley content go to our website; DownTheAlleyPod.com
www.oldsouthernbbq.com; ODTA15 - gets the guest 15% off anything on the site
For Team and Corporate Apparel: https://www.36threads.com
Team36: https://36lacrosse.com/teams/
Lacrosse Training: https://36lacrosse.com/sdp/
And welcome to down the alley. This is P Mac and it looks like I've had no one join me tonight. Ted is, he's been on the IR, on the IR all week. Katie currently dealing with With gear for team 36. And you know JP, I. You know JP, I don't know. I think he's taken pictures. You know he's his, he's in and out, he's in and out, he he's. You never know when he's gonna be in and and and when he's out, he he's out. However, joining us, joining us now to help me get through this episode, because you know, I had, I had people just bailing on me, I had my teammates bailing on me. Jake Golds 84 a Gmail. Yeah, the, the, the DTA nation knows him, knows this guy Well, I'm not sure why 84. I know he's a fan of 84, the og 84, the only real 84. I don't think he ever wore 84 on the field. I could be wrong. He might correct me. He, he can run a mile in 10 minutes. Jerry Golds, welcome to down the alley.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I missed a little bit of that Introduction as I was getting in here, but I heard the.
Speaker 1:That was on purpose, that was on purpose the 84 reference.
Speaker 2:I heard that, yes, the real eighty foe, as you all know, randy Moss, or you should know, if you don't if you don't, we got problems.
Speaker 2:The greatest receiver of all time. And yes, I did. I wore 84 in high school football. Okay, I even got a pair of custom cleats that said Doe real eighty foe. On them spelt D a, a, r, e, a l like Duh real eighty foe, and it was just fo for yeah, little corny. But yeah, that was that. What else did you say? Yeah, mile in 10 minutes. I think, hey, I can run a single mile faster than that.
Speaker 1:Where's your mile time airing off?
Speaker 2:of my mile time. Well, I Haven't tried to run a single mile as fast as I can, as I'm training for a marathon.
Speaker 1:What's the? What would you set the over under at right now?
Speaker 2:Um, I could run it in a single mile. I would set I Think I bet I could. I would bet money If I find betting on myself. Yeah, I could do it in under seven a single mile really yeah, I could do a single mile under seven minutes. Yeah, I just ran five miles on Wednesday and the fourth mile I ran at an eight minute pace, so you could got out one in seven interesting. I could get out a seven minute mile very interesting, I'd be docking it at the end like for sure I'd be.
Speaker 2:I'd be breathing real heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's okay, that's okay. Welcome back to down the alley. You were one of I don't know I don't know what episode you were on, but you were an early interviewee, so a lot's happened. You know it's tonight's not all about you, but looking forward to, you know, check in, checking in, seeing you know what you're up to this offseason.
Speaker 1:One thing, quick old southern barbecue Obviously the sponsor of down the alley this this season Thanks for for coming out. They sold out of their Thanksgiving turkeys and they got another deal coming up for Christmas. I think they got hams, maybe some turkey. All the good stuff group if you can hear group in the background, he's excited for it. He's fired up for for some smoked turkey this Christmas. Also, you know, funny story, my, my brother-in-law lock cabinet maker not a big deal, he built my cabinets by hand. He, when he he was over for Thanksgiving he was asking me about, you know, here on a podcast I saw your stuff, old southern barbecue, and I'm like, yeah, it's like in your backyard in shock. He's like no way. So he went out he checked out old southern barbecue and he gave me the review back and he said I will be back. I Will be back, that would call it. I will be back. So Old Southern barbecue guys are doing a good job and you know some family, some family members are enjoying the barbecue. Have you been over there yet?
Speaker 1:I have not been to old southern barbecue yet, so Tell the fans why I get root out of my, out of my hair here so we can actually record in peace what would even up to you know, kind of like this fall offseason house football. You know what are you kind of doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean I. So I teach high school biology in LeSouir and I coach middle school football there. Season wrapped up. I think we went roughly about 500. I don't keep track of the record there, but offseason right now for Blake we're doing I think it just ended. It just wrapped up. We have Gabe moon. He's a guy he moved out here from out east when he went to. I'm gonna butcher his either. I think is it Hartford, is the D3 school Hartford.
Speaker 1:I believe that is a D3 school.
Speaker 2:I believe that's where he went. I can't like there's so many like Haverford Hartford, I can't remember. But he went out there, gabe moon, and he's running our offseason stuff. That just ended right now where we were just running some, some training at First athlete with the the kids at Blake Keeping their sticks warm. Big thing like a cultural aspect that we're doing is coach Evan Highlock. He has all the seniors right now reading the book boys in a boat and so us coaches are also reading that and yeah, so we're gonna carry that into the, into the offseason kind of look at the, the readings from that book, and see how that can apply to our team and apply that to the season and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, love it, love it, how, uh, how, how's? How did you talk about the fall ball for for weakings right now?
Speaker 2:I know I had talked about that, but yeah, so I'm just reffing that right now. I'm currently on IR. I Don't care to disclose information on here, I don't need a pity party. So I'm on the IR and so I'm reffing and, oddly enough, I found out I'm also the best ref in Minnesota, so at least as far as box goes.
Speaker 1:You try to see. You always stir the pot in every, every. Every community you get end up in yeah, accidentally ended up in the reffing community. So are you, are you? Are you starting a war with all reps? You're gonna Start in the war.
Speaker 2:I actually just um, I just called John day. He's I don't know what position he is in UML away, but he's one of the top ones, his names all over the Website for there. I also just reached out to Ripley, so I'm actually trying to get back into reffing. I'm having fun with it right now in that the king of the hill week that Nick mid bow puts on, so yeah, that the fall ball stuff is going good reffing there. And, yeah, I'm excited to get back into the reffing side of things. Obviously, I can't do that during the high school season but, yeah, looking forward to get into it in the Youth for the summer, but yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, without further ado. I'm sick of hearing gold speak. I'd like to welcome the BSM red knights homecoming king Lacrosse superstar. I Mean, I'm not even. I say it because I jinxed it last year, so I'm not even gonna, I'm not gonna even pop your tires anymore. I'm gonna leave the homecoming king I see on on the Instagram here, gus Bell.
Speaker 3:They are the gun. I don't even know gold is gonna be a surprise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit, little bit of a short notice, but I was able to hop on today and Definitely excited to be doing this here with us.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, you know there was there. There's some healthy scratches, you know, maybe some people on the IR, I don't. I don't know all my. You know where my teammates here are. I had to go to the depths of the earth To find a fill in from not even the a HL. I had to go down to the E ECHL here and get a guy. Yeah, I know it's, it's it's ugly and gold. So I'm sorry he's here with us, but you know we'll get to your guys's connection because I know, I know you're doing some stuff with him this offseason. But you know we'll talk about that later. We'll talk about that later. That'll be a good topic, you know, maybe for you to to connect on. But yeah, what's what overall? You know how school going house, how's the fall house, how's being a senior, you know what's where, how are things?
Speaker 3:I mean it's pretty easy. I think senior might be my easiest year, yet we don't really do much in class, so it's nothing to complain about, and I'm playing lacrosse all the time too, so I can't complain.
Speaker 1:So do I need to just send that guy clip that take banilled? You know I'll take a day me up and held on on that, or why we you can't be senior sliding in November and you know we're not sliding at all, it's just, it's not the not the most difficult.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, all right. We're already stirring the pot on on private school education senior year. I didn't even have to start it. This is this is all you from the source. No, that's cool. That's cool. Are you? Were you homecoming King this year? Was that this fall? How do you get? How many votes did you have to buy for that?
Speaker 3:I don't even know how I got it. To be honest, I Know. Now this fall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was. This fall Was a good dance, good turnout. What was for dinner?
Speaker 3:We went to the Dynac Country Club actually and had dinner there and then we went to the dance. It was fine.
Speaker 1:Goal. I saw you chime in and what do you? What do you have for the kids?
Speaker 2:Well, I was just gonna say I was. I mean, I'm not surprised that you got homecoming King, I'm just. I'm surprised that this is the first time hearing about this, like really. Yeah, this is the first time heard about it. I think that's something you probably should let the team know. But yeah, so I mean Congrats on that.
Speaker 3:But Maybe you followed the note on Instagram or something you would have seen it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe it honestly, like I just googled, like Gus Bell, it was like the first thing that came up, so it's pretty it didn't really take too much research.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, my bad not doing.
Speaker 1:No cool. So for for people who don't know, Gus Bell Midi out of you know Bernal Tain Margretts going into a senior year Committed to army. You know we'll get into kind of your high school career but you know we'd love to kind of just, you know, talk about, talk about you. How'd you get started in the game? You know how'd that start for you I?
Speaker 3:Mean, I have an older brother and he just played, so I kind of just followed along in his footsteps. So whatever he was doing, I was doing. So he picked up lacrosse, so I just had to do the same.
Speaker 1:How about other sports? Were you a hockey guy too?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was hockey, little bit of football, some baseball with. That ended quickly and then stop playing that. He switched to basketball and now we're just on the other cross.
Speaker 1:Did I make this up in my head? Where you are you a hockey family? Do you come from a hockey family? Yeah, yeah, big hockey family. Do you want to expand on that at all?
Speaker 3:Uh, my dad works for the Maple Leafs played at the U coach. That the U I Mean. That's basically it.
Speaker 1:That's cool. That's cool. How old were you when you when you started playing? I?
Speaker 3:Want to say, like first grade maybe, so like stick seven, maybe then just stick with it and yeah, what?
Speaker 1:what did? Uh, you're from Edina, correct? Yeah, so what was your time, like you know, growing up going through the Edina program, youth. You know all that good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, I played through the Edina youth till like freshman year Play a little team in a soda when I was young and then Stop playing club and then only played association. Then, like going into freshman year, I started playing club again for true and then I started going through that recruiting process and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right on. How did you so start? You know, grew up in Edina. What was the transition to banell like, and I kind of drove that. I.
Speaker 3:Mean for me. The classes and like everything is so much like smaller and I thought I was a better, better fit for me. And then the like transition, I guess sports wise was like pretty easy. They had summer and fall practices, so I just showed up and the boys like welcome me in, so it was nice.
Speaker 1:Love to hear that. Love to hear that good group of guys over there.
Speaker 3:Oh, probably the best in the state I'd say yeah, yeah, so was your freshman year 2020.
Speaker 1:Am I doing the math correct on that 2021? 2021 was your freshman year. Okay, so you weren't really affected. So, yeah, going into 2021, you know, where were you kind of dominating right away as a freshman? Were you, you know, to start non-gv? What was kind of your transition from youth to high school? Having that gap year of COVID, you know, having a lot of negative factors, you know you could say going against you, kind of in that realm of things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wouldn't say I was dominating right away by any means, but I was on varsity, I was getting pretty good minutes at points every couple games, stuff like that, and I think I just kept going up.
Speaker 1:What? At what point do you think you made, like, maybe, the transition from maybe not, maybe not dominating to, you know, being being one of the, you know, main contributors? What kind of year did that happen for you?
Speaker 3:I'd say my sophomore year. I mean I was my freshman year. I was being like Patty burns, matt Dowden, jackson Lysha. It's tough, tough to crack, crack the Big boy spots when they're on the roster.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you guys had, you guys always have dudes, right. So being a younger guy, even being on the team, right, that's that's, that's huge, that's sweet, what? Yeah, so what kind of you know did you have to? How did you develop and maybe what was as a younger player on a roster? You know fully dudes, you know what kind of role did you have to kind of carve out for yourself? I?
Speaker 3:Mean, I was like second line midi. So I just go out there with my two boys Johnny Schieffer at Sam Decker and we just get, we turn score and play good defense and then that's basically it. He's had to do our role, I guess.
Speaker 1:Right on, right on, um, you know what, what type of you know how do I ask this? Like you know, been illed right, one of the better teams in the state. You know you're carving out a role for yourself, playing in big games. You know what was. You know, well, you know what did the older players do to help you kind of kind of shine in the big moments, shine in the big games. You know, not be too nervous. You know and excel. You know what you know. Maybe it's a culture thing, maybe it's the players doing something. You know, I don't know. You know, can you expand on that? I mean For, like when?
Speaker 3:I was a freshman, I was like, looking at the older guys, they just seemed like it was like normal to them being in like big games and big moments like that. So for me, just seeing them be acting like it's normal, I just did the same. I felt like it was normal and I feel like I've Been able to feel that way ever since. I feel that way ever since.
Speaker 1:Right on, right on. What are some like looking back on the last couple of few seasons here. What are the biggest games that come to mind? Obviously the state championship games and going to the state tournaments and things. But yeah, what are some of the biggest games, maybe biggest rivalries, that you guys have over at Benildo?
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously we have to say prayer of lake. I mean, one of my favorite games is our OT went against them in 2022. That was really special. And then last year, when we lost them, that also sticks out like a sore thumb to me. Think about it a lot. And then I'd say also, chanhassen, we also have a pretty good rivalry with my freshman year. We lost to them in OT. I think too, and I feel like whenever we play against them, we try and bring our best game to them every time.
Speaker 1:Last year did you play them, and well they're in your conference, right? Yeah, Chanhassen is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we just play him over here.
Speaker 1:Is that? Are you guys? Is it kind of you and Chan duke it out for the conference every year?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd say, whoever like beats each other is just the one of the conference, basically.
Speaker 1:How's, yeah, what's that game like for you guys who's who's kind of coming out on top? You know, last couple years, you know against them.
Speaker 3:I mean 2023 we won, 2022 we won again. And 2021 my freshman year. We lost them in OT, but I'd say it's pretty good rivalry and we always have fun when we play against them.
Speaker 1:Who's who's the hardest matchup that you've had, like player wise.
Speaker 3:I'd probably not the tough one. I'd probably have to go back also to my freshman again. I mean Mason Waddleman. He plays at Notre Dame right now, so he's always a tough matchup. And then Kyle Stevens. He's always super aggressive whenever he plays against you. So you know I gotta bring a game, and Jack Borgia will. Connor, I also try and be a little gritty towards you, but I was probably my main guys. I'd say Golds.
Speaker 1:What do you? What do you got for him here, before we kind of dive into a few other topics.
Speaker 2:Well, I was just like thinking so like, to be honest I mean this in no disrespect, gus but like before I went watch the banil game last year regular season banil versus prior like I wouldn't watch that game and that was the first that I had like ever where Gus Bell came across and it was. That was when they were talking about like Brant. The whole time was just like how good he is. And then all of a sudden I'm like yo, who's this lefty over here? That's just like just plugging them away and like find out like that's Gus Bell. And then like so, seeing you're a, you're a junior, you're dominating, and like why is this kid not being talked about? And then, like as the season went on, sure enough, like I think you really started to like develop a big name for yourself.
Speaker 2:But then, like thinking back to your freshman year, you said you started playing varsity. Like how was that? Like transition into varsity? I'm trying to like think how I word this question is like was there like a breaking point? Like did you come in as a freshman, kind of like thinking, yeah, I'm definitely like at this level and I can play with these guys, or was there a point where you thought that, dude, what are they doing? Put me on second line as a freshman, like that's a lot of weight on my shoulders. And then like was there a point where you were like maybe like three games in or something, and it was like, okay, now I got this. Like how was that?
Speaker 3:I mean for me, I think my mentality, I'm like I should. I should be on varsity every time, every year, and getting big minutes, like when I came into Benelda, I thought I was going to start, I was going to be the star player, my freshman. Obviously that wasn't the case, but I feel like I just belong at those higher levels. Like for me, making those transitions and even playing like second line my freshman year, it didn't. There's like no weight on my shoulder at all. I felt like I belong and I'm always supposed to be there.
Speaker 2:Right on.
Speaker 1:Like, do you get that confidence? Like, do you put in, like because not everyone has that type of confidence right like it's, it's I wouldn't even call it like a cocky thing, like that's a confidence thing. Like, how do you develop that like? Are you putting work in outside of the normal practice, you know, are you are doing weight room? Or you like like we're like how, or is it just like yo, like I'm gonna come out here and I'm going to be y'all like what's, where does that kind of come from?
Speaker 3:I mean, since I was like young, I've just always been like playing like every day just against the wall or shooting all the time. So I feel like just gaining confidence myself would be like the main thing. Just just showing up every day and doing the work, that that helps me grow the confidence. But I also think it's just always there and I don't need to like think about it.
Speaker 1:Did you always? Did you play up like because, having older brother, we always just around older players, or not? Not really.
Speaker 3:I mean my like eighth grade year I started playing with like the varsity team, like during their winter practices, so that's when my brothers was senior, so I guess I'd play against him and like his teammates and that was when I like first started playing against guys older than me. We like played in winter league and against other teams and stuff. So that'd be like the only time I'm playing against kids older than me from the start.
Speaker 1:I want to jump into. You know coming up. You know kind of this time of year, kind of when we were scheduling you know the interviews you know with with players. You know was with signing day. You came out signed with army I think there's been a couple guys last couple years, you know, out of Benel going to army but not I wouldn't call it, maybe quote, unquote the most popular place to go out of Minnesota for you know various reasons. You know, being at a high level, being a military school, you know, is that, is that a place that you've always wanted to go to? Did you know you wanted to go military school? Was that a goal or kind of through the process, did it kind of end up being something you got interested in and wanted to pursue?
Speaker 3:For me it was like I thought it was like army or bust, like that's the only way I'd I want that's the only place I like wanted to go. So I just like put all my eggs in the basket and try to like get my way to go there, and then it eventually worked out. So that's like it was a big accomplishment for me.
Speaker 1:I want to definitely talk about what it takes to go to a school like that. But first I want to know, like, why army? Like is it part of your family? Is it again? Is that just you want to go military? What's behind that?
Speaker 3:I want to serve my country, so that's a big part of it. And my dad, he was recruited to army for hockey and he didn't go and he was like God, I wish I should have gone. I wish I should have went there. So it's been in my mind Like, oh, this is a great school to go to. So it was like one of my main things, like doing something for my country and also doing something that I think is really hard. I really like the like discipline aspect about the school, like being scheduled every hour of every day that you have. I think that's really like I really like that.
Speaker 1:Have you talked to some of your former teammates from Benilde that are there right now?
Speaker 3:Jack Wrigley. I guess when I went there I talked to him a little bit but he like went to, I think, one of the prep schools on the East Coast when he was younger, so I didn't really get to talk to him much but he went to Belmont so we have a really connection there.
Speaker 1:Right on, you know to go to, you know a school like that. You know to play lacrosse. Sure, you know you got to be a stud on the field, but what's the process to you know, get into the school and what else does it take? You know, kind of outside of the lines, if you will, on top of being a great lacrosse player and wanting to pursue an opportunity like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean like application wise. We have to go through like a physical fitness test and like run the mile, do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, all that. And then we have to write a ton of essays for the school, get go to the doctor, see if we are eligible for going to the military, and then we also recently I had my like congressional interviews. So I get interviewed by like the senators, like people, I guess, to see if I can get a nomination. And then I have another one of those next week. So I'm going to get that for like my crongish woman and interviewed by her people. So that's like application wise, that's like a big thing. It takes a long time.
Speaker 1:What's like the hardest question they've asked you in that like. Did they like drill you with something where you're like? Well, like was not expecting that question.
Speaker 3:I didn't get grilled as much, but I know two like two other kids that are also applying to army. Some of the questions they got were like what would you do if you were deployed in Iraq and your captain was like shoot these protesters because I don't like them? And they told me that I was like, I was like no way, and I just it was very surprising I didn't get any of those, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2:What's what's more nerve wracking? Playing in like a, like a high caliber lacrosse game, like I'm thinking like you've been to the state championship. What's more nerve wracking? State championship or like interview with congressman I?
Speaker 3:definitely say interviews, because I've been so much practice with lacrosse I feel like it's like second nature, but the interviews I'm I get, I get really nervous for, so that's like the most like difficult thing I'd say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd have to agree. Interviews, interviews stink. I freeze on them still to this day. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've practiced randomly at the army. We like a pregame practice, like on a road trip somewhere at army. So that's really my only extent of the army campus. What was your favorite part of you know their campus? You know their field was their stadium was pretty sick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the fields crazy. And then like the main, like part of the school is like it's like all solid brick and there's like fresh, cut, clean grass right in front of the school, like that no one can walk on except for like marching day or something like that. And then inside, like the lunchroom or the dining hall is like really nice and like everything is just like supreme captain, supreme care. So it's like pretty cool to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't wait. I hopefully we can interview you again or talk to you after your freshman year, because I've heard some hilarious hilarious things kind of that go on your freshman year so, but not from an army guy, I've heard. I've heard things from other kind of military Academy. So we'll have to. We'll have to get a follow up on on your freshman year. Gold, did you have something?
Speaker 2:I'm a, I'm kind of interested. So this, this grass that you can't walk on, have you heard any stories about anyone walking on this grass when they're not supposed to and like what happens if you walk on that grass, if you have anything on that?
Speaker 3:I haven't heard any stories, but they stay like walk on it during, like when you get initiated into the school. So I don't think it's that big a deal if you take a step on it, but I haven't heard anything like that.
Speaker 2:I mean I'd hate to keep talking about myself, but like I don't know if you ever been to know their names, campus, have you know? And so like, no, their game. Like I know there was a lacrosse tournament there and they had they let us practice on their football practice fields, but one of them is grass and it's like their original grass practice football field and in order to, there was like bathrooms on the other side of it and in order to get to the bathrooms you either had to walk like a mile around the practice facility to get to the bathrooms or just cut across the grass field. So like, logically in my head, I cut across the grass field and like that's a no go, apparently another game and this roided out football strength coach just comes like chasing down, like freaking, like so I would, I would just, I was just interested to see. So yeah, maybe that interview after your freshman year find out if anyone steps on the grass when they're not supposed to. Would love to hear a story like that.
Speaker 1:Maybe you should do that.
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe, I don't know, hey, I know, and then step on the grass.
Speaker 1:So I know this offseason you've been playing with the weakings. I've heard that you had to sneak your way on to this team via kind of around your, your, your dad maybe. I don't know if your dad maybe had had some question marks about this team, as any father should. You know what was, what was maybe the process of you getting on this goon squad that is called the Minneapolis weakings?
Speaker 3:I mean mid bow, like he DM me and I didn't even know what it was. And he's like you want to play box? I was like sure. And then I'm not even 18, so I can't really play unless I get like a waiver signed or something. So I'm like I just asked my dad if I can play box and he's like who's going to be playing? I'm like I don't know. And then he's like did you have to sign this waiver if you're under 18? I'm like yep, and I was told telling the sign and I show up to practice and you guys got beards. I mean I see gold out here. He's like 65320 or something and I was just like wondering what I got myself into and just pretty, pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:Now to clarify for the fans is that a healthy 320 or unhealthy 320.?
Speaker 3:I mean, if you follow goals on Instagram, you can see him running 10 miles every day. So I'm just saying that's probably pretty healthy.
Speaker 1:So you're quiet. 250, like I say about you right now, I did.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I did wave myself for the first time in a month this morning 249249.
Speaker 1:So you are quiet, 250 quiet 250.
Speaker 2:You're closer to 250 closer to 200 than I am to 300.
Speaker 1:So we're doing fine. What's been, you know kind of your experience with weakings, playing box across for the first time. How do you anticipate you know playing box across. How do you anticipate you know some of that development translating, going back on the field, you know, for your senior year.
Speaker 3:And it was like really different when I first started. Playing is like don't go across the midline, and I was like why not? And then I'm like, alright. But they tell me only stand my left hand. So I'm like, alright, sweet, I can just play my strong side the whole time. So I'm just trying to score goals and sometimes just get laid out in the middle of field. You've got to take yourself back up and boys are like tossing like 90 mile per hour. Pass that just so. You just got to snag the ball somehow, is somehow, and I think like developing for field my hands and like BTB stuff that I've been like throwing in during box. I feel like that's really coming together and making myself better and feel as well.
Speaker 1:Um, maybe it's just go ahead, you're speaking to the BTB's, what was that?
Speaker 2:was that on lacrosse like network or something, gus, where you swam through like three kids the whole defense and then you whip the nasty BTB assist?
Speaker 3:I don't think that was on lacrosse, no what?
Speaker 2:I didn't see it, I don't know. It was like a.
Speaker 3:Read League or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, the a reté, or like yeah. So If you haven't seen that video, try to go find it. Maybe I'll try to find it and post it and then Get the whole world to watch it again. I.
Speaker 1:Don't know. I don't know if your signature move is the jump shot or if that's just against prior Lake Um. Is that a? Is that a shot that you know you're you're doing in box? Is that not really applicable? Is that your signature shot or is that just what you do when you're playing in prior, like I?
Speaker 3:Mean, I've done it like once in box and it worked out pretty grand staff, you like toss the BTB past me and I catch it Jumper. But that's probably the only time I've done in box. And Then I say I usually only keep the jumpers for prior Lake because bigger games you got to save the jumpers for them to show up.
Speaker 1:No, that's fair, that's yeah, totally fair. Golds, what do you, what do you got for this kid?
Speaker 2:Um, it's kind of like ties into my my like first initial question about you being a freshman at Benild.
Speaker 2:So you Like you kind of I think we spoke about this a little bit at one of the weakings practices Didn't really get like a like super, like clear answer, but I always felt like that same energy that you said you had as a freshman, like you always felt like you belonged and that you should be playing at this high level and there wasn't never Any weight on your shoulders. As far as me, like watching you play At the weakings, you can kind of see that that same mentality. Did you have? That same mentality or like when you walked into the locker room, like you said you're walking into a locker room full of I mean you got I'm not even. I mean I'm 28 and I'm not even I'm like in the middle of the pack in terms of age on the weakings. Like we got some like 34 year olds, we got dads that have like two kids in that locker room, so like was that? How did that like kind of like relate to your freshman year at Benild? I?
Speaker 3:Mean for that. I was like, obviously I think I was a little nervous at the start of both, but my first game for weakings I had like four goals, so I guess I just needed to get starting in a game and then I'd feel more comfortable. So I guess I really for weakings because so many people like you don't I don't even think I like I'm the only one I like can't grow facial hair on the team and then I just need to get on the field and then show. So I guess that's the biggest part just getting out there and showing them what I can do right On, yeah, and I mean also too.
Speaker 2:I mean there was it was very quick Into the season that like you brought some electricity, like what's like? Explain to the fans. I feel like I've seen it. I kind of like know your mentality, but explain to the fans like what's going through your head Once you? There was clearly a point in the season where you got like that confidence. You were always a good player. But there was clearly like week two or like week three where it was like you were setting the tone at the beginning of the game and the huddles you're being the loudest on the bench. What's going through your head like for that mentality to come out?
Speaker 3:I mean my second game. I think I had like six schools so Just like I think once I get like going, then the energy starts rolling and I can keep it rolling. So after that game I'd say I just I was comfortable with all the guys. I knew like couple names, so a comfortable talking to people and then I can really show my personality and like confidence I guess.
Speaker 2:Right on big, big quote from you as well that you'd love to say. You know which one I'm gonna say. I think so, the taking souls, yeah, elaborate on that.
Speaker 3:So if anyone knows Brian Dawkins, you guys know her. To Brian Dawkins yes, yes, of course. So I guess I just I saw something on Instagram. These he's like screaming out, running out the tone of these, like You're gonna feel it today, you're gonna feel it today, I'm taking his soul, and stuff like that. So it just it kind of resonated with me. I'm like I'm gonna take these guys souls when I go out and play in them. So I think B doc, he just really resonated with me, and I use this quote a lot of time, though.
Speaker 2:Right on. Yeah, Brian Dawkins hard hitter Definitely took some souls in his day.
Speaker 1:I'm also told you're a really nice opponent to play against, are you do like? Do you follow Andrew Locke, like? Do you do? Do you know that he used to do that? Is that something that you kind of embraced off of him? I?
Speaker 3:Mean I wouldn't sound nice. I just like don't talk to people, or or someone. Someone like hit me with a cheap shot or hit me after to play I'm. I just start laughing at them because like.
Speaker 1:I was told that you compliment your opponents. That's what I was told I.
Speaker 3:Don't know about complimenting my opponents. Maybe, like my friends on the other team, I was like a good shot, but I don't think I compliment anyone really.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, you did shout out the source on that one. You know who you are, not in it. He's denying it.
Speaker 3:We're not gonna name drop her no, no, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't need my sources, otherwise I'll lose trust. I need my sources. I need my sources to keep this thing moving. If I, if I give away my sources, this thing, oh this thing will crash and burn. Close. You have anything else, or should we? Should we move on here?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been told, if we're still talking about the weakings here, also from a source I Was told to Ask Gus wait, gault, are you your own source on this question?
Speaker 1:I?
Speaker 2:could be Not gonna out myself. That would be self-incriminating. So You're, you have to and like Completely like your own answers. Don't feel pressured because I'm here. Who are your favorite? Let's go top three weak Kings players your favorite top three?
Speaker 3:All right, who?
Speaker 2:Any order are we am I gonna, if it's and if it's not me, have you seen my hit? I?
Speaker 3:Have. I have seen your hit if you haven't check it out.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I don't think any particular order matters.
Speaker 3:All right, so I'm gonna have to throw Connor Hooli in there, one of the younger guys that I got along with Up playing, so then I'd maybe have to throw Jeremy Golds in there. Definitely, he keeps me rolling whenever I need it, and then I'd probably say mid bow, because he's always trying to teach me and Help me learn to the game, because it's new to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I, I do appreciate the shout-out. I know mid bow is definitely gonna appreciate the shout-out. I do like the hooli reference because hooli is a dog and you're a dog too and that made me think of, like we had is probably you, brady, hooli, like those were our two, like a three young guys and you got a Hudson is well and like, if you think back to the season, the weakings either, anyone that watched it, anyone that ever came out to a game, if you didn't come out and watch, because, like those guys that I just named off, complete dogs and it's very easy to look at. I mean like you, gus Grant, staff, hooli, hudson very easy to look at them and be like, yeah, they put the ball in the back of the net.
Speaker 2:But Also, watching you guys play on the defensive side of things too is like I've never seen so many people land so many rap checks in my life. I've thrown a lot of rap checks in my life and more often than not I'm dropping my own stick, getting a penalty and I've never seen like so like so much hustle in the ride and getting the ball on the ground in, like getting that ball back. And I think, like on the weakings. I know that all of us, like on the team, we're probably very appreciative of that, because it was always bunch of like older guys and as you get older it tended see the ability to ride and want to ride kind of dies and yeah, watching that like out of you young guys this this year was was pretty awesome. So, yeah, hooli dog, he's a dog.
Speaker 1:All right, moving on here from the weakings stuff going into your senior year. Here Actually I have one question. I have one. I have one question before we talk about your senior year, Over up an illed this is not breaking news you guys had a coaching change between your sophomore and junior year. You know, Again, obvious. You know you had some kind of turnover, some, you know assistance, you know being kind of promoted. You know this is going on a prior leg right now. Um, was it? What was like? Was there any major changes? Like I know, probably culturally and systematically, probably things you know you know stayed mostly the same. But you know when a new coach takes over, you know maybe there's some tweaks. You know, from your sophomore to junior year you know anything noticeable kind of change or any you know kind of tweaks. You know within the program that you know kind of want to speak on that. You know kind of going into your two of the staff, your senior year that you know they're trying to build upon.
Speaker 3:I Mean, I wouldn't say any major tweaks. Probably the the biggest thing is probably Joe bear. He brings a lot of electricity to practice and all those things and our coaches really like their drip, I'd say. If anyone's familiar with that term, I am starting to learn the drip.
Speaker 1:I've had some DMs with some of your coaches. You know I I learned that my shoe game is very weak. Is the shoe game strong? Is that kind of what you're referring to, or is there some other drip going on on the staff?
Speaker 3:I'd say shoe game. I'd probably hand it to coach G, mostly because shoe games probably his biggest game. But Joe bear and G, they really like to keep their style going. I know Joe bear in the summer he's strictly all black, and then G likes to throw on some fits that Really are appealing to the eye.
Speaker 1:Does that, does that kind of? Does the coaches drip? Has that dripped on to the players? How's the players drip?
Speaker 3:I mean my. My teammates used to say I'm like the dustiest, like I had the worst drip ever, and now I feel like I'm Working on it and I look a little better and I think our, our coaches are drippy. Then it brings a little more swagger to the team. We look good, we feel good, we, we play good.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean so you know, Kind of dusting off. Some of your old you know want to be drip what. What's kind of coming in, you know senior year, is there gonna be some new cleats? Is there gonna be some new? Is there new gloves like what? What? You know, what is it? Is it a pregame, uni? What are we kind of thinking about? You know, dripping into, you know, the senior year here.
Speaker 3:I mean this. The start of it was probably my cleats. I used to rock like mid mid All-black cleats and then everyone was just chirping me for it, so I had to switch it up and we're getting like low tops, add Jordans. During the season, red Jordan smashed the team colors. Now I'm just wearing like some flashy cleats and then I'll pads. I wore some dusty like huge elbow pads and I won like club off game. I'm like, alright, someone had extra like mini elbow pads so I used them and I Didn't feel a difference. So I stick with them and I think they Probably look a little better.
Speaker 2:I'm glad that you acknowledge that you're working on your drip and that you didn't say that you're quite there yet, because, also on the weakings, you need to get a box helmet. You look, look like a dork there with your field helmet. But yeah, no, the cleats, like you mentioned last year.
Speaker 1:I remember seeing the Jordan cleats and then Jordan cleats or those like wannabe drip, like I'm not a drippy guy and I'm not ever pretend I am.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm gonna go out and say it Jordan cleats are.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was a good step in the right direction.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay okay, the the floppy, like the extra long laces, like the the floppiness of the laces. I noticed there was a lot of guys on banel Last year that like the laces were like really long and they would just kind of like flop out and it was like I Wasn't necessarily sure if I was like pro it or against it, but it was definitely. It was definitely a look, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Was that something that was happening on purpose goss I.
Speaker 3:Don't think so. I mean the cleats themselves they might look nice, but I'm gonna say people are gonna have to stay away from. They're not. They're not too comfortable and you have to like tie them super tight to get it feeling good. So that's probably where the flopping is came in.
Speaker 1:So we're, so, we're actually so we're moving away from the Jordan cleats.
Speaker 3:We moved away.
Speaker 1:We're moving away, Okay what?
Speaker 2:what are? You said flashy, like do you, do you know what cleats you're moving into this year? Or you said low top, but like you got a brand in mind, you got an idea. Maybe you're gonna buy some shoes and then Send them, I don't know, send them to, because you could do that. Like you've never heard of that, like you can buy a shoe and they can remake the bottom into a cleat, but what are you going with that?
Speaker 3:I mean, right now I'm rocking some like black, like space type, purple, blue, pink, like the Miami heat, those jerseys that they got. So those are my cleats right now. Maybe we'll stick with them that season if they don't break, but we're just gonna have to wait and see how they look. Oh.
Speaker 2:Dang, we're keeping it, we're not. We're not letting it out, we're just gonna. We're gonna see what season brings.
Speaker 1:I like that you know, speaking of the program, how's BSM going in the next season? Who should we be kind of waiting for? And you know, any young guns, any young guns kind of coming up here in the in the program? I?
Speaker 3:Mean I'd say we're pretty Senior heavy this year. I mean, our entire defense is really all seniors and our whole offense basically is mostly seniors, juniors and Some younger guys that don't really get the shine because they just like the play in practice. These two freshmen, leo and David, we always watched them in JV last year and they'd always dice it up, just those two. It's a little dynamic do-all attack One's a righty, one's a lefty and then just Sossing it together at JV. So it's fun to see them play when we'd always go support the JV boys before our game. So that's always going to watch you.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, keep the, keep the tire pumps going. You know your, your teammates are all gonna be tuning into this. So you know I is is axle back. You got a big. Actually is back All right, so so between between the again another senior, like you mentioned. You got a. You got a big senior. Between the pipes You're shouting out your polls. You know who are you gonna be, who you're gonna be dishing with on offense next year. I know you guys got a Marquette commit or two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of the Marquettes on on defense, colangeman. But offense, we got popes sky rolls coming back. He's gonna be a come back from his ACL last year, so he's gonna be a big comeback Hopefully we see a lot from. And then Dylan Parker hunter pair, two other seniors that are just their dogs. They got hands like hands like butter. They just catch everything. So those are. Those are basically the main guys that returning I guess is, is a Kyle Stevens.
Speaker 2:Is he still there? Is he? No, he's at high point right now. It's done All right. So who's the who's filling in at LSM? Because when I look at teams as far as like, if your team is gonna be like elite and dominate, like in those elite games, into like the state championship and I know that's a goal of the Nils and almost the standard there is in today's game at high school the three positions I look at is Goalie alright, so we axels there. He's Solid in between the pipes. And then you got to have a face-off guy or some somehow Dominate the X or definitely make it a 50-50. And then you need to LSM Like, how are those positions looking for your team?
Speaker 3:I mean we got our backup from last year. Benjy Watts, I mean, he's just a dog. He always grinds everything out. He's just like a GB machine trying to just jump on you. He'd probably be barking at you for against playing against him on the face-off.
Speaker 1:She had Dyson or what's his brand, and Dyson vacuum buddy, vacuum vacuum, vacuum, yeah, team act they, they have, like they have maids. All right, continue, continue. Who's that? Who's? Who's mocking it up at the face-off axe?
Speaker 3:Yeah, ben Watts, benjy Watts, whatever, whichever one, you call him Ben or Benji, you know he's your fogo.
Speaker 1:Okay, I thought you're talking about your all-time. I'm an LSM guy. Who's your all-time then?
Speaker 3:I can't, I can't put words in our defense mouth, cuz not, not too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, fair enough. Fair enough Kind of going in the next year again. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't call you a favorite, because you know when I, when I made my favorite last year, you know I don't know if it was a down the alley jinx or or anything, but you know is is mr LaCrosse? Is mr LaCrosse on your radar? Is that a goal year is going into senior year? You know, in my eyes I would think you'd be in the mix Assuming you have another good year come out and dominate again. Or are you just like you know, whatever we got team goals, you know, how do you kind of view that? I Mean.
Speaker 3:Obviously that's a goal. You want to be the best player Period. But that's like more to the side, where I feel like me and my guys were focused on one thing. That's coming back and trying to win that state championship and Getting what we didn't get last year Hell yeah, hell, yeah, hey.
Speaker 1:Just to loosen up here last couple of questions what's your like favorite thing right now off the field, like what do you listen to? Watching Greedon, but what's your favorite thing?
Speaker 3:I Probably say F1. I went to the Las Vegas race. Actually my dad surprised me. We took a trip down to Vegas for a day and we watched that.
Speaker 1:So I heard a lot of crap online. Was it? Was it? Was it dusty? Was it unreal? Was it? I will say, raise my hand. I know Nothing about F1, but just some of the people I listened to and read. There were some chirps. Was it from a viewer perspective? Somebody that went there? Was it sick? Was it good time?
Speaker 3:I feel like it was pretty sick.
Speaker 3:We're on like one of the main straights, so we got to see like a ton of overtakes and we saw a crash which was pretty like crazy to see. And then after like there's like two, three laps remaining, so we left wherever we were sitting and we went like down to like where all the celebrities sit. So there's like an emergency exit and we're walking in at like the right time and ambulance starts going out there their emergency exit, and so we just see that and we just walk across through the emergency exit, we sneak into like this, this like celebrity area and Super expensive seats area and we just got to like see what they were doing and we like snuck into like a Mercedes, like secret, like Special party for like their team members, and I'm like we're in my Red Bull Max Verstappen Sweater. So it's like the rivals and I we walk in Somehow, walk past security without them saying anything, and then the lady that like runs it just Stoss and kick us out and then started yelling at the security. So I thought it was a great time.
Speaker 1:No, that's awesome, that is, that's hilarious.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Vegas, you're going to Vegas right for the weakings.
Speaker 3:All right that that's the plan right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, and we're gonna go watch Strickland versus.
Speaker 3:Yes, you plus see that would be in the cards. Is that a UFC? Ufc?
Speaker 2:You see we can. Sean Strickland's fighting. We're going to weakings are taking the trip to Vegas.
Speaker 3:That's really January 19th through the 21st and what is coaching, though I'm just saying, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I are. I are still Greatest comeback in the weakings history.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm actually going this weekend. I'm leaving tomorrow morning Taking a team out there for the recruiting tournament out there, not going to a UFC fight though.
Speaker 2:What's the gambling agent Vegas? Do you have to be?
Speaker 1:21?, yeah, 21. All right, if you. I don't know if you listen or not, but so if you listen you'll all this question what is your alley? This can be like a deep passion. Ears could be this week, this month, this year. Maybe it's like a lifelong thing, on the field or off the field. You can kind of take it any direction you want. But, mr Gus Bell, last question what is your alley? I?
Speaker 3:Probably just say like lacrosse in general, and like right now I'd probably say it bop lacrosse because I've just recently got into it. So it's really exciting and I like in class, I'm like watching clips after I've done all my work. I'm watching highlights this guy, dill O'Brien I don't know his familiar name, I see you word after you get your work done in class.
Speaker 3:Yes, after, after, not during or before it after, but he wears like GoPro and and watch it you get. You can watch his like perspective. You just hack and like doing those like cheapest thing possible. So it's always fun to watch and learning. The game of box is very different, so I think that's probably my alley, right now at least.
Speaker 1:Love to hear it. Anything we didn't ask you that you should have before we, before we end it, I'm not too sure.
Speaker 3:I think I think we covered a lot, but I want to. I want to hear from a referee of the Minnesota box leagues how we, how he likes his experience as refereeing, or early.
Speaker 2:Well, actually we were just talking about that right before you popped on. Yeah, so no, this is great. The reffing is going great. Personally, I like I don't know how you feel, but I feel like I do a pretty darn good job as a solo ref out. There Could probably be a little bit more mobile. I Agree on the mobility part. Yeah, I post up at the the midline, so Doesn't move up foot, no, no.
Speaker 3:So half-tap time or quarter, and doesn't move at all.
Speaker 2:Don't move. I'm very honest with my takes, though. It's like I make a call and someone yells at me and, like, dude, I couldn't see that like no way. So, yeah, if I, if I mean, it's a little bit more of a relaxed league, so I do my best, but, yeah, mobility could be improved. But as far as the league goes, I'm having a great time. I think all the guys are having a great time. Mid bow it does a good job with, like, setting up the picks like I don't know, are you, are you in on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're like prize picks for the Merch or whatever we have like a, we have like a fantasy league and I'm not another fantasy league. I'm okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cuz I can't. Unfortunately I can't be in on any of it, otherwise it would be quote-unquote rigged and so yeah. But speaking of that league, king of the hill, I've also been told to ask you whether or not you think the league is rigged.
Speaker 3:I Don't think it's rigged. I mean, we have the owner, the president and manager of the entire league and we lost our game by Like two or three last week for a couple weeks, oh, and I really played, so I wouldn't say it's rigged.
Speaker 1:The person who asked you to ask that question. Do they think it's rigged Golds?
Speaker 2:What the?
Speaker 1:person that asked you to ask that question. Do they think the league is rigged?
Speaker 2:Um, I can't disclose said information, but I can't because I think the league is rigged. I can say I can share on this one experience within the league. I think the league said person that happens to be the owner, president, manager of the whole league he did score a goal and the official Did go up and dapp them up after he scored a goal. So I'm not entirely. I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 1:I wasn't at any of the events, uh, I haven't been a part of the league at all, but since this is where there's smoke, there's fire. So if there's questions being raised, is the league rigged? I think yeah, I, I'm gonna go where the smoke is and I think there's fire there.
Speaker 2:I think I mean, if there's any rigging to be done, it's that um Mid bow put the best lefty of the league on his team.
Speaker 1:It's questionable, it's sketchy.
Speaker 3:I I'd say some, maybe a little, a little sprinkle of rigged. I mean, there'd be some, from my perspective, goals and that just crossed the line but the referee would just be standing that midline and he wouldn't be able to see If the ball went in or not. And he just makes a call and sometimes I don't always agree with the goals said, said, official, made, made, the made the wrong call, I think on multiple occasions.
Speaker 2:Yes, multiple, okay, might just have to bring out the cardio this week.
Speaker 3:I, I hope so.
Speaker 2:Those all those 10 mile runs and you can't even walk in a well fridays happen to be my 10 mile run day, so it's like legs are a little sore, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, before we lose all the listeners, let's uh, let's kick you off here. Um, gus, thanks for coming down the alley with us. Appreciate your time, um, and hope you enjoyed. Hope you hope you enjoyed coming coming down the alley. We're we're kind of mixing it up this off season, having players, um, you know, from different levels high school, college, you know whatnot.
Speaker 2:So, um, I, I hope you had a fun time. We I enjoyed it. I know that we just said that we were going to kick him off, but I just had one more question that popped in my head. Okay, ask, and can you explain this? I've heard some stories about you quacking quacking. At school. I again source a source of ours, I I heard the same thing from from a source I heard you quack.
Speaker 1:I wasn't gonna bring it up, but since it's brought, I heard you quack at school. It's kind of weird dude.
Speaker 3:I know the sources and he doesn't. He doesn't even go to school anymore. He actually sends his kid to school. So I don't think he has any affiliation with my school at all. So I don't know how we get this information.
Speaker 2:So you didn't deny that you quack no. I'm denying You're denying no, no quacking.
Speaker 1:All right all right, gus, thanks for coming down the alley, appreciate it. Um, yeah, and, like I said, I hope you enjoyed. You know we enjoyed having you on. Um, you know, I, I, yeah, but I, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for having me. Take it easy, gus yeah.
Speaker 1:And thanks to Gus bell, senior out of banilled st Margaret's, for coming down the alley. Um, you know, I didn't want to push it too much, but he, I think again, it's super early in the preseason but you know, having him on obviously he's gonna be a high level player. He probably is gonna be my pick for preseason. Mr LaCrosse, when we kind of start coming out with that type of content, um, you know, on on november 30th, uh, he's my favorite for mr LaCrosse going in the 2024 season. Um, absolute stud. Uh, shoots the crap out of the ball and uh, you've said it too, he, he's a come, he competes, he competes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a. I mean, he's a dog. For anyone that's ever watched the kid play um, I've seen most of him just playing with him on the weakings and he's One of the most complete players I've honestly ever watched play um. Also, one thing I'd like to note too, is that he he's very like coachable, like he's clearly Better than a lot of people on our team. Like I can go up and give him a pointer on something Knowing full well, like he's better than me at LaCrosse, he's like better than I'll ever be at LaCrosse, and he will. He'll like acknowledge those points from anyone that just had more experience and then Like, because he's so good, he'll go and apply that and it's like dang, like I've been trying to do that For the past three years and I can't do it. And then you go and teach him how to do it and it's like the next two reps and he's Somehow mastered it. Uh, but it's.
Speaker 2:It's really cool to see someone that good at LaCrosse Also be so humble to take advice from everyone else and uh, and then like, really Um, apply it to his game and I think him playing weakings this summer like he was great last year. I'm so interested to see how he does this year as a high schooler, playing a full season against grown men. Um, because it's not just his skill that is surprising, like his physicality, like he he said it he gets blown up every now and then, but it's like a lot of kids, a lot of 17 year old, 18 year old kids would get blown up like that and they would like never catch the ball again because they're afraid to. And it's just like boom, he pops right back up, nothing even happened and it's three goals after is. I mean, it's going to be really fun to watch that kid play this season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, he was a good interview too. You know, I think we had, uh, we had to Kind of open him up a little bit. As you know, any, any young guy, even coaches, will have coaches on here, right, he, he's never met me. I think it helped having you on here, um, as you've, you know, played with him and whatever. But you know it's tough. But yeah, he, you know, uh, interest to see what the the drip, uh, you know, coming out of banil next season, uh, he's going to be looking like and um, yeah, no, he was, he was a good interview. And um, yeah, I think you know, being a younger, you know he's not the oldest and he's got, you know, hockey family, the, the dad played college hockey and whatnot, um, and is involved in sports at a high level. So I'm sure all that kind of you know that helps him in his process on being coachable, also being able to handle, you know, playing against, you know adults really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, yeah, a lot of good things to say about the kid. Honestly, don't have anything bad to say about him, so, which is, honestly, that's a really good thing, because I can actually dig to say bad things about people. So, yeah, no, it's going to be a fun 2020,. What is that? 2024 season 2024.
Speaker 1:2024. And before we wrap this up, you know going to have Katie on the next episode and I'm sure she'll talk about Thanksgiving. You happen to make an appearance pretty much the whole PMAAC Thanksgiving, if not the entire thing. You know what? I want to hear your perspective on the inaugural. I said first annual and I got chirped because the first annual, I guess, is inaugural. I'm not again, never claimed to be an English major, so my English was corrected. It was the inaugural PMAAC Thanksgiving that's going to turn into a second and third and hopefully meant for to come. You know, from my point of view, I thought it went great. Interested to hear what your experience was at the first, because I'm sure people are gearing up and I'd love to compare this footage to what Katie will say in the next episode.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's, that's actually a great one, because I mean, granted, yeah, it was a great Thanksgiving. I celebrated my family's Thanksgiving on Sunday, so I was able to just kind of I had a free Thursday and I was like, yeah, why not, let's go hunting in the morning, shot my first pheasant, what's gold?
Speaker 1:That was your first one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually my first animal I've ever shot, so I did not know that.
Speaker 1:I thought you were a hunter.
Speaker 2:Dude, like I mean, like I grew up hunting and like walking and doing all this stuff, yeah, and like it didn't even really register in my mind until like after. Like I think I was just kind of like in shock of everything, just kind of like getting the rust off and everything, and then like realizing I was like yo, dude, that was my, that was my first one.
Speaker 1:What's gold?
Speaker 2:So yeah, that was, that was pretty sweet. I thought that was a great time. I mean just a bunch of like the like most miscellaneous group.
Speaker 1:Random right, uncle, so random it was like oh hey, this is a.
Speaker 2:This is a friend of my uncle's friend, or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brother, in law law.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I'm a dad, you know like we're just out there marching the field ripping birds. That was that was a great time. And then obviously me and your, your uncle, jake I mean we always get along so throughout the day just spent a time chatting it up with him Always great watching. And then I had a lot of chance. Just because I'm not of the family, so I think there was like a lot of people that were like dude, who the heck is this guy over here? Just like chilling. So I had a lot of downtime to also observe what was going on.
Speaker 2:So, like you said, when like Katie's like interested to see Katie's perspective, I thought she kept it together very well, but like she was bouncing around in the kitchen just like doing this, doing that, doing this, and I was just like I was honestly just observing, kind of like waiting to see, like when it was going to break. I was and it never did. I was like I was very impressed. I was like your composer, I would like peep in every now and then because I didn't want to like bombard her and be like can I help you with this, can I help you with that, can I help you with this?
Speaker 2:Like, because I know that's also overwhelming. So I'd like pop in every now and then and just be like do you need hands on anything? No, I think I got it and I'm like, okay, like all right, let's walk away, come back. And it was just, I mean, the constant movement of things. I know you were, you were doing stuff too, and then, like Nick, me, jake, we were like bunch of other guys were trying to get me, trying to build the fire.
Speaker 1:I think it took seven of us to get the fire.
Speaker 2:It took a while, that would did not want to catch, but I think overall it was a. I mean it was great. Met a few of your like family members. You're like you're like on the Katie side I already know a lot of your side of the family just growing up. But yeah, met like some aunts and uncles of Katie's. Yeah, had a good family dinner. You forced me to eat the drumstick because you were just like frustrated about cutting the turkey or like someone eat this and you just like threw it on my plate and so then I ended up eating at the table. I'm like trying to like be pleasant and just like eat with my fork and I had the drumstick and I was like, dude, this isn't working. And then just went savage and just started eating with my hands.
Speaker 1:Was that off the smoked turkey?
Speaker 2:That was off the deep fried turkey, deep fried. I didn't have the smoked turkey.
Speaker 1:No, I was hoping you could give See how I did.
Speaker 2:I had. I had one plate of food and I was done dude. I really much. Dude, I was dude. I had so much food on that first plate.
Speaker 1:Dude, I ate leftovers of that meal you still have, you still have leftover.
Speaker 2:No, no, they're gone.
Speaker 1:They're gone. Do I deleted Dude? I was having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner Friday, saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because when I left your center counter was full of food. I'm like dude, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:I think we gave some away and whatever, but yeah.
Speaker 2:What was your favorite? What was your favorite dish?
Speaker 1:Okay, there's again. There's a lot of a lot of highlighted dishes. A lot of people did some really nice things in all areas of the meal. I think the biggest surprise dish that it was like such a surprise to me at least, that's something that maybe I would be gearing up for, like I'm gearing up for the turkey, I'm gearing up for the stopping. Pour me some gravy, give me a good dessert. But those, those orange potatoes, what are those called those?
Speaker 2:orange potatoes, they're called sweet potatoes. They're called sweet potatoes.
Speaker 1:The sweet potatoes? The sweet potatoes, I think not to pump my life's tires. I think she was the one that made them. I'm not a hundred. I'm pretty sure she was the one that made them, or it was someone on her family, but I think she made them. Dude, did you have those?
Speaker 2:I had. There was two of them. I had both of them. I love sweet potatoes, so there was one that had Parmesan cheese on them. What?
Speaker 1:was the other one.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what was on the other one. Me and Jake were going through the line and someone asked what this was and then Peggy pointed out that this is that or whatever. And if you didn't know that that this is that, then Jake, being smart Alec, he was like, oh, I would have never guessed. And they just sort of tell people what everything was. It was the most obvious thing. He's like those are mashed potatoes, that's gravy.
Speaker 1:He was going through so I don't know what they were pointing out, but there were some Greek dishes there, that again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was some that, like no one had any like, no idea, like what are we doing over here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, which was which was part of the the PMAC plan. Like you know, we, we, we had a lot of different things for different parts of the day. For the dinner I wanted everyone to contribute like their thing. Like I wanted the Greeks bring in the Greek dishes, I wanted the Americans bring in the American dishes. I want, you know, I wanted, if someone else had a different tradition, you know that was coming, you know from their family bring your thing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So this is like the most interesting thing that I've seen on Thanksgiving because it was it was the Greeks sweet potatoes with the Parmesan cheese on them, but they also I don't know what plant they had on it, but there was.
Speaker 1:That was the one, that was the one that it was like the long stem of plant. I don't know what either. Was it like a basil?
Speaker 2:I've never seen that Dude. You asking the wrong guy.
Speaker 1:I called them what I call orange potatoes.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no clue. I'm like scooping up the mat, the sweet potatoes and they just um, someone I think it was Peggy again was like yeah, you don't eat that. And I was like I kind of like figured he didn't eat that but it just like came with a spoon or whatever when I just scooped it up. But I've just never seen like a dish like that on Thanksgiving, where it's like we have an ingredient on there that you don't eat no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that was so that was interesting.
Speaker 2:Like I I saw that plant and I was like that's definitely not part of the, it's not edible. Yeah, it's like that, whatever that you know, like you go to like a fancy restaurant and like they like you get a steak and they always put that one like green on it. That's not edible, it's like what, what are you doing? Like, what's that doing here? But, um, yeah, so I was like that was very interesting because I'm, I'm, I come from a fairly both sides of my family are fairly like redneck, and so it's just like everything on the table is edible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Never, never, never had a not edible thing on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, so I liked the orange potatoes. What did? Well, it's your favorite dish of the night.
Speaker 2:Did my favorite like it's all time I can never. It's the stuffing dude.
Speaker 1:I know, I know.
Speaker 2:Like. I just I know like unlimited amounts. And I don't even care how you make it, for something Like it doesn't matter how you make it, it's like you make stuffing this way. Some people put the gizzard, they chop it up and put it in there, some people don't. Some people put onion, some people don't.
Speaker 1:Like dude you could do the stove top stuffing dude out of the box and I'd be fired up.
Speaker 2:Any stuffing dude. Dude, give it, give me all of it, I think. Uh was. I think Annie made the stuffing. I believe you're right on that. Yeah, I mean always the stuffing dude. The turkey was good too.
Speaker 1:I had the fry yeah.
Speaker 2:I was honestly, I was worried about that one. Why that one was giving everyone a heartache like a heart attack the whole time. Why me, me, jake I forget his name already. Who's the other brother Are you?
Speaker 1:a uncle.
Speaker 2:Joe, me, jake and Joe were out at the fire. Well, uh, your grandma's out here telling us like to keep an eye on the the deep.
Speaker 1:Keep an eye on the turkey.
Speaker 2:And so, first of all, like I already know that deep frying turkey can go bad, Like, if you don't do it, you put a frozen one.
Speaker 1:Put a frozen one in there.
Speaker 2:Go bad. And then like, and your grandma's in there like trying to like thawed out with a beach towel, and I'm like, oh, dude, like dude, someone's going to get hurt doing this. And then they're putting us in charge of monitoring it, probably like the three, like people that you need not to be monitoring it. They're the ones that were put in charge of it. And then your grandma goes out there to check it to make sure she's like is it, is it heated up? Yet we're like, yeah, we think so sticks her face in it and then, like, opens it and we're like, dude, like someone's, someone's going to get hurt here. And then I I then just deep fry the turkey. I was like is it going to get cooked all the way through? Because then again we were put in charge of the timing of all that. So I was. I was a little wary about the deep fried one, but I had it. It was good. Turkey was cooked all the way through. Yeah.
Speaker 1:At that time in the cook I was, I was out of commission for cooking. I should have had lunch. Um yeah, so uh yeah. Happy Thanksgiving. Glad you could join us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a good one. I definitely, definitely going to like want to be a part of the the hunt Every year.
Speaker 1:It's not an annual.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if I'm always going to be able to make it to the whole yeah. Well, that's the thing We've got three.
Speaker 1:We've got three areas. We are three sections of the day. So if people want to come to the hunt in the morning, come on down. We got an afternoon section where we play games or we're just hanging out, whatever. We're going to take an hour to start the fire in the back. You know that's going to be part of the afternoon, you know, get started and then dinner or bumping dinner. That was one of the things we're. We're bringing dinner up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Early dinner we're having dinner at five Early dinner Way earlier dinner that was on me. I raised my hand. I raised my hand. Katie, if you're listening, raise my hand. I said 630 for dinner. We're bringing it back. That was a. You know I can learn, I can, I can live and learn, make adjustments.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but nonetheless I thought it was a, I thought it was a great inaugural Pmax Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:Do you think we should continue and have a second annual?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I definitely.
Speaker 1:You're voting in favor, okay.
Speaker 2:I would. I would vote in favor of that. First annual, not a second annual. First annual Is it a second annual?
Speaker 1:So there's an inaugural and then we move on to second annual.
Speaker 2:Right? Is it Maybe? I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm not an English major. I'm not. I'm the opposite of an English. I can barely speak English. Yeah, I have a podcast. Imagine that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but hey, it's American dream.
Speaker 1:The American dream Golds, appreciate you being my left hand man here Coming down the alley. We're going to have to probably do an interview, a follow up interview with you, kind of check in on things. But appreciate you helping with the interview with Mr Gus Bell this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. I mean, I'll be available when I can, but what is this? My third time on the pod now Third or fourth, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know who's counting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, always good to be on. Yeah, all right. Well, have a good one Up the hash.