Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: And welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to in the Nest, the MAS Athletic Sports podcast. I'm your co host, Shane Douglas, here with Matthew Thompson. You know, next time I'm gonna. I'm gonna wait for that beat drop to, like, really wait. Can you play the beat again? Are you able to play the beat again, Will? Okay. Yeah.
Two Shanes on the mic.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Two Shanes here with Maddie.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Ice.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Then here's a beat drop right there. Right.
Okay. In the Nest Athletic Sports podcast. We'll work on that. We'll work on that. We'll get there, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Will, for doing that for us. One day, one day, maybe we'll come in a little early, start freestyling. I'm not a rapper. I can't do it. Michael Heaton. Shout out to Michael Heaton if he ever listens. He was a student with myself for four years. You for a couple, maybe two or three.
That man could freestyle. I remember multiple nights, him just sitting in my room, always bugging me, but me loving it. Shane, we just put on a beat and he'd just, like, just start. I remember he would go, man, it was awesome.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Table to table during lunch and dinner, freestyling people. And it was the funniest thing.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: He would sit with the professors, like, I have so many pictures of literally all the Bible faculty sitting at a long table. And then Michael in the middle, trying to freestyle.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Like Dr. McLeod or Dr. Fish. Mr. Glock.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: He is an awesome person to have on campus to be friends with. So I love Michael. Shout out, Michael. Great. Massive impact, too.
To the athletic community here.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: He's manager for men's basketball first semester.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And he, honestly, he probably one of the biggest fans of Emmaus. Probably Eagles. Not probably.
I would say so. Really? That's coming from you? So Matt is like the largest fan, you know, and it's true. Him saying that Michael is a bigger fan.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: No, he's up there.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Up there. Okay.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: He's up there.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: We should have a know we could do. If you think you are, like one of the. Here's the thing. I mean, this doesn't mean we always say, hey, yeah, guys, you should buy us drinks at coffee bean. Matt, have you got a drink for you at the coffee?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: We had a few comments on the Team pumpkin versus Team pecan.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, but then we haven't got any.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Names since that last episode for our.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Little guy here or for this guy. I'm telling you, if we don't get a name for this guy, guys, it's.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Going to be Eddie. It's going to be Eddie, please. No, I don't want it to be Eddie, please. Can't be.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: With that said, when we say we want your input, we want your input. We want you guys coming up to us in the lunchroom, dining halls, hallways, family alum. Message us. Most of you probably know us or know people who know us.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Ran. You better text me in 20 minutes after this episode drops.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there we go. I was thinking of, like, when we were recording, I'm like, it won't be dropped in 20 minutes, but yeah, man. Gosh. Come on, people, the hood is coming down. All right, you know what?
[00:03:10] Speaker B: No hoodie. Eagle. Just no hoodie. No, keep the hoodie on. Okay, but no hood. I should say.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: I have another eagle. And I put a Korean dress on the bigger eagle.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: The one.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Yeah, my other one. So maybe I'll just bring all my little stuffed animals I've collected from welcome.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: To Shane's Stuffed Animals show.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And then I can talk about the Valley. The Valley analogy. It's a beautiful thing. If you don't know what the Valley analogy is, please talk to me. It's a dating analogy of it's great. All the guys love it.
It goes both ways, but it's really awesome.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: It is.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: I love it. Do you remember it? Maybe, I don't know. I'll have to warm you up, too, Will. You definitely don't know it, but I will try. State, if you're listening, come ask me about the Valley. I will let you know about that, man. Okay, so let's get started. We got a shorter podcast with Shane, sadly. But what it's going to look like today is we're going to recap a couple of basketball games. I have three of them. Three of them that we had over the last week. And then a interview with the women's head coach.
Women's basketball head coach, Sharon Tomlinson, your sister.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Yo.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: So Matt's going to have the privilege to interview his own sister, which is going to be fun.
He purposely didn't share her, the doc, with questions just so he can grill. Yeah, really, really.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Get some sibling love right there. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Get some spicy tips.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: There were no documents with questions.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess so. Those are kind of the two biggest things on our docket today of this episode. So stay informed. Stay here to listen to that interview with Sharon later in this episode after we kind of recap the sports. Also, just to mention, hopefully you can see it more clear than last time. But we have this board still. It's going strong, ladies and gentlemen. It's going strong. Until there is more news, we're going to try to not speak about it. So we did go on a long run.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: I think every, like nine episodes in a row.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Man, I can't believe it. Wow. We're better than the NFL right now, though, right? NFL.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: They're just trying to get any. Gosh, anything out of it.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Will, what you eating over there?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Okay, so this is actually. People mean me about this at school, but this is a peanut butter.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: I can hear the crinkle.
This is a peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwich. Okay.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: I respect it.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: That doesn't sound bad.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: It's delicious.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: It's better than your lavender crocs. Yeah, that's for sure.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Your bad takes on headbands. But anyway, you took that personal.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I did take that personal. Sorry for just throwing you back out there, Will, but you just were snacking over. It's a thick boy, too.
That's a lot of peanut butter. Oh, my God.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Get a whole jar.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: You guys should see this. Here, hand it to me. They need to see this. It's bulking season. Are you able to hand this to me?
Look at this. Look how thick this boy is.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: That's a big sandwich.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: I didn't get any chocolate.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Is it good?
[00:06:29] Speaker A: It's all right. You didn't get any chocolate chips? No, I didn't get any chocolate chips.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: What's the point? You got a peanut butter sandwich.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: It's got peanut butter bread. Nice, but not bad.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: I've heard that. That was one of the greatest public school snacks ever was peanut butter bread at lunch at schools.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: I didn't really go through that. For me, it was always, like, cheesy bread on Fridays. I mean, that's not like what I liked. It was just garlic, cheese. What? I'm sorry, you can't have it.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: I wouldn't know what that's like.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: You don't know?
[00:06:55] Speaker B: I was homeschooled. No idea what you're talking about.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: That's not why. That's not why, Matt, you can't have.
I mean, with. Everyone loved the garlic cheesy bread on Fridays for my high school, Des Moines east, with that said, sorry for taking a bite of your sandwich, Will.
I want to take a smaller bite. I had to, but I didn't get any chocolate chip. But I'm sure it was good. So, Tri State, please back off of Will.
Matt and I, we acknowledge and we commend.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: So, all right, so, moving on, let's talk about some sports.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Matthew, we have three games to cover, two for the guys, one for the ladies.
Not the greatest week as far as record wise.
We lost all three.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Sorry I laughed. It's just the way you put it, man. It's like, not the greatest record, obviously.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: So Saturday, both the men's and women's teams played Kuiper College. Both are actually receiving votes for the top ten. So both currently are. I think the women are number one in the region right now.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: And guys, Kiper is athletic, ma'am.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, they're very good. So, guys, game. We played bad. We had a bad game. We did, and we ended up losing 85 50. It was crazy because they were down ten at halftime and then we brought it to a four point game like a minute into the second half and then they just went on like a 200 run and couldn't do anything about it after that. So, I mean, it's there, we're there. We should not have given up. A lot of stuff is fixable, but we should not have given up what we did. But like you said, kuiper, man, they are an athletic, deep team and they're going to be good for years to come. So we got our work cut out for them, but we'll get them back. We'll have play them again, I think, in February or January or probably see them again also in the regional tournament. Then the girls played them before us, obviously. But actually it was crazy because Kuiper is. This shows how close, like, the region is. The girls lost to Kuiper girls by eleven, but they had 33 turnovers, which is crazy. And they lost by eleven. Wow. So, like, if they have, like, literally, if they have like five less turnovers.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: The score is different.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Oh, significant.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: And that's with them playing Hyper, who's currently the number one team in the region.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: You said they lost by eleven, right?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: That's by eleven.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
How many turnovers?
[00:09:31] Speaker B: 33.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: You finish with. Shoot, 28 turnovers. Just a complete different game.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Complete different game.
Plus Hannah had another double double because she's a double double machine. But literally, like, certified dog girls are right there. Yeah, it's crazy. I know that they're going to take that, learn from it, move on and do better next time. So that's like super mean.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Literally.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: They were right there.
And then for our last game, we traveled up to Moody on Tuesday. And then, man, tough game. We lost by two at the buzzer. And it's funny, I was talking to Mrs. Irison, who her husband, Coach Irison, coached the men's team here for 13 years and he always talks about one game when Emmaus alumni legend, men's basketball legend Justin Smith missed a shot at the buzzer up there. Missed a shot at the buzzer up there and then we missed a shot at the buzzer up there. And so it's like, man, it's just crazy. It's hard. Especially. It makes those trips longer. I think it makes those trips longer when you lose by so close when you should, like, we should have won that game. We 100% should have won that game. We just couldn't quite play a complete game. And yeah, losing by two stinks up there. But like I said again, the girls had a lot of promise with how they performed and what the final score was. And we did play pretty bad because we had beaten them by seven like two weeks ago. Two and a half weeks ago, we lost two up there. So unfortunate losses hurt no matter whaT. Obviously some sting more than others, but I mean, it is what it is.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And honestly, I'm thankful for, like, this has to be tough for you, I guess, briefing everyone about it. You're giving us a good insight of the men's team and also a decent insight from the women's team, too. And we'll get more from that from Sharon later. But it's a heartbreak. It's a heartbreaking thing to go up against a complete new program in Kuiper. If you guys don't know if you've been into Christian athletic circles for a while, especially with NCAA or the MCC, Kuiper's name might not be known to you. You might know Manhattan, Faith, Calvary, Marinatha, Grace. But Kuiper has completely transformed their basketball program.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: At least this is the first year they've had it back after they had about 1215 years of not having a team. The legendary coach, Coach Bailey. Shout out coach Bailey for listening to the podcast. He jumped over to Kuiper to kind of rebuild what he build their basketball program, build those athletic program and kind of do it the right way. And so it's been cool to see. It's been really cool success. Just in one year he was there. Last year they didn't have an official season and then this is their official season. He brought in 46 guys, which is crazy. So it's just really cool to see more better competition and coming into especially our region because it's going to be fun for these next few years.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: And it's tough that you go away for the men's team. You leave and you're like, we didn't play a complete game. I guess you could say the same for the women's team with the turnovers, but knowing that you could be in it and honestly, actually not really knowing, if you don't play a complete game, you don't really know where you stand against them.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: It's like the what if? I think, but not.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not just a loss, but it's like, do we match up against them? Can we match up against them? And you don't know if your defense isn't there, your offense isn't there, possession ball isn't there, all that, like you said, the completeness of how your team is playing against exactly one another. And you see Faith playing against Kuiper the day before, and they played pretty well.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: They play. So, yeah, they're super.
Like, their biggest thing is they do the little things, right?
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: And they're so gritty. And honestly, at our level, grit goes a long ways for talent. But Tuesday was fine. It was a chippy game, for sure. There was a lot of back and forth, which is sad, but it's part.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Of the game, too.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: It is part of the game, but it is what it is. But it doesn't need to be.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: It doesn't need to be in part of the game in a negative way.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: There can be good chippiness if it's control. That's the biggest thing is if you can keep it from going across that line. Once it goes across that line, then it becomes an issue. But if you can do it, I guess, in the right way, there's not really an issue, but, yeah, once you.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Step across that, there's a lot of right ways to do it. There's ways of like, you can be competitive against one another. And I think of the soccer pitch, being around the soccer team for many years, and you're going at it, fighting for the ball, and you both go down. Maybe someone gets fouled or no one gets fouled. You hop right up and you're like, oh, that was nice.
Or you're like, oh, I'll get you next time, you bum. I mean, just like some nice stuff, but being able to be friendly to each other before, after, and during the.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Game, being competitive against one another, but also still having that, like you said, that friendliness or being together.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: I think of an example on one far end of the spectrum of just kind of goofing off a little bit. Not necessarily like not being competitive, but I think of Nathan Braun. Shout out to is he was a student here at Emmaus, graduated recently, and the soccer team did not have a lot of players. So they asked a lot of guys, would you be able just to be a body for practice and come on trips? And he was one of those people, but he stuck with the team for, I think, two years, it was. But when he would Play, he didn't play a lot, but when they put him in towards the end of the games, just to rest some of the starters for the next game, if either they're ahead or losing, most of the time they're losing. That's not the picture, what it is today. That's what that was prior.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Yeah, previously.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: But when he would go in, he would goof off with the guys.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: He'd say like, oh, yeah, he'd say some funny things.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: I kind of think about some of that's obviously an example of one far end of the spectrum of just having a fun time out there and enjoying the sport, enjoying running around, being part of a team. But then you also have the other end where it's like this sport is something you've played forever, basketball, soccer, volleyball, cross country, whatever it might have been. And it's important for you. It's important to you, and you want to compete, you want to be competitive, you want to win. Right. But at the end of the day.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: We got to remember representing.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's not the crest on you on the back.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: It's not this. I mean, it is this, ultimately.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's your relationship with Jesus and having that testimony on the field and knowing what you say. And the thing is, I'm a hothead myself, and I know when I see red, there's some things that I might say, do or think that I definitely regret later.
And I think we touched base on this a little bit. Last podcast of having that maturity as a player goes such a long way.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: The maturity of how you react to things, because we always say the saying is athletics builds character. Yeah, that's not true. It reveals character, reveals who you are.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: And I like that.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: And it's like you need to, as a mature Christian, obviously, sometimes, a lot of times, everyone gets frustrated anywhere they are in life, but it's how you react and how you respond to that is how you move on and keep going forward in the right direction. Yeah.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: And those players who have that maturity of either to hold back what they're saying or to be able to correct themselves.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Tend to do a lot of great things and really have set themselves up for success in life. And not saying the people who aren't don't have success or don't do great things, but that those players who have that maturity definitely stand out more.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: It's like the thing, like we say on our team, we're like, all right, you have 20 minutes to think about this, and then after that, we're done. Moving on. Yeah.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: So definitely a tough weekend for the Eagles Athletics, and I think, especially after a Kuiper game, there's a lot of growth within the men's team and maybe some things, and you can speak more about it than me, but I can see that a lot of that growth, you guys talked a lot as a team after that game and a lot of conviction probably within that locker room, and I'm looking forward to see what.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Do we do to not do this.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: I'm not just looking forward to see what you guys do on the court, but what happens off the court within character and maturity of players, and it's going to be awesome.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I'm excited, definitely.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: I look forward to see. It's like now that we're part of staff, I feel like I get the.
Maybe it's something that other staff members or professors or faculty experienced when we were students. Yeah. That they looked forward to seeing us grow up, see us mature throughout their four years, or see where we go.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Exactly. I always remember talking to our director of finances, Laura Raspussen. She would always say her favorite thing would be seeing the students walk across the stage at graduation and being like, I've seen how much the Lord has changed you and the growth you've had from your freshman year. And I think, like you said, that's just the greatest thing of seeing where you started to where you finished, where you're continuing, going on. And just seeing that growth is just amazing.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: And that's something that you can do here at EMA's because it's a community, it's a family here. People know each other. They want that relationships. And to that point, I look forward to seeing these players from all the athletic programs that we have here come their senior year, I've already been through one circuit. It's crazy to think about that. Mac, how many circuits have you been through? I was a student here for four years, and this is my fourth year of someone on staff. It's insane to me to think that the seniors here graduating, I saw them come in as freshmen. I was not students with them. Oh, my goodness. Man, I feel so.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Three years ago.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: I feel so old right now, but it's cool to see where they've came from, and I'm looking to see that through the athletic program. But just as the students here at EMS and knowing the people here, knowing the students, having relationships with them, and hopefully to grow some mentorship or discipleship relationships with them as well, and be a part of that walk, part of that growth within their life. So with all that said, we're going to jump to Sharon's interview, everyone. Thanks for listening. I know I'm leaving your favorite part of the show, but also, guys, come on.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: We need names.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: We need names, please. I'll leave them here for Sharon to see and to meet for the first time. But yeah, we need names, please. So, yeah, at this time, Matt, I will transition to you and Sharon, and hopefully it's a good interview, but thank.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: You, everyone, and welcome back. And here we are joined with my sister, aka third year head coach Sharon Tomlinson of the Emmaus Eagles women's basketball team. Coach T. The real coach T. Thanks for joining.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: Thank you. I'm excited to be back on.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: You're excited to have you. Yeah, it's been fun this season, basketball wise.
This is your third year, which is like crazy. That's already year three of head coach and just seeing like so far this year. Currently we're sitting at one in six so far. We have a game on Saturday, which is your last game of the semester, which is crazy. Looking forward to that game and then to next semester, kind of. Tell me about your thoughts so far going in this semester.
So far. I mean, we have four seniors on the team. We have Abrel, who's back after not playing for a couple years with her knee injury and then having a kid with her husband, Joel, and then Maddie coming back from her ACL injury last year. So, yeah, tell me about the season so far.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Yeah. So coming into this year, we didn't necessarily set expectations right away just because, like you said, it was trying to see. Okay, how is Abril going to be able to play?
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Which semester.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Is Madie going to be back at full capacity? Some of those not quite sure what the roster was going to be like. We had a couple of signings that didn't pan out, things like that. And so coming in, it was just like, let's get in shape. Let's make sure our culture is taken care of and then the games will happen and we'll see where we're at. Yeah, we came out that first weekend and I was so excited with how we played and, yeah, the rest of the.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Against a pretty tough team that's had some pretty. I mean, they won regionals last year, two years ago, made to nationals, so they've had success with their long tenure head coach and to see we're right there with them the whole time, both games. And that was really encouraging.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's the biggest thing this year has been. It's been really encouraging just because we've had a couple of lopsided games. But overall, I mean, we had a six point loss, an eleven point loss and nine point loss to good teams. And so to be able to stick with them and we know we're putting ourselves in positions to succeed. And that's a lot of these games. We go into it just saying like, hey, let's give ourselves a shot. Let's make sure that it's within reach in the fourth quarter.
And then the last two minutes of the game, we see what we can do with it. And the girls have done a really good job of doing that. They've done a great job of adjusting. We give them adjustments day to day and they listen to us and they implement those really well. And so, yeah, just the overall tightness of this group, how much they love each other, and we've gone through a lot this year outside of basketball.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: That's true, yes.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: So to be able to stick together, to be able to love each other and to support each other through it and then challenge these higher level teams as well has been really cool to see.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Like you said, it's been really cool to see, kind of like what Shannon and I were talking about in the first of the podcast, the close game, close loss against Trinity, the six point loss to Marinatha and the eleven point loss to Kuiper.
But with that, there's fixable things. There's things that can be fixed, easily fixed, that would turn the tide of that score, that would switch who wins and who loses. And I know throughout the years, we've always talked about that's the most aggravating thing of, like, we're right there and the girls are right there. I mean, like you said, with having Kuiper, regional game, Aaronath regional game, Trinity, another in the CCAA game, it's just so encouraging to see where we've come from with last year's season, the growth from that, with this group that you have, and it's just all right there. Just fix up a few things and instead of one and six, we're what, four and three or something like that. I think it's so cool seeing that. And obviously with this team, you have Anna. This is her fourth year playing for Emmaus. This is Hannah's third year playing for Emmaus. Plus her time at FLBC. This is Brooke's third year playing at Emmaus. So you have some veteran leadership on the team and then you have know Erin McKenna, who has a lot of. She has a very high ceiling, hasn't played for over a year because she was at a community college just taking classes and now she's here. But there's a lot of great things going on and it's just really cool to see, like I said, from where we were last year to where we were this year. And just how do you think we can use that momentum forward right into next semester? Because the last game of the semester is on Saturday and then looking into conference play, which anything can happen in conference because I always feel like with women's basketball, it goes like this in waves of where everything's at. So how are we going to take the momentum going into next semester and then even beyond that with the opportunity that's there for all our recruits out there with graduating four seniors?
[00:25:48] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. So going off what you said. Yeah, obviously you mentioned most of the team and how much they've improved, how long they've been around. We have a lot of experience on the team this year, and even Jenna and Maddie, I want to shout them out, too, because Maddie put in the work to even be able to be back this quickly and be back at a good capacity, and she's doing everything that we want her to. And Jenna, I think Jenna's improved a lot from last year film all Summer, and she came back a much better basketball player. So she's put in the work as well. And I'm really excited for both of them to have those two and Erin be kind of the returning core group for next year, that puts us in a really great position to continue building off of what we have. So as far as conference goes. Yeah, I think having the Kuiper game so recently, I think that's kind of potentially a turning point in our season just to see that we can play so well with again. They are definitely a top team in our region and they're very deserving of those votes. I could see them if they continue playing the way they have been, to be ranked here soon and so to be able to play with them, with that many mistakes, we know that we can play better than that. We have a very clear, like this is what we need to do. And that gives me a lot of hope. Just like it doesn't feel hopeless.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Yes. And it's nice that those things are achievable. It's not like, okay, make more shots. No, it's just like, clean up this area, clean up that area and we're golden.
[00:27:08] Speaker C: Exactly. So, yeah, that's really exciting. We're hoping we can go into this semester break with a win, but also a clean win and play well within that just to give us momentum going into the conference. And in my opinion, on the women's side this year, the conference is a lot more even than it has been. The top teams are still going to be the top teams. They're still going to be challenging, but it's not out of anyone's reach. And so it really is a wide open season for anyone to come.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: And that's always fun going into the conference term. Anyone can win, and for sure anyone can win, rather than like, okay, there's the powerhouse here that's just going to sweep the floor, but really, anyone can win.
[00:27:44] Speaker C: As much as I loved winning the conference championships as a player, it sucked to lose my senior year. But it was a lot of fun to have a close game and have it be intense.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: I mean, it got hard sophomore year, junior year, when you guys were beating teams in the conference by 50 and 60 points and it was like, oh, 30 point game. Like, wow, close.
Now seeing on the other side of it, it's anyone's game for sure. Yeah. So, no, super excited for the game on Saturday against FOBC and then just kind of seeing next semester.
We're super sad that this will be Abrel's last game. It's crazy. Speaking of Abel, how two years off came in and sort of schooling people left and right, dominating.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Yeah, everyone needs to come to our home game on Saturday. We're going to celebrate her senior night with the rest of the seniors next semester. But this is her last game playing as an Emmaus Eagle. So everyone come out and support Abril, please. And the rest of the.
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Yes, please, please do that. But yeah, we're excited for that. So losing, um, that semester, as she's done with school, but potentially might have a couple more girls might be joining the team, which we're super excited about. We've been talking, which would be awesome. But yeah, I think it's been fun just to see your first year, your second year now going into your third year, and just the excitement that's on the team. Kind of like from where the culture was to last year. Last year was hard. Last year was tough. Last year stank. But the girls loved each other so much. They were there for each other. They uplifted each other. I mean, they stuck it out.
And they came back to this year because they were excited about the growth. And I think that just speaks volumes for the girls that are on this team, the girls that have come in, the girls that are going to come in and just build off of that, you just don't see that nowadays. And just seeing Shane and I always talk about the sisterhood that volleyball has or cross country has or that the women's basketball team has. And it's true. It is so true. Just how much they uplift each other. They're there for one another. They're each other's biggest fans. Yes, it stinks when you lose, we all know that. But they come back the next day and get better. And just seeing, like hearing about from the Kuiper game on Saturday to the effort on practice on Monday and know that's encouraging to see that growth in that jump forward.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think, like I said, it's kind of a turning point. I'm hoping, I was really encouraged to see the girls come together through a really tough practice on Monday, but you.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: Need those every now and then.
[00:30:26] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. And then Tuesday. Yeah, we had a little bit more fun. We made it more competitive. We did a lot of kind of games or made the drills more games and competitions and stuff and got a really good workout in. And so I'm hoping that we can kind of carry that momentum, and it's just great to see them come together and not tear each other apart when we're losing games that are close like that.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Yes, we're super thankful for that, for just not even where women's basketball is at, but where Emmaus athletics is at. As your other part of your job as being assistant athletic director, just seeing the camaraderie in athletics, the support in athletics, the love that the team in the past we might have had when we played back in the day, it was always like Group A, Group B, but just how involved the student body is. Our student athletes are in the student body. A part of everything has just been so cool to see that and how much the support from the students to our student athletes has just been super encouraging and super great to see that.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: It's cool seeing, too, the general student body come around and I've never had this before, but this year, students that I haven't really talked to are coming up to me and saying, like, good luck tonight and things like that. And again, I haven't had that before as a student or a player, but also, yeah, the support within the athletics department and we talk about that a lot and we want to be unified as a department as well. And so seeing the men's basketball team be ball runners for soccer and seeing some of the cross country guys doing live stats for basketball and just overall how much support all of the student athletes have for each other, it makes it a really unique and exciting time to be in a eagle.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: It really does.
[00:32:09] Speaker C: And yeah, you're not going to see that every single school. And so to be able to have that much support within athletics but also within the student body is really cool too.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: It really is. We're just really excited for the finishing up of this semester and going into next semester as know see especially these four seniors that as they finish their career as an Emmaus Eagle and graduate and move on. So, no, we're really excited. And Coach T, we're thankful for you on this podcast and we're excited for the rest of the season. Go Eagles and see you guys on Saturday. As for the women's last game of the semester and then keep an eye out for the schedule for next semester. But thanks for being a part of this episode. Thanks for joining our interview with Coach T. And it's a great day to be an Eagle.
[00:32:55] Speaker C: It's a great day to be an eagle.
