Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: And welcome to another episode of in the Nest and Emmaus athletics podcast. I'm your co host, Matthew Tomlinson. Shane Douglas is on the road, so here we're joined by Luke Sirwinsky. Luke, thanks for joining us.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no problem.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: For those of you that don't know Luke, luke is a very recent graduate. He graduated in our digital marketing program, and he is our admissions counselor and videographer specialist.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Also, he's a former men's basketball player at Emmaus and men's soccer player here at Emmaus.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Did both.
Double trouble. My fun story about Emmaus is out of high school. I originally was going to come to Emmaus, and Matt was my admissions counselor. And then I ghosted him and didn't come to Emmaus. You did and then came back was it two years? Two years later, and then I came back to Emmaus.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: So now you're here.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Here we are now working for him.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: And now you're having students ghosting you.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: I am.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Payback a lot.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: A lot of them.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: No. Luke, we're excited. Thanks for joining us. We're excited to hear kind of your perspective on things, because obviously you were on the basketball team two years ago, you were on the soccer team last year, and you're active in practice, and you're active in filming stuff around campus, especially practices and games. So we're excited. But, hey, we had a great weekend. We came off of family and alumni weekend. And, man, I know you were a little sick, unfortunately, but it was a crazy weekend. We had over 300 family alumni people here. It was crazy. Like, campus was buzzing. It was so exciting. And a lot of it was centered around our volleyball game against Marinatha on Friday, and then the soccer game against Spurgeon on Saturday, and then the alumni game after that, which you also played in. But that gym was rocking.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: I wasn't able to go to the volleyball game. And I was so upset when you showed me those pictures of the gym because there was, like, not an open seat.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: There was not. I mean, that was in my nine years of being around Emas athletics, that is the most packed the gym has ever been. I think the ticker counted. And it was like there was over 300 people in the gym.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: That's crazy.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: It was insane. And man, what a crazy game to be at if you didn't see the box score or watch the game on our live stream, which the game went so long, the live stream camera ran out, so they had to restart a new stream link.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that because I went back to watch it and I was like, wait a second. What's going on?
[00:02:45] Speaker A: It was a five set thriller. We ended up losing in the fifth set to Marinatha, but it was crazy because the fourth set, it was so tight that it went 31 29.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: I didn't know it went 31 21.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: 29 set went to 30 points, over 30 points, which was insane. And I know, like, it was just the atmosphere is rocking. It was a little too hot in the gym just because we're not used to yeah, I heard the 400 some OD people that were wet or something was so slick. So shout out Jacob Leslie and Quan Patterson. They were back and forth with the broom boys towel boys toweling the floor or the little, like, broom things. And so yeah, no, it was a phenomenal match. It was so sad and heartbreaking that we couldn't pull it out. But what a match that it was. I mean, in that five sets, some highlights were like, Caitlin Rand had 21 kills.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Which was a new career high for her.
And they just played so hard.
Let me look at the stats real quick. So I have accurate numbers, because she.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Had 21 in that game, which was her high. And then didn't she break it again.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: This weekend, the following game, which is crazy. Yeah, and then Salah Gregory had 13 kills. So it was crazy because we had 53 kills for 100. So half of our points that we scored were kills over almost half of.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Our points, which was crazy.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: And so it was just a phenomenal game. I mean, they played their heart mean, I think almost every single parent was there for the volleyball girls, except, I think, Nellie and San's parent. But it was just I mean, I was talking to a couple of them after the game, and they're like, I was so nervous with how many people are in there, because I would say definitely from your experience, too.
Even when we go to away games, like in our conference and region, we don't get crowds like that. Maybe Faith on special nights, they'll have 300, 400 people, but that was probably one of the bigger crowds.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: I think Faith always has a packed crowd for a lot of the things. I think just playing against the other teams, they probably have I don't want to say loyal fan base, but, like, the most consistent fan base will randomly have really big crowds, but nothing like that game.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: It was so fun seeing just the amount of alumni, but also athletic alumni throughout the years. Like, there were a bunch of volleyball alumni. Obviously, there were a ton of soccer alumni that came there was like, what, 44 soccer alumni that came back.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: So many.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: And there's a good number of men's and women's basketball alumni.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: So it was just such a thrilling game against Marinatha. If you have time, you should go back and watch it, because it was.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why I went back to accept the yeah. Yeah. I went back to watch the game because I didn't let myself see the score. And I was like, I gotta go back and watch it. So I went to watch the fifth set, and I asked my wife I was like, did you see anything about the game? She goes, oh, yeah, they lost. And I was like, I'm watching the game. Why did you just tell me that? I was so disappointed.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Like I said, it was sad that we lost. But what a thrilling game for all of the family and alumni to see. Moving on to Saturday of alumni weekend. We had soccer team played, they played Spurgeon College. A rematch from a few weeks ago where they had a heartbreaking loss.
It was the game of the season. Yeah. I think it was the second game of the season where they were up 20 with what?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Two team with like, 18 or 20 minutes left. And they just allowed a big comeback.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Gave up three goals, spurging up, scoring the 80 Eigth or 89th minute to win the game. So I know there was a lot of the guys were excited to get some payback, and it was a pretty good game. What were your thoughts on the game?
[00:06:42] Speaker B: I thought the game plan. I knew they switched up their formation, so it was a little different than what I was expecting just from I go out and practice with them and help them kind of just like an extra body for them to beat up on, to be honest. But that's okay. And so I hadn't been there that weekend, so I didn't know they changed the formation until the day before. And I was like, oh, wow, I don't know what to expect out of it. And so I think for changing that formation and working through it, I thought they did a pretty good job.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: And that was being down two starters.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Was so it was CJ was out.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: CJ was out.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: An ankle injury.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: And Carlos was still out.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And Carlos is still out. Still waiting to be cleared. And so I think if we have those two players, I think it's a different story, but ending in a draw.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Two two draw is what the final score mean? It's a draw.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Yeah. It's not what you want.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: What you want, but way better than a loss.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: But it was really cool seeing them fight back because I would say both goals that Spurgeon scored in the first half, I think it was, right. Yeah. Both were defensive breakdowns, goals that could have been avoided. And we missed some shots that we took that I know we had could have gone in.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: I felt like we had a lot of good opportunities to score and we were just overthinking.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: And I mean, that's what you come to expect from a young team sometimes. It's just these mental lapses, and especially if these guys stick around, it could be a really scary team.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: I mean, seeing eight freshmen starting, it's scary, but it's super exciting, too, with what could be. And so, yeah, they were down two at halftime, and I think I ended up coming down to the field with you and Shane about the 60th or the 63rd minute, and then we were pacing up and down the sideline. Yeah, but man, it was so cool just seeing the grit, because obviously being down 20, in a sense, that's a lot for soccer, but also it's not and just seeing how they fought back and took advantage of two beautiful passes, one from John Choima and one from Bennett, and Christian put two more goals in his accolades.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: And is he leading now? He's leading, yes.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: So Christian is number one in the nation in shots. Shots on goal and goals, which is crazy. He has 38 shots. He has 25 shots on goal and nine goals.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Which is insane.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: And I think second place has played eleven games.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Eleven games.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: And he's played nine.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Played nine, which is awesome.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: And I think the biggest thing that needed a little bit of improvement and could have brought out a win is just trying to get those forwards to connect better and to communicate, like runs. And whatnot I think we were talking about in practice yesterday, jacob Davis, our right wing, left wing, kind of switches back and forth. And Christian Anderson, if they can connect a little more and communicate those runs, they're both super talented, and working those two could be a huge change.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: That could help because we know Christian has an amazing shot, but Jacob has a pretty good shot himself.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: He has a really good shot, and I think he just kind of needs a little more confidence in it to just let it fly sometimes. But also, Jacob has an amazing touch. It was a really good touch. And so being able to combine those weapons would be just huge. Getting into Click would be yeah, it.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Was a good game. Waited for them to fight back, but yeah, unfortunately it was a tie. But we'll take that over a loss. And even I mean, say Tucker had a pretty good game because he's still second overall in the nation in saves, which can sometimes be a deceiving stat because there was one team I was looking at that they said they had a record of their goalie, had 15 saves or 17 saves, and I was like, Holy cow, that's really good. And then you find out that they got scored on 14 goals and it's like, wait a minute. So it kind of goes I mean.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: That you don't really want to lead in in saves because usually the goalies.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: With not that many saves are the ones whose defense is just incredible, that keeps the ball out of the box and everything.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: But when you're playing with more of a lackluster defense, you got to be able to make saves, and you're naturally going to because you're the one back there.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: And he had some pretty spectacular saves on Saturday, and I think he's like number eight in saves per game or something. Like that.
We're excited because this momentum can keep on going into tomorrow's game.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: So then that was the weekend. Cross country was off this weekend. So after having three weeks in a row with races, they finally get two weeks off to recover to train for they don't race it this weekend. They race the following weekend. So it'd be nice. It's been fun seeing them training and practicing, but it's nice for them to have a little bit of a rest time after going back to back to back, which, I mean, you ran cross country in high school, but I hear that talking to Coach Gerardi, that's a lot like three races in a row.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: That's a lot. It's a lot of miles and a lot of hard miles. So I firmly believe that two of the hardest sports are cross country and wrestling because it's just you and it's just all mental. And so, yeah, I get it. I loved cross country in high school. And it's having three back to back to back races is crazy.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: How'd you get past the mental wall.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Honestly, you just reach a point where you got to reach a point where you can tell your body like you're going to make it. You are fine. Your body is capable of so many more things, but you just got to get over that hill that you can do.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: It not that I can't do it like the little engine. I think I can. I think the little engine. I know I can. So that was the weekend for actually touch a little bit about the soccer alumni game. It was fun seeing so many like I was saying, I was telling Coach Raslson and Coach McHugh, in the past, it's always been like alumni, like a large group of alumni from like the or like this past year's alumni. But we had I mean, the representation for overall and for the soccer was like we had a ton from the early 2000s. We had a ton from the mid 2000s. We had some early 90s. It was just really cool seeing Eagles of all generations here and playing.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: I think there was 38 guys that were actual soccer players at Emma's that were here, which was crazy for alumni. Yeah.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: And a lot of talent throughout the years, too, from some really good team, some really good players that had some really good accolades throughout the years. So it was fun seeing all the Eagles through the generations playing. And yeah, so that was the weekend.
And then volleyball on Tuesday night had a turnaround to go up to Marinatha, who they just played.
The coaches poll came out on the way up there, and Marinatha got ranked 10th in the nation. So we're playing yet another ranked opponent. And we had basketball practice because we started basketball practice. So I was there coaching and had my phone with the game on so we could see what was going on. But, holy cow, what a difference three days makes. Four days makes.
On Saturday night, they won the first set, lost the second set, won the third set, and we're up to one and then lost fourth and fifth.
But Tuesday night, they just swept the floor three games to zero, man, they just played crazy. And that was what you're saying earlier, was on Saturday, Caitlin Ran had 21 kills in five sets for Karai tuesday night, she had 22 kills in three sets.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: That's insane.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: To set a new career high. Which is then what we know of as is the record for most kills in a three set match for Emmaus, which then puts her at the third highest for an Emmaus women's volleyball eagle in a game as a freshman. Actually, overall, because what we know no.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: I just mean she did it.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: But she did. As a freshman, which is crazy. Wyn Vandersaw did it in 2017. She had 28 kills in one game.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: And that was in five sets.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: I think that was in five sets. Paulina had 24 in four sets, and then Caitlin had 22 in three sets, which is crazy.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: That is crazy.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: They were close games. Obviously, it was 2522-2522 and then 28 26. But they really dominated.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: And that's like marinatha is a good team. Like, they were number ten for yeah, they were ranked.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah, which means we've beaten the last three ranked teams we played. Yeah, which is awesome. But, no, they just played such a good game.
There were some areas that Marinatha found the open spot at the home game, but we cleaned that up. We had almost a very good defensive game, and our hitters were really finding the open spot for there. I mean, nearly. Caitlin with 22 kills. Halo had nine and Emma Stanley had seven.
We have some really good hitters. We have some good all around volleyball this year. And I know even listening to live stream, mr. Davis does a pretty good job for Marinatha. He is very biased, as everyone knows. But he was saying that he was talking to the head coach for Marinatha, Maddie Bumpus, and she was saying that this was the best Emmaus team she's ever seen.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Really?
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And she was a four year starter there or a five year starter there, which is crazy. And a two time National Player of the year. So hearing that's awesome.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: I think the turnaround from losing against Marinatha and then coming back and winning 30 in sets really is like a testament to the chemistry and the bond that the coaches have with the players and just being able to pick out, like, all right, this is where we failed the first game, and now let's clean it up. Let's work together. Let's figure out how we can do this and then come back and bounce back that easily. That's a huge testament. It just shows where they are, the culture and just the chemistry they have.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: And I love what Coach Megan said in the podcast last week, how it's really just a mindset and their mindset between Saturday night's game and Tuesday night's game was just completely different. And it showed between losing three, two and five sets and just winning 30 and three sets. So that was super exciting. So we'll see what's to come. Looking ahead, soccer plays Manhattan tomorrow going.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: To be a big game at home.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: During Discover Maus Weekend, which starts tonight, which we have over about 60 prospective.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Students, which starts tonight.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Starts tonight. And so we have that at four. And then volleyball gets a rematch against the number one team in the nation, manhattan volleyball girls. And we still are the only team in division two that has taken a set off of them. So it should be a really exciting weekend just to see like, obviously we've beaten ten, six and ten ranked, so now we play number one. And so it's going to be really exciting. And then next week on Tuesday before we record again, the volleyball girls travel down to Faith and play Faith. And I think they were ranked 8th in this newest poll because they were six. They were six. They dropped two spots because that was.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: After we beat them. Did they lose another game or I'm not sure.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: I don't think they did, but I.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Don'T think they did either.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that was interesting. But I mean, obviously the coaches, polls, whatever, because we didn't get any votes, which it is what it is.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: I think a lot of it. Obviously, I am not a coach, so.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: I have no clue.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: But I think a lot of it is like just because it's a lot of freshmen, they don't know a lot of the players. And so I know that's how it is for some of the all American all conference and regional things. It's like if you're not known because you're a freshman, a lot of the.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: Times you're not going to go to a sophomore, junior, or someone who's kind of, in a sense paid their dues or whatnot.
It's a really exciting weekend upcoming for MAS athletics as a whole. And just I don't know.
I was talking to you a little bit. I was talking to Coach Raspussen and Coach McHugh and Mr. Cunningham, just saying it just really felt like the vibe is back. It's exciting. It seems like the excitement for athletics and know, just support and just like the alumni being like, it's back to the early days.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what we were kind of talking about, how COVID kind of took over a lot of things.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: It really did, really.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: Just kind of what's the word I'm looking for? Like mellowed down, I guess everything. It's just like, oh, we're in our rooms. And so I think especially with this new freshman class, I think they're just a really energetic class who likes to be around each other, which is a huge help.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: They're excited to be here and be part of something.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: And I think the alumni weekend happened at the Perfect.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: I think a lot of the students didn't fully understand how cool it was, how many alumni were back. That says a lot.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Having all those alumni back just really just shows the family atmosphere that is Adamaeus and how it literally lasts your entire life.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it really does.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: You're always welcome back. It was awesome to see that.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: It was. And just hearing all the alumni talking about the improvements on campus, like the gym, the Pollard Field house.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: I heard a couple of mad people say, why didn't we have this when I was here playing?
[00:20:33] Speaker A: And I was like, hey, get in line. Same like you last year, me six or five years ago, however long it was too long ago. But yeah, so no, it's really exciting things around the corner.
So that being said, that's kind of the look back at this Week in Sports. We do have Discover Mace Weekend this week, so we'd appreciate prayers as we have a ton of prospective students and their families on campus checking us out.
We have some more home games upcoming, so keep an eye out on our schedule, on all the posts. Make sure that you're following us on all social media and all that.
Luke, tell us a fun fact about you before we leave.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Oh, do you want to tell them about how basketball is going first?
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we could do that.
That's right.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: We picked it.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: So October 2 was, let's see, that was what, monday was our first practices for the guys and girls. And so we had a 06:00 A.m. 1st day practice of the year.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: That's what I was going to go film at 06:00 A.m.. I was going to go kind of like a first day of practice video. And then my wife was sick and.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: I was like, and I told you a 06:00 A.m., you're like I was.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Like, I don't know about that one.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: But no, I'd say practice was really good for being a 06:00 A.m. Practice. It was a lot of fun. Just the guys are super excited to be here, to finally be playing, to finally have structure and a system. And then we had practice last night and that went pretty well.
It's going to be a very different season than we've had in the past three or four years, but I'm really excited to see what happens. I think we have a really good group of guys who know the game and who have talent. Like, I think our shooting is going to be really good this year and I'm just really excited to see them put the pieces together as we are 29 days away from our first game.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: It's exciting. It is exciting. Yeah.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: And so I watched a little bit of the girls practice just for maybe like two or three minutes. And I know that seeing Coach Sharon and Coach AJ Out there, they're excited about the squad that they have and I'm excited to see what happens with their year. So, yeah, we'll see what happens.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: This is going to be a really good year for athletics as a whole.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: It's just so exciting because usually there's one team in the past at least, there's like, one team that dominates and the other four teams are just kind of like yeah, they chug along. But having three to four teams that are doing very well, that are all.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Competing on good levels will be not.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Just like scooting along, but competing at a very high level. It's super exciting. Just shows like the course of where things are going.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: We just need a spring sport now.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: We just need a spring sport.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: I said disc golf team. Disc golf team in the spring, man.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Disc golf.
You never know. We'll see. Back to your interesting fact.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: My random fact. Okay, so my fun fact about myself is two different times I've had gotten stitches in my bottom lip and my.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Upper lip at the same time.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: So no one injury was on my bottom lip. And then years later, I had an injury on my top lip and I've gotten stitches in both of them.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Nice fun fact. So if you want to talk about lip stitches, talk to Luke.
Also, if you're from Northern Iowa, route 13 up, talk to Luke about coming to Emmaus.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Come to emmaus.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Please come to Emmaus.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Talk to me.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah, we have look on our website. We have some request information. You can find our profiles up there, our emails and our work numbers. You can reach out to us. We'd love to talk to you about Emmaus and just know our experiences here as alumni and just what we have to offer because it's a pretty good place here. It's a great place. Is.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: It is.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Well, Luke, thanks for joining us today.
I know we're going to do this more often because obviously we've been traveling a lot lately. You have? Shane has. I have. Cody has. And so we'll definitely have lots of people to fill in. Shout out to coach Eric and coach Megan last week for filling in for Shane and I. And Shane, get better and have a safe trip and we'll see you guys later.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Yep, see you guys.
