Full Show - 3/22/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, March 22nd, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Varsity Blitz high school sports show presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Cooling Studios
celebrating forty years of being the largest employee owned HVAC
company in the state of Wisconsin. Any issues you have,

(00:22):
man could go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I've used
them a lot. My whole family and a lot of
friends have have become big fans of Donovan Jorgenson dot com.
At nine to twenty today we're going to reach out
for a couple of minutes with Ali Starr. She's the
head girls coach at Lord's Academy in Oshkosh, and I
just want to say thank you to her on the

(00:42):
air and she is like my one of my new
favorite coaches in the state of Wisconsin. I enjoyed the
press conference that she was on prior to the state
semifinals up in Green Bay and got a hold of
her yesterday and got to talk to her a little bit.
At ninet twenty at ten o'clock, will introduce you to
our Colonel Electric superhero of the week, and he's a

(01:05):
kid from Walkshaw South and he's bringing his dad and
uncle in and I think his uncle might be the
If he's not the greatest athlete ever to come out
of Walkshaw South, I'd be surprised. Julian Schwartz is going
to join him. Billy Schwartz going to be in studio
as well. At ten fifteen, we're going to reach out
to Jr. Blown for a few minutes. He is the
top assistant at Iowa State and we'll talk to him

(01:28):
a little bit about their game tomorrow here in Milwaukee.
And you know it's a boy can't come home right,
The head coach at Iowa States from this area. Jr.
Played at Dominican and we'll reach out to Jr. At
ten fifteen in studio with me for the first hour.
I can tell you that Sean Creder, the head coach
at Homestead, I didn't get a chance to have him

(01:48):
in studio this year during the season, and I reached
out to him and he said, let me ask missus
Crider what she's thinking Saturday morning. And I said, look,
maybe I'll buy her lunch if she lets you come
in and he's started laughing. Coach, how you been.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm good. I mean, you know, a long season.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
The last couple of weeks been able to get a
little bit of rest and recharge. But I'm still in
mode a little bit because obviously the NCAA Tournament is on,
and then also watching the remainder of the high school
season just to.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
See who you know comes out on top.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So the reason I wanted g in is check in
on you. And I'm a huge fan and we're friends,
and I just want to make sure that you got
everything at Homestead is doing well. But there are some
things that once the basketball season ends that there might
be some changes happening. And Coach, you have never been
shy to tell people how you feel, and I love

(02:40):
that about you. Twenty four thirty second clock twenty five.
Do you think we'll get a shot clock in in
in high school basketball coming anytime soon?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I think maybe twenty seven to twenty eight might be
our best. I mean a lot of states are going
twenty six twenty seven. Some of our surroundings stays in Illinois.
I think they're twenty six twenty seven. I think it
would be tough for us to beat that timeline, but
I think it's it's inevitable.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
And and you are you hoping it happens?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, I've read all your stuff. You know what, let
me just tee it up. He uh. And and there
are people that are dead set against it. And then
they're what what what happened in in in the Division
two girls state finals that just really look I like wawoudosies.
They they end up winning it, and and Mary Murgan

(03:33):
her girls were in studio, and I'm so happy for them.
But that triple overtime game got everybody who was saying, look,
we need a shot clock to let's get this going.
It was one or two possessions each overtime because they
would hold the ball. And and I can tell you
that that I'm I hope it happens. And it took
me a little bit to get there. I don't like change,

(03:55):
but I've been holding hands with the same girl since
they after he graduated from high school, and that's a
zillion years ago. We bought one house and then we
move We moved to Milwaukee. But I only got a
little change in our life. But I have a hard
time with change. But I am on your side. At
this point there are a lot of people against it.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
I think I think it's moving more towards the majority
are Ford.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think it was more.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Fifty to fifty maybe a couple of years, but I
think that game and then obviously last year, I think
the Nina Arrowhead game. My biggest thing is that I
think if people saw it or had even coaches who
may be against it, if they saw it live or
had the opportunity to coach with it, even if it
was in the summer, they would say, like, it doesn't

(04:40):
change the game as much as you think it does,
just the end of the game. It makes the end
of the game look like basketball, like the rest of
the game. I think sometimes you get towards the end
of the game when you don't have a shot clock,
everybody's playing keep away and you have kids playing scared,
and then you insert the officials in the game too.
At the end of the game, when you when everybody's

(05:02):
trying to play keep away or they make a call.
I just think you allow the kids to be more
a part of the game if you have a shot clock,
especially towards the end.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I was sitting I was at the the Wisconsin
Lutheran West Alli Central game and was sitting at a
media table and a referee came and said, hey, do
you mind by sitter? I said, absolutely not sit down
and we talked about that the shot clock and I
don't know where referees stand and and I can just
tell you the one guy that I sat next to

(05:32):
you said, look, the concern I have is who's running it? Right?
Is he going to be quite? Is it some you know,
some sophomore student manager that's running it, or is it
going to be like somebody that we have at the
scorers table? And I said, look, I think whatever way
they decide to do it, and I think that's the
best way to do it is to have somebody. And

(05:54):
there's a little expense to that. I understand that, but
I just think that that it would it would do
a lot for high school basketball, I do.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I think they should get an official, maybe having one
of the JV officials on the game before or there
you go official who maybe not or maybe can't officiate
varsity basketball. It's too fast, can't get up and down
the floor like they used to be able to, but
still understand the game.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Why are you looking right at me when you said,
I'm just kidding. I just kidding, that would be me
just so you know, but I think that's a great idea.
I do. Hey, the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association and the
wia RTV working together, right, but it seems to me

(06:40):
And I talked to somebody who has been on the
board for the WBCA trying to work with the WA
and he had said, look, sometimes it's harder within our
group to be able to come up with some things
to then go to the wia about And he said, look,
the politics big big school, small school. You know somebody,

(07:01):
you know, a head coach at Homestead is going to
think differently than the head coach at Turtle Lake.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
That's that's a fair, fair assumption. I'm I was just
recently appointed to the WI Basketball Advisory Coaches Committee, So.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Hold on, do they really do they reach your stuff?
They because, look, I just love the fact that that
you are very confident and you will just say look
here's and you back it up. You ever, seat right,
you go, here's what I'm thinking, and here's what the
fact that that what you just brought up, maybe maybe
an official from the JV game can can stay one

(07:38):
more and do the clock. I never thought of that,
and and so I'm happier on that advisory board. And
I was the only kidding do they know you or
do they have any idea? Like You're not going to
be a wallflower in these meetings, right.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
No, I don't think you should be a rubber stamp.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
And even the people who disagree with me, I think
that's fine.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
I mean, it's basketball.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
You should be able to have disagreements and still be
cordial and try to come up with the solutions. It's
not you know, we're not trying to figure out world peace.
So let's try to come up with some solutions and
make the game better, even even with the people you
disagree with.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So some other changes that at least people are talking
about nil I think is going to pass.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
So that to me, that's ironic that we are going
to talk about paying kids for money to play high
school basketball. Well, not I guess, not to play, not
to pay to play so much like we're seeing in college.
But kids are going to be have an opportunity to
make money as athletes in high school. But we don't
have a shot clock. That doesn't that doesn't even make
sense to me. I know, It's two separate issues, but

(08:45):
it's still if in the same if.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
You want to put fifty down to Shay, one of
these are going to pass before the other. I put
my fifty on nil.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh Ni L's.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
It is because of the legal ramifications behind it, like
people that WI doesn't want a school to get sued
because the kid can't make money off his likeness. And
that's I mean, it's it passed the Supreme Court, So that's.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. Hey, I don't know
if I should ask this here or not, but being
part of the advisory board with WI A, is that
going to you. Yeah, you're not going to start holding
your tongue on any of this stuff, right, Yeah. They
I don't think they would come to you and say, hey, listen,
you got to tone it down a little bit.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
So my athletic director we had a conversation. I would
say I've probably toned it down a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Maybe a little bit, yeah, but not in that room.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
No, When we have the opportunity to meet in April,
I'm gonna express my opinions and I still speak speak
on things that on Twitter and now the more research
I've done. It's not so much the wi A they're
going to do what the coaches want, but what they're
really going to do is what the administrators want, whether
it be principles.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Or athletic directors.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
So the coaches, if you want changes, you have to
talk to your administrators. You have to talk to your
athletic directors and your principals and say this is what
we want if you really want to make changes.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know, I've coached in schools in the past where
Martin Luther, right, Wayne Jensen, the athletic tried, the administration
all understood the importance of high school athletics, and look,
coach Jensen was like, we need to get some wins.
We need to figure it out because it does something
for the school when you have some success. When you

(10:34):
have schools that are run by administrators that don't believe
that athletics are very important, that's where I think some
schools struggle and coaches struggle, and you see changes when
it comes to coaches and you go like, how did
that happen? How could that happen? And it's just interesting
to me. I know at Homestead, look to be a
good student athlete is important part of that building.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Without question. Principal is very supportive my athletic director.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
He was the one who even helped me get on
the coach's advisory committee. He reached out to LeVar Ridgeway
and said, I think sim would be a good advocate
for the changes that a lot of coaches want to see.
So I'm fortunate with the administration at my school and
my superintendent as well, Doctor Joints.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
He coaches in.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
The youth program like he's a big advocate for sports
as well.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I got to get LeVar to come in studio.
He's a really good dude, and I've had him on
a couple of times, but a quick on the phone.
But the more he grows in that position, the better
things I hear about him. And I think he came
into that position and he was kind of quiet for
a bit, but I think he was trying to figure
it out, get his feet under him. But I can

(11:44):
tell you this that his feet are under him now
and I would love to have him come in and
have these kind of conversations. You're a fan of his,
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
I've talked to him.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
I mean he'll say that it's really what the coaches want.
We'll do what the coaches want. But it has to
obviously come from the w b c A and it
has to come from the people that vote. It is
a bureaucracy, like there's there's steps that have to be
made to make changes. You have different all these different subcommittees.

(12:14):
It does go through a process that sometimes yes.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
It is, that's just what it is. But it can happen.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
You saw it happen with the multiplier like teams man
in the controversy too.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
But two halves going to two halfs.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
I love that. As a coach, you like that.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, I wouldn't mind going back to four quarters, but not.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Without the change because I know the state has talked
about want to be in compliance with the n FHS
and their quarters. I wouldn't mind going back to quarters
if we implemented the shock, Like I don't want to
lose time two minutes or four minutes of playing time
for my kids. It's hard enough to play seven eight kids.
Make it even harder if you lose you know, some

(12:56):
minutes on the clock.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, that's why I liked it. I liked going to
half because it gave gave us as a you know
it'd be an assistant coach with coach Wallers time. It
gave us a little a chance to get a couple
of other kids just a few minutes here or there,
and I think that was that was really helpful. Another
change that at least had popped up of taking the

(13:18):
state tournament and moving games and having you know, state
tournament at Oshkosh, for look, I for me when I
coached the sectional semi finals in the Sectional finals atmosphere. Wise,
it doesn't get any better than that. But I'd sure
like I sure would hate to take away the opportunity
for these kids to play up in Madison.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, the call centers.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
That I mean, kids grow up their whole life one
in the opportunity to play at the call center.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
So I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
I think that conversation about changing some of the locations
is if we're going to add a day and add
more teams to the state tournament.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I miss having I miss having eight you want?

Speaker 3 (14:00):
That's I think that's on the docket. That's one of
the w b c A proposals. They want to have
eight for all five divisions, which which would you would
have to expand the day and you would have to
use multiple facilities in order to do that.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, well, how would you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I wouldn't. I don't. I'm neither yes or no.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I think I mean it's fine, But to me personally,
that doesn't solve the biggest issues that I that I'm
supportive or care about. I think the sectional placement and
how we're going to get to that, how we how
we break up the sectionals. I think that's more important.
That doesn't Adding more teams to state. That does give
more kids the experiences to say that you were you

(14:41):
know you were, you made it to State, and which
is cool, But I still think you don't solve the
biggest issue that we see sometimes in terms of the
quality of the state turns.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Do we need to have as a basketball coach, do
you need to know who's in your regional in you know,
August or whenever they said June? Or you don't need that? Right?
That's the problem and the idea, why don't you wait
until January and figure it out? And you know w
I says, well, you know we put this circle around. No,
you don't. You really don't look at look at where

(15:11):
Brookfield Central had to go or people had to come
to them. I mean they didn't they they don't do that,
and and and I suppose they do it for a lot,
but there are teams that don't. All of a sudden,
they've got people coming from Madison to play against brook
Central when Brooke East is you know right there. And
I just think that you don't have to have that

(15:31):
information that early.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
I think in the past they it had to be
like that. I think it because of trading types. You know,
so I was able to get film on Oscos North
or Suboygan South in like five minutes just text, text.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Here, email here.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
I think when now that with the ability of huddle
and ability to trade film so easily, I think it's
you don't have to separate.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
It like that.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
I think that was the biggest concerned. And how do
you scout teams if you can't get film on them?
When when you may not see that team, but now
you can you can get filmed so easy.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
So yeah, in five minutes, yes, yeah, the days of
me going out with a camera and taking notes, you
don't have to do that anymore. No, Hey, we're gonna
get to a break, We're gonna spend a couple of
minutes with Alie Starr And and and Sean if if
sometimes you don't feel like you have enough joy as
you're coaching enough happiness, I'm going to introduce you to
somebody that that walked away from coaching for a while,

(16:32):
big time college basketball player coaching up at Ashkisch Words
and walked away for a while and now is back
and she has found that joy. And I want to
introduce people to Ali Star, the head girls basketball coach
from Lord's Academy. That third segment will continue. Sean Kriider
and I will continue to talk about some some changes

(16:53):
possible changes, and I want to get his opinion on it,
and I want to find out a little bit about
this year's Homestead team and what he's got coming back.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
only on Fox Sports nine twenty in year, iheartradiop Welcome
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented

(17:13):
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Coolian Studios.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Mike mcgiffern alongside Mike Coast
for the first hour, he is Sean Krider. He's the
head coach at Homestead. Second hour, we'll introduce you to
this week's Colonel Electric Superhero the Week, and then Jr.
Blown he's the top assistant for Iowa State. There in

(17:36):
town the NCAA tournament. They got a big game tomorrow
and Sean before we get to our special guest, JR.
Thirty six years I coached, and he was the best
player I ever coached in every category you can imagine
student athlete, right. He was mentally stronger than anybody I coached,

(17:57):
physically stronger. The lights were never too bright for him.
And the fact that his parents since sixth grade said
you get one bet, if you get two bes, you
don't play basketball, We'll let you fool around in one class,
and they carried that through college. I had the head
coach from Lyla when he was there on my show
and he goes, hey, did Jr's parents see this whole

(18:19):
one B thing with you? I go, yeah, yeah, he said,
he's in there. He is in the library more than
anybody on campus because his parents aren't playing. And I said, no,
they're not. Dad was a Milwaukee police department guy. His
mom was a teacher and they didn't play. And every
part this guy reaches out two, three, four times a year, coach,
how you doing?

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Coach Mary Christmas is checking in, how you bet? And
I love that about him and the fact that I
sent him a text last night and say, look, can
we get five minutes? He goes absolutely, So he's going
to come on when we have Julie and Billy Schwartz
on and we'll talk to him. So, Sean, I did
a I watched the entire three and a half hour
girls the press conference before the state tournament, and because

(19:03):
we did some TV shows over at my twenty four
and you know, you get a lot of coach speak
in those, right, this team we're playing against best team
we've ever maybe the best team in the history of
the state of Wisconsin. All of that, and then Ali
Starr came out the head coach, the girls coach at
Lord's Academy, and the first thing I felt was sadness

(19:23):
because she has so much joy in coaching, and I
don't remember in thirty six years of feeling that kind
of joy that she had coaching. Sean. She they cut
down the net when they won the sectional finals. She
wore the net to church because she wanted Jesus to
see that she had on And I called her and
I was like a stalker, sean, like an old like.

(19:47):
I started reading some of the messages I said to her,
and I could figure out why she wasn't calling me back.
We are now joined by Ali Star, the head girls
coach at Lord's Academy. Coach, how you've been.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
I'm great, thank you, Thank you so much for having me. Guys,
I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Hey, Allie, I thank you so much for calling me back.
And we spent a lot of time on the phone.
I wanted you to be on this show because I
have talked about you a lot. I sent you the
clip on the TV show that I that I talked
about you, and last week on this show, I talked
about you, and I just I've watched your interview a

(20:25):
lot because it made me feel sad in the beginning,
because I don't know if I ever had the kind
of joy you have coaching coaching. When you stopped coaching
and then came back, did you think the attitude that
you've had as a coach has changed, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Undoubtedly Mike, I and first of all, you are associweet.
I did not think you were a stalker by any means.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Thank jat.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
I was so grateful. I was so grateful you reach out.
I could just send your.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
SOULO is good.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
So please don't dismiss that immediately. But no, to answer
your question, Mike, honestly, and I and when I left,
I didn't anticipate coming back. Okay, So when you close
the door, you know that again, I closed it. Maybe
God didn't want to close, but I was closing it
in my mind. You begin to immediately think, why do

(21:14):
I do that? Why did I show up like that?
Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I have more fun?
Why didn't I, like love up on the kids more.
Why didn't I remind them that I was for them
and not against them?

Speaker 6 (21:25):
You know?

Speaker 4 (21:26):
And I grew up in a time we talked about
this yesterday, Mike. I grew up in a time of
like Bobby Knight and John wouldn't right, and I felt
pulled between the two. It's like, gosh, I want to
tell them I love them, but everything tells me like,
am I a good coach? If I'm not kicking?

Speaker 1 (21:38):
You know?

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Balls and chairs and you know, grabbing jerseys and stuff.
And so I feel like my first rodeo, I had
a little bit of an identity crisis of like, Hey,
what kind of coach do I want to be?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Like?

Speaker 4 (21:49):
How do I want to be remembered? Not what is
the world telling me to be? And I think like
that eight year hiatus that I had, my coming back
completely different in many ways, probably same in a lot
of ways, but different in many other ways. And that
is to just again, you saw it, and I'm glad
you saw it the way you saw it. I hate
that it made you feel a little sad that I'll
tell you. Just enjoying and being present in every possession

(22:12):
and loving this game and what it gives you for life.
That's really you know where I'm at right now at
this journey.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
We're talking the journey, We're talking with Alie Starr and
I'm telling you, I love my wife, but she's a
close second right now, and it's just because of the
passion she has to not only love up on this team, Sean,
but to teach these girls the correct way to play basketball.
When you just talked in the first segment, you talked
about look I've had a couple of weeks now to

(22:41):
relax just a bit and refresh. When she talks about
leaving the game for eight years and coming back completely different,
I've known you a long time and you're a deep thinker, Sean.
And again when I say when you talk about the
shot clock and you talk about some of the things
you bring receipts with you because you study and you
read that. When she says that, are you able to

(23:02):
do that in your life in those couple of weeks?
Is basketball now it is twelve months? Are you able
to refresh and try to get the joy back and coaching?

Speaker 5 (23:11):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Without question.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
But I the one thing I'll say is listening to her,
that's that's my fear of ever stepping away. Like I
do love it that much, and I mean I do
need that break to refresh and think about how I
can do things different. But like some of the things
you talked about, coach, I would I would feel that
way if I stepped away, Like I'm not, at least
right now, I'm not ready to no time soon to

(23:34):
give it up. So I would feel that that emptiness
and I don't want to have to try to get
that back. So some of the things that you're talking
about right now, like this, that break allows me to
kind of reflect and look back and then think about
how I can be better.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Hey, coach Star, did you go to games in those
eight hours or the eight years? Did you? Would you
go to high school games and watch games?

Speaker 4 (23:57):
I did not as much. I watched a little bit
more on TV than I than I did in person.
I'm extremely introverted, guys. So that's what's wild about way
what I'm so introverted, Mike, I'm so introverted. I restore
in like silence and isolation. I love to be alone.
It's wild. It's wild, but my But that's another thing,

(24:19):
right I learned over that break because I am a
social person. I'm very I can be social, but I
don't restore with a large group of people. So I
restore when I'm by myself. So that's where a lot,
you know, even the arena at times can be overwhelming
the amount of energy, and you know whatnot, I love
it and I got to find ways to restore. Just

(24:39):
as Coach Sean was saying too, it's just really important
to know that about yourself.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
I think, Sean, are you going to go up to
the Hall of Fame back with this year.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
I don't think if you do, guess who's speaking up there?
Who is Ali Starr?

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Maybe you know what?

Speaker 1 (24:55):
I wasn't sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna try
to get up to it out. Hey Ellie, how did
that happen?

Speaker 2 (25:02):
And what do you know? What?

Speaker 1 (25:04):
What the topic of your conversation, what you're going to
speak on is, Yeah, Mike So.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
A good friend of mine, Nikki Sutter. It's great basketball coach.
You know, my first stint she coached at Oshkosh West,
had really great teams on and off the floor. She
texted me the other day and said, hey, coach Pettig,
you was looking for somebody to speak and I told
them we need a female up there soon, you know,
And I threw your name in the hat. I hope
you're okay with that, and I said absolutely, I'm actually honored.

(25:30):
And so I just sent them a little bit of
a you know what I could possibly speak on, and
just a little bit about myself. And they said, yeah,
come on up, We'll give you five minutes. And I,
you know, that's a sneeze for me. Five minutes. I
want an hour with these yes, yes you do. You know,
it's a sneeze for me, Mike, but I'm excited and honored.
So I'll probably be talking about, you know, my first
experiences as a coach and just kind of what we

(25:52):
talked about at the beginning of this this segment is
just how to find joy in every possession and like
ask yourself, as coach, Seana saying, too, time to restore
me if I can say, like, how do I want
to be remembered in this thing?

Speaker 5 (26:06):
You know.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Of course, undoubtedly these athletes care and they want to
win and all that, and that's important. Some of that
stuff is just so temporary, you know, it's the lasting
stuff like you said, you know, call you up, Merry Christmas,
all that jazz. So yeah, that's kind of what I'll
be speaking on.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
So there's no chance you're going five minutes. I've got
I've got ten minutes, says the over under. And I'm
taken action. I'm taking I'm taking bets on that. Ellie.
We're gonna try and we haven't figured exactly out how
to do this, but you're going to be in this
neighborhood next week for a couple of days, I'm going
to do my best to figure out. When you said, look,

(26:43):
I want an hour, I want to give you an
hour and and and we're going to figure it out.
I'm gonna call you either later today or tomorrow and
try to figure out how we can get you in
studio because I want to spend an hour with you,
and I want to talk about some of the lessons
you've learned when you first coached to where you are
now and how other coaches because a lot of coaches

(27:04):
listen to this show, how they can start to get
the feeling that you've got and trying to learn and
be a better coach and be a better mentor, and
the lessons that you teach these girls. So I'll be
in touch, Allie Starr. I'm a huge fan. I just
damn it, and I look forward to meeting you in person,
hopefully having an hour with you for next week's show.

(27:26):
Have a good weekend. And hey, by the way, how's
Ashcosh lords? How you guys set for next year? You
got some girls coming back?

Speaker 4 (27:33):
Well, you know what, We graduating seven mikes, but I
will tell you we had seven come in as freshmen
that got to experience this work ethic and this legacy
they have definitely left in this program. So I'm excited.
I'm excited. It'll be a different year of coaching, but
I'm really excited and Mike and Sean, I'm a big
fan of yours too, So the feeling is one thousand

(27:54):
percent mutual.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Man, Hey, real quick thumbs up or thumbs down on
a shot clock at high school of basketball.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Oh my gosh. You know, if I have to choose,
I'm gonna go thumbs up.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
There we go, Sean, Coach Crider's pretty happy with you now.
He's a fan of yours for sure. She is Ali star.
She is the head girls coach at Lord's Academy. And
I'm gonna do whatever I can to get her in
studio for an hour next week because I just I
think that that even even older tired coaches that have

(28:25):
grandsons and a granddaughter who's gonna play one day, can
learn about about having joy and and and you know,
accepting and loving the game of basketball even from the stands.
And maybe we can get some tips for some parents
out there and how to just kind of tone it
down a little bit, and we'll find some hopefully some

(28:45):
things from from Ali and some of the things they
do at oscotch Lords and I just think that that
for her and I to spend an hour together, You're
gonna understand after the hour why I've pushed so hard
to have her on ALI. Thanks lot for a couple
of minutes. Have a have a good weekend, and hopefully
we'll get a chance to hang out next week.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
I look forward to it. Mike, thank you, Sean, good
seeing what good chatting with you guys. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
You got it. Thanks. You see how I wanted her
on coach. I'm not kidding. Here's the other story about
this press conference. Uh, the coach from Madison Edgewood who
has had so much success, right, she's been coaching a
long time. She made a comment and they were not
at the same time. She made a comment about how
she wishes she could find more happiness when she coaches,

(29:34):
and she said, look, I you know I'm not the
same coach I was years ago. I think I've softened
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
I took a picture of her on the zoom and
I used to work with a woman that played for
her at Madison Edgewood, and I said, she just said,
you know, she would she wishes she could find more
happiness when she coaches. And she told me a story.
She said, look, when I played for her. This is
years ago, this woman married with three beautiful kids, and
she said, if we didn't win every quarter we played

(30:02):
quarters back then, immediately after the game, we'd have to
go in the gym downstairs in the basement at Madison
Edgewood and do line drills.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
She said.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
So we'd be up by forty going into the fourth quarter,
and she would play just the subs in the fourth
quarter and they'd lose the quarter by one, so we'd
win the game by thirty nine. And immediately after we
shook hands in the basement, and I think of that
movie Miracle again again, like are you kidding me? And

(30:30):
she goes, she doesn't do that anymore. So she has
softened a bit. And I thought, man, with all the
success she's had, and she said, I just I need
to figure out the happiness part of coaching a little
bit more. You're feeling on that.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
I don't think you've Obviously, if you're a coach, you're
doing and you want to win.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
We're all competitive.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yes, that's you can't that can't be the only place
you look for in happiness, like the score on the scoreboard,
or the or the dunk. It has to be in
the relationships.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
It has to be.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
If it's not in the relationships, you won't ever be
fully your cut, won't ever be fully feeled. Like I
love the simple times with my guys, with my players,
like before the game in the locker room, after the game,
team dinners, like seeing them in the hallway, film at
lunch at school, like tech, a text conversation with one

(31:24):
of my players, just laughing about a game that's on TV,
or watching film of another team, like those are the
things that bring happiness to me.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
So one of the things that bothers me as an
old retired coach is I can tell you if you said, hey,
tell me the five best wins you ever had as
a coach and the five worst losses you ever had.
I could break down every one of the five lotches
I can break. I could almost go, look, after half,
here's what happened, Here's what happened down the stretch. Here's

(31:53):
the free throw we missed, and here's the free throw
they missed him we didn't get the rebound. I can
break those down. The biggest wins. Can't tell you a
whole lot about it. I can't. If I asked you
the worst loss you ever had, how much of that game?
Could you tell me a lot? How about the biggest
win you've ever had?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, you got to think.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
About it, right, Yeah, I think we look and again
you reflect and you do a better job than I
think I did of being in the moment as a
coach and enjoying that kind of stuff. And I've been
to a bunch of games and I watch you on
the sidelines, and what I'm impressed with on the sidelines
is when you take a kid out, right, when a

(32:36):
kid has does really well, hits a bunch of threes,
but gets his third file, you know you're right there,
you know, hugging up, slapping on the back, talking to him.
When a kid comes out because he's had a couple
of turnovers in a row, you know you were one
of your staff that's going to go down and have
that conversation. It's all right, man, just just get three minutes,
take a break into a little water. We'll get you
back in strong with the ball. And I watch you

(32:59):
interact with your hitch before the game, and it makes
me smile because I see that part. It's really important. Yea,
and and I thank you. How's Tim Frakes doing.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
He's good, he's home. Matter of fact, I was just
with his dad a couple of nights ago. His dad
is currently the president of my Junior Highlander program.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
He was as Momy went to go pick him up.
So he's home for the week.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Hopefully I get to see because I'm on spring break,
so hopefully we get to catch up.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
He red shirted.

Speaker 5 (33:27):
Ye.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
I think he has the opportunity to see the floor
next year. They had a great season up there at
the same time as coach Towers doing an awesome job,
and next year they have a possibility to be in
the NCAA Tournament. They they lost in the conference championship game.
This year, Minnesoli had an awesome freshman year from Marquete
Gre very much. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to seeing

(33:50):
how that that program continues.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
To Yeah, were you surprised the red shirted a little?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
But I had talked with the coaches kind of going
into it, and then when they got Barnstable from Whitewater, right,
I kind of I saw that the riding.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
On the wall they wanted more wanted a more experienced player.
That's just how it's going right now.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, And I'll tell you what, I don't know if
there's many things more difficult for a kid like him,
who was he was normally the best player on the
floor in any gym. He walked in to red shirt
for a year, to have to do everything that team
is doing, get to every practice, get in the weight room,
do all the dull do all of that, and then

(34:29):
not trust And I don't know if he traveled with
the team or not, but man, it's like you're part
of the team, but you're really not. And that's a
very difficult. At the end, it's going to be great
for him, But man, that freshman year had to be
hard for him.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
I was.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I mean, but I think it's a He's a tough kid,
and I just think it'll make him tougher. And one
thing I'll say about him, nobody's going to outworking. I'll
bet that he's no one is going to outwork Tim Franks,
and that'll carry him not only in basketball, but in life.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know what I loved about that kid, you guys brought.
He was in studio with you last year and we
talked about the current electric Superhero of the week, and
he goes, hey, I got somebody for that, and I
go what. He goes, I got a friend of mine
girl at Homestead. She fits exactly everything you just talked about.
How do we get her nominated? And he looked at
you and said her name, and you were like, oh, perfect,

(35:19):
So you guys nominated her. But Tim Franks right away
was like, I've got somebody a friend of mine fits
that current electric Superhero of the week because she just
keeps giving back and helping people in her community. And
I love that's the part of I can't tell you
what he said when we talked to basketball, but I
can tell you how we lit up and said, I
want to nominate my friend because she would be a

(35:41):
perfect Colonel Electric Superhero the week. We're going to get
to a break. He is Sean Kred, the head basketball
at Homestead. We're going to get back to some changes
and I've got a few more questions for Sean. And
I want to thank missus Krider. What is her first name?
Miya Mia? Thank you. I appreciate that. I know she's
not in the car right because we could bring her in.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
We don't think she's at home.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
She's at home. I'm hoping she's listening.

Speaker 5 (36:04):
Man.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
There's a special place in heaven for coaches wives. Most definitely,
one hundred percent. We're going to get to a break
other side will continue with Sean and then introduce you
to this week's Colonel Electric Superhero of the Week. This
is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores on
Fox Sports nine. Twenty year iHeartRadio. App Well, Welcome back

(36:26):
to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming
live from the Divan to Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios
in studio this hour. Sean Krider, the head basketball coach
at Homestead. Hey, coach. I was surprised that Cedarberg made
it the state and I had to actually apologize on

(36:47):
the air because I didn't talk about it. I'm hardly
at all this year, and I think they surprised. They
surprise you a little bit.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
A little bit. I thought they were good.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Like I said, Logan is a nice players the hours.
I mean, he was All All Conference first team in
a pretty good Conference two years in a row junior,
and I think he was even he might have been
first team or second team even as a sophomore. So
you have a player like that, and then they had
a bunch of multi sport athletes and coach Miller gets

(37:19):
them to play hard, they compete.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, they're they're good. Hey, Oshcotch North is a team
that knocked you guys out. Uh, they were a different
team when they got healthy, and man, they they they
looked good yesterday. I can tell you I kind of
thought that that wisconsolantly through would beat him. But boy
or boy did they play well.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
I picked. I was on a podcast a couple of
days ago. I picked Oscott North to win. I just
thought Zay Mitchell was going to refuse to lose, and
he kind of played that way down to stretch in
that game. It seemed like he kind of ran out
of gas. And but you know, coach Wallace is one
of the best in the state. He has a great program.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Did you get a chance to watch the game?

Speaker 2 (38:02):
I watched.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
So I was at the NCAA Tournament games, but I
was watching the game on my phone streaming, and so
I saw the.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
End of the game.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
I was surprised by the end.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yes, I would thought Mitchell would have had the ball
in his hands, in his hands kind of look.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Cedarberg had two great looks. Their best player had two
from the top, and I can tell you, I believe
you give him five from there in the same situations.
He hits three of them, yes, and the two he
missed the two. And I hope that you know, I
hope that that is going to stick with him at all,
And it won't because he's got a great future. But

(38:36):
he's gonna remember that second look. Man, it was right
there halfway down and popped out. Slinger is going to
be an issue in your conference for a couple of years. Man,
you might want to part of it as you, as
you're on the WI advisory board, try to get him
out of the conference. Man, that's what I would. I
would put that up right now. They're going to be
an issue for a while in that conference.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yes, Conan is both the color boys. I've known him
well since they were young. Great family. The father is
a great guy. Yeah, and then Alex does a great job.
He has He has a some other kids surrounding them
who play hard and play the right way. They will
be a problem for years to come, but it should
be great games.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
We we love competing against them.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Like I said, I'm friends with Alex and and those kids,
so it's gonna be fun to compete against them.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Tell me about Homestead next year. Do you have some
kids coming back?

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Is it uh?

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Is it rebuilding? Tell me Homestead normally doesn't rebuild, a
reload a little bit. What's your thought.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
We're gonna be young.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
My varsity assistant said we're going to be a talented
but glorified JV team.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
And that you don't want to be a talent, ted
of glorified JVT short.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
I think he's exaggerating a little bit.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
We do have two of the more talented uh, we'll
be junior's twenty twenty seven guards in the state coming
back to the team. And then we have one of
the We have one of the most talented freshman classes
in the state. And one kid, Jalen Trotter, happened to
be grandson of Carrie Trotter, former Marquete player.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
He was hurt all year. We expected him to play.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
We played in the first varsity game, came in the
game the first two minutes, had like five points, but
he had a weird foot injury, so he just didn't
play for most of the year. So hopefully we get
him healthy. He'll be a sophomore twenty twenty eight. And
another two other sophomores who dressed varsity played minimum varsity

(40:34):
minutes but started JV practice with us all year. They'll
be in the mix for sure. And then we had
a pretty good JV team. They lost like three or
four games, so we're going to be fresh Yes, we
had so. Craig Robinson, former NCAA coach. His son Austin
Robinson was a freshman on JV last year. He can
shoot the ball, very talented. I'm still growing into his body,

(40:58):
so he'll he'll he'll have a chance to be in
the mix. And then, like I said, the kid named
Ben Hills who was a starter on the JV team
as a freshman, and a kid named Nick Grice who
was a starter on the JV team as a freshman,
they'll be in a mix.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Do you know what I could never figure out? And
I'm really I mean, I'm similar to you, where like
I have my beliefs, right, I figure it out, and
that's how I believe. I could never figure out if
it's better for a kid to a sophomore or a
freshman to be on varsity and be eighth or ninth guy,

(41:32):
but practice with us, or is it better that he's
the number one option on JV and on for the
whole game. And it worked both ways, and it failed
both ways when I coached. What's your thought on that?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Thing? Is more about the kid. One thing I'll say.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
At Homestead, we have because we have three gams, we
can spread.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Out our practices.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
So those kids on most days would practice with us
for the first hour and a half and then go
over to the JV practice after, so they would get
the practice with us the majority of our practice and
then go to the JV practice, so they got the
speed of the game. Then we have some varsity reserve
games as well. They play with us a lot this

(42:15):
past summer, so they won't be like totally inexperienced to
the speed of the varsity games.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
So I think that's the smart way to do it.
If you see kids who have.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Potential to help your program in the next year, let
them play. They have to play, because then they're gonna
be They're gonna be upset and sad if they don't
see the floor. But the reps in varsity, you can't
simulate the reps in the varsity practice in the JV practice.
If they're a skilled kid, they're going to just dominate
the majority of those JV kids and they're not not

(42:46):
gonna get better. They need to play against bigger, faster,
stronger kids. So practicing with the varsity, those those minutes
and that's those hours are invaluable.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
You know, I've told this story, but the guy we
have coming on as a gust a ten fifteen j R.
Blownt when he was a freshman at Dominican, we knew
he was gonna be on varsity. And we had Ray
Nixon and Derek Women and those guys today that was
our senior clouds loaded and Jr. The first three practices
stood off the side a little bit kind of observed.

(43:17):
Watched about the fourth practice anyone on one drill, He'd
be like, I got Ray, and Ray be like, man,
a little freshman, you know, And I'm telling you that
we there were some fistfight, kind of light some brawls,
right and at the end of that season, Ray Nixon
put his arm around Jr. Blown and said, look, I
made you a man. Now, go make somebody else a man.
And off to Wisconsin he went, and Jr. Took over.

(43:40):
But I watched this kid and I thought, man, what
is he thinking? I mean, he was a freshman, but
he was so mentally and physically tough. He knew that
Ray was our best player, and he wanted to go
against Ray every single chance he had. And that as
a coach I loved. He wasn't he wasn't stepping back
from any of that. He and he saw the floor
a lots of freshmen. He didn't start. He's probably sixth

(44:02):
seventh man, but then sophomore year, nothing was too big
or fast for him. And I think what you're doing
is correct. I do. How are the parents with that?
Parents are good at Homestead, They're they're you know, look everywhere.
And I apologize to putting you on the spot with that. Yeah,
I'm I hear more and more from from coaches going, hey,

(44:23):
look I can I can, I can take the grind,
I can take the referee, and I can take all
of this. It's hard right now with with parents thinking
their kids because they're spending a lot of money with
Chapman or with you know, Hero, or with whoever with
AAU they feel like, look, I've done all this in
the summer, so surely my kid's going to be able
to play varsity as a freshman or a sophomore. You

(44:46):
get in the first five difficult, more difficult now than
it used to be.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
But I think the way to try to limit some
of that is communicate.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
You have to communicate, gotta be upfront, gotta tell them.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
But then also you give them the opportunity in the
summer where the games aren't as high stakes and they
kind of see like where there where their kid is
like there's there.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Might be somebody in front of them.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
They're just not ready or two people it's okay, Like
it's okay there, it's a freshman. The career is long,
like it's long, and and for them to be challenged.
I told parents that I want want them to be
I want to be able to dominate. So if they're
that good, they should nominate a JV game. Then I
also want them to struggle some so that's why we'll

(45:32):
put them in a varsity practice, put them in a
varsity reserve game. I want them to struggle to see
where they have to get better. So I think just
the communication part as much as you can.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
I'm not perfect with it. I try to.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
I'm perfect. I don't say perfect, but I am up front.
I do communicate and let them know, so that part.
But like sometimes I would forget, like, oh, there's a
varsity practice, and maybe I forgot to tell the JV
kids who are both It's a lot going on, so
that that type those mistakes happen sometimes. But in terms
of the expectations, I try to be upfront with that.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Have you always been like that? Like again, when when
when I want to know what somebody truly feels, I
gotta come to you because you're just gonna tell me
whether I like it, whether I agree with it or not. Yeah,
like you've said to me, now you're wrong on that coach,
and here's why, and and and again you bring the receipts.
Have you always been one of those guys that that

(46:31):
that that feel like being straight up front with parents
is the best way to do it.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yes, for sure. I think it just allows the relationship
to be stronger because they I think it's it's about trust.
If you say what you if you say what you're
going to do, people will trust you. Whether they like
your decision or not, they still got to they still
have to respect respect it if.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
They're you know, a normal person, right and respect it.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
You know, it's funny you said that because I I
remember coach wallershow on one time it said coach at
the high school level, when you tell a kid that
you're gonna call him at seven o'clock, you don't call
him at six fifty nine, don't call him at seven
to one, call him at seven o'clock. Because once they
gain your once you can get them to trust you. Hey,

(47:15):
I'm going to call you at seven o'clock. Don't do
it early, don't do it late. Seven o'clock. You call him,
and you've got to make sure that you're a man
of your word. Right Listen, I'm gonna pick you up,
take you to school. Well, then you get there and
you pick them up and take them to school. And
what happens then at kids that age sixteen seventeen is
they start to trust you because you're gonna do what

(47:38):
you say you're gonna do. Look, if you keep working
hard in practice, I'm gonna find some time for you, you know,
And I think that that's so important with what you
do not only as a teacher, but as a coach, right.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yes, for sure, yep, just I think that's like I
talked about earlier. That's the relationship part, and you can't
have any strong relationship if there's no trust.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Hey, WIA, advisory board, do me a favor when you
get Look, I understand that maybe on social you need
to tone it a little bit, but man, when you
get in those rooms, man, don't back down. Be you
because I think I think your idea and how things
should progress and where we should go. I think we're
on the same page. And I and look, if I

(48:19):
if I have a question, I'm gonna come to you
because you're just gonna tell me what you believe in
the truth. And I appreciate that from you. More time
away from the family being part of the advisory board.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
She's all right, yeah, we don't.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
We don't meet as often as maybe some boards meet.
So and then I think it's I think it's over
zoom so and it's volunteer, right, it is volunteer. You're
not getting paid one point two million change the world.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeah you would, Yes, you would, coach. Is so good
to see you. I look, I thanked you over the
years for the amount of time you've given me in
this show, and I keep coming back to the well
because I'm a big fan. Good luck. Where's that play going,
by the way.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Uh, Northern Michigan.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Good for him?

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Yep, Matt Marzak is a great, great job he you know,
he loves Wisconsin kidds. Yes, he has a kid playing
in the state championship game tonight in Hinson Guard from Marshfield.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Man that that.

Speaker 5 (49:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Chris Fisher, the head coach, I really liked him, bigfan.
Do you know what? He got emotional at press conference
talking about that kid, and he said he is he
is the best basketball player ever to put on a
jersey at Marshfield.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
I wouldn't just I mean, obviously I don't know everything
about Marshfield, but that kid can play. I've liked him
since he was a young kid. So I could see
coach saying that, Yeah, he's a good guy, very good.
He practiced at Homestead when they play a couple of
times when they played at the Yearbook, he just texted
me and we've formed a relationship that way, just whenever.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
He went to high school there. Yes, yeah, he's a
Marshfield through and true guy and uh yeah, he did
a really good job. Elie Starr and the girls side
and Coach Fisher on the boy's side were my two
favorite on all of It was seven hours. I sat
and watched it. I know that was a lot. It
was too much from the beginning, but when we get
to about division two, it's like, all right, I've heard that.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
If you started division five and go down yes, okay.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah, And then I think Ali her one of the coaches,
know the good that woman coached from Turtle Lake first
time in the history of WSL. But her computer did
her sounding work, so we had to push her back.
So it went even longer. No more of those for
a while. I'm not gonna If they have a baseball one,
I'm not doing it. He is Sean Kreider, head coach

(50:34):
at Homestead Coach. Thanks a lot, have a good offseason,
Thank you, refresh and reflect, I will you got it.
We're gonna get to a break. The other side of
the break will introduce you to this week's Colonel Electric
Superhero of the Week. He is Morgan Schwartz from Waukesha South.
At ten fifteen, we're gonna talk to j R. Blount,
who is coaching tomorrow. He is the top assistant at

(50:56):
Iowa State. We're going to also talk with Morgan Schwartz's
uncle Julian Schwartz and his dad, Billy Schwartz. It'll be
in studio with us on the other side. This is
the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back
to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by

(51:17):
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. We're
coming live from the Donovan and Jorganson Heat and Coolian Studios.
Any issues you have with your HVAC, I cannot tell
you enough, go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. Forty years
in business. They've got three offices West Dallas, New Berlin
and Mcgwanago and they will take really good care of you.

(51:40):
At ten fifteen or so, we're going to reach out
and talk to j R. Or Blunt. He is the
top assistant at Iowa State. But I love this segment
ten o'clock segment are Kernel Electric Superhero of the Week.
I even love it more when a kid gets nominated
from his school, and I happen to know his dad,
and I happen to know his uncle and MORTGANE. Schwartz

(52:02):
from Walk Show south Man. He's got a lot going on, Morgan.
It's good to meet you, Horria.

Speaker 7 (52:06):
Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having
me on.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, you bet, man, you got me your stuff way
earlier than most of these current Electric superheroes, and I
say thank you. Go to the current Electric Facebook page.
Look at the picture. Really good looking young man, and
when you read the bio, you're gonna understand that this kid,
he kind of gets it. Man, he gets it. Morgan,
all the stuff that you do. First of all, you're
multi sport athlete. Correct, Yeah? What sports do you play?

Speaker 6 (52:31):
Three sports for the last three years soccer, basketball and track,
and then I'm making the switch to golf this spring.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
You're not gonna You're not gonna be a part of
the track program. I don't in the jumping coach when
it's pretty close to you or what. Yeah, you're gonna
go play golf.

Speaker 7 (52:47):
Yeah, I thought I try something new.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
That's good for you. Great point average.

Speaker 7 (52:52):
Four point two, four point two.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Man, Billy's just like you. You and me, right, boy, Yeah,
I don't want to talk about that athelete. It's good
to see you. We You and I got a chance
two days ago after your son was nominated to be
the co Electric Superhero. The week we got a chance
to spend some time on the phone. Man, I don't know,
I've talked to some proud fathers, right, I don't know

(53:16):
if I've talked to one who's more proud of his
son than you are. This kid is doing great stuff
in the in the school, in the classroom, in our community.

Speaker 8 (53:25):
Yeah, thanks for having us on. Yeah, Morgan's special, you know, academically,
very strong, multi sport athlete and you know he does
a lot, like you said, for the community and our school.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Morgan, when you walk into the gym at Wakshaw South
and you see your uncle's jersey, you don't know, maybe
the best athlete ever to come out of Walkshaw South
and better man than basketball and athlete. And that's saying something.
I know that you and you and Julian are really

(54:01):
close and we're going to talk to him in the
second segment. Any pressure walking through the hallways and walking
to South with people knowing who your dad is and
who your grandfather and who your uncle is.

Speaker 6 (54:13):
Yeah, and I know that a lot of people would
probably assume that. I know, definitely walking in freshman year,
that was the first time attending a public school for me,
so a bit of an overarching presence i'd see, But
especially these last couple of years and being on varsity
for basketball, it's just my career in general. I would
almost I look up to the rankings and that big

(54:38):
poster board eventuals at the top, and then as of
last year, then's jersey, you know, just in practice and
stuff when I guess i'd say any motivation or just
like a little pick me up, i'd look up to that.
So I guess people think I would face a lot
of pressure, but I kind of say it's the opposite.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm really happy to hear that, because look,
he'd be the first to say, don't be me, be you.
And I talked to your uncle yesterday about you a
little bit right just to make sure that he was
coming in, and I said, Hey, what kind of kid
is that? He said, Man, he's a good he's a
really good athlete. He's a better kid, and he's really
proud of you. As well talk a little bit about

(55:18):
some of the things you do outside of school. Obviously
that servant leadership art that that somebody needs to have
in order to be a Kernel electric superhero. The week
before we get into some of the things that you
do in that space. Where do you think that that
came from, because it's a learned behavior, and where do
you think the idea of giving back to your community

(55:39):
for you came from?

Speaker 6 (55:40):
M Yeah, I'd say it's just how I was brought up.
I attended preschool three eighth grade. I attended Little Lutheran School,
Beautiful Savior Lutheran right down the hill from South so
right in its backyard. And I guess it's I just say,
growing up in in that in that school, Like I
said on my bio, faith in God driven, just growing

(56:03):
up as a Christian. That really pushes me to just
want to help others and be selfless.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
You know, I love the fact that you how old
are you?

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Not?

Speaker 7 (56:14):
Eighteen nineteen in May?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Eighteen years old and you're willing live on the radio
to talk about that part of your life. And Morgan,
I do a show called Faith in the Zone. So
you are in a safe space here to be able
to bring up that part of your life. And I
love the fact that you're willing to say, listen is
a Christian, this is where this is a big part
of my life. And thank you for doing that. Hey,

(56:36):
let's talk about some of the things that you do.
You're an advisor on school's sal team, which is a
student athlete leadership team. Can we talk a little bit
about what that is?

Speaker 6 (56:46):
Yeah, I know arthlet director mister s. I think he's
set it up really to be a big thing, maybe
my freshman year because i'd heard other kids were in that,
and then I kind of got invited to join my
soft summer after my sophomore year and since then it's
been great. It's about twenty it's grown a little bit,
but start off fifteen twenty of like select student athlete leaders,

(57:09):
you know, who are leaders throughout the school, like basically
the school's image on the athletics side, and we just
go out and do things in the community out of
the your goodness of our hearts and like last year
and we're planning on doing it this spring it again.
We run annual leadership Summit. We did it at Carol
last year for all of our kids are invited at

(57:30):
South to come if they're interested, and then we go
out participate in other schools. They have leadership summits, but
then going out like this February, we went to Horney
Middle School and walk a shaw and helped an organization
do something with their middle schoolers, and we'll just go out.

Speaker 7 (57:45):
A couple couple of years ago we went to the
Susan B. Susan G.

Speaker 6 (57:49):
Coleman Walk downtown Milwaukee and helped hand out water. So
just stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
We're in Brookfield, we're going in Brookfield, We're in Waukesha,
South Gear so people know that. Good for you. What's
going on with you next year? Do you know you?

Speaker 6 (58:02):
I'm kind of in between deciding I've got maybe I'll
go play basketball up at Ripping College my dad's mom's
alma mater, or take maybe the D one side.

Speaker 7 (58:13):
I was looking at Minnesota.

Speaker 6 (58:14):
I'm waiting to hear back from Northwestern and maybe go
there and try to be a manager for their basketball team.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Man, you're gonna have multitask there. That's a tough job. Yeah,
and you know what, We're going to talk to your
uncle about that and your dad coach on the college level,
So being a manager for sure, Billy, I'm hoping. Look,
ripping has a special place in your heart obviously, and
Morgan's mom's heart as well. But when we talked about it,
you said, look, whatever decision Morgan makes, I feel like

(58:42):
it's going to be a good decision because he's you know,
he's praying about it and he's going to make the
right decision for him. If you could push him one way,
would you help that? Would you hope that ripping might
be the place that he ends up?

Speaker 5 (58:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (58:56):
Yeah, Ripping is a very special Yeah, and I'll spot
my heart. Spent seven years of my life there, five
in college and played three sports, and then was an
assistant basketball coach right out of college and had soccer
coach for two years. So but I told him, you know,
you got to make the decision that's best for you. Yeah,
you know, whether it's academically, whether it's you know, being
a you know, a student manager at a at a

(59:18):
D one school, or you know, continue playing because you know,
once once it's over, it's over. You know, old man
basketball isn't all that fun.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
So yeah, no, I drove to Peoria, Illinois a couple
of weekends ago with my son who's married to two kids,
and he's in he's in this tournament. It went on
for three weekends, so I said, I'll go with you
on one. And they they do they they do that
Ela mendy okay, and which I love. And he hit
he hit a couple of threes to get him and

(59:50):
then he hit it. He hit a couple of free
throws to get him into the next weekend. And I said,
I'm not driving back. Hey, We're gonna get to a
break and then we'll get to j R. Plunk, you
know what. That's okay. That way we'll have a little
bit more time with him. We're going I'm gonna I'm
gonna have Julian come and join us, and then I'm
gonna have you join us for that last segment. We're
going to get to a quick break and then we'll
talk with Jared Blunt. He is the top assistant at

(01:00:13):
Iowa State. This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
only on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Welcome back, Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School
Sports show presented by your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores NCAA time, man, And you know, I

(01:00:34):
love the fact that they sent Iowa State to Milwaukee.
I do because head coaches from here, the top assistants
from here, one of the best players in Milwaukee. And
I reached out to Jared Blunt and if you've listened
to my stuff over the years, the best player I
ever coached in thirty six years, all around right, academically, spiritually, physically, mentally,

(01:00:55):
refuse to lose. We lost once his junior and senior
year went back to back state championships. And uh, just
one of the nicest men that I know and works hard,
really good basketball coach. And if you watch how Iowa
State plays defense, you'll see j R. Blount all over
that coach. Thanks a lot for a couple of minutes
of your time. Julian Schwartz, Billy Schwartz and studio with

(01:01:18):
me and man, how you feeling. Did you get any
sleep last night?

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Oh? Man? Hei coach, guys, how we're doing? Yeah, a
little bit, A little bit. I mean we had an
earlier game, so kind of get back and knock out
some stuff on old miss and you know, watch some film,
but we got a little bit or we'll be well
lasted and ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Hey, coach, it's been it's been a really good year,
a little bit of an up and down year for
for for Iowa State. Feeling like you guys are playing
as good at basketball at the end of the year
as as you were in the beginning.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
Yeah, you know, I think it's we were playing at
a at a really high level. I mean that November December,
we had some injuries, you know, guys growing and Melon
broke his hands, so kind of getting back into the
groove of things. But for us and our guys, I mean,
we just talked about doing the things our daily habits
every day. So you know, I thought yesterday was a

(01:02:16):
good step defensively and we got out and score some
best and transition and you know, we know as this
tournament goes on, it's going to get harder and harder.
So it's like, hey man, we got to come out
and rear and fight the battle.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Hey Jared, what was it like when when you found
out that you're coming home for a couple of games
that had to be fun? Huh?

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
How it was? School? My phone started blowing up everyone
wanted tickets, and my mom's trying to get the whole
church into the building. And it's like, hey, man, like
it's funny. And I don't think people know in the
NCAA tournament you have to pay for the tickets. Coaches
got to pay there one hundred and fifty dollars a ticket.
So it's like, oh, man, Like my dad's like, I
got to bring three guys and my mom and I

(01:02:57):
got these people and then all of a sudden they're like, hey, like,
you know, mounts two thousand dollars out of your pocket.
But no, it's good. You know, get back and see
family and friends. And you know, I think our fans
travel really well. So it's only a five hour trip
for us too, so that that's productive, is too well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Sean Kreider was and who's no longer in studio, but
he was. He was there and he said, man, that
Iowa State fans get after it. Man. He said, it
was really fun and it's going to be even better tomorrow,
he said, But Matt, I was shocked how many Iowa
State fans you got. Your your guys travel well, don't they?

Speaker 5 (01:03:32):
Oh travel great? I mean we went to Maawi earlier
in the year and we had the whole GM Pact
of Iowa state people. It's it's a very passionate fan base,
for sure, and we appreciate it. I mean, it was
like a it's like a home game when we travel
on the road to a lot of places, especially in
the Midwest. So it's something we definitely don't take for granted.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Hey, Julian, when when he started, when your started talking
about Matt, all these people calling me and I had
a one hundred and fifty you were laughing over there.
I'm sure you've got a few kids. He's got the
money he can take. If he's got extra tickets he
can call. I'm sure on the second page near the bottom,
but you know he's got three pages, so I'll hang

(01:04:14):
with that for sure. Hey, Julian, you know the kind
of pressure that Jr. And the kind of time that
they put in at this point, and look, he's in
the middle of it. Now you've stepped You've stepped out
for a minute, and to be back at it. I
think next year, if I had to guess when JR.
Gets a job, Hey, I can get you Julian's number.

(01:04:35):
J Yeah, that's awesome, but you know what their day
to day kind of the template right now, how difficult
is and look, you have to enjoy it and you've
got it. You've got to be able to reflect and say, Okay,
this is like, this is really fun. But man, when
you're in the middle of it, it's hard.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Right. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:04:57):
And I assume even for jarr to be at home,
as great as that is, I mean, you're just you're
so locked in, you're, you know, laser like focused. And
the one thing jer I was gonna ask you just,
you know, the one thing. It's very visible with Iowa State,
which is really cool, Like and I heard coach alsa

(01:05:19):
Berger talk about like their time out. They treated time
out kind of like a pit stop, and it's very
very cool. If you watch Iowa State just the way
they dress, you know, it's very uniform and military. You know,
you talked about wanting some military and everything, very disciplined
and all that. I was wondering, what watching you do
you kind of oversee the defense, like Mike was saying,

(01:05:41):
what's kind of and then do you have a like
scouting are you do you have a are you involved
in every scout or do you guys split it up
how's that going.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
Yeah, No, definitely, I mean, I mean what TV does
has been great for a program. I mean I think,
you know, a speech to his leadership. You know, we
all wear the same thing even in practice, head coach
to fifteenth man. We all wear the same thing. When
we travel, we all do that as well, you know,
And I think it just it kind of gives an

(01:06:12):
ownership to everybody within the program of like, hey man,
you represent Idowa State. Nobody's bigger than anybody else. So
I mean, when TJ walks around, you wouldn't know he
was the head coach unless you obviously know his face.
But he could just be another coach like you know,
and I think that special. But his leadership and his
autonomy that he gives us, you know, creates the culture

(01:06:33):
and all that credits him. And yeah, I mean I
think when we go throughout it, first of the timeouts,
I mean it basically goes the offensive guy goes and
I go, which I represent the defensive part of me
and Coach Green, and then TJ speaks and then there
may be whatever we have to clean up at the end,
but everyone gets about thirty seconds to kind of short

(01:06:55):
bursts of what we want to get to the guys.
We never talked about things that have happened in the past,
so we don't go say like, hey man, on that
back cut you got, Like it's like, hey man, the
back cut already happened. Like, so now we're talking about
what we will do moving forward to be successful as
opposed to what happened when we weren't successful. Because as

(01:07:17):
you know, former players like they know when they mess up,
like we don't need to beat it into their head again.
It's like, hey, what we will do moving forward is
if they do come out and set it back, we'll
make sure they go through our chest and it's time. Okay, cool,
Like so we move on quick with that. Scouting wise,
do you do a little bit.

Speaker 9 (01:07:35):
Are you Are you locked in on the other team's
offense everything.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
Yeah, So we do a lot of work over the
last four years where I'll present the personnel of every
single team and Coach Green and I will work for
I do the on ball defense, coach Thing does the
off ball. But yeah, you're locked into every game. So
it's it's a little bit different than hey, like this
is my scout, Like, hey, I got this team or whatever,

(01:08:01):
you got every single game. Uh, the presentation of every game.
So last night when we got back, I presented the
Old Miss, and you know, you kind of got to
be working ahead. I couldn't already have known Old Miss
before we before they won the game, because it was like, hey,
it's coming at you. Game finishes that vibe. We present
the scouts to our team at six, so you know,

(01:08:22):
I had some familiarity with them just from watching over
the last couple of weeks. But you know it's like, hey,
you got to be ready to go, and you always
got to be ready to move forward.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
We are talking with Jared Bloont. He is top assistant
at Iowa State. Hey, Jared, do you have them guys
on that are that are on your staff or do
you have guys that break down film or when you
when you when you needed to get to figure out
what Old Miss does. I'm sure that they had everything
lined up for you.

Speaker 5 (01:08:50):
Oh. Absolutely, Like they make me look really smart in
front of the guys. But our gas, a couple of
gas that we worked with, are constantly breaking down saying
and the managers are constantly breaking down. So I mean basically,
when we got back to the hotel last night, they
already had the game, the Ole Miss in North Carolina
game broken down. It's on their computer that I can

(01:09:12):
go through and just kind of watch, you know, specifically,
I watched all the offensive plays, all the scoring plays,
all the ball screen plays, and they do a great
job all that, and then I'm able to present it
to the team of like, hey, look, these are the
four actions that they ran the most. You know, TJ
makes it a lot very simple for our guys, where

(01:09:32):
we're less concerned about what Old Miss do it does
if more concerned about how we're going to be successful.
So we're not going to go over ten of their plays.
We're going to say, hey, these are the ball screens
that they may run. Here's two or three of them.
Here's how we guard. We've seen them since June. This
is what we will do.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Hey, last question, I know I got to get you going.
You only had till ten thirty. And I really appreciate this, Jay,
Old Miss. The they start for seniors and junior so
that it's an older team. What part of their offense
might keep you up at night a little bit?

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
No, I mean they Chris Bear's teams when we play
them at Texas Tech and Texas when they're in the
Big twelve, they're they're so physical. They play downhill and
they play in the paint, and the biggest thing that
we talk about defensively is taking away the paint. It's
one of the best things that we do. We're able
to be in gaff, We're able to be active in
the paint and then have physical confrontations at the rims

(01:10:32):
what we talk about all the time. And they present
a factor of two eleague guards that can get downhill
and get by guys and then three big bodies that
they're going to the glass or driving it downhill. So
for us, we talk to our guys about we got
to keep the ball in front. We talk about collisions
on the basketball where we want to make them shoot

(01:10:54):
jump shots, contest the jump shots. They're trying to turn
them over. So it'll be a battle of content rasting
styles because they're going to be trying to drive it
at us. They only make eight three the game and
we're gonna be trying to keep it out in the
pain and turn them over.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Hey, last thing, a couple of view with state recruits
still fell. One got beat last night. One slay from
state championship and I'll tell you what, I don't have
a dog in the fight. But boy am I rooting
for Milwaukee Academy of Size. Yeah, I got ba Key's
a really good dude and he and he has built
this beautiful program, and I hope that they get the

(01:11:32):
deal done this afternoon.

Speaker 5 (01:11:35):
No, it's it's been special. I mean, as a over
at Ascotts North, you and mister basketball, you know the
special testaments. I mean, he's one of the hardest workers.
You know, he's battled through stuff and they've had ups
and down this season. And then I was contin Lutheran
got him yesterday. It was a great team. And then
you know Bateman over there at the m as you know,

(01:11:57):
I talked to him this morning. I said, man, you
told me in the beginning of the year, I'm gonna
win a state championship. And he gets up at five
am every day and works out and he's he's fully
committed to this day right here. Man, don't don't leave
anything a chance, leave it all on the floor. So
we're excited to follow it. We will be. We're getting

(01:12:18):
down with practice right when his game starts, so we'll
be able to sit down and watch it all and
hopefully see him win it all.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
That's awesome. He is Jared Blunt, watch Iowa stake and
and if nothing else, watch the crowd because they are
into this thing. They follow the cyclones and big fans
of this team. Jake, good good luck tomorrow, thanks laugh
for a couple of minutes your.

Speaker 9 (01:12:39):
Time, Thanks you, guys, Digret ja yep, good luck man,
thank you, Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
Hey, So, guys before we're gonna spend a couple of
minutes just you and we'll bring Morgan back to that
that last segment. My daughter called me yesterday and she
said that why why are there so many coaches on
the college level? And I go, goes, you know, they
only have five guys playing and I said, well, they've
got you know, twenty in the program. And she said,

(01:13:06):
but what did they do, like there's so many of them?
And I go, you know what, I don't know that answer,
but I know a couple of guys that might and
they're gonna be in studio. So, Julie, when you look
at a staff and there's you know, Wisconsin, it's you know, yeah,
some of the guys we know, But then there's a
lot of guys that we don't, and there's eight, nine,
ten coaches sitting over there. You give me an idea

(01:13:30):
on some of the staffs that you've been on. You
obviously break it down where look, you're one guy's just
going to record or tape or do you know, I know,
choco legs. You know how many tips one guy's doing tips.
Talk to me a little bit about the amount of
work that these staff members do.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
Yeah, it's it's a lot.

Speaker 9 (01:13:49):
I think it's it's grown over these last few years.
Oh yeah, And visibly it almost looks like maybe too much,
you know, I mean it's you know, you look at
the benches sometimes in there's it's like one player to
one coach ratio. I mean, it's it's kind of crazy.
But obviously the coaches, the head coaches you know, have

(01:14:13):
have their philosophy and and like I alluded to with
coach Osberger, I think I think they're doing an unbelievable
job in terms of again, if you really watch their
huddles and late game situations and so forth, you can
really see the individual roles and responsibilities. You know, it

(01:14:33):
does no good the same things that like practice, you know,
the where the game's gone now a lot of a
lot of head coaches will sign you know, one of
the assistants as like an offensive coordinator's kind of gone football.
You get OFFENSI quarter defensive coordinator maybe personnel based.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
When you watch Iowa State j R. Doesn't get up
or eat right, he barely watches the offensive so.

Speaker 9 (01:14:55):
He's still When I was at like Georgia Tech, my
pretty much my whole focus was on the defensive. And
I just think that's the way it's it's gone. It's
more football. I think it's good because you know, you
might have let's say you've got ten coaches over there
and and nothing's really dictated assigned. Now you've got ten
guys watching everything, but they're really watching nothing, right. You know,

(01:15:19):
it's a great point where whereas you know to really
lock in and specialize and so But I think the
other thing too, is it's money. It's money. It's it's
college sports. I think is at least college basketball, college
pro sports. And I just think it's money. I think
money's driving everything. And I think they can afford all

(01:15:40):
these assistants now. And you know, the there's more money
players are getting paid, so there's just a lot of
roles and responsibilities out there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
Hey, Billy, when you were you coached at Rippinos, also
coached at at Carrol, you didn't have fifteen right assistant
coaches that that level of Division three, but I know
you guys had four or five right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
We did.

Speaker 8 (01:16:04):
Yeah, two things. One with being at Carroll from twenty
thirteen to twenty nineteen, we had five coaches, okay, and
then we had a GA or four coaches in a GA.
And then we had some managers, but nothing like the
D one level. Thursday afternoon, Morgan and I went down

(01:16:24):
to the fire serve and saw four teams practice. I'll
tell you what I did that three years ago by myself.
I was one of twelve people in the stands. I
would say on Thursday afternoon. This year Morgan and I
went Kentucky had the most. We saw Troy, Kentucky, Illinois,
and Xavier.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Okay, those four.

Speaker 8 (01:16:43):
We couldn't get down there for the first four, but
Kentucky traveled. I would say they probably had one hundred
and fifty once their practice was done. I bet you
there wasn't even one hundred people. And Morgan I sat
front roll, third row, both sides of I serve, and
we talked about this. The Division IE level, there was
more more coaches and player personnel and managers than the
fourteen roster players.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Did they have thirty minutes or an hour?

Speaker 8 (01:17:07):
What you know three years ago? That three years ago?
I'm almost positive it was longer. I think they went
from sixty minutes down to forty okay this year, but
it was it was all shots.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
It was all shots, all shots. See, I remember coaching
when I was at Dominican. It was when we could
get thirty minutes or twenty minutes on the floor up
in Madison, and that was a really cool experience. And
there was a lot of people in the stands for that,
and I was a little surprised by that, but we
got I think it was twenty minutes. So it was

(01:17:39):
you know, three and two, two on one, get shots, shots, shots,
and just to kind of get a feel for the
different size of the floor. Now we had we had
done some things to get on the college size floor
prior to that. But just get the kids. You know
how you're going to feel when you're shooting, because if
you if you haven't gotten any shots up on those rims,
it's a whole different experience. I love the fact that

(01:18:02):
you guys were down there on Thursday. If I had time,
I was going to try to get there for a
while on Thursday because I think that would be really
cool to watch what they do with that forty minutes.
How much are you putting in there? You putting anything in?
Are you looking at spacing or are you just getting
shots up? And most of these guys are just getting
shots up? Yeah, that was it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:20):
If anybody, Xavier went up and down a little three
man weave real quick, just to get loose.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
But three years ago, Purdue.

Speaker 8 (01:18:30):
The reason I say that, I think it was longer
three years ago because Purdue got after it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Did they really practice a little bit?

Speaker 8 (01:18:37):
So I think there's a little bit more time.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
But I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:18:41):
Went down to the games last night with a good
friend of mine and going back tomorrow. It's really really
electric in the advisor.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Are you able to enjoy college basketball, Julian, because you've
been on the inside right and you have. Yeah, you
look how the sausage just made you know that. Are
you able to just sit back and enjoy college basketball
for what it is? If you want to just be
a fan and enjoy a game.

Speaker 9 (01:19:08):
Yeah, yeah, I've come to, you know, the last year
or so just uh really enjoy just just kind of studying,
observing different you know, different coaches, different philosophies, different systems.
The one thing that's been nice for me being out
of it this last year, you know, after Georgia Tech,
kind of came home, really wanted to just spend time

(01:19:30):
with family. To be honest, you know, I'm single still,
you know, eleven years away from home, four in Memphis,
seven in Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
You know, I can it's a lot.

Speaker 9 (01:19:39):
Yeah, So so it's been nice this last year just
really devoting a lot of time. You know, I got
to coach Morgan, watch him, you know, play probably fifty
games with you know, with uh with summer and spring
and fall and so forth. But so I really really
enjoyed that. I spent a lot of time with my
dad just from a basketball standpoints, and been awesome with

(01:20:01):
Billy so farth So. But the one thing I would
say is I'm really kind of itching to get back in.
I think being out has been a blessing in that
I now know, you know, I'm forty four going on
forty five. I would like the coach to you know,
retirement another twenty years. I just want to just got
to catch a break.

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
It's hard.

Speaker 9 (01:20:20):
It's hard getting jobs though.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
Julian, and I got to tell you one of the
reasons I'm so happy that you're here. In the first hour,
we had on a coach. Her name is Allie Starr.
She's the girls coach from Oshkosh Lords. And because I
did some TV shows for my twenty four for preview shows,
I had to sit on the press conferences three and
a half hours for the girls, three and a half
hours for the boys, and you hear a lot of

(01:20:42):
the same coach speak. This is the greatest team we're
playing against that we've ever seen, blah blah blah. And
then Ali Star, this woman from Oshkish Flirts came on
and she still had the net around her neck. So
this was Sunday night. They won it on Saturday. She
wore the net to church because she wanted Jesus to
see she had then on and Julian she had so

(01:21:04):
much joy coaching, and she talked about leaving the game
for a number of years, for like eight years to
because she was having kids. And she said what she
was able to do in those eight years is refresh
and then miss it, and when you refresh and miss it,
you come back different. And I think that's you. If

(01:21:24):
I look, if I'm one of these guys, if I'm
somebody who needs an assistant, somebody who is refreshed and
getting ready to get after it again, I'm calling you
because I'm like, look, he got to wait from it
for a year, and now he misses it and now
he wants he's but he's chopping at the bit to
get back at it. And we all know he's a
really good coach, and you got to be known as

(01:21:45):
a great recruiter. And so I'm just wondering if you
understand being you get a little sad and you're like, Lord, why,
I'm like, i want to keep coaching, but right now
I'm not going to be able to do that. And
I think there's a reason for that. I think there's
a plan that the Lord has for you, and that
is get get home, get refreshed, hug your brother, hang
out with your nephew, hang out with your dad and

(01:22:07):
your family and your friends. Coach at a different level,
and then we're gonna get you back. And I think
that's gonna happen.

Speaker 9 (01:22:13):
I appreciate that I need to sign you as my agent.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
You know what, I'm a fifty percent guy. I'm a fid.
The mcgimbret agency's all about fifteen percent. Brother. We're gonna
get to a break. The other side of the break,
we had talked with Morgan Schwartz, who's our current Electric
Superhero of the week. We're gonna ask him to join
us as well. I've got Billy Schwartz and Julian Schwartz.
And if you've been anywhere around high school basketball or

(01:22:38):
Waukeshaw youth basketball for I don't know how your dad good, Yeah,
a long time. You know the Schwartz family, and so hey,
you either love him or sometimes you don't, you know, Billy. Look,
Billy teed me up a few times as a ref
and I deserved it twice with that third one that
was uncalled for. It it was uncalled for. We're gonna

(01:22:59):
get to a break. We'll continue this conversation. I've got
a question on the other side for Julian about social
media when it comes to high school basketball players and
they need to be a little careful, and I'm going
to talk to him a little bit about that and
then have Morgan join US as well. This is the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local
Pick and Save in Metro Market stores only on Fox

(01:23:22):
Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to
the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Save in Metro Market stores. I'm Mike
mcgiffern in studio with our Cernel Electric Superhero the Week.
He is Morgan Schwartz from Walkers South, along with his
father Billy and his uncle Julian. Julian, I just got
to ask you a quick question. As an assistant coach

(01:23:44):
at the college level years ago at another radio station,
I had a guy in from Mississippi State on the
football staff and all he did on Thursday, assistant coaches
gave him a list of guys throughout the country that
they wanted to recruit, and on Monday he'd have to
come back and he'd cross off. If he had a
list of fifty, forty of them would be crossed off.

(01:24:07):
His whole job was to find each of these recruits
on everything they do on social media. And he said, look,
I got guys that well on one Facebook, a post
or whatever. They would have themselves at a church youth function.
And then the ones that they thought they hid, they
they're at some beach with a kager and standing out
all night and getting arrested. I found all of it.

(01:24:29):
And I'm wondering if if you had a chance to
talk to high school age kids about what they do
on social media as a college assistant basketball coach, what
would you tell them?

Speaker 9 (01:24:42):
Yeah, I think you got to be ultra ultra, you know, careful, mindful,
And I would even say even the college kids, because
now what's happening is, you know, college coaches programs are
recruiting the portal, actually recruiting the portal. You know, college

(01:25:03):
kids more than actually high school kids. And alls you
hear now is about we got to get the portal right.
We got to get the portal right. We got to
find the right character, the right fit kids. So I
think when you talk about social media, your alignment is
is ultimately you're talking about character, And so I think
you've got to be very intentional and very selective, mindful

(01:25:26):
of how you treat that. Not only you know what
you post like, we'd always say, we'd always tell our guys, hey,
like a like or a retweet is your own. I
mean you got to take ownership of that, right, you
know you own that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
Hey, do you miss the recruiting party?

Speaker 5 (01:25:40):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
Yeah, Ude, I love the recruit I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Think everybody did. No, I don't think everybody does.

Speaker 9 (01:25:45):
I like talking to like Billy did too. I know
Billy is a great recruiter with Carol, and I know
he was the same way that he really enjoyed appreciated
like just the relationships you end up developing with these
kids where there's a lot of assistance that I think
think that it's a waste of time or they don't
have the time, you know. You know, Listen, I was single,
so it was you know, it was easier, you know,

(01:26:08):
and I get it. For me, that was probably, to
be honest, that was probably an advantage. But it's it's
an opportunity just to be a part of the kid's life,
even though you know a lot of times you're statistical,
you're probably not going to get the kid. You know,
it's it's in the end, it's hard, but you have
an opportunity to make a you know, an impact on
a kid's life.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Is you know, before I get back to Morgan, Greg
Guard fans here are you guys. Yeah, I'm a huge
Greg Guard guy. I think he does things the right way.

Speaker 9 (01:26:36):
And yeah, I'm a huge I just I really am
in terms of you know what, just what they do
with the with the you know, from their their system there.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
I just think they do everything, you know, just huge.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:26:52):
With with our dad, everything was from a from a
young age, was just built off of fundamentals. And I
just think Wisconsin has always been a testament, you know,
whether it was you know, Dick Bennett, b O Ryan,
you know, and now Coach Carr just with fundamentally.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
That faith in his own show I do. We've had
Tony Dungeee, We've had on Bobby Bowden and Pastor Darryl Strawberry,
Randall Cunningham. The only show that I've ever been nervous
for is Dick Bennett. And he goes what you're nervous
for on the line, off the line, on the line,
I go, Coach, he goes, I'm an old retire why

(01:27:30):
would you be nervous? And I go, I don't know, coach,
but these are the guys I've had on and I
had no nerves, but for some reason I put him
up on such a pedestal. I do. The one thing
I love about Greg Guard, Billy, I'm gonna go to you,
and then I promise Morgan I'm coming back. The fact
that he is willing, that he's adapted.

Speaker 5 (01:27:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
It took him a little bit offensively, but now guys
on his staff have talked him in and they've convinced
him to shooting trees and get into the basket and
getting into the paint and kicking, you know, all of
a sudden, there you know, they're putting up eighty a
game when guys are like, man, it used to be.
They've taken basketball back three years. You're you're feeling on
the job that Greg Guard's doing.

Speaker 8 (01:28:10):
Oh yeah, this was a This was a huge turning
your turning point for them. It almost seems like they
completely revamped their offense.

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
Yeah did you? And I love Marquette. I love Shakas
Smart for sure, I do, I really do. I just
like watching for some reason. I love watching the Badgers compete.
I just do and say, look, they drive me nuts.
And you know, why, why why do you keep flat
like well, why do you keep going back baseline? You know,
every time you go baseline, you get knocked out of bounds,

(01:28:40):
need a fool of stuff like that. But I really
do enjoy that. And I'm going to get the mic
back to you in a minute, Julian, But I man,
I got to have you guys back in. We should
do a two hour show because I've got I'm not kidding,
I have two hours of questions to ask you that
I don't have time. Hey, Morgan, as our current Electric
Superhero the week, let me tell you what happens with

(01:29:01):
this current Electric's going to send you out a T
shirt and a nice letter saying congratulations. At the end
of the school you're you're going to get put in
with all of our superheroes of the week, and the
Foundation will select one winner as their Superhero of the
Year and offer a five thousand dollars scholarship to any
school of your choice, whether it's ripping, or it's ripping,

(01:29:23):
or maybe it's ripping Kiddy Billy wherever it is. Billy
gave me, he said, anytime you see ripping, I'll give
you a dollar. That's your dad said, whatever college it
is that you decide, do you know what you want
to go into at the next level.

Speaker 6 (01:29:36):
I'm thinking I haven't decided on one thing yet, but
possibly somewhere along the business or communications or maybe analytics route.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
Okay, sports related with analytics. Yeah yeah. We had Mary Morgan,
that coach at Tosi's. Her brother Alex It works for
the Boston Celtics in the analytics department, and he's got
one of those world championship rings right there. Could just
borrow you the rate for a little while. We could
get you a date, young man. That awesome. Mathew, you're

(01:30:07):
pretty good at math.

Speaker 7 (01:30:08):
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say I enjoyed so much for
the album.

Speaker 1 (01:30:11):
Now you gotta be good in math though. Yeah, you
don't have to enjoy it. But if you're good and it,
we're all going to work for you. One day, when
we talked about your your son Morgan, Billy, like I
said in that first segment, how proud of you are Herd.
Is it going to be for you when he goes
off to college and it's going to be hard? Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:30:29):
I was just talking to some colleagues this last week
and I remember the first day that him and I
walked into South together his first day freshman year. Yeah, man,
here we are fifty days.

Speaker 1 (01:30:40):
It goes quick, right, and when he's a freshman and
you're right senior night you're thinking, man, I God forever
soccer senior. He's a freshman and it comes so quick.
It just does. When I took Matthew to Marianatha, my
daughter was like, don't call it right me for thirty days.
I'm starting my new chapter. My son was like, you're
not just going to move me in and leave, are you?

(01:31:00):
And I'm like, if you want me to stick around?
He goes, yeah, you know what. He's a little bit
on the quient set, but when you get to know him,
he's a mcgiver and he gets after it. Guy walked
down the hall and said, you're Matt mcgiver and he goes, yeah,
he goes, I was a starting point guard at Marinetta
last year. I hear him getting moved to the two.
When you get settled, come down to my room. I
want you to watch game film so you can see
where I want the ball on the floor. And my

(01:31:22):
son said, see it Dad. All he needed for sure, Morgan.
When so you're gonna wait until you figure out if
you got into Northwestern, you got in when you close
your eyes at night, if you could pick any school
in the country, or what would be your choice.

Speaker 6 (01:31:39):
I'd say if Jules was still at Georgia Tech, probably
Georgia Tack.

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
Great, great camp. Wait, grab the microphone real quick.

Speaker 9 (01:31:49):
Yeah, maybe we could go as a package deal.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
You know what you did, hit Morgan, he could be
the manager, You could be the assistant coach. If Georgia
Tech your favorite from from where your coach?

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
I don't know. They all they all had.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
If you could move back into the area to Memphis,
Georgia Tech, which one would you choose?

Speaker 9 (01:32:12):
Tech was cool, I Atlanta was you know living standpoint
is just awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
Yeah. Yeah, my brother lived in in Buckhead and so
I got a chance to go therefore. Yeah, they're by
far the billion bill, one of the prettiest girls I've seen.
Wife and bad Billy and Morgan.

Speaker 9 (01:32:30):
They still they still wish I lived in Atlanta. They
don't like me back here.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
No, I could tell you, Billy loves you back here.
He loves you. But can you make me a promise
and and and say here in the next six weeks,
maybe give me another Saturday and guys come in and
because you know what, the recruiting standpoint, we didn't even
get into n I l and I want to talk
about how that changes as a college coach. How that

(01:32:57):
changed for you is how you can rec and then
that whole portal thing, you're just scanning it and looking
at it and stuff like that. If I could get
your back, I really appreciate. Yeah, Billy, you did good.
You know what you did good? And this kid first
forty seconds of conversation, he talks about his faith and

(01:33:19):
how important it is with him and the things he
wants to accomplish. You did good, and and I got
to tell you more. And your mom. Your chip off
the old block on that side, not a Schwartz failure.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
You're good looking and smart. Trust me, man. I love
that a lot of people are proud of you, young man.
And I'm really happy that that we have somebody from
walk shut South and that you were nominated as this
week's Colonel Lecturing Superhero of the week. Keep doing good
things right, Keep doing the things that that you're doing

(01:33:52):
in school. I know this time you're you're like, man, Okay,
I want to get out. I'm done. It's getting warm.
I want to go play a little golf. Good luck,
I got on the golf Teabe. Do you have to
try out or you're just done.

Speaker 7 (01:34:03):
I think for the first week kind of the trouts.

Speaker 6 (01:34:05):
But our golf program has been light as of the
past year, so there's a couple open spots on varsity.

Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
Maybe you can show me. We had to shallow the
club because everything still goes to the right. I gotta
be honest with you, and I'm trying. I got so
addicted to this sport I did I quit. I had
the coach from Brookfield Central then a couple of years ago,
and he brought me over to Storms. Yeah, and said,
how long would it take you to teach me how
to fundamentally shoot a free throw? I said five minutes.

(01:34:32):
He goes meet me at Storms. My feet were wrong.
I played so much softball and yeah, well, good luck
with that. You need somebody to go play nine with you.
I'll pay it if you drive the cart. How's that?

Speaker 8 (01:34:43):
He is?

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
Morgan Schwartz, his uncle, Julian Schwartz, his dad Billy Schwartz
again Walkshaw mainstage. If you're in a gym in Waukeshaw,
you're going to see one of these guys. Thanks laugh
for your time.

Speaker 7 (01:34:54):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
It's so good to meet you, young man. You bet.
This is the Varsity Blitz high school sports show present
about your local pick and save in metro market stores
only on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart Radio
app