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June 13, 2025 • 13 mins
TJ talks about that close loss late last week and previews this Saturday vs Charleston.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome back to that Rob Devil show. Ben Darnell hanging
in for the big guy. He is off today, big, big,
big soccer match. It's there all big right now. Man,
we gotta climb the table. Hartford Athletic, the Boys in Green,
got another home game Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, seven o'clock. My
least favorite team in all the USL, the Charleston Battery.

(00:33):
Oh my god. I've been dealing with these dudes since
I was in North Carolina. They're coming in on Saturday,
coming off a devastating loss one nill last week. It's
just ah AHDJ Preston is from the defensive side of
the Harford Athletic joining US now Yale's own TJ presses.

(00:54):
Let's go back to that game. Man. I'm sorry to
bring up bad stuff, but what was like in the
locker room? This is Neil. You guys on the backside
have been playing great all game. There's been a lot
of cards that were thrown out and then that extra
time goal goes in, Like, can you take me at
all through the locker room and what that was after
that loss against NCFC?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, sure, I mean certainly certainly heartbreaking. It atally sucks
to give up a late goal. Previous week we gave
up a late one for a draw in Indie when
we thought we were going to walk away with that
one of three points. You know, especially being down to
ten men in the game this past weekend and then
hanging on for so long, defending so well, and then

(01:38):
just one moment can can entirely change a game. You know,
Locker room was tough immediately after the game, a lot
of emotions. But you know, I think we're really ready
to go for this weekend. Good vibes, good energy, getting
guys back, other players are healthy all of a sudden,
which is awesome coming back from injury, and you know,

(01:59):
hopefully we can take care that Charleston battery for you.
I heard heard them were your favorite.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
No, they're stinky. I've dealt with them since the Wilmington
Hammerheads days. Uh. They I don't know, they're They're not
great people. They Uh. I think they're cheaters too, I
don't I don't think they played by the rules. A
lot of cards in that n CFC game. My man
Joe Ferrell getting two of them. What's up with Joe? Like?

(02:23):
Is it was it bad blood? Was it like the
situation or was like, hey, man, that's Joe Ferrell.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I don't think anybody at the league is really listening.
I don't know if they're listening to this interview. So
I can't get fined. Okay, let's just say his first
yellow card was one of the most ridiculous things I've
seen and witness. YEP, I understand you shouldn't argue with referees, uh,
but once again, Joe did not argue with the referee.

(02:51):
He made a little comment, nothing, nothing crazy. I don't
think it was anything unacceptable, got himself one yellow card,
and then you know he'll take ownership of the second.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yell.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was a topic he didn't need to make. But
unfortunately some officiating that I disagree with came into play
earlier in that game, which is done in this first
yellow card. But no, Joe's good. He'll be back and
in two weeks he'll be He'll be one hundred ready
to go.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
We have got the Charleston Battery once again. Seven o'clock
on Saturday. It's a green out, Lais and gentlemen, so
show up in all of your green bring your scarfs.
B YO, D TJ. That's called bring your own drum.
And I'm a big a member of the supporter, the
supporter section, so that should be loud and proud on Saturday.
But let's talk about you before we get to the battery.

(03:44):
Yale to Harvard. I mean, a Yale soccer player. Are
you the guy in the locker room whenever there's a
math question, Like, all the heads just turned to you
and like you're a facto smart guy in the locker
room because you're from Yale.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
You know, I would I would love for that to
be the king, But I'm being honest, there's no math
being done in the locker room whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Tell me about your twenty three season. Twenty twenty three
was awesome for Yale. You guys make to the NCAA tournament,
get bounced in the second round, but that was a
special club and a special team. What was it like
for you that year?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, yeah, it was. It was incredible. It was
definitely the best individual season I had at Yale. But
we just had we had an awesome culture, an awesome team.
Everybody knew their role, everybody's bought in. We certainly didn't
play attractive football whatsoever, but that didn't matter because we
ended up getting it done, you know, it was it

(04:38):
was a specially rewarding because the season before, we thought,
all right, this is our year, we're going to win
the conference, We're going to make an awesome run in
the tournament, and we fell short. We started off super
hot and then face some adversity and just couldn't get
back after that. So then going into twenty twenty three,
knowing the changes we needed to make, it was, it

(04:59):
was incredibly awarding, and it was certainly the best memory
I've had, or I had my four years at Yale,
and just being able to win that title for everybody
else on campus is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I'm fascinated with the Yale student athlete. Just you Ivy leaguers,
you know, doing your sport and graduating from prestigious universities.
It's two full time jobs, it really is. And you
coming from like Ohio when you got the chance of
the opportunity to be a Yale student athlete, like, what
does that mean to you? And give us a little
insight of what that life is like?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
I mean, it was, it was. It was pretty nuts.
You know, I certainly would not have gotten into Yale
if it weren't worked for soccer, but my parents always
apprec as a kid, you know, use soccer to take
you places you otherwise wouldn't be able to go to.
And you know, when I when I got my offer
from from Yale, it was kind of a no brainer.

(05:52):
It's like, how do you turn the school down? And
I got there, and you know, certainly a lot the
school is. Really it is as hard as you to
make it. You know, if you want good grades, if
if you want your a's, which I certainly did not get,
it's really challenging. But no, I had I had an
awesome experience. The Yale community is so so special. And

(06:15):
then being a student athlete there getting to play the
sport that I love and represent our amazing campus and
my teammates, my professors, that was something special.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Toughest class you had, Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
I answered this in an interview a couple of months ago.
My freshman year, I took this anthropology course with a
couple of my teammates, and we thought it was supposed
to be an easy class because there are a few
of these science and quantitative reasoning courses that you can
get just to meet your distributional requirements. And on the

(06:47):
course reviews they seem pretty easy. So we signed up
for this class. It was the worst thing ever taken.
I ended up taking it for credit fail. And you
only get four classes total that you could take for
credit fail or past fail at Yale, and so I
had to burn one my freshman year. I actually had

(07:08):
I slept for maybe an hour the night before the
final exam just to make sure I got a seventy
percent in the class I was. I struggled that much.
It was awful.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Oh my gosh, was it a waste or did you
you think you learned something maybe about yourself?

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I learned to pay more attention when I'm taking my courses.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
That's about it.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
So I couldn't tell you a single thing that I
was taught in that class.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Unreal, unreal. But you always have that, man. I think
having just the Yale degree is like something to lean
on it and like maybe it is something as a
curse too, because you might be in a locker room
and there's some smarty, you know pants question. It's not
everybody like expects you to answer.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
It right, And if I don't, then I let everybody down.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, and your whole school and your university. Was that
degree worth nothing? All? Right? Now you're at Hartford Athletic man.
I mean that's not a very far transition from you.
I know, you're still you know, not in your hometown
or anything. But to go from Yale to Hartford, that's
kind of a dream.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, you know, it was super easy for me. I
actually didn't graduate until last month, so I was still
living down in New Haven for the first couple of
months of the season, commuting every day, and that was
pretty tough, managing five classes at school, just trying to pass,
to make sure I got that piece of paper, and
then perform on the pitch. It was tough, you know.

(08:27):
I finally moved up to Hartford and now I'm just
so bored. I don't know what to do.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
So the rest of my time that's amazing. Now, how
what do you think of the club? You know, you're
you're kind of the newcomer here, but it feels like
everybody on this roster is a newcomer.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, which is nice. You know, I've got a few
of my closest buddies on the team. It's it's a
lot of their first years here too. And although they've
been professional soccer players for a lot longer than I have.
Really seems like we're all in this together. And then
you got some of the veteran guys who have been here,
who were here last season, and I've seen what this
club is really capable of, and you know, I think

(09:03):
we're really building something. I know it hasn't been the
dream start of the season, but I'm very very hopeful
and optimistic We're gonna gets momentum. I'm starting this Saturday
and going a nice little run.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
What do you think of USA Soccer? We did not
have the best of nights last night Switzerland for nil,
And like for you to be an American in this
locker room, I don't know, is this a thing that
would like do you get pointed and laughed at because
you represent the States and we're so bad? Just like,
what are your thoughts on last night? And are we

(09:37):
going to win any game? Getting close to the world?
Are we going to host the World Cup and not
actually be in the World Cup?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Dude? I don't know. I don't you know, the guys
don't mess with me too much because even the American guys,
we just kind of laugh at it. Right, A few
of us actually end up catching the big game in
Hartford last weekend and even that soft last night, I
just started playing video games. My buddies come back home
and I was like, I can't, I can't watch this

(10:06):
right now. You know, I know it's not our top squad,
and hopefully they can turn things around. But no, it
hasn't been. It hasn't been great watch them these this
last this last week. I've got a couple buddies who
are on the national team, so I enjoy watching for them,

(10:26):
and I'm I'm hopeful they can they can help turn
it around.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Man, we need something because it's going to be a
sad state of affairs if we get if we get
in and get worked, if we don't get in. Oh
my god, yeah, gosh. All right, Charleston Battery, tell me
what you know about this club coming in for Saturday's game.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
You know, I know they're they're super hot, they've had
a they've had a great year. But at the same time,
that can make someone vulnerable. You know, we we don't
want to let anybody come into our place and out
possess us, helped work us. You know, it's supposed to
be a fortress for a reason. And and that's what

(11:04):
we intend on making it. They've got some incredibly skillful players,
but hopefully we can we can take them out of
the game and make sure we're playing on Saturday at
our tempo and our system, at our at our style
and our speed. So I'm I'm really optimistic going in
this weekend.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
We lost to them for too. We had a win
lead on this crew and then they just popped off
like three goals. Do you watch film like that and
if you did, on that game, like, are there things
that you can take away to make adjustments and improve on? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Absolutely, So we go back. We watched that game the
following day, and we've looked back at it this this week,
just tweaking some things, making them some little adjustments. You know,
at halftime when we were down in Charleston, we made
a little formation change which certainly solved some problems in
that one, and you know, we made some other little

(11:58):
tweaks and adjustments. So I feel if're really ready to
go now.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Seven o'clock is kickoff. Boys in green, ladies and gentlemen.
It's a green out, so don't forget to wear your
green shirt. As they said, I'm loud and proud in
that supporter section, and I'd love the defensive players. You
guys are our favorites because you're down there on our
side most of the time, especially like first half action
is there. I always wonder this, is there a song
you don't like.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
From the supporters?

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah? Is there something stupid that we do like that
you don't really appreciate or there? Is it? Like you're
cool with anything. Any noise is good noise.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Any noise is good noise. You know, make the away team,
I feel all that pressure, feel that environment. I'm gonna
be completely honest though. When I'm in the on the field,
I'm really locked into the game, So I'm not listening
to the songs too much. But as long as it's loud,
as long as there's noise, that's perfect all. That's all
I worried about.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Well, maybe that doesn't affect you, but do you have
to think it affects everyone else, especially away teams. I mean,
come on to j That's why we're doing it.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Absolutely well, that's what I'm saying. Just be loud, be noisy,
be annoying, you know, do your thing.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, there's no problem at that. I mean, we are
definitely if it's one thing of the supporter section. We
are annoying, sir, and we hold that badge pretty proudly.
TJ prest Us. Seven o'clock is kickoff. It's a greenout
Charleston Battery. Good luck Saturday, good luck the rest of
the way. Thanks for some time today, my man.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Thank you, thank you Ron for having me. It was great.
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