Welcome, everyone, to WFHRs.
Playmakers.
We're back, baby.
It's a new year.
We're here to have some fun.
Happy January.
Happy new year to everyone out there.
It's the call in show.
You got Randy and James here and we're ready for your calls at 715-424-2600.
715-424-2600.
Call up and join the conversation.
It's unfortunate that we come back into a new year with nothing to talk about already.
There's nothing going on in sports whatsoever.
We look forward to talking with you about everything and anything that is going on out there
in the sports world.
It's been a while and I have got old sports takes if we have time because we were off
the air for a while.
In fact, Randy hasn't been able to join us since Thanksgiving.
We are talking about in our pre-game here.
So there's old sports takes.
We didn't get a chance to talk about one of the silliest, weirdest, like, suspensions
I've ever heard of in sports with the Diary Alexander thing.
I mean, that was weird.
That was interesting.
I thought the Pro Football Hall of Fame have announced their finalists and some really
big names in there and some local big names for our teams.
So I thought that was pretty interesting.
We can always talk about those things.
The Pop-Tart Bowl happened.
A mascot was eaten.
No, I'm sorry.
A mascot was toasted and then eaten right in the highlights of the bowl season.
It was fantastic.
And I really thought that college football had an interesting thing happen with the bowl
season as it is wrapping up tonight, of course, with the National Championship game.
Florida State, Georgia, played face-off.
A lot of us were wondering where that was going to go.
And if Florida State were made a competitive or beat Georgia, that there would be an argument
to be made, of course, that all they should have been in the playoffs and everything.
Fast forward to now where they were beaten, not just beaten, but beaten worse than any team
has ever been beaten in a college football game, a new year's six-game game.
It was so bad that Coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs came out of that talking
about like he had just seen a battle.
Like he had just seen a, and all he was doing was like, we got to fix this.
You would have thought that was the coach that lost.
But he was coming out of that.
He literally looked wound to college football.
He's like, we got to fix this.
This is bad.
Wasn't it like 29 Florida State players didn't suit up?
Yeah.
I mean, 29.
Yeah.
That's more than your starting squad, right?
So that would be an interesting conversation I think we could talk about how do we fix
the bowls and going forward here, how that gets fixed.
The Detroit Pistons finally won a game.
I didn't know if that was going to happen before we jumped on the air again.
There's a lot.
And that was just December, everybody.
I haven't even gotten into the new year yet.
And what's going on there?
We've got some local big news to get to as well.
What's our GM and head coach Paul Pacman joining us at 330 today.
We'll have our fourth period then looking forward to talking some River Kings and talking
with Coach.
That's all really good, but most importantly, Randy, how have you been?
Really well.
It's like, you're right, it was since Thanksgiving and December of course gets a little bit busy
at school.
So I'm able to get in here, but good to be back and getting a chance to, we put together
a little schedule for the next seven weeks or so for high school sports that we hope to
broadcast and maybe tweak it a little bit or add a little bit here and there, but hopefully
covering gosh, four local teams, you know, boys and girls as best we possibly can and
trying to get a couple games per weekend.
And then the madness of March will kick in about the third week of February.
So always exciting time.
And then the next thing you know, it'll be spring and we'll be able to see grass again.
Yeah.
It goes so fast.
Really, really can't thank you enough.
You, Michael, Seth, all the work that you guys do covering these games, we really appreciate
that.
I can't stress that enough.
We love it.
I know just as a fan, somebody who has been a fan of yours in particular, long before
I worked at this radio station, let alone working with you and the work that Michael
does is awesome.
Seth has been fantastic.
We appreciate when Don fills in for us and is able to pitch hit.
We got an amazing team and we're able to bring these things to you because of those
four individuals.
Most importantly, Pam, of course, with the great scheduling she does as well.
It's great work, man.
We look forward to it.
It's going to be a fun high school season.
So we got a lot of teams to cover there.
A lot of storylines I mean to cover there that I'm really looking forward to seeing how
they develop as we get into March and get closer to March.
And we'll keep that going for you.
Right now let's get the phone calls and good morning, you're on good afternoon.
I knew it.
Good afternoon.
You're on the show.
Boy, you're not starting to get me here out very well.
Oh, oh, that's sports.
That's how the sports you kick is going for me this year.
So how you been?
Well, it was good weekend, I mean, obviously with some victories from Wisconsin basketball
to hockey and then for the Packers to make the playoffs and the Bears had their chances.
I mean, but I guess the one thing I mean, Randy's been around long enough and so have
you and was the NFL and listening to some of the talk shows the last few weeks.
I'm hoping it's not true, but do you think Barry kept his job?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
In fact, this is kind of where I wanted to start with things and I could be talking about
any NFL team keep in mind, but I'm saying this as a foolish romantic.
I want to put that out up front.
I mean, when I say foolish romantic, underlined foolish like three or four times, I am a
weird foolish romantic.
But we also all know that there are people that get in relationships and they stay in
the relationship because they're lazy because they don't, not because they're necessarily
madly in love with this person, but they've been with this person for quite some time
and they're going to just stick it through.
It's a lot easier than trying to find somebody else or something like that.
That's an NFL owner.
That's in and I'm sorry to green Bay fans, but you're no different.
You're no different than every other organization you can tell me all you want.
And it is extremely cool that fans can say they own a piece of the team, but those same
fans, I think the majority of them, 99% of them, if not 95% of them understand that you're
not going to be asked if you should keep coach Bayeri or not.
And that's where a real owner comes in.
And real owners have no interest in doing anything, anything.
I don't care if you're Jerry Jones or if you are the, you know, the Macaskis, they all
want to sit back and just let things be.
And they don't want to have to make decisions, they don't want to have to think, choose.
You think of Jerry Jones and you think of the, the meddler, the guy that wants to do
things.
Jerry Jones is one of metal.
Jerry Jones want to do that stuff.
Jerry Jones wants to be known as Jerry Jones Super Bowl champion every single year.
And I don't have to do a dang thing.
I already made my millions.
I already worked.
This isn't, this is supposed to be fun for me.
This is my passion.
Jerry Jones is getting so much older in the last 20, 30 years.
And part because he keeps trying to win that next ring, that next championship.
But he, and this is probably the biggest owner in all of sports that likes to have their
name out there and their face seen and everything.
And even he doesn't want it.
They want to just sit back and let things be.
They don't want to have to make changes.
So if you give them the option of, hey, they actually finished the season fairly well.
No matter how they played the first 15 or I should say 13 games of the season, you end
the season strong, you keep your job.
And I don't see him getting fired outside of them having a horrible playoff game against
Dallas, which could happen.
And it would give you the out right now.
The owners and the powers that be got everything they wanted and not having to make a decision.
And I could be talking about the Chicago Bears.
I could be talking about Green Bay with their coaching decisions that they have to make.
Or the New Orleans Saints.
There's a lot of teams like that in this position right now.
Well, I mean, they've made a lot, I mean, they're, I mean, obviously Ron Rivera has already
been cut and Alan down and, or yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter.
I'm not trying to be mean, but that means paid millions of dollars.
He could take it.
He was fired overnight.
Like I don't know how, when that happened, but I was up at like two in the morning and
that news broke and I'm like, hey, did he wake up to that?
But the thing is, you know, I'm going to kind of push back on a little bit on your, on
your deal, like with Jerry Jones, if the Packers go into Dallas and beat Dallas next week,
McCarthy's gone.
Oh God, yeah.
Oh, that whole coaching staff's gone.
Yeah.
He wants to do that.
That involves more work.
That evil and not just work.
These guys got to where they did because they won in business.
You're not winning in business.
If every couple of years, you're spending $10 to $20 million on a net coach.
None of these teams are hurting for money.
But I guarantee you that the next San Diego Chargers coach is not going to be Bill Balochek
unless he's going to take a humongous pay cut.
They're still paying the last guy.
We think about this with players because we have the salary cap to look at and drool over.
With coaches, it's not that different.
It's just not covered the same.
If I'm an NFL owner, I got my millions in part because I don't believe I have millions
to waste.
I'm making decisions to try to win.
Not wins and losses.
I mean, win in the sense of like, well, I'm in the black.
I'm still in the black.
I'm still making money off of this franchise.
That kills that with one bad decision and that's the head coach because you got to pay him
so much money.
And most of it, it is not like the contracts with these players where you can get out of
them.
You can fudge or anything like that.
Oh, the coaches league, they've got it all different.
Their money is guaranteed.
You are paying them every penny and if you make the bad choice, you're not just paying
that guy.
You got to pay the new guy.
Well, I mean, I get that, but I just think with obviously the Packers don't have that
owner.
They have everything.
They have Mark Murphy and Gouda Coonson.
And I know Mark Murphy.
He's getting healed.
He's at a point now where he's going to have to retire here soon.
I think he's got one next year.
I think one more year before he's got to find a new president.
There's been talk that, you know, they're going to eat Murphy's going to hang on, hang
on to Gouda Coonson, hang on to the floor despite what would have happened if the Packers
or what they made the postseason are finished strong.
But boy, I would almost want to think as Matt LaFour, you would want to make that change
because in two years, there's going to be a new regime possibly coming in and you want
to keep your job.
And with Barry there, you know, he's proven that he can't coach a defense.
I mean, look what he did in Detroit.
Look where he's done with the Rams.
And I mean, it just, for 15 weeks of not really having a defense and all of a sudden,
all the last two weeks, you figure it out.
I just don't understand how, even if they win or lose on Sunday, they keep him.
I don't, I agree with you.
I as a fan, as a person watching these games, I agree with you.
I also, as adults, we also know the way the business works.
And it's, they got him under contract, especially, I didn't have a chance to look,
but I don't know if this is his second to last year, but if let, if he's got one more year
in his contract, I almost promise you, and I only use that word when I get back it up.
I almost promise you he'll be back because it's just so much easier.
They're just going to let him fill up, you know, fulfill his contract.
And then the next season, they don't even have to fire or hire him.
They could just move on.
It's a lot easier.
And, and to be honest, with an organization that, you know, has to make those,
make not only those kind of decisions, but have people making these decisions,
thinking so much deeper and so much farther ahead than any other franchise has to.
Green Bay has to make decisions on a different level.
They are not dealing with the, with a lot of whatever, almost every other franchise
and every other sport has, the bigger city or the metropolitan this or these kind of things.
It is a modern marvel, the way that that franchises run, like period.
It is amazing.
Anything, any complaints anybody wants to have about that franchise, I wholeheartedly,
you know, back in whatever you want to say.
But I will tell you just not even just as a sports fan and somebody who studies and watches this
stuff, there's no organization in the whole world that is run like that organization.
And you can make the argument run better.
No, regardless of if they win a franchise, a Super Bowl in the next 20 years, I'll say that.
Like the things can change, of course, but the way that you look at franchises run,
I don't begrudge them for making it, it may be easy.
But I also feel like because of your fanbase and because of all those factors, I just said,
you really should be listening to your fanbase.
You really, I'm not saying you do everything they tell you to,
but I think that more times than not, the fanbase is right because they pay and they care.
They're passionate.
Well, that's where I'm afraid that, you know, you might end up having a January 6th deal
at Lambo if they don't let Barry go.
I mean, if you look at all, I mean, even on some of the Facebook stuff that you see from the
backers, everybody's just, they want it, they just think they're dumb of it.
And I mean,
well, we're going to find out, we're going to find out because this is all going to play out,
we'll find out, but I will say right now, it doesn't look like, if that's what you want,
if that's, and that's what I'm seeing too, that's what I'm seeing on social media,
that's what my friends have been saying for, I want to go back to a year, for a year now,
about coach bear.
We'll see how that plays out.
And I'll say this too, because Kyle Brandt did something over the weekend that I thought was
really cool where he, he did this, like, broccoli, he's talking right to Justin Fields.
And you say, look, I just want to talk right to Justin. I'm not going to tell you what I'm
tired of talking about you. Like, just go out there and do it. You know, make them shut up.
You go out there, you win this game, you play good, all costs, all discussions are done.
Just go out there and do it. And I couldn't agree with that more. That's what I would say to coach
Barry. That's what I would say to anybody who wants to keep their job in any field. Well, I know
pun intended. And speaking of that, I mean, what's your opinion on that? I'll deal with Justin Fields.
Are you going to trade, let him go? Are they going to trade that first pick and get more picks?
I will say, I will, I will see, see what I was saying earlier, that they are going to do the
exact whatever the easiest thing for them to do is and they still got them under contract.
They've got Justin under contract. They've got Laflour. I mean, Eber Fluest under contract.
What these coaches in these last names now it is. What happened to Smith and Jones?
I say as a mail-off, I say with a weird last name. They're going to stand back. They
may make a change at the offensive coordinator position, but I doubt it. They may, they
got have to make a decision on deep as a coordinator because that guy was gone before the season even
really got rolling. But they are going to stand back. Now, what I think they should do is the
exact opposite of that. I would love to, I like Justin Fields. I like him as a human being. I
like him as a player. I think he's got a good career ahead of him, no matter what happens to him.
But I don't believe it should be in Chicago. I think he should get a fresh start somewhere.
And I think you trade him for a third rounder. If you're lucky and you move on and you grab one
of these young kids and you start over because of that contract. That is, I, if that happens,
I will be one of the most surprised people in the world because I don't see the bears doing that
because again, they're going to do whatever is easy. And Chicago won five out of their last seven
or eight. They went on a little bit of a run there, which is the last thing you want if you were
a bear fan and that sounds stupid because we should be winning for every game to win. I know how
stupid that sounds and I stand by it because the worst thing you can have in sports, and maybe the
worst thing at least in sports, mediocrity. You can be really bad and then you can hope for next
year. You can hope for a high draft pick or this or that or whatever. If you're a winning team
in every year, you're going into a possibly, you know, a Super Bowl run or NBA Finals run or
whatever. Heck, all right. Let's do this. Let's go. But if you're a mediocre, if you're a
mediocrity, you're stuck in the middle every draft every year, you're, you're given this false hope
there's anybody genuine belief. I look, if we're here in Pittsburgh, please Pittsburgh
Steeler fans call me up. Does any of you believe that you're going to, you know, go to the Super Bowl
and win a Super Bowl? But you're going to, but you call the Pittsburgh fans right now. They probably
do because they're Pittsburgh fans and they love their team. Like it's the worst thing they can have
of being stuck in the middle of being stuck with medium good. And that's where a lot of teams are.
Thanks. Well, I mean, I don't disagree with you on that. So all right. Thank you.
Have a great week. Thank you. Great talking to you. We'll talk to you next week.
I wanted to get into national championship talk to Randy. I want to make sure to get that in
before we wrap up. And of course, we are still going to be having the fourth period coming up
at 330. We're coach GM had coach Paul Pacman going to join us looking forward to that. That's
going to be good. Randy, I know you had some local stuff that we were going to get to. Do you want
to touch on that now? Yeah, why don't we cover that really good? Yeah, we'll get some time. Yeah,
let's take a look. First of all, at high school boys basketball from the past weekend in the valley
conference on Friday evening, Lincoln High School lost at Wasau East 69 to 49. They now fall to
0 and 3 in the valley. Spashes ranked number five in division one and they improved to 12 and
0 and 3 and 0 in the conference. They mauled Merrill 71 to 31. Marshfield's 11 and 1 and also 3 and
0 in the valley is they beat Brookfield Central 88 to 80. While Wasau West is 3 and 1 in conference
action as they dumped DC Everest 69 to 59 over the Merrill Wood South. It was North versus South
Cross over action as the assumption royals fall to 4 and 7 on the season as they lost at home to
riblake 55 to 48 on Friday. Marathon is ranked number two in division four and 11 and 0 and they
pounded print a 70 to 25. In Auburndale, they improved to 11 and 1 as they clobbered Shawamagan 63 to
36. Katen Weinberger led the way with 18 points. From the Central Wisconsin South conference, Port
Edwards, Jr. Brendan Beck had as many points as the opposing team did. Yeah, he had 37,
Rocholt had 37, the Black Hawks win it. 74 to 37 and he had 73 pointers on the game. So
great game for Brendan. Yeah. 7th ranked, in division five, Almond Bancroft is in first place in
the conference as they defeated Pitzville 70 to 48. Quick side note, Pitzville will host Port Edwards
on Thursday night. Michael Comer is going to head over there on the call on that one and 5th ranked
Pichelli lost on Thursday at home to Auburndale 61 to 58. Weinberger again led Auburndale with 21 points
while Logan Mayer poured in 20 for the Cardinals. And down in the South Central, Nekusa came up just a
bit short at home against Westfield 57 to 51. While the Dels and Mossin are tied for first place,
the Dels defeated Watomas 72 to 62 and Mossin had no trouble with Adam's friendship, 79 to 47.
High school girls basketball in the Valley in a game you heard on 105.5 FM, the Rapids girls were
able to hold off Wassa East 75 to 70. The Raiders were led and scoring by Sidney Holberg with 19 while
Gabby Nylitz had 16 and Jazz Red Cloud through down 14 including four three point balls.
Spasch and Marshfield, they're both 4-0 in the conference. Spasch won at Merrill 80 to 52 while
Marshfield lost at home to 5th rank Kimberly 53 to 30. From the Merrill Wood South, the assumption
Royals rolled past Riblake 75 to 35, they improved to 11 and 0 on the season. Sarah Shaw pours in 19,
Jordan Jagelinsky 18 and Riley Stublaski and Eddie Valored each knocked out 11. Tonight,
the Royals host Nielsville, the ranked 10th in Division 4, will have it for you on our sister
station beginning at about 705. Also in the Merrill Wood Auburndale is just a half game behind
the assumption as they whip Shawam again 63 to 11. Sidney Wolf had 11 points while 10 others scored
in single digits. In the EWC Southport Edwards lost a close one at home to Rochholp 43 to 39.
Nikita Borth slid the black hocks with nine points. Pechelli went on the road and upset 4th ranked
in Division 4. St. Mary's Catholic 65 to 60. Jaden's Joycat 33 points to lead the cards.
And Elman Bancroft was upended by Pittsville 50 to 41. Rescrem had 21 points to pace the Panthers.
And in the South Central, LaCusa falls at home to 10th ranked in Division 4 Westfield 80 to 7,
while Mauston had an easy time with Adam's friendship 61 to 30. In some local wrestling action at the
cheesehead invite over in Cocona this past weekend, Wisconsin Rapids finished 20th out of 38 teams.
Carter Freeman had the top finish for the Raiders coming in 4th at 126. On Saturday,
up in Merrill, the Blue J Challenge was held, and the Nikusa Assumption Port Edwards co-op
took 11th place out of 26. There were actually two girls at one championship,
Rylan Olsson and Lexi Stofflett, while for the boys Sawyer Ostrom took the title at 126.
And in gymnastics right here in Rapids on Saturday, the Charlie Martin invite took place.
The Raiders finished 3rd out of 7 teams. Tia Tao was able to secure 5th place with her
floor routine. So lots of busy action going on in the past as well as in the future.
Thank you for that last bit of coverage right there too. I love hearing about the gymnastics,
some good stuff. Randy Wood stands out to you out of all of that. All the information
you just had there. Like as far as high school sports, anything in particular standing up to?
You know, we're approaching the halfway mark with the basketball season. And so now you kind of
get to that point where the coaches get their rotation now. And you know, they know who they
want to put in. And that was interesting conversation. I had with Coach Klein one night, you know,
he's talking about just with eight main players that he had on his squad. And he said,
just kind of doing the math on that, you know, the different possible combinations that
are. It's just kind of amazing. So to kind of put that together, it's at this point that
the era that happens. And then you're getting to that point where you're seeing the second goal
round, you know, and you get to face a team of second time. So that always proves interesting.
And it's kind of good to see that we get a lot of local teams that are that are fearing
very well this year. Yeah, it's going to be a competitive year for a lot of our local teams.
You and I, we certainly know that there are kind of there are a lot of things a lot of games
to be played. There's a lot yet to come. But not only the coaches figuring out what's going on,
these players build in that chemistry. It's going to be really interesting to see as we get closer
and, you know, dribble faster and faster towards March, how this develops and how some of these
local teams are coming together. Had a couple of chances to see the assumption girls. And that's
one thing that I've been very impressed with them is the unsolvenous that they make that extra pass
and they get that extra layup and they're able to use left and right hands. It wasn't that many
years ago. Guys had difficulty using the offhand and now girls make it look so easy. So they'll be
fun to watch. It's going to be a good game tonight. And it's going to be a good game on Friday
because they go over to Aquinas. And Aquinas has got a good squad as well. So then this week is
going to prove interesting for the Royals girls team. We will get to our schedule before the end
of the hour. But for now, we're going to take a quick commercial break, take a quick time out. We'll
come back in its fourth period. GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Ravis River Kings coach Paul
Peckman joining us coming up right here on Playmakers, which is proudly brought to you by quality
plus printing, getting your words out here in Rapids. Welcome back everyone to WFHR's Playmakers.
You got your host, James J here. I want to apologize to our in-studio guys. Our logs are a
little different right now. Things are kind of jumping around on us. So we're just going live.
We're just going with it. But all of my people here in this room understand how to do live
great improv. So appreciate that. I want to send a big thank you to quality plus printing spots
in the show. We appreciate our friends over there so much. Phil and the gang. They'll join us on
Wednesday where the wicked awesome word of Wednesday and the 9 o'clock or before the 9 o'clock
hour on our morning show. Randy and James here with you and we're welcoming in the fourth period.
We have head coach and GM of your Wisconsin Ravis River Kings coach Paul Peckman with us and coach
you brought a friend. I did. I did. Right here we have Lucas White at one of our captains
top defenseman for us and great job this year. Yeah, Lucas. Thanks for being here, man.
Oh, thanks for having me. And also thank you for coming to town here for bringing your skill set
and everything else to it. We have really been enjoying you being here, man.
Oh, thank you. I love it here. Good. Right up. Right up. Coach, I want to get into last night's game
with you. I want to talk about the way the season is going and as we are getting to this last tail
of it. But some interesting information coming over our breaking news over over the holiday month
and everything. I want to talk about this new position that you've taken. Yeah, it's a, you know,
being the head scouting director of the Midwest for an NCDCT, which is tier two, which is the next step
up for us. So that's the that's the level that we try to push our guys to that hopefully he's
going to get a chance to get some books at, you know, for next year. So it's it's creating that
affiliation where that we can push guys up if they don't, if they have guys that maybe are on
the bubble and not playing a lot, they can feed them our way, help develop them, help get them
ice time, confidence, and then pushing back up that kind of thing, right? And if they're not
ready to go there, then they go to college and we will see how we can do that, right? That's where
SJ little comp came from and stuff like that. So it's more about us helping them and them helping us,
right? So and it's about the kids and making sure that they get as many opportunities as they can.
And you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But one way or another, these kids are
going to, they're going to get to play, right? So at the end of the day, you got to play in order
to get recruited, right? You don't get recruited sitting in a stand. So that's the reason for that,
right? Hockey sports, no different than life connections are vital, connections go a long way
and whatever you're doing. So this sounds like it's not only a good thing for the river case
and a good thing for these players, but a good thing for even the USPHL, like it sounds like
on a bigger scale, like just taking a step back. Yeah, it was, it was important. You know, I also
scouted for Johnstown, right? Which is an automatic hockey league. So it was, it was important to get
connected with somebody in our league, right? So it's again, just, you know, USPHL is a development
league. So it's about building those building steps and giving kids more opportunities.
So full disclosure, and you and I are always honest with each other, whether it's on the air
here or off, and I appreciate that, respect that about a relationship. But we read that news,
and immediately people are like, no, he can't go. Immediately popping up. You were gone. You were
gone. We lost you. As my first words. Yes, yes. We've been a little bit of baited breath here,
what during about that? Because it was interesting. I heard all that, but I actually, I, all I
had to do was talk to my dad, and my dad was like, I ain't going anywhere. Like it, not just that's
about you so much as the position and what this means, because you're already a scout. You've been
scouting. This is adding on another thing to that, right? Right. Right. We're, yeah, it's, it's just
about because of the connections in the network that I have over the world and his dad is one of my
major connections in Canada, right? So it's just about using that, right? And now we're going to,
in May, we're going to host a camp here. Cool for this team. Oh, wow. That's that's big. That's
also now. I mean, I have almost 750 kids already on the list to get invite. So hopefully we get
150, 200 kids come to this camp, right? In May. So now, you know, so now we're keeping the ice in
longer, right? And we're bringing these guys in here. So either they take them, well, we get first
crack out. Right. And so now it, it makes the recruiting process a little bit easier, because in
networking, right? It's over the relationship based in that case. And then you think of the networking,
and that's how you got Lucas here, right? Exactly. Tell us a little bit about you, you know, you mentioned,
you said the fact that you love it here. Tell us a little bit how it's different here compared to
your hometown. Yeah. So I'm from Northern Ontario. So I've played, I played Junior Up. I'm
Sioux St. Marie. And you know, it's this community here is so special. It's just such a big
community and everyone supports you if you're out at Walmart or at graces, wherever you are,
like everyone's coming up and supporting you and saying congrats on wins and picking up when you
lose. Like we're in the delves this weekend. And I think we have more fans down in the delves than
the delves dox did. So I've heard we our fans travel. I've heard that. Yeah, that's good to hear.
So our, our community is awesome. And coach does a great job getting us involved in the elementary
schools and doing fundraisers and just community events and stuff. So, but everyone is so tight
in it here and so close. I want to ask what made you want to play here, but what made you want to
play hockey, man? Yeah. Honestly, it was my sister. Yeah. I didn't really want to play as much
when I was little and then I went to her games watching her play. It's like, oh, that's what I want
to do for sure. So it's awesome. Yeah. So it all comes down to sibling rivalry. That's it's just
it's pretty much all right. I gotta be better than her. I know what that's like. I know exactly
what you're talking about. That's it. Be it on somebody else instead of my sister, right?
What made you want to come here with your career? Yeah. I've always wanted to play
university hockey, college hockey in the US and coach recruited me down and you know told me what
hip-hop his program and how this community is and how it's different and special and like well,
we're a winning organization too. So all those things kind of draw me in and I came down I guess
around Thanksgiving last year and since then I still want to play. So, right on, man. Again,
glad to have you in town. Really do appreciate it. Yeah, and you know speaking of winning,
you guys are doing very well aren't we? Yeah, yeah. It's pretty honestly weekend. Yeah, let's
talk about that coach. What do your takeaways from the weekend? Well, you know five out of six
points. I mean, it's not the sneeze at, right? But honestly, I think Saturday was a good kick
in the gut and we did not play the way that we were supposed to and that's the end result.
But the way that we responded yesterday I thought was just I mean, that's just the way we play.
I mean, we're tough to beat when we play the right way and you know guys and we talked about it
in the locker room before the game. It's just about the compete level, right? And it's about, you
know, what are we looking to get out of this year and where we want to go and and everything that we
talked about from day one about getting to national about winning the division and and doing those
things. How are you going to do it? And if you're not willing to compete like we did on Saturday,
Hudson's going to smack you in the mouth, right? And so you better be prepared and we were prepared.
I mean, you know, we shut out Hudson two weeks ago, we shut out or right before the break,
we shut out Squatch, right? I mean, these are teams that are ahead of us and we mean,
we have the third lowest goals against in the entire league 62 teams and that's that's
pretty good. So that question is, I mean, you can't be winning one nothing all the time, right?
So we gotta stop putting the puck in and that a little bit more just signed a Russian today.
So he's on his way here. So hopefully he gives us a little juice and and Maddie Hill is coming back
from an injury that I think is going to help us out and you know, not a locker room gets a little crowded.
Yeah, yeah, right? So now it's just about again, compete, you get to earn your stripes and he knows
better than anybody the way we practice. If we play the way we practice, we're going to be tough to
had a kindergarten student come up to me today and told me every score that your game was this weekend.
He just loves the team and he loves going there and ask Lucas as well. How we're talking a little
bit about with basketball, you know, kind of get, you know, how the coaches have to get used to
the lines that have to work together with basketball and what is it like when you come and you've
got all these different people who you don't play with? How long does that take to mash?
Yeah, I mean, that's probably my favorite part of the game is meeting new players and meeting new
guys and having friendships with guys from all over the world. Our group was super close right off
the bat and I think that's probably because we went through a pretty tough training camp that coach
put us through and that I found on any team I've played for, you go through a struggle with a bunch
of guys, you become closer right away. So honestly, it was like within the first week we were really,
really tight and then that just continues to grow throughout the year. But yeah, I mean, it could
be one day, it could be a week, it could be a month, depends who you are. Different guys are
different approaches to how close you can get and relationship wise. And now bringing in this
new player, how's that going to go? You know, is it, does the team get together and kind of welcome
this new new body into the group? For sure. I mean, we've had a couple new guys come in this year
and it's automatic. Like we have such a, well, such a nice group of guys, such a welcoming group
where, you know, you're going to help us win. If you show you want to be here and compete,
the guys love to have you. We love to support you and you're a part of our team right away.
Oh, I wonder it's a awesome being here in Wisconsin. It's great. It's great for guys and great
coaching staff. For sure. What do you guys do during this week? We've got our next game lined up
January 12th, next Friday. We are taking on Chicago Crush. They're coming here to town to the
South of County Rec Center. So you got a good, a good little stretch here to kind of prepare for
that coming off of a nice win on Sunday and a good win. Interesting win too. What are the,
how do you handle this week building up to this game? Yeah, it's just back to business.
It does back to business. Work over the things that we need to, that we identify that we need
to get a little bit better at. And I think honestly more that is more mental than anything.
And how we approach it and keep our energy level up and our compete, which we do in practice.
I mean tomorrow's battle day and we're going to get after it again and we practice hard, right?
I mean, that's probably one of the toughest kids to play against. It's that mentality and if you're
not ready for that, you're going to get smacked in them out and buy your own teammates.
Right. So that the games are an easy part. If you play it, right? That's the way we approach it.
Speaking with GM and head coach, Fearwoods, Kassarapura, River Kings, Coach Paul Peckman.
And both of you guys, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate your coach.
As wrapping up, I did want to remind everybody we are looking, we have a big fundraiser going on
with River Kings. We're looking to get some nicer facilities to make the building code.
Just get things right over there in my opinion, just my words. If people want to donate,
people want to find out more about what this is and what we're doing here. And I do say we,
because it is this whole community that is behind you guys on this. I don't want you to feel like
you're out here on your own on this one. This is, I will speak for us here at this radio station.
And I don't say that lightly. We have your back on this too. So when it comes to this,
what do we want people to know about these facilities and this fundraiser we're running?
Well, this is about upgrading our facilities, right? We don't have the luxury of having our own
separate bathrooms, which now becomes an issue because of the figure skating group is growing.
The girls hockey is growing. The youth program and it's all used in that same bathroom that we
happen to have to walk across and it becomes very dangerous. I mean, we're in a time in society where
you gotta be careful, right? So we need upgrades. We're looking to have our own bathroom
a team video room where we can actually all sit down and go through team because it's very
tough to put 28 guys in my little office. Yeah, yeah. So we need that and we need storage because we have,
we have all our stuff scattered out all over the rank, right? Yeah, it's open. So it just needs
to be everything needs to be accessible for us and just upgrade a little bit and that should be
10-year anniversary for us. Yeah, right? So it's just time. It's time for a little upgrade.
We're so fortunate to have this hockey team in town. Not a lot of people have that something like
this. It's something where this is a good, in many ways, this is a good problem. This is a good
thing. The South of County Rec Center was never built for this and the fact that we have this is a
blessing and the fact that we have to make, you know, adjustments and to make this nice, that means
that the kings are staying here. That means we keep something like this. You want to keep nice
things. You have to do certain things to adjust to them. That's just the way of the world. That's
anything. That's business. That's commerce. That's anything. Do we do this and we can make sure
that we keep this team around here? It's very important, not only that, but if you want to talk
about economics and all those other things, I will have a long discussion with you about that
and how important that is and how vital this team is to that end of things. Let alone what Randy
just said earlier, a kindergartener told him the scores of games. You can't put a price on that.
You can't. You can't. Come on. Kids like Luke is coming to town here. Who knows where that leads to?
There's a million different storylines and a million different layers to this. All of it comes
back to, if you want to make a donation, if you want to help us with this fundraiser and help
the River Kings build hockey up and down the river and the true definition of that phrase.
You can go to WR Kings 2711 16th Street South. That's their address. You can stop by there and see
how you can help out. Otherwise, email the coach, cmatriverkingshockey.com. That's the correct
there, coach. GM. GM, did I say cm? I don't know. That's not going to help you at all. You said
it to cm. Who knows who's getting those emails? I don't know who's seeing them. GM makes a lot more
sets. GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rappers River Kings coach, Paul Beckman,
Jordy Gus. Lucas, thank you also for being here. Appreciate you being here. Thanks guys.
I really appreciate the time. We'll talk again when you get back in town, all right?
And we'll come back after this time out and have some more fun on Playmakers here at WFHR.
All right. I tried some bumpers here. I got some new bumper music. I feel like I should be
saying we're back. We're back, everyone. 21 to go. Exactly. It feels like it doesn't.
It does. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Playmakers on your radio dial in the phone lines
of wide open, 715-424-2600. Feel free to call up and join the conversation. Randy and James
here with you. We're here to talk sports. Whatever is on your mind, we haven't even really talked
about a couple of big things like the the championship game going on tonight and some of that.
Weren't those semis crazy? Really great games. They got I'm sorry. My best friend in the
world is they floored a state fan that he loves that team more than anything in any other sports team.
I'm sorry, Chris, but they got the right four teams, I think. I really think they did.
And I think Florida State was so upset some of those kids just said, we're just not going to play.
Yeah. And some are going to enter the transport portal. Some of them are going to go to the draft.
So you can understand those players. But that's why Kirby Smirters, right? We've got to do
something about this. You could just see it all the way across the bowl games. Normally, I just love
bowl season. I said to my wife, every day we get one to watch. They're just weren't any close
bowl games except maybe the badgers. Yeah. And the two semi finals, right? Yeah. But you're so
right about this. Other than that, to me, the greatness of bowl season was getting to see a great
player like, I remember, not Curtis, I'm sorry, Marshall Falk, Marshall Falk plays for San Diego
State. And we don't ever get to see him play. But in the bowl season, we got to see him play
because he's in the San Diego State was good enough to make it to one of these late bowl games,
or early bowl games. And so we got to IDSP and two or something like that. So Marshall Falk
running his tail off and everything. It was great. I love that about college football. It's maybe
my second third favorite thing about college football is those players that you don't always get
to see in some of that. I don't, it's one of these situations where I don't think there's a villain.
I don't think there's necessarily a bad guy. If one of these young men is your child, like,
tell me you're not telling them, Hey, hey, I know, I know you love your team. I know how much these
guys mean to you and you want to be out there for your friends and everything. This is a business.
You got to start thinking about your future. You don't want to end up as Garrison Hurst. You don't
want to end up as some of these guys, these kids that bust up their leg, their knees gone. And they
go from being a first day pick to being an undrafted free agent. Millions of dollars. You know,
and you can actually see it on the everything for those the final four, but even those guys,
you're like, you only got a one in four chance of winning this thing. And you're again risking
millions of dollars. It's amazing that as many of them stick around. And let's not, this is a
new-ish problem too. But it's not that new. It's just new for players. Like my whole life,
I've been and coaching the Northern Illinois football team this week because their head coach
is gone because they left. We make no big deal about that. We let these coaches just run,
lie to our lie to these kids, you know, one hour and telling them I'm going to be here forever.
And the next hour, they're literally packing their bags and leaving. We make no big deal about
that. But these kids doing these things. Oh my god. It's the end of college football. It's all over.
Everything's done. Like get out of here with that. These kids are not doing anything different
that these head coaches are doing. They're just looking into the treating it as a business.
That's what these, that's what college football is. And that's what these universities have been
doing. The universities treated as a business. And how do you get to fix that? You know, Kirby
Smart says we got to fix it. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. If somebody comes up with a solution,
more part or two, I heard somebody say that the bowl season should begin at the beginning of
the year that you, you earn your bowl matchup by your previous season. Like that sounds awfully
confusing, but it also seems like I mean anybody got a better idea. Like we're getting to that
point where it's kind of like, all right, just throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
But how do you win the national championship then? Does it go to some committee, you know,
we get back to the old problem that we had with what was a Colorado and Nebraska,
who was a tied for a national championship because there were no, you know,
playoffs back in the day. Yeah. Well, maybe the playoffs fix all this. Maybe with a 12-game
maybe, you know, maybe it changes all this and it's probably not even talking about next year.
Who's we'll see? Because these kids are going to stick around if they're in the play,
if their team is in the playoffs. If they have a legitimate chance, chance at a national
championship, they're going to be playing. Jalen Malone, Marone was playing. I mean,
there are all these kids that are going to be drafted coming up in April. Definitely,
we're playing, you know, most of them we're playing. Well, it'll probably be interesting,
or maybe the teams like seven through 12, you know, that they really have a chance. And,
you know, and I, again, I'm risking millions of dollars and that'll be interesting. We'll find out.
I'm curious to see there. Adam Schaefter has revealed that Mike Vrabel's job status in Tennessee.
It looks like he is staying. So not to change the change under their Randy, but just trying to
keep up with some of the breaking news here with the coach head coaching carousel that is going
to go on. And the playoffs came off. Oh, that half time of the Sunday night game last night.
So that's all set for this next weekend. Yeah. And, you know, I was thinking a little bit about
this. If they didn't have that confusion in the Dallas Detroit game, and they would have allowed
the two-pointer and Dallas doesn't score in the last 20 seconds or whatever it is, the Packers
would be playing Detroit at Detroit, who we just beaten Thanksgiving Day. Yeah. If the San Francisco
kicker makes the field goal on the last play of the game, Packers are playing Detroit. I think
just me personally, it could be way wrong, but me personally, I'd rather see us playing in Detroit
than in Dallas because Dallas doesn't usually lose in Dallas. And that's going to be interesting.
That could be a tough win. You know, and you know, we're talking a little bit about Joe Berry before.
One thing one change he's made is that he's blitzing now the last two games, right? I mean, he hadn't
done that. They just kind of laid back and now he's he's bringing and they've got a tough front
seven or eight that they can rotate it. And we saw it yesterday. How many times did they get Justin
Fields four times four or five at least yesterday? So I don't know. I'd like it be interesting to
find out what's going on in the locker room with the players. You know, I heard some grumbling,
you know, because they were just being too soft. Now that there'd be more aggressive and they
simplified things. Has this made a difference? And is it enough to change it to save his job? I think
I think if like the caller said, if they get beat badly, you know, because think about it. Yesterday
Tampa Bay played they don't played Carolina. The final score is nine to nothing. When we played
Tampa Bay and we played Carolina, I think we gave up 34 and 30 points respectively to two teams
that couldn't even score against each other. Yeah, because of the way I think the defense was playing.
But now they hold the bears to nine points and the way people, you know, it's it'll be interesting.
I think this would be a big big part of the decision making process. It'll it'll make the decision
easier for them either way. You know, no matter how it honestly, it's kind of where I think a lot
of fans like of a lot of NFL teams are where like I am with my fan base like the
we care. We're we're still invested, but we're numb. We're numb to all this. We will. Okay,
we lost the green Bay. How was that any there are generations of kids that that's all they've
ever known that, you know, I mean, how is this any different? Oh, we had a quarterback who was
hyped up. Who isn't what he thought he was going to be? Okay. How is that any different? It's
no matter what changes they make, the powers that be are not changing. It's still a Mekaski
sign in the check. As long as that takes place as a fan, how hyped up, how sad or happy can I get?
It's again, going back to the worst thing I think that you could have in sports, whether you
are a fan or you are an owner of these teams or coach of these teams, mediocrity. The last
thing I want for my fan, I would rather have my fan base screaming their heads off and wanting
everybody in the franchise, wanting to scorch earth. You want that more than you want?
We did pretty good. We were 500. That's not what you want. That doesn't fill seats. That
doesn't get people going out there buying jerseys. That doesn't help your franchise and it doesn't
help your franchise win either. So to me, that's why where you get today, where a lot of fan
bases are saying, yeah, we did okay there towards the end of the season blah, blah, blah,
scorched earth. Let's start over because it's at least more hopeful and more, you know, you can,
you can at least, you know, kick the can and all this and be a little more hopeful about the future
than you can if, well, we were fair this year. Well, you know, it's funny because we've talked
about this before in this show. How many great quarterbacks are there in the NFL? 10? Yeah, maybe 10.
I think I'd do something about that because there were so many injuries this year. Now I get it.
Aaron Rogers got hurt with all being touched. Kurt Cousins got hurt with all being touched. But
there's so many teams playing their third string quarterback. Yeah. And who wants, I don't know,
maybe it's just me, but who wants to go to a game if you're watching the third string quarterback
and the ticket price is over $200. Yeah. And you want to purchase four of those for your family.
They've got about a big as a problem with that as the college football does with these kids and
you know, some of them not playing and some of them transferring. You had a kid that transferred
and showed up for the other team by the time the bowl game happened. Like I mean, that's crazy.
It's insane. What's out that's happening. Um, I'm curious. We don't have a lot of time here,
but we can talk about this next week too. National championship. I'm not as interested in who you
got in this everybody, but I am curious. Do you like not being able to watch it if you don't have ESPN?
Like to me, that is the weirdest one of the weirdest things. It's not smart by ESPN either and
it's owned by Disney where they could put it on ABC if they wanted to. Instead, they have a
Brook Shield special tonight. And I love Brook Shields, more power tour. But that's not exactly
the national championship game. Well, then I think one of the playoff games next week's on peacock.
Yeah. Yeah. Like it's very, I understand that why they're doing this and everything,
but I don't think it's as smart as they think it is. And I don't think it's going to go well.
I don't think it's going to end very well. No matter how many people have ESPN, not everybody's
got ESPN like they got ABC. Um, more people have that than the other. It's just math. I don't know
how that's going to work out for the end. I don't know many people. And no matter even if you're
a Washington and Michigan fan, um, that you're going to go ahead and get ESPN plus just to watch
this, you know, it's the same thing streaming services are having a problem with. Oh, they're
going to buy Netflix because of stranger things. No, they're not. No, they're not. They're proving
that the numbers are proving that they're not going to do that. You need more than that. Yeah.
And I wanted to mention this as well for those that didn't hear the Minnesota Vikings are
changing artificial turf. Uh, next year. Oh, that's interesting. I thought I thought there's a lot
of other teams that could do that to prevent injuries. There's got to, I mean, with the technology,
with the advancements we have and everything, it's amazing that it's not better at this point.
Every team, every team should have it. If you are an NFL owner and you don't, I wouldn't want to
play for you. I don't care what where you play your games. Uh, the, um, US bank stadium, the home
movement and sort of Vikings will become the latest NFL facility to replace its playing surface
with a version of artificial turf that rates better in injury data. No, they just replace that
defensive. Hey, did that. Are we still on the air? I, I felt like I was setting you up for something.
I just didn't know what. That was great. That was good. Um, I, I really hope, uh, the Jets and every
single, literally every single team in the NFL that doesn't have obviously already good turf that
do something like this. Um, taking a quick look at, uh, just our schedule real quick. Thank you
the Wisconsin Rapids Area Visitors Bureau to put in our River Kings on the cover. That was awesome
coat. Thanks to coach Peckman, uh, coming in today. We of course appreciate that. And Lucas,
why did big thank you to Lucas for being here as well. Um, tomorrow at 605, I have the great
guard show right here. That's the new time slot for that everybody. It'll be on Tuesday's 605
great guard show Wednesday. Wisconsin men's basketball at Ohio State at 630. The Ohio State. Yeah,
and Randy, this feels so good Thursday, six o'clock right here at WFHR Milwaukee Bucks,
host Boston. Oh, sweet. We got Bucks basketball at the radio. That's amazing. Yeah,
and then you can switch it over and listen to Pitzville and Port Edward Zine, our sister station
after that. That pregame will kick off at 650 for that game right there. Uh, we're looking forward
to it and thank you again for being in today. Randy, great to see you. Uh, River Kings hockey Friday,
I'm sorry, River Kings hockey, uh, this Friday at 659 on the 12th. So that's next Friday.
Yeah, Friday and Saturday coming up here at the end of the week. Yep, coming up at the end of the
week. Uh, thanks for a great show. Thank you for all the calls. Everybody in the big. Thank you
to quality plus printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids. We'll talk to you next
Monday for more playmakers on WFHR locally grown radio.
