Congrats, Bo Ryan!

Welcome everyone to WFHRs playmakers for this February 19th, 2024.

304 on the clock.

Have your host James J. Mailoff.

I am joined by one of our partners in sports pitch hitting today.

Seth Habagger.

Hello, everyone.

We hope you're having a good one out there.

Thanks for joining Seth and I.

We're going to be joined for the fourth period a little bit later at 330 by our head

friend and GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River.

Canes coach Paul Peckman.

Coach also bring it in Jake Brysland with him.

Jake forward with our River Kings looking forward to that.

Yeah.

I don't know if I had to mention the jakes with the River Kings for one.

I bet you they're River King fans out there.

No, no, yeah, but it would also be a little weird if coaches bring Jake Brysland.

Yeah, you're like, okay, he has no association with hockey.

Yeah, I feel like I didn't have to necessarily say, but we're looking forward to talking

to coach and Jake a little bit later.

Looking forward to talking to you guys 424, 2600, 715, 424, 2600.

If you're listening on the civic media app, thank you.

You are just a touch or two away from getting a hold of Seth and I with your sports thoughts

and feelings and takes and all of that.

It's a Monday hot takes are all around.

Hot takes.

Let's hear them.

We'd love to hear from you about those and anything else.

We've got pictures and catchers reporting.

So we want to talk a little baseball with you.

I want to get into a couple of other things with you Seth if we have time.

All right.

We'll certainly talk some River Kings and local sports around here.

But I wanted to start in two places for one.

Did you have anything?

Did you?

Do you have anything that you was on your mind sports wise?

Your sports band with my sports band with no, I mean other than the that the all-star

game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The NBA, whatever that was.

I think I think we'll have time for that.

And we'll see if we if our callers don't bring it up then we'll definitely wrap up our

show.

And that's that's fine.

Either way on that one.

I know we're it's baseball.

We're getting into baseball season now.

Of course, we got spring training getting under underway here.

And I'm glad because this has been I'm sad to say it.

It was kind of a yonder of an office is the hot stove was not very hot this year.

Yeah.

It was kind of boring.

We still have free agents.

Yeah.

We still have guys who have not signed yet.

One of the topics I wanted for us to get into in baseball was five free agent to markets

could heat up soon.

Yeah.

From MLB.com.

I want to if we have time want to get into that we'll make time.

We'll get into that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure.

One of the one big connection.

All five of them have one big connection.

Yes.

Oh, one dire connection.

Yes.

A deep point.

Deep.

Yes.

Let's start here if you don't mind.

I just want it because it kind of ties local into a little bit of it for those did not

here.

The Nase Smith Hall of Fame have announced their basketball winners for the Hall of

Fame this year who was going into the basketball Hall of Fame.

Very cool.

And again, for those who don't know the basketball hall of fame is for all of basketball.

You played your whole career in Europe.

You played your whole career in college.

It doesn't matter.

I love that.

Oh.

That's one of the great aspects of the I think all halls of fame should do that.

Hundred percent.

Yeah.

I mean, I couldn't agree with you more.

Yeah.

One of the one of my favorite things you and I have agreed on I earlier things you and

I have agreed on.

All Hall of Fame.

Baseball Hall of Fame should be all baseball.

I agree.

Football.

Yeah.

You know, what they aren't here are I think all of the ball is a holiday in less

country now.

It's Ariel artist Vince Carter Big shot maker, Chonsey, bilips, smooth scoring

Simone Augustus and Wisconsin, winning his coach, Bo Ryan.

How about that headline, 14 finalists announcing Friday for the

in trion

at the nace.

Smith basketball golf of fame.

Congratulations on all of them and locally, of course, to Bo Ryan coach, RyanIX.

It's pretty cool to see

233 in his career with a 762 winning percentage of 32 seasons.

That's overall.

He of course started at university, Plattville, Wisconsin, then went to win Wisconsin

Milwaukee, then of course UW leading the Badgers men's teams to 14 street NCA tournament

appearances and back to back final fours in 2014 and 2015, unprecedented in Wisconsin

basketball history.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was he's barred on the best that they've ever had.

Wow, but when you read back those statistics, man, that winning percentage, holy

guy.

That's that's like in rarefied air.

That's like the top college coaches of all time.

I had no idea.

There are generations not far from ours.

If not, we don't, you know, I think you might even be able to include ours.

I know a lot of my friends that have grown up knowing of Wisconsin basketball that the

generations before that did not know, no, not at all.

It's kind of also speaks to why when we have a team, a team like this team this year that's

got a lot of good talent on it, but maybe doesn't bring it all together on days like Saturday

and that.

It could be so frustrating.

I don't think that the fan base is spoiled by any means, but whatever the tick is under

that, whatever, you know, just almost, almost where you expect, then expect maybe to win,

but you expect to win those kind of games, especially in the big 10.

Exactly.

Makes it a little more frustrating, I think.

Not necessarily a powerhouse when it comes to basketball, but occasionally, but and

it be one thing, and this is kind of funny, and maybe the only time we've ever been able

to say this in history, it'd be one thing if the Wisconsin men's basketball team lost

to the women's Iowa basketball team.

I think we could all be like, yeah, yeah, we can't look hard, yeah, we can, we can stuff

like that a little bit more.

You lose by two or three to her, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

But the men's side to assessment, yeah, yeah.

But congratulations to coach Ryan.

Yeah, well deserved.

Well deserved.

I love that.

By the way, there was, I recognized two names on that of the players, Chelsea Billups,

and of course, Vince Carter, two of all time grades.

The third name I'm not familiar with, is that an older school?

Great female player.

Oh, it sure is.

Okay, I'm not familiar with the name.

I feel bad about that.

I really was one of the reason one of the people that really early on got the WMBA started.

I don't blame you for not knowing that.

I don't think a lot of people would.

I am just a basketball nerd.

So I know all this stuff, right?

But I, yeah, I thought she was very well deserving to her too.

And we usually get our stat of the show in.

We've got a couple of callers that like to bring them in and shout out to you guys.

We look forward to talk with you.

We usually get that in midway through the show.

I'm going to kind of start off our show with a stat of the show for you.

And this is kind of interesting and a given local tie-in for those that did not hear this

and almost wrapping up our Super Bowl talk, if you will, unless you want to talk about

that, you guys.

Please feel free to call it.

And we'll talk about it.

Right.

Stat of the show.

Pro football focused.

Highest graded player from this past Super Bowl.

Highest graded.

The highest rated player was Grantsberg's own Leo Chanel.

UW Madison's own Leo Chanel.

And if you watch the game, you may have been like, well, Winby, I didn't really hear his

name mentioned or anything like that.

Yes, I'm.

You've seen him.

You've seen the impact that young man made in his second year in the league.

They found up because Coach Spags is, I think, the great, maybe the, I'm saying this

as a, as a Chicago bear fan, I think Coach Spags is the greatest defensive coordinator

ever ever.

Ever.

Ever.

Better than put a Ryan.

Bulletin.

Yes.

Yes.

Monday.

Bulletin.

Yeah.

I don't think that there's ever been a better defensive coordinator.

We'll see.

Um, but yeah, uh, congratulations to Leo Chanel, who probably should have been the Super

Bowl MVP.

Yeah.

It's, it's kind of funny to say it, but look at the stats.

Watch the game.

The kid was magnificent.

Yeah.

And the, the, because Spags is smart, just like Andy Reed, where it's not my way or the

highway.

It's, I got this kid.

I got this skill set.

Use your weapons.

Yes.

Use your weapons.

They did.

Yeah.

That kid was a fire.

That game.

Maybe the game was life.

That's Sunday.

Let's take a call.

Good afternoon, guys.

How's it going?

Good.

How are you doing?

Oh, it's good.

Good day to be a brewer.

I got, I got, I got, uh, right up, pulled up here.

I don't even have his stats or anything.

I just typed in Brandon Woodruff.

Uh, that's that.

Just like that.

It's all like that.

Just to make sure we talked about Mr. Woodruff.

Is that where you're going?

Well, I mean, there's a couple of things.

I mean, I, I have to say I'm kind of proud of myself.

I did some, did some digging this weekend.

I ticked back and they've been kind of doing, you know,

different things, you know, like with some of the pro athletes.

And they brought up, um, JJ White, the game that made him famous.

Do you know which one it is?

Oh, wow.

Wow.

No.

Yeah.

It's hard for us to say.

And in state, I think because he's been famous since he stepped on campus.

Right.

Is that, is that a college or a prose?

Yeah.

College, the college game.

Which college game?

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Got me there.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I'm going to give you the year 2010.

2010.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

Man, I don't remember this morning that well.

Okay.

That was against Ohio State when Wisconsin beat on the Ohio State with number one in the country.

Oh, yeah.

That was a big game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now I'm going to throw us some names at you.

And I'm going to, I know James.

You're going to probably go.

Oh.

Oh, okay.

First one.

Nick Tune.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Second name.

Chris Borland.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

I really thought Borland was going to have a heck of an NFL career.

I, I did.

At least I made the only one.

But I, you know, like concussions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was a whole deal deal with him.

Yeah.

Here's another one for you.

Gerard Aberderas.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Aberderas.

Rock me Aberderas.

Yes.

Yes.

Got to love them.

Great player.

Do you know who the court, do you know who the quarterback was at that time?

Boy.

Oh, wow.

Hmm.

Hmm.

I, I, you said the tip of my head.

There's only one name that's coming to my brain.

I know it's, it's got to be wrong.

It's not Bollinger.

Is it?

No, no, no.

It's got to be.

Wow.

I don't even remember that name.

Oh, I, you know, that's weird.

I would have thought, I, for some reason, I, I remember him farther back.

But no, that make, that you're right.

That adds up.

Of course, you're right.

You're looking at it.

You know, and there's one, I mean, a kid that had a ton of talent, but had a nickel head.

It was John Clay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I even remember that name.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He got in trouble and all.

He could have been a great, I think he could have been a really good NFL running back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, you know, similar to the Moss kids some years before that.

Yeah.

I thought the same thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a great front down.

Well, then James White was also a freshman at that, and that, that team too, that, that team.

So, I mean, that, that 2010 team that beat Ohio State, and I think he went on to ruin the Rose Bowl that year too.

Or you, you know, they won the Rose Bowl.

I got beat, but I think that made it in the game.

They got beat by my TCU.

But, I mean, Wisconsin's had some pretty good ballers come out of us.

I don't think he said you had, we had some great coaches.

And we had Barry Alvarez, you know, just, it's just the coaches that we had.

I guess you almost had to say that was very coming to Wisconsin.

And at the time, I can't remember who the AD was at that time.

It just kind of drew a blank here.

Yeah, I don't remember.

Probably him.

And, you know, it just, and it just was a big snowball.

You just can't bring him bigger names and, you know, it just Wisconsin sport.

I mean, just like the Packer fans, we have been spoiled with coaching and players

that we've had come through here from, you know, from football and basketball.

And, you know, even until the hockey end of it, too.

I mean, you know, and one thing, one of the things that I love about that for Wisconsin fans

and just in general as a sports fan is we're, we grow up our whole lives, you know,

seeing different sports, the big teams that bring in every free agent or something like that

and all the big sports.

And while the Yankees, certainly, you know, going way back in their history,

have earned, you know, to be the Empire, the evil Empire and all those things.

It's not as fun to root for guys that grow up in their system like a Derek Jeter or something like that.

It doesn't hit the same.

But with teams like this, like with like a badger team or even even the Packers or something like that.

When it comes to that and you, when they hit on a guy, it just seems to mean so much more.

I agree.

And it adds to the history and the lore of that team.

I mean, there's people out there that might think, well, the Yankees traded for Derek Jeter or something like that.

It may sound far fetched, but there's your average fans out there that think, oh, they just brought in this guy

and this guy, well, they must have brought in that guy, too.

He's good.

Whereas with a Green Bay team, it read you white.

What was he always there?

You know, you know, your average fan, not talking about your diehard fans.

Your diehard fans, of course, are going to know this stuff.

But your average fan, they're going to look at a Reggie White and, oh, is he always been there?

He was in green before.

You know, I mean, it just, it hits different memories.

Yeah.

Yeah.

By the way, one of my favorite quotes about the Yankees was in the 50s when they wore out in the World Series every year and won most of them.

Except for like 57 when the Brazeman.

But was someone who said rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel.

Or, or like to update that, rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Walmart, you know?

Wow.

It's like, why would you do that?

What's the root for them?

I mean, the giant thing.

No, forget that.

That's pretty good, actually.

Yeah.

That is pretty good.

Wow.

You know, you bring up Bull Ryan and all of this.

I know you sit there and watch the Badger team now.

And how they just want you to bring him back so they could bring the defense back to Wisconsin.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, the last six games, it's been tough watching, you know?

But I have to say it was kind of rough weekend for the men's sports in Wisconsin this weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was, it was.

They didn't sweat, sweeping, sweeping the hockey.

You know, in Ohio State, it's not very good this year.

Yeah.

No, we had two conference wins up until the weekend.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, but the Brazeman was that the women turned around and swept Minnesota.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And hockey.

So I mean, got that lady's Badger.

A hockey team is something.

I love watching them.

That's a, that's a fun team.

Let's shift gears a little bit to some, I think positive news in the state when it comes to sports.

And the news about Brander Woodruff for those that didn't hear the Brewers sign Brander Woodruff to a two-year extension.

Or to your contract.

Contract, right.

So basically this first year, he's going to rehab.

And next year, it's an all-in.

I'm playing for an, you know, maybe another contract.

Maybe just, you know, playing my, my career out.

Yep.

We'll see.

We don't know because of this injury is so hard to predict.

And he is 31 years old.

Mm-hmm.

But I, all that being, getting all that out of the way.

Brander Woodruff is exactly what I was just talking about about when you root for these, these kind of teams.

And you're a fan of these kind of teams.

And you have a guy that you bring up.

He just means different.

He just hits different.

And being able to say, hey, Brander Woodruff's still in the clubhouse.

He's still a part of the team.

Right.

It may seem like PR.

It may not seem like that much.

Man, it's 162 games.

It's a long season.

Having guys like that, having good stories like that.

There can't be enough of them.

And especially this time of year, where we're all, everything's hope.

Outside of you for Aaron, Oakland A's fan.

And God bless you if you are.

I feel for you.

I mean that.

I'm not being sarcastic.

I generally mean that.

I've got a lot of friends in that area.

Yeah.

I think that all of us can be excited.

And have some expectations and some hope for our team.

Did anybody, did any Arizona Diamondback fan out there last year?

Think their team was going to be that competitive?

The Texas Rangers is big as they think in Texas.

Did they really think they were going to win the World Series?

Yeah.

Maybe they hoped.

But did they really think they could?

Excellent point.

There's a lot to be hopeful about this year.

I know that the Dodgers look like now the modern evil empire and everything.

Right.

But we've seen that story.

And we've seen it not always end that well.

I don't think it's a guarantee that they're going to win.

The Dodgers have only won once in the recent 430, 40 years.

So I mean, you know, and that was the, you know, the COVID year.

So I mean, whatever you want to take from that, you can.

You know, it's interesting.

I'm so, you know, the whole, I don't know if this was part of the plan.

The, the, the, the, the brewers, does it get him for assignment?

Which means they were going to send him down or he could get free agency.

I'm really interested.

I'm really shocked.

No one else did the same thing like the brewers did with him.

Me too.

You know, low deal kind of thing just so he get one year for rehab.

Because you see that.

You've seen that a couple of times now where you get a guy for two years.

So one year and get back and then see what he's got.

I wouldn't be surprised if Woodruff moves into the bullpen.

He could be a really good back end bullpen guy.

Yeah.

And I don't disagree with you on that fact either too.

I mean, he could be, you know, just because of what extensive surge

you're there doing with the shoulder.

But, you know, a couple of things out thing in a month today with,

with them signing him is that with the amount of young guys we have

on the bird pitching staff right now.

He could be that guy that could be, you know, just be in their ear, you know.

Extra pitching coach.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it just just relax, you know, go out there and just,

you know, just just wing it, you know, just flinging it, you know,

just throw it in and have fun.

And also if he, you know, if rehab goes well, could he make that

40 man roster at the end of the year, if they make that playoff push?

Right.

Right.

Could he be that could he be that guy at the end of the season when they,

you know, yeah, I don't really don't really do the September call ups anymore.

I'm like, but they kind of, you know, open their osters up a little bit more.

But yeah, I mean, I think it was a good thing.

And I kind of wondered the back of my head too is did Brandon get offers

from other teams like this, but he did not want to go.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Really loved to know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like to know that now that now that burns has gone and maybe Woodruff

would be in be the, be the man again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, you know, if you listen to the people talking about it,

this, this surgery yet in the shoulder is tough to come back from.

Yeah.

It's hard to say.

There is a really good article in MLB dot com encouraged people to check out

from Jake McGrubber.

It does nice reporting over there.

It's really nice article on a Hobie Milner.

They kind of set up me.

It wasn't that kind of the set up man for Devon Williams in that

more.

You were a bullpen.

Um, and talk and coach Murphy manager Murphy talking a little bit

about the use of him this year.

And how they don't really want to change things up.

They've got something that works.

Um, if you are a starter for the brewers, all I got to do is get to the

sixth.

Just get to the sixth inning.

If you can get to the sixth inning,

if you can get to the sixth inning,

if you can get to that even a fifth in some regard,

but really the sixth inning, you can pitch five.

And I can't believe I am saying this as a baseball fan,

but give him five innings.

God.

And you're, you're almost, you know, good luck.

Good luck to any hitter out there.

Good luck to anybody trying to hit off of those two, you know,

going forward.

We have seen teams that have written their bullpens.

I all I need to talk about is the 14, 15 Kansas City Royals.

The three headed monster they had at the end of their bullpen.

And you cannot tell me they not, they would have won the World Series

without those guys.

That was that they shorten the game.

Yeah.

They were talking to you.

Some of the talking heads to say that, um,

that the these light that that was at Miller,

a Revis and, and then Williams, those three.

Could be the net.

It could be the best set up.

You know, you know,

the best.

Closers you could have, you know, the best back end guys.

Yeah.

You know, and then they were trying to compare them to the,

was it the Boston Red Sox back in the day?

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

With a Kimberl or are you talking farther back?

Further back.

I can't remember what it was.

I don't, I mean, I'm, I mean, I'm kind of excited.

I mean, we might actually have the offense to share that,

that the, you know, it's a half.

You know, if everybody can hit, you know,

get hot and stay hot.

Yeah.

And hit their averages and stuff.

I mean, with that bullpen, huh?

Yeah.

I can say get to the fifth or sixth.

We could be in good shape.

Yeah.

Uh, just a real quick random stat here,

just because of what we're talking about with starting pitching.

Si, Si Young started a 815 games in his career.

And he pitched a complete game.

740.

Yeah.

And did all that not winning a Si Young?

Yeah.

Well, yeah.

They didn't have it.

Yeah.

That's hilarious.

Yeah.

I had to.

It was the one who was sitting there.

I had to.

No, these are, these records will never be broken.

Never, ever, ever.

I know James.

I'm going to pry hang up.

No, it's a good idea.

Good idea.

Thank you for the call.

Bad.

Have a great week.

All right.

You guys have a great week.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

815 games.

815 games.

It's incredible.

1 500 and 11 games.

It's hard for pitchers to get to 200 wins now.

Yeah.

He won 500.

Seth and I are the last five minutes before we go to our first break here.

I wanted to touch on some of the bigger free agents out there in Major League Baseball.

We can come back to this too a little bit later if you want.

Sure.

Tim Anderson is still out there and I know he had a horrible year last year,

but I thought that that was quite interesting.

You could be useful.

I don't know.

That's a weird one.

I'm surprised.

Unless he's asking too much.

That's the only thing that I can imagine.

Yeah.

Marcus Strowman is still out there.

Of course.

Yeah.

No.

Strowman was signed with Yankees.

That's right.

Yankees.

Well, and that leads into me.

So now the latest reporting I have been seeing is that Blake Snell could still end up in the Bronx.

Wow.

There's the big name still out there along with Cody Belinger, who it seems like they're playing chicken the Cubs and Belinger right now.

Just seeing who's going to blink first.

If Belinger has not signed yet, that means that his market isn't as good as he thought it was.

Yeah.

Go back to the Cubs, man.

They love you there.

Yeah.

You had a great season.

It's a great place to play.

You know, and just go back, man.

Just go back.

And nobody's spending.

Nobody's, I mean, nobody's budging on this.

Not really.

Not right now.

There's a lot of uncertainty right now because of the Regional Sports Network issue that's going on throughout the game right now that has not been resolved.

Yeah.

If you care about baseball, and you're wondering, what are the biggest things to focus on going forward and everything?

I think now that they've got a lot of the rules tinked, you know, worked out.

Yeah.

And going into the second year of some of those big rule changes, that's the big one.

Getting a streaming service.

Yeah.

Major League Baseball MLB.com streaming.

Just owning it.

Just you.

Do it at the NFL network dead.

And then just break it down regionally.

Yeah.

And just break it off regionally.

None of these other networks can do it.

In a half of some of them gone bankrupt trying to do it.

And you are, you are just, you're biting off your notice about your face.

You're, you're trying to make, oh, we got a big money.

We can make tons of money in California.

You can't make that kind of money over in Detroit or I mean Michigan.

You can't, you know, it's just, it's the same thing baseball has already done.

Baseball has done this with their collect with their bargaining.

You know, Yankees make all this money.

The A's get a little bit.

The manager's get a little bit.

Luxury tax.

Well, they used to call it.

They call it some else now.

But same thing with competitive use tax.

Whatever.

I think the same thing needs to be done for their TV deal.

Mm-hmm.

So and to, you know, they have the infrastructure.

Baseball advanced with these.

We call baseball advanced media.

I don't know how it's, it's a, it's a stat cast now.

Is one of the best internet infrastructures there is around.

They've got the technology to do it.

They can do it.

And it's just, and now I know just recently, Rob Manfred came out

while alluding to when he's going to be done, which is weird,

because it wouldn't be for five years.

What's up with him?

Anyway, I don't buy that.

Anyway, but he said no.

It doesn't sound like that's what they're going for.

But man, it makes more sense.

It makes sense to do that way.

But I don't know.

We'll see how that goes.

Yeah, that's one of the biggest storylines I think in baseball.

They'll go right forward.

By the way, all those five free agents, the big ones we're talking about,

Scott Boris is every single one of them's agent, which tells you,

all you need to know because this is his, this is the way he works.

This is the way Scott Boris does business.

It's, it's one of the wrap that I, on that note, especially if you know

who Scott Boris is, that is a go-to-break kind of name.

It is.

It is like the agent.

Yeah.

He's got to be, he's like the guy.

Well, and he's that guy too, that you don't even have to know much about sports.

But you hear that name and your skin crawls a little.

Like, you know, even if he represents you.

Yeah.

But that's what you want, right?

You want an agent that's in there fighting for you, right?

That's the guy you want.

Yeah.

It's absolutely true.

You're way so good.

You could probably use a little of that by agent.

Go into the brain.

Does he sign actors?

Yeah.

Find out.

Gonna give him a call.

We will be back with the fourth period, everybody.

GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapper to River King's Coach Paul.

Gonna join us.

He's got Jake with him.

One of the players is gonna have fun talking to Little Hockey.

Coming up with our River King's right here on Playmakers.

Probably brought to you by quality plus printing.

Getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

From Wisconsin Rap.

Welcome back, everyone.

Playmakers here at WFHR.

It is time to kick off the fourth period where we talk some Wisconsin Rapids River King's.

With our GM and head coach Paul Peckman.

Coach, thanks for being here.

Good to see you.

Thanks for the time.

Good to see you.

And you brought a friend.

I appreciate that.

We've got Jake with us.

Jake.

We have Jake Bryson with us.

Jake, good to see you.

Good to see you.

Thanks for inviting me.

Well, I should say this isn't the first time I've seen you.

I've seen you on the ice.

Yeah.

But the first time I've gotten a chance to really talk with you outside of kind of over at the rank when we touch base a little bit.

Jen, thanks a lot for being here.

Jake.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate you bringing a player like this with you coach all the time.

It's fun for our community to get to know these guys a little bit more and everything.

I was appreciate that time.

I want to talk a little bit about the week that was last week.

Kind of a weird week for you guys.

I imagine playing in the middle of the week, some of that.

But let's get to know you a little bit first, Jake.

Where are you from?

I'm from England.

A place called Telford in England.

So it's not as good as London.

But you know, it's now on the west coast.

All right.

Right.

Is it outside of London?

Is it always away from London?

It's like the other side of the country.

I'm close to Wales.

So about three hours from London.

So you know, I had to tell you, I was talking to my dad.

I think it was last year I came back from the interviews with you guys.

And like, Dad, they got a couple English guys over there.

And I grew up in a hockey house, you know, and around a lot of guys from all over the world and everything.

But I don't remember running around a lot of guys with your accent.

And I asked my dad about it.

He's like, oh, yeah.

That's huge over there.

Like, really?

Oh, yeah.

It's huge.

Hockey's very big in the UK.

Yeah.

It's growing.

So I mean, when I first started, it wasn't as popular.

But our men's team, especially in World Championships, again, better and better every year.

So there's more people interested, you know, even to our pro games.

We get more fans every day.

So it's really grown.

Now, it's got to be interesting.

I imagine to be in the early days of this.

And, you know, when you look at the scheme of things and everything, it time is such a flat circle.

So you're really in the beginnings of kind of building the sport over there.

That's got to have a great feeling to it.

Yeah, it is.

It's really cool because, you know, a lot of people in my school, I was probably one of two people in my whole school.

We played hockey.

You know, like, we don't have school hockey teams.

And so, I mean, when I was in high school over that, a part of my day was, you know, telling everyone about hockey.

So letting everyone know.

And then, you know, I ended up getting about like, you know, five or six people to start playing.

Now, you know, my school has like a recognition thing for hockey.

So like, everyone, you know, who plays hockey gets help from the school and they try to make it bigger.

And they're trying to fund it more.

So how do you learn the sport?

How do you get involved in the sport with nothing really to build on?

So it's a funny story, actually.

I was, one day I was riding my bike and I felt my, like, it was a nasty accident.

And some guy came, picked me up.

It turns out that that guy played for the GB national team in hockey.

And so, I, no, his name was Russ, Russ Plan.

Wow.

So I knocked both my teeth out and, first thing he said, well, it was your halfway to being a hockey player.

And from that day, he just taught me how to play hockey, gave me a stick.

Wow.

But, you know, a year later I was in skates playing my first game.

There are no coincidences.

You know, that thing's happened for a reason, man.

That is awesome.

That is really cool.

But what are the better accidents ever happened to you, I'm sure.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I wasn't happy about the front teeth.

Yeah.

I mean, they came back because they were my baby teeth.

Right on.

You can't complain.

Jake, why choose to bring your skill set to Wisconsin Rapids here?

What, what was it about the River Kings?

The major you want to play here and play for coach?

Well, I mean, coach Paul is just a great guy.

And, you know, I mean, there's a couple teams, you know, I played mostly over on the East Coast for the past two years.

But there's just so much structure here.

And, you know, I feel like this program wants to, you know, we want to win nationals.

We want to strive for something better, whereas a lot of the places you go, you don't get that, you know, that team.

But here, it's really like, you know, the community here is just great.

The team are great.

And I think everyone works together pretty well.

And it just, you know, it feels good.

It feels good to be here.

Right on.

Jake, really appreciate you being here.

Really appreciate what you're doing for our city, for our communities, for our team.

And cool to get to know you, man.

Yeah.

Like, thank you for the story.

Thank you for that.

I really appreciate you sharing that.

That's very interesting.

I could not wait.

If my dad's not already listening, he'll be, he's already talking to the radio.

Just think, see, I could listen.

I can't answer him.

I can't answer him back.

Coach, when it comes to recruiting players like this,

especially from an area that you don't get a, it's a hockey hot bat, you know,

is that part of the skill of recruiting, the skill of scouting is seeing that diamond

in the rough and finding those?

Or is it just, that was just, it was just plain.

Like, Jake's that kind of talent.

Well, with Jake was, if you remember, we had two guys on a team,

I wish you were pregnant, right?

Yeah.

You and Hill and Kane Russell, let mention him and a good friend of ours.

His, his advisor, Steve James, that I've become good friends with, you know,

had mentioned Jake and Jake was here for the playoffs last year, right?

So, I knew where he went.

He would play preps school in New York.

So, I knew what he was playing.

I was watching him on film.

So, I knew what he could do.

And I said, all right, let's get this kid here, right?

So, and being that he had those guys already here.

So, it was, it was kind of a little more comfortable transition right out of the gate.

It was just walking right into the team of the playoffs, right?

Which is not easy to do.

So, I think that got him a little more comfortable knowing that he came back this year

and just has really elevated his game, right?

So, what does it take?

A lot of relationships and trust, right?

And, and when guys recommend, and then it's just watching, right?

And seeing it for yourself and knowing where this, you know,

each kid fits in and, and, and where can he go?

You know, and that's how that works.

Right on.

I love talking scouting with you.

I love talking about that stuff.

It's, it's so interesting to me.

And, you know, one of the things that you learn too,

growing up in a sports household and any, any routine.

How routine sports is and how much that routine matters to sports.

And, and whether it is, it is a practice or anything else.

You have this kind of way of doing things.

And especially when you've been playing a season's worth of hockey,

you really get into that routine and you really feel like,

you, okay, this is the way things go.

And then, of course, a couple of weeks to the other the season,

you've got these midweek games that throw all of that off a little bit.

How, how, how different was your week last week, you guys?

And, and how was, oh, why was it?

What did you do differently?

Well, we didn't do a lot to each other.

Monday, Monday we, we started a, we broke up the team

and we made three on three teams.

And, and I let them just take a break, right?

And, go have some fun.

We did a couple drills here and then, and then the second I have a practice

was let them go play three on three.

So, they have these, this inner team,

they got a group of teams and they compete against each other.

Yeah.

Whatever.

So, on Monday, so we do that, we did that today as well.

So, and Tuesday was just really about special teams

and just light and getting ready.

This is a team that we know, we faced already.

Yes, it's in the middle of the week and it was very awkward.

It didn't feel right.

Yeah.

Playing at 12 o'clock on Wednesday just didn't make sense.

But, we got through it.

We did what we needed to do.

We, you know, we came down there and made sure we came home with four points.

And, we accomplished that and then we go to the next step.

Right, so.

River Kings on last Wednesday.

Great Valentine's Day for you guys.

Five, nothing shut out of the Chicago Crush for those that didn't hear.

Great game by our Kings.

And the next night, pulling off another victory against Chicago Crush.

So, like as Coach says, they're bringing in four points into the weekend

when other teams hadn't even played yet.

So, that's a nice way to go into the week.

Even if it is a little awkward, a little weird.

Not so bad the way it ended up wrapping up and working out.

But then you have a little bit of a longer,

I don't like to use the word layoff,

but a little longer of a layoff than you do normally with that.

So, how does this week go building, getting back into the routine?

Well, I think we started off with a little conditioning today.

So, you know, we kind of get back into the reality

and understand, you know, there's certain things more important

than just playing hockey here.

And a couple of guys are losing sight of that a little bit here.

So, we had to rain a minute a little bit.

So, we do a little extra skating today.

And then we'll get back into the regular week.

You know what I mean?

We have our battle day tomorrow.

Which we may tail off a little bit, just depending.

And we got, you know, the new kid Goodwin is here.

His brother is coming tomorrow night.

So, we got that mix coming up.

So, we're really just going to get into,

let's do some fun three on three stuff, some chemistry stuff.

Oh, yeah.

Make sure guys are in the right spots in here going in the Hudson.

We all know it's at stake.

Yeah.

So, hopefully we got the right mix.

Let's get into that coach.

What is at stake?

These last games are the regular season.

Rapping up the regular season with against Hudson.

And just catching everybody up standings wise.

Hudson is right ahead of us.

It is one, two.

Oh, no, no, it's not.

We're in first place.

We are in first.

That's right.