Latest / College Hockey Mouth / Episode 14: Will Stephens | Trailer Park Sports Network

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Episode 14: Will Stephens | Trailer Park Sports Network · College Hockey Mouth

• speaker-0: Welcome back everybody to the College Hockey Mouth Podcast, episode 14. And guys, first semester is nearly wrapped up around the ACHA Club Hockey World. Danny Bohm, welcome back to the podcast. We're also joined alongside Cameron Johnson. Cam, welcome. This is your first time, I believe, on the pod as a co host. So ⁓ we'll let you take the reins, man. How you been? speaker-1: I'm doing all right, man. Just like, you know, y'all mentioned the semester being over soon. Mine's ⁓ mine's almost over very soon, so I'm just pushing till ⁓ get there. speaker-0: And yet you go to ⁓ Southern Miss, is that correct? Yes, sir. Awesome. speaker-2: And this is your freshman year, no? speaker-1: Yeah, I'm a freshman. speaker-2: How's it been? This is your first year in college. speaker-1: A lot of learning, a lot of experiencing different things and, you know, watching hockey while I do it. Yes, sir. speaker-2: That's the best. Love that. speaker-0: Great to hear from that. Camp, for those that are are wondering, ⁓ have you been to any ⁓ ACHA events or experience with the club team there? speaker-1: I've been to one college hockey south event and it was the Columbus Classic. I went there and watched the women play. speaker-0: Nice, nice. speaker-2: And I I believe we're gonna touch on that in a little bit. Yeah. ⁓ that that that was a great weekend. ⁓ that was great. Yeah, we'll we'll get to that in a little bit. speaker-0: Yeah. Danny, how was ⁓ your weekend? ⁓ a lot of activity in the chats from you. Yeah. speaker-2: I've I've been told that I I talk about college football too often and in my little intro ⁓ that I do on the podcast here. And as Connor McGregor once said, this is not a therapy session, but you're gonna have to bear with me because this is gonna have to be a therapy session. I've gotta start with eating my words because ⁓ two weeks ago on the podcast when we had Lyndon Palmer, I said that my beloved Texas Longhorns, my childhood ride or die. I was feeling I was feeling them. We just had a big win over Van Dy. I said with my chest, with full confidence they were gonna go into Athens and beat Georgia. And I really believed that. Not only did they not win, but they laid the biggest egg I've seen from Texas football in probably four or five years. You know, they had maybe a possession or two there where it looks like they could have hung in the game, but no. A lot penalties, turnovers, mental mistakes, and I'm more disappointed in them now than I have been in a very long time. So that was great. But if we're gonna talk about laying eggs, I think my beloved alma mater probably takes the cake. The great South Carolina Gamecocks. Devin, I don't know if you saw this because you were on the broadcast for the second FAU and Clemson game. It's been a tough season for the boys. ⁓ you know, there's no mistake in that. But you know what? They came out, played Texas A and ⁓ number three team in the country. They played their best half of football the entire season. And they followed that up with their worst half of football of the entire season. speaker-1: Might be the worst half of football anyone's played all season. speaker-2: Pretty much. I mean, the line was Texas A and ⁓ minus seventeen and a half. And they were legitimately in danger of of covering with after leading by twenty seven points at the half. It was thirty to three Devon. And it A and ⁓ geared down on our last two drives because they were trying to bleed the clock a little bit. But if they played with their regular tempo, they definitely could have covered. Absolutely could have covered. ⁓ but no, I mean they they They blew a twenty seven point lead in seventeen minutes of football. It was stunning. But honestly, it wasn't surprising at all. Like I said, this season's been a disaster. Started the year ranked eleventh or twelfth and Lenoris was one of the favorites for the Heisman. It's laughable to think about now. But yeah, moral of the story is it was depressing weekend and I hate college football with every fiber of my being. But yeah, I think I've hit my quota for college football on the episode, so I'm done talking. Devin, how was your weekend? speaker-0: Mine was eventful and I like Beamer Ball. I loved hearing about him on the Netflix documentary. Doesn't look like it's working out for you guys. And I'll relate, Michigan State is really in the the barrel of the Big Ten right now as far as football goes. Our weekend was was fine watching FAU and Clemson. That team is so physical and Will Van Sicklin is one of the coolest players I've seen yet. Big surprise just seeing how much they use their three, four lines to get to the net and It was an intense game too. Like we had a massive FAU comeback. We'll talk about it later in the show. And like the entire time we're all just sitting there like I don't think like FAU ever thought they could even do this because like they have been less than right to start the year. They have lost big margins as people probably know by now. So fun times and ⁓ yeah, we we got busy. It's last home games of the semester. So we've got a long break coming up, but Allows time for us to see family coming up with Thanksgiving and get to some other sports ⁓ throughout the November, December months. Enough about us. We have another very special guest, and this one perhaps might be one of the sweetest we've had on. He is a ⁓ founding member of the Trailer Park Sports Network, started in twenty twenty four and covers all things ⁓ hockey. Please welcome to College Hockey Mouth. Will Stevens. Will, how you doing? speaker-3: It's been an eventful weekend, you know. ⁓ Alabama lost. That was cool. Sharks lost. That was cool. But you know, we we survive. We we do the thing. We're in the trailer. It's a great day, you know. Learning to play hockey was out with the boys. ⁓ we watched ⁓ a Huntsville Havoc game. They also lost. See, I'm like 0 for three this week. Annie, if you feel bad that you're that both of your teams lost, I'm a San Jose Sharks fan. speaker-2: Well, you know honestly th th that doesn't make me feel any better. speaker-3: Ha ha. speaker-2: But no, I mean the s the the sharks have, you know, some life to ⁓ Gotta love what what's going on with with the ⁓ with the teal people out there in San Jose recently. speaker-3: ⁓ yeah, dude, it's awesome. You know, that they stopped going on adventure mode mid game, like, hey, we're gonna stay in the crease whenever we're playing goalie because you know, skating down to the blue line, probably a bad idea. speaker-2: I still have that picture of I think it's Nadelkovich when when the puck and the player was behind him in the net and he's just he's he's turned around and he's probably like seventy five o seventy five feet away from his crease. That's hilarious. speaker-3: It haunts me. It haunts like that that right there, great way to start the year. Cause I was like, you know what? It qua it cannot possibly get worse than this. ⁓ and then it did because we had a two goal lead in the third period against the Ducks in the very next game and somehow meant we had it we were up by one with less than a minute left on the clock. Still somehow managed to lose that game. speaker-2: Yeah, well that's sports. And you cover your fair share of sports. How did you ⁓ get Trailer Park Sports Network started? What's your background? speaker-3: That's a long story. Buckle up. Buckle up. So June twenty twenty four. I'm working, I'm driving a forklift, driving a tugger, doing my thing, and I got fired from that job because of some situation with another coworker. He was trying to fight me. I didn't do anything. He was trying to fight me. They were like, you know what? Both of y'all are gone. And I'm at home, it's like about a week later, and I'm like, Well, I'm making these social media videos and stuff, so let me just try and lock in and see if I can Turn that into something, you know? Like I've been doing this for a couple of years now. Let's see if I can do something with it. And I made a video and it kind of blew up a little bit. And the dude who I made the video about came on my comment section. He said something ru he said something I really didn't like. He said, Your trailer screams a life of karma. And that little that that lit a little bit of a fire in me, right? Because I'm sitting there like, You really you you're a grown man, like 50 years old, talking about some this 22 year old, your life you your life sucks because you live in a trailer. And I'm like, karma. You said that means karma. I'll show you some karma. The Olympics were about to come up. So I'm like, you know what? Let's do the thing. Let's do the thing. Let's cover the Olympics. Boom. Day two or day three, I'm covering the swimming and video gets two on and I'm like, ⁓ yeah, it's raps. Let's just let like I'm up every day, one in the morning, covering every single Olympic event. I had I had a monitor and a TV and I had four events on both of them. And I was watching eight events at a time, also watching some on my laptop. Cause I'm like, dude, I'm locked in to everything that's going on. And I went from eleven hundred followers to fifteen thousand followers in three weeks. And then I was like, Yeah, we're doing this thing. Like, like I I don't care about anything else. Like, we're doing this thing. And I saw a video by Chuck Aoki. Shout out to Chuck Aoki, one of my favorite Paralympians. I saw him make a video and he said, Being in a Paralympian during the Olympics is really weird because it's like being at this party and you're having fun, everyone's having a great time. But in the back of your head, you're like, Well, I got a party in a couple of weeks. And I hope everybody shows up to my party and gives this party the same energy. And I'm like, you know what, Chuck? I don't know a thing about the Paralympics. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Other than that they exist and they're for disabled athletes. And I'm like, I'm gonna cover your thing the same way that I covered the Olympics. Cause I was given energy up every single night, one in the morning. I would go to I would go to sleep at like nine, wake up one in the morning, just because I'm like, dude, I got videos to make. I got things to do. I got events to watch. And I did the I did the exact same thing for the Paralympic Games. Team USA hits me up. Shout out to Miss Janelle, Janelle Wynn. Love her. She's an amazing human being. She works at the US O P C and she hit me up and she was like, Hey, we love what you did for Team USA and especially what you did for our Paralympic athletes. Like they don't get that. And they sent me something. And then I was like, Am I really doing this? Like I 'cause I get a box in the mail and it's just wrapped in Team USA stuff. And it's like from the from Colorado Springs, United States Olympic and Paralympic headquarters. And I'm like No, this is the craziest thing ever. Like this is the craziest thing ever. And, you know, open that up a couple of weeks later, I'm sitting at the skate park and I'm like, dude, this is still like my personal account. Like, I need a name for this thing. This can't be my personal account anymore. And I'm like, yo, that dude said that thing to me. And I hopped on there and I was like, Hey guys, what if I name this account Trailer Park Sports Network? Would y'all rock with that? And they like, dude, get the LLC, trademark that immediately. Like, d dude, I will follow you to the ends of the earth if you name it Trailer Park Sports Network. And then from then on It was no longer my personal account. It was Trailer Park Sports Network and you know, you don't show up to the trailer park expecting regular people things. You don't show up to TPSN expecting regular sports. You don't. You you don't show up to me expecting me like the only thing that's like mainstream that I cover is college football. Like I I've got videos in the vault about the curling that just happened this weekend. Schuster just went down. That's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Schuster has been representing team USA at the ⁓ Olympic Games for curling since two thousand two. 2002 was the last time there was a team without Schuster on it. It's the first time. You know, like that's just I care about all the stuff that nobody else cares about because I know I played college football as a small level athlete and at small NAIA. I know what it's like to be an athlete that no one cares about. I will not allow certain people to feel that way. I'm gonna go to the ends of the earth to make sure that like you get some coverage, dog. You get some coverage. Like I do as much with like sled hockey as I can because I love sled hockey, dog. And like Here's another thing, right? Kind of motive behind why I care so much, right? The the disabled community is a community that you can join at any point in your life. Any point in your life. That's not that that is not like any other one of the the minority communities in the world. It is a community that you can end up in at any point in your life, at any moment you have no idea. Wouldn't you still wanna be able to do all of the things that you love? So being an able bodied advocate puts it in like other able bodied people like, yo, we need to care about this stuff. So, you know. Sorry for the little tangent, but speaker-2: No, you're good. That's what you're here for. speaker-0: We love to hear it because I've seen your coverage on everything under the sun. I mean, you were posting about I think it was the Olympics, like sledding or s or sled racing, like downhill. Yeah. ⁓ obviously Olympics have so many different sports. Like, does that love come from like a childhood? Like did you grow up watching those events or like playing sports like that? Or you mentioned the football at NIA, but where does the passion come from for all these different sports? speaker-3: I've always I've been an athlete my entire life. Played baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer. I did gymnastics for a little while. I skateboard. Now I'm picking up hockey. I was a swimmer too. Like I was a competitive swimmer, like going to Southeasterns and stuff till I was like fourteen. Like I've just been a big sports guy and it doesn't really matter what it is. I always say it, it could be underwater basket weaving. If it's a competition and I'll put on a scuba suit and show up. I don't care. If something competitive is happening, I'm there. ⁓ I I just like watching people compete and go at it because like it's just one of it's one of the better things that you can do like as a person is like go against and I love like this is why I like hockey because it's competition but it's a friendly competition at the end of the day. Like yeah, yeah, I just yeah, I took the gloves off and I possibly broke your nose, but whenever this is all over, we're gonna dap up and and go on about our day. I'm not gonna talk you're not gonna talk about me in an interview after this. You're not. Because you got respect for me. You respect your opponent. And that's just always how I've been. I love sports. And I always have the utmost respect for my opponents. That's just like rule number one. That's what my it's like one of the values I was taught growing up playing football down in the South was like you don't overlook anybody. You always respect your opponent because the second you don't respect your opponent is the second your opponent puts you six feet under. speaker-1: Yeah, so I guess I wanted to start with so we seen like your journey on TikTok and how you started to get into hockey and everything and how has your fandom grown since then, would you say? speaker-3: Man, it's it's been the wildest journey since I started watching hockey because one of the main shifts that I noticed the most is that my demographic used to be like 60 40, like 60% men, 40% women. Like and I like that was one of those things I really prided myself on was like this is a place where women can look and talk about sports and they feel like they they can be a part of the conversation and they feel welcome and all of that. And I was like, That is an amazing thing. And then I started talking about hockey a lot. And the demographics switched up a little bit. Now it's more like 70, 70, 30, which still isn't terrible. Like I I know some creators out there that are like 80, 20, 90, 10 type deal. That that's a that's not where I ever want to be. I want everybody to feel like they can pull up and watch the thing. But I have I have noticed there's like a lot more people that that come around and they like the regulars. You know, like there's sometimes where you get people that show up and you know, like they're just watching the watching a couple of videos and then you won't see them in your comments or whatever. But like there's regulars. Like there's people that I know are gonna comment on every single video. Like 'cause you're you're in the Discord server, you know, like there's there's people that have told me they have my post notifications on now. Right. And like that's something I never would have imagined. I'm like, dude, I'm just some I'm just some dude from Huntsville, Alabama that lives in a in a trailer in between a cornfield and a cotton field. Why do you care about me so much? And I figure it's just because I'm a regular dude. Anyone can do this thing. And I I try to make sure that people realize like I'm a regular person and anybody can do this. Genuinely anybody. All you gotta do is pick up pick up a phone and just start talking to it and just hope that you're interesting. Right. Have passion. Right. speaker-2: Want to ⁓ pose a question to both Cam and Will, because Cam is also a starting his journey as a as a content creator, average Joe Sports Network on Instagram, if I'm not mistaken, Cam. And Vancouver Goldenines, the the new PWHL team, but you've been given the ⁓ what are the the torrent. ⁓ speaker-1: Right. speaker-2: The Seattle Torrent. You've been giving ⁓ hell, but you know what? You're a member of our team. You've done great work on our website, but another member of our team is an official member of the Seattle Torrent and you're giving it to ⁓ online. Like I get it's a rivalry, but speaker-1: Seeing my stuff. Hope he doesn't take offense to it. speaker-2: Yeah, but ⁓ so I I wanna talk about ⁓ both of y'all's ⁓ journey into hockey. 'Cause Cam, ⁓ there w there was something in particular that got you into it, if I'm not mistaken. Go ahead. speaker-1: ⁓ the second because I started watching the second game of Four Nations that was when I honestly don't remember who fought who but I just remember there was a fight between the US and Canada. That was the first game I watched and I came be I've actually changed the channel because I was watching the NBA All-Star game before that but I was like this is kind of this isn't really interesting. Let's see what hockey's talking about. And that was the first time I ever turned the hockey game on. I watch it I'm like They're having a boxing match like three seconds into the game starting. This is awesome. Let me watch some more. And I thought I would find it boring at first because it wasn't like constant back and forth scoring. But I watched it. I tuned in. The first period ended. I was like, okay, this is cool. And then I see PK Suban. I'm like, okay, it's a it's a black dude. I'm like, this is awesome. This is great. I feel represented. I feel seen in the broadcast. So I continue to watch. And then I see that we beat Kenneth in hockey. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm I'm here. I'm here to stay. This is awesome. Mm-hmm. Then the next game comes and I'm like, Well, this is slightly less awesome, but I still enjoyed watching the game. So I decided to stay around and next thing I know I'm a fan of an NHL team. speaker-0: I think Vancouver hockey, like for the last year before, not the one they had like the super losing record, but like the Sedine brothers, like if you watch like those years that they were playing, some of the most unreal playoff games, but years of like triumphant stories in sports. Like Vancouver, of course, hasn't won the Stanley Cup, but I imagine you've discovered just how passionate that fan base is too, right? speaker-1: But yeah, I'm one of ⁓ I was just talking about the game the other day. I was like, This is awful, this is terrible. I can't make it through a whole season of this, but I'm you know I'm still I'm still standing in line to turn the game on every time we play. Just getting right back in line for some more. Love it. speaker-2: Will I Will, I wanna hear your your journey and how you became a hockey fan. speaker-3: Look, I don't watch basketball. I I really don't care. I'm a Cavs fan and I've been a Cavs fan since twenty eleven. They drafted Kyrie. That's who I stick with. But I mean, I really don't care until the playoffs. I wasn't finna watch the NBA All-Star game. I I don't care. I genuinely don't care. And I'm sitting there and I had just got back from the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. And I'm like, I what am I like? I'm bored. Like, what am I supposed to do? Like, I I really don't there's not really much I don't care. The NFL is kinda boring me. And I'm like, all right, word, you know, my homie Fizz was talking about this Four Nations thing. You gotta watch hockey. You gotta watch come on, like, like like, dude, right? Like, you gotta watch hockey, dog. Like, and I'm like, I remember I remember like two weeks prior. I was like, dude, I don't care about no hockey. Black folks don't do hockey. I'm not watching hockey. And I saw PK and I like, all right, hold hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me lock in. Let me lock in. So I watched the first game of Four Nations and then I made that video. Where I addressed PK, specifically addressed PK. It was like, hey, you told me to tune into this Four Nations thing, and I did. And this this might be the best professional sports product on the planet. The fans care, the players care, the refs care, the coaches care, everybody cares. They're leaving it all on the ice. And then it it's all daps, all love as soon as the game's over. Like like we got we got two countries almost about to go to war over a hockey game. Like Like like real spill. We're finna go to war and I'm sitting here like, ⁓ yeah, I'm locked in. This hockey thing, I'm here. I'm here to stay. And then PK ended up like sending me a DM and then put the video on his own on his own story and that whole thing. And then from there, I've just been like, ⁓ yeah, hey, i if hockey's being played, don't care to level, don't care who's playing, if my favorite player's out, I I I could care less. ⁓ I I'm there. I'm there. I sled hockey. Shout out Declan Farmer. Yeah. I like Doesn't matter what the hockey is, I'm there. Men's hockey, women's hockey, blind hockey, deaf hockey. I'm there. I'm a watch. It's been it's been like the most fun journey, you know? Like in you know, flash forward four months, I'm at the Stanley Cup final. My my fourth hockey game was the Stanley Cup final. speaker-2: Yeah, it's pretty. Yeah, I mean remembering that the Four Nations and specifically that game in Montreal, I remember watching that first period and just thinking like this is the highest level of hockey and probably the most entertaining form of it like you could ever ask for. There's no way the last two periods are gonna live up to this first period 'cause it energy was Off the charts. I mean it's Montreal, it's US versus Canada. Three fights in the first nine seconds. It was ridiculous. McDavid, I forget who he went coast to coast on, but ⁓ he ended up scoring speaker-3: Man, dude, that that first nine seconds, dog. I remember the next day after that, right? I showed my friend Josh. And Josh had the same mentality as me. I'm not watching hockey. Black people don't do hockey. And I showed him the first nine seconds. He was like, yo, Will, can we go to a game? That was the first sentence out of his mouth. That was actually the first sentence out of his mouth. Yo, like we have a hockey team in Huntsville. Can we go to a game? But I didn't know I didn't know hockey was jumping like that. And I'm like, yeah, dude, like this hockey thing. I don't know any of the rules. Nothing. At that well, at that point, I didn't know any of the rules, anything. I'm like, dog, we gotta go to a game. I still haven't been able to get him to a game because that's a Josh problem, not a me problem. I have invited him to multiple games and like bought him tickets to multiple games. He just doesn't come, so I just have to bring somebody else usually. But yeah, nah, dog, that first nine seconds, I I can't fathom how many new fans just the first nine seconds of that game. speaker-2: Yeah, I'd have to imagine are pretty insane. speaker-0: Hey. What's what's awesome is how you discovered I think that's the best time to become a fan. And Four Nations was the best display of hockey that we've seen on a global stage in in a number of years. Of course, COVID happened and the Olympic problems getting the skaters hockey's coming back to the Olympics. Thank God. That's gonna be a ton of fun. So tying in all of this, how do you get connected with college hockey south and find yourself at the Columbus Classics? speaker-3: Well, I live in the South, so like that is that's step one. And then step two, right, is I big social media guy, so I'm just looking for, you know, anything in the area that involves like hockey. So I'm like, yo, let me help let me see if I can use my platform to help grow the game. I saw a college hockey south post, click or saw that they followed me already and was like, ⁓ word, follow back, send a message. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Connected with Savannah. You connected with, you know, Danny. And then it's like, yo, will you come to the Columbus Classic? And I'm like, I mean, sh shoot, why not? Big Coach Jack guy. If Coach Jack is there, I'm pulling up, big dog. I am there. So, because I had already been to Columbus, cause I went to Auburn's prospect days back in what April? And that was super fun. Got to see like all got to see some of the Some of the people that are committing right now, I got to see some of them play before, you know, they committed to Auburn and anything. But dude, I I was like, yo, Columbus Classic, why not? You know? Seems like a good seems like a a solid thing to go to. It was a great tournament too. Boy, boy. There's probably like a next question that is something about the whole like what was your experience? I you don't even gotta ask the question. Let let's get into it, right? Me and me and Cam go down there. Most it was a heck of a time. Yeah. First off, shout out to Cam for coming down with me. That was that was like great experience. It was it was awesome. But we go down there and we weren't really expecting too much. We were kind of just like, okay, you club hockey tournament, you know, just gonna be a little chill thing. Dog, they're out there, they're out there hooping. Like, like Chloe is a menace to society. Chloe might actually need to be nerfed because I'm sitting there. Like I'm I'm sitting there and it's just like, how, how, what? Did you just did did you just Did you just carry through five people and then just go top bins on the goalie? And d you just undress the defense. Just one V five. Right. She had like ten points in the first two games. I'm like, Yeah, this is stupid. speaker-1: Yeah, imagine c imagine calling one of her games your first time doing play by play. I can't call her going coast to coast, deging the whole team, and then just going top right on on the goalie. I can't. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-3: Right. speaker-2: That's the that that's one thing I wanna ask you about, Cam, 'cause I I saw you post this and it I it it it warmed my heart to see this because it w it was a video where you said like a you know, a few months ago I didn't even watch hockey and now I'm calling play by play for a hockey game. speaker-1: Yeah, I couldn't really believe it myself. speaker-2: I thought that was so cool. ⁓ but you did a great job and and I'm ⁓ so bad. Hey man. You know what? speaker-1: ⁓ I felt like I did so speaker-3: We all gotta start somewhere. speaker-2: Exactly. A hundred percent. I did play by play ⁓ a couple of weekends ago and man I I found myself so many times like I feel like I've been saying the in the same sentences over and over and over again. speaker-1: Tough job, bro. speaker-3: Yeah, I would love to do it. ⁓ man, I feel like Do ⁓ dog. I feel like I would be one of the most entertaining color commentators on the planet because Dude. 'Cause I used to do it for my mom. Like that's how I even got into like doing stuff like this. People are like, Why do you how did you get into like knowing every like all of this about the sports, even though like these are non traditional sports? Mom I'm adopted. My mom's from Ireland. speaker-1: I feel like you could do it. Energy's definitely there. speaker-3: Dog, she didn't understand football or baseball or basketball or like you know, like any American like anything that we do over here. So like I've been explaining sports to my mom since I was a child. Like doing this in video form and like doing stuff like this, it just feels natural 'cause I've just been doing it forever. So I feel like I could do I could do the color commentary thing. speaker-1: I think so. Right. And you so. speaker-0: That that makes us wonder, like, what's next for Trailer Park Sports Network? Do you you know, you I think you've been to a couple of NHL games now. We saw you out at the PL L L ⁓ the Premier Lacrosse League All Star Game. Like, what's next for you and and what do you want to do over the next couple of months with your your platform? I wanna get speaker-3: Back to the roots. I want get back to the to the like day one, what I was doing when I first started. Para profiles, like give the Paralympic athletes more of a platform, ramp up for the Olympics and the Paralympics, mostly the Paralympics. The Olympics, I really don't have to think too much about that. How do I get people to care about the Paralympics? I have to think about that. And that's important to me. Like again, that's very important to me because I I love the Paralympic collective that I work with, cultured, great people. Shout out to Danny and Brennan and all of them because like, dude, they're They're some of the ⁓ like craziest athletes I've ever seen, dog. Like, have you ever seen wheelchair rugby? Because if you've never seen wheelchair rugby, you've got to tap in with wheelchair rugby. Like, dog, they're getting active. Like they play it on a basketball court and they're full contact. Like, if you bump like sometimes the chairs be getting knocked over and they just gotta like yeah, it is a they get active. You know, like I wanna I wanna I wanna get back to what I was doing before. I wanna fill the gap in the media world, in the sports media world. Like what is the what is ESPN too lazy to talk about? Like curling or any of the like things that have been going on in like especially this weekend. Like we had we had a great weekend of winter sports. We had figure skating, we had speed skating, and we had the curling ⁓ Olympic trials. And then we also in ten days is the start of sliding season for ⁓ bobsled and skeleton. So like, dude, there's a lot of stuff and ESPN's not gonna touch it. They won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Right. And that's that's that's where I that's why I exist. Like that used to be my that used to be how I opened every video. Did did you know that USA was playing cricket today? Probably not, but that's exactly why I exist. That's how I used to open every video. And I think I need to get back to the roots of some stuff. speaker-0: What is your favorite sport, Paralympic, and what you've done in the past that you enjoyed the most? Can you pick one? speaker-3: Lacrosse. It's not even hard to think about. It's lacrosse. There's indigenous roots to the sport. There's so much history there. It used to be a war sport. Like they used to they used to play games of lacrosse over miles and miles of land. And that's why Cam, you've have you ever seen the run out rule? Like where the closest to the ball gets the ball? That that that during the indigenous times whenever they used to play the ball, because like They're playing over miles and miles and miles of field. They use it to settle conflicts. They believe that lacrosse has healing properties that by playing the game it can heal you. Like and if you ever took a stick and just went out and played wall ball, you'll believe it. You'll believe it. It's the medicine game. Like it's the most calming feeling ever, right? Like you just go outside and you just you hit that flow state, you're boom. speaker-1: Yeah, get your headphones on for a little music, you're and you're all right afterwards. Right. speaker-3: Like it just it's it's one of the best it's one of the best things ever. So like I'll always have a special place in my heart for lacrosse. I guess on the Paralympic side, goal ball. If I was blind, I would play goal ball. I would love to play goal ball. It's one of the coolest things. It's one of the coolest things out there. ⁓ it's like made specifically for ⁓ people with disabilities, like, you know, visually impaired. I guess also sled hockey, because sled hockey is ⁓ one of the cool ones. It's one of the few Paralympic sports. Or one of the few adaptive sports where you don't have to be disabled to play and hop to hop in and play. Like you can be able bodied and hop in and play. There's no classification system in the sport, so it doesn't mess anything up. It's just chances are you are going to be significantly worse than anybody that has a disability because their chair is fully molded to their body and yours is not. And also they're ambidextrous. They're genuinely ambidextrous, and there's no way you speaker-0: I was gonna say like up in Michigan Grand Rapids, I I had the chance to call a a slut hockey tournament and like some of those kids like you would think that they could juggle like perfectly because they were just like back and forth twig to twig and I'm like this is nuts. Like yeah, like it's it's no joke. Like you have to train for it and be agile, like you have to be really strong. I guess for you, what is your advice to anybody that's thinking about trying these sports or doesn't watch hockey in particular, wants to get into it? What is your advice to any of those people? speaker-3: You know, first thing I like to say is there's a sport for everybody. There's a lot of people out there that say, I don't like sports. I don't like well sports ball. You know, like there's a sport for everybody. And that's part of the reason that I cover so many random things. Because over the months that I've been doing this, I get comments all the time of people like, I used to hate sports, but I didn't know that this existed. Or I used to hate sports, but I didn't know that women did this. And it's like all you have to do is find one. There is genuinely a sport out there. For every single person. It could be frickin' ski joring, dog. It could be ski joring for all I care. I don't care what the sport is. There's a sport out there for everybody. If you don't know what ski joring is, like think rodeo plus skiing and then add in an obstacle course. Yeah, yeah. It yeah. Dude, dude. speaker-2: I think you're maxing out the different variables you can add to a sport. Like I don't know if you it sounds like it. Yeah. speaker-3: I've shown it to Cam before, they get active. But I guess my advice for anybody that's like looking to get into hockey is just cut the games on. Don't worry about trying to have a team that you support or any of those things. Just try and follow and don't and whenever you cut the games on, don't try and follow the puck. That is the like, don't try and follow the puck. Find a player that you wanna that you care about and just watch them the whole time. Don't worry about trying to follow the puck whenever you first start watching. It'll probably take you like five, six games before you actually have the wherewithal to track the puck and see everything that's going on and understand why are they met why are they making this pass, this pass and this pass and this pass. It will take you a while. Just hop in. Just put your foot in the water. speaker-1: And don't try to understand the calls either. I mess myself up by trying to understand goalie interference and icing for like the first two months. It's not real. Don't try to understand it. speaker-3: Yeah, don't ever try and understand goalie interference. I promise you, they flip a coin in Toronto. Like I wa I was in the When I was in the when I was at the Stanley Cup final, I got to go because at during the cup final, there's a situation room in in-house. They don't have to go to Toronto. They have one in-house. I was in there. And the first thing I did was look for the coin. The first thing I did when I walked in a room was like I I was yo, where's the coin that y'all use to flip for goalie interference? I know it's in here somewhere. It's not it's not a real thing, dog. You can say it's a real thing. speaker-2: ⁓ just about speaker-3: But like the most blatant goalie goalie interference, they'll call it a goal and like dude's five feet away from him and the goalie interference, man. Goalie interference. Hey, he interfered with him by being in his vision. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-2: ⁓ yeah, there w there was a a Canucks and Blackhaw game earlier this year. Bertuzzi, old Bert had one called back on on the most phantom goalie interference call and ⁓ everyone like I'm gonna get into it on here. How about that? See? No, w they said it w it was goalie interference, but it wasn't. speaker-1: It wasn't goalie interference. Yeah, 'cause you're watching the Chicago you're watching their broadcast. You're watching the Homer broadcast. That's what you were doing. speaker-3: See, it wasn't goalie see, look, it doesn't exist. We could say we could pull up five plays right now and be like, is this goalie interference? And and none of us would be able to tell you the right call. speaker-1: And icing is even worse. When I thought I understood it, I'm like, ⁓ that was icing, right? No, they were short handed. speaker-3: Yeah, see I I I got I got the hang of that one. But being a lacrosse guy, I got the hang of offsides and icing relative speaker-1: So kinda get off sides. I still don't really get it. speaker-3: You know what I mean? Put you know what mean? Putt goes into zone before player goes into zone. Yeah. speaker-1: But I mean, sometimes teams get certain calls, but speaker-3: Yeah, but like your whole body gotta be across the line. So you can just like hang you can just hang your foot over and be like ninety five percent in, but as long as your skate is still like on the blue line, you're goosey. Yeah they'll let it go. They'll let it fly. Also, like, dude, if they called if they genuinely sat there and like I actually called every single one of them, it'd probably slow the games down. ⁓ Unless it results in a goal. Then they'll then they'll be like, ⁓ nope, nope, nah, we're not doing that one. So speaker-1: I'd be so mad. It'd be so many. If they c if they called every single one, the wild would be on even more power plays. speaker-3: Power play merchants. Power play Owen Owen two versus the Sharks though. Macklin Celebrini. King Mac. The goat. speaker-0: You know what we Will we gotta get you out to Yeah, I I love Max Cellebrini's on my fantasy team. I ⁓ I whooped Danny's butt. I whooped some other p teams' butts with him. So I I'm big on the youngsters. I love the youth movement with the sharks. Hey, I I wanna say this, man. You're an absolute national treasure. We gotta get you laced up in the skates, get you out at all stars. ⁓ if you can, man, we want to see you at playoffs too. But ⁓ thank you so much for coming on the pod and explaining your network and The sports you cover as a whole, 'cause what you do is is all speaker-3: Man, I appreciate you for having me having the opportunity and don't I I I get into skates. I get on the ice from time to time. I'm not gonna lie. Like the there's definitely a factor of like there's too many people in there, so I'm too lazy to record it, or I'm by myself, like I'll just go solo dolo and be I'm not putting up a tripod dog. I'm just gonna like skate and just get a little quick sesh. But whenever I get an opportunity in probably this week actually, I might be playing in a beer league game. I'm at least gonna close it. Yeah. Hey, hey I'm at least gonna I'm at least gonna coach in it. I'm at least gonna coach the game. I might just like step out on the ice, do the shoot around, you know, warm ups and everything, and then just like coach coach Will is gonna is gonna hop back in and I will be sitting there screaming, get the puck in deep because the boys never get the puck in deep. And you're not a hockey coach if you don't tell them boys to get the puck in deep, right? Right, right. speaker-1: Yeah, you gotta get it back since you w since you lost your last game as a coach. You gotta get it back and win this one. speaker-3: Man, my coaching record is I'm ⁓ and one right now and the band the band has got to step it up for me, man. If if I have to, I'll bring in a couple of ringers. I I know some. I'll bring in a couple of ringers. speaker-1: Yeah, well go see your beer league. speaker-3: And I could probably call PK, he does answer my messages. speaker-1: PK, sh come to Wills Beer League, man. speaker-3: That boy Purnell. That boy Purnell. speaker-1: First name basis? First name basis of PK? speaker-3: Dude, he does not like that. I d I just do it 'cause I think it's funny at this point. But yeah, man, all star, all of that stuff, dude, I'll be there. Like I just need a opportunity, need a shoot me the date, I'll be there. I mean I'm I'm in the area. speaker-0: We got you. We'll make we'll make it happen, stud. Thank you so much again for coming on ⁓ this edition of the pod. Yes, sir. Thanks to Will and Cam for coming on the pod and Danny rejoining the fold with you here. Some fun conversations about their fandom as a Canucks fan for Cam and Will with the Sharks. You know, I saw a video of Will learning to play roller hockey, and he's actually pretty good. Like, I don't know how long he's been doing that, but speaker-3: Appreciate you guys. speaker-0: The guy knows how to roll around. It's making me feel envious that I don't have my own pair of rollerblades right now. And I gotta get out there and start tailing him a little bit. speaker-2: Yeah. had a conversation with him in Columbus about it, how he he he started rollerblading like a long time ago and then just recently picked it up. ⁓ but shout out to Will and Cam for for joining. Thought it was really interesting his his point of view on giving coverage and attention to the non traditional sports because it's it can be against, you know, human nature to, you know, go against the grain like that and and to watch those out of the box kind of events. But, you know, he he does it. Not just because he thinks it's gonna get him extra views or anything like that. It's you could tell he has a whole lot of passion for it, especially the Paralympics. So I think that's a an attitude that ⁓ we all can learn from. And look, it he ended up on the podcast because of it and in Columbus. So shout out to Will. speaker-0: We wish nothing but the best for Trailer Parts Sports Network, and I'm sure we're gonna see him down the line as we get more into our official conference meetings for the rest of the teams here. And speaking of conference meetings, we have gotten the word of rankings, new rankings for ⁓ two, ⁓ three. Finally we got to see what the men's division two field looks like, and for the sake of this podcast and the College Hockey South Conference, three teams, mind you. We are going to focus on the Southeast Conference, which consists primarily of the TSCHL in the Midwest, the ACC, so the Atlantic Coastal Conference, and College Hockey South, along with some independents sprinkled in there. And Danny, our first ranking saw Tampa ranked at number two behind the ever powerful Florida Gulf Coast. They're always in the mix for the national championship conversation. Shortly following up was Florida Atlantic at number eight. And Florida at thirteen. This is what we came to expect, I think. I don't know if we knew for sure they were all gonna be within the top sixteen per se, but they're equally represented here and I think it's pretty fair. Yes. speaker-2: How how perfectly timed that Florida Atlantic sweep was of Florida was the weekend before, and things weren't trending in the right way for FAU prior to that. So who knows what they would have looked like in the rankings before then, but they get a huge sweep and ⁓ Florida's looking good. They they have opportunities against several other M2 teams down the line ⁓ that are currently they're looking up at, which will be valuable. I feel like Florida Gulf Coast and Tampa are almost on a collision course. Florida Gulf Coast ⁓ played in I think it was a Lindenwood showcase over the weekend. ⁓ a lot of the top teams at Division Two around the country were there, including Lindenwood, and Lindenwood went three and ⁓ Golf Coast went ⁓ two and one, including beating Liberty, who's ninth on these rankings. But it just it just seems like Tampa and and Gulf Coast are are the ⁓ the clear cut one and two for me. speaker-0: I agree. I think for Florida Golf Coast being the independent, what helps them is to play some of the West Coast teams, including that was Montana State. They travel, like you mentioned, to play Lindenwood. A lot of teams come to them, and I don't believe Florida Golf Coast is gonna lose this spot unless they find a way to drop out and second half of the year lose some games. So really what we're talking about here is the standings for regionals. Now we did get confirmation that ⁓ the regional format for this tournament is Is the top ⁓ was it sixteen teams? Yeah. speaker-2: Yeah, so we have a certain amount of teams that'll be in the Southeast Regional. If the season were to end right now, we would have Florida, FAU, and Tampa, which obviously they'll have many more meetings down the line, including in our playoffs. Devin, were you able to find how many teams will be in that southeast regional? speaker-0: In our quest for transparency and honest journalism, we want to get things correct and leave nothing in the dark. The thing I was trying to confirm was how many dang teams actually go to the regional? Because that's what really matters to getting to ACHA nationals. And I was able to find, even though the ACHA makes it damn near impossible to find, sixteen teams go from each regional. So that's the key number that everybody needs to look at. Sixteen teams in every team ranked one through sixteen has got to go through the regionals this year. That's different than past years. And past years, the final regular season rankings, the top two teams would get the auto bid to the national tournament. Like you said, Danny, depending on how this happens now, I don't know if Tampa and Florida Gulf Coast would play each other. You have to win your first two days at regionals, and those four teams go on. So You know, I think what we'll have to disclaim is it's gonna change some more. Whatever the ACC does in that bloodbath of a conference is gonna shuffle those teams around and it's gonna reseed people. And Florida specifically needs to find some of their wins back against teams that they can handle because their goal differential is gonna matter a lot when they face against these ACC teams in the ranking. Yep. speaker-2: And they have one of those teams coming up this weekend. We'll get we'll get to that when ⁓ we get to the previews. Again, another initial ranking that is a positive one for college hockey south. ⁓ you know, you figured we would see at least a little bit of representation in the Southeast region, but all three teams in the top sixteen which would qualify for regional. Long way to go still though. speaker-0: No doubt about a long way to go. It's ranking number two of seven or eight we've got down the line here. And speaking of some rankings, number two came out for men's division three and a bigger shakeup than we were maybe anticipating at first, but the the South teams are starting to shuffle down the order. At least the ones in the middle of the pack. Still at number one is middle Tennessee State coming off some undefeated wins in conference play. They look like they could play an ⁓ two. I think you said that last week, Danny. South Florida is at number three USF. Tampa falls to the four spot from number two. And then out of the rest of the top sixteen that go to nationals, South Carolina's in there, Clemson, even though they're not nationals, eligible is on the bubble, so they still matter in the whole grand scheme of things. And then you see Miami, Florida Gulf Coast, how about Embry Riddle still making the conversation? speaker-2: Yeah, really ⁓ really fun to see where these teams on the bubble will end up. I think, you know, we we we talked about it we talk about it every episode because it seems like they play every single weekend. The boys need a break th out there in in Nashville or just outside of Nashville. ⁓ Middle Tennessee, undisputed number one. Hard to imagine they'll go anywhere if they continue on ⁓ their kind of tear. You know, they didn't exactly put pedal to the metal against a Pasky Vanderbilt team this past weekend, but Wins are wins, Devin. And ⁓ I believe you've mentioned it as a Michigander. You forecasted that the Michigan teams would continue to climb up the rankings as their strength of schedule built. And you know, I'm not exactly a hundred percent sure how all these things work. All it all it matters to me is that we are Playoffs, our division three playoffs, Kalichockey South playoffs, are decided by these rankings. The standings are affected by these rankings. So our top twelve teams are going to be decided by these. So here regardless of whatever the Michigan teams do, we're gonna get our twelve team field based off of however the computer values our twelve team. speaker-0: The obvious thing I think people think of is well, are the Michigan teams better? I'll say it this way. But without a team like Hope College there anymore, Saginaw Valley State, it's somewhat evening the playing field around the rest of the nation. You'll have to tune back into this week by week because this will change more and we're gonna get to some of our game recaps. Clemson in the game of the week took down Florida Atlantic M3 7-1. They controlled this thing from start to finish. Will Van Sicklin is a superstar in this conference. Three of his last four games, he's got a hat trick, including two in this series. And Clemson had to kind of fight through adversity. They gave up five goals in the second period, day number two, out of the Panthers ice den. And seeing that in person was nuts. I don't know if I've ever seen a team score. Five goals in that quick of succession, not in a long time. At the end of the day, the Tigers get the sweep. And with a great story, Josh Bailey in his final collegiate start as a grad student for the Tigers, Clemson, he gets the win. And in front of his team right now, that is technically a top contending team. They're not nationals eligible, like we said. They want that conference title though, come February. speaker-2: And they're in s similar situation last year, not nationals eligible, but still, like I mentioned before, playoffs to to play for. And they had the the same kind of circumstances in front of them. Last year fell short in the semifinal game against South Florida. It could end up in the exact same position this year, and it'll be in the Panthers ice den. So and it just seems like crazy things happen on that stadium rank, Devin. I I don't know what it is. Will Van Sicklin, if there's ⁓ an ⁓ V P from like middle of October on In division three, it would have to be him. I mean he's been unbelievable. Willie Van Snipes. speaker-0: It's not just him though that compliments this group. They have scored six or more goals in each of their last four games, and almost all of those have been even strength. Even while they're of a stat we dug up was that nearly half of their special teams goals have been while they're shorthanded. You look at the last four, three for seventeen on the power play, four for eleven in the last three, but they have two shorthanded goals, and they had none going into the series. against Florida Atlantic. This Clemson team is scrappy. You talked about that describing some teams around the conference. They embody what I think is everything college hockey south in a nutshell. They find a way to win and they do it against the team that, you know, in Florida Atlantic is still finding their way, but boy, did they make it entertaining on day number two. Florida, we just mentioned in the ⁓ two rankings at number thirteen in the nation in the Southeast region, traveled to Ole Miss and they put the whooping on the rebels. Ten to three and six to four wins. Michael Katz, three goals and one assist in game one. And for Frank Basqually, I feel great for him and that group considering that they have really lost a lot of guys from injury. You travel all the way up there and you need nothing more than to just take care of business and they do that. Yes. speaker-2: ⁓ you know, we were just on the the heels of talking about the rankings and for Florida to climb, I don't know if this will necessarily help ⁓ all that much, but it's absolutely paramount that they needed to take care of business in this one and not mess around. And they didn't. ⁓ pretty decisive. Ten three, six four wins. Becky Katz ended up with five points in the series. ⁓ you know, it Liam Licashwa, I believe that's how you pronounce the young man's name, he seems to be the premier offensive talent on that group. But they really do score by committee outside of number fifty eight there. And Mikey Katz is one of those guys, really talented. May not put up the most points in terms of like popping off the screen, but is I would have to imagine a you know, a point per game player and he popped off in those speaker-0: And you know, Gavin, we talked off air about not bringing up football such a long way, but this was a game that correlated to football. How about the Florida Gators competing with Ole Miss in that game? Eventually, you know, the Rebels got it done, but ⁓ I don't know why. Florida always finds a way in any sport just to compete. Like they're never like trounced. They might lose to some teams that they shouldn't, but they're never out of a game. I will say for this one we can bring it to football 'cause Florida wins this one and they actually tag Lane Kiffin and are like, Hey Lane, come down to Florida. So that that I thought was a little funny, you know. Obviously a lot of talk Lane Kiffin all over the place lately, but I thought it was f funny that Florida wins that one and then makes it a point to be like, Hey, this is recruiting as well. Now what they gotta do is have Lane Kiffin become a free agent, do a cameo And promote the Florida hockey team. I think that's strong enough case to get him down there to Gainesville. We'll find out in a couple months' time, but good win for Florida on the road here in in college, ⁓ or I guess I should say in ⁓ an open play against Old Miss, a former college hockey south team in M2. Alabama and Kennesaw State. We get the rematch of the Veterans Cup and Alabama avenges this what was a loss there, Danny. They get their first conference wins, seven to three and five to three. And with some guys that are young, a lot of turnover in their program, this is ⁓ the best moment of their season, it seems like. speaker-2: ⁓ two extremely scrappy and in your face type of teams. And we didn't really see too too much of that at Vets Cup. It may have had something to do with Alabama not having her full complement of skaters. But definitely saw it ⁓ this weekend. I believe that my my final tally was a hundred and seven penalty minutes on Alabama in that first game. Which is has to be th the record for one team, at least what I've seen. on on the score sheets and I've looked at just about all of them. speaker-0: Th this thing got out of hand quickly. I know it's it's fun for us to say at home, but like these guys ⁓ we got a full on you know that picture we saw the other day of the Red Wings and Rangers in that line ball at end of the game? That's what we basically heard about in Alabama and Kennesaw State. speaker-2: Yeah, I I don't know if the ⁓ if the uniform matchup was quite as pretty in that game, but ⁓ I figured that was a matter of time. ⁓ you you play the same team that many times in in a short span and like I mentioned they're they're kind of ⁓ scrappy teams. So but big big for Alabama, ⁓ coming back getting those wins. ⁓ Matthew Kashkarian or Kyoshkaran. I talked to and I mentioned this what was it last week's episode? So many Alabama folks helping out at Vets Cup. No one could tell me a definitive pronunciation on his name. And I was I did I did play by play for both Alabama games and I I must have pronounced his name four different times. I feel so bad. 'Cause he's a heck of a player. Kyoshkarin, Kashkarian, not sure, but he's he's great. speaker-0: They have a lot of great defensemen. I mean, four of their seven goals in game one came from them, and him, John Owen, and Landon Class good things are happening for Alabama, and those are two teams that are on the fringe of the playoff. You know, Tennis State at 10, Alabama 12. This is gonna help Alabama's case into making that top 12 teams in the conference playoffs. UCF traveled to Miami and entertaining series. I mean, UCF gets the sweep. Miami, they needed something to hang their head high about because USF just took it to ⁓ and they didn't disappoint in in an entertaining one. speaker-2: Yeah. Looking at the most recent ⁓ three rankings, I thought Miami's was the most curious. No offense to the boys down there in South Florida, but coming off of that drubbing at the hands of South Florida, they rose. And you know, this was an opportunity to ⁓ you know, defend that ranking. Okay, so they actually dropped one. They went from nineteen to twenty. But still, ⁓ had an opportunity to defend that ranking against UCF who was below them. And speaker-0: You know, y you speak it more eloquently than me. I all I've got is is our stats on it. And I mean, game one, UCF wins in overtime from Kevin Flanagan, the hero. Game two, UCF was up ⁓ by a lot in this. And then Miami stormed back. They had four goals in the third. UCF matched it with three and the Knights go on to a six to four win. I don't know what to make of the UCF team. I don't know. It you know, some weeks they're very up, some weeks they're super in it. ⁓ other times, you know, you see them have some weird periods like they did against Embry Riddle, ⁓ in game one specifically in the second. So, you know, it's a it's a good win for a team that's on the fringe of the top twenty-five. They are, to our knowledge, nationals eligible. So, you know, you think about how how UCF stacks these and gets themselves a better strength of schedule. This is a a good one against the team that you said didn't drop much after losing to USF. Speaking of USF teams on the women's side They played Florida. And how about these Gators? This woman's team is making it happen. And they did it without arguably the best player. Marissa Bonilla. Not in this. The Gators win nine to six. And despite a Chloe Valente performance with four goals. You know, I it's it's awesome to see just a brand new program come out and find success because that locker room has got to be buzzing for that. speaker-2: Absolutely. That's our their fourth straight win. They lost their first two, including one to South Florida. And maybe they they took our Marissa Bonilla banning to heart after we made her third star of the week back to back weeks. You know, we put her on a Chunchikov Island, but ⁓ she's still allowed to play. But no, I mean scoring nine goals and without your your top producer. Also wanna give a quick shout out Chloe Valente, who had four goals in this game, just recently found out that she scored her one hundred Fifth career college goal last month, which is a huge milestone. Unbelievable. She I I think she's over a hundred and ten now and nearing two hundred total points. So Chloe continues to show up and show out. But the story of the day was Florida. speaker-0: You know, Gavin put together a great highlight tape that Will talked about. He she tore it up at Columbus Classic and proved that she's one of the best teams in college hockey south, but just a great personality. I think we one of those players that we talk about every week, but for the right reasons. You know, she's either being a leader off the ice, taking girls with an excursions, or she's leading the way for them. And, you know, on the women's side for the the playoff, which I I think gets kind of on the the back burner because we we think about teams like Tampa that win all the time and How good Clemson has looked. But ⁓ basically, you know, I believe is it four teams from each side go to the playoff or ten total? It speaker-2: It is three from each division and then two wildcard teams. So as things stand right now, it would be Tampa, Florida, and USF from the South Division as the top three teams, and then Clemson, Alabama, South Carolina, and then the two wildcard teams would be Auburn and Georgia. So Florida in their very first year, Clemson in their very first year would be on their way to the playoffs. speaker-0: I like how you explain that to the folks, right? Three from each side and then a wild card. It it makes it where you still have to play if you're in the outside looking in some competitive games down the way. You you can manipulate what happens in the playoff. Definitely a long road for I think Florida and US. Just great to see that program start to break out. And and you know, that woman's South Division, besides Tampa, is pretty competitive. I mean, USF and Florida are trading blows and Miami hasn't always had the numbers, but you know, sometimes they make magic and it'll be interesting to talk about the rest of the way in the woman's side of things. That switches gears into our game previews. Already week twelve. Danny, just to just a pause. I mean, like, I don't know where the hell three months went. I mean, we are fully at at the point where like we can talk about rankings and and standings and we just wanna thank all of the teams and all of the supporters for this podcast. Gavin, I think we're reaching ⁓ close to a thousand viewers all the time, aren't we? ⁓ just thanks to everybody that's stuck with us on this new adventure for us, this new ⁓ experiment, if you will. Sometimes I talk like a chicken with my head cut off, but I've got some great co hosts with Danny and you know we've had we've had some others. Obviously Gavin, a great producer. Let's keep it up, boys. Let's keep it rolling for for week twelve College Hockey South. Game of the week. Farmingdale State travels down to Tampa, Clearwater Ice Arena. For a rematch of the twenty twenty five AAU Men's Division One National Championship game. Tampa won that five to two back in Jacksonville. And Farmingdale State is a very good team in the ACHA this year. You look at their standings in the the Northeast, number two, and ten one and ⁓ is what their metric is in the ranking, just behind Niagara. Really a collision course, not just c college hockey south, but nationally. Yep. speaker-2: Yep. ⁓ both Gavin and I were on scene for that national championship game working with AAU and I remember seeing just how emotionally affected Farmingdale State was coming falling short to Tampa. And they were really an underdog Cinderella team, if you will. ⁓ I don't know if they would have viewed it that way, but they had to battle their way through some really tough ⁓ CHS teams and upset them. made their way to Tampa and Tampa just seemed to be too much. You may see a little bit more of the rough stuff because there isn't necessarily the postseason implications in terms of like, you know, taking a penalty here and there. And Tampa, we know they're they're they're pretty liberal with how many penalties they take. So this one might get a little rough. The emotions are going to be high, but it's going to be exciting for sure. speaker-0: You know, I mentioned those records for the official ranking, but these are two eleven win teams and you know, everything matters for seating on these guys. These are two teams we expect to see at their respective regionals. I think for Tampa it's gonna matter a little bit more than Farmingdale. I just think the Northeast is gonna be a little bit not of an easier challenge, but teams that they can handle. Very much you're gonna wanna go out to Clearwater Ice Arena this weekend for That game of the week at 8 30 PM Eastern Time. You can also catch the broadcast on Black Dog Hockey. Florida plays Tennessee out at a community first Igloo, a rare home game for the Gators, as they play a vast majority of them on the road. And ⁓ you know, this one matters just as much as as anyone, you know, because the ranking put Tennessee there at number five, an opportunity for Florida to move up. And a Tennessee team that beat Tampa, I feel like You know, th this is gonna be one you can get the crowd into, really for for all of Florida people that don't get to see this team that often. Sure. speaker-2: And this also goes hand this is the this'll be the second straight week that Florida has a series that goes hand in hand with their football team with ⁓ Tennessee coming down ⁓ to the swamp. It's not the third Saturday in in September, but huge, huge implications with this. I wonder if ⁓ Tennessee losing to Fairfield a couple of times last weekend would affect their their ranking and potentially put them in a similar place as Florida. Nevertheless, ⁓ Florida and Tennessee Always a lot of emotion and if we want to hearken back to the national championships last year, with AAU. Tennessee coming in with a whole bunch of momentum. They're one of the top seeds. Florida not so much, they were up and down in that first game. ⁓ I believe the the mayor of Jacksonville dropped the the ceremonial first puck. Tennessee comes out guns ablazing, like three goals in the first eight minutes, and then the wheels came off. Six straight goals for Florida. They end up winning it, and that was ultimately what kept Tennessee from advancing. So, you know, probably some revenge on the mind of the Ice Falls. speaker-0: Another series we'll have our eye on is Florida Southern versus UCF. Gavin, this is a pretty good rivalry, I believe, between these two teams. Now, Florida Southern coming off the wins against Lynn University in dramatic fashion. What can we see out of the mocks here? We've been talking about a top twenty five in UCF, but Florida Southern has, from what we saw, the second toughest schedule in men's division three. So what version of the mocks are we gonna see? Yeah, I think obviously They split the series with Lynn, won in dramatic fashion. Will Marshall continues to be a big part of that program. And these teams matched up last year's both ending in three three ties. I was there for both of them, just very much deja vu. So ⁓ I even was talking with Andrew Cass and I told him this week I was like, no matter what, all I want to see is someone win these games. If I see another tie, I'm gonna lose it. So I just think it's going to be a good series for both of these teams and Florida Southern needs this to really get into the rankings 'cause they've played tough CHS teams so far and UCF we mentioned's on the bubble. So this kind of is a game to define both of these teams going into their second half. speaker-2: Yeah. Our man on the scene at Florida Southern did a heck of a job with the broadcast last weekend. It was a it was a clean looking broadcast. Nothing you can do about the enormous net in in the way of the camera. What's the name of the ⁓ arena down there, Gav? speaker-0: Lakeland Ice Arena. It's the only one in Lakeland, so we appreciate them allowing us to get ice time and stuff and allowing me to do the broadcast as well. speaker-2: Absolutely. Yeah, no no chirps. The net wasn't too obstructive. You know, it's not like a an enormous guardrail ⁓ that covers the front half of the ice. And they've got the Florida Southern logos everywhere. Florida Southern hockey, which is sweet. Really really cool look, you know, for a team in in college hockey south. So this will be a fun one. This is this one will be where exactly? Sorry, I didn't do my my research. speaker-0: So this one's a home and home, a little late one on Friday at ten fifteen. Lakeland has the or Florida Southern has the first game in Lakeland and then they'll travel on Saturday and play UCF at the Orlando Ice Den at four. speaker-2: Can we expect to hear you on the broadcast? speaker-0: Plug it. Southern Hockey Network. Go follow, go subscribe. Go follow him on Instagram. Everything. Dude, you're improving every time we hear you on air, man. It's awesome to see you you step up. And you told me the other day the Florida Southern parents are are all behind you, right? Yeah. ⁓ a lot of the equipment was purchased by the parents. So a big shout out to the Booster Club for the hockey team. They really, really do a lot to put this on. I mean Getting all the equipment. It happened very quick. I was talking to him on Tuesday about maybe we'll have it for the weekend. And Thursday it starts showing up at my house and I'm putting things together. So we ran into some Wi-Fi issues on Friday, but ultimately got it figured out and we're able to get the last two win games of the of the weekend. And you know, I I'll just say the last thing. I think that we talked so much about the statistics and the rankings and who's this and who's that. That is the epitome of what the game's about. It can happen like that. You know, you can stress about logistics and and we're all in the same boat. We're all, you know, former students close to it, you guys students, and we love to see it. So shout out to everybody involved with the moccasins program in that regard. And now you get to watch Florida Southern hockey for free. Be sure to tune in for those games. Final games to preview, Tampa women's two takes on New Hampshire. So second time Tampa's gonna play a non conference opponent. They lost to Liberty seven to one earlier in the year. Not on the rankings officially for the Southeast region. ⁓ we just had the women's two rankings released, but as Tampa starts getting the actual conference games for women's division two and the non conference in, you'll start to see their name pop up a little more. speaker-2: Yeah, I would imagine. ⁓ New Hampshire was tenth in the northeastern rankings, so ⁓ an opportunity here for Tampa. ⁓ this was a late addition to their schedule. ⁓ I don't know if they had someone drop out or if this was added after the move to the ACHA, but I know this was ⁓ a late addition and ⁓ yeah, that this this'll be a fun one. speaker-0: In our three stars. The story for Tampa was ⁓ whew golly man. ⁓ seven goal, two assist performance by Joey Burns. Nothing win for Tampa. ⁓ my gosh, against Miami. The poor hurricanes. This was classic Tampa woman's score here. They they controlled things. And she earns the second star of the week. We're kinda going out of order with the three stars, but it segues into that. Second star Joey Burns for Tampa with nine points. First star went to Nathan Walker. And Florida Golf Coast for five goals and five assists. And Will Van Sicklem in the series against FAU, six goals, two hat tricks and an assist in their second game. Yeah. speaker-2: Joey Burns, I I feel bad because first time seeing her name was on the roster at Columbus, and we definitely pronounced her name Joy the entire weekend. So I feel bad about that. ⁓ freshman from Chicago is learning from ⁓ some of her teammates. Where's number fifty eight? If she wore ninety eight, I'd call her Joey Bedard with this kind of production. Seven goals in one game, are you kidding me? Yeah, awesome stuff. Nathan Walker, first time. Florida Gulf Coast Eagle being ⁓ selected for a three s ⁓ college hockey south three star of the week and Wool Van Siclin. Willie Van Snipes, man, the guy the guy just scores. What else can you speaker-0: You know, this wasn't in our game recaps. Florida Golf Coast won seven to one on both nights against Notre Dame. Notre Dame is not a bad ⁓ three program. They've kind of always played these two teams the last ten years, the Fighting Irish. Kind of an off-year sort of going for Notre Dame. Still an impressive one, and Nathan Walker leading the charts there with the ten points. Danny, it's not often we get to talk about some good stories around the conference. This one featured a couple. First one we're gonna start with is the conference. Announced the European trip is coming for the All Stars. January 1st through the 9th, to start the new year in 2026. The players across all of the best teams in College Hockey South will travel to France, play against some international teams over there. They'll engage with those compet competitions, engage in training sessions. They're gonna get to go on cultural excursions. And ⁓ this is a once in a lifetime deal. Conference has done this before, Danny. How excited are you just for the prospect of going overseas? speaker-2: Super exciting, especially since I know some of the details that we haven't released yet. But I'm I'm sure people are gonna be excited to to hear those things as well. Yeah, really good opportunity for these players. And ⁓ we we did announce five of those in our initial graphic. Yeah, so definitely ⁓ keep your eyes out for more announcements and posts on all of our socials and on our website for the trip to Europe. Those details will be coming out in the next few weeks and as the the semester games wind down, some really fun stuff. on the horizon. speaker-0: Exciting stuff. I never been to France, but ⁓ make sure you guys go see the ⁓ the Louvre if it's open. I think they closed it ⁓ a little bit ago for some reason, but fun stuff. January first to the ninth. We're gonna keep it rolling here. Morgan Grisbalski from the Alabama women's team and their captain was named Homecoming Queen in Tuscaloosa. Co founder of Alabama Women's Hockey Program earned the honor ⁓ this past weekend and a quote from them is that she helped establish the foundation for women's hockey at Alabama, sell it academically, embodies the values of service and leadership. I have never met Morgan, but sounds like an absolute treat of a person. And I know Savannah Prefontaine is big on character people. Congrats to Morgan and the rest of Alabama women's hockey on ⁓ that is an accomplishment. speaker-2: Yes. I've had the the opportunity and pleasure of ⁓ talking to her a few times since I've been with the conference now in my third year and this is the second year for Alabama women's hockey. And yeah, super, super nice to deal with, very, very helpful. And something that that stood out to me is ⁓ this past September at Columbus Classic with the girls try hockey for free event. There was one one particular little girl that ⁓ you know, you could tell this is her first time skating and you know, you know, was struggling a little bit. Morgan would not leave leave her side and she had her patented, you know, smile ⁓ going the whole time. ⁓ so super happy for her and you know, the it honestly doesn't surprise me at all with the kind of bubbly personality she has. speaker-0: Things do you love to see. That's a big deal. Winning homecoming at Alabama, I think that's like an honor only select people have had in the history of the whole university. So hats off to Morgan and all of her family and supporters there. Another person we gotta talk about with support was Carrie de Graff, former manager at Lynn University and director of ops for the Florida Atlantic hockey team. Then moved up to the show, guys. He's going to work with the St. Louis Blues as a client retention executive and somebody that through various just points of contact with Kim Casey, Christina Stafaliris, Kendall Rickard, ha have said big on Carrie. Somebody that Danny, I believe you got to know pretty well too, and this sounds like just the perfect guy. How about this? We've gotten an equipment manager from Tampa and now a representative from Florida Atlantic and the show. speaker-2: And also ⁓ Bella up up to the PWHL, which brings me to my point. So not this season, but the season before, Harry was going to be our director of game ops for CHS. May have been like a a couple of weeks or a month in he he ⁓ accepted the job with the Ghost Pirates. Same exact situation with Bella this year. ⁓ I don't know if you know, whoever's listening to this right now and wants to be The director of game ops at at ⁓ CHS, it seems to be a trend, a a pretty nice trend. ⁓ one of those deals ⁓ last year when we heard he got the job with Savannah, it was bittersweet. You know, you're really happy that he gets that opportunity ⁓ to work in professional hockey. ⁓ but you know, we're a little sad to lose him. But super happy to see ⁓ the s success he's having. And look, you know, there's obviously a path to a career here. in Klobaki in the South, which, you know, I I think is a huge part and or plays a huge role in growing it down here. It's having people not only just in the games that have the passion for it, but the people around it and that cover it and help with the production that are super passionate about it. speaker-0: Well said. If you want to be in hockey at any level, professionally, collegiately, College Hockey South is the place to be. And Gavin's starting to rub his eyes. That's a good time for us to wrap up this episode. A long one, but a good one. ⁓ sitting down with Will Stephens and Danny and Cam and myself and for everybody here. Thanks so much for listening to another episode, another spiel from us about everything College Hockey Mount. This has been episode fourteen with Trailer Park Sports Network. Enjoy your guys' ⁓ week. We will not have an episode next weekend for Thanksgiving, so enjoy festivities with your families and we'll talk to you in December. So long everybody.