Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Dave Espinoza at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview!

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BONUS: Dave Espinoza at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview! · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Bonus time every year at the USTFCCCA convention down in
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  December, we do a live podcast event where we sit down with
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  coaches from around the country for 5:00-ish minutes and talk
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  about a certain topic. This year, December of 2024, we
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  sat down with coaches to talk about the NCAA.
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  What's going on with the NIL transfer portal?
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  Roster Caps. All those kind of good things,
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  and there's some interesting feedback.
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  And tidbits. From everyone who chose to sat
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  down with us, so here. We are.
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  The audio version of that you can catch the video version
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  over. On YouTube.
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  Just search up the GAL Athletics podcast and look for our live
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  events content and you'll find the three that we've done
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  20/24/2023 2020 2 and we'll do it again in 2025.
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  And move up just a little bit more.
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  And you saw the protocol. Yeah.
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  We want to hear that big, beautiful voice.
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  Start by introducing yourself, please.
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  My name. Is Dave I was I'm the director
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  of track and field across country at the University of.
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  One of my favorite things about your program, besides you of
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  course, David, is I love this Insignia.
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  It's always every time I see it. It's like, that's pretty cool.
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  And the the orange color kind of pops.
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  That's pretty cool, man. I love that.
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  I love that. All right, so you've been here
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  listening, you know, you know the topic of the of the day.
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  What's your thoughts, feelings, actions on all this stuff that's
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  going on with the NCAA? Yeah.
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  I mean, for me in particular, not being under the NCAA
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  umbrella, I feel like it's going to be a trickle down effect to
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  see what's going to happen at least for for us in the NAIA in
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  terms of things. So you know, as as the, you
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  know, power fives and everyone else starts making those
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  decisions and then it's just going to start filtering down
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  and kind of see what happens. So.
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  Has there been any talks that you're aware of on the NEIA
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  level about roster caps or how NIL effects or anything like
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  that? No, NIL has come up a little
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  bit, but in terms of rosters, we haven't heard anything.
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  I think for the most part, a lot of NEIA schools are enrollment
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  driven smaller liberal arts universities.
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  So to try to put that cap on there could, you know, we see a
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  lot of schools shutting down. It could, you know, exacerbate
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  that. Yeah, kind of be one of those
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  larger sport rosters. Yeah.
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  So that's the part that I can't wrap my head around.
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  Now, certainly there's some schools that don't need the
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  track team as far as the people on the team to help support the
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  school, but it might be the other way around where there's
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  more schools that do need these hundred hundred, 2000, thirty,
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  150 rosters for the survivability of the school.
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  Yeah. You know, we we kind of see it
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  all the time. If they don't have football is
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  the biggest one. Track and field is generally
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  the. Next largest name another sport.
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  How you ain't carrying 100 people on the basketball team,
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  Yeah. So, you know, and then, you
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  know, within collegiate track and field, you know, all the
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  student athletes get to participate.
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  So, you know, it's, it's not like you said basketball where
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  there's five guys on the court at the time and you have 60.
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  You know, well, there's some people that are definitely not.
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  Getting into. In that, so you know, and then
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  in terms of NIL, you know, it's going to be interesting.
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  There's some schools that I've heard within my conference in
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  different sports that are raising quite a bit of NIL
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  money. So, you know, it's the viability
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  of the sport and what you know, you know, geographically what
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  you can provide in terms of that NIL money and then you know.
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  Do do do you foresee an issue? You know, NAIA has different
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  rules, different eligibility rules and I don't know
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  necessarily why I'm gonna call it the house, you know,
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  overarching for all this incidentally stuff house versus
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  incidentally, I don't know why this would affect it.
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  But do you foresee that there'd be an issue with a kid being
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  able to transfer from an AIA school to a a roster capped
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  program because of different eligibility?
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  I don't know, I might be reaching here.
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  There's. Some eligibility differences
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  that that taking to a part, you know, you always hope, you know,
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  good students are always going to be able to transfer
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  regardless. But you know, sometimes, you
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  know, you get some of those developmental guys that kind of
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  spring out and then try to go to that Division One level.
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  I don't think you were going to probably see that as much with
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  the roster cap. I mean, they're going to
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  probably have to come in and you know, be in that contention of
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  probably hitting, you know, that top 12, top 20 in the regions.
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  Right. To like try to get to the final
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  site. So that'd be, you know, that's,
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  that's what's going to be interesting.
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  I kind of think that there may be more of a trickle down effect
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  like I said, right, more folks going Division 2.
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  And AIA, and that's OK. Division Three, that's OK, by
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  the way. Yeah, like literally it's
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  interesting to me when people talk about this will be less
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  opportunities for high school kids and and those kind of
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  things. And I'm like, are you forgetting
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  that there's AD 2D3 NAIA junior college?
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  I mean, there's a lot of other levels with amazing code.
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  Go look at that. And, you know, you have to deal
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  with this. Go look at the NAIA national
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  meet. You don't get to just show up
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  and and win 100 meters. You got a there's some dogs in
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  NAIA, but that means there's some coaches coaching those dogs
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  just in the. NAIA, two weeks ago gentleman
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  went 660 in the 60 meters and that.
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  Dude. So dude, totally you.
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  Know so yeah we there's always. That's amazing.
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  Yeah. Big dogs there.
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  I love that. I love that it's always about
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  the, you know, coaches and you. Know you know who you connect
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  with and things. Like that, right?
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  So right. But, you know, that's, that's
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  the things that some people get away from too.
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  They think you know, Division One scholarship or or.
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  Bus Right D. Two and NAI give just as many.
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  Yeah, absolutely. You know.
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  In Division 3, there's all those grants that they.
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  Give out Absolutely, absolutely. And I wonder sometimes, you
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  know, when they talk about D1 or bust mentality because I have a
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  lot of people, a lot of athletes that follow me on Twitter as
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  well. And so I got to keep my pulse on
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  what 1718 year old kids are thinking and doing.
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  I I'm not sure. I kind of wonder, I don't know
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  if I'm supposed to say this out loud.
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  I kind of wonder sometimes if it's an excuse that other
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  coaches say like, oh, I lost that kid because it was D1 or
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  bust. It's like, I don't know, man.
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  There's a reason why there's a lot of transfer, a lot of
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  portals. You know, I'm not, I'm not sure.
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  I'm not sure. All right, David, end this up
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  here so we'll be able to check this a year from now.
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  You've had some time to think about it 'cause I heard you, you
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  know the question coming up, what's a prediction?
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  And it doesn't have to be this worldly big prediction.
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  It could be, you know what, we're going to set the shop, put
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  school record this year. What's a, a prediction?
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  You think that's going to happen here in 2025 for track and
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  field? I'll do one for for my for my
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  program. I think I will send the most
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  student athletes to the national championships, indoor and
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  outdoor. Yeah.
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  So, you know, and you've been doing a good job.
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  So it's not like you just started.
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  That's that's a heck of a goal. Yeah.
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  So awesome praying. Praying for that and everything
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  like that. And then I think in the grand
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  scheme of things with these roster caps, I actually think 1
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  trick programs won't win an NCAA.
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  Title. So you see more diversity
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  amongst the programs versus the specialization of programs.
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  With that, I could have a a, a debate, I could have two more,
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  you know, a lot of coaches on this side, a lot of coaches that
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  agree and disagree with that. Yeah, yeah.
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  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  That's gonna be a hard one to actually check to see if it's
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  true, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  But I like it. That's gonna.
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  Be. More well-rounded.
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  And we may see actually more points being scored.
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  You know, that might that might be a good way to test that is
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  how many schools score at the national meet.
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  Yeah, I like that. David, thank you so much, man.
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  Whatever you do, keep that logo. But really grateful for what you
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  do. You're growing the program and
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  healthy things grow. I'm a big believer in that.
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  And so it's cool to see the roster and how many kids are
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  going to nationals. That's coaching, baby.
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  I love it. I just want.
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  To watch, donate. Life.
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  So please do. Yeah.
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  Tell us more about that. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Really a double lung transplant recipient about a year and a
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  half ago. So, you know, if you're out
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  there, donate life. It saves life.
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  That's why I'm. It did, baby.
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  It absolutely did. I'm so glad that you're here,
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  honestly. You know, we're praying for you
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  and love you and just so glad to see you.
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  You're healthy and moving around and doing really positive
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  impacts with young people. That's what you're born to do.
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  Yeah, you can. Get back out there.
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  It was a three month recovery out after my surgery and I got
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  back to work so. You should have took four
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  months, bro. It's it's OK.
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  It's OK. Yeah, exactly.
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  David, thank you so much. Appreciate you, buddy.
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  Yeah, all in the game. Would love to see that debate.
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  Right. well-rounded teams. I, I thought there might be some
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  more well roundedness, but I'm starting to hear more and more
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  of the specialization because of the the caps of 45 and 17 and
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  all the things that go with it. Here's the here's the cool thing
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  is, no one knows right now on December 16th, 2024.
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  But we'll know more in June and we'll certainly know more
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  December of 2025.