Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Aaron Robison-Penn Relays

Transcript

BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Aaron Robison-Penn Relays · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey gang, you know we like our bonus material.
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  So from today all the way through USTF CCA, in celebration
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  of our live podcast recording at the convention, we're going to
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  play you last year's clips, each one individual from today all
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  the way up until Monday, December 16th when we go live on
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  YouTube at 6:00 Eastern Time. Join us if you're at the
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  convention, sit down. We're going to be talking about
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  your feelings actions thoughts about the way the NCAA is
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  changing and we're going to make some predictions for next year
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  and every guest that sits down with us will you get a a
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  exclusive free gift so join us December 16th 6:00 PM Eastern
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  Time for the Gill live connections podcast on YouTube
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  and at the USTFCCCA convention here is bonus material can.
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  I introduce yourself. Please.
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  Erin Robinson. I am the Associate Director of
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  Penrywise. And what does that mean?
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  And what I mean by that is, you know, we've got Blake Bolden,
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  the Drake Relays director. We've got Tim last year.
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  I think he's going to join us again here overseeing the Kansas
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  Relays. What does that mean for, I mean
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  one of the iconic track pen relays?
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  So Steve Dillon, who's the director of the program, is the
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  director of the pen relays and my background, I come from the
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  meat directing side. So.
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  When we deal with the meat itself, I'm the operational
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  director, I'm the one to make sure that the meat is running.
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  I'm the one to make sure that all the bells and whistles are
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  firing, to make sure that the Pennywise can can move forward.
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  Everything from all the coordination and things.
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  And, and Steve is the the in leadership in the direction of
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  what this meet is going to be and what it's going to become.
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  And then I get to be the boots on the ground to to implement
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  those those ideas and and those things moving forward.
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  So. It's it's definitely A-Team
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  effort, but Steve obviously having all of his coaching
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  duties. As well, right?
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  There's only so many hours in the day.
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  And so I try to whiten that load and and my role, which is really
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  kind of fun is, is Henry always 20% 360 making sure that the
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  need is, is, is going to happen and how we continue to innovate
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  and how we continue to get better and and move on and move
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  forward. You know, I, I, I coached for 10
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  years before I came to this side.
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  And I think in every place we held a home track meet.
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  So I know what that entails. There's a million different
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  things, everything from, as I always say, small as parking,
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  but you know, outside the tracks left like sharking alumni, the
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  meet schedule, last minute scratch which.
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  Is logistical. Nightmare.
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  Logistical nightmare, and I certainly wasn't hosting a meet
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  anywhere near the sides. You know.
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  How do you do? That's a good question.
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  And still you're. Gonna and every May 1st I'm
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  like, I don't know how we did that, but tomorrow's May 2nd and
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  Santa's workshop must. Must.
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  Flip over and then you just you keep.
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  Moving forward, is it like that, Like as soon as Saturday's over,
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  maybe you get Sunday off and then Monday year May?
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  May is is wrapping everything up that happens and that's
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  everything from gathering feedback and putting it all
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  like, how do we make sure we continue to improve?
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  So it's an event only once a year.
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  There's so many things that you forget that went wrong.
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  Before you've. Got to make sure you get all
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  that down. It's writing the thank you
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  notes, it's finishing the finances and things, And then
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  June, July and August, it's kind of decompression and thinking
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  about King. Where do we want to go from
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  people? And within that too, there's
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  always something that's in the works.
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  And for this year, we're really, really excited about it.
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  So we've been working with the world.
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  Athletics International relays back.
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  And that's not something that can happen overnight.
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  Sure. So.
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  Those things are a long time in in the works and those are a lot
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  of times the conversations you're having in June, July and
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  August and in September, it's time to actually implement those
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  things. And so everything has kind of
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  its, its time and season, but the Penrose is going all the
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  time. And you've got to always make
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  sure that you've got the pieces in place so that the the meat
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  doesn't become stagnant. You want to.
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  You don't want to change it because it's it is.
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  What it is kind of a top board here a little bit you've.
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  Got to make sure that you're constantly getting better
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  because you know you're going up or you're going down like
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  there's you never stand flat and it's.
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  A challenge when we had you on the podcast, I think you get on
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  the. Podcast.
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  We had an interesting conversation.
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  You kind of, I don't say blew my mind, but I like, oh, I never
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  thought about this when I I came here.
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  You're moving the the high school girls 3000 to the
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  Saturday or the they never ran on one day.
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  And and I was like, oh, but you know, just no, the average time
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  of the girls. And I was like, Oh my God, I
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  never thought about that. So what I'm leading to is how do
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  you do that now that you have the relays that the
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  international relays coming? I'm assuming that's not
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  something that just slides in between two heats.
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  Nothing ever slides. In necessarily so last year, the
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  change that we made, the high school girls always had gone on
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  Thursday and Friday and the high school boys had always gone on
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  Friday. And when I say always, like, you
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  know, the girls start first competing and realizing the late
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  70s, obviously they make it back to the 1890s, but it was that
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  way for years and years and years and years.
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  And so last year we flipped it, but by flipping it to complete
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  the high school girls 4x4 takes about an hour longer to complete
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  the high school Boys 4. And so you've got to find that.
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  Hour somewhere you've got. To reshift things.
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  And so luckily this year creating the schedule, we went
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  back to a lot of the things we did in 2022.
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  We already kind of created that will.
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  So there were things that we could quickly swap, but we
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  always with Saturday, we've got the TV block.
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  The TV block is always a 2 hour block.
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  We don't know if it's going to be noon to two, two to four or
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  whatever it's going to be. We don't know what's going to
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  fall in there necessarily. But we, we.
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  Allow ourselves some some leeway.
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  So when the international relays come in and luckily it's a 4 by
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  1 and 4 by 4, something that doesn't take a terrible amount
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  of schedule, we have the ability to adjust.
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  And how can we promote this and how can we put this at the most
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  perfect spot in the event from ATV standpoint, from the
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  spectator standpoint and so forth that just allow the the
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  event to to continue? Forward but.
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  Every year the schedule is an incredibly complex jigsaw puzzle
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  and every year you realize after, you know, like or during
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  like, Oh my gosh, I needed five more minutes here and I didn't
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  do it earlier on. Find out five minutes.
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  Now, So yeah, well, I was amazed I hadn't been to the pen relays
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  since I coached at Mississippi State so a long time ago and was
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  able to go this year and, you know, really, you know, so I I
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  look at it a different life than what I did when I was coaching
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  and things like that. Really amazing, I mean.
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  The operations it's. When when you just get the
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  schedule that you see all the 4x4, it's easy to get complacent
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  as as a fan watching going Oh my God, all this 4 by fours.
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  The fans were in every single race.
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  I mean like it's. Well, one of the things that we
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  do that's kind of fun for the 4x4, every high school heat of
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  the four by four, we should call it each one of the individual
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  race, whoever wins that race gets a small wheel.
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  So they're actually champion. So they're trying.
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  And what we do when we see the event is we put everybody into
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  different pools based on their their time.
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  And every once in a while a coach will get away with it and
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  put a time slower so they have a chance to win.
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  But if they come in, we have a formula on created.
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  If they come in and they run more than 20 seconds faster than
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  their seat time, yeah, we ensured that they were in heat
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  with the Jamaicans the next year.
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  Nice. So that they don't contribute.
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  To the little wrap on the hands. Oh yeah.
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  And yeah. Well, tell us a little bit as we
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  wrap up here a little bit, you've got this unbelievably new
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  indoor facility come in at the university as well.
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  What's what's the idea for this indoor facility we're going to
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  host needs, I mean are we going to host an indoor pin relays
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  well. The with.
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  He didn't say no, by the way. With Penn being an urban campus,
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  spaces is limited. So it's going to be a
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  spectacular facility, but it's not going to be ocean breeze.
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  It's not going to be the Armory. It's it doesn't allow for that.
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  The number of spectators. It was built with hex and mark,
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  right? So 8 to 10 team college meet,
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  maybe 15 to 20 high schools. We'll find out right what.
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  Exactly that looks like. So it doesn't have the capacity
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  for a real big high school event, but we'll be creative.
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  You know, we can do things in sessions, we can do some
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  different things. We are going to have a Penn
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  Realized High School Invitational, but it's not going
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  to be sure the Penn realized like it's going to be under that
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  wing. It's going to be some fun things
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  like that, you know, having some indoor, you could do some fun
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  and how that's going to actually come about.
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  But yeah, no, it comes online next fall, yeah.
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  Next fall. Yeah, it.
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  Will be an incredible facility for the Penn track team, yeah.
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  Yeah, there'll. Be a lot of college meets and
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  it's going to be a really, really that'll.
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  Be awesome. That's exciting for you guys.
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  It really is healthy. Things grow.
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  So I like when, you know, universities and campus are
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  continuing to grow and build new facilities.
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  So that's awesome. All right, Aaron, let's have a
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  little fun here. I've got 100 random questions
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  and trust me much, and they're pretty random.
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  You get to pick the number, I get to ask the question.
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  Let's go with 100. All right, we'll go with #30.
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  Why #30 Because. They kind of realize it's been
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  going on for 100 and. 30 years. Very good.
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  All right, hoarding one O 1. What did you collect growing up
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  or what do you collect now? Baseball cards, Dolls.
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  I don't. Know all Growing up, it was
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  basketball. I was.
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  I was a big basketball fan growing up in Salt Lake.
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  Well, actually Pro Bowl, but yeah.
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  Do you still have them? Are they worth anything?
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  Because. When I was talking baseball
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  cards, they were making like a billion each one, so not much,
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  but base basketball was. Yeah, but.
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  They're. Just.
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  Now. Yeah, that's cool, right?
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  Well, because you're a Guild Podcast alum as well, you get to
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  flip the script and you get to ask me one question.
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  You know, I have no idea. It's I don't know why I keep
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  doing this, to be honest. It's a little risky here you get
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  the because I grilled you for a. Long time of a loaded question.
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  What is your favorite? Track.
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  Oh geez. Well, actually, and I'll make
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  sure Tim can hear this. What's your favorite?
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  Relay. No, you can't.
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  No, you can't go down. To that, now, what is What are
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  your top five favorite track events annual?
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  Track events, yeah. So Olympics.
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  World Championships. Yeah, yeah, good, good.
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  And I and I wouldn't pick those. I've never been to those, you
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  know, So I will tell you, you know, my former boss, now
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  retired mentor Fred Dixon, for years kept telling me you've got
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  to come to the pre class, you've got to come to the pre classic.
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  And it's never worked out my schedule.
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  And then one year I did and it was like, wait, this is what
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  tracking me like this was. Phenomenal.
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  And this year we actually partnered with the Pre Classic
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  with Tract Town USA. And so I was out there again
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  this year and it was it's amazing.
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  I mean, again, the athletes are making this crazy, which is
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  coming through the coaches, but that's amazing.
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  I I do like the incidentally Division One indoor national
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  championship, another meet that every year I'm like, how can it
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  ever get better? An indoor the excitement.
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  I mean, I'm, I love. Relays, yeah, the.
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  Indoor 4 by 2 is the best. Relay.
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  Yeah, it's. It's a 4 by 4 on a short track.
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  It's amazing. I love the indoor meet because
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  every year it's like it will never get better than this.
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  And then next year it gets better and then I mean.
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  You're never cold. Oh, yeah, no, I love indoor, but
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  yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no.
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  Good point. Good point.
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  And then my my third favorite me is it's indoor outdoors.
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  Honestly, the junior college national, I got to coach junior
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  college for a year. You know, I, I resonate a little
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  bit more with junior college kids and coaches, you know, kids
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  that needed second chances, kids that weren't that good out of
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  high school get to go to junior college and develop and, and you
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  know, junior college coaches, you know, a high school coach
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  has a really hard job, right? Obviously coaching and teaching
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  and going to get their kids recruited.
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  A four year coach has a hard job coaching, always recruiting for
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  the team. Junior coach.
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  Coach has to do both. Every year they have to recruit.
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  Kids in the. Team every year and then to get
• 13:10
  their kids recruited every year and that's and also.
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  Find those kids and if you like this kid.
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  Means that you're telling me I have a special place in my heart
• 13:18
  for for junior college, Aaron for being on the show and only
• 13:22
  for people who sat on the show. Get a custom holiday ornament
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  with the deal connections podcast.
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  Man, so grateful for you, man. Thank you so much.
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  Appreciate you, man. It's really amazing.
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  If you haven't, go on to University of Pennsylvania's
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  website and check out the the NEWS CENTER that they're
• 13:37
  building there. It's really a Taj Mahal of what
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  they're building. It's going to be great for the
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  Ivy League and Heps. It's going to be great for that
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  area for indoor track and field. We don't have enough inventory
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  of indoor track and field complex.
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  And so anytime we get a new indoor facility online, it's
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  always beneficial for our sport, for our coach.