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Fightin' Words: Episode 4 - Tiana McIntyre & Dan Reeder · Fightin' Words: The Official Podcast of the University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens

0:00
SPEAKER_03: It's time for Fighting Words, the official podcast of the University of Delaware Fighting Blue Heads.
0:06
SPEAKER_04: Here's your host, Ed LaFerr.
0:09
SPEAKER_04: That's right, you are now tuned in to Fightin' Words, the official podcast here of the University of Delaware Fighting Blue Hens.
0:15
SPEAKER_04: We thank everybody for tuning in.
0:16
SPEAKER_04: Episode four on deck.
0:18
SPEAKER_04: We've got a fun one for you.
0:19
SPEAKER_04: We're going to be joined by captain of the women's ice hockey team.
0:22
SPEAKER_04: She's here in her second season, Tiana McIntyre, transferred in from Quinnipiac.
0:26
SPEAKER_04: We're excited to talk with her and see what uh she has in store for us.
0:30
SPEAKER_04: And then Parents and Family Weekend coming up.
0:33
SPEAKER_04: What better time to bring in one of the most notable families in all of Delaware athletics history, the Reeder family?
0:38
SPEAKER_04: We'll be joined by Dan Reeder, obviously father to Troy and Colby.
0:43
SPEAKER_04: Troy's still in the NFL with the New York Jets.
0:45
SPEAKER_04: But without further ado, let's jump right into it with Tiana.
0:47
SPEAKER_04: Tiana, thanks so much for uh joining us here on the podcast.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
0:51
SPEAKER_04: How's uh how's the season been going so far, right?
0:53
SPEAKER_04: You guys are all one-and-one.
0:54
SPEAKER_04: You had a pretty exciting game that first one of the season.
0:56
SPEAKER_04: Tell us a little bit about that.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: No, it was awesome.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: It was by far one of the most fun games we've had.
1:01
SPEAKER_02: It was such a hot start to our season, just winning in a shootout, going into overtime.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: We've haven't been successful in overtime in the past, and we were this season, and then winning in that shootout was just unreal.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: We had so much fun.
1:12
SPEAKER_04: And you left out the fact that the first goal of the game came from whom?
1:15
SPEAKER_02: It did come from me.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
1:17
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I like it.
1:18
SPEAKER_04: Trying to be a good leader, trying to be uh uh humble, but you know, sell yourself up.
1:22
SPEAKER_04: First goal of the season goes to you.
1:24
SPEAKER_04: That's exciting.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was awesome.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: It was really exciting.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: I I took a great shot or an interesting shot.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: It was kind of funky, but um now it was awesome.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: The team did great.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: We had points from our freshmen, which was really cool to see, and then the game-winning goal and the shootout was from freshmen as well.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: So great, great to start.
1:39
SPEAKER_04: But we'll talk a little bit more about Delaware in a minute, but I want to talk about your journey to Delaware, right?
1:45
SPEAKER_04: You came here um as a grad transfer.
1:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:48
SPEAKER_04: Um no, not a senior.
1:50
SPEAKER_04: You came here as a senior um from Quinnipiac, right?
1:53
SPEAKER_04: You had co you had played there, played a little bit for Coach Samo while she was there for a season, right?
1:57
SPEAKER_04: As a freshman, I think.
1:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she was our hockey ops when I was a freshman, and then I played with her sister all three years that I was there, which was awesome.
2:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:03
SPEAKER_04: So what I mean, I'm sure that played a role in getting you to New ARC, but ultimately, what what was you know, what kind of went into your decision to I mean, it's not easy, I imagine, to come to a program that's never played a game before.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: So when I went into the portal, I was looking for a team that had a s had a culture, a no a new start, just something exciting.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: And Coach Kumi reached out to me first and she explained what the program was, and then I came out for a visit, and the second I stepped foot on campus, it kind of sealed the deal.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: Just getting to talk to Kumi about what her vision was, talking to Samuel about what her vision was as well, and then seeing Samo again was really cool.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: But being on campus, seeing the facilities, seeing the vision, it just it sealed the deal right away.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: I as soon as I left campus, I was like, okay, this is the place I want to be.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be something special, and I was just so excited.
2:48
SPEAKER_04: And you committed pretty quickly in your process, right?
2:51
SPEAKER_02: I did.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: So I think it was two weeks after I entered the portal that I came on my visit, and then I committed, I think the day after.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: So, and this was actually the first and only college visit I've ever been on, even in my original recruiting process.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: So sealed the deal right away.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: I was blown away by the campus, blown away by the blue hens, just everything this place had to offer.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: I was very, very excited.
3:13
SPEAKER_04: Well, we're certainly glad that that you are a fighting blue hand.
3:16
SPEAKER_04: Um what excited you about being a part of a program from its inception?
3:22
SPEAKER_02: A lot.
3:23
SPEAKER_02: Pretty much everything, just being able to come to a place where we could build something special, where we didn't have to start at a place that might have been a little bit negative, but we could build something so positive right away and make it what we wanted to make it.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: Kumi's vision, Samuel's vision, Coach Taylor's vision, just everyone's vision for what this place was going to be and what this program could be.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: It was just amazing.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: And that having the opportunity to be a part of that and to build that with the girls we had last year and with my leadership team and the coaches, just everyone, all the sports staff, it was unbelievable.
3:58
SPEAKER_02: So special.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that you get to do often, that opportunity doesn't really come that often either.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: So it was just really special.
4:05
SPEAKER_04: Definitely.
4:06
SPEAKER_04: I mean, you're you're part of that leadership group, and and you touched on that a little bit.
4:10
SPEAKER_04: You guys are gonna leave a legacy, right?
4:13
SPEAKER_04: On the the foundation of this program, right?
4:15
SPEAKER_04: So you'll now I understand you've you've graduated from Delaware with your bachelor's degree, right?
4:19
SPEAKER_04: So you are an alum already.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
4:21
SPEAKER_04: Um, you're gonna leave this place uh a two-time alum.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
4:25
SPEAKER_04: You're going to look back in in 10, 15 years.
4:28
SPEAKER_04: What do you hope you you think of?
4:30
SPEAKER_04: And what do you what do you hope that that that people think of the legacy that you left?
4:34
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that this place is like when you think of Delaware and when you look back on it, like I hope for me and for everyone that comes through this program, they can look back and say, wow, I'm so lucky to be a part of that.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm so lucky I got to be a blue hen and play for this school and be at Delaware and just everything that the school has to offer, just being so grateful for this place, and not just because of the hockey, but because of the culture we've built.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: Because we're not just a hockey team, we're a family.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: And that's like a huge part of what we're trying for and what we've built here.
5:05
SPEAKER_02: And so I just hope that people, the legacy of this school is not just we're a great hockey team, it's we were a family and we're lucky and we're so grateful, and just we had so much fun.
5:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean that you have the you have the family dynamic amongst your team.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: Right.
5:20
SPEAKER_04: You have the athletic department, which is an another bigger family, but you also have a a top 10 public institution in the country that you're getting a degree from, right?
5:29
SPEAKER_04: So it's it's kind of the best of everything.
5:30
SPEAKER_02: It is, it really is.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: And we tell our girls all the time, especially us in the leadership team, we're all transfers.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: We came from different schools, we've seen different schools, different programs.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: We tell our girls, we're like, you guys have no idea how lucky we are.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: This place is so special.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: Just the education, the team, the resources, the faculty, just everyone, everything, every part of this school is so special.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: And we really do, we do have it all, which is crazy.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
5:55
SPEAKER_04: I I want to talk a little bit about your the leader of your program, right?
5:58
SPEAKER_04: Coach Kumi.
5:59
SPEAKER_04: She's somebody who I've gotten to know well over uh, you know, since she since she was hired, and and um she just seems like an awesome person to play for.
6:07
SPEAKER_04: What's what's what's that relationship relationship like that you have with her and and what's it like playing for?
6:11
SPEAKER_02: She is amazing.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: She is amazing.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm not just saying that because she's my head coach, but she is truly, truly an a very special person.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: And I realized that when I met her on my visit, um, just seeing how much she cares, and like you can tell that she cares when you talk to her.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: This isn't just a team that she's coaching, this is a team that she cares about so so deeply.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: Like, this is her project, this is her family, and it's just playing for her.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: You know that she cares so much, and you want to play for her, you want to be successful for her too.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: And I just remember last year our first our first game, she had tears in her eyes after the after the game because she was so happy and we were so happy.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: And it's just knowing that she cares about us as people and not just hockey players, that's special because you don't get that often.
6:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, she was here from the jump, right?
6:57
SPEAKER_04: She was she was hired very quickly after our announcement, and then I mean she genuinely built the team from the ground up.
7:02
SPEAKER_04: It was all right, well, what sort of equipment do we need?
7:05
SPEAKER_04: She's working with with Jake and the equipment staff on that.
7:07
SPEAKER_04: It's you know, logistically, how do we have to travel?
7:10
SPEAKER_04: How do we have to do all this stuff?
7:11
SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure that was a really special moment for her.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: And yeah, does that mean something for you, knowing that you guys got to be a part of that moment with her?
7:18
SPEAKER_02: Yep, very much so.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: And then we work very closely with Kumi and the other coaches, and especially last year and this year as well.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: But last year, first year program, we're meeting with the coaches weekly, and this year we're meeting with them often as well, and just seeing how much she cares about the little details, like you mentioned, the equipment and the travel and all these different things.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: Every single thing is so thought through.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: She doesn't miss anything, and that's really special too.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Like she cares so so deeply, and that makes us care deeply as well.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: So it's just really nice to know that she's bought in, so we're bought in, and the team's bought in.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
7:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean it says it says so much about the program that you're a part of.
7:58
SPEAKER_04: It does.
7:58
SPEAKER_04: And and you know, I imagine that's the type of of player she wants to recruit, and that's that's what she sees in somebody like you and the rest of your teammates.
8:05
SPEAKER_04: So that that's really awesome.
8:06
SPEAKER_04: I I want to talk a little bit about um the program um from last year to this year.
8:11
SPEAKER_04: Right.
8:11
SPEAKER_04: What improvements have have you seen, right?
8:13
SPEAKER_04: Obviously, you you came in as an established hockey player, you've done this, you've had a couple years under your belt, you were a part of this inaugural season last year, and now this year you guys are already off to um an exciting start.
8:24
SPEAKER_04: What uh what improvements have you seen from from year one to year two?
8:27
SPEAKER_02: I think right off the bat when we first got here for week one of this fall, people were so confident.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: And the sophomores, the upcoming sophomores, they were so excited and they weren't the nervous freshmen anymore.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: Right.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: Which was so cool to see.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Like they knew, okay, we're not a first year program anymore.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: We can win games this year.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: What are we gonna do?
8:48
SPEAKER_02: What kind of work are we gonna put in?
8:49
SPEAKER_02: So just seeing that confidence that they had and that we had, and then having the new freshmen coming in, and we were all helping them, and just they've integrated themselves so well in our transfers as well, and just our talents better, our skill levels better, our competes better.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: And not that it wasn't last year, but it's just it's just taking a step forward, taking a step forward, which is what we're what we want.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: And it's so cool to see that that's happening and the work people put in over the summer that really showed in the preseason and even now too.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's really exciting, and the girls are super excited, we're excited.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: It's been awesome, it's been a lot of fun.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: In our first game, our goalie Charlotte, she kept coming over to the bench and TV timeouts, and she was like, guys, I'm having so much fun.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's awesome.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: This is so much fun.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: So just seeing that and seeing the smiles and just seeing everyone this excited and working this hard is it's special.
9:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it definitely seems like it.
9:42
SPEAKER_04: I mean, you get so you guys are are home for the first series this weekend.
9:45
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
9:45
SPEAKER_04: Right?
9:46
SPEAKER_04: Saturday and Sunday, you take on Lindenwood.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: Correct.
9:49
SPEAKER_04: Um conference matchup, right?
9:50
SPEAKER_02: Conference matchup.
9:51
SPEAKER_04: Does that does that bring a little bit more juice?
9:53
SPEAKER_04: I mean first conference matchup of the year, you're you're back in Rust.
9:58
SPEAKER_04: Talk about uh what that means.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: We're excited.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: We're excited.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: This is uh this is earlier than last year.
10:02
SPEAKER_02: Last year we had conference play a little later in the season, and so having it so early, it's our second weekend.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: People are so excited.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we're playing them back to back.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: And last year we wish we had more success against them.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: We did beat them, they were one of our two wins.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: So we're really excited, excited to take it to them this weekend.
10:20
SPEAKER_04: And and last year, you guys didn't you start the season like 10 straight home games or something crazy like that.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were very heavy on the home game.
10:27
SPEAKER_04: Is it gonna be excited to be back after starting on the road this year?
10:31
SPEAKER_02: We're so excited, and I know the freshmen are looking forward to it too, because they've never played at home.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's just a different environment having our fans here, having the community come out to support, because community is so supportive in Delaware.
10:42
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: Last year at our first home game, it was packed, and we had consistent fans throughout the entire season.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: So we're excited for the community to be back out here.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: We're excited for other teams to hopefully come watch.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: We can't wait.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be a lot of fun.
10:55
SPEAKER_04: What does that mean to you guys as a team when you have fans come in the stands cheering you on and and you know, pack pack out Rust as as much as they can?
11:04
SPEAKER_02: It means the world to us.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it means the world to us.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: I think it lights a fire too.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: We're like, okay, we we're not just playing for ourselves, we're not just playing for the school, but we're playing for the community and for the people who support us.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: It I think it just adds another level to our why and why we're playing and why we're working so hard because we want to succeed for them too.
11:22
SPEAKER_04: Well, two o'clock Saturday, noon on Sunday.
11:24
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
11:25
SPEAKER_04: Y'all heard it.
11:25
SPEAKER_04: Get out to Rust, support the women's ice hockey team, home opener.
11:29
SPEAKER_04: That's exciting.
11:30
SPEAKER_04: I want to pivot a little bit and talk about um your personal life.
11:34
SPEAKER_04: Um you've got a really close relationship with your brother.
11:38
SPEAKER_02: You want to talk to us about that a little bit?
11:40
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: So I have a twin brother, his name's Colton.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, him and I started hockey at the same time we started when we were nine, and we were deep partners.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: He was a defenseman when we first started, and then his skating wasn't super great.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: And in Utah, there's not a lot of hockey, not a lot of people playing, so they had all of us try goalie.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: I was terrible, but he loved it.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: He loved it, and he started playing goalie and he was consistent with it.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: And him and I were on the same boys' team for four years growing up, and then once I transitioned to girls' hockey after U-12, I was still training with his team because there wasn't anything else.
12:15
SPEAKER_04: You can't imagine there's a lot of women's ice hockey going on in Utah.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: No, so it's grown a ton, but when I was growing up, there was one team in the whole state, and it's a big state, very big state, and it was one team, one age group.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: It was Utah Lady Grizzlies, a U-19 team, and I played for them when I was 13.
12:31
SPEAKER_04: Oh wow.
12:32
SPEAKER_02: Because that's all we had.
12:32
SPEAKER_02: That's the only option I had at the time.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: And so I had to leave the state early and go out east.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: But during that time, I was practicing with my brother and training at home with him, and just the relationship that we've had in hockey and personally, we're so close.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: He's my best friend, he's pushed me so much, he's helped me so much.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: I hope I've helped him too.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: But just having that compete between us, like if I score on him, I get so excited, he gets so frustrated.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: He stops a shot on me, I get so frustrated, he's excited.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: But we push each other and just um it's awesome.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: And he's he's been so successful recently.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: He's um with the Utah Mammoth, he's the e-bug for them.
13:13
SPEAKER_02: Last year was his first season, and he's to tell everybody, tell all of our listeners what an e bug is in case you don't know.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: Yes, so an e-bug is the emergency backup goalie for the Utah Mammoth NHL team.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: They moved to Utah, they were the Arizona Coyotes, so it's Utah's first NHL team.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: And they're pretty new still.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: I think this is the third or fourth season in Utah, and when they moved here, they needed a practice goalie.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: And Colton's he's unbelievably talented.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Unbelievably talented.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: He's he's crazy.
13:41
SPEAKER_02: He's a very good goalie.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: Um so we knew a guy, his coach knew a guy, and they're like, Oh, this kid can come be a practice goalie in the summer, and they loved him.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: They loved him.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: So that he was consistent with that training with them.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: He got so much better from it.
13:56
SPEAKER_02: And then once this position opened up, he was supposed to go to UMass, my brother.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: He was two weeks out from going to UMass and playing for their club team there.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: Gets a call from the mammoth, hey, do you want to do this?
14:08
SPEAKER_02: No brainer.
14:09
SPEAKER_04: He said I was like, Go play club hockey, go play professional hockey.
14:13
SPEAKER_04: An easy decision.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:15
SPEAKER_02: So he did that.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: Last year was his first season, and so he's on the road with them.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: He's on the ice more than any of them because he's got to be out there constantly.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: So he's getting good quality shots all day, every day.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: He also does video scouting for them as well.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's cool.
14:29
SPEAKER_04: So a little bit of like a hybrid role.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's in a hybrid role, and it's last year he actually got in a game or he got to dress for a game in Colorado.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: They had a last-minute injury, one of the starting goalies.
14:41
SPEAKER_02: So Colton got to dress and be on the bench, and so special.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: It was just so special.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: And I was home for it.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say, do you remember where you were?
14:49
SPEAKER_04: Like did you you probably weren't at the game, but you probably watched it on TV.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: They were in Colorado and I was home for Christmas because it was around that time, late December, and he texted me and he was like, I might be dressing tonight, don't tell mom and dad.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: Because he didn't want to freak them out.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: He didn't want to stress them because they would have been freaking out.
15:09
SPEAKER_04: So did you like just like surprise them and like put the game on and be like, wait, wait, who's that guy on the bench?
15:13
SPEAKER_02: So he ended up texting them last minute, but he texted them right before he was going out for warm-ups.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: And they were like, Oh my gosh, like we were freaking out, and we had we had people over that night.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Some of his friends, former teammates that we've both played with growing up, they were over and we had his jerseys on and we had the TV on, and my cousin was actually at the game in Colorado that night, coincidentally.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: We have cousins out there, so she was taking videos, sending them to us.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: The he got a rookie lap, it was amazing, and he's just he's loving it, and he's in his second season with them now, so super hyped for him, super stoked.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: He's loves he loves it.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: So proud of him.
15:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's it, that's really exciting.
15:50
SPEAKER_04: I imagine you are probably the only one on your team that can say you've scored on an NHL goalie.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: I think so.
15:56
SPEAKER_02: That might be right.
15:58
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's so cool.
15:59
SPEAKER_04: Well, you you've done a lot of work back in Utah with the Smith Entertainment Group, and and for folks who don't know, they're the the owners of the NBA Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Mammoth.
16:09
SPEAKER_04: Tell us about the work you've done with them.
16:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm a youth hockey coach for their youth programs, and what they're trying to do and what they've been doing throughout the past couple years of being a team.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: So the Utah Jazz have the junior jazz program.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: It's the biggest junior basketball program in the country.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: They're trying to do the same thing for hockey.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: Utah's not a hockey state.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: No.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: So having that start has already brought so much to the state.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: There is 20 times the amount of girls playing, 20 times the amount of boys playing.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: Just what we've been what they've been able to do and what I've been able to be a part of, and I'm so grateful for it.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: And coaching for them has been unbelievable.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: The amount of learn to plays, learn to skates, camps all summer, every day.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: They have an event, they have something, they're doing all these different outreach programs, going to different parts of the state down south when they're it's very hot down southern Utah, very hot, and they're going down there and teaching kids about hockey and learn to play and all these different things.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: So they're just spreading the word, getting kids to try hockey for free.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: It's unbelievable.
17:15
SPEAKER_02: And we had the first ever camp for the Utah Mammoth Youth programs was an all-girls camp.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: It was unbelievable.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: Is that extra special for you?
17:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, yeah.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: Because for me, I didn't have that growing up.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: We didn't have that.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: Any girls in the state, that wasn't even a thought in our minds.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: And then having a whole week of a girls' hockey camp with an NHL team in our state is unbelievable.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: We had Hillary Knight come out for a day, and she's been an awesome, awesome role model for the girls, and she lives in Sandy, Utah now, which is really exciting.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: Really exciting.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: So they're they love her.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: And we had a girls' hockey day, we had 250 girls on the ice, which is just beyond me.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: That's a lot of people.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: It's beyond me.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: And I would have never thought in a million years when I was that age that that was a possibility.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: So being able to be a part of that and be there for those girls and be a role model for them is it means everything to me.
18:09
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of pride for you in being from Utah and being able to grow the game.
18:16
SPEAKER_04: Is it cool for you to know that you're the first player, first woman to ever play Division I ice hockey from the state of Utah?
18:25
SPEAKER_02: It is, it is.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: And to be honest with you, my first three years of college, I didn't think much of it.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: And I hadn't gotten into coaching yet, and the mammoth weren't there yet.
18:34
SPEAKER_02: But once I did start getting into coaching and seeing the impact that someone like me could have on these girls, that's when it really started to mean something for me because I didn't have a role model like that growing up.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: And being there for them so that they can see like you can do this too.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: It means so much.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: It means so much.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: And we ran a ton of classroom sessions with the girls this summer where I got to talk to them about my story and they're asking questions, and these girls are 10 years old and they're asking questions about it, and they're so excited, and they're like, I want to play college hockey too, and just it means everything.
19:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, how incredible is it that you can show like you can do it now, right?
19:11
SPEAKER_04: Like it's a thing, right?
19:12
SPEAKER_02: It's so possible for them, and the talent level is just off the charts.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's one girl that I coach in the summers from home, and her name's Ellie.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: She's 10 years old.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: I have never seen a girl toe drag like her and dangle and score goals, and she's this big, and she's just amazing.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: And the skill level of all these different girls is just Utah's on the map.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: We're coming up.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm very excited to see what the future holds for girls' hockey, hockey in general.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: It's Utah's coming up.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: Very excited.
19:39
SPEAKER_04: So, what's what what what are plans post-graduation, right?
19:42
SPEAKER_04: You you finish off this season, you're gonna be you're gonna be out of eligibility, you're gonna be done off into the real world.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
19:46
SPEAKER_04: What's the hope?
19:47
SPEAKER_02: I am going into the draft in the spring.
19:49
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: So I'm really, really excited.
19:51
SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping to get drafted in the P dub.
19:53
SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
19:53
SPEAKER_02: That's a big dream, big dream.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: But um, if not, I'd love to play in Europe, and then one day I'd love to be coaching.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: Coaching.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: I really found a passion for it the past couple years, and this summer really sealed the deal with different camps that I was a part of and running, and I love it.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: I love giving back to the game that's given me so much.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's the goal.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: That's incredible.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: Play professional and then give back as much as I can.
20:16
SPEAKER_04: Well, maybe one day we'll see you on the bench in a different capacity here here in Newark.
20:19
SPEAKER_04: That'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it?
20:20
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, that'd be amazing.
20:21
SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
20:22
SPEAKER_04: Well, Tiana, thanks so much for giving us some time.
20:24
SPEAKER_04: And it was great to hear a little bit about your story.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
20:28
SPEAKER_04: All right, that was Tiana McIntyre.
20:30
SPEAKER_04: When we come back, we'll have Dan Reeder, head of the Reeder family.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: Delaware football is coming back loaded after a historic 2025 season.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: QB1 Nick Minute.
20:44
SPEAKER_03: Returned to the Go 2.
20:46
SPEAKER_03: And expectations have never been higher.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: Whether you're all in the season tickets, picking apart your plan for driving single game seeds.
20:54
SPEAKER_03: Now it's the time to lock in your stuff for 2026.
20:57
SPEAKER_03: Visit blueheads.com today and be there for the fun and excitement of Delaware football.
21:02
SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
21:03
SPEAKER_04: Alright, we welcome you back into Fighting Words.
21:06
SPEAKER_04: I'm your host, Ed LaFerge, and we're really excited for our next guest as we get into Parents and Family weekend this Friday, uh, with Liberty coming to town on the gridiron in the tub.
21:16
SPEAKER_04: We're really excited to focus on one of the most prominent uh families in Delaware athletics history, and that's the Reeder family.
21:22
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna have Dan Reeder with us.
21:24
SPEAKER_04: He's the father of Troy and Colby, two outstanding student athletes we had here more recently, but Dan also played back in the day, is 14th in program history in rushing yards, 2067.
21:37
SPEAKER_04: He's got 15 career touchdowns.
21:38
SPEAKER_04: We've got Dan Reeder on the podcast with us.
21:40
SPEAKER_04: Dan, thanks so much for giving us some time.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: It's great to be here today.
21:43
SPEAKER_04: You know, you've um you've had a journey, right, with with um your playing career, your son's playing career.
21:51
SPEAKER_04: I mean, Troy's still playing in the league.
21:53
SPEAKER_04: When when you chose to leave Boston College back in the day to come to Delaware, what what really made you?
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Decide that this was the place for you?
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Well, number one, I was a local, I was a local kid.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: So my uh Saturdays, my dad coached football, high school teacher and football coach at Newark High School.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: He was a perennial power who ran the Delaware wing tee.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: And uh my Saturdays consisted of 10:30 at the Newark high school football game, one o'clock get dropped off for the Delaware football game.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: I'd get a student stubs that some undergrad gave me, and I would sneak into the game.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: You get into the game.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: And we just walked around the stadium and watched Delaware football.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, it was a great uh, it was really the golden years, I think, of Delaware.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh a two-lost season was a disaster for the team.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: So it was just such a neat environment.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: And we used to laugh that there would be 20,000 people in the stadium for the game, and there'd still be 20,000 people out tailgating, you know, the whole tailgating experience and the whole Delaware experience at that time was just amazing.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: So when I chose Boston College, uh I had a strong affinity for Delaware.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: I have an Irish Catholic grandmother, and she got an Irish Catholic school up there in Boston, and she lived with us, and my mom uh were a proponent of me moving to Boston and growing up a little bit, getting out of Delaware.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: My dad wanted me to go to Delaware.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: And I had a lot of, luckily to have a lot of choices.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: And it really came down to Delaware's where my heart was, but Boston College I thought was good for my growth.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: Lo and behold, I go to BC, had a pretty good freshman year.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: I lettered, and um, but the coach was fired after the season.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: We were seven and four.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: What struck me, and this is an interesting story.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: So what struck me was that we were happy to be seven and four at Boston College.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: And at Delaware, that would have been a disappointing season.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: So, like kind of really, yeah, that struck me.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: And also, we were playing at Air Force Academy, and one of our losses, our four losses at Boston College, was to Villanova.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And you know, Delaware, Delaware, Villanova was a really a heated rivalry, the same Delaware and Temple at the time.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we had lost to them.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Howie Long was a senior that year, and he pretty much destroyed the BC front line.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: And uh, but I'm listening to the game, and Air Force Academy was a game I played a lot in because we were beating them pretty good by halftime, and it was a freshman, so I played it pretty much the whole second half, but I kept listening for the Delaware Villanova score.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know what?
24:19
SPEAKER_01: If Delaware beats those guys, I'm going back to Delaware.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, so Del I listened to the score, and Delaware won the game.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: I think it was like 24-17, pretty close game.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: And they beat him in here at BC, uh, had lost home.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, so that was kind of my beginning thought process.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Then at the end of the season, the coach of Boston College was terminated.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: So um kind of made my decision easier.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: And I only, if I was transferring someone, it was going to be to Delaware.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: Like that was that was it.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: And I also was smarter that I was a fullback and an IF formation split back set.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: So being a fullback into Delaware Wing T, you became the really the primary ball carrier.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: So once I understood, I matured from my um knowledge standpoint, uh that was an easy decision and a good system for my skill set.
25:05
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I mean, it it's interesting when as I'm doing my research and I'm looking and reading about you and said you were a fullback, and I was like, oh, that's interesting.
25:13
SPEAKER_04: Like nowadays we don't there's not many schools that run fullbacks.
25:16
SPEAKER_04: No, it's one back sets.
25:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:18
SPEAKER_04: So it I just thought it was interesting.
25:20
SPEAKER_04: But tell us a little bit about what your experience was like as a student athlete at Delaware and then as the father of two student athletes at Delaware.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: For me personally, I had an incredible undergrad experience here at Delaware.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I you know I look at how I evolved as a person uh from a maturity standpoint, um, from an emotional and a, you know, it just and and I grew as a person.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: I grew as a, you know, my spiritual side of me grew because I had a lot of adversity at Delaware.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: And for the first time in my life, you know, I had to deal with uh an injury that was kind of self, it was a self-inflicted, a hamstring.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: I I hamstrings uh really haunted my career at Delaware.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: And it was ultimate frustration because it was your body not holding up to itself.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: So uh I pulled my hamstring my uh sophomore year, and I was un really not healthy for half the season.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: I pulled my hamstring my junior year, the fourth practice into uh preseason.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Then my senior year came into my best shape and um pulled it again.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you got to go from feeling sorry for yourself to say, hey, I'm now a senior, I have to lead my team, and I don't have time for self-pity.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: I got I gotta forgot to lead you.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: We were a real young team.
26:36
SPEAKER_04: So I mean it helped over 2,000 yards rushing with all the hamstring injuries.
26:40
SPEAKER_04: You must have done something, right?
26:41
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was it was frustrating.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: I had a good offensive line, of course, and we had a great system that Tubby ran.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, I love my time here.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: It was also very frustrating.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: But dealing with that frustration, how he dealt with it, and you know, you you got go from self-interest to team interest.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: And when you're a young guy and you have an injury, you know, you feel a little bit more sorry.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't have to worry about leading anybody.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: It's when we got older that I I kind of grew and said, hey, we gotta have the team ready.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: And um, so uh it just dealing with adversity uh was something that I think I really grew from here, my experience in Delaware.
27:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what what was it like watching your boys come through the program?
27:20
SPEAKER_01: It was um it was amazing, you know, it was it was frustrating and amazing that the Delaware is known for its offense in my era.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: It was unique, it was always it was generally very productive.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: And uh for them, they had really good defenses, but uh the offenses weren't as productive as we would have liked.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: And uh, but I think that um the overall experience was positive.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's nothing greater than they had a lot bigger names in the local market than I had at a younger age.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, they went to Salesiano High School and they had good careers and they had you know outs outstanding, you know, following already.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: I mean, positive and negative, you know, with this today's uh working on the internet.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: With all social media, internet.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: So so the um, so I think that it was just a very proud moment for them to have I wanted them back here, and it was an easy decision that they always wanted to play together.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: And that really, I mean, Troy was very happy at Penn State.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: He had started he had started his redshirt freshman year for 11 games, and um, you know, so he was content up there.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: It was a great, you know, place to play and a great following, but the opportunity to play with his brother, and it was his brother's choice to come to Delaware.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Colby just woke up one day and he didn't really enjoy the recruiting process and all the baloney that went with it.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: He just kind of wanted to make a decision.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: I thought he was going to choose a Big Ten school or an ACC school, which he had met multiple offers, and he said, No, Coach Brock was a good recruiter, and he showed up, but like I said, coach, you don't need to come back anymore.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: He needs to digest it, but he was there and uh a lot and was a good recruiter.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: And Colby just said, I trust him.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: I like, you know, I like what he's what he's doing here.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: And for a short moment, you know, he and Dave were together, and then he would then he was gone.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: So but um, but it was an easy decision.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: My kids grew up with it.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can remember uh Casey Keeler's 2003, you know, national championship run and when they had to clean off the snow for the game, uh the semifinal game here.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: Um so my kids grew up with it.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: Like they literally have pictures of them in you know, swaddling clothes, uh tailgating at the Delaware game.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: So they grew up with the culture, and I think they were faced with some of the same decisions that I I had, which is you know, is it better to grow and get out of the area?
29:38
SPEAKER_01: And um, and they they chose to go, you know, Colby chose to come here.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: When he chose to come here, the way the transfer rules worked at the time, Trey was this was the only place he could transfer.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um, you know, so he he joined them and they had a great, great time, great experience.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: So academically, and I'd say they're better students than I was, so um, but academically and and football-wise, so it was a great experience.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: And as a dad, you know, could be more prouder, and there's nothing better than playing in front of your home community.
30:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
30:08
SPEAKER_04: Well, we'll get a little bit more into that in just a moment, but I want to talk to you about like what were some of your favorite memories from from your time as a student athlete?
30:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the um my sophomore year, I think uh I would say if you want a memorable moment, I would say uh we were in the playoffs and we were going down to play Louisiana Tech.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh Louisiana Tech had beaten an SEC school that year.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: I think they had one loss on a season.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: They were favorites.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: We had just beaten undefeated Colgate.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: We had beaten Colgate pretty handily at home and then had to go on the road against Louisiana Tech.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: And we got down there and we had these.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: First of all, you know, we were ready for subtropics.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: It was we had big mesh jerseys, cut-off gray t-shirts, and it was 38 degrees in a torrential downpour.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: So it's the only game in my life I really didn't go, Coach, can we just warm up in the locker room?
31:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know what to go for pregame warm-up.
31:02
SPEAKER_04: I've heard so many stories about the rain and what how crazy that game is crazy.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I just saw that game from a television perspective like a couple years ago.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Someone sent it to me on a YouTube.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: And I'd never watch, I watched the films of just the offense, but I've never watched the whole game.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: And I called up George Schmidt, uh, who was the all-American cornerback on that team.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, and it was always bickering back and forth between the offense and defense who's better and who got us there.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: And I offense, you know, we we said that George had a lot of interceptions, which is still an incredible record, 13 interceptions.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because we had big leads and teams are just passing it all the time.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: So no wonder we had 13.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so um, but that game was remarkable because they were they were heavy favorites and they were a talented team.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: And I actually played on the Raiders with uh with a guy uh from that team, Trey Juncan, um, from the Louisiana Tech.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: But we went down there, and what struck me was our offense did what it needed to do to win the game.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: But I thought that what was remarkable was our defense was phenomenal under Coach Mayley.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: He had we were a four-three team, so and we moved into a three-four for that specific game.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I thought our defense played lights out and ended up shutting him out.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: I think it was 17-0.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: So we did enough to win.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we didn't turn it over too much.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: I think I had one fumble.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you balls like a was like a slime by the end of the game.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but uh what struck me is how good our defense was, and that was just a really memorable game.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: We were underdogs, but I'd say this that under Tubby Raymond in my era here, we never went into a game where we didn't think we would win.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Like we had that much trust of our coaches and ourselves, and we had a real swag that every game, if we're playing Temple or whatever, we we always felt that you know, the only way we we lose if we self-destruct.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: So, which was kind of a I look back on it, I think kind of interesting.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: So in intelligent ignorance maybe, I don't know, but that's what that's what we thought.
32:54
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's pretty cool.
32:55
SPEAKER_04: I mean, the confidence that I'm sure the coaching staff instilled in you guys.
32:58
SPEAKER_04: And you know, speaking of that, like what was it like playing for Coach Raymond?
33:01
SPEAKER_04: Right, everybody talks about him and and he's a legend, of course, college football hall of famer.
33:05
SPEAKER_04: But what was it like playing for him?
33:07
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was it was really interesting.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it, you know, you learn to appreciate it more each year as you mature.
33:14
SPEAKER_01: And because you really didn't understand some of the stuff he was talking about and some of the things that he did.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, there were practice there were weeks that he would throw it off, throw us off the field, you know, practice day would throw us off the field and tell us that don't even show up on Saturday, you know.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: And you could you you look at it back now, just he was a psychic, he was a psych psychiatry uh psych, uh what is it, psychiatric uh, you know, major in college.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: So Tubby knew his pulse was always on the team.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: One, he ran a really complicated, and I've coached kids in high school, I've coached teams in high school and middle school, and I love working with kids because I think football is a great sport to teach life lessons.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, you got to care about your teammates more than you care about yourself.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: And so you, you know, everybody's got a different role that you need to do your job and not listen to all the background noise.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: So the football's a great sport for that.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: And Tubby had a good way of breaking us down and kind of knowing we were tired.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Like I look back now, I was like, we were having a crappy practice, we were tired.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: And he would find for reason to get really mad and scream and yell and throw us off the field.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: And really, it was we just needed a rest.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: We came back the next day super focused, much fresher.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so we just changed our whole mindset, you know.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: So I think he was a brilliant coach.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, Ted Kemski and he with their wing T.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: And then later, uh, during my time and after my time, Greg Perry ended up taking over the OC uh role in the 90s, and they evolved the Wing T even further.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: And Greg brought in more spread formations and added some new series.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: What was neat about it is you could always design around your talent, whether you had a quarterback that was more of a runner or a guy that's more of a passer.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, you could just design a system around him.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: And that was the genius of the Wing T and what they had done.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, every year, it's not just his X's and O's skills, it was his ability to get us mentally ready for the games.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like you're really connected with with the players.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, he was very aloof.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: Like he we'd have a conversation and he would stop and walk away because he was just thinking about something else.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, he would like the I got someone came up to me and said, Should I be offended by that?
35:17
SPEAKER_01: No, man.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: That's just a way to coach.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: He is, he's talking to you, and all of a sudden he thinks about something else and he's just gone, you know.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: So um he got I got close to him, my senior, because in my era, he chose one captain prayer.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Team voted, but he only picked the top vote getter.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: We're one captain, there's no assistant captains in his.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: And he said that God only sent one, you know, God sent one son to earth, and that's I'm gonna have one guy to be my captain.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: That was his rationale.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so um, you know, my senior year we got really close.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: And we had a really young team, a really young, talented young team, my senior year.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: And my era was weird because my sophomore year, that's why I transferred to Delaware to get to the national finals.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: We lost, we had a field goal blocked and it ran back for a touchdown.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: We lost 17-14.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: So that was a tough one to take, make it all the way to the finals.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: And we didn't play our best game in the finals.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Louisiana Tech was our best game in the final.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: We were pretty, we were kind of flat, couldn't get in rhythm, couldn't we just couldn't get the offense in rhythm, partly because the eastern Kentucky defense was pretty good.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: And two, we just were flat, you know.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to believe he'd be flat for a national championship game, but we were flat.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: So um, so really disappointing loss.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: And in my junior year, we we thought we were gonna be more talented.
36:33
SPEAKER_01: We had two big linemen who transferred in from Penn State.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: That in those years when you transferred, you had to sit out of here.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: But he they were practicing, they were massive carnage of practice.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: Both of them had preseason injuries and never made never played it down in Delaware.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so we were just in my junior year, we had a first losing season in Telby's 16-year career.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: So that was really, really difficult to take, you know, to be a Delaware to have a losing season.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: We had a five and six, four and seven, but it was we we were just depleted by injuries.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: And um my senior year, we had a talented that was Rich Grant Gan's class.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: So we had a really talented group of sophomores who needed to grow quick.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were really talented, really athletic.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: We had two really good halfbacks that started as sophomores.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, we had Rich coming up who, you know, he's trying to get comfortable in the system and he was built for it, but um, he was trying to get comfortable and he needed to grow into the job.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: And he did that about halfway through the year, you know, and then he kind of just took off from there.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: But we had some really good young linemen that needed they were undersized but athletic and growing.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: So we had enough senior leadership um to really help those guys grow.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: And about halfway through the year, gets me to my next most memorable moment, was uh we were two and three coming into so we struggled.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: I didn't play the first three or four games when I came back the first two games.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: I could play about a half, my hamstring would sort of have to come out.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, so we went into a temple game up at the vet, two and three, and we had come off a recent 46-6 loss to um Lehigh.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Lehigh um really wasn't a good Lehigh team.
38:20
SPEAKER_01: Now they had some good teams, but that wasn't a good team that year.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: We just had a game where we had 300 yards offense in the first half and we're getting massacred because literally we drove 95 yards and then threw a pick that went 103 yards to the house.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: We had a running back running down the field on a nice 20-something yard run, gets hit awkwardly, the ball pops up in the air, defensive back catches it, takes it to the house.
38:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like like anything that could go wrong.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: Could go wrong, did go wrong, yeah.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: And you know, by halftime, we were down by three three touchdowns, maybe four, and it was just the beginning of the end uh uh for a second.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: But so we came back, I don't know if it was a game or two games later, going into Temple at two and a three two and three.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: Temple had a good team, just beat West Virgin West Virginia, and um we're playing playing muck the vet.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: We're down 16-0 in the first quarter.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: Like, holy, and this is the first game I think I was really healthy for the whole game.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I go, I'm like, holy crap, what just what is going on here?
39:13
SPEAKER_01: And and it wasn't like it was a calamity, it was just basically we couldn't stop their offense.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: So Maley made some nice adjustments on the defense offensively.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: We started getting in rhythm, and we just said, guys, we're taking it one play at a time.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: I remember a couple one of the young linemen was crying, he was getting he was getting killed by the defensive tackle time.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: I go, I gotta quit crying, let's just play football, you know.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: And and uh, and uh you got equipment on, so he can't hurt you.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: Just I know you're frustrated, but let's just keep going.
39:39
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we chipped away at it, and then come back to win 34-19.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: And uh that that rest we won every game after that.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: And uh we ended the season eight and three.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: So, me as a captain and a senior, I just wanted to go out in a winning note.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: We went eight and three.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: We probably should have made the playoffs that year.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: We were I thought we were the hottest team in in FC, one double A at the time.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: And uh that Temple game just came back time.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: That game probably is what um stopped us from getting in the tournament.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: But I think we would have done really well in the the 1AA tournament because we the young guys really matured, uh Bobby Norris, Tony Tolburn at halfbacks.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: We had some really good young linemen, Jeff Rosen and Mike Hobin, and we had good senior leadership with Paul Chakotis on the line, just some really good guys and Orlando Whaley.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really good guys that gave us we had enough seniors giving us the leadership and then a really talented sophomore class who just had a they had a swag about them, they had a confidence about them, and they kind of came in at their own.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: And uh I think when you run a highly technical offense, it takes a while to kind of get things swinging in a full year and people really grasping where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to do.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: So that was again uh my senior year, probably the most memorable, and I for me was such a turning point that it always you know strike me as a as a um as a turning point in the season and one of my most memorable moments.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: And probably the game that got me drafted fifth round was uh was that game because the the Raiders were looking at it, the Raiders were looking at a DB from Temple when they saw me, and that's what brought them down to Delaware for me.
41:05
SPEAKER_04: So it all works out the way it's supposed to sometimes, right?
41:08
SPEAKER_04: I know uh, you know, one of the things everybody knows Coach Tubby Raymond for is his paintings and what he would do for his players.
41:15
SPEAKER_04: I imagine if you were a captain, you probably have one.
41:17
SPEAKER_04: Yep, I do.
41:17
SPEAKER_04: Where's it at?
41:18
SPEAKER_01: It's framed in my basement next to all my kids' jerseys and my jerseys and all my Delaware stuff, so it's down there for sure.
41:24
SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: Uh I want to shift gears a little bit, right?
41:28
SPEAKER_04: You talked a little bit uh about how Troy started at Penn State, right, makes the decision to transfer to Delaware.
41:34
SPEAKER_04: Real similar to your story, right?
41:35
SPEAKER_04: You started off at BC, transferred to Delaware.
41:37
SPEAKER_04: When he was going throughout that process, did you, you know, were you able to be uh a good resource for him, I imagine, as he was trying to navigate that all?
41:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you know, I I selfishly I wanted him back here, you know, to play with his brother.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: He wanted to play with his brother, and you know, I think that there's uh, you know, there's other reasons at Penn State, but it was um, it was uh, I was I encouraged it, you know.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: I once he said, you know, you know, Kobe and I always wanted to play together, we could do that again.
42:06
SPEAKER_01: And and uh Kobe made his decision really with not the expectation that Troy would come down here.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: He made his decision because, you know, I want to play here, I want to play in front of my home crowd.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: And and I think that Troy says, well, it'd be fun to come back play for my hometown crowd, but also to play with my brother.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's the combination.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: I don't think one of the things would have brought him back, but I think the combination.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and it's a and it was a difficult decision for Troy.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh and Kobe's like, Well, I don't know if I want you to come back.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, go carve his own way, but it would it was always a healthy relationship.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: Like they never competed against each other, they competed with each other.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Right.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: And uh so it was always healthy.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: And you know, Troy was able to kind of help pave the way and give him some advice.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: That I don't know about you, but uh, you know, taking advice from your dad is kind of difficult sometimes.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: It was easier to take from his older brother than than than for me.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: So Troy was a lot smarter than me, uh, as far as Colby was concerned.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: So um it was always good get he always took his brother's advice, probably more than my mine, even and if he did take my advice, he never wouldn't admit that he took my advice.
43:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
43:13
SPEAKER_04: Do you have any favorite memories from from when the boys were playing at Delaware?
43:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I just remember, you know, I remember the I think Troy's senior year, they they made the playoffs, which was a big goal to get Delaware back on the map and uh back into the, you know, with the elites and playing down even it was a loss, the defense played incredible and beat the living tar out of James Madison.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: We just couldn't score any points.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: But uh that game was uh one that was a high note, I think.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: And there was a Wayma Mary game that they played together and I thought they played good as a combination.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: Just but the whole time playing together, whether it's enrichment, I just every game that was such a special mode.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: It was just cool to see them together.
43:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:54
SPEAKER_01: To see them together out there and feeding off each other, um, playing complimentary positions.
44:00
SPEAKER_04: What um what's it like for you?
44:04
SPEAKER_04: So you and Troy both won the Blue Hen Touchdown Club Captain's Award and the Taylor Memorial Trophy.
44:10
SPEAKER_04: What's it like for you to know that the two of you, although years apart, won the same awards and and have your names etched in in the record book together?
44:19
SPEAKER_01: I know it's just proud, you know.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm just proud, and it's kind of neat to have our names etched on there, but that is a it's a big deal here at Delaware.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: So no, I just you could be prouder than that.
44:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
44:29
SPEAKER_04: Troy's obviously had a super successful career in the NFL, Super Bowl champion, um, on the Jets active roster now.
44:37
SPEAKER_04: What's it just been like kind of, you know, you spent some time in the NFL, so watching Troy be able to, I imagine, was it was a dream for him to be able to play at the highest level.
44:45
SPEAKER_04: So what what was that been like to see him do that?
44:48
SPEAKER_01: Troy would tell you, and I'll just give you, you know, what Troy says is that you know, he can still remember the first game as a Ram when he made the team, and the first game was down at and Sheryl and I made it down to the Carolina Panthers game.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: And he said the first time I ran down that field on a kickoff or you know, was just an incredible feeling that I've now arrived.
45:09
SPEAKER_01: If things were to end tomorrow, I played at the highest.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: I made it all.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I made it, you know.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: So it is a remarkable, you know, thing.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: It was he was, you know, disappointed not getting drafted, but at the same time, he, you know, he overcame, had a great camp, made the team, ends up starting for the Super Bowl run and uh you know, the Super Bowl, which is I mean, there's that first it's a first kickoff, he said was amazing.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, then it becomes like this is my job, I have to be a good one.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: Right, but he ends up starting the first year and injury, he steps up and he starts for over half a season as a as a rookie, and um and then for him to be able to play in a Super Bowl, which even as a fan and a parent was incredible experience.
45:55
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, dude, you gotta really appreciate how from this on, everything's downhill in the NFL.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: Like there's so many guys have great careers that never win a super.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, and even last year it was a good example.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: The Rams got to the semifinals and you know, you know, just one little more you know, margin of error, lose to Seattle and probably win their second Super Bowl.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: But the ability to get back to a super to get to a Super Bowl and to win a Super Bowl, and then the overall advance that it was incredible.
46:25
SPEAKER_01: And then Super Bowl Day was just incredible, you know.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: It was just uh I imagine you went out for the Super Bowl, right?
46:30
SPEAKER_01: I went out to all the playoff games, you know, we're and we're out of the Super Bowl, and that was an amazing, uh, an amazing experience.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think that I said, you know, now everything else that you ever do in football and NFL is just a bonus.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is it's you're never gonna beat this.
46:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
46:46
SPEAKER_04: Well, Dan, listen, thanks so much for giving us some time.
46:48
SPEAKER_04: It was awesome as we head into Parents Family weekend to talk about your family and and the experience that you guys had here at UD.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: Great.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
46:55
SPEAKER_01: Good being back.
46:56
SPEAKER_04: That was Dan Reeder.
46:57
SPEAKER_04: It was great to have him on.
46:59
SPEAKER_04: We thank Tiana McIntyre who joined us in our first segment.
47:02
SPEAKER_04: And uh that'll do it for this episode.
47:04
SPEAKER_04: I'm Ed Laferge.
47:05
SPEAKER_04: Make sure to always subscribe on YouTube, follow along on Spotify and uh Apple Podcasts, and this month's episodes in October, because we're playing football games on Tuesdays.
47:16
SPEAKER_04: We're shifting when the podcast will come out.
47:17
SPEAKER_04: So you'll see all these episodes on Thursdays now instead of Wednesdays, and we'll get back to Wednesdays next month in December.
47:23
SPEAKER_04: But that's all for this time.
47:24
SPEAKER_04: Go ahead and see what we're doing.