Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / 2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Blake Boldon-Drake Relays

Transcript

2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Blake Boldon-Drake Relays · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey podcast listeners, we're super excited about December
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  11th at 5:30 Mountain Time Denver Time when we're going to
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  go live once again on YouTube to record a live Gil Connections
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  podcast. To celebrate, we're giving you
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  bonus clips every day until then of last year's 2022 guests that
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  came onto the live Gill Connections podcast.
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  Check it out. Look in the show notes below and
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  you'll see the URL. Check us out December 11th, 5:30
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  PM Denver time. All right.
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  Hey, welcome to live taping of the Gill Athletics Connections
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  podcast right here at UST CCCA. I don't know how I got talked
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  into this, but it's live tonight, fellas.
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  And ladies, no bleep buttons, no edits.
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  We're going to see what happens today in today's interviews
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  here. So the idea tonight is we are
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  going to have coaches, other people in our industry.
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  I've got some awesome people that make treadmills and relay
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  meets and all that kind of stuff that we're just going to
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  interview for five to 10 minutes at a time and just really just
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  have fun right here at the convention here in Denver, Co
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  And so Speaking of relays, we're going to kick this off with.
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  Still my all time favorite track meeting.
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  The whole world. And I'm not saying that just cuz
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  he's right here. I'll say it all day, every day.
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  And that is we have here the director of the Drake Relays.
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  I've got Mr. Blake, Bold and Blake.
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  Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Mike.
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  Thanks for thanks for having me. Thanks for putting this
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  together. This is really fun and exciting.
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  Yeah, we'll see you in about the two hour mark.
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  Yeah, how excited You still are two.
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  Hours from now. I've got some water.
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  I don't have hot tea. I need that which your
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  experience with today. So Blake, kick us off here as we
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  look into the 2022 USTFC CA. Convention here in Denver, Co.
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  Thanks Mike. I saw kind of a cool
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  announcement today coming from the Drake Relays, which I
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  thought might have been a little unique.
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  Tell us more about what happened in what you announced.
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  Well, we're about 58 minutes now from the start of the technical
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  symposiums. There are 8 sessions, 4
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  disciplines, jumps, throws, sprints, hurdles and distance.
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  And in each of those eight sessions, there will be a leader
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  in our industry talking about their expertise and sharing with
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  coaches. So we were able to partner with
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  Sam to sponsor those to support the coaches and coaches
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  education, but also to give an opportunity to share the news
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  that we announced today. And we aligned this sponsorship
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  with this announcement that we've restructured the
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  University division of the Drake Relays with a a complete focus
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  on performances for those university.
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  Athletes now. Haven't compete.
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  Not competed. Sorry.
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  Coached at the Drake Relays and haven't intended many of them.
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  You know the athletes. What I love about the Trek media
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  is it is athlete focused at the Drake Relays.
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  I mean it's really as a coach I really appreciated how much the
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  athletes were taking care of. Tell us about this.
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  This sounds very double down on athlete centric here on on the.
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  Competition, Yeah, those things like clerking, you know,
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  appropriate call times, you know, friendly officiating, if
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  that's if there's such a. If you can use that adjective
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  for that noun, we have very friendly officials that are
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  focused on the student athlete experience and that opportunity
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  to compete in front of 14,000 fans.
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  And you know, you can win the drink relays.
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  You're going to do a victory lap and a champions flag and we
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  really celebrate those college athletes.
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  But this is less about celebrating them and instead
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  setting the table for them to maximize their performance.
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  So, you know, for the first time in decades.
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  We've committed to if necessary wind reverse 100 a hundred
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  hurdles and 110 hurdle finals and and that's one of many
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  different examples, you know so we're all detailed all those
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  improvements at drakerelays.org and that announcement is out
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  today but and and really what we've really done is some small
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  tweaks to sprints, hurdles, distance but really revamped
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  entirely the field events so the the jumps, the throws.
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  And and and it's particularly the horizontal jumps in the
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  throws, we're going to take 24 athletes to an open competition
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  that's down from 32. So what that means is each
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  flight of the prelims will have 12 athletes rather than 16,
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  allowing these athletes to get a little bit better rhythm and and
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  and have less waiting time between these three rounds of
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  prelims. And then nine athletes will go
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  to the final. Get get their chance to compete.
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  But more than that we're in adding an Invitational
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  university division in all of those events.
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  So 9 athletes, you know and these we may not even see full
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  teams, but already some coaches today that have international
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  athletes and national caliber throws, particularly long
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  throws, excited about the opportunity to come and know
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  that they're going to get 6 attempts.
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  And this also means. We'll have up to 18 collegiate
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  athletes getting 6 attempts, 9 in the open and nine in the what
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  we're calling the Champions section.
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  You know what I love about this? The Drake Relays is now 100 and
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  something years old. Which?
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  I love 100 and 13100. And 13, I love that.
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  And you're continually evolving, looking to get better every
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  year. Yeah.
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  What drives you to do that? As you sit in the seat that you
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  sit in as the director of direct relays, how are you always
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  constantly thinking, what's better?
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  How can I continue to make this a better and greater experience?
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  Well, the coaches, I mean, you know the student athlete is the
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  focus and that's what these coaches do every single day And
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  and they're incentivized to do that financially and otherwise
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  and and they're focused on getting ready for their
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  conference championships and the national championships and we.
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  Our fans and we as a staff, that's what we want to be part
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  of. We want to find not just the
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  Midwest best, but the nation's best to come and show off in
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  front of a sold out crowd. And and having these 9 finalists
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  in the field events allows us then to to place it more
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  strategically in the meet program.
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  So we've never been able to do long throws on in our Friday
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  night program where we've got a good crowd and good energy and
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  it's later in the day because the sunsets and it's just gets
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  gets dark in our throwing sectors.
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  So for safety reasons, we've only ever thrown on Friday and
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  Saturday afternoons or in the morning.
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  So with with only nine athletes, 6 attempts, we're talking about
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  getting that done in less than an hour and it's better for the
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  athletes that they can get in, get amped and then get their six
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  attempts alongside 8 other of the top athletes in.
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  The country. So I just have one favor to ask
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  of you. I feel like you might have this
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  pull, so my favorite event in the entire world is the Shuttle
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  Hurdle Relay. Oh yeah, you know, obviously in
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  Iowa first of all shout out to Iowa.
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  Yeah, has it as an actual event for your state meet.
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  Love that. And it's a really famous well
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  attended well celebrated event at the Drake Relays.
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  Can we get that as an incident way event please, I just.
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  Oh, we'd love that if the Drake Relays and I know who else loved
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  his folks over in Indiana State. Oh yeah.
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  Committed to it, and they do a terrific job.
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  They come in to represent and it doesn't matter who's in that
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  event. Don't count out Indiana State
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  city wars, because they're in it to win it every year.
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  That's hurdle you. That's right.
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  That's right. Blake, thanks for being here,
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  you know. End every interview tonight with
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  what are you most looking forward to in 2023?
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  I feel like I can answer for you, but I'm gonna let you
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  answer. What are you excited for here in
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  2023 Trek season? Yeah, 20/20/2023.
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  This change in university division and really reshaping
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  the college section of the Drake Relays and seeing how coaches
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  respond. And then the momentum we get
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  from this day all the way to 2024, because right now.
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  Coaches have set their schedule, as many of them, for 2023, so
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  we're really talking partial squads and some of that.
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  But there's already excitement about the 2024 Drake Relays and
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  that reshaping the commitment to the university division.
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  I love it. I love it.
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  We're going to end every interview with a selfie man in
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  here. You were the first one, the live
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  event. Thanks man.
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  Take those off. We'll have the next guest coming
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  up here in just two seconds. World Record Shortest Gill
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  Athletics Connections Podcast ever.
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  Check us out December 11th 530 Denver, Co Rocky Mountain
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  Central Time. Check us out on YouTube in the
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  link below in the show notes.