Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Amy Hogue on her 1991 Utes softball team going into the Utah Athletics HOF, State of the program currently + more
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: If you were listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from
- 0:08Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of DESPN seven hundred and ninety
- 0:12Speaker 1: two to one alf.
- 0:13Speaker 2: M and welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Welcome in to hour number three. We're going to talk
- 0:29Speaker 1: a little Utah softball here with Amy Hogue, the coach
- 0:35Speaker 1: of your.
- 0:37Speaker 3: Utah softball team.
- 0:39Speaker 1: The Hall of Fame class for the Utah Athletics Hall
- 0:43Speaker 1: of Fame this year includes the nineteen ninety one team
- 0:47Speaker 1: that participated in the longest game in softball history in
- 0:54Speaker 1: NCAA softball history. I'm not going to regale you with
- 0:58Speaker 1: the details. Hopefully, if I'm lucky, I can get Amy
- 1:01Speaker 1: Hoag to do that. At some point during this conversation,
- 1:04Speaker 1: Amy Hoak joins us now on the Sean O'Connell Show.
- 1:07Speaker 3: Coach, Welcome, How.
- 1:07Speaker 4: Are you hi, Sean, I'm doing great.
- 1:11Speaker 3: Are you doing all right?
- 1:13Speaker 1: How did you find out that you and your nineteen
- 1:15Speaker 1: ninety one teammates were going to be inducted into the
- 1:17Speaker 1: Utah Athletics Hall of Fame?
- 1:20Speaker 4: Well, believe it or not, a lot of my youth
- 1:24Speaker 4: have a tech thread that includes coach Evans coach Joe Evans,
- 1:29Speaker 4: and she announced it to us on the text thread,
- 1:32Speaker 4: so all of us got to hear at the same
- 1:33Speaker 4: time from her.
- 1:34Speaker 3: Wow, that's really cool.
- 1:35Speaker 1: You're so a bunch of your teammates are still on
- 1:38Speaker 1: a text thread together. The text red would not have
- 1:41Speaker 1: started back in nineteen ninety one, but the team of
- 1:44Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one is on that on that textrad That's
- 1:47Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. There's some longevity with that relationship.
- 1:50Speaker 3: Coach.
- 1:51Speaker 4: Yeah, not everybody, but most everybody. I mean we still
- 1:55Speaker 4: we find each other in different cities and they known
- 1:58Speaker 4: around or it's the football or a Notre Dame or
- 2:02Speaker 4: how about you know, meeting at USC the utes are
- 2:04Speaker 4: playing on the weekend, like we'll meet up football games.
- 2:07Speaker 4: We are youths through and through, and so yeah, those
- 2:10Speaker 4: of us that have been doing life together for years
- 2:13Speaker 4: are are part of this. And it's a lot of
- 2:15Speaker 4: times youth stuff and a lot of times just live stuff,
- 2:18Speaker 4: announcements of things good or bad. So yeah, through and through,
- 2:22Speaker 4: we're we're teammates and friends.
- 2:24Speaker 3: That's really cool.
- 2:25Speaker 1: As I was, you know, kind of looking up the
- 2:26Speaker 1: history of this team, came across on the official Utah
- 2:30Speaker 1: you tell you Utah Utes dot com website, and we
- 2:33Speaker 1: were just talking earlier today. There's some great like vintage
- 2:37Speaker 1: memorabilia stories out there where people are finding like someone
- 2:42Speaker 1: found a Brandon Burton game warn Jersey at the DII,
- 2:45Speaker 1: and there's a Wilt Chamberlain jacket. I don't know if
- 2:47Speaker 1: you saw that story that got sold after being founded
- 2:50Speaker 1: a goodwill. And there's this awesome picture of your nineteen
- 2:53Speaker 1: ninety one Utah softball team in some really slick unis
- 2:58Speaker 1: with the Utah screen across the chest and the numbers
- 3:02Speaker 1: are like kind of down on the like the belly
- 3:05Speaker 1: instead of being on the back or on the shoulder
- 3:07Speaker 1: or something like that. Do you have any of this
- 3:10Speaker 1: gear left coaches? Any of this in a closet somewhere?
- 3:17Speaker 4: I do not know, and I really hope nobody does.
- 3:20Speaker 4: I mean, that stuff was pretty trashed. I'm pretty sure
- 3:23Speaker 4: we wore the same uniforms all four years and for
- 3:26Speaker 4: we probably had two uniforms, a red one and a
- 3:28Speaker 4: white one, and that was it. So yeah, no, we
- 3:31Speaker 4: probably wore them completely out and they have holes in them,
- 3:34Speaker 4: and but yeah, I guarantee nobody has one of those
- 3:38Speaker 4: will we're gonna throwbacks. Maybe we'll do some throwbacks.
- 3:42Speaker 3: Gotta do some throwbacks.
- 3:43Speaker 1: You know, Chamuelle, who's on the team with you, obviously
- 3:46Speaker 1: she's got some cloud you you two together could make
- 3:50Speaker 1: this throwback happen. We could recreate this picture I'm looking
- 3:53Speaker 1: at from the nineteen ninety one Utah softball team.
- 3:57Speaker 4: Nice. Nice, all right. Then they probably handled them down
- 4:01Speaker 4: from the baseball team, So that's probably why the number
- 4:04Speaker 4: was tucked into my pants. That need to happen. I'm
- 4:08Speaker 4: sure I always said no charm will make it happen.
- 4:12Speaker 1: I'm sure people the kids these days, coach, they have
- 4:16Speaker 1: no idea what it was like to be a student
- 4:19Speaker 1: athlete back in the day. I was up there in
- 4:23Speaker 1: the early two thousands and our football helmets didn't even
- 4:26Speaker 1: match the color of our jerseys.
- 4:28Speaker 3: It was like a red the red didn't match.
- 4:31Speaker 1: And telling the players that now when they have a
- 4:35Speaker 1: practice helmet, they have a black helmet, they have a
- 4:38Speaker 1: hand painted helmet, they have a red helmet, and they
- 4:40Speaker 1: have a white helmet, they cannot relate at all, they can't.
- 4:45Speaker 4: And they have a different helmet for every game. And yeah,
- 4:48Speaker 4: it's different, and it's fun. It's fun to be a
- 4:51Speaker 4: part of it. Van m Now each each generation announced
- 4:54Speaker 4: and stories all.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Right, before we get to the now of Utah softball,
- 4:58Speaker 1: if you don't mind for those who have not heard
- 5:01Speaker 1: the stories, those who are uninitiated, take us through a
- 5:07Speaker 1: fifty six inning doubleheader for the nineteen ninety one Whax Championship,
- 5:13Speaker 1: playing softball through the night against Creighton, back to back games,
- 5:18Speaker 1: like just your your memories of that, the grueling grind
- 5:22Speaker 1: of two games that ended up being you know, however
- 5:26Speaker 1: long that was hours and hours and hours.
- 5:28Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah it was. It was twelve hours if Bendywin
- 5:34Speaker 4: was counting. We started at six pm ish the night
- 5:37Speaker 4: before and ended about six am. The sun was coming up,
- 5:40Speaker 4: the grass was wet from the morning. Do the bird
- 5:43Speaker 4: we're singing? It was nuts. I actually talked to the
- 5:48Speaker 4: Creighton coach and they they're having to get together this
- 5:52Speaker 4: fall with their team, and I really think we should
- 5:55Speaker 4: crash their party and everyone should get together and tell
- 5:58Speaker 4: the stories, because everybody's tell different stories. What I remember
- 6:03Speaker 4: about it was, you know, the first game, we were
- 6:07Speaker 4: the undefeated teams, so as long as we win, we're in.
- 6:10Speaker 4: And we lost, so we had to turn around and
- 6:13Speaker 4: play another game. And I remember in the second game
- 6:17Speaker 4: having just you know, we're a team that has a
- 6:21Speaker 4: lot of superstitions and so you've got to stand here,
- 6:23Speaker 4: you've got to do this. And at that point, we'd
- 6:26Speaker 4: gone through everything we could think of to try to
- 6:28Speaker 4: get a run, and so we changed uniforms, like in
- 6:31Speaker 4: the middle of the inning, in the middle of the dugout,
- 6:34Speaker 4: like everyone swapped uniforms. But it was it was crazy.
- 6:39Speaker 4: Charmel was by far our best player and got seven
- 6:44Speaker 4: hits in the first game. She was like seven for
- 6:46Speaker 4: fourteen or something. And it's not like we weren't getting hits.
- 6:50Speaker 4: Both teams got lots of hits, but you know, they
- 6:54Speaker 4: beat us in the first game, and we turned around
- 6:55Speaker 4: and beat them in the second game. But it took
- 6:59Speaker 4: twelve hours to get it done. And I remember calling
- 7:02Speaker 4: my parents because they weren't there and you had to
- 7:04Speaker 4: call from like a payphone, no lie, so yeah, to
- 7:08Speaker 4: call I called. I told him i'd call him as
- 7:11Speaker 4: soon as the game was over, and they were pretty
- 7:12Speaker 4: mad when I called in the morning and said, you
- 7:14Speaker 4: forgot to call us, and I said, no, we literally
- 7:17Speaker 4: just ended so but it was their picture through fifty
- 7:23Speaker 4: one of the fifty six, so I'd say she was
- 7:25Speaker 4: the superstar. Kelly Brookhart lefty and she was their best
- 7:30Speaker 4: hitter too, so between her and Charmel both lefty hitters.
- 7:37Speaker 4: They I mean, there were some superstars on the field
- 7:40Speaker 4: that day. And it was definitely either our catcher or
- 7:43Speaker 4: their catcher that squatted for twelve hours or you know,
- 7:46Speaker 4: the picture set through all night. But yeah, we got
- 7:49Speaker 4: it done, and it's been a fun story to tell.
- 7:51Speaker 1: It's really unbelievable, especially not like you said, you stayed involved.
- 7:55Speaker 1: You're you're a coach now, and like this would not
- 7:58Speaker 1: be asked of modern day athletes, right, I mean, there's
- 8:01Speaker 1: got to be rules against this. If the game goes
- 8:03Speaker 1: past a certain time or a certain number of innings
- 8:07Speaker 1: or whatever, you got to like pause it and pick
- 8:09Speaker 1: it up the next day.
- 8:10Speaker 3: Back then, they're just like, yeah, let them play till
- 8:12Speaker 3: you find a result.
- 8:14Speaker 4: Absolutely, there would be so many rules against everything that
- 8:18Speaker 4: happened that night, and I don't want to hear all
- 8:19Speaker 4: the stories, but uh, it was. It did feel a
- 8:23Speaker 4: little bit dangerous. I remember our trainer actually went down.
- 8:26Speaker 4: She was the one whose eyes rolled into the back
- 8:28Speaker 4: of her head and she needed treatment because she kind
- 8:31Speaker 4: of lost it at one point. But yeah, it was
- 8:36Speaker 4: when the trainer goes down, you know, you probably should
- 8:38Speaker 4: shut it down. But the commissioner was there at the game.
- 8:41Speaker 4: So in championship play, they don't do what's called the
- 8:45Speaker 4: international tiebreaker rule, which means that you know, if you're
- 8:48Speaker 4: tied at a certain inning, then you put you start
- 8:50Speaker 4: with a runner at second and it usually gets the
- 8:52Speaker 4: game to end a little quicker. And she was there
- 8:55Speaker 4: and she's like, Nope, in champiship play, we don't do
- 8:58Speaker 4: it that way, and she we actually did do it
- 9:01Speaker 4: in that twenty fifth inning of that second game they started.
- 9:05Speaker 4: What she goes, I don't care what the rules say.
- 9:07Speaker 4: I'm the commissioner, and we it's six am and we're
- 9:10Speaker 4: starting with the runner at second and we happen to
- 9:12Speaker 4: win it in that inning. So there's a little controversy
- 9:16Speaker 4: over that, but both teams agreed to it, and yeah,
- 9:19Speaker 4: it got it done really quick. So but I yeah,
- 9:23Speaker 4: I don't know if it'll happen again. I sure hope not,
- 9:26Speaker 4: even if there are any rules, like, hope it doesn't
- 9:28Speaker 4: happen again.
- 9:29Speaker 1: I don't know much, but I can confidently say that
- 9:34Speaker 1: we are never again going to get that many innings
- 9:38Speaker 1: played over a twelve hour span in college softball. When
- 9:43Speaker 1: they when the rule change happened in the second game,
- 9:46Speaker 1: was there any objection? Was it was Creton just like, no,
- 9:49Speaker 1: you can't do that now? Or were they Was everyone
- 9:52Speaker 1: so exhausted and so just fatigued by that marathon that
- 9:56Speaker 1: even they were just like, all right, fine, just let's
- 9:58Speaker 1: figure out who's going to win.
- 10:01Speaker 4: Well, I certainly don't remember the conversation happening, but what
- 10:05Speaker 4: I do know is they had to agree. We both
- 10:08Speaker 4: had to agree on it happening. And I don't think
- 10:12Speaker 4: there was a doubt in anyone's mind. It was just
- 10:14Speaker 4: the commissioner making the decision, and we said, yes, whatever
- 10:17Speaker 4: it takes to have this thing. And I remember at
- 10:20Speaker 4: one point and I'm competitive as they come, and I
- 10:23Speaker 4: honestly didn't care if we won or lost. I just
- 10:26Speaker 4: wanted to be done. I remember hitting every emotion and
- 10:30Speaker 4: I was a freshman. We had two seniors on the team.
- 10:33Speaker 4: That just I mean, we all had no quit in us,
- 10:36Speaker 4: but that was pretty extreme. I had sprained my ankles
- 10:38Speaker 4: like three days prior, so you know, everyone was taped
- 10:43Speaker 4: up like over top of their uniform. By the time
- 10:46Speaker 4: it was all over, we had ankles taped over cleats,
- 10:49Speaker 4: and yeah it was It was pretty ugly, but yeah,
- 10:53Speaker 4: we got it done and ended up going to College
- 10:56Speaker 4: Station and upsetting them to go to the World Series.
- 11:00Speaker 4: So it actually spurred us into a really magical ending
- 11:05Speaker 4: to our season. So it wasn't just that game, it
- 11:07Speaker 4: was the It qualified for us for postseason. We went
- 11:10Speaker 4: to regionals and upset a former champion. They had won
- 11:15Speaker 4: the World Series. They were a front runner, and we
- 11:19Speaker 4: upset them at their place and went to the final eight.
- 11:22Speaker 4: So it's pretty magical first year for me in my career.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Utah softball coach Amy Hogue is our guest here on
- 11:30Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell Show. She and her teammates from this
- 11:33Speaker 1: legendary nineteen ninety one not only extreme doubleheader, but the
- 11:38Speaker 1: WAX Championship and College World Series appearance. They are going
- 11:43Speaker 1: into the Athletics Hall of Fame this year. This season,
- 11:47Speaker 1: that'll be game week three, if I'm not mistaken of
- 11:50Speaker 1: the football season, And do you expect that everyone's going
- 11:54Speaker 1: to show up for the actual ceremony induction to get
- 11:57Speaker 1: together coach.
- 12:00Speaker 4: Think everyone's going to show up. It was fun because
- 12:03Speaker 4: I got the opportunity to well, I nominated myself to
- 12:08Speaker 4: reach out to everyone because I have all their numbers,
- 12:11Speaker 4: and I just reached out to everyone and made sure
- 12:13Speaker 4: they knew about it. And surprisingly, it didn't take that
- 12:16Speaker 4: long because a bunch of us were on that tech
- 12:18Speaker 4: thread and the few that weren't they answer right away.
- 12:22Speaker 4: And honestly, we only had fourteen on our rosters, so
- 12:25Speaker 4: it really isn't going to take that much to get
- 12:28Speaker 4: everyone there. I couldn't believe that we only had fourteen,
- 12:31Speaker 4: but we did. It was the squad of fourteen. So yeah,
- 12:36Speaker 4: I'd bet money that everyone shows up.
- 12:39Speaker 1: How aware are your current players of that nineteen ninety
- 12:44Speaker 1: one season, Because like in sports talk radio, we get
- 12:48Speaker 1: to this thing where we're if we don't know the history,
- 12:52Speaker 1: we familiarize ourselves with the history of the programs, right,
- 12:56Speaker 1: and the recruiting pitches and the legacy and all that
- 12:59Speaker 1: kind of stuf. And then you've talked to families and
- 13:02Speaker 1: you talk to kids who are seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old,
- 13:05Speaker 1: and they're just like, man, I don't even know what
- 13:07Speaker 1: happened in the Sugar.
- 13:08Speaker 3: Bowl year for football? What are you talking about? You
- 13:10Speaker 3: know what I mean?
- 13:11Speaker 1: So nineteen ninety one, none of your gals were alive.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Obviously their parents were maybe, but like, how aware are
- 13:20Speaker 1: they of that insane doubleheader and your championships and things
- 13:25Speaker 1: like that?
- 13:27Speaker 4: Right, that's a good question, you know, any of the
- 13:30Speaker 4: teams that involved me. I haven't really talked about it
- 13:34Speaker 4: that much because that's awkward, right to talk about you
- 13:37Speaker 4: and your team. But I have done quite a bit
- 13:43Speaker 4: to integrate our alum with our current teams, and I
- 13:48Speaker 4: do it in a lot of really odd ways, fun ways.
- 13:51Speaker 4: I think they probably think odd, so I said odd,
- 13:54Speaker 4: but trying to Each year, I'll make them connect with
- 13:58Speaker 4: someone that wore the same number as that and write
- 14:00Speaker 4: them a letter. Or were doing a fitness challenge in
- 14:06Speaker 4: the fall. We call it eleven seventy six which is
- 14:09Speaker 4: the distance between our stadium and the Hall of Fame Stadium,
- 14:12Speaker 4: which is where they play the World Series, So eleven
- 14:16Speaker 4: and seventy six miles. So we called this fitness tests
- 14:18Speaker 4: eleven seventy six, and we match up our current players
- 14:22Speaker 4: with an alum. The alum do not have to run it,
- 14:26Speaker 4: but they do help them, cheer them on and help
- 14:30Speaker 4: them count their reps for this magical day in their
- 14:34Speaker 4: lives that they do in the fall. So we connect
- 14:36Speaker 4: them that way also. And last year we celebrated our
- 14:41Speaker 4: fiftieth season of Utah Softball and we had a ginormous
- 14:46Speaker 4: event where all kinds of alum came back and we
- 14:49Speaker 4: had a banquet and a lot of mingling between our players.
- 14:54Speaker 4: So I don't know if they talked about the all
- 14:58Speaker 4: nighter game or but they certainly know a lot of
- 15:02Speaker 4: the people that I've played with and that we're involved
- 15:05Speaker 4: in that team, and a lot of them come.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Out and watch games.
- 15:09Speaker 4: So I do know they know a bunch of alum
- 15:12Speaker 4: because I've made that happen and make them do that
- 15:15Speaker 4: and appreciate where things were and why they have it
- 15:19Speaker 4: so great now and why they should be grateful. But
- 15:22Speaker 4: I don't know if they know much about the game.
- 15:24Speaker 4: So maybe I'll sit down and make them watch it one.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Day, make them watch the entire doubleheader all twelve hours.
- 15:33Speaker 1: That's its own that's its own fitness test. Coach, You're
- 15:36Speaker 1: just like, all right, you got to stay awake, you
- 15:38Speaker 1: got to watch the whole thing.
- 15:39Speaker 3: I had to play in it for twelve hours. You
- 15:41Speaker 3: could watch it for twelve hours to watch it.
- 15:44Speaker 4: Yeah, they do have it. Apparently it's on YouTube somewhere.
- 15:47Speaker 4: I have not watched it. I know I was the
- 15:50Speaker 4: last out of the first game, which is heartbreaking. So
- 15:53Speaker 4: I don't want them to have to watch that. But
- 15:56Speaker 4: I do think that making them watch it would probably
- 15:59Speaker 4: cost me an entire week of practice because of the
- 16:02Speaker 4: allotment of ours that we get. So I don't think
- 16:05Speaker 4: I want to do that, but maybe some of the highlights.
- 16:09Speaker 3: Really incredible story.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Let's talk about the direction of you know what's going
- 16:14Speaker 1: on in softball right now, how much talents softball were
- 16:17Speaker 1: able to take in they share your home field and
- 16:21Speaker 1: you know they're off to their own championship competition and
- 16:24Speaker 1: athletes unlimited softball league, So how much were you able
- 16:27Speaker 1: to see of that?
- 16:30Speaker 4: A lot? Actually, they played most of their home games
- 16:35Speaker 4: at the front end of the season for them, so
- 16:39Speaker 4: they were done with their last home game in July fourth,
- 16:42Speaker 4: so it's actually in town a lot. Recruiting from the
- 16:46Speaker 4: portal and hosting some of those recruits. It was a
- 16:51Speaker 4: nice little way to show off our field when we
- 16:55Speaker 4: have the best talent in the world down there playing
- 16:58Speaker 4: on the field they would play on. So it showed
- 17:00Speaker 4: really well. So I saw quite a bit. I bought
- 17:03Speaker 4: three season tickets on my own so that I could
- 17:06Speaker 4: have a seat. I didn't know quite where to sit.
- 17:08Speaker 4: I hadn't really sat in the stands before, so that
- 17:11Speaker 4: was I to ask some friends and family. But I
- 17:14Speaker 4: bought three tickets and I actually sat and watched a
- 17:17Speaker 4: handful of home games. And now we're out recruiting Nationals
- 17:22Speaker 4: is this week, so I'm actually in California right now.
- 17:24Speaker 4: I'm heading to Indiana tomorrow for the other Nationals. But yeah,
- 17:28Speaker 4: the talents are in the Championship this weekend. They'll start
- 17:31Speaker 4: on Saturday.
- 17:33Speaker 1: They are, and we talked with coach Bear yesterday on
- 17:37Speaker 1: the show, and obviously former Ute is on that squad,
- 17:41Speaker 1: so we're hoping they can go back to back. They
- 17:43Speaker 1: won the championship last year in the inaugural season. That
- 17:46Speaker 1: was before they had settled down here in Salt Lake City,
- 17:48Speaker 1: and now even more reason for us to root for them,
- 17:51Speaker 1: and I hope they can go back to back. Are
- 17:54Speaker 1: you good at being a fan? Can you sit and
- 17:58Speaker 1: watch a softball game and just enjoy it? Or does
- 18:02Speaker 1: the competitor and the coach and you take over.
- 18:06Speaker 4: Oh, I'd say it depends. It depends on the game.
- 18:10Speaker 4: I'm a mother of three, and I think when I'm
- 18:13Speaker 4: in the stands, when it's my own kids, I'm really
- 18:15Speaker 4: good at being a fan. I enjoyed just playing the
- 18:19Speaker 4: mom role and I think I got really good at
- 18:21Speaker 4: it because I wasn't willing to I didn't ever coach
- 18:26Speaker 4: my kids, and that was precious to me to just
- 18:30Speaker 4: be the mom, So it worked hard. I learned how
- 18:33Speaker 4: to do that for my parents really well. But when
- 18:36Speaker 4: I'm just watching like the talent, and yeah, there's definitely
- 18:42Speaker 4: a lot of people around me that I like talking
- 18:44Speaker 4: shop with, and you know, I throw it down and
- 18:47Speaker 4: in here or I think they should finch the metal
- 18:49Speaker 4: and roll it up instead. And yeah, I'm probably doing
- 18:52Speaker 4: a little bit of that, but usually I'm partaking in
- 18:56Speaker 4: a beverage or two, so I probably don't know what
- 18:57Speaker 4: I'm talking about.
- 19:00Speaker 1: So during Interestingly enough, the Soccer World Cup sparked a
- 19:05Speaker 1: lot of conversation about youth sports and talent development in
- 19:09Speaker 1: the United States, And obviously it started with soccer because
- 19:13Speaker 1: we're not very good at it as a nation.
- 19:15Speaker 3: Compared to some others. And then it expands.
- 19:17Speaker 1: That conversation expands, is that more and more parents get
- 19:20Speaker 1: involved and they're just like, yeah, it's hard to have
- 19:22Speaker 1: elite level soccer players because you've got to be a
- 19:24Speaker 1: millionaire to afford the travel teams.
- 19:26Speaker 3: And you know, you've got similar situations.
- 19:30Speaker 1: Elite softball is expensive, and crazy volleyball expensive and crazy.
- 19:34Speaker 3: Football used to be a sport only for the fall.
- 19:37Speaker 1: Now you've got leagues and seven on sevens and private
- 19:40Speaker 1: quarterback coaching and all this crazy stuff. And youth sports
- 19:44Speaker 1: has changed very drastically since I was a kid and
- 19:46Speaker 1: you just signed up for your rec league, you know,
- 19:50Speaker 1: baseball during baseball season, and football during football season, and
- 19:53Speaker 1: wrestling or basketball, and you're recruiting these athletes, so it
- 19:58Speaker 1: matters a lot more to you than it does to me,
- 20:01Speaker 1: At least for now. I've got three girls of my
- 20:03Speaker 1: own that are eventually going to have to figure this
- 20:05Speaker 1: stuff out.
- 20:06Speaker 3: They're young enough now we don't have to worry yet.
- 20:08Speaker 1: But coach, I'm asking, because, like, you know, you're getting
- 20:12Speaker 1: players out of these elite clubs, and do you want
- 20:15Speaker 1: them to be multi sport athletes? If they are multi
- 20:18Speaker 1: sport athletes. Does it take away from the technique they
- 20:21Speaker 1: need to have by the time they get.
- 20:22Speaker 3: To college to play softball.
- 20:24Speaker 1: We don't have many opportunities to know what the philosophy
- 20:28Speaker 1: is from somebody who's actually recruiting.
- 20:32Speaker 4: I love that question. I'm old school on both ends
- 20:36Speaker 4: of it. I wanted my kids to play all the sports,
- 20:40Speaker 4: and I want all my players to play all the sports.
- 20:42Speaker 4: And I played all the sports. I think it's important
- 20:46Speaker 4: mostly for their full body training. You know, when they
- 20:51Speaker 4: get to me, they will probably play a different position
- 20:54Speaker 4: than they used to play, and I want them to
- 20:56Speaker 4: be able to move their bodies in different ways. They're
- 20:58Speaker 4: getting so specialized that they play for space and that's
- 21:02Speaker 4: all they do, and it's not good for them. I
- 21:05Speaker 4: might need them to play third or right field or
- 21:08Speaker 4: and so I think also having an escape from playing
- 21:14Speaker 4: first makings every day is playing volleyball and doing something
- 21:18Speaker 4: different and making new friends and appreciating the sport by
- 21:24Speaker 4: taking a break from it. Your body needs a break
- 21:27Speaker 4: from it, your mind needs a break from it. I'm
- 21:30Speaker 4: convinced it's the way that we should be doing it.
- 21:32Speaker 4: And are there some that just don't like any of
- 21:35Speaker 4: the other sports, yes, but most are told that they can't,
- 21:39Speaker 4: and that's hard for me. So I like for them too,
- 21:43Speaker 4: which means, yes, they'll take a few less reps during
- 21:47Speaker 4: the fall, but I also know if they're playing volleyball
- 21:49Speaker 4: in the fall and stoffall in the spring, that they're
- 21:51Speaker 4: not going to be as burnout maybe of softball when
- 21:54Speaker 4: they get to me. I equate it. I know this
- 21:57Speaker 4: is random, but I always think of random thoughts. I
- 22:00Speaker 4: share it. When you want to be a doctor, and
- 22:02Speaker 4: I know because my brother's a doctor, you can be
- 22:05Speaker 4: whatever major you want in your first four years. You
- 22:08Speaker 4: just have to take the pre REGs for medical school
- 22:12Speaker 4: and then get into medical school because they'll teach you
- 22:14Speaker 4: how to be a doctor when you get to medical school.
- 22:17Speaker 4: And to me, I feel like it's the same thing.
- 22:20Speaker 4: You need to play enough softball that you're elite at it,
- 22:24Speaker 4: and for everybody that's different, and then when you get there,
- 22:28Speaker 4: be ready to do nothing but softball. And I think
- 22:33Speaker 4: those that played a lot of sports have been my
- 22:35Speaker 4: most farstal kids. They've gotten hurt less and they've enjoyed
- 22:39Speaker 4: their entire career and haven't had to worry about as
- 22:42Speaker 4: much burnout. So I'm going for that.
- 22:46Speaker 1: I thought you would answer at least somewhat that way
- 22:49Speaker 1: because most of the coaches that we do get an opportunity,
- 22:52Speaker 1: they want multi sport athletes. And so my big question
- 22:56Speaker 1: now is one I don't even think you'll be able
- 22:58Speaker 1: to answer, but like, why is the disconnect between parents
- 23:02Speaker 1: and the coaches who are actually because every parents is
- 23:04Speaker 1: just like, I'm going to get my kid into volleyball
- 23:07Speaker 1: camp or softball camp or soccer camp when they're eleven,
- 23:10Speaker 1: because that's going to turn into a scholarship when they're eighteen.
- 23:13Speaker 1: And the coaches that are actually handing out the scholarships
- 23:16Speaker 1: are like, no, let them play all these different sports.
- 23:19Speaker 1: But then the parents are like, no, I'm going to
- 23:22Speaker 1: specialize them. Where is this disconnect happening?
- 23:27Speaker 4: Oh? How much time do we have you want to
- 23:29Speaker 4: talk about the disconnect between parents and coaches. I don't
- 23:32Speaker 4: think we have enough time. I think my battery's gonna
- 23:35Speaker 4: die on my phone. Yeah, they don't believe us, I think,
- 23:40Speaker 4: and they just want to control what they can and
- 23:43Speaker 4: that's what the piece they think they can control. And
- 23:46Speaker 4: I do think the coaches, the travel ball coaches are
- 23:49Speaker 4: part of that too, and the volleyball coaches and the
- 23:53Speaker 4: high school coaches because they're the ones saying no, you
- 23:57Speaker 4: can't play the other sports. So it's probably more the
- 24:01Speaker 4: travel ball coaches and the parents versus the college coaches.
- 24:06Speaker 4: So yeah, there's some disconnect. But yeah, it feels like
- 24:10Speaker 4: it feels too vulnerable and scary to let them play
- 24:12Speaker 4: all the sports, and especially if they think that it's
- 24:15Speaker 4: going to cost that scholarship that they want their kid
- 24:18Speaker 4: to get at divisional level.
- 24:21Speaker 3: Crazy.
- 24:21Speaker 1: But yeah, well we'll find time and we'll get deeper
- 24:24Speaker 1: into that conversation when we don't have to do it
- 24:27Speaker 1: on the phone because the battery will run out.
- 24:29Speaker 3: There's so much nuance to it, coach.
- 24:31Speaker 4: And when your girls get older, well you can doubt
- 24:33Speaker 4: about it.
- 24:34Speaker 1: Yes, seven four and two right now, So I need
- 24:38Speaker 1: you to stick around for another at least eleven years.
- 24:41Speaker 4: All right, Okay, no problem, I love it.
- 24:45Speaker 1: Yeah, coach, you know we'll be up there, so I'll
- 24:49Speaker 1: come say hi at your Hall of Fame induction. Congratulations
- 24:52Speaker 1: to you your team all the success, and thank you
- 24:55Speaker 1: so much for giving us some time today.
- 24:58Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Enjoy the time and I appreciate
- 25:01Speaker 4: your support.
- 25:02Speaker 1: That's Amy Hoague, Utah softball coach, member of the nineteen
- 25:06Speaker 1: ninety one Utah softball team.
- 25:08Speaker 3: Just named to the Hall of Fame,