Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Utah Talons stars Bri Ellis and Georgina Corrick on their 2026 AUSL championship, Playing in Salt Lake City at Dumke Stadium + more

Transcript

Utah Talons stars Bri Ellis and Georgina Corrick on their 2026 AUSL championship, Playing in Salt Lake City at Dumke Stadium + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This is the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the best inside of your years.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: of the ESPN seven hundred ninety two to one f.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: M and I won't damn.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: What's right? I got jes one love.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and ninety two one FM. We now have another professional
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: team in the state of Utah who has won a
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: league championship. It happened for RSL in two thousand and nine,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: it happened for the Utah Talons in twenty twenty six.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Bre elis infielder joins us now on the Sean O'Connell
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Show to talk about a championship run in the Talons.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: First ye up at the dunky bre Welcome to the show.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: How are you hi?
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: I'm great.
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you giving us a little bit of time.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: It's a few days old now the news, right, you
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: guys won this championship over the weekend. Has it really
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: set it in for you that you guys are now
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: back to back champions in ausl Oh, Yeah.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Totally I mean it felt like we kind of had
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: it all year.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: I think we were.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: Number one the entire time, and it was, you know, getting.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: Close to the end and.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: The competition is just so good. But at the end
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: of the day, I felt.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: Like there was never really a moment where we questioned if.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: We were going to do it or not. We just
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: had it the whole time.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So you get the news after kind of a barnstorming
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: season last year, right this league is launching and hey,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: you're going to be you guys are going to be
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: at the Utah franchise. Now, what what awareness did you
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: have of the state of Utah, Like, what did you
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: have that Salt Lake may or may not be a
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: good fit for you for the team, et cetera.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: So last year we when we weren't necessarily the Utah Challenge,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: we did get to play here for about a week,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: so I think we got four or five games in
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: here at our soon to be home field, and I
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: thought it was spectacular. I mean, the views we play
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: at the University of Utah right now, and the views
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: of that stadium, it's just mountains everywhere. Which I'm from Houston, Texas,
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: so I'm totally.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: Not used to some scenery like we.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Have here, but I mean overall, the atmosphere, the people here,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: they really do love sports overall. But I was shocked
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: kind of at how many people loved softball or were
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: just so happy to have another sports team that they
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: were willing to learn and get to know us. But
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: I'm stoked that we got Salt Lake City by far
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: the best weather out of all the markets, best people,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: best food, best everything. I am just absolutely love it
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: here and so happy to be here.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Forgive me for not knowing this, but you know, how
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: does it work contract wise and things like that?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It is a fledgling league. Everything's new.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So when you know you're a now successful two time
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: champion with the Utah Talents, do you know that you
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: get to be a Utah talent next year?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Is it kind of a wait and see?
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: So, like you said, it is new, we're on our
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: second year. I think right now, basically everyone is either
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: on a one year or two year contract, and we
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: because it is so new and that the professional softball
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: leagues in the past haven't really been able to get
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: on their feet. They're using like.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: A tier system for salary pay. So I think it's
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: like one through five.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: I think I don't know one of them being the best, obviously,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: but there's a certain amount of play in each group
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: tier and I think the rookie contract is the lowest obviously,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: and then I'm not.
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: Sure what it gets all the way up to.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Hopefully maybe I'll get to find out soon. Yeah, we're
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: on we're on tier tier bank salaries.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Let's get Brielli's to that max level a USL. Let's
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: go Talents.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: She's gonna take the time of cup on this show.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: We're gonna campaign for that break.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Briellis is our guest here talking Talents Softball Championship. And
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: you know, we had Coach malonea on a couple of times,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Coach ball Malone on, and we've had a couple of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: your teammates on. And there's with a new league, with
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the startup league, there's kind of like dual duties. You
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: have to be a great player, obviously, but then you're
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: an ambassador for the league and ambassador for the game.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I guess, by extension, in this case, an ambassador for
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: women's professional sports, which are really getting some support and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: all that now, and some people.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Probably like that.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Some people are probably like just let me be a
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: softball player. I don't want to have to do interviews
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and all that kind of stuff. Where do you fall
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: on the spectrum. Do you enjoy sort of evangelizing and
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: spreading the gospel of pro softball while you're also trying
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: to win games?
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I totally get it.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I think that I kind of fell into the higher
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: on the skill position for that.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: So, like I do get pulled for a lot of
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: interviews and stuff.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I was a pretty big name in college. I won
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: National Player of the Year last year, and so I
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: also do well with the audience on social media, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: I pull a good group of people, so they love
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: for me to be an ambassador. Like you said, now
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: some days if I have a bad game, it's really like.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: The last thing I want to do.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: But like you said, it's we got to do it
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: because we are, you know, business people at.
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: The end of the day to the business, and we have.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: To find a way to keep pushing it while it's
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: hot and just drive it out to new audience new audiences.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Probably eighty percent of what we talk about on this show,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: maybe not quite eighty, but like at least fifty sixty
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: percent of what we talked about is college sports were
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: here in Utah. We're still very much a college sports town.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: University of Utah where you guys play football season coming
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: as you're aware BYU is huge here, right, And it's
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: been fascinating to watch the evolution of college sports. And
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: you were a player at Auburn and then you obviously
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: one player of the year at Arkansas, and you have
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: like these, you know, different stops on your journey before
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: becoming a professional. In a lot of ways, the college
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: game is a professional game now to a slightly lesser extent.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like those changes in college softball and
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: in college sports in general have prepared people like you
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: more to be professional athletes eventually?
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: Absolutely?
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: I think the whole nil and getting paid based off
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: of you're not necessarily your performance, but almost like you
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: can't technically be like, hey, I'm going to pay you
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: X amount of money if you hit X amount of
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: home runs this year, because then that's technically being a
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: professional athlete.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: But you can.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: Obviously pick out the best of the best players and
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: give them a you know, one two million dollar deal.
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: They love to find ways, you know, through the through
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: the boosters and such.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: I'm sure y'all are very familiar with that, but yeah,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: understanding like, look, you're not all going to get an
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: equal pay. You're not going to have Like I said,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: we do have the tier salaries, but obviously we can't
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: just rely on that, Like we get endorsed, we get sponsorships,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: we have stuff we do in the off season, stuff
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: like that, And so knowing that we have to work
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: our butts off and make ourselves stand out as players
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: in order to get more money and get better pay
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: and bring overall.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: Awareness to the sport in general is huge. And I
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: do think that college prepared me for that.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Because I was well aware of what it was going
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: to take coming into pro softball, what it was going
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: to take to get a good enough salary to where
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: I don't necessarily need a second job like some people do.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: So now, successful season, championship season, you can't really go
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: up from here. But I know every athlete is always
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: trying to improve. So as you've digested the year that
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: just happened and you head into an offseason, what's one
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: thing you really want to improve on for next year
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: where we hope to see you three peat with the talents?
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would love to improve on my power numbers
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: from last year. I had a pretty kind of low
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: season and then too this year it like double tripled
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: quad through bold numbers. But I still feel like there's
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: more left in the tank. And my job on a
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: team as a power hitter is to hit extra base
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: hits and home runs, and I feel like I got
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: a lot of extra base hits in but I would
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: love to get some more home runs under my belt.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: So just working on being on time and freeing up
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: my mind in the box to allow me to get
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: my swing off on every pitch. That'll that'll kind of
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: take care of itself and the home runs will come.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: So yeah, all right, I'm going to put you on
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the spot here. Georgina Krek is going to join us
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: next What what's a What's something I should ask her
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: about that?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It'll throw her off. She'd be like, how did you
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: know that? Oof?
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Okay, So she plays softball basically year round. She plays
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: in Japan, she plays in Australia. I don't know if
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: she played in Mexico this year, and then she also
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: plays for a Great Britain national team. And she's from Florida,
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Like doesn't have a British accent at all.
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: You would never guess that her parents are from I.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: Think London, so like, I don't know something along the
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: lines of Great Britain.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: She'd be like, where where is that coming from?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: That is yes, that's exactly what I was looking for.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: You're the best. Thank you for giving us that little tidbit.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on the show. Obviously, congrats and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: all the success, and we hope to see you back
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: in the Talents uniform next year.
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, of course, so great talking with you.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: That's bre Ellis Championship Infielder for the Utah Talents and
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: we roll right from a an infielder conversation to one
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: with Utah Talents pitcher Georgina Krek, who joins us now.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Georgina, welcome to the show. How are you great?
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: How are you guys?
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Doing all right? We just had a conversation with brie Ellis.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to start with the same question I
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: asked her right off the Top Champions over the weekend.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: You win this championship, You've had a few days to
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: digest it as it settled in. Give me a sense
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of your feelings right now. The accomplishment of taking down
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: a league championship, the first time Utah has its own
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: professional team.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I don't know what Brie had to say.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: She usually is a better wordsmith than I am. It
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: still kind of feels dream like. It's one of those
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: things where like the season was really really fast paced.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: I know the fans had like insane accessibility to us
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: as a team if you wanted to tune in on TV.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I think there was an AUSL game on every single
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: day from the start of season. So for us as
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the athletes, it kind of felt like we just like
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: kept rolling and we didn't really stopped. So I still
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: keep kind of like waking up in a little bit
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: of a panic, worrying if Coach Lee is going to
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: call me for a practice or if I'm starting today.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It hasn't really set in yet that we've won the
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: whole thing and that I get to have a little
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: bit of downtime.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite pitch? What's your best pitch?
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I think if you watch any of our stuff,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: you know I'm a change up guy. In college, I
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: was all about the rise everybody in this in this league.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I'm sure we've seen some of breef swings. She can
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: hit that change up very very far or that ride
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: ball very far. So a lot of my strength, I
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: would say, is the ability to change seat and put
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: a change up anywhere that I want it.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So a lot of people that are listening to this
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: show probably played baseball growing up. I played baseball growing up,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: and softball is awesome. The most fascinating thing about it
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: for me is the pitching. Is the variance of pitches.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: A rise ball effectively doesn't exist in baseball, right, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: so it's just like it's so it's so fascinating. And
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: when you're in when you're in baseball, right, a lot
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: of times I don't want you to throw breaking balls.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Do you get to a certain age, they don't want
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: you to mess up your arm, and then you do
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: invariably mess up your arm anyway, And you got to
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: have Tommy John surgery before you become a pro. And
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: it's all this like craziness. Walk me through like that
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: process in softball. Is it the same thing where when
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: you're young, you're throwing pretty basic stuff and you add
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: more to your repertise you get a little bit older.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Is there a ubiquitous Tommy John type surgery that a
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: lot of softball pitchers have to get.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I think, actually, surprisingly the injury that softball pitchers have
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: to worry about the most is our lower bodder injuries.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: We get a lot of I personally had a miniscus tear.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: We get a lot of atls, NCLs to get the
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: trifecta and the terrible all three. I think for us,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: because baseball is so top heavy, you get a little
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: bit more strain and wear and tear on the shoulder
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: and on the arm. For softball, a lot of us
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: start from the ground. I know myself. I've done a
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: lot of collegiate coaching. I've done a lot of youth coaching.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I'm very big on I won't teach you another pitch
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: until I feel really strong on your fastball mechanics because
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: that's going to be your basis for everything that you do,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: and then I'm going to try and build off of that.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: But if I don't feel confident in your ability to
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: use your legs, keep them underneath, you come off the
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: mound correctly, and get your arm in the right kind
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: of arm pass and armslots that I like. I don't
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: feel comfortable usually teaching a lot of pitches, But if
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: you've ever like tuned in and watched any of the
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: softball in from the pitching side of things, there are
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: so many amazing ways to throw, And if you were
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: watching the championship game, you would have watched five pitchers throw,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and all five of them had pretty strong stylistic differences
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: across the board. So pitching for me is really interesting
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: because even though my job is to make the ball
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: go up, down, left, and right, all of us do
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: it a little bit differently. And I think that's what
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: separates us at kind of professional level is taking that
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: and knowing that what our strength is is what our
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: strength is, and being able to lean hard into that
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: because I definitely didn't even start running breaking pitches until
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: I was fourteen, I would want to say, and I
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: started pitching when I was around ten.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Georgina Corey is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: You taught Talon's pitcher coming off a championship season, first
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: season obviously that the Talons were resident here in Utah
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: at the University of Utah the Dunky Family Stadium. Georgina,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: tell me what that was like for you. I don't
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: know if you had a lot of awareness or had
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: been to Utah a bunch before joining this team, But
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: it seems like the community did a good job of
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: embracing all of you and supporting throughout the season.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, I couldn't have asked for a better crowd.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: I know, we got a little bit of a teaser
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: about how amazing Utah Loo was last year when we
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: were on a bit more of a traveling schedule. I'm
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: from Florida. I'm looking out on the water right now.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: It's pretty flat. We've got a little with the storms
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: or whatever. But I had never ever ever seen mountains
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: the way that I've seen them in Utah. I thought
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: it was incredible that you're sitting on the field and
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: you can see these beautiful mountains behind right field, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: as you're traveling around, just the entire kind of city,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: in the entire campus being built into this really gorgeous
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: mountain range was incredible. The people with Utah were amazing.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: I joined about halfway through the season, coming in off
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: with my Japanese Diamond Lake experience. But I'm I was
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: welcome in like I was one of them. You know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: I couldn't have been more thankful for the crowds that
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: we had and the location that it was. It's definitely
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: a picture's part too. The air is a little bit
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: dinner there. It's hard to get a ball out. So
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: I was very very partial to Utah, and I thought
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: it was absolutely beautiful. I could not have chosen a
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: better place for us to call home.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Can we talk about your international duties as well? Because
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: bree just mentioned this to us. I was like, I
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: was like, give me something, give me something I need
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: to ask Georgina about.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: And she was like, she.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Plays softball all year round. She plays all over the world.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: You don't like an off season. You don't want to
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: give your arm and your legs arrest? Ever, what's the deal?
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Goodness? No, if I ever stopped going, I don't know
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: what would happen. I think I'd forget how to pitch entirely.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I loved. I obviously tuned in at the last second
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: for your call, and I got to hear Breeze like, wiki,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: how of what I do? But it's really cool. I've
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: been playing internationally for a long time. Both my parents
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: were born in the UK, raised in the UK. I
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: was born there and then and I think I was
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: probably I believe it was twenty thirteen when I first
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: joined the Great Britain national team, and I've played for
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: them ever since. So Ever since I was a wee
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: little tight, I have been playing overseas, taking the summers
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: and going playing for my national team over there, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: then once I graduated from college. The Japanese Diamond League
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: is kind of the Krem della crem of professional softball.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: AU was just kind of getting its feet wet in
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: the professional softball year. COVID was still a thing going on,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: so people were really sure how that was going to
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: kind of manipulate the dynamic of professional softball. So when
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I got the opportunity to go play overseas in Japan,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I took it immediately. And that season is a seven
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: month season. There's a spring and a fall. So I
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: usually go and join my Japanese team the first week
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: of March and I stay out there until the middle
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: of June, and then right after our All Star Cup
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: finishes in Chicago, I'm going to fly right back out
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: and rejoin my Japanese team, and that will run September
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: through maybe even November. It's a long season. I wouldn't
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: really change it for anything, especially as a picture I
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: mean I need to I want to be a picture.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: I have to throw pitches. I can't just work in
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: the cages or throw to a plastic dummy. I need
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: to throw against real life batters. And that's always been
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: something that I've like one hundred percent advocated for and
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: believed my entire life. Is if you want to compete,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: you have to compete.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: How much Japanese do you speak?
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Though you know a little bit.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: It's my third year there now, so a lot of
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: it is Uh. It's kind of survival of the fittest
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: to either pick it up or you, uh, you don't
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: quite make it and survive out there. So a lot
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: of my days I go out I used to live
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: in Tokyo. I live a little bit closer to Kyoto now,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: but I go out there and I try and speak
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: to my neighbors. I try to talk to my local
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: coffee guy in Japanese. They usually look at me a
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: little funny because they're English. Is better than my Japanese.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not that I picked up a little bit.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: That's incredible. Uh. Is your parents are from the UK?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Is there a real I mean, you remember of the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: national team, so obviously there's some softball there. But like
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: when you guys came over to the United States where
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: your parents are like, yeah, you're definitely going to be
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: playing softball, or is this just something that became a
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: part of the family because of you.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: I think it's definitely your parents kind of fall in
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: love with things through you, and softball has definitely been
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: that for me. You know, my dad, obviously, I'm sure
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: many of us were following the the insane England run
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: in the World Cup this year, Like he's been a
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: football guy. He's been a soccer guy his whole life.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: So that was my first four and he tried a
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: little bit of everything just to kind of like get
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: me out of the house and you know, you're a
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: little kid, You're bouncing off the walls. They just wanted
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: me to put my energy somewhere else for goodness sake.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: And I think we ended up seeing a softball ad
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: in the paper and my dad took me to a
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: tryout and I loved it. He went and got me
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: like the the hot pink foam bat they used to
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: sell at Walmart and the little phone ball, and I
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: like remember us standing out in the backyard and him
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: like throwing the ball to me, and me just like
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: hitting them as far as I could imagine hitting the
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: ball when I was that little. And he would sit
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: in his office sometimes and he would like pull up
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: old videos on YouTube of Jenny Finch pitching or Crystal
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Bluso's batting, and we would sit there together in his office.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: We would do softball homework and he would make me
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: sit there and watch like YouTube video after YouTube video
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: softball because I just I loved it so much, so
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I thought it was really fun and interesting that it
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: was a sport that he didn't really know too much
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: about baseball definitely not really singing. In the UK, softballs
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: are very developing sport. Ever since I started in twenty thirteen,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: we've been a little bit on the climb, but we're
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: a small island, we're a small country. It's hard to
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: find a lot of softball players there that aren't currently
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: playing cricket or slow pitch. And just being able to
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: see my parents kind of fall in love at the
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: sport through watching me and taking me to all my
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: lessons and my practices and everything has been really cool.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Because now you can't see it, but I've got like
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: paraphernalia all on the walls, like my jerseys and any
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: of the things that they like hang out because they
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: are proud of it, or I've done something cool and
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: they like to post it on their Facebook. It's really cute,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: I think, to see your parents' fall in love with
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: something because they love you so much that they kind
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: of can't get away from some phone. Now it's going
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: to be in their lives forever.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: The last thing before I let you go, because you
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: have that international experience and you've been over in Japan
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: with a little bit more of an established league. Is
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: is athletes unlimited on the right track? Is this something
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: that you can see having a permanent foothold in American sport?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: I really hope.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: So.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: I grew up watching and I've name dropped them a
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: couple of times, like the Jenny Finches and Natasha Wattley's
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: The cat Astromans of the World. They played in the MPs,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: which was the first professional league that I knew of
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: when I was younger, and I remember just growing up
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and wanting to be them so bad. I went to
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: a Pride game, I bought the Jenny Finch gloves and
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I'd like tossed it down to her since you can
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: sign it. And I remember being a little girl and
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: all I wanted to do was be just like them.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: And I think as I got older and there was
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: a little bit of collapse to the MPF. They weren't
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: getting the interest that they needed, they weren't getting the
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: financial backing. I remember being in college and really just
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: focusing on my academic career because I didn't say the
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: softball was really going to be an opportunity for me
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: post graduation. And so when Athletes Unlimited kind of launched
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, I remember getting really really
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: excited because it felt like it was the start of
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: something new and it had some really strong backing. And
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: then when I was drafted out of my senior year
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: and I went and played for them the first time,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I felt like a professional. They took really good care
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: of us. Sam Fisher was still kind of at the
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: helm of that and she did such a great job
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: of kind of leading it from the athlete side. And
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: now seeing what Kim ng as our commissioner, has been
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: able to do, the partnership with MLB, then putting financial
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: investment into us, in what ESPN has been able to do,
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: us being the first ever professional softball game on television
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: with ABC with like, you know, that's unreal in my mind.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: of it's only been seven years since the launch of
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: this league and just the investment that we have seen
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: so far, whether you're talking about the community in Utah
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: and like how incredible they've been welcoming to us as
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: kind of a home team, or the hundreds of girls
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: that we'll see at the end of each of our
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: games and we're all sitting there signing autographs and I
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: distinctly remember being in their shoes and looking up to
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: somebody and being like, Wow, I cannot wait to be you.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: So I think every single year that Athletes Unlimited has
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: been able to continue growing and expanding into these communities
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: and offering opportunities and visibilities for young athletes as well
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: as people who just enjoy the sport and enjoy the game.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: You know, not everybody who goes to an MLB game
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: wants to be a professional baseball player, but they love
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: watching the game, and so us offering those opportunities on
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: both sides of the coin. I think that's been really
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: important for AU and it has allowed us to expand
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: and audiences we have before, and I don't know, I'm
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: very very proud to be a part of it. Even
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: if my career ends up kind of like finishing while
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: this is still on an upward time, it will have
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: been really cool to have been a part of something
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: that feels transformational for our sports.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Well, congrats on the championship, Congrats on all the other
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: success Thank you for the information and the time and
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the inside it's it's really been fun to.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Learn a little bit more and we're on board.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: We're going to be trying to pump up this AUSL
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: as much as we can, so thank you for your time,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: of course, and thank you.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: We'll be trying to keep winning things and make it
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: interesting for you guys.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: That's Georgina koric Utah Tallon's pitcher