CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap Signing Day for ODU Baseball. We have stadium updates, including the configuration to start the season, along with a potential future home and home with an ACC opponent. Bryce Jones and Casey Gibbs join to give insight on their transition from player to coach.

Yeah, I tried to throw my microphone before, right before we started.

Hey, what's up everybody?

Hello.

Hello.

Hey, before we get to intros, yeah, it's my fault.

The Hu Homer's logo would look great on a hat, kind of like the

monarchist hats, but that Hudson Homer's logo with the baseball.

I'm gonna put in an order right now for, uh, let's, let's figure

out a way to produce those.

All right.

Maybe we sell 'em for some rev share money on top of everything else, like.

Well, the world is about to be our oyster again.

Uh, if you notice from the, uh, the emails that went out, the Pride ONIL collective

is merging into OD DAF to be rev share.

We're still gonna be very heavily involved, still have all of our

normal content and that fun stuff, but we will have the ability

to make our own merch again.

And believe me, I do want, I want this one right here.

Mm-hmm.

The Navy Brim, the Hudson Blue.

Yeah.

That's, that's, that's the OG right there.

Yes.

Yeah.

With the patch on it.

Palmer's logo on one of the, one of these.

I agree.

I think we're just gonna go nuts and Merchant Spring and I'll, I'll just be

out there with a little cart getting run off by someone from ODU Security.

It's stuff, hawing hats, insurance, but you at that

whole back parking lot behind left field, right there.

Just post up out there and sell it.

You know,

if you wanna shirt me none to the scoreboard behind

the fes, I got you there.

That's right.

Oh, well, welcome fans to the Hudson Homer podcast.

I think this might be the last one of 2025.

I think we're gonna get you one early in January as we get closer

and closer to that first pitch of the first game with Quinnipiac.

But cb, how you been?

Man?

Hey man, I'm great.

Got to, uh, guy was out there, got to watch the two of the three games of

the Fall World Series, uh, and they were really good competitive games.

Uh, so that was, that was fun to see.

And, uh, got to watch the, uh, the longest camp that the ODU has ever

had, uh, last anyone's ever had.

Last Saturday.

Yeah.

Anyone's last world.

Yes.

The longest camp in the history of baseball camps.

Uh,

we set, we, we set many records that day.

Yeah.

Some states still going.

It was a beautiful day.

Thank God.

I said it was.

Yeah.

I got home and laid on the couch and I was like, what if

it was terrible weather today?

Would that have been cold?

It was perfect

weather.

Yeah.

It was like 70.

It was perfect.

Yeah.

Couldn't been, you guys had some really good, the, the Fall

World Series had good weather.

Yeah, it was pretty, pretty nice.

We were very lucky.

Yep.

Take a few of those in the spring.

We

will indeed.

No doubt about it.

Yeah.

We had a lot of kids out there at that camp.

I stopped by for a little bit.

We were down there for the weekend from the Thursday night game.

Brought the dogs walking around.

There were a ton of kids there.

I mean, they were all over the place.

Yeah.

And I, I took a picture of all the parents that were lined

up down the left field line.

'cause I thought that was a cool shot.

Yeah.

And I said at some point

we should think about making that like a standing room only ticket.

Mm-hmm.

Um, the only issue you're gonna run into in today's world is there's no

net down there and somebody mm-hmm.

Wax a screaming line drive and you, you know, can't get outta the way

then you in the, in the courtroom.

So it's the world we're living.

Yeah.

But it was a neat shot of hundreds of parents just lined

up all the way down the line.

So.

That was cool.

That was neat.

Yeah, it was good.

It's good seeing the kids out there.

It's good seeing, you know, I always like, it's funny you see like what

kids are really good at baseball and they, you know, they're out there and

they're comfortable and it's just a chance to play some baseball and you

see the kids who are taking it too seriously and forget how to play.

And you see some of the kids who didn't realize they were gonna be overwhelmed.

So Yeah.

It's, it's always a little interesting.

Yeah.

Just

watching it.

It is,

it is.

And you know, we're appreciative of anybody that spends the money

and takes the time to come to camp.

I always, yeah.

Make sure whoever's starting the camp, whether it's me or someone else, mentions,

you know, we ask the question, if you paid for this camp yourself, raise your hand.

And of course no one raises their hand every once in a while.

Somebody does.

Yeah.

And they get called out especially, but for the most part, um, then we

just say, Hey, look, somebody paid for you to come to this camp so.

Two things.

One, make sure you tell 'em thank you.

And two, make sure you give your best effort today.

Um, just have fun, enjoy and play hard and, you know, ask questions and then,

and get your money's worth out of today.

So, yeah.

Um, those are important things to us, you know, for the kids

that that come to the camp.

Yeah.

'cause sometimes it's about realizing like, this is the where I have to

grow to, to get to where I want to be.

Or sometimes, you know, if you're a little bit older, sometimes it's

like, okay, I'm not gonna be here.

Let me get it more realistic about where I'm gonna be.

'cause there's a right.

That's a wiz.

You just tell me there's a place for everybody.

You wanna play college baseball.

There's a spot for you somewhere.

At some level there is, and it's good that our players work.

'cause the kids.

You know, they look at them and go, alright, this is what

a, you know, division one college baseball player mm-hmm.

Looks like, and he is a lot bigger than me.

I better get in the weight room.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cam Epson's walking around out there.

Yeah.

And he was at the camp two years earlier.

Uh, Jackson or Conco, there's a couple of

Yeah.

Real big freshmen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then those, like you said, those kids were campers.

Mm-hmm.

So that's the value of, of having that camp, especially for local guys.

You know, we had a couple good young, local, local players in there.

So that was, that's always exciting for us.

Yeah, I definitely feel like they get a lot out of it.

I know like the drills are actually complex and they will challenge you and

you get to see live pitching and all the things that come with live pitching.

So

yeah, it

seemed like the kids were having fun, but they were also being

challenged pretty hard out there.

Yep, yep.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, on the subject of being around the stadium, huge progress that I noticed

just from like a two week span between football home games of just how much

has gone up over there at the ballpark.

Uh, Finney, you, you got any updates?

Any thoughts?

I know you see it every day, but Yeah.

What are

thoughts?

You know, I do see it every day, but I see it mostly from the, the field side.

I took my dog chief down to the old golf course walking yesterday morning 'cause

it was such a nice day and we drove down 43rd street, which I never do anymore

'cause I don't park down that way.

Um, and, and driving down the, you know, what will be the front of the stadium.

Uh, I was going, wow, they have done a lot more than, than you think, you know,

two of the main, uh, you know, um, metal beams that'll be up the steel beams.

There's, I don't know, eight of 'em that are going in that front,

uh, around the roof in the facade.

Two of those are up.

It's starting to look like a building from the back, from the front side there.

And that's cool.

They've got, um, almost all the, the, uh, the, the concrete posts in that they'll

hook the, the frame up to connect the, the, the state, you know, the corners

to the, the other existing structure.

And they're making, they're making a lot of progress.

They've got our whole building, uh, behind the, the third base

dugout under roof that's, that's under roof, the whole thing now.

So they're able to, you know, get started on the inside stuff.

So yeah, they're moving along pretty good now.

So it's nice to see.

And I wake up every day and go one day closer.

So, yeah, yeah,

yeah.

One day you'll come to work and you'll just hear the ping of the ball off the

bat and not also jackhammers and all kinds of air compressor, uh, powered.

So more and no more sandblasting, thank God.

'cause that,

yeah.

Uh, it's something when you're out there, it's, it's, uh, aggressive on your ears.

It's aggressive on your, your breathing and in Yeah.

It's, it's a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It

was

terrible.

I mean, we were all coughing for about a month.

Yeah.

That sand just was everywhere, man.

So, yeah.

Uh, it's nice to be past all of that.

So, yeah, they're moving on.

You want ballplayers with a grit and you got 'em one way or the

other, gonna make it happen.

Literally have grit in their lungs.

Grit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, well, I was talking to CB right before you hopped on, and like, I knew we had a

lot of home games early in the season next year, but when you actually have it laid

out on the schedule, it, it's a lot like.

Three at home against Quinnipiac, one with Manhattan, three with Niagara.

You go over to Norfolk State, but then back for three home games in Charlotte,

and that puts you at March 1st.

Uh, so it's quite a, quite a home slate.

Um, yeah.

Which is normal for

us.

I mean, that, that's, yeah.

You know, since I've been here, it's what we've tried to do, uh, to get

the Northeast teams down and play good ones and play at home as much you can.

I mean, um, it just makes sense to me and, uh, we've had some good success with it.

So we're, we're back to being able to do that, you know, and although the stadium

won't be done, it'll be, you know, uh, we will be playing in it and, you know,

the, the university's doing some neat things for our fans to be able to enjoy

that, uh, you know, despite the fact that it's not gonna be, you know, fully

functioning, uh, inside the stadium.

So we're excited about playing on our home field.

I mean, that's, you know, it's been a while.

And, um, I think that, you know, sleeping in your own bed, being

in your comfort zone, all those things, um, make a difference.

Can we talk about what that plan is for the fans?

Yeah.

For that first part

of the year?

Um, so, you know, and, and we don't know if this is gonna change at

all during the year, it depends on construction schedules and things.

We're going into a plan, uh, with the, you know, film that it's not gonna change.

But basically what they're doing is between the left field, uh, light pole

and the left center light pole that's about a, I don't know, 150 foot long area.

Uh, they're building a, you know, elevated rally alley experience out there.

It's gonna be, I think five rows of, of seats.

Um, there's gonna be a, a standing rail behind that, and then a 20 foot long.

Deck with a standing rail behind that, which will include a, a bar and grill.

They're gonna have food trucks out there.

Um, there's restroom facilities out there.

It'll, it's, uh, able to hold, I think 750 people.

Uh, and then they're building a smaller version of that over next, on the

other side of the scoreboard for the business fans that'll hold about 150.

So, uh, they're still gonna be able to handle a thousand people, uh, close to it.

Maybe it's eight 50 on earth, but it's supposed to be about

a thousand people, and they'll be up above the outfield fence.

Uh, it's the same company, Gary, you may know it's the company that does

a lot of the, um, you know, the, the greens, the, the bleachers around the

greens at the big golf tournaments.

I think they're outta Richmond.

Um, but they're the ones doing it and they're building it.

Um.

Although it's, you know, temporary fix, what we call now, our, our

desire is to have that stay and yeah, for us to keep it.

And I think it can be a unbelievable area, whether you make it a student

section, a frat section, a yeah, whatever.

It's just gonna be a really cool look, um, at the ballpark.

Um, you're a different look than sitting in the stands looking out,

you're looking at the stadium and so, and you know, you can heck with

the left fielder and all that stuff.

So, uh, there aren't a ton of mid-major, you know, facilities that have

outfield seating to that capacity.

So we're excited about that.

You know, it's, it's unfortunate with the delays that the, the, you

know, all the, you know, amenities that a new stadium will have, uh, we

won't have those available, but, um, we're, we're really grateful, you

know, uh, Rick French, Bruce Stewart.

Uh, Dr. Sig, Ashley Schumacher.

Um, they've all just stepped up and said, we need to make this the best

experience as we can for the guys for this year, um, while we continue to

work through this stadium construction.

And they're making it happen.

They already got the trees down in that area.

I mean, when you take trees down, something serious is going on.

Yeah.

So I walked out there one day and I go, yeah, they're doing it.

So, um, yeah, it's gonna be a unique year from a fan standpoint, but you

certainly are gonna have a good seat.

You know, it won't be behind the plate, but it'll be a good seat

and it'll be cool out there.

They're gonna have, uh, different food trucks and, you know, uh, sell, sell

beverages and food and all of that.

So, I mean, all kids

want us to come to a game and catch a home run.

Yeah, well do plenty of that.

And the whole area behind the left field fences.

Um, all pavers now anyway.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, they did that when they built the new chemistry building, so it's a neat area.

I think it's gonna be like a big party back there.

Um, and I think it'll be really cool.

I really do.

I think

it's a wonderful, happy accident.

And like you said, if that's the kind of thing you can make a permanent party

and hopefully I don't see any reason why you couldn't make it permanent.

Yeah, it sounds awesome.

It's funny.

Yeah.

We're gonna do everything in our power to keep it, because I think once

everybody sees what a neat experience it is, they're gonna want that to stay.

Um, that's our goal certainly.

And our, and our intention.

Yeah, it, it is definitely a good spot.

And if you think about, you know, like University of Virginia, they

kind of have those standing room only areas down the right field side

where people just go and hang out.

And obviously things are going pretty well for them and have in the past.

Uh, it is gonna be a unique way to watch the games, but I'm happy

to be doing that in Norfolk.

When I was reading off the list of those opponents, I was thinking how many

thousands of miles are saved on travel?

Just, just that alone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Our budget's definitely gonna save some money.

And speaking of Virginia, you know, having a conversation with their new

head coach, Chris Pollard, um, about scheduling and, um, you know, in college

baseball, the coaches do it, you know, not the administrator for the most part.

And we talked and, you know, he, he committed to coming down here

and playing us every year in the new ballpark, not Harbor Park.

Wow.

Playing.

Our stadium.

Um, he thinks that's a cool idea and obviously we do too.

That'll be a, you know, a good chance to sell it out, you know,

against the who's every year.

So we're excited about that.

Well, there go.

So that's why we need to keep the outfield so the people that make those decisions.

That's why we gotta Yeah.

Really pack the place.

I mean Yeah.

It's

another, it's another thousand people that Yeah.

You know, that's, that's another thousand people you can put in a ballpark.

So that's, that's a neat thing

because the new, the new seating is upping the, um, 2000 amount anyway.

Yeah.

And then you figure rally alley, I think we estimate is 400 or something total.

Yeah.

But, um, you know, and then you have another, you know, thousand outfield,

so I mean, yeah, you get, you know, you're getting 3,500, um, and, and

then we have the Lowe's areas that are standing there, so, mm-hmm.

You're probably gonna get close to 4,000 capacity, um,

potentially, uh, when this is done.

And that ballpark's loud when there's 500 people in there going nuts.

Yeah.

You get 4,000 in there.

It'll be way louder too, Gary, because it's gonna be so much more closed.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Um, and so it's really gonna loom what's, what's gotten me is how much higher the,

uh, the is, you know, they finished the, um, the elevator shaft and the stairwell.

Mm-hmm.

So the rest of that press box level, the top level would be even with that

and it's, you know, it's probably 20 feet, at least higher than, than it was.

So

yeah, I keep looking at that 'cause I'm thinking about

shadows for, uh, taking pictures.

Yeah.

I'm like, oh, I think the shadows are gonna happen faster now.

Yeah, they will.

But at our place it's a good thing 'cause of where the sun Yeah.

Uh, it won't be in the picture's, you know, eyes anymore, so that's good.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I know that the expanding the press box was kind of one of those

big check box items for hosting regionals and things like that.

So.

Should, should have plenty of room.

That should be, that problem should be solved for quite some time.

Yeah, it's gonna be a beautiful press box.

Got a couple of sweets in it, um, as well.

And just everything you need is in that thing.

Um, and the press box for this year, do what they're called.

It's called like a earth pot or something.

It's a double decker thing.

They're gonna plop it down on rally alley.

Um, and that'll be our kind of press box where they have all

the guts for the scoreboard and sound system and all of that.

Yeah.

Radio, the ESPN people, it'll all be in there, um, for, for us for this year.

So it'll, you know, scoreboard's gonna be on, the sound system will be on, it'll

be a real game in terms of all of that.

It's just gonna be a stadium under construction, you know, around it.

I think one of the cool things for the fans, you know, if you

come watch us on February 13th.

And you come back on May the 13th, like you're gonna see a ton of cool progress,

um, uh, over the course of the thing.

Um, and then June 1st is the substantial completion, um, date.

So we'll be moving in it, so we'll have our grand opening next, you know,

spring of 27, um, in terms of, of that.

But, but we're playing in the ballpark and all things considered, man.

That's, that was the most important thing for us this year.

Uh, and the school spent, you know, after these, I mean, probably

a quarter of a million dollars extra to allow us to do that.

So I don't think, I think we would all be remiss if we didn't acknowledge

that because they could have said, Hey, we ain't got the money.

Go back on the road again.

Yeah.

Right.

Um, and that would've been, you know, that would've been really hard, um, for us.

So.

Yeah.

That, that would've been tough.

So shout out to everyone that made that possible.

'cause there's like a million variables involved in this.

Like, oh yeah, weather is the one everyone thinks of, but

there's so, so much more to it.

So to be able to get something that fans can attend, see the team, not

have to put the team on the road for an entire season, again, that's huge.

Huge for the guys, huge for their performance.

And fitting huge for you.

'cause I know, I know you and the staff were done after last season.

You were dog tied.

Yeah.

And you know, I, I think, I mean, not for nothing.

Somebody might end up going, that's my favorite seat, that's where I wanna sit.

Like, yeah.

Tickets out there.

Um, it's a, it's a different unique experience, like when you're in

the, you know, like the, the, uh, the Wrigleyville bleachers man.

Like, you know, it's just a different crowd.

Maybe we'll get to people doing roll call like they do, uh, Yankee State.

I think that'd be awesome.

You know.

Well, we'll plant TV out there.

He can be gone.

I mean, I'll definitely go out and take some pictures from that angle for sure.

I'm, I'm about it.

Yes.

Well, we can start hitting people up for that.

This is my favorite seat.

Maybe at a step up to the plate that you're having in where

it's Friday, January 16th.

Uh, go the OD DAF site if you wanna register, man, that's where we need to go.

Yeah.

The step up to the plate, man.

I'm glad you said that.

So, and we have a, we have a good announcement for, um, who our Bud

Meia award winner is this year.

Hey, Michael Dyer.

Cutting.

Okay.

All right.

So

I, I was lucky enough to play golf with Mike last week and, um.

Doug Ripley and Mike and I and John Bes all played out at Bayville,

which the only time I get to play at Bayville is with Mike, so That's funny.

Very grateful for that.

And we had a beautiful day, man.

It's kind of like day, I think it was last Thursday, and just had a blast.

And, you know, I, I asked him if he'd, you know, be gracious enough to accept

that award and he was, uh, overwhelmed.

Like he, you know, growing up here he is, been to a mm-hmm.

A lot of the dinners and the clinics and worked the clinics as a pro player

and he understands and appreciates the, the history of that award.

And so it was kind of cool and, um, you know, we're really, really

excited about him getting it.

He's done a lot, a lot for baseball in the area since he's been retired, you know,

bringing that back, kind of spearheading that all Tidewater 7, 5, 7 game.

Mm-hmm.

With the potential against, against the south side.

He's really taken that by the horns and grown it, made it a neat event for

the, the high school kids in this area.

And, you know, he runs, uh, a number of travel teams through his mm-hmm.

Facility there.

He is just a, he's an amazing man.

He is a good friend.

He's just a fantastic dude.

And, um, we're really excited that he's, he's gonna be

this year's BMA award runner.

That's awesome.

He really is a good dude.

I've never had anything other than a phenomenal interaction.

Anytime I've ever over, I mean, talking about 25, almost 30 years now

of seeing him in different places.

Always just the best guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And his son is a phenomenal young shortstop.

Uh, I think he's coming to his senior year at Great Bridge.

Yeah.

So if you get a chance to go out to Great Bridge, see a

game, uh, you'll see a good one.

Yeah.

Casey, he's a fantastic young player going to North Carolina.

Yeah.

Uh, we certainly wish him the best.

He's, he's gonna, he's gonna keep growing and, you know, he'll be a really

good college player and he'll get a chance to play professionally as well.

Feels like easily.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, still, you can still sign up and register for that event.

Again, it's on the OD DAF website, old dominion af.com.

It's on their events page, Friday, January 16th, sixth in the priority club.

Still correct?

Yep.

Yep.

In the priority club.

Uh, one more year, certainly.

And we're gonna kinda look and see how our space is in the new facility.

So it's possible in 27 that we may be able to have that somewhere at

the field, which would be neat.

At the new stadium, at the, the Elmer Family Stadium.

But it, it'll be neat.

We may have to do some version of an indoor outdoor thing, maybe with some

fence and heaters and stuff, but I think people would want to come do that and,

you know, take a tour to the stadium.

We may do something just a little bit unique that year because of,

yeah, it'd be cool to lay eyes on things that need that support and easier to

sell when you say, Hey, this bank of seats, this suite, whatever may be

the media room, all that good stuff.

Yeah.

Did, did I hear you say they're putting a double decker press box in rally alley?

Is that, is that correct?

Yeah,

they're called Earth Pods.

I think they bring 'em in on a truck and then a crane just drops 'em straight down.

I don't know what exactly Rick Re kind of found them.

You can, you can put all the guts of all the electronics we need in there.

It'll be on that second level, I think.

So you're looking at the field down.

Yeah.

Obviously not behind home plates, so it'll be a different view.

Um, but then, you know, the, they'll be able to have, um, we're not

doing home radio because of that.

We're gonna allow the visitors come through radio.

We're gonna do the SPN plus broadcast at home, and then all of our.

Uh, I think today I thought that David Jones, all of our, um, our road games,

our 21 road games will all be on the radio so the people have the option.

So yeah.

So that's, that's kind of what we're gonna do.

'cause you, we don't have enough space in there to do home and

away radio, but 'cause of the, you know, just it's not that big.

Yeah.

Well, being able to listen to Ted or Andy on the road will be, will be really nice.

Just if we're at home, just ignore any assembly line of beer going up

into the top deck of the press box.

'cause that, that may happen too.

Some of those longer games.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you'll have to, you'll have to find a, you know, like a, uh, a, a wagon

committee to get it all the way from out left through the construction zone.

You may, they'll be handing it through the fence out there on 43rd Street, maybe.

Hey, that's great.

Baseball guys are in, in ingenuity.

Ingenuity does not lack.

So, yeah.

Uh.

They'll find a way.

We'll get some pneumatic tubing.

Just put the cans in there and send them.

Yeah.

Shoots out 107 miles an hour.

Right at the guy.

Yeah.

Just explodes.

There's so many

things that go into it.

You said gun and I, we were talking about all this stuff and we're like, all right.

We thought everything.

Of course.

They're like, I can't think of anything.

And then just, um, Friday maybe we were taught about it.

I was like, radar gun.

We gotta get the radar gun scoreboard.

'cause we've been using the track man on portable track, man, all fall.

Uh, and we won't have the regular TrackMan back up by then, I don't think.

But it's possible.

But, uh, we'll, so we'll get the radar going up because you know, the fans

won't see that up on the scoreboard.

Yeah.

They like that.

My, that's my mom's

favorite thing of the game.

Yeah.

My mom gets so upset when she's somewhere and there's no radar gun.

Yeah, well, it'll all, it, it'll all happen.

And, and we're we're excited about being, being at home and

the guys had a really good fall.

I think in the fall, in most cases, you probably know more unless you have a

bunch of returning, starting pitchers, you probably know end up learning slash

knowing more about your offense than your pitching, because everybody kind

of trains similarly from a pitching standpoint in the fall, no one's going

out there and throwing seven innings and you go, oh, he could be a starter.

Um, you know, your, your pitchers and your relievers kind of throw

the same because there's just no reason to extend guys in the fall.

Um, they're doing a lot of other things.

They need the, the rest, and, you know, so, you know, most guys throw,

I think is most, we had a guy throw this fall, three innings and mm-hmm.

They did that a number of times, but, um, so you don't quite know.

Um, from a role standpoint, I think it usually takes those first

few weeks, um, to get all that ironed out as much as you can.

And then it keeps changing of course, but you can see, you know, the hitters

improvement and where they might Yeah.

Fit in defensively and things like that.

And we had some guys have some really good falls, man.

Mm-hmm.

Older guys.

TJ Aiken, like yeah.

Had a fantastic fall.

And the second half of his fall, he was a wrecking ball.

Uh, he was like, he on base machine, he was driving the ball.

He was really good.

Uh, Scotty Young had a fantastic fall.

Yeah.

Start to finish.

Probably our best numbers in the fall.

Um, McCadden, you know, he was, he was fantastic.

You know, uh, Mac Dye was probably our best hitter this fall.

He had six or seven home runs.

You know, a guy that can hit in the middle of your lineup.

Um, I thought Maverick Stallings, who's a fifth year senior, had a really good fall.

Uh, will Johnson, looks like our shortstop.

Looks like he's gonna be our lead off hitter.

Had a really good fall.

Uh, true freshman.

Uh, Nick Felton, who's a lefthand hit builder, um, had a good fall.

Looks like the guy guy's gonna be in the mix.

You know, Luke Waters had a good fall.

We're still waiting to hear on Luke's waiver, so we don't know yet about him.

Um, but we had some other guys, you know, Evan Holman had a good fall.

We got, uh, yeah, uh, Zach late healthy, he had a good

fall, so a bunch of guys did.

And you know, we just gotta kind of, when we get back, put 'em all in one lineup

instead of two, and kind of see what kinda length we get in, in that lineup.

My, my, my feeling, we made a pointed effort of making important to the

guys, to, you know, getting the ball in place, striking out less,

walking, more, getting on base.

I, I really feel like we did that as a group, as good as we have in a while here.

Um, and so I think we can be that type of lineup, you know?

Um, and Fra Morales had a good fall for, and by his standards, probably

not great numbers, but he was hurt a little bit with a, a groin injury.

But we know he can hit and he played a good left field.

I mean, he showed us he can did, he can play left field and I'm not

so sure about next year he couldn't be our second baseman as well.

But I was

gonna say he played a good second base every time I was out there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's, he's still, you know, he is got some things to iron out there, but he, he

went out in left field and, and he just out competes it, you know, like he, he is

just gonna, he's just gonna outcompete the ball and find a way to get the job done.

So, um, overall it was, it was a good fall.

It was a fun group.

They worked hard.

They didn't complain about anything.

You know, we, we kind of talked about the elephant in the room from the get go.

We're gonna have to deal with this sandblast and crap and, and noise and.

I don't think, you know, anything peripherally outside of the, of the

field of play is gonna bother these guys.

They, they've had a noise under the sun thrown at 'em, so.

Mm-hmm.

Um, maybe that's a good thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I, I know you all, were doing a lot of work on the field and the

weight room and everything this fall, but you are also out recruiting

because recruiting never stops.

But we have the official list here of the 2026 signing class.

These are, uh, current high school seniors that are gonna

be, uh, joining in the summer.

I know there's a couple hitters in here you wanted to talk through.

Funny.

Yeah.

And we, and we have the pitching stuff too, so Coach Mary came.

Hey.

Hey.

There we go, coach.

Shout out.

Uh, we'll start with the hitters though, uh, since I'm looking at those.

So, um, a junior college hitter, uh, Harlan Row, who's a left-handed

hitter, and he is an outfielder in a first baseman and a pitcher.

Um, he closed for his junior college.

He went to lower Columbia.

He had three 30 last year and had a four 80 on base percentage as a true freshman.

Hit four for them, uh, all year.

And he's, um, he's a really strong kid.

That's pretty good runner.

He doesn't look like it, but he is.

And he, he's got a good arm so he can, he's not tall.

He's probably five 10.

I think he's going to, you know, transition more to the outfield here.

He wants to try pitching too, so we'll let him go in the fall and see how he is.

He's very competitive.

Yeah.

Keeping the, uh, keeping the wa Washington pipeline open there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We kept that oak, so.

Yep.

Uh, Brady Jackson's a right hand hit, middle infielder.

Is a really good runner, super competitive kid.

He plays actually for one of our alums, Mike Nay, at St.

Augustine Prep in New Jersey.

Uh, one of the top high schoolers in New Jersey, uh, played the summer and

fall with, uh, the Niners Baseball Academy, coached by Rob Mato.

We have, we've had a bunch of his kids and I'll mention some more.

Um, another high school hitter.

Jay Watson, the big athletic lefthanded hitting outfielder.

Um, he's from Newburgh, Indiana, goes to Castle High School.

We saw him later in the, in the summer, kind of bouncing around down in Atlanta.

And he really just kept impressing, uh, Pauly and, and h He's a physical,

like he is what they look like.

Um, just a real physical guy.

He can run, he can throw, he can hit with power.

He was a high school linebacker.

Um, we decided to just play baseball this year.

Rice Mka, uh, I mean, got first baseman.

Whose nickname's gonna be Mooch?

What's better than that?

Mooch

Lefthand Hidden first baseman.

He is an absolute beast.

I mean, he's built, like, uh, speaking of linebackers, he is definitely built

like one, um, middle of the order hit.

He is from Buffalo, New York.

He goes to P 27 Academy in Lexington, South Carolina, um,

had one of the best summers.

Uh, he was one of those guys that summers showed up on everybody's list,

is just being a summer all American.

He just killed it all summer.

And, you know, him and Jace were both late blooming guys.

Like they weren't on anybody's radio radar, including ours until this summer.

And so we really kind of helped us maybe rethink a little bit of our recruiting

strategy and just be a little more patient because guys like that seemed

to be popping up now and everybody's spent their money and we've mm-hmm.

Blitzed in there and snuck attack him.

Um,

I like it.

Yeah.

Another infielder, uh, lefthanded Hiter, Jake Wagner.

Uh, he is a corner infielder, an outfielder.

Um, he's another New Jersey kid.

He goes to Northern Highlands High School.

Also plays for Rob Mad and Baseball Club.

And then we got a catcher, right hand hitting catcher from Jackson, New Jersey.

Uh, attends Jackson Township High School.

He's a big, strong catcher.

Uh, really good arm.

Also plays for the Niners.

Uh, also catcher.

So, uh, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll get him a kick to do both and

kind of see where, where he's at.

So those are the, the five, I think it's five.

Five or six hitters that we got.

Six.

Six.

And then we got four, uh, just pitchers.

So Charlotte Shaver, right-hand pitcher.

North, north Stanley High School.

Uh, he plays for Scott Clemons in the South Charlotte Panthers group, which

is a really good travel group, upper 80 fastball, really good chain belt,

really good slider, really competitive.

He is also a high school quarterback.

Um, Connor Radford, a righthand pitcher, uh, played for Adam Payne

at East Eastern Carolina Academy, which is over there in Greenville.

Um, and he is a, he is a former shortstop, that's a 88 91 guy, real competitive.

Um, and then, well, I'm all, I'm missing a couple here.

Uh, Sawyer Conrad, I do know he's a, he's teammates with Mooch at 27

and he, um, he's a right-hander.

He's from Wisconsin actually, and we really liked him this summer.

Another late bloomer.

We saw him late in the summer.

And got on him and Mo it was funny 'cause Mooch and him

kind of recruited each other.

Mm-hmm.

And they were talking one day 'cause they, they played on different, uh,

summer teams because, you know, once a buffalo, once a Wisconsin and they

were talking, said, Hey, we're gonna go, uh, on a visit in a couple weeks.

And they're like, where are you going?

He said, old Dominion.

They, he said, I'm going to Old Dominion.

They didn't even know.

They just got back to school.

And, uh, so we were able to, you know, get 'em.

And then, and then the other one is Aiden McCauley.

Aiden's a Delaware kid, really athletic, loose arm, uh, fast arm.

He kind of fits that mold of a John Holbeck type of delivery.

You know, guy that's gonna continue to throw harder as he puts on weight.

So, um, usually we, we've got a couple more 26 arms we're in pretty good with.

Um, we'll find one or two more, more than likely.

Um, we're.

Working hard.

I'm trying to find a couple left and those are all righties.

Yeah, I did notice that I kept, ran down Right hand.

Right hand.

Because I remember we were talking about this year's a group of

freshmen, like righties, righties.

But you know, I, I'm sure you know, if you go out looking for lefties,

it's like you gotta look for talent.

And then if they happen to be left-handed, that's awesome.

Yeah.

We just happen to have that, that swing where we had all these good lefties Yeah.

Oh.

In a row.

And it's unusual.

Um, but we do need to get a couple lefties, uh, hopefully in this

class, whether it's in the high school class or order portal.

All mooch.

Yeah,

all you in Mooch.

I do love that.

Uh, Brady Jackson, Carney O'Donnell and Jake Wagner, they all played summer

ball together there for the Niners.

So that's, uh, in addition to, like I said, uh, Slugger and Mooch, having

guys who have that comfortability with each other, that's, that's pretty nice.

That's a neat thing.

And, and couple of these Eastern North Carolina kids really know each other too.

So they helped us get, get each other so.

We've got some pockets, you know, and that's how recruiting goes, right?

Yeah.

You know, a kid comes, he has a good experience, he goes home

and tells his buddies about it.

And, um, you know, I think that that's kind of what hap what's happened.

When I first got here, we couldn't get anybody from North Carolina Yeah.

And, or South Carolina.

And now we're, we seem to every, every year and they're all doing well.

Mm-hmm.

That's, that's probably the most important thing.

Yeah.

I feel like Lincoln Ransom was like one of the first guy I

remember being like North Carolina.

We never got here from North Carolina.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was, you know, him and, uh, Chris Dangler from South Carolina,

but Dingler was a, he was a dis guy, Jersey guy, so, yeah.

Secret Jersey kid.

Yeah.

Always got them.

Alright, well, coach

kids, you know, they've all, they've all signed, uh, they

signed a couple weeks ago and.

We're excited about getting them here, you know, on campus, uh, next, next year.

So,

yeah.

Well, coach, well, thanks for, for kind of giving us the insight

there and a couple of scoops today.

That was, it was greatly appreciated between and Virginia and the stadium and

all kinds of good stuff in this episode.

So, I have a question for you guys.

Do you, do you guys fry at Turkey for Thanksgiving?

I,

I don't fry, I just eat whatever's given to me.

Yeah, I don't,

whatever's on the plate.

I think last year we had spaghetti.

I ate whatever's on the plate and I say thank you and I watch

some football and I eat so much.

I eat a nap.

This will be my 20th year of frying a Turkey in a row.

Okay.

And it all came, we were in Auburn, Alabama.

Um, oh five, and it was our, our last year there.

But actually, no.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And a friend of ours, friends of ours, um, had gotten us a Turkey fryer for Christmas

because the year before we ate, had dinner at their house and they fried one.

I was like, this is the greatest thing ever, you know?

So we got, and I've had many interesting, uh, experiences frying a Turkey.

Um, you know, usually most of 'em, uh, you know, you get fire and, uh, hot

grease and whiskey all together and you mix it all up into, we, we haven't blown

anything up yet, but, um, we've, we've had a lot of fun with it and we inject

it with, uh, Cajun butter sauce and.

It's incredible man.

Um, so this year I'm gonna fry one and Steph's gonna bake one.

So we have a couple smaller turkeys, so we're gonna do that, have

a dual and see uh, which ones?

Yeah,

yeah.

Well I can't cook nearly like she can, but I can fry the heck out of a Turkey now.

Uh, we'll, uh, we're going to sand bridge for Thanksgiving.

We're gonna take, uh, nice.

We're gonna take, um, take the Turkey fryer with us, so there you go.

Nice.

Well, I'm gonna contract you out next Thanksgiving to come to my

house and fry the Turkey so I can get away from the smoker.

On Thanksgiving day, I actually

thought about a really good ref share idea.

You have a Turkey frying day on rally alley and yeah, you bring people there and

you, you know, you, you have play music and let everybody fry their Turkey, uh,

the day before Thanksgiving, like on a Wednesday and, uh, just make some money.

I love that idea.

That's great.

That sounds awesome.

Actually.

And plus fried, fried Turkey does taste really good.

Oh.

Like I want it, I'm just afraid to cook it.

Yeah, it's incredible.

Yeah.

I'm not trying to burn down my driveway 'cause I know that'll happen in my voice.

Well, yeah, you do it

on concrete or sand and you don't have much to worry about.

You got the whole key is, it has to be completely thawed.

Yes.

Those gummies that end up on YouTube, they probably didn't

put a frozen Turkey and hot oil.

That's like a bomb going.

I mean, someone's gotta provide us with that good content there.

Because if I don't have like fires from Turkey fris the day after

Thanksgiving, I don't feel complete.

We don't need that.

You know, you think about that's a Jeff Foxworthy, here's your sign.

Yeah.

Yes.

If you, if you put the frozen Turkey in some hot oil, you might be a dead redneck.

Dead redneck.

Yes.

Perfect.

Well guys, hey as always, thank you.

We appreciate all y'all do for all our sports and um, you know, really proud

of Ricky and the season those guys.

Are having, um, one more win here that'll finish nine and three,

which is a fantastic year, and, um, go to a pretty good bowl game.

Um, so really proud of them.

And I think as a coach, you know, what I've been impressed about is how

they got it turned back around after the two tough losses because yeah.

That, that's doing a hell of a job on his whole staff and the players mm-hmm.

Of not going, oh, well our season's over, you know, we not

can win the league or whatever.

And they just went back out and got back to playing, you know, really

solid football like they have been.

And you know, they've just completely dominated.

Everything that's the

the going one and Oh, that he talks about all the time.

And that's, that's the clearest example of it, right?

I mean, last week didn't happen.

Next week doesn't matter today, let's just win.

Yeah, it is great.

Yeah.

And they, man, they ran the heck, they ran the ball right down Georgia Southern's

gut

all

day Saturday.

Fun to watch.

I'm looking forward to Saturday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That, uh,

that, that defense is nasty.

You know, seeing that Thursday night game against Troy, I mean, there

were times where, uh, offensive linemen weren't out their stances.

There were linebackers in the backfield, so it is, uh, you're right.

Like it would've been easy to throw in the towel.

Like I think that's, that's becoming a theme of, I think a lot of the

ODU teams is, we may have a bad stretch here and there, but we're

not gonna stop fighting till the end.

I know your team.

Great example of that.

Absolutely.

And we certainly wish men's women's basketball the best that they have.

All both got started on their season.

So, um, man, I told somebody the other day, I wish Mike would've called me.

He's playing all these road games.

I've told him

do it because the road's tough man.

Uh, but we wish them the best.

I know they got, they had a tough loss yesterday against

Drexel up there in Philly.

They got a tough, tough task tomorrow in Villanova, but mm-hmm.

Um, you know, hopefully these, these tough road games will get

'em ready for the Sunbelt play.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well coach, thanks so much for hopping on with us again.

Yeah, thanks so much.

And, uh, fantasy too.

We got Casey Gibbs and Bryce Jones joining us after the break.

Alright, boys, have fun.

Alright, thanks for having

good Thanksgiving.

Oh, monarchs.

Oh Monarch.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Yeah, it's a good after vote commercial.

I like that.

That was really well done.

Yeah, that, that one is well done.

They had the watch party there for the Georgia Southern game on Saturday and I

saw pictures and there was not a seat you had to stand if you wanted to go there.

That's great.

So that is grown from a happy accident to, that is the place

you go to watch ODUA games now.

Uh, so, we'll, we'll continue that through basketball and uh, I think we'll get some

baseball in there too once we get into season, which will be really awesome.

There we go.

Well, I know you don't wanna hear from the two of us, but we have

Casey gis and Bryce Jones joining us.

We'll bring them onto the show now,

these guys, how's it going fellas?

How you Good.

How y'all doing?

Good.

Doing

great.

Alright, so you guys, uh, both just finished up your

college playing careers, right?

So Bryce, you had four years here at ODU Casey, you had two years

at VCU and two years at Longwood.

Right.

And so now you're both in your first year as graduate assistants at Old Dominion.

How's it going so far?

Go ahead, Casey.

Oh, it's good, man.

I'm, I'm really enjoying it.

I feel like I'm learning a lot and, um, just being in the

field every day is good too.

Especially after, you know, playing for four years is good to stay out there.

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, I love it.

Obviously it's a different role than I've had in the past four

years, but I think kind of giving back and helping out anyway I can.

It's, it's been awesome.

It's a cool experience to be with the guys and everything.

Is it a little weird, like for you, especially Bryce, 'cause you played

with a bunch of these guys, right?

Is it a little odd, you know, now you're, you're a coach but you're still also a

student and you're still probably, you're still roommates with some of the guys.

Yeah, maybe a little bit.

It's honestly, if you think about it, it's not as bad just 'cause, I mean,

it's a lot of new faces, you know, so, I mean, other than the guys like Luke

and, you know, Kellen and Chu, um, a couple other turners and it's a lot of

new faces, so it's not awkward at all.

It's cool enjoying us having a good time.

And Casey, how about you?

I mean, you coming in, you know, again, I think you were, you were, uh, somebody

was giving you a hard time the other day about being old and you're like, you're

older than me to one of the players.

So is that, is that a little different for you coming to, to a new place?

Probably knew, knew some of the guys here or there, but coming in and trying to,

you know, like, hey look, I'm trying to, you know, help you guys out, be a coach.

Yeah, I mean, I knew a couple of the guys, but, um, yeah, there are a handful of guys

that are, um, a year ahead of me and, you know, got that JUCO year red shirt year,

so they're still playing and I'm coaching, so that dynamic is a little weird for me.

But I mean, I saw it last year.

Um, one of our assistants was younger than one of our older pitchers, so I kind of

see now that was done before, so, yeah.

It's not too bad.

Yeah.

And neither one of you, neither one of you come in with the attitude

of like, I know everything and I'm the man, you gotta listen to me.

I think you, you come at it the right way.

Like, look, I'm here.

We're gonna do stuff, we're gonna work hard and try to take care of everybody.

So I think that's probably the best way to do it.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And you, you're getting to learn from a lot of experienced coaches.

You have a couple guys on staff that have been head coaches before.

You have a couple experienced, uh, you know, assistant.

Is there anyone, Bryce, that you kinda just went to to be like, all

right, you were helping me be a baseball player like three months ago?

Like, how do I make that transition to become a coach?

Uh, honestly, it was more Maren early on.

It was kind of like, uh, and he knows I was like super close with all the guys and

everything and he didn't want to restrict, restrict me from that, but he kind of

told me at the beginning, he was like, Hey, like you're on the other side now.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, like hanging out, uh, off the field.

Kind of gotta minimize that a little bit.

But he was like, still be like the player's guy you are and help out.

It's just a little bit of a different like title, you know.

Mm-hmm.

But that was, he was probably the one, yeah.

To help me with that transition, I'd say.

Yeah.

And Casey, I know you weren't on the team last year, but obviously

same thing for you, right?

A lot of experience guys to go to.

Um, is it Marin for you or is it someone else on the staff

you kind of lean to as a mentor?

Yeah, I think I've spent a lot, um, most of my time with Paige, uh, just being

around the hitters and, you know, having played against Paige, um, so much prior

to being here that it's kind of easy to go to him and talk to him about stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Casey, it's, it's gotta be cool to be at the place where your

dad is a hall of famer, right?

I mean, you know, it's gotta be I know, uh, we actually, uh, I

dunno if Gary, if you pop those up.

We, we did find, uh, I dug through.

So here is, here is Young Casey Gibbs, uh, probably the, I think

it's August, 2019, right before your junior of high school at A ODU camp.

Um, and I think your dad's actually in that dugout in the background there, but,

so this, I mean, this is a place that you've, you've been here before your dad.

Oh yeah.

So what's it like, kind of you're really finally getting here and being at ODU.

Uh,

yeah, it's cool man.

Um, I remember he came down a few weeks ago and I was just walking around with

him when we were walking down the hallway in, um, Jim Jar Center and we're looking

at the academic All American Wall and he goes, Hey man, do you know that

was my picture up there on the wall.

And I looked at it, I was like, man, it took me like two months

to figure out that that was you.

And um, yeah.

So now everywhere I go, I'm kind of just looking to see if he is over

there somewhere, which, you know, I can't really tell him that 'cause he'll

be giving himself a pat on the back.

But, um, yeah, it's, it's cool.

I, I really enjoy it.

I mean,

you sat in the room tonight with all his USA jerseys, so it's like,

yeah, no, I didn't really have a choice.

I, you know, I'm home for Thanksgiving, got a. Uh, set up somewhere.

Old man's office.

It was,

that's a, that's a great background to have.

I'll, I'll tell you that.

That's funny.

Well, you know who also was at this camp?

A young Joe was uh, same, same deal.

Uh, going to, that was, you and your brother were both there.

Trent was there too.

He was too.

Trent played at Hampton in Sydney.

He was a very good ball, but he had a very good camp actually at that, that day.

Yeah.

Um, he was a sidearm pitcher.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah.

There's, there's Bryce the same bat saying there's not much change there.

Those, the socks are a little short man.

Little bit, little skin

shown.

Yeah.

He, he didn't have the sweet stirrups on, which I absolutely

love the stirrups there.

Oh man.

And that's what is, um, uh, and I'm forgetting the name of it right

now, but Saint, uh, that your, your dad coaches there currently, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

St. John's.

Yeah.

In DC St.

John's.

Yeah.

I was like, I was thinking, I was thinking St. Christopher, this is

where my nephew goes to mm-hmm.

To high school in, uh, Richmond now, St. John's.

Yeah.

Which is where Nick Felton was, was, uh, one of our Yep.

Our new freshmen.

So he, your dad coached him, so, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

S uh, pretty, pretty neat.

All coming around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's nice having Nick there.

I like having St. John's guys around.

So, well, I,

you got St. John's is pretty good, so we wouldn't mind if you

brought a few more of 'em down with you that That'd be all right.

By us.

Yeah, I'm trying.

I'm trying.

Yeah, I think over were like top 25 in the country last year.

I mean, yeah, they were, they were pretty, pretty legit.

They're pretty good.

Yeah.

And CB went deep in the memory bank earlier and realized that Jackson

Merrill was at that camp with you guys.

Mm-hmm.

Which is pretty wild.

Yeah.

We talk about that to this day.

Yeah.

Do you really?

I

had no idea.

I was, I was looking through my folders and I was like, Meryl Jackson.

I was like, wait, what?

Mm-hmm.

It's funny because

when we were, I guess my junior year when we were in, uh, the tournament, well we

had that weekend at Georgia State and then the, we stayed down there 'cause we,

the tournament was the following week.

So we went to Atlanta and went to, they were playing the Padres,

the bras were, that's wild.

And Meryl came up and Finn just sitting there and we're talking

about how he was at camp.

And I was like, man, I completely forgot about that.

And it's just crazy.

'cause Finn was saying like his camp like wasn't great and he just Yeah.

From there he just took off, I guess.

Took off.

Yeah.

No, I'm, I look at the picture, I'm like, he doesn't look, he like, yeah, he looks

just the same as fate, but he, he is not like, like, oh my God, look at him.

Right.

I mean, could tell from the pictures.

He had a few nice plays, but like, it's uh, definitely, definitely diverged.

I mean, that's one was like, that's like, yeah.

'cause I was like, we was, he rookie of the year was like, oh yeah, I forgot s

skis existed, but like, it wasn't for him.

Yeah, that's, I mean that was, that was, there were a lot of guys that, I mean,

nevermind him, you know, it was like, I think, uh, what Marco LaVar was there.

Joey Mor was there.

Um, Kyle Edwards.

You know your, your best buddies since grade school.

Oh yeah.

Um, uh, hol Luke Waters at the camp.

Yeah.

Hols.

Yeah.

Is Keller

there?

I know he came to a couple.

I don't, I don't,

Schumann was there, um, I don't think Keller was there.

Keller,

Seth.

Oh, Keller.

Yeah.

Seth Keller was there.

Yeah, you're right.

Seth Keller, who's playing?

I didn't see people's, but you might have been.

Maybe I just missed it, what I was looking 'cause I was looking for it,

but yeah, no, so that was, uh, that was, that was a pretty full 2019 camp.

There was a lot, a lot of dudes that had some time around.

Yeah.

Well, so, oh, go for it, Gary.

Sorry.

No,

you got it.

Go for it.

Oh, I was gonna, so I was gonna ask, so graduate assistant, what do you guys do in

a day to day, like for us who don't know?

I mean, we, we have several now.

'cause the guy I tried to get Quinn to join us so y'all can make fun of Quinn.

The fact that he can't check his messages.

Um, I tried to have him join us.

So what, what, what does a graduate assistant do, uh,

day to day for the baseball?

So, I'll start here, Casey.

Um, it's pretty much, obviously you're in the office majority of the day and

pretty much whatever comes up that, hey, Marin or Finney or Paul you need help

with, like, we're right there to do it.

Um, for example, like the other day, we're making like outfield shift cards for the.

Fall World Series.

Um, anything from doing that to, if there's, they want to get a couple guys

in the cages earlier in the day before practice, like we will go down there

with them if they can't make it, um, a lot of video and just kind of translate

the information from the guys to page or the from page to the guys if we need to.

So pretty much that's kind of the gist of it.

Okay.

And you think Casey, you, you kind of in a similar role there where you're

just kinda at, at least at this point in your first fall, kinda just helping

out and relaying information like that?

Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, anything that, you know, they don't necessarily have the time to put

attention towards, it's kind of our responsibility to make sure it gets done.

Like I think the first thing we did right when I got there was we put

a new, uh, cage on the turtle and that took us a good two days out

there in August, so Oh be, yeah.

Hot.

It was hot.

Oh yeah.

Oh man.

It's funny how, uh, the, the bud is like both the coldest

and hottest place in Norfolk.

So you're very, very interesting phenomenon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I've gotten sunburn.

Okay.

I know during

the frost in one, in one season, the sunburn and frostbite, that was amazing.

Yeah.

Okay.

I know during the Follow World series you were loving getting to coach third base.

'cause you were telling me you did that all summer up in, um,

was it Gaithersburg, right?

With the Giants?

Yeah.

Yeah, with the Giants and the Caling League.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you guys won the championship, isn't that correct?

No, no, not this year.

My last year playing was, um, the first year that we had, the Giants had won.

Um, the regular season title was the first, uh, the one seed in the playoffs.

But last year, oh, last summer was a weird year.

We had a lot of bad weather and the fields were just getting destroyed

on a almost daily basis by rain.

So we, we had 40 games scheduled.

I think we only ended up playing like 32 with some, some teams played 34.

But yeah, it ended up being, everybody made playoffs and you know, we

got bounced game one, but Okay.

It's so ball, can't, can't go back and change it now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I wanted

to go up and, 'cause I know JJ hand was playing for, uh, Bethesda, but mm-hmm.

I think it was a few times I was like, well that weather's not looking too good.

It's like Sundays they playing like 11.

I was like, nah, this not happening.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's no good sometimes.

Yeah.

And there's not really time to make that up in the summer.

You've got like 60 days to play however many of your games

you're playing and that's it.

Mm-hmm.

That's all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lot of doubleheaders.

Yes.

A lot of

doubleheaders.

Everybody loves, everybody loves that in the summer.

Heat being out there for two games.

Yeah.

You level a one o'clock start on a Sunday and you gotta play nine more after.

Oh, really?

Good.

Oh, that's, that's brutal.

That's, uh, well, Bryce, I don't think I asked you this when we had you on the show

before as a player, but I, I gotta know like what baseball team do you root for?

I root for the Yankees.

I know it's kind of cliche, but I've always just like judge and

G during all those great players.

So kind of just Judge is one

of the nicest human beings I've ever met.

So I can't be mad at anybody that likes Aaron Judge.

Yeah, and we gotta borrow Ybi there, so we gotta, we gotta root Yankees a little bit.

Plus that.

That atmosphere is, that atmosphere is awesome.

I like going to games.

I've been to a few, so.

Nice.

Super cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yarborough another one year, $2.5 million deal.

Not, not too bad.

Love it for yard.

There.

The're.

Wrong of being the lefty.

Casey, what's your team?

It's your root for I'm

a Yankee fan too.

Okay.

All right.

Well I get you.

I'll get you both at one time then.

Uh, there we go.

Sorry boys.

I do keep that one to the side at least, so that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we'll never know.

Yes.

And Bryce, you're a huge ODU basketball fan.

You and your, and your, and your dad and your brother are at

most games, been games since I

was four or five.

Same thing with baseball, football, but those ones always,

they always stick with me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I can say, I know you love, you love 'em all, but I can really tell like

basketball really gets your, you can see energy in your eyes when

you're at the basketball court.

Oh yeah.

How you feel

about the team so far this year?

I think they'll gonna be all right.

They just gotta piece it together.

I think like this year they got a lot more talent, like individual talent.

Mm-hmm.

I was like, uh, LJ and some of those transfers, the KC and Casey, they're

all, I think once they figure out, and the Robs obviously Rob, have in back.

Great.

Once you allall kind of learned, uh.

Play with each other, I guess.

I know it's new, it's early on and that's how it's gonna be for not

only this program, but a lot of them, especially guys who slammed

the portal kinda like we did.

But I think once they all start clicking and kind of figure their own roles out,

I think got enough talent to do it.

So we'll see.

Yeah, I, I completely agree with you.

It looks like, like everyone of the guys they got was like

the best player where he was.

Right.

And it's taken a minute for them to kind of figure out, okay, I

don't have to do it all anymore.

I mean, you see, you see, I would rob some, it's like,

oh, I don't have to do it all.

I can like figure it out and pass.

And it's, the last game they had at home, um, was Friday.

It looked a lot better.

I know obviously they went to Directional and didn't take the win,

but you could tell like it looks like it's moving the right direction.

Yeah, for sure.

So

I think they'll be all right.

We love

it.

We love it.

I'm, look, I'm looking forward to, I, I'm sure, I don't know when it is, but

I'm sure JMU comes here and then, you know, that's gonna be an awesome one.

That's always

17th of December, so that'll, you know, back

the date.

We love it.

Yeah, I've,

okay.

It's only

a few weeks away then.

Okay.

That's gonna be packed.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

I mean, somebody besides the best ones besides baseball and women's soccer and

field hockey, used to be JU in something.

So yeah.

Might as well be men's basketball at this point.

Yeah.

Need it.

Casey, have you been able to make it over to any games yet?

Kind of immersing yourself here at ODU U?

Yeah, I actually went to the Norfolk State game with Bryce and, uh, sat with him and

his dad, and that was a really good game.

I mean, that was great at the end of the game when they, uh, when Norfolk State

turned that ball over, I mean that mm-hmm.

That arena absolutely exploded.

Like, you know, you see the crowd pop videos on, you know,

Instagram, whatever, and that, like that, that was, that was it.

And it was awesome.

Yeah, that was one, like I'm down there, you know, taking pictures.

I mean, it's like packed and you got like a little bit of, some people

couldn't get seats and I'm like trading with guys to make sure they

have better angles 'cause they're, I'm just, I'm just there for play and fun.

They're actually working.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and yeah, so it was, it, it, it was a cool atmosphere.

It was packed.

It's, yeah.

I, I mean I, I love all the venues on campus, but I really do think the

basketball arena when it's full is about the best thing you can get at ODU u. Sure.

I Bryce you, you've been to mall.

You, you tell me.

I know.

Yeah.

That place can get,

that place can get crazy.

Yeah.

It's, it's pretty nuts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know there's mixed feelings on, but we should play Norfolk State

every year for that exact reason, because the crowds looked like that.

The whole time I was in school was oh five to oh nine.

Like we played someone you care about might have been VCU, Mason, JMU, whoever.

And yeah, like you, if you got there late as a student, you didn't get in.

Like you weren't.

It's always a good

game too.

I mean, like, they both, they bring their fans and like, they're, they're good too.

Like they always go to tournament and it's always due for a good game.

Yeah.

No, it's fun.

Yeah.

Well it, it sounds like from what Finney was telling us, we're gonna get some

outfield seats to start the year that we're gonna try to keep, so that way we

can have 4,000 baseball fans there, which the bud can pop too, if you've been there.

I, I know Bryce, you've been there for some of those later season games.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, just curious, like I, I know Bryce, you played a lot of different

stadiums, but have you experienced that in person somewhere throughout

your playing career where, like, you're on the field when that pop happens?

Uh, I'd probably say East Carolina.

Those middle league games are always, and it's crazy 'cause the midweek,

you know, those, and they're out there and they're bringing out 5,000, three,

three to 5,000 I'd say, on average.

And it's just obviously got those outfield seats and it gets loud in there.

They do their little like purple gold chant and gets loud.

Other than that, I would say in conference, I would say we were

at, uh, Louisiana the Friday, uh, Friday night, two years ago.

Place was.

It's big.

And they, they were packed out.

So, and them fans are, yeah, they were good that year too.

They were good.

Those fans of Reakfast just loved baseball and that was a fun, that

was a cool little environment.

Yeah.

Casey, any that

you really experienced that were Oh, there you go.

Same question.

Yeah.

Um, I think the first one that comes to mind was at Ole Miss my freshman year.

Um, I think it was second weekend to start the year.

And it was, I think it was their first weekend at home, so it was packed.

I think they had 10 or 11,000 there on Sunday.

And, um, they had a football player who was playing baseball as well.

Oh yeah.

And he came in late in the game and I was catching, and you know, he hits

a home run to right center field and that place just absolutely exploded.

I mean, they were, I mean, beer showers going to right field, like it

was, it was like 35 degrees outside.

These people are going bananas.

It was, it was pretty cool.

Is that where he's at The plate?

You just like stand up just to see how you, how big you are next to him.

Curiosity.

I didn't even want to.

He was, he was ginormous.

He was enormous.

I remember that kid.

Yeah, he was

huge.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then there was a video like a couple weeks later of him hitting tennis balls

at football practice and they were putting it all over his social media.

I was like, well, he can swing it.

I'd back up a little bit.

Yeah, I would.

Yeah.

Good boy.

You're like, guys, this is not safe.

Trust me.

Yeah, no, seriously.

Yeah.

Alright, well, Casey, you're your, so

what's your best memory of, uh, of getting to play college ball?

I mean, I think we, we'll ask Bryce too, but at least we probably saw Bryce's.