Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 25 national championship wins! Over 190 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sport. Today I'm joined by both our producers, Brendon and Daedalian, because our assistant AD is joined Warm weather down south on their week long trip to start their season to actually get some games in because it's kind of hard right now to play baseball and softball in the state of Michigan. But both our baseball and softball teams are down south and playing good competition and checking in with them, hopefully that, you know, set the foundation for the rest of their spring season when they come back up here. And hopefully pretty soon the weather changes here in Michigan. I still have snow in my yard, so that's exciting. Again, we're starting spring sports here at LCC. Track, baseball, softball. We're winding down our basketball season. They start post season in the coming weeks and both of them have had great seasons with conference championships. So hopefully that continued into the postseason. And you know, talking about postseason, you know, one of my favorite events as my fanatic life of sports is the Olympics. And as we record this broadcast, the Winter Olympics just wrapped and I compare it to like postseason play for us. And frankly, I didn't get to watch the Olympics as much as I would have liked. It took place in Milan and Sortino, I believe. I think the time zone might have had something to do with that or just where we were at with our own schedules here at LCC and a lot of home games in the month of February. But we've talked about the Olympics before on this podcast. More the Olympic mindset of what goes into being Olympic athlete And you know, that 1% or that, you know, just elite all in thing. But the Winter Olympics are interesting to me. I'm. I either one of you ski. Any of you do Winter Olympics? Brendon or Winter Olympics. Do you guys do winter sports outside?

I lived in Colorado for a little bit.

Okay.

So I did have a chance to do a little bit of skiing and snowboarding.

Okay.

But not a big part of my life though.

Okay. What about you, Daedalian? I know you're a golfer and bowler. Those are, you know, I'm at the

age where, like, skiing is pretty detrimental if I fall. And I joke, but I do. I have a fake hip, so I can't actually do skiing. I can't actually do skating anymore because if I do fall, there is a chance I won't get back up. Now, that having been said as a younger man, I wouldn't say that I skated, but I would say that I did neighborhood skating where we used to have this pond in the back of one of my friend's house. And so we used to play hockey out there. So, yeah, we had fun with that.

I think that's a big thing in our state of Michigan. Did you downhill or cross country ski at all?

I've never done that and I've always been disappointed because I always did want to snowboard and I never took that moment when I was a younger guy. And again, now I can't really do that.

I skied a lot when I grew up. In my high school and college years, we would go up north. And Michigan, for being where we're located, has some great skiing venues. Having said, you go out to Colorado, it's a whole different level. And my friends that go out there, it's hard to. I mean, they're twice as high, twice as hard. But actually, Michigan has some great hills and I enjoy skiing. I haven't done it in many years as you get older and have kids and everything. But the same with skating. I am not a skater. I fall. But I played in an old man's hockey league when I was in college, you know, and just had fun and, you know, bad hockey and. But I think those are common things for this state. So it seemed like. And I think the state of Michigan was well represented at the Winter Olympics. I didn't look that up. I know in hockey, for instance, we had, you know, a lot of our. The success came from people that have had ties to the state of state of Michigan. So, yeah, and I don't want to compare summer or Winter Olympics. I mean, I like them both. I like the, you know, it's usually a lot of patriotism. Even this year, you know, probably again, just like our society and whole and news and whole, there was division there and, you know, what you represent or, you know, none of us are perfect or such. So. But it's still a purity and you're representing your country. And I don't think it gets any better than that. Like, again, for us, representing LCC is the Best representing our brand. Our uniform is, is a lot play for the name on the front of the jersey, not on the back of the jersey. And I think the Olympics epitomize that more than anything. But the frustrating thing enough for, for me watching I want to win, I want to compete in the US seem to take second all the time in the Olympics to Norway who had the most medals the last couple Olympics. And there's one thing I wanted to hit on. This is kind of my main focus. But we can go a lot of different directions here. There was an article on why Norway is successful in the Winter Olympics. And the main thing and didn't even focus on this was their weather. I mean they're a Scandinavian country. But some of the things they do with youth sports, and we've talked about youth sports a lot on this podcast too is they don't keep score until the age of 13. So very interesting to me. And again, I don't know if I agree or disagree with you. I've had a couple weeks to think about them, you know, but you know, and they allude to this in our article that, you know, in the U.S. 70% of kids quit sports here by the age of 13. And a lot of they believe that the pressure is because we keep score fan people out by their talent ability by taking the score out of it. It emphasizes fun, which is another big thing they do. There is, you know, 93% of them play for fun and, and to get experience and development and the process. All things we talk about, you know, if they give awards, everyone gets award. Which has kind of been the backwards philosophy of our society of where we don't want everyone to get a participation certificate, even though that's what we do a lot of times is give everyone and that and they do that. They don't either they either don't give awards or everyone gets award. And I think again it goes back to mentality of trying to build everyone up instead of just singling out the few talented ones and moving them through. And they make it very affordable and they make, you know, and they encourage multi sports where again in our country I think we start to specialize as we get more talented and we emphasize and see that student doing well in that sport. So it was a very interesting article. A lot there to understand.

I find that interesting and I can't, I'm not going to say I'm going to make a snap decision right here now because this is the first time I'm hearing of it. I do like the concept Because I also feel like that would help you. Like, for instance, as a boy, you know, I had athletic talent, but I was not super talented. Well, I. Very often I can remember being frustrated because I couldn't seem to do what the most talented kids could do where I could see if the scores weren't kept, I probably would have been more inclined to kind of stick with it a little longer. Not going to say I would have been a great athlete down the road, but, you know, I think I probably would have stuck with it a little longer. Plus, I also like the fact that. That not concentrating on the score, I feel like you would actually concentrate more on just trying to get better.

Yeah. And that's what the focus should be on, is trying to get better, to develop, to teach them fundamental skills that will help them. You know, I struggle with the score. Again, when we do keep score, they're the reason, and it's a measurement of how we're doing. You know, I've been in some leagues where they put the score back to zERO after each period, which I thought was pretty interesting concept. You know, I have grandkids and they're like kindergarten agent, and they play basketball now and, you know, they run up and down the floor and keep score. And I don't even know if they know who's winning or losing unless the adults tell them that. So I think there is some merit, especially at the younger ages, not to. Or at least reset because for probably more of the parent than the kids or the coaches that become the focus instead of fun and development and, you know, the process. Brendon, what about your experience with the youth sport?

I was going to say, yeah, that got me thinking of specifically in Scandinavia. I know they have a. There's a program for kids for dressage. Dressage is where they do the jumps with the horses. But in this instance, they take kids and they give them hobby horses. They still set up a dressage course. And so it's getting kids just to engage with sport, and especially something that might be blocked by income or your ability to have access to a horse. They can have that sense of pride in competition and sport without, like you're saying, without that score or having to worry about controlling a horse, which I think is really neat.

Can you define what a hobby horse is?

A hobby horse. So it's like a broomstick.

Okay, that's what I thought. So it's not a toy.

It's a toy.

Yeah.

And that. Actually, I saw an article about a year ago where that was really growing and popular even in The US Again. But it really breaks down a training technique of one, affordability and access, but two, teaching them something before they take that next step of an advanced level per se. So again, I think that fits in the rate what those countries are doing in youth sports to try and make it more accessible, more affordable, and more developmental for all. And I think we forget that sometimes in my role, even at the college level, where our success is dictated on the skill that student athletes have when they come in here. And then I would argue, even at each level, it's true for the level before them. So we're not at the high school level. It was impairment that our middle school programs developed. And I often saw too many times where middle school programs would, like, if you had a 6, 4 kid in basketball, you'd give him the ball every time and he'd score 20 points and they'd win. But none of the other kids were developing. And then if that kid moved or everyone else got to six' four, they weren't as talented. Where the community, their programs that did better were the ones that taught fundamentals to every kid and subbed in and had kids try different roles. And I have tried to study that throughout and believe the teams that win at the highest level have good developmental programs. And again, at the national level, the US had the resources to be successful in a lot of sports, and we took second in the Olympics in medal count and such. So we're very successful. But this is a bigger, broader picture of just fun and development at the youth level that could, you know, change people's longevity in those particular sports.

I will give it a quick mention just because I actually looked up the information beforehand because I wanted to know some of the stuff. So 18 golds for Norway and 41 total medals. And for the U.S. 12 golds with 33 total medals.

Okay, tell me, what was Norway, what was the difference?

18 golds for Norway, 12 for the

U.S. okay, so six different. And Italy was the other, the third country in there, and they were the host.

And yeah, Italy was 33 medals national best with 30 medals. Didn't say how many goals as far as, like, what I looked up, but there you go.

And I believe Norway and the US are usually 12 in at least the last handful of Olympics. And I think the US Is usually number one when it comes to the Summer Olympics. So it's hard to argue with their success. But it was very interesting, the Olympics highlighting what Norway does and how their youth program is different than ours. Because another big difference around the world Is sports and school in the US Most countries it's club sports where in the US Our school teams compete. And sports are an integral part of every school, again, middle school and high school. So that's an interesting.

So you're saying typically the sports teams aren't a part of the scholastic.

Correct. And that is evolving and countries are starting to follow our model. But for traditionally around the world, yes, it was. It was more like YMCA or even our travel team. That country you became a part of, you participated through those. And it wasn't a part of the scholastic experience like it is in the. In the U.S. interesting. It is very interesting. And again, many come over here to experience that as, you know, foreign exchange students and such. But. So let's switch to the Leonard Olympics. And again, all. I don't know how much you watched, if you watched any, but are there any stories that you familiar with or heard from?

The one thing that I heard was all the buzz about curling.

Yeah. Okay.

Whether you say touch the granite or

not, there was that. And then I'm forgetting her name. Vaughn. Breaking her leg. And breaking her leg.

Yep, yep. So interesting for not those were big stories. The curling was.

And of course, some controversy around the hockey team.

Yep, yep, yep. That was another one. So I. The hockey was probably my favorite memory. I watched both games and, you know, the men was on a Sunday morning. So I, you know, put everything aside and missed some engagement to watch the men's team because the women, I think, has won more recently where the men haven't won since the miracle in 1980. So it had been close a couple times. And against Canada, which we've talked about rivalries before. So I mean, actually Canada was probably the better team throughout the game, but the US Found a way to win. And that was just a really exciting moment for our hockey history and our Olympic history because I think a lot of us have heard the Miracle on ice from 1980. So this is that first one since then, you know, the curling thing was interesting. There were some cheating allegations. Technology became into play. I learned more about what a rule curling and not a rule about touching or double touching. And, you know, the intensity of the accusations and such and how that filtered into our society or drew attention to the Olympics. The other one, you are right, was skiing. I don't know if you saw the skiing event, but it was beautiful. It was one of the most challenging hills, I think, in the world. And actually Lindsey Vonn has won many times on that hill. But, you know, they talked about how challenging that course Was. And unfortunately, you know, she had an accident and doing better, it sounds like. But, you know, the U.S. still, I believe another lady did win, win that event. So I think those are the most, like, popular ones for the figure skating. Again, another big one where our men skater was called the quad God and, you know, had one of the most elite routines and ended up falling twice in the Olympics. I did hear about that. And he alluded to, and he was actually very frank and honest of the Olympic. Pressure got to him because he'd won the world championship, I believe, the last couple of times with this routine. And it's crazy. I think this is my own perception. But figure skating is probably what the US Mostly attached to because throughout history we've been successful in men's and women's and figure skating, and there's been some rivalry with some other countries. It's subjective scoring. And there's been some maybe challenges on who actually should have won. But the US has had some, some great popular figures from, from figure skating throughout Olympic history. But, you know, it's interesting, the luge, I like watching the luge, the flooding going down on those ice.

And I will say that would be a blast to go down. I would like to do that really.

And there, I think that in Michigan, there are tracks that you can do it and they've expanded, you know, with, you know, the, the ski jumping and the, the acrobatic stuff. So again, I think there's like 116 medal events. There were 2,800 competitors. I don't know from how many countries. The interesting thing about this Olympic that I thought had to emphasize because again, I'm a big sports person. I love sports facilities. In one podcast, we're going to talk about sports facilities. I mean, I haven't been to the Coliseum yet, but that's a goal of mine. One of the first, you know, and then some. In Greece, you see stories that they, you know, and it's similar to the World Cup Soccer where, you know, you have all these, all these contests, and so you have to build stadiums or you have to build like an Olympic city. And in the history of the Olympics, teams have put a lot of money into these facilities and then they, they, you know, they never use them again. And some people ask, is it worth the community, the hosting Olympics and billions of dollars? And then it's not sustainable. I mean, especially for some of these events that aren't regular occurrence in your city or community. The interesting thing about this particular Olympics was one of their emphasis was sustainability. And they used ex existing facilities and temporary facilities so that they wouldn't, you know, have those long term issues of building a facility and then never using it again or let it get run down or having to put a lot of money into it to repurpose it. And it was the first two city Olympics. I mean, I think others have used like suburbs or such, but this one actually used two separate cities for hosting. So that could be something I think that to pay attention to moving forward. So anything else on Winter Olympics you prefer summer or Winter Olympics or either or neither.

You know, I'm not really a sports guy.

I know, I know.

But I suppose if you were to have me sit down and watch, I'd probably watch more Winter Olympics than I would summer.

Okay. But again, not being, I think the Olympics are maybe the one event even if you're not a sports person you might watch because of your country or just because of some of the, the spotlights on certain athletes that participate in them. That, and it came a long way. I mean now these I believe, you know, you might get, you know, some countries pay, I mean, I think the US does or you get so much money for winning a medal or such. So you know, it's been a hard model to sustain because it's only every four years. So what do these Olympic athletes do in the other three years in preparing? And you get one shot just like that post season experience I mentioned. I mean there were our share of people that were supposed to win that didn't. There was one race at speed skating, which is intriguing to me and one of the races, they, you know, like five, they sprint around and one person wasn't very good, but the four in front of him crashed and he ended up winning the race and the medal. So I mean it's just such a fine line of success at the Olympics. And again you spend four years preparing for it and you don't get another chance for another four years at Olympics. I mean obviously they compete in their sport in other ways. Most of them are amateurs. But I think all those play into the excitement as a sports fan and even possibly a non sports fan of why people watch it. Because again, sometimes we argue, we get saturated with sports because they're on every night or multiple times a day where the Olympics is every four years or two years if you switch summer or winter. Any quick thoughts from you, Brendon, on the Olympics?

I will say that there is something to the Olympic fanfare. Once you hear those trumpets blaze and John Williams Olympic fanfare comes through, you can't help but feel like you're saying this sense of awe at the human drama that's going to unfold. So the sense of positive goodness in the sense of competition, and it's who's gonna win by a nose.

And I think that's a good summary of the Olympics because it is a lot of drama there on the field, not off the field, hopefully. And of those fine lines of those elite athlet that are such a fine line of winning it. And then it's a positive thing. You know, we've had some scandals in the Olympics, some tough issues in the Olympics, but for the most part, people associate it with a positive thing. And hearing your national anthem play is something special. You're right. The other neat thing is how the host cities incorporate their culture into it, and you learn about that part of the world and how they experience or the thing that they do in everyday life and how they encompass hosting events like this. And, you know, the people around there, whether they're magicians or actors or politicians that embrace that and support it and are involved in it, in two weeks. I mean, that's what we're talking about. Two weeks every. Every four years. So, again, as we head into postseason at LCC, and it could be one day to two weeks a month, it's very similar to the Olympics, where you lose, you're done, you win, you get the glory. We get to do it every year. They only get to do it every four years. But whenever it comes around, I always enjoy talking about it and promoting it and celebrating it and appreciating it. Because as a sports fan and a proud American, it doesn't get any better than that when both do. Well. Yeah, Good stuff. Thanks, gentlemen, for subbing in. So let's get to our food question today.

The actual reason Greg comes in.

Yeah, it's fun. I listened to our other one. We spent five minutes laughing on our last part of it. And, you know, we had a great conversation before this podcast on pop, but we're not talking about pop today. That will. That will come down the line. We're going to talk about one that Cutter and I talked a little bit about, but you two weren't there. And as we in the winter season and start the summer, spring in Michigan. Chili. I love chili. My wife just made some last week, and I'm wondering, is this the last time I get it into the fall? And I hope not. We do eat chili year round in our family, because I like it that much, but I think most people associate it with A winter cold weather climate. Maybe I'm wrong and that can be part of the conversation, but I'm a traditionalist. I like a simple chili with hamburger and beans and not a lot of spices. She's starting to spice it up a little bit. You know, I like, I'll give you mine, but cheese and either Doritos or crackers in it with sour cream. And to me it doesn't get any better than that. So you two, what's your chili favorite? You know, first of all, answer, is it only a winter season meal and you know, what's your go to chili?

Well, first of all, yeah, I would say primarily if I'm going to eat chili, it's going to be in the wintertime.

Okay.

And I will say that you are going to probably like, my mom's probably going to disown me by the time if she ever gets to around to listening to this because for the longest time I didn't think I liked chili. My mom's chili when I was growing up was terrible chili. It just wasn't good.

Sorry, Mom.

And this has come up before where he brings up a food question and I'm just like, yeah, I didn't think I liked it because I didn't like my mom's cooking. I love my mom, just don't love her cooking. Anyway, for the longest time I didn't think I liked chili. And I like minimal amount of beans in a chili. But mostly I guess they call it Texas chili where it's just more meat oriented. But I completely agree with you on the cheese. It's about the only time I will do sour cream. Although I have a particular chip dip that I actually mix in with my chili. It's got like a jalapeno flavor to it and cheese.

Ooh, interesting.

So, yeah, that's kind of the way

I run it down.

And the Doritos definitely down with that on my chili.

So, yeah, hamburger, chicken, burger, burger preferred.

I think chili with chicken a couple of times in my life and I can't say that it really made an impression.

Me too. Me too. So, hey, I got a similar I love my mom to dad. She's the best mom in the world, but cooking wasn't her strength. No. She had so many others, so. But she made a good chili. That was one thing because the hamburger was an important ingredient in our households.

Not to dive too far into the weeds, but yeah, spaghetti. I seriously thought I hated spaghetti growing up. And then my mom didn't have time to make her spaghetti sauce. One Time. So she picked up some sort of can at the store. And after that, I was like, oh, I like spaghetti.

Poor Mom. Sorry. What about you?

Just needed whatever was in that can, right? Yeah. Yeah.

What about you, Brandon?

Well, in my house, my dad cooked. And when it came to chili, he's the type of person that would buy dehydrated beans, and so he'd have to spend all day rehydrating the beans. And so you have to spend the day with the pleasant aroma of beans rehydrating on a boiling stove. So you knew what chili was doing. I'm not familiar with that it smell. It's like when someone cuts the grass.

Okay.

It's just a very earthy. Like a dirt.

It's not altogether bad, except for knowing you're gonna eat it, I guess.

Right, right, Exactly. It's very sulfurous.

Wow.

Okay.

Very good stuff.

You had to live with that before you had the chili later that night, but by the time you ate it, you're like, oh, this actually tastes great. So we know. I love chili in all its fashions.

Beef, chicken, any special?

Mainly beef chili. I mean, lately I have been learning to make white chili or chicken chili, where it just takes less time, honestly, but you're developing less flavor that way.

So any special addition to your chili?

Any special additions? I like French's fried onions on top.

Oh, okay.

A little bit of crunch, a little bit of onion. I like it.

I can see where that'd be tasty.

Okay, so we got a special dip in yours and French fried onions in yours. So, again, I love chili. Do you eat it year round or mainly just in the winter?

I could eat it year round.

Yeah, me too. Me too. So, again, when Cutter, he liked chili that he could put on his hot dog the next day. So I like chili dogs, too. Not necessarily the same one, because I think it needs to be. I mean, that's a thicker chili for him. Mine's more soupier that I like. But chili dogs.

Well, I was gonna say that's where my. I don't really care for the beans in there because, like, I like a good meat chili on a hot dog. And I love chili dogs. Chili dogs I can do all day long.

Like Manwich.

Oh, yeah, yeah. But we'll talk about chili dogs at another time, too. But hope you guys get one more bowl of chili. This before the spring hits. And until next time, go stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!