You're listening to the back home network.
Presented. Presented by Home Field Apparel
You're listening to the Back Home Network.
Presented by Home Field Apparel. All right.
Folks, welcome back to Cranston Cascade and Javier joining you.
It is Tuesday, 22nd of April. It's Earth Day.
Happy Earth Day, gentlemen, Happy Earth Day.
And we are live here in the Franklin Hall Studios 8A at the
Media School Indiana University because it's little five week
and we need to talk about little 5.
We've got the gentleman who are going to be calling the races
this Friday and Saturday on IUI guess it's broadcast.iu.edu, but
also on YouTube. We're going to talk all about
the broadcast setup. We're also going to talk about
the races themselves and just kind of the preparation of all
of this here on Crimson cast. And first of all, just wanted to
remind everybody, we are brought to you by our presenting
sponsor, Home Field Apparel. Your place to go for the finest
in college fashions, the softest fabrics, the coolest designs.
I don't know if you all saw this, but Home Field's going to
be in town. They're coming up this weekend
as they're going to have a little 5 pop up store on Friday
at Upland Brewery from 3:00 to 7:00 PM.
And then on Saturday from 11 to 5, there'll be exclusive new
Little 500 gear. I'm excited about this.
As well as free gifts and giveaways, you'll be able to
shop the new collection online as well.
That'll appear at 10 AM on Friday.
And the new collection's awesome.
There's a great trucker hat involved.
There's a tank top which is, we know it, it is it's tank season
here in Bloomington. Certainly.
There's a nice multi colour, kind of sixties, 70s style
graphic tee. There's one that looks a little
more art Deco and then there's a kind of a a light blue hat as
well. So check that out.
Head over to Upland for the in person pop up or you can go
online at home field, apparel.com, use the code home
23. Get 15% off your first order.
All right, let's go ahead and dive into things.
Let's welcome first to the podcast.
We've got Austin Platt on my left and then we've got Zion
Brown who is on my right. You gentlemen are back once
again. It's great to have you on the
broadcast for the second year in a row.
Let me start off, I guess, by asking you both what the process
has been like over the course of these last couple of years being
the voice of Little 500 and, and how that's felt, what the
process has been like in terms of preparation and just kind of
getting to know this event that is so central to I US culture.
But it's something a lot of people really don't know that
much about. Yeah, it's it's weird in the
sense that it's one of the the biggest events, probably like
collegiate events in the country with a ton of obviously hype,
anticipation, but not a ton of like real information behind it.
And you look at everything that you know, we go through and the
information you get with spring series and talking to the
riders, it's very specific on how get information and how we
kind of decipher ourselves who the the best teams are.
And having done this now for a few years, the preparation
process, it's you can streamline it and essentially, you know,
it's kind of almost set up to the point where you know, qual,
so you know the exactly who's going to start where in the
race. And then you start to figure out
through individual time trials and team pursuits, which teams
are deep, which riders are the best.
And you can kind of go from there.
And then it's just talking to the teams and figuring out all
the little things that they do that separate themselves from
the rest. But in terms of the preparation,
I think it's, it's gotten a little bit easier for me in the,
in the sense that you can once you have kind of the, the big
outline, then it's easier to, to go from there.
And then it's just filling in the, the tidbits.
And sure, it's a little tedious to go through and be, you know,
copy and pasting numbers from all the emails that we get from,
from the race director throughout the, the course of
the semester. But the process itself
definitely gets easier than the more you do it.
I would agree with that as far as the fact that it has just
gotten easier the more that I've gone and the more that I've gone
along with it. And and like you said, Austin,
so much of this race, as big of a deal as it is, you may not
there may not be as much accessible information right to
find ourselves. So we kind of have to dig it up
ourselves and whatnot. And I was just talking to you
over there, you know, in the comments here at the media
school about how Instagram helps me prepped so much for this
race. Like I never really use
Instagram when I'm prepping for like any other sport or anything
else that I do. But for this very specific race
where there's no like BIOS necessarily that you can find on
a website or anything like that, it's like, hey, let's look up
this team on Instagram. Let's see who they're tagging in
me in these in these posts. And then I'm just kind of
digging in. So it's, it's really funny the
process of, and obviously it, it is just however you want to do
it, right? As a broadcaster, it's just
however you want to do it. And, and what makes sense to
you. And So what makes sense to me,
part of what makes sense to me, I'd say is go and do those
Instagram stories and, and posts and whatnot and just finding
what you can. And like you said, just getting
those numbers out from IT, TS and team pursuit and missing out
and seeing or 18 places in the spring series and whatnot.
Just as the, as the weeks go along, you get more and more
information. And then right now we're just
like formulating everything together and making it all make
sense in our heads and it in order to deliver it on the
broadcast. Yeah, to pick up on what you
were saying, the teams use Instagram a lot and.
Especially I don't know about the men's field, if they use it
as much the women's teams, like some of them have like two or
three accounts per team, they'll have like a meme account or
something like it's ridiculous. It's.
It's pretty fascinating and it's complicated in a way that a lot
of people who haven't got tremendous experience with the
race might not understand. Like on Sunday, we finally got
the final four riders for each team.
So that's, that's, you know, 4 * 33 * 2.
Yeah. So you got men's race and
women's race. People understand that some of
these teams have 567, even 10 riders available in the pool
that they might not decide upon until right before.
And there is, as you mentioned, there's spring series, which if
you've been part of Greek life or if you've been part of a
Little 5 culture, you know, spring series is so important.
And it's not just qualifications, it's missing out
and team pursuit and all these things that highlight like, what
are the strongest teams? What are the strongest
individual riders? It's a lot of information to try
to take in. And even if you, like you
gentlemen, you know, have done it for a couple of years, it's
not necessarily the most intuitive thing to think about.
Wow. I've got to encapsulate all of
these times and all these people and try to figure out who are
the ones that we should be watching on race day.
It it's weird because you can do all the math you want and crunch
numbers and all right, if I take the the third best ITT rider in
each team like is it, does that really show how deep it is?
But then yet again, like some teams just do not care about
spring series like Qualls. It's like, all right, we'll
we'll get ready for, you know, right after spring break.
It's that Saturday afterwards and you know, if we put down a
time, then great. And everything shifts in the the
first few laps of of both races. But and then, you know, this
year, like the weather, it's like team pursuit and missing
out. We're both, you know, kind of
crammed into one weekend. And there were some teams that
knew they couldn't be there for the mid the initial date for
missing out and then they were here, but if they weren't signed
up, so they couldn't do it. So spring series, it's a
complete kind of shot in the dark.
And I think from what I've seen, at least on the men's side, more
and more teams are really kind of training through spring
series and just using it as a tiny bit of a marking stick and
not like, all right, we are training for this event.
And if we don't finish the top five and we are in trouble for
the the race, That's just not how.
It works and with the weather, that's a great point.
It was even worse for the women's because Claws isn't
technically a part of spring series.
The women's spring series occurred a couple weeks ago from
Wednesday to Sunday. It was it was ITT Wednesday,
Friday was missing out and then on Sunday, team pursuit.
So a lot of these teams, especially the ones that that
know they're, they're in a good position regardless.
We're just like, hey, let's just get through this, right?
We have to do 3 races in five days.
Let's just get through this. And so it may not be the most
accurate indicator as it is in other years as far as who's
going to do well and who's going to do what in the race.
But it was definitely interesting this year.
But you're right about that. It just changes a lot based off
just what teams are prioritizing.
Some people don't even prioritize quads that much.
They just they just want to play somewhere and then get to the
race. Some teams are really big on IT.
TS are really big on team pursuit.
So it's important. Spring series is important to
just kind of line yourself up in a way, but it is not necessarily
a tell all for what's going to happen on Friday and Saturday.
You did the race last year, both of you.
Zion's done the women's race, Austin's done the men's race.
It's such a different type of broadcast experience than doing
football or basketball or baseball.
I've always likened it to auto racing.
In a lot of ways, it's like doing an IndyCar race or a
NASCAR race, but it's different in that there's humans like,
like clearly involved. There's exchanges, There's all
of these different dynamics. As you're going in to preparing
for doing the broadcast and just thinking through all of the
variables, what do you try to focus on the most as you go into
the race itself? What tends to be the most
important things? Because this is something I
think a lot of casual fans or people that want to learn more
about the race may not know that much about.
Like, you know, you've learned this from former writers, the
people that we do the broadcast with her on color commentary or
whatever. What's work for you in terms of
really being able to isolate the right information?
For me, I think that's where I do lean on my color commentator
in this place, Rachel Brown, I mean a A2 time champion, right,
with Theta. So like she knows how it works.
And so I'm asking her during the race and, and leading up this
week I'm asking her. But even on the broadcast during
the race, I'm like, Hey, why is that team doing that basically
right? Like I, I say it in a more
elegant way, but it's like, why is this happening?
And she does a good job of explaining it to me.
This year in the women's race, it's there's been a big shift in
the pits where a lot of the top teams are pitting in, in turn
three this year, whereas in the previous years, it was usually
pretty much every one of the top teams was in turn 1.
And then Melanzana would be in turn 3.
They would just be by themselves in turn three.
Well, Melanzana's still in turn three this year, but now they're
joined by quite a few other of those top teams this season like
like Delta Gamma, Novus and and WSR, who we might talk about a
little bit here. A very interesting team they
are. So it's, it's strategy and, and
just figuring out why certain things are going the way they
are. And that's really what's
interesting because the women's race is interesting.
It's 100 laps. And so, you know, it, it could
change so quickly. And then the race is just over
almost it feels like sometimes. So it, it, it's really
compelling to find out why certain things are going on the
way they are. And for me, I'm watching just
all over the track to see what's going on and to see why A-Team
may be, you know, racing in a certain way, why they may be
exchanging, you know, so quickly or why they may be waiting a
long time before exchanges. Just all these different
elements of it are, are so hard to keep track of.
But it, it is about just looking at it, assessing what's
happening. And then for me, once again,
just asking Rachel, hey, why? Why could this team be doing
this? What?
About you. The, the kind of the big thing
the last few years in this kind of post COVID era.
Now this will be the, the 4th year.
So kind of these seniors will kind of be the, I guess the end
of the first post COVID generation in a sense.
But a lot of it is like been failed, like attempts to to
break away in the men's race. Like we've seen it the past few
years. Sig AAP tried it two years ago.
SAE infamously tried it last year.
Those teams met LED for the most laps in the race and end up
getting got caught and they, you know, couldn't quite piece it
all together, made too many exchanges engages and
essentially burned out their top riders.
And once once the the pack was, which has gotten so much deeper
over the years, was good enough to realize, all right, now we
can you know, we sense kind of all right, they're tired, let's
go catch up to them. And then once the race kind of
gets back clumped up again, then it's kind of anyone's race and
nobody's favored. And then you just favor the team
that has the the most rested rider.
I think that's been the biggest theme.
And I guess for the for the men's race, considering it's 200
laps, it's I think for me, it's focusing on kind of what does a
little 5 mean for these for these athletes?
Really, I mean, these are people that train, you know, every
single day, essentially 24/7 for for one day a year.
And I think that's what makes this special.
And these are guys that, you know, train all year round but
don't get the attention and they rely on the alums.
And it's it's a brotherhood and all the cliches that you hear.
But I think focusing on what little 5 means to these guys and
then like talking to black key bulls this spring, it's like,
all right, now that you've won, kind of how do you how is your
perception of little 5 changed? And they all kind of gave
different answers to how it's, it's really more than just the
one race day, which The thing is the big, the biggest thing that,
you know, the casual viewer does not fully understand.
Yeah, it's there's a lot that goes into it.
And if you haven't watched two days in April, the docuseries
that tries to capture a lot of that, you can go to Instagram,
go to the IU sports media page and catch more information on on
what those different teams are doing and and how they make it
not just through the spring series, but also what they're
doing throughout the rest of the year.
As we go into this particular race.
Zion Levy, let's talk with the women's race 1st and then we'll
go to the men's Austin. So you know, you mentioned a
couple of teams earlier on as as being contenders and, and you
look at the qualifying right now, you've got Theta who's
always up there. You've got DG on the pole, Delta
Gamma Novus right in the middle of row one.
And then you've got some teams that have have been relevant
here lately. Melanzana in row 2 obviously is
1. You know, Akio is, is certainly
a contender this year. The women's race tends to be a
little more compressed in terms of the most of the contending
teams are at the front of the Packer close to it.
But this is an interesting one because it feels like we have
several teams that could really be in contention this year.
What are you seeing in terms of your analysis and what are you
expecting to be the most contending teams as we go into
race day on Friday? I think the overarching theme in
the women's race is that it is a very young field as far as the
experience that a lot of these riders have.
I mean, I think last year was maybe on the more experienced
side. And so of course you get a
little bit younger and but I think you have to start with
Ako, right? In the women's field, they won
the spring series. Once again, doesn't mean going
to win the race, but they won the spring series.
They have Libby Lewis, who has kind of taken over a lot of
headlines. She won ITT as a freshman, the
first freshman to ever do that. So I think it starts there for
the woman's race. You look at them and you're,
you're curious to see what they can do Theta.
They do have experience, right, coming back.
They have three of their four riders from last year.
Their best rider last year was Audrey La Valle, who who is gone
now. But the three, three of the
other riders that rode and won them the race last year are
returning. So I I look at them and you say,
OK, they are going to be there in that top five top 6 grouping
at the end that could really break away and win the race.
And then DG intrigues me a lot, right?
They they won the poll. So obviously they're doing
something right. And then everybody keeps calling
them. I was talking back there.
Everybody keeps calling them a rookie team.
Caitlin May wants everyone to know if you're listening,
Caitlin, she is not a rookie. She just, she went abroad last
year in her junior year, but she rode 2 years ago as a sophomore.
So they are not a full rookie team.
They have a little bit of experience on race day.
And then obviously the other three are, are talented enough
as you saw with the winning claws.
So those are the three or four teams I'm only looking at.
You've mentioned Novus as well. Dorothy Curran Munoz is very
likely or very possibly the best writer in the women's field,
right? It's obviously it's a team race,
so you you need all four to come through.
But Dorothy has been great for a few years now and she's somebody
who is really hungry to get that win right.
Obviously she's so energetic about this race and it would be
a great storyline to see them cross the finish line with her
win the race for him. And as you mentioned, it's
interesting with the women's race because it's shorter, it's
100 laps. And so you've just got a whole
different set of strategies. We have seen a team successfully
break away a couple of years ago and and essentially lap the
field and by the time everybody figured out what was going on,
it was over. But that hasn't been the case
with most of the women's, you know, fields over the course of
time. And so it, it is really
interesting because the race is shorter.
The other thing to keep in mind for Friday is that is the day
that's got the weather in the forecast, rain, potentially
thunderstorms. We had a situation a couple of
years ago, I think it was actually in the same race where
we had the breakaway where they actually had to delay the start
of the race by like almost an hour and a half because of rain.
So now going into this not knowing what the weather
situation is going to be, but knowing it's going to be warm,
the track is probably going to be tamped down.
It could be a faster track as a result of that, but it could
also affect strategy, not just in terms of pitting, but if you
have to have a stoppage or things like that.
There's so many different factors you can't really think
about until you get into it. Absolutely.
And that's something to watch for as far as crashes go as
well, because last year we had a couple of early crashes because
the women's foot wasn't used to having a 433 up until last year.
Well, back-to-back years now they have that 433.
There were 36 at quals this season.
And obviously three of them didn't didn't make the race, but
that's something to watch for, right?
It's going to be even more kind of clustered up there,
especially at the beginning of the race.
So depending on what the weather is, I'm still, I look at it like
every like four or five hours Galen, I'm like, OK, when the
race starts at 4, it'll be like this.
And then around 5530. So it's just like.
I've been looking at it for 45 days, so you know, every couple
hours it it. Just always changes, right?
It was like last at the beginning of last week, it was
like, oh man, it's going to be pretty bad for both races.
Then last Wednesday or Thursday I was like, oh, it, it might
look pretty good. And then we get to this weekend.
It's like, never mind. So like you still have no clue
even what are we a little over 72 hours out now?
You still have no clue exactly what it's going to be like.
And like you said, that'll definitely change team strategy
just depending on how hard it's coming down on Friday.
Platt, let's talk about the men's race.
Like this is a different type of field.
You've got a lot of teams that seem like they're really close
to each other in this process. What are your thoughts going
into this one? It's kind of the opposite of
what Zion said. There's a ton of returning
riders, I think, and there's like they're looking back at
last year. Like there's a few name big
names that graduate Josh Herbs is probably one of the biggest
ones from from delts. But a lot of the the top teams
and it's a 3 headed monster here like Blackie bulls, SAE and
Qatars are the top three and talking to people, people would
be surprised if those aren't the three in the at the podium at
the very end. But, you know, basically most of
the the top riders are back. SAE returns all four riders from
last year and they have the best rider in the race and Luke Noss.
And just the question is, are they going to be able to save
them up for a Sprint finish? Because nobody wants to be going
against Luke Noss in a Sprint finish if that's the way it
ends. But he's just one of two riders
that's riding in his fourth race.
But there's three or four teams that return all four riders.
Blackie Bulls returns their top 2 with Will and Wiley.
Both were on that winning team last year.
And then I mean, it's Judah Thompson with cutters.
And you could, you know, put the three of us in that race with
Judah and you'd still give us a shot because that's how good
Judah is and that's how much experience he has.
And he won the race his freshman year.
But I think one of the biggest things is how talented, how deep
this field is that the times come from, from Qualls this year
to last year, insane teams are getting 7-8, up to 10 second
improvements in time. So the field is deeper, the
field is stronger. And that's why I think no one
expects, you know, that breakaway 10 because the pack is
good enough to catch up and you really have to do it perfectly
if you truly want to break away. And it's going to be tough to
lap the field. Mellon's on it, you know, put
that, you know, basically to a tee when they did it
successfully. The men's race is not as easy to
do that. But for me, it's the experience
that a lot of the teams bring back the returning riders.
And it still is those top three. But I think a lot of teams still
give themselves a shot to finish in the top five.
And if something happens like the way it did last year were
the, you know, a crash in the pit boxes was essentially what
ended the race for for Sigapp and Will Pitts then.
And obviously anything can happen then.
It's interesting you mentioned Cutters as as one of the teams
that is in contention. They're on the outside of row 4.
They didn't have a great calls, you know, Blackie, Bulls and SAE
right up there at the front. That can be a big issue early on
in the race because it's when everybody's the closest
together. You get those issues in terms of
of people not knowing where they are in, in relation to other
riders. We've seen early crashes and
things. So something to keep an eye on
with cutters if they can avoid all of that.
They're normally really savvy writers though, so it's it's not
as much of A concern. And the fact that you have that
many writers in general in the field who know what they're
doing is going to be, I think, a really interesting thing, as it
should be, a more professional start.
I think that maybe we've had in some past.
Years, hopefully, yeah. And I think that the rain that
we're supposed to get Friday and then a light rain Saturday
morning will definitely help the track in that sense.
And although another thing that casual doesn't understand is
rain helps the track, this is good for the riders.
It makes it safer, makes it so that those loose sediments don't
necessarily pop up and you're not, you know, getting a bunch
of dust that flies up and, you know, that the tires are
skidding as much. That should create for a safer
start. To the race and obviously with a
ton of experience you would expect that either way, but the
rain is a good thing if we do get a little bit of it Saturday
morning. One of the other things to note
about this race is just the pageantry and and kind of the
atmosphere on race day and especially in that hour or so
leading up. It's always my favorite time on
campus in any given year. You know, you get the you get
back home and get Indiana, you get the Anthem, you get all the
different things in the lead up. What's that like being in the
broadcast booth and just kind of watching all that happen?
These guys aren't generally talking.
We're down on the field with the PA Mike.
So you get a chance to absorb it a little bit before you jump
back in into the main broadcast itself.
Like, how do you process that as a broadcaster and how does that
help you get ready for what you're about to do?
For me, last year, I would say it was like a 5050 split of like
me, like appreciating and taking in that pageantry that you're
Speaking of. And also me being like, all
right, well, I got to like, like, like be like, all right,
well, this is it. Like I've been, you know,
prepping for this for a few months and like here it is.
So like, it's a it's a strange feeling, right?
It's like, it's like we see, I think it's Chris Jones on the
Chiefs who like one tear will come out of his eye during the
national anthem. And it's like the strangest
thing ever. And he's preparing to like beat
up on some random quarterback, right?
That's like, that's how I feel watching like back home again,
being played there and then the invocation and all of that.
It's like, OK, well, this is like the time to to get ready
and just, you know, lock in for the race.
I'm sure the writers are probably experiencing something
similar, right? Like they're looking up at their
fans and their their cheering section like, wow, look at this.
And they're also like, well, here we go.
Like I've been training for this since August and this is it,
right? So it's definitely harrowing
moment, a little bit maybe humbling moment just to be like,
wow, we're here, right? And this is the moment, this is
the start of the race. So it's fun, but it's also just
a lot of thoughts going through the head during that time.
Plaid, I want to ask you a different question.
You're not an Indiana native. You're from Connecticut.
So what's it been like? I mean, you, you came here.
I don't know if you knew what to expect when you came to IU, but
to be in what I've always said, it's got one of the most unique
cultural experiences for any college or university.
And it's very Indiana thing. Like how has it been being not
just an observer to that, but a translator of that to people?
It's it's spine tingling almost and you know, experience it and
then trying to explain it to other people, it's like
impossible. It's how do you go back home to
New Canaan and like explain all this?
Like how does that work? It doesn't work.
It's like, all right, you're just here.
I'll send you the link for the race and watch the beginning and
what it is, what it is, But it's tough to like truly take it in.
Like the riders. There's a certain point where
they want to look at this, the fans and see everyone that's
there supporting them. That's like, all right, we want
to lock in and we don't have to, you know, think about the fans
for the rest of time. For me, it's the opposite, like
during the national anthem and back home again.
It's like this year, I really want to make sure like take a
video during all of it, like and try and take it all in because
it's not easy to do that. And I'm like, I'm telling myself
like, am I going to cry during this?
Like is it going to be like emotional at all you have?
You have essentially interns this year.
You have spotters. You should have them take the
videos. For you, I can do that.
Yes, I do. I do have the the the that's a
good point. Do not think about that.
Add that to the list of fans that for man spotters to do
right. Thank you for that.
I'm the executive producer. I've come up with the ideas.
What can I say, you know. But no, look, you guys have done
a great job with it and it's always gratifying for me.
I remember when I when I approached people about working
this race, whether it's you all or Riley Woodall or Cara Adams
who are going to be in the field for us as student reporters, or
Emily Fox or Kennedy, Ray Clower, Brenda Tanaka or any of
the folks in the control booth, Henry thus going to be the
director. It's tough because little five
week and especially little five weekend, it's like the it's the
culmination socially for most people on campus and most people
are at the bars or they're at the stadium and then they're at
the bars or their house. I mean, everybody who's been to
IU knows how a little five week goes.
So you have to kind of voluntarily give a lot of that
up in order to work the race. So I just want to say I
appreciate both of you being willing to do that for a couple
of years seriously, because when I pitched this to students, I'm
like, well, this is really prestigious.
It's probably the thing that I enjoy us doing in sports media
the most in a given year, certainly thing I enjoy
producing the most. And yet I know it's a big social
sacrifice for a lot of people. But I hope that like, the event
itself ends up being worth that sacrifice.
And plus, like Saturday night exists, as I always tell people,
it's not like that goes away because you have to work in the
middle of the day. Yeah.
And and the thing I would say is just not many people get to do
something like this right from a broadcasting perspective.
So for me, it's like, OK, I give up going out on Thursday night.
Like whoop Dee Doo, you know, you know, every Thursday nights
we can now you gave this you gave.
That one night. Congratulations.
Well done. But it's like, but it's like not
many people get to to call this race and and be a part of it in
this way. So it's just like it's a, it's a
fun opportunity. It's something it's only unique,
you know, as we're going into the job market looking for jobs,
it's like, Hey, I called this random race, but it's like, and
it's like, I probably won't call anything like this random race
wherever I go, but it just shows I can do random other events,
you know, So it's like it, it's so fun and it and I would not
trade a couple nights more nights at the bar for it.
Yeah, it's I, I think to myself this a lot.
And I'll probably tell people this, this is probably like the
coolest thing I'll ever do, like from a broadcasting perspective.
And something as uniquely Hoosier is literally what the
little 500 bio says. That's literally we're going to
take it as. But it's a unique experience.
Talking to the riders for me is like the, the most rewarding
thing. And like last year the day after
the race, like getting texts from people like, Hey, I watched
the race back. My parents said this like that's
like the most rewarding part because it's about them And it's
about these people who, you know, work year round, you know,
they're that, you know, we go on spring break or we don't usually
go on spring break. We're usually broadcasting
stuff. These people don't go on spring
break. They're here in Bloomington
around the track. You know, we go home for the
holidays. They go to Florida on a, on a
trip, drive 18 hours and bike. So that's kind of what you're
doing it for. And I think that's the the most
rewarding part is to see them appreciate the work that we do
because it's nowhere near the work that they do.
But obviously it's still a complicated process to to get to
race day as broadcasters and eventually to talk to all the
riders, which is not easy. As we've mentioned before,
trying to put people schedules together is is not easy right
And. Well, and I think it's it's an
important point and I just wanna say thank you to IU Student
Foundation and to all of the teams.
Like, you know, we cover IU varsity athletics all the time.
You guys have gotten the chance with Mike Wells class to cover
some professional sports up in Indy, which has been great.
But all of those experiences there are media relations people
or sports information people. They're they very tightly
control access who's communicating what and they have
reasons for doing that. They have organizational
reasons. But the openness with which most
of the teams work with us and the riders and their willingness
to talk like this is it's a, it's a much more direct form of
interaction with athletes than what you're normally able to get
if you're working full time in sports media because the the
barriers aren't there. And for most of them, it's about
telling the story of the team, telling their individual
stories. I've always felt that that was
kind of the coolest aspect of it is how open the access tends to
be. Yeah.
I think that this is the the best part.
And I think over the last few years, I think teams are more
receptive to us and willing to, to talk and tell their stories
and try and differentiate basically every single team on
what they do. And it's for me, it's like, I
want to know, like the funny stories, like what's the, the
spring break moment that brought everyone together?
What's that meal that, that everyone loves to eat?
Who likes to cook? Whatever.
It's the, the little things that you can kind of you read on BIOS
during, you know, the basketball team, those little, the, the
personal information. That's the stuff I like the
most. And that's the stuff I try and
look for when talking to the writers.
No, I, I would agree with that. It is, it's a lot different than
like you said, those, those pro or, or Division One high level,
you know, college athletics where it's just like, OK, well,
we just find their e-mail, find their phone number and say, Hey,
would you answer these few questions for me?
And the way I'd always put it is like, Hey, I don't want to
misrepresent you guys on the broadcast, right?
Because as, as Austin knows, that'll come back around to you.
You know, it's maybe it's happened with softball this year
where it's like, oh, you said this about my daughter and that
wasn't right. Or were you just like, well, I
it's the e-mail, you know, so. Check the spam folder.
Literally that. So with little 5, it's like,
hey, just answer the e-mail and we'll, we'll do our best to
represent whatever you and your team stand for and, and whatnot.
And so it's fun to reach out and to, to realize they're just
people, right? These are we, we go through it
during the season with, like you said, the other sports,
football, basketball, baseball, softball, whatnot.
But it's different when it's just little 5 and these people
are, are as humble as you are, they're on some sort of
scholarship or whatnot. They're just, they're a junior
senior like we are, and we're just chatting it up and just
being like, hey, how do you prepare for the race or some
things you like to do in your free time?
And just just realizing that that these are just people just
like us, but they're also been training.
They've also been training since August and are about to be on
this huge broadcast and this huge race that they're going
through. There's also been now in four
years of of being around this race, there have been three
different race directors, which is another thing that like
completely like throws a wrench into things.
Exactly. So it's like everyone has a
different opinion. You know, certain some people
are former riders and they kind of changes the way you see the
race and go about talking to people and your kind of
perception of the race because that was something like coming
in like, I have no idea what this race is about.
Like I remember I met with the thing was Hank Duncan in my my
freshman year and I was like, all right, like now I have
actually have an understanding what this is about.
And now it's Peter Schultz, a former AK Si writer, or there
was ironically no team last year after he was on the team two
years ago. So that's kind of a funny story.
But yeah, working now with different race directors.
And obviously Emily Carico's still around the race, so she's
obviously a great talking point. But it's always you can always
pick someone's brain and get something different.
Yeah, it's amazing. I love it.
Well, you guys do a great job with things and we'll look
forward to tuning in. Well, the rest of you look
forward to tuning in. I will be sitting in the press
box, I guess doing something this year.
Emily Fox has made it so I don't have to do a whole lot.
So thank you to Emily for all of that.
She's been great coordinating things behind the scenes and we
hope everybody tunes in for both of these races.
It'll be a 4:00 start on Friday as the women's race will get
underway about 4/27, 4:30 somewhere in that range, but you
don't want to miss the pre race. And then on Saturday, we will
start the broadcast at 1:00 PM. All of this weather permitting.
Be sure to tune into the IU Sports Media Twitter feed or you
can just you'll catch Crimson cast on Twitter.
I'll probably tweeting some stuff out about it as well.
But Zion Brown and Austin Platt, thank you for joining me.
Have a great broadcast. Looking forward to hearing what
you guys do and have a great week here just in general as we
get ready for the Little 500 race weekend.
Thanks for. Having us.
Thanks for joining us, folks here on Crimsey Cast.
We'll be back with more later on in the week.
New signing for IU basketball, which I guess means another
emergency pod at some point, so you'll probably see me on that.
Until then, stay never daunted. Bring back the Bison.
So long, everybody.