Speaker 1: The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.
Speaker 2: All right, Yon, we go our number two, seven h
Speaker 2: seven on seven hundred WLW back on RNL Carrier Sports
Speaker 2: Talk presented by Kelsey Chervale. I'm lancemcalister. Thanks for hanging
Speaker 2: out on a Friday night. Stick Around Xavier basketball plays here.
Speaker 2: Joe and Byron set it up bottom of the hour.
Speaker 2: I like cool stories. This is a really cool story.
Speaker 2: This past Sunday, you see Claremont College volleyball won the
Speaker 2: USCAA Division two National championship in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It's the
Speaker 2: program's second national championship since twenty twenty one. You see
Speaker 2: Clarmont College located in Batavia. I said, I need to
Speaker 2: know more about this, so lo and behold.
Speaker 3: We're going to the phones.
Speaker 2: Let's welcome in the head coach of the Division two
Speaker 2: national champs. That would be Josh Hammer. Coach Lance Bacallister.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing well? Lance? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm fantastic? How does it feel what I say? Division
Speaker 2: two national champions? Oh?
Speaker 4: Man, you can't say it enough. It's great feeling for sure.
Speaker 2: How second title in five years? I mean that's dynasty stuff.
Speaker 2: How did Batavia become the epicenter of Division two volleyball.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. I like to think I had
Speaker 4: a little something to do with that. I took over
Speaker 4: the program back in twenty fifteen, and I guess since
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen was the first year we made the tournament,
Speaker 4: and we've made the tournament every year since then. Wow,
Speaker 4: we won in twenty one. We got a couple third
Speaker 4: places in there as well, which I don't like to
Speaker 4: talk about those. But and then this year was just,
Speaker 4: you know, this year was just it's probably the best
Speaker 4: team we've ever had, and it was just a really
Speaker 4: great year.
Speaker 2: Well that was going to be. That's a good segue
Speaker 2: to my next question, because I was going to mention
Speaker 2: you entered the bracket as the top seed. I think
Speaker 2: you were twenty and two during the season. So the
Speaker 2: preseason thought was you had a national champion caliber roster.
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 2: Yes, You've got a couple of seniors I'd love to
Speaker 2: ask you about. One was your the tournament MVP and
Speaker 2: now a three time All American. Tell me about Caitlyn Finnegan.
Speaker 4: Caitlyn's a great player. She played middle forest. She like
Speaker 4: you said, she's a first team All American Player of
Speaker 4: the Year. I refer to her as a unicorn, and
Speaker 4: she came into our program. She's got, you know, top
Speaker 4: tier talent, top tier attitude. She's a great leader. She's
Speaker 4: a big part of what we've done here in the
Speaker 4: past couple of years.
Speaker 2: Tell me about another local product. She also from Turpin
Speaker 2: High School. She was a tournament team performer. Tell me
Speaker 2: about Ashley Kaminski.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Ashley, And it's funny, Ashley actually brought Caitlin to
Speaker 4: our program after her freshman year. Yeah, Caitlyn had they
Speaker 4: played together in high school and Katelyn had gone off
Speaker 4: to Akron College and didn't like it. Came back home
Speaker 4: and Ashley said, Hey, I got this friend, like to
Speaker 4: put her on the team. What do you think, I said, Well,
Speaker 4: tell me about her. Oh well, she's six foot one
Speaker 4: place middle, she's pretty good. I said, yeah, bring her on.
Speaker 4: And yeah, the rest is history.
Speaker 2: I mentioned both are from Turp And you also have
Speaker 2: a Milford grat Hanna Daniels, who made the All Tournament team.
Speaker 2: I mean, the quality of high school volleyball around the area,
Speaker 2: Tell me about it, because it's got to make for
Speaker 2: a nice pipeline of talent, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: It really does.
Speaker 4: The Tri State area is really really loaded with volleyball
Speaker 4: talent for sure. That doesn't mean I mean it's a
Speaker 4: nice pipe line, yes, but it's also very competitive to
Speaker 4: get these players.
Speaker 2: Sure, tell me on this level, kind of explain to
Speaker 2: the average listener right now. May not know the workings
Speaker 2: of it in terms of recruiting or scholarships or how
Speaker 2: does any of that work in assembling a team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we don't have athletic scholarships. You see, Claremont
Speaker 4: College is a great value. Our average tuition is six
Speaker 4: thousand dollars a year, and then all students, not just athletes,
Speaker 4: but they can get merit scholarships their first two years
Speaker 4: as well, and pretty much if they get any fasts
Speaker 4: at all, they get their their tuition paid for. But
Speaker 4: you know that's my that's kind of my recruiting spiels. Hey,
Speaker 4: great education, very low cost, you know, great athletic program,
Speaker 4: a chance to play for a national championship.
Speaker 2: You mentioned, I believe it was twenty fifteen you arrived
Speaker 2: at you see Claremont. Kind of trace the path. How
Speaker 2: what's the journey been like for you to get to this.
Speaker 4: Point, Well, in twenty fifteen I took over. They had
Speaker 4: a couple players graduating, a couple of players that didn't
Speaker 4: want to come back because they would they were attached
Speaker 4: to their old coach and you know, they didn't want
Speaker 4: to spend their last year with a new coach and
Speaker 4: all that kind of thing. I only had eight players
Speaker 4: when I walked into the gym, and I did a
Speaker 4: lot of recruiting, called some tryouts. Wound up getting like
Speaker 4: fifteen players my first year. But you know, the difference
Speaker 4: in the player talent then versus now is a lot different, obviously,
Speaker 4: So it took about three or four years to kind
Speaker 4: of get the word out about, you know, a great program,
Speaker 4: a great experience. But you know, after that, it's been
Speaker 4: it's been a lot easier obviously.
Speaker 2: Josh Head, have you did you? Are you from the area?
Speaker 2: Had you been around here in various coaching capacities to
Speaker 2: ultimately get to UC Claremont. What was that like?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I grew up in northern Kentucky and you know,
Speaker 4: just started coaching a couple of my nieces in a
Speaker 4: recreation volleyball and that led to middle school, that led
Speaker 4: to high school, that led to college. My first college
Speaker 4: job was Cincinnati State, which no longer has athletics, but
Speaker 4: I was there for two years, and then I coached
Speaker 4: Xavier's men's club team for a season, and then I
Speaker 4: got the job in twenty fifteen at U see Claremont.
Speaker 4: But I've been coaching for twenty eight years AAU club volleyball,
Speaker 4: so I've been in it for a while.
Speaker 2: Man, it is so great catching up with you tonight.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking two titles in five years. I
Speaker 2: think maybe, what do you think? Lifetime contracting your own
Speaker 2: parking spot? How does that sound?
Speaker 4: That sounds good? That sounds good.
Speaker 2: Hey, congratulations on this. It's so cool. I was able
Speaker 2: to track you down and you were willing to come on.
Speaker 2: Congrats on the success, not just this year and what
Speaker 2: you've built. Best of luck, keeping it rolling and enjoy
Speaker 2: all this all right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I will thank you. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: You got to take care coach, all right, there you go,
Speaker 2: Josh Hammer. Two times, two national championships in five years.
Speaker 2: You see. Claremont College volleyball located in Batavia. Every time
Speaker 2: I think of Batavia as a kid, my grandma lived
Speaker 2: in Batavia, so when we were kids, and we would
Speaker 2: visit Grandma.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 2: She was the manager of it's no longer around the
Speaker 2: Green Valley in Batavia, and it was always a big
Speaker 2: deal when we were kids and we visited, spent the
Speaker 2: weekend with Grandma. We would go to Moonlight Chili. Oh,
Speaker 2: I remember how cool it was. We were living large
Speaker 2: going to Moonlight Chili. I haven't been. We were in
Speaker 2: Batavia a couple of months ago, because they've got a
Speaker 2: really cool coffee shop right on the corner of Bean
Speaker 2: and Brew when you come into town, and it is
Speaker 2: directly across the street from where the old Green Valley
Speaker 2: used to be. That my grandma was the manager years ago.
Speaker 2: So congratulations to UC Clermont College Volleyball, the Division two
Speaker 2: national champs for the second time since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: All right, good, that was fun. Let's head down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Got some college football to squeeze in, some college basketball
Speaker 2: to squeeze in. I gotta do all that before Joe
Speaker 2: and Byron. They are warming up and they'll deliver Xavier
Speaker 2: pregame before the Musketeers and the Hawkeyes that coming up
Speaker 2: at seven point thirty. We continue for now with Rnel
Speaker 2: Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevelet seven hundred ww EAS.
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