Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain where we're up
Speaker 1: and not crying, which is allegedly an old Norwegian response.
Speaker 2: To how are you up and not crying? That'll have
Speaker 2: to do today.
Speaker 1: Or maybe, as Miracle Max would say in The Princess Bride,
Speaker 1: we're only mostly dead, which is still a little alive.
Speaker 2: Either way, we need it now.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, March thirteenth, and on today's show, we'll be
Speaker 1: chatting with goalkeeper a Listenaier of the Chicago Stars, not
Speaker 1: the Red Stars, the color neutral Stars, about her wedding
Speaker 1: filled off season, the nerves that hide behind her stone
Speaker 1: cold game face, and when she knew it was time
Speaker 1: to retire from the international game. Plus ranking NWSL teams
Speaker 1: on a scale of holding steady to madly chaotic, a
Speaker 1: reminder to savor the final moments of an undefeated season
Speaker 1: while you can, and a shout out to a team
Speaker 1: making its first big Dance appearance. It's all coming up
Speaker 1: right after this welcome back slices. Before we get to
Speaker 1: the need to know now that I'm back home, I
Speaker 1: just need to give a quick shout out to all
Speaker 1: the folks at iHeart after an incredible five days in
Speaker 1: Austin at south By Southwest. I'm going to chat some
Speaker 1: more about a little serendipitous convo with a musical friend,
Speaker 1: the backstage scenes at the iHeart Podcast Awards, and my
Speaker 1: new celebrity BFF later in the show. But I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say thank you again to the many, many,
Speaker 1: many iHeart people I worked.
Speaker 2: With and met over the weekend. It was blast. Okay,
Speaker 2: here's what you need to know today.
Speaker 1: Let's start with college hoops, where a few more teams
Speaker 1: clinch spots in the NCAA Tournament by winning their conference tourney.
Speaker 1: That includes Yukon, which won its twelfth straight Big East
Speaker 1: title on Monday night, defeating Creighton seventy to fifty. Page Beckers,
Speaker 1: who finished that game with twenty four points and eight rebounds,
Speaker 1: became the first player to be named Most Outstanding Player
Speaker 1: of the Big East Tournament three times. The win also
Speaker 1: means that Beckers closes out her career having never lost
Speaker 1: a conference game, boasting a personal Big East record of
Speaker 1: sixty six and oh to the West Coast Conference, where
Speaker 1: Oregon State, competing in that conference journey for the first
Speaker 1: time following the dis solution of the PAC twelve, defeated
Speaker 1: Portland fifty nine to forty six on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Having clinched the.
Speaker 1: Automatic bid, the Beavers are now headed to their fourteenth
Speaker 1: NCUBAA tournament appearance. Now this is especially impressive after the
Speaker 1: Beavers lost four starters from last year's twenty seven win
Speaker 1: NCUBLEA Elite eighteam to new schools after the PAC twelve breakup,
Speaker 1: heading to the Sun Belt Conference, where the Arkansas State
Speaker 1: Red Wolves defeated James Madison eighty six seventy nine in
Speaker 1: overtime on Monday night to earn that program's first ever
Speaker 1: NCUBA Tournament bid. Entering the season, Arkansas State was predicted
Speaker 1: to finish thirteenth of the fourteen Sun Belt Conference teams,
Speaker 1: but the squad went on to post a fifteen to
Speaker 1: three record in conference play to nab a number two
Speaker 1: seed in the tourney and go on to win conference
Speaker 1: tournament championships. Continue through the weekend leading up to the
Speaker 1: NCAA March Madness Selection Show on Sunday to College Hockey,
Speaker 1: where the nc Doubleatorney gets underway tonight with three games
Speaker 1: and you better get out a couple screens because it's
Speaker 1: going to be a busy few hours. Two games start
Speaker 1: at seven pm Eastern with Penn State taken on Saint
Speaker 1: Lawrence and Minnesota Duluth going up against Sacred Heart. Then
Speaker 1: at eight pm Eastern, it's Clarkson versus Boston University.
Speaker 2: Those games are all available on.
Speaker 1: ESPN plus to Softball where Athletes Unlimited announced its inaugural
Speaker 1: AUSL season will kick off on June seventh. Teams will
Speaker 1: tour during this first season, hitting up at least ten cities,
Speaker 1: including Rosemont, Illinois, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Round Rock, Texas. We'll
Speaker 1: linked info on games and tickets in the show notes,
Speaker 1: and expect a little did you Know segment coming up
Speaker 1: about how Chicago invented softball.
Speaker 2: That's right too.
Speaker 1: Unrivaled where entering the championship weekend, the upstart three on
Speaker 1: three league has a new investor in MNBA player Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: In a statement announcing his stake, he said, quote, I
Speaker 1: am incredibly proud to join the Unrivaled family as the
Speaker 1: league continues to set a new standard for how women's
Speaker 1: professional sports should operate, empowering athletes and ensuring they have
Speaker 1: a real stake in their own success. Unrivaled is not
Speaker 1: just innovating the way we play basketball, but also we
Speaker 1: value and invest in the athlete to drive the game forward.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 1: Steph has been a longtime fan and supporter of women's sports.
Speaker 2: It's so awesome to see him get on board with Unrivaled.
Speaker 1: The league's playoffs begin on Sunday, with the number one
Speaker 1: seed Lunar Owls facing the number four Vinyl and the
Speaker 1: number two Rows taking on the number three laces. We'll
Speaker 1: have more on those games in tomorrow show and now
Speaker 1: I will not be taking questions about my team Phantom
Speaker 1: BC not appearing in the playoffs. All right, slices, It's
Speaker 1: tournament time in Unrivaled and college hockey and basketball. But
Speaker 1: we've also got the NWSL kicking off and reminding us
Speaker 1: of the beauty of a blank slate. Think of all
Speaker 1: the possibilities that exist when everyone's team is still undefeated.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty five NWSL season gets under way this weekend.
Speaker 1: Here's a quick team by team primer primer heading into
Speaker 1: the league's thirteen season. Somebody tell me primer primer, I've
Speaker 1: heard both, just once and for all. Okay, First up,
Speaker 1: we've got the Orlando Pride, who entered the season as
Speaker 1: the defending league champs and defending Shield winners. They dropped
Speaker 1: last Weekend's Challenge Cup to the Washington Spirit, but we've
Speaker 1: still got super high expectations for the Pride this year,
Speaker 1: as the team returned star forwards Barbara Banda and Marta,
Speaker 1: last year's NWSL Defender of the Year Emily SAMs and
Speaker 1: gm Hailey Carter, and head coach seb Hines. The least
Speaker 1: stable thing about this team the state it plays in,
Speaker 1: King Florida to the Washington Spirit, a team lucky enough
Speaker 1: to boast both Trinity Rodman and twenty twenty four Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year Croy Bethune, and that also managed to
Speaker 1: win the aforementioned Challenge Cup without either player, as Bethune
Speaker 1: is still rehabbing a meniscus injury while Rodman stayed on
Speaker 1: the bench due to a lingering back issue. The squad
Speaker 1: also added to its depth in the off season, meaning
Speaker 1: the target on this team's back is only likely to grow.
Speaker 1: And now that Trinity Rodman is on record saying it's
Speaker 1: not a matter of if, but when she'll go play
Speaker 1: overseas in her career, they better try to get some
Speaker 1: more winning in while she's around let's head over to
Speaker 1: Kansas City, where former US women's national team head coach
Speaker 1: vladco and Danovsky continues to show why he's one of
Speaker 1: the best at the club level. Kansas City is still
Speaker 1: likely to be the Temwachewinga Show. The twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: MVP and Golden Boot winner, signed a three year contract
Speaker 1: extension with the current this offseason. So while those three teams, Orlando,
Speaker 1: Washington and Kansas City seem to have just gotten stronger
Speaker 1: since last year, it was a much more chaotic offseason
Speaker 1: for a bunch of other clubs, and that includes Gotham FC,
Speaker 1: a team that saw a mass exodus of top players
Speaker 1: during the offseason, including Crystal Dunn, Jenna Niswanger, Yasmine, Ryan Delaney, Shean,
Speaker 1: and Lynn Biandolo formerly Lynn Williams. A total of eleven
Speaker 1: players left the squad, while an additional three retired. But
Speaker 1: Gotham also has plenty of talent returning, including US women's
Speaker 1: national team players Emily Sonnet, Tierna Davidson and Rose Level,
Speaker 1: so don't count out those batties yet.
Speaker 2: Also on Team Chaos.
Speaker 1: The San Diego Wave, whose twenty twenty four season was
Speaker 1: defined by allegations from former staff of a toxic workplace
Speaker 1: and the shocking firing of head coach Casey Stoney, who
Speaker 1: react simply was named head coach of the Canadian national team.
Speaker 1: The Wave also entered twenty twenty five with out star
Speaker 1: Naomi Germa, who broke the women's transfer fee record this
Speaker 1: offseason when she signed with Chelsea in the Women's Super League.
Speaker 1: Major upheavals seems to be the theme for the NWSL's
Speaker 1: two other California teams too. There continue to be a
Speaker 1: lot of questions surrounding BAYFC, both because of the hiring
Speaker 1: of Graham Abel who later resigned, as well as a
Speaker 1: newly reported investigation into the team's technical staff, including head
Speaker 1: coach Albertin Montoya. And the last CALLI team, Angel City,
Speaker 1: enters the season still lacking a permanent head coach. The
Speaker 1: club hired a new sporting director, Mark Parsons, but still
Speaker 1: has Sam Lady serving as head coach in an interim capacity,
Speaker 1: So no coach, but they did lock up the Thompson sisters,
Speaker 1: Alyssa and Giselle to multi year extensions in January. Both
Speaker 1: sisters were part of the recent US women's national team
Speaker 1: call ups for the she Beliefs Cup. A few states
Speaker 1: over from the California chaos, we find the Utah Royals
Speaker 1: and NWSL sophomore Ali Sentnore, who should be a bright
Speaker 1: spot for the squad that finished eleventh in the standings
Speaker 1: in its returned to the NWSL in twenty twenty since
Speaker 1: the conclusion of last season. Centner made her US women's
Speaker 1: national team debut in November and was named twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Four Young Player of the Year by US Soccer.
Speaker 1: If you want bangers, Centener is bangers only, don't blink.
Speaker 1: The North Carolina Courage also boast a young US women's
Speaker 1: national team star on the rise in Jaden Shaw, who
Speaker 1: joined the team in a trade from San Diego during
Speaker 1: the off season. North Carolina also managed to snag rookie
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Courtnall as the team's first signee in the post
Speaker 1: draft era. Courtnall has already made an impact for Team
Speaker 1: Canada at the youth level and is expected to bring
Speaker 1: a steadying presence to the Courage's back line.
Speaker 2: Moving on to the Houston Dash, a.
Speaker 1: Club that went shopping at the Gotham Store, snagging Yasmine
Speaker 1: Ryan and Delaney Shehan from their East Coast opponents this offseason.
Speaker 1: They also named a new head coach and for bris
Speaker 1: Katraw will also be keeping tabs on Houston's ownership status.
Speaker 1: It was reported earlier this year that the team's majority
Speaker 1: owner is exploring options to bring in additional investors or
Speaker 1: even sell the club entirely heading to the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1: Last year was a weird one for the Seattle rain
Speaker 1: with the normal study club missing the NWSL playoffs for
Speaker 1: the first time since twenty eighteen. The team did have
Speaker 1: a big get in the offseason, though, trading with Gotham
Speaker 1: for Lynn Biandolo to the Portland Thwards, where fans are
Speaker 1: likely feeling pretty uneasy after the athletic recently summed up
Speaker 1: the team's key performer as quote anyone who's available for
Speaker 1: selection end quote oof. That designation is thanks to lots
Speaker 1: of roster turnover since last season. Team is now without
Speaker 1: Christine Sinclair and Becky Sowerbrun, who both retired last season,
Speaker 1: and three of Portland's starters, Morgan Weaver, Marie Mueller, and
Speaker 1: Nicole Paine have been placed on the season ending injury list.
Speaker 1: Last up, the Chicago Red Star Excuse me, the Chicago Stars,
Speaker 1: where our biggest adjustment this season will undoubtedly be getting
Speaker 1: used to the team's new color neutral name.
Speaker 2: The biggest question mark for.
Speaker 1: The roster entering the year is how the squad will
Speaker 1: adjust to the absence of superstar forward male Swanson, who's
Speaker 1: been away from the team due to personal reasons, with
Speaker 1: no date set for return. We'll have plenty more on
Speaker 1: this squad coming up next. With goalkeeper Alyssa Nyer. I
Speaker 1: caught up with her last week. That conversation is next
Speaker 1: stick around Slices.
Speaker 2: Joining us now.
Speaker 1: She's the goalkeeper for the NWSL's Chicago Stars, the reigning
Speaker 1: US Soccer Female Player of the Year and FIFA Women's
Speaker 1: Goalkeeper of the Year, a World Cup champion and an
Speaker 1: Olympic Golden Bronze medalist, the first goalkeeper in women's soccer
Speaker 1: history to keep clean sheets in a World Cup final
Speaker 1: and an Olympic final. She's a proud nitny lyon, and
Speaker 1: she's everybody's uncle. It's Alyssa Mayer. Hi, Melissa, Hi, ser
Speaker 1: so glad to have you on the show. It's kind
Speaker 1: of hard to believe that the start of the NWSL
Speaker 1: season is already here. I imagined for you, in particular
Speaker 1: because your off season was entirely weddings.
Speaker 3: It was, which was a lot of fun, fat to
Speaker 3: celebrate with a lot of teammates, a lot of friends.
Speaker 3: So definitely had a good offseason, but went quick, that's
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: I feel like you went to every single women's soccer
Speaker 1: wedding this offseason.
Speaker 2: Did you hit all of them? Or was there a
Speaker 2: single one you weren't invited to?
Speaker 3: I hit most that I played with, I would say,
Speaker 3: I think there were some additional ones of other players
Speaker 3: that I haven't had the opportunity to play with. But
Speaker 3: I think anybody that I would have been teammates with,
Speaker 3: I was at their wedding, which was which was awesome.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was kind of nice timing too, Like
Speaker 1: right after you announce your stepping away from the international game,
Speaker 1: you get this series of celebrations in your honor where
Speaker 1: you get to hang out with all the people that
Speaker 1: you might miss.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, honestly, I can't believe it really worked
Speaker 3: out that I was able to like physically beat at
Speaker 3: all of them. They spaced it out well enough that
Speaker 3: nothing actually overlapped, which was which was great for me.
Speaker 3: I didn't have to make any decisions and have to
Speaker 3: choose between people because that would have had been the
Speaker 3: worst I was able to hit them all.
Speaker 2: It was like eight and thirty two days or.
Speaker 3: Something six six and twenty nine or thirty.
Speaker 2: That's insane.
Speaker 1: That's just the travel and the different outfits alone. Did
Speaker 1: you double up any outfits?
Speaker 3: Definitely doubled up comfits.
Speaker 2: Necessary.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you spent your off season going to
Speaker 1: weddings and now you're you gotta play soccer. What are
Speaker 1: you most excited about at the start of the Star season.
Speaker 3: I think just you know, the new the start of
Speaker 3: any new season is always exciting. New team, got some
Speaker 3: fresh faces, a lot of returning familiar faces, got some
Speaker 3: players coming back from injury that excited to get back
Speaker 3: onto the field. You know, to be able to have
Speaker 3: the same coaching staff that we had last year and
Speaker 3: build off of what I felt like was a pretty
Speaker 3: successful season for us last year and obviously a disappointing
Speaker 3: way to to lose and go out, but you know,
Speaker 3: get to go right back to Orlando where it ended
Speaker 3: last year to play the same team. You know, we've
Speaker 3: we've been working hard this this preseason to get ready
Speaker 3: and prepared, and I think now is the you know
Speaker 3: you you get excited about what's to come for the
Speaker 3: season and what we're gonna be able to put together
Speaker 3: and compete on the field and hopefully get some results
Speaker 3: and get ourselves back into a playoffs.
Speaker 1: You mentioned a lot of younger players on the squad.
Speaker 1: How have you grown as a leader in your years
Speaker 1: with the team. I was listening to Tieranna Davidson, your
Speaker 1: former teammate, our buddy Tierna on sam Uis's Pot and
Speaker 1: she talked about having to be intentional about not only
Speaker 1: taking in as she learned how to be a professional player,
Speaker 1: but making the pivot to pushing out and what she
Speaker 1: was giving back to the players around her as a veteran,
Speaker 1: That's sort of something that might core organically with age
Speaker 1: and time in the league, but also might be something
Speaker 1: you have to really think about in order to be
Speaker 1: a leader. How have you seen yourself grow because you've
Speaker 1: been with this team for a long time now your
Speaker 1: hands down the vet that is running the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's you know, I've always been I've
Speaker 3: never necessarily been the most the most vocal, the most
Speaker 3: you know, high energy, the most in your face kind
Speaker 3: of leader. I've I've always been more of the lead
Speaker 3: by example, show show up and do my job. And
Speaker 3: you know, but I think even within that, especially the
Speaker 3: last couple of years, you know, I've I've had a
Speaker 3: lot of different experiences over my career. I've had every up,
Speaker 3: every down, every success, every failure, and I think, you
Speaker 3: know it, I think it's my job as as a
Speaker 3: leader and a veteran to be approachable, to be that
Speaker 3: person that is, you know, I may not be the
Speaker 3: one just initiating and going in and saying something right away,
Speaker 3: but hopefully I can be approachable enough that young ones
Speaker 3: feel comfortable to ask questions, to learn through my experiences
Speaker 3: and kind of pick my brain about different things, and
Speaker 3: see how I carry myself, and see what I do
Speaker 3: in a training session, how I recover off the field,
Speaker 3: and what that looks like. And I think I had
Speaker 3: the luxury of having so many great veteran players that
Speaker 3: I got to learn from and watch. And I think
Speaker 3: the beauty of having or the benefit of having those
Speaker 3: veteran players is they take on such a burden of
Speaker 3: a lot of the media, a lot of the talking,
Speaker 3: a lot of conversations with coaches and gms, and a
Speaker 3: lot of the off field stuff that when I was
Speaker 3: a younger player, whether it was professionally or even with
Speaker 3: the national team, my only job was just to keep
Speaker 3: the ball out of the back of the net. That
Speaker 3: was my sole focus, the only thing I had to do.
Speaker 3: And I don't think I realized until I got a
Speaker 3: little bit older. And that naturally becomes your role as
Speaker 3: you play in a second and a third Orld Cup,
Speaker 3: or second or third Olympics, when it's now going into
Speaker 3: I don't even know what season this is all. I
Speaker 3: know it's ten with Chicago, but some are fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
Speaker 3: I lost track. But you know, you just naturally take
Speaker 3: on those responsibilities. And I think the intentionality that Tierne
Speaker 3: is probably talking about as well is that connection with teammates.
Speaker 3: Are that approachability or making yourself available to have some
Speaker 3: of those conversations.
Speaker 1: It feels like this is an obvious answer based on
Speaker 1: the number of weddings you were invited to, But is
Speaker 1: it difficult at all as a goalkeeper to integrate yourself
Speaker 1: with the rest of the team.
Speaker 2: It feels very siloed.
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think there's there's so much
Speaker 3: opportunity off the field anytime you traveled. You know, we
Speaker 3: just got back from a preseason trip. We were in
Speaker 3: Florida for two weeks. And obviously anytime you're away with
Speaker 3: the team and traveling and you know in and out
Speaker 3: of you know, locker rooms and meals and anything like that.
Speaker 3: Yet in training and in different things like that, we're
Speaker 3: probably a little bit more isolated as goalkeepers. But there's
Speaker 3: enough opportunity within within travel and just every day practice
Speaker 3: and training room and locker room experience that you can
Speaker 3: kind of make those connections.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of changes with the Stars, not just
Speaker 1: the name. I'm going to keep saying Red Stars by mistake,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna stick with it. So a lot of
Speaker 1: changes with the Stars in recent years, including new ownership.
Speaker 1: Have you had an interest in or have you already
Speaker 1: pursued connections with the new front office and staff and
Speaker 1: owners to try to figure out how you can help
Speaker 1: them promote and support the team make this transition from
Speaker 1: a previous iteration to what it looks like going forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think my biggest rule has been just letting
Speaker 3: them know that, you know, I want to be part
Speaker 3: of the changes in the future, and I want to
Speaker 3: be part of you know, making this place better for
Speaker 3: not just players but staff and you know, from a
Speaker 3: whole organization. So I think where I've been able to
Speaker 3: kind of lend my experience is lending my experience. I
Speaker 3: think that's you don't know what you don't know, and
Speaker 3: I know nothing about what it takes to you know,
Speaker 3: own a club or run a club or an organize,
Speaker 3: but I have the lived experience. I know what the
Speaker 3: day to day looks like. I've seen what works and
Speaker 3: what doesn't work. I've seen what builds trust and what
Speaker 3: tears down trust. And I think I've been able to
Speaker 3: develop a good relationship with you know, both Lauren and Karen,
Speaker 3: our president. And doesn't mean we always agree on everything,
Speaker 3: but I think there's we've always had very healthy conversations
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of mutual respect there of we
Speaker 3: have these conversations. Sometimes they say no, sorry, we can't
Speaker 3: do that. Here's why, and I respect that. I understand that.
Speaker 3: And then there's other things that they go, that's great,
Speaker 3: we can definitely incorporate that. We can add that in.
Speaker 3: So I think just being able to have that communication
Speaker 3: and that mutual respect, again, it's just being able to
Speaker 3: share what my lived experience has been over the last
Speaker 3: you know, fifteen years, and then allow them to use
Speaker 3: their area of expertise of you know what that looks
Speaker 3: like from a business standpoint or from a club organization standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've already seen some really cool examples of Laura
Speaker 1: Ricketts and her or background affecting the team, including that
Speaker 1: incredible game at Wrigley Field. You know, some of the
Speaker 1: marketing ideas around the team have changed as results of
Speaker 1: them already having this established team in the Chicago Cubs
Speaker 1: that she also is an owner of here in the city.
Speaker 1: I had a really illuminating conversation with Lauren Holliday back
Speaker 1: at the NWSL Championship weekend, and one of the things
Speaker 1: we talked about was her being a player for so
Speaker 1: long and seeing these different iterations of pro leagues and
Speaker 1: then wanting to get on the ownership side, and my
Speaker 1: coming from the media side entering the ownership side. It
Speaker 1: benefits people to come from different spaces and come together
Speaker 1: and try to figure out what works, what doesn't, and
Speaker 1: what's needed, especially when it's a player activating on the
Speaker 1: ownership side and being able to really be a part
Speaker 1: of the decision making because not only then do you understand, oh,
Speaker 1: it's way more expensive to do this thing that we've
Speaker 1: been asking for than we thought, and so we think
Speaker 1: they're just being jerks, but it's really not feasible at
Speaker 1: this point for that to happen. But also being able
Speaker 1: to then tell them, Okay, if we can't have this,
Speaker 1: this is actually way more important to us, and you're
Speaker 1: spending a ton over here and our experience is way
Speaker 1: more benefited by you spending over here. It feels like
Speaker 1: there should almost always be a player liaison in the
Speaker 1: front office. Is that too much to ask of a
Speaker 1: player in the middle of a season, you think.
Speaker 3: I think maybe in the middle of a season. I
Speaker 3: think a lot of that stuff comes in an off
Speaker 3: season as you're building. But I think, again, it doesn't
Speaker 3: need to be necessarily a you know, let's meet weekly,
Speaker 3: let's meet every two weeks and kind of catch up.
Speaker 3: But I think again, building the relationships and having that
Speaker 3: mutual trust of like, hey, just picking up a phone
Speaker 3: and they can call me at any point in the season.
Speaker 3: I'm more than willing to and want to have the country.
Speaker 3: I love that they're willing and they want to hear
Speaker 3: from me. That shows me a lot of that. They
Speaker 3: want to get this right, they want to do the
Speaker 3: best thing. And I think where that player liaison comes
Speaker 3: in is availability as well. And it's that conversation that
Speaker 3: they're like, hey, sorry, I don't have thirty minutes right now,
Speaker 3: we're about to get out of the bus, or hey, like,
Speaker 3: we've got a big game coming up, can we chat
Speaker 3: next week? And there's always been that communication. I think
Speaker 3: what I am able to share with them, and to
Speaker 3: their credit, what they've also been able to share with me,
Speaker 3: is the why behind certain decisions. Yeah, you know, when
Speaker 3: I go and I say, hey, this is you know,
Speaker 3: we don't want to travel or this food or whatever,
Speaker 3: is actually like, okay, here's why that is what it
Speaker 3: is not just like the blanket of you know, because
Speaker 3: if you again, you don't know what you don't know,
Speaker 3: so I can see sometimes the light bulb go off
Speaker 3: when it's uh, that does make a lot more sense.
Speaker 3: You kind of put it like that, like I never
Speaker 3: really thought about it.
Speaker 2: That communication helps.
Speaker 3: And again they do the same thing like, hey, well
Speaker 3: we've got a budget, We've got dollars over here, We've
Speaker 3: got dollars over here, And I'm a logical person I
Speaker 3: can under like, okay, I can understand that. I can
Speaker 3: see where that makes more sense to me than you
Speaker 3: just saying no or you just say like we're not
Speaker 3: doing that. So and it all comes back to that,
Speaker 3: that communication and that building and continuing to build levels
Speaker 3: of trust and respect and just keeping the dialogue going.
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, we all
Speaker 3: want the same thing. We want this club to be successful.
Speaker 3: We want this club to be, you know, a place
Speaker 3: that players and coaches and staff want to want to
Speaker 3: come to, want to be at. We want to build
Speaker 3: you know, that culture within an organization that is a
Speaker 3: place that people want to be. And in that regard,
Speaker 3: we're all very much aligned, which helps kind of tick
Speaker 3: towards the end goals of from an organizational standpoint.
Speaker 1: Do you think you'll approach this n WSL season differently
Speaker 1: knowing that you don't have national team duties.
Speaker 3: I think I've always been pretty good throughout my career
Speaker 3: of kind of you know, keeping everything compartmentalized, compartmentalized, thank you, compartmentalizing.
Speaker 3: And when I've when I've been here, I've been here
Speaker 3: and focused on on you know, Chicago and the Red Stars,
Speaker 3: and when I've been gone. I've been focused on, you know,
Speaker 3: whether it was a friendly or a tournament, things like that.
Speaker 3: Obviously it always does overlap, just in terms of training
Speaker 3: or different things and wanting to stay in form and
Speaker 3: everything else like that up, but I think it's going
Speaker 3: to be I'm excited to kind of just be here
Speaker 3: one singular focus, not have It's gonna be nice to
Speaker 3: have some extra off days. I haven't had those. Usually
Speaker 3: I'm playing a game and then flying right into camp.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to have a little bit more time
Speaker 3: here kind of with its players, with the team in Chicago,
Speaker 3: to enjoy Chicago summer, which I don't often get to do. So.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm excited again just to build off of,
Speaker 3: you know, where we were last year and how we finished,
Speaker 3: and hopefully keep growing.
Speaker 1: You announced your international retirement on November twenty fifth. You
Speaker 1: played your final two games for the US women's national
Speaker 1: team on the thirtieth and then December third, both of
Speaker 1: them in the Netherlands. It felt very illicit a or
Speaker 1: to not give you, as fans, a chance to say
Speaker 1: goodbye on home soil. It felt like you were like,
Speaker 1: let me just slip on out of here.
Speaker 2: What was that intentional.
Speaker 3: I think the intentionality behind it was keeping it clean.
Speaker 3: Is just like at the end of the year, it
Speaker 3: was not you know, let me avoid the us, let
Speaker 3: me avoid things like that.
Speaker 1: I think it shows of affection and love and praise
Speaker 1: and adoration from everyway.
Speaker 3: It just felt clean. It felt like the most I
Speaker 3: wanted to finish the year. Emma and I had had
Speaker 3: the conversation in when we had those three games. I
Speaker 3: think it was October. I think we had the initial
Speaker 3: conversation in Austin of you know, this is what I'm
Speaker 3: thinking for next year. You know, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 3: Where are you going? Where do you see me? Where
Speaker 3: do you see the team going? And it was a
Speaker 3: good conversation. I think where we ended up leaving it
Speaker 3: was okay, yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty settled on this
Speaker 3: is what this is what my plan is. You know,
Speaker 3: I would like to finish the year with the team.
Speaker 3: I would like to see it through. But if you
Speaker 3: are you know, I'm telling you I'm looking to walk
Speaker 3: away and move on. If this, if this needs through
Speaker 3: the end here in October, then I respect that too.
Speaker 3: If you need to get other players game and kind
Speaker 3: of build, and I think we had the mutual kind
Speaker 3: of understanding of it all. We want to finish the
Speaker 3: year we've been We've had a good year together with
Speaker 3: the team. We've had a strong year with the team.
Speaker 3: We knew we were going in to play two great
Speaker 3: opponents in England and the Netherlands, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: have I was grateful that she gave me the opportunity
Speaker 3: to to play in those games and finish my time
Speaker 3: with the team on a high note. But no, it
Speaker 3: was not. There was intentionality in the timing of the
Speaker 3: time of the year, but not in terms of you know,
Speaker 3: avoiding the US or anything like that.
Speaker 2: We'll get to you either way.
Speaker 1: They'll have a they'll have a giant celebration for you,
Speaker 1: and you'll have to sit in all the love that
Speaker 1: people have for you.
Speaker 3: I still felt a lot of love, that's for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's now there feel very special. The you know, the
Speaker 3: outpouring of support and love. I think it was a
Speaker 3: bit overwhelming, for sure. It was more overwhelming than I expected,
Speaker 3: but there was There was a lot of emotion, for sure.
Speaker 3: But it made me feel, you know, very very special
Speaker 3: in that in that week, and I was grateful for
Speaker 3: all of the love.
Speaker 1: I got to do some like science or research on
Speaker 1: why it's so uncomfortable to like take in compliments and
Speaker 1: appreciation because I love attention and I love compliments, but
Speaker 1: even I don't like them directly in front of me.
Speaker 1: I want to like read about them later when someone
Speaker 1: says something nice about it. It's like very uncomfortable to
Speaker 1: be in the moment and have people shower you. There's
Speaker 1: got to be some good research on that. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the moment that you decided to retire? I mean
Speaker 1: obviously when you're on an international team and you're looking ahead,
Speaker 1: you're looking at what's the Olympic cycle, what's the World
Speaker 1: Cup cycle? So it's not just the right now like
Speaker 1: it is for so many other sports. It's the what's
Speaker 1: the next big thing? What age will I be? What
Speaker 1: will the team look like? Was it a struggle or
Speaker 1: was it just logistical for you?
Speaker 3: I think the struggle comes from like the emotional side
Speaker 3: of it. It's like what like to actually follow I
Speaker 3: think in your mind like it makes sense certain things
Speaker 3: and timing wise, but then to actually make the decision,
Speaker 3: follow through on the decision, and you start making a
Speaker 3: is this the right decision? Is it and then it's like,
Speaker 3: I think that emotional side of that makes it challenging.
Speaker 3: I think for me, if I'm being really, really honest,
Speaker 3: I probably knew in January that it was at least
Speaker 3: most likely the end. And I think that's obviously hard
Speaker 3: to say because at that point I had no idea
Speaker 3: even if I was on the Olympic roster, if I
Speaker 3: was playing as the starter at the Olympics, if I
Speaker 3: was on the roster, and kind of you know, if
Speaker 3: the Olympics go a different way, the decision may not
Speaker 3: even have been mine once I was. So I think
Speaker 3: there's obviously so many different things that went into play
Speaker 3: throughout the whole year. But I think my mindset going
Speaker 3: into January into the Gold Cup was I think it
Speaker 3: was like this settled feeling of like this it felt
Speaker 3: like the last year. It felt like, you know, let
Speaker 3: me take everything in a little bit extra, let me
Speaker 3: try to, you know, soak it all in. This could
Speaker 3: be And I think we all have that once we
Speaker 3: start getting older. It's something I've always talked to to
Speaker 3: Becky about into other Yeah, I think once you start
Speaker 3: reaching i mean even the last few years, every time
Speaker 3: you go into not even just any major tournament, but
Speaker 3: any game you're like, this could be it. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's that's the life of sports. You never really know
Speaker 3: when the end is the end. And I think for
Speaker 3: me that's something that is not lost on me that
Speaker 3: I got to kind of control the ending of it,
Speaker 3: which is not normal, it's not common, but I think
Speaker 3: it was. It was very much of you could, I could,
Speaker 3: I could feel it coming, a little bit more of
Speaker 3: let me, let me really take take all this in
Speaker 3: and it's it's probably going to be it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean also, not just to get to sort of
Speaker 1: dictate when the international part of your career ended, but
Speaker 1: to go out on top as a champion in your
Speaker 1: final major international tournament is just like storybook stuff.
Speaker 2: It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that it's over, let's go back to the beginning,
Speaker 1: and I want to know what you're nerves were, like
Speaker 1: succeeding Brianna Scurry and Hope Solo, Like, that's unreal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I it's probably too hard to put
Speaker 3: into words the actual nerves behind it. I think over
Speaker 3: the years I probably tried to cover it as best
Speaker 3: I could. I think it's it's funny everybody thinks, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm always so hard and like this game face and
Speaker 3: serious and honestly, I'm just trying not to throw up.
Speaker 3: I was trying to read. I'm trying to like keep
Speaker 3: my way of like I'm I'm a very processed, driven person,
Speaker 3: a very intentional behind everything that I do. I'm very
Speaker 3: focused on preparation, and for me, that was how I
Speaker 3: was able to try to control a lot of those
Speaker 3: those nerves and the anxiousness that came with, you know,
Speaker 3: following two legends of the game, not just for the
Speaker 3: US but international like in the world. And I think
Speaker 3: think where I benefited was I had the time before
Speaker 3: I was the starter to earn and build that trust
Speaker 3: with my teammates. They got to see the work that
Speaker 3: I put in in training every day, in training camps,
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe not necessarily on the field in
Speaker 3: a game, but in eleven v eleven scrimmages or in
Speaker 3: those little moments that the public doesn't see, but the
Speaker 3: coaches and my teammates were able to get a sense
Speaker 3: of who I was as a as a person, as
Speaker 3: a teammate, as a player, so that when I was
Speaker 3: stepping on the field, you know, although I was very
Speaker 3: nervous very anxious. You know, I always wanted to succeed
Speaker 3: for you know, you feel like when you're part of
Speaker 3: a team, you don't want to let the people around
Speaker 3: you down. I think that was always my biggest thing,
Speaker 3: was more as a goalkeeper. It's like, you know, if
Speaker 3: I let in a goal, I'm like, oh gosh, I
Speaker 3: let the whole I let the whole team down. And
Speaker 3: what I started learning was I was the only person
Speaker 3: that thought that about myself. You know, my teammates never
Speaker 3: ever look back at me. And if I let in
Speaker 3: a bad goal, which inevitably we all do, or make
Speaker 3: a mistake, I never got the eye rolls. I never
Speaker 3: got yelled at. I never got any of that. It
Speaker 3: was like, all right, we're good. Like the team was
Speaker 3: always the team, and that always gave me so much
Speaker 3: confidence going into any game, you know, even in in tournaments,
Speaker 3: taking everything one game at a time and just again
Speaker 3: going back to the leadership, the stuff that we were
Speaker 3: talking about before is I had incredible teammates and leaders
Speaker 3: on the field with me that they made it. They
Speaker 3: made it so clear that my only job was to
Speaker 3: be me. I just had to play. I just had
Speaker 3: to be a goalkeeper. They were going to take care
Speaker 3: of all the rest. They were going to make it
Speaker 3: so that I didn't have to worry about and focus
Speaker 3: on any other thing other than my job. And hopefully
Speaker 3: now I was able to see that, I was able
Speaker 3: to learn from that, and that's not what I take
Speaker 3: as my role, especially here in Chicago and towards the
Speaker 3: later stages of the national team as well. But you know,
Speaker 3: take that burden from the younger players, because I was
Speaker 3: incredibly grateful for it, because I already had all the
Speaker 3: expectations from you know, following behind Hope and you know
Speaker 3: what that looked like, and the expectations that come with
Speaker 3: being the US goalkeeper. You know, that's where there's a
Speaker 3: lot of high expectations. I have high expectations for myself
Speaker 3: as well, but having such incredible teammates and coaches kind
Speaker 3: of very much helped me and my support system off
Speaker 3: the field. Honestly, my family's been incredible. You know, they've
Speaker 3: been there with me since day one. So there's always
Speaker 3: going to be the nerves, that's just how you can
Speaker 3: channel them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: life lessons in there outside of sport for people who
Speaker 1: carry the weight and feel like everything is dependent on them.
Speaker 1: If they fail, they're failing everyone. And if they ever
Speaker 1: actually stepped back, they would understand the support system that
Speaker 1: they have and how not everyone's looking at them all
Speaker 1: the time to fix everything.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the seriousness that was really just being scared shitless?
Speaker 3: Do you remember secrets out?
Speaker 2: It's right? Do you remember who actually up with the
Speaker 2: nickname Uncle?
Speaker 3: I think it was Steph McCaffrey here in Minneasgo.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us about being Uncle nare?
Speaker 3: It's funny everyone's really died out. I always hated this guy.
Speaker 3: I always hated this this nickname, but somehow it stuck. No,
Speaker 3: I think Steph kind of created it because it was
Speaker 3: always people wuld always just call me to come help
Speaker 3: them do stuff I had, Like they would have a
Speaker 3: flat tire, I would have an air pump in my car,
Speaker 3: battery like car batteries. I had stuff to hang pictures
Speaker 3: on walls. So I think I just became the person
Speaker 3: that people would always call it. They knew i'd pick
Speaker 3: up the phone and come help them do whatever they
Speaker 3: needed done. So it is an endearing nickname, so I'll
Speaker 3: own it. But yes, yeah, it's can't seem to get
Speaker 3: away from it.
Speaker 1: Honestly, uncle, there is better than what you would get
Speaker 1: if this were happening today, which would definitely be big
Speaker 1: Midwest dad energy. That's what we say about like women
Speaker 1: who could fix everything and are around all the time
Speaker 1: at the ready.
Speaker 2: So I like, uncle better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have the goalies in the current nation can't reach out
Speaker 1: to for guidance or advice? I know you've worked with
Speaker 1: some in camp previously, but especially understanding now that it's
Speaker 1: their turn to step up?
Speaker 2: Have they been calling you up and asking for help?
Speaker 2: Not really?
Speaker 3: And too, I didn't really. I mean I'll check in after,
Speaker 3: you know, I'll send a text after a game when ie,
Speaker 3: you know, good game, Different things like that. I think
Speaker 3: I tried to make it clear what I was leaving of, like, hey,
Speaker 3: if you ever do need anything, like I'm around, I'm here,
Speaker 3: don't hesitate to reach out. But I actually think it's
Speaker 3: it's kind of a good thing. They've all got each other,
Speaker 3: they've got their own thing. They've got a great coach
Speaker 3: in Stewart and what that looks like. I think now
Speaker 3: that the season is starting and I'll be competing against
Speaker 3: a lot of them, well, I'm sure we'll catch up,
Speaker 3: you know, on the field, you grab a couple of
Speaker 3: coffee or even just chat after the game and whatnot.
Speaker 3: So but no, not necessarily reaching out a ton, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm excited to see I'm excited to see where it goes,
Speaker 3: who steps up, and you know, I think the competition
Speaker 3: is going to be great than competition. I always benefited
Speaker 3: from having great competition with you know, with Ashland and
Speaker 3: Ad and Jane and we were always coming up. It was,
Speaker 3: you know, Ash and I were competing the whole time.
Speaker 3: As soon as you know, Hope was out. So I
Speaker 3: think to have that healthy competition where you're supportive but
Speaker 3: also everybody wants to be on the field, but building
Speaker 3: that dynamic, building that that support as well as the
Speaker 3: competitiveness goes a long way in what the goalkeeper that's
Speaker 3: on the field is able to do for the team.
Speaker 1: I think most importantly, have you taught your successors how
Speaker 1: to be penalty kick stoppers and shooters.
Speaker 3: Everyone's got their own style, so I try not to
Speaker 3: mess with it. You know that's everyone's I want you
Speaker 3: to mess with it.
Speaker 2: I want to have your style. You're the ones you
Speaker 2: want who gets it done like that.
Speaker 3: As long as they can make the saves. And you
Speaker 3: know everyone's got their process. So again, I think it's
Speaker 3: it's important to be confident with what you're doing when
Speaker 3: you're stepping between between the posts and whether to shootout
Speaker 3: or just in a game. So I think that process
Speaker 3: of even like discover and finding what your process and
Speaker 3: what your routine is will give you that confidence that
Speaker 3: you need in those moments.
Speaker 2: But what about taking the kicks?
Speaker 1: Is it unrealistic to expect your successors to be able
Speaker 1: to bury the shots too?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think it's unrealistic. I think you know,
Speaker 3: we train it the same way that the field players do,
Speaker 3: especially when it comes into a tournament. Again, you never
Speaker 3: know when your number is gonna get when you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to step up. It may not be in the
Speaker 3: top five, but I've seen shootouts go all the way
Speaker 3: through eleven before, where you've got to be ready, and
Speaker 3: we always have been. I think it now just because
Speaker 3: I shot a little bit higher in the order. But
Speaker 3: you know, there was nothing different in this tournament in
Speaker 3: the preparation than any other ones other than where coaches
Speaker 3: selected kickers to take it. So again, everyone's got there.
Speaker 3: We make a big deal about everyone owning their process
Speaker 3: and finding what works for them, and I would never
Speaker 3: want to impart what I do on on anybody else.
Speaker 3: It's important that you know, you can kind of make
Speaker 3: it your own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's just between that Conka
Speaker 1: caf W Gold Cup semi final and then the She
Speaker 1: Believes Cup game that happened, you know, in March and April,
Speaker 1: so back to back. These moments of you making three
Speaker 1: penalty saves in a shootout and then burying your own
Speaker 1: shot became the stuff of legend. And now I think
Speaker 1: we have very high expectations for whoever succeeds you that
Speaker 1: they will also be able to do that unbelievable thing.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the She Believes, how was it watching as
Speaker 2: a fan?
Speaker 1: This was your first kind of tournament with the trophy
Speaker 1: that you weren't back there.
Speaker 3: It was It was good. I mean, it was definitely
Speaker 3: weird for sure to watch, but it was it was
Speaker 3: nice to be a spectator to see where, you know,
Speaker 3: the team team was, you know, kind of in their
Speaker 3: process of different things. I think it was a great
Speaker 3: opportunity for a young group obviously missing a number of
Speaker 3: regulars as well, but again, it's a great opportunity in
Speaker 3: this three year build till the next World Cup for
Speaker 3: Emma and the coaches to really start to evaluate and
Speaker 3: to see in a lot of those players that got
Speaker 3: those chances have been consistently playing well and in the
Speaker 3: league and in their clubs environments, so to see somebody
Speaker 3: on an international level is important. So to me, it was.
Speaker 3: It was fun to watch. It was. I was definitely
Speaker 3: cheering when when we scored some goals and you had,
Speaker 3: But you know, it's nice to be a fan. No tears,
Speaker 3: No tears, Actually not that that's that surprising. I'm not
Speaker 3: a big crier, but they're not surprising.
Speaker 1: Oh cool, Okay, last question, toughest question, the three strikers
Speaker 1: you are most dreading seeing coming your way this NWSL season.
Speaker 3: I don't like the phrasing of most dreaded.
Speaker 2: Okays way, what if you won?
Speaker 1: No defender between you and them.
Speaker 3: I mean, we definitely have a big challenge coming up
Speaker 3: in our first week playing against Barbara Banda, so we're
Speaker 3: gonna raining. That's gonna be a tough, tough challenge for us,
Speaker 3: but we obviously saw what she could do, not only
Speaker 3: against us last year, but the rest of the league.
Speaker 3: So she's definitely high on that list. But we're preparing,
Speaker 3: We'll be ready for whatever she can throw at us.
Speaker 3: Hopefully try to keep her you know, subdued a little
Speaker 3: bit quieter. But gosh, it's hard to pick three. There's
Speaker 3: so many good attacking players in this league. I think
Speaker 3: I feel like every team has like not just one,
Speaker 3: but a second. If you take out the main one,
Speaker 3: it's like you get hit with the double punch. But
Speaker 3: but yeah, I mean, obviously we said we're not gonna
Speaker 3: play against Sophia Wilson this year necessarily great. Great, Yeah,
Speaker 3: she would definitely have been and you yeah, great, great, congrats.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy for you know, her and Michael so,
Speaker 3: but yeah, she would have been high up on that list. Obviously,
Speaker 3: trend always it's good to see her, to see her
Speaker 3: back in and she's always exciting, always has that flare,
Speaker 3: obviously chewinga reigning MVP. Always got to know where she is.
Speaker 3: You know, she can hit you with the speed, she
Speaker 3: can hit you with just you know, regular shots. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, Ali's yeah, you know, she's I know, she's
Speaker 3: she's been fun to watch kind of elevate that game.
Speaker 3: So I'm sure I'm I'm missing some off the top
Speaker 3: of my head that we're going to be impactful, but
Speaker 3: but no, I think that's That's one of the best
Speaker 3: parts about this league is I think it's the most
Speaker 3: competitive league in the world. I think every single week
Speaker 3: you're you're playing against high quality opponents that you have
Speaker 3: to show them the utmost respect and and through preparation
Speaker 3: and everything else, get ready for him and put your
Speaker 3: best foot forward. But you can never let up in
Speaker 3: this league. You always got to be on your front
Speaker 3: foot and ready. But I think it's exciting, it'll be
Speaker 3: it'll be fun.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it's already here.
Speaker 1: We're so excited for the season for all the Stars games.
Speaker 1: I almost had red Stars all the Stars games, but
Speaker 1: especially another doubleheader with the Fire at Soldier Field, which
Speaker 1: is always a blast, So so much look forward to.
Speaker 1: Unless I know you're super busy with the season starting.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for giving us this time.
Speaker 3: Of course, Thanks.
Speaker 1: Sarah, Thanks so much to a less. I always love
Speaker 1: talking to her and I'm so glad we get a
Speaker 1: little more time to watch her play. She's one of
Speaker 1: the all time greats. Speaking up for those of you
Speaker 1: Slices in the Chicago area. Come cheer on the Stars
Speaker 1: at their home opener Sunday, March twenty third, when they
Speaker 1: take on the Houston Dash at two pm Central. We'll
Speaker 1: include a link in the show notes to give you
Speaker 1: a twenty five percent off discount on tickets. We have
Speaker 1: to take another break when we come back. A final
Speaker 1: wrap up of my magical weekend in Austin. Welcome back Slices.
Speaker 1: As you heard in the show intro, I am hanging
Speaker 1: on by a thread after spending twenty out of twenty
Speaker 1: two days on the road, and I capped it all
Speaker 1: off with the magical iHeart events at south By Southwest
Speaker 1: in Austin. I told you about some of the weekend already.
Speaker 1: But Sunday night there was this gorgeous dinner with a
Speaker 1: live performance from Matt Quinn of Mountjoy, which happens to
Speaker 1: be one of my favorite bands, and he happens to
Speaker 1: be a friend of mine. It was total serendipity that
Speaker 1: he was booked and they ended up having me interview
Speaker 1: him before he performed for everyone under this like big
Speaker 1: gorgeous tree at the Hotel Saint Cecilia.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty magical, so I'm gonna post some videos
Speaker 1: of the show on my Instagram for those who love
Speaker 1: Mountjoy and want to hear or I guess those also
Speaker 1: that don't yet know that they will love Mountjoy.
Speaker 2: It was a blast. And then the next day was.
Speaker 1: The big finale of the trip, which was the iHeart
Speaker 1: Podcast Awards, where I got to present an award with
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints Defense event Cam Jordan, and I received
Speaker 1: the Icon Award for.
Speaker 2: Social Impact, which was very cool.
Speaker 1: You could take a listen to my acceptance speech and
Speaker 1: you'll hear that the guy introducing me and handing me
Speaker 1: the trophy is none other than Ed Helm's of The Office,
Speaker 1: The Hangover, and the Snaffoo podcast right here on iHeart Here.
Speaker 2: It is cool.
Speaker 4: Affecting this not only because there were no othern amnies,
Speaker 4: but they did tell me the advance, so and I'm
Speaker 4: on a board usually goes to someone that's kind of old,
Speaker 4: but I won't take bets to that. I have been
Speaker 4: at the women's sports game for quite some time, and
Speaker 4: while it took a couple extra years, a couple extra
Speaker 4: decades actually than most of us were hoping, sport's don't
Speaker 4: really thrilling to see the interested women's sports Explode, and
Speaker 4: I'm so glad that.
Speaker 5: I had trusted my veteran voice in this space to
Speaker 5: host the first and only daily women's sports podcast on
Speaker 5: any major platform.
Speaker 4: And I want to think I heard for divings the
Speaker 4: women's sports face with more than just my show Good
Speaker 4: Game with their Spade, but also with an entire I
Speaker 4: heard Women's Sports Audio Network and I'm every way my
Speaker 4: thrice daily women's sports updates on every single one of
Speaker 4: their five hundred radio stations nationwide.
Speaker 1: Does sports weather traffic means women's sports too? Right?
Speaker 4: And also make sure I ask my producers Misha, Alex
Speaker 4: and Emily for helping make the show what it is.
Speaker 3: A Good Game is more than just a show.
Speaker 4: It's a community. And I promise once you dive in
Speaker 4: and you learn.
Speaker 1: The stars, states, stats.
Speaker 4: And stories of women's sports, just like you know in
Speaker 4: men's sports, you are going to be hooked. So we
Speaker 4: will not shame you for not getting.
Speaker 5: On the bad wagon when we told you the first time,
Speaker 5: or the second or the third.
Speaker 4: We will have humanity for being like We will just
Speaker 4: tell you to hop on the bandwagon now and become
Speaker 4: an orange slice, which is part of our community and
Speaker 4: joined us because even though.
Speaker 1: We've been here for a long time, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: we're still just getting started.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 1: So that was especially cool because I've been sent Ed's
Speaker 1: memed face no fewer than five hundred times because his
Speaker 1: character on the Office went to Cornell ever heard of it?
Speaker 1: And we got to hang out a few times over
Speaker 1: the weekend, And honestly, he absolutely made my day when
Speaker 1: I saw this interview pop up on my Instagram with
Speaker 1: me tagged in it. So it's a reporter from ACL
Speaker 1: Live talking to him on the red carpet before the
Speaker 1: award show.
Speaker 4: I got one question for you out of anybody in
Speaker 4: the podcast where all, who would you want to be
Speaker 4: trapped in an elevator? Way?
Speaker 1: You know, Sarah Spain the coolest.
Speaker 2: We just talked to her.
Speaker 1: She's so cool, She's so cool. Yeah, I just got
Speaker 1: to know her this weekend a little bit like if
Speaker 1: you're drafted in an elevator, Like that's a good.
Speaker 2: Hang you guys, it's too much. Just the nicest.
Speaker 1: So I did not achieve my goal of being bff
Speaker 1: with Chelsea Handler, which I mentioned on the show last week.
Speaker 1: But I did, I think, just become best friends with
Speaker 1: Ed Helms and I also got to talk wooly mammoth
Speaker 1: mice with Sophia Bush, got to talk murders with Karen
Speaker 1: and Georgia of my favorite murder podcast. And I'm at
Speaker 1: Dennis Quaid's Bulldog backstage, so shout out Peaches. I'm exhausted,
Speaker 1: but it was so worth it. It was such a blast,
Speaker 1: and I'm always really super grateful that iHeart puts time
Speaker 1: and money and care into promoting our little newborn of
Speaker 1: a show with events like the one we had on
Speaker 1: Saturday night with Lexi Brown. And you guys can promote
Speaker 1: the show too, by the way, So your good game
Speaker 1: played the day it is to share an episode with
Speaker 1: a friend, send him an episode that you think that
Speaker 1: they might like and tell them it's time to become
Speaker 1: a slice. Spreading the word is super helpful to us,
Speaker 1: so thanks for doing that. Find a good one, send
Speaker 1: it along. We always love to hear from you, so
Speaker 1: hit us up on email Good Game at wondermedianetwork dot
Speaker 1: com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two
Speaker 1: two o four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: a rate and review. It's easy watch coach Schaeffer shouting
Speaker 1: out dedicated student journalists, rating five out of five gold
Speaker 1: stars review friend of the show. Texas women's basketball coach
Speaker 1: Vick Schaefer took a moment during his team's postgame presser
Speaker 1: to shout out three student journalists from The Daily Texan
Speaker 1: who drove sixteen hours to cover the team in the
Speaker 1: SEC Conference tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 5: Take a listen, So, if I'm not mistaken, are y'all
Speaker 5: my three that drove sixteen hours?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, I want y'all to know when it comes
Speaker 2: time to get a job, you put me on your resume.
Speaker 2: That's really unique.
Speaker 3: And I'm proud that you guys are here, and I'm
Speaker 3: proud that you take.
Speaker 2: Enough pride in your job.
Speaker 5: That you would do that because you don't have to
Speaker 5: do that, and I think people need to know that.
Speaker 2: So thank you for being here. We love to see it.
Speaker 2: Now it's your turn rate and review.
Speaker 1: We didn't make you drive sixteen hours to hear this show,
Speaker 1: so I think that's worth a five star review, right,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, slices, see you tomorrow. Good game, Uncle
Speaker 1: nayor good game ut student journalists, Thank you. The Plague
Speaker 1: returning due to a lack of sleep, I'm running out
Speaker 1: of Kleenex and cough meds.
Speaker 2: Y'all.
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
Speaker 1: production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
Speaker 1: can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
Speaker 1: our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, and Grace Lynch.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm your host
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain