Speaker 1: Beyond the Megaphone is a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and the College Athletes Network. Hey, everybody, this is Nathan
Speaker 1: and Cassidy. You're listening to Beyond the Megaphone on the
Speaker 1: College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast that you
Speaker 1: never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
Speaker 1: via the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can find
Speaker 1: me on Instagram and Twitter at our Nathan Paris and
Speaker 1: you can find me on Instagram at Cassy with a
Speaker 1: double y Sarnie. All right, Hey, welcome to Beyond the Megaphone.
Speaker 1: For everyone listening, this has been about five months in
Speaker 1: the making. UM. If you're listening to this, it's pretty
Speaker 1: much because something really crazy happened in March, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna tell you about that. UM. We want to before
Speaker 1: we get into it, we want to say just how
Speaker 1: thankful we are, UM for everybody's support ever since the
Speaker 1: crazy March madness one shiny moment happened. UM, it's been
Speaker 1: so overwhelming but so positive at the same time. And
Speaker 1: we can't thank each and every one of you guys enough,
Speaker 1: UM for all the support thus far. And we have
Speaker 1: so much to tell you guys about cheer and about
Speaker 1: that and we're so excited to tell you. Um, so
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Why don't you tell everybody about
Speaker 1: who the Castie Serny is? Okay? Um, all right, Well
Speaker 1: starting off with my crazy live I'm so crazy. Um.
Speaker 1: I was a gymnast for a little bit and then
Speaker 1: I just fell out of love with gymnastics and wanted
Speaker 1: something new. I did All Star for like my eighth
Speaker 1: and eighth grade year and my freshman year. My sophomore
Speaker 1: year I quit. I was just it wasn't the environment
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in my sophomore year, I just
Speaker 1: did high school cheer um. But then my junior year,
Speaker 1: I joined the same all star Jim again. Um, and
Speaker 1: I had a whole entire new team than them I
Speaker 1: did before. I was the oldest on my team. I
Speaker 1: had twelve year olds on my team. I had thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
Speaker 1: I was sixteen turning seventeen at the time. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I was a wide range of kids. I was like
Speaker 1: oldest cheerleader at my gym for like that remainder of time.
Speaker 1: Um yeah until I left. Yeah. Um. And it was
Speaker 1: it was a big adjustment because you know, you're surrounded
Speaker 1: by these kids who were so much younger than you
Speaker 1: and you have like all these goals that you want
Speaker 1: for a team. But it was a great opportunity for
Speaker 1: me to take a spot as a leadership on that team.
Speaker 1: Um and my first year I came back with junior year,
Speaker 1: my team consisted of eleven athletes, and going into a
Speaker 1: competition with eleven athletes on the map, it's really intense
Speaker 1: because it's hard to make yourself look showy when you
Speaker 1: don't have as many athletes. But that first competition, I
Speaker 1: knew that team was going to be absolutely insane. Every
Speaker 1: person on that team just has such a big heart
Speaker 1: for cheer and wanted cheer as much as I did,
Speaker 1: and all had goals for you know, what they wanted
Speaker 1: to do in their season, how they wanted to end
Speaker 1: their season, and just everyone was super driven. And I
Speaker 1: think that that year sparked my love for cheer more
Speaker 1: and made me want to cheer in college even more.
Speaker 1: And all those girls still to this day are like
Speaker 1: people who I am inspired by. I'm inspired by like
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old, so weird, But um, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a great year and I had that same team
Speaker 1: my senior year. Senior year got cut short, and I
Speaker 1: was unable to finish with that team. But UM, I
Speaker 1: tried out for AU College cheer made the co ed team.
Speaker 1: I spent two years there, and now I'm an old girl,
Speaker 1: UM studying clinical psychological sciences. I don't know what that
Speaker 1: means or what I'm gonna do with it. I as
Speaker 1: of today, It'll change tomorrow probably, but as of today,
Speaker 1: I either want to be a professor or I went
Speaker 1: to be a clinical psychologist. Well, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: She's smart. Smart. It's awesome. Thanks. That's well a little
Speaker 1: bit about me. UM. I found cheer much differently than
Speaker 1: I would say the average cheerleader finds cheer, but maybe
Speaker 1: not the average male cheerleader. UM. From what I've found
Speaker 1: at my time during cheer, especially in the Midwest regions,
Speaker 1: and you know, especially at I, you cheers something that
Speaker 1: starts for males in college. You know, it's not a
Speaker 1: lot of people in high school, middle school, and you know,
Speaker 1: primary school who do All Star, who do school. UM,
Speaker 1: it's much more common for those to be mainly females,
Speaker 1: and so so it's been really fun. Growing up. I
Speaker 1: was doing all types of sports. I did baseball, basketball,
Speaker 1: a little bit of track, tennis, UM A cross country
Speaker 1: that was awful. UH, don't miss that at all, UM.
Speaker 1: And I just kind of was trying to keep myself busy, UM,
Speaker 1: trying different things. My main tour basic baseball and basketball. UM.
Speaker 1: I also was UM in theater. I did theater for
Speaker 1: seven years. UM. Loved that. That was super fun. UM.
Speaker 1: And then I also was in the a lot of
Speaker 1: the arts, the music. I was in show choir, regular choir, band,
Speaker 1: I played the outdoor saxophone, and so I kind of
Speaker 1: had my handed a lot of different things. And so
Speaker 1: when I got to EYEU, this is an incredibly large
Speaker 1: school that you know, you can't do everything right. You
Speaker 1: kind of have your one thing and that's that's it.
Speaker 1: So what I started out doing was band. I I
Speaker 1: was in the Marching hundred for two years UM and
Speaker 1: that was awesome. I loved it. I have such great
Speaker 1: memories from those uh you know, best seats in the
Speaker 1: house most of the time for all games. UH. It
Speaker 1: was so fun. UM getting to perform again. I missed
Speaker 1: that feeling of performing UM. And so as my second
Speaker 1: year went on, during the band, we perform with the
Speaker 1: cheer team, the dance team, the band, and the cheer
Speaker 1: team all are kind of the spirit squad, and so
Speaker 1: what I started noticing was how much fun the cheerleaders
Speaker 1: were having and how much fun cheer looked. And I
Speaker 1: vividly remember this one guy, uh, during one of the
Speaker 1: football games, through this girl right over his head all
Speaker 1: the way to the top toss extension, and after he
Speaker 1: was done catching, he looked right back down and started
Speaker 1: talking to somebody on the ground like it was nothing.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is insane. I need to
Speaker 1: learn how to do that, Like it just seems so
Speaker 1: um crazy to me that you could do that. And
Speaker 1: so I reached out our head coach, Julie. I reached
Speaker 1: out to her, um at the beginning of UM, let
Speaker 1: her know my interests. She was so awesome about it. Um.
Speaker 1: She got me into a practice, got me in contact
Speaker 1: with some of the teammates, the team members at the time,
Speaker 1: and it just started practicing, trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: And then COVID hit. So I tried out online and
Speaker 1: it worked out. Um that might have been why it
Speaker 1: worked out, because he tried out online. UM. But um,
Speaker 1: but it's been fun and it's it's been an amazing ride.
Speaker 1: Um Yeah, I'm I just graduated. Uh, you got a
Speaker 1: degree in finance and information systems. Um going to grad school.
Speaker 1: Now we got one more year here, one last ride,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be great. So what I loved about
Speaker 1: um cheer once we first started like that. Let's go
Speaker 1: back to that first year during COVID. Okay, the COVID year,
Speaker 1: we couldn't regularly practice. We weren't at games, neither was
Speaker 1: anyone else. So we were on the team, but we
Speaker 1: couldn't do anything that the team would do. So so
Speaker 1: it was weird, right, Um, So we had to figure
Speaker 1: out ways to one figure out how to cheer. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about me specifically. Um, I joined this thing and
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. So
Speaker 1: we would meet up um outside because it was it
Speaker 1: was safe to do so outside, and we were just
Speaker 1: trying stunt. It's over and over and over again. A
Speaker 1: lot of the yeah, a lot of the new people. UM.
Speaker 1: But I think that's how we got so close, especially
Speaker 1: our group, the ones that would go every day. I mean,
Speaker 1: we ended up just becoming best friends immediately outside. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd wake up, I go to my online classes,
Speaker 1: and my entire day just consisted of when I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go stunt? When is that gonna happen? Right? And then
Speaker 1: we'd get there, it'd be like early afternoon. We wouldn't
Speaker 1: leave until the street lights came home. Literally, sun is set,
Speaker 1: like it should not be out there anymore. Everyone's asleep,
Speaker 1: and my fresh to cheer shoulders definitely could not handle that.
Speaker 1: Um but that was okay, um, But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's just been awesome. It was. It was super intimidating
Speaker 1: for me because I was coming from a whole different
Speaker 1: world into the athletics world. I remember, let's do first impressions. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I show up. I thought you were like a junior. Okay,
Speaker 1: I thought we were the same age because when I
Speaker 1: showed up to the first stunding session, you were like
Speaker 1: already doing all the crazy stuff, like everything was already
Speaker 1: figured out on your end, and you were studying with Ethan,
Speaker 1: who was so fro from who I know is like
Speaker 1: the best on our team, um you know. And so
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, well, they are returners, they're doing
Speaker 1: their own thing. I'll hang out with the we'll just
Speaker 1: do that. And then we finally met each other and
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, I'm freshman. I was like, what it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: my bad. Um. Now, my first impression of Cass was, um,
Speaker 1: she's really nice, but she definitely knows what she's doing,
Speaker 1: so don't slow her down. That was that was my like,
Speaker 1: that was my impression. I was like, oh man, she's
Speaker 1: gonna have to be really patient. Wh But what about you?
Speaker 1: My first impression of you was a lot. I have
Speaker 1: never been like I had someone so close to my
Speaker 1: life now, at least at the time, we weren't that close,
Speaker 1: but like meaning you originally you had just so much
Speaker 1: energy from the start, and I have always been such
Speaker 1: a very like when I'm introverted to I'm just like
Speaker 1: quiet for most of my days. And three you were
Speaker 1: the guy with the speaker, so you had your your E.
Speaker 1: D M on just getting ready to go, and I
Speaker 1: was so like sensory overload for like a couple of days.
Speaker 1: And then I like figured it out and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I actually have a lot of pent up energy too,
Speaker 1: this is perfect, dude. I didn't. I did not used
Speaker 1: to be like. I have never had like a group
Speaker 1: of friends where I could be so in ergetic all
Speaker 1: the time and literally be like on when all the
Speaker 1: time until like this friend group honestly, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean after COVID, basically we were just like, let's just
Speaker 1: stunt and stunt and stunt practice and practice practice. We're
Speaker 1: ever going to get to the field. Fast forward eighteen
Speaker 1: months from joining the team and we're getting ready for
Speaker 1: our first game day. I was terrified. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I've never been more, um insecure, not confident, nervous in
Speaker 1: my life, right because you gotta think, like, this is
Speaker 1: my first time I ever putting this on in a
Speaker 1: professional level, not professional, but like performing this and it's
Speaker 1: not just practice, right, So that was that was really
Speaker 1: overwhelming for me. But at the same time, I've never
Speaker 1: been more excited for a performance in my life, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I would first tell you I definitely teared up
Speaker 1: and got emotional before the first game. Oh yeah, gonna
Speaker 1: cry but in a bad way. Oh no, this was
Speaker 1: really good tears like the like the second we stepped out.
Speaker 1: It was a versus Idaho, a night game. The lights
Speaker 1: are on, the student session is packed from the crazy
Speaker 1: season we had during um, I mean, it's filled to
Speaker 1: the brim already pre game. That's unheard of. It at
Speaker 1: I U football, all right, So I just look up
Speaker 1: and I just lose it. Nobodn't really notice it because
Speaker 1: I was hanging out with Tias, and but I was like,
Speaker 1: Matias can see me cry, and that's fine because he's
Speaker 1: emotional like me. But I was like, I can't show
Speaker 1: everybody that I just get emotional before we even did anything.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was. I mean after that, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, we gotta we gotta, we got stuff to do.
Speaker 1: Mallory looked at me, She's like, you ready to go,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, yeah, I'm ready. Sorry. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, after that, off the races and we never
Speaker 1: looked back. That first season was so amazing, huge shout
Speaker 1: out to Mallory for the whole season. I mean, she
Speaker 1: was like my rock during all of it. When I
Speaker 1: was like I don't know what I'm doing, She'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's slow it down, let's figure it out. Here's what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. I was like, okay, cool. Um. So
Speaker 1: she was amazing um start to finish. Um couldn't have
Speaker 1: asked for a better first year with somebody, and we
Speaker 1: were together the whole year. It was. It was just awesome.
Speaker 1: I I replay all of our moments during the first season,
Speaker 1: I was just like, this was literally perfect. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: football season was good. Football season was really good. I
Speaker 1: had Ethan, which is now a coach, as my stunt partner,
Speaker 1: um which you obviously he's coached down. He was great,
Speaker 1: helped me a lot through football season. He was my
Speaker 1: stunt partner for a little bit of basketball season, and
Speaker 1: then I got Cam. Okay, Cam, if you're listening, I
Speaker 1: love you. He was amazing. He had never been in
Speaker 1: this type of atmosphere before, so that was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a like rocky start, but he did great.
Speaker 1: My most iconic from like regular seasons Perdue game. That
Speaker 1: game was in insane. I was with Ethan at that game,
Speaker 1: and I was underneath the basket, which is like a
Speaker 1: huge deal, and it was like the most intense game
Speaker 1: ever to watch and to like have that type of
Speaker 1: c at that game just be like in it the
Speaker 1: whole time. There's cameras everywhere, there's people everywhere, literally the
Speaker 1: first to rush the cores. That was intense, but it
Speaker 1: was so fun. I was back sweat everywhere in that uniform.
Speaker 1: My legs hurt after that game from like jumping up
Speaker 1: and down. It was amazing. I love that game. That
Speaker 1: game was that was literally a conic, that was a
Speaker 1: piece of history. We were there. Yeah, it was almost
Speaker 1: as cool as what happened in March. That is true.
Speaker 1: So when we come back, we'll take you through um,
Speaker 1: our crazy one Shining moment um, start to finish, the
Speaker 1: full story, um, everything that you want to know and
Speaker 1: need to know. Um. You may have heard it or
Speaker 1: may have read about it somewhere, maybe on Instagram or
Speaker 1: or bleach your report or maybe, but we'll take you
Speaker 1: through everything starts to finish. So, um, this is Beyond
Speaker 1: the Megaphone. I'm Nathan and and this is the College
Speaker 1: Athletes Network. Welcome back to Beyond the Megaphone on the
Speaker 1: College Athletes Network. I'm Nathan and I'm Cassidy. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: our podcast so that you never missed another episode. Okay,
Speaker 1: the moment, the one, shining moment um, the stunt heard
Speaker 1: around the world. Let's get into it. Okay, So where
Speaker 1: does the story start. We could start it at the night,
Speaker 1: but I think there's more to that story. Let's start
Speaker 1: in dating. Okay, So to give context, this is the
Speaker 1: first time I had ever been in the tournament. UM
Speaker 1: for like the past five years, four or five years
Speaker 1: since we've been in the NT double A tournament. Um,
Speaker 1: and so it was a big deal. We were excited
Speaker 1: to go. Um. And so we land in the playing
Speaker 1: game during the selection Sunday. So we go to Dayton. Uh,
Speaker 1: this game is packed. We're playing Wyoming. We know nothing
Speaker 1: about this team. Um, but they're talking some smack, not
Speaker 1: gonna lie like they definitely came in thinking they were
Speaker 1: gonna win by like a lot. They didn't think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be kind of made me a little nervy. Yeah, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah the game was pretty close. It so we
Speaker 1: wont it. It It doesn't matter. But um, so we go
Speaker 1: through that game. Um. The game starts at like nine
Speaker 1: because we're the second game, of course, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: get out to like eleven thirty at night. So here's
Speaker 1: what's crazy. After that, we don't get We don't go
Speaker 1: home and take a night and then get up and
Speaker 1: go to Portland. No, no, no, no no. We get
Speaker 1: on a plane and go straight to the airport from
Speaker 1: the game and fly out to Portland overnight. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember that game. The game ended. We're literally renting out
Speaker 1: of there. To get to the airport because we had
Speaker 1: you know, we had to get there on time or
Speaker 1: plane would leave right no wrong. Um. We waited at
Speaker 1: a charter airport for like two hours. The first two hours.
Speaker 1: The first two hours were on a plane. They're not moving.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows why. Find out that there's too much luggage
Speaker 1: on the plane. I don't know what to do about it.
Speaker 1: So we're just sitting there waiting to see if they're
Speaker 1: going to figure something out. It was hot. It was
Speaker 1: so hot. I was sitting next to j P and
Speaker 1: then the aisle next to me was Matthias, Jonah and
Speaker 1: Andre I'm surrounded by what is it buy you guys?
Speaker 1: You like by the basketball team. So I was okay.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is awesome. I'm talking to Dane
Speaker 1: five and some of the other players. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. I was like, we can stay here
Speaker 1: all night, and that's fine. I would not stay there
Speaker 1: all night. I wanted to sleep. But that two hours
Speaker 1: later passed and we're still waiting, and then they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: never mind, we're moving to another plane. So we moved
Speaker 1: to another plane. Get on the plane. We wait for
Speaker 1: like another two hours because it was too heavy. Again,
Speaker 1: that was the thing. It was the same exact plane,
Speaker 1: So I don't really know what the whole switching thing was,
Speaker 1: but I have no clue. But then they just decided, okay,
Speaker 1: well cheer and banned because it was basketball, cheer and
Speaker 1: banned all on the same plane. And they decided to
Speaker 1: leave our luggage behind because it was the heaviest and
Speaker 1: they were gonna send it at a later day. So
Speaker 1: we didn't leave Dayton until like three four thirty UM,
Speaker 1: Indiana time, and so that was like um, one thirty
Speaker 1: a m. Portland's time, because we're going out to Portland.
Speaker 1: So then we finally get into the air. It's five
Speaker 1: and a half hour flight, so we don't really get
Speaker 1: to our hotel and I think it was seven thirty,
Speaker 1: which was ten thirty our time, and we hadn't really slept.
Speaker 1: I think I slept two hours on the on the plane. UM.
Speaker 1: And so we get there. We're all tired, but like
Speaker 1: it's fine whatever, it's spring break. We're out, we're hanging out. Um,
Speaker 1: We're like we can sleep later. It's fine. I slept
Speaker 1: when we got there. Some of them did not. Um,
Speaker 1: they out, they went out and yeah, they just needed
Speaker 1: some caffeine. So we get there, we're hanging out. Portland's great.
Speaker 1: It's a really fun time with our team and everything
Speaker 1: like that. Um. Fast forward to game day. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: get up, we're ready to roll. Um, we're excited. I mean,
Speaker 1: social media's going crazy for are you, Like we said,
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. Um. We get there. Um,
Speaker 1: we get situated, and we get into our warm up
Speaker 1: area and we get on the court and um, we're
Speaker 1: playing in Portland, so we're in the Trailblazers stadium. Um.
Speaker 1: And so as we are getting ready and get situated,
Speaker 1: Andy katz Um comes up the reporter and uh, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think I actually told you this until now.
Speaker 1: But before that game started, me and Mallory went up
Speaker 1: to him and was like, Hey, if you need any
Speaker 1: like extra content during the game, let us know, we'd
Speaker 1: be happy to an interview. I'm so mad. I didn't
Speaker 1: know about that. So I kind of predicted our own future.
Speaker 1: But it is what it is. Um. So we get
Speaker 1: there and it's it's totally fine. Um. Mom and dad
Speaker 1: of course are like the first twenty people, some of
Speaker 1: the first twenty people in the whole stadium. Um. So
Speaker 1: they're going crazy. It's just awesome. Game starts, it's not
Speaker 1: going great for the Hoosiers. It's okay, it's fine. It's
Speaker 1: not going great, um exactly. And so first half comes
Speaker 1: and goes, and then right after halftime we're into it
Speaker 1: and Trace puts up this shot and the ball is
Speaker 1: not coming back. Ball stuck. They go through the mop.
Speaker 1: They try and get us stool. The poor ref who's
Speaker 1: like five eight, tries to stand on a chair. That's
Speaker 1: not gonna work. They don't let the players down the
Speaker 1: chair that would have probably actually gotten the ball off,
Speaker 1: that would have been tall enough, but it's a liability thing.
Speaker 1: They can't stand a chair. So then what happened they
Speaker 1: I remember the St. Mary's player looked over at us.
Speaker 1: We're like all intensely watching what's going on, and St.
Speaker 1: Mary's players looks over at us and motion to throw
Speaker 1: up a stunt. Basically, I saw that and just shot up.
Speaker 1: It was like, someone put me up, Someone put me up.
Speaker 1: Our coach and Ethan are like, we need the tallest
Speaker 1: guy if we're going to actually do this, so we
Speaker 1: don't look dumb. And if we wouldn't have been talling,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, no, no, absolutely not. So Nathan's tallest
Speaker 1: starting team. UM stands up and we literally built our
Speaker 1: stunt right where we were and walked over because I
Speaker 1: was nervous. I was like, I was like, okay, I
Speaker 1: can go. And so I wasn't thinking like we should
Speaker 1: go to where the ball is. I was just like,
Speaker 1: let's just put stunt up and then they'll know we're
Speaker 1: doing something. UM. And so we put the stunt up
Speaker 1: an hour or seven ft away, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't really think this through. Probably should have done
Speaker 1: this at the ball. So again our drummonds hyped up.
Speaker 1: I've never really walked with a stunt until then. I
Speaker 1: no thoughts in my brain. I had no clue like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah everything. I was blacked out every time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so we put the stunt up. I walked like
Speaker 1: seven to ten feet with her in hands, not at
Speaker 1: like his shoulders or anything like that. UM, and then
Speaker 1: I pressed her to extension, UM grabs the ball, gets
Speaker 1: it down. What were you thinking when you, like, when
Speaker 1: you touch the ball at the top of the bagboard,
Speaker 1: what were you like? Um? It was it was cool
Speaker 1: hearing like people make a big deal out of it
Speaker 1: because it's just something that you know, we knew we
Speaker 1: could have done easily, but everyone was going nuts just
Speaker 1: because the build up to get the ball down was
Speaker 1: so intense and nothing was working until we stepped in. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't really really remember anything that I was thinking.
Speaker 1: The only thing I remember vividly after that was I
Speaker 1: came down through the ball. I got a high five
Speaker 1: from c Johnson. Do we deal or anything. That's probably
Speaker 1: the best part for you. That was the best part
Speaker 1: for me. I don't care about the interviews of my
Speaker 1: n I L. Johnson gave me at Zavia Johnson gave
Speaker 1: me a high five. So that's the end of the story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we bring the stunt down. Everything's cool, crowds going crazy.
Speaker 1: We kind of thought it was just like a moment
Speaker 1: for the stadium, right we're on the jumpbo Tron got
Speaker 1: our five seconds of fame. Oh that was crazy. You know,
Speaker 1: we might have a there might be a tweet or
Speaker 1: something like that, or I think maybe my mom got
Speaker 1: a video, because you know, like that's the most of
Speaker 1: what I was thinking, right, So then we get back
Speaker 1: down like that was really fun. That was that was
Speaker 1: cool to see the team's laughing because we're like, I
Speaker 1: can't believe that just happened. And then I get a
Speaker 1: tap on the shoulder. It's the same guy Andy Cats
Speaker 1: right behind me said hey, um, Nathan right and I
Speaker 1: was like yeah, and um he was like, hey, where's
Speaker 1: where's just a partner who you just lifted up? And
Speaker 1: I was like, she right here, and so um grabs
Speaker 1: us and as did a full interview. The game was
Speaker 1: literally going on fift away from us, and we're giving
Speaker 1: this interview about which has happened. And I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe this wasn't just a little moment for the stadium.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure this was televised on national TV. And
Speaker 1: so the whole second the second half, we had two
Speaker 1: more interviews um in the stadium, one during the second half,
Speaker 1: one right after, and then we got on our phones.
Speaker 1: It was just the floodgates were open. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought was going to break. Yeah, I've never seen so
Speaker 1: many notifications. Um yeah, it's it was just crazy. So
Speaker 1: you know then, so even even still we get through
Speaker 1: all that, we get I get all of my notifications,
Speaker 1: looked at all this crazy stuff. We go back to
Speaker 1: the hotel, We're like, wow, that was crazy. We just
Speaker 1: got onto TV for a couple of seconds. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: And then so that's what I just thought, that was it, right.
Speaker 1: We thought it was just that day. Then we got
Speaker 1: our first phone call for an interview from Good Morning America.
Speaker 1: They were like, hey, could you be um we'd like
Speaker 1: to have you on your show tomorrow and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh okay, um yeah sure. What time? They were like,
Speaker 1: how does seven am sound? We were like, well, a
Speaker 1: little early, but it's worth it, you know, it's Good
Speaker 1: Morning America. And they're like, great, so we'll see you
Speaker 1: at seven am Eastern and I was like, oh, hold
Speaker 1: on that, it's a little bit of that's four am
Speaker 1: Portland's time. Um. So basically, once again, we didn't really sleep. Um,
Speaker 1: we got up around three to get ready. We had
Speaker 1: to get Game Day ready because we're gonna be on
Speaker 1: on the TV. And then I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: just kind of like a snowball effects. I think, well,
Speaker 1: the Good Morning America one was live, so then like
Speaker 1: everyone every news channel was like, oh, they were just
Speaker 1: on Good Morning America. Let me get them on my show.
Speaker 1: They're like dm ng me you, Julie Megan, like everyone
Speaker 1: just wanting to see if they could get in contact
Speaker 1: with us, and when we thought it was over, it
Speaker 1: just kept going. It kept going until we literally had
Speaker 1: to leave. Yeah, we were heading out because we had
Speaker 1: lost the game. Um, we were heading out that morning
Speaker 1: around eight thirty. We got up around three thirty. We
Speaker 1: never went back to bed. From three thirty we were
Speaker 1: interview after interview. I think we ended up doing fourteen
Speaker 1: interviews in the span of two days. And it was
Speaker 1: it's crazy, you know, for hands extension, right for one
Speaker 1: of the easiest skills we do on a on a
Speaker 1: during a game. Still to this day, I can't leave it.
Speaker 1: It happened, but um, yeah, it was a lot, especially
Speaker 1: when we were like at the arena, still letting it
Speaker 1: all happen. But I remember when we were walking back
Speaker 1: to go get our phones, Julie was on the phone
Speaker 1: with Megan and telling us about how she thinks we
Speaker 1: can make money off of this, like referring to n
Speaker 1: I L stuff. Um, and that did happen. She was right.
Speaker 1: So when we come back, we'll get into the n
Speaker 1: I L deals that we got some stories about our
Speaker 1: experience with the N I L and our shirts all
Speaker 1: that fun stuff. We'll see what we got. Um. So
Speaker 1: you're listening to Beyond the Megaphone. I am Cassidy and
Speaker 1: I'm Nathan and this is the College Athletes Network. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Beyond the Megaphone on the College Athletes Network.
Speaker 1: This is Cassidy and Nathan. Subscribe out to this podcast.
Speaker 1: You don't miss our show. So n I L l
Speaker 1: UM Basically n I L is SO and I'll started
Speaker 1: I think during Oddly enough, it's only been around for
Speaker 1: a couple of years UM. And it's an I L
Speaker 1: stands for Name, Image and Likeness UM. And so it's
Speaker 1: basically a chance for college athletes to make money off
Speaker 1: of things that they do in their sport UM. And
Speaker 1: so it's not really something that you would think about
Speaker 1: for cheerleading. It's mainly for basketball and football, UM and
Speaker 1: maybe baseball and some of the SEC programs, maybe some
Speaker 1: Western Coast programs, but UM. Yeah. And so we got
Speaker 1: to have our a couple of experiences within I L UM.
Speaker 1: A couple of days after we got UM a couple
Speaker 1: of offers from some representation. We ended up working with
Speaker 1: Brand New, Brand New Sports. Big shout out to Richie
Speaker 1: and David uh They've been awesome. Everybody else at Brand
Speaker 1: new have been so helpful and the opportunity we've gotten
Speaker 1: have been just crazy. Um, and so that's been really awesome.
Speaker 1: We got some shirts we've done. We've done some shirts,
Speaker 1: two shirts, a red one and a white one. Um,
Speaker 1: they're pretty dope, not gonna lie. Um, not to plug
Speaker 1: or anything. Yeah, if you needed one, you could probably
Speaker 1: find one. Um No, but they've been awesome. And I
Speaker 1: think my favorite thing about n i L has been
Speaker 1: our whole day of trying to fulfill all of the
Speaker 1: things required for Sparkling Ice. So Sparkling Ice was our
Speaker 1: first ever n i L deal. Um, and we did
Speaker 1: not do it well. Um. We first off, we forgot
Speaker 1: when it was due. Um. And we're like right during
Speaker 1: a break, so like campus is empty, everything is locked. Um,
Speaker 1: we can't get into the room that we're gonna try
Speaker 1: and film it in. Um, we just need to make
Speaker 1: one little video, but we could not find anywhere. So
Speaker 1: we end up going outside on our like recreational basketball
Speaker 1: goals with just kids walking down the street just looking
Speaker 1: over and being like, well, this is weird. It was freezing.
Speaker 1: We're trying to do this ten second video. I remember
Speaker 1: setting up a camera in the crevice of a tree. Um,
Speaker 1: So definitely definitely a learning curve with n I l um.
Speaker 1: But like it's fun, you know, and for for cheer
Speaker 1: and for our moment. It was very short term, right, Um,
Speaker 1: So we really were trying to milk the n C
Speaker 1: Double A Tournament as much as possible. So we ad that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we wanted to. Yeah, I mean that was the whole
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of the Sparkling ice deal. Um. But um,
Speaker 1: yeah it was just fun. Um what do you think?
Speaker 1: What did you think of like the whole start to
Speaker 1: finish and I'll like contracts, this, any other, Like, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about all that stuff? Uh? The business
Speaker 1: side of it could care less. I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about business. Don't ask me about anything business related. I
Speaker 1: will literally give you my money if you were trying
Speaker 1: to convince me to, like, I'm so bad with the
Speaker 1: business side of it. The like principle of it, although,
Speaker 1: is something that I was very very interested in. I
Speaker 1: as like someone who's been around this cheer environment for
Speaker 1: so long and like seeing how the media looks at
Speaker 1: cheer This was like the one opportunity that I was
Speaker 1: involved in that could bring more light to cheerleaders and
Speaker 1: you know what, like what we can do bring more
Speaker 1: opportunities to my team hopefully, like stuff like that, promoting
Speaker 1: our program and I you in general like that. That
Speaker 1: was what I was really interested in. And I didn't
Speaker 1: care about, you know, the money part of it. Really,
Speaker 1: it was more just the I'm a cheerleader and I
Speaker 1: got an n I L deal like being able to
Speaker 1: be one of the very few sports outside of football
Speaker 1: and basketball, which are you know, and I was pretty
Speaker 1: much targeted for. It was a big opportunity and a
Speaker 1: great way to just get the I U cheer program
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, it's been fun, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy insane. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's the the best thing, is like trying
Speaker 1: to just give cheer a positive voice, um, put here
Speaker 1: in a positive light. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that has come out recently about cheer, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's really kind of two types of cheer. Um
Speaker 1: you have like competition, you have game day And what's
Speaker 1: really awesome about this opportunity is we get to give
Speaker 1: light to game day cheer, yes, which often gets overshadowed
Speaker 1: by competition style chere all star style chere um and
Speaker 1: so and really, when you think about this whole podcast, like,
Speaker 1: this is a chance for us, and this is why
Speaker 1: we want to do it, is to of future athletes
Speaker 1: a vision of what college cheer looks like inside of
Speaker 1: college chere and not just the like competition side of
Speaker 1: it all. I mean, like the game day part of
Speaker 1: college cheer is such an important part. And you know,
Speaker 1: as a high school cheerleader, I had absolutely no idea
Speaker 1: about anything college cheerleader, just because it's so hidden about
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. So I think, you know, this
Speaker 1: is a great opportunity for us to be able to
Speaker 1: share what we know so far. We're not experts, but
Speaker 1: we're experienced it as we're talking. The biggest thing for
Speaker 1: me is we're doing this because we love it, right, Like,
Speaker 1: like this whole cheer has changed my life. I was
Speaker 1: in a really dark spot UM during COVID and cheer,
Speaker 1: and everybody around brought me out of it, UM, specifically Maddie, Mattias,
Speaker 1: Jonah and you that first year UM we joined. I've
Speaker 1: never been around more positive people in my life. UM.
Speaker 1: I've never been surrounded by people who are always building
Speaker 1: me up quite like you forehead that first year UM,
Speaker 1: and I could go on for hours about every single
Speaker 1: person on our team. UM, but those are just the people.
Speaker 1: I remember that that first couple of weeks UM really
Speaker 1: helped me out and really showed me, you know, how
Speaker 1: amazing life can be in the context of cheer. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's what's kept me around, is what's kept me here,
Speaker 1: that's what's getting me to do it during grad school. UM.
Speaker 1: But uh, it's changed my life. And and this podcast
Speaker 1: is is just a representation of how much we care
Speaker 1: about cheer, how much we care about our team and
Speaker 1: our program, and how much we want to share what
Speaker 1: we've learned. So upset better myself. We can't wait. We
Speaker 1: we can't wait to share everything that we've learned and
Speaker 1: every think we've experienced UM over the next several episodes
Speaker 1: during our first season. So stick around, you won't regret it.
Speaker 1: As always, thanks for listening to Beyond the Megaphone on
Speaker 1: the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to you don't miss
Speaker 1: an episode. I'm Nathan and I'm Cassidy and we'll talk
Speaker 1: to you soon. Thanks so much. Beyond the Megaphone has
Speaker 1: been a presentation of I Heart Radio and the College
Speaker 1: Athletes Network.