[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sulentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. As always, thank you very much for listening. Denning Gehrig is the new voice of the Shockers. And while his voice is familiar to many fans, it's time to introduce him in more depth as he prepares to follow Mike Kennedy and cross the next 46 years of Wichita State athletics. I've already signed you up for 46 years.
Denning is a 2016 graduate of Wichita State. He majored in communications with an emphasis in journalism. Denning attended Mays South High School where he played baseball and basketball for the Mavericks. Before this move, Denning served as associate director of communications and director of broadcasting.
Starting next fall, he will serve as the radio play by play voice of Shocker men's basketball and baseball.
He started broadcasting Wichita state events in 2015 as part of the university's Valley on ESPN3 productions, he is called Baseball, Volleyball, Men's basketball and Women's basketball on ESPN in addition to serving as color commentator with Mike Kennedy on the road for Shocker Baseball. Congratulations, Denning. Let's talk about your new job.
What's your first message to Shocker fans?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for having me, Paul. I appreciate it.
Hopefully, the message to Shocker Nation is that you're getting somebody on the mic who loves this university and these people a lot have been around this place in basically every capacity as a student, as a worker, as a fan, and this is home for me. This is where I want to be and getting a chance to do this job is truly a dream come true. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would say that, but it is 100% true for me and just going to really appreciate every opportunity that I get to be on the microphone for Wichita State athletics.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: So Mike Kennedy started in 1980 and things in the broadcasting world have changed significantly since then. Let's describe your duties for fans so they can get the full scope of your work and give them an idea about how things have changed in this industry.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: I guess I would say first and foremost the way that it's changed is accessibility to the broadcast. I mean, when you think about when Mike would have started if you wanted to follow Wichita State athletics, you were either at the game or you were listening to Mike. And now there are so many different ways to to follow a game. Obviously you can watch it. Just about every single game now will be streamed in some form or fashion, most on ESPN plus you can listen to the game. You can follow along with live Stats, there's usually somebody there live tweeting it. There's just so many different avenues that I think a modern broadcaster has to be engaging in ways that go beyond just turning on the the headset and saying, here we go, we're going to broadcast this game. So I think this role will be more digital focused and showing people kind of the behind the scenes of Wichita State athletics, or maybe just behind the scenes of a broadcast and the different avenues that go into that. But at the same time, when the horn sounds and when the game starts, it is very much still the nuts and bolts of broadcasting baseball or basketball. And that's really never going to change.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: So Even in your 10 years of doing this professionally, things have changed a lot. How have you gone about adjusting, preparing for these kind of changes?
[00:03:55] Speaker B: I think it starts with social media and just not really being afraid of that.
There's aspects of social media that I think we all enjoy, and there's some aspects that I'm sure we all don't enjoy. But when used in the right way, I think it can really be a connecting force.
It's a great way to get in touch with people that maybe you wouldn't otherwise. It's a great way to get opinions, it's a great way to hear feedback, and it's a great way just to connect with people on kind of a deeper level. So I would say that has been probably the area where I've experienced the most growth. It started for me in minor league baseball. When I joined my first minor league team, I didn't really have a ton of social media experience. And they were like, well, you need to do this as part of your job. And. And when you're working in minor league baseball, you have to wear a bunch of different hats. You have to do a bunch of different things. And so I was kind of just forced into that, started to realize that it's something that I enjoy. I like the banter, I like kind of the wittiness of it, and it ended up being a really valuable skill set for me.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Take us back to the start. When did you fall in love with the idea of broadcasting sports?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: I would have been a kid, but I couldn't tell you exactly what age. I just used to love being out in my yard. And I think like a lot of kids growing up, I would throw a tennis ball in the air and hit it with a bat and then just run after it and hit it again and keep doing that for like two and a half hours. And while I was doing it, I Had a baseball game on in the background. There were a lot of, a lot of summer nights where that is how I would spend my time. And you know, when you're a kid growing up, you're like, I want to be a baseball player. Like, obviously that's the. That. That sounds way cooler.
But there was always just something in my mind that was thinking, you know, if, if I can't throw 95, like, if that doesn't work out, the broadcasting would be a really cool thing to do.
And the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized, like, wow, you could get paid to watch baseball and just talk about it. I just thought, what a cool job. Like, what. What could possibly be better than that?
And then I grow up and I get to be kind of around it and I get to see what it's really like. And not just being a broadcaster, but truly being like a voice for a team and connecting with a fan base.
It was really special to kind of see that evolution beyond just, you know, the baseball. And I think it really just stuck with me.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Okay, you said something interesting that I always like to talk about with broadcasters because I think those of us in the listening public, we always think, well, all they do is sit there and talk for two or three hours. But that's really difficult. And there's a difference between talking and doing a good broadcast. How did you learn the difference? How did you learn the techniques of being more than just a talker?
[00:06:55] Speaker B: I can remember, if there are any Royals fans out there listening to this one, they'll probably understand exactly what I'm talking about. There was a Royals broadcast in the, like, late aughts, I would have said, when they were some really bad Royals teams and they were playing like the Chicago White Sox or something, and they were, they were losing by a lot.
And Denny Matthews, their, their hall of Fame broadcaster was talking about there was a fly that had landed on his scorebook and he just kept, while he was broadcasting the game, like he never missed a pitch. He never, you know, completely ignored the baseball game, but he just kept circling back to like, what this fly was doing over the course of two and a half hours.
And by the end, like, the Royals have lost this game 12 to 2. But you keep listening because it's like, well, I'm kind of invested in the fly.
I thought that was just a great illustration of being able to, to keep people engaged in non traditional ways. And I don't want to make a mockery of any broadcast in that kind of sense, but it's more like an understanding of you have to be talking to people and not talking at them necessarily on a broadcast. I want it to feel like they're essentially in the same room with me and we're just watching the game together. And I'm kind of describing it as I would talk to them.
And maybe if it's a 12, 2 game, there is an interesting fly on my scorebook, and I think that's the important part of it, is you definitely don't want to gloss over the game. You definitely don't want to minimize any of the action that's happening, because that is first and foremost. But you have to come across as a person and you have to be conversational. And I think that's maybe the biggest key out of all of it.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Describe the homework, the preparation that you will do for broadcasts.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: I took a class here at Wichita State with Gary Bender, and he said a good rule of thumb is for every hour that you are broadcasting, you should spend three hours preparing.
That's not always like a hard and fast rule, but it's a pretty good kind of barometer for where you need to be.
And it goes into different kind of buckets, I would say. You can't just look up stats and you can't just look up bios and storylines, and you can't just watch film.
You have to kind of mix all three of them to have a really good broadcast. I think you want to watch how the opposing team plays so you have kind of a sense of their style and their scheme and be able to more quickly identify players.
You obviously want to look up stats and trends and be able to discuss that intelligently. Let fans know, like, he's their best player, here's how he's been performing, but he's been struggling recently or things along that line.
And then you also want to mix in the human interest stories. You know, the biographical stuff, the background. Where'd this player come from? What have they had to overcome, that kind of thing.
I feel like you need a mix of all that in your preparation. So you can't just spend three hours looking up how every hitter has done in the last five games or whatever. That's. That's not going to make you a good broadcaster. You have to do a little bit of each, but you do have to really pour into it, and you have to love it, too. I think part of it is I get really excited whenever I find something that I know is going to make for a good storyline during a broadcast.
And if you're constantly Excited about looking for that next thing. I think it's really going to come across.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: It sounds like that is where a journalism background is helpful. You have to have the ability to ask questions. Curiosity.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you do get a chance to talk to opposing coaches as part of your prep, it's not always, but sometimes you do. You got to be able to ask good questions because those coaches, you know, you get five, ten minutes with them at most, and you have to be able to get some good info on their team pretty quickly.
And that means asking the right questions.
You can't start an interview with a coach and being like, so tell me a little bit about your team.
That's not going to get you very far. So, yeah, you do have to have a little bit of that journalistic background, I think, to get where you're trying to go.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: So you grew up in Wichita. You would credit your father, Doug, with fostering your affection for Wichita State athletics. How do those roots in Wichita and following the shock throughout your life, how does that help you?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: It helps me because I'm going to care more about a Wichita State sporting event than I think just about anybody else who could be doing this job.
I've been coming to these games since I was a little kid and grew up a Wichita State fan from, like, the moment I can remember being invested in sports. And that, I hope comes through in every single one of my broadcasts.
Everyone has different opinions on, like, how much homerism to mix into the call.
I think, bottom line, though, if you're a Wichita State fan and you're listening to a Wichita State broadcast, you kind of want to know that the person who's calling it also wants Wichita State to win beyond just, like, professionalism, that whoever's calling the game is, like, actively rooting for Wichita State to win that particular event. So I think that is the biggest thing, is that growing up in Wichita just showed me how special Wichita State can be.
My dad and I would go to the airport to welcome back the basketball team when they made the sweet 16. You know, we would go to baseball games in early February when it was 28 degrees, and we would sit out there and watch the Shockers, and we would go to volleyball when they were on their undefeated run. And just I feel like I've gotten to see this place at its absolute best. And when it is at its best, it's special. And I hope I get a chance to be a part of more of those memories.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: As a student at Wichita State, you worked as a manager for the baseball team. For three years. What did you learn about the sport of baseball during that time?
[00:13:02] Speaker B: I learned a lot about how to do laundry correctly. First and foremost, I can now tell you all the tips and tricks for how to get turf stains out of pants, which is way harder than grass stains because they kind of get embedded in the fibers and the fabric a little bit. It's more of a soaking and then a scrubbing process and then more soaking.
What was the question? Baseball.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Learning about baseball as a manager for the Shockers.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: I would say I got to be around baseball people at a higher level than I'd ever been before. You know, I was a college student, and so I'd played high school baseball a little bit of, like, summer ball.
But just being in rooms and hearing people who have been around it their whole life and hearing how they talk about it was definitely an eye opener that there is so much more to this game and that you think you know baseball and then you really don't. And that's something that I've taken with me ever since, is that there is always going to be somebody who knows more, more than you about a particular sport. And so it is wise to always be listening.
And so I loved getting a chance to do that as a manager. Just whenever the coaches would be talking or talking to players or the players talking amongst themselves, great learning opportunities, great chances to soak in information or terminology or just the way they talked about the game that I feel like I've taken with me ever since.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: We should probably say nice things about Mike Kennedy, who you are replacing, mentors, role models who are the professionals who helped shape your career.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Can we start with Mike? I feel like that's. That's where we got to go with number one.
I think what was really cool these last few years, I got to do color commentary with Mike. And obviously, like, when you're on the air with somebody like that, it's neat. But I love getting to see the prep and the research and the note taking and the thought, I guess that goes into every broadcast.
So for those of you who maybe don't know, a part of my job as sports information director is I do game notes for each series, or if it's a midweek game, then that particular game, I would do game notes, and those are kind of readily available to media members and broadcasters to use as part of their research and prep for baseball.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: You're talking about. You would also do something similar for volleyball.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Correct.
Mike would take those notes and then do his own, like, his own separate set of Notes for every single player on both Wichita State's roster and the opposing team roster and would update them after every single game.
And so he was coming into each broadcast as dialed in as you could possibly be, as well informed as you could possibly be.
And so while, you know, I get to talk with him on the air and get to call the games, and that's super fun, it was the behind the scenes of, like, the work that goes into being ready to call a good game. That was really, really neat for me, because that is what I think really separates people, is everyone can get up for a really big game. Can you do that same kind of work and be as prepared for a Tuesday game, you know, in the midweek, when you're halfway through a baseball season? And Mike always was. So that was a real big influence on me. Obviously, growing up, listening to him was special. And like so many incredible moments with Shocker Basketball, it felt like every important sporting moment of my life, he was kind of the soundtrack for. And that I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way here in Wichita.
Denny Matthews, who I already talked about a little bit with the Royals, was another outstanding one. Ryan Lefebvre with the Royals as well.
And then this one will be a little bit off the cuff, but I also grew up a Wichita Wingnuts fan, and when the Wing Nuts were really good, they had a very talented broadcaster named Steve Shuster, who I enjoyed listening to quite a bit, and he is one of the best. He's since moved on to the Yankees organization. So I like to think that I took a little bit of something from each one of those guys, and it's helped me make me into the broadcaster I am today.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Describe the influence of Eric Wilson, who is a faculty member here at Wichita State in the Elliott School of Communication. And he connected you with former broadcaster Gary Bender. You mentioned him earlier.
How did that play into where you are?
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Well, it started with the fact that Eric is a big baseball nerd. And so right off the bat, we hit it off when I was.
When I was an undergrad here at Wichita State. And so we would just have conversations about the Royals, usually generally complaining about the Royals.
And he found out that I wanted to be a broadcaster. And so then he told me that he was going to be offering this class along with Gary for sports broadcasting. And he was like, obviously, you need to be in this. You know, if this is something you really want to do, then this is a must for you.
And so Gary would come down and assist in this class, we had a chance to shadow, or not even shadow. We had a chance to call a men's basketball game.
I can't remember what year that was. Maybe 2014.
It was against New Mexico State.
We'd have to go back and look up the date.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Was that the one that was rescheduled?
They couldn't get here.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: I can't remember.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Pascal Siakam was perhaps on that team.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: Siakam. And then they had those. A couple of huge centers.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: And so we got to broadcast that game as students from, like the elevated perch area. And then Gary and Eric would listen to our broadcasts and kind of critique them.
And I remember Gary just, you know, he had a few notes for me here and there, but he was like, Danny, you're. You're pretty good at this. Like, you have a natural flow and a natural cadence and you seem to know what you're talking about, and it just sounds like you're very comfortable talking into a microphone.
And so then Gary got me in touch with Mike, and Mike sent me to a college summer team and that's how I got my first broadcasting job. So really, Eric was the one who kind of got the wheels in motion a little bit once he figured out that that's what I wanted to do and was always so supportive of it and doing whatever it took to kind of help me along that path.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Let's give people the background on Gary Bender, who is also a Wichita State alum. I believe he came here to play football. He was from Ulysses and has just had a fabulous broadcasting career to the NFL, NBA. He did the 1983 NCAA championship game where North Carolina State beat Houston, did some Olympic Games, did the Phoenix Suns for a long time, and is really just a well regarded broadcaster. What did you learn from Gary Bender?
[00:20:04] Speaker B: So much, really. But first of all, he was incredibly down to earth and approachable for someone who had done all the stuff that you just said. I mean, I think there's a stereotype, particularly among play by play broadcasters, of an inflated sense of self. Perhaps they like hearing themselves talk. They have a little bit of an ego.
And that was never Gary. Like, you would never know that he had been on the call for a national championship and one of the most famous national championships of all time.
And he would always talk to us about the importance of treating every game like it was a national championship. Particularly, he said, when you're a young broadcaster, because he's like, those are your chances, you know, to make an impression. You never know who's going to be Listening. You might be calling up a high school football game at A2A school here in Kansas City, and the right person might be listening and be like, I like the sound of that guy. So you really can never just ship in a broadcast because somebody might be listening who can really change your career. And I think that was a very valuable lesson to learn at that age.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: So you did two seasons broadcasting Wichita Wingnuts game. That was an independent league baseball team, three with the Cleburne, Texas Railroaders. Cleburne, Texas, is about 40 miles south of Fort Worth. Also independent baseball, correct?
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: So I always think if you can survive the daily grind of minor league baseball, and I don't care if you're a athletic trainer or promotions or field crew or broadcasting, if you can do minor league baseball, you can do anything in athletics.
How did that experience help you?
[00:21:47] Speaker B: What I tell people about it is there's parts of it that I. That I still miss to this day, which sounds crazy because, yeah, everyone who comes out of minor league baseball treats it like it was a war zone and that you just have to survive it.
But I'll say this, something that you don't get anywhere else than minor league baseball is a closeness to the players and the coaches because you are on the bus with them for, in our case, 8 to 12 hours. Basically every single road trip.
You know, you're staying in the same hotels with them, you're eating every single meal with them. In most cases, like, you are around these guys from the beginning of May till September.
And even in collegiate athletics, where you can still go to any practice and, you know, go talk to the players and the coaches, whatever that level of closeness, you just do not get outside of minor league baseball. It is, in a lot of ways, shared suffering. Like, you are all going through it together.
And so you become very invested in these people.
I think that's probably what it taught me more than anything is that a lot of the guys in independent baseball, for whatever reason, something about their baseball career got nudged a little bit off track. Maybe they had an injury, maybe they were a high draft pick and just didn't stick in minor league baseball. Maybe they're a rookie, maybe they came from a small college and didn't get a chance to get drafted or get signed.
And so you see all these guys who are still just saying, I'm gonna give it one more shot, like, I'm gonna give this another chance. I think I've still got more baseball left in me.
And so it taught me about what those stories can Mean, and how to tell them in appropriate ways and how to get invested in the people beyond just the uniform and the stats.
And so I look back on my time in independent minor league baseball with a lot of affection, honestly, because of that.
And you learn to love baseball because, by gosh, you're showing up to the ballpark every single day calling a baseball game. And I think you have to learn to love the day in, day out part of it.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah, the repetitions just have to be the whole key to that job. In minor league baseball, you don't get that in. You know, you do football, you do one game a week. Basketball, you may have four or five days off. Minor league baseball is every day.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: I would encourage anyone who wants to be a young broadcaster or is working their way up.
If you have a chance to do minor league baseball, you should do it because you're just going to get better by just doing it. And when I started, I was an intern with the wing nuts, so I only did the middle three innings. The number one broadcaster would do the first couple innings. I would do 4, 5 and 6. And then he would do 7, 8 and 9.
And even then, over 100 games, that would still be 300 innings of baseball.
You're going to get better. You're going to hear your own mistakes. You're going to be like, oh, wow, I shouldn't do that next time. And it is just like, really the only way to improve that quickly is by just doing it over and over again. And like you said, there's very, very few other sports where you get something like that.
I guess maybe if you did like G league basketball or something, they're playing a lot of games and it'd be something close. But yeah, minor league baseball, if you want to improve, that is the avenue to do it.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Favorite shocker basketball player.
We're gonna go rapid fire here, Denning.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Kyle Wilson.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Tell me more.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: I feel like he was the stretch four before that was like a cool thing, you know what I mean? He was what, six, eight.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Six foot eight forward. Transferred from Illinois. He was on the 2006 Sweet 16 team.
Yeah. Very good player.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: And just like that prototype of a player didn't seem to really exist at that time. It was like he had a skill set that I thought was really cool. I just. Yeah, I liked watching him play. He always seemed like he was under control and just in the right spot and a great jumper. Yeah. Love me some. Kyle Wilson.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Good shooter. That's a good name. He was back for the 06 reunion. This year doing well. Has a big family living in Dallas where he was from. Parents have Wichita, Wichita roots. I'm not going to go into it all right now, but yeah, Kyle Wilson. That's a very good, very good name. Favorite Shocker baseball player.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Well, I wore 37 as a player because of Darren Dryford, but I, he was always more like mythological to me because I didn't really get to see him play. He was before my time. It was more just like he was this titanic figure of like great at everything, you know, pitching, hitting. And when you're growing up and you're in the Little League and you're doing everything, that's a very easy player to emulate. I would say among players that I watched, maybe Noah Booth.
We were both left handed pitchers and he had a curveball that just seemed like it descended from heaven and nobody could touch it and he would throw it 12 times in a row and it just did not matter. He was untouchable on some really, really good Wichita State teams and just felt like every time he came into the game it was like here's a zero, here's a scoreless inning.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: So I'll go with Noah Booth to refresh people's memories. Darren Dryford, pitcher and designated hitter on the great 91, 92, 93 teams. He would have won at least one college baseball player of the year award during his time here. Draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a lengthy major league career. And then Noah Booth was a crafty left hander out of the bullpen.0607 in that era and a big movie fan too. I can remember doing a story on Noah Booth where we took him to the Warren Theaters and shot a portrait of him with a bucket of popcorn and we, and we talked about movies.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: A man after my own heart.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Yes, very good name. Shocker Volleyball. Who did you enjoy watching out your years watching? Being around Shocker Volleyball?
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Well, we are like literally right next door to Emily Hiebert. So I feel like almost legally obligated to say Emily Hebert. But I will say her because I liked the joy that she played with. Those teams always seem to have so much fun. I mean she was on some incredible teams so they were winning a lot. I'm sure that's fun. But boy, they just seemed like so happy to be playing volleyball together. They all seemed to get along and I felt like she was kind of the poster child for it. Like they just loved each other. They loved the sport, they loved getting to compete and maybe one of my like top Five broadcasting moments is I got to do the.
When they were able to host in the, the first and second rounds here in Wichita, I did those games, which was my first real, like, big break. The first time I'd done like a national broadcast of a sporting event and getting to watch them compete against Missouri in that, that match in front of like, what was it, 8,000 people? Just under 8,000.
One of the coolest environments that I've ever been in. And one of the best matches, even though Wichita State came up short in that one, is still a ton of fun. And so I'm going to go with Emily Hiebert.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Emily Hebert. She would have been on that 2017 team that you described, won the American Conference and hosted NCAA play here. Abby Lehman, Jody Larson would have been some of the other names on one of the better Shocker volleyball teams. Definitely. What's the favorite Shocker game you've called over the past 10?
[00:29:46] Speaker B: All right, can I do, can I do a couple from each sport?
[00:29:49] Speaker A: You're the voice of the Shockers, Benning. There are no rules. You do whatever you want.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: All right.
Baseball. I have two.
The first one for me was beating East Carolina in the semifinals of the American Conference tournament to go to the final back in 2024.
That was the ECU team that was absolutely loaded, ranked consistently throughout the year. They came in as the number one seed. They had Trayus Savage on their team.
And Wichita State didn't just beat them, they run, ruled them twice in that tournament, which was just like a fever dream. And that second, that second win was right after Wichita State had lost earlier in the day on the walk off steal of home from ecu. And it was just such a, like, deflating loss at the time. And then we just had to sit around for a few hours and wait and think about it.
And to come right back and smoke them later that day. And to call that one was awesome, awesome, awesome. That team was on like a crazy run of just good vibes and riding the wave and so, so cool.
This one is a little more off the beaten path.
Two was it two years prior, the Frisco Classic. Wichita State beat Texas A and m to go 30 in that tournament.
And Peyton Tolley hit a late. Go ahead home run that I think is still in the air.
And it was like, wow, we are beating like the big boys of college baseball here because they beat, I think, three power conference teams. They beat Iowa, Washington State and Texas A and M in that tournament. And we were in a cool ballpark, you know, like the Frisco ballpark is awesome. We were in a big tournament. We went 3, 0, and we won that last game in like, dramatic fashion. It was. It was just a really neat one to be a part of. I was on the.
I was actually was not on the call for that. I was with Shane Dennis in the booth, but it was Shane who was handling play by play for that one basketball. I did an ESPN plus game with Shane a few years ago against Southern Illinois. When they came back here and Wichita State blocked a shot at the buzzer to win that game by one or two points.
It just felt kind of like a throwback to, you know, obviously the old rivalry that dates back to the valley of Wichita State and Southern Illinois. It was a great crowd. It was like a white out or a blackout, I think was the promotion that night. And everybody was just kind of into it. You can tell when a crowd is into it from the jump. And they really were for that game.
And then volleyball, like I said, probably have to be when they hosted.
Just getting a chance to see so many people experiencing volleyball and learning to love a sport that is really fun.
So those have to be. I realized that wasn't just one answer, but that's what I'm gonna go with.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: If you could build a time machine, what's the shocker game that you didn't watch? You wish you could go back and experience
[00:33:01] Speaker B: like, I get to be there.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: Men's basketball, going to Syracuse and winning, I just blank.
I think I watched here, here.
Here is the extent of my dad and I's Wichita State fanhood.
We were like following the game on the radio.
And when it seemed like Wichita State was going to win the game, we drove to a sports bar called Victory Sports Bar and Grill. It's no longer around on the west side of Wichita.
And we just walked in the front entrance to try to like crane our necks to get a look at a TV that might have this game on. And there were like 50 in there doing the exact same thing. And so we watched them beat Syracuse the last like two minutes of the game.
Craning our necks around all these bodies to see a TV that was like 50ft away.
I just think, like, that's one of the biggest arenas in the country. And so going on the road to win a game like that against a team like that, I would have loved to be there for that one.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: That was quite the, quite the night. To win in the Carrier Dome was a certainly a special experience that I think a lot of people would Remember, have you workshopped a trademark phrase you're going to unveil in the basketball season?
[00:34:24] Speaker B: You know, I think when Wichita State wins a game, I'd like to have something that's kind of distinctive, something that's kind of me. And so I did this a little bit. When I've handled Wichita State baseball with Mike and travel conflicts or scheduling overlap, I'm gonna go with this one belongs to the Shockers whenever Wichita State closes out of victory. So I think that is what we're gonna go with. Anything else that happens will purely be spur of the moment, but I would like to have something for when we can officially put one in the win column.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: I've got some suggestions.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Let's hear it.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Throw up the Flying W. The Shockers harvest another victory.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: I hate it.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Okay, that pass was so pretty. It belongs next to the Miro mural.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: We're getting worse, but all right.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: What a dunk by Williams. That's why we call it the Air Capital three pointer. Pretty as a Kansas sunset.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: How many of these are checking?
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Oh, I'm going. No, these are. I came up with all these by myself. Will Berg with another block. He's standing taller than the Morrison hall clocktower tonight.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: That's. That's a deep cut. I'm not even sure a lot of people would understand that one.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Morrison hall clock tower is a very well known landmark on this campus.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: How many people know which building it is? I just don't know.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: That would be your job to change that. I'd like to put in, let's bring back Gus Grebe. It's in the deep freeze, that's all. That's what I really want to get out of this. Okay, Social media skills important to this job. Where do you come up with the ideas that you do on videos? For example? I think you get volleyball players to imitate Chris Lamb about once a month, and it's. It's always a hit.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Take us through the thought process on, you know, putting out that kind of fun content.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: You have to be kind of chronically online a little bit. You have to be in those circles. Like, you have to just be checking Twitter and checking Instagram. And I find other teams doing things gives me ideas. I don't like to just rip off whatever somebody else did, but I like to kind of put my own spin on things. So if I see something and I'm like, oh, I bet we could do like a twist on that, I think that is kind of the spark a little bit. And then just talking to the players. Sometimes they will have cool ideas of like, hey, I saw this and I think this would be really fun. Or like, hey, we should try this, because generally if they are invested, you're going to get a much better product and much better content. So I love getting ideas from them. But yeah, just making sure that you are kind of in touch with what's trending and what's going on is the best way.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: How do you build the relationships with coaches and athletes that help you produce that kind of interesting, fun storytelling?
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Well, I think it starts by just being genuine with them and coming to them as like, I would like to be a person that you can trust and be a friend for you more than just I am here to like harvest you for content. You know what I mean?
You don't want it to seem transactional. And so you really do want to start with like getting to know them as people. And then I think it just kind of grows from there.
One of the things that I'm kind of the most proud of in my time here is that I have a lot of student athletes who just come to my office to hang out because they just know me and want to talk.
And that didn't happen because I was constantly like, hey, we should do this social media idea. It's because I would just go up to them and practice and be like, hey, how's it going? What's up?
And so it kind of starts there and just, I would say, being available to them to talk about things that maybe they couldn't go to their coaches about.
There's always kind of different dynamics when you're a student athlete and you want to be the person that they can share things with and be approachable for. And so I think you have to treat them as human beings and it really just starts there.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: Denning Gehrig is the new voice of the shockers. On Friday, June 12th from 5 to 7pm at the Social Tap in Braeburn Square, you can meet Denning. He will take all your suggestions for trademark catchphrases. You can meet Denning. You can send Mike Kennedy off with your best wishes at a public reception. That's June 12, 5 to 7, social tap on the Wichita State campus. Denning, thank you for your time. Congratulations and best of luck as the new voice of the Shockers.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Thank you, Paul, Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] Cortez fires a 3.
We'll take a look at that in a second. I don't want to look at that one. I want to look at this one. Bijan Cortez, he gets the switch. He sees it. It doesn't.
