Speaker 1 00:00:12 Hello, this is Paul Solon, Trump of Wichita state university, strategic communications. You are listening to the roundhouse podcast. Thank you very much for your time. We have John Wise with us. John is the assistant director of track and field, and cross-country he joins the podcast to preview the American athletic conference indoor championships. It begins Friday in Birmingham, Alabama. This will be the first American indoor meet since 2020. So John's set the scene for us. Describe the cross Plex in Birmingham, it's hosted NCAA championships. It's going to host again in March for the indoor. So you may have some athletes heading back there. Uh, just a fabulous, uh, facility from what I understand, what's it like,
Speaker 2 00:00:55 It's, it's a, it's a community, uh, facility. So it's run by the city of Birmingham. Uh, they, you know, there's, there's a few of these kinds of places around the country and they can see the value of a building, a complex art like that to get hotels and restaurants involved in the, the economic impact to a city that a big championship has. And actually we're the F like the fourth championship that this week that's coming in. So there's two days in a row for four different conferences, division, one conferences coming in. So obviously really nice facility. Um, and it's, it's been since we used to go there every year, except for last year, you, you kind of get used to it. It's like when we were in the Missouri valley, we went to Northern Iowa every year. And even though that was an opponent's facility, because we went every year, it almost felt like our home meet.
Speaker 2 00:01:42 You know, you got used to, you know, where the hotels were, you know, where the restaurants are, you got the same place every year. It kind of helps. Uh, so is there is a really nice facility. Um, you know, the, like I said, the, you mentioned the NCAA championships being there. So some of the top athletes in the world will end up being there and, and they do a good job running off the meats. And so we're always excited to go down and it's a little bit of a zoo because literally a meat is finishing and we're rolling in to try to practice right after that. And it's kind of a zoo for a period of time when meats are finishing and we're starting. So, um, but we've, we've kind of prepared our team and we've done it enough now to, to know how to get ready for the, for the meat.
Speaker 1 00:02:21 It features a bank track. What's the significance of
Speaker 2 00:02:24 That? Um, so the national meat is always on a bank tracking division one, and, um, it helps you run faster compared to a flat track like we have in the Haskins center. And, uh, it's just, that's kind of the universal international standard is a 200 meter bank track. You see some more tracks now that are like 300 meters, uh, so a bigger, you know, it's called an oversized track. And, uh, but, but the championships have been generally run on bank tracks. So we actually put together a meet schedule this year, almost exclusively to run on bank tracks. This year, we went to Nebraska, we went to Washburn. Couple of times we went to, uh, Arkansas this past week. Um, our only other meats were at home. Uh, we went to K U, which is the only other flat track. So, um, we, I think we're pretty well prepared to go and, and compete on it. How many
Speaker 1 00:03:12 Seconds what's the difference? What do you pick up on a hydraulic track?
Speaker 2 00:03:15 So for instance, in like the 200 meter dash, uh, the difference is much smaller. It's about three or four tenths of a second, um, is what the could maybe half a second is the conversion, but when you get out to, you know, the mile, the three K it's multiple seconds, um, you know, it kind of depends. There's a conversion for it. So, um, I, I think in the mile it's two or three seconds and in the three K it's more like five or six seconds. So if you want to say
Speaker 1 00:03:40 Records or qualify, this is the kind of atmosphere that can really help.
Speaker 2 00:03:43 Yeah, for sure. They do have convergence. So like, if you want an art track, let's say we run the 200 meter dash, you run 22.0. It's worth like 21.7 on a bank check. So there's a conversion factor that, so you can still qualify on a flat track, but the way we do our record keeping, we don't give somebody credit for a converted time. So you're definitely gonna run faster on a bank track or, uh, an oversized track than on a flat track.
Speaker 1 00:04:08 Start with the women in Houston. They're the two time defending champion, uh, shockers finished third in 2019, they finished fifth in 2020. And then of course COVID canceled it a year ago. Uh, strongest areas for the shockers on the women's side.
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Um, we're like, like usual, we're pretty balanced. And so, you know, we're, uh, excited, you know, to, to go see how, how we do. We're certainly a little younger right now. Um, a lot of these girls that we're taking have not competed in a conference championship indoor, so they obviously may have been last year's outdoor. Um, so, uh, as you're looking at the league, you know, we have, we have good multi vendors, but you know, one of them is a true freshmen. One of them is a red shirt, freshmen. Um, and then there's one, that's a junior, that's our top three girls they should do well. Um, D does dusty masters is one of those girls and she's also a really good high jumper. And so that's a girl, but she's never competed in an indoor championship before as an example. Um, so we feel good.
Speaker 2 00:05:11 We always have strong multi events. Uh, so, so we hope those girls can, can, uh, rally up in score. We, we know Yasmine is running well Yasmin right in the distance races. I think we're still trying to figure out exactly what events she's going to do. She's got three different options. She's got the 800 the mile and the 3000 meters. And I know they're strategizing to figure out what's the best place, you know, what are other teams going to do and where can we maximize our points? So, uh, we, we feel like Yasmin is going to be a strong athlete. Um, Palo Garcia is ranked first in the conference and the 200, she sprained her ankle, um, at, uh, one of our meets. And so we're not sure if she's going to run or not. So that's kind of a, that'll hurt us in a couple of spots.
Speaker 2 00:05:51 So we'll have to have some other girls step up. Uh, fate Turner could do, could be one of those girls. Who's, uh, uh, one of those, again, kinda like destiny kinda, you know, second year freshmen, um, that's running really well. Most brokers school record in the six meter dash, and it was a really good jumper. Um, but then, uh, just recently, Amanda cocoon has really, really come on, strong in the shop, put she broke our school record this week through 52 feet. Um, first girl ever in school history indoors through 52 feet. And so she's running into form at the right time. So we've got a lot of different places. I just mentioned almost every event area there that we have a good athlete. And so we're, that's what we do. We're kind of trying to come up, coming in from different events, all around the track and field and, and hopefully our girls step up. We, we do well, it looks like central Florida on paper would be a favorite. They've gotten really good in the last couple of years. And then I think after that, it could be anywhere, you know, we could fall anywhere in there. So it really depends on how well we compete it to me.
Speaker 1 00:06:56 The destiny masters is a freshman from Eldorado. She ranks first in the American, uh, 3,898 points in the Penn Tafel on. So as a freshmen, making their first appearance at an event like that, how do you go about helping prepare them for the, for the atmosphere?
Speaker 2 00:07:13 Um, you know, for her, she is just one where it's just, you're, you're wanting to have help her be confident. And, um, is she, we often say, if you, if you do what you did to get there, then you'll do really well. So it's, you don't have to go and do something special, just keep doing what you've been doing. And a lot of times they do do something special, but it's just because they're physically peaked and they're ready to go, but mentally you just want to, not that you want to treat it like any other meat, but not to make too much out of a championship meet, um, and not to look at the where she's ranked in the conference, or, you know, where she's at the national list or anything like that. Just say, just show up on Friday morning and start that meet and, and, uh, get things rolling. And, and for her as a young athlete, she can have success in our first event of the multi that'll just get the ball rolling, you know, and if it doesn't go well, the first event, then it could go the other way. So you really just want to help her get started and be confident. And, and I think coach Rainbolt, you know, he works with her and he, he does a great job of, of doing that. So we expect that she'll go and compete really hard and, um, score a bunch of points for us.
Speaker 1 00:08:25 Why has she been able to get rolling so quickly and are her college career in all these different events?
Speaker 2 00:08:31 It's so she did red shirt or first year, but she graduated high school a year early. And so she was young, so she needed some, uh, red shirt year there. Um, and, and she was not heavily recruited. She's one of these, you know, wishlist, state multi's that weren't heavily recruited. And she, her athleticism just started blossoming before our eyes. So all of a sudden it's like, wow, she's doing some things that are remarkably different than, than what we thought she was as a 17 year old high school girl. Um, and so she's just athletically gotten things together. She's maturing mentally and physically all at the same time and, and just learning the events. It just takes some time. And, um, and for her, I think that she's just kind of starting to figure it out, you know, she's ahead of pace. If you look at some of the great multi girls who had like Nikki large Miller and Brianne Borman and Gavin yet are like, she's ahead of their pace early in the career, it doesn't mean she'll finish where they did cause they really obviously had great careers. Um, but I think she's maybe more athletic than some of those girls. And so that's exciting to think about, she does have some aches and pains pretty consistently, but I think that's pretty common for multi vendors that are always, um, dealing with a little bit of an ankle, you know, or a knee or something like that. So she has battled through those and, and had, uh, had a good indoor season she's misdemeanor to more out of caution. And, uh, so, but we're excited to see how the championship goes for destiny, for sure.
Speaker 1 00:10:01 So to put that in perspective, uh, you mentioned Brianne Borman, she holds a school record 4,133 points in the pentathlon. So, uh, definitely a good, a good stuff.
Speaker 2 00:10:15 Yeah. That's these almost 3,900 already as a red shirt freshmen. So she's, uh, you know, she could score 4,000 points this weekend if she has a good meet. And, um, she's also ranked number one in the high jump. Uh, she has, she doesn't have an ankle soreness so that we'll have to see how she's feeling, but I know that if she feels good, she'll be a comp comp. I mean, she'll will be competent she'll she can win if she just was feeling good. So, um, she, she's a really good, talented athlete. That's just scratching the surface, I think.
Speaker 1 00:10:47 Is there a secret weapon on the women's team? Somebody who might, you know, come come from far down in the depth chart and maybe surprise and help score some points.
Speaker 2 00:10:55 I think fate, we mentioned faith. Turner's like she's ranked ninth in the long jump. Um, and she's, I think seventh in the 60, and she's also a really good triple jumper, but she had a quad injury. That's kept her out of some meats, but she competed, she competed at Washburn a couple of weeks ago, ran a PR and the 60 ran a PR or jumped a PR in a long jump in limited or jumps. Didn't take all the jumps because we're just trying to keep her healthy. Um, she's a girl that could jump 20 feet in a long jump and get second all, you know, all of a sudden that, or get top three in the 60 meter dash, you know? And so, uh, that's, you know, she's just right around the scoring, she's down for two points. She could score 12 points, you know, and, um, but you know, she could also be a little off and not score any points.
Speaker 2 00:11:37 So it's the, the jumps and the sprints are very competitive and the AAC. And so there's a very fine line of, you know, being in the top three or not even scoring. And, um, so, but she's really confident girl and, uh, she's going to be a good one for the coming year. So I think, um, she's one. And then I think a true freshmen that looks to be rounding in the form is Brianna Utecht she's, uh, she's probably on paper or third, multi behind destiny and Maria Romero. But look for her. This is our first, she's a true freshman. So this is our first championship experience, but you can just see in practice that things are coming together. We put her on a four by four leg and she ran a really fast leg a couple weeks ago. And so, um, whether she's a girl that finishes high, this meat, she'll be one to look out for in the coming years that, you know, it'll be fun to watch her develop. And she was a highly recruited girl and we were fortunate to get her in. And it's, she's, um, one that we hope blossoms and breaks out that this meet this weekend
Speaker 1 00:12:40 On the men's side, Houston has, uh, has dominated the American. They won six men's titles in a row indoor shockers finished third in 2018 first season in the Americans. Second in 2019 and fifth and 2020. Uh, so on the men's side at a more has been interesting. He, uh, set the school record in the mile 4 0 1 0 8. Uh, he ranks third in the conference. This sounds like this will be really good conditions for him to perhaps make a, a serious run at break and four minutes. Well
Speaker 2 00:13:10 Maybe, you know, championship races are a lot different than regular season races. So it could, if it goes out at the right pace, but these championship races often are tactical. The prelim will certainly be tactical. Those guys will be running as easy as they can to get through to the finals. So they'll be a matter of, is there someone in the final that decides to take it out in two flat and they, you through 800 and you just don't know because there's no rabbits in the final. Um, it's like, you know, if you've ever watched the Olympic games, sometimes the 1500 meters is a very slow tactical race. Then this last lap by kicks and it's like crazy. So, um, we hope that it's a fast race and, uh, to give Adam a chance to break four minutes. But I think that the way he and coach on her look at it is that, um, they had their, you know, he ran his kind of fast races already. And so now this is about competing and I think he will take winning a championship in the mile over breaking four minutes. If he had to pick, you know, finishing second and breaking four minutes or winning and running for 10, I think you'd take the victory, uh, this weekend. Cause that's what this meets all about is about trying to score as many points for the team as you can.
Speaker 1 00:14:21 Michael Brian continues is it just had a remarkable career here at Wichita state. He's got the school record and the weight throw, he ranks first in the conference. He's 29th nationally. Tell us a little bit about just his devotion, his work ethic to the, uh, to the weight throw in the, in the hammer.
Speaker 2 00:14:36 It's unbelievable. It's very interesting because Mike went to Hutchinson. Junior college was not highly recruited. I'm not sure anyone else recruited him except for coach Hudson DOR at the division one level. And, uh, it took him a while. He was not an instant star and, uh, but he is as into throwing the hammer throw, obviously indoor, we're talking about the weight throw, uh, right now, but he's as into those events as anyone could be as into anything. Um, if you walk up to our offices sometime and look at the dry erase boards outside, and, uh, co-train ringlets office, there are all these drawings of, you know, diagrams and geometry and it's Mike who has done all this research about the hammer and all the angles and all the different things. That's just, it's like a, some sort of a NASA scientist experiment written up on the wall.
Speaker 2 00:15:31 And that's, that's how into the hammer he is. And, and, uh, so obviously the weight throws the indoor version of the hammer. And Mike is probably better at the outdoor hammer than the indoor weight, just the way he does things, but he did break our school record, uh, his own school record last week. And he had very consistent, I sat there and watched him very consistent series. And I know talking to coach Hudson, or if he just felt like he's not quite thrown his best throw yet. So he could throw at any moment, a big, big throw, um, and qualify to the national championships, which would be a heck of an accomplishment considering he's probably better outdoor in the hammer three. He made the national last year in the hammer throw and made the Olympic trials actually last year, too. So yeah, it's, he he's, he can talk about the hammer, like, you know, anybody would talk about the most complicated science experiment you can imagine, and it's fun. And he films himself doing just about anything. If it's ever a snowy day in Wichita, I think there's a good chance you would walk by the hammer ring and same outdoor throwing in the snow. Just doesn't matter for him. He's gonna get out there and get it done.
Speaker 1 00:16:38 It's what I was going to bring up because the heavy snow that we had, not the most recent one, a couple of weeks ago when they were closing schools and grocery stores were being rated for bread and milk and eggs, uh, it was early in the morning, nine o'clock and he was out there in the snow and the, in the ice and he was, he was, he was throwing. So he's quite quite an interesting fellow.
Speaker 2 00:16:58 He probably actually enjoys that. Like when I say enjoys it, like there's a certain, you know, you get to a certain level where it's like, you want as much of a challenge as possible, and he's gonna embrace the difficult weather. And in that challenge, and this is our last year with Mike. So we're really, you know, just taking it all in and joining his performances weekend and week out.
Speaker 3 00:17:33 Hi, this is Rick Myanmar, president of Wichita state university check out the latest episode of the forward together podcast. Each episode, I sit down with different guests from Shakur nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita state university. Listen, wherever you get, your podcasts
Speaker 1 00:18:01 Was Skylar artisan. Was he the one that did the Scottish, the Highland games? Do you find that, do the weight, do the throwers, are they the quirkiest group of, of track and field athletes?
Speaker 2 00:18:13 Absolutely. Yeah, I'd say the throwers are in a good way. The quirkiest or strangest, uh, the distance runners have their own kind of vibe going on and then kind of the rest of the team is very similar. Uh, but yeah, the dis the throwers, I think that part of it is it's kind of like a, the bullpen and a baseball team. Like they got a lot of idle time. You get done throwing early, you got six hours of the track meet. You gotta sit around. You know, I think, I think it ends up, uh, they have some of the more interesting conversations and, and, uh, and just, uh, theories about everything you can imagine.
Speaker 1 00:18:47 They always remind me of offensive linemen because they're overshadowed. They're not the, you know, they're not the sprinters, they're not the mile runners, but they have a lot of them are, uh, have a really interesting hobbies or, or things to talk about. That's, that's been my observation, Uh, the shockers finished second in men's cross country. How does that kind of success in the fall? How does that translate now to, to the indoor meet?
Speaker 2 00:19:13 Significant our distance runners are running really well. Uh, and we've got a kind of a deep group of guys that can all score from the 800 all the way up through the 5k. And one of the things that we'll be trying to figure out is, you know, Tulsa one that cross country championship, and they have, you know, they put most of their focus scholarship money into the distance races, and they have guys that are really good in these distance races too. Um, but how will they enter the meat, you know, will they put their guys in two or three events or are they just focused on one event? You know, things like that. They've been kind of known to focus on more one event. And so if they do that, we're going to fill the gap in, you know, we're going to move up a lot in some of those areas.
Speaker 2 00:19:55 And so, um, I think if we end up seeing the entries and Tulsa has a bunch of guys in the 5k and that's it, we're going to score a ton of points in the mile to three K and, and it'll be, um, exciting and really help our team. Obviously, we're, we're a, you mentioned Houston, they're a tough team to beat, especially indoor the way our roster, you know, we're, we're more of an outdoor team yet the javelin and things like that, the steeplechase, um, and so, so we are, um, hoping, you know, a second place finish would be, we'd be really excited about getting a second place to manage the, but, but Cincinnati is really good. So we know they're going to be a tough team to be in Tulsa is much better. So depending on how they entered the meet, they have some firepower
Speaker 1 00:20:37 And Tulsa has one of those programs they're are largely distanced. So yeah,
Speaker 2 00:20:40 They have a little, they're trying to expand a little bit, but yeah, mostly distance, but, you know, they got so many good distance. If they load it up, they can score a lot of points and probably not enough to challenge for second, but we're certainly aware of them. And I think Cincinnati will probably be the team we're battling with to try to, um, at least be in the top two
Speaker 1 00:21:02 Possible surprise, secret weapon types for the men's side,
Speaker 2 00:21:05 Um, possible surprises, you know, our Maltese. I don't know if there's not a surprise, but we, we S we think we'll score a lot of points in the multi, um, Tanner brown is a guy who is, I think he's ranked first in the conference in the multi he's also ranked high in the 60 meter dash. He's ranked pretty high in the high jump. Um, he's a guy that's been often injured and not been able to, uh, compete at these championships. So I believe this is going to be his first conference championship. So we're looking for him to have a big meet. Um, we have some other multi guys in there too, that that can do multiple things and, and, you know, we feel good about the multi can they score and multiple other events that'll be the key. It's always a difficult thing. Um, but we got a lot of depth.
Speaker 2 00:21:53 I think there's, um, you know, guys that have had seasons where they're right on the edge of scoring and, um, you know, are looking to do a Joseph hold who's in is a guy who was All-American last year, but he's been injured a lot this year, but he's always competed with the championship meet. So we're looking for a guy like him to, to rise to the occasion. Um, we had, besides Mike broke the school record, we had, uh, another thrower day trial board and throw a PR on the shop foot this week. And, and there's a Vince like that, that if you catch it at the right time, then you know, you could end up being a guy ranked eighth and finished top three and, and make the difference in us game being in second or third, um, Dowdy, Alaska rig as a jumper both long and triple, it could score really high in both events if he does well.
Speaker 2 00:22:40 So, you know, we have, we have a, probably a little deeper men's team than on the women's team and a little more experienced men's team than on the women's team. So we expect that our men, um, are gonna compete really well. They're excited for the challenge. They, you know, love competing against Euston. You know, we, we know that outdoor wear so much better so that we can, if we can challenge indoor to be somewhat close to them, we know outdoor, we're just going to gain so many points that, um, and we've been so close to them outdoor the last couple of times that, that our guys are just chomping at the bit to get over the hump.
Speaker 1 00:23:11 Tanner brown is indeed first in the, uh, in the conference in the heptathlon 5,392 points also have Hudson Bailey, Colby caster, Jack mall, Nathan van Davis, isn't doom, Bert, uh, all ranked pretty highly in the conference standings. Uh, so nobody is sure exactly what the makeup of the American will look like going forward. You have the schools, Cincinnati, Houston UCF that are moving to the big 12 at some point, and then six new ones coming in. And that poses some problems for track that seem to be unique. I guess there are probably other sports at Wichita state that would say they, you know, really matters a lot, but it's a, it's kind of interesting for the track and field program. How do you guys think about the potential change in conference membership, whether that's this year or two years or, or more down the road down the line?
Speaker 2 00:24:02 I think that it affects us differently than almost every other sport, because if you're a baseball team or basketball team or softball, volleyball, you're basically trying to build a team to win a game. And so you're trying to, you know, have a strategy, offensive strategy, defensive strategy to, to win a game against an opponent and track. Um, you're obviously trying to get better. Everybody's trying to get better, but, um, the difference is that when you have more teams come in and the strengths of the events change, that it in recruiting the, the strategy becomes unique because as example, Houston, if anybody's listening that doesn't know one of, if not the best sprint group in the entire country, on the men's side, uh, last year at the outdoor championship, they scored seven of the top eight finishes in the a hundred meter dash. And we actually had the other one, uh, Julio, Montgomery, who was a freshmen.
Speaker 2 00:24:59 Well, let's say they left our conference. You take out the top seven guys and Julio Montgomery, who was now barely making the final is now the first place guy in the conference. He's way more valuable than he was when Houston was in the conference. And that's an example that he's the same kind of an athlete, but his value changes and all through there's 21 events in track and field, the values are go up and down, depending on who comes in and who leaves the league, and what teams are strong at some schools focus on distance races. Some schools focus on sprints. Some are like us that might have a balanced team. And so it's really hard to know. We kind of know what the schools coming in have, and we kinda know what the schools in our conference app. We don't know when those things are going to change if it's next year or three years from now, or will there be a year where there's a mega conference and there's 18 teams in the league or something crazy.
Speaker 2 00:25:52 Um, and so it, it, it, in terms of recruiting, all we're trying to do is just build the best team we can to be the best balanced team that we can. And hopefully that turns out well in the conference meet, but it could easily, we could easily, the stars could align and they could be great, or they could go the other way. And we're our team isn't prepared for the type of conference we have for a period of time. So it's really impossible to predict. And so we're recruiting good athletes, we're signing it, athletes, our athletes keep getting better. And, um, you know, we'll just, um, go to a conference championship and hopefully our experiences competing at a championship level, you know, indoor and outdoor. Um, the more of those you have the better you do at that championship. And so if we're a team that's fifth on paper and we want to in there and get in the top three, if we're a team that's eighth on paper and there's 18 teams, you know, we want to get higher than that.
Speaker 2 00:26:50 So it's more of a mentality of like, here's what here's, who we are. Let's battle the best we can versus better than second. Second was better than third. Third is better than fourth, and you're at the end event and in the team standing. So, um, it, it makes for a, who makes for difficult, trying to figure out is the recruiting coordinator, where to put our resources. But, um, generally we're just trying to get, you know, each athlete to be the best they can and keep signing it athletes. So it's, it's not an easy, it's not, that was not a good answer in terms of very clear of what we're doing, because we're still, aren't quite sure what we're doing in that way. So sounding good athletes and, and just trying to be the best team overall, we can and be ready for whatever happens in our league.
Speaker 1 00:27:31 Continue the Houston example. Then if Houston's in your conference, it's going to be really difficult to score points in the sprints. So you may say, you know, we want sprinters and we want really good sprinters, but maybe we don't want a whole bunch of really good sprinters. So we're going to put our resources in the javelin or the throws or the hurdles where we may have more opportunities for success. Is that a, is that the way you think about
Speaker 2 00:27:53 Correct and different than basketball and volleyball? Um, track and field is largely partial scholarships. So that sprinter who was on a smaller scholarship, but not able to score remember any points when he's in Houston, when he ustan was in the league, might be on a bigger scholarship, or we might need to put some resources into guys like that. And then it goes the other way. So that all of a sudden, maybe, uh, the decathlon in our, in the American conference, that decathlon is not very strong. Well, if these other schools come in with a bunch of decathletes, then that changes that the other direction, you know, it becomes a stronger event. So, uh, but it's so hard to predict what teams are gonna look like at three years from now, or, um, you know, so the other part of that is COVID, everybody has a sexual eligibility and we're still dealing with that.
Speaker 2 00:28:44 So there's so many factors that we're trying to juggle at one time to, to figure out how to build a team. But yeah, it does affect it. And if central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston, those are three of the top teams on the women. Central Florida doesn't have a men's team, but Cincinnati, Houston have a top teams on the men's besides us. So we feel like we're going to be one of the top teams, no matter what. Uh, but we want to do everything we can to, to make sure we're at the top, no matter what happens, whenever teams move didn't move. So
Speaker 1 00:29:15 You've become pretty well-known for travel with a wise guy, your YouTube video series, uh, traveling around a lot of places. But I guess most notably for this audience around Kansas, small towns, ghost towns, Kansas, Oklahoma, uh, up in, back into your home home territory of Ohio, give us the update on travel with a wise guy, start with, well, how can people find it?
Speaker 2 00:29:37 It's on YouTube. Uh, you just type in travel with a wise. I've got, you know, if you're following me on social media at all, I try to post, whenever I post a video, I do one a week. Um, it's, it's been a fun hobby. You know, I'm not married, don't have kids. So that's kind of my baby, I guess, right now, growing it, watching it grow. Uh, and it's, it's pretty interesting. The amount of people I've met and the amount of people that are interested in the, the things I post about mostly it's about small towns and, um, rural areas. Cause that's kind of where I grew up and it's, it's just been a lot of fun. Um, I, I have, because of like, we're in the middle of track season, I can't take time to film stuff. And so I will over Christmas, for example, I've I did a bunch of filming just driving back and forth to Ohio for Christmas.
Speaker 2 00:30:28 So I've got videos for months that I'll release because I'm not able to get out and film anything right now. So people often will message me. I got, um, uh, I'll put, I'm going to put a map. I think a video this week up from Arizona that I filmed my summer and they'll go, well, how did you get to Arizona this week? And I'm like, well, I didn't go. I went last July. And I had him had the videos in my phone for, you know, eight months and, uh, they, oh, okay. I thought that this is like every week, this is where you go every week and was like, no, so you gotta kind of plan if you're going to do it, you know, regularly, but there's been fun. I enjoy doing it. And um, certainly in the off season I get a little bit of free time.
Speaker 2 00:31:07 And, uh, and so, yeah, it's, I did one of the Kansas Flint Hills recently that people seem to like, and anytime it puts something from Kansas up, it's going to get a lot of people to watch. And, and, uh, so that's, that's always fun. Kansas has a lot of small communities and it's fun learning about the state of Kansas, for sure, for me, I'm, uh, in the history. And, and so, um, I've got some ideas of some ones coming up that I'd like to do this summer. And, uh, certainly some Wichita and Kansas themed ideas. And you went to a film festival over the summer. It might remember that I got one of my films got nominated and shown in Emporia, which one was that? It was called the no coast film festival. And it was a, it was a film festival ship for short films, 30 minutes or less.
Speaker 2 00:31:53 And so it was a film that was the smallest towns in Kansas. And so that was fun. That was odd, you know, amongst people that are real filmmakers. And I don't consider myself a real filmmaker. I literally have my phone and I have a drone and that's, that's it selfie stick. And, and, uh, so it kind of cracks me up. There's some people like they got business cards in there. They have, you know, studios and things like in real cameras and I'm up there, like, you know, a goofball with my, my iPhone. So, but it just goes to show anybody can start making films. And if you get creative and learn how to master a little bit of editing a part of it, that, you know, it can, it can be somewhat successful. I'm still learning all the time and you know how to do stuff. And I've gotten help from my current Ryerson at WCTV and, uh, different people for ideas of how to do that. So it's, uh, it's been fun. I enjoy doing, I'll probably keep doing it.
Speaker 1 00:32:49 What's been the most popular one
Speaker 2 00:32:51 That video, the Kansas video. I've got a couple of those, one of Oklahoma as well. Um, I'm going to do one of Missouri coming out in a few weeks of the smallest towns in Missouri, the small towns, they all have unique, uh, stories. It's almost every one of them has a unique story. I've, I've been the towns that have zero people. And like, how does that happen? And some states have have laws that, that you have to vote to distance corporate your town, but if there's no one there to vote, how do you do it? So they have this loophole that they get stuck in that they can't, you know, there's so he's towns with zero people now. So I visited some of those. Um, yeah. And so I just, I enjoy learning the history of a town showing up and, and walking around and looking at the buildings and trying to figure out, you know, what happened
Speaker 1 00:33:42 And where to call up the travel with a wise guy, YouTube page. What's the one you would recommend to get
Speaker 2 00:33:48 If you're from Kansas, probably the top 10 smallest towns in Kansas. Um, if you're from Wichita, like I did one of the Kansas Flint Hills recently, cause a lot of people are aware of the Flint Hills. It's just north. So I visited four towns that are in the Flint Hills and um, people seem to really are drawn to the Flint Hills and I am too. I really like it. So, uh, that those are two of them that I think people would probably enjoy.
Speaker 1 00:34:14 You seem to be drawn to joy land. You get a lot of comments on your joy land video.
Speaker 2 00:34:19 It's probably, if you're a Wichita person that there's a joy land video, um, certainly a little older crowd, you know, the younger people don't even know what that, what that is. And so, uh, yeah, mostly very, very positive. Um, very positive comments about that one. And then there was also one about the, um, which saw state plane crash that a lot of people enjoy, uh, hiked up to the point crash site in Colorado. And so there's a few of them there, if you're from Wichita that I think you'll, you'll like, and, um, you know, those are some of those are difficult to make. You want to be very respectful. You want to be understanding of the history of whether it's an amusement park or the plane crash, trying to tell that story appropriately and sensitively. So, um, yeah, so far I've been mostly positive there every once in a while somebody will, you know, not like it, but you can't make everybody happy, I guess,
Speaker 1 00:35:14 Joint lands, impossible not to like, did you ever, did you ever go when it was an operating thing?
Speaker 2 00:35:19 I first moved here in oh six. It was like right when they were trying to it, wasn't the end of trying to do it. And it was, you know, failed, I guess. So, yeah. I never drove past it and thought, oh, I'll go there someday. And then it was never open again. So, and I never went to the, uh, what was the one north Wichita? They, the wild west. Uh,
Speaker 1 00:35:39 What was that one? Yes. Wild west world. I'm not in there. I never went down. That's a small number of people. I think that was open for a month or not much, not much more than that. I have some, a blue state crisp potato chip tokens that you used to get when I was a youngster that you would get the tokens and then they were good for admission to joy land or, or something like that. So I'll, I'll, I'll bring those by, you can add those to your, add those to your collection.
Speaker 2 00:36:04 I wish I'd have had him on my video. I'd have been a nice little addition.
Speaker 1 00:36:08 Yeah. That was a big deal. And the grade cards you got tickets for, you know, you got A's, you got X amount of tickets, BS, you got a little, little fewer.
Speaker 2 00:36:16 It was certainly, I mean, I've learned that it was certainly a point of pride for the community. And, um, I, it almost in a way, like it wasn't a major theme park, but people were proud of it. And then when people talk about it, now it's almost exclusively like great memories, whether they're good or bad memories, they're fond of the memories. If that makes sense. You know, so certainly wouldn't want to pick on joy land. People would be upset if you picked on joy land, that it wasn't like a major park or something like that. Uh, kind of one of those things where like, you know, you can make fun of it, but if somebody else makes someone have it there, you're going to be in trouble. So right.
Speaker 1 00:36:52 Well jointly and certainly had its quirks. Uh, the rollercoaster, I think carries the, carries the place. I think that was a legitimate roller coaster. If you were a rollercoaster fishing auto, you would appreciate the old wooden wooden roller coaster.
Speaker 2 00:37:06 It's sad because when I went, there was just the wood, it was torn down. I was just sitting on the ground and you know, that was sad, but you know, it's the way things go, you know, but you know, sometimes you might have a chair from old Henry Levitt arena, uh, and, and, uh, think back about to the days. But obviously you gotta move on and, and Koch arena is a beautiful, fantastic place to watch a basketball game. Now,
Speaker 1 00:37:31 Things change. All right, travel with the wise guy. You can check that out on, on YouTube, John, thank you very much for your time and have a safe trip to Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 2 00:37:41 Thank you very much. Go shocks.
Speaker 1 00:37:54 Thank you for listening to the roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita state university, strategic communications. We appreciate your time. We encourage you to rate review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts, such as on iTunes or Google play. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected]. Thank you for listening
Speaker 4 00:38:16 And they let him pass it up court. And then it gets picked off a long three by PENGOS. No good. One second. It's over. It is over and what your task has beaten. The number one team in the nation to go to the sweet 16 go crazy Wichita.
