Husky Huddle: The Fire Fall for the Huskies

Husky Huddle: The Fire Fall for the Huskies

It’s been a great fall for the Huskies across the board. All the teams seem to be doing well, and each team seems to be made up go gre­ta play­ers not just a few stand outs. Nick is joined by Olivia, Kwasi, and Matt to dis­cuss the fall sports rank­ings. From foot­ball, to soc­cer, to vol­ley­ball it’s all dis­cussed right here on Husky Huddle.

 

Research Arti­cle

Husky Hud­dle: The Fire Fall for the Huskies

Tran­script:

Nick: Hel­lo, every­body. This is Husky Hud­dle. My name is Nick, and I’m joined today by olivia, Kwasi and Matt. Today we’re going to be touch­ing a lot on a few UConn sports, some, on cam­pus, some off cam­pus. It’s been a good fall for the Huskies. A lot of hot teams, a lot of good per­for­mances, and a lot of good sto­ry­lines. So get ready, strap in. We’re going to be talk­ing UConn sports, and we hope that you’re ready for today’s episode. All right, Matt, we’re going to start with UConn foot­ball. Tell us a lit­tle bit about what Jim Mor­ris team has been up to.

Matt: So they’re two, two to start the sea­son, and at home at Run­ches­ter Field, they’re 20. so that pos­es a ques­tion. Because of their recent suc­cess ear­ly on at home, would that poten­tial­ly lead to big­ger stu­dent turnout at foot­ball games? Because now we know that the Huskies bas­ket­ball team, they’re a hot com­mod­i­ty. What about the foot­ball team? Do we think so?

Kwasi: No. If, I’m being hon­est, when­ev­er I think about UConn foot­ball, like, UCon­n’s the bas­ket­ball cap­i­tal of the world. These are things that we know back to back cham­pi­ons. Now, there’s oth­er sports that are all also d one, but espe­cial­ly when it comes to foot­ball, it’s like, peo­ple real­ly hold on to those ear­ly two thou­sands teams of, like, oh, that was like, the mec­ca of, like, Uconn foot­ball. Those were, like, the glo­ry days. And it just has­n’t real­ly been the same since, like, 2000, 920 ten. In order to get back to that lev­el, they need to either join a cer­tain divi­sion of foot­ball, there’s rumors that they’re gonna join the big twelve. There’s rumors that they’re gonna go ahead and join the Big ten, even. Cause right now they’re just FBS, inde­pen­dent. And that does­n’t real­ly allow kids to wan­na com­mit to your school when the only school that real­ly works like that is Notre Dame. But oth­er than that, it’s just, there’s no rea­son why someone

com­ing out of high school would be like, oh, I wan­na go to UConn for foot­ball. It does­n’t real­ly make sense. Peo­ple go to UConn for almost any oth­er sport on cam­pus. We’re going to talk about oth­er sports that are doing just as well right now. But for foot­ball, it’s like, it’s get­ting bet­ter, or at least, so I’ve heard it’s get­ting bet­ter. But, like, for the last, like, five to ten years, it just has­n’t been look­ing too hot.

Olivia: I think there’s a lot to be said, though, about how much Jim Mor­ris changed it in his third sea­son now at UConn. He said back in July that he knows Con­necti­cut is such a pow­er­house for sports, and he does­n’t want the foot­ball pro­gram to be left behind. And I feel like he’s done a real­ly good job. We qual­i­fied for our first bowl game his first sea­son, but he’s done a lot since com­ing, and I feel like there is a lot to be said about what he’s done. And I think back to what Matt men­tioned ear­li­er, I think stu­dents are tend­ing to go more. I think it being in Hart­ford is prob­a­bly one of the big­ger things that makes it more dif­fi­cult. Cause no one wants to ride a school and bus to Hart­ford. But I feel like stu­dents are kind of get­ting more into it, espe­cial­ly if they are doing a lit­tle bit bet­ter, espe­cial­ly at home.

Kwasi: You know, let’s just touch on that, like, real­ly fast. So, like, if they were to build a sta­di­um, like, on cam­pus, like wher­ev­er I. Do, you think, like, the best spot would be for that sta­di­um? Like, just like any­body. Like any­one. Like, if any of you guys want to answer that, I’m still curi­ous about it.

Nick: It would have to be close to the oth­er ath­let­ic facil­i­ties. I would have to think. I don’t know if they have any more open land over there where they can build a new sta­di­um, but I know they have that, field. I believe it’s a prac­tice facil­i­ty behind that park­ing lot that’s between Hill­top, and kind of like the school busi­ness camp also. That could poten­tial­ly be a sta­di­um. Would it be the best sta­di­um? I would say prob­a­bly not. So

that’s prob­a­bly why they stick to Hart­ford, try to get a big­ger draw, try to get as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble. But, even in Hart­ford, we see that uConn, foot­ball still is not pulling in the biggest crowds. the stu­dent sec­tion isn’t always filled up, so still some work to be done, but, in terms of an on cam­pus loca­tion, it’ll be hard in stores.

Kwasi: Have you guys been to foot­ball games at all?

Nick: I went to their game against Mer­ri­mack. When they beat them, it was like 58 to 14 or some­thing like that. So it was a blowout. But even then, the stu­dent sec­tion was full for the first half, but emp­ty in the sec­ond half. So we’ll see what it takes for UConn to actu­al­ly fill out the stu­dent sec­tion. If they’re play­ing good and if fans aren’t there, it’s prob­a­bly not the best sign.

Kwasi: That’s it. I’ve nev­er been to a foot­ball game, so it’s just like, for me, it’s like, I don’t real­ly have, it’s not real­ly a lack of inter­est. It’s just the fact that it’s like the entire four years I’ve been here, just like, they haven’t been that good. And in order to get peo­ple to go to your foot­ball games, you have to show invest­ment, into, like, you have to, like, spend mon­ey to get mon­ey. Not, they’re like, not that they’re spend­ing mon­ey on, like, get­ting kids to come to col­lege, even though they tech­ni­cal­ly are. But that’s besides the point. It’s just the fact that it’s like, in order to get, like, peo­ple to go to your foot­ball games, you need to be able to show that you care about foot­ball in that regard the same way that they care about bas­ket­ball. It’s like bas­ket­ball gets packed out, like, every sin­gle year, and it has been that way for like, three decades. And that’s just because every­one loves UConn bas­ket­ball and the Yukon bas­ket­ball teams, both men and women, are both so good. So it’s like, if I’m gonna go to a foot­ball game, I don’t want to see the team just go, like, maybe like six and nine over the course of the entire sea­son. I want to see them be able to, like, you know, I’m not try­ing to say, like, they

have to be win­ning nation­al cham­pi­onships, like, right away. Cause, like, those things take time, but you got­ta be able to just show that you care about foot­ball and show that the pro­gram can­cer. I see, like, a lit­tle bit of a turn­around for sure, but it’s like, it’s gonna take, like, a cou­ple years for sure to be able

00:05:00

Kwasi: to see that stuff actu­al­ly that come to fruition.

Nick: Yeah. Olivia kind of hint­ed at this ear­li­er. Ever since Jim Mora took, the head of the team a, cou­ple years ago, the team has def­i­nite­ly been trend­ing in the right direc­tion. she said his first year, they qual­i­fied for a bowl game. That was their first time in quite a while. I’ll read you a few of these stats from their game against Mer­ri­mack. When they did beat them, it was­n’t close, it was a blowout. But they had 624 yards of total offense. That was a new school record. Their 56 first half points were a new FBS school record. And against FAU in a game on Sep­tem­ber 21, they had 421 rush­ing yards. That was a new FBS school record and the sec­ond most in school his­to­ry. So it’s safe to say that the team is def­i­nite­ly pro­gress­ing in terms of its tal­ent, its play­mak­ing abil­i­ty. I think if the, team has been talk­ing about join­ing the big twelve or the Pac twelve, I for­get exact­ly what con­fer­ence. The big twelve. if that were to hap­pen, I think it would def­i­nite­ly give the team some more direc­tion. give fans some­thing to cheer for, prob­a­bly. Kind of like the Big east is basi­cal­ly the basis of UConn bas­ket­ball sched­ule. That’s kind of what hav­ing a con­fer­ence would do for foot­ball. So if that were to hap­pen, I think that’d be huge for the team. We’ll see where those talks go. But right now, they’ve kind of stalled.

Matt: And to Nick­’s point, in that recent game against FAU, in those 421 rush­ing yards,

156. There were two play­ers that had 156 rush­ing yards each, and that was run­ning Bell, Ter­rell Robin­son, and run­ning back Mel Brown. So it’s safe to say, like Nick said, that with Jim Moore, UConn foot­ball is devel­op­ing their tal­ent, and they’re kind of build­ing their foun­da­tion that, you know, could poten­tial­ly lead to more suc­cess in the future.

Kwasi: And, they’ve had, like, NFL, like, guys get draft­ed these past, like, two, three years. So it’s not like that. I’m say­ing, like, it’s not gonna hap­pen even­tu­al­ly, but, like, one thing that it just, like, seems like it’s, like, for sure it’s not gonna hap­pen, like, at least not dur­ing my time at UConn any­way. And it’s just like, stuff like that, like, kind of sucks, but, like, you know, it’s like, I’ve expe­ri­enced two bas­ket­ball cham­pi­onships. I feel like I have, like, my ral­lies and riots across cam­pus. I have enough for my life­time any­way. But it’s just, espe­cial­ly when it comes to even. There’s a video game that came out recent­ly, EA col­lege Foot­ball 25 and UConn are one of the few FBS teams that are fea­tured in the game along­side Notre Dame and UMass. It real­ly is weird for peo­ple to. That’s their first expe­ri­ence see­ing UConn foot­ball, peri­od. They go to, they scroll to pick their favorite team, and then all of a sud­den, it’s like, oh, UConn. I did­n’t know UConn had a foot­ball team. And it’s just like, stuff like that hope­ful­ly changes with time. But for the time being, I do see a turn­around. I feel like we’ll get bet­ter, give it pro­grams take five years to build. I’d say a sol­id five to ten year plan. So it won’t hap­pen dur­ing our time here, but even­tu­al­ly there should be a lit­tle bit of a shift, and, hope­ful­ly they join a con­fer­ence like you guys are say­ing, and then that would con­vince kids out of high school to be like, oh, I want to go play in that conference.

Olivia: I think it’ll be inter­est­ing, too, to see you said in the next 5, 10 years how the trends change along­side the bas­ket­ball team. Last year, UConn had over 50,000 appli­cants to UConn, which was the first time in school his­to­ry. They don’t normally

have that many. And across the nation, most uni­ver­si­ties are hav­ing less and less appli­cants, but we’re defy­ing nation­al aver­ages because of the bas­ket­ball team they’re accred­it­ing it to. So I’d be inter­est­ed to see how it changes with foot­ball, too, because I feel like that’s the only thing we’re miss­ing as a big state school. I feel like a lot of peo­ple com­pare us to Penn State in a lot of regards based on size and loca­tion, but I’m inter­est­ed to see if peo­ple want to come to UConn more because of the foot­ball, if we get bet­ter, because I feel like that’s one thing that holds peo­ple back. The bas­ket­ball is great, but the foot­ball kind of sucks for a state school.

Kwasi: And even then, it’s like, they play bas­ket­ball games and, like, not in, like, not all the bas­ket­ball games are on cam­pus, too. They play at, like, the Excel cen­ter and stuff like that, but, like, there’s a draw there. So it’s like, I feel like it’s not real­ly, like, a, sta­di­um loca­tion. That’s, like, 100% the prob­lem. I feel like peo­ple would prob­a­bly pre­fer, or, like, stu­dent wise any­way. Like, peo­ple would pre­fer to go to games on cam­pus, but the fact that the bas­ket­ball teams can draw peo­ple almost any­where, like, they have games at Madi­son Square Gar­den, they have games at, like, the Excel cen­ter. It’s like, it’s not real­ly a mat­ter of, oh, peo­ple aren’t inter­est­ed in foot­ball. So, like, we have to put the sta­di­um in Hart­ford. It’s real­ly a thing of, like, okay. Like, you did­n’t need to show that, like, you care about foot­ball for us to be inter­est­ed in going to your games. So it’s like I said, it’s def­i­nite­ly going to be inter­est­ing. We’ll stick to that five to ten year radius. Do you guys think UConn foot­ball is going to get good with­in the next, any­time soon­er at all?

Nick: I think they’ll get bet­ter. I don’t think they’ll be one of the con­sen­sus best teams in the nation. I don’t think they ever will be one of the con­sen­sus best teams in the nation. But that does­n’t mean they can’t be com­pet­i­tive and fun to watch.

Kwasi: We could move on now, and you guys should just edu­cate me on UConn vol­ley­ball. Cause I see that they have a 120 over­all record. It’s the best start­ing pro­gram his­to­ry. I per­son­al­ly don’t watch a lot of vol­ley­ball, like, col­le­gial­ly any­way. Like, I watch olympics, obvi­ous­ly, like, beach vol­ley­ball and then, like, reg­u­lar vol­ley­ball. But it’s like, I’m not sure who would want to go now. But, like, you guys just, like, tell me about, like, UConn volleyball.

Nick: Yeah. If you don’t watch vol­ley­ball, you def­i­nite­ly should start watch­ing the Huskies because right now the team is 120. Head

00:10:00

Nick: coach Ellen Her­man Kim­ball has led an all around Huskies team to the best start­ing pro­gram his­to­ry. Last year, the team went eight and 22. So it’s been not only a turn­around, but a dra­mat­ic turn­around at that. Going from a team that was under 500 to a team that’s now unde­feat­ed. They’re unde­feat­ed in non con­fer­ence play. They also have sev­en home wins, and the team has just been receiv­ing efforts all around the ros­ter. That includes stand­out junior Emma Werk­meis­ter, who is aver­ag­ing almost five points per set. That’s the best on her team in 25th in the coun­try. But in addi­tion to her, Doha Kut­lou, Audrey Rohm, Tay­lor Pinel McKen­na Brand, and Han­nah Toscae have all made name for them­selves. So it’s been a good year and a good start to the sea­son for the Huskies.

Matt: With sto­ry­lines like this. Twelve and zero over­all record is impres­sive in any feat. Do you believe that with sports like vol­ley­ball and cross coun­try that have real­ly great sto­ry­lines that not many peo­ple know about unless you’re actu­al­ly involved with those teams, do you think that it comes down to how well stu­dents know and how well these

teams, I guess you could say, are, like, mar­ket­ed or pro­mot­ed to stu­dents, like, on cam­pus? Because I’ve been see­ing a lot of, let’s say, like Tik­Toks or like, Insta­gram like, reels about from dif­fer­ent UConn teams, like the UConn vol­ley­ball team, where they go up to stu­dents and ask them ques­tions to win, like a Dunkin gift card? Do you think that pro­mot­ing and mar­ket­ing are prob­a­bly need­ed much more for teams like the vol­ley­ball ones or the ones that aren’t, you know, more known in the UConn community?

Nick: I def­i­nite­ly think it helps. I per­son­al­ly work for UConn video ser­vices, so I also see what UConn mar­ket­ing does, and I know that they do. They put an effort for every
sin­gle one of their teams. So it’s not like because the bas­ket­ball team is good, they get more mar­ket­ing efforts. It’s pret­ty even. I think the issue is that some sports are just kind of niche com­pared to oth­ers. Bas­ket­ball is always going to be a big draw because it has a wide audi­ence and a wide demo­graph­ic of peo­ple who are inter­est­ed. Vol­ley­ball is also very pop­u­lar. Obvi­ous­ly not as much so. So it is kind of unfor­tu­nate that it does­n’t get as many eyes as some of these oth­er sports. But what Yukon vol­ley­ball does have work­ing for them this year is that they opened their brand new Yukon vol­ley­ball cen­ter that used to be the Frida’s ice forum on cam­pus. They took it, they ren­o­vat­ed it, got rid of the ice, and now it’s a brand new vol­ley­ball cen­ter. So the Huskies have a new home for their vol­ley­ball team. If you guys have ever seen it, it’s very nice. Over these first few weeks of it being open, it had a sell­out crowd in its open­ing week­end. Few sell­out crowds ever since then. So even though vol­ley­ball may not be get­ting the same eyes as these oth­er sports, it is still very pop­u­lar. Peo­ple are still com­ing out. So it’s been very encour­ag­ing to see. And I think that has to do with not only the team’s good start, but also, their new home on campus.

Kwasi: And just like, fur­ther the point that you lit­er­al­ly just made, it just kind of shows that if you invest into any type of pro­gram, you’re going to start to see results. And that’s

all that fans could ask for. That’s all that stu­dents could ask for. It’s just like if you start to. Again, they just got a new vol­ley­ball cen­ter. It’s like that could not nec­es­sar­i­ly attribute 100% to their great start to the sea­son, but it’s like there was some cor­re­la­tion there that once you show them that you care, once you show them, hey, let’s make your facil­i­ties bet­ter. Let’s make sure that this is bet­ter. It’s like, it goes to show that that could help improve the team in ways that are beyond play­er development.

Olivia: Yeah, it reminds me of the base­ball sta­di­um because they just recent­ly redid the RZA per­for­mance cen­ter. And it’s so nice, and the base­ball team’s been doing real­ly well. But going back to vol­ley­ball, some­thing I think that, they do that’s real­ly cool is they have the ath­letes hand out, like, fly­ers on cam­pus, which I haven’t seen any oth­er sport do. And I feel like some­thing that’s so fun about col­lege is like, you have such close access to the stu­dent ath­letes. You know, like, some­times you see Paige Beck­ers walk­ing on cam­pus, and that’s so cool. And obvi­ous­ly, like, unfor­tu­nate­ly, the vol­ley­ball play­ers just aren’t as well known. But I think it is cool to, like, have a direct ath­lete be like, hey, come watch our game. And I think there’s a lot to be said about the stu­dent involve­ment that they have. So I think if they con­tin­ue their efforts like that and they’re prov­ing to us that they’re worth watch­ing, we should all, like, con­sid­er going more, espe­cial­ly with the new sta­di­um. It’s so nice.

Nick: The vol­ley­ball play­ers are super nice. I have seen those videos of them hand­ing out dunkin gift cards. So, yeah, def­i­nite­ly check out a game ahead to the new UConn vol­ley­ball cen­ter. The team has been play­ing great. Like I said, not only am a Werk­meis­ter, but the entire team, led by coach Ellen Her­man Kim­ball, has turned it around this year. They’ve been a fun team to watch.

Kwasi: All right, so let’s just move on to UConn men’s soc­cer. Now, I’ve only been to

one sports game, like, my entire, like, four years on cam­pus, and the one sports game I went to was a, UConn men’s soc­cer game, I believe. I remem­ber them win­ning, like, an extra time, but gold­en goal rules. I know once it gets extra time this year, they’ve start­ed out, like, unde­feat­ed. Six wins, zero loss­es, two draws. They just seem like. It seems like almost all UConn sports in gen­er­al just, it seems like they’re all get­ting off to real­ly, real­ly good starts. But UConn men’s soc­cer is some­thing that I know per­son­al­ly. They’ve been devel­op­ing some­thing these past few years. Dif­fer­ent play­ers are going on to play in that met­al. They’re get­ting draft­ed and stuff like that. They go on to play in Europe,

00:15:00

Kwasi: I’m sure. Like, yukon, they play. Where does Yukon men’s soc­cer play again?

Olivia: Mar­rone Stadium.

Nick: Yep. Right?

Kwasi: So, like, I’m not, like, when was that built? Like, any time, like, recent­ly or, like, I’m not too sure if, like, I don’t. Like, I don’t want to, like, we were just talk­ing about, like, the trends of, like, you know, like, uconn invest­ing into dif­fer­ent sports pro­grams and stuff like that. Like, I’m not too sure, like, when that state­ment was built, but, like, there has been, like, a mas­sive turn­around. I know the game that I went to, they were com­mem­o­rat­ing one of the eight­ies teams that almost, I think they did win a divi­sion cham­pi­onship. And since then, they haven’t real­ly done that as often, if ever. That was maybe the 50th or 40th anniver­sary of that team win­ning. And then the guys that came up to the field, and they were all just being cel­e­brat­ed and stuff like that. So to see a

real­ly good turn­around in men’s soc­cer, it was real­ly inter­est­ing just look­ing at some of these stats, it’s real­ly, real­ly cool to see, like, a gen­uine turn­around in, like, all sports, but just espe­cial­ly, like, UConn soc­cer as well.

Nick: To answer your ques­tion, Kwasi it looks like Joseph J. Moroni sta­di­um was built in 1969. So it has been a while, right? but you’re absolute­ly right. it seems that the tra­jec­to­ry of UConn men’s soc­cer has been in the past. It was a dom­i­nant pro­gram. It was very high on nation­al rank­ings, one of the most com­pet­i­tive teams in the nation, and then it kind of drift­ed back and, was­n’t as com­pet­i­tive for a peri­od. But over these last cou­ple of years, the team has been reform­ing, rebuild­ing. A lot of that has to do with head coach Chris Bon­di, who’s in his third sea­son. When Bon­di inher­it­ed this team, it was a bit messy. He had a lot of play­ers who were with pre­vi­ous coach­ing reg­i­mens, so not exact­ly his team and his ros­ter, but he’s done an incred­i­ble job acquir­ing tal­ent and acquir­ing self­less play­ers, who are will­ing to do what it takes to win. So this team is not dom­i­nat­ed by super­stars. It is very even up and down the ros­ter, and they’ve received con­tri­bu­tions from just about everybody.

Kwasi: I’m curi­ous about atten­dance at, men’s soc­cer games. I don’t have any­thing writ­ten down about men’s soc­cer inten­dance wise, but it’s just like, I know it’s def­i­nite­ly more under­rat­ed com­pared to, obvi­ous­ly, bas­ket­ball. The biggest thing, I feel like even more peo­ple go to our foot­ball games than they go to soc­cer games. But I do feel that turn­around that we were talk­ing about ear­li­er. When it comes to UConn foot­ball, that’s what UConn soc­cer has already start­ed to progress into. They’ve already had their five to ten year turn­around of, okay, let’s redo this devel­oped new prac­tice tac­tics. Let’s make sure that we start to con­vince play­ers like, hey, UCon­n’s the place to be, and it’s real­ly, real­ly good stand­ing across the entire year of col­lege sports. Peo­ple will want to come to your cam­pus to play sports there.

Olivia: Yeah. To answer your ques­tion from before, the atten­dance is not great at men’s soc­cer game. It’s def­i­nite­ly bet­ter than wom­en’s soc­cer game. But I think some­thing that UConn ath­let­ic does that’s pret­ty neat is they have the bas­ket­ball team or the foot­ball team attend one anoth­er’s events, and they do that for the soc­cer games, too. Like, if you ever see Paige and KK are always post­ing tik­toks at the wom­en’s soc­cer games. So I think that’s anoth­er draw, too, is, like, oth­er stu­dent ath­letes sup­port. So we should all sup­port. Cause we love them. And they do a lot of, like, tra­di­tions at, ah, men’s soc­cer games. Like, they have tra­di­tion night, and they have all the sports teams come out. The uConn, mar­ket­ing, they give out a lot of free stuff at men’s m soc­cer games and at, those, like, I don’t want to say, like, less­er watch sports, but for lack of a bet­ter term, I’ll say that they do give away, like, nicer stuff. Like, at the hock­ey games, they kind of give away cheap fan­ny packs, where­as at the soc­cer games, they give away nice t shirts and hats. So that’s anoth­er, like, draw to get stu­dents to go. So it’s not great atten­dance, but it’s def­i­nite­ly bet­ter than some of the female sports.

Nick: It has been encour­ag­ing to see the efforts that have been made by not only the play­ers, but all UConn per­son­nel. That includes the mar­ket­ing depart­ment to put for­ward a good fan expe­ri­ence. Draw fans, draw play­ers to UConn. Try to make the school seem, you know, as well round­ed and inclu­sive as it can. So it’s great see­ing ath­letes sup­port each oth­er, and there’s no bet­ter team to sup­port right now, maybe, oth­er than the vol­ley­ball team, than the 24th ranked UConn men’s soc­cer team. So from that, let’s kind of Seg­way into the oth­er soc­cer team on cam­pus, the wom­en’s soc­cer team. They have a six one two start to the sea­son, the sec­ond best over­all record in the Big east. So it’s been anoth­er hot start for anoth­er husky team. What do you guys think?

Kwasi: I’d say again, just like I’ve nev­er been to a UConn wom­en’s soc­cer game. So I

def­i­nite­ly, def­i­nite­ly think that if all these teams are start­ing off real­ly hot, all stu­dents should be try­ing their best to just go and watch, espe­cial­ly in the moments, espe­cial­ly when the team’s per­form­ing real­ly well.You want to be there and be a part of it.

Olivia: Yeah. Some­thing real­ly spe­cial that they do, too, is they give out a lot of free tick­ets to youth, girls soc­cer pro­grams. I’ve worked a cou­ple UConn games, and it’s real­ly nice to meet these fam­i­lies who come and bring their daugh­ters, and it’s just a good way for them to show, like, female ath­letes can do real­ly well.

Nick: The UConn sport­ing expe­ri­ence is def­i­nite­ly a spe­cial one. All right, well, to wrap it up, in case you missed it today, we dis­cussed, the pro­gres­sion of UConn ath­let­ics. It’s been an incred­i­bly hot start to the fall for pret­ty much all of them. For every­body in the husky hud­dle, I’m Nick. I was joined today by Olivia, Kwasi and Matt. Thank you for tun­ing in, and we’ll see you next time.

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