Avery Koenen and Tre Drake

0:00Welcome back to KFGO. And I'm here right now, hosting afternoon's live with producer Eric Johnson, filling in for Tyler Axness. The KFGO Studio line is 7-0-1-237-5948. Or as you know, you can always text the KFGO text club at 352-7-0. So, coming back from the break, I'm excited to have two of my favorite students. And I'm here with my favorite student in the studio right now, Avery Conan and Trey Drake. Some people might know you as the star of the women's basketball team and the back-up quarterback for the men's football team. But I know you as students. So welcome you two. Thanks for coming in today. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. We appreciate you making time for us on your birthday. Yes, thank you. Yeah, this is the first time I've ever gotten to be the host. I've been looking forward to this forever. It's bucket list item.

1:01And they gave me that opportunity. And they gave me the show to put my line up together of all the different people that I wanted to bring in. And so I got to pick six different guests and I ran into you two week or so ago, shortly after your engagement that recently happened. We were just getting ready for the beginning of the school year. And so I thought to myself, who better to bring on to talk about being student athletes at NDSU being students in our physical education program and and just and just start your lives together. So, thank you so much for coming in. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. We appreciate you having us. You're both physical education majors at NDSU, both students of mine. I talk about the fact that when you first, you know, first started in the program as freshmen, yeah, we're on opposite sides in the room. And when you went around and introduced yourselves, you said you're supposed to tell me where you're from and trade told me I'm from Jamestown, New York.

2:04But you've been on campus a little while then because you've learned that you can't just say I'm from Jamestown if you are here in Fargo, right? Because Jamestown is not the same Jamestown that you're from. But as the years went by, you two got on the same side of the room. You were teaching partners in our home school program last year where you got to teach little kids that were homeschooled. And you just recently got engaged in the last couple weeks with congratulations. That's so awesome. Yeah, thank you so much. So go ahead and tell the world what does it like to be a student athlete? I know you get interviewed all the time about your sports teams, right? And I think it's sometimes lost what it's like to just be a student to just go for a walk on campus like you did when I ran into you that day or to do your homework together. So just tell everybody a little bit about what that's like. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely busy and it's kind of hard to like balance everything.

3:05I think sometimes with trying to manage school and also your sports who I was up this morning, 7am, we had conditioning and then give class all day and then practice in the afternoon. So stuff like that, but it's definitely just fun to not only be an athlete at NDSU, but a student. You get to meet a lot of different people. I know like just being a part of the PE program. It kind of feels like you're in high school again. Like you get just get to start meeting and getting to know all the people that are studying the same thing as you. So getting to spend time with people and getting to know them there is really special outside of the sport that we play. Yeah, for sure. I think it's awesome. We've been fortunate enough to have a great group of people in our department, not just all of our professors like yourself, but all the students as well. We have so many classmates and teammates that we've developed such great relationships with just through the phys ed department. And yeah, we're just so grateful. I mean, both of us kind of come from athletic backgrounds with our family.

4:08So it just been kind of instilled in us since we were kids and were fortunate enough to just kind of put that into action. And we both definitely enjoyed being around and teaching too. And it's kind of what we have a passion for is teaching the younger generation and the youth about athletics and physical activity. Yeah, I mean, you also can work part time jobs, right, as part of those things. And I talked in the last segment with Brody Kegley, who was the quarterback for Central Cast just broke the all time passing yards record for the school. And tell us a little bit about you got an opportunity to work with him this summer, right? Yeah, for sure. I do some quarterback training in the summertime. When we're in the off season, have some time to, you know, just make, you know, a little extra time to be able to do those things. And I'm super happy for Brody, man. He is just the definition of a worker. You know, he came from Central Cast at least twice a week here to Fargo to just, you know, continue to pour into his development as a quarterback and as his game.

5:11Yeah, like I said, no one more deserving. And, you know, he's just continued for the last two years. I've just been able to see so much growth through his dedication as a quarterback and dedication to the game. And he's just continued to light it up on the field. And yeah, ultimately you just re put you so and he's putting so much work and to see it come to fruition. And then kind of for myself, just to like, you know, be able to see the growth once you pour into guys, you know, the growth and development that comes from that is definitely rewarding to as a coach. Yeah, I mean, you get you're still in that phase of your life where you're you're wanting to play in the field and you're wanting to accomplish the things you are, but you're also getting an opportunity to work with others and and see them have that success. So you're getting to see that that that awesomeness of you. Have you got any chance to do any of those type of opportunities? Yeah, actually, I started doing some training individual stuff, not or two summers ago, just through St.ford, power and stuff like that.

6:12So worked with kids through there and then kind of did stuff on my own this summer with just some connections that I made. And you know, same thing is just kind of rewarding to see that time that you pour into kids, what they get out of it. And it's really special to see their growth. And, you know, they're there and they want to get better. So I think just having kids that are very receptive to what you have to say and want to work hard is pretty special. And especially that they want us to also be a part of their development. Yeah, I mean, we talk about it in our coaching classes all the time, right? The, I mean, the most rewarding part of coaching is coaching a coachable kid, right? I mean, if you don't, if you have somebody who isn't a coachable kid, it can feel like you're banging your head against the wall sometimes. And so you'll take coachability over talent in a heartbeat, right? Because you can, you can coach talents, but you can't coach coachability, right? And so yeah, well, that's great. And, you know, I have to say you're both fun in class, right?

7:18I see you up in the gym with your peers and I wouldn't know that you are different than your peers. Like you said, you have a cohort of students who have gone with you through all the classes together in psych high school. You have a group of students that you're all have fun together with, Trey and I got dual jump rope together last year. And so you're holding up this double jump rope and and Trey jump saying, and I'm jumping in and I'm, and I'm, and we're trying to get it and and and work together. It's just, it's just fun. And so that really is what it, what it all comes down to is is camp life balance on campus, right? You got your intense sports and, and you got your fans that are coming and have expectations and you got to go and win, but at the same time, getting out there and, and just working with kids and teaching kids. And, and some of them come to your games and know who you are, right? That's got to be a fun experience to have your home school kids come up and they're where they're biasing gear and pretend like that they just coincidentally happen to wear it that day and you ask them about it.

8:25So yeah, I mean, tell me a little bit more about about that process. I mean, as far as you're teaching you kids. Yeah, it's definitely fun. I guess it kind of goes with that training aspect of things like just getting to work with kids and teach them in the classroom is is also rewarding when you see them, you know, you're starting out. We had like a younger group of kids last year for home school and you're teaching them the basic things just like how to skip, you know, just little things like that, but seeing them come with so much like excitement and joy and wanting to learn. And then just like building those relationships with those kids to especially just with a home school aspect them coming and getting to be around, you know, more kids and getting taught by other people. I think that they seem to really enjoy it. So it's definitely special to be a part of that and we had a lot of really great kids that we made really good connections with and yeah, I'm showing up at our sporting. It was really cool.

9:27Yeah, for sure. I think it's a lot about relationships too. And I think, you know, speak on behalf of myself and every probably to definitely grew a lot more of a passion for as the weeks went on. Just seeing, you know, the kids that you are starting to get to know a lot better and more personable are continuing to come back each and every week with just like a mindset that they, you know, they want to get better. They want to be coached. So it's yeah, it's been super fun to just be able to teach those young kids and also to just have them look up to us and for us to kind of be role models and in that aspect, not just athletes, but, you know, as teachers and professionals too. Yeah. Well, great. Well, I appreciate you guys talking about that. Now, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't get into your football season. We got a big game coming up on Saturday, the first Missouri Valley, excuse not Mountain West, and yeah, Mountain West game. We're going to talk about every season, but we're going to do that after we get back from the break. So thank you.

10:30If you guys can stick around, I'd really appreciate it. This is afternoons live. I'm Joe Doich with producer Eric Johnson, filling in for Tyler, Xs will be back after this. Thank you. You

11:47You You

12:47You You

13:47Anything For My You You you are Number Three. Fire parece on mic. That feels like叫 me. So knowing screams. Really wall looking. That's what I thought. So, I'm these guys. And I feel like I'm trying to enjoy the way of these Photoshop., and that's all I want something for. two of my favorite students and current athletes at North Dakota State University, Avery Conan, and Trade Break. And so before we left for the break, we talked about you being student athletes, which is my students, which is my favorite part. But of course, everybody wants to hear about how the women's basketball team is going to do this year, how the men's football team is doing and is going to do. So Avery, the floor is yours. Tell us about you're returning, I believe four out of five starters to your regular season,

14:50Summit League Championship team last year. So I'm assuming we got big high expectations for this year. Yeah, for sure. We got a lot of goals and we were coming off of a really successful season, but still a lot of work that we know that we need to do and a lot of goals that we still want to reach. So yeah, returning that many girls, not just starters, but even girls off the bench too, is going to be really, really good for our team, just building that experience and not having to like re-teach too much, you're just kind of building off what we already had. So we've got a lot of girls that are ready to step into bigger roles now. And you know, there's my classes, seniors, especially, has been, you know, we've been blessed enough to play for the majority of our career. So just having that those years under our belt, you know, we've played in the Summit League tournament championship twice and have, you know, made a postseason tournaments every single year. So experience with that and those type of situations is going to go really well for us.

15:55And yeah, lots of high goals, high expectations. And we've been, we've started practice past three weeks and we're here all summer. So really excited to get into our actual season and getting to games. Yeah, I think people are excited about what Jorrie's done with the program and just, you know, the commitment and the excitement that is going on with women's past well, we haven't had a lot of that until the last couple of years since the A&E rule era, which maybe you probably don't remember, you two were even born yet, I guess. But regardless, so all that's exciting and we're super excited for you guys and can't wait to get out some games and cheer on the mighty bison as you guys go after that Summit League championship. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. When this year, yeah, I hope so. Head to the NCAA tournament. Yeah, that's the goal. That's the goal. No bigger accomplishment. Trade. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about the bison got a big game coming up this weekend or? Yeah, yeah, for sure. We definitely do opening up Mountain West Conference play here this weekend.

17:01Yeah, it's just been so fun. And this group is just awesome to be able to compete with. Obviously, we started off the season pretty strong, 2-0 against Jacksonville State and Ford on two tough, really good opponents that I think have really primed us for opening up this conference play. And yeah, we had to call it out of spring tomorrow. We as we take on Air Force on Saturday. Yeah, everybody's just so excited about the kickoff for that. But us being one buys the nation being two. And it's just been so cool to kind of see buys a nation rally around just the whole FPS era moving up. We're so excited. We can't wait to prove buys a nation, how we belong and how we're going to compete at that level. Yeah, Air Force is going to be an awesome game. It's going to be so fun. Obviously, there's a lot of history there at Air Force and it's going to be amazing to kind of just soak it all in, just compete against military school like that. They're a very tough team. They play well together.

18:01They play extremely hard and they're very disciplined, as you can imagine. So there'll be a very tough opponent, a tough opponent, sorry. And it'll just be super fun to go out there and compete with them. They bring a lot of, probably a little bit of a different style football to the table with their option offense and things like that. So just looking forward to, yeah, compete with them and attacking and just keep pushing ahead as we move forward in conference play. I'm excited. I have a few friends that are going to have to take an app during the day on Saturday, though, because they're not going to be ready for a 9 p.m. kickoff for the bison, but it's, it's coming. And it's a beautiful, beautiful stadium to at Air Force. Yeah. So anyway, hey, I want to thank you to for coming in. It makes my heart so happy that you two are engaged and are going to get married and you have big seasons in front of both of you. So thank you so much for coming in and I am out for the hour.