Alan Babbitt: Welcome to the Hope Athletics orange of blue Podcast. My name is Alan Babbitt, sports information director here at Hope College. It's been a lot of fun the past school year to talk to members of the Hope Athletics community, whether coaches or student athletes or staff and share their experiences in a non-competitive setting. With me today are distinguished student athletes Arinn King from the Hope College softball team and Jack Radzville from the Hope College men's lacrosse team. Both at our HOPEYs ceremony were named the Be Strong. Be True. Athletes of the Year for their respective genders, an impressive accomplishment that takes into more than just athletic achievement, but leadership, community service, the whole student-athlete. Arinn and Jack are the latest exemplary examples of that. Welcome to the Orange and Blue podcast Aaron and Jack. We'll start first with Arinn. What does that honor mean to you?
Arinn King: Oh, my gosh it means so much you know it's amazing to be at a place like hope that values both academic and athletic excellence. Just being at hope in my four years here as a student and an athlete has meant so much to me and shaped me into who I am today so just to be nominated for that award and to receive it was just a huge honor.
Alan Babbitt: When you came to hope is that something that drew you here, did you know that walking in or is that something you fully realized once you were a part of the community?
Arinn King: I think I had a little bit of an idea coming in, but when you get here you truly realize that the people here they're pushing you to be your best definitely both in the classroom and on the field and it just shaped you into a better person and prepares you really well for the future.
Alan Babbitt: For you, Jack, that honor, what did it mean to you?
Jack Radzville: Like Arrin, I was just extremely honored to get the nomination, with all the other student athletes that were beside me, it was just sweet to be up there with all those great academically, athletically and community students. We all did our part, but after getting that award I was extremely honored just to stand up there and kind of just know that all the hard work that we put in kind of displays what we did. It made me feel really good that I was able to leave a mark in my four years at Hope and that Hope allowed us to do something like that, so when the lacrosse team, we had It's on Us. One Love and the Hope Street Foundation, and it was just cool to have that on our teams every season, then actually be a part of that and help that grow for next year.
Alan Babbitt: Jack did you know coming here that it was going to be that type of experience or or when did you fully realize the full breadth of the opportunities that you would have you know, both in all in all facets of your college life?
Jack Radzville: Coming into Hope I didn't really know that side, I came here to play lacrosse and have a good education as an engineer. But as a freshman we had the One Love and It's on Us every year and Coach Schanhals was able to kind of talk through that with us to give us more examples and just knowledge about certain things that would happen in our everyday lives. it grew on me and then especially last year and senior year I was able to see we were able to spread this message across a whole team. Each person could probably spread it to somebody they know or more than that, and it just helped the community as a whole, and it was just awesome to see that in our society.
Alan Babbitt: Arinn, what were some of the things that you experienced outside of softball and some of the things you guys do together as a team for the community.
Arinn King: Every year, we volunteered at Miracle League, which is an organization that gives people with disabilities the opportunity to play baseball. We'll go there and you buddy up with somebody that's playing and you get to just watch them have so much fun playing a game that you both love. We get to do that every year, which is just an incredible experience.
Alan Babbitt: For both of you with so many opportunities, the challenge is always for anybody in life there's only 24 hours in a day and you need to sleep, you need to eat, you need to practice, you need to play games. But you need to study, you need to go to class lab, maybe an internship, just a variety of things. In order to excel in all areas it takes a lot of work and organization. What did you learn about being able to handle that to get done all that you wanted to to get done and, additionally, then be able to have time to be able to serve others and have a social life and be with your friends as well.
Arinn King: Definitely a big change coming into college. It's a big step and you're handling a lot more things. Athletics is a lot more. Time management, you've got to figure all that out so it's definitely a big shift for me coming in, but I think when I started to realize leaning on other people. digging into your friends, and not being afraid to ask for help in those situations where you're like 'Okay, I need help' with really anything you know you can ask your professors for help here, you know i'm not understanding this assignment I'm really struggling. Just the people here at Hope are just incredible. They just really help out a lot. It's kind of difficult, but you get the hang of it and Hope definitely makes it an opportunity to give you all of those things. It's definitely really good.
Alan Babbitt: Jack, how did you learn to manage everything that you wanted to do?
Jack Radzville: The biggest thing overall is just time management, being able to figure out why you actually wanted to come to Hope. So for me, it was a lot of reflection and just trying to figure out what I wanted to have athletically, academically and socially, so you got to kind of balance those things. You can't just get rid of one of them, and expect the other two to get better. You kind of need all three of them, and to do that, it's focusing on what you need to do like if it's studying a little bit more for a test, do that and take it a little bit more time out of your day. Say you've got a weekend to hang out with your friends or maybe study on the weekends, instead, so you can hang out with friends during the week. Just like those little interactions with friends kind of de-stresses you allowing you to do better in sports, in exams and stuff like that. Because when you go to say Phelps or Cook and you just talk for 30 minutes about whatever it is just laughing having fun, it takes you away from that mental strain that you have the whole week as a student athlete whether it's just working out practicing watching film. You try to limit those things so that not just one of them is dominating and having all like a balance about three is really nice I liked.
Alan Babbitt: Arinn your studies, when did you know what you wanted to study here at Hope? Did you find it before coming into the doors here or did you find that here?
Arinn King:I had an idea in high school that I kind of wanted to do athletic training just being an athlete growing up I love being sports. I wanted to be around sports. Then I went to shadow a physical therapist my senior year of high school and really liked it. I went into college kind of knowing I wanted to do rehab maybe with athletes, maybe with somebody else. When I got here I declared my major sophomore year but I had an idea, basically, the whole time that exercise science was my main goal. I knew I wanted to go to PT school, so I was on the right track.
Alan Babbitt: When you think about your educational or academic experience — obviously I'm sure, a lot of memories — but what was something that was maybe particularly impactful on you?
Arinn King: I got to do an internship. it's part of your major so I shadowed a PT and just fell in love with. You worked with all different ages, all different occupations. There were some athletes, there were some geriatric people, some younger kids, and I just loved the diversity of people that I could help, so I just saw that through my shadowing experience and then got to do that.
Alan Babbitt: Jack your educational pursuits when did you know which career path you wanted to follow?
Jack Radzville: In high school I kind of had a general idea of going into engineering, but I had no clue like what discipline I wanted to go to. I was thinking of civil because my grandparents were civil engineers. I didn't know if that was a good option for me. At Hope, we were able to have our first year, just like basic courses, with every discipline to see, to test out the waters. I liked electrical engineering the most and I had a couple of really good friends that I studied with all the time. They were going that way, so I kind of went that way, that path. I really liked going that way because it's a lot better than mechanical engineering for me.
Alan Babbitt: What do you hope to use that for? What's your next steps now?
Jack Radzville: Post Hope, my plan is to start working in the fall for Ford Motor Company.
They do a program, and I'm going to rotate positions and departments and feel out what I like to do, just like freshman year in college. I don't really know what I want to do. I want to use that opportunity to just see what I like and then go from there.
Alan Babbitt: The experience with electrical engineering, what is something that you always remember about your time in the program?
Jack Radzville: The biggest thing I think about right now is just the late night study grinds before a test. At 2 or 3 am, my friends are sleeping. I'm just still studying away. One of the classes that was very difficult was embedded systems. It was like a really on your own class and we had to figure out stuff around just reading through anything on Google just trying to figure out how to do it. That gave me. insight that I could figure stuff out when I want to if I, and I like that, like opportunity, just to start grinding through like a project and then figuring it out your own way and then kind of like wiring the teacher that was pretty cool for me.
Alan Babbitt: Both of you stepped on to campus and you know we're playing right away, for your teams and taking on significant roles. I'll start with you Arinn, where did that love softball start and when you came in as a freshman what were you trying to accomplish to help your team out?
Arinn King: My love for softball started at a very young age. My dad's a softball coach so I've been around it my whole life. Both my parents went to Hope so I always had kind of this dream to come play for Hope. When I got here, they had a really good team, and I knew they had lost some players, some big roles. I just wanted to be able to step in as a freshman, I didn't know if I was going to play, I just wanted to be there and make a difference whether it was on the field, or in the dugout. I just wanted to make a difference and have a good time.
Alan Babbitt: Were you always an infielder? I know second base has been the position I'm most familiar with seeing you play. Has that been the position you played or was that a new position when you came here?
Arinn King: I started out as a catcher and then like my sophomore year in high school, I went to middle infield so I played a little bit of short and a little bit of second in high school in travel. Coming here, it was pretty much the same.
Alan Babbitt: With infield, you've got to make, especially at second base, a lot of decisions, communicating with the outfielders and just everything that's involved. What did you learn about playing softball that helped you be able to be such a good player. You were all region this year You've been an All-MIAA player.
Arinn King: You;ve got to rely on your teammates. I mean it's not a one person sport so making that play you got to rely on your first baseman to catch it you got to rely on the double play that she's going to make a good throw you know you gotta you just gotta have full trust in your teammates. I think having full trust allows you to just play with all that you can and give all that you can because you know that they're doing the same thing. Sometimes that takes a little bit to learn and figure out and just to build that trust. But once you do I think that just allows everybody to play at a much higher level.
Alan Babbitt: Jack you were able to come in and contribute right away as well. Thinking back to when you first started playing lacrosse here, I guess first go back even further back where did that love of the game start and then what were your goals when you came in as a freshman?
Jack Radzville: The love of the game started I think around fifth grade. My cousin was playing and he was a couple years older than me and I picked up a stick. I wasn't very good the first couple of years, but I just liked how there's so many different dynamics still in lacrosse: hitting, running, just being physical with people like football. I liked to play that when I was younger. it was just like all in one, and then the skill. You didn't have to be big to do it. You could be quick and small. I kind of liked that aspect of it. The sport just kind of grew on me and then in middle school I hurt my back so I kind of gave up football and just started with lacrosse. I would just remember backyard just playing catch by myself and just shooting for hours, and it was just like the most fun thing ever, even though it was really doing nothing in my backyard. Coming to Hope College as a freshman I didn't really know what I was going to do at all like most freshmen do like a good team. I kind of just wanted to make my impression in the fall by just trying my hardest and making everybody else around me better. So, whether it was like a new person that I was being guarded by or a senior, I tried the best I could to make myself and make them better. I didn't know if I was going to start or not in the spring. But I just wanted to do as much as I could whether it was riding ground balls trying to make their life as hard as possible to make them better in the future, and it kind of paid off.
Alan Babbitt: And it paid off, you became MIAA Offensive Mvp this season and you've been All-MIAA and all-region before. What have you learned about playing at a very high level>
Jack Radzville: I think the biggest thing is being able to change what you're trying to do in games, trying to read the defense and trying to read what they're trying to throw at you, and then just adjust to that. I remember most games with Coach Schanhals after the first quarter we would talk through what's going on, if the defensive sliding from the crease or switching on picks, we talked about that pretty much every time out every quarter and that just helps a lot, because you can talk to your offense and see what's working and then, if it's not working, we're going to try something else. That kind of helped us the last couple of years a lot. Our offense started scoring a lot more just being dynamic instead of trying to just keep on throwing the same exact play at them right and I really like that.
Alan Babbitt: For the both of you what did it mean being able to play? How did that help you just with everything?
Arinn King: It's definitely a stress reliever for sure. It's just a joy to be on that field. I think it's a little bit of a relief and then you just have fun with it. Like you said it is just definitely a stress reliever for the academics and hard hard times that come so.
Jack Radzville: Going off that, I think my freshman year fall, we had like a couple bad practices and our captain, Gino Battaglia, was talking to the whole team and said forget about everything else in your life, right now, and just play lacrosse because this is your recess. That's what stuck through me the last four years — when you're at lacrosse practice, even if you're tired or sore you're not having a good day. When you're on the field you kind of don't think about school or any deadlines coming up or that your story, justf play lacrosse. I've always played like that, where everything just loses itself in my mind, and I just think about playing lacrosse or getting the ball. Stuff like that definitely de-stresses you to allow you to reset for maybe studying five hours after that practice or stuff like that. It's just been a big relief for me because I just wait for practice, then you can just reset and do the same thing over and over again.
Alan Babbitt: Obviously there's a lot of people that you could probably name, but if you could both of you think about a couple people that have been particularly helpful to you as you've navigated all the studies and the competitions and everything else.
Arinn King: I would definitely just say thank you to all of my coaches and my teammates. They pushed me on the field in the classroom in my faith just and life in general with their friendships. They just pushed me to be my best in all aspects, taught me to be more confident in who I was. I'm definitely a better version of myself since walking into Hope because of them. I would just to definitely thanks my professors as well with the academic load that I had, it was just nice that they all were so understanding and cared about you, as both a student and a person, whether that be, helping out in office hours because you didn't understand like something on the test or having a bonfire at their house like we'd go there. They'd just open up their homes to us so they just made my major super enjoyable, even though it was super hard. I'm very grateful for them.
Jack Radzville: I would just want to say thank you to all my friends, teammates, coaches and my family because they have had my back and encouraged me to do the best I can they're always proud of what i've done, but they always pushed me to do better when I'm not doing my best they don't want to like, allow me to dip below that level, and I really just want to thank all them for doing that. I want to shout out Andrew Conlon, Cole Scheffler and then my coaches, Mike Schanhals, Chris Scheldt, always pushing me to do better academically and athletically. Another friend is Jackson Bode, my engineering buddy that has stuck with me through the whole four years of just grinding out homework and getting better as an engineer, and just kind of being better that way as well.
Alan Babbitt: This year, you were part of mentoring some freshman teammates and welcoming into Hope. getting them started hopefully on the right foot to their journeys. There'll be a new class coming in this fall that will be in a boat that you were in not too far long ago with starting at Hope. What advice would you give to them as they start their journeys to try to find their path and get the most out of their Hope experience like both of you have?
Arinn King: I would say just have fun with it and dive into building relationships with your teammates right away like right from the start, especially those in your class, because those are going to be lifelong friendships that you're going to really miss when you leave. Also I just said don't be afraid to ask for help as athletes, sometimes we think that we can handle it all, and then we can do it ourselves, but I would just say it's OK to get help whether that'd be academically or with mental health or with anything really. it's O to get help.Then lastly just enjoy every minute because it goes, really, really fast.
Jack Radzville: Just diving into friendships stuff like that on your team. I know freshman year I have friendships that are now my best friends that I didn't know and they're older than me as well, and I still talk to them all the time. There's no hard feelings, with just trying to make a friendship out and nothing, or at the start. You've got nothing to lose, everything to gain stuff like that. Then one of the biggest things I used throughout my career was not to worry about things that you can't control. Sure there are some things like test homework exams that you're going to worry about like getting a good grade. But you can't let them continually build on each other to make you stressed out about it and make you do worse in school. If you do something bad or get a bad grade just try your best to make that better next time you don't have to worry about the first one. I've had my fair share of failed first tests and I've done fine. At the end of the day, there's so much time in your life and there's no point in trying to worry about stuff that you can't control. Go to bed earlier if you need more sleep, ask for help because a lot of people who are going to have the same issue when they're freshmen and that will help you out. In any class that you have or give you the notes that they had when they were a freshman stuff like that and people have done the same thing you've done as a freshman so I mean you can start friendships out by asking for help and they build and build and build. That's my advice: just don't worry about stuff that you can't control and then, if you can't control it then just do something about it right.
Alan Babbitt: I would be remiss if I shouldn't mention this school year: an amazing year another MIAA Commissioner's Cup for the all sports awards and then not only on that you know 12 conference championships multiple runner up finishes. What is it about Hope Athletics to you that allows more and more people to get involved with success, not just maybe a handful of teams.
Arinn King: I think it's just the athletic department itself is so supportive. I'm like I know our team, some of our favorite things were to go watch basketball with both girls and guys. That was just super fun so it's from the administration and from other student athletes it's like incredible support. There's just like a want to win for everybody for everybody, so it's just really fun to be a part of a department and community that just supports each other and wants everyone to win and it's just really fun.
Jack Radzville: I agree with that and the community of just being there for each other is just so great at Hope College. Within my team all of them are like my brothers now and they've always been there when I was a freshman. Now I'm a senior and I like trying to mentor them. I feel, like most teams, that Hope has the BT BT mentality that the lacrosse team has: Be Together, Better Together. It shows with the 12 conference championships. Hope Athletics, they're driven both academically and athletically to be their best, and I know the coaches and athletic department try to push us as to be the best of our abilities and they give us the resources to do so, whether that's the DeVos fields that are really nice or giving us time to be better together with our time here.
Alan Babbitt: Thank you both Arinn King and Jack Radzville for joining me today on the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast. It's been a pleasure these four years, even though we had one season interrupted, unfortunately, watching you compete, and we wish you both well in your future endeavors and look forward to following your new paths for you both. Thanka Arinn and Jack.
Jack Radzville: Thank you.
Arinn King: Thank you.
