Fishers is like a mirror of Switzerland, a mirror of Switzerland. You don't need to go to Switzerland. Just run to Fishers, Indiana. Go Fishers. We're gonna host the largest women's sporting event ever. Ignite Lead off Caitlin Clark and the Fever. Imagine that I have to go and fly across the world, but now it's right here in your backyard.
That's the most beautiful thing. Talk to us about what we can expect from this season for the Indy Ignite. From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
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Now let's get into today's episode. My guest today is Lauren Bertolacci, Australian raised volleyball setter. Turned coach. She earned nearly 100 caps with the Australian national team. A cap is an appearance in a match, correct? Yeah, that’s it. There we go. From 2005 to 2015 a decade with the Australian national team.
That's crazy. After a decade playing professionally across Europe, she built a dominant coaching tenure in Switzerland. Before relocating to Indiana to lead the Indy Ignite, I'm also joined by Ainise Havili. She is from Fort Worth, Texas, and she starred at the University of Kansas where she holds the all-time assist record 5,255, if I believe so.
Yep. And was inducted into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023. After playing professionally overseas in Sweden, Turkey, and Germany, she joined the Indy Ignite as a setter. I am so excited to talk about this. By the time this releases will be about two weeks away from the first serve, mm-hmm. At the first or the home opener, which will be game four of the season on January.
24th at 7:00 PM I think I got all the details on that. Right. Let's go. I'm really excited to dive into everything that is professional volleyball. This is the third year of the league, the second year for the Indy Ignite, I believe. So. Learning about, uh, obviously we're a sports city here in Indianapolis.
We're a sports state here in Indiana. I'm really excited to dive into all things professional volleyball. Welcome to the show. Thanks. We're super pumped to be here for having us. Let's go. Alright. First things first, we gotta start with the background. Give us, set the stage. How big is the, is it the professional volleyball league?
What's it called? What's the league called? Uh, how big is it and how long has this been around? Yeah, it's currently called the Major League Volleyball. The MLV. Ooh. Right. Major League Volleyball. That's, that's way cooler than, that's way cooler than what I said. Okay. Yeah. That's super nice. Yeah. Yeah. We have eight teams and it's been around, this will be its third year.
Okay. Third year. And this is Indy's second season, correct? Correct. Okay. So who were the original, and I'm gonna put you on the spot. Can you name all the teams? In the league. I'm gonna pass that to my set off the original league. It was the Vegas thrill, the San Diego Mojo, the Omaha Supernovas, the Atlanta Vibe, grand Rapids Rise.
Oh, and the Orlando Valkyries, Columbus and Columbus Fury. So seven, original Seven was the big group, and then we added the Indy Ignite the second season. Yep. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then. Uh, so now we're up to eight. Yeah. So now we have a team in Dallas as well. The Dallas Pulse. Oh, mm-hmm. Okay. And so all after the, or during the inaugural season, I believe that Indy did pretty well, right?
Didn't we make it to the finals? We did Pretty dang good. Well, how do you wait? Is it the final? What? What did we say? Yeah, we it to the championship game. The championship match. Yes. Okay. And is it volleyball is a one where like you play multiple game. Is it like a game, not game set match or game match?
How does this work? So we play best three out of five best sets. Okay. So it's uh, best three sets outta five will win the match. So be three sets out five. So in the championship match? Yes. How did that go? We ended up losing, yeah. Yep. Ended up runner up of that season. Okay. Um. But yeah, it was just a great season overall to the Orlando Valkyries, the Orlando Valkyries.
Mm-hmm. So a little bit of redemption that we're going to be on for year two, of course. Uh, but Lauren, this is your first season with the Ignite, correct? Correct. Okay. So before this, you were overseas for a long portion of time, a decade playing for the Australian national team, and then I think you've been the national coach of Switzerland for the last four years.
Yep. Yeah, I was playing with the national team while I was playing professionally in Europe as well. So I did that for 10 years and 12 years I've been, uh, coaching professionally. I wanna dive into what the life of a professional volleyballer looks like. Volleyball player, volleyballer. I kinda like the, like if you, I saw Ted Lasso and they called it a footballer, and I kind of liked the term volley.
Like kind of fun. Um, talk to me about what this looks like. Uh, you've been in some capacity playing slash coaching professional volleyball since 2005. Yep, exactly. Yep. So like. Are we talking like Olympics? Are we talk like what does professional volleyball look like? I mean, there are Olympics. I have not been there.
Yeah. Um, maybe one day with the national team, but uh, certainly not with the Australian national team. Uh, but for me it was a lot of travel. I was moving around every year, changing teams like, uh, there are so many leagues over in Europe, so you can imagine I'm in Spain one year, head to Switzerland the next year, that kind of thing.
Um, but I, it's a really big privilege to be able to do it. So yeah. I mean, was it hard? You know, I think that like you see the NFL or the NBA and it's like, be a stud in high school, go to one year of college, then get drafted, and now you make millions of dollars. Yeah. Well, we're talking 20 years ago in a women's sport, in a smaller sport, so I can definitely tell you I was not earning millions of dollars.
Um, but I think it was, yeah. It's difficult because it's professional sport, but it was an amazing experience and one I would, would never, ever change. How old were you when 2005? Like when you first started becoming a professional volleyball player? Yeah, I'm gonna give away my age, but it was 20, 20 years ago and um, I was 20, so yeah, I left Australia and you know, we don't do public math on the show.
No public. That's all good. It's all good. Okay, so you're 20 years old. Yep. Had you spent your whole life in Australia? Yep. And you're like, you know, I wanna chase down the stream, so let's go do this thing. Yeah. But you wanna know this story because Yeah. Tell the story. There was not a lot of internet in 2005, right?
Or there was, but you could maybe just email. So, to get my job, I didn't know there were agents that existed, so I sent. Probably about a thousand emails to different clubs over Europe. And the ones that responded to me, I sent a DVD across the oceans, um, to their club and eventually someone wrote back and said, Hey, here's the job.
Come to France. And so I, and like, come play for us. Yep. Okay. Well one, it's crazy that they could run like the ethernet cable over to the island of Australia. Right. Um, okay. So you, you get an opportunity in France. Yep. What does professional volleyball in 2005 is this like. This is your full-time job or do you have to do other things?
Like how do you survive? Like it, it is and always kind of has to be a full-time job just based on the amount of effort you need to put in in the day. So regardless on what you're getting paid, um, it is a full-time job. So I went over there and that was what I was doing for that nine month, nine month period.
No way. Yep. Was it hard to leave home? Um, no. I had such a big drive to it to kind of want to be in the national team and take that next step, so it just felt like inevitable and something I had to do and wanted to do. So yeah, I did. And then obviously you just keep progressing along the career, whether it's playing, then it starts into coaching, and then you get the opportunity to come.
To Indianapolis? Yeah. Can we talk about that? I'd love to. Yeah. So how, how did those conversations get started and how did you wind up here on the Get IN podcast? I know, right? In Indiana? Yeah. Um, honestly, when the league started in America, we were all kind of watching. We know how big sports is in America and we understand that if you guys wanna be the best at it, you're gonna be.
Um, so we've been, we've been, yeah. Hell yeah. We've, we've been watching pretty closely from Europe. So from my side it was kind of a, like a when, not an if that I would come to America and the opportunity presented itself. I had conversations with our owners, our, our presidents, and like vision sold really quickly was a no-brainer decision for me to Wow.
To sign the contract and get on the plane. How long has professional volleyball been around? I mean, obviously since before 2005. Oh yeah. Well, in Europe. Yep. And like, like is it, or they big games, like how many people are coming to a professional volleyball game in Europe? Like it totally depends on the league.
So yeah. Where Ainise played in, in Germany, maybe you can speak on that, but you guys would have quite a big crowd in Stuttgart, right? Oh yeah, yeah. We would have around, you know, 3000 a game and then when I went to Turkey it was even bigger because I mean, the volleyball is, is much larger over there. So. The gr the, the stadiums would fill up, you know.
No, they love volleyball over there in, in Europe, so, but they don't have American sized stadiums. So a 3000, that's people in a 2000 stadium. It's a wild environment. Um, yeah. So that, that's pretty interesting as well. Little rowdy. Yeah. Really rowdy. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's pretty fun. Um, so bigger sport in general, was there, was there professional volleyball in America of any sort before Major League Volleyball?
There have been attempts, um, early two thousands to start up. Professional volleyball leagues. Never really got off the ground. It was more like grassroot, grassroots leagues and, and then kind of fell out over time. Um, but I think right now it's just like a hot spot now. I mean, volleyball has grown so much in the past 10 years even, and especially in America.
So it's just like the perfect time for, for professional volleyball to come. So Anishe, as you were growing up, did you know you always wanted to be a professional volleyball player? Yeah. It was the only goal in my mind. And like, what, what was the goal? Like the goal. 'cause there wasn't anything that big in America.
So the goal was to always like, leave home, go to Europe and become a professional volleyball player. Yeah. Pretty much the goal was to play until I couldn't play anymore. And so I, I knew there wasn't an option here and I was gonna have to, you know, take How does, how does that process look? You know, you come off an incredible mm-hmm.
You know, career at Kansas and then it's like. Is there a draft or do you get to pick what league you go to? Like do you have an agent? How does this work? Yeah, it's basically is like, um, I mean I wasn't in the air, but I had to send out DVDs, thank God. But Okay. So alright, I just missed that. No public math, no public math.
Keep that to yourself. Um, yeah, I got an agent and kind of let them do the work for me. Um, found a few teams that were interested and, and ended up just. Kind of process of elimination where I wanted to be. That was the best for me. Um, but it was a crazy experience because obviously I went to the University of Kansas where, where basketball is, is king and my friends were going through a very different process trying to play professional, professional basketball or professional football than I was trying to play professional volleyball.
So yeah, it was very eye-opening for me. And like, and you knew that you were gonna have to go mm-hmm. Overseas? Yeah. So like. You're prepared. There's not a draft in that sense. Like when we think of professional mm-hmm. Athletes in America, there's, it's always about the draft, right? Yeah. So you get to kind of choose.
You could say, oh, I want to go to Turkey or Switzerland or Germany or wherever. Yeah. Choose in innocence that way. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So where's the first contract? Where do you end up? I ended up in Sweden. Um, beautiful country. It was, it was a lot of fun. Um, after that I went to Germany, which was a lot more competitive, a lot more high ma, high level matches.
Um. And yeah, I think it was just a great experience. I was there for about eight to nine months. Um, just completely living in a different culture, living my best European life actually. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. Did you make it to, uh, October Fest? I did. That would be so it, I sure did. I mean, you have to Right top of the, and I was so, um, just unaware of Europe.
I mean, it was just like a. A dream to the left and I was gonna go play volleyball and not really understanding what I was giving myself into, but I mean, dove head first. So yeah. We had, uh, Marcus Erickson on the pod. He is an IndyCar driver. Mm-hmm. He's won the Indy 500. He's from, uh, Sweden. And he talked about, I made him compare and contrast Sweden and Indiana.
It was really funny to hear his, uh, his perspective on both of those things. Yeah. How long do you spend over, like, and is it like season? Like how are you over there for. A couple months and then you get to come home. No, no. You're kind of just there until the end of your contract. Um, so I would go around the beginning of August and come back depending on how well our team did in the year.
So yeah, whether that was, um, April or May, it was. Out in Europe, and then it was kind of like coming home for summer break. You would come home and be off until you found another contract. And so when you're off, like what are you doing back home? Like if you're off from, let's say April to July mm-hmm.
August time, like are you. Training here and just like chilling or like, what does that look like? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. It's exactly what they would do. Um, in the off season here for other professional sports, you would come back and probably take a few weeks off to just see family hang out, go on vacation, and then you would kind of get back in the grind, in the swing of things while finding another contract.
Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's, uh. That's wild. To get to the pinnacle, you get to be a professional volleyball player. Mm-hmm. And it's like, congrats. You gotta leave home for six months plus a year. Yeah, exactly. And be on the other side of the world. Like, totally cool experience though. Mm-hmm. Like, we had somebody, so I was, um, I played, I, I did not play, I was on the football team at DePauw, so D three, very small there, but we had some friends that went and played.
American football in Europe after they graduated. Definitely like you're a professional football player. I don't think you're making any money, but you get to live in Europe for free, which is kind of cool, you know? So cool. You get to go spend some time over there and they talk about it like it was just like.
You're 22, 23 years old and you live in a foreign country and you play sports like it, like your bills are paid. That's what you said. You kind get to go live and play for free. So that's pretty fun. Okay, so when did you both first hear rumblings of Major League Volleyball being legit, and when did it like kind of come to fruition that, oh man, this is gonna be a real thing and Indianapolis is gonna get a team?
And how did you guys end up, how did you actually end up here leading our team? So I think over in Europe, it was around 20, 21, 22 that we sort of started to hear that, hey, like at that, that moment it was called Pro Volleyball Federation, that they're starting a league. And you know, from a coach's perspective, they were starting to talk to a lot of athletes that I, I was coaching.
So it became another competition, which is always good. It helps increase the market up and that's, that's when we started to hear about it over there. Um, but you as an athlete? Yeah, I, so I had retired from volleyball in 2021. What? Um, due to essentially just because I, the. The load of being home for or away from home for nine months was yeah, kind of outweighed the benefits for me.
You know, it wasn't really an obstacle that I had anticipated affecting me so much. And when it did, I said, okay, all right, that's enough. I'm ready to just be home. So I started coaching, uh, my first collegiate coaching job was at Purdue University working for Dave Seandell West Go Boilers. Come on. It was amazing, um, when we first started hearing about this league coming up and I had thought.
Oh, I'm done. I'll just coach. And then I started getting a little more calls and calls and I was like, wait, maybe I'm only 25. I can still play. And young and spry. Young and spry. Exactly. And then I realized I could kind of do both. So, uh, that's what started this journey of like coaching in the off season, playing in the regular season.
So, okay. So then did, was it similar to your European professional career where you just kinda got the pick? Or was there a draft for the Ignite? Yeah, so. There is a draft, however, it's for college aged. Oh yeah. So seniors in college will go through a draft, but um, obviously if you're not a senior in college, you're a free agent in a sense.
Yeah. So you can get an agent if you want. I didn't because I am American and I, I like having that process, you know, in my own terms. But yeah. Um, but yeah, it's, it's similar. So like you just heard about Indianapolis getting a team and you were coaching up in West Lafayette and you're like, and they, they reached out or saw.
Yeah. So I was actually coaching the volleyball circle I feel like, has to be pretty tight, right? Oh, it's tiny. Yeah. When it first started I had played for the Vegas thrill in the very first season. Um, oh, because the Indy Ignite wasn't a team yet. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you go to Vegas then? Yeah, I was in Vegas for the first season.
Um, it was great. It was amazing to play professional level. Won America, I was. Oh, I, when I finished that season, I was like, I could do this forever. This is, yeah, this is the dream. This is really, okay. So you finished with Vegas? Yeah. And then. And then I continue coaching in the fall. Um, collegiately in Vegas in Texas.
I went back home. Gosh, you've just been bouncing around. Oh, I have been. Okay. Bouncing. So you leave Vegas, go back to Texas. Yes. And then you're coaching there? Yep. And then you're getting ready to come play. You're gonna need to play in the second season? Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Not knowing where I would end up, but just knowing I still wanted to play another season.
How does that, how does where you end up work out? Like what goes into determining whether you go back to Vegas, come to Indianapolis? Yeah, a little bit of everything. I mean, who the coach is gonna be, like how my experience was in different organizations. Yeah. Who's playing on each team? Okay. Um, very different, I think, than my process of finding a team in, in Europe.
But yeah. Um, a lot of my, not a lot, three of my teammates from Vegas ended up in Indy and so I thought. I liked playing with them last year. Yeah. So I ended up calling up, uh, sending an email to the front office to MK actually, and we hopped on the phone with her and had a great conversation and it, it all worked from there.
Wow. And then you come back to Indiana? Yeah. And then I'm back in Indiana. You are? Back in Indiana. Okay. What's the process of becoming the coach look like? Yeah. Um, I, I have an agent that, that helps me out. Yeah. And, um, she knew that the Indy job was open and, and she sort of said to me, Hey, maybe it's time to go to America.
And I sort of said, Hmm. We'll see I have a really like a good name in Europe. Um, she's like, listen, this organization's amazing. You have to speak to the owners. You have to speak to MK. I really think it'll be a great fit. And she was right. So there we go on. Yeah. So like what was your perception of one, just America?
Because have you ever lived in the US before? I have not. This is the first time Indiana. Let's go. Yeah. What a great first place. Yeah. Trust me, it all gets worse from here. Okay. Yeah. This is the best spot to land Got. I got it. Yeah. Trust me, I, I, I, uh, good people not, not at all bias. Yeah, yeah. No, not at all.
No bias at all here. Okay, so you. You also great shirt. Indiana is a volleyball state. It's if there anyone that's watching you can see great shirt, come on. So you start to go through the process. Your agent's saying, Hey, you should check out. Like this is legit. Yep. The organization, the igniter are great.
So you get conversations rolling there and what was like the final? This, like this final straw that made you decide this is right and this is an organization I wanna be part of? Honestly, it was like my first conversation with MK. Just the vision that they put forward of what they want Ignite to be now, but also in the future, how they wanna build volleyball in Indiana.
I, I like to build things. I've spent five and seven years at my previous clubs, which is a long time in European volleyball to be at one club. Um, I like to build stuff and they're. Their vision on volleyball in Indiana and ignite just like sold me really quickly. Yeah. Okay. So then you end up saying, yeah.
Did you, did you accept the job before coming to America or mm-hmm. Did you come and visit first? I did not visit sight unseen. Sight unseen. Let's go. Alright, so take me through plane lands at the lovely, the wonderful Indianapolis India. The Indianapolis Airport. Indianapolis International Airport. That's what I was going for.
Plane lands. You get off. What does the first week in America in Indiana look like for you? Okay. The weather was beautiful. Um, fishers is. Like a mirror of Switzerland in terms of the, there's so many walking paths and trees and I have a dog. Yeah, a mirror of Switzerland mean you don't need to go to Switzerland.
Just fish in Indiana. Go to fish. Yeah. Fisher, Indiana. She said it. Not me. I was, honestly, I was in shock. Like you can imagine that as an Australian who's lived in Europe for 20 years, if you ask me anything about Indiana, I honestly. Dunno, anything. I'm a big WNBA fan, so I, I, I know a lot about the, the fever, Amy, come on.
But, but that's all I know. So, about the city or anything? I didn't, I didn't have any idea. So I, I love the area. Mm-hmm. I really like being outside with my dog. Um, but the sports community has struck me as something that I could have never imagined. I straight away, got off the plane and I was in a couple of fever games.
Um, thankfully, thankfully Courtside, which I really, really loved. Yeah. Now, now that set the standard for the rest of my tickets I ever get. Um, anyone who's listening. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but, uh, it, it was just an amazing atmosphere and, um, how intense a sport community is here and how much that's translating into volleyball.
It's just so clear that it's like a great place for me to be, to take the next step in my career. Yeah, and I mean, that's a perfect thing to talk about too, is how intense. And great. The sports community here, here in Indiana is in Indianapolis specifically too. Um, and he said that first season. Mm-hmm. The inaugural season of the Ignite.
I think that anytime you're right. Talking about building, it's hard. Yeah. Like to get the wheels and to, you know, get everything turning. Take us through how it felt to be a player in that first season for the Indy Ignite. It was so exciting for one being, being able to say, like, I was, I'm on the first team that's ever been a professional volleyball league in this city.
Um. But it was, it was amazing. We were all just kind of on the same page of knowing where we wanted this season to go and what we wanted it to be. Um, and the community was, was so supportive. I mean, a lot of our games were on Thursday nights and we had great crowds for, for weekdays. Um, we, I mean, they showed up for every match and, and they were involved and they were, they were.
You know, electric. It was, it was really surprising to see for me, I have obviously lived in Indiana before, but not for very long. Um, I didn't know how big the volleyball community was until I was actually a part of it. Um, but yeah, it was amazing. Is there a specific moment from this, that past season that you kinda just had to take it all in and be like, holy smokes?
I'm, I'm a professional volleyball player on a brand new team. At a brand new arena. Yeah. Here in India or in Fishers, right? On the north side of Indianapolis. Yeah. And they just like. Made you just kind of sit there and say like, this is so cool. It was our home opener. Yeah. Of last season. It was a sold out crowd.
Um, the fans were going crazy. There was like fire shooting up everywhere. There was big old volleyballs thrown around. I mean, I just kind of, it was one of those moments where you kind of take a deep breath and say like, oh, I, I get to be a part of this and I get to tell, you know, my family for the rest of my life that I was a part of this.
Yeah. The inaugural and I think the Fishers Event Center, right? Mm-hmm. I think it holds like. 7,500 maybe. Like that's a big soul, that crowd. Oh, it was loud. It was, it was amazing. Like that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, didn't be part of that. And you were with three teammates from the previous year too?
Mm-hmm. So just like, I don't know, getting to come and, you know, keep it rolling and obviously Yeah. Last year, like take us through the season. It ends up in the championship match. Yeah. How long is the season? Uh, about four months, four to five months. Okay, so like January to, to May, may was when the championship.
Mm-hmm. Where was the championship at? The championship was in Vegas. Oh yeah, the return. Oh yeah, the return Was there, beef was there. Beef? There seems to be a beef about professional athletes going back to the places that I don't know how. How's their career for a decade? Miles Turner. I won't say. Say ly.
Yeah. Um. Um, no, no beef. They didn't actually make the playoffs, so there was a beef to be had. Oh. Is, uh, how many teams make the playoff? Four. Four, okay. Yeah. So it's only a semis and a Yep, yep. Finals. Okay. Is there future expansion on the horizon for Major League Volleyball? Uh. Uh, yeah. Two teams are being confirmed for the next season already in, uh, Washington and Sacramento.
So that'll pick it to 10. Yeah, would make it to 10. It just seems like there's a lot of momentum in women's sports, which is super cool, and it feels like Indiana is kind of like in the cross sector of a lot of this. Shout out to Caitlin Clark, avid listener of the Get IN Podcast. Listen to every episode, of course.
Um, she actually did come to an Indy Ignite game and it was the coolest thing ever. Let's go. Yeah, that's sick. Like so cool. Yeah. And, and I do think that we are like kinda in the epicenter, right? And that's like a whole, you know, push behind Indy Sports Corps and everything to make this the capital of women's sport in the world.
Mm-hmm. And, uh, I obviously the Ignite play a huge role in that. Caitlyn and the Fever play a huge role in that. It's crazy. Like I told the story before for 2015, it would've been fall of 2015, the fever made the WNBA championship. I believe it was against Minnesota. You can fact check me on that, Robert. Um, they made the WNBA championship and we went to game, maybe game four, game six, maybe.
They gave the tickets away for free. Like I got, we were courtside. Yeah. Like, it just like was not, the popularity had just not caught up yet. So we're like there and we're having a great sports. Like I like sports. Sports are fun. We're there and then it's crazy to see less than, you know, 10 years later it's like.
The same tickets are now thousands and thousands of dollars. I think we had, um, Allison Barber in here. She was the COO of the, um, the fever during Caitlin's first year. They got like a billion views on social media or something. It's crazy. Yeah, like it's awesome. So cool to see and to be like another building block in this, you know, master plan for Indiana sports.
How does that feel to you guys? Yeah. And do you feel that, like does it feel like the, what we say to the world and how we're marketing it feels true for our athletes and our coaches? Yes. Since I've arrived I can see that also Indiana is, has a great culture as well. So all the organizations are helping each other out as well.
Like I know that, um, Indy Ignite has got advice and leaning on the fever for things and stuff like that. And it's, honestly, it's. You can't really imagine that in other countries and in other places normally that's a competing kind of, uh, situation. But here, really it's, it's a really big culture, um, where everyone wants to help each other out and push women's sports up.
And I think that. Like you talked about how, how big women's sports is growing. NCAA women's volleyball is exploding here as well. Um, and so we are, let's say a pinnacle of that and a next step from that. But we're able to, to ride that a little bit as well, um, in how much that's growing. And I mean, in Indiana right now, we have two Indiana.
Yeah. We have two ranked teams, um, in Indiana University and uh, Purdue. They're both currently ranked, which is the first time in a while I think. So. They're killing killing, okay. So the states are really well. So we have two, two ranked teams. You know what we need to do? How do we beat Nebraska? I get one.
It's sick. Yeah, like so cool. I don't know. 60, 70,000 people come to that game. Like the, isn't it the Nebraska home opener for volleyball? There was an outdoor game that I had. Yeah. And Memorial Stadium. Yeah. Isn't it like it's over 50,000 people though? It was. It was. It was a lot over. It was around 90, I think.
90, yeah. How many people went? It was the biggest sporting, women's sporting event in the world. Yeah. 92,003. Yeah. They fit those last three people in there. They did, they did that. That was a women's volleyball game, which was the biggest female sporting event in the country ever. So imagine like we're in the right time.
90,000 is insane. But also we definitely don't wanna be playing outside on a regular basis. Yeah, I think we didn't, we are not an outdoor sport. So that was like a one. I love it for the record, but that, okay, so hear me out on this. So the capacity of the whole stadium is 85,000, so they must then, like you fit 5,000 more down in on the, yeah, on the field.
On the field. For sure. Hear me out on this. How do you swing? Like a joint fever Ignite Game. Lucas Oil. Right. The largest. The largest multi now. Now we're cooking, I mean indoors to Maybe we open the window indoor there. We can now keep them closed. Yeah. Okay. No, no. Well, we don't want anyone. Imagine that.
Ignite. Lead off Caitlin Clark in the fever. Bring it home at night. Guys think big here, right? Indy sports. Sports. Let's talk about momentum. Let's, I mean, that would be, that's what sponsored by Get IN podcast. Yeah, absolutely. I'll be on the call. It'll be great. I just have to learn everything there is to know about volleyball scoring and, you know, women's basketball.
That would be insane. Yeah. But I think that, that's cool. Like to dream big and say we're gonna host the largest, uh, women's sporting event ever. Yeah. Like, that's so cool. Oh my gosh. I love it. Kudos to you Nebraska. Honestly, they're doing something big there. Um. But you're talking about you feel this momentum, uh, being a coach, being a player.
Like are there, are there moments where like, I did see. Is it? I don't know what the ignites mascot's name is. Pepper, pepper, pepper. You don't, okay, wait, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry. No offense. Sorry. You, I am offended. Yeah, but I, I've seen the mascot. It's like doing all this funny stuff on social media. I love it.
I think it's so cool. And that kind of stems and so is, so if you go to like the best mascot on social media is blue from the Colts has like 16 million followers or something, like goes in insane. And then now you see Boomer. Now you see, uh. Rowdie from the Indians. And, and pepper, pepper, pepper. Pepper. Say Pepper, say in American English.
I was like, like pepper. Like salt, pepper, pepper, pepper. Yeah, pepper. That's my essence. Wait, is that a's a volleyball term, right? Yeah. Honestly it is when you are warming up, pepper. Yep. Yeah. Come on. I know it. Thing or two? There go. I did not make that connection, so thank you. Oh my gosh. Hey. There are new discoveries found every day here.
Learning podcasts, you're always learning. We're always kidding. Um, I love it, but I think it's so cool to see mascots, you know, going out there, Freddy Fever also, you know, like doing their part too, to get people, children, whoever hyped up about coming to the games. I think it's so much fun. Talk to us about what we can expect from this season for the Indy Ignite and what can we, what can you expect going to a game?
I mean, first I will shout out Pepper one more time because I think she's the only female mascot in this city, maybe. Um, and that's like a, yeah, that's a huge thing as well. She really, yeah. Absolutely. And she holds her own pepper and she holds her, and she's a diva. So she's gonna be in the, in the arena walking around, getting everyone engaged, and I think she's a huge part of the show.
Um, but perhaps you can speak to the show a little bit more as you, you lived it last year. Oh, just the what to expect from the indeed night. Yeah, the game. Oh, the game. Like game day environment. Like when obviously you're, you know, a little bit busy while all of us are hanging out tiny, tiny bit, but like, what do you, what have you heard?
What does it feel like to go into a game and experience? Yeah. I, I think there's a ton of fan engagement. I think, um, our marketing and game day experie. Is, um, a really high level. I think, I mean, like you said, I'm a little busy. I'm not really paying attention to a lot of what's going on around, but it looks like people are having fun.
Yeah. You know, they're, they're having a good time and the event center is so nice. Yeah. It's, if you haven't been to the event center, whether it's definitely, I mean, there's like a bunch of stuff that happens, like from concerts to mm-hmm. Sporting events, like, it's amazing. Very nice. Yeah. Like, it feels like, have you guys been to the Coliseum downtown by the fairgrounds?
No. Okay. So it feels like that. But just with everything is brand new. Yeah, right. Like yeah. It, it's an intimate setting. Um, it's not too big. I mean, you feel like you're, you're right there on the court. Um, we can, I can feel the fans like we, they feel really close to us, so I can feel the energy when they're into it, when they're, when they're leading.
Cheers. It, it feels like they're right there with us. So it's definitely a very close centered environment, so I love it. Yeah. So fun. Uh, okay. So take, take us through what we can expect from a team perspective. Yeah, a hundred percent. We, we kind of want to engage that atmosphere even more, like, as bluntly as I put it, we wanna blow people out the water on the other side of the court.
Yeah. So really bold, really aggressive, um, fast Styler game where we're gonna win the game. Um, yeah, not the other way. Um, and really be the aggressive there, but we wanna do that with a lot of character and bringing the, the whole environment in, because honestly, it helps us win when 7,000 people are. Are pushing us as well.
So we wanna have that really big engagement and, and play a exciting style of volleyball that people enjoy watching as well. Take us through what is, so there's six women on the court? Yes. And how big is the roster? Uh, we can have 16 people. We'll probably have 15 or 16. 15 or 16. Yep. Okay. How many of them will play, like if you have, let's say you have 15.
Mm-hmm. How many get on the court, like realistically in volleyball? Typically you stay in a starting six plus you're a libero, which is the usually what? Yeah. You're libero. It's a small person. I don't know if that's how that's pronounced. Libero. Libero, libero. Okay, well, okay. We can debate what English English is, right?
We about that later. Yeah. That'll be a philosophical question later. Um, and so she's coming in and out as well. And then we can make eight substitutions with no reentry, which is complicated to say. If someone comes in mm-hmm. And goes out, they cannot come back in again. So we might play with eight or nine players on a normal day.
Yeah. Um, with some different roles. Yeah. I think, uh, another interesting part of why Indiana makes the most sense to be a dominant powerhouse in, in professional volleyball. It's 'cause we, we grow volleyball here too. Like Munciana, this is a pull for my bag is like one of the premier like youth development clubs across the nation, right?
Mm-hmm. Uh, what does it mean to be, you know, you're at the pinnacle. You are Major League Volleyball, like. And now there are also these young women that are playing the sport at a high school level, going to a collegiate level, and now they have an opportunity to maybe come home and help their team, their, their state, their city, win a national championship or a, what do you call it?
National Champ, what do you call it? World Championship. Oh, whatever it is. I wanna be heading up. You call, call it championship. Honest. I'm not really sure how does that what we called Yeah. Win to win it all. To win it all. Everything. Uh, how does that feel? I think, um, one big theme over this year as well is us really understanding our influence that we are, we're at the pinnacle.
Um, we're driving what professional volleyball looks like here and what character we show. The style of volleyball that we play, and who we are as women and athletes and professional athletes. We, we are the drivers and we need to understand that, um, one, I'm talking to her as I'm talking to her. We need to understand that when we get out there every single day in training and in in practice, in lifting, in games, um, because we're, we're gonna be looked at and, um, we develop what professional volleyball is in Indiana.
And it's such a huge privilege. And not only Indiana, just around the. The nation, you know, like there are now young women that are high school volleyball players that have this dream of being a professional volleyball player that don't have to move halfway across the country. Yeah. Or all the way Exactly.
Or not, sorry, not country world. Yeah. All the way across the world. Uh, 'cause obviously that, yeah, that can be. A large for anyone, whether you're 20 or whether you're 40, whether you're 60, leaving home to go across the world to pursue your career is challenging and hard. Yeah. Yeah. And can definitely take a lot out of it for sure.
I think it's just so exciting to, for young athletes, like you mentioned, like Munciana is a, a really big club in the area. You've got Circle City, which is out in Plainfield. There's a few. Like ju youth clubs that, um, are really popular, really growing. And then you have Purdue and Indiana, that's another step where you can go play the best volleyball in the, in the country.
And then there's another level where you can play professional volleyball here. Yeah. It's just like the pathway is much more clear and it's here. Yeah. You know, like when I was in school, the path was. Kind of a pipe dream. You just kind of imagined, all right, I gotta, I have to go and fly across the world, but now it's right here in your backyard.
And I think that's the most beautiful thing. Yeah. You're like, you know, ripping Duolingo between practices, like trying to get better at your German no lit, literally. Yes. Yeah. We're doing, that's wild. Yeah. Uh, what would you say to. Youth volleyball players that might see this, see you on this podcast, listen to the episode that wanna be a professional volleyball player, what advice would you give them?
You can do it like, I think a lot of the time it, it's a. It's, it's common to see that, like girls will won't believe it as much. You know that it's a very small number Yes. Of girls that make it to this level. But it can be you. It can be you. Yeah. If you put in the work it can, there's no reason why it can't be you.
I mean, if you put in the right amount of effort and you go step by step and you do things correctly, like she said with, with character, and, and go about it the right way, like there's no reason why it can't be you and there's always people willing to help. So how many Division one. Volleyball teams are there.
300, oh my god. And so many. 34, 300. Like is it the three? You're you? I was gonna say three 40. So numbers. Wow. You're are all off the top. You're spot on. Guess on let's go. So think there's four rounds of this draft and there's 30. 32. Athletes will be 32 athletes. Talk about competitive. Holy smokes. 334. Each of those rosters probably have six seniors, roughly?
Yeah, on average, probably. You know, like right around there somewhere. Somewhere in that ballpark. So six, that's like. Oh my gosh. Don't make me do pub. We don't do public athlete. We don't. We've, but that's a lot for not that many spots. There's so many. Yeah. Like that's competitive. You're already talking about not everyone's gonna make it, but I just, yeah.
I mean, yes. Maybe we don't make here, but there's so many more opportunities to play and to get back in if you, if you go about it the right way. Yeah. And, and you're also, you have the opportunity to coach mm-hmm. Still as well, while being a player. Yeah. Talk about what that means to be. Not only one of the coaches that, um, like you're actively doing it.
Yeah. Like I always thought about it, it was like, you know, playing sports growing up and if you ever had one of the coaches that, like, back in my day we used to blah, blah, blah. And it's like, but you're doing it. You're like, Hey, this is what it takes to do the things to get you to the highest level. Like, you know how I know this?
Because I'm doing this too with them. Yeah. Uh, how, how does coaching while also being professional mm-hmm. Like how does that stack up? Yeah. You got a bit more respect for my job. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. I think coaching has made me a better player for one. Yeah. But I, I have a lot more perspective when it comes to, um, players.
Priorities and a lot more of a realistic view of, of what they can expect. It's an eyeopener to do both. I kind of have to like flip a switch sometimes to kind of get myself in the right mindset, but I, there's like levels, right? Yeah. It's like this is a professional team. Yeah. You know, like we, this is professional.
Like there are livelihoods and careers that are on the stake here and there are livelihoods and careers in college too, but like a lot of times. You know, and maybe those athletes, some of them definitely like, aren't like, oh, I want to go be a provax. Some of 'em are like, I want to go work at Eli Lilly and be an accountant.
Like, and that's my future, you know? But I'm here playing volleyball while I can't. Yeah. I do think that's, yeah, it's an interesting take. It's, yeah, it's a lot of fun though. I think. Um, it's, I'm definitely a lot nicer of a person overall. After coaching, I think, um, I have a very, I'm, I have a competitive side, but, um, I think my, my perspective of, of kids now and what they go through in their college careers is a lot different than, than what I went through.
And it's just, um, it's fun to see. I think like I work at Butler, um, Go Dogs, which is right down the road. Go Dogs. I said, Go Bulldog one time and I got this. Whole big spiel about it's Go Dogs. Sorry. It says Bulldogs on the jersey. Sorry that was a little ramp, but it's all right. No, we we're here for the grab, like the rabbit holes.
I love them. Yeah, you have to say Go Dogs. Yeah, it's Go Dogs. For those that didn't know, I actually got a card from Blue the other day. Oh yeah? Yeah. I mean, come on. That's, yeah, that's one of the best mascots I think of Indiana. Oh, Blue the Bulldog. Yeah, like a real bulldog. Incredible. Live mascot. I mean, come on.
Um. Talk to us, gimme the pitch as, uh, obviously there are people there that come to Ignite Games because they're huge volleyball fans, but maybe just to the broader public. Like tell, tell us about the Ignite, tell us about why we need to get plugged in and come to game show up. Be there, like be part of this.
I just don't think, if you haven't seen volleyball before and you haven't seen volleyball at the professional level, um, and you haven't seen the way that we produce it and play it. It's unlike anything you'll have experienced. Um, and it's, and it's worth coming in to see, uh, the intensity of the game, how dynamic the game is.
It's easy to understand. Um, and the show we're putting on is huge. So it's intense. Yeah, yeah. You know, like I, when I see the hitters. Put that thing down. I'm like, oh my God. That would break my, that would break my, what are these bones called? Like your forearms? Oh my gosh. I don't know miles very well. But like one of our hitters was hitting like above 80 or I think, or 80.
Like really? Like, what is it? in Kilometers a hundred and something. A hundred. Over a hundred and something. Kilometers per like, just imagine Smoke. Smoke in the ball. Yep. Like, doesn't that hurt? Do you just like build up like resilience over like many, many years? Yeah, you do. A hundred. It's like a callous. I always remember a freaking gym class growing up.
They'd make us play like two weeks of volleyball and like by like day four I'm like. Your forearms are all red. My four wordss are, I'm like, bro, like how do these, how do you do this? And you lose it too. If I just have to dig five balls now I end up with three bruises, even though I had a 10 year career. So do you get in there still?
You're like, Hey, this is how you do it. No, absolutely not. This is how the libero does it. The libero. No, no. Stay outta that. And you say give us a pitch. Like why, why, why do we need to get out there and be part of. Everything that is Indy Ignite. Yeah. I think if you enjoy sports in general, you're, you're gonna love volleyball.
If you've never seen a volleyball, if you don't know anything about volleyball or the game or the rules, you're, you can come to a game and pick it up quick and enjoy the intensity of it. Like you say, like it's, it's quick, it's fast paced. Um. There's not a lot of downtime and, and it's, really fun to follow.
Yeah. It's a, there's a lot going on. You know, there's a lot of action, which I think is fun, especially if you're new to the sport. Mm-hmm. Like getting to see a lot of points scored, getting to see a lot of stuff. Like sometimes, um, there are other sports, you know, like. If you go to your first soccer game and you like stumble upon a zero zero draw and you're kind of like, oh, wow.
Soccer is not that, like, we're gonna see a lot of stuff, like, we're gonna see a lot of action here. Yeah. Especially like, especially as it gets in, like I th I don't know if there's anything more. Exhilarating than like, is it game five? Mm-hmm. Of like, and it's like you get to the final points of that and it's like, oh my gosh, it's so intense.
Yeah. Yeah. You can feel the tension, I think. Yeah. As a fan, I, I feel the gray hairs coming through as I, as I'm in it standing on the sideline Absolutely. Um, I love it. Okay, so season coming up. Mm-hmm. Uh, I believe home opener, January 24th, first serve at 7:00 PM at the Fishers Event Center. Correct. Um, and then the season will extend Oh man, through.
Uh, Sunday, May 3rd Correct. Is the last regular season game. Yep. So we have from, you know, end of January until the beginning of May for regular season, obviously then playoffs and our, yeah. National championship run. Our championship run. Yeah. Coming soon. The championship run. Um. And I'm sure there's like a lot of games are Saturdays and Thursdays.
Saturdays and Thursdays. Every, basically every Saturday and Thursday. A lot of we, we have a lot of games. Oh wait, nevermind. I just only reading through the first two lot of games. There's a Monday and a Sunday, Saturday, Friday, Sunday. Yeah. Lots of games. Plenty of opportunities go at the schedule. The final thing I wanna round up the show with both of you are Hoosiers by choice.
This is a fun part that I like to talk about. People that have been there, done that in other places around the world and around the country, but are now residing in the great state of Indiana. And I love to get your guys' perspective 'cause I can sit here on my Indiana soap box all day long and preach about how much I love it here.
But I always love to hear people like from Texas, from Australia. Literal opposite side of the country. Opposite side of the world. The globe. I don't know. I don't have a globe in here, but I, I have to assume that those are pretty far away. Um, talk to me about like your first, and we can take, like sports can be part of it, but like, just as a whole, your first impression of the state of Indiana.
When I would go on a walks like down Monon or, um, walking trail, other nickel plate, the, the trails, um, it gave me a very. Um, Southern feel, not from the weather 'cause it's cold, but just with, um, just with like your, your neighbors and community members making eye contact and smiling to you, like whether they know you.
They don't, usually they don't. But a little nod and a smile as you walk past felt very like home to me, which I, I really enjoyed. Yeah, like coming straight from Switzerland. I will say that the quality of cheese and chocolate hasn't been matched just yet. But besides that, honestly, I'm, I'll piggyback off.
Um, I, I, I love where I live in Fishers. I, I already said it before. It's, it's green and I walk my dog a lot. Um, and people are really, really nice. And that's, that's a really good point that you made there. Um, people are always really engaging and willing to talk about just even ignite. Australia and Switzerland, and yeah, it's a really nice atmosphere.
Okay. Coming from Switzerland to Indiana, what was the most shocking part? Uh, everything is so, so big. The roads are big. The cars, I feel like I have to do a Fosbury flop high jump to get into some of these trucks that I see. Like, you know, like a, what the supermarket. I, I, I almost had a panic attack trying to find everything.
Everything is so, so big here and that's probably the biggest difference that I'm adjusting to. Indiana certified. Big place. It's big. So, so big. Uh, I love that. If you could, if you, if each of you could do a little flip flop, right? So we're gonna talk, uh, Fort Worth. Mm-hmm. Okay. If there was one thing you could bring from Fort Worth to Indiana and one thing you could send from Indiana to Fort Worth, what would you do?
If you had, if you made a little flip flop? I would send, we're gonna say the same thing. Say, I don't think so. I would send the four Seasons, the weather. As much as I hate the winter, I love having four seasons. Like it's fall right now. Yeah. It's beautiful in Texas. It's either really cold or really hot.
Yeah. And I think that that is one thing that make Hosier so special is that you get an appreciation for what's in front of you. Mm-hmm. So like right now, like I feel like everyone loves the first snow. Like first snow's cool. Yeah. And then like, you know, by, I dunno, the fifth snow, you're like, all right, I can be done with snow.
And then like in the same thing in the middle of. Summer, you're like, oh, I love this. And then by the end of summer you're like, it could be a little cooler. Yeah. Yeah. So it just gives you this constant like rotation and I think it gives you a good appreciation. Yeah. Okay, so we'd send the Four Seasons to Texas.
What would we bring from Texas to here? I would bring Texas barbecue to India. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, have, where have you had barbecue thus far? I've had, um, city barbecue. Okay. And Broadway. Not to hate any barbecue places here that I've already been to. No. Yeah. Yeah. I am just from Texas where it's a little different, but it's just, that's a very polite way to say it's okay.
We know like Texas is like, you talk about like Austin. Oh my gosh. Like Franklin Barbecue and Terry Black's and all those places. Exactly. They're fire. I will say. The best barbecue. I've heard about two spots. One I've been to, one is still on my list. Okay. One is, there's this guy in Westfield mm-hmm. Who's like doing barbecue outta this tiny little shack.
Yeah. He sells out like every day by noon. Crazy. I'll have to think about what the name is. Someone said it once and then Half Liter BBQ. Okay. Down here at 54th in the Mon. Phenomenal. Okay. That's my favorite barbecue spot. They do a, they do a really good job. Yeah. Um, I mean, you know, like, am I gonna say that it's better than the Austin Barbecue?
Like, I'm gonna let you make the decision there. Fair. I really enjoy it though. Okay. Yeah. I'll have to try it. All right. Well, let's talk. Australia, what's one thing from Indiana you'd send to Australia and one thing you'd send from Australia to Indiana? Gosh, um, I, I've got like such a boring answer because it's like, it definitely is the volleyball community.
Um, we just don't, we don't have that in Melbourne, Australia at all where I'm from and I grew up playing a sport that's. Not many people cared about it. It it, honestly boring answer, but it, it just feels so great to be around people that really, really deeply care about it. So I would love to have that volleyball community in Melbourne.
So we send the volleyball community to, how'd you say it? Me? Me? Melbourne. Melbourne. I can't say it. Melbourne. Melbourne. Melbourne. If I'm American. Melbourne, Melbourne. If I put my American accent, I, I played libero in Melbourne, Mel Melbourne is the way I say it. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, you know, and then what's one thing from Australia you you'd bring to Indiana Coffee.
Oh, mm-hmm. Quick Melbourne, Melbourne coffee where we're very well known for it, which I don't think people know that. But the culture there is is a huge coffee culture. Amazing, amazing coffee, and I definitely would bring it here. Okay. Where is B? Both of you played extensively overseas. Um, we love Indiana.
We promote, obviously Indiana. Where was your favorite place to play when it, when you weren't in Indiana? Mine was, uh, Tenerife, which is a, a Canary Island off the coast of Africa, but belongs to Spain. When I played in the Spanish League, it's, it's an island. You were a professional volleyball player on an island off the coast of Africa.
Yep. That doesn't sound too bad. It doesn't sound too bad. Too bad. Always great weather. Beautiful. Beautiful place to live. But yeah, it's like you like, oh yeah, you're gonna be in the Spanish league and you're like, oh, gimme the island. Gimme the island. Got the island. Yeah. Like somebody, like somebody else is like getting like chased down by bulls and you're like chilling on the island.
Like let's go spot on. There we go. Alright. Yeah. And you say, uh, mine's gonna be kind of boring. It's gonna be at the University of Kansas, the horse family athletic center. Best place to play. I've been to Kansas, I've been to Wichita. Yeah. It's a spot that's in Kansas. That's in Kansas, yeah. Totally not, not the same.
Not, no. Never been to Lawrence. I have not been out there. Okay. That's gotta be on the list. Uh, gotta be on the list. Yeah, of course. Was that a big change going from Fort Worth? Because this is like, that's like Dallas Metro, right? Yeah, right. Going from like one of the largest metros in the United States to.
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Yeah. Yeah. It was, I mean, culture shock a little bit, a little bit, a lot smaller, right? It's a college town, but, um, but I loved, I loved it so much my time there. Um, the best people, the best school in my opinion. But, but yeah, it was amazing. Yeah. Obviously your number one answer is gonna be your favorite Indiana sports team is the ignite duh.
But when you're not repping Indy Ignite, if you were going to another sporting event at any level. Whether it was, you could, this could be like YMC, a little kid basketball, or this could be a professional Colts game. What's your favorite Indiana sport to cheer on? Uh, fever. I already said it before, but yeah.
I, uh, love the WNBA and I, I was so pumped to come here and be in the same city as the well, and you got in September, like, so, like, right. Was that like right after? No, I walked into the playoff games. I went to like three at home. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I loved it. It's pretty fun. Yeah. And like. What? No.
Kaitlyn Clark. No. Sophie. And like it's still it. No, it was still great. It's still so fun. Yeah. Okay. Um, I'm gonna, I gotta, I gotta shout out my Butler Bulldogs. Yeah. I've ever been to a, a Butler volleyball game in Hinkle Fieldhouse. So it's a lot of fun. Oh yeah. That's big East volleyball, right? Yeah, it is.
Come on. Yeah. Okay. That's fun. Are the majority of players for Butler volleyball from Indiana or are they from other places? Um, yeah, we have quite a few from the Chicago area, just from around. Um, but yeah, a lot of, a lot of Indy-area kids. I love that. Okay. Yeah, so we got obviously the fever, obviously Butler.
Um, spectacular. Okay. Both of you. This is, this is fun. If you could pick one Indiana activity as a team building exercise. Hmm. You go do anything, you take the entire Ignite team for a team bonding, team building. In Indiana, where would you take 'em? You're the coach. You have to pick. Okay. We, I think we already are setting up something at a cults game, which I'm very excited.
Excited to who experience. 'cause I have never been obviously to an NFL game. Yeah. Nor do I understand anything about the sports, so I'm very excited to get, get into that. Yeah. To get in, get in, to get in American football. Oh, there we go. Alright. I cannot wait. You should document that process. I'll, I'll just so we all know, like as an Australian.
Ex professional volleyball player turned coach, like your journey to Colt's fandom. Yep. And, and understanding American football. Yep. That'd be pretty funny. And then maybe like the Colts then send like someone who knows nothing about volleyball to like document like them learning the process. 100%. That'd be great.
So they can come in our gym. You need to write me out some rules of football please. Oh, for sure. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. I mean, if there's ever a marketing promo, I'd love to just stand in there and take some hits Oof. From some, I just, I'm gonna put a helmet on you. Can I, maybe a helmet. We go, there we go.
Oh, me, in a Colts jersey, like in cold gear, like shoulder pads, just like them just ripping at me. I tried to pitch this idea to, uh, the fuel also that I wanted to get in the goal and let them rip shot. Apparently I, there's a lot of waivers that have to be signed that you're gonna get in there, but I'm in for this.
This would be fun. Okay, so Colts game an say, oh, team bonding. Hmm. I think it would be great to go up to, um, Geist Reservoir. Yeah, you can hop on a boat, you know, come on, just wrap around the lake a little bit. Have a barbecue. That's actually one of my favorite spots here. Yeah. Yeah. I really like it. Okay. I have, I have an idea for you.
This is wild idea for, uh, next summer. Team bonding slash workout. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Obviously, you know, running, you know, got working on climbing. Have you been to the Indiana Dunes before? No. Okay. This will change not only every single player who's not from Indiana, their perspective of Indiana. So we have Lake Michigan shoreline.
Mm-hmm. Like 45 miles of it. And there's the Indiana Dunes, our only national park. Mm-hmm. And there's a dune, like a huge sandhill. You could maybe do some hill sprints, get the team working out there, and then check out the lake. It will change your mind. It, I'm not gonna say it'll make you feel like you're back in Melbourne, but I think that it'll really open your mind to, oh wow, there's a lot going on in Indiana.
Awesome. I think once you make the trip down south too, to like southern Indiana and see the different terrain, I think a lot of times people that aren't from here, if you stay in like the central Indiana donut counties, you're like, okay, you know, I kind of got a feel. It's big, it's city, it's urban, but as you start to spread out, there are some interesting natural.
Beauty to the state of Indiana. Sweet. Just put that on the list. There you go. All I had was, uh, dune runs. So Dune runs. Yeah, that's absolutely, I didn't hear that part. Like, and at the top, she's gonna like be replaying this episode, like he's the Instagram boy. Said it on blast. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. All right.
We've gone to the final part of the show. I ask every guest who comes on the same three questions. Um, one is gonna be obviously telling the world a little bit about Indiana. One's gonna be finding a spot that you love, and two is gonna be someone that more people need to know about. So we started the first one.
You both have been all over the world. From Australia to Lawrence, Kansas, to Germany, France. Oh my gosh. Everywhere. As you've learned through a couple months and a couple years, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? I think it's probably written right on my shirt there. Right here.
Indiana is a volleyball state. Um, not, not, and not just Ignite. We're building from the ground up, but, uh, we're building because of the huge tradition in history that's already here. So absolutely full. That's a mic drop right there. Retweet. Retweet. All right, there we go. Now this is your opportunity. To share the love of a place or a thing or something in Indiana that more people need to know about.
We'll start with the, you say since you've been here longer? Mm-hmm. What is a hidden gem in Indiana called Illinois Street Food Emporium? Right down there, the Illinois Street Food Emporium. Oh my gosh. It's, yes. It's so freaking good. It's delicious. Those croissant sandwiches. I can eat 'em every day. Uh, spectacular.
Uh, Matthew. Uh, he, a young guy just took over ownership. Yeah. So it's, it's been a staple of the community for like 30 plus years. Crazy cool. Right. By Butler. Mm-hmm. Um, phenomenal. I would say if there are any businesses out here listening, it's like, replace Panera Bread. Oh. Support the locals restaurant spot.
It's, it's the place. Get your coffee there. So much fun. Yeah. That is a great one. Mm-hmm. Love, love. Yeah. Good stuff. Okay, coach, what do we got? What's a hidden gem in Indiana? Yeah. Gosh, I don't do anything in my free time except study volleyball, but I do love. Unfortunately, she already said it, so I'm not saying it for the first time.
But the Geist waterfront, I go down there with my dog quite a bit and we, we just walk around and enjoy the outside. Is your dog an Australian shepherd? Uh, no. Oh, okay. No. Is it a That was, that was a softball. I thought we were gonna get an easy one. Like if it was a shepherd from Australia. Wouldn't that, wouldn't that be great?
Yeah, that'd be great. You're, I think you're missing out on a punchline for a joke there somewhere. Okay. Finally. As you've met, you've said you've met some amazing people. Obviously in your time here, this is where we source the ideas for new guests or just learn about Hoosiers that are doing inspiring things.
Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar, someone who's doing big things. I think from my side, the people I'm working with a lot are so impressive with MK Huse, our president and our two owners are Jim Schumacher and Don Hutchinson. Like they've built this thing. From the ground up and, um, they really have a big passion for volleyball and they're, they're doing a great job.
So keep an eye on them. Heck yeah. Yeah. All of my Indy Ignite girlies that are, that are coming in town are honorary Hoosiers in my, in my opinion, we're working hard for, for the Indy Ignite. So absolutely. Hoosiers by choice. We love it. Exactly. Okay, this is the reminder in just about two weeks. We're gonna have home opener.
January 24th, 7:00 PM first serve. Be there. We're gonna sell this thing out. It's gonna be a sellout crowd. It's gonna be lit. Lit, ignite. It's gonna be ignited. Come on. We're gonna ignite the fire. We're gonna ignite the fire. Fire. We're gonna ignite the fire and it's gonna be lit at the Fishers Event Center.
Get your tickets. It's gonna be amazing. We're playing Omaha. Yes. Story tradition between the Indy Ignite and the Omaha Supernovas. Supernovas. Yeah. The, it, there's a play on words there between supernova and night. Something. There, there is be there. Get your tickets. It's uh, what night? What day of the week?
24th. I think It's a Saturday. Saturday. It's a Saturday night. 7:00 PM first serve. It's gonna be an incredible time, y'all. If we want to find out more, if we wanna buy our tickets, where can we do that at? Yep. At web, website. Follow pepper. Follow pepper pepper's a great follow. Truthfully, she's, yeah, she's a diva.
Fun. Doing it all. Yep. Hey, I appreciate y'all. You are, I know you talked about like, you know, uh, the owners and the president building this thing, but you guys are such important building blocks and it's inspirational. Like, as you know, young women come from Munciana and they grow up and they go to IU, they go to Purdue, and they get to play.
Mm-hmm. Big Ten volleyball, having this option to also. Back home to their state and be a part of the Ignite is incredible. I think it's inspirational. I love the fact that Indiana is working to be the capital for women's sports across the globe. It's incredible and it's from the hard work that that y'all are doing.
So keep it up. I'm excited. We're gonna be out at a bunch of games this year. That's my work. We can also watch them. There's tv. All the details are down in the description if you wanna learn about streaming games. And um, and we'll see. Good. Best of luck this season. Crush it. Thank you. Make us proud. Pumped.
Thank you. Thanks for having us. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state.
Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
