Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - TRANSFORMATION? Iowa Hawkeyes Target Game-Changing Carver Hawkeye Arena UPGRADES and Fan Experience

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Carver-Hawkeye Arena is primed for a transformative renovation, aiming to elevate Iowa Hawkeyes basketball through enhanced fan experiences, modern amenities, and new premium seating. Could these upgrades finally give Iowa the recruiting and game-day boost it needs to compete at the highest level? Trent Condon unpacks the proposed $50–$70 million upgrades, revealing how private suites, club seating, and improved accessibility could shape the arena’s future and potentially shrink overall capacity for a more intimate, high-revenue environment. Tim Dwight and Travis Gorsh join the show to spotlight the TNT Football Camp, a free opportunity for Iowa youth to develop skills and passion for football. Dwight shares insight on multi-sport athleticism, player development, and the unique mindset required for elite special teams play. The episode explores how former Hawkeyes—like Kaden Wetjen—excel in the return game and the broader impact of giving back to Iowa’s next generation of athletes. Photo Credit: Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK Follow Trent Condon on X: https://twitter.com/trentcondon LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-hawkeyes-daily-podcast-on-iowa-hawkeyes-football/id1441592240 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GTyz5ygevcGXdTF6QSoEo YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnHawkeyes Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wayfair Patio season is here and these deals won’t last! Head to https://wayfair.com right now to get your outdoor space ready for way less. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carver Hawkeye Arena potentially isn't getting a facelift, it's getting a future. These renovations could transform the game day experience, boost recruiting, and bring Iowa basketball where it needs to be. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. being with us here today. We got a lot going on, including an upcoming free football camp put together by Tavian Banks and Tim DeWite. We will be joined by Tim DeWite. We'll talk about the T&T football camp coming up in Des Moines this Saturday, opportunity for your youngster to get

involved at no cost over at North High School. We'll talk about Tim's playing career, his days in a Hawkeye uniform, and some of the things he thinks about with the youth of today getting into the world of football. But we begin today's conversation with a look at a breaking story. story from a couple of days ago. It is something that we have bandied about a lot, but the University of Iowa now has announced proposed plans for Carver Hawkeye Arena and renovations that are sorely needed. As a building is approaching 50 years old and somebody that is also approaching 50 years old, I know starting to show with signs of age. And though I've had an incredible time of Carver throughout the years, you definitely see some of the areas that are in need of an upgrade and

really the biggest area for this. The game day experience, everything that goes along with, that there are only so many things that you can do because of the structure of Carver Hawkeye Arena. The way that the arena was built, a big bowl dug into the ground, it is something where making changes to the building as it's structured is incredibly difficult. It's not like most buildings out there that you see in college basketball, two tiers. You come in in the middle. You can either go up to your seats if you're up in the nosebleeds or go down. You just start from the top.

And that means if you have really good seats, you want to go up to get concessions, you want to go up and go to the bathroom, whatever it is, you got a long walk in front of you and you're huffing and puffin. And as we know, our fan base as a whole is definitely an older fan base. And that also impacts the ability. And for some people, just the want to get to Carver Hawkeye Arena. This is something that is not going to change in terms of the structure of Carver. But one thing that you definitely do understand also, and I think the biggest reason for this happening, is the way that sports are currently set up. When people go to sporting experiences and for the people that have the most money, and for the people that are paying NIL, the people that are investing in the program,

this new age of college athletics at the level that they are, you have to also have something very good for them. For some, it is having courtside seats. So we've seen that renovated and changed, you've seen the seats there. And you see the anesthesiologist as he's hopping up and down on the near side of the floor as you're watching things on television. And you see him from time to time bouncing out there and giving the opposing teams a hard time. We also saw the improvement this year with the risers back behind one of the baskets. And we saw the students down there bringing them closer to the action, getting a little bit more lively in Carver Hawkeyes, something I think all of us definitely would want to see.

But when we're talking about those high-end fans financially, not in terms of passion, you don't have to have a lot of money to have a lot of passion. I get that. But for the people that are paying the freight, for the people that are helping at the highest levels for the athletic department, the basketball programs. Sometimes they want a little bit more. They've opened up things also underneath where there is some concessions down there for those people that do have the court side.

They don't have to go all the way up. But even those are few and far between. The biggest thing is this is something that is going to give a private suite area, club seating area. This is the new age of athletics as a whole. And the experiences go along with it, this is a big part of what's going to happen with these renovations. Some of the things that are looking at being upgraded, upgrades throughout the concourse,

concessions, thankfully, restrooms, thankfully, and also in the seating bowl. Fan comfort also has talked about a lot in the press release that was handed down. Feasibility study was done back in 2003. This is from Beth Getz, something that has been talking about. They have been going through fundraising. I have heard that they're approaching maybe $40 million already of the proposed 50 to $70 million that is going to be done. The project would be funded entirely through private gifts and carry an estimated cost

of $50 to $70 million. Also, part of the project that was going to be sent on and getting approval from the Iowa Board of Regents was improvements to the field hockey facility, something where their locker rooms are ways away. So that would be an upgrade for them. But for our conversation today, it's about carbon. There are things that need to be done at that cost, at that price point, how much can be done?

I think that's a question. Certainly that is going to be there and wondering how different things are going to look. And that's definitely where my mind goes with this project. I'd love to see an escalator, something like that, because it is a long ways from the top going up. I don't know if that's feasible. That's not mine, but just getting down there. And seeing the people, seeing people struggle to get up those stairs and older people that just want to go up and grab a Coke, go up there and hit the head.

And that is something, again, don't know about the feasibility. but you see escalators usually out on the concourse and different things. Is that something that could be done? We'll see. Also, one other area that I think is important to this conversation is it does look like that the capacity is going to go down. Not a bad thing either. Yes, more people in the building.

That's usually a great thing. But we've seen so many times. So women's basketball is sold out recently. Men's basketball had a sell out a year ago and looks to be obviously trending in the right direction on that front is buildings as a whole, they are getting smaller, getting more intimate. and the big part, they're going to be taking some seats away in the upper reaches

to put those suites in, to put the club seats in, and that's going to generate more revenue for the athletic department. $50 to $70 million, it will go to the Iowa Board of Regents for approval. Appears that that will probably be rubber stamped and will be good to go as the University of Iowa looking to upgrade Carver Hawkeye Arena, along with renovations for the field hockey facility that will be built. Siding news and something that could be pretty cool,

going forward. Look, I still love Carver. It's an interesting building. It's different. It's built in a different way. The sound inside the building, we know it can get incredibly loud, still in there when you're packing in nearly 15,000 people. We'll see about the updates. And we'd love to see some of these proposals, what it's going to look like, permanent seating now instead of those risers back there. And then the other open area back behind, maybe if you can push some seats up, make things a little bit tighter there, or even build maybe some sweets down below some things to think about. Well, we come back on the other side and we're going to talk some football. Tim Dwight, a Hawkeye great, is going to join us on the other side. One of my favorite players

growing up and watching the Hawkeyes and Timmy D will stop by. He's got a free football camp coming up this Saturday opportunity for you to get your youngster registered for that and learn from some of the best. Tim Dwight, number of former Hawkeye is going to be there as well. We'll talk a little bit about the football camp. We'll talk football and just things as a whole, including his days in a Hawkeye uniform. Tim Dwight coming up on the other. side as we continue, stay right there. This is Locked-on Hawkeyes. A patio season, it is here, and there's nothing better than having an outdoor space that feels comfortable, functional, and gets used, whether it's a backyard patio, balcony, or deck. The right setup can

completely change how you spend your time at home. I absolutely love our new patio set that we got from Wayfair. It has changed the game for us. It has taken us to a completely different level. Wayfair comes in from outdoor seating, patio lighting, grills, rugs, decor, storage. Wayfair is a one-stop shop for creating an outdoor space that fits your style and your budget. Plus, with over 20 million five-star reviews, Wayfair verified products. It's easy to shop with confidence. Ardenham patio set, it has been a home run, and we've been bludgeon by Raid here recently. Wipe it right off.

We went with the composite, and it has been incredible, taking that upgrade, and find in all the great ones and found the ones that we love over at Wayfair. I will tell everybody out there, Wayfair is your spot when you're searching for your outdoor space. Patio season is here and these deals won't last. So head to Wayfair.com right now to get your outdoor space ready for way less. That's Wayfair, W-A-I-R-com, Wayfair.com. Tim Dwight, scheduled to join us here momentarily along with, as we're going to talk with Travis also from the T&T football camps,

been going on for a number of years. If you've heard us in the past, the Iowa Foundation with the T&T football camps, has been going on now for a number of years. This is a free opportunity for youngsters grades three through eight. Get an opportunity to learn from some of the best. Tim Dwight, going to bring together former Hawkeyes and coaches with Iowa ties. And joining us right now is Travis. Travis Gorsh, once again, good to talk with you,

our things for you as we go through and get ready. for another season of the T&T football camp. Glad to have you aboard. How are you? Yeah, I'm doing well. Thank you very much. I was just working on some stuff right before I jumped on and actually saw this is going to be our fourth year in Des Moines since we restarted after the pandemic. And last year we actually crossed over a thousand kids participating in the Des Moines location alone.

So excited to kind of see that number. And this year, we're heading over to North High School. We've been in high school last year, Hoover in the past, two years before that. spreading the love around a little bit from the different Des Moines Public Schools and just excited to get these camps going again. We've got one in Newton on Thursday and then one here in Desmond on Saturday. So keeping busy with that. Absolutely a great event. I've heard a number of families that have had their youngsters that have gone to the event,

had nothing but great things to say about it. Again, this is free, but you do have to register beforehand. We'll get all the details here from Travis and company just momentarily. So take us back and kind of getting it. to know Tavian and Tim and kind of the things that they were doing and how you guys with the Iowa Foundation got involved as well. Yeah, I actually got to know Tavian first through a work, work experience. We had worked in the development field in the Des Moines area through the YMCA. And he kind of mentioned bringing back camps in saying, hey, you know, we've done these in the past. I believe they did one at Roosevelt,

over in Valley, Wauke even back in like 2018, 2019. And then Jason Hemmer as well was a huge help. He was actually implementing those camps before the pandemic started. So, one thing led to another, Tavian said, hey, we should get this going again. He introduced me to Tim, and Tim said he was fully on board. And one thing led to another, and our first year back was 2003 over at Hoover. So I'm super excited how that all kind of worked out. When you think of it's two guys, they're from Iowa high schools. They went to the University of Iowa and had the opportunity to play in the NFL,

and then still make it a very big point for them to come back and get back to the state of Iowa, not just on the football side, but also just, you know, talk to these kids about what it takes to get to that level, the hard work, you know, paying attention in school, doing well, listening to the, you know, their mentors and things like that. So it goes beyond just the football camps with those two guys. And we do have Tim now with us. Tim Dwight is joining us here as he is locked and loaded.

Make sure I got all my buttons figured out in the correct way. Tim, good to catch up with you again. How's your summer been going here in the early goings? A lot of baseball and just got down with soccer. there you go, keeping those multi-sport athletes. Now, Tim, in the past, we've talked about this quite often. You got the football camp, obviously, coming up this week, and that's a big deal. But you're a multi-sport guy.

We still see this today. And though I broadcast high school sports here, it's still crazy. Just the number of multi-sport athletes and talking to coaches in the high school ranks and the youth sport ranks, how important it is to not just specialize and specialize right away, but learning about those different avenues. And Tim, I know you're a big advocate of that as well. Yeah, I played a lot of sports when I was a young kid. Baseball, soccer, football, track and field, basketball. You know, it's not just good for you physically. It develops your different skill sets, but it puts you in different roles in those games.

Like, you know, in football, I was the star running back. I got the ball a lot. I played, you know, free safety on defense. So I was on the field quite a bit. Basketball, I wasn't that great of a player. You know, I kind of took a second role where I, I play really good defense, and I drove in and dished a lot. I wasn't that great of a shooter.

And then baseball, you know, I pitched. I played shortstop, center field. No, but everybody got a chance to hit. Baseball is a little bit different to the sport. But yeah, I think it's super, super critical for kids to be involved in as many sports as possible. To a point, you know, you can't be playing on Sundays and getting too crazy. You got to have a childhood a little bit, too. So, you know, people have been kind of pushing me to get my kid involved in some of the seven-on-seven stuff.

And he's, you know, he just turned seven. And, you know, we played a lot of backyard stuff. I think kids need to get back into that. They need to pick up their own games. They don't need us parents being around them, telling them what to do all the time. Like, they need to figure it out, you know, because later in life, they're going to have to figure it out without us. So, you know, there's some stuff that I think is important for these kids to be involved in, but also needs to be some restraint a little bit because they're little bodies.

you know, I had a friend of mine that is a pretty good athlete, his son, and, you know, he's playing with him six and seven-year-olds, and he was five or six at the time. Probably shouldn't have been playing with these older kids, but he's good enough to do that, and the kids took him out, and he broke his arm. Just, like, completely severed his humorous, you know, like in half, compound fracture, and the kid was seven, eight years old. So, yeah, so I think it's super important for kids to be active, get involved as many sports as possible. And then as you get older, you know, you start to figure out what you're good at and what you're real passionate about. Because we don't want that burnout either, right? Yeah. And that's a big thing.

And you see so much of that. And good athletes, good kids at their sport, but too much too early, definitely a part of it. The T&T football camp coming up on Saturday here in Des Moines. You can find more information if you find the Facebook page for them as well with the Iowa Foundation. I'm also going to post a link here momentarily on that for people to get involved and get their kids signed up for it. When it comes to the football camp, Tim, we've had you on now a number of years talking about kind of what you guys are working to do. And when it comes to this, for the youngsters that are out there, grades three through eight opportunity from not just learning from Tim to White, but a bunch of former Hawkeyes and people that know football really well. What exactly do you look to do in this one day football camp for these kids?

What is the end goal for these guys that you get out there and it'll be at North High School this year? Just to see if they like it. You know, just to expose them to, you know, warm up. up to a huddle. So what plays are? You know, some of the positions that they might not see on the field that kind of blends in. What an offensive tackle feels like getting down in a stance like that.

You know, what a linebacker needs to read when he's seeing a type of sweep play. You know, and these are some of things that are kind of high level, but you throw a lot out of them and you see what they like. You'll get them into drills, get them moving around. See if they like it. You know, make it fun because football is a hard sport. Yeah. you know, you get knocked around.

There's not a lot of sports where you get hit every play. You got to get back up, go in a huddle, turn around, and go back at the same person that just laid you out or vice versa. And now you know that they're going to come after you a little harder. So it's a sport that definitely has got to build a mindset. You know, but at the same time, it's pretty fun. You know, and you want obviously going to win. I mean, no one really likes to lose in any sport, especially football,

because you're getting beat up as you lose. So, yeah, it's a great sport. They're trying to get them exposed to it. Be excited about it. Show them kind of all the aspects of it. We got offense, defense, special teams. That was a big thing for me. So it got me into the NFL.

I can catch a lot of passes in Iowa. We gave the ball to a guy named Tavian Banks, which he was pretty good. And a guy named Stedric Shaw. She just went to Iowa's Hall of Fame this year, about time. Yes. So, yeah, we just want to show them as all these different aspects. And you can figure out what tools and what skill sets you have. to where you want to be and what you like and what you're excited about.

Because, you know, you gravitate to a position that you like, right? And sometimes you do get moved later on into a position you might not like, but you might be good at it and then learn to like it. So, yeah, you know, there's offense and defense. You know, she got different personalities with that. And just getting around a bunch of kids together on a Saturday in Iowa, you know, in June where it's hot. It's going to be fun.

It absolutely is. I heard great things about that. part of it. This just jumped in my mind. So hearing you, and yes, Hayden made the right choice of the offensive staff, getting the ball to Cedric and getting into Tavian as much as possible. But just shortly after kind of your collegiate career started to wrap up, we saw this infiltration of the spread offense and obviously what we saw just across college football. And you look at the jet sweeps and the wide receiver screens and things like that. You ever have that moment, you said, man, maybe I was born 10 years earlier. Because if you would have came along 10 years,

Think about the Swiss Army knife that you could have been in some of those college offenses that came around a little bit later on that maybe you just missed your your perfect spot, I guess, if you will, for an offensive football player. Well, you had to kind of run and shoe going down in Atlanta in the 90s. Yeah. A guy named Barrett Mathis. He was an all pro for many years. He was my mentor as a receiver. He's one of the best players, in my opinion, that played that game. Not only could he could run routes, but I do could block anybody.

you know, he was only 5, 10, 190 pounds. But Terrence was a hell of a player, amazing player, great teammates. So, yeah, it would have been fun. I mean, we had a lot of speed my senior year. Guy named, you know, Banks, guy named Dwight, guy named Gibbons, you know, Richard, Richard, in high school. I mean, you give it to him on a reverse that you put him in the slot, It's three wide receivers.

No one's really paying attention to them. Next thing, you know, fours around the corner and you can't catch them. So there's, you know, knowing what I know now and looking back, yeah, we could have had a pretty potent offense and just moving players around. I mean, you put Banks, Dwight, and Shaw all in the field together in different positions. Watch out. I mean, you can't cover it all. No one who I know now, oh, it would have been fun. But, you know, that was at the end of Hayden's era.

You know, and Snyder, one of the great offensive coordinator, mine, he went down to K-State. So that thing's kind of changed a bit in Iowa football. But you know what? You know, we played as hard as we could. Davey and I had a great run at the Heisman. We went back to back, you know, lost it to a guy from Michigan. Not a bad player. Played 18 years in the league.

So Charles Woodson was pretty good. But we had them down 21-7 and a half. You know, we make a couple more plays in that game, which it's all about making certain plays. you win or you lose. But yeah, it would have been fun carrying the ball a little bit, maybe six, seven times a game, you know, catch me a little screen here one or two times, reverse, at least run two reverses a game.

I mean, the way that I'm going to coach in a couple of years from now and my son gets older, it's not about the plays. I'm just going to have my, it's going to be players. My playbook is just going to be the player. It's going to be like, my offensive play during the week is going to be like, or during the game, it's like third and six. All right, who am I going to give the ball to? Thanks. All right, what's the play?

Okay, boom. It's not going to be like, what's the play? Read it out. It's going to be like, no, we're going to get the ball to that guy. Because when you give the ball to that guy, that guy wins this game. That guy scores touchdown. That guy creates big plays, right? So, yeah, it would have been a lot of fun, you know, being a little more dynamic on offense.

But, you know, we had a good running attack. We put up a lot of points. Just our defense wasn't as great. I mean, if you look at our offensive production, I talked to one of our offensive coordinators that was there. Donnie Patterson, we put up a lot of yards. We rushed to football. I should have won a lot more games, but, you know, our defense wasn't as strong.

I mean, we had a great defense at Iowa right now. The last 20 years, look at it. It's amazing. If we could have had a top five, top 10 defense, we could have went a lot farther in the Big Ten. But we didn't, you know, and you have to have all that. You got to have special team, which we had. You got to have offense, which we have. I mean, we didn't have as many big plays as we probably could have,

but we still had a pretty solid offense. And, yeah, but, you know, I mean, that's just the way it goes. You do the best you can, and you lay on top of the next players, right? Like, look at Caden Whitchin today. Weegean, you should have got the ball leagues eight, nine times a game. Five handoff, five or seven passes. The kid's a playmaker. I mean, he's got 11 guys running down at him that knock his head off,

and he's running right through him. But let me get the ball to him with four. guys in front of him and see what he can do. Right? So like, yeah, we should have seen a lot more plays in that guy this year. But, you know, he had some amazing plays. Broke my record. And now he's off at Pittsburgh. You mentioned Caden and what we saw from Weege in this season in the last couple of years.

I mean, a guy that comes in, local kid Williamsburg makes his way over to Iowa Western for a couple of years before getting over to Iowa City. What is it about that position? Because both you guys are fast. I mean, it's not like you're not going to put a slow plotting guy back there or anything. like that. But how different the vision is, what you have to do, setting up blocks. I thought he was just incredible at doing those kind of things. How different is that? And is it something that's innate for a return or is it something that you can learn, just the understanding of how different it is in the return game in comparison to being a wide receiver. Yeah, being a wide receiver

and turning points is completely different. I mean, way different. Wide receiver, you got to run 18 yards, you got to run in route, you got to run a curaw, you got to run a slant, you got to run this, got to run this rule. Being a punt return, it's kind of like a little bit of wide open. I mean, you're trying to get to the wall to the right. You might not get there perfectly because nothing's perfect in that play. You got guys all over the place. You know, it's like a minefield out there.

And that kid was so good vertical. I mean, I've never seen anybody be as vertical as Caden on a punt return. You look back on all the returners in the NFL in college. That kid was so vertical. I mean, his last return against Michigan State, I don't think those guys had one block on that field. I looked at it about 30 times. That kid made almost everybody miss on that touchdown.

It was unbelievable. And so, like, you're going to see a lot of great returns from him in the NFL. Guys are not going to be able to touch him. He's strong. You know, he's built pretty low to the ground. He's got a big, like, lower level to him so he can make these cuts. And when he makes the cuts, he goes right past you. Like, he's taking your lunch money.

I mean, it's incredible this kid, how he maneuvers himself. So, you know, every, a lot of it's innate, you know, a lot of it's all, you can learn some stuff, but, you know, when you're out there making decisions and going, and it's a lot of flow and feel on how you feel yourself in space and where you're at. And as a returner, you know, you always want to be getting vertical once you make that last super cut. And that's what he did a lot this last year. I mean, his returns were, we always push the field. He did a great job of pushing the field because that's what you want to do as returner. You want to stretch that field because all of a sudden those cover guys now, they start to widen out. Well, then all of a sudden, these lanes starting to open up for you.

It's like, ooh, here we go. I just opened instead of one. Now I just have three because of just pressing the wide side. So he did a great job of that and then getting vertical and then back out to where his guys were. I mean, a lot of his guys, they weren't running back down the field very much this year. They were playing their foot in the ground and they were going the other way, the way they just came. because he was so good at getting vertical on the first guys coming down. I mean, the gunners didn't have a chance.

I thought to him. I mean, I wanted against Michigan State. There were two guys right there, and he just went right up inside him. He's great to see. Yeah, so it was a lot of fun. So, yeah, being a receiver, a little bit different of a position, you know, I think most of your returners have been good running backs in their post, you know, career, whether it's high school or their year running back.

I mean, running backs aren't really good catchers on punt, but they can't catch their kickoffs. They're usually good kickoff returners as well. But if you got a running back, they can catch punt, he's going to be a pretty good returner because it's all about being nifty and vertical and then, you know, putting on the jets when you get that last, you know, cut. I mean, that one against, was it Rutgers? Oh, yeah. Kickoff returners. Yes.

That was like afterburners, man. I mean, about the 40-yard line on the other side, he was like, okay, it's it. I mean, it was just never seen one of those before. And you had to love what he kind of added to the repertoire after he passed the goal line and kind of do the sprint or finish there, you know, getting across the tape. And he added that towards the end of the season, which was fun to see. We're talking with Tim DeWite here. T&T football camp coming up this Saturday, June 13th in Des Moines, North High School is the spot. Just put out on Twitter on the Miller & Condon page right now where you can go and get your youth signed up for this one.

Travis to bring you back in, Travis Gors, from the Iowa Foundation. The event is free. And there's so many of these football camps that are out there, but the free part of it. It just, it warms the heart, something that you guys are able to do and, and helping out everybody to have a chance to learn from Tim DeWite, learn from these coaches and everybody. You guys with the Iowa Foundation are a big part of that. How important was that, Travis, to make that happen?

It's super important because the cost can be a barrier at some of these camps. We looked around the last few years, and we've seen some camps for $100, $150, $200 and upwards. So being able to offer a camp for free and do exactly what Tim mentioned earlier, just see if these kids like it. $150, $200 is an expensive investment to see if a kid likes something versus being able to come out, say, hey, this is free, hope you enjoy it. You're going to learn from one of the best that's ever played, you know, at the University of Iowa and made it to the NFL.

And you don't need the experience, right? I just crunched numbers earlier, like I said. About 25% of the kids that have signed up for the Des Moines Camps the last three years have had no experience. So you've got, you know, a quarter of the third. thousands. So 250 new kids just got exposed to football. So I think that's really cool. You know, there's a ton of Des Moines Public Kids schools that are going. You know, half of the kids that are coming at this camp are on free and reduced lunch. So maybe mom and dad

couldn't even afford it in the first place. So definitely was at the forefront of the Des Moines camp. You know, in the past, we've talked about Newton and Iowa City. We've gone there a couple times. We charged a minimal 25 bucks with donations going back to the charities too. But being able to keep the one in Des Moines-free, just no barrier to entry has been pretty important to all of us. No doubt about it. And, you know, you go through, Travis and what you guys, tell us a little bit more about the Iowa Foundation. And outside of what you guys do with the T&T football camps, what else the Iowa Foundation entails? Yeah, it was just an idea born five or six years ago.

I used to work in community relations with a professional baseball team during grad school. And I just said, hey, I want to do that back in Iowa. So how can I partner with athletes? How can I partner across sports? to improve what's going on in youth sports. So, you know, we're doing everything from these free football camps. We've done free basketball camps in the past. A lot of these initiatives have started when NIL kind of changed around 2020,

2020, 2021, being able to partner with the collectives to have some of their athletes come out. But just being able to get in touch with other athletes that say, hey, I'm interested in doing this or I'm interested in doing that and coming alongside them and kind of doing all the logistics behind the scenes and letting them show up and have the impact of, you know, what a professional athlete is to these kids. So everything from free camps, we're actually going to do an equipment giveaway at North High School around the same time as the camp. We'll get the camp going, everybody out and about.

And then we're going to open up the other side of the gym to have free equipment to be able to give equipment away to kids that maybe don't have the opportunity to go out and buy a new bat or a baseball glove or, you know, their own football or a basketball or things like that. And then we're also partnering with other organizations that exist already. We've got a girls summer lifting program with Raise the Bar and other nonprofit in the area. They're going to be at Roosevelt, Lincoln, Bon Durant, and a couple other places this summer just teaching girls, you know, what it means to be strong and inactive and health benefits associated with that. And then later on this summer, we're actually partnering with UMSCare, which is another charitable organization that we train umpires.

We teach them the X's and O's, the mechanics, positioning, so on and so forth. but we're also teaching them life skills, financial literacy, communication, professionalism, et cetera. And those are teenagers. Those are 13 to 18 year olds that we can get, you know, into umpiring and officiating and kind of bringing that next wave of folks in. So everything from coaching the clinics to officials and in between. Finally, Tim Dwight, one more for you as we finish things up.

And again, the football camp coming up this Saturday at North High School. Information is out there. Just search T&T. football camps, you'll find the link there, or you can search Tim DeWight and Tavian Banks. It'll also pop up that way for you. And I put the link out for grades three through eight, a free camp. Check in 7 to 8 a.m. on Saturday. And the camp goes from 8 until noon.

When you go through this and coming up with the idea is what you're going to do, just having these youngsters kind of find out what football is all about, Tim. And talk about your side of things. You've been doing this now for a number of years and why you're after year you want to keep doing it, the impact that it's made for you. Oh, yeah, I've been doing this since, I think, 2020 or 2002. It was my first camp in Des Moines, and I kind of took us to Iowa City and ran it's about 18 years there, and then COVID kind of shows down. But, no, I just think that, you know, football is a sport that you learn a lot about yourself.

You learn, you know, how much you can push yourself, how good of a teammate you are, how tough you are, how you respond to adversity. It teaches you about workmanship, teammanship, sportsmanship. You know, the right way to do things is the right way to play. There's a wrong way to play. You know, there's just so much to it. I've gotten so much from this game that I kind of want to give back and just show these kids like, hey, if you do like this, guess what? You can make the NFL.

You can make a D1 college team if you work hard enough and you're fast enough. and you play well enough and you're coachable. And here's some of the characteristics that you need to focus on that will help you be that way, dependable, reliable, you know, competitive, you know, respectful, have some humility, you know, like you never better than anybody else, but you play as hard as everybody else. You know, you always hustle. And then you learn these things and you're like, whoa, this stuff works. It happens on the field.

maybe I'll just bring this into my life a little bit too. And then boom, I'm getting better grade. I've got better experiences with my friends because I'm a better team because I learned that, hey, I'm second team and I got to take scout team reps every once in a while, you know, or I got to take most scout team reps. But then I'm the fastest guy, you know, on the track team. You know, so it's just a great game that pulls a lot of people together. I mean, look at, look at attacks.

I mean, somebody won one of the other. sport that packs 70,000 people like that, you know, up to their feet, screaming a yell on third and six in the first quarter, you know, it's just, it's a game of emotion. It's a game of excitement, highs and lows, wins and losses, and you learn a lot. And it's a game of life, you know, and I've learned quite a bit from this game. So I just want to get back and show these kids they can do whatever they can do. And if, you know, you can implement some of these things into them, they can put in their lives, makes their lives better. Awesome.

Absolutely. Love it. That can make Iowa better. Yes. That is a big one as well. Tim Dwight joining us along with Travis Gorsh and a big thank you. Both of you guys, the T&T football camp coming up this Saturday, June 13th, 8 to noon. You can register online. The link is out there. You can find all the information.

A big thank you to the Iowa Foundation and to you, Tim, for your guys' time. Thanks again to Tim DeWite and Travis Gorsh for joining us and filling us in on the details. Talk this in on the details. and talking about the return game. Good stuff, as always, from Tim Dwight. And thank you as well to Travis Gorsh. Out of time for today, back with you tomorrow. We'll be joined by Elliott Club.

We'll take a look at the Hawkeyes. Talk some basketball with Elliot. Getting into the hoops thing. Of course, recruiting is a busy topic at this point in time. Tom Caker, also going to join us later this week. Your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast, Locked on Hawkeyes. Glad to have you aboard with us.

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