Shaun Newman Podcast - #765 - Rustlers Basketball Pt. 3

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

On December 5th Lakeland College fired Chris King from his duties as coach of the women’s basketball program. Chris is a six-time ACAC Coach of the Year and a two-time CCAA Coach of the Year, not to mention they were on a 34 game unbeaten streak and a National Champ. In Part 3, I am joined by Chris Thiele, father of one of the girls who played for Chris and known in the Rustler community as the Reformed Bigfoot. Also joining us is Pam Becotte, a local business owner, Lakeland College alumni, and sponsor of the Rustler program, and Taylor Weaver, the Managing Editor of the Lloydminster Meridian Source newspaper. Cornerstone Forum ‘25 https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/ Clothing Link: ⁠⁠⁠https://snp-8.creator-spring.com/listing/the-mashup-collection⁠⁠ Text Shaun 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Silver Gold Bull Links: Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text Grahame: [phone]

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It's Christmas week. Merry Christmas to all you. I hope wherever you're at. Safe travels. And I hope you're with family and friends. I hope you're getting a little bit of downtime. I hope you're enjoying the, yeah, I don't know. It's a special time of year for a lot of different reasons.

and I appreciate you being along to this ride since, you know, we're going on six years. That's hard to believe. Reminder, Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, that is. We're going to count down the top 25 episodes of this year. That should be interesting. I already know a couple of surprises that are going to be in there that I didn't see coming. And I hope you can follow along on Twitter, or X, I guess. that's where we're going to be releasing the top 25

I'll post the screenshots of it when we're done on everything else and it'll probably be shown on substack as well afterwards but New Year's Eve it's becoming a tradition to release the top 25 episodes well often numbers of people watching the episode so that should be really interesting so I got for you today Merry Christmas to everybody I'm going to keep saying that

thank you for being a part of this community and yeah appreciate you guys supporting and watching and listening and commenting and texting and everything God bless Merry Christmas Now let's get on to that tale of the tape

Today I'm joined by a business owner A Concern Parent and a journalist talking about Pam Beecott Chris Thiel and Taylor Weaver So buckle up here we go Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today You see you watch this Chris I'm about to do it I'm joined by Pam Beacott, Taylor Weaver, and Chris Thiel.

Thiel? Yeah. We're maybe close. Awesome. Well, first off, thanks for all joining me in studio. It's always a treat to sit with people. Lots of times I sit across from a computer and do these things virtually, which has been a lot of the way the world's went. But to get people in studio, I really appreciate it.

And what gets us all in here is talking about the Wemens Rustler, the Lakeland Rustlers Women's Basketball Program. This is part three, I guess, from this side. So if you're listening to this one, there is two other parts where we interviewed some of the athletes. We interviewed the assistant coaches. And now I've got three more individuals in studio. And I'm going to let them talk here so that everybody can get used to who is speaking. So we'll start with Chris and we'll work our way around the table. Probably just a little bit about yourself, you know, what ties you to Lakeland College, why you're here.

and if there's anything else you want to add, you can certainly add it. Maybe why reform Bigfoot was, you know, Chris, far away. Well, like I was saying before, thanks for having me, I guess. This is first time doing something like this. Bigfoot, I got big feet and reformed, I guess. It's kind of what mostly associates me with my faith, I guess. It's the flavor of Christian that I am, I guess. How I'm tied to this whole situation, I apologize for that.

Let me just... First time, I know. It's even silence, but that's my alarm for my eye drops. Now everybody's like squirreling. It's like better get the phones get turned off. I am a dad to one of the Lakeland Rostler girls.

And so, yes, that's how I'm all tied to this situation. I've only known Chris maybe a few years, three years or so. He signed my daughter when she was in grade 11. she blew her ACL. I think she was still in grade 11 or at the beginning of grade 12. And yeah, great guy.

Lots of character. We'll get into, I think, some of that. Sure. That's kind of the basics of what brings me... In studio tonight. I guess so. Yeah. And I put out a couple little videos

and I guess some people have started seeing those and I think that's what caught your attention. maybe and certainly i i had um your first video sent to me and they said it's the reformed bigfoot and i was like the what the what now right and so uh i dug into your story a little bit and um yes i think i think a lot of people are finding their voice right now because something doesn't make sense and with lakeland not um opening up and and talking in my world being transparent something just feels a little bit off so you know especially when everywhere i walk in the city um people know who christian King is and they don't this go oh yeah they they glow about them like it's it's my hat's off to

Chris because you don't realize how much of an impact he's at until you what I was telling you I walked in here and night the cleaning guy started talking about him I'm like really okay all right well okay Pam so I am a past alumni from Lakeland College my kids have participated in the youth wrestlers basketball program I'm a current athletic sponsor as well as a season ticket holder to the athletics program. So yeah, this news kind of rocked our house. And so yeah, I'm here to share, I guess, my perspective from a few different things. I do as a background, I went to school in Kitt Scottie and Chris was a grade behind me. So he has loved basketball as long as I've known him. And to watch his passion, translate and transform basketball in the Lloydminster and surrounding

community has been amazing. And so this was a big shock, I think, to a lot of us that have watched this go for as many years as he's literally been dribbling a ball. Like it's, it was shocking to hear that this was all going on. So, yeah. And Taylor. I second what Pam just said. But, yeah, I've been in Lloyd since 2014 in the media. I've been the editor of the Meridian source since 2015.

And I've known Chris for, yeah, since I've essentially moved here, covering the rustlers. I was the sports editor for the booster years ago when there was still a booster. And for me, like, When I saw those two forfeits on the record, that Monday after the weekend that it all kind of blew up, I knew something wasn't right. And yeah, just knowing his pedigree, his etiquette, and his professionalism and commitment to advancing athletes, just something, as you said, something didn't feel right and it still doesn't feel right. Now, before we get into the main topic of today, I don't always forget to do this, but at the end of the show is usually when I go, I haven't done that yet. So one of the cool things that people get to do when they come in studio is one of my major sponsor is Silver Gold Bull.

So everybody gets one ounce silver coin for coming in. All right. So that's, it's how I bribe people to get them in studio with me. Thanks, Silver Bowl. Yeah, yeah, Silver Gold Bowl, yeah. They're pretty cool. I don't know if anybody collects, but once again, or stacks, I should say. Might have to start, yeah.

Yeah. Well, if you do, Silver Gold Bowl. They're pretty cool company here in Alberta, too. So that being said, to the topic at hand, you know, when I first, like you say, saw the forfeits, it wasn't even like it just went around. I'm like, what is going on? And please, from this point on, don't treat it like, I always say a ping pong match where it has come back to me. Feel free to hop in at any time because this is close to by the sounds of it, all of our hearts.

and we're trying to figure out some things. There's been some new things come to light over the course of the past week since I last sat down with the assistant coaches. And I thought maybe, Taylor, did Pam sent you the thing that was online, right? She did, yeah, just now. And I said to Pam, this is what everyone's been trying

to get their hands on. So would you mind reading the three little bullets if you don't mind? No, not a problem. Because, like, so what it is is it's the dismissal letter of Chris King now that it's open. online we now can like read off the three I don't I don't know if we need to read the entire

thing but probably the three bullet points of what's been said yeah so the misconduct includes the following you schedule the practice for the women's basketball team on september 30th 2024 where they required to run suicides as punishment for a jersey bag being forgotten by the team on the same day you be rated and swore at three student athletes for having gone out the night before despite their being allowed to do so. Additionally, it was found that previously you had targeted an athlete, including making inappropriate comments about her weight and personal relationship. And then the third point, during the September 30th practice, while running suicides,

one of the three athletes fell and had a medical episode. You failed to respond to the situation appropriately. This included requiring the other athletes continue to run the suicides, which goes against everything that has come out to this. this point. Yeah, I think. I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Did, did Chris or Pam or Taylor, did anybody hear anything different that they're like, well, no, actually they said, you know, like, please get. Literally all the accounts we're hearing that have come forward do not corroborate anything that was in there other than maybe that they were disgusted that those girls had went out

later in the evening. But even the athletes themselves, when you did that interview, they talked about how they have a curfew. They were instructed to, um, It was a long weekend. They should go to bed. Like, nothing in there is validated or corroborated with any of the people who are willing to talk, it sounds like. Like, none of it is substantiated with the evidence that's coming out anyway to the public. So, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I think, you know, I'm always torn because I'm hearing some things from my daughter, obviously.

I think throughout this year and even last, year she's always been pretty tight-lipped and professional and doesn't tell us a lot she tries to like this is a team thing like this is this is who we are as a team right like we don't get any any inside dirt so i think even this time she's she's been very cautious about what to talk about but when you see when we heard about first off when chris was suspended and we're hearing about this and she's telling us this over the phone and she's in tears and in shock. It doesn't make any sense. And then we thought, okay, he's suspended or, you know, pending investigation indefinitely.

But I thought, ah, in a day or two, this is all going to blow over if we heard what we thought, which some of this is about the rationale. And it turned out to be, or it was rumor at the time. And then this is what it ended up being the reason why he was being investigated. And it just doesn't make any sense. I think some of the things that not to rehash all the stuff that's already been out, but I mean, the girls institute these rules and accountability. You know, that was even new to us as parents.

You know, I don't know if I should share this. Sorry, Naomi. I mean, last year, one of her first days, she had to run lines because she was late. She didn't know she would, the rule is half hour early. You're always a half hour early or you're late for practice, right? And her first team meeting, she was 15 minutes early because she didn't know the rule applied to that. And that's a rule that the girls put into place. So the next day, even though she's kind of still not able to do full practice, she's running lines because the more senior girl said that's the rule.

And, you know, they, but they take care of each other. They look out for each other. And this, how this has been spun, it just seems really weird. Does any of that explain why someone would be terminated without any previous things on the record? That doesn't make any sense. It boggles my mind that there's no indication of why, without going through some sort of progressive discipline, why you would jump to that. Immediately dismissal.

when you're hearing different stories from the assistant coaches to what is being, I presume the accusations of this one player. It doesn't make any sense. And it just all I can think of is they've probably been threatened legally. And this is their way of doing risk mitigation to try and make it all go away. That's the only thing I can think of. Because none of that makes sense that they're not listening to what the stories and the accounts of Chris, Marissa, and Tori were. and then to not go and investigate and talk to the girls that were there and witnessed everything that happened in the gym that day?

How do you explain that? So I just think that it's for, I don't know, I can't speculate on what the rationale is of why he's being targeted more so than Marissa or Tori. If they're both, all the stuff that's come out already, they're both, they were right there with them kind of. and for the length of time that they were investigated versus him and they don't want to hear the other sides of the story they don't want to hear from the girls for the last two weeks three weeks they're hearing all across this community of how upstanding he is and that doesn't matter it's just all being shoved under the rug and then and then when they even i think three of them came and met with some of the girls not all the girls came but i think there was a

six or seven of the girls and sorry ladies when I say girls it's just they're my daughter it's my daughter and the girls I mean they're ladies other they're they're adults and I mean no disrespect but I always called them the girls three of the individuals from the college came and met with them finally so I think it was the president Alice one of the VPs Kent and then Al Rogan came was the athletic director correct yeah yeah and came and met with the girls and the girls and the girls had a chance to vent and express their frustrations and let out some emotion and try to ask some questions.

And they, from what I understand, they just kind of sat there, not saying a bunch, just silent. And I get it. They're trying to be tight-lipped and confidentiality and they're trying not to overstep. And they're, I think, just hoping this all just goes away. But it, like, you're standing there in a room for, of emotional girls that don't know what's going on. They don't know what the future holds. They don't know what to expect. Where do they go from here? And they all just kind of sit there with emotionless on their face and, and then kind of

casually brush them off. Like it's, it's disappointing that they would treat them that way. I don't know. Well, you said something that caught my ear, which is progressive discipline, right? Yeah, in any organization. I don't know. Has anyone, like, please, audience, right? Because I've reached out to Lakeland. I know Taylor has as well. And, you know, been met with basically, I could pull it up.

Basically, it's a personal matter, and they're not going to talk about it. Roughly, that's how. And maybe I should pull it up that way. And I'd love Taylor's thoughts. The thing about it is, is, you know, progressive discipline is like, oops, you did, you stepped across the line. There's documentation, right? Like, I mean, we've all been employees or an employer where you got to like do progressive

discipline to justify terminating someone. Has anyone heard of Chris King being disciplined at Lakeland or anything of the sort? Like, we're now how many weeks into this? And I can't find it anywhere on social media. Maybe it's there. But I can't, I don't see like story after story coming out saying he's this. awful human being. Like I said, I walk in,

the cleaning guys talking about how great he is. I'm like, this is something. I don't know. Progressive discipline seems like that is, they went to the nuclear option immediately. Yeah. In most bigger organizations, government organizations,

they are going to do, they're usually obligated to do some sort of progressive discipline. There is, I mean, I think they were, they're probably jumping to just cause right off the back.

that. But in my opinion, none of that is just cause to say that you didn't help her in the way that she should have been helped after she fell down after running. You know, I don't think anyone's also even focusing on the fact of this, this player, her behavior and her attitude and how this is maybe, you know, I don't know if it's retaliation, retribution towards Chris. try to get at them because she felt slighted in all of this. It's sad. And it's not really my place to get into it.

I was kind of hoping some of that would come out through the girls. But just, you know, I don't know if anyone's even mentioned. She did go to the hospital that day. She went. She got checked out. And hearsay is through the grapevine. She was fine. Nothing was said.

That's what she. told the girls. And then over the next few days, she, I don't know, didn't get the answer that she was looking for. And I'm speculating here. This is assumptions. Didn't get the, and went again, and nothing went a second time to the walk-in clinic. And then what she was being instructed to do because they were thinking, well, maybe you should be on a concussion protocol. She gave that to the coaches. then the next home game at the home game and then sneak, and she's supposed to be at home or in dorms resting,

quiet, dark place if you're on a concussion protocol. And she sneaks into the gym, sits down a couple chairs down from us and is kind of, ha-ha, hiding her hood up, sunglasses, hoping that the coach is sitting right across from her, don't see her. Well, they did. Like, if this is really that big a deal,

why are you making fun and joking and hiding and sneaking in to watch the game when you should be at home resting if this is really what it's about? We had no idea at the time, any of this really. Like that was the first time we heard of that. It was directly from her. She was telling my wife this. The girl. Yes, the girl in question.

The incident that caused all of this was joking around that she's, On a concussion protocol, I'm supposed to be back in dorms. And she's telling one mom and then my wife is sitting beside her joking around that, you know, I'm probably going to get in trouble because I'm supposed to be at home on concussion protocol now. Like it's just the behavior. I mean, once again, a third party investigator comes in and investigates this. And I'm like, one of the things that I don't know still baffles me a bit is, now I've listened to at least five different families or girls.

I think I'm getting my point across. Talk about the event in question. And none of them were more talked to. I'm like, but they were all in the building, right? Yes. I'm like, okay. So why wouldn't you talk to everybody? And then as you probably talked to everybody,

why wouldn't you go talk to it? Like, obviously you would unearth this incident, wouldn't you? And then you would think. Because, I mean, I've only got on that. questions. I've been on this little path for like 10 days and I've stumbled upon you and I'm like well I just bring in and I didn't know this coming into that

like that's another piece of the puzzle as it be is it not and yet I'm curious what Taylor got I got appreciate the offer but this is a personal matter and out of privacy for all those involved Lakeland College will not be providing or talking about details around this. Did you get a similar thing? Basically a blanket statement but I made a couple other phone calls one being to

to the risk and something coordinator. I wish I could think of that actual job title, but out of her million, very, very nice woman, but she basically, because I was gonna go through the freedom of information and FOIP the college, but since it's a third party investigation

or an outsourced investigation, she basically told me you can spend the, I think it's about 200 bucks for this one. You can spend the money, you can go through the process, but there's a really good chance you're gonna get nothing. So as far as investigating the investigation, I'm kind of at a lot of, loss because we're working off rumors right now because I feel that it was done in a way so that

the information will never come out. You know what I mean? Yeah, and maybe that was deliberate or maybe you know, I want to assume the best. I would I would hope that an institution, a government institution would want to do things the right way and that they hired somebody to have an impartial view. That's probably what they're telling people. I would hope that's right. I mean, worst case scenario is they did this with intent that they would never it would not be discoverable and and that's disappointing and so in my letter to the college yesterday and you guys seem to have got replies i never got replies i only got reply from one board member today by once i texted them directly and um and he he replied right away he didn't give me any information but i i'm hoping that

the dialogue will open i asked for an investigation or like a board meeting to be held an emergency board meeting. Like I think something has to be done pretty quick here. Like these girls have now all left. Most of them have left. We're probably one of the closest. Uh, we're only an hour away. These girls have left. They're going home and some of them are contemplating not coming back. Because I mean that that's as an athlete might more former athlete I guess I'm a little, uh, it's been a couple years folks. But like hearing that that's that's tough to hear right because like you think a boat, and I mean, you have a daughter, so you could probably give us a little bit of insight into it, but like the destruction that has been done to athletes' lives in their mental state

or like just like having to deal with something that's kind of out of the blue. And when you, when you walk around town, all I hear is the praise is a Chris King. I had like, it is, it is a bit shocking. I wouldn't give him the greatest coach of Lloyd. And I chuckled when I said that on the thing. I don't know if he's greatest coach. But you know, the more sports guys I talk to, they're like, I don't know, he's, like the amount of accolades he's done for Lloyd has been pretty incredible. And being at basketball of all sports, no offense to basketball players, just like, it's a hockey town, right? I mean, Canada's a hockey country, I guess. It's been pretty wild that way. I don't know, like, maybe you could give just a bit of an insight into, I don't know,

being a parent of a daughter going through this. And maybe, yeah, I assume you've talked to a few the other parents as well and just to share just a piece of that if you wouldn't mind. Yeah. I'm almost getting choked up thinking about it because, you know, prior to my daughter having surgery yesterday for her second ACL tear of the same one, we knew that because over the holidays, they were supposed to go to Montana to play exhibition games. And last year we went.

We were fans. Like we went, we drove down there separately and we had plans to go to Montana again. Um, and, but, but knowing that she wasn't going to be able to go because she had her, her surgery, we thought, okay, let's do one fun thing before the holidays, before she's laid up in the house for, for weeks on end. So we went to Toronto last week or almost two weeks ago now, uh, to watch some NBA games. We'll watch some Raptor games. And we are just going up the elevator in the, the Airbnb hotel, and her phone is ringing.

And they're having a team meeting. to find out that Chris is terminated. So we're just literally walking into the Airbnb kind of putting our suitcases down and my daughter is over there and the tears are starting to flow. And we're like, what's going on? And then we figure out within a few minutes

that they're being told Chris has been terminated, let go. And they're in shock. So the team's together and my daughter is in Toronto. It's heartbreaking to see your daughter go through that because they're so invested. Like I know some people think it's just it's just basketball. Come on. But these girls at this level are so invested. They give so much. They invest so much time. A to eight of their academics. So the girls and depending on their course load, they are spending a lot of time from an academic perspective. Then they're out doing the training and the the practices

and the strength training and, you know, the team meetings and watching film when it's game times. You know, they watch film for days, the days prior. Like, it's all consuming. And it's at such a high level where they want to succeed and perform and they want to do good for their coaches and for themselves and for each other. It's just heartbreaking to see something go like this. Like, you know, my daughter was in shock. I can only imagine. and the rest of the girls were just speechless.

Like, now what, right? And the school still can't tell them the now what. You know, I think you've already heard some of the tidbits of when he was suspended. They were just going to send him to Cairnport. Go play. Get on the bus. And we'll maybe tell you on the way. And maybe I've got some of my facts mixed up.

But they were basically being told, get on the bus. And, you know, all the. coaches were supposed to meet them there in the first place and so they would have showed up without coaches and then and then have some other third party coach fill in for them the communication I think is what's been really lacking here lack of communication or no communication or very tight-lipped communication it's been it's been abysmal and disappointing I guess and it doesn't help the girls mental state it doesn't help their anxiety going into it just finished exams you know some of

were telling them, you know, don't worry, you can probably defer your exams. You can write them later. And then a few of them were told by their profs or their, you know, their teachers. You know, you should probably just write it anyways. Get it over with. And they're like, well, hold on. Like, I was told I didn't have to write it. Now you're telling me I do with no notice and I didn't study as much as I would have. Like, that's a big deal to now have all of this stress and then go into being told, yeah, you know what, you're just, you should just write it anyways. Like, suck it up. Not all of them, but I think some of the, depending on the class, that's what some of them were told. And I'm like, that's, that's disgraceful that you're going to, as an organization,

tell them one thing. And maybe it's, again, like I said in my letter, maybe I'm, if I assume the best, it's disorganized communication between the, the, the parties of the college. But at worst, it's, it's kind cruel and heartless. You know, Pam, being an alumni and hearing, you know, and watching this all gone, being a sponsor of the team, I don't know, I just. My heart goes out to the girls first because it doesn't sound like they've had resources within the college step up to hold them and to give them the support that they needed. And that has been a major concern of mine, whether or not they play without Chris or don't come

back, like, know that those of us in the stands, we still love and support you. And I think that's a big reason what actually got me in this seat is more than all the rest of it. I just want them to know that they don't know me. I'm just a face in the stands, but we all are standing behind you in ways that we just don't know how we can help more. But as an alumni, I am so disgusted with what the college did. To me, this isn't the integrity that that institution is known for. We were building this reputation across not just being an agricultural school, like has been the stereotype for so many years. We've done all these different things at our different campuses.

And to hear that the third-party investigation seems to be very targeted, it was very misleading, maybe in the questioning, that causes me to question the integrity of that investigation. And so I would challenge the college to maybe have another investigation done because maybe the first one, maybe the college had nothing to do with the way that the questioning went. Maybe it's a little skewed as to how the feelings were in big, right? But even the passage of time between when the incident happened, they've went through all these other games, there's months, there's weeks that have gone by. And then all of a sudden we went from, you know, he's being suspended or, you know, on leave for right now.

Even that would throw the team into disarray because that's a big family. And where I actually knew that something was going wrong, I did. didn't even know he'd been, anything had happened with the team. But I showed up for wrestlers youth basketball, and those girls all looked absolutely like so sad. And I couldn't have told you why, because this was our last practice before Christmas. Like, the kids are all out there. They're excited to be there, but the energy was just not what we're used to.

And I was curious then kind of what had happened, but you're not going to ask these young ladies. Maybe it was late night. I have no idea what is playing into that. and then to find out that he's gone. Like I just, I don't understand. So if I'm this confused as somebody in the community in the stands, I cannot imagine what the athletes,

what their assistant coaches are doing and feeling, right? But I really feel like the college needs to step up and take a bit more action as far as being accountable with why, with reading those points as an employer. There's no way that that's a grounds for an immediate dismissal on my staff member. I'd have to justifiably go through mitigation purposes of whether or not it's different types of counseling, but courses, right? Or if we need better medical training for our staff, like, or maybe we need to have something implemented that if we're worried about people

to that extent, maybe we have an EMT that's right on, like, I don't know what it is. But this is not the end that I would see with that. And so, like I say, coming at it for many hats, I just, I can't see any path that leads me to the one that we're currently on. And yeah, it's just, I don't know. I think they had their minds made up pretty quickly because the suspension took place on the 28th, correct, of November. And my story first came out on the 5th of December, the Thursday. I actually called to college and I spoke with Alan Rogan and told them, hey, this is what I'm doing. I'm running this story on Thursday. I didn't tell them it was going to be on the front page, but I was asked to hold it. And my response was a quick note.

And it just kind of made me think because the paper came out on the fifth with the story on the front page Chris is fired on the sixth the Friday the next day the morning of right so like they had their minds made up very quickly on this and you know as far as that investigation goes I don't know what to say but it just there's so many unanswered questions and I hate going off of rumors but you know talking about the player in question I've heard more rumors about her and her lack of interest in playing sports and she was kind of pushed to play and stuff like that right so and we don't know yeah don't know. And that's the thing with speculation, there's a lot of speculation. I'm glad, you know, people are stepping up to speak out, you know, in so many various formats and taking that on

because there's so much speculation that we can only assume is happening in regards to Chris's character. Why would a coach be let go of a girls team? You know, like people automatically jump to here thinking the worst. I can, I can speak. very personally here because it's your article that sets me off on Friday on the mashup the show we do here on Fridays and normally my co-host does an

opening rant and I ranted because I'd read it and the things that have been sent to me were pretty unnerving you know like people I know that have kids in the youth basketball that were nervous to send their kids because they're like what you know in their mind what did he do in their mind

in immediate dismissal and suspension yeah they go to he was inappropriate around a girl. Yep. Like, I mean, like, and I had messages about that, like, fast. And like, like, and I'm like, well, I know. I actually have had conversations with Chris on this, like years ago being like, man, it must be tough to coach girls.

Because, you know, like the optics on it are completely different than, you know, going in a closed door meeting with another guy, right? And he and me talked about that for quite some time. And he was very open about how they. have to handle it and how they have to be, you know, thinking a couple steps ahead when it came to that. So I knew right away, I'm like, that isn't what happened because I, I've already had so many conversations with them about this.

But that was the public's reaction. Immediate dismissal, girls, basketball, sexual relations. Like, I mean, like, immediate. Yeah. And it was so vague. Yes. Like, no matter what comes up this, it's in my mind, so important to reestablish his credibility and professionalism and integrity because none of that in that letter that you read off

is anywhere near that and that's the thing like the the general public in the community and from my understanding basketball is a pretty small community in in college sports um and and he has acted with the utmost integrity intensity yes but integrity 100% like when you're talking about appropriateness like you know I've never seen him be inappropriate he he always waits outside the locker room there for a set amount of time until it's ready for and he's allowed to go in and the girls know all of that like it's he I've never heard anything from my daughter in the two years that she's been there where he's been inappropriate he is such an upstanding guy like and compassionate too like when my daughter blew her ACL he is he's carrying compassionate and

Hey, you know what? Like, just don't worry about it. We're going to be there for you. And he was. Like he never once made her feel like you're going to be just, you know, you're not part of the team anymore. You don't have a chance. Like she was still part of the team still there.

And he cared for her. And the compassion that he shows and, and, but you were touching on before though. I want to, I want to go back to that a little bit, if you don't mind about the kids in the community, younger kids in club and the camps that they put on. literally hundreds and hundreds of kids that these ladies impact.

They impact so many kids in this community. But they do such a good job. I don't know. I got young kids. So feel free to be like, oh, yeah, it's the same when they get older. But you search for good programs where they're going to be impacted in a positive light, in a positive way. And like, what he's built, you can just see it as apparently.

Like, man, this is well-ran. Like, this is so cool to have. We're going to, you know, my kids play hockey. We still put them in basketball camp because I'm like, that's how good it is. It's fantastic. Those girls go out and they ref different tournaments. It's not just contained within what has the wrestler's banner on it. And I, you know, those girls are everywhere.

And I know this was my son's first year and it was pretty exciting because he got his, you know, jersey for, for his camp day and Stephanie's starting to get to know the names. And so the first home game after those classes would start, he's proudly walking in there with his jersey. And he's yelling for all the girls by their first names. And he's so excited to be there. and they fostered such a community and love around, I know it centers around the sport, but like to watch those kids running, go in the line for all the high fives and everything. Like it just, there is so much more to this than just the winning or losing of the basketball games. It's the culture, honestly, that he's cultivated.

And I don't think that we would be attracting anywhere near the type of athletes that we have, the faith that we've gotten, the fans, like the fans are, like we're packing the stadium weekly, regardless of the weather, kind of a thing. and it's all centered around one man's dream for what could happen at our college, and our college shafted him is how it feels. If you're listening to this from the other side of Canada, I just think of the barren tundra of Lloyd Minster, okay? They joke we're two hours east of edge of the world, okay?

And if there was going to be any sport here to be successful and do something like this, basketball would not be on the top of the list. Well, and when you think of the international athletes, Like it's one thing to be attracting athletes from Edmonton or Saskatoon like a couple hour, three hour radius. But we've got players from Australia. We have them from the southern states. We've got them from all over. And they want to come here because of the quality of the program.

Because the girls on the team talk so highly of what this culture is, that they attract other ones. And they just keep wanting to be the best versions of themselves on the court, off the court in the community. Like I, yeah, like I say, it's just, it's just. It's dumbfounding that this was the end result, that there wasn't more support from the college. Because when you think of all the accolades that Chris has amounted in the 17 years that he's been there, I'm sorry, but he deserved better than what I feel the college has given him. And just to add to that even listening to the interviews with the athletes that you had on, all three of them said, and I think Susan's from Edmonton area, like she's two and a half hours west of us.

She had no idea who the Lakeland College wrestlers were. She had no idea who, where Lloyd Minster was. Hidden, hidden gym. 100%. And she's that close, right? So just the, yeah, the impact he's had on the community, the school. And yeah, the caliber of players he's brought who want to come play for him, the money that's come in from those games. Like, yeah, they fill that gym every weekend.

And it blows me. And even nationals last year. Like, that was a spectacle to see. Like. Yeah, it was exhilarating. It was. You could, you can even hear in that gym. And it's put the program on, you know, it's escalated their level of notoriety and credibility now.

winning nationals, winning CCCAA. But that doesn't seem to matter to the senior executives or this third party investigator. Like it doesn't seem to matter that. I always go back to, I said it in the first one, I think, right? Just because your winner doesn't put you above the law and everything else. So that's, you know, I still stand by that, right? If Lakeland came out tomorrow and, you know, and new facts came to light, I think we'd all be like, oh, well, why wasn't that talked about?

But the long as this goes on. And the fact they won't say anything, and now my number of people that I've talked to that have been in that gym and are all saying similar things to what went on, you're like, I don't know, the mounting evidence is getting, I mean, almost insurmountable.

It's to the point where I'm like, I don't get what's going on right now, other than it is coming up to Christmas time. And even myself, I'm like, am I going to record something before Christmas? I just want to go enjoy Christmas. But don't you think that's why they maybe did it when they did it? So that we couldn't be paying attention.

Honestly, their biggest mistake, if there was a big mistake, was making them forfeit two games. They should have wanted, if, you know, if it was a nefarious, if you go nefarious, you let them go win the two games, they come back, you do it. Now there's no two losses. You don't pick up on it. I don't pick up on your article. And you scoot into, and pretty soon he's just gone. You're like, what the heck happened? We'd all have assumed he'd gotten a better job is probably in the stands.

We would have assumed that Chris had went on to a bigger school, a bigger team, a different, level of basketball, we would not have assumed that he would have lost his position. That's what would have happened in the stands. We'd all been questioning it, but you'd have went in there and not assumed that the college had fired him. Like that's, it just none of this aligns. You know, since I first, um, um, did my first one in between here and there, there was a petition link sent out, uh, to, to, like basically, uh, I forget, is the petition to have them read, I should pull it up. I think it's more for fair treatment. Fair treatment, right?

Yeah, and it's over 2,500. 2569. And as we sit here, by the time we record, by the time this releases, I'm sure there'll be a few more. I'll put the petition link in the show notes so people, if they want to go sign it, they can. But I laugh at that number 2569 because I'm like, that's like more people than we got out to vote. Right? Like, I mean, Lloyd is not a petition town. We don't sign things.

And I'm like, you know, that's almost 10% of the population. I think someone pointed out today it's the student population of Lakeland College roughly. Yeah. About 2,500, yeah. Yeah. One other thing I want to bring up is the fact that, and I know when a person's terminated, they're not supposed to go back on campus and everything, but it's come through different channels that he's not allowed on campus.

They had a memo go out saying like if they basically, if he shows up. And once again, I got to preface this with Lloyd's different than a giant. university campus in the middle of a giant city. So like right now in Lloyd, we have Christmas concerts and stuff going on. Chris has kids at a, you know, three young kids. So Christmas concerts can happen at the Vic Juba. Yeah, across the hallway. In that school.

And he's not, like, it's just, this has been, there's been no thought put into a whole bunch of this. And the fact that he can't go back into the school probably sounds reasonable to some people in different parts of the world because that's probably how it would normally get handled but here in lloyd it seems what it doesn't fit yeah all or what if his kids want to be in rustler's basketball program going forward like well there's all sorts of events that they do at the college he's not so supposed to support all these other you know non-profit events happen there all the time they're there a venue that's very prominent in the in the community so he's just not allowed to now

go to that whole section of things it doesn't you know but i think that's where you're the Post-it note effort that the girls did. Like I, my brother has a son that was having his Christmas concert there and he's like, have you seen this? And he's sending me pictures and he's like, they're everywhere. And yeah, like it gives you kind of goosebumps with what's going on and the effort that these girls are trying because they're again at the time. I'm not sure if they were supposed to talk to them or not to talk to him.

But you've cut this very influential person out of these girls' lives and they weren't weren't being given the supports to, and I don't know. Like, like, I think it was Andrea had said he's like a father figure to me here. I have nobody else but him. And now I'm not supposed to talk to him. He's the one they would call. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Forgive me for pulling your business into it. Um, I don't want to get too deep into it, but just like assume nothing changes. Like, from a business standpoint, is it just like, I don't know how to support women's basketball or athletics. Yeah. I'd love to support the athletes. I'm not, I don't want to support the administration.

It's not the coaching. It's nothing to do with that. But the whole reason my banner's in that gym is because we were headed to nationals and I got approached that they're like, we need some more sponsors for this. And I was like, Chris has the chance to win this in our home gym. Like when the lights were going off and we're green and gold and, you know, Cody's doing his thing on the lighting. And we've got the music and Kim's got the videos. Like, it's magic.

And I was so excited to support that. And honestly, my stomach has kind of dropped out of that. And it's like, I'm not as proud as my banner as I was before. And I don't want to pull it down because I still believe in the girls and the other teams that are in there. It's not just there for the one team, but it was, it came about because of their run for nationals. And yeah, like it just, I just don't, it hurts. Because, yeah, it's not even the rest of the college. It's just I don't understand where administration of sport doesn't understand how actual competitive sport maybe actually operates on a player to coach to coach to player kind of atmosphere and the player to player.

Like the way that this was all handled, the lack of communication, you know, it just makes me feel like these people have never been on a team. Now, I never made it to this level of team, but I still have such strong connections to the girls that I played competitive high school ball with. that those bonds have never broken. Like if they need anything, you're still there for them. And I'd imagine that's even stronger at this level. What's rare about playing college sports, from what I've heard from multiple the girls and multiple actually the parents as well,

is normally you get somebody who builds you up as a human being, but maybe the on court suffers a bit, right? Or you get somebody who's really championship driven, but they lose some of the human building up, right? to get both is very rare. In my entire life, I've had some great coaches, but like one exemplified those two things. And what you hear about Chris,

and Chris, you can certainly probably talk to this, is he did both. That's very rare, where you're so involved, all the community stuff we're talking about, and then be a championship caliber team to where people, now I've heard stories of girls not getting to play in nationals because of, you know, I have no idea if it's talent or injury or all the above.

And them being so bought into what they're doing and how they're a part of the team, they never felt like they were sitting on the bench type mentality. I'm like, that's rare. That is like that is very rare. That's like, that's something special. That doesn't happen in sports a whole awe, a whole lot. Like, that's what the best coaches can bring. They make you better human beings.

And you win. Like. Yeah, exactly. And I think to your point, and your question about community support and that's the thing, like it's such a dichotomy of, of what do you do? Because people in the community want to support Chris and send a message.

But yet, you know, they also, I think, want to send support for the girls themselves too, right? It's like, this has affected so many things. And that was my little thing, right? Like, you know,

a little thing can, have such a ripple effect on so many people. Like the college probably just thinks, okay, we're going to get rid of one person, you know, and then this is all going to go away over the Christmas break and it's going to be quiet and then we'll move on. I don't think they intend, you know, the unintended consequence that they didn't factor into this is the community support around Chris and the, and the, the ripple effect that it's had, it had an immediate effect on Marissa and Tori to say like, what?

You know, like, we're out until we figure. what's going on here. And then and the girls right away are standing behind Chris. And it's just like right from when they were, when he was suspended, we're like, yeah, I guess we're going to forfeit. We're going to give up our undefeated winning streak again this year.

They went undefeated last year. They were on a winning streak already again this year, undefeated. And they're like, yeah, you know what? 34 games straight. Yeah. And they were willing to walk away. You know, from the undefeated streak,

not having any clue it was going to go this direction. They just thought, oh, they're going to have to, they're going to have to, they're going to have to give two losses. They can probably, you know, pull back. It's not going to affect the rest of the season.

The effect that this has had on the community and the support, it's, they didn't factor into this. And, you know, I hope they, I hope they wake up and see this. Like, I'm. If you go the most positive way, Chris gets reinstated. Can you imagine how pack that gym would be on game one? You got to show up early. Bring your drums.

Yeah. And why not, though? Like now that everybody knows what the real reasons are and the fact that this does not meet just cause criteria, there's no progressive discipline, there's nothing there that would put egg on their face other than maybe the threat of litigation that they're being threatened by this other player to make this go away. They're just going to come to their predetermined assumptions and make this happen. But now that this is out, I hope the board members, like I've reached out to, I think all of them today, not all of them responded. The college is silent. They won't respond to me. I left a message yesterday saying I'd like to meet with Alice.

I'd like to meet with Kent. The board members, like we, the only, the only chance I think that is going to force the college to do something that is doing the right thing. I even said in my letter yesterday, you know what, just say, you know, we, I don't know, we, I, After further investigation, we've come to, you know, other facts have come to light and we've, we've changed our mind, right? They could have walked back on that and probably had very little egg on their face. But, you know, the board members have to hold them accountable. The provincial governments, both sides, because they get funding from both Saskatchewan and Alberta, the governments have to hold them accountable. Maybe, you know, maybe, I don't know if there's much

more to come out now. I'd like to know who the third party investigator is. Like, why did you pick this person. The other question I had to the senior leadership and the board was, what medical professional did you bring in as part of your investigation to either corroborate or eliminate the story on either side of this party? Because something is not adding up here. And if you're basing your opinions based off what you're being told and then what you're being after the investigation, what the coaches and a couple of the players, have told them and what all the other players would probably tell them if they actually went and talked to them, the ones that were in the gym, what medical professional did you use to look at that

information then say, was that an appropriate response or a not appropriate response? Because I don't think these individuals have that medical background. That's my assumption. But maybe the third party has that. But who is this? And what gives them that determination to come to, and to, and jump to that conclusion. I suspect that the third party investigators did their investigation, handed across the table their findings and the senior leaders, whether Alan is involved in that decision or not, or if it's just the president and one of the VPs, to say that, you know what, this meets just cause criteria. That's garbage. So someone needs to investigate the investigators and hold them accountable. That's what we're trying to do.

I was flippantly joking in the past. Like, if we, if we investigate you the way that you investigated Chris, you should resign immediately because that you want to die by the same sword that you've caused on other people or, like, subjected other people to, you have to. Well, the, I'm sure they're hoping Chris, break comes, it dies away, people are upset, and things just move on. But like, looking at, looking at a building a program, like any, any sporting where you, where you build it up,

or you could probably say any institution, any business, like, it takes time. In Chris's case, 17 years. And, like, overnight, they put it back to the Stone Angels, right? Like, I just don't see how women's basketball in this town recovers from this anytime soon. What coach walks into that gym and feels comfortable in it? Honest question. But even the current coaches that are there for the other sports. Like do you feel as secure and as part of the Lakeland family as you did before all this happened? Because I would question that because yeah, or even athletes, are, am I going to trust that that program is going to uphold the same integrity that it once had or, and I'm not meaning just on the court, but if you don't feel and trust in that institution, you aren't going

to pick somewhere different to go. And I think that would go for coaching and athletes alike. Yeah. Who's going to want to take this position? Well, that's what I'm thinking for a month. And then be looking over your back all the time thinking, did I say something inappropriate that's going to get me fired? Did I, did they run too many last? Like, was I only supposed to make them run 10 laps or did I do 11? And the players set that. That's the thing that, you know, like, it's still, it's still hard for me to wrap my head around is that the players set the consequences and the accountability.

And, you know, they're going to fire all the, all the players. Like, it's just, it's mind-boggling to think that they can run in a direction like this and expect no one to be paying attention. Pay attention, look under the microscope at this and ask some questions. And I hope our board members have the integrity to guide that institution the way it needs to be and go, you know what, we're hearing some things that maybe we didn't know about. I hope maybe they didn't even know about this, right? And they're finding all of this out after the fact that they went and did a termination of an

employee, but I think the board has to look at this and go, did they act justly? Did they do it with just cause? What was their motivation? Did he deserve this? Was this dismissal with just cause? And I think the only reasonable conclusion would be no. And then the question is now what? Right?

Are they going to walk back, give up their pride, eat some crow and say, we made a mistake, and take him back. and hopefully he'll come back. A week ago, I think he was telling the girls, you know what, if they take me back, I'm back. I'm here for you, girls. I want to do this. But after being treated like this, I don't know.

Like, I hope he does. Chris, if they offer you the job back, please come back. You know, it's not just our current girls of this team. And hopefully they haven't walked away and made up their minds and got a one-way ticket to wherever they were going over the Christmas season. but if they if they take you back come back we want you back the community wants you back and I just hope the leaders of Lakeland the board see that and if they don't I hope there's other people that are going to help them see that

and if we have to do FOIP requests to kind of try and dig out the truth even though it's hard I know that's hard I have some background in the FOIP request world and they can hide behind all sorts of legislation. But the Ombudsman can be the differentiator factor in that of deciding what is releasable and what's not. And maybe we have to go further. But at that point, you know, the girls have to make a decision for, or some of the girls have to make a decision.

Are they going to come back for a second semester? Or are they done? And they have to move on and do other things and walk away. And then there's no team. my hope is people inside that institution are hearing this and they're thinking about it and they're having conversations because even when you do a foype I'd go like how many days is that going to take oh it'll take a long time long time and and and so you go like this drags on longer and longer and longer the longer drags on I think the the possibility of Chris going back goes to

well I don't know this is me speculating here I haven't had a conversation with Chris about this. I just think of my own mind and I go, the longer goes on, the chance of him ever going back is like zero. Isn't it? Yeah. For sure. And so the only thing they can do over the Christmas break is, you know, they haven't announced a new head coach as far as I know, right? I don't think they've

made any, because like, I mean, at some point they got to do that too. They've been trying. I know like they, so there was maybe some more misinformation out there. Sure. And it might have actually come from an email right from Alan, the initial email saying he's no longer the coach we're searching for options. I think

he might have said the job was offered to Marissa, but she turned it down. Well, I found out that she actually never even replied to the email. Never replied to the email. Tory resigned. So, like, if they don't bring him back mid-January for that first game back, like, what does that look like? I know the girls you've talked with, they're pretty, pretty emotional about the possibility of returning. But yeah, like, coaches-wise, I mean, the two coaches they've had for years have no interest. You're defending national champion. You have no coach right now. Yep.

So they have to make, they have to do, the college has to do something here in very short order. And if they don't walk it back, that means they're going forward with, we're not going to talk to anyone. We're going to try and bury this. And we're going to hire a new coach and we're going to see what happens.

And if they take that line of work or that line of thinking, I guess, I mean, it only going to infuriate the residents of Lloyd Minster in Lakeland College and everything else more. Well, as an alum, I would have more respect for them if they walked it back a little bit, even if they don't hire them back and said, hey, we're going to look at this again with a different scope, a different, but maybe we were too rash. Like, you know, as a parent, you have hard conversations that you are forced to parent in different ways. And they have the

opportunity, although it's going to be uncomfortable, to lead in a different way and be like, hey, we actually maybe weren't 100% on this or maybe we needed to go about it in a different way. but, you know, if they choose to just try and bury it, like, it's worse. Yeah, it just, it doesn't feel, like, it just certainly doesn't feel like the campus that I went to, where we were encouraged to question and to stand with integrity and to walk with faith and to be a part of something bigger. Like, it feels like you're trying to hide something, which is not something that Lakeland has ever stood for that I was aware of as an alumni. It does feel like that, 100%.

And real quick, sorry, just you're talking about staff in the school, or you mentioned, something about how the college might be feeling about it. And I went in with my camera to take pictures of the post-it notes for the second article I did. And I was a little bit apprehensive walking around the school with my big camera and getting close to these post-it notes. But I was shooting pictures right outside the student services office right in the front. And three of the ladies working behind the desk there were all kind of watching me. And I was thinking to myself, oh, I hope they aren't judging or whatever. You know, what's he doing here with the camera?

All three of them at the same time, thumbs up. so they like they knew why I was there what I was doing and we I went up and chatted with them and they knew exactly who I was and why I was there and you know keep going keep going well I was wondering about that because I'm like I wonder if I'm welcome in that place right now you know because I mean like I have the similar I have similar thoughts to you Taylor oh yeah like you know I've been going to games for 10 years every weekend doesn't matter the sport I'm always there hockey basketball volleyball soccer like yeah I mean we've always had a great relationship with the college. And I mean, I was quite blindsided by this just because it was

out of the blue. And I'd with the the suspensions too, right? I also found out that they tried to, it was Rogan who tried to hold the suspension so that they could go play that weekend and not ruin the record. I just wanted to put that out there. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I guess he did try to hold that suspension until Monday, not the, because it was Thursday. It was Thursday that, yeah, they said, an hour before the bus was supposed to leave. And you mentioned this earlier, Chris. Yeah, even just listening to Sarah talk about that, like, and another source. But just how do you expect these student athletes to go buy, like, just go play basketball.

No coaches. Don't worry about it. We'll explain it all later. But yeah, just go down to Medicine Hat and we'll figure it out later. Go to hotel, like, you know, we'll figure it out. It just didn't sit well. I just can't imagine the shock they'd get when they got there. They weren't told ahead of time.

They get on the bus. They get all the way to Med Hat or Briarer. cast whichever game was first and then and then get off and then find out i got no coach yeah and what do you mean chris isn't here like what do you mean he suspended like what a what a way to find out if that's the way they were going to do it like well and i made a lot of phone calls that monday on the 29th there and i even called medicine hat and talked to their athletic director and it ended up getting back to lakeland that there was a reporter snooping around uh medicine hats athletic director but like everybody was in the dark.

I called the ACAC, the CCAA. Yeah, the Metisnaut-Radler. Nobody knew what was going on. So. And in that meeting when the girls met with the two senior executives there, the VP and the president, one of them actually did kind of sheepishly admit that maybe this didn't go the way they had hoped.

And but then a couple of the girls caught on to that and then said, yeah, but what? And they said it's too late. Like it's too far gone. Yeah. Really? Like that was, that was a week ago. You could have easily walked back on this and said, and eat some crow.

I know it's going to be hard. It's going to look bad. But it's not going to look any worse than what they're putting their organization through right now. Yeah. And the community. Well, we'd be done talking about this. Yeah.

Like, and I just hope, I hope they stand behind their other policies, the freedom of them expression. I put that out on, you know, making sure that, you know, these kids are not going to be retaliation. have retaliation against them because for speaking, that's what I thought of when I seen the Post-it notes. Yeah.

I'm thinking, oh, man, here they're going to get in trouble for this now. Like, what are they, how are they going to spin the fact that they put some sticky notes up on a wall? Yeah. And freedom of expression,

their own policy talks about freedom of expression and how it's protected. So I hope they, I hope they live by their own values that they say that they're living by. Um, but it's a documented policy. I encourage people, go find it. Look,

look up the freedom of expression. And I hope for the people that are that are still there, the other coaches, the, the teacher, the staff, the other athletes, I hope, I hope they, they recognize the fact that they, they can have a voice to, not just these particular athletes, not these particular parents or these particular sponsors or whoever in the community. Like, it's so much bigger than that because if they're going to do that to Chris, who else is protected? in the letter that I read off of my one post there, you know, like who's next?

The men's basketball coaches, the soccer coaches, the hockey coaches, who feels safe in this environment that you guys have created? And then all of those athletes thinking, am I next if my coach gets treated like this? Well, somebody said to me at the gym, apparently you can get fired for coaching now. He's doing his job. As far as I'm concerned, he was doing his job. So yeah, it's it's they've destroyed the the culture and it's going to take a lot of work to get this back. You know, my daughter kind of flippantly joked as I was walking out the door.

You're going to wear that shirt. I'm like, you know what? Yeah, I'm still proud of you. I'm still proud of your teammates, the other girls. Like I said before, I used to bang that drum, one of the loudest. You know, I started with a little aluminum pan. I wrecked it. Went to a bigger pan, wrecked that one.

Started going to drums and I started getting other people involved. Like I beat that drum and cheered. one of the loudest other than the one, if you watch the men's games, you'll know who. She's way louder than me. But I am proud of these girls. I still am. And girls, you know, no matter what happens, I'm proud of you girls. I'm proud of the stand that you took.

I know this hurts. But, you know, there's so many people that are proud of you, proud of the work that you've put in, proud of the coaches that have done so much with these girls. Not just these current girls, but all of the, of the alumni that have been speaking up and that are just shocked. I'm still proud of them. So not necessarily proud of the organization that this stands behind, but I'm proud of the work that they put in on that gym, the work that they put in in the classroom and who they they've become as women. And I just hope that they see the support that's happening and that,

you know, we're not going to give up. Like it's been two weeks now, three weeks. People aren't giving up. And I think we just need, if they're not going to do this on their own, then we have to go above. And, you know, the board members, I want to have direct conversation with them. I want to have a meeting. I think an actual board meeting needs to be called. The public, it needs to be open to the public to ask questions.

That's what transparency is all about in a government-led organization. with government funding. And MLAs need to be contacted, the ministers of education on both provinces. And I think the Ombudsman has the authority to look at what has happened from a fair and reasonableness in an organization that has government funds in it. And so maybe when this comes out on your platforms,

we all put that in the comments of what I know and who to contact at the time. Take a couple minutes and reach out to those people because that's really, I think, at this point, is only those types of level of people are going to affect change because obviously I don't think that they're going to do this on their own. Unfortunately, I wish they would have the character and the integrity to do this and admit when you're wrong. I think it has to be fear of litigation. But you know what?

You've got unintended consequences on the other end of this. And, you know, Any final thoughts, folks? I'd like to see him reinstated, but I, truthfully, I don't think it'll happen. I really would. I want nothing more than that right now, just because, yeah, as I said in an article this week or last week, I don't like seeing what's happening to him. I don't think anybody in the room here does.

And, I mean, if you've known him for more than a few minutes, even, yeah, even Andrea said it too. Like, you know, she's been playing ball since the third grade. She knows a bad coach from a good coach by now. Like, she's never looked twice at him. as far as any, you know, sexual interference or whatever that may be, like, that's off the table as far as I'm concerned. But I think, I think you're right, Chris, with the threat of litigation, I really do think that's the case. And it kind of sounds like a rock and a hard place, you know, they made up their mind and maybe they are backpedaling, but it's, you know, takes a big person to admit they're wrong.

So we'll see. I mean, it's, it's unfortunately in their hands, right? To a degree. To a degree. We can do some pushback for sure. But, yeah, it's just, it's honestly, though, it's been incredible. to see the support coming through. Like, yeah, the rustlers basketball, I even put this in the paper.

Like, to me, there is no wrestler's basketball without Chris King. There isn't. So, yeah, I don't like it. Pam? It's a huge loss for our community should Chris leave. I hope that Marissa and Tori find their way back to our city because our community is better for it because they are here. And I hope that the current team, past teams, they all feel the love from, like I say, I'm here to represent the stands, the alumni and sponsors.

A lot of us are standing with you and not necessarily with the institution. And it, yeah, if you had a time machine, right, you'd whip her back and maybe try and pull some influential strings, maybe call that Emily faster. But I don't think any of us thought that this was going this way and in such a short amount of time. So yeah, just, yeah, know that we're with you. Yeah. The community, I think, is what's going to suffer. You know, I think Chris is such an amazing coach. He's got such high level of IQ and he's such a good person to foster and mentor athletes. I think he's going to get, if he hasn't already, got lots of offers. And I think as this all materializes and comes out, that his

character and integrity is still intact. I think that's huge. But he's so established in this community. Like he's got other aspects of his business here. He's got the club stuff. He's so, his wife, his kids, the impact that he has in this community is hard to put a number on. But yeah, I hope he comes back. And I hope if they offer it to him that he'll take it back.

And when the day comes, he can leave. on his own terms when the timing is right. But in my opinion, the timing is not now. It wasn't now. And they need to do better. Do better. There's also people out there saying, I hope somebody else picks him up

and he comes and beats Lakeland every weekend, right? There's also that possibility. If Chris King is listening. Funny little story that has nothing to do with any of this. than I was coaching U7 hockey before I came in here. And my first year I ever coached U7 hockey. My assistant coach was Chris King. And I was coaching his daughter,

and he taught me this basketball game that I just did tonight with a bunch of hockey people that have never, you know, they were like, what are we going to do? And it's wolves and sheep. And shout out to Chris for teaching me that, because I continue to bring it back to U7 hockey every year. And kids get a hoot out of it, coaches, the adults get a hoot out of it

because I've never seen it done on ice before, and that's definitely out of his mind. So thanks again for hopping in the studio, U3. And by the time this airs, you know, we'll be almost at Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Hopefully we get some news here, you know, before the new year. But I think we'd any, all of us would take any sort of news

at any time here in the coming weeks. And I just appreciate you all coming in and answering my call, especially, you know, as we record this, It's kind of a miserable night out there to come in and do it. Thanks again for, you know, entering the studio. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.