Alexander Olivé:	My name is Alex Olivé. And along with James Walljasper, we are yourhosts for today's episode. This is Narrating Salt Lake Utah. 

James Walljasper: 	This episode is brought to you by the gender studies program at Westminster College.

James Walljasper:	Hi, for today's podcast we’ll be talking about the Westminster women's basketball team. Before we dive in deep about the team, we must first discuss the history of the women's basketball team and the conference they plan. They are currently playing in the RMAC conference, which stands for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. And that is a premier NCAA division two conference located in the states of Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah. The RMAC currently competes in 22 NCAA division two sports and has earned 52 NCAA division two national championships and 44 national runner-ups since 1992.

			Founded in 1909, the RMAC has the most historic athletic conference headquartered in the Western United States, and also division two. With this being said, Westminster College hasn't always competed in the RMAC. From 1967 to 1979 Westminster college was a member of the RMAC. However, during this time the Westminster women's basketball team had been inactive since 1963. In 1999, the Griffins saw a return of the women's basketball team and they were put into the NAIA and frontier conference.

			Now the next question becomes, what is the NAIA? The NAIA is the National basketball Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and that is a college athletics association for small universities and colleges in the United States. 

			In comparison to the NAIA, is another college athletics association called the NCAA, which stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association.The NCAA has three divisions, but the division two is the most comparable to NAIA. Being a collegiate athlete myself, the comparison between the NAIA to the NCAA division two is close, but typically the NCAA division two has better competition. And with that being said, many times teams will want to switch from NAIA to NCAA division two. When an NAIA institution wants to become an NCAA institution, they must go through a provisional process, which takes a minimum of three years. During the provisional process, the institution must begin implementing the NCAA division two legislation onto their school. One of the most difficult rules to understand is that when an institution is in the provisional process, they are ineligible for post-season play.This is exactly what Westminster College had to do when entering the RMAC, which is an NCAA division two conference. 
			Understanding the background information that was just given will help better your understanding of further information in the podcast. 
			
			So the next question then becomes, why do we care about Westminster women's basketball? The answer to that is: Westminster women's basketball has never faced a challenge like COVID-19 before. We're eager to find out how they are able to manage the pandemic hitting them and how they plan on moving forward from this pandemic.

Alexander Olivé:	In 1993, Shelley Jarrard graduated from Vanderbilt University and was hired as the assistant coach at the University of Utah. Her basketball career has taken her from U of U, to Kansas State, and to her current position at Westminster College. On May 25th, 2020, I had the opportunity to interview Shelley to gain insight into her relationship with the sport.

Shelley Jarrard: 	My first job out of college, I got a, um, an assistant coaching job at the University of Utah. So I lived here for 11 years, um, in Salt Lake coaching basketball at the University of Utah. And then, um, I went to Kansas State and my path meandered a bit, but, um, I considered Salt Lake, kind of my home after those 11 years. And so I moved back to Salt Lake and I wanted to be the head coach at Westminster. 

Alexander Olivé:	Shelley was hired to her current position in 2010. During this time Westminster College was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes or NAIA and the frontier conference. On August4th, 2015, Westminster College officially announced its acceptance into NCAA division two. Shelley recalls this time as being particularly challenging for the team, as it marked the beginning of a three year provisional process.

Shelley Jarrard: 	You know, it was, it was a big shift. We were in NAIA, we'd won the conference almost every single year, you know, gone to the national tournament, fared well at the national tournament and it was fun. You're successful. And so to think, okay, we're moving up, um, a level, uh, and kind of a big level. It was a challenge. Uh, so we had to start from scratch with recruiting. Um, we have a lower budget, scholarship budget, and we knew it was going to be a rocky start.

Alexander Olivé:	 In the two seasons prior Shelley's team had three overall losses each season. However, in their first year division two, the team ended their season with 14 overall losses. 

Shelley Jarrard: 	After being so successful and maybe losing one conference game, you know, historically, now we're losing 13 conference games. So it was, it was a challenge for me personally, it was a challenge for our program at, um, recruiting. You had to shift, you know, the kind of player you were looking at to be more successful at this level. And honestly, when we got Hunter Krebs, it, you know, in that class that changed, that changed a lot for us.

Alexander Olivé:  	Recruited by Shelley in 2016, Hunter Krebs came to Westminster in the fall of 2017 as an incoming freshman. 

Hunter Krebs: 		Shelley, the head coach here, is actually one of the very first coaches that ever reached out to me. So I've been, I was talking to her probably my sophomore year of high school, and she was just really interested even then. And I just always felt really, like, at home talking to her. And she was always a coach that really stood out to me in my recruiting process. So when I was a senior in high school, um, I started going on some visits to some other schools and some of them were in the RMAC. A lot of them were pretty far away from Utah, which is where I'm from. So that was something that definitely gave Westminster a little bit, you know, put it a little higher on the list for sure, in the beginning. And then just when I went on my visits, the other schools didn't quite feel right. And when I just came to Westminster, I just felt really at home. And then I finally decided October of my senior year that I was going to commit to Westminster.

Alexander Olivé: 	In her first season at Westminster, Hunter says the women's basketball team was predicted to finish 10th in the RMAC, but the team fought for fourth that year. Moving on to the 2019-2020 basketball season, Westminster fans noticed a substantial difference from the women's team. The team had one of the strongest starts to their season than fans had seen in the last four years.
 
Hunter Krebs: 		So we ended up getting a lot of really good recruits and transfers. Um, just a really good group of girls and just the few first few times playing with them, I felt really good about it. And then we went on, like, a team retreat and we had just this really great talk with each other and just, we set up a bunch of goals for the season just where we wanted to be.And then pre-season, we played really great teams and we ended up with only with one loss in pre-season. So I thought that really kick-started our season for us. 

Shelley Jarrard:	We started very strong, yes. And then, you know, we had a little rocky patch near the end, but I think, kind of normal, uh, with a team. And then we were, I think we were ready to take off again right when we went to the national tournament. And that’s how it felt, it felt like we were going to have the momentum kind of on our side and, and, and things clicking and ready to go. And so I think extra devastating to not get the play, you know, that next game.

Alexander Olivé:	Shelly's referring to the NCAA national championship. Every year in Texas, the top 25 division two teams come to compete in this national tournament. In its history since 1931, the Westminster women's basketball team has never qualified for this championship until this year.

			This was the difference fans could see and feel at games. It was the year that Westminster women's basketball would make history. Unfortunately for our team, their time to make history was unraveling at the same time as the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

Shelley Jarrard: 	It was, um, so May 13th, Friday the 13th, I think. Right? Like that was the, that was the D-Day. Um, so we're down in Texas, our trip was smooth compared to last year. Last year's trip was a nightmare to get down to Texas for the national tournament. And so we were all feeling good, but you know, we took off, we left campus and when we landed, you know, at our final destination so much had happened that day with the virus.Like on the news, you know, so we're on the plane, we have no idea. We land and, like, “Oh.” Things are starting to shut down, you know? And you saw the domino effect occurring really quickly in front of us. Um, we had apractice slot Thursday evening, and I think I'm the only coach, maybe out of the eight teams there that canceled our practice.I said, we're not going to go, you know, this is, I, you just knew it was coming, that our tournament was going to be canceled. And then sure enough, you know, it was.

Hunter Krebs:		We were just really excited that we got into the national tournament after that. And that we were going to have another chance to play. And on top of that, we were supposed to play Mesa again, our very first round, so we were just really excited about that and just ready to go beat them. Then everything fell apart. 

Alexander Olivé:	Hunter is referring to the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks who are considered to be one of Westminster women's basketball's biggest competitors. During conference play Westminster played Colorado Mesa twice at home. Hunter calls the matchup on January 25th, 2020 as not only one of her most memorable career games, but her hardest.  

Shelley Jarrard:	Um just a tough. They're, they're tough. They're mentally tough. They're used to winning. They've been D2 a long time. They've won a long time. They won this league many times, you know, they have that in their DNA. So, they're - they're a tough matchup. 

Sports Announcer: 	Might be tonight. Were first seem to 50 wins. We'll see how it plays out. We'll see how it goes. All right. It should be fun. Mesa comes in 12 when all the Griffins 10 and two in the RMAC that we'll do it for our Griffin's pregame show brought to you by a Sportsman Utah, Salt Lake Regional Medical, back with labs at tip in just a moment, on Griffin's TV and the RMAC Network.

James Walljasper: 	At the end of the third quarter, the number 15 rank Griffins were down by 20 points to the 22nd ranked Mavericks. 

Hunter Krebs:		I mean, it was pretty emotional. We got in there and we're all very pissed off at halftime. We hate losing to them. Um, and we it's really hard to play there so we wanted to make it hard and play at our place, and I think we just went in there and everyone's like, “We're not fucking losing guys.” Like, “We are not losing to them.” We hate losing to them. We hate playing them. Um, so I think that just all, everyone was pissed off, but it got, you know, it turned into something good the third quarter. And then, um, everyones getting so high from the bench and everyone's getting so high from the core/ And then like the crowd was crazy and everything. So I think all of that together just, like, fueled us. And I don't know how we, how we did it, but. 

Announcer: 		[inaudible] Westminster! [inaudible] [crowds cheering]

Alexander Olivé:	As a fan of the team, this game was a turning point, in my perception of them. I no longer saw them as just talented athletes, they were fighters. Collectively, they refused to give up that match. It was a testament to the resiliency of this team. In both of my interviews with Hunter and Shelly, they radiated confidence.Having confidence doesn't just come from physical strength. As we all know, it requires intention. And Hunter explained that it isn't just a personal journey - it's a team-wide effort. 

Hunter Krebs:		I was lucky enough to be a captain on the team this year. And just, like, knowing how everyone on the team had the expectation of ‘we don't lose, and if we do, we're going to bounce back immediately.’ Um, just, like, that whole group thinking of resiliency throughout the season is just. . . It's awesome. Um, and then I think Shelley definitely, she has that same mindset as well. So it just, all in all we have that group mindset together.

Alexander Olivé: 	Shelley seemed to narrow down the majority of success for her groups to one thing, respect.

Shelley Jarrard: 	No, and you can never fully, fully get that. Uh, I think the best you can do and you know, you're on a you're a part of a group is to, um, respect each other. So, you know, we work on that, you know, you respect your differences, um, first and foremost. Um, especially, you know, we have all sorts of differences on our team. And so I think, you know, just trying to make them have honest conversations. Um, and say the hard stuff, we, we have those type of meetings, um, you know, where hopefully you - I want our team to be the safest place possible for them to be themselves. And so, you know, that's, that's, what's nurtured. That's what paid attention to, and then with recruiting, you just want to make sure, hey, you guys meet this kid, you know, when you meet this prospect, what do you think? And, and, you know, are you, are you going to have a fit? And that's a lot of it's intuition. A lot of it's just flat out, you know, here's who we are. Uh, who are you? And does this fit?

Alex Olivé: 		Out of respect and solidarity for black members of our community, we will not be finishing this episode as we planned. I wish there was a proper way to end this episode and I wish I could finish it by saying that if athletes respect one another, they'll make a successful collegiate basketball team.

			As a queer person of color, I wish I could understand the injustices that black Americans live through every day, but I cannot. I cannot understand their experiences because I am not black. Respect can build a successful basketball team, but now is not the time to worry about athletics. We encourage our audience to seek out education on inclusivity and justice.

			We recommend these alternative podcasts that are having conversations about racial equity and justice. This list comes from a post by app Good Good Good co. on Instagram: 1619 by the New York Times, About Race, Code Switch by NPR, The Diversity Gap, Intersectionality Matters hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, Pod For The Cause from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. 

James Walljasper: 	This episode was hosted and produced by James Walljasper and Alex Olivé. We want to say a special thanks to Hunter Krebs and Shelley Jarrard for allowing us to interview them, to help us create this podcast.

Jared Winn:		This episode was produced by the gender studies program and the sociology department at Westminster College. Editing and sound design by Jared Winn music by Luke Rainbow. And our local was created by Catherine Nielson.