"Everything Get In The Game"

Auburn senior Jake Yohn didn’t just choose the referee life — he inherited it. 

“I’ve always felt at home here, just really enjoy the campus, the people and what Auburn's all about,” said Yohn.

As a student assistant in Auburn’s competitive sports program, the Montgomery, AL native is responsible for daily operations, as well as officiating intramural and club sports games.

Wearing the referee stripes runs in the family.  His father David held the same position at Auburn back in the 80’s.

“It’s been cool to do the whole full-circle family thing,” Yohn said.

Today’s collegiate competitive sports aren’t your daddy’s pickup flag football — they’re faster, fiercer and on a whole different level. This rise in popularity has given campus recreation departments increasing value among students and stakeholders. 

“Honestly, I saw the Sportsplex facility when I first came and visited and the ability to offer competitive sports there is really what sold me,” said Keegan Ashbee, who arrived at Auburn five years ago to become the director of competitive sports.

Auburn’s recreational facilities are second to none. The 240,000 square-foot Recreation and Wellness Center has a 1/3-mile indoor track, two 50-foot climbing towers, six basketball courts, weight and cardio spaces, group fitness studios, a leisure pool, tennis and racquetball courts, and more.  The Sportsplex and intramural fields offer more than 15 acres of lighted green space, multipurpose fields, two softball fields, and sand volleyball courts. There’s also Auburn Outdoors where students can rent tents, bikes, kayaks and sleeping bags for adventures in nature.  

“We give tours daily – it’s a major stop on the college tour process,” Ashbee said. 

Auburn has more than 40 intramural sports, everything from flag football and basketball to sand volleyball, soccer and more. There are 44 club sports, including baseball, bass fishing, ice hockey, lacrosse, pickleball, rowing and ultimate frisbee, to name a few.

Participation in Auburn’s competitive sports program is open to all currently enrolled students, regardless of skill level. Emerging technologies like digital group fitness management tools and live steaming of championship games are elevating intramural and club sport popularity. Last year, almost a quarter of Auburn’s student population participated in intramural and club sports. 

For Ashbee, it’s about more than just the game.  The Delaware native’s main role is hiring, training and developing employees and student assistants like Yohn to run programs in the evenings - and help them see success both on and off the field. 

“I can highlight student after student and their personal growth,” said Ashbee.  “They go from keeping to themselves to being out front and leading."

Yohn, a political science major, is one of about 100 students employed by the Rec Center.

“It's such a unique job that teaches you so much,” said Yohn.  “You learn how to talk to people, how to make connections and really just empathy.”

The Rec Center also offers about 80 group fitness classes each week, including Tiger Pump, yoga, Cycle 45 and more.

“If you're new to fitness, we've got personal trainers, wellness coaches and class instructors that can help you,” explained Ashbee. 

Ashbee says the Rec Center’s website is your one-stop-shop for getting in the game!

Check out our Everything Auburn Podcast Hub!

Transcript

0:05

Welcome into everything Auburn. Welcome back to New Year. I was told that it's the first time you see somebody. You can still say, Happy New Year. So happy New Year. I want to be the last one to tell you all year. And we're excited to start a new year of everything Auburn. We're super excited to have some new guests. The podcast where you get to speak to members of the Auburn family every single month, and we're starting off with another fun one today. I have Keegan Ashbee, the assistant director of competitive sports. Got it right. Yes, sir. And I have student leader extraordinaire and program assistant. But you're smart. Student leader extraordinaire is what we're campaigning for. Your new title Jake Yohn joining me today. Welcome to the Everything Auburn podcast. Thanks for having us. We appreciate it. Well, we're here to talk everything. What Rec and Wellness. We thought January people have New Year's resolutions and everybody has. I'm going to run, ride a bike, go out, workout, play some sport. So why not get some rec and wellness competitive sports. You don't do non competitive sports. So no friendly card games correct. You're just competitive. Competitions is where we excel. And yeah awesome. Well welcome. And joining us today. So walk us through what is your life's like. What do you that you do here at Auburn. With competitive sports. Let's start over there. Yeah. So I help higher train develop, the students and employees who run the programs in the evening. Our programs run

from about 5: 1:22

00 at night

until 11: 1:23

00 at night. So we need people there to make sure they're safe, to make sure it's fair competition, to make sure that if there's any injuries, they're there to take care of them. So we have about 100 student employees. What would you say? That people go pretty hard. And intramural sports, I mean, injuries, never once intensity. It happens. I don't think anyone's ever taken it too far. No, no. Never out. They're trying to win that cheap t shirt. Trying to win that t shirt. So yeah, again, sports brings out something different in people. Obviously. And it's it's a passion that people have had. They've played for forever. And they may not have decided to continue their athletic endeavors after high school and come to a great school like Auburn, and they can come out and play flag football or basketball. And, there's a lot of passion out there for sure. And one of the cool things you get to do is you hire the people to actually get to do it. Yeah. And as you've told me already, Jake is the one who runs it here. Yeah. So what, you said that? Yep. That's what he said. That's why he said that writing thing. Yeah, that's why you're here. So walk me through what you're as a as a student. I'm sure you have a very interesting perspective, but also someone who kind of oversees these major endeavors. It's definitely an interesting job. Your your reffing, your classmates, your people that you see on campus all the time. My job specifically is program assistant. So I'm kind of the bridge between the adult full time staff and the students that are just there, you know, less than 20 hours a week. So I help run the trainings and, you know, prepare for all different kind of stuff that could happen, out there on the fields, whether it be the, the Sportsplex, the, the Enfield's, the rec center, down the street. And but I still get to reference, I get to do kind of the job that I started out in as a, like an assistant and a supervisor. So that's been really cool. People still like, I run the people that I've run for, you know, for years. And they ask me, like, are you going to be at basketball this year? I'm like, yep. Just like every year you so you mentioned it earlier already is one thing that we've talked about before, which I think is one of my favorite things that I'll do is the play for the shirt concept. Yeah. Which is so cool. So if you could tell us a little bit about that, because I just, I think that is I never got one. I think in my entire three years of participating in arena sports, I think across 3 or 4 sports over 3 or 4 years, I think we won one game period. We were not a good team, but we tried. We were really good triers. Yeah, but we didn't win a shirt. It is. Yeah. I think, that is a really cool part of it. Just because you see people on campus with, you know, depending on the year, like, you know, this style, we have one for each semester. So it usually is kind of the same design, but one's a different color. So like blue and orange for like the fall in the spring. And so when you see someone on campus with that shirt, you can kind of figure out like, oh, what sport they were playing. You can kind of start a conversation. And it it is obviously kind of a little bit of a social kind of credit in class. I see people wear all the time, at the, at the rec, like if we're playing pickup basketball and you have a shirt on, like I'm probably going to add you to my team. My first pick. Yeah, yeah, you're probably gonna be the first pick, as a ref. Like I'll get some. You know, if you're a ref in that game, you'll get you'll get to, like, grab one. So I have all the, all the old ones from, from a while ago. So I guess it's a little less cheap that I have them, but, there's got to be some perks, you know? Yeah, you have to have something. We have to get something. It's. I mean, it's a hard job to to referees. Absolutely. You see them going to class on a Monday morning and then Monday evening you're refereeing or the basketball or flag football and, and, it's a pretty cool thing to do. And I mean, 5 or 6 week leagues, depending on the sport, go into a playoff bracket. And it's it's it's a lot of fun. We try to make it exciting for them. We try to make it into an event for them. We try to live stream games, things like that, that anything that we can do. So, yeah. Got to get Mom and dad to watch my, watch my highlight reel. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Or just show up a lot. A lot of parents and grandparents I've seen show up. I've. I know someone that had their their dad and fly out and think they're, you know, going to visit for a little bit longer, but you know, they coming out for the game. Yeah of course. Yeah. He's got after the game. So we've talked a lot over the last few months just in looking at some real stuff and clubs for stuff and Keegan you've had some really interesting, insight as to like a, the amount of people that participate. Yeah. And just like the sheer number of students that participate as well as some of the, we'll call them unexpected benefits of participation that, you know, you don't think playing football or basketball on a Tuesday night can help you in your math class, but maybe maybe it can. Yeah, there's a lot of studies out there. If you want to break it down about how obviously activity can help you inside and outside the classroom, I'm really big on that. Obviously it's January, right? We got a lot of resolutions out there, a lot of things, new year, new me type things. I really love it. You take a an hour away from studying, you go out, you run around, you get some activity. Not only do you get to hang out with your friends, you get that physical activity, and it really kind of helps kind of reset you. So when you're done, you can go get hopefully a good dinner, go back to studying, get ready for your classes, or test whatever you may have the next day or that night. So there's definitely some studies that show that, that physical activity is huge and it doesn't have to be run a marathon every single night. That's that's good for you. I'm glad because, again, every person's going to have their own thing, right? Some people love to run. I'm not a runner. You will not see me just out running around campus just because that and it's not something I'll do. But finding your own place in your own way to to stay fit and stay active is is really huge. And one of the, the side effects of intramural sports that we really appreciate. Oh that's well that's wonderful. And and you know I do I'm kind of in the I usually will run if I'm being chased. But yeah, getting out and doing some touching grass. Yeah, yeah. It's a it's a great time. But so, you know, we have intramural sports. So another thing that you're also heavily involved in is club sports, which is a whole nother just territory of what you're kind of encompasses in your world. Yeah. What's the club sport element to rec and wellness, to the university and to the life of the university students? So the way we like to break it down is, if you think about it, I believe Auburn varsity sports is about 18, 17, 18 sports. Just under 2018. So yeah. So there's 18 sports that obviously they're playing for an SEC championship, a national championship. And we've had plenty of those here at Auburn. Right. They are practicing going to class every single day, hours upon hours, scholarships, those types of things. Right. The next level would be our club sport athletes. Our club sport athletes were high level athletes at high school that love whatever sport they may enjoy. We've got 44 different clubs. So your lacrosse is your soccer. Volleyball, pickleball. I mean, there's so many different sports that we offer. And they were high level athletes at high school that want to continue that, may have had opportunities to play at Division two or Division three or even Division one, but they decide, you know what? Auburn is a place for me. So we have the opportunity to continue playing and they practice two, three, four days a week. Depending on the club. They still travel regionally, they still travel nationally. They complete compete for national championships in their governing body. We've had a handful of national championships in the last few years. We've had, individual national championships like swimming and diving type things. We've had our rugby team won, I believe it was about 4 or 4 and a half years ago. They won the national championship. We've had bass fishing's one national championship. We've we've got a lot of different national champions. And it may not be the SEC, but it's the governing body for that sport. And they can compete at a high level. And then you have our intramural sports where like we talked about some of them, they really want to win that t shirt. They're out there practicing three nights a week. They're out in the fields, whatever it might be. But a lot of them show up 25 minutes before their game. You do a little bit of stretch and do a little jog and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully do something. Yeah. And then they, they play for the 45 minutes to an hour that the game takes and they're done for the week. And there's a place for everybody. And obviously with club sports there's, there's 44 of them. We've got some amazing facilities that on the weekends, I mean, we've got thousands of people coming to watch our different games, especially at that, the brand new, gorgeous facility over there, one of the, the I was not a club sport guy, but I had three roommates in college here who were there, all three of them. It was so interesting because they all were on the rowing team. Yeah. And I knew all three of them in high school as well. And they weren't rowers. And then they joined the rowing club team. It was their family. And I really loved at like 4 a.m. when they got up and I heard their car start and they were getting up and I was like, I'm going back to sleep. Yeah, because I'm not doing that. And they went into it. And then they were it was at one point they were president, vice president and secretary. And it was they loved it as their whole. It became a personality trait of theirs. And it changed like their life because they did this club sport and it was so cool to watch and especially cool not be getting up at 4 a.m. for me personally. But, well, I would also be curious from both your perspectives, you you think you have an interesting perspective on how, intramural sports, club sports, how it's grown, how it's changed over your time being involved with it, you know, hopes and aspirations of where it will go and what you've kind of seen and what you've put into it to make it grow. Yeah, I think from, from my perspective, it's, it's it's weird being a senior now and realizing how long I've been here and how many semesters of like, intramural sports I've been a part of. I still think even from the start, I was very competitive. I think what I've noticed, recently is kind of the personalization and like kind of the branding of each team. Now I see a lot of Instagram like hate pages. Yes, sir. I see a lot more kind of buy in. That's my kind of territory, right? Like the the reels and like the edits. And I think that's just kind of coming with the times. But I think I see a lot more kind of buy in from these people's like, friends and family groups and that kind of stuff. And so you see a lot more connection with the campus of like different organizations now have, I think, a lot more consistent teams. So you'll see like different clubs have, you know, they're always going to have this team play this and this and this. And I think that's really cool. Just because you get to meet a lot more people as much as a ref. You get to there's so many times I go to class or like for the first time or just walking on the concourse, and I kind of make, like, make eye contact with someone. I go, we know each other. And eventually you grow that relationship where you can, you know, know each other by name. And so it kind of makes the whole experience better. But yeah, definitely, from the start, it was always really competitive when I first got here, but I think it's definitely gotten a little more, you know, brand focused and, and hopefully we can kind of build on that and just kind of make more connections with different groups. Keegan talked earlier about, you know, live streaming, the Champ games and with like, you know, wiggle and those things like that. I think that's something that I want to see kind of grow a little bit more. Yeah. Making championship nights, more and more exciting, including more sports, clubs and things like that. Like the we talked to about getting the stats club, involved. And so, as long as I like, inflate my basketball stats, I think can they can be involved, but, things like that. So like having the Plainsmen out, you know, covering playoff games, like who's going to win his or who's who's got a good storyline. I think y'all, with marketing has done a really good job of, you know, highlighting to us this this semester and, and hopefully that will kind of build. And that's kind of where I see us going when when I was a student, we had a group of people. It was it was I was in student media. So I did Weigl and I did Eagle Eye. It was just a student media group though, did it. And that was it was really cool. It ingrained me into this group and really made me stay. And part of the reason I do what I do is because I did the stuff here when I was a student. But like I said, we were not very good. We knew that it was mostly the sports staffs of here that did those. It did the individuals. And we knew the sports really well. We were really good. We knew the strategy. We knew the concepts. I knew the routes, man. We really should stick the TV, I think is what we should have done. But in then. Keegan, I be curious what your respective, you know, come and seeing what how it's changed, how it's grown, where you want to see it. Especially coming out of like 2020 into now and how it's really changed a lot. But you have you told me what? I can't remember the number and put you on the spot and what the number is, but you have an insane amount of participants and it's grown every year. It continues to grow. I believe last year we were something over 7500 unique people participate in intramurals and club sports. I mean, almost a quarter of the student population. That's absolutely insane. So, yeah, obviously we've changed a lot since I've gotten here. And Jake talked a lot about the participant side of things. And I wholeheartedly agree. We want to make it. We want to make it an event. We want to make it something that they enjoy, that they want to come to. For me, the big side has been the staff. I mean, we've got when I first started, I think the first staff meeting, we had seven people. Wow. And I think our last staff meeting, we were at 94, I believe that's a that's a bit of a little bit of growth. A little bit, a little bit. So and the cool thing for me is the people in that room, the students in that room, they may graduate and never put on a pair of stripes ever again. But I think the, the things that being an official really help with, right? There's no other job on campus that your fellow students are yelling and screaming at you 50% of the time. That's on a good night or a good night. Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. So having that hard conversation with your, your fellow student of hey, I agree this was a tough play, but this is what I saw. And it may not be right, but this is what I saw. Having those students grow. And we've seen, Jake and I can highlight student after student after student, their personal growth rate, students who are very, keep to themselves may not be outgoing. And then a semester with us or a year with us and they are out in front. They're leading, they're growing. So in that those are the things that I love. So obviously, I mean, we're in the middle of of registration right now for basketball. I think we're already over 140 teams. That's 15 or 20 more than we had last year. Awesome. Being in everything schools. Great, right? You love seeing different sports, but, like, I get to help students every single night kind of go through that growth. To become a successful student once they graduate. That's beautiful. Well, then, with that in mind, Jake, and put you on the spot. Now, if you could make kind of, you know, we want people to participate any way, we can't, right? What is why would you suggest students get involved in the leadership side, in the organization side, to be a ref, to be part of the behind the scenes that actually puts this massive endeavor on? Yeah. Like Keegan said, I mean, it's such a unique job that teaches you so much every night is different. Just this was like easy stuff off the top, like it's on campus job and they work with your hours really, really. Well, I think that's just straight up. There's going to be our best SEL. But, more than that, when you really get into it, I mean, you learn so much about how to deal with people, how to talk with people, how to make those connections, understanding, you know, where other people are coming from, putting yourself in their shoes. My mom supports empathy and she always talks about that. And you really have to be really empathetic to say, like, hey, maybe this guy had a really rough night, a rough day, in the classroom. You know, he really wanted to win this game, and it's not going well for him. He's like, you know, for seven from three. And how are you going to talk to him and be the, be the bigger person in that situation and really kind of connect and say like, hey, I understand you're frustrated, but like, how are we going to pass that? Those skills, it doesn't matter what you're going to do. I mean, there's that that is really, really helpful. I'm like Keegan said, I'm probably not going to ref much after college, if any. And, you know, my stuff is I'm going to hopefully work in politics and and that's really what that is. People are passionate about that. You know, that that is a really good point. I've never had any you know, no arguments in politics whatsoever. You know, there's no correlation, no translatable qualities. And but like Jake said, we I mean, we've got we've got people of all spectrums and all majors that are working for us. And it's really cool because, I mean, if you have an engineer, you have to take the information that's provided with you, make a decision and go with it. Absolutely. And that's what they do in a basketball game 200 times a night. And being comfortable with making those decisions is, is tough. And it's a skill to grow. And something like officiating the skills that our students learn is just is awesome for their growth. Wonderful. Well there's another slight left turn here. But another thing I know you've been studying up on. And make sure you got it right here. It's more than just intramural sports. And club sports is other programing that exists out there that you can participate in. If you're. If playing football is not your thing. Yeah. Totally. Fine. You know, what are some of those other activities that there are that you guys also kind of kind of help put on and make sure that students get the appropriate return. Yeah. The center has so many different things that you can do. And like we talked about earlier, everybody has their own way to to move into, to be active. I mean, we've got the outdoor program, we've got group fitness. But I'm not going to mess this up. War Eagle Squad trying to say that five times fast. I will not, workout of the day. Right? So you come, you work out, you move that. There's certified instructors that can help you. Whether this is your first time working out ever because it's 20, 26. We want to get better, right? Or you are a fitness champion who's been doing it for ten, 15 years. We have certified group fitness instructors in the room with you. Guiding you through the workout and helping. The thing I love is they plan the workout and they just tell me what to do. So I don't have to get a plan and get a program, and you write it off. Exactly. Right. We have other things. Union, yoga. So some stretching, some flexibility. Be comfortable out there. Obviously, if you're sitting in a classroom for 2 or 3 hours or whatever it might be, you can go in and and get flexible and kind of get back and ready to go for here. Stretching is important. It is it is. I've heard that that is that is the case. So yeah, group fitness classes are awesome. I think there's over 80 each week throughout the day. So there's opportunities for people to participate in whatever way they're interested in. And I think that's really cool. It's the opportunities Auburn students have at the Rec and Wellness Center just keep growing. We take feedback. We new machines, new equipment. If you want to go and pick up the 125 pound dumbbells, go for it. I'm good. I think you're ready for it. Yeah. You know, I mean, practice and listen, listen, my two year old up, but, you know, she's not quite that way. Not yet. Not yet. I've been feeding her, but not that much. All the protein. Yeah, but yeah, there's so many different options. And, the best thing is you can if if you're new to fitness, if you're new to trying to be active, we've got personal trainers, we've got wellness coaches, we've got any different things that can help you feel more comfortable in the gym because you walk into a big space of 250,000ft², and it can be intimidating the first time, I would imagine that's probably one of the biggest barriers, is just starting. Yeah, for sure. Having a wellness coach or a personal trainer or even a group fitness instructor to lead you through some things, I think that's the best way to get started, because you have someone who knows what they're doing, who's going to make sure you're safe while doing it. And then once you get comfortable, then you can start branching out on your own. There's so many different ways to, to, to work out or to be active nowadays. And we've got empty spaces and people go in and there's dancing and there's there's all kinds of movement that people do in our facility. So it's really great to see, the different options that they have, you know, and this is a wonderful opportunity to to brag a little bit because I know that Rec and Wellness Center is a initiative reason why a lot of people pick Auburn, because this is an incredible facility. As well as I'm a bit jealous because I didn't have it when I was a student. But the new I am facility as well, yeah, is also absolutely incredible. We get the turf fields, all the LED lights out, the it's really some incredible investment can put into it. And that's that's one of the things that I'm glad you brought up because the Sportsplex five turf fields, multipurpose fields, it's open to students. If you can get in the rec center, you can get in the Sportsplex. Now we have obviously our club sport practices that kind of reserve certain times because they're they're competing state, region nationwide. But, there's usually we try to keep an open field so people can go play whatever they want. There was there was a gentleman who was always out there in the fall who loved kicking field goals. Bring it on, man. He'd go down to the rugby poles or rugby, goals, and you'd see them just for hours, just kicking field goals. It's what he loved to do. So, you know, go for it, right. He's an Auburn student. He's allowed to get in great form. Awesome. So yeah, that facility is awesome. Love, love being out there. And our club teams are, like, begging for other clubs to come and they want to come see it because it's just our maintenance team. Our facilities are great. Yeah, well, we're getting up here on time here, but I want to get one more question for you each year. And this is, for some the easiest question for some of the hardest questions. We'll see how it goes, which but it's my favorite. It's the thing I love to ask people, which is why you're here, you know, how is it you got to Auburn? You know, what's the path it took you to get here? What brought you here? What's keeping you here? What are some of those things? Why you pick Auburn? So, you know, Keegan's been talking a lot, so we'll give Keegan voice a break for a second. Here. And how did you end up here at Auburn? You know, looking back senior year, you know, it's coming to a close mentioned in that bring back. I don't want to put pressure on email about graduation this morning. Oh, that's the professor's schedule. That's that's really like oh man. It's it's already gone. It's already closing up. There was an option to say like report is spam or anything. So I guess I actually have to like go get a process that, I have a pretty, pretty, you know, normal Auburn story. I think, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's more indicative how special this place is. I, I grew up in Montgomery, too, a very through and through Auburn family. My dad, his two brothers went here. My brother was graduating, college as I was graduating high school, and I didn't look many other places, but I was, I would come up here on the weekends and, you know, visit my brother and, one of the one of the coolest, you know, interesting tie ins, actually, was that, one of the times he was like, let's go to the I am champ night and watch basketball. And the other weird thing about my family is that my brother, you know, worked for Keegan, had the same job I do as, you know, a referee. And he got that he got that job because my dad did the same job, when he was here at Auburn in the 80s. Who? His older brother also had that job. So for some reason, I have runs in the family. For some reason, it runs in the family, which is really zebras in this house. A little strange, but, I always felt at home here. I always, you know, really enjoyed, the campus and the people and, kind of what Auburn's all about the creed and all those different things and, and and so I've, you know, come here, got pretty involved with, you know, obviously this job but other things on campus with like, you know, student government and, I was a student recruiter for a little bit. And so just really enjoy being in. And so it's been cool to kind of do that full circle family thing and be back here now as a senior. But thank you for bringing up that. I'm a senior. I really appreciate it. I do it to us and I hate to do it too, but you know, it's just starting. So, you know, you get the whole semester to, you know, live it up and enjoy it. I loved being here so much that I came back. Yeah. Not as a student, but like, I left Auburn for has had gone for a couple years. And then opportunity came back to work here again, and we had me and my wife both. We had we had to come back because it's it's my it was my it's both our favorite place. So it just because you're done doesn't mean you have to leave. You know, that's all I gotta say there. We talk about graduation, and it's happy and sad for us because, again, his brother worked for us and he was one of the first employees I met when I got here. And we want them to graduate. We want them to grow. But there's also some of them we would love. Just hold on to them for another year or so and keep working for us. But, yeah, I was looking for a new opportunity, a new challenge. Honestly, that I saw the Sportsplex when when I first came and visited and the opportunity to offer, club sports, intramural sports at that facility was one of the biggest things that sold me. So you talk about the recruiting hard to beat, man. You talk about the wellness center and how people come on their visits. And, I think that that's one of the unique things have been to many different institutions across the nation through our governing body and the amount of people that come just to walk through the recreation center. We have membership staff that give tours daily. Oh, yeah. And it is a major stop on the college tour process. My, my cousin came down and, and he was between here and another school that we won't name. And he saw this facility and just loved it and just loved it. So, it's really cool opportunity to help program and to we've grown I believe we've added about 18 clubs since I've been here. And don't quote me on that number. But we we started out a little smaller and then we continue adding, continue growing. So like I said, the there's there's only great things at the Sportsplex and trying to be a part of the Auburn students and how we can make them successful on the field and off the field. And that was one of the cool things I love listening and and hearing. When I was on my interview about the The Creed, that really hit hard for me. And believing in that and, wanting to help people. And I think that's something that was really interesting. It's been a common thread on this podcast in a year and a half I've been doing it is people talking about the Creed and and I've worked for other university, been been elsewhere and I'd go to another university of work and I look for the Creed like, well, what's yours, Creed, what's yours, I think and I the I don't even know what you do either. And I'm like, I realize how unique that was. I didn't realize how unique it was here because I've grown up my whole life hearing it and to live somewhere. And they don't have that like this is what we believe. This is just this is the Bible that we this is it right here is very I was very surprised that other people don't have that sort of thing. And it really resonated more when I didn't have it. And then when I did, it was very strange. And then, yes, you're right, the rec and wellness, I have a personal pain point of people saying, oh, we're the best, but I'm like, nope. When you say you're the best, there's only one best. Not everybody can say that's the best. So I don't like saying the best unless it truly is. And the rec and wellness is one of those things that, like, you can really say it about because it is an incredible, incredible area and facility. Well, then last thing I kind of want to talk about is how do we get involved, right? So if I want to be involved as a student worker, if I want to be installed as a participant, how do I register? Where do I go? What are my next steps? Yeah, the the Recreation Wellness website is going to be your your one stop shop. Right. We have a, portion of that website called RWC connect. When you log on to RWC connect, you'll see it's about 12 different options. It's intramurals, it's clubs, it's outdoors, it's group fitness. That'll be where you log in. You register, whether you want to create a team, whether you want to join the team, whether you want to join a group fitness class, whether you want to go kayaking or whatever might have that we offer, that is the place to go. So, we obviously are here to help our membership team at the front desk at the Wellness Wellness Center. They can answer any question as well and get you in touch with the person you need to be in touch with. But our RWC connect is definitely the place where you can get registered. Has all of our contact information and how to get moving. And if you know you're looking to make a team, or if you don't have enough people to make a team, for like basketball, you know, you need a lot. But, there's also options to register as, like, a free agent, on I Am leagues, which is a really cool part of it. So that, you know, we can, you know, put you on another team, that needs some people so we can connect you if you. And if you don't have a whole, you know, roster of friends to, you know, do it with awesome free agency. Love it. Yeah. Talk talk about sports world. Yeah. Talk of the sports world. That one. Oh you know I know and I am yeah. No no no no. Yeah. We're not done yet. That's next year. Yeah. Awesome. Well gentlemen I appreciate you spend some time with us and, and chat and, and appreciate all the work that you both do. It's hard work, but it's, it's it's very it's very thankful that we have it here at Auburn and, and it's really, it's really awesome stuff. And then, you know, enjoy your friends semester math I don't want to again. Enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, I got to keep bringing that up. Okay. The last time, I promise. And, I appreciate it, guys. And thank you guys for listening. We'll be back again next month with, more members of the Auburn family and talk and have a great conversation. And until then, see you around. War Eagle! War Damn Eagle! War Eagle!