been going to sleep. (Thayer laughs.) There is such a thing as transistor radios, John. I even had that goofy earplug. JVG: For me, in the past, would be Herb Carneal, did the Minnesota Twins forever. Now, Pat Hughes, who does radio for the Chicago Cubs. I’ve gotten to know him a little through phone conversations, but if there were ones that I really liked and listen to, it would be those two. JT: I suppose, being the young guy in the room, I should say I listen to these two older guys to find out how they stuck it out so long, right? SK: Don’t make that mistake, right? (Kooistra chuckles) JDC: Getting ready to do a game, what does your preparation entail? SK: Funny you should ask. As I was heading down Highway 15 last night (Kooistra had broadcasted the Mount Marty at Wayne State men’s basketball game the day before), I wrote down some notes. I’m sorta kidding, but I think that’s the one thing people don’t realize from the outside. They say, “Oh, heard you doing a game last night, and blah, blah, blah,” and they can probably figure out the travel, but all the stuff behind the scenes that goes into it, just to show up and start talking. Just little things, like interviews, coaches, statistics, checking out athletic directors, equipment, board operators, etc. I’m sure I can come up with a lot more. They’re so much behind the scenes that goes into it, as you know. JT: Every broadcaster has their own preference as to how a stat sheet should look, or should they use a sheet or a book, or do they have information boards. For USD broadcasts, I have three different sheets of paper with information on them, and they take probably a total of four, five hours to put together. For me, especially when we’re traveling, and this time it’s basketball — where I’m coming back to do a high school game. The hard thing about high school games is travel. You spend, for one trip, four, five, six hours on the road that you can’t get work done. A lot of times, when I’m traveling for USD, I’ll start working on the next game on the way home. A lot of people are taking naps, and there’s no time for that. SK: Commercials, logging JT: Yup SK: Promos, etc., social media, before and after, and during. I’m not very good at during. JT: It never quits, that’s for sure. I’m always looking at, at the college level you get game notes, high college level probably. At the NAIA level, maybe not. SK: They didn’t give you those at Huron (High School) last week? JT: No. And I read through all those to get information. I do research on different players. Newspaper articles I think are great, because you can find out a different part of the story. I use that stuff all the time. JVG: For me, I used spotter boards in football. Also, I use a scoresheet that Norm Hilson had designed a long, long time ago. Keeping score, especially at a basketball game, is so important. Sometimes I have to use my Yankton High School math to add up stuff. It’s served me well. Like John said, there are releases for football and for basketball that will take you to the far reaches of the universe. But really, with me less is more. You have to just read through it to get the things that you would think your readers would be more interested in hearing rather than fluff about a particular player, or anything like that. JDC: What is the most fun game or experience that you have had through your career? SK: I figured you would ask something like that. JVG: I can probably, for all the ones I’ve done, the one I remember the most was the 1992 State B Final up in Aberdeen between Harrold and Warner. Barnett Center was full with about 8,000 people. One thousand were for Warner, the other seven were for Harrold. Eric Lappe from Harrold went just bananas from three late in that game. It was a Hoosiers story. Harrold didn’t have a full 12-kid roster. They had, like 10 or 11, and they had to bring up seventh and eighth graders to fill out their roster. Eric Lappe was the Jimmy Chitwood of that tournament. He’d gotten beaten around. He was wearing like bandage with a wrap around his head. It was probably the best tournament that nobody saw, because it wasn’t on television. But, working for WNAX, and for the station that did all 12 games, you got to sit downstairs courtside. The atmosphere was just unbelievable, and the game was just unbelievable that night. And Harrold won that championship. SK: My most memorable was the ’94 Yankton Bucks championship over Rapid City Stevens in the Dome, double-overtime, when the Bucks won it and finished an unbeaten year. JVG: In Max Hawk’s last year. SK: For Max Hawk, then they went unbeaten the next year. The actual championship game, 34-31, if I remember right, but it was double-overtime when the Bucks won it. Just because of the excitement, and two very good teams: a great passing team with Rapid City Stevens and Peter Martin, and a great running team in the Bucks. That’s probably the one I remember. JT: For me, more recently, I went to Duke, which was a pretty cool experience. (Thayer called the USD-Duke men’s basketball game because Van Goor was broadcasting the USD-Sam Houston State playoff football game.) Probably what stands out the most was the WNIT championship run for the USD women. Mostly because, to watch those have a great year, to be heartbroken in the Summit League Tournament Championship, not even really want to be in the WNIT. They had no interest in playing Creighton to open up that run, somehow won the game. Then, when they went and beat Minnesota, scored so many points against the Gophers, it was after that game that they believed that they could win the tournament. They got the rest of their games at home, and just to watch the crowd fill up. There were over 5,000 there for the semifinals. There were over 7,000 there for the championship game. And to see that in the DakotaDome in the Dome’s final game of basketball. It was just packed, just an incredible experience. You could pinpoint all different things throughout all those different games that was exciting, but that whole experience was pretty cool to be a part of. JDC: Is there a venue that stands out as one you enjoyed working in? SK: Are you going to ask best and worst? (chuckles) JT: (While laughing) Let’s don’t throw people under the bus, right? SK: Well, worst won’t be in Yankton, I promise. JT: Mine would be in the state of Colorado, I can tell you that much. SK: I can give you a couple of worsts. This will sound like a kiss-up. I love the new venue, the new vSIMPLE continued on page 22 HISVOICEvJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018v21