Larry Jewell

3, 2, 1. Talking with the successful coaches of the Utah state champion Little League team, Russ Nielsen and Burke Staley. First of all, Burk, you've been getting top billing on this. How did that work out? Top billing? What do you mean by that? You're usually listed before us in the program. Extra full. Maybe I'm taller than he is. Well, so am I, but that doesn't count. Let's talk a little bit. What happens when you come to this Little League regional tournament? I know you came down Friday. What did you start off with, Russ? Well, Friday when we first got here, they had a get acquainted picnic for us. All the kids got acquainted with the other teams and stuff. And we have a guy over us. He's the deputy fire chief, and he came to it and talked to our kids and stuff. Do you remember his name? Bob Seckham. Bob Seckham. Bob Seckham. Now, he's your sponsor here? Yeah, he's over us. It's called Team 14. There's one for each team. He's the guy who's over us. Burke, you had to wait from Friday until Tuesday to play. Are the kids antsy? Yeah, a lot. They've been getting in little fights and quarrels and stuff in the rooms. But I think they're ready now, though. They're starting to settle down a little bit. Do they go out and watch all the games? Yeah, that's what they look forward to on the days that they don't play, is other games, watching other teams. Let's turn back to Russ for a minute. Russ, this must be kind of interesting to have all of your competitors rooming within a few hundred feet of you. Yeah, it's fun, I think, because other kids come around and they ask me and Burke here if we're players. They can't believe that we're players, and we just kind of tease them a little bit. But they made friends with the state of Washington. They live next door to us. They made a few with them. It's pretty neat. The team that scored the most runs is living right across the way. New Mexico. Yeah. New Mexico is a good ball club. I haven't talked to any of their guys. I hardly ever see them around. I don't know if they go away and practice or what, but they're a good ball club. Burke, after the picnic and all, you went to Disneyland, I understand. Sunday. Yeah. Everybody seemed like they liked that quite a bit. Everybody liked. They liked Space Mountain and the Matterhorn a lot. All the fast, scary rides. But Everybody got about 2 o' clock. Everybody started to get pretty tired and we started waiting for the buses to come and that people were getting tired of waiting in lines. Kids were. Anyway, let's talk a little bit about this opponent tonight. Do you know much about Oregon? Oh, they have big guys. They're big and they hit pretty good. I don't know many. I don't know anything about their pitching except they have big pitchers. But I don't know. I haven't really scouted them out or nothing like that because they haven't played yet. I haven't seen them play. I understand they're confident. Yeah. They asked me if. They came to me and asked me if we were going to show up to the game tonight, some of their players. I told them, yeah, we'd be there. Let's get down. Let's get a couple of your cohorts who are standing here on the sidelines. Let's get them out of the way and you guys can tell me the starting lineup. Have you decided upon one, Russ? Yeah, we have. Leading off will be Dave Worthington, playing shortstop. Batting second will be Brad Keys playing second base, batting third will be Bruce Prisby, pitching, batting fifth will be Dwayne Martin. Playing third base, batting fourth, batting fifth will be Blaine Millen, catching, batting sixth will be John Boutel, playing right field. Batting seventh will be Monty Johnston playing first base, batting eighth will be Brett Henderson playing left field. And batting ninth will be Charles Tulane, playing center field. What about your strengths? Now, you've been with these kids through a number of tournament games. The strengths from. For this team, we hit the ball real well. I think our pitchers, they're consistent. They're not really that over pounding. They have a little junk, you know, throws them off. That's. I think our strongest point is our hitting. And we have good fielding also. The weaknesses. Weaknesses? Oh, sometimes our base running isn't that up to par. We make a few mistakes there, but we're pretty. We're pretty consistent through everywhere. I don't know what really our weaknesses might be. Burke might want to know more. Burke, let's find out. What about the weaknesses? Oh, probably we don't have a fast, overpowering pitcher. It's probably our main weak point on our team, I guess. Bet you kids have been heartbreak kids for a lot of other ball clubs. One run wins in the last three games. Our team. They don't. They don't. They won't blow it in the clutch. They'll win it in the clutch. Good luck to you. Burke and Russ, congratulations on the state championship. And good luck tonight. Okay, thanks.