Donovan Fields is one of the most joyous basketball players I’ve ever covered. His smile on the court was always infectious while at Cal Poly. Along with some friends from his hometown of Newburgh, NY, Fields has started a podcast. We talked about Donovan’s journey to Division I basketball and his impressions of Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo. 

Jeff Troesch is a mental coach for athletes. He works with lots of college programs, including at Cal Poly, and his career as a sports psychologist is super interesting. I have been wanting to have Jeff on the podcast for probably a few years, but had never made it happen. Our conversation was wide-ranging. We talked about how Jeff got into the business of helping players with the mental side of the game, what he sees more of nowadays, and how his job has changed a little with athletes working to cope with the issues surrounding COVID-19. 

As a photographer, Matt Brown has covered just about every major sporting event in this country, including the Big West Tournament for most of the past 2-3 decades. Matt was covering the women’s side of the bracket early last week and preparing for four games at the Honda Center last Thursday morning when the news came that the sports world was at a standstill. Matt talked to Owen Main and Chris Sylvester about the feeling inside the Walter Pyramid earlier in the week and what the scene was as the decision came down at the Honda Center on Thursday.

When I first started taking photos seriously, Quinton Adlesh was the best player on the team I covered the most. Following his career to Columbia and then back to USC as a grad transfer this year has been really fun. Chris Sylvester and I talked with the grad transfer senior on a team that was going to make the NCAA Tournament this season about what the past few weeks have been like for him. 

On this episode of the Going on Break edition, Owen Main and Chris Sylvester are joined by Cal Poly head basketball coach John Smith. Coach Smith discussed the last week from the perspective of a Division I head coach and a parent of a Division I player across the country during the past week. 

Owen Main and Chris Sylvester kick off the “Going on Break” edition of the Fansmanship podcast. 

The mandated postponement and cancelation of so many sporting events is the best thing for everyone, but the ramifications for people whose daily life revolves around sports will be long-lasting. The “Going on Break” editions of the podcast, will explore how life is changing throughout this unprecedented time from a multitude of people.

Today’s guest was Ghizal Hasan. Ghizal is the play-by-play voice of CSUN men’s basketball and UC Riverside baseball. Topics are wide-ranging as we get our footing with this new format. 

It’s a BIG 2019-20 Big West Men’s basketball preview!

Cal Poly play-by-play man Chris Sylvester and Nick Wynne join the podcast to break-down preseason expectations for all nine Big West teams. Come for the Cal Poly fandom… stay for the breakdown of every single roster and schedule in the conference. 

Eight weeks after he was announced as Cal Poly’s new men’s basketball coach, John Smith joins the podcast. We discussed his first few months on the job and his outlook on the Cal Poly men’s basketball program. 

After Sunday night’s press conference with Don Oberhelman regarding the upcoming search for a coach, it seemed like a good idea to sit and pontificate a little about who the next Cal Poly coach could be. I tracked down Nick Wynne and Chris Sylvester to help me break it down a little. Sure, we’re probably all stuck on certain guys. None of us have any clue. Like Nick said in his post — you’d probably still take the field over anybody who we can think of off the top of our head or anybody who was even in Nick’s post.

With that in mind, hope you enjoy the conversation. 

As a fan, sometimes I hate sound bites. It’s always been illuminating for me to hear entire, unedited press conferences in context. In that spirit, here is the entirety of the press conference held on Sunday night at Cal Poly. In it, Don Oberhelman fielded questions about what he’s looking for in the next men’s basketball coach, his meeting with players on Sunday, and what his plans are moving forward to find a coach.