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The ALOST Podcast, XXIV: All in La Familia

The past few years have seen Saint Francis College excel on the playing fields in various sports, including the women's basketball team winning its first ever conference tournament championship, which they did this past March. (Don Wright/AP Photo)
Saint Francis College has made headlines with recent success in various sports, with one of the highlights being the women’s basketball team’s first ever conference tournament title, which they won this past March. (Don Wright/AP Photo)

From the inclusion of the latest member of the Heisman Trophy fraternity to the emergence of a powerhouse in a new professional league, our latest episode of The A Lot of Sports Talk Podcast has all of that covered, and more. The 81st edition of the presentation of the Heisman Trophy occurred last week in Times Square in New York, and we begin the show by briefly hearing from each of the three Heisman Trophy finalists – Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and, the eventual winner of the award, Alabama running back Derrick Henry.

Our feature interview is with Irma Garcia, director of athletics at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, NY. Garcia is one of the few women who currently serve as an athletic director at a Division I school and was the first Latina to be hired as an AD back when she got the job in 2007, and she discussed with us, among other things, her work in helping to groom the next group of future administrators (both men and women) as well as how the Franciscan way helps to shape and create the nurturing and caring atmosphere in athletics and throughout the school at Saint Francis College. Despite the enrollment at the school being less than 3,000, Garcia tells us how the Terriers have had national success recently in sports ranging from women’s basketball to men’s water polo. Also, Ms. Garcia called attention to the staggeringly low number of Latin American males who attend and graduate from college nationally and speaks to the importance of emphasizing education in Hispanic communities.

We also are joined by hockey star Kelli Stack, forward for both the Connecticut Whale of the National Women’s Hockey League and for USA Hockey. In the inaugural season of the NWHL, the Whale are currently undefeated (8-0), and Stack lets us in on the secret to the team’s success so far. Also, Stack talks about the strenuous schedule for her and other members of the women’s national team, who will head to Minnesota at the end of this month for winter training camp in preparation for the Women’s World Championship in March 2016.

Please enjoy the podcast, and leave us any and all comments that you have. Click here to go to the A Lot of Sports Talk podcast page on iTunes, and from there, you can download this show as well as subscribe to our podcast page and receive new episodes on your device the second it is posted. You can also open iTunes, and in the Podcasts section, type in “A Lot of Sports Talk” in the search box to find our shows.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/ALOST/TheALOSTPodcast24.mp3]

Interview Order: Intro & Heisman Candidates (0:00 – 11:58); Irma Garcia (12:00 – 50:43); Kelli Stack (50:49 – 56:05); Wrap-up (56:12 – 58:27)


[Cover photo (Kelli Stack) courtesy of Martin Rose/Getty Images]

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