Listen Here
By: Leah Alsept
alseptl@findlay.edu
@l_mac0913
Two UF students followed their dream of hosting a sports podcast— and they found growth within themselves
Podcasts can be about anything. Humor, music, news, crime, politics, religion— literally anything that a person can think of can end up as a podcast, including sports (of course).
Kelvin Reisenfield and Alex Kerstetter are the hosts of a sports podcast called “The Turnover.” Each episode is uploaded onto UFTV’s website here.
Kerstetter, a Sports Business and Business Management major, and Reisenfield, an Exercise Science major at the university, are both soccer players and huge fans of football. They talk about the sport every day. And they’ve been football fans as long as they could remember.
“But I mean I’ve been to games since I can remember. I remember one of the best memories was my dad driving me to elementary school one day. I don’t remember what grade I was in. Probably first grade or second grade,” he said. “I remember him like driving past the school and I was like, ‘Where are we going?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, why don’t we just go to a Bengals game?’ And I was like, ‘Sweet, sounds good to me.’”
Kerstetter griped a little about his past with the Detroit Lions.
“I’m from Detroit. I really like the Lions. I should say I tolerate the Lions. I don’t really like them that much. They break my heart week in and week out,” he said. “I’ve been to one Lions game as a kid, but I’ve seen every single freaking one since that, and I’ve been disappointed more times than not.”
“The Turnover” is on its nineteenth episode. Kerstetter actually meant to start the podcast much earlier than he did. Writing an email to Professor and UFTV Studio manager Andrew du Fresne, Kerstetter waited for a response. Days passed and Kerstetter finally checked his inbox to see what was going on.
He found the unsent email to du Fresne in his drafts.
“Andrew responded right away. And him and I had met previously because I was close to doing it before. I was like, yeah, just give me 24 hours [to find a co-host],” Kerstetter said of the situation.
Reisenfield joined the show after Kerstetter tweeted out he needed someone to host his podcast with.
“Kerstetter and I hang out like every day,” Reisenfield said. “I mean, we talk about football all the time. We might as well.”
“Just clean up the vocabulary a little bit and put a camera on us. It’s the same thing,” Kerstetter joked.
Kerstetter remembers how it felt to be in front of a camera for the first episode. It was an entirely new experience for the soccer player.
“I mean, if you look at our very first week show to where we are now, I mean, we were very monotone and we were messing up guy’s names that we talk about all the time and we’d pause and lose our train of thought,” he said about the first week being on camera. ”Even though you don’t have millions of viewers, the lights come on, and you lose your train of thought. You feel completely lost.”
“We were just like talking back and forth and like looking down at our notes and my notes didn’t even have anything on it. It was a blank sheet of paper.” Reisenfield revealed about the first episode.
Now, though, the two have found their flow.
“We’re better at finding words to fill the spaces. You’re not losing your train of thought as much either. We’ve got something to talk about,” Kerstetter added. “We’ve got an idea. We’ve got an opinion.”
“Kelvin is a very emotional guy and he jumps around and uses his hands and stuff,” Kerstetter said about his friend. “I’m much more monotone in my body movements. They don’t move as much. Sometimes Kelvin will get me fired up, I guess, and I’ll move more. But for the most part, Kelvin likes to.”
Reisenfield laughed. “I wear my heart on my sleeve,” he said.
Another change they’ve seen is within their friendship. The two already talked almost every day, but they’ve been brought closer together because of the podcast.
“This is something that like I’ll show my kids one day. Like I worked with Kerstetter. And like I’ve known him since my freshman year. We both played soccer together,” Reisenfield said. “Just the fact that we get to like reminisce and like watch it and just talk about like what we want to do plan and all that. It’s been awesome.”
It’s inevitable the podcast will end. Kerstetter and Reisenfield are seniors, and all seniors must eventually graduate and move on. Kerstetter is interested in starting another project like “The Turnover” once he’s into his career because of his major. Reisenfield is waiting to see where he’ll go next to continue his education.
“It’s probably gonna end. I know it is sad because I’ve really enjoyed doing it, but it’s probably going to be a one and done,” Kerstetter said. “Considering I study Sports Business Strategy Sports Management, I wouldn’t mind doing something similar to this in the future. So it’s maybe not closing the book, just turning the page.”
They haven’t thought a lot about replacing themselves with other students who may be interested in continuing the show, but they have a few months left before they leave campus. Anything could happen within that time. Life is about as unpredictable as a football game.
Correction: “The Turnover” is on its nineteenth episode.
