 Welcome to season three, episode two of Stable Talk. We have men's soccer CJ Batetta and AJ Morales here today with us. Hey, guys. Hello. We're gonna do some quick trivia. We're gonna do some question and answer. Tell us where you guys are from. How long you been playing soccer? How you ended up at Stevenson? All that fun stuff. CJ. Oh, okay, okay. So I was originally born in New York in Brooklyn, but then I moved to Lancaster County, PA when I was four. And then that's pretty much when I started playing soccer. So I've been playing soccer since I was four years old and how I found Stevenson. I always had the plans of playing college soccer, but I hurt myself junior year. So I didn't really look at that many schools. So then summer going into my senior year, I played at some random tournament and then I got an email from Stevenson because I had never even heard of it. I got in touch with Graham and the other coaches and then it sort of just like went from there. It was kind of just a perfect match. And now I'm here. Nice. Love you, CJ. Love that, love that, love that. Well, I'm originally from Miami, born and raised. I started playing when I was around 10. Like I started playing like serious, like travel. And as time went on, I ended up coming to Maryland when I was about 15. So after my freshman year of high school, I came up here pretty much just to pursue soccer and college, just the opportunities were a lot better up here. So that's how I found myself in the Maryland scene, just looking at a couple of different schools, playing with a couple of different clubs in the area. And I was at one of my high school games and then the former coach Andrew Bortalon emailed me and that's how I got in touch with him and that's where I am right now. So. What position and majors are you guys? I'm a center defensive mid or center mid and I'm also a bio major. Thanks. I'm an outside bag. I'm a marketing major with a minor in coding and software design. Nice. So since the pandemic started, what has been each of your guys' favorite activity or trip or whatever that you guys have done that like you normally wouldn't have done if the pandemic hadn't happened? I don't know if I would say that it's something that I wouldn't normally do. One of the activities that I really got into, like my family and I have obviously the quarantine and all have been spending a lot of time together. So we have a lot of campfires in the backyard. Nice. So that's one thing. And also I was fortunate enough to have an uncle that was getting rid of like a weightlifting set. So like I usually work out, but now with Jim's being closed, I got really lucky that I got this weightlifting set in my basement. So I've been doing that all of quarantine. So campfires and working out. Campfires and working out. You're the best things. Right, right. You're the best things right there. Pretty much early, early months, a lot of spending time with the family. So a lot of things you did was like building puzzles. So I have two, like two younger siblings under the age of eight in my house. So it's a lot of trying to keep them entertained and they're really energetic. So we just take them outside, play with them. Other than that, I was very fortunate enough to see a lot of people I hadn't seen since high school. So I got to hang out with a very small group of like really close friends. So that was really nice. What two puzzles did you make? What two, oh, okay. So they really love Disney. So we made a couple of different like Pixar puzzles. So one was a Cocoa puzzle. Another one was a Toy Story puzzle. We made a Jumanji puzzle. How many? We made a couple of different ones. How many pieces do you guys get? My mom tries to get them, but she tries to get like a thousand plus pieces. Like mom can't spend a thousand. Yeah, yeah. That is advanced. I keep, we keep it like simple. We keep it like around 300 or 100 pieces. So it's easy to do like in one night or one sitting. If you get like a thousand, I don't know if we can. Yeah, she just leaves in the living room. It'll be a week. She just leaves it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lengthy process. I've heard there's like 2000 and 3000 pieces out there. What did you guys have to adapt first? Going to school in Maryland, what would you guys, anything stick out about living in Maryland now, food or culture-wise? Maybe a little bit of culture. A lot of the guys on the team actually happened to go to like the same high school. So they were all sort of like tight-knit when I got here. And also like the lingo, you know, with slang and all. Definitely a little bit there from the Lancaster County. So I had to learn a little bit of the language. So that's something that I had to adapt to. But other than that, like the food's great. I mean, we have a lot of options really close to campus. So I can't really be too big of a complaint I have, but yeah, I love it all. What's some of the slang that you've noticed? So like, oh boy, I don't even know what to say. So, okay, so I learned, I don't know if this is even, I don't know where this is from, but the one kid on the team uses the term brick in reference to like a long period of time. So like, oh, I haven't played soccer in a brick. I've never heard that. I've heard it. Yeah, right. And then also like, I'd never heard it before, at least from where I was from, but like the term dummy is just like casual. Like you call your friend and tell me like, oh, what's on dummy? Like it's not like a bad thing. It's just like what you said, that's another thing. Dummy's a big one. No, I picked up on, I kind of love it. It always makes me laugh, but yeah, positive. Yeah, you're always saying something, oh, another big thing, if you're just from, I didn't know this until I kind of moved up here and like started to hang around a lot more people from Baltimore is how they pronounce some of their words. So like say the word two, sometimes the other guys on the team would say like two and so on and like so on and so forth. So that's like a really big thing that was different when I came up here. Another big thing that I really like realized that I had never experienced was the weather. Oh, free, like absolutely just like the winter time and like fall, like seeing like the leaves falling stuff. Like just like the changing of the seasons was really new to me at first. And I like, I love it now, but at first like when it was really cold, I didn't like it just cause I was absolutely freezing. We haven't had a cold winter in like two or three years. Oh yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. So our first segment is gonna be, would you rather? So our first one is, would you rather eat a jar of mayo or a cup of hot sauce? Oh man. That's hot sauce any day of the week. Hot sauce, yeah. Just get it down. I'm not eating a spoon and mayo in my mouth, that's a no go. No, thank you. I'll take the hot sauce as well. Mayo is the best thing. Yeah, it is gross. I don't think I'd be able to eat it either honestly. Really? You can get one of that. Not a whole cup of hot sauce, maybe like. No, what's a cup? Are we talking like a little, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a cup where you would like put ketchup in at like a two. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. I was thinking like a solo cup. Shot of hot sauce. Yeah, I don't know. Down the hash? All right, would you rather live on a boat for the rest of your life or an RV for the rest of your life? Oh, I would say, I would say live on a boat. I feel like I'd be able to travel the world. Yeah. That was my answer at first, too, but then I was like, what, like, doesn't this sea get really rough? They can, they can. I'd definitely choose RV. Like you can drive anywhere. Yeah. Also like the sea, like I feel like water is water anywhere. So if I'm living on the ocean, like, it all looks the same unless you're going to like some across ocean journeys. I'd rather just drive across the country and like stop it all in that way. I mean, I guess, but I'd rather be on land so I'm not rocking all the time. It's seasick. Well, what if, what if you're stuck in like a place you don't want to be with your RV? Drive somewhere else. No way. Also, yeah, on the boat for the rest of my life, no way. The boat is rough. Yeah, for the rest of my life. No, more risk of death in the boat, I feel like. Also eating is hard. Like you got a fish, like am I allowed to leave the boat? Or am I just like living on it? You can dock your boat on a toast line. So, okay. Okay. There's your stories on it. You can go to the RV route. You can, you can dock and you can get off and go off on it. Okay. Yeah. You just got to sleep on the boat. Yeah. Fair enough. Okay. Would you rather never use social media again or never watch another TV show or movie ever again? Wow. That's a thinker. I can go without social media. However, like not, not being able to watch a movie or show. Yeah. That's a tough one. I enjoy watching movies. I enjoy like watching different TV shows, social media. Personally, I can go without it. Yeah. I think I could live without it. It's just like being so detached from everybody else. I feel like everything is so social media oriented. So I just have like a harder time getting information than everybody else. But I love movies and TV. So I might just have to go without the social media. Also, I feel like it's healthier too. So like. It is definitely. Definitely. All right. Last one. Would you rather look like a fish or smell like a fish? Did I like this one? Oh my God. I can see. I can smell it. I don't remember writing the answer question. Fish smells bad. I don't think I could. I mean, I'll just take the, I'll take the L and just look like a fish. I'm not trying to smell like that. At least you could smell good if you look ugly. You know what I'm saying? Like if you look like a fish, I could do other things to make me look better. And what kind of fish am I looking like? Yeah. Yeah. That's important too. This is important. Like a sunfish trout. I don't know. Normal. Eyes are on the side of your head. Oh God. Nice average lake fish. You can get like really ripped and like smell good. And then you just look really ugly, but you have everything else good about you. But if you smell like a fish, like there's nothing you can do about that. Yeah. Like there's makeup and. Right. I don't know if makeup can fix eyes on the side of the face, though. Like if you look like this guy. Get some eyeliner guns. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. That's just, would I be like skin colored? Like would I still have this skin tone? Or would I be that color? A fit? You think skin tone. Okay. That's rough. That's diabolical. I guess I look like a fish. This really attractive one. Can you see it? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. I'm still picking looking like that. Yeah. Cause like people don't, some people don't care what you look like. But if you smell, it's really hard to hang out. Right. Right. It's about what's on the inside. Yeah. It's about what's on the inside. Yeah. I would bring in like, I would bring in salmon and broccoli to the office and they see we get really upset. He wouldn't. If you wouldn't have that. You're really about to eat fish in a room of six people. It's a quality meal, though. Yeah. Quality meal. It is a good meal. It's a good meal. All right. Team superlatives. To me, player, coach. Oh yeah. Player, coach, trainer, whoever. Most likely to be our next president. Who's most likely who or what I love to be the next president? Like, I think I'd put Joe in high one. Characteristics to run for president, go through the whole thing and can like rule our country. The rule it. I don't know if anybody has the way we would do all that work. But if I were to put somebody in office, definitely Dylan Holi. He's so calm and just like, I would just feel so comfortable having him in office. Like, he's just like so unbiased, very logical. I just think he's a great option. But I don't think he would go through that effort to make it a case. I don't think so either. Definitely. I think my choice would be Matt Steltano. Just being our keeper, just looking just the way he analyzed his stuff. And. That's a good point. Just being one of the captains, he just has a control over the game and overall. So that's my choice. That is a very good. Yeah, I agree. Definitely. So it's like going to go viral. Like, think of like, okay. Like, it's 2011 and Vine is still a thing. He was most likely to pop up online. I think Cruz, any day of the week. Vine, Cruz. If it's Vine, I think Ryan Cruz could put something on social media like that to go viral. Like that. He's like the most unique person you ever meet. Crazy. So yeah, definitely him. Okay. I'm gonna have to give it to Dominic Solano. Oh, true. Why? We just, we have, I'm not gonna get into it, but we've seen it in this question as well. That's very, that's very, that's very, very funny. I think that would go very well. As much. Okay. Who's most likely to be a millionaire post graduation? I don't know. Like, there's different ways to become a millionaire. Like you could win the lottery. Like some guy can. Let's say millionaire by 30 though. Billionaire, billionaire. There's so many. Billionaire. There's so many millionaires. Billionaires West Colvin. I love the B one. I know. By 830. Yeah. Forbes 30 under 30. I guess they got like a 30. Dude. That's a tough one. Maybe Tart? No. You gotta give it to your school. I mean, I'm gonna be broke when I'm like 28. I'm going to medical school. So I'll just be in student debt. Like it's gonna be wrong. So champion me. I'll be making money by 30, hopefully. That's the goal. But I would say, CJ, you're a finance man, right? You can do it. Yeah, you're very smart with your money. You're mature, you're responsible. Yeah, CJ, coding. You can come up with like the next big app. I mean, I got ideas in the back of my head. I'm gonna keep going. He doesn't want to spoil it. He doesn't, yeah, right. He doesn't want to get spoiled. We can't jinx it. We can't jinx it. You know who would be, I think, would be very, very successful. I think Tart would be. That's because he is a computer science major. So he's really into that stuff. And he's very smart. And he knows what he's doing. I think that would be my nominee for the secret. Entrepreneurship Mindset. Indeed. Best or biggest bromance on the team? Like, I think bromance can be expanded into like a slightly broader term. So like, not just two guys, because typically like me, if you see me somewhere, you're probably gonna find one of my, like four of the roommate or three of the roommates, Drew, Dale, or Sean. So like, I think that's probably a pretty good bromance. Like we're always together, especially now that we live together and even on campus. What's your biggest, what is like the biggest bromance moment between the three of you guys? That's like funny. Oh. You guys have a couple. That's what, there's a lot. That's like so hard to pick. But, here, CJ, you do your answer. I'll think of a moment. I would say, I'm gonna give this one to me and Jevin. Like, me and Jevin, we're always, we went to high school together. So like, we're always together. We're always picking at each other. We're always, we're always fighting with each other at some point. We like each other. And these guys know, so I give it to me, Jevin. Oh, okay, bromance moment. Got one. So last spring, we all lived in Wooded Way together. So, six of you guys, right? Okay, so it was a good setup, well, questionable. But it was like, it was four soccer players and one random in one room. And then directly across the hall was another five soccer players. So it was kind of like, essentially a nine-man room at most points. So like similar bromance moments would be, like we'd have sleepovers, right? Pretty crap. Where sleepovers as in like, all of us load our beds into one room and watch a movie. And then everyone just passes out in the same room. So like a sleepover, but it's a little like a room over. Those are pretty fun. Okay, who is the most accident prone? All right, any of that one. Accident prone or injury prone? Yeah. Accident or injury prone? I'm gonna have to give it to Cruz, unfortunately. Yeah. Oh, yeah, with the shoulder. Yeah, definitely Ryan Cruz. Poor guy has been, has been so little, but like little story for guys. He had dislocated his shoulder and after going to rehab, et cetera, he started to get like back into like lifting with us, et cetera. So like the first day he was back lifting with us, we were doing like a pre-hab exercise just to get our muscles warmed up and stuff. So it was like one of the red bands and you just have to like, it's pretty much like stretching and island stuff. And he does it, he does it again and his shoulder just popped, just popped back. Poor guy. It was, it's just unfortunate. He was always in the training with us on things, poor guy, he could never catch a break. So. That was also after that first day of pre-season where he blew out his shoulder in the first season, like the first practice too. Like wasn't that the first practice? Yeah, it was. Like when we got back, he got hurt and then as soon as he got back, he got hurt the next one with the band. Like it was two times in a row. There's always one on each team. He can't catch a break. No. We're gonna move into some Q and A here. All right, start you off easy. Favorite soccer player of all time? Mine would definitely have to be Thierry Henry. He's a French soccer player who retired a couple of years ago. He played for Arsenal for a long time. So he was really good there, but that's not really when I was, I wasn't really watching soccer when I was younger like that. But once I got older, I got into watching like a lot of his clips and stuff. He's just like super classy player. He now coaches actually. So I just really liked the way he plays, he loves number 14, my favorite number. So then that's my favorite player. My favorite is Christiane Ronaldo. That's the easy reason. Like when I started watching soccer a lot, like Manchester United, he was a big influence. Like I would get his hairstyles, I would try to get the same piece he had. So definitely he was a big influence. And just the way he plays, I really enjoyed watching him and just his hunger and motivation when he's on the field and just trying to make his team better around him. So that's my favorite. What about you AJ, Ronaldo or Messi? I would have to pick Messi personally. I just like, I like the way he carries himself more on the field just as like a leader. And also I just like his playstyle more. I think he's a little less flash, a little more class. And Ronaldo is kind of the opposite of that. But also there, I mean, obviously they're both great players and it's hard to like pick one over the other. Some one has a good season, the other one doesn't, then it's like reverse. But if I had to pick between the two, that would be Messi. Okay, if you could have any exotic pet in the world, what would it be? Like no dogs or cats, rabbit or any of that, like an exotic animal. If it wasn't essentially wrong either, it would probably be like 20, like 20, something like that. Sometimes there's ethical issues. We'll even try to get like pet wolves and stuff, I know. This was like kind of easy for me, honestly. So like, do you guys know who Sway Lee is? He's like from Race Remember the Rap? Yeah, he has like, I don't know if it's like a lemur or like some like little monkey thing, but I would love to have like a pet monkey because they're like, one, monkeys are super smart so they can be really personable. Two, they have like hands and they do all their own stuff. They're like mini humans. They're just super cute, a lot of fun. I remember in elementary school, I used to like ask my mom for a pet monkey all the time. They're sweet. Anytime I do. I like decorated with stuff from monkeys. Anytime I think about a monkey, I think about the one from the monkey museum, who's like seeing on television. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great movie. If I'm gonna have, well, I kind of, it's not an exotic pet, but it's like, I have a lizard. So I have a, he's a Chinese water dragon. His name, his name is Yoshi. He's my little man, but if I would, I would really love to have an iguana. I think that's my, if I'd have to choose one. People get pet iguanas, don't they? Or do they not? Yeah. Is it iguanas or lizards that the tail can like fall off and then it grows right back? Is that so? It depends. And so like some reptiles do it. My little guy doesn't, but there are some, like geckos or different types of small lizards that where the tail just comes off. Which one changes color? Is that an iguana or an iguana? That's a commune. An iguana or gecko. They change, they change their colors and they show like their colors. So they fall? All right, favorite soccer team of all time. I guess franchise or just like maybe one year of a specific team, whichever route you want to go. DJ, go ahead bud. My favorite club is pretty basic, with a three-metre, Los Blancos, I think. All-time Rial or any specific years? No, just, well, just like as a club and a whole, but like when I really started to get into them, like when the past, like within the past decade and just the run we had from, I think it was 2014 to 2017, just winning three champions in a row. It's like, I'll give you like the greatest team of all time, in my opinion. I'm just watching them. And then when we went to Spain a year ago and we got to like what, we got to like go to the field and walk down to the tunnel and stuff. And just seeing the stadium for the first time was a really special moment for me personally. So that was really fun. That's my team. So I think it's a good thing that you said like years and stuff, so growing up, I was like a Barcelona fan because my dad, the exact opposite of CJ, but my dad watched a lot of Barcelona games when I was growing up. So that's kind of what I did with him. So that's how I learned to love Messi and just like soccer in general. And then as I got older and got more into soccer, like I said, my favorite player is Thierry Henry. So as he was getting older, he actually transferred over to the MLS, which is professional soccer league in the United States. Not as great of a soccer league, but I'd like one was born in New York, one, Thierry Henry transferred to the New York Red Bulls, three really liked their jerseys and like their sweatshirts and stuff. So I kind of just like transferred over to follow my favorite player. And I consider myself a Red Bulls fan. I don't really watch that much MLS because I mean, it's all right. But I just love mainly Thierry Henry and the Red Bulls in Barcelona, I guess. So I'm not really too invested in any team specifically. Before we move on, do you guys have any good or funny stories from Spain that you guys want to tell the podcast? The whole soccer team with the Spain. What was that? Wait, CJ, what was our tour guy's name? No, Fernando. Fernando, okay. Fernando. So Fernando, right? When you go on his international trip, I don't know if you guys have been on them. Like you have like an assigned tour guide for like your whole trip, or at least we did. So his guy's name was Fernando. Funny guy, right? We came up with a whole bunch of nicknames. Whole bunch of nicknames from over the course of the trip, one of them being Fabrizio, one of them being Jordan and like, there was all these different nicknames, right? The most, like the funny thing that he would always do is when we were always exhausted because you know, like the time difference and also playing soccer, hanging out, whatever, whenever we'd take a rest stop or like a break at some like tour we were taking, he would always tell us we have like, so we'd go on the tour, right? And you're supposed to have assigned free time. And after we'd go through the tour and the like the scheduled activities, you're supposed to have like 30 to 40 minutes or like maybe an hour of free time, but it always ended up that it was running late. So a funny man, Fabrizio, Fernando would go, all right guys, you got like two minutes of free time. So like that's probably the end of the entire trip because what are you supposed to do in the two minutes that you have for free time? Like we need you back in 10 minutes. You got free time now. There's just that kind of thing. Always had us laughing, but yes. That's actually really funny. So we're gonna do some trivia, just men's soccer trivia and Stevenson trivia. How many years has Graham been at Stevenson? More than my life. He's always been there for me. And Stevenson, I was a coach. No, that's Stevenson. Oh boy, I didn't know. Ages. I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna guess. Okay. I'll say, dude, is it really that long? I'm gonna say 13. That's right. That's right. Oh, let's go. Thank you, dog. You just got major brownie points with Graham. Sweet. I'm impressed when we asked that question, no one ever gets anywhere, like a question similar to that, no one ever gets anywhere in here. Lucky guess, I guess. Who were the top three scores for the men's Stevenson 2019 soccer team? Oof, 2019, so no. Yeah, top three. Was this past season? Yeah, top three and goals. I know. It was, one was Jay. Yeah, Jay was the number one. The second one was, I think, I don't remember. I know I'm one of the three, I think, but I don't remember if I'm two or three. What was it, Tark? Yeah, Tark, two. One, Jay, two, Tark, three, me. Yeah. Okay. You have a good idea. Two for two. Okay, who were the top three goal scores in the US men's soccer national team history? Oh, I know one. Donovan, right? Donovan. Yes, sir. Donovan is two. Two. Convince is one. I was going to guess, yeah. Good one, see it. Josie Altidore, maybe? Yeah. Oh, we're on a roll, baby. We're on a roll. Okay, I'm going to throw in a bonus. Oh, yeah, a bonus. So I guess Clint and Landon finished with the same exact amount of goals. That's crazy. You have a guess of how many would be. To put it in perspective, Altidore had 42. Ooh. Wait, you're asking us how many they have? Yeah, how many goals have Tyron? Tyron, all-time goals, I guess. I got my guess. Are we guessing separate or the goal is you did? What? We're going to go separate. He just said that he had 42. Why would it be 100? No way, don't score 100 goals for the international team. I'm saying it's like 54. How much other? 52. Oh! Oh, wait, 57? 57. Oh, yeah, 57. I was close. You were really close. That was really good. Okay, I have one more that I'm throwing in right now. What was your assistant coach Bill's number at UMBC? Oh, this is a hard one. But he's a centerback, right? What's the centerback number? Like five? Like 18? That's not my guess. That's not my guess. I don't know. Centerbacks have lower high numbers or it does not matter. I think people just don't care. I don't know. I'm going to guess and say his number was 23. I'll go with that, sure. I'll put my money on CJ. It's three. Was he three? Three. I'm going to have to take that up on Bill. Yeah. What do you say? Bill's a quiet man. We were close. Yeah. There's a three in there. You take the two out of it and then you have it. You guys did really good on Korea, actually. Thank you. Women's soccer last week should not do this, though. But people don't consider it, so. Bill's a fast guy. But yeah, thanks for the answer. Yeah, that's about all we have for today. Awesome. We always ended as, what do we usually say? If you want to give a shout out, your other story. Shout out to anyone, your mom, your dad. Shout out to Janine Morales, my mom. Shout out to Drew, Dale, Sean, and Cruz, the Rumi's. Yeah, that's all I got for you guys. Shout out my parents, much love. Shout out my Rumi's. Eric, Jay, Dylan, Jevin. All the boys watching. All the boys. Yeah, shout out to your coach. Shout out to her. Shout out to Big Bill, Big Billy holding it down, number three here in BC. Shout out to Grandma Lara, just being grand. Shout out to Musty, we didn't forget about you. Coach Jim, shout out to all the boys coming into freshman. It's gonna be fun. You're to get everyone back together. So I hope it's a good one. Great one.