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Leatherneckmike · 01-09-2023, 03:59 AM

Hey everybody! This is Big Country Reeves of the Texas Renegade sports network and I'm joined today here on Renegade TV for this interview with one of the newest members of the team. S69 #20 pick James Dion!

Reeves: So first of all welcome, welcome. Glad to have you join us as the first of the S69 rookies to come hang out with me and enjoy some Texas BBQ AFTER we have a chat. Hope all is well with you!

James: Well first of all happy to be here in Texas and I am quite looking forward to the BBQ. As you know, being in two sports my other current home is Kansas City which is one of the BBQ capitals of the United States so I personally have grown to love it. I’ve never had Texas BBQ before so I am looking forward to it.

Reeves: Well I think you’ll find the BBQ here is just as good if not better than KC BBQ but we’ll get to that later after the taping when catering is ready, for now let’s get to the questions. Are you ready?

James: Yes indeed I am let’s get going!

Reeves: Alright, question one. What are your plans for the long run?

James: Oh man a hard hitter right off the bat. Well I guess my plans for the long run is to help get us some championships down here in Texas. Just like I said before when I did the scouting talks or talked to media at GFG I like the playmaking and making my teammates better so my goal is to be the great passing threat that I know I can be, the eventual driver of this offense long down the road when the time comes for me and my fellow classmates to take things over. Now will this be for a while, well no of course not, but till then i’ll just contribute what I can and hopefully uh make the hall of fame some day I suppose.

Reeves: Would you rather win multiple championships or make the hall of fame?

James: Oh, another long term question and a good one. Hmmm, well being how I am, I don't know if Hall of fame is gonna be possible here in hockey as it is, in skill, my 2nd sport and there is so much talent out there I don’t know how realistic it is that I could get hall of fame out of myself. So i’m gonna say win multiple championships here in the SHL with Texas.

Reeves: Let me say we would LOVE for that goal to be met right here in Texas. Just because our temperature is hot doesn’t mean we are cold on hockey.

Reeves: Question number 4: - What is your biggest fear that you have in your career or worst case scenario for what could happen?

James: Well I mean just like anyone else I think the worst case is getting hurt. You know, some guys get drafted high and have all the promise in the world and then get knocked down by injury and, while I apologize for how much it will come up it is just a fact of me as a person and athlete, being in two sports it is very rough on the body as hard as I train. So being injured is my big one, but beyond Injury I wanna be in a good place. I’m in two great places in PBE and one in the minors here in the SHL structure already so I’m hoping this is a very positive run in a great environment here in Texas. A poisonous, toxic place is not a fun work environment for anyone and i’d rather lose with some good hard working folks who wanna get better than be good with a bunch of lazy guys who coast along and shit talk everyone in the locker room etc. So let’s go with a poor environment as a bad thing for my career or whatever precisely was the question.

Reeves: If you could lead the league in one stat, at some point in your career which would it be?

James: Oh, it’s gonna be assists. Like I said before, right I wanna create, I wanna play make. I’m hoping that I can use my vision and passing skill to set everyone up and have the good timed rip at the net minder while he’s looking elsewhere when I'm usually setting up. But of the two, score 100 goals or 100 assists lets say, i'll take the assists. So that is what i’ll lead the league in i’d say. 1a is like +/- because it means my line is great and as the middle it means I'm making the people around me better and we as a unit are better than the people across from us. That is gratifying to me as well.

Reeves: What are your plans for this upcoming season?

James: Well I’d like to get GFG into the playoffs. I love it in Great Falls and the fans are great. We have a very good coaching staff and i’d be lying if i said I wasn’t disappointed with what took place this season. I wasn’t good enough just like the rest of us, so we need to get better and I think we will this offseason. I want to get us going and get us into the postseason because when you get there anything can happen. Down in the J a ton of teams get in so it is a very realistic goal. If we get the bye into round 2 i’d be head over heels but im not exactly sure that can happen but hey you never know. Kane and I hopefully will play together, we have good chemistry. Part of the reason im glad to have him here.

Reeves: Well good to have a vision in my opinion and we hope to see you and Kane working together for many seasons to come.

Reeves: Next question, How was the scouting experience for you for the majors draft?

James: Well this one was really interesting to say the least. So in the PBE where I went 7th overall i’d say most teams talked to me. A lot of them knew my dad really well, good and bad so I was considered a known commodity by people. But plenty of GM’s or scouts still reached out and said hello which was great. Here in SHL there are more teams but my goodness basically no one reached out. I heard from Edmonton, Calgary, Buffalo and you guys, Texas. I am quite glad I wound up in a place that did scout me because to me, it shows that the GM looks at us as more than meat. That there is care put in, now It could be from some of the other places that the people who went above me just had guys who had family or friends or whatever there already and were known commodities so they had a plan. That said, I can only judge on what I see and I saw four teams come say something to me so I’d say it was disappointing overall.

Reeves: - Do you look up to any players in particular?

James: Oh god honestly I'm not really sure. I respect guys like Storm Chamberlin and other veterans I met who have come through Great Falls and the Grizz sloth that we have, which is the alumni program. I've met great people through that. But, I’m not really sure I have an idol here to be honest. I don’t really have someone to look up to or aspire to be or anything. I just kinda wanna be the first and only me if that makes sense.

Reeves: Alright, next question: If you could have an award named after you, what would the award be?

James: Probably something like a man of the year award. I have heard of this concept but it is usually given out amongst the players of PBE. It’s given to the person who gives the most back to their community in that given season. I’d love that named after me because it means I succeeded on and off the ice because I do like philanthropy as well as Hockey, baseball etc. With my James T Dion foundation I help young kids in my birthplace of Indianapolis, home away from home of Kansas City, and my dads and most of my families home of Kankakee with after school programs and after school hockey, baseball, basketball. However we get those kids off the street and out of trouble. Just this year we set up the Todd M. Dion court at one of the high schools in Kankakee and named it after my grandfather who played in the WSBL all those years ago. So something to do with charity with peer recognition.

That was part one of our extensive interview with new Renegade talent James Dion. I hope you join us next time for part two of the interview, there is plenty of great content to come. Next time we get a little less serious and get a little more slap happy. Pets, video games, tv shows all to come next time on Renegade TV. Adios!

1549 words RTG

***CapnCooper*** · 01-09-2023, 09:28 AM

Great Read!!
We're happy to have you here in Texas James Dion!
TEX TEX TEX

***Anthique*** · 01-09-2023, 03:26 PM

Good stuff again!
Hope you and Kane will keep their chemistry in Texas in a couple of seasons.
We tried to reach out to everybody, but good thing Cooper didn't forget you Smile

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