Buddy Buck Show

Buddy Buck (00:00)
What's up friends and neighbors? Buddy Buck here, back with another episode of Community Connect.

This episode of Community Connect is brought to you by Buddy Buck Real Estate, the Title Sponsor of the Duvall Easter egg hunt in town. It's going to be a collaboration with the city of Duvall. So join us on April 4th for a fun afternoon of eggs, activities, and family fun. Learn more at DuvalEaster.com.

I'm here with Aiden Valentine, Junior at Cedarcrest High School, the Red Wolves. Aiden what's going on, man? How you doing?

Aiden Valentine (00:37)
What's up, man? Glad to be here.

Buddy Buck (00:38)
That's cool. That's cool. I know we've been chopping it up a little bit on Instagram and glad to finally get you on the show, man, and talk to you a little bit about what's going on, with football, with you, with life, with town community, all the good things. So to kick this thing off, I got a question for you. What is your favorite smell?

Aiden Valentine (00:53)
⁓ okay. I feel like if you're from Washington, you should understand this. It's the smell right before it's going to rain outside. Like, you know, like you walk outside and it's like about to rain. That smell is just kind of like, it's good.

Buddy Buck (01:07)
That is such a very Washington thing. And I know exactly what you're talking about for sure. Especially being a football person myself, man, that smell is like kind of on two different levels. It's like, okay, it might be game time now with that smell too, right? Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. So what is it about that smell that you love? Is that a core memory from like early days or do you know where that stems from?

Aiden Valentine (01:09)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think, I mean, growing up in Washington my whole life, being outside, it's just like, it's always raining, especially like around this time, like, like spring, it's being outside, I just know like sometimes if I smell it, I'm like, no, I gotta go inside because I don't want to get rained on or I stay outside and get muddy. So it's like, it's just always been a childhood thing.

Buddy Buck (01:47)
That's cool, man. So being in Duvall so you said born and raised here, yeah?

Aiden Valentine (01:51)
Yeah, I was born in Washington. Yeah, born in Washington, lived in Sammamish up until eighth grade, and then I moved over to Carnation, so.

Buddy Buck (01:53)
or Washington. Yeah.

Okay, so is that where you live now currently and it's Carnation? Okay, cool. And then why the move from Sammamish to Carnation? I know you're an eighth grader, so you didn't probably have much say in that, but what was that move about?

Aiden Valentine (02:09)
Yeah,

um, I think me and my we were we were kind of a big family like I mean it's me uh it was me my two other brothers my older brother moved out um but I think we just wanted to be in a more open area like we have seven acres now we used to live in the neighborhood and kind of confined so we just wanted to get like outside more and be more like alone I would say so

Buddy Buck (02:32)
Yeah,

that's cool. You said two older brothers, any other siblings?

Aiden Valentine (02:36)
⁓ no, actually one older brother one younger, so I'm the middle. Yeah.

Buddy Buck (02:39)
one older, one younger. Okay, cool.

Right on. So what's that like being the middle? Is there any truth to like, you know, they say all these things about the middle child, but is that cool?

Aiden Valentine (02:47)
⁓ What I've heard a lot of things about the middle child, I've heard that the middle child is definitely the most athletic and I believe that is for sure true because I'm really the only one out of my three brothers that's actually like enjoyed sports. I mean, obviously they've played sports, but they don't like, are not as committed as I am to sports. But I mean, I love being having brothers. They're my brothers, so.

Buddy Buck (02:50)
You

That's cool. It sounds like you guys are tight, which is pretty rad. you get one. I know I was the youngest of four. it's like my brother, I have older brother and two older sisters, but my brother, you know, he picked on me quite a bit. that, and that was good though. mean, know, that's what big brothers are supposed to do, man. Yeah. Builds character. you go. Good perspective, bro, for sure. All right. So Duvall, you've been here, you know, long enough to know the answer to this. What is your favorite day in Duvall?

Aiden Valentine (03:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

yeah, builds character.

Okay, so favorite day in Duvall is probably it's in the summer. During the summer we have in football we have morning lifts from I think like 6 45 to 8 15 or something like that. So probably consists of going to those and then probably going to the river, going to the river with my buddies having fun with that. Then going to get like a nice drink from the gas station or food after

Yeah, I swimming in the river, playing football in river, whatever you know. Then going home, just chilling.

Buddy Buck (04:03)
Yeah, no, very good. So, here we go. Yeah. We just had Violet on not too long ago. So she plays, flag and then soccer and you guys are the same year, correct? Both juniors? Yeah. So, being at a smaller school, is everybody kind of tight? You know, Violet, obviously, or does like the teams like, is there some crossover?

Aiden Valentine (04:08)
Yep.

Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, I know that, yeah.

Uh, yeah, I feel like definitely like Duvall is more like Cedarcrest more smaller schools. Everybody really knows each other. Well, um, I feel like our grades pretty tight, like we're all close. I mean, we can all have conversations and you know, it won't be weird.

Buddy Buck (04:33)
that's cool. Yeah, that's kind of how it was back in the day too for me. And it's just those friendships, man, they last forever. It's fricking rad. Like it's wild. So how old are you right now? Age-wise? 16. Cool. When's the birthday?

Aiden Valentine (04:40)
Yeah.

I'm 16th. Yep.

August 17th. So I'm Young junior.

Buddy Buck (04:48)
August 17th. Okay, that's

cool, dude. Yeah, that's good. I love that. All right, so tight family living on seven acres. So being on seven acres, do you guys have animals? I'm guessing there's at least an animal in the mix.

Aiden Valentine (04:59)
Yeah,

we have right now we have two cats, indoor cats, one dog. She's old. She's like 14. Then we have two barn cats that we picked up from the flood that just just recently happened. And then we have, I think, like eight or nine chickens. And then I think this summer we're going to get like two to three goats. So definitely farm.

Buddy Buck (05:20)
Okay, cool.

And then how much do you personally interact with, you know, let's say the goats and the chickens and all that, or is that something like your family does or?

Aiden Valentine (05:28)
That's more of like my mom. My mom, she likes to do the homemade stuff. She makes homemade bread and eggs. And so, I I help out with like, know, rattling up, like getting back to the coop or going to get the eggs. But I mean, that's really it. It's mostly my mom and my dad.

Buddy Buck (05:43)
Yeah,

yeah, you do your part is what I heard. Yep, that's cool. That's awesome. All right, so football. So how long have you played? When was the first time you can remember, you know, picking up a football, catching a football?

Aiden Valentine (05:45)
Yep.

Man, like probably young. I haven't always been watching football. Like probably before like two, probably the first time I picked up a football. Like my older brother played football. My whole family has been Seahawks their whole life. So I just been surrounded by, know, watching the Seahawks and NFL. Then first time ever playing like tackle was third grade at East Lake High School.

Buddy Buck (05:59)
You

Aiden Valentine (06:18)
I played youth there. And then I stopped for a bit up until sixth to seventh grade probably because of like my dad wanted to take me out because it's kind of dangerous at that young age, know, head to head contact and concussions and stuff like that. So he took me out and then ever since then I've been playing and it's been awesome. I love it.

Buddy Buck (06:36)
how would you say that your role has changed in a leadership standpoint from even ninth grade to now?

Aiden Valentine (06:41)
Oh, a ton, you know, a freshman, my freshman year, wasn't kind of like, I didn't know that many people because I was new. so like joining football helped me like build that friendship, but it definitely has helped me grow as a leader, just like not only on the field, but off like, it's been like, it's helped a lot.

Buddy Buck (06:58)
Yeah, give me an example of some off the field leadership that you're talking about.

Aiden Valentine (07:02)
you know, kind of like my brother, like my younger brother being a role model for him and like taking them kind of take him under my wing and help him out with like stuff he needs to do in life and teaching them the right versus wrong in public situations or stuff like that. So that's, that's one example of why it's definitely helped.

Buddy Buck (07:18)
Yeah, totally. So would you say that like your boys on the gridiron, do you guys hang off the field a lot? Like what's the hangs like off the field? Are you guys still pretty tight? even when you're not practicing, playing games, all that stuff, training?

Aiden Valentine (07:31)
Yeah, oh yeah, like my buddies that I have on the field are like definitely we're brothers. well, obviously we're on the field, it's competitive and we always are trying to get each other better, know, iron sharpens iron, but off the field it's definitely we hang out, we do stuff, we we bond and play games, it's it's awesome.

Buddy Buck (07:53)
Yeah, yeah, I know that's super important, man. I'm so glad to hear that you do that, because I'm 50 now and it's crazy to even think because I mean, playing I grew up, I went to Curtis down in Tacoma. So born and raised down in Tacoma, Curtis Junior High, Curtis High School. So we were super tight because we had like one junior high to one high school. Like so, you know, we were just tight since 12. You know what mean? And so it's it's fun. Like even now today, like my wide receiver one, because I played QB.

Aiden Valentine (07:58)
Yeah.

⁓ huh.

hehe

Buddy Buck (08:19)
So like we're super tight, man. We text and still talk all the time on Instagram or whatever it is.

Aiden Valentine (08:19)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Buddy Buck (08:24)
like those friendships, man, those bonds are gonna last forever. And I'm so excited for that for you. That's dope. Because you're a wide receiver. And just explain to the folks at home too, if they're watching and maybe they're like, I kinda know football. I kinda don't know football. But you know, tell them what you play. Like what is a wide receiver to the general person that might not know?

Aiden Valentine (08:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm excited.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So, receivers are obviously people who catch the ball from the quarterback. Me personally, there's two types of receivers. There's the wide out and then there's a slot, where the slot's kind of the inside guy. He's meant to be like smaller, quicker, you know, get around people. Wide out's meant to be big, tall, go up, catch it, like on somebody's head, stuff like that. this last year playing at Seacrest, I played both, played both slot and outside. So that was a cool experience. But wide receivers are like,

They can play lots of different roles, especially in tackle, like, cause you know, can't always just throw it. You have to run. So you have to like go block and you know, get a good block. But receivers just, you know, run around, catch the ball, score touchdowns, know, block sometimes for your running back, but pretty much.

Buddy Buck (09:27)
Yeah. you mentioned blocking. with the receiver for the people that do know the game, sometimes their view is kind of like the divas, you know, they want to score, they want to look fly, got the gloves and the eye black and all the cool shiz Which is totally cool. I'm totally down for all that. But you mentioned blocking. So is that some part of your game that you're like, man, I love to get in there and mix it up? Or are you just more like, I just want to flash and do my thing.

Aiden Valentine (09:35)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

No,

yeah, I love getting somebody's face when I'm blocking and just like pick them up and driving them or sometimes, you know, getting put on my butt, but that's part of the game. But I just, yeah, like I definitely am one of the more physical, I would say, receivers out there. definitely, I know how to block and I will block for my running back. Like this last season, I had many blocks for that led my running back to get a touchdown. So I love getting somebody's grill and just, you know.

Buddy Buck (10:13)
mixing it up. Yeah. So where do you where did you get that mentality, like that toughness, I want to just mix it up and get in there, even though you are playing on the outside, maybe.

Aiden Valentine (10:14)
Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Um, I definitely say before kind of like in the middle of my years from like, I'd probably say nine to 12, 13, I raced BMX bikes. So, um, just, you're always crashing, you know, and clash with other people and on a dirt and you're riding a bike. So, and it's very competitive. It's a very competitive sport. Um, cause like if crash, you have to get back up and keep going or else you won't obviously place. So I definitely think my physicality and like,

Competitiveness comes from that. And I mean, just also just growing up watching football, watching my older brother play. Like we used to live in Texas. My brother played youth football in Texas and that's completely different from Washington. Like way more competitive, way more physical. So I just think growing up around it, always been watching it, NFL, college, it just like got wired in my brain.

Buddy Buck (11:07)
Yeah, that's cool. It's definitely Texas is no joke, man, when it comes to to all that. And well, it's cool because when we came out last year, so Ryan Miller, you met him, Ryan Miller video. So he got asked to come out by Janya and do the documentary. And then, you know, he's like, hey, man, you know, buddy, you want to come out and just do a DTV thing and we'll collab up on this. And I'm like, yeah, that'd be super dope. So obviously we got to come out and, you know, shoot that senior night. That was a really cool experience to watch you guys.

Aiden Valentine (11:10)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

That was awesome.

Buddy Buck (11:35)
what was your feeling when you saw that documentary drop for the first time? Cause you know, I know Ryan's talent levels off the charts, but what was it like for you guys and your team to watch that?

Aiden Valentine (11:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, when I first dropped on Instagram, saw, think I was one of the first people to see it, but I was like, just, I was amazed. Like I almost made me shed a tear. Like it was, it was obviously really cool, but also kind of sad moment, cause like, I don't want my seniors to leave. Like I'm super tight with all the seniors and, but it was amazing. Like I, one of the best videos I've seen.

Buddy Buck (12:06)
Yeah, it was, it was interesting when I, when it dropped and when I saw it kind of before he hit post on it, it felt like a 30 for 30, like legit, like on sports center ESPN, was just like, damn, I mean, I know Ryan's talented, but I was like, bro, you knocked that out of the park. Like just the vision for like tying all that together and telling that story was, it was cool. I watched a lot of times, a lot of times for sure. Yeah.

Aiden Valentine (12:13)
yeah.

Yeah, it was.

Mm-hmm. me too. I still go back and watch it just to reminisce on it. It's awesome.

Buddy Buck (12:33)
Well, and you know, as I'm watching it, I'm like, damn, you know what I mean? Like we didn't have video content, iPhones, all this stuff. But to be able to have just a piece of history like that for you, like in 10, 20 years, look back at a piece of, you know, video like that, it'd be, and you got a lot more coming to I'm just saying that's just, that's such a cool thing to be able to reflect back on. So then you saw last year, you know, my connection to coach Fiala. So we,

Aiden Valentine (12:42)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's gonna it's yeah.

move.

Buddy Buck (12:58)
Both went to University of Washington. My wife went to University

of Washington. So we got a bunch of dogs up in here and Duvall I know there's Cougs too, but that's fine. We're all friends. But yeah, Coach Fiala, man, I just have so much respect for him and what he's done. What kind of impact has Coach Fiala had on you personally, and then also on the gridiron? Just tell us a little bit about your relationship with coach.

Aiden Valentine (13:03)
Mm-hmm.

⁓

The relationship I have coach fell is super close. He's like I can I consider him other dad to me like he He's taught me so much just to be more like respectful and like about the game like every Thursday before our games on Friday We have a segment before team dinner called five minutes of life and he teaches us an important factor or skill in life that we need to know like

One time it was changing a tire or knowing how to change your oil or like how to sit at the dinner table or tie a tie or something like that. So I definitely feel like he has, this is a role model off the field and then on the field, he's a competitor. knows how to get us riled up. He knows how to like, get us hyped and get us going and ready to go. Like there's some, he has some nice halftime speeches. I'll tell you that he, if you get, see him in the locker room at halftime, he is

He gets you riled up. He gets you fired up. It's awesome.

Buddy Buck (14:06)
That's really cool. we mentioned senior night. So is it even can you even picture like graduating at this point? Are you just right in the middle of it and you're just like, you know, here for just today. But like how fast time's already gone for you as a junior, you know what I mean? I'm 50. It's easy for me to say. But how about for you as a 16 year old? You feel like it's already whoa, how did this happen?

Aiden Valentine (14:27)
Yeah, for my freshman year, we had the orientation for coming in for upcoming freshman Coach Fiala was talking about how it's going to go by fast. He was not wrong. It's gone by so quick. Like I can't even imagine what it's going to be like my senior year, but I just know that I'm trying to take every moment as well as I can because I know it's going to be gone soon. but it goes by like fast. Like I was shocked how fast it's gone by.

Buddy Buck (14:50)
Yeah, it only gets faster too. It's like, you know, like, you know, the older people, they're just like, you know, and they say all these things. And then you're like, damn, they were right. It's like, you know, but when you're 16, well, I ought to speak for myself. When I was 16, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, You know, tell my parents or whatever, brother, all these people. And then it's like, you hit like 30 and you're like, ⁓ snap, like what, how did that happen?

Aiden Valentine (14:53)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, they were definitely right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Buddy Buck (15:14)
Talked about Coach Fiala's five minutes. What did you call that? Five minutes of life? that's such a cool thing. just from even a marketing and branding thing, it's just, you know, that's just such a unique thing. And I think it's so cool to teach those life skills. Is there one particular five minute of life that stuck out that you were like, that was super dope.

Aiden Valentine (15:18)
minutes of life.

and

Yeah.

Probably the job interview or the teaching how to tie a tie. That was right before homecoming. Because like, you know, I've never really like known how to go to an interview or like what to do or how to like go at it. And he like came up, he came and was like gave us a piece of paper, gave us all the list things to do, what to do to prepare. So it's just definitely a good skill to have in life.

Buddy Buck (15:58)
Yeah, that's really cool. What's your vision for you after high school?

Aiden Valentine (16:02)
Yeah, def I for sure want to try to take my talents to next level. Obviously, I don't know what we're at yet. But I'm going to mindset wherever gives me opportunity, I'm going to show out, give them my talent, show them what I can do, show them I can be the best in my position. But I for sure want to take my talents next level.

Buddy Buck (16:18)
That's awesome. Okay, so part of that is going to be academics. And so how are you in the classroom, would you say, like, real talk?

Aiden Valentine (16:21)
Mm-hmm.

I would say I'm definitely a competitor, I'd say in the classroom. I just ended the semester with all A's. So ⁓ I feel like I'm definitely got a good head on my shoulders in the classroom and yeah.

Buddy Buck (16:33)
Nice man.

That's cool. So before the game when you run out, know coach probably, does this pregame speech and then do the players have, your own huddle up just players only before you go out or do you ever get into those leadership moments and kind of hype up your crew?

Aiden Valentine (16:42)
Mm-hmm.

⁓

Yeah, we have I wouldn't say like we will have a speech but there's definitely is some leaders as a seniors like the captains like Hector or Glenn or people like that to come in and be like, hey guys, let's like pick this up. Energy is low. One thing we do do before every game is in the locker room before Coach Fowler comes and talks to us. We all get in a circle and we pray pray to you know, give us like help us on the field. Hope everybody stay safe and healthy and stuff like that so.

We've done that every game and it's like, like it's a ritual. It's a tradition.

Buddy Buck (17:20)
love that man. Yeah, you mentioned Glenn and Hector. yeah, when we get to a little bit of time with them, obviously, know, Glenn, of course, because, you know, his mom was the one that got Ryan to come out and do the video. That was pretty rad. And then Hector, man, he's off to play next year, right? At Central? He's already on the website and stuff. Yeah, I already seen him on there. So is that pretty cool to see your boys going on to play too?

Aiden Valentine (17:24)
this.

Yep. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep, central. Yep.

yeah, for sure. I'm immensely proud of him. He's like seeing the work behind the scenes that he's put in in an off season. Like he for sure deserves being able to play at the next level. I hope that wherever it takes him, he does well. I know he will do well at Central. Like I'm excited to go. We go to Central every summer for a summer camp and I'm excited to see him there. Hopefully he comes say hi. But yeah, it's awesome to see one of my guys go up there.

Buddy Buck (18:09)
Yeah, that's cool. when I first hit you up, on Instagram You were posting some carousel posts and stuff with you on some seven on seven. What was that about?

Aiden Valentine (18:16)
Yeah, so I play for a team called Fogerson Athletics. It's run by this guy named Johri Fogerson. He played at UW. He played at O'Dea He played at Central and he played for the Seahawks. So it's basically like it's an offseason kind of thing. It's like if you know like AAU basketball or select baseball, that's kind of equivalent football. So it's two hand touch. It's not like flag. It's just you touch them and it's done. ⁓

but it's basically like something to do in the off season to keep you, get you better for fall, but also keep you in shape and stuff and also get you a lot of looks and eyes. Cause there's a lot of coaches that come out there cause there's kids from big schools like Graham Kropowski, Puyallup, all those big schools are out there. So there's definitely a lot of good amount of eyes to look at you out there. yeah, it's a fun experience.

Buddy Buck (19:03)
And is that window still going on or when is that time period what you were just mentioning?

Aiden Valentine (19:07)
Yeah,

so we started, we start in, I'd say like mid-December, so we started practices, our first tournament is usually in January, and it goes all the way to June. So it's like in the whole off season, you're always, I'm always occupied with tournaments like every weekend and traveling, so.

Buddy Buck (19:23)
so you're super serious about football. Yeah, that's cool, man. Yeah, year round. Those opportunities didn't always exist. It's really cool to see those happen now for you guys and then for you to take the initiative, Aiden, and jump on those and really run with it. Because again, you just need that one person to see you, right? One person to see you do that thing when nobody's looking. You know what I mean? It's like they're looking over here and you're blocking on the backside of the play and they're like, look at this dude.

Aiden Valentine (19:25)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Buddy Buck (19:49)
You know

what mean? I feel like already just that's that type of player you are just from the little I've seen you play and talking to you for 20 minutes or whatever too, right? So that's cool, man. All right, so let's talk a little bit about your favorite player. You said you've been a Seahawk family your whole life. So wide receiver is your favorite player or wide receiver and who is it?

Aiden Valentine (19:52)
Mm-hmm.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Yep.

I'd say currently my favorite player is wide receiver. It's obviously JSN I have him in the background. I really do. I model my game off him a lot cause he also plays in the slot and outside sometimes even in the backfield, you know, he plays all way like everywhere. So, ⁓ I've definitely modeled my game off him. ⁓ we're kind of like, we're both like route runners. We, we catch the ball, get up field and stuff like that. But my favorite player all the time is Marshawn Lynch. Cause that's who I've grown up on.

In my youth years, I played running back. So he was just so fun to watch and he's my favorite player for sure.

Buddy Buck (20:42)
Beast mode. Yeah, that's good, man. Yeah, I'm sure during that run, were you like six years old when we had that last championship, something like that?

Aiden Valentine (20:43)
Thank you.

I think so. know that my parents were at the Beastquake though. like, I'm jealous of that. That was crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Buddy Buck (20:52)
pretty young.

dude, Beastquake was Beastquake was I mean just on TV. remember everybody kind of remembers where they were when that happened man. That was like that was like

one of the one of those moments that we just will never forget. Okay, so if you could have a quarterback any quarterback in the world throw you a touchdown past or present who would it be?

Aiden Valentine (21:13)
⁓ that's a good question. I probably have to say Russell, Russell Wilson. He, he was like who I grew up watching and like with Marshawn Lynch and he's been my, he was my favorite player all the time, the Seahawks. So like he was a great quarterback. It would be awesome to catch a ball from him.

Buddy Buck (21:18)
Okay.

Yeah, for sure. Well, it's easy when Russell's name comes up now and it's just all this stuff has happened and he left and whatnot. when you go back and watch some of that tape and just like right in the middle of his prime, like he was so nice, you know. ⁓

Aiden Valentine (21:35)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

He was, he was for

being his size. Like L was, he had a crazy deep ball. His, like his vision and his scrambling was like insane. Like he would get out of tackles that like I've never seen a quarterback out.

Buddy Buck (21:55)
Yeah, I saw a highlight the other day and he did one of those scrambles and I'm like, damn, I kind of forgot like how loose he got, you know? He was he was pretty nice. All right. So Seahawks is the squad. JSN your guy. So when we're talking about ⁓ platforms on like social, let's kind of shift gears for like social media, because I feel like in today's day and age, for people to get seen, it's just this extra exposure point. ⁓ would you say that?

Aiden Valentine (21:59)
Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. It was nice.

Mm-hmm.

Buddy Buck (22:21)
people in your era, if you will, are they using socials a ton for their own exposure or what's kind of the platform that everybody's leaning on to get exposure or is there a website somewhere that people are posting on? Talk to me about that.

Aiden Valentine (22:30)
Yeah.

⁓ we are for sure utilizing social media to our advantage. ⁓ the app that I've heard gets you the most looks and stuff is X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it. people, kids my age would, you know, make their huddle highlight. Obviously huddle is like a, the film where you get all your clips and stuff. And then, they would make their highlight, put that on Twitter, put their stats, their, their attributes, their weight, height, and then they would DM coaches.

on X or Twitter and send them that stuff. And I've seen numerous people get in touch with colleges, college coaches, head coaches, getting a visit or even getting an offer just from going out and DMing them or emailing them.

Buddy Buck (23:13)
Cool. So you're saying we should cross promote this, the clips off of this, the reels on X is what you're saying. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. DTV does have an X. We just haven't posted on there much, but maybe we'll start with our episode here so we can have some shareable content for you on there. So let's bring this in for a landing Aiden,

Aiden Valentine (23:19)
Yeah, for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Alright.

Buddy Buck (23:31)
All right. So you're playing the game, you look it up in the stands, it's popping off. I've been to a few games, man. It gets pretty rowdy up there for like a smaller school. gets pretty wild. So it's like, Friday night lights, when you watch the show and it's

Aiden Valentine (23:36)
Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Buddy Buck (23:42)
turn off the lights, everybody's at the game in town. for the people that don't know what Friday night lights means. That's typically what it means. when everybody in the whole town is like, it is Friday, there was one thing to do. We're going to go watch the Red Wolves football team. I feel like that's the case here in Duvall for the most part. Like it's obviously not totally true, but it's pretty damn close.

Aiden Valentine (23:51)
you

for sure.

It's, it's

Buddy Buck (24:02)
and you know, you're a young person and I don't remember how I felt when I was 16, but What's that like for you?

Aiden Valentine (24:06)
Um, it's amazing. I got, when I came here first year of playing serious football, coach, we all was talking about our home opener since it was first game home game home opener and about how packed is going to be. And I was like, okay, I mean, we're kind of in a small, we're smaller school, small town. Like I'll believe it when I see it and we got there and all, wow. Like it was crazy. Like I was, um, on the sidelines. I looked up into the stands and it was like just packed with people, see people.

Then it was like crazy loud, our band was playing well. And then now my junior year actually being able to be a starter and run out with my name being called and being on the field actually and looking at it, it's 10 times better. Like it's crazy how much support the football team has from the community and we have a great community in Duvall

Buddy Buck (24:54)
Cool. We got spring break coming up. Are you guys going anywhere for spring break

Aiden Valentine (24:58)
I'm not sure what my plan is for spring break. I'm excited to be off school, but I don't know if I'm gonna go anywhere. might go, I might, I don't know. I don't think there's any sports going on. I think there is a tournament that I have before in Boise, Idaho. But spring break, I don't think that I'm doing anything.

Buddy Buck (25:16)
Cool, all right. So last couple things here. So I want to do these podcasts so I could get to know more people and talk to, you know, some students and you, right? Like some of these.

Aiden Valentine (25:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

Buddy Buck (25:25)
Really cool conversation. if you could wave a magic wand and change or add one thing to Duvall TV, no matter what platform, what would it be?

Aiden Valentine (25:32)
Yeah.

I definitely think these interviews are with students and athletes are really good to do. ⁓ Maybe more exposure through all the sports, coming out and like what you did on senior night. That was really cool. feel like if you could expand that with not just the ball, but basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, all that stuff, it would be really cool.

Buddy Buck (25:55)
That's awesome. Yeah, good feedback. Thanks, man. Appreciate that. All right, so we're going to end with the hot seat. I'm going to do rapid fire. OK, just get it warmed up. It's either or either or. I'm going to name two things. You pick one. You ready? All right, sunrise or sunset.

Aiden Valentine (26:02)
⁓ All right.

All right, yep.

sunset.

Buddy Buck (26:11)
Tacos or pizza? YouTube or Instagram?

Aiden Valentine (26:13)
Pizza.

Instagram.

Buddy Buck (26:15)
Receiving tuddy or rushing?

Aiden Valentine (26:17)
Receiving for sure.

Buddy Buck (26:19)
Okay.

River float or mountain hike?

Aiden Valentine (26:22)
Mount hike

Buddy Buck (26:23)
Early bird or night owl?

Aiden Valentine (26:24)
I'm night officer.

Buddy Buck (26:25)
Texting or phone call?

Aiden Valentine (26:27)
TomCull.

Buddy Buck (26:27)
⁓ keeping it, OG I like that, okay. And then home cooked meal or dinner out on Main Street.

Aiden Valentine (26:33)
I love a good home cooked meal, so I'm gonna go home cooked meal.

Buddy Buck (26:36)
That's cool, man. Right on. Well, thanks for coming on, Aiden. Appreciate you joining us on the Community Connect podcast on Duvall TV.

Aiden Valentine (26:42)
Yeah, thanks for having me. It was an amazing experience.

Buddy Buck (26:45)
All right, well that's a wrap with my guy, Aiden Valentine, number 17 for your Cedarcrest High School, Red Wolves, where tractors meet technology, small town, real life. Buddy Buck peace.