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This is… THE SWEET SPOT, a show about the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona… I’m Kaitlyn Parohinog. 

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Helen Maroulis documentary interview/Jake Brown

HOST: Helen Ma-ROO-lis is a gold medal-winning wrestler who premieres with a new documentary today called “Helen Believe”… [documentary audio] Cronkite Sports’ Jake Brown has more…

BROWN: Helen Maroulis is coming off winning the bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Many don’t know that Maroulis recovered from a near-career-ending concussion two years prior after her opponent kept smacking her head on the mat as they wrestled.

<<Maroulis: At the time when I was told that I had to retire, it didn’t seem so out of line, it made sense and I really wanted to put my health first, and then actually retiring and walking away from the sport was really difficult.>>

BROWN: Maroulis’ relationship with wrestling got complex after the injury. She would have anxiety attacks every time she went to the wrestling room.. She wanted to come back to the sport mainly – to heal that relationship.

<<Maroulis: Someone asked if I was watching a tournament. I couldn’t even do it. I was getting anxious. So I didn’t want for that to be my last memory with a sport that gave me so much and made me so happy for so many years.>>

BROWN: Maroulis is the subject of a new documentary “Helen Believe,” which highlights her comeback to wrestling and her struggles with PTSD. [documentary audio] …But it also goes over her becoming the first female American wrestler to win gold. Maroulis beat Saori Yoshida in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Yoshida at the time was undefeated for four consecutive years, and was the heavy favorite to win gold in Maroulis’s weight class.

<<Maroulis: I had to be completely dialed in. And I was just wrestling for a greater purpose and that, you know, was so larger than life and like focusing on a purpose.>>

BROWN: “Helen Believe” premieres for one night only tonight at select theaters. Check your local listing. [documentary audio] … For Cronkite Sports, I’m Jake Brown [documentary audio]...

Sun Devils Scoop – Cihak, Eddy, Harris

HOST INTRO: Despite ASU basketball and football being technically in the offseason, there have been a lot of recent stories surrounding both programs. The Sweet Spot’s Spencer Cihak, Sam Eddy and Harris Hicks have the Sun Devils’ scoop on the current state of basketball and football at ASU.

VOICE TRACK: On March 21st it was announced by Arizona State Athletics that men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley agreed to a contract extension. After initially being hired back in 2015, Hurley is signed to coach at ASU through the 2026 school year.

<< Hurley: Well, I mean, Ray Anderson hired me here and brought me in and we’ve been attached at the hip. Ray showed additional commitment to me and he believes in what I’ve been able to do after two tough seasons and COVID.>>

VOICE TRACK: While there was some uncertainty around whether or not Hurley would return to ASU, he has proven to take the team to the Big Dance on multiple occasions. Following this past season, Hurley ranks second all-time in ASU March Madness appearances, after Ned Wulk.

<< Hurley: We had some discussions during the year. It didn’t produce anything. At the end, I wasn’t sure, you know, the last few weeks of the season because there was a lot up in the air, certainly with the way we played, we played ourselves into the tournament. By winning in Arizona, winning against USC in the PAC 12 tournament. >>

<< Hurley: Then as those things were happening and the reality of playing in the NCAA tournament again, and it would have been my fourth NCAA tournament, because that’s the one thing we can’t do here is you either got to say, I went to three of seven or you got to say four of eight. You can’t say three of eight, though, because I was going that year and we didn’t go because they canceled the season. I had nothing to do with COVID. I didn’t start that. So, you know, that would be the one thing I would request. If you are reporting something about my record, just try and do it accurately, because it’s either three of seven or four of eight. It’s not three of eight though.>>

VOICE TRACK: Now that the offseason has officially started for ASU, there have been multiple players who have entered their names into the transfer portal.

<< Hurley: I was not shocked that some of the portal activity and we’re going about our business, do we have to do to reach out to players. We’re getting great responses and we’re going to continue to see where the guys are that have decided to go in the portal because sometimes the hardest thing is when you rip the Band-Aid and press the button. Sometimes you don’t think you can see that guy again. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have conversations with these guys to see if, hey, is this the best fit for you. You’ve gone out in the portal, you’ve looked at some stuff, you know, is it in your heart to stay or, you’re going to look to go? And so we’re actively still re-recruiting, you know, our own players as we’re exploring other opportunities.>>

VOICE TRACK: Hurley will have to rebuild his roster by hitting the portal hard and finding guys who fit the program’s culture.

<< Hurley: Not anymore in this world … you know the transfer portal, we’ve been very aggressive and exploring multiple ways that we’re going to, surround the core of this coming team with players that will put us in a position to take further steps than we did this year.>>

VOICE TRACK: Hurley and his staff have a plan in place for when they want to finish constructing their roster with players from the portal.

<< Hurley: I would say by the first week in May that we would have mostly everything in place. That’s my goal. And so we have five weeks to really get after it. And we’re already in the process of doing that. And things are going to happen quickly and guys are going to start making decisions and we’re going to be very active.>>

VOICE TRACK: From one of ASU’s longest-tenured head coaches Hurley to the recently hired Kenny Dillingham…

<< Dillingham: People just want to know what the expectation is, and today was the first day that I can leave the field and say it wasn’t good enough. Uh, we did some things to try to bring the energy out of them early in practice. It sparked us for about a couple periods, two or three periods, uh, there early, and then brought ’em up and I think it sparked us for about five minutes. But you can only give so many pep talks and motivational speeches and little tricky things to motivate people. At some point, they’ve gotta wanna practice.>>

VOICE TRACK: The Sun Devils are facing yet another setback, as Ben Coleman sustained a lower leg injury during Tuesday’s practice. This injury is expected to keep him out of the lineup for a significant portion of this year, according to Dillingham.

VOICE TRACK: While Dillingham remains hopeful that Coleman will be able to return towards the end of the season, the team must now fill the void at this critical position in the meantime.

<< Coleman: The left guard position is a position that right now, you know, we need somebody to step up. We need somebody to step up, or we need somebody to step in, one of the two. Nobody knows what I mean by that step in, right? Either step up or step in, but that’s the nature of the beast nowadays.

VOICE TRACK: How Dillingham and company respond to these challenges will give insight into what to expect for the 2023 season.

For Cronkite Sports… I’m Spencer Cihak… I’m Sam Eddy…

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Sam Hjelle tallest MLB player/Kaitlyn Parohinog

HOST INTRO: With the MLB season underway, younger players making Opening Day rosters highlighted the end of spring training. One notable name: Sean Hjelle (JELL-ee). Hjelle is tied for the tallest MLB player in history, standing at 6 feet 11 inches. I talked to him earlier this spring about his height, as well as his game.

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PAROHINOG: Sean Hjelle made history last season when he debuted for the San Francisco Giants in May. Hjelle matched the MLB record for tallest player, tying former pitcher Jon (ROW-SH) Rauch…. However, Hjelle only made eight appearances last year for the Giants. He spent most of last season pitching for the Giants Triple-A team, the Sacramento River Cats. This offseason, he set goals in order to improve his game.

<<Hjelle 1.wav: “I had some weight gain and strength goals going into this offseason, just trying to get bigger, faster, stronger. I feel like I accomplished that this offseason and came into camp at really good physical strength and, like I said, that leads to me just being mentally ready to go.”>>

PAROHINOG: Hjelle added some weight to his impressive height. While watching morning practice at Scottsdale Stadium, I saw him walking through the dugout with his head tilted to the side, as his head couldn’t fit underneath the overhang.

<<Hjelle 1.wav: “Well the dugout here in spring training for the Scottsdale Stadium is a lot shorter than in San Francisco, so I do a lot more ducking here and honestly try and stay away from actually going in the dugout.”>>

PAROHINOG: He not only has to be careful of the dugout, but also the protective netting around foul territory.

<<Hjelle 1.wav: “In San Francisco I gotta be careful of the nets that hang down. I’ve been clotheslined a couple times coming off the mound.”>>

PAROHINOG: In terms of stadiums other than Oracle Park or Scottsdale Stadium, he has pitched at LoanDepot Park in Miami, American Family Field in Milwaukee, Coors Field in Denver and Petco Park in San Diego. Hjelle only remembers the latter two of the four.

<<Hjelle 1.wav: “I think I’ve just been to Colorado and San Diego in terms of pitching on the road last year, so I think I fit in both of those in terms of height-wise. Hopefully I get to explore more places this year and maybe have a better answer next year.”>>

PAROHINOG: And Hjelle will check off at least one more big-league stadium, with the Giants starting their season on the road at Yankee Stadium. Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi said last week that Hjelle has an “inside track” to the Opening Day roster and can find himself in the bullpen to start the season…

Kaitlyn Parohinog, Cronkite News…

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Ryan Borucki hometown hero/Sam Eddy

HOST INTRO (OPTION 2): Ryan Borucki, a left-handed relief pitcher from the Chicago suburbs, signed a minor league deal this past off-season with his hometown Cubs. The MLB veteran received the exciting news right before the start of the regular season that he officially made the Chicago Cubs’ 40-man roster. Our very own Sam Eddy was coached by Borucki in high school and has more on the baseball player’s career.

EDDY: Growing up in Mundelein, Illinois, which is 36 miles north of Wrigley Field, Borucki was raised around the game of baseball. While at Mundelein High School, Borucki’s baseball career began to take off. His pitching ability put him on the radar of MLB scouts.

<< Borucki: My dad, he played pro baseball. He got to triple-A. He really brought me up just to be like… I played three sports growing up. But then just my junior year of high school, I went through a growth spurt and started throwing a little bit harder. So then I decided just to go to baseball and it worked out for me. I played varsity for three years at Mundelein. My last season was when I started really becoming a prospect, throwing over 90 miles an hour.>>

EDDY: As a rising baseball star in Illinois, Borucki committed to play at the University of Iowa but the left-hander still had a bunch of interest from professional teams. After Borucki suffered an arm injury in his final year of high school it left him with a life-changing decision whether to go to college or go pro.

<< Borucki: I partially tore my UCL, my senior year of high school. So it really kind of dropped my draft stock a lot. And then I was fully prepared to go to college and then I came back at the very end of the season to pitch and my arm felt decent, but my velo was really good and showed scouts I could still throw. And then the Blue Jays drafted me, took a flier on me.”>>

<< Borucki: I remember calling the Iowa coach and he said, if you’re getting life-changing money, like go ahead and do it. And to me, what my bonus was was life-changing for me at the time. It was a hard decision, but also an easy one… Before I tore my UCL, I was fully prepared to go play pro ball. So it was something I always wanted to do. My dad always talked about how cool pro ball was and for me, I just thought college is always going to be there, this opportunities not always going to be there.>>

EDDY: Borucki’s dad has been a major influence in his life and to this day he is a varsity assistant coach for Mundelein High School’s baseball team. While Borucki grinded through the Blue Jays farm system, one off-season he came back home to coach his high school’s freshman basketball team.

<< Borucki: When you’re in the minor leagues you’re not making that much money, so that was definitely a big contributor just to have an offseason job to make some money. My dad was a coach and I’ve always felt like I’ve had that coaching mentality of just like the leadership qualities to be a coach and I had a great group of kids. It was one of my favorite off-seasons, for sure.>>

EDDY: I was one of those kids on the team that Borucki coached at Mundelein High School. Borucki understood what it was like to be in our shoes because it had only been a handful of years since he was walking through the halls of MHS just like us. A young relatable coach who was an elite athlete made it super easy to follow as a leader….

EDDY: It’s not often a pro athlete comes back to his hometown during the offseason and coaches at his high school, especially a sport that he doesn’t play anymore. The impact Borucki had as a coach still sticks with some of the players from his team. Kyle Schaller, who was one of my teammates on the team, is now 22 years old and lives in Denver, but he will always cherish that season we had with Borucki as our coach.

<< Schaller: Having a professional athlete no matter what sport, they carry themselves differently and they have a different way of putting in work and workouts and bringing in energy to a team that most people don’t get the opportunity to be around, at that age especially.>>

EDDY: Borucki finally got the call-up to the big leagues for Toronto in 2018. For the next few years, Borucki pitched for the Blue Jays but midway through the 2022 season, after spending a decade with the organization, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners.

<< Borucki: I got traded over to Seattle and didn’t really know what to expect because it was going to be my first time with a different organization.>>

EDDY: The Mariners with Borucki made a late playoff push and ended the franchise’s 21-year postseason drought. Once the playoff run ended, Borucki opted for free agency and decided to sign a minor league contract with the Cubs. Borucki’s teammate of several years in Toronto, Anthony Kay, also joined the Cubs during the offseason.

<< Kay: He is really good at getting guys out and dominating lefties with that sinker in and then the cutter that he has and now he is working on that new sweeper. I think that’s going to be a really effective weapon for him playing off that sinker really well.>>

EDDY: Over the years, Borucki has struggled with injuries dating back to high school. This past offseason he worked to get healthy again and felt the Cubs were the right spot for him not only because it is the franchise closest to home.

<< Borucki: Last year I ended off with a stress reaction in my elbow. So just getting comfortable back on the mound, started throwing the sweeper, just a, another weapon to face lefties.>>

EDDY: Ultimately Borucki will have to stay healthy and throw the ball well if he wants to find himself playing in front of his home city. Despite being a White Sox fan as a kid, Borucki knows how special it would be to officially return home and play at Wrigley Field.

< Borucki: Obviously this was a good opportunity for me. There’s not many lefties like on the roster and stuff, so that was like a deciding factor. And, just, I really liked when I was making my decision and how well they do developing pitchers now and how and like focused they are with the analytics and things like that. For me I just really wanted to be coached cause I feel like haven’t really hit my full potential just yet.>>

EDDY: Ultimately Borucki will have to stay healthy and throw the ball well if he wants to find himself playing in front of his home city. Despite being a White Sox fan as a kid, Borucki knows how special it would be to officially return home and play at Wrigley Field.

<< Borucki: Just to be able to put on that uniform and play in Wrigley on a daily basis would be unbelievable because it’s finally being close to my family. Just to be able to share some experiences with my family that they’ve never really gotten to experience since I’ve been in the big leagues because I’ve been either in a different country or on the West Coast.>>

EDDY: In what would be a full-circle moment for Borucki’s career, he has a chance to make a big league roster once again while doing it in front of his friends and family back home. Borucki’s career has been a journey, but as they say, all roads lead to home.

I’m Sam Eddy. Cronkite Sports.

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HOST OUTRO: That’s all for this week. The Sweet Spot is produced by Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau. I’m Kaitlyn Parohinog.

Find and subscribe to The Sweet Spot anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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