In this episode, Adam and Christopher interview Luke Nemec (Purdue), a recent graduate and now alumnus. Luke played Men's Ice Hockey while attending Purdue University. During the episode, Adam, Christopher, and Luke talk about the student-athlete experience, Luke's journey to playing hockey in college, and what it is like for student-athletes to balance college athletics and active membership in a collegiate chapter.
The Gavel Podcast is the official podcast of Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. and is dedicated to keeping you updated on the operations of the Legion of Honor and connecting you to stories from our brotherhood.
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The Gavel Podcast - Ep 32 - The Student Athlete Experience with Luke Nemec (Purdue)
[Intro Music]
0:00:42.3 Adam Girtz: Hello and welcome to the latest episode of The Gavel Podcast. I'm Adam.
0:00:46.5 Christopher Brenton: And I'm Christopher.
0:00:47.6 Adam Girtz: The Gavel podcast is the official podcast of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and it's a show dedicated to keeping you updated on the operations of the Legion of Honor and connecting you to the stories from our brotherhood.
0:00:58.4 Christopher Brenton: To find out more from the fraternity, you can always check out our website@sigmanu.org. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at Sigma Nu HQ or by searching for Sigma Nu fraternity.
0:01:08.8 Adam Girtz: Yes. So I wonder what would happen if you asked ChatGPT about Sigma Nu fraternity. Have you done that yet? I haven't.
0:01:15.3 Christopher Brenton: I have not. Maybe if we get into a bind, we can just ask ChatGPT to record an episode for us.
0:01:23.3 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:01:23.5 Christopher Brenton: And then release that.
0:01:24.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah. We'll just have it come up with an entire fictional script of somebody we can interview and the whole thing that'd kind of...
0:01:31.5 Christopher Brenton: Just feed it samples of our voice. So that it can copy our sound.
0:01:38.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah. I wonder what the minimum threshold is for that. How many hours worth of recorded content you need to get a real good voice AI going, we're probably up there. I don't know how many hours of content have we recorded?
0:01:54.0 Christopher Brenton: This is our 34th episode, I believe. And they're about an hour long. So, 3,400 hours or there... 34 hours.
0:02:01.8 Adam Girtz: 34 hours.
0:02:02.8 Christopher Brenton: Not 3,400 hours. 34 hours.
0:02:04.3 Adam Girtz: I was about to say that is a lot of time. Anyway. Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the show. We're very happy to have y'all here this month. Really cool interview. Something we've been kind of tossing around for a while and we've kind of finally organized and nailed down and we're able to hold this interview. So we were interested in trying to find a student athlete that is a Sigma Nu fraternity member. And to really just look at that. What does that experience look like, and we talk about it in the interview a little bit, but for me it's fascinating because, fraternity and athletics are very similar in what they provide to your life. There's structure and there is leadership opportunities and development that you gain and camaraderie, brotherhood and all of these things that are so great about fraternity is also what's great about athletics.
0:03:00.6 Adam Girtz: So to double down on that can be a lot. Or it can be double of all of those things, which is a great thing. And so we were able to interview Luke Nemec who plays club hockey for Purdue. And is a member of our beta zeta chapter there. So really a great interview. I'm excited to share this with everybody. Luke was awesome. He was very excited to be on, and we were very excited to have him. So plus personally I... Hockey is my favorite sport, so I got to... Maybe I influenced who we interviewed a little bit, but that's fine. I am a co-host and that is my purview. Christopher, any thoughts before we dive into the interview?
0:03:45.4 Christopher Brenton: The only thing I would say is, I think one of the unique opportunities with the Gavel podcast is the opportunity to highlight unique alumni or collegiate chapter stories or collegiate member stories. And I just think it's a cool opportunity for us to showcase a unique experience for our membership. As someone who obviously wasn't a student athlete and went to an institution where student athletes were often prohibited from joining collegiate clubs and fraternities and, everything. I just think it's such a unique opportunity to get to talk to someone and have them share their experience of how they managed to do both, what did that look like? What were the sacrifices that had to be made? And I'm excited for everyone to hear Luke's story.
0:04:36.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's dive on into the interview then, and we'll see you guys on the back end.
[Transition Music]
0:05:00.8 Adam Girtz: Alright. Hello everyone. Welcome to our interview. We have Luke Nemec with us a club hockey player for Purdue University a beta Zeta chapter, a chapter that I got to consult. I got to hang out at your guys' house. A very very great chapter. I loved working with that chapter. That was actually the first chapter I ever visited. Anyway Luke, welcome to the show.
0:05:24.2 Luke Nemec: Thank you for having me, man. I'm really excited to be here.
0:05:27.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah, yeah. We're happy to have you, man. We've been talking about doing a student athlete interview for quite a while and kind of finally got around to it and I'm really happy to have you on the show. So Luke kind of tell us quick, so you're a student athlete hockey is your sport, right? You know, a member of the beta Zeta chapter. So, to... Kind of tell us about your student athletics. So it's club hockey.
0:05:56.4 Luke Nemec: Yeah. So first I just got to say, I did just graduate, so I guess I'm like not much of a student athlete anymore. But I was doing this for a long time. It is a club team. So instead of the school kind of hosting it being like an NCAA sport or anything like that, or there's no scholarships or anything like that, it's all student-run. So we have like a board that runs the team and everything. We have a president, we have treasurer, a social guy to do cross club events. because that's one of the requirements we have as a club. So, yeah, like we have all these positions, there's a safety officer, everything like that. Very, very similar to the way kind of like, like fraternity chapters are structured, but just a very scaled down because like, instead of having like, like a 100 guy chapter or anything like that, it's like 20 dudes on the team. So...
0:06:52.5 Adam Girtz: Okay.
0:06:53.2 Luke Nemec: The power structure is definitely minimal, but at the same time we, it's all student ran. We have to put on the events, we have to book our ice time, we have to set up games with people and like other schools and everything like that, we have to talk to the league and everything. So that's all us instead of...
0:07:11.5 Adam Girtz: Interesting.
0:07:12.0 Luke Nemec: Instead of like having the school do it. Now we do have a coach, and I know that a lot of other student-run like club sports teams and different sports will sometimes be completely self-governed, but for something like hockey that's a very fast paced and very fast thinking sport, it's really helpful to just have a coach so that he can kind of like reign in the strategy of it all in a way.
0:07:36.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah, for sure. That's interesting that it kind of echoes that, that fraternity model. Well that's neat. So, so Luke, let's let's start with your Sigma Nu story. So we love when we are able to have an alumnus or a member on, really just hear your Sigma Nu story and start from there. And then we'll dive into the student athlete stuff and, and all the connections and everything. But go ahead, give us your Sigma Nu story.
0:08:02.8 Luke Nemec: Alright. So I had been rushing around a few times. I joined as a second semester sophomore, so kind of later than most people, but kind of better late than never. And at the, the semester before that, I had gone through a couple of different rushes, had seen a few places, and was never really satisfied with it. Now I knew there was still kind of like hope on the horizon, if you will. Just because Purdue, for those that don't really know about it, Purdue has like an extremely large Greek life for whatever reason, I guess to put it in perspective, there are 40,000, maybe 45,000 undergrad. 20% of campus is Greek life. So, I mean, think about it, that's like eight to 9,000 kids all in Greek life. And as such, there are I think a total of like 42 fraternities and like 21 sororities.
0:09:03.7 Luke Nemec: So it's a lot bigger than a lot of places up north especially. But anyway, I had been kind of rushing around, was never really satisfied and was kind of maybe looking at you know, checking out one places, you know, coming up on my second semester sophomore year and I know that it's, you know, you can really join at whatever age you want, but it's kind of a social stigma that like, if you rush as a junior, it's not the best idea. You won't really get many looks for that unless you like really stand out for whatever reason. So I was kind of...
0:09:36.4 Adam Girtz: And you just don't have time.
0:09:38.0 Luke Nemec: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so this was in my mind in a way, this was kind of like, oh, this is my like last semester to rush. So it's kind of like I got to go out with a bang in a way. And try and find the place that I really want to be there. And so I actually got a recommendation from somebody who didn't even go to Purdue. It was a friend of mine who went to Northern Illinois University. And, she, yes, she, was really good friends with the Sigma Nus up there and especially the president of that chapter, the eminent commander I should say. But, the EC there, really cool dude, but he, I got in contact with him a little bit because apparently he knew a bit about the Purdue chapter, the Beta Zeta chapter. And so...
0:10:29.9 Adam Girtz: Was that John at the time or is that Rafe?
0:10:31.7 Luke Nemec: That's Rafe or, I think it's Rife technically, but...
0:10:34.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:10:36.2 Luke Nemec: Anyway, so he, he kind of told me about them a little bit and was like, yeah, like the guys are really like genuine there, they're really good people. You should totally check it out. And I went and looked and like met all the guys there. This was kind of during quarantine, this was spring '21, so it was kind of tough. It was on Zoom, but you know, they like shuffle us around through a ton of the different build... Or a ton of different like zoom rooms to like really meet everybody. And I like, I found myself, I kept on coming back instead. Because I was like looking at a bunch of other places and I went to one event, two events maybe, I went to five for Snu So I ended up kind of realizing I think this is kind of where I want to be and sure enough got extended a bid and ended up accepting and I haven't looked back since. I think my only regret was that I didn't come sooner.
0:11:34.7 Adam Girtz: That's cool. I love Theta Eta. I consulted them as well. They're great guys up there.
0:11:41.0 Luke Nemec: Yeah. They're a very good chapter. So shout out to Rife and to the person who recommended that I go check out Snu, you know who you are. Thank you. Much appreciated.
0:11:50.1 Adam Girtz: Luke, we'll get into kind of talking about athletics in a minute, but before we kind of move on from like your chapter experience, I'm curious, are there any particular moments or experiences that stand out from your Sigma Nu experience and particularly for you someone who is now starting your career post-college, you know what are you taking with you from your collegiate experience, into life after graduation?
0:12:17.8 Luke Nemec: Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is mostly just kind of like being myself. because that's how I found out, that's when I found out I was really going to have the best time, especially during Rush was kind of when I learned this. because you think about like, everyone has that like stereotypical like frat kind of guy in their mind and everyone kind of thinks like, oh, maybe you just have to act like that. I think honestly it's just like, you just like, just be you. That's how I really got to connect with these guys. And one of the biggest things as well that was really going to stick with me throughout this whole process of like being at Sigma Nu was that when I was rushing, the chapter was still a colony at the time. They were on the sort of comeback from getting removed from campus or being suspended. And so one of the biggest advertising points of this was like, we could really, you could like make this house into what you want it to be. You can like turn, you can learn all of the leadership of really starting something from the ground and really working on being a huge part of everything.
0:13:26.2 Luke Nemec: So that was one of the biggest deals for me was just that wow I really get to like... I get to raise this up from the ground. And then sure enough right before I got inducted into candidacy that's when... That we got the official notice that we're getting the charter back. So that's when we officially became a chapter again. And it does kind of... It does kind of suck that I'm not technically a founding father. I was four days shy of it but I still feel like I was a part of that. Right. I was a part of them getting the numbers to come back and I ended up being one of the first candidate class of the refounding in a way. So that's kind of all the all those life lessons of the trials and tribulations of just life and learning or meeting maybe not so good people or whatever. And working on like getting through hardships working on administering the proper way or just like sort of being a good administrator and a good leader for the house.
0:14:31.6 Luke Nemec: Especially my senior year when that was the first time I lived in just because when I had rushed I had an apartment contract, I couldn't cancel, it happens. So my senior year I lived in and in a way I was almost kind of like the dad of the house. I think it was more I was like the cool uncle just because like hockey took up a lot of my time so I wasn't always there. But at the same time I was like the older guy but he's still down to have a good time kind of. So yeah. In a way I was yeah like cool uncle of the house. But yeah just kind of those like be yourself like sort of lessons but then also all like the leadership skills that I gained through this process is kind of what has carried me into my job which actually today was day two of my full-time career. So it's kind of exciting stuff.
0:15:19.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Luke I appreciate you being awake for us to do an interview after your long work day. I'm sure...
0:15:21.4 Luke Nemec: Don't worry about it.
0:15:22.4 Adam Girtz: Taking that out of you.
0:15:25.7 Luke Nemec: Yeah. Don't worry about it.
0:15:26.6 Christopher Brenton: Luke real quick... Real quick Luke I wanted to react to your comment about the colony experience. I would just say that so I had the chance to join the recolonization effort or reestablishment effort of the beta tau chapter at NC State. And I think that a lot of people look at that experience and they're oh man it's really cool to be a refounding father. That's such a a critical or pivotal moment. It's make or break. If you don't get it right there then everything falls apart. I actually think that it's a lot harder to be a part of the transition from the colony experience to chapters just because I think a lot of chapters once they get that charter they're like oh well now what? We got what we've been working hard for, where it kind of the honeymoon is over so to speak.
0:16:14.0 Christopher Brenton: And a lot of chapters I think they really trip up. And so your leadership in that second half after the charter is granted was even probably more critical of being like hey guys are enthusiastic we're working hard. We want to to continue to be a bigger and better chapter in whatever form that takes. And so I think in some ways in my chapter we probably struggled a little bit. I had the chance to witness that. It took us a while to figure out what our identity was. But I feel like just from an outsider observer's perspective that Beta Zeta has really managed that transition well and you were a part of that.
0:16:50.9 Luke Nemec: Yeah no I really do like to think that I'm a part of that. I think I definitely contributed in my own ways but at the same time I know that there are certain other people that really went through that transition and really took it in stride. Some of the names that always come up whether it be like Jeff who was our chapter advisor Jeff Hollings if he ever brings it up like he always mentions a lot of similar names but some of the people that even outside of the chapter who somehow know about these people guys like Nate Sislo who was like our eminent commander of during the time we got the the charter back and he was the one who had to take that in stride.
0:17:32.7 Luke Nemec: And then Ross Carter who was the the rush chair or the recruitment chair and he did a really good job at selling the house of being... Not being yeah well you don't have too many guys but we're working on it. And it's like we want to make this into something big. He sold it as it's like you can turn this into the house you want it to be. You can turn this into the really big like crazy chapter you want or you can turn it into something that's a really good leadership experience. This is something that we are still able to mold right here so let's turn it into something good. You should help us out kind of deal.
0:18:12.5 Christopher Brenton: That's awesome.
0:18:12.6 Adam Girtz: Oh yeah that that's neat. It's cool hearing those names because like yeah that was when I was consulting. So honestly you and I have probably met at some point in one of the large group things at some point. But yeah working with Nate and Jeff and and Ross. Yeah. Shout out to those guys. Hello. If you're listening. Well so Luke so I want to hear about your student athlete experience. I think part of the impetus here for like us trying to do a student athlete interview is fraternity and student athletics are kind of on that same level especially like the way that you're talking about it, like a club sport where you are... It is self-governed and you're like running it yourselves.
0:19:00.0 Adam Girtz: It is such similar experiences that in a lot of cases you a young man will come into college and pick one or the other and that's their path. And you are getting a lot of the same things out of both of these experience, camaraderie, leadership, development and all of these things that you're getting. So you're kind of getting this double dose. So I kind of want to you walk through your story there. So talk to me about like high school into college. So did you play hockey in high school? Were you like a high school hockey player? What other sports did you play?
0:19:35.0 Luke Nemec: Yeah so I was a high school hockey player. I think to get sort of a grasp on kind of how it all came to be I think I might want to go like almost to the beginning just because I have a very long-winded history of sports to say the least. I started playing soccer when I was three years old and then I picked up hockey and baseball both when I was 5. And then basketball kind of made its way in there at some point but that fizzled out at like age 8. So it counts but it's not a major factor. And at the time I was completely dialed into soccer. I thought I was the stuff I thought I was really like Mr. Soccer, I could, pull like take this into college even. I thought that was the whole play and I was doing hockey and baseball on the side. And so my soccer really was year round because there'd be different seasons where in hockey, which is a very, it's a very typical thing for hockey is that the season runs from like September to March, which I know is long. It takes...
0:20:39.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:20:39.7 Luke Nemec: A lot out of your time. But, and then when that ended, that's when baseball started up. So I was always doing two sports at a time but soccer was the big focus. But come like middle school, that's when my love for so soccer kind of started to fade... Just because, I was enjoying hockey a lot more, but the really big reason was the people I was around... And it's no bash to any of the soccer players I know because they're all pretty nice guys and everything. But in general in a way, I kind of find soccer players to be a little more snobby. And the biggest thing is that they can be kind of cliquey. And someone who ended up kind of being on the outside of that, just because I had other commitments that weren't just soccer, it kind of just ruined my drive to play. I was still doing it and I was still decent at it, but I just like, I don't know, it just kind of was not really what I wanted to do anymore. And then...
0:21:45.5 Adam Girtz: Well it sounds like you found where, you fit, right? Like this what...
0:21:48.3 Luke Nemec: I was like.
0:21:49.3 Adam Girtz: This is where I fit.
0:21:49.8 Luke Nemec: I was like, well kind of, it took a second before I realized that it's like I wanted to do hockey full-time because I was kind done with soccer and then during a hockey game, actually I had a weird check happened where the guy went to hit me and I kind of dodged it, but he caught like my right arm as I was kind of moving out of the way and that went against the boards. And then there's a tendon that connects your bicep to your elbow. And I didn't realize it at the time. I thought I just kind of like messed it up or whatever. But I'm pretty sure I partially tore that tendon. And so the, and I am right-handed so I kind of ruined any chance I had to play baseball because I was like a catcher. Now I mean yes I am just mostly catching the ball, but if I were, if I'd ever like pick a kid off at second base, like you gotta have a full arm for that.
0:22:45.8 Adam Girtz: You gotta throw it.
0:22:46.7 Luke Nemec: Yeah. You really, gotta whip that thing. So I really couldn't do that because I was still kind of nursing that injury and I can still, I can still throw my arm, throw a ball with my arm and everything. But it starts to get fatigued more and I can tell kind of when it is cause it 'll feel it pop kind of. So I like didn't really nurse that injury too well, but...
0:23:08.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:23:08.3 Luke Nemec: At, the same time, that just kind of was like, well I kind of can't play baseball. So then I was done with soccer. I can't play baseball. So I was like, well hockey it is. So that spring, there was like an off season for high school as an eighth grader. You're allowed to play with that spring season because it's off season. It kind of gives you a little warm up into what's high school going to look like. I mean it's definitely like a not as intense version, but it definitely gives you a really good insight to it. So I did that with the high school team that spring and that's when I kind of realized I am like really happy with this decision that I went full-time hockey. Now in the, I did do, my freshman year I did play a, a semester of volleyball just for fun because it was like no cut. So I just tried it out because why not?
0:24:04.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:24:06.3 Luke Nemec: But after that, I mean it was full on hockey. I was in marching band as well, so that was another, so instead of doing two sports at a time, I did a sport and band, which kept me busy for sure. But yeah, so that's kind of what I was doing in high school. That's how I kind of came to be a full-time hockey player instead of doing like other stuff. And it's like another one of those things kind of how I, I was a little late to Sigma Nu and I was sort of like better late than never. I was a little late to kind of like fully focusing hockey instead of mostly focusing soccer. And I saw my game develop super quickly through high school. I started out my freshman year on like, it's called rotation where I play, say like I play a game and then I have to sit two more games because then two other kids who are also rotating get their chance. And I mean we're, we're all freshmen so it wasn't that bad, but at the same time it sucked. Right? I'm not playing every game. And I wanted to get better.
0:25:08.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah. You want to play.
0:25:08.6 Luke Nemec: And instead of quitting out of nowhere, I was like, you know what, I'm going to like, I'm going to really run with this. I'm going to take it and make sure that I get my opportunity to play full-time. So then I worked really hard and sure enough, next year, sophomore year I'm starting forward. So.
0:25:28.3 Adam Girtz: Hey, But I was going to ask what's your position? You're forward?
0:25:31.7 Luke Nemec: I'm kind of like every position except for goalie, so. Because after that, starting forward year in the spring season, we had a shortage of defense. So they needed somebody, they tried one kid, it wasn't working for him. They moved him up to forward and I was like, well I'll give it a shot. So I went and did it and I was, and I was like, kind of had a talent for it and I wasn't like, great because obviously that's not the way I learned. because I like learned forward first but it wasn't the way I learned. But then I like, through repetition, I started to pick up a lot of the, sort of style of it and like play style. Just kind of making sure that I know how to like angle a guy off when he's coming into the zone, sorry, hockey terms. When the guy with the puck. [laughter] is skating towards your goalie's net you don't want him to get into like the center of the, of the ice. You want him to ki... You want to kind of drive him more towards the boards so that way he like doesn't have the, a better opportunity to shoot the puck.
0:26:40.4 Luke Nemec: Yeah, so like learning all that kind of stuff. But with still having that expertise of being a forward, I proved myself to kind of be an asset because I could really quickly turn a play into an offensive play. Like turn a defensive play very quickly into an offensive play, making something like a stretch pass where I'm sending the puck very far down the ice to my guy. And all of a sudden now that creates like a very good offensive opportunity. Yeah, I gotta say it's...
0:27:10.8 Adam Girtz: Well, it's like... That's where...
0:27:11.4 Luke Nemec: It's really hard to, it's, sorry for me, it's really hard to explain this in layman's terms and not in the most hockey way possible. So sorry if taking it really slow.
0:27:21.8 Christopher Brenton: No, you're good. You're good.
0:27:22.9 Adam Girtz: No honestly. I'm reading you dude, I, I got really big into, into hockey this, this last couple of years.
0:27:28.3 Luke Nemec: Yeah.
0:27:28.7 Adam Girtz: I grew up in Minnesota and played out in the backyard all the time and so I'm reading you, but good for our audience...
0:27:37.5 Luke Nemec: Yeah, totally.
0:27:39.9 Adam Girtz: Members that may not understand.
0:27:40.1 Christopher Brenton: You're also from the Midwest, like this is a part of your like just general language in the Northeast or the Midwest, I mean.
0:27:45.9 Luke Nemec: Yeah. I guess so. I guess so.
0:27:46.7 Adam Girtz: It's, it's baked in. Yeah. Well, no, that's cool. And that's it, it is an interesting lesson, right? because like if you, if you, you are an expert at Forward right? Or at one position and then now all of a sudden you're playing the opposite side of the coin of that you are playing against Forward. So you know what that guy's going to do. So you're better able to read what he's probably going to try to do with that. And then I'm sure that makes you a better forward, right?
0:28:15.2 Luke Nemec: Definitely. Definitely.
0:28:16.1 Adam Girtz: It makes you a better forward knowing what the defense-men are going to do. Like you how to kind of chest move that, right? You're rock paper scissoring it.
0:28:23.6 Luke Nemec: Totally.
0:28:25.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah, that's really cool. So then you chose to go to Purdue. What'd you study while you were there?
0:28:32.0 Luke Nemec: So I chose to go to Purdue because obviously academics are going to take me a lot farther than like my sports talent was because like am I a good hockey player? Yeah, sure but it's not going to carry me to the NHL.
0:28:49.2 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:28:51.9 Luke Nemec: I kind of had to be like, kind of had to realize it's like, alright, well, like I should probably make sure that I'm really doing well in school as well. So I went to Purdue for computer engineering. I minored in Spanish as well and that was mostly just because I had, like, I had learned it for a while and I wanted to like keep learning it or more, more just to keep practicing it in a way... And it occasionally has its uses out in the, out in the field, but it's more just for my enjoyment.
0:29:20.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:29:22.1 Luke Nemec: But I went computer engineering because it's actually kind of a funny story. The inspiration behind that was because as a young kid playing Minecraft there's there's this stuff in Minecraft called Redstone, which is essentially like electricity and I went down a very deep rabbit hole of like learning how to use it.
0:29:40.0 Adam Girtz: Circuit Building.
0:29:42.1 Luke Nemec: Yeah. Basically it's just circuit building. So like I went computer because it's like my mom is she works in IT so she does a lot of coding all the time. And then like this circuitry also intrigued me. So I just went with sort of like the, like the mix of the two. And sure enough I had a blast. I mean I definitely didn't sleep much, but I had a blast.
[laughter]
0:30:01.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Shout out to Mojang for inspiring a generation of young computer engineers.
0:30:05.9 Luke Nemec: Yeah, exactly.
0:30:06.8 Christopher Brenton: Well the funny thing too is I'm listening to this interview and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to share this conversation with my sister. My nephew loves hockey, loves Minecraft. I'm like, he you are a Luke Nemec in the making.
0:30:19.4 Luke Nemec: Yeah. Basically.
0:30:20.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah. For real.
0:30:22.1 Luke Nemec: It's actually really funny. My, major decision, which also changed a lot of like where I like went to school, it was between computer engineering and architecture. So like still kind of Minecraft based.
0:30:32.9 Adam Girtz: That's what I was going to say also Minecraft inspired. No, that's so funny. It is. It's such a great outlet for creativity. My little brother would, would play Minecraft all through middle school and then like all of a sudden he's like making friends in the UK and across Europe and like...
0:30:49.6 Luke Nemec: Oh yeah.
0:30:49.7 Adam Girtz: He's selling stuff on, selling creations online to people for real money. And my parents were like, what are you doing? And then they like met his friends. They're like, oh, this is actually really wholesome and fun.
0:31:00.0 Luke Nemec: What a young hustler.
0:31:00.9 Adam Girtz: Well that that's... Yeah dude, I'm saying well that, that's, that's cool. So then did you start club hockey right away? You just like rolled right into it?
0:31:06.9 Luke Nemec: Yeah, so it, it's actually kind of funny in a very similar turn of events. My freshman year I wasn't playing I got put on the practice squad just because there were a lot of kids. I didn't realize there were a lot of kids that came in with like a lot more talent than I had. I thought I was definitely really good. Like my senior year for hockey we went to state and everything but then I show up here and there's kids who are out-skating, even me who I thought like I was kind of like, I thought I was good at least or I mean...
0:31:39.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:31:39.9 Luke Nemec: Still I thought I was like better than like I ended up being like, my perspective definitely just changed a lot when I got to college. because I started to realize like, wow, there are kids who are like really good and I mean I knew a little bit of that because there was like there's the kids that play like Triple-A I'm sure you've heard of that. Just basically like very high level travel and I mean I never got to that level but I still thought at least for like a D3 club team, I was like, okay, well I can probably make it on here. But still ended up being practice squad. But like similar story, just worked hard, made sure I was doing well. Got to know everybody. Got to know the coach's system. That's the biggest one is just knowing the coach's system and how he runs things.
0:32:20.3 Luke Nemec: because then when it comes tryouts again, he's going to like realize like, you're playing the way he wants you to play, not just that you have talent. So I was doing all of that and then I got like, they had a couple scrimmages that we did with like other practice squads of other schools and I had some time to do that. But very quickly that year, because that spring was the spring of 2020 and roll come March, that's when COVID hit sent us all home. So I didn't get too much of an opportunity or really any opportunity to play my sophomore year. I was mostly just confined to doing workouts and stuff like that. Like we had a trainer that we set up a thing with or set up sessions with and we would do every week. So I was doing some of those with the team. But then again, that's not ice. It's not the same deal. So...
0:33:17.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:33:18.6 Luke Nemec: That's when I kind of realized like I have some extra time to maybe sort of build my social life and that's when I ended up going and rushing and like rushing Sigma Nu and everything. But then junior years when we're like, alright, we're doing this season we're going back full swing. And so, coming into tryouts, I was trying to remind myself of everything, I actually tried out as a forward and made the team, but that ended up not exactly being the best route. because that first game I wasn't playing too well. I guess I still had the jitters because it was... It was, my really my first game and we were playing Notre Dame, who's obviously a really big hockey man.
0:33:56.1 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:33:56.2 Luke Nemec: I'm sure Adam knows all about it.
0:33:57.7 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:34:00.7 Luke Nemec: But, and then we get a guy who, he ends up getting injured and he messed up his shoulder somehow just kind of on like a really dirty hit. But I kind of got the call up in a way of, here you want to you want to prove yourself, go play defense because I know you can. So I ended up moving back to defense halfway through the game. Sure enough, my game was playing way better than it was. So. I switched to that and played the rest of the year out playing defense and then sure enough, the next year tried out as a defense-man, didn't do as well. Halfway through a game forward gets hurt, moved back up to forward, rest of the season as a forward.
0:34:40.6 Adam Girtz: Interesting. [laughter] Yeah. Jack of all trades, dude. Yeah, that's where, that high school experience. It strikes me that your attitude of, hey, I'm here for the team. I'm here to help us win games and I'm going to do whatever is the best for the team to make that happen. Like that that's and like you said, that's the attitude that the coaches want. They want a guy that's able to say, yes, I'll do it, let's go. And perform. That's huge.
0:35:09.7 Luke Nemec: Yeah, no, I personally, just kind of it's I'm here for the team, I'm doing stuff for the team. Even on the games where it's like I wasn't allowed to play or whatever, those games in high school where I was rotating, what I was doing with my time off, I was still at the rink and I'd have the camera and I'd be doing film. So then the coaches can go back and watch the game and see the holes in the game and they can figure out what's going on, what's wrong? So, doing that stuff. But just like small stuff that's going to contribute to making things a much better. Whether that just be seating on the bench or doing film or heck even running the penalty box or something like that. For those hockey players that don't know, or non hockey players, running the penalty box means you're not playing, but you're there to open and close the door whenever someone, gets a penalty. So yeah, no, I just always try and find ways to contribute. Even if the guys think I'm, corny or whatever, I just try and find a way to make sure that I'm still there for the team. because that's one of the biggest things about hockey, even at the very professional level, it's never really an, I sport or a me sport.
0:36:20.9 Luke Nemec: It's a very we, we won, but on the, other side of, if it's, my contributions made problems with the game. So when things are negative, you kind of take it to heart and you want to make sure it's better, but then when things go well, it's a very celebrate with the team. It's not a very. It's all me kind of deal.
0:36:41.8 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Wayne Gretzky, Wayne Gretzky can't score by himself. He needs somebody to do the assist, right?
0:36:48.9 Luke Nemec: Two thirds of Wayne Gretzky's points were assessed.
0:36:52.5 Adam Girtz: Exactly. Exactly.
0:36:53.6 Christopher Brenton: Well, Luke, I have a theory, just based on kind of how you, have described your experience, I think what we can discern is, evidence of your character, I have a feeling, probably what you're talking about also translates to your chapter experience, how did you balance, both being a club hockey player and being a chapter member and then, as kind of a side question too, if we can get to it, did you ever feel any tension between those two of, where you could prioritize your time and, maybe how, one or the other accommodated, the opportunities for you to participate in both?
0:37:34.0 Luke Nemec: Yeah, so being in a hard major like computer engineering and then, doing hockey, which I was, or playing hockey I should say. Which, that's four skates a week. I have two practices a week and then, two games a weekend. Doing that while also trying to find time for the fraternity, it was hard. I'll just say it like that. It was not easy. But, and what what sucked about it too is just because hockey's demanding on my time, the biggest thing that for those of you who don't go to Purdue or don't, or even those Purdue people who don't know, anything about the team, our rink, is in Indianapolis, that's, or it's actually in Fishers, which is a suburb of Indianapolis on the northeast side. It's an hour and a half drive, from school.
0:38:29.7 Adam Girtz: Yep.
0:38:30.2 Luke Nemec: That's the closest.
0:38:30.7 Adam Girtz: And then you gotta lace up, you gotta suit up. You gotta do all the thing.
0:38:33.9 Luke Nemec: Yeah. By being an hour to an hour and a half drive, that's the closest rink. So, we're outta luck in a way. We're just kind of... That's what we're stuck with. So we then just kind of roll with the punches. So keeping in mind that a practice takes five and a half to six hours out of my night and then, and that's two nights a week doing that. Then my games, if it's at home, that's seven to eight hours. If it's away, you gotta add extra travel time besides... Whatever on top of the hour and a half, hour and, to hour, to hour and a half both ways. So, it's a lot of time that I'm not at Purdue.
0:39:14.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah.
0:39:15.3 Luke Nemec: And so, it did put a big dent in some of the social relations I had, especially that first year when I wasn't living in too. I did miss out on a lot. But I converted that eventually when I lived in, into, for the times I'm there, door's always open, or at meals, talking to guys or even being selfless and just the small things. Say one of the guys is at the bar, Hey, can anyone give me a ride home? And, look, my computer engineering homework kept me up till 3:00 AM anyway. So I was ready to go. So I'd be, yeah, sure, I'll come get you. The small stuff, inter... Small interactions like that. Even if it is, I'm tired from doing homework and they've been, drinking all day and they're, getting a little buckled.
[laughter]
0:40:05.3 Luke Nemec: But even just the small stuff like that, just ways to be there for guys still. And you don't need all the recognition for that, but that's one of the, I guess one of the nice things about Chapter is that we have these awards at the end, after everyone does all their officer stuff, one of the things is we do good man. So you commemorate small things that people do, whether it be like, drive you home from the bar, drive you to class, or they pick up food for you or something like that. Just small stuff like that. And I'm not looking for the recognition, but I just get this joy of being with the person and hanging out with them, or just doing stuff for them, and just showing my appreciation through that in a way.
0:40:57.9 Luke Nemec: So yeah, to continue to answer your question, hockey did take a lot of time out of my week and weekend. And I guess the bigger question that I'm sure a lot of people are wondering is well, how does that affect school? You learn how to be a very good time manager. You learn how to manage your time extremely well, because you just, in the back of my head it's like, okay, I know that I have this, I know I have practice coming up. And my goal is that I just try and get everything done before I leave. Now I do have, I guess, the opportunity to sometimes do it on the way there, because the way we get to practice is that the club will rent out these passenger vans from the university.
0:41:51.3 Luke Nemec: They're like... We can fit eight people in one, just because sometimes we have to bring our bags down as well, which those take up a lot of space. But the biggest thing about that is that I can do homework on the way there. That's like three hours of travel time that I'm not doing something hockey related. And I could get homework done, but do I really want to be doing homework in a van whether that be at the 7:30 leave time that we have to get down to practice, or the 11:30 leave time going home.? Do I want to be doing homework in a van in the dark while it's moving and jittering? because it's a passenger van, it's not exactly a stable car.
0:42:41.0 Luke Nemec: So in my mind, it's just like, no, I want that time to hang out with my teammates and joke around with them. Or even just that time to cool down from doing homework and mentally get ready for something like the hockey game or a hockey practice even. So I just learned to be really good about managing my time and managing to get my homework done before hockey every time. Or if I knew I had homework on the weekend, I would make sure that sometimes I'd bring my laptop with me. So if it was like if we were at a hotel, I could just do some homework in the room. But even then, I would still just try and avoid having homework to do during any time I had hockey.
0:43:19.4 Adam Girtz: Yeah, it's all priorities. You just... You'll find the time for the things that are important to you. And when you have these three huge things that are very important, it's like, okay, well that's my time. I love what you said and I want to call back to it for just a second. Is when you lived in and you're like, okay, if I'm at the house, door's open. You have your personal time. You've got time to socialize in the van on the way to practice or whatever. So it's like, if I'm at the house, I want to be with these guys. And that to me is really neat. And I think that's a lesson that even someone who's not a student athlete, maybe they just have these two big things.
0:44:01.7 Adam Girtz: It's fraternity and school. And it's like to them, then they have this extra time where it's like, well, I'm just going to close my door. I'm going to do my own thing for a while and whatever. It's a lesson for them. You are, just because you don't have to be on all the time, doesn't mean that you can't. That you should be trying to do this socialization, these things that you've committed yourself to. That's really neat, man. Well, it's cool to hear that, hey, it's possible. So guys that are in chapter and thinking to themselves, okay, I'm never going to have time for this. Hey, Luke can do it, you can do it. Luke, as we wrap here I've got a couple of questions for you. Favorite NHL team?
0:44:49.6 Luke Nemec: Oh, I'm a Blackhawks fan, ride or die. [0:44:50.3] ____.
0:44:51.3 Adam Girtz: Blackhawks fan, all right. We're not watching anymore.
0:44:54.3 Luke Nemec: I'm sorry, buddy. Look, it's been a tough couple years for us, especially this last one. But number one in the draft I gotta say.
0:45:01.9 Adam Girtz: You got first draft pick. Yeah. Worth tanking the team for a couple of years, huh?
0:45:07.6 Luke Nemec: Hey, alright. Anaheim deserved it because they decided to tank the last 13 games to give themselves a better shot, and that's what I like to call karma.
0:45:15.5 Adam Girtz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I love it. I love it.
0:45:18.6 Luke Nemec: So. Yeah, I don't know. Hawks have been doing well. I feel like the funniest thing is that l they're trying to make it seem like it's an enigma who they're going to pick as their number one. Everyone knows. And I'd knock on wood, but everyone knows it's going to be Connor Bedard. So like...
0:45:37.6 Adam Girtz: Yeah. Exactly.
0:45:39.0 Luke Nemec: I just really hope the Hawks don't do what they do best and somehow mess it up. We will be ripping into them for ages and it's going to be like the biggest blunder in sports history if they somehow don't draft this kid.
0:45:54.9 Adam Girtz: I think it was so funny. More inside baseball, I guess, or inside hockey. I loved listening to SportsCenter or anybody talking about, whenever they talk about this first draft pick, they wouldn't say, oh, such and such team is going to get the first draft pick. They're like, oh, the Hawks are going to get Bedard. It's like, oh, okay. So it's just an assumption that this one player is going to be the person that gets this first draft pick. Cool. Okay, well, definitely then when we have the rivalry game and the Wild come out to play, you guys will have to meet up and we'll go to a game together, so Yeah.
0:46:27.6 Luke Nemec: Yeah. Yeah, hey, I'm always around. So I'm very much down. Chicago is a really cool city. So I think it'll be quite a fun time. So.
0:46:36.9 Adam Girtz: Yeah, we'll get you to St. Paul too. What was your signature celly? What was your celly?
0:46:43.2 Luke Nemec: Okay, so I mean, I wasn't scoring much. I don't exactly have.
0:46:47.6 Adam Girtz: I suppose you played a lot of defense.
0:46:49.3 Luke Nemec: Yeah, I was playing defense. I was mostly doing assists. So I guess my signature celly, if you will, is like the head pat for the guy who scored.
0:46:57.4 Adam Girtz: There you go.
0:47:00.2 Luke Nemec: But I guess if I have to score, if I did the score myself. I think that the one that I always really liked doing is the bow and arrow. So act like you're unsheathing. Just boom, let one fly. Yeah. That's always a classic one, but oh, it gets the other team's blood boiling.
0:47:17.6 Adam Girtz: For the audio listeners, which is everybody, he did an excellent excellent bow and arrow rendition there, for us on the video.
[laughter]
0:47:25.0 Luke Nemec: Yeah, imagine I'm Apollo in one of those Greek paintings.
0:47:28.2 Adam Girtz: There you go. Love that. Luke, thank you so much for doing this. It was really fun having you on the show. And, as we wrap here, any shout outs? Anybody you want to say hello to?
0:47:39.5 Luke Nemec: Yeah, shout out. First shout out Ross Carter. He's the guy that got me to be a Sigma Nu. He's the guy that really sold it to me. He's, that's, yeah, he's just the guy that really sold it. Shout out to Chandler. He's our current, EC, super super nice guy. And he stresses day in and day out to make sure that everything runs smoothly for us. Not a lot of the guys see all the intricacies of how it runs, but after sitting down sometimes and talking to him, I understand how much work he really puts in. And then, shout out to Kyle. That's my big Kyle Hanley. That's, he's just such a chiller. He's just a really funny dude to be around.
0:48:29.6 Luke Nemec: Yeah, and, just shout out Beta Zeta chapter. Shout out the hockey guys. I don't know if any of you will ever listen to this, but in the chance you do, how's it going? Yeah, I'd say that's about it. Just thanks again.
0:48:43.2 Adam Girtz: Love it.
0:48:44.3 Luke Nemec: To you guys. This was a very, yeah, this was a very crazy opportunity for me. I know the episodes only come out about like once a month or so, but at the same time, like just the fact that you guys thought about me and everything and wanted to hear my story about it all, it just makes me really happy to hear. So I appreciate it a lot.
0:49:02.4 Adam Girtz: Hey absolutely. You're part of Sigma Nu history now, man. Thanks Luke. Appreciate it. Bye everyone.
0:49:05.9 Luke Nemec: Ah, of course, thank you guys so much.
[Transition Music]
0:49:29.6 Christopher Brenton: Alright. Welcome back everyone. Wonderful interview. I was, every once in a while we get to interview someone that is so genuinely excited to be part of the show, and it just like brings me light into my life. Luke was so great and he's very charismatic, very outgoing, and I just, I loved that. That was really cool, to be able to speak with him, and to, I love the little bit of hockey jargon and he recognized when he was, maybe a little too deep in hockey jargon and pulled it back and let everyone know I thought that was great. Even though he is a Black Hawks fan, I could still forgive him. We can set aside our differences and, be friends. So, loved it.
0:50:16.6 Christopher Brenton: Hey, Fred, you're, Fred Dobri will be very excited as, and actually I think is James also a Black Hawks fan?
0:50:25.0 Adam Girtz: I think technically, yeah. I think he is.
0:50:28.4 Christopher Brenton: Yeah. So you may be the one who is outnumbered.
0:50:30.4 Adam Girtz: Oh. No, I'm...
0:50:30.7 Christopher Brenton: In this Scenario.
0:50:31.4 Adam Girtz: I'm okay with being the minority here, even though I'm right. I'm on the right side of the rivalry. [laughter] I'll stick to my guns. Well, yeah, so I just loved, I loved that and I loved kind of hearing, probably one of my favorite things he said, and I think I mentioned it in the interview as well, is just like the, because he's doing so much, like he has these three huge pillars of commitment that he has that like, it almost deepens his commitment to each of them because he has to be so regimented with his time with that. When he said like, if I'm at the house or if I'm li, when I was living at the house, if I'm at the house, my door is open, right? You're all in, you're a 100% on everything you do. And even then, like hockey, he's like, yeah, if I wasn't able to play that game, I'm there, I'm running scoreboard or I'm running a penalty box or I'm doing film or whatever. It's just okay, I have to be all in because I don't have an option. It's either all in or I'm not doing it. Right? I thought that was really cool.
0:51:37.0 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, and I think, Luke was such a fascinating person to talk to because, for one, I think he just, his insight and what he shared about the experience, I think was, I think really exciting for me to see someone who was so enthusiastic about being all in in everything that he does. I, it's infectious to be honest, I'm sure that that was, the case for his brothers who got to experience that with him. I think, I imagine, listeners potentially being both encouraged and discouraged, I'll explain what I mean by that. But like encouraged in just seeing, like, I think you brought up this point of if you look at Luke's experience, it should be a model of what this could look like for others.
0:52:25.5 Christopher Brenton: That you can do both, you can make it work. And Luke is an example of that. I think there's a possibility that someone could be discouraged being well, Luke seems like he, can do it all. He is invested and committed and I just don't know maybe if I have that bandwidth. What I would say to that is, I think there are a lot of members who are in a hypothetical scenario like that where they've got work, or they've got a really rigorous course of study. Not that Luke didn't of course, computer engineering is no joke. But whatever the case may be, they've got this seemingly insurmountable, thing that is keeping them in theory from fraternity. And I do think that there is a degree to which chapters often have to think about that as well, of how do we...
0:53:16.6 Christopher Brenton: What are combinations that we can make, whether it be just keeping in mind kind of what we are expecting of our members, and kind of how we can support them, such that individuals who are commuters, who are working part-time, or working full-time, and then going to school part-time, who are, or who are going to school as well at the same time. Who are in collegiate athletics, who are doing work studies, or doing research, undergraduate research. All of those things that can be incredibly time consuming. How do we make sure that those members can still see themselves in a fraternity and can still benefit from that fraternity experience? Because, otherwise, you would lose out on such incredible members like Luke. Who though he did make it work, there are millions of Lukes out there who would benefit from the fraternity experience and could contribute positively to the fraternity experience if we're able to, one, go and find them, two, make sure that the fraternity experience is meaningful and powerful for them as well.
0:54:24.9 Adam Girtz: Well, yeah. And the fraternity experience can be shaped to accommodate a each unique life that is, you're part of that brotherhood, right? I think that that is a good takeaway from this interview as well. Yeah, man. Just overall great interview. Really happy to have Luke on the show. [laughter] The thing that I was found myself laughing about last night, then even too, after we got done with the interview was, it, when he is like, "Yeah, let me... So, the, me joining sports, let me actually go all the way back. I started soccer when I was three years old." [laughter] I'm like, "Oh, okay. We're going all the way back." Like that just made me laugh. I forget if that was before, or if it was during the actual interview, but that made me laugh. Like, yep, we're going all the way back. But very cool.
0:55:19.8 Christopher Brenton: Yeah, and if you're a listener and you're like I could not understand this foreign language that was being spoken, just go listen to a couple seasons of, or go watch a couple seasons of Letter Kenny. And then, you're good to go.
0:55:31.1 Adam Girtz: There you go. Yep. Yeah, you'll get it from there. [laughter] Love it. Alright, Christopher. Well, any other notes, before we wrap up the episode here? Anything important coming up? [laughter]
0:55:43.5 Christopher Brenton: So, actually... Yes. So, nothing program wise. No resources or anything like that, but if you have been paying attention or have you been listening along, you will know that Grand Chapter is imminent. In fact, as of the release of this episode, it is next week. And so, we are all in on getting Grand Chapter off the ground. We're excited to be in Fort Lauderdale. In fact, when many of you may be listening to this, either we are currently in Fort Lauderdale or Grand Chapter is actually concluded. But we're so excited. This is the return to an in-person Grand Chapter after five years. The last Grand Chapter being the 2018 Grand Chapter in Washington, DC. So, it's going to be really exciting to be in and amongst all of our fraternity brothers.
0:56:34.1 Christopher Brenton: The representatives from our collegiate chapters, the alumni, the Grand officers. Everyone who is needed to come together to make the convention, the legislative convention work to adopt new policies, adopt new laws, to elect a high council to pass a budget. There are a lot of important, functioning pieces that have to happen. It is a heavy lift, but is an exciting opportunity to be a part of the Sigma Nu history. So, if you're planning to attend a Grand Chapter, we are looking to, looking forward to seeing you there. If you are not planning to attend, certainly be on the lookout for more communication for the fraternity. We'll have recaps on social media, as well as the fall issue of the Delta, which will be in mailboxes in September. So, more updates on that coming soon.
0:57:26.0 Adam Girtz: Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to it, man. It's been a while since I've been to Florida. So, it'd be fun to get down there, get on the beach, and I'd love to say that I've been working on my beach body, but I absolutely have not. So, maybe, I don't know, maybe it'll just appear. Maybe it'll appear without work. [laughter] Who knows?
0:57:45.2 Christopher Brenton: Well, for the fraternal staff, we'll be locked inside for the vast majority of it. So, you'll probably be paler by the end of the week than you were to start. But, certainly by the end of it, I'm sure we'll have the opportunity to at least put our toes in the water.
0:58:02.5 Adam Girtz: Oh, yeah. Can't wait. I think there was mention of you and I getting a spa treatment after. I think we'll have to revisit that. Alright, everyone. Thank you all for listening. And as always, if you enjoyed this show, best thing you can do for the show is to share this episode with a brother. So, if you heard it and liked it, go ahead, just share it with a brother, share him the link, and just let him know that, that it exists. And go ahead, reach out to us. You can always reach out to us at news@sigmanu.org. We love hearing from all of our fans and our brothers out there. So, thank you guys very much. And we'll talk to you next month. Bye everyone.
[Outro Music]