COURTNEY MIRANDA
Opinion Editor
mirandcs@plu.edu
Perched on a stool, eyes wide and trained on the tv, the Patriots and the Bengals were in a head to head battle. It’s a typical Sunday night, two teammates are scrapping it out in Madden 2016 and pondering the big questions in life, like What’s your favorite kind of pizza and coffee?
The Drew Oord, as he is often called, is a Pacific Lutheran University senior and first baseman who likes his pizza with stuffed crust, light sauce and pepperoni from Pizza Hut. While he doesn’t drink coffee, a vanilla steamer will do him justice. Tonight he is fighting for the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I gotta get like seven extra vanilla pumps though,” Oord said.
Kort Skoda, otherwise known as “Skoda Bear” is a junior defensive out who prefers hot cocoa and a meat lovers pizza from Round Table.
“Oh shit! Yeah Round Table!” yelled Oord while their thumbs rapidly clacked against their controller buttons.
Washington grown, Oord and Skoda are both accounting majors, two-sport collegiate athletes and longtime pals.
“So Drew, if PLU were part a clock, and you need all the little pieces of the clock to work, which piece would you be?” I asked.
“You’re the big ticker!” Skoda said.
Oord laughed and then looked at me seriously.
“I think it’s important how being part of the team brings out opportunities to help out the school with different types of projects,” Oord said. “We get into the community and we get to do special olympics and other stuff.”
Oord told me about the few projects that he’s been exposed to as an athlete and how important it’s become to him.
“So the same clock question for you Kort,” I asked “Why are you important to PLU?”
“Probably have to go back to how people have to put others before themselves, like how we go to Lister every 4-6 weeks during the football season and we talk to the little kids and hang out with them for a bit. Community influence is important.”
What should everyone know about you?
“I’m gonna for sure have to get a bulldog,” Oord replied excitedly. “An english one, truthfully I’d like a white and black one or a gold one like Lola Kort’s dog, she’s awesome”
I turned to Skoda “What about you Kort?” I asked while Oord sang a victory song and scored a touchdown.
“I’m better than Drew at everything,” he laughed. “I want to have a little pomsky, because it’s just like a little husky and a then a husky so it’d be like Mini Me and Dr. Evil.”
Fro Yo or ice cream?
“Frozen yogurt probably..you can either go fruity or you can go like chocolate,” Oord said.
I nodded in agreement “What do you put on top of your frozen yogurt?”
“I put oreo toppings, marshmallow stuff, cookie dough, some type of graham cracker usually, hence the marshmallow, maybe some chocolate…you know, I kinda go hard. I make sure it’s full too.”
“What about you Kort?” I asked
“Oh ice cream..”
“What kind?”
“ColdStone half cake batter half chocolate and throw in some Kit-Kats.”
“I don’t know,” Oord said.
“He likes camping,” Skoda said.
“No I don’t, I hate travelling,” Oord laughed.
“Umm… you 
know what, I really like to fly my drones. Just like mini ones I fly in the house.”
“Kort?”
“I love killing animals. I love to go hunting especially during duck season because I can kill so many ducks,” Skoda laughed. “I don’t know [what else], just make sure you put in a fact that I like to kill animals.”
Oord stood up with a victory yell as he scored a touchdown while Skoda had been caught distracted in conversation.
What is your plan after you graduate?
“Well I hate travelling and I really like the Tacoma area and all my friends are here, so I’ll look for an internship that will hopefully turn into a job,” Oord said.
“What did I just do?” Oord commented, remembering the game for a minute as Skoda ran the ball into the endzone.
“And you Kort?”
“I’ll probably just go. I’m gonna go travel the world, I’m gonna go take like three or four months off and go travel Europe,” Skoda said. “Probably start with Norway to go see all my friends. After that I’ll probably get a stupid accounting job and start being a real person. Start to have responsibilities in life.”
We finished the interview and the Patriots and Bengals were tied at 28 with 3 seconds on the clock. We pushed into Overtime:
“Heads!” yelled Skoda.
But Oord won the coin toss and received the ball, scored a touchdown and won the game with 2:36 left on the clock.
