The Study of Sports Podcast, Sept. 4, 2025: We made it to football season, plus one of our podcasters might seem like he’s poking fun at Mariners fans, but it only seems that way

Date: Thursday, September 4, 2025

in: Podcasts, Sports

Football returns as the crew dives into Week 1 vibes, NIL reaching local athletes, and a lively Mariners segment with Valencia, Liberatore, and Piland.

Reporter Paul Valencia and sports administrators Tony Liberatore and Cale Piland discuss high school sports first, and we continue our discussion of the sports soap opera that is the Seattle Mariners

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

We are back, and just in time for the start of high school football.

It’s THE Study of Sports, with your hosts Paul Valencia, a reporter for Clark County Today, and sports administrators Tony Liberatore and Cale Piland.
As many of you know, we only have a couple of podcasts during the summer. Now, we hope to be back on our regular schedule, about once every two weeks during the fall and winter months.

In this episode, we tackle the return of high school football. I ask the former coaches how it feels to lose in Week 1, after the long offseason and summer prep. We also talk about scheduling games and officials. Plus, maybe a prediction on state championship contenders from the area.

Then we touch on how NIL money is flowing into Clark County athletes. Oh sure, we’ve had athletes from the area make some decent money in college in recent years. But now we are getting our first Division I commits, athletes who are just starting their senior years in high school, and they already have six-figure deals in place. That is different.

We veer from high school sports to the Mariners. Paul shares why he loves the lovable losers of the MLB, and notes that they won’t be as fun to watch if they ever do win a World Series. Tony and Cale refrained from beating up Paul in the studio.

Our podcast format is simple: A longtime sports reporter (Paul Valencia) discusses high school sports, and more, with longtime sports administrators and former coaches. Cale Piland is the former head football coach at Evergreen and Union and is now the athletic director for Evergreen Public Schools. Tony Liberatore is a former assistant coach and athletic director at Columbia River and is now an associate principal at Fort Vancouver.

We’re always interested in subject ideas for a future podcast. Email us a subject idea.

Send us your thoughts at: paul.v@clarkcountytoday.com.