2nd annual battle of the badges

Welcome back. A battle of Royale is brewing right here in central florida. Two teams about to clash in the ultimate fight for bragging rights at the Orlando Police Department goes head to head against Orlando Fire Rescue. It is the second annual battle of the badges kicks off tomorrow. Lieutenant Oliver Harper from Orlando Fire Rescue joins us now. We didn't bring in the other team, so I'm feeling kind of you're a little scared. I don't want to see the Oh, is that what it is? Okay, I'll let you say it. Not me. All right, tell us about this battle. First of all, what's this all about? So it's our second year doing it. We had the first one was last year, the battle of the badges. Um, and yeah, we're just repeating it. And we won last year. We won the cup one to one. We wanted penalty kicks and we're hoping to repeat our success this year. So how intense is it between you guys? It's pretty good. It's a good rivalry. You know, you know, cops versus firefighters. There's always a good little rivalry. But um, but yeah, it's fun to be able to take it out on the pitch as well. Lieutenant, I do want to ask, are you guys, you know, using the entire pitch for this game or are they kind of making it? Don't don't get me wrong. I know you guys are athletic. They're making a little bit shorter. I think the goals are on the 18 18 yard box, which is nice. Yeah, in my mind, when she said that, all of a sudden I'm envisioning the shortened little field there. So okay, so how can people come out? This is gonna be after the soccer match tomorrow and you guys are taking it, right? Yep. So it'll be about 30 to 40 minutes after the match ends. Uh, they play Toronto tomorrow night, so it's community heroes night. So after the game, about 30 to 40 minutes, we'll be playing. Okay, so how do people get tickets for this one? I believe they just get normal tickets and then they can just stay after the match and stick around. They can, they can stay and watch. So what kind of training have you been doing for something like we've been doing some pretty significant practices about 12 practices a week for about the last six weeks. Um, we've added a lot of talent to our team. Um, so I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. Are you in shape? Some kind of shape. Like I would say round is a shape. That's all the matter. It's a lot of running. Yeah, second annual. Yes, ma'am. Who won last year? We won. We won, but it was in penalty kicks. So we tied 11 and then at the end after it's a tie, we go to penalty kicks. So this could be exceptionally exciting. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the police officers to give them their credit. They were a talented team, but we won and we look to do the same thing this year. Not to give them too much credit. Clearly they didn't show up. I don't know if we invited him, but so this is interesting for your train though, because you guys all work on shifts kind of like us. How do you get together and actually do some legitimate training here? Same for the police officer, right? So with the practices, we tried to rotate the days because obviously we have three shifts at the fire department, A, B and C shifts. We've rotated the days that the practices are on because we have, you know, guys and girls from all three shifts. Some people take vacation and time off, but we just make it work. Lieutenant, is there kind of like a try out to make the team? Are we talking, you know, soccer players in the past or kind of anyone can just join all of the above. So we actually started last year. We just had a large group of people and we've had more interest this year and then we were able to to kind of slim down the numbers a little bit with some past players as well. So I'm just curious when we're out on scenes, we get to know a lot of you guys out and about. Do you know your competition very well? Are you friendly with them? Or is this like I saw you last year? Yes, I recognize a couple of the officers. I have, you know, some good friends in the police department and I recognize some of them on scene. So it's friendly little banter out there as well in the streets. Great. It's gonna be so much fun tomorrow night after the match. Yes, sir. You guys take it over. So you're the you're the headliner. So the first match, the professional players are kind of your warm up. Is that what it is? Yes, sir. The professionals. Right. So much fun. Looks like it's gonna be a great game. You excited? We're excited. We're very excited for the opportunity and going for that trophy back to back. All right, get out there. So tomorrow night after the match downtown, Lieutenant Harper, thanks for joining us today. Good luck this weekend, guys. All right, we'll be right back here on Good Day. Orlando Extra.