November 9, 2023 • 32 mins
Revisiting the infamous Michael Jordan 'cut from his high school basketball team' story, 45 years later.
Are physical high school football coaches the last of a dying breed?
Unsportsmanlike penalties brought to you by Liberty Baptist Church.
How to get kicked out of the chain gang.
The best high school football matchups in the country according to Go Fight Win.
_____
Michael Jordan story: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29180890/michael-jordan-history-flight
Jesuit coach punches helmet: https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/sports/jesuit-high-school-football-coach-fired-after-video-shows-him-punch-player/
Community supports physical coach: https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/coach-fritz-southern-alamance-head-football-coach-playoffs-champion-students-staff-teacher-parents-rally-alamance-burlington-school-system/83-411cc329-8f44-49ed-b8b8-c70203223fd8
Unsportsmanlike church advertisement: https://x.com/BrianBranam/status/1720613068688838763?s=20
Chain gang ejection: https://x.com/jfvella/status/1720611376484254034?s=20
Coffeetown team store: www.gocoffeetown.com/team-store
Submit your own high school football story: www.gocoffeetown.com/got-a-story
Twitter: @GoCoffeetown / YouTube: @GoCoffeetown / Instagram: @GoCoffeetown / Facebook: @GoCoffeetown / TikTok: @GoCoffeetown
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey all, welcome into Go Fight Win, the show with
all the high school football stories you love. What do
we make of coaches who still get physical with their
players these days? Is it just old school formative loving
or is it out of line. We'll take a look
at two different coaches in two different states who had
two very different reactions from their fans and their schools.
I'll let you decide who was right and who was wrong.
(00:20):
Plus a local church with an ad read in the
middle of a game and the part of the game
that you may not expect. Some details on that. And
a local chain gang member who got booted in the
middle of a game. Why did it happen? I'll tell you. Hey,
I know it's high school football playoff season, but I
want to take a look at something that happened in
a high school basketball gym forty five years ago this
(00:43):
month that shaped the greatest basketball player of all time.
Some facts you may not have heard of in this
story that is pretty well known, And the debut of
the Go Fight Win playoff matchups to watch from around
the country. It's not based on the best matchups on
the field. It's not based on the best players on
(01:06):
the field. It's based solely on the best names on
the helmets. That's right, baby, it's time for Go Fight Win.
Put some air in your helmet, time to play it.
Just give the battle to Donny Tug and let that
puzzle up. Hey, y'all, I am west Blankenship. This is
(01:34):
the twelfth doesn't doesn't the word? It's the twelfth episode
of Go Fight Win. We're rocking and rolling through the
high school football season, and this week we're gonna take
a look at some phenomenal high school football stories from
around the US of A and some good playoff matchups
to watch as well. It's playoff season. I hope your
(01:54):
team made it. Hope y'all are in there. Hope you're
in the thick of it. Whether you're in round one,
round two, round three, it's all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
The colder States started a little bit earlier, you move
down below the Mason Dixon line. We're just getting fired
up down here in the South. It is an exciting
time to be a high school football fan. And there's
no better way to support high school football everywhere than
by going to gocoffeetown dot com picking up a go
Coffeetown hat like I have on my head here, or
a shirt, a koozie, you mug, whatever you need to
(02:24):
support the Coffeetown Copperheads. When you support Coffeetown football, you
tell everybody that you just love high school football in general.
You're just a high school football fan out there supporting
the boys. When it's basketball season, softball season, baseball season.
You're supporting the guys and the girls because we love
high school sports around here. Let's take a look at
(02:46):
a just a list here of high school football headlines
I saw over the past few days, and I want
to compare and contrast a couple things here I mentioned
in the tea's there to start the show. Coaches get
physical these days, and we see the in the headlines,
and unfortunately it dominates the headlines. I have to dig
a little bit to find some of the better stories,
(03:06):
some of the better humans, some of the better character
acts in high school sports, because the first ones are
stories like this high school football coach fired after video
shows him punching player. This happened in Tampa, Florida at
Jesuit High School. Kevin Hobbs, who is a former NFL
(03:27):
player and currently serves as a defensive coordinator for Tampa
Bay Tech High School tweeted out the video and says
a coach's role extends beyond shaping young athletes into great
football players. It's about molding them into exceptional individuals within
our society. You should never, in all caps, reach a
point where you find it necessary to engage in this hashtag.
(03:50):
Shameful and it is shameful to punch a kid in
the head, even if he's wearing a football helmet. It's
even more shameful to punch anyone wearing a football helmet period.
It's one of the least bright things you can do.
I'll say that with as much kindness as I can.
(04:11):
I don't care what the kid did. I don't care
what he screwed up. I don't care what he set
out there. You can watch the video. There's a link
to it and it's up on the screen right now
if you're on YouTube. There's a link to it in
the episode description. Coach, what are you doing? Head coaches
don't do that. You're not a head coach. You're an assistant.
(04:32):
And that's why. Maybe you'll get another job somewhere else,
but you're gonna learn and your hand is probably still
black and blue as the jersey of the kid you punched. Man.
Hashtag shameful is right from Hobbes's just embarrassing all the
way around. And I will tell you about a different
(04:52):
coach who had a different reaction than getting fired up
in the state of North Carolina. I'll tell you this
coach I'm about to tell you about is different because
punching a kid in the head. What's he learning? What
are you teaching him? What's he supposed to gain from that?
Learn from that to be a better football player, to
(05:13):
be a better person. He's not learning much from you.
So best of luck to you, coach. I'm all about
second chances, all about people learning from hard mistakes and
turning bad things in their lives into positives. But I'll
say that if you are willing to punch a kid
(05:33):
in the head just because you were upset, you probably
have a lot more to work out than just you know,
this instance of not thinking clearly. So Jesuit beat Tampa
Catholic sixty six thirty five. The Tigers will host Penelos
Park on Friday in the opening round of the three
(05:56):
M Region two playoffs. So yeah, Jesuit moving on from
this guy. You ain't tough. You ain't tough, man, figure
out what the goal is here. The goal is to
mold these guys, win some games along the way, and
(06:17):
not have your own knuckles be broken on the helmet
of one of your own players along the way. All right,
So how about a different angle, different side of this
the heart of the matter. We got another coach here
that was physical coach Fritz. This is Walter Frederick Hessenthaler,
(06:38):
better known as coach Fritz at Southern Alamance High School
was removed and this is out of Alamance County, North Carolina.
But get this, even though coach grabbed a player's collar,
Chandler klants, well, I want to I do want to
clarify the coach and the previous story was not named.
(07:02):
There's no name of this guy anywhere. Don't go look
him up or anything like that. I don't know what
his name is. And maybe that's good. Maybe that's a
good thing that the whole country doesn't know what his
name is so he can regroup and figure out what
he wants to do with his life. But we do
know what this coach's name is. This is coach Fritz,
(07:23):
and we do know the player involved, Chandler Klantz. There
are rumors that coach was violent with senior football player
Chandler Klantz, and according to w FMY here find CBS
station out of North Carolina. Klantz does admit that coach
grabbed his collar, but he says it's just his coaching style.
(07:45):
He also said when he yells, the team typically does better.
He alongside many of those in the crowd of people
who protested Fritz is firing. Yeah, imagine that a crowd
of people actually gather to support this who's been suspended
from teaching without pay and removed as the coach. I
wonder what's different here? Is it winning no jesuit one?
(08:09):
Is it a culture? Is it a foundation of you're
just always beating up on players instead of just reacting
and punching a kid in the helmet. I don't know
about that. I think it comes down to what kind
of person have you proven yourself to be, not just
the results on the field, but what kind of respect
(08:31):
have you earned from your players. It sounds like Fritz
has earned that respect. Clont said, even though coach grabbed
his collar, he calls it a form of tough love.
Here's what Clon said when he yelled at me that night,
he goes, why are we not trying? He says that
because he knows that this year's team has the talent
(08:51):
to go all the way this year and win at all.
I was not upset about it because I knew that
because we played Western and we played really bad. I
knew he was going to yell, and it was not
really an upset thing. I wouldn't have told my mom
because it was not that serious, and I knew what
to expect. I'm a four year varsity starter. I know
it's to be expected of me, and I wasn't doing it.
(09:14):
So I want y'all to let me know. Man in
the comments tweet at go Coffeetown tweeted me, where do
y'all stand on this? I don't see that it's going
to keep going, even if the players support their coaches
or not. I don't see how, in the age that
(09:35):
we exist in now, with immediate outrage on social media
from everything, whether it's right or wrong, I don't see
how coaches are going to be able to continue to
do this and keep their jobs. Coach Fritz lost his
job in the story here, and people still respect him
(09:57):
I coaches who yelled at us. My coaches actually didn't cuss,
but they didn't hit us either. I don't even know
how much longer coaches are going to be able to yell.
It's kind of astounding to see what we're what we're
how we're seeing college or high school football change. Man.
(10:21):
In this story, I could see. I don't know who
coach Fritz is. I don't know him, but I could
see how if the players are sticking up for him
and at you know, at least admitting that it's tough love,
that they're okay with it they signed up for. You.
Think of this kid didn't like it, he'd still be
around now. It's just one kid. Klaunts is one guy.
(10:41):
But there was clearly a crowd of people there to
support coach Fritz for going down. You're not going to
see the crowd of people support a coach who punches
a player in the helmet. For a couple of reasons,
it's not how you want to treat your players, and
it's also just a sign that you're not thinking very clearly.
(11:02):
Because that helmet is a lot harder than your skin is,
even your bones, It's gonna hurt you so you don't
need that guy around your program. But y'all, let me know, man,
I know that a lot of people listening to this
are a little bit older. It's kind of an older demographic,
kind of relive in our high school glory days here.
But whether you're younger, you're a little older. What do
(11:24):
you think should coaches still grab players by the face mask?
Is that out of bounds? Should coaches still grab players
by the shoulder pad collar to pull them closer get
their attention? Is that okay? Is it a case by
case thing? Does it depend on how good the coach is.
I mean, it's not a cut and dry thing. It's
not a black and white thing. But it's almost like
(11:45):
that Supreme Court ruling of pornography. You know it when
you see it, well, when you see a coach acting
that way and doing that thing as a player. I
think many players you know that it's okay or they
know that it isn't Fans parents maybe they do too.
(12:10):
You know, there's gonna be a parent in every crowd
who doesn't like it. But if the team respects it,
is that ultimately what matters? Where do you draw the
line for me? If the team respects it and responds
to it as long as you're not breaking any laws.
To me, that's kind of the benchmark of whether or
(12:31):
not the coach is crossing the line or not. I
don't know. It's twenty twenty three. Things are changing quickly,
all right. Moving on to some brighter news here. We
got tagged in a couple tweets over at gocoffeetown dot
com about some great moments in high school football sports
over the past few days. Brian Branham tagged me here
(12:52):
at go Coffeetown at West Blankenship. Personal Fouls brought to
you by Liberty Baptist Church, Murray County High School in Chatsworth, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Our time outs will be talked about a Murray County
touchdown buck and nothing near this evening. We will have
our personal fouls.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Sponsored in eighty five.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Liberty Baptist Church. If you commit a personal foul dot
five the Liberty Baptist Church and speak of Pastor Branham,
and that's far forgetting. That's once again the Liberty Baptist
Church sponsoring the personal files that say that is a
(13:44):
Liberty Baptist Church personal foul.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I'm a warrior uh so that was actually Pastor Brandham
that tagged me in it at Brian Branham. If you
commit a personal foul in your life, stop, buy Liberty
batt this church and talk to Pastor Brandham about it.
It's a little Catholic coach. It's a little bit of
Catholic thinking there. You know, if you're a member at
(14:12):
Liberty Baptist Church and you commit a personal foul, you
can just talk to the Lord right there. Or if
you need to go talk to Pastor Brandham, then go
out to lunch with him or something, or talk to
him on Sunday. But I like that personal fouls brought
to you by Liberty Baptist Church. You mess up, you
make a mistake, it's all right. You might get penalized,
(14:34):
you might get away with it, but Liberty Baptist Church
is still there to steer you back towards your end
zone goals of life, which is eternal life. All right.
Speaking of personal fouls and acting up on the field,
how about this guy right here, John Vella tags or
(14:58):
someone tagged me in John Vellas tweet stoppage of play
here at Golf Shores in Alabama, a chain gang member
has been relieved of his duties and is being asked
to leave golf Shores twenty three b c Rain fourteen
two fifty nine in the second quarter. When you're on
(15:20):
the chain gang and you get kicked out, it's not
a hard job. You see where the ball is and
you just put that stick down right there. I mean
sometimes it's on the other end of the fields, on
the opposite hashmark. It's a little bit tricky, but you
still got the refs to help you. So why did
this chain gang member get kicked off? Some team dad?
Maybe it's the chaplain, some of the one of the
(15:42):
band dads, something like that. What happened? Well, Stuart Donald
replies to the tweet here I heard a follow up.
The chain gang guy was arguing penalties with the head
referee like a lot, so they tossed him. I would
give anything to be a fellow chain gang member to
(16:03):
hear what that chain gang dad was saying to the refs.
You're kind of on the same team. If you're on
the chain gang, I know that you have your own interest.
You're probably pulling for one of the teams. There's not
many neutral chain gangers out there, but you're kind of
like a conscientious objector in the war. You can't go
out there and fight. You're just tending to part of
(16:27):
the battle. You're just out there measuring and logging how
the game's going. And then you're a ref and you're
just out there here in this chain gang Dad in
your ear all night. I hate that spot, ref. I'm
gonna move it myself. And that's when things get wrong.
You take the game into your own hands as a
chain gang Dad. You're out. You're gonna be asked to leave.
(16:50):
We're gonna ask you to go to Liberty Baptists later
on this week, talk to Pastor Branham, because you've committed
your own personal foul on sportsmanlike conduct on the chain game.
Get him out. Forty five years ago this month, Michael
Jordan did not make his varsity high school basketball team.
You've probably heard the story and about how it motivated
(17:11):
him to become the player that we all watched and
saw become the greatest to ever do it. Well, it
turns out it's not that simple. And in the spirit
of the anniversary of that momentous event, I wanted to
dig a little bit deeper and see what really happened.
That's coming up on Go Fight Win. So I don't
(17:35):
know where you stand in the Michael Jordan versus Lebron
James debate, and I know where I stand. Not too
vocal about it because I don't know what I will
add or take away from either side of the conversation.
But I'll tell you I'm an mj guy. Well, I
was doing some reading recently on Michael Jordan basketball starting
back up, kind of getting in the mood, and I
(17:58):
discovered that this month, November nineteen seventy eight, is when
Michael Jordan did not make his varsity high school basketball team. Well,
you know, growing up, you hear that story. You may
or may not be familiar with it. It's kind of
used as this lynch pin moment that propelled Michael Jordan
to greatness. Right, you've seen the Last Dance, he says,
(18:20):
you know, and I took that personally about everything pretty much,
and certainly about this currents in his life. Well, he's
doing some reading on a fantastic piece that Right Thompson
put out in twenty twenty, around the same time that
The Last Dance came out, and Right Thompson, I'm going
to put a link to this story Man, if you're
(18:41):
a Michael Jordan fan, if you're a basketball fan at all,
you got to read this. Man, this is the first
time I've read it. It's a long read. I've broken
it up into chunks. I got two kids. I don't
have time to read. However many words this is, I
think it's about fifty thousand. Maybe I don't know. I'm
not that good with numbers. I'm alright with words, though,
(19:04):
and there are a lot of them in this story.
But one part here that really stuck out to me
is the forty fifth anniversary. Here, I did the math.
I had to use a calculator of Michael Jordan getting
cut and I say that in air quotes from his
basketball tryouts. Well, who was his coach at the time,
(19:26):
Clifton pop Herring watched Michael try out and decided that
he couldn't make the varsity team. Well, the truth of
this story is, it wasn't that Michael was told, hey, Bud,
you're a scrub, don't pick up a basketball, never show
back up here. And that's kind of what you're led
(19:48):
to believe, just in the vernacular of that story. Michael
Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team It's
a maxim that's used in many people's lives when they
have a setback. Hey man, even Michael Jordan was cut
from his high school basketball team, and look how good
he became. Well, it's not really that simple, because in
(20:09):
Wright's reportage here he does point out that it wasn't
just Michael being told, hey man, you can't play basketball.
Coach Herrings said, Michael, you can play basketball, but you
can't do it for the varsity. And as a sophomore
in high school, which Michael was. Yeah, you know, maybe
(20:32):
Michael could have gotten some minutes on the varsity team,
but you don't typically make a varsity roster in many sports,
the average athlete anyway, until you're a junior or senior.
So Michael being told, hey, you're just junior varsity. Good,
We'll check back in and see if we can put
you up on the varsity. I can see why Michael
(20:54):
would take that personally, but I do want to poke
a hole there, and you can share this knowledge with
whoever you deem fit. Michael Jordan wasn't the victim of
coach Pop Herring's inadequacy as a coach. Coach Herring did
what he saw fit well, I got some older guys.
(21:16):
I don't know if Michael's going to get to play much.
I want him to get more reps. Coach Herring was
actually looking out for Michael Jordan by telling him that
he couldn't play varsity. But when you're Michael Jordan, it
doesn't matter what the facts are, right, It matters how
you perceive the slight and what you do with it.
So this month, November, the forty fifth year that this
(21:41):
story's existed, take a moment think about what he did,
and think about your relationship with this story and how
you thought about it, how you thought, Wow, that coach
must have been a real idiot. Maybe he was one
of the better coaches. Maybe he was one of the
most influential coaches in Michael's life, not passively, not because
(22:03):
he made a mistake, but because he knew what he
was doing. Who knows, maybe those minutes on the junior
varsity squad actually helped Michael more than he was willing
to admit. Still a namj guy, but when you see
a story like that, you got to call spade a
spade a little bit, right. Go check out that story though,
(22:27):
and read it. It is just phenomenal, It's fantastic. Two
f words right there. Coming up the best high school
football playoff matchups that should be on your radar around
the country, handpicked by me. All right, So, no matter
(22:47):
where you live, it is high school football playoff time.
Maybe it's the first round for your team, your state,
second third, maybe you've already had your state championships. I
don't know. Here on, Go Fight, Win, though, We're going
to take a look at the best high school football
playoff matchups in the USA. And it's not based on
the best teams. It's not based on the best coaches
(23:08):
or players. It's based on the best names in the matchup,
which name games have the best storylines in them? All right,
So this is the inaugural, the very first go Fight
win high school football playoff matchups in America to watch
top five lists, I'll work on abbreviating that later. First
(23:31):
up out of Alabama, a matchup as old as Earth itself,
Valley versus Rain? Who will win? Will there be more valley?
Will this turn into a lake, a stream? River? Maybe
when rain shows up and fills it up? Valley versus
(23:53):
Rain valleys seven and three, Rain is seven and three
as well, hmm, I'm gonna take I'm gonna take rain.
Just once you get a good stiff rain in that valley,
sometimes things just start to fall away, things start to
(24:15):
get a little bit muddy. You thought you were on
firm footing, you thought you had a good foundation, and
then rain comes in and pours on you all night long.
I'm going with rain over there in Bama. This is
in the five A Playoffs, by the way, all right,
a couple of states away, Arkansas and the three A
state Playoffs, a matchup that really represents, embodies the people,
(24:38):
the salt of the earth people out of the great
state of Arkansas. And I love the people over there.
But I gotta tell you, when I first saw this matchup,
I thought to myself, I bet in the history of
the state of Arkansas, at least a dozen times you've
(24:59):
heard someone say, Hey, I give me that Newport before
I smack over to Hey it if you need me
to translate that, that is, hey, give me that Newport
cigarette before I smack you over the head. Well, it's
not quite that cut and dry in the three A
playoff matchup, but it is phonetically speaking pretty accurate. Newport
(25:21):
the Greyhounds taking on the Smackover Cowboys. And I'm just
looking at the logos here. I don't know if that's
really your mascot names or not, but Newport Smackover to
me really does embody sum up so much of the
story of the people of Arkansas. And I say that respectfully.
(25:43):
So Newport verse smackover Newport's five and five smackovers five
and five. I give me that Newport before I smack
over to hey it, who's gonna win? Well, I do
not endorse, I do not condone cigarette smoking. But I
will say, if you've ever had a Newport, the Newport
(26:04):
probably won. So I'm going Newport in this one. Newport's
gonna be smackover, no matter how violent and aggressive Smackover is.
I like Newport in this one. All right, let's go
to the state of Florida. The four M playoffs. I'm
not sure what that stands for. The four m.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You got Plant taking on Plant City. Now Plant is
eight and two, Plant City is six and four. So
you'd go by the records, you think, you know, maybe
Plant has the upper hand here. But to me, I'm
thinking you got one Plant taking on an entire city.
(26:52):
Of plants. Plant City's got numbers. You know, they may
not have the record to back it up, but they
got plants surrounded. They got them ount numbered. What kind
of plant is it? Is it poison ivy? Is it
a cactus? They grow a lot of stuff down there
in Florida. So give me Plant City in the upset here.
(27:16):
I know there's six and four, but over there in
the four in playoffs on Friday night, I'm going with
Plant City just to overwhelm plant You just got one
plant going up a hole against a whole city. Get
some backup plant. All right, let's go to Illinois in
(27:36):
the four A playoffs here. That's a good match up
here Friday night, seven o'clock. We got Sandwich, which is
eight and three, taking on Wheaton Academy, which is ten
and one. Now, a sandwich can be a lot of things.
(27:58):
Oreo is a cookie sand You got ice cream sandwiches.
Some people can tend that a hot dog is a sandwich.
But wheatn Academy is ten and one. The only part
of a traditional sandwich that is made of wheat is
the bread. But I could put your sandwich ingredients into
(28:22):
a wrap, into a taco, into a salad, So I
don't necessarily know that you need to just rely on wheaten.
Wheaten's just the bread. Wheatens just above and below all
the meat, all the cheese, all the flavor of the sandwich.
(28:42):
I don't think you can beat a sandwich man. I'm
going with sandwich eight and three in the upset over
there in Illinois. All right, last one here rounding out
our top five out of the state of Louisiana. This
is D three. Select sounds fan he sounds sophisticated. Well,
we've got Pope John Paul the Second, who's nine and two,
(29:10):
eight and two, pardon me, five and one at home
taking on Lake Charles College Prep. Lake Charles College Prep
is three and six. How they made the playoffs is
beyond me. But what I do know about Pope John
Paul the Second is that he is well. He's no
(29:32):
longer with us, doesn't mean he's not existing in the
great Beyond. Maybe he's watching this one from above. But
rest in peace to the late great Pope John Paul
the Second. This man passed away eighteen years ago, all right,
So even if he is watching up there with the Lord, Hey,
(29:55):
he was just one guy. I know he had, you know,
some holy scripture research on his side, and he's a
good leader of his little crew there in Italy. But
this is Louisiana, football man, and you got to have
more than just a memory of a pope to put
(30:18):
up points on the scoreboard. So give me Late Charles
College Prep in the upset. We'll take a look at
these games. We'll track them and report back next week.
If you have any good go fight and win high
school football playoff matchups of the week in America for
us to review, then tag at go Coffeetown on x
(30:41):
on Instagram, tag me at Wes Underscore in Ship, West,
Blank and Ship. We'll give you a shout out. Man.
We're gonna get more guests on the show, I promise,
just taking a little bit of a break, a little
bit of a breather, a little bit of a reset
recalibration here as we enter the postseason and formulate a plan.
(31:02):
What do we do in high school football season's over? Well,
hopefully we continue to get some phenomenal high school football
stories from you and from our tremendous guests. Hit like
and subscribe, follow along with the show everywhere you want
to do it On YouTube, on Apple, on Spotify, on
(31:22):
social media's x Instagram, find at Go Coffeetown, search for
Go Fight Win. If you're looking for this thing, want
to share it with your friends, your buddies, people you
played high school football with. Glad y'all are here. Glad
you're supporting the show. We'll be back next week for
more high school football playoff matchups in America. According to
(31:46):
Go Fight Win, the best ones are out there. We
just got to find them and we're going to keep
talking about them. Y'all have a great week. Hope your
team wins if they're still playing. Peace
Hey all, welcome into Go Fight Win, the show with
all the high school football stories you love. What do
we make of coaches who still get physical with their
players these days? Is it just old school formative loving
or is it out of line. We'll take a look
at two different coaches in two different states who had
two very different reactions from their fans and their schools.
I'll let you decide who was right and who was wrong.
(00:20):
Plus a local church with an ad read in the
middle of a game and the part of the game
that you may not expect. Some details on that. And
a local chain gang member who got booted in the
middle of a game. Why did it happen? I'll tell you. Hey,
I know it's high school football playoff season, but I
want to take a look at something that happened in
a high school basketball gym forty five years ago this
(00:43):
month that shaped the greatest basketball player of all time.
Some facts you may not have heard of in this
story that is pretty well known, And the debut of
the Go Fight Win playoff matchups to watch from around
the country. It's not based on the best matchups on
the field. It's not based on the best players on
(01:06):
the field. It's based solely on the best names on
the helmets. That's right, baby, it's time for Go Fight Win.
Put some air in your helmet, time to play it.
Just give the battle to Donny Tug and let that
puzzle up. Hey, y'all, I am west Blankenship. This is
(01:34):
the twelfth doesn't doesn't the word? It's the twelfth episode
of Go Fight Win. We're rocking and rolling through the
high school football season, and this week we're gonna take
a look at some phenomenal high school football stories from
around the US of A and some good playoff matchups
to watch as well. It's playoff season. I hope your
(01:54):
team made it. Hope y'all are in there. Hope you're
in the thick of it. Whether you're in round one,
round two, round three, it's all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
The colder States started a little bit earlier, you move
down below the Mason Dixon line. We're just getting fired
up down here in the South. It is an exciting
time to be a high school football fan. And there's
no better way to support high school football everywhere than
by going to gocoffeetown dot com picking up a go
Coffeetown hat like I have on my head here, or
a shirt, a koozie, you mug, whatever you need to
(02:24):
support the Coffeetown Copperheads. When you support Coffeetown football, you
tell everybody that you just love high school football in general.
You're just a high school football fan out there supporting
the boys. When it's basketball season, softball season, baseball season.
You're supporting the guys and the girls because we love
high school sports around here. Let's take a look at
(02:46):
a just a list here of high school football headlines
I saw over the past few days, and I want
to compare and contrast a couple things here I mentioned
in the tea's there to start the show. Coaches get
physical these days, and we see the in the headlines,
and unfortunately it dominates the headlines. I have to dig
a little bit to find some of the better stories,
(03:06):
some of the better humans, some of the better character
acts in high school sports, because the first ones are
stories like this high school football coach fired after video
shows him punching player. This happened in Tampa, Florida at
Jesuit High School. Kevin Hobbs, who is a former NFL
(03:27):
player and currently serves as a defensive coordinator for Tampa
Bay Tech High School tweeted out the video and says
a coach's role extends beyond shaping young athletes into great
football players. It's about molding them into exceptional individuals within
our society. You should never, in all caps, reach a
point where you find it necessary to engage in this hashtag.
(03:50):
Shameful and it is shameful to punch a kid in
the head, even if he's wearing a football helmet. It's
even more shameful to punch anyone wearing a football helmet period.
It's one of the least bright things you can do.
I'll say that with as much kindness as I can.
(04:11):
I don't care what the kid did. I don't care
what he screwed up. I don't care what he set
out there. You can watch the video. There's a link
to it and it's up on the screen right now
if you're on YouTube. There's a link to it in
the episode description. Coach, what are you doing? Head coaches
don't do that. You're not a head coach. You're an assistant.
(04:32):
And that's why. Maybe you'll get another job somewhere else,
but you're gonna learn and your hand is probably still
black and blue as the jersey of the kid you punched. Man.
Hashtag shameful is right from Hobbes's just embarrassing all the
way around. And I will tell you about a different
(04:52):
coach who had a different reaction than getting fired up
in the state of North Carolina. I'll tell you this
coach I'm about to tell you about is different because
punching a kid in the head. What's he learning? What
are you teaching him? What's he supposed to gain from that?
Learn from that to be a better football player, to
(05:13):
be a better person. He's not learning much from you.
So best of luck to you, coach. I'm all about
second chances, all about people learning from hard mistakes and
turning bad things in their lives into positives. But I'll
say that if you are willing to punch a kid
(05:33):
in the head just because you were upset, you probably
have a lot more to work out than just you know,
this instance of not thinking clearly. So Jesuit beat Tampa
Catholic sixty six thirty five. The Tigers will host Penelos
Park on Friday in the opening round of the three
(05:56):
M Region two playoffs. So yeah, Jesuit moving on from
this guy. You ain't tough. You ain't tough, man, figure
out what the goal is here. The goal is to
mold these guys, win some games along the way, and
(06:17):
not have your own knuckles be broken on the helmet
of one of your own players along the way. All right,
So how about a different angle, different side of this
the heart of the matter. We got another coach here
that was physical coach Fritz. This is Walter Frederick Hessenthaler,
(06:38):
better known as coach Fritz at Southern Alamance High School
was removed and this is out of Alamance County, North Carolina.
But get this, even though coach grabbed a player's collar,
Chandler klants, well, I want to I do want to
clarify the coach and the previous story was not named.
(07:02):
There's no name of this guy anywhere. Don't go look
him up or anything like that. I don't know what
his name is. And maybe that's good. Maybe that's a
good thing that the whole country doesn't know what his
name is so he can regroup and figure out what
he wants to do with his life. But we do
know what this coach's name is. This is coach Fritz,
(07:23):
and we do know the player involved, Chandler Klantz. There
are rumors that coach was violent with senior football player
Chandler Klantz, and according to w FMY here find CBS
station out of North Carolina. Klantz does admit that coach
grabbed his collar, but he says it's just his coaching style.
(07:45):
He also said when he yells, the team typically does better.
He alongside many of those in the crowd of people
who protested Fritz is firing. Yeah, imagine that a crowd
of people actually gather to support this who's been suspended
from teaching without pay and removed as the coach. I
wonder what's different here? Is it winning no jesuit one?
(08:09):
Is it a culture? Is it a foundation of you're
just always beating up on players instead of just reacting
and punching a kid in the helmet. I don't know
about that. I think it comes down to what kind
of person have you proven yourself to be, not just
the results on the field, but what kind of respect
(08:31):
have you earned from your players. It sounds like Fritz
has earned that respect. Clont said, even though coach grabbed
his collar, he calls it a form of tough love.
Here's what Clon said when he yelled at me that night,
he goes, why are we not trying? He says that
because he knows that this year's team has the talent
(08:51):
to go all the way this year and win at all.
I was not upset about it because I knew that
because we played Western and we played really bad. I
knew he was going to yell, and it was not
really an upset thing. I wouldn't have told my mom
because it was not that serious, and I knew what
to expect. I'm a four year varsity starter. I know
it's to be expected of me, and I wasn't doing it.
(09:14):
So I want y'all to let me know. Man in
the comments tweet at go Coffeetown tweeted me, where do
y'all stand on this? I don't see that it's going
to keep going, even if the players support their coaches
or not. I don't see how, in the age that
(09:35):
we exist in now, with immediate outrage on social media
from everything, whether it's right or wrong, I don't see
how coaches are going to be able to continue to
do this and keep their jobs. Coach Fritz lost his
job in the story here, and people still respect him
(09:57):
I coaches who yelled at us. My coaches actually didn't cuss,
but they didn't hit us either. I don't even know
how much longer coaches are going to be able to yell.
It's kind of astounding to see what we're what we're
how we're seeing college or high school football change. Man.
(10:21):
In this story, I could see. I don't know who
coach Fritz is. I don't know him, but I could
see how if the players are sticking up for him
and at you know, at least admitting that it's tough love,
that they're okay with it they signed up for. You.
Think of this kid didn't like it, he'd still be
around now. It's just one kid. Klaunts is one guy.
(10:41):
But there was clearly a crowd of people there to
support coach Fritz for going down. You're not going to
see the crowd of people support a coach who punches
a player in the helmet. For a couple of reasons,
it's not how you want to treat your players, and
it's also just a sign that you're not thinking very clearly.
(11:02):
Because that helmet is a lot harder than your skin is,
even your bones, It's gonna hurt you so you don't
need that guy around your program. But y'all, let me know, man,
I know that a lot of people listening to this
are a little bit older. It's kind of an older demographic,
kind of relive in our high school glory days here.
But whether you're younger, you're a little older. What do
(11:24):
you think should coaches still grab players by the face mask?
Is that out of bounds? Should coaches still grab players
by the shoulder pad collar to pull them closer get
their attention? Is that okay? Is it a case by
case thing? Does it depend on how good the coach is.
I mean, it's not a cut and dry thing. It's
not a black and white thing. But it's almost like
(11:45):
that Supreme Court ruling of pornography. You know it when
you see it, well, when you see a coach acting
that way and doing that thing as a player. I
think many players you know that it's okay or they
know that it isn't Fans parents maybe they do too.
(12:10):
You know, there's gonna be a parent in every crowd
who doesn't like it. But if the team respects it,
is that ultimately what matters? Where do you draw the
line for me? If the team respects it and responds
to it as long as you're not breaking any laws.
To me, that's kind of the benchmark of whether or
(12:31):
not the coach is crossing the line or not. I
don't know. It's twenty twenty three. Things are changing quickly,
all right. Moving on to some brighter news here. We
got tagged in a couple tweets over at gocoffeetown dot
com about some great moments in high school football sports
over the past few days. Brian Branham tagged me here
(12:52):
at go Coffeetown at West Blankenship. Personal Fouls brought to
you by Liberty Baptist Church, Murray County High School in Chatsworth, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Our time outs will be talked about a Murray County
touchdown buck and nothing near this evening. We will have
our personal fouls.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Sponsored in eighty five.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Liberty Baptist Church. If you commit a personal foul dot
five the Liberty Baptist Church and speak of Pastor Branham,
and that's far forgetting. That's once again the Liberty Baptist
Church sponsoring the personal files that say that is a
(13:44):
Liberty Baptist Church personal foul.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I'm a warrior uh so that was actually Pastor Brandham
that tagged me in it at Brian Branham. If you
commit a personal foul in your life, stop, buy Liberty
batt this church and talk to Pastor Brandham about it.
It's a little Catholic coach. It's a little bit of
Catholic thinking there. You know, if you're a member at
(14:12):
Liberty Baptist Church and you commit a personal foul, you
can just talk to the Lord right there. Or if
you need to go talk to Pastor Brandham, then go
out to lunch with him or something, or talk to
him on Sunday. But I like that personal fouls brought
to you by Liberty Baptist Church. You mess up, you
make a mistake, it's all right. You might get penalized,
(14:34):
you might get away with it, but Liberty Baptist Church
is still there to steer you back towards your end
zone goals of life, which is eternal life. All right.
Speaking of personal fouls and acting up on the field,
how about this guy right here, John Vella tags or
(14:58):
someone tagged me in John Vellas tweet stoppage of play
here at Golf Shores in Alabama, a chain gang member
has been relieved of his duties and is being asked
to leave golf Shores twenty three b c Rain fourteen
two fifty nine in the second quarter. When you're on
(15:20):
the chain gang and you get kicked out, it's not
a hard job. You see where the ball is and
you just put that stick down right there. I mean
sometimes it's on the other end of the fields, on
the opposite hashmark. It's a little bit tricky, but you
still got the refs to help you. So why did
this chain gang member get kicked off? Some team dad?
Maybe it's the chaplain, some of the one of the
(15:42):
band dads, something like that. What happened? Well, Stuart Donald
replies to the tweet here I heard a follow up.
The chain gang guy was arguing penalties with the head
referee like a lot, so they tossed him. I would
give anything to be a fellow chain gang member to
(16:03):
hear what that chain gang dad was saying to the refs.
You're kind of on the same team. If you're on
the chain gang, I know that you have your own interest.
You're probably pulling for one of the teams. There's not
many neutral chain gangers out there, but you're kind of
like a conscientious objector in the war. You can't go
out there and fight. You're just tending to part of
(16:27):
the battle. You're just out there measuring and logging how
the game's going. And then you're a ref and you're
just out there here in this chain gang Dad in
your ear all night. I hate that spot, ref. I'm
gonna move it myself. And that's when things get wrong.
You take the game into your own hands as a
chain gang Dad. You're out. You're gonna be asked to leave.
(16:50):
We're gonna ask you to go to Liberty Baptists later
on this week, talk to Pastor Branham, because you've committed
your own personal foul on sportsmanlike conduct on the chain game.
Get him out. Forty five years ago this month, Michael
Jordan did not make his varsity high school basketball team.
You've probably heard the story and about how it motivated
(17:11):
him to become the player that we all watched and
saw become the greatest to ever do it. Well, it
turns out it's not that simple. And in the spirit
of the anniversary of that momentous event, I wanted to
dig a little bit deeper and see what really happened.
That's coming up on Go Fight Win. So I don't
(17:35):
know where you stand in the Michael Jordan versus Lebron
James debate, and I know where I stand. Not too
vocal about it because I don't know what I will
add or take away from either side of the conversation.
But I'll tell you I'm an mj guy. Well, I
was doing some reading recently on Michael Jordan basketball starting
back up, kind of getting in the mood, and I
(17:58):
discovered that this month, November nineteen seventy eight, is when
Michael Jordan did not make his varsity high school basketball team. Well,
you know, growing up, you hear that story. You may
or may not be familiar with it. It's kind of
used as this lynch pin moment that propelled Michael Jordan
to greatness. Right, you've seen the Last Dance, he says,
(18:20):
you know, and I took that personally about everything pretty much,
and certainly about this currents in his life. Well, he's
doing some reading on a fantastic piece that Right Thompson
put out in twenty twenty, around the same time that
The Last Dance came out, and Right Thompson, I'm going
to put a link to this story Man, if you're
(18:41):
a Michael Jordan fan, if you're a basketball fan at all,
you got to read this. Man, this is the first
time I've read it. It's a long read. I've broken
it up into chunks. I got two kids. I don't
have time to read. However many words this is, I
think it's about fifty thousand. Maybe I don't know. I'm
not that good with numbers. I'm alright with words, though,
(19:04):
and there are a lot of them in this story.
But one part here that really stuck out to me
is the forty fifth anniversary. Here, I did the math.
I had to use a calculator of Michael Jordan getting
cut and I say that in air quotes from his
basketball tryouts. Well, who was his coach at the time,
(19:26):
Clifton pop Herring watched Michael try out and decided that
he couldn't make the varsity team. Well, the truth of
this story is, it wasn't that Michael was told, hey, Bud,
you're a scrub, don't pick up a basketball, never show
back up here. And that's kind of what you're led
(19:48):
to believe, just in the vernacular of that story. Michael
Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team It's
a maxim that's used in many people's lives when they
have a setback. Hey man, even Michael Jordan was cut
from his high school basketball team, and look how good
he became. Well, it's not really that simple, because in
(20:09):
Wright's reportage here he does point out that it wasn't
just Michael being told, hey man, you can't play basketball.
Coach Herrings said, Michael, you can play basketball, but you
can't do it for the varsity. And as a sophomore
in high school, which Michael was. Yeah, you know, maybe
(20:32):
Michael could have gotten some minutes on the varsity team,
but you don't typically make a varsity roster in many sports,
the average athlete anyway, until you're a junior or senior.
So Michael being told, hey, you're just junior varsity. Good,
We'll check back in and see if we can put
you up on the varsity. I can see why Michael
(20:54):
would take that personally, but I do want to poke
a hole there, and you can share this knowledge with
whoever you deem fit. Michael Jordan wasn't the victim of
coach Pop Herring's inadequacy as a coach. Coach Herring did
what he saw fit well, I got some older guys.
(21:16):
I don't know if Michael's going to get to play much.
I want him to get more reps. Coach Herring was
actually looking out for Michael Jordan by telling him that
he couldn't play varsity. But when you're Michael Jordan, it
doesn't matter what the facts are, right, It matters how
you perceive the slight and what you do with it.
So this month, November, the forty fifth year that this
(21:41):
story's existed, take a moment think about what he did,
and think about your relationship with this story and how
you thought about it, how you thought, Wow, that coach
must have been a real idiot. Maybe he was one
of the better coaches. Maybe he was one of the
most influential coaches in Michael's life, not passively, not because
(22:03):
he made a mistake, but because he knew what he
was doing. Who knows, maybe those minutes on the junior
varsity squad actually helped Michael more than he was willing
to admit. Still a namj guy, but when you see
a story like that, you got to call spade a
spade a little bit, right. Go check out that story though,
(22:27):
and read it. It is just phenomenal, It's fantastic. Two
f words right there. Coming up the best high school
football playoff matchups that should be on your radar around
the country, handpicked by me. All right, So, no matter
(22:47):
where you live, it is high school football playoff time.
Maybe it's the first round for your team, your state,
second third, maybe you've already had your state championships. I
don't know. Here on, Go Fight, Win, though, We're going
to take a look at the best high school football
playoff matchups in the USA. And it's not based on
the best teams. It's not based on the best coaches
(23:08):
or players. It's based on the best names in the matchup,
which name games have the best storylines in them? All right,
So this is the inaugural, the very first go Fight
win high school football playoff matchups in America to watch
top five lists, I'll work on abbreviating that later. First
(23:31):
up out of Alabama, a matchup as old as Earth itself,
Valley versus Rain? Who will win? Will there be more valley?
Will this turn into a lake, a stream? River? Maybe
when rain shows up and fills it up? Valley versus
(23:53):
Rain valleys seven and three, Rain is seven and three
as well, hmm, I'm gonna take I'm gonna take rain.
Just once you get a good stiff rain in that valley,
sometimes things just start to fall away, things start to
(24:15):
get a little bit muddy. You thought you were on
firm footing, you thought you had a good foundation, and
then rain comes in and pours on you all night long.
I'm going with rain over there in Bama. This is
in the five A Playoffs, by the way, all right,
a couple of states away, Arkansas and the three A
state Playoffs, a matchup that really represents, embodies the people,
(24:38):
the salt of the earth people out of the great
state of Arkansas. And I love the people over there.
But I gotta tell you, when I first saw this matchup,
I thought to myself, I bet in the history of
the state of Arkansas, at least a dozen times you've
(24:59):
heard someone say, Hey, I give me that Newport before
I smack over to Hey it if you need me
to translate that, that is, hey, give me that Newport
cigarette before I smack you over the head. Well, it's
not quite that cut and dry in the three A
playoff matchup, but it is phonetically speaking pretty accurate. Newport
(25:21):
the Greyhounds taking on the Smackover Cowboys. And I'm just
looking at the logos here. I don't know if that's
really your mascot names or not, but Newport Smackover to
me really does embody sum up so much of the
story of the people of Arkansas. And I say that respectfully.
(25:43):
So Newport verse smackover Newport's five and five smackovers five
and five. I give me that Newport before I smack
over to hey it, who's gonna win? Well, I do
not endorse, I do not condone cigarette smoking. But I
will say, if you've ever had a Newport, the Newport
(26:04):
probably won. So I'm going Newport in this one. Newport's
gonna be smackover, no matter how violent and aggressive Smackover is.
I like Newport in this one. All right, let's go
to the state of Florida. The four M playoffs. I'm
not sure what that stands for. The four m.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You got Plant taking on Plant City. Now Plant is
eight and two, Plant City is six and four. So
you'd go by the records, you think, you know, maybe
Plant has the upper hand here. But to me, I'm
thinking you got one Plant taking on an entire city.
(26:52):
Of plants. Plant City's got numbers. You know, they may
not have the record to back it up, but they
got plants surrounded. They got them ount numbered. What kind
of plant is it? Is it poison ivy? Is it
a cactus? They grow a lot of stuff down there
in Florida. So give me Plant City in the upset here.
(27:16):
I know there's six and four, but over there in
the four in playoffs on Friday night, I'm going with
Plant City just to overwhelm plant You just got one
plant going up a hole against a whole city. Get
some backup plant. All right, let's go to Illinois in
(27:36):
the four A playoffs here. That's a good match up
here Friday night, seven o'clock. We got Sandwich, which is
eight and three, taking on Wheaton Academy, which is ten
and one. Now, a sandwich can be a lot of things.
(27:58):
Oreo is a cookie sand You got ice cream sandwiches.
Some people can tend that a hot dog is a sandwich.
But wheatn Academy is ten and one. The only part
of a traditional sandwich that is made of wheat is
the bread. But I could put your sandwich ingredients into
(28:22):
a wrap, into a taco, into a salad, So I
don't necessarily know that you need to just rely on wheaten.
Wheaten's just the bread. Wheatens just above and below all
the meat, all the cheese, all the flavor of the sandwich.
(28:42):
I don't think you can beat a sandwich man. I'm
going with sandwich eight and three in the upset over
there in Illinois. All right, last one here rounding out
our top five out of the state of Louisiana. This
is D three. Select sounds fan he sounds sophisticated. Well,
we've got Pope John Paul the Second, who's nine and two,
(29:10):
eight and two, pardon me, five and one at home
taking on Lake Charles College Prep. Lake Charles College Prep
is three and six. How they made the playoffs is
beyond me. But what I do know about Pope John
Paul the Second is that he is well. He's no
(29:32):
longer with us, doesn't mean he's not existing in the
great Beyond. Maybe he's watching this one from above. But
rest in peace to the late great Pope John Paul
the Second. This man passed away eighteen years ago, all right,
So even if he is watching up there with the Lord, Hey,
(29:55):
he was just one guy. I know he had, you know,
some holy scripture research on his side, and he's a
good leader of his little crew there in Italy. But
this is Louisiana, football man, and you got to have
more than just a memory of a pope to put
(30:18):
up points on the scoreboard. So give me Late Charles
College Prep in the upset. We'll take a look at
these games. We'll track them and report back next week.
If you have any good go fight and win high
school football playoff matchups of the week in America for
us to review, then tag at go Coffeetown on x
(30:41):
on Instagram, tag me at Wes Underscore in Ship, West,
Blank and Ship. We'll give you a shout out. Man.
We're gonna get more guests on the show, I promise,
just taking a little bit of a break, a little
bit of a breather, a little bit of a reset
recalibration here as we enter the postseason and formulate a plan.
(31:02):
What do we do in high school football season's over? Well,
hopefully we continue to get some phenomenal high school football
stories from you and from our tremendous guests. Hit like
and subscribe, follow along with the show everywhere you want
to do it On YouTube, on Apple, on Spotify, on
(31:22):
social media's x Instagram, find at Go Coffeetown, search for
Go Fight Win. If you're looking for this thing, want
to share it with your friends, your buddies, people you
played high school football with. Glad y'all are here. Glad
you're supporting the show. We'll be back next week for
more high school football playoff matchups in America. According to
(31:46):
Go Fight Win, the best ones are out there. We
just got to find them and we're going to keep
talking about them. Y'all have a great week. Hope your
team wins if they're still playing. Peace
Host
Wes Blankenship
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.