August 2, 2023 • 24 mins
Sports Director Eric Mosley sat down with Elgin Head Football Coach Zack Winslow to preview the Comet's upcoming season.
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(00:00):
Join me right now. Is ZachWinslow, the head football coach at Elgin
High School. Coach, we're righthere at the beginning of another season.
You just started practices. Just telleverybody that you were telling me a little
bit about what you did for thefirst practice. Tell everybody how you started
the practices off well, before weget to what we did. I mean,
this year is unique in the factthat we've got some acclamation days back
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up into July, which is somethingthe HSA has allowed us to do.
So our first night where we coulddo some contact hitting was Monday. Well,
to take advantage of that, wehad a practice Sunday evening and an
overnighter and then at twelve o'clock wecame back out onto the field and had
a scrimmage slash practice under the lights. So we went through, came out
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with all of our stretching and stuff. We divided up into two teams,
divided the coaching staff up, andyou know, went through some tackling stuff,
went through some team time up stuff, all that stuff, and then
we had a running clock scrimmage towhere you know, we just let the
clock continuously run and it was reallyfun, high energy, you know,
got to see hear the pads poppinga little bit, got to hear the
guys hooting, hollering, and andm really got to you know, start
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the season with an exclamation point,which is what you you know, I
think you want. You want tofind that that juice for your team,
and we definitely had it Monday morning. That's that's awesome. That just sounds
like a ton of fun. Sobefore we get too far into this new
season, let's just talk a littlebit about last season. It was a
decent season for Elgin. Didn't winthe league title, but we're able to
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get into the playoffs, played avery tough For Fry team that actually went
very deep in the playoffs. Whatcould you take away from just what you
saw last season and what kind ofprogress do you feel like the team made
through the season. Well, there'sno doubt Fort Fry was was a legitimate
team, and uh, you know, you never want to get beat up
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on like that's never never good.But I what I took from that game
and what our guys took from thatgame, or at least I hope they
took, was toughness, resilience,how to persevere and you know you're going
against what you may feel like isan insurmountable object. But also you know,
as soon as the game was over, I told them, you know,
that's our majuring stick when we talkabout being successful. You know,
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everybody wants to go ten and ohand wants to win their league title and
stuff like that, but we coulddo that on our way to be one
of those really good teams in thestate. And I was like, this
is the way I see us,This is what I see us being.
But you guys have to be willingto put in the work, in the
commitment and all those things that aredone, you know, December through August,
before the season even starts. That'swhat makes the difference. And then
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doing that, you know, ifyou're a freshman, doing that your sophomore
year and your junior year and yoursenior year, that's when you're going to
reap the rewards. You can't justshow up in July and expect to be
one of the best teams in thestate. You know, this is my
fourth season coming up as the headcoach at Elgin. So we did a
senior overnight cookout just over at oneof our coaches houses, and we set
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around the campfire, and you know, went around the fire and we all
talked about what's the one thing wewant to get from the season, one
thing that's important to us. Youknow, there were some really good stuff,
and you know, one of thethings I hit was whether they like
it or not? This is ifyou've played four years, You've been with
me all four years of high school. So you're my guys. The way
I look at you as you aremy guys because you've been here, there's
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you know, the only thing youknow is me is your head coach.
So this year has a lot ofpressure to a certain extent on where has
the program come from from when I'vestarted. You know, you know,
you hear about on college talk aboutcoaches like these are this is their ten
year, They've they've got no badhabits. There only know this certain thing.
Well, that's the way I feelabout it is these guys only know
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me. They've only been part ofmy program. They only know you know,
the buzzword culture, They only knowmy culture, the way I want
us to do things. So thisis a real dividend payoff year for us.
Now, whether that equals you know, five wins, eight wins,
ten wins, conference championship. Allthat stuff isn't as important as to how
they handle their business and how theyrepresent Elgin. If we fight our tails
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off every single game and we endup going five and five, sometimes five
and five is a darned good seasonbased on what you got. Sometimes ten
and oh can be disappointing based onwhat you got. You know, you
go into week eleven and you getbeat when you feel like you should be
a twelve thirteen win team, Imean, sometimes that's still disappointing. So
that was the recurring effect with someof those seniors too, is they don't
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want to look back on any gameand wish or have like, man,
if we'd only done this, orwe hadn't done that, could it have
changed the outcome? So I thinkour seniors are in a real good headspace
and excited for the year. Youtalked about just how the players need to
buy in, not just in thebeginning of July or right before practice,
but the whole year. Did youfeel like this passed off season You had
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a good amount of these guys comingout for winter workouts or staying in touch
with each other. Some of themplayed other sports obviously too, But did
you see that camaraderie, that teamstick together throughout the offseason. Well,
you know, that's a really uniquething at Elgin. You know, we
since I've been there. When Ifirst got to Elgin, there was a
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lot of one sport athletes. Youknow, either you only played football,
or you only played baseball, oryou know, whatever it was, you
were a one or two sport athleteat most. And since I've been there,
me and along with the other coaches, you know, coach Pasma,
Coach Clem while he was there,and now coach McElroy as there, and
you know coach James when he wasa baseball coach. You know, we're
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all pushing to have our guys domulti sports. If we're going to be
the best Elgin possible, we're gonnahave to share our athletes. And sometimes,
you know, you walk into ourweight room and the winner, you
know, there may only be fifteento twenty guys in there, of all
age groups from middle school on up, and you know, you may not
be super impressed with what is happeningin there by some you know, we're
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not a college program where everybody's throwingup four hundred pounds squads or whatever.
But when we did it, wetook attendance in the fall or in the
winter. I'm sorry. Out ofthe forty guys that we had on our
team last year, only three werenot involved in a winter sport in some
activity or another. And those guysthat weren't involved were there were at the
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weightlifting. So it's um, youknow that buy in or hitting the weight
room or hitting you know, someof those key buzzwords that people talk about.
We did that. But it mightbe a little different than maybe some
of the bigger schools or like youknow, a Harding or you know River
Valley or whatever. We're all wegot fifty guys in our weight room this
winter. I loved that. Fiftyguys in the weight room. I'd love
to have you know, every singlefootball player after school pounding the weights.
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But with our makeup of our districtnow, they're lifting within their programs.
They're doing what they need to fortheir you know, for wrestling or for
basketball. And then when the springportsports come, you know, they're doing
what they need to do to besuccessful in that sporting, to prepare themselves.
But once the summer hit, onceit was time for us all to
come back together. It was likewe never missed a beat. Like it's
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a unique camaraderie and a unique bondthat this group has where it was,
you know, you may have beena track guy and then your buddy may
have been a baseball guy, andyou really had no sports interaction, you
know, maybe supporting each other atevents, but not competing with each other
alongside each other. And then Junecomes around and you show up to the
weight room and it's seamless transition,and that that's been the thing that's really
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stood out to me this year.So I think cohesion wise, we're better
than we've been since in my fouryears are mentality is better than it's been,
or maybe not better as right where, but it's progressed the right way
that you want to see as acoach. You know, we're moving in
the right direction, and that's beensuper exciting. And now we have the
pads on their scrimmage and practice yesterdayand you know, we're just we're super
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excited to you know, to hitinto our actual scrimmage on Saturday against what
should be a really excited, tough, pleasant team and a really tough returning
a lot of talent Fredericktown team soit'll be a good gauge on where we're
at. It just doesn't seem likeit should be right now we're starting all
of it, but it is here. So let's focus on this season right
now. You've still got a goodamount numbers north of forty, which has
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been where you've wanted to be,obviously, So the numbers are there.
Lost a few guys. Let's justtalk about a couple of those players that
you lost, but also who arethose guys that have come back or maybe
have jumped onto the team this yearthat you feel like really can take on
a lot more as a leader orsomebody to make an impact on the team.
(08:31):
Yeah. So, I mean lastyear's senior class was really talented,
you know. I mean Breckon Dooleywas a big home run hitter for us.
He wasn't a guy that I wasgoing to carry the ball twenty or
thirty times a game, but whenhe touched the ball, he was lightning
in a bottle, and any oneof them could go the distance. We
lost a lot of experience upfront.You know, we got to replace four
guys upfront that were big contributors forus, including you know, all Conference
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and all County Offensive Lineman of theYear Colton Brush. You know as our
center, our signal caller upfront forthe guys, sets all of our protections
and communicates everything we need to upfront. So we got to replace him,
and uh, you know, thoseguys just played a lot of football.
They were um, you know,they were all key contributors as freshmen,
and then when I came in,they you know, they had to
play because we needed that death,We needed that talent, We needed their
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experience. So they played a lotof football and they've kind of you know,
every senior class is special and doestheir own makes their own mark on
a program, and they're no different. They left a uh a mark of
you know, furthering the culture andtoughness and not being satisfied. You know,
we're in that game against Fort Fry, like you said, and things
aren't going our way. But noneof them were ready to pack up and
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go home. They were they werefighting, fighting for everything they had,
even when times when they were gettingbeat up physically, they were they were
they were standing up you know,every you know, like the box are
standing up for the next round.They were all stood up and ready to
go back into the fight because theyknew that you know, one punch could
make a difference, one play couldmake a difference, and you know,
potentially change the way thing you're going. So they're gonna be missed, they're
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gonna be hard to replace. ButI think we've got some guys that are
are different. But are you willingto step up to the challenge? And
you felt like when we talked ofoff air, you felt like you've got
some depth now because you had alot of guys last year that maybe didn't
start but played a good significant amountof time. Are some of those guys
maybe on the offensive line or there'ssome positions that you're like, wow,
(10:24):
I'm really happy with the depth thatwe have right now. Yeah. So
you know, it's always that balancingact as a coach when you're like,
you know, you need to buildsome depth. You need to get some
guys the experience, but maybe they'renot as good as you're one a person,
but they're a one bee or youknow, a close two on the
depth chart, and so you've gotto find ways to get them in.
And coach Van Gundhi, who coachesour offensive line and defensive line, has
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done a really good job of buildingthat depth when we've had moments where we're
able to whether it's hey, we'reup and we're in control, so we're
gonna, you know, put somepieces in to get some experience, or
having all your rotation on the defensiveline to get guys some time. So
you know, there's a few guysthat are gonna have to step up and
be two way starters and now they'regoing to be the guy and they'll get
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rotated in and out occasionally rather thannow they're the rotator. You know.
So we were able to build somedepth last year and replace hopefully be able
to replace some of those guys seamlessly. Obviously, Elgin always been known to
be able to run the ball.You like to run wing tea, you
love just power in the ball.Is there anything in the offseason, because
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I know every coach kind of goesthrough the playbook, goes through everything they
did and maybe tweaks some things.Was there anything that you looked at that
was like, Okay, we're goingto tweak this a little bit, or
did you say, you know what, we've got this in place, this
is what we're going to do.Well. I think it's always some of
both I mean, I think youalways want to try and capitalize on personnel
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to a certain degree. What isyour team capable of doing without veering too
far from what your identity is.You work hard to get them to buy
into your system, whatever that is, whether you're up tempo spread and they're
buying into you know, one playevery so many seconds or whatever, or
if you're a you know, poundedthree yard cloud of dust team, getting
them into buy into that physical toughnessand wearing other teams down and you know,
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nobody's gonna out and muscle us,those types of things. So when
we came into this offseason and we'vehad some coaching turnover, so I'm having
another another assistant's going to be callingthe offense for us, So you're always
going to have some personal preference changesand you know, his little flavor on
things. But we're gonna stay basedout of the wing tea. We're gonna
stay running the ball. One ofour big points of emphasis was we need
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to be more efficient in our passinggame. You know, if if we
can run the ball, that shouldmake our play action game pretty successful.
If we can run the ball,that should make our quick game pretty successful.
Um, We're never going to venturefrom being a running team, a
running first team and being a powerfootball team, but we've definitely explored ways
this offseason. And this is myfirst year having a returning quarterback. You
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know, every year that I've beenhere, we've had a quarterback that was
a one and done for whatever reason, you know, a senior that moves
on to you know, to lifeor to college or whatever. So Brody
is going to be our you know, the first two year guy that I've
had. And his growth from lastyear being a you know, a first
year football player as a junior inhigh school to now being a returning senior
football player has been huge. He'sgot so much more command and understanding of
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what he's being asked for and hisfundamentals and you know footwork especially. He's
a baseball player, so he's gotan arm. Like the arm strength and
arm talent was never an issue.It was you know, being under balanced
to be able to follow through onthrows and read coverage and you know ball
placement and stuff like that. Sothe progression has got me excited to see
where that can go. Now,we're never gonna throw the ball thirty times
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a game, but we might throwit ten or fifteen, and out of
those ten or fifteen, we wantto complete eighty to ninety percent of those
passes and hopefully get a couple ofscores in there based on you know,
ball position or field position and thingslike that. So that's really offensively what
we're trying to tweak out. Defensively, again, with that coaching turnover,
I'm actually going to be taking overthe defense, which I have not called
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the defense in several years back whenI was an assistant. So there's some
excitement there, and you know,as being the leader of the team,
our defense has been not where we'vewanted it the last few years. We've
given up more points and maybe moreyardish, So in me taking it over,
it puts all accountability on me.You know, I can't not that
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I would ever pass the buck toan assistant coach because obviously we make it
the plan as a staff as ateam. But now I'm trying to put
my spin on, trying to putmy attitude on it, and hopefully so
far kids have been buying in.But hopefully we can take it to the
next level and try to get someof that swarm defense, silver bullet defense
back and actually earned that Moniker.Instead of just being you know something,
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we put on t shirts and inthe locker room, make it, make
it mean something again. And specialteams always a big point of emphasis for
every team. How are you feelingabout the special teams going into this season?
Well, special teams get to coachsuper excited and super worried every year
because you know, that's you know, those are the plays that although there's
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not a lot of them sometimes youknow, whether it's kickoff, kickoff return
or whatever, but those are wheregames can be one or lost, or
big momentums with you know, changeshappen. So we've been working on special
teams. I think our scheme isreally good what we have and uh,
you know, we've got a coupleof guys that I feel they can do
something special with the ball in theirhands, the guys that are really going
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to make the difference. So we'realways you know, see kickoff return or
punt return or whatever, those othereleven that or those other ten that don't
have the ball in their hand,and we've really tried to hype those guys
up and get them I don't wantto say incentivize, but make them feel
like their job is important just becauseyou may not be. You know,
so you take a kickoff return fora big gain or to the house,
you know, like those guys areshould be just as excited and just to
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sell rated as a guy that actuallycrossed the goal line because without without those
other guys, he's got no chance. And uh, you know the same
thing with coverage. I mean we'vereally tried to sell up the fact.
And it comes back to some ofthat defensive mentality too, is really just
sell you know, eleven hats onthe ball and and if you get a
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chance, you know, especially ifyou're a younger guy and you get a
chance on kickoff, like this isyour moment to shine. You want to
get more time on the defense ormore time on you know, on your
main offense or defense position. That'show you earn it. You you flash,
you shine on special teams. Youknow, now you're gonna be in
the coach's mind next man up orthird man up or whatever it needs to
be. You know, like you'regonna make yourself stand out and and that
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swagger that goes along with that.We're trying to create some more buying and
ownership of that stuff. And sofar, so good, but it's still
early. Let's look at the NorthwestCentral Conference breakdown and how it looks this
season. I would I would haveto think Elgin's in the conversation, but
obviously there's some traditional powers there.So when you look at the conference,
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what are you seeing not just forElgin but maybe overall in the conference.
Well, with the expansion, there'sa lot of unknowns. I mean,
we go from having three non leaguegames the only one non league game,
kind of like the old NYC formatwhere Week one is you know, non
league, and then you're playing ninestraight league opponents. So there's some unknown
bringing in two new teams, whatare they going to be? You know,
I've had some people, you know, last year, their records weren't
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great. I think they were twoand eight or three and seven each,
And you know, some of theexpectation is or maybe you hear people talk
of well, we're just gonna goin and beat these teams. Well,
I kindly remind them that our lastseason in the MOYC as Elgin we went
over, we went oh and ten, and then our first year in the
NWCC we went seven and three,and so you don't know what the strength
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of schedule these guys are playing.And you may say you know, but
you don't know. And you maythink you know this team as an outsider
on paper, but you don't know, and you don't know what they have
coming back. We all know,and small school football, one or two
guys can change the whole dynamic ofa football team. So you know,
having two unknowns on the schedule isis exciting, a little nerve racking,
but exciting for us. You know, we start out with Cartington, who
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has kind of turned into a littlebit of a cross you know, cross
the way non conference rival. Youknow, we've played the last three years
and each one of the games havebeen exciting and extremely physical and you know,
come down to the fourth quarter andI don't expect this year to be
any different. Got a lot ofrespect for those guys over there, the
coaching staff and the players. Youknow, I think they're very similar in
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their makeup. Now they may notbe the same schematically, but you know,
they're they're tough country, blue collarkids, and they play extremely hard
and sometimes there might be a littlephysically outmatch with man. They bring what
they have every single time, andthen you know, week two cross county
rivalry game for us. You know, we play Ridgedale at Ridgedale, and
you know there's a lot of alot of excitement I hear coming from over
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there. Their numbers are up alittle bit. They've got some guys returning
that you know turned into playmakers lastyear. And you know, in week
two, hopefully they're all healthy,Hopefully we're all healthy, and you know
it turns into a really good game. Hopefully it's a really good game that
we win. But it's uh,you know, I love that. You
know that rivalry could be great forour little county. You know, we've
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lost the MOYC and some of thosecross county games that we used to always
have, but the Elgin Ridgedale gamecould be something really special if we can.
If it turns where it's a backand forth Ohio State Michigan type,
you like, you never know who'sgonna win. You know, a team
might win three or four games here, but you know, maybe they're really
competitive and you never know, onebounce one way or the other could change
it. And you know, Ireally hope that's what we get to.
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And now I hope we win everysingle game. And I'm gonna plan on
winning every single game, but youknow, I want that to be competitive.
And then we go on a stretchwhere we're playing, you know,
teams that are a little farther away. You know, we're playing North Baltimore,
playing Quarry Rols, We're playing cressLine and throwing Ridgemont there, which
Ridgemont has also turned into a littlebit of a rivalry force. Now,
the games haven't been super competitive,but they're always really physical. They're always
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chippy, you know. You knowlast year, I think there's a couple
of personal files thrown out in thegame at our place, and it was
at the end of the year,but you know, there got a new
coach, they got some excitement,and I think, you know, early
in the season, you never knowwhat's going to happen. We're all still
going to be figuring out ourselves toa certain degree. We're all going to
be figuring out what works, whatdoesn't work. And you know, those
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are those those games where you're you'reunsure of how things are gonna go.
Now, once we get to theback half of our schedule, like we've
got some teams that we haven't beenable to beat. Um, you know,
we play at Waynesfield Goshen, whichfeels like the tenth year in a
freaking row that we can't get ahome game against those guys. But they've
kind of had our number, andour games with them have not been super
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competitive, at least not for fourquarters. You know, last year we
went in there and we threw acouple of big punches early, but they
battled back and you know, theyhandled us pretty easily. I think that's
not because of a huge despair intalent, but for whatever reason, they've
got our guys mentally somewhere that's hardfor them to battle out of. So
that's gonna be a huge mental testfor us. Hopefully we can have some
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momentum and have some confidence and havesome swagger about us and go in there
with our you know, our chestspuffed out and ready to go. Um.
They lose some guys, of course, you know, but I think
you know, they're bringing back theconference player of the year at quarterback and
they're going to be explosive. Andyou know, they've been at the JV
and junior high levels. We've beenhaving back and forth battles. They're you
know, close games, So youknow, I expect nothing less this game,
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and I'm you know, I hopethat it's a game we can win.
But you know, I think it'llbe great for us to just come
out and you know, punch themguys in the face and just see where
the chips fall. Come out swingingum. Defending conference champions, so they
should have a big target on theirback, and you know, there's nothing
I would like more than to knockthose guys off and set ourselves up for
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a run at the conference title.Usv after that's going to be nothing nothing
easy either. They lose a couplegood senior out of that class, but
they've got some really really good returnersat the skill positions that are going to
be hard for us to work withor hard for us to contain. And
then Hard and Northern. We youknow, we play Hard and Northern and
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that that's a team that the lasttwo years. We did not play them
during COVID, but the last twoyears I felt like we were the better
team and we lost. You know, we were the more talented team in
my mind both of the last twoyears, but they played mistake free football,
fundamentally sound football, and we didnot. You know, we've had
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multiple turnovers and bad plays and selfinflicted wounds over the last two years that
kept us from winning those games.And to me, that's that would be
a nice monkey to get off ourback, because you know, you could
argue USV and Waynesfield the last twoyears, who's been the better team,
who's been the more talented team?Anyways, but I don't think anybody would
argue. Even the Hard and Northernstaff probably would not say that our team
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was not the more athletically gifted team, but we still found a way to
lose. And I think that's methat's a huge thing. And I've talked
about this earlier with our seniors aboutlooking back and saying I wish I hadn't
done this, or wish I hadn'tdone that, or wish we should have
done this. That game against HardNorthern to kind of put a bow on
the end of the regular season needsto be a game where we go out
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and we play mistake free football,you know, however the game goes,
but not be a bunch of selfinflicted wounds or stupid plays or stupid penalties
and just go out there play cleanfootball, whistle to whistle and change change
that that stigma or that mentality oryou know whatever that that that thing is
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that's keeping us from getting over onhard and Northern. Well, coach,
it's always great to talk with you. It's you were talking about it was
your fourth year this year, andI realized you are the most the longest
tenured head coach in Marion County footballright now this season, so you are
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you are the one that has beenthere the longest because we have three new
coaches and then of course coach Chapmanin a second year. So if you
didn't know that, now you know. But again, always fun to follow
the comments and we look forward toopening the season with you guys against Cartington.
But thanks for coming in and goodluck on the rest of the season.
I appreciate it. That's crazy tothink about that I'm the longest tenured
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coach. When you think about thehistory of coaches in Marion County, you
know there's been some long tenured,very successful guys, and to think that
right now I'm the most tenured isreally crazy to think about. But I
appreciate the support. I love havingyou guys out at the game, and
you know, I hope that wedo you guys right when you come out
Join me right now. Is ZachWinslow, the head football coach at Elgin
High School. Coach, we're righthere at the beginning of another season.
You just started practices. Just telleverybody that you were telling me a little
bit about what you did for thefirst practice. Tell everybody how you started
the practices off well, before weget to what we did. I mean,
this year is unique in the factthat we've got some acclamation days back
(00:21):
up into July, which is somethingthe HSA has allowed us to do.
So our first night where we coulddo some contact hitting was Monday. Well,
to take advantage of that, wehad a practice Sunday evening and an
overnighter and then at twelve o'clock wecame back out onto the field and had
a scrimmage slash practice under the lights. So we went through, came out
(00:45):
with all of our stretching and stuff. We divided up into two teams,
divided the coaching staff up, andyou know, went through some tackling stuff,
went through some team time up stuff, all that stuff, and then
we had a running clock scrimmage towhere you know, we just let the
clock continuously run and it was reallyfun, high energy, you know,
got to see hear the pads poppinga little bit, got to hear the
guys hooting, hollering, and andm really got to you know, start
(01:07):
the season with an exclamation point,which is what you you know, I
think you want. You want tofind that that juice for your team,
and we definitely had it Monday morning. That's that's awesome. That just sounds
like a ton of fun. Sobefore we get too far into this new
season, let's just talk a littlebit about last season. It was a
decent season for Elgin. Didn't winthe league title, but we're able to
(01:27):
get into the playoffs, played avery tough For Fry team that actually went
very deep in the playoffs. Whatcould you take away from just what you
saw last season and what kind ofprogress do you feel like the team made
through the season. Well, there'sno doubt Fort Fry was was a legitimate
team, and uh, you know, you never want to get beat up
(01:48):
on like that's never never good.But I what I took from that game
and what our guys took from thatgame, or at least I hope they
took, was toughness, resilience,how to persevere and you know you're going
against what you may feel like isan insurmountable object. But also you know,
as soon as the game was over, I told them, you know,
that's our majuring stick when we talkabout being successful. You know,
(02:12):
everybody wants to go ten and ohand wants to win their league title and
stuff like that, but we coulddo that on our way to be one
of those really good teams in thestate. And I was like, this
is the way I see us,This is what I see us being.
But you guys have to be willingto put in the work, in the
commitment and all those things that aredone, you know, December through August,
before the season even starts. That'swhat makes the difference. And then
(02:35):
doing that, you know, ifyou're a freshman, doing that your sophomore
year and your junior year and yoursenior year, that's when you're going to
reap the rewards. You can't justshow up in July and expect to be
one of the best teams in thestate. You know, this is my
fourth season coming up as the headcoach at Elgin. So we did a
senior overnight cookout just over at oneof our coaches houses, and we set
(02:57):
around the campfire, and you know, went around the fire and we all
talked about what's the one thing wewant to get from the season, one
thing that's important to us. Youknow, there were some really good stuff,
and you know, one of thethings I hit was whether they like
it or not? This is ifyou've played four years, You've been with
me all four years of high school. So you're my guys. The way
I look at you as you aremy guys because you've been here, there's
(03:21):
you know, the only thing youknow is me is your head coach.
So this year has a lot ofpressure to a certain extent on where has
the program come from from when I'vestarted. You know, you know,
you hear about on college talk aboutcoaches like these are this is their ten
year, They've they've got no badhabits. There only know this certain thing.
Well, that's the way I feelabout it is these guys only know
(03:42):
me. They've only been part ofmy program. They only know you know,
the buzzword culture, They only knowmy culture, the way I want
us to do things. So thisis a real dividend payoff year for us.
Now, whether that equals you know, five wins, eight wins,
ten wins, conference championship. Allthat stuff isn't as important as to how
they handle their business and how theyrepresent Elgin. If we fight our tails
(04:04):
off every single game and we endup going five and five, sometimes five
and five is a darned good seasonbased on what you got. Sometimes ten
and oh can be disappointing based onwhat you got. You know, you
go into week eleven and you getbeat when you feel like you should be
a twelve thirteen win team, Imean, sometimes that's still disappointing. So
that was the recurring effect with someof those seniors too, is they don't
(04:26):
want to look back on any gameand wish or have like, man,
if we'd only done this, orwe hadn't done that, could it have
changed the outcome? So I thinkour seniors are in a real good headspace
and excited for the year. Youtalked about just how the players need to
buy in, not just in thebeginning of July or right before practice,
but the whole year. Did youfeel like this passed off season You had
(04:48):
a good amount of these guys comingout for winter workouts or staying in touch
with each other. Some of themplayed other sports obviously too, But did
you see that camaraderie, that teamstick together throughout the offseason. Well,
you know, that's a really uniquething at Elgin. You know, we
since I've been there. When Ifirst got to Elgin, there was a
(05:10):
lot of one sport athletes. Youknow, either you only played football,
or you only played baseball, oryou know, whatever it was, you
were a one or two sport athleteat most. And since I've been there,
me and along with the other coaches, you know, coach Pasma,
Coach Clem while he was there,and now coach McElroy as there, and
you know coach James when he wasa baseball coach. You know, we're
(05:30):
all pushing to have our guys domulti sports. If we're going to be
the best Elgin possible, we're gonnahave to share our athletes. And sometimes,
you know, you walk into ourweight room and the winner, you
know, there may only be fifteento twenty guys in there, of all
age groups from middle school on up, and you know, you may not
be super impressed with what is happeningin there by some you know, we're
(05:54):
not a college program where everybody's throwingup four hundred pounds squads or whatever.
But when we did it, wetook attendance in the fall or in the
winter. I'm sorry. Out ofthe forty guys that we had on our
team last year, only three werenot involved in a winter sport in some
activity or another. And those guysthat weren't involved were there were at the
(06:15):
weightlifting. So it's um, youknow that buy in or hitting the weight
room or hitting you know, someof those key buzzwords that people talk about.
We did that. But it mightbe a little different than maybe some
of the bigger schools or like youknow, a Harding or you know River
Valley or whatever. We're all wegot fifty guys in our weight room this
winter. I loved that. Fiftyguys in the weight room. I'd love
to have you know, every singlefootball player after school pounding the weights.
(06:41):
But with our makeup of our districtnow, they're lifting within their programs.
They're doing what they need to fortheir you know, for wrestling or for
basketball. And then when the springportsports come, you know, they're doing
what they need to do to besuccessful in that sporting, to prepare themselves.
But once the summer hit, onceit was time for us all to
come back together. It was likewe never missed a beat. Like it's
(07:01):
a unique camaraderie and a unique bondthat this group has where it was,
you know, you may have beena track guy and then your buddy may
have been a baseball guy, andyou really had no sports interaction, you
know, maybe supporting each other atevents, but not competing with each other
alongside each other. And then Junecomes around and you show up to the
weight room and it's seamless transition,and that that's been the thing that's really
(07:27):
stood out to me this year.So I think cohesion wise, we're better
than we've been since in my fouryears are mentality is better than it's been,
or maybe not better as right where, but it's progressed the right way
that you want to see as acoach. You know, we're moving in
the right direction, and that's beensuper exciting. And now we have the
pads on their scrimmage and practice yesterdayand you know, we're just we're super
(07:47):
excited to you know, to hitinto our actual scrimmage on Saturday against what
should be a really excited, tough, pleasant team and a really tough returning
a lot of talent Fredericktown team soit'll be a good gauge on where we're
at. It just doesn't seem likeit should be right now we're starting all
of it, but it is here. So let's focus on this season right
now. You've still got a goodamount numbers north of forty, which has
(08:09):
been where you've wanted to be,obviously, So the numbers are there.
Lost a few guys. Let's justtalk about a couple of those players that
you lost, but also who arethose guys that have come back or maybe
have jumped onto the team this yearthat you feel like really can take on
a lot more as a leader orsomebody to make an impact on the team.
(08:31):
Yeah. So, I mean lastyear's senior class was really talented,
you know. I mean Breckon Dooleywas a big home run hitter for us.
He wasn't a guy that I wasgoing to carry the ball twenty or
thirty times a game, but whenhe touched the ball, he was lightning
in a bottle, and any oneof them could go the distance. We
lost a lot of experience upfront.You know, we got to replace four
guys upfront that were big contributors forus, including you know, all Conference
(08:54):
and all County Offensive Lineman of theYear Colton Brush. You know as our
center, our signal caller upfront forthe guys, sets all of our protections
and communicates everything we need to upfront. So we got to replace him,
and uh, you know, thoseguys just played a lot of football.
They were um, you know,they were all key contributors as freshmen,
and then when I came in,they you know, they had to
play because we needed that death,We needed that talent, We needed their
(09:18):
experience. So they played a lotof football and they've kind of you know,
every senior class is special and doestheir own makes their own mark on
a program, and they're no different. They left a uh a mark of
you know, furthering the culture andtoughness and not being satisfied. You know,
we're in that game against Fort Fry, like you said, and things
aren't going our way. But noneof them were ready to pack up and
(09:39):
go home. They were they werefighting, fighting for everything they had,
even when times when they were gettingbeat up physically, they were they were
they were standing up you know,every you know, like the box are
standing up for the next round.They were all stood up and ready to
go back into the fight because theyknew that you know, one punch could
make a difference, one play couldmake a difference, and you know,
potentially change the way thing you're going. So they're gonna be missed, they're
(10:01):
gonna be hard to replace. ButI think we've got some guys that are
are different. But are you willingto step up to the challenge? And
you felt like when we talked ofoff air, you felt like you've got
some depth now because you had alot of guys last year that maybe didn't
start but played a good significant amountof time. Are some of those guys
maybe on the offensive line or there'ssome positions that you're like, wow,
(10:24):
I'm really happy with the depth thatwe have right now. Yeah. So
you know, it's always that balancingact as a coach when you're like,
you know, you need to buildsome depth. You need to get some
guys the experience, but maybe they'renot as good as you're one a person,
but they're a one bee or youknow, a close two on the
depth chart, and so you've gotto find ways to get them in.
And coach Van Gundhi, who coachesour offensive line and defensive line, has
(10:48):
done a really good job of buildingthat depth when we've had moments where we're
able to whether it's hey, we'reup and we're in control, so we're
gonna, you know, put somepieces in to get some experience, or
having all your rotation on the defensiveline to get guys some time. So
you know, there's a few guysthat are gonna have to step up and
be two way starters and now they'regoing to be the guy and they'll get
(11:09):
rotated in and out occasionally rather thannow they're the rotator. You know.
So we were able to build somedepth last year and replace hopefully be able
to replace some of those guys seamlessly. Obviously, Elgin always been known to
be able to run the ball.You like to run wing tea, you
love just power in the ball.Is there anything in the offseason, because
(11:31):
I know every coach kind of goesthrough the playbook, goes through everything they
did and maybe tweaks some things.Was there anything that you looked at that
was like, Okay, we're goingto tweak this a little bit, or
did you say, you know what, we've got this in place, this
is what we're going to do.Well. I think it's always some of
both I mean, I think youalways want to try and capitalize on personnel
(11:52):
to a certain degree. What isyour team capable of doing without veering too
far from what your identity is.You work hard to get them to buy
into your system, whatever that is, whether you're up tempo spread and they're
buying into you know, one playevery so many seconds or whatever, or
if you're a you know, poundedthree yard cloud of dust team, getting
them into buy into that physical toughnessand wearing other teams down and you know,
(12:13):
nobody's gonna out and muscle us,those types of things. So when
we came into this offseason and we'vehad some coaching turnover, so I'm having
another another assistant's going to be callingthe offense for us, So you're always
going to have some personal preference changesand you know, his little flavor on
things. But we're gonna stay basedout of the wing tea. We're gonna
stay running the ball. One ofour big points of emphasis was we need
(12:35):
to be more efficient in our passinggame. You know, if if we
can run the ball, that shouldmake our play action game pretty successful.
If we can run the ball,that should make our quick game pretty successful.
Um, We're never going to venturefrom being a running team, a
running first team and being a powerfootball team, but we've definitely explored ways
this offseason. And this is myfirst year having a returning quarterback. You
(13:00):
know, every year that I've beenhere, we've had a quarterback that was
a one and done for whatever reason, you know, a senior that moves
on to you know, to lifeor to college or whatever. So Brody
is going to be our you know, the first two year guy that I've
had. And his growth from lastyear being a you know, a first
year football player as a junior inhigh school to now being a returning senior
football player has been huge. He'sgot so much more command and understanding of
(13:24):
what he's being asked for and hisfundamentals and you know footwork especially. He's
a baseball player, so he's gotan arm. Like the arm strength and
arm talent was never an issue.It was you know, being under balanced
to be able to follow through onthrows and read coverage and you know ball
placement and stuff like that. Sothe progression has got me excited to see
where that can go. Now,we're never gonna throw the ball thirty times
(13:46):
a game, but we might throwit ten or fifteen, and out of
those ten or fifteen, we wantto complete eighty to ninety percent of those
passes and hopefully get a couple ofscores in there based on you know,
ball position or field position and thingslike that. So that's really offensively what
we're trying to tweak out. Defensively, again, with that coaching turnover,
I'm actually going to be taking overthe defense, which I have not called
(14:09):
the defense in several years back whenI was an assistant. So there's some
excitement there, and you know,as being the leader of the team,
our defense has been not where we'vewanted it the last few years. We've
given up more points and maybe moreyardish, So in me taking it over,
it puts all accountability on me.You know, I can't not that
(14:31):
I would ever pass the buck toan assistant coach because obviously we make it
the plan as a staff as ateam. But now I'm trying to put
my spin on, trying to putmy attitude on it, and hopefully so
far kids have been buying in.But hopefully we can take it to the
next level and try to get someof that swarm defense, silver bullet defense
back and actually earned that Moniker.Instead of just being you know something,
(14:52):
we put on t shirts and inthe locker room, make it, make
it mean something again. And specialteams always a big point of emphasis for
every team. How are you feelingabout the special teams going into this season?
Well, special teams get to coachsuper excited and super worried every year
because you know, that's you know, those are the plays that although there's
(15:15):
not a lot of them sometimes youknow, whether it's kickoff, kickoff return
or whatever, but those are wheregames can be one or lost, or
big momentums with you know, changeshappen. So we've been working on special
teams. I think our scheme isreally good what we have and uh,
you know, we've got a coupleof guys that I feel they can do
something special with the ball in theirhands, the guys that are really going
(15:37):
to make the difference. So we'realways you know, see kickoff return or
punt return or whatever, those othereleven that or those other ten that don't
have the ball in their hand,and we've really tried to hype those guys
up and get them I don't wantto say incentivize, but make them feel
like their job is important just becauseyou may not be. You know,
so you take a kickoff return fora big gain or to the house,
you know, like those guys areshould be just as excited and just to
(15:58):
sell rated as a guy that actuallycrossed the goal line because without without those
other guys, he's got no chance. And uh, you know the same
thing with coverage. I mean we'vereally tried to sell up the fact.
And it comes back to some ofthat defensive mentality too, is really just
sell you know, eleven hats onthe ball and and if you get a
(16:18):
chance, you know, especially ifyou're a younger guy and you get a
chance on kickoff, like this isyour moment to shine. You want to
get more time on the defense ormore time on you know, on your
main offense or defense position. That'show you earn it. You you flash,
you shine on special teams. Youknow, now you're gonna be in
the coach's mind next man up orthird man up or whatever it needs to
be. You know, like you'regonna make yourself stand out and and that
(16:42):
swagger that goes along with that.We're trying to create some more buying and
ownership of that stuff. And sofar, so good, but it's still
early. Let's look at the NorthwestCentral Conference breakdown and how it looks this
season. I would I would haveto think Elgin's in the conversation, but
obviously there's some traditional powers there.So when you look at the conference,
(17:06):
what are you seeing not just forElgin but maybe overall in the conference.
Well, with the expansion, there'sa lot of unknowns. I mean,
we go from having three non leaguegames the only one non league game,
kind of like the old NYC formatwhere Week one is you know, non
league, and then you're playing ninestraight league opponents. So there's some unknown
bringing in two new teams, whatare they going to be? You know,
I've had some people, you know, last year, their records weren't
(17:29):
great. I think they were twoand eight or three and seven each,
And you know, some of theexpectation is or maybe you hear people talk
of well, we're just gonna goin and beat these teams. Well,
I kindly remind them that our lastseason in the MOYC as Elgin we went
over, we went oh and ten, and then our first year in the
NWCC we went seven and three,and so you don't know what the strength
(17:52):
of schedule these guys are playing.And you may say you know, but
you don't know. And you maythink you know this team as an outsider
on paper, but you don't know, and you don't know what they have
coming back. We all know,and small school football, one or two
guys can change the whole dynamic ofa football team. So you know,
having two unknowns on the schedule isis exciting, a little nerve racking,
but exciting for us. You know, we start out with Cartington, who
(18:15):
has kind of turned into a littlebit of a cross you know, cross
the way non conference rival. Youknow, we've played the last three years
and each one of the games havebeen exciting and extremely physical and you know,
come down to the fourth quarter andI don't expect this year to be
any different. Got a lot ofrespect for those guys over there, the
coaching staff and the players. Youknow, I think they're very similar in
(18:36):
their makeup. Now they may notbe the same schematically, but you know,
they're they're tough country, blue collarkids, and they play extremely hard
and sometimes there might be a littlephysically outmatch with man. They bring what
they have every single time, andthen you know, week two cross county
rivalry game for us. You know, we play Ridgedale at Ridgedale, and
you know there's a lot of alot of excitement I hear coming from over
(18:59):
there. Their numbers are up alittle bit. They've got some guys returning
that you know turned into playmakers lastyear. And you know, in week
two, hopefully they're all healthy,Hopefully we're all healthy, and you know
it turns into a really good game. Hopefully it's a really good game that
we win. But it's uh,you know, I love that. You
know that rivalry could be great forour little county. You know, we've
(19:21):
lost the MOYC and some of thosecross county games that we used to always
have, but the Elgin Ridgedale gamecould be something really special if we can.
If it turns where it's a backand forth Ohio State Michigan type,
you like, you never know who'sgonna win. You know, a team
might win three or four games here, but you know, maybe they're really
competitive and you never know, onebounce one way or the other could change
it. And you know, Ireally hope that's what we get to.
(19:41):
And now I hope we win everysingle game. And I'm gonna plan on
winning every single game, but youknow, I want that to be competitive.
And then we go on a stretchwhere we're playing, you know,
teams that are a little farther away. You know, we're playing North Baltimore,
playing Quarry Rols, We're playing cressLine and throwing Ridgemont there, which
Ridgemont has also turned into a littlebit of a rivalry force. Now,
the games haven't been super competitive,but they're always really physical. They're always
(20:06):
chippy, you know. You knowlast year, I think there's a couple
of personal files thrown out in thegame at our place, and it was
at the end of the year,but you know, there got a new
coach, they got some excitement,and I think, you know, early
in the season, you never knowwhat's going to happen. We're all still
going to be figuring out ourselves toa certain degree. We're all going to
be figuring out what works, whatdoesn't work. And you know, those
(20:26):
are those those games where you're you'reunsure of how things are gonna go.
Now, once we get to theback half of our schedule, like we've
got some teams that we haven't beenable to beat. Um, you know,
we play at Waynesfield Goshen, whichfeels like the tenth year in a
freaking row that we can't get ahome game against those guys. But they've
kind of had our number, andour games with them have not been super
(20:48):
competitive, at least not for fourquarters. You know, last year we
went in there and we threw acouple of big punches early, but they
battled back and you know, theyhandled us pretty easily. I think that's
not because of a huge despair intalent, but for whatever reason, they've
got our guys mentally somewhere that's hardfor them to battle out of. So
that's gonna be a huge mental testfor us. Hopefully we can have some
(21:08):
momentum and have some confidence and havesome swagger about us and go in there
with our you know, our chestspuffed out and ready to go. Um.
They lose some guys, of course, you know, but I think
you know, they're bringing back theconference player of the year at quarterback and
they're going to be explosive. Andyou know, they've been at the JV
and junior high levels. We've beenhaving back and forth battles. They're you
know, close games, So youknow, I expect nothing less this game,
(21:30):
and I'm you know, I hopethat it's a game we can win.
But you know, I think it'llbe great for us to just come
out and you know, punch themguys in the face and just see where
the chips fall. Come out swingingum. Defending conference champions, so they
should have a big target on theirback, and you know, there's nothing
I would like more than to knockthose guys off and set ourselves up for
(21:52):
a run at the conference title.Usv after that's going to be nothing nothing
easy either. They lose a couplegood senior out of that class, but
they've got some really really good returnersat the skill positions that are going to
be hard for us to work withor hard for us to contain. And
then Hard and Northern. We youknow, we play Hard and Northern and
(22:12):
that that's a team that the lasttwo years. We did not play them
during COVID, but the last twoyears I felt like we were the better
team and we lost. You know, we were the more talented team in
my mind both of the last twoyears, but they played mistake free football,
fundamentally sound football, and we didnot. You know, we've had
(22:32):
multiple turnovers and bad plays and selfinflicted wounds over the last two years that
kept us from winning those games.And to me, that's that would be
a nice monkey to get off ourback, because you know, you could
argue USV and Waynesfield the last twoyears, who's been the better team,
who's been the more talented team?Anyways, but I don't think anybody would
argue. Even the Hard and Northernstaff probably would not say that our team
(22:55):
was not the more athletically gifted team, but we still found a way to
lose. And I think that's methat's a huge thing. And I've talked
about this earlier with our seniors aboutlooking back and saying I wish I hadn't
done this, or wish I hadn'tdone that, or wish we should have
done this. That game against HardNorthern to kind of put a bow on
the end of the regular season needsto be a game where we go out
(23:18):
and we play mistake free football,you know, however the game goes,
but not be a bunch of selfinflicted wounds or stupid plays or stupid penalties
and just go out there play cleanfootball, whistle to whistle and change change
that that stigma or that mentality oryou know whatever that that that thing is
(23:38):
that's keeping us from getting over onhard and Northern. Well, coach,
it's always great to talk with you. It's you were talking about it was
your fourth year this year, andI realized you are the most the longest
tenured head coach in Marion County footballright now this season, so you are
(23:59):
you are the one that has beenthere the longest because we have three new
coaches and then of course coach Chapmanin a second year. So if you
didn't know that, now you know. But again, always fun to follow
the comments and we look forward toopening the season with you guys against Cartington.
But thanks for coming in and goodluck on the rest of the season.
I appreciate it. That's crazy tothink about that I'm the longest tenured
(24:22):
coach. When you think about thehistory of coaches in Marion County, you
know there's been some long tenured,very successful guys, and to think that
right now I'm the most tenured isreally crazy to think about. But I
appreciate the support. I love havingyou guys out at the game, and
you know, I hope that wedo you guys right when you come out
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