August 2, 2023 • 16 mins
Sports Director Eric Mosley sat down with Harding Head Football Coach Chuck Williamson to preview the Prexies upcoming season.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Joining me right now is parting headcoach Chuck Williamson. Chuck, this is
exciting for me because we get tofinally meet. You've been here since March
and you're taking over, you know, the big program in the county.
How has it been just coming intomarrying You spent many years in Washington Courthouse
beforehand. How's the transition been justto marrying in general? I'm exciting.
(00:23):
I'm excited to be here. Um. You know, when I decided to
make the move, um a courthouse, and it was it was a wonderful
place to work. They made mequite a nice offer to stay. But
I was excited when I when Iwatched on tape what I saw here.
UM, and I knew some peoplehere in this community before, and they
(00:44):
talked to me about this before,and I just decided this was the right
time, and so here I amso kind of just walk me through kind
of what goes into that decision.I think we we as the public maybe
take for granted that a coach leavesa place that they've been for a long
time to either take on a newchallenge or a new opportunity. When you're
sitting down thinking about that decision,there's so many factors that go into it.
(01:07):
And like I can generally gather fromyou, you enjoyed it down there.
What was it that maybe was thedraw or just the thing that was
like me and I need to takea chance with this. Um. One
of the big deciding factor was GaryBarber. He's my son's married his daughter.
UM. He gave me my firstjob in school back in two thousand,
(01:30):
I think it was. He'd alwaystalked about how this was such such
a special place, and then whenit came open, he gave me a
call and he said, would yoube interested? And and I contacted mister
Karns. And as I started researchingit, I started watching tape on the
team and I saw the special athletesthat they have or we have, and
(01:53):
it just it just felt like thetime was right, and it was you
know, it was a long,long, hard decision to make. I
went back and forth, I don'tknow how many times, but then when
I decided, I told Sean,I'm one hundred ten percent in and we're
gonna do something special here. SoI'm excited to be here. So when
you take in a new program,take on a new program, what is
(02:14):
it that you do as a coachto get yourself known by the players first
and just try to get yourself intothe district and into the program. What
are some of the things that youtry to do. Yeah, first thing
is is you know, we wetell them, you know, you've got
to be accountable. That's one ofthe big thing. And what I saw
in tape is there are some disciplineissues. I thought that had to be
(02:38):
addressed immediately, and we have donethat. Um. You know, we
are a locker room. If youwalk in our locker room right now,
you can eat off the floor.You know, their shoes, if they're
not writing the right spot, theyget a reminder, reminders over and back.
On the field, if their jersey'snot in the right plot, they
get a reminder. You know,it's just a little things. And we
feel that little things transition transition intothe football field and now the little things
(03:01):
on the field that makes it special. So um, and like I said,
I can't staying up about these kids. They're everything that I was told.
They want to win. Um,they're hungry for discipline, they're hungry
for hard work, they don't shyaway from it. So I'm really excited.
So let's talk a little bit aboutyour philosophies when you when you go
(03:22):
into a program, what you've donein previous programs, what would you say
are kind of your offensive and defensivephilosophies as a head coach. Offensively,
I'm more of an offensive guy,quarterback guy. That's that's my thing.
Um, you know, we're spreadoffense. UM, we want to run
tempo, we want to go fast, we want to get the ball out
in space to our athletes. Thetwo programs that I'm coming from, I
(03:45):
was a Central Cross team. Theywere the losiest program in Central Ohio.
We turned them into a two timeplayoff team. UM. Offensive linemen,
we just didn't have many of them, so you know, we didn't ask
them to blow people off the ball. We asked them to get in front
of people and get our athletes inspace and let them make decision. And
the same thing at Washington Courthouse,so you know, we we we two
platoon, which they'd never done therebefore. I think they were coming off
(04:09):
a two and eight year when Igot there. But they they they everybody
played both ways and when you watchthem, they would be dead in the
second half. So we two platoon, and the kids really bought into it
because you know, the second half, the other team would be down hands
on knees and they're like coaches aredone, they're tired, and we're doing
the same thing here. You know, there are some guys, some of
(04:30):
the older guys that can physically,they won't completely to go both ways,
but they'll spot here and there.But for the most part, we're two
ploon and it gives more kids opportunityto play. You get more kids out
there on the field, which getsyour numbers up. And I think we're
currently as seventy five right now,so pretty good number. And that's interesting.
The two platoon, that's something youdon't see a lot in high school.
(04:51):
Even with some of the bigger programs, they still don't too platoon.
When you when you presented that tothe players, and maybe in their mind
they thought, I really want toplay this position. But you're seeing you
know, one, I think you'rebetter here. Has that been pretty good
for you going forward so far?Yeah, they they bought in. You
know, our philosophy is, youknow, we just came off today.
(05:14):
We do what we you know,most teams do two days. We do
three days. So we do amorning full padded practice, a special team's
practice, and then the uppers practice. But as as they're two platoon,
they get coached all three practice morereps. Where I've been in programs where
the guys who are playing both ways, you know, mondays and done office
or Tuesday's and offensive day. Wednesday'sa third defensive day, So you're only
(05:36):
getting one day at that and wefeel you get four days with the same
coach getting coached up doing what you'resupposed to do. So give me a
player that might be a little lesstalented, but knows exactly what he's doing,
knows what he's puts the lineup,knows what he's supposed to do,
over a guy that has maybe alittle more athleticism but that nobody's doing out
there. So that's our philosophy.Now. I know last year with Hardy
(06:00):
in their defense was a swarming defenseand they really put an emphasis on the
back half of the defense. Itseemed like the safety's played up a lot,
They played a lot of man coverage. Is that going to be similar
with the athletes you have or isthere maybe a little bit of a change
this year? A little bit ofa change. I was fortunate enough coach
Kern came over from Pleasant He wasa defense coordinator there last year. I
(06:21):
was fortunate enough to hire him andhe's done a fantastic job with our defense.
Um. He's very intelligent. Um. He does play physical, Um,
but he also will mix up thecoverages. Um. You know,
he does a really good job forus. So I'm very very policed with
our defense. Right now, they'reflying around and that's that's what That's what
(06:43):
I thought him to simplify. Playfast, play physical. That's c ball,
hit ball right exactly. So anotherbig facet of every team is the
special teams. And a lot oftimes Harding was able to get a couple
of guys either as kickers or youknow whatever, that that could really stand
out. And the return game therewere times definitely that Harding has some explosive
(07:04):
returners. How is that shaping upso far this year? Oh? Really?
Well, really excited about our kicker. He's a two sport guy.
He plays soccer and he plays football. Jackson Shipley very impressed. When I
first got down here, I'd seehim at the stadium kicking. He's got
a rocket for a leg, sohe can boom. We're excited about him
(07:24):
our return game exactly. We gotMarquis Long. He's a special athlete,
he's a returner, he'll be numberone, He'll be back there return Josie
Good and special athlete. We liketo get that ball to them in space,
let them return kicks, punts.You'll see a lot of those two
back there. And let's go backto the offense a little bit. Obviously
they did run spread last year,They've run spread for quite a while.
(07:46):
But you have a couple of guysin the backfield that can make a difference.
Is it easy or hard to kindof make that balance because the spread
team definitely wants to go fast,but you kind of got to keep it
honest with the run. How hasthat been for you in the past?
And then looking at what you have, do you think I might hand the
ball off a couple more times thanmaybe I used to? Yeah. Yeah,
(08:07):
we have a special guy in ourquarterback position, and in our system,
the quarterback makes the train roll AlexStokes, and he is picking it
up so fast and it's really actuallywe just had to coach his meeting after
chase practice and he's just starting tosee we run an our po based system,
so he has. You know,it's like getting a sports car when
(08:28):
we just throw the keys to him, like you have the option to hand
it off, you have the optionto throw it, you have the option
to run it. So he makesthe decision and you know, and then
we get in. It's tough.You know, he's never he'd never done
anything like that before, so he'sreally buying in. He stays after and
I've never seen a harder work thanAlex Stokes. He's got a canon for
an arm. He can throw theball, so you know, we're really
(08:52):
excited about him. And then runningback what we did lose Lamo Rentos,
he was a really good player.He decided to go elsewhere. But Dalen
Boland's stepping in. We're doing kindof running back by committee. Mike Williams
um he's back there a little bit. Mike's played also a little bit of
defensive tackle for us UM so youknow we got different Josiah Goodin's back there
(09:13):
at times. So we're kind ofgoing running back by committee. And when
you look at your overall team,is there a certain unit that you feel
like, Okay, this is whereour strength is, this is this is
the part of the team that.I just don't think I have to worry
about too much. Our back ends. They're I mean, mckislong's back there,
Um, Parker Davis is back there. Um, Ridge us back there,
(09:33):
and there. I mean we haveathletes back there, and they run
around and they can cover, theycan tackle in their physical um. So
we're excited about that group. Now. You know, coming in with a
new school, were you able tobring any coaches with you or did you
hire just a whole new staff youActually, you know, some coaches don't
get a lot of time to beable to even build a staff. Coming
(09:56):
in in March, I'm sure thatwas helpful for you. But we're able
to bring anybody along with you.And I was not um with with The
drive from Columbus was about an hour. A lot of my stepman and fortunate
or unfortunately, my middle son gota head coaching job at Westling my alma
model. That's where I played highschoolball. So um so a lot of
my guys went with him, whichI was glad because they know our system.
(10:16):
But we were excited about excited aboutour staff. Who I did get
Kyle, of course, is reallyreally good. Andrew Surowski, Um,
played four years start, four yearstarter at Dennison University. UM, he's
our offensive line guy. Ryan Fritzeplayed in college. He's our running back.
UM. Andrew Brisel. I can'tsay enough about that young He's gonna
(10:37):
be a great head coach and theunit to see it from now. He's
he's just special. He's he's reallygood. UM. Mike van Meter came
over. He's working with the offensivedefensive line. He's done a fantastic job.
Trent Ramsey, he's Kim on ourstaff. Um again, another guy
that just he does everything works.He's in the first one of the building,
last one to leave. He's oneof those guys. UM, make
(11:00):
sure I'm not Sami Nicolosi's he's great. Uh, Sundy board because he's been
around the program. He knows thecommunity. UM. You know Daddius Thaddius
Carter, he's not on our staff, but he I called him the Mayor
of Marion said anything that needs tobe done, I call that. He
sing like that is what's going onhere. Um, So you know,
(11:22):
it's a good staff and we're excitednow coming to the new school. Obviously,
Harding Stadium is it's it's the placeto play in the county. I
will. I love all the schools, but when we get to go do
a game there, it is aspecial atmosphere being new. I'm sure when
you saw the stadium took it allin. Does that kind of up the
(11:43):
excitement? And do you try toget these these guys that maybe you know
it might be easy to take itfor Grant to realize, hey guys,
this is a great home field advantagewe have here. Oh. Absolutely.
When I first saw the statement,I fell in love with um. I
talked to Tim Hinton. Tim Iwas a practice and when I first got
a job, I mean, SeanKerns went down to practice and Tim graptus
(12:05):
and then I saw him afterwards andhe was talking about what a special place
this is. And the first timeI saw a stadium, like, wow,
this is this is it's a reallycool place. Yeah, it's yeah,
it's it's eerie. Sometimes when you'reout there, you're like underneath the
stadium in the old locker room andyou're just kind of looking around and it's
really special. And uh, youmentioned Tim Hinton. You know, Tim
(12:26):
was a legend at Harding and hereally turned that program around. I don't
expect you to delve into any kindof private conversations. But what were some
of the things that maybe he justpointers on what is special about Harding and
what you just need to look forwardto. He just he echoed, Um,
what I've heard that we have specialathletes. His one piece of advice,
(12:46):
he said, I'm gonna give youone piece of advice. Um,
make am learn everything. Don't givehim anything, make a learn it it,
don't don't don't hand out anything.And that he said, if you
don't take any of this conversation,make a learning And it's kind of I
bought it into. That's awesome.Now let's look at the MAC season.
A new league for you, butI'm sure you're familiar with a lot of
(13:07):
those teams. Harding hasn't been inthe mix yet since they've gotten into the
MAC, but has always been atough team to play. Generally, when
you look at the league top tobottom, what kind of stands out to
you about the league? Oh,it's a good league. I mean it's
it's it's really it's a balanced league. Where I came from, you know,
at Courthouse Jackson was kind of inChillicothe, was so much bigger school
(13:28):
than we were. You know,we beat Chillicothe the last two or three
years, but you know, sizewise and you look at our demograph,
we're the biggest school. So that'swhy I talk there's no reason we should
be losing in this league. Weshould be winning it. It was I
always said, you know, you'rethe biggest school in this league. You
should we be winning it. Sothat's our expectations, were expected to come
(13:50):
in and win. Yeah, andit's I agree with you as such a
competitive league, just top to bottom, even with you know, a team
like Pleasant who is Division five orDivision six. Sometimes it's such a competitive
league. But you've also got thosecross county rivalries. You got River Valley
and in Pleasant kind of talk aboutuh that because I'm sure in the league,
and I gotta imagine Chillcothee and WashingtonCourthouse are pretty good rivals. Uh.
(14:15):
You know, how much do youkind of get the kids to buy
into some of those games? Thereason play the game, they're the fun
ones. Um. You know atCourthouse, I never get my first year
there, we played on Saturday andand you know all I heard about was
Courthouse and Trace. You know,I played in the CC here at Coach
CEC. It's not I pull up, a bus pulls up at five o'clock,
(14:35):
there's thousand and fifteen hundred people outin the parking lot, like what
all these people doing here? Andthey're like trace week. So so you
know, you get into those andour kids, you know, they talk
about it. Now you know yougot you got all these close schools are
within the rocks throw from your school, and you get to play them.
So then you know a lot ofthem played a little league together, a
lot of them grew up together,a lot them So it's you know,
(14:58):
it's fun to play those games.There's a really one games playing. Are
there any kind of traditions that you'vebeen able to kind of start in the
schools that you've been at that you'rekind of bringing with you things like that.
We do a couple of things wedo. We do decals with dads,
UM, So the first week whenthe kids put their decals on,
(15:18):
we bring the dads in. Thedads helped put the decals on the helmets.
UM. We do dinner dinners withmoms. The first week, the
moms come in and we cater willcater a dinner in for him. Um,
we do at the end of theyear, with their last game,
we have somebody special in their lifewrite I'm a letter and they read it
right before he goes out on thefield, and it's it's very powerful at
(15:39):
times to see them just cheer upbefore they run out there, and um,
it's it's nice to see, well, coach. I am excited to
see what you're going to do atHarding. I've always enjoyed just following Harding
calling the games, and I justwish you the best of luck this season
and can't wait to watch you well. I appreciate anything we can do for
you. We appreciate all you dofor us and our kids. Thank thank
(16:00):
you so much.
Joining me right now is parting headcoach Chuck Williamson. Chuck, this is
exciting for me because we get tofinally meet. You've been here since March
and you're taking over, you know, the big program in the county.
How has it been just coming intomarrying You spent many years in Washington Courthouse
beforehand. How's the transition been justto marrying in general? I'm exciting.
(00:23):
I'm excited to be here. Um. You know, when I decided to
make the move, um a courthouse, and it was it was a wonderful
place to work. They made mequite a nice offer to stay. But
I was excited when I when Iwatched on tape what I saw here.
UM, and I knew some peoplehere in this community before, and they
(00:44):
talked to me about this before,and I just decided this was the right
time, and so here I amso kind of just walk me through kind
of what goes into that decision.I think we we as the public maybe
take for granted that a coach leavesa place that they've been for a long
time to either take on a newchallenge or a new opportunity. When you're
sitting down thinking about that decision,there's so many factors that go into it.
(01:07):
And like I can generally gather fromyou, you enjoyed it down there.
What was it that maybe was thedraw or just the thing that was
like me and I need to takea chance with this. Um. One
of the big deciding factor was GaryBarber. He's my son's married his daughter.
UM. He gave me my firstjob in school back in two thousand,
(01:30):
I think it was. He'd alwaystalked about how this was such such
a special place, and then whenit came open, he gave me a
call and he said, would yoube interested? And and I contacted mister
Karns. And as I started researchingit, I started watching tape on the
team and I saw the special athletesthat they have or we have, and
(01:53):
it just it just felt like thetime was right, and it was you
know, it was a long,long, hard decision to make. I
went back and forth, I don'tknow how many times, but then when
I decided, I told Sean,I'm one hundred ten percent in and we're
gonna do something special here. SoI'm excited to be here. So when
you take in a new program,take on a new program, what is
(02:14):
it that you do as a coachto get yourself known by the players first
and just try to get yourself intothe district and into the program. What
are some of the things that youtry to do. Yeah, first thing
is is you know, we wetell them, you know, you've got
to be accountable. That's one ofthe big thing. And what I saw
in tape is there are some disciplineissues. I thought that had to be
(02:38):
addressed immediately, and we have donethat. Um. You know, we
are a locker room. If youwalk in our locker room right now,
you can eat off the floor.You know, their shoes, if they're
not writing the right spot, theyget a reminder, reminders over and back.
On the field, if their jersey'snot in the right plot, they
get a reminder. You know,it's just a little things. And we
feel that little things transition transition intothe football field and now the little things
(03:01):
on the field that makes it special. So um, and like I said,
I can't staying up about these kids. They're everything that I was told.
They want to win. Um,they're hungry for discipline, they're hungry
for hard work, they don't shyaway from it. So I'm really excited.
So let's talk a little bit aboutyour philosophies when you when you go
(03:22):
into a program, what you've donein previous programs, what would you say
are kind of your offensive and defensivephilosophies as a head coach. Offensively,
I'm more of an offensive guy,quarterback guy. That's that's my thing.
Um, you know, we're spreadoffense. UM, we want to run
tempo, we want to go fast, we want to get the ball out
in space to our athletes. Thetwo programs that I'm coming from, I
(03:45):
was a Central Cross team. Theywere the losiest program in Central Ohio.
We turned them into a two timeplayoff team. UM. Offensive linemen,
we just didn't have many of them, so you know, we didn't ask
them to blow people off the ball. We asked them to get in front
of people and get our athletes inspace and let them make decision. And
the same thing at Washington Courthouse,so you know, we we we two
platoon, which they'd never done therebefore. I think they were coming off
(04:09):
a two and eight year when Igot there. But they they they everybody
played both ways and when you watchthem, they would be dead in the
second half. So we two platoon, and the kids really bought into it
because you know, the second half, the other team would be down hands
on knees and they're like coaches aredone, they're tired, and we're doing
the same thing here. You know, there are some guys, some of
(04:30):
the older guys that can physically,they won't completely to go both ways,
but they'll spot here and there.But for the most part, we're two
ploon and it gives more kids opportunityto play. You get more kids out
there on the field, which getsyour numbers up. And I think we're
currently as seventy five right now,so pretty good number. And that's interesting.
The two platoon, that's something youdon't see a lot in high school.
(04:51):
Even with some of the bigger programs, they still don't too platoon.
When you when you presented that tothe players, and maybe in their mind
they thought, I really want toplay this position. But you're seeing you
know, one, I think you'rebetter here. Has that been pretty good
for you going forward so far?Yeah, they they bought in. You
know, our philosophy is, youknow, we just came off today.
(05:14):
We do what we you know,most teams do two days. We do
three days. So we do amorning full padded practice, a special team's
practice, and then the uppers practice. But as as they're two platoon,
they get coached all three practice morereps. Where I've been in programs where
the guys who are playing both ways, you know, mondays and done office
or Tuesday's and offensive day. Wednesday'sa third defensive day, So you're only
(05:36):
getting one day at that and wefeel you get four days with the same
coach getting coached up doing what you'resupposed to do. So give me a
player that might be a little lesstalented, but knows exactly what he's doing,
knows what he's puts the lineup,knows what he's supposed to do,
over a guy that has maybe alittle more athleticism but that nobody's doing out
there. So that's our philosophy.Now. I know last year with Hardy
(06:00):
in their defense was a swarming defenseand they really put an emphasis on the
back half of the defense. Itseemed like the safety's played up a lot,
They played a lot of man coverage. Is that going to be similar
with the athletes you have or isthere maybe a little bit of a change
this year? A little bit ofa change. I was fortunate enough coach
Kern came over from Pleasant He wasa defense coordinator there last year. I
(06:21):
was fortunate enough to hire him andhe's done a fantastic job with our defense.
Um. He's very intelligent. Um. He does play physical, Um,
but he also will mix up thecoverages. Um. You know,
he does a really good job forus. So I'm very very policed with
our defense. Right now, they'reflying around and that's that's what That's what
(06:43):
I thought him to simplify. Playfast, play physical. That's c ball,
hit ball right exactly. So anotherbig facet of every team is the
special teams. And a lot oftimes Harding was able to get a couple
of guys either as kickers or youknow whatever, that that could really stand
out. And the return game therewere times definitely that Harding has some explosive
(07:04):
returners. How is that shaping upso far this year? Oh? Really?
Well, really excited about our kicker. He's a two sport guy.
He plays soccer and he plays football. Jackson Shipley very impressed. When I
first got down here, I'd seehim at the stadium kicking. He's got
a rocket for a leg, sohe can boom. We're excited about him
(07:24):
our return game exactly. We gotMarquis Long. He's a special athlete,
he's a returner, he'll be numberone, He'll be back there return Josie
Good and special athlete. We liketo get that ball to them in space,
let them return kicks, punts.You'll see a lot of those two
back there. And let's go backto the offense a little bit. Obviously
they did run spread last year,They've run spread for quite a while.
(07:46):
But you have a couple of guysin the backfield that can make a difference.
Is it easy or hard to kindof make that balance because the spread
team definitely wants to go fast,but you kind of got to keep it
honest with the run. How hasthat been for you in the past?
And then looking at what you have, do you think I might hand the
ball off a couple more times thanmaybe I used to? Yeah. Yeah,
(08:07):
we have a special guy in ourquarterback position, and in our system,
the quarterback makes the train roll AlexStokes, and he is picking it
up so fast and it's really actuallywe just had to coach his meeting after
chase practice and he's just starting tosee we run an our po based system,
so he has. You know,it's like getting a sports car when
(08:28):
we just throw the keys to him, like you have the option to hand
it off, you have the optionto throw it, you have the option
to run it. So he makesthe decision and you know, and then
we get in. It's tough.You know, he's never he'd never done
anything like that before, so he'sreally buying in. He stays after and
I've never seen a harder work thanAlex Stokes. He's got a canon for
an arm. He can throw theball, so you know, we're really
(08:52):
excited about him. And then runningback what we did lose Lamo Rentos,
he was a really good player.He decided to go elsewhere. But Dalen
Boland's stepping in. We're doing kindof running back by committee. Mike Williams
um he's back there a little bit. Mike's played also a little bit of
defensive tackle for us UM so youknow we got different Josiah Goodin's back there
(09:13):
at times. So we're kind ofgoing running back by committee. And when
you look at your overall team,is there a certain unit that you feel
like, Okay, this is whereour strength is, this is this is
the part of the team that.I just don't think I have to worry
about too much. Our back ends. They're I mean, mckislong's back there,
Um, Parker Davis is back there. Um, Ridge us back there,
(09:33):
and there. I mean we haveathletes back there, and they run
around and they can cover, theycan tackle in their physical um. So
we're excited about that group. Now. You know, coming in with a
new school, were you able tobring any coaches with you or did you
hire just a whole new staff youActually, you know, some coaches don't
get a lot of time to beable to even build a staff. Coming
(09:56):
in in March, I'm sure thatwas helpful for you. But we're able
to bring anybody along with you.And I was not um with with The
drive from Columbus was about an hour. A lot of my stepman and fortunate
or unfortunately, my middle son gota head coaching job at Westling my alma
model. That's where I played highschoolball. So um so a lot of
my guys went with him, whichI was glad because they know our system.
(10:16):
But we were excited about excited aboutour staff. Who I did get
Kyle, of course, is reallyreally good. Andrew Surowski, Um,
played four years start, four yearstarter at Dennison University. UM, he's
our offensive line guy. Ryan Fritzeplayed in college. He's our running back.
UM. Andrew Brisel. I can'tsay enough about that young He's gonna
(10:37):
be a great head coach and theunit to see it from now. He's
he's just special. He's he's reallygood. UM. Mike van Meter came
over. He's working with the offensivedefensive line. He's done a fantastic job.
Trent Ramsey, he's Kim on ourstaff. Um again, another guy
that just he does everything works.He's in the first one of the building,
last one to leave. He's oneof those guys. UM, make
(11:00):
sure I'm not Sami Nicolosi's he's great. Uh, Sundy board because he's been
around the program. He knows thecommunity. UM. You know Daddius Thaddius
Carter, he's not on our staff, but he I called him the Mayor
of Marion said anything that needs tobe done, I call that. He
sing like that is what's going onhere. Um, So you know,
(11:22):
it's a good staff and we're excitednow coming to the new school. Obviously,
Harding Stadium is it's it's the placeto play in the county. I
will. I love all the schools, but when we get to go do
a game there, it is aspecial atmosphere being new. I'm sure when
you saw the stadium took it allin. Does that kind of up the
(11:43):
excitement? And do you try toget these these guys that maybe you know
it might be easy to take itfor Grant to realize, hey guys,
this is a great home field advantagewe have here. Oh. Absolutely.
When I first saw the statement,I fell in love with um. I
talked to Tim Hinton. Tim Iwas a practice and when I first got
a job, I mean, SeanKerns went down to practice and Tim graptus
(12:05):
and then I saw him afterwards andhe was talking about what a special place
this is. And the first timeI saw a stadium, like, wow,
this is this is it's a reallycool place. Yeah, it's yeah,
it's it's eerie. Sometimes when you'reout there, you're like underneath the
stadium in the old locker room andyou're just kind of looking around and it's
really special. And uh, youmentioned Tim Hinton. You know, Tim
(12:26):
was a legend at Harding and hereally turned that program around. I don't
expect you to delve into any kindof private conversations. But what were some
of the things that maybe he justpointers on what is special about Harding and
what you just need to look forwardto. He just he echoed, Um,
what I've heard that we have specialathletes. His one piece of advice,
(12:46):
he said, I'm gonna give youone piece of advice. Um,
make am learn everything. Don't givehim anything, make a learn it it,
don't don't don't hand out anything.And that he said, if you
don't take any of this conversation,make a learning And it's kind of I
bought it into. That's awesome.Now let's look at the MAC season.
A new league for you, butI'm sure you're familiar with a lot of
(13:07):
those teams. Harding hasn't been inthe mix yet since they've gotten into the
MAC, but has always been atough team to play. Generally, when
you look at the league top tobottom, what kind of stands out to
you about the league? Oh,it's a good league. I mean it's
it's it's really it's a balanced league. Where I came from, you know,
at Courthouse Jackson was kind of inChillicothe, was so much bigger school
(13:28):
than we were. You know,we beat Chillicothe the last two or three
years, but you know, sizewise and you look at our demograph,
we're the biggest school. So that'swhy I talk there's no reason we should
be losing in this league. Weshould be winning it. It was I
always said, you know, you'rethe biggest school in this league. You
should we be winning it. Sothat's our expectations, were expected to come
(13:50):
in and win. Yeah, andit's I agree with you as such a
competitive league, just top to bottom, even with you know, a team
like Pleasant who is Division five orDivision six. Sometimes it's such a competitive
league. But you've also got thosecross county rivalries. You got River Valley
and in Pleasant kind of talk aboutuh that because I'm sure in the league,
and I gotta imagine Chillcothee and WashingtonCourthouse are pretty good rivals. Uh.
(14:15):
You know, how much do youkind of get the kids to buy
into some of those games? Thereason play the game, they're the fun
ones. Um. You know atCourthouse, I never get my first year
there, we played on Saturday andand you know all I heard about was
Courthouse and Trace. You know,I played in the CC here at Coach
CEC. It's not I pull up, a bus pulls up at five o'clock,
(14:35):
there's thousand and fifteen hundred people outin the parking lot, like what
all these people doing here? Andthey're like trace week. So so you
know, you get into those andour kids, you know, they talk
about it. Now you know yougot you got all these close schools are
within the rocks throw from your school, and you get to play them.
So then you know a lot ofthem played a little league together, a
lot of them grew up together,a lot them So it's you know,
(14:58):
it's fun to play those games.There's a really one games playing. Are
there any kind of traditions that you'vebeen able to kind of start in the
schools that you've been at that you'rekind of bringing with you things like that.
We do a couple of things wedo. We do decals with dads,
UM, So the first week whenthe kids put their decals on,
(15:18):
we bring the dads in. Thedads helped put the decals on the helmets.
UM. We do dinner dinners withmoms. The first week, the
moms come in and we cater willcater a dinner in for him. Um,
we do at the end of theyear, with their last game,
we have somebody special in their lifewrite I'm a letter and they read it
right before he goes out on thefield, and it's it's very powerful at
(15:39):
times to see them just cheer upbefore they run out there, and um,
it's it's nice to see, well, coach. I am excited to
see what you're going to do atHarding. I've always enjoyed just following Harding
calling the games, and I justwish you the best of luck this season
and can't wait to watch you well. I appreciate anything we can do for
you. We appreciate all you dofor us and our kids. Thank thank
(16:00):
you so much.
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