Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Past the hour, Dee, Mark and Jeff in the Orthopeda
Clinic studio. We're gonna go to the Hamilton's hotline and
go to Ben Thomas. Ben got game Thomas. He writes
for al dot com every week we get to talk
to Ben. He is the man. Good morning, Ben Thomas.
How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm ready to smile, get.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Ready to read man. And he's from the Daphne, Spanish
fort area.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
By the way, that's right, that's right. We'll slave the
other night. By the way, the Daphne Spanish spurteens and
Daphney came out on top.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, Kenny King, big win for him, big and win
game losing Street gets Spanish Sport and uh, Daphne's in
the rankings and looking pretty good here as we head
to the second half of the season.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Wow, sticking with him. A lot of people wanted to
toss him away, and they stuck with him. Kudos to
those guys, right, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
There, you know. Look, Kenny King is as nice a
guy I think as I've ever met in the coaching profession.
I mean, he just the things I hear that he
does for just the student athletes of Daphney. How he
loved this community. He grew up in this community, went
to school at Daphne, and you know, obviously his dad
operated a drug store down here for a while. He
passed away a couple of years ago. But just a
(01:15):
good guy, and yeah, he's taking a little heat over.
I think he's been there ten years and they've been okay,
but not really a state title contender. I don't know
if they're a state title contender this year, but they're
probably going to be the second seat in that region.
It looks like if they don't slip anywhere down the stretch,
which means they'll host one of the teams from the
Huntsville area in the first round, so they should be
(01:36):
at least the second round playoff team if everything goes
according to plan. But he a couple of big, big
wins in the last two weeks. Beating Spanish fort was
big because Daphne had lost eleven of thirteen games against
the Spanish court. And if you don't know the geography,
they're right. They're a couple of miles from each other,
separated by ten basically, so that's been a big rivalry.
(01:57):
And then they beat Baker the week before that, which
was a huge win for them. So I don't know
why I started thinking talking about that, but a big
win for that was one of the bigger games out
here on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well that is good. I'm glad. I'm glad. That's that's
good stuff. Good for Kenny to win that game. Spanish
Forces got to be doing a little rumming now probably, Well.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, they're kind of they. I don't think they've had
a winning or losing streak all year. It's been win
one lose one, win one losing type thing. They got
a real young team, especially on defense. I think they
only had three starters coming back on defense. They got
some good offensive firepower. Uh. The quarterback Aiden Chamberger right
now is committed to South Alabama. They got a good
(02:39):
running back, Juju Bonner, So they they're pretty good on
the offensive side, but they they've struggled on the defensive side.
So we'll see where they go. I mean, they got
some big, big games, like they've already played Fairland the Theodore.
They should probably be in the playoffs, but they're going
to be a third or four seed probably at best. Okay,
(02:59):
and that be a tough road for them, and that
in six A because six A is so tough across
the board.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
It is tough. Our buddy got beat the other night
by Clay Chalkvill That's that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thompson. Yeah, good game. I watched that game. That was
the ap You know what a great job the hs
a A is doing. They are games of the week
on Thursday going all over the place and you know that,
so everybody can see those games. And of course, Thompson
Clay Chalkwall was probably their best game of the year.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I don't know, it's like one of the good ones
too now, but you're right, that was a good one.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So yeah, but clay Man, Clay's kind of got Coach
Freeman's number. I mean, that's the row and Coach Floyd
kind of poked a little bit at Coach Freeman. I
don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I didn't. He don't need to be poking anything. What
do you say he.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Said at the end of the game, he said, we
outworked them all this week.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Ah, that come on, win with some class.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Everybody knows that Coach Freman's theory or motto is out
working all. He ends up every text message and everything
with with that theory. So Yeah, he took us. Took
a little bit of a shout of him, shout out him,
which I thought was unnecessary, but that.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Is unnecessary win with grace and class.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, I don't know what's between you know, if anything's
going on between those teams, I think plays. There have
been three great games the last three years and Clay
Truck was one of them. All. Uh so kudos to them,
but great game anyway on Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Man, you're right, Uh one other games, Jeff, we're missing,
uh games this past weekend. Well, I mean we had
some locally here.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
But.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Uh, hey we found out who number one an Ai
s A is.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, Dagham Chambers took care of that.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, that was a good game. And Chambers are they
kind of shaken up a little bit, a little bit
more than it was last year. I'm not sure, you know,
it's hard to be hard to figure those teams out,
but that's uh big win for Chambers. Obviously, Auburn was
a big win over over Moody. That's that's Moody is
a five A state title contender. I think everybody would
(05:09):
say played in the finals last year under Jake Moody,
and of course that game was not Yeah, that game
was not played. Last year. Auburn was supposed to go
to Moody and Moody canceled the game or and I
think I think Auburn wanted to play.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
They did good.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
To play, so coach Oesters took care of took care
of business this week. So that's a good, big win
for Auburn and obviously got the Red Devils this week.
That'll be two two huge at least two huge, huge
seven A games this week. You got Thompson and Hewitt
always gonna be the number one team in seventhly they're undefeated.
(05:47):
They get Thompson this week, and then you get Auburn
Phoenix City. So I mean those those are definitely four
of the top i'd say six teams in the state
and seven A playing uh playing this week?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Interesting? That is you all right? Degombe Central lost to
Toughy to uh what is it to amg A That's
what I call him.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I guess yeah, I just I don't know why we play.
I don't either, uh, but we keep doing it. You know,
Hoover's played them a lot, Thinks City's played them, Thompson
has played them. I mean it just you know, I
guess it's a national profile game. I don't know if
that game was on national TV or not. I don't
think it was, but I guess they want to test
themselves against the best. But it just gives kind of
(06:32):
gives IMG another recruiting advantage, you know, to play teams
like that. But yeah, that was I was surprised that
was as lopsided as it was.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Very I mean it must have been. I mean it
must have been a total just domination.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Before I saw we didn't have anybody giving us scores
after every touchdown. The first score I saw, I think
was like forty seven, and I'm like, well.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Quick, yeah, yeah, So I don't know since he's got
a good team though they obviously do, I assume.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
But you know, I don't. I think that's an interesting
game this week. I don't know who to pick, and
that alten looks like they're kind of rounding into form
after that lost Tostavia Hills and they do. You know,
I probably can throw that Phoenix City went out the
window at this point. But I guess IMG academy, I mean,
I just their IMG academy is just yeah, I think
(07:29):
I won't consider that.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, any other teams statewide that we haven't mentioned that
maybe deserves to be. Hey, this team's doing well. I
try to you know, it's usually the usually what Bullock
County has been doing well, that's.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
A Bullock County. How about Russell.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
County Russell County six and oh right here amongst us
playing good football, that's that's dealing Griggs, Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Sir, Yeah, I had a little note in my column
about them last week. They you know, been he's turned.
I think they've won fifteen or last eighteen there something
like that. Yeah, got a good quarterback brush and Riggins.
A lot of people don't know about him. Uh so
they're Dylan's done a faculous I think he's in this
fifth year. Can I look at that last week? He's
(08:13):
done an unbelievable job down there. Kudos to those guys.
Another big matchup. We talked about that, those two big
seven A matchups this week, another big matchup. We've been
kind of been looking forward to this one all year.
You get Jackson and Saint Michael Jackson and the top
two teams in Class four A they played twice a
year ago, playing again Friday night. That's the region game.
(08:35):
Top two teams in that region. He got all kinds
of stars on the field, obviously.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
With E. J.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Crowell and Landon Duckworth and those guys from Jackson. And
then you got Gunnar Rivers who's having an unbelievable year.
I think Gunner's thrown twenty one touchdowns to one interception
this year. He's not if you haven't seen him, I mean,
I know, you know was Philip rivers son, but he's
not living on Philip rivers name. I mean, they got
a guy can play football. You're gonna hear him his
(09:02):
name for a long long time, right yeah. And he
looks the part too. If you guys haven't seen him play,
I mean he's big guy. Hit that gross spurred and
so they and they got wide receivers and running backs.
The question is, you know, can they slow Jackson down defensively?
(09:23):
I mean, they're not gonna be able to match up
with them on defense, but it might not matter if
you you know, are Ken Jackson slowed them down. So
it should be a fun game. Randy Kennedy is gonna
be up there covering for US on al dot Com.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I see they give up seventeen to Ceyland, none to
Demoplis to Scambia County fourteen to Banker fourteen to Mobile
Christian and zero La Floyd. Their defense is pretty sporty.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
They're good. Yeah, Bass good Bath. This is I got
to talk to coach Florida about this. They they had
they must be getting some good gate money up there.
This this year, they've had three of the biggest games
in the state.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I know, and this.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, they opened with Sarah Land and then they got
Class seven A Baker who I think was undefeated at
the time when they went up there, and now they've
got Saint Michael coming in there. He had to be
looking at this home schedule thinking, man, we can we
can maybe build an.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Indoor, we can buy some new uniforms for a while,
you know maybe.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
But this is uh, you know, you never can predict
what's gonna happen. But this may be the first of
two matchups between these two teams. It was last year.
Of course, they both have to take care of business
to get back, you know, in the rematch. But it'll
be uh, that'll be one to watch for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, our buddy, Uh, where was I going with this?
So just I went blank Uh, golly, I went blank
on But we were talking about Jackson, and oh man,
I just just completely went blank on. Oh go on,
move on. I lost.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I had a game to me. It was Bob Jones
loses the Gas and City, which is.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I can't figure out Jeff. I can't figure out who, who,
if anybody is good up in the Huntle area.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
You know what, After they beat James Clemens as bad
as they did, and then and gads and Cities, they're
three and two. They lost the muscle shows, they lost
to Hewet trustle and they and they lost to Hewitt
Trust for pretty big fifty six to seven. They lost
a buck Horn thirty one six. But they beat Bob
Johnes who.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Beat Bob Jones beat James Clemens jeff fifty four to seven. Yeah,
And I thought, okay, well they must be the cream
of that division. We'll ye go to Florence last week
and lose by three touchdowns, Lawrence can that hadn't done
any good. I don't know that that region may be
more down than it even usually is. I mean, they
(11:44):
get a break because they played the our teams from
Region one the first round instead of those Birmingham teams.
But I'm not so sure our teams down here won't
sweep them out of the playoffs either. I just think
it's a really down year up there. Madison Academy is
pretty good. Obviously, there's some teams up in that part
of the state. They're a good marsh Hills in the
Florence area. Five turned it around. You know, they had
(12:10):
that tough first loss and I lost sense. I mean,
so there's some Piedmonts good. They're not quite that far north,
but there's some good teams up there. But the seven
eight teams, I just I can't tell who's good. And
you know, the weird thing about that Gas and City
game was Ally Smith, who's the coach of Gas And
said he didn't even go to the games. He was
stayed home with a health issue. I hope he's hope
(12:32):
he's all right. I need to check on him. Actually,
covered Olly. Uh he was the quarterback at Emma Stanson
when I was working in the Gaston area.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
He's now the head coach of Gaston City, So I
hope he's doing okay medically.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I'll tell you what it was. It was Rush Pros
winning game number three hundreds when I was trying to
bring up well to go and I couldn't think, yeah,
yeah again, he got it this time.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
He may he may be the only only coaching to
ever have game winner ball two footballs that say three
hundred game win. I bet he does. He probably does,
but I you know, hopefully this one won't be taken
away from him. Yeah, three hundred, and he's got a chance.
You know, they got the talent I think to win
(13:14):
their eighth state title. They're one of the main contenders
in uh in two ways. So we'll see how he does.
But yeah, good for him. It didn't get as much
publicity as maybe it would have, you know, to begin with,
but uh, good for rush. I think, you know, hopefully
if he could you know, three hundred wins, and if
he were to win another state title, be eight state titles,
(13:37):
that'd be a good, good way to finish. I figured
you guys were gonna ask me about one hundred to nothing.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
All right, I'm gonna get to that. Buying more one
his one hundredth game, and Keith Esher's his five wins
to get away from his two hundredth win. So there's
some milestones. F y and yeah, I understand they asked
to run the clock at halftime the coach said no.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah. Also, before I get to that, I think Jeff
a few wins away from two hundred. Thank you for
telling me that he just won his one hundred and
fiftieth stairland, but I think he's a feel away from
two hundred overall. Yeah, you know what, here's the deal
on that. So we're talking about Williams and beat Murphy
one hundred to nothing. And you know, if somebody text
me is like, is that real?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
My got I had a bunch of people ask me
was it real too?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And so I talked to both coaches. Antonio Coleman, the
former Auburn player is uh Is, the coach at at Williamson,
and Sherman Williams, the former Alabama players, the coach at Murphy.
I talked to both of them, and I'm really after
I talked to both of them, I was still confused
about how and why that happened. Antonio. Yes, Antonio told
me it was seventy three to nothing at half, and
(14:44):
he asked the referees to have a running clock, and
the referees say, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Nowt to coach didn't add eight minutes on.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
The toight, accurding to Antonio. The ref said, you want
to go to eight minute quarters? He said, that's fine. Then,
according to Antonio, Sherman said that he didn't want to
do that. Uh so, okay, so they played. Now, I
think they had their young guys, and I mean, I'm
sure they had their eighth grade quarterback at night. They
had they weren't playing the varsity. At that point. It
was seventy three to nothing. And then when I talked
(15:13):
to Sherman called me. You know, I was kind of
surprised he called me, and uh, he wasn't upset. I
asked him directly. I'm like, Antonio told me that you
didn't want to run the clock, and I never could
get a real answer on that. He said, well, they
said something about that, but then they didn't run the clock.
And you know, anyway, we just got to tackle better
and played to the final whistle and all that type
of stuff, and it was almost like they lost fourteen
(15:36):
to ten.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I was gonna say, it's one hundred to nothing, my friend,
So I don't I don't mean.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
They didn't tackle it all.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You know, you don't need to score one hundred points.
I mean they could have not scored a hundred. I
mean if they had to.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I'm with you. I think it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Well I heard it was.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
That's ridiculous there.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well well, I mean you know it should have ended there.
I mean, you know, as far as the scoring goes nobody,
that's another thing, because it was. I mean, Williamson is
historically good that I mean, they're a legitimate state title contender. Uh.
And Murphy is really really down. I mean they just
I think they've been outscored three hundred and eight to
(16:17):
twelve or something like that this year. I mean it's
just they just he's got a real young team and
it's just it's it's bad as it's bad as it's
ever been at Murphy unfortunately. But you can't score it.
There's no reason to score one hundred and that you know,
they have people on social media with the scoreboard. I
just I don't know where the mistake, you know, I
think there was probably mistakes on both sides. One they
(16:38):
should have and in the referee, because they should have
had a run o' clock no matter what, no matter.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
What, you take over the games that we're running the clock.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Yeah, what do you do if you put a freshman
into games? ID? Did you just say kneel down. I mean,
what do you do?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But I think if you're running the clock, it sets
that tong being he asked you the question, I'll be caught.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I mean, I don't know how to I say, I
wouldn't there, But I'm thinking, you know, Sam and three
or nothing, and I you know, and I don't have
an you with that same I mean, you know, you
score while you can in the first half.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And then you then you call the dolls off.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
But do you put a friend play in the state,
you know, the starting quarterback through eight touchdowns all in
the first half, so and didn't play in the second half.
But still I don't and I haven't seen the film.
I heard they were still throwing with their younger people
in the same see see as they were. That was
that's uncalled.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
No, absolutely yeah, I mean, but if you hand the
battle a guy and he goes, if.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
You got if you're hanging it off to if you
got all middle school guys up there and you're handing
it off up the middle for two quarters of a
running clock and it gets to one hundred, I can't
believe it would. But it's just it's just it's a sad,
sad state. I feel bad for Murphy. I just there,
Like I said, it's not going well. They're supposed to
(17:46):
play Theodore on Thursday night over at Theodore, and everybody
beat them pretty bad, you know, but most people, most people,
the score at halftime has been the final score. Like
I think that finish war was up forty one nothing.
I half that was final. That was the game. The
official you know, official evaluator collapse on the sidelines. Somebody
(18:08):
else was up fifty to fifty. I think Saint Paul's
was up fifty one to nothing on them at half.
I think it in fifty one to seven, So you
can you know, there are ways you can control that.
I think it makes me think maybe something else was
going on there, but yeah, it was. It was surprising.
I hope we don't see that again.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, I don't want That's not cool. That ain't good sportsmanship.
What else anything else that we covered on the Gamut
we need to cover, Ben.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Have you heard back from the Lieutenant Governor. No.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I was thinking about him this morning because his chief
of staff that he was off last week. He didn't
call when he was supposed to. So I'm going to
reach back to see if she will if he will
come back on the radio.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I hadn't heard much about that whole situation since that
we can put out, so so we'll see. Let me
see what else that's it's hard to believe we're at
we're speaking through the second week seven week six if
you're a member of the high school, if you call
it what the HSAA does. So where every game now
(19:17):
for these region contenders will be big yep.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, three wins from Jeff Kelly. By the way, he's
got one ninety seven overall.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, and one seed just had one fifty at Sara Lane.
One hundred and fifty wins at sairy Land. I mean
Sara Lane was you know, he took over that program.
I think after the first.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Year he was eleven, and I don't know when they're
their first year was ten.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You were right, and he and he's built it into
what it is today. Their facilities are really maybe behind Thompson,
a little bit behind Thompson, but other than that, it
is probably as nice as anybody in the state. And
it's right off the interstate. If he's come to Mobile,
you know, going to Mobile, you see him right off
the interstate, which is pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yep. John Holman had it one season, went three and seven.
He's won one hundred and fifty games since he's been
there in fifteen years. That's tennis season being well, excuse
me fourteen and a half because he's still playing.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, and they brought Jeff down from Jackson. He was
at Jacksonton, took them to a state title game, and
then I think the year he left, I think any
Powell game in.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
There they did, they did, they did.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So he's done an unbelievable job in their three straight
state championship games they've been in one to one. Probably
a favorite to get back again, yep. This year because
Clay chalkl and Parker are the other two top teams
and they got to play each other, and then you
got Muscle Shoals and Heartsville up there. I mean a
lot of the top five powers in the North other
than sriland so you know, their favorite. I'm sure they'd
(20:46):
be favored to get back there as well.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
He's played for five championships in one one. That's unbelievable.
In it five times he's been there.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, I'm sure he would have liked Yeah, I hate
even that out, but I hate talking to.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Him about it. He gets upset about it, and I'm
like many it's hard to get their coach.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Every single one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Was down to the water, down to the wire, and
no doubt, no doubt that lad they wanted.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
The first year with Ryan Williams. In the second year
with Ryan Williams, they're on the in yard line and
they go for the win, you know, at the end
of the game. And kJ Lacey came up a yard shore.
Ye last year, Parker just was too much. They had
those guys on defense and you couldn't block them. I mean,
they were just it was just terror. But it was
(21:30):
still a tight game. I mean kJ Lacey made some
throws and kept it tight, but they lost to cleat
Chalk at least once. I think. I think they lost
the bow Nicks and Penson once. So I mean there's
no no shame of that. Like we keep talking about
six a's been the deepest and best Ye count Field
region since they went to seven classifications, and it's still
that way.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I think, Yeah, it is all right being your family
doing okay.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Everybody's doing good. De Mark hope yours is dealing.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What time does the breaks play when we start our
playoffs wrong.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Uh in the march in the march.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, well at least the Mets didn't get in. That
makes me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, mess are out, Philly's in.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
They're having a meltdown up in New York.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah they are, they have, they have, They probably should
that somebody. Well, I ain't gonna say what that so Meanyway,
I saw something where they raised the flag, and I
want the records bend since they've raised a certain flag.
But anyway, it had been good.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
But uh yeah, I saw a thing on social media
had a picture of him and said Clinch And I'm like,
what has said? Clinch? Time was family and friends.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Robert still got a big win too. I want to
bring out a big Justin got.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
His beat Orange beat. That was a good win for them.
He's just a pretty good, little bit lower classification team.
But they're they're pretty good. Wade Waldrip is doing a
good job. They got some real young good players down there.
But uh, coach younges Son Cub had a big game.
He's in our Player of the week.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Good all right.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I love that name.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I do too. I love Cub, I love the young
man Cub. He's an awesome kid too, young man.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, so good good win for Romers. I got to
see Joe Williams the other day. Our middle school team
is that Jayden plays on play Alberta. Uh they beat
us bad, so maybe they got uh, maybe they got
Maybe he can get that program turned around. Joe willis
a good good man and a good coach.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
All right, good deal, and Ben, hope you have a
great week. Thanks for what you do. Ben, Thomas Prepps
and at al dot com they can't catch you anytime every.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Day, right, all right, thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yep, that's right, thank you, Ben. All Right, you got it, buddy,
Take care all right, Ben,