Full Show - 8/16/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, August 16th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented
as always by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores, coming from the Donovan Jordanston Heating and Cooling Studios. Man,
high school football is here, it's here. I went to scrimmage.
I went to his scrimmage last night, and man, it
was funny. You just kind of get that feeling like,
all right, here we go. Ten o'clock today, we're gonna

(00:22):
talk to Brian Nay. He's the head football coach at
Lafayette Central Catholic in Lafayette, Indiana, and I met him
a couple of weeks ago, asked him to come on
and talk a little bit about Indiana high school football.
And Brian Nay will join us at ten o'clock. At
ten fifteen or so. Kat Hummel from Pickensave, they've got
me doing an event next week at the Pick and

(00:44):
Save and Muskego. I'm going to question their thought process
on that. By the way, they have me as like
a celebrity judge alongside Leroy Butler and I've worked with
I used to work with Leroy a lot, and it'd
be good to see him again. But we will talk
at ten ten ten fifteen in that area with Kat
Hummel from Pick and Save. At ten twenty Tim procop

(01:06):
he is with Answers, and we had Steve ruson last
week and Steve's working for this company, and I was
really interested in it, and I think every high school
football coach, college football coach should take a look at
what they're they're offering. It's going to save you guys
a bunch of time. And we'll talk to Tim at
ten twenty ten Forty Rocky Waganhurst, the VP and general

(01:28):
manager at my twenty four. We'll talk about our schedule
coming up a week this Friday. In fact, Arrowhead against
Marquette at Nominee Falls, Arrowhead against Marquette at no Nominee Falls,
Hard Park. I don't know if they'll get a game
this year. I don't and Tosay's plays their home games there,
Marquette plays their home games there, but Hart Park, that

(01:50):
stadium took a beating with the weather that we had
last week. And we'll talk to Rocky about this year's
this week, this season schedule in my twenty four in
studio with me two of my favorite people. Last week, Look,
we had a couple of retired coaches coach Kme from
Marquet and Steve Rucks, and I wanted to have Brian

(02:10):
Fletcher and Joel Parin because these guys combined have been
coached in a long time and I'm wondering how they're feeling.
I'm gonna start with you, Brian Fletcher. We're seeing Horolic, man.
How you feeling. Do you feel like you're supposed to
be someplace, you know, during the day or not? Really,
I've kept a little closer if you kept myself so.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Busy that no, I don't you know. You see you
see things on social media that are going on, and
obviously my boys were playing, but you know I've I've
kept myself busy on a golf course, in painting houses
and uh so I'm at peace.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
You see. I saw you a post you said once
a painter, I was a painter. You've been keeping busy?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, so I've been painting my entire life. I started
working for my dad when I was twelve years old
in his painting company, and from painting fields at Horlic
the houses around the seeing area keeps me busy.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Do you know when your son was our pick and
save student After the weekend I get a chance to
meet your mom. And I don't know if you know this,
but we went off to the side a little bit
and I said, man, I'm a huge fan of your sons.
She said, yeah, you should have known him when he
was growing up. And I go, really, She goes, he
was really naughty. She goes, he got a lot of trouble.
He's a really good football player. And I said, well,

(03:23):
I'll tell you this as a father. She goes, oh, yeah,
he's done that really well, big smile on her face.
Your family is good, huh, really good. Yeah, yeah, the
boys are playing. How's your daughter doing that? Bella is
my favorite of the whole. She's the toughest of the group.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, definitely, she's doing well. She's soccer and basketball right now,
so you know, she's busy with all that and we're
kind of in every direction.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
She's still pretty physical on the soccer field, because if
you remember years ago, I got a video you sent
where she was she got. Look, she hung out with
her older brothers and they toughened her up a little
bit and on the soccer field, big personality and just man,
she would what a really fun kid to just be,

(04:08):
you know, like hang out.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
With right, definitely. Yeah. She's not there to make friends.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
She's there to win games. After she'll slap five.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Oh yeah for sure.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Joel.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
How about you? You any look? Are you missing it yet?
Are you your second guess in your decision?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I'll tell you what it's been different. There are
times I'm sitting there like I should be doing like
twenty different things. I'm not getting the eighty text every
four minutes from anybody and everybody, coach, Can I tie
my shoe? You know whatever? You know, So that kind
of stuff has been very different in kind of a
positive way. I'll admit, you know. I've had a little
bit more time, done, a lot of things, family done,
some cool things and things of that nature. I went

(04:44):
to the practice on Thursday. Yeah I miss it. You
get out there and I guess what you miss is, man,
you miss the kids a ton, you know. But I
missed the coaches too. Those are my friends. Yeah. You
know the amount of time we spent together as a
staff and all the guys involved. You know, man, that
stuff is tough. I get spent a lot of time
my wife and I think she's getting ready for me

(05:05):
to get out of here.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Did you watch you to go coaching?

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Exactly? I? Uh, last week. This week I ran up
to Appleton. My son lives up there. He's a teacher
and coach at Freedom High School and Irish.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
We went up and watched the Timber Rattlers play and
then we went golfing, and that's stuff I haven't been
able to do in thirty years, you know. So we
did that on a day. You know, my son is
gonna where he's taking us to the Willie Nelson Bob
Dylan concert on a Friday night. I haven't had a
Friday night open in thirty years. So I'm gonna go
with Sam today.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Hey, what was it like for you to go to practice?
Did you get either way? Or were you Because you're
involved in it.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Coaches are so awesome and so many guys there. Coach
a lot Nick still there running the defense. Coach. Coach
Calhoun is an amazing coach. It's gonna do wonderful. He's
he's been very accepting of me. Uh, he's got those
guys going in a great direction. I look around and
I see all the all these guys both at both
areas and the freshman coaching and the varsity coaching and
JV and a lot of guys that have been in

(05:59):
the program for a lot long time. Brian has done
a great job of settling a staff with his guys.
But Brian had been on a program before, so he's
also you know, knows what it's like there, what we
need to do to keep it going and keeping it
going forward. So I saw good rhythm. I saw a
lot of great senior leaders.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Jay, did it feel uncomfortable getting out of the car for.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
You, yes, yes, sit there a little yeah, yeah, yeah,
for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's interesting because when I retired from coaching basketball, right
we want to stay championship and a lot of those
kids are seniors. But there we had some sophomores and
juniors on the team. And I remember going to a
practice three weeks in just to see coach Walas time
and again. I missed the staff and it was it
was different. I was uncomfortable in that setting. The players

(06:45):
were hey, coach, good to see her. You're coming back. No,
I'm retired, just stop buy and say hi. But it
was a little bit uncomfortable. Are you Are you involved,
Brian Fletcher? Are you involved at all with the youth
the rebel program that you put together. Are you are?
Have you just completely stepped away from that.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Unfortunately, the youth program that I put together is completely
dissolved it. Oh no, but I am. I'm involved at
Union Grove right now helping coach out there.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
So the youth program, the sweat equity, love, sweat and
tears that you put into that program. And I know
this because we had conversations about it. One of the
more difficult parts for you was you'd have these kids
in third fourth grade all the way through eighth and
then freshman year they were over at Case or something

(07:32):
like that, and you're like, man, the tough part was
I'm training these kids to beat me on the field.
But you kept doing it year after year after year.
That's got to be heartbreaking for you that that program
is to south Now.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
It is, it is, and I know that Coach Coushman
has plans to get it back up and running next year,
but it's it's a big undertaking and to have all
the volunteers in place, and we were kind of hopeful
that we're seeing U Sports was gonna absorb our program
and that didn't work out.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
It didn't know. I wonder why and you're during the break,
maybe you can tell me, but we don't need to.
We don't need to talk too much about that. How
do you think Horrloric will be this year?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think they're gonna you know, they've got a young team,
but I know that.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
He's always had young teams. Coach, you always had young teams.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
And they're they're they're they're staying positive and work with
these guys. And I think, you know, they'll go through
some rough spells, but I think they've got a good
nucleus of guys there.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Hey, and I don't know if I and maybe I
should have given you heads up. And if you don't
want to talk about this, we don't have to. But
Racine is is is different, right sometimes for a couple
of years, Horror, you guys are at the top of
the Racine Public schools case right now is top right
park years ago?

Speaker 5 (08:42):
Was?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I mean, they were the guys. How hard is that
coaching in Racine? Because now you've got seeing Catherines as well. Right,
You've got Racine Lutheran. I mean, there's a lot of
their prairie doesn't offer football, but they offer other sports.
There's a lot of competition in that Racine market, and
it seems to me that it goes almost like Kenosha
right into your trail was the best, Bradford was the best.

(09:04):
Now you know all of so they get split, but
there's always a top dog. Was that hard to be
a coach in Racine when when you could see, look,
all of a sudden, right now cases the hot school
when it comes to football.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, I mean it's obviously you always want to be
the top dog. But I think that's it becomes very
difficult when you see the kids moving around constantly, and
you see the voucher program that's taken a lot of kids,
so things have been spread so thin that it was
it became very difficult.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
To Football is a numbers game. It's one hundred percent
of numbers game. And look, when Joe Cook used to
be in town, he would say, look, we're gonna do
platoon and I don't care what it takes. We were
gonna have some kids on the field that maybe shouldn't
be on the field, but that's gonna help us down
the stretch. And we can do that because we have
good numbers. Joe oh Creek, you guys always had pretty

(09:57):
good numbers over there. Look, Franklin, was that when I
talk about Racine schools, right and the case and Parker
always the big games when they're playing whole like you
guys with with with Franklin, will you miss those big
rivalry games and the numbers with the Creek the youth
programs that are still really strong, right?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah. So, I mean we come from I was blessed
beyond compared to be the head coach at ot Creek.
We had everything we needed and I love what they're doing.
They're just getting a brand new weight room on top
of that, and Brian Calhoun's a big leader in that thing.
So it's just so excited to see it getting bigger
and better. And the youth program is a big part
of it. We have very huge numbers in that we
have a president Adam, and Adam who runs the heck

(10:41):
out of it and gets he just really publicizes numbers, numbers, numbers,
get kids in and get him a great experience. So
Adam Martin and uh, you know that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
A Yfelas is Now last year they sponsored my radio
show during high school football. Now they're going to be
a sponsor of the TV you broadcast as well, and look,
I agree with these guys, and Tom Swittle brought this
to my attention years ago. I don't think football has
never been safer to play. And and you know, Joel,

(11:10):
it is. It's a physical violence sport and there's going
to be injuries. But but when you played, when I played,
and Brian, when you played as well. I think you're
the youngest boy here between the three of us. But
we used to do you know, nutcracker and bull in
the ring. You know, every practice and no water breaks.
Back when I played, it was sawtpills. You get put

(11:31):
in jail now for doing that. And there's very there's
not nearly as much hitting going on at practice, and
they're teaching, yeah, I keep your head out of the game,
where where you're going to tackle, how you're going to
tackle correctly, to keep your head out of the game.
I think the equipment's way better now. And I think
that youth football, the things you did, Brian to introduce sport,

(11:52):
that this sport to kids be safe, right, play hard,
play physical and and and but the safety side of
it I think is really important. And that's what the
aa YFL is getting involved with my stuff so that
I can be, you know, a mouthpiece to spread that word,
to get kids involved in this youth degree with that boys.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, youth, youth sports is so important. I can go
back into the eighties. I mean I were seen coming
from see myself. Their Optimist leagues started in first, second,
third grade and there were nobody else doing that. And
I remember just having been hit before in youth and
youth sports hadn't been there, and it really wasn't a
youth tackle football. And people have moved towards seven on

(12:31):
seven and stuff, and I get all those concerns, but
actually I haven't physically had you know, been hit, been
through the physicality of the game at a lower level,
and you know, not as intense is a big deal
because you get used to it, you understand it, you
understand what maybe getting the wind knocked out of you
is in your youth and that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Hey, when when Brian said, when Brian Fletcher said that
that that rebels the youth Rebels program is dispand I
saw you give him a look like your felt for
him because you know how much work he put into that.
And I think that look when you put that much
love and that's your baby and you walk away, and

(13:10):
then the thing the spands. I think I feel bad. Brian, Hey,
I have a question, and you'll be able to answer
this more than most. My freshman grandson is a freshman
at Lake Country Lutheran. So I went to Mayville, played
nine holes at the Mayvale Golf Club by the way,
and then went over and watched this scrimmage and their
first or second practice at LCL, they split JV on

(13:31):
the right side and varsity on left, and they took
him with him. So last night I go to this
and he started at point at point guard, at nose tackle,
and then they moved in. They played him inside linebacker,
he played some guard, he played some tackle. He's thirteen, right,
he's thirteen, And I'm like I drove when I was

(13:52):
driving over there, I'm thinking, man, this isn't good, right.
I just think that they're going to realize he's thirteen
and they'll move them over to JV and it will
be fine. He played through the Brookville East youth program,
so he has played, but he held his own and
your boys all played varsity as freshmen. Looking back, was
that a good decision for you to have those boys

(14:13):
play against older kids?

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, I think so. I think it varies for every kid.
You have to know if your kid is ready. I
think being a head coach and having your kids played
freshmen create some complications within your program and community for
my kids especially. But my policy was always an assistant
coach has if they're ready to play varsity. It comes
from assistant coach. It's not my decision. And I think

(14:36):
it did help them down the road because I don't,
you know, I think, just like head coaching, I don't
think anybody's ever ready to be a head coach. I
don't think every kid is ready for the speed and
physicality of varsity football. So the sooner you get that started, right, do.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
You think that you you knew or like after the
first scrimmage, after the first couple of practices, that your
sons were okay at that level?

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Oh? Yeah, I mean I think I knew personally when
they were coming in high school.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Joel was smiling. You knew, didn't you, John, Yeah, come
a little closer if you can't. Yeah, they are one
hundred percent ready, right, ye? And I watched him last
night and I don't he didn't stand out, but he belonged, right,
And so I talked to my son in law and
my daughter, and I said, look, their JV games are
on Monday night, so if you play two quarters on varsity,

(15:28):
you can only get two And I said, I don't think.
I wouldn't count on him going to see him play
on Monday because he looked like he belonged out there.
And he said, look, I'm going against guys that have beards,
and I started laughing. I'm like, I, ah, you are,
and you're thirteen. But you know what, they don't know that,
they don't need to know it. And I think you're right.
I think there are certain kids that would be are

(15:51):
okay with that. And I think he proved himself a
little bit last night, made some tackles and he did
just fine against Mayville and Brookefield Academy. Now they open
up against Final LA like Saint Mary Springs, whole different animal.
Right now you're talking about coach Hiland, that that program
for sure. How much Joel are you gonna miss that
rivalry week against Franklin?

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Oh? Unbelievable. I mean just the build, the school, the
atmosphere around the building, all of that is just something
that you never forget as a player and as a coach,
you want to make sure that your kids understand what
you're getting into, because when you get out there, it's
you know, all gloves you know, gloves are off, We're

(16:33):
going down. It's gonna happen, and I'm gonna be honest.
You know, we didn't get done as many times as
we wanted to over the years I was there, but
you know, our kids understand the fight, and they're gonna
come again this year. This year, Adam. It's just so
cool to have communities so jacked in that scenario.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Fletcher through something then that neither one of us responded,
but I I just thought about it, you know what,
you know where I'm going with this? When he said
I'm helping out at Union Grove, Are you coaching at
Union Growth?

Speaker 5 (17:00):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Sort of, yeah, I'm sort of. I'm helping out, Okay,
I'm a volunteer.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Big big difference than being the head coach in that's
you guys have both been. Were you an assistant coach
before being the head coach at Horlick, Yes, so so
you knew that role. Big difference and I've done both.
I was always I think I was a better assistant
coach than I was a head coach. Just the loyalty aspect, right,

(17:25):
I did coach Wallersheim. I'll still throw myself in front
of the bus for this guy. Right, he's the head coach,
I'm an assistant and we're walking lockstep. We could get
after in locker room. I didn't agree with him, you know,
I agree with him a lot, but not always, and
we get after. But once that door opened, I'm in
lockstep with him.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
People would say, do you agree with that decision? One
hundred and even if I didn't, I would at that point.
He is the Brian. You've had some great assistants over
the years, and I think loyalty is where it has
to start now. Being a volunteer assistant a Union Grove,
the you got to be loyal to that head coach, right.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, absolutely, Craig does a great job.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
He does.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
They've got a great group of guys. So it's nice
to have such a great group of coaches, a great
group of kids working together, and you know that that
program is running already from me just to come in
and you know, interject my thoughts here and there, and
you know, they've been real great about listening to me,
and there's times I have to real myself back a
little bit and say, hey, remember.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Joe, he's rolling these eyes. You you the practice you
went to All Creek. You didn't let anybody out, did you?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
No?

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Not?

Speaker 3 (18:34):
You know, and those guys they're all good with the coaches,
they're they're fine. But I remember, like Coach Bart coming back,
Coach Cook coming back, you know, you know, like Coach
Bart and Coach Cook went and were assistance for a.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
While to write.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, and those guys are strong head coaches. You know.
I was fine with delegating as a head coach. I
had two great assistant coordinators.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
I was good at that was in studio a couple
of weeks ago. Given Joe Cook, we're here together, I said, hey,
we'll do an hour, and then I went back and went, yeah, no,
we're gonna have to do two hours. Because we had,
you know, we had some guys. We had Tommy Cook
come on, we had Bill Young come on, we had
Ola come on. Who's coaching in Texas? And so I said, no,

(19:16):
we because how about to get him in studio? It
was hard and once he got here, he can get
after it. And he's like, look, anytime you want me back.
I go absolutely. I coached him as a freshman at
Dominican and he knew more about football when he was
thirteen and I was the coach, and he'd be like,
what are you doing? Run this but just running back. Look,

(19:36):
I'll block the thing. Just put it, run a diplay
and watch what happens, coach. So I love that, guys.
We're going to get to a break. Other side of
the break, I'm going to ask you, guys, and so
give us some thought. If you could go back and
get one game coaching coaching at Horlick or coaching at
Creek as the head coaches, he can go back and
get one game, whether it was because something great happened

(19:56):
or something you wish you could change. I'm going to
ask you that on the other the break. I love
having these guys yet. Brian Fletcher, he's retired, kind of
the volunteer at Union Grove's. He's helping out a really
good program there. Joe Park, he is straight up retired.
Baby thumbs up. He's hey, how much horse racing are
you watching?

Speaker 3 (20:16):
I got a horse racing tomorrow. He got a sixth
race at Saratoga's name was real savvy. That's a good
looking horse it is.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, what's the line right now?

Speaker 3 (20:25):
He'll get bet down. He's probably be about two to one.
But oh okay, so yeah, I bought a lot of
hoofs of horses. I don't know a lot, just a hoof.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
But there you go. That's all right.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
The hook's good enough.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
What's the name of the horse? Real Savvy, Real savvy?
The sixth race at Saratoga And that's awesome. Well, I've
been friends of mine are right now going to put
some money on that. Not me, but they are, for sure. Guys,
we're gonna get to a break again. But Brian Fletcher,
his son, I just watched a great video. He's kind
of the he looks like he might be the face
of the Air Air Force. Baby huh. He's gonna get

(20:56):
a lot of time. That interview. We had talked about
being a forced athlete and what that gave to him.
And I'm sure you watched that video head to be
awfully proud of that boy, one hundred percent. We'll continue
our conversations with Brian Fletcher and Joel Para on the
other side of the break. This is the Varsity Blitz
high school sports show, presented by your local Pick and
Save and Metro Market Stores only on Fox Sports nine

(21:18):
twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School sports show presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. At around ten
ten ten point fifteen. Kat Hummel from Pickensave is going
to join us by an event that I'm going to
be a part of at the Muskigo a Pick and
Save next week, and they've got me as a celebrity

(21:40):
judge on something. Leroy Butler and I will be there
and I haven't seen Leroy in a while. It'll be
good to see him again. But we'll get you all
that information around ten ten with Kat Hummel. Tim Purcop
from Answers going to join us at ten twenty and
then Rocky Wagenhurst, the VP General manager of My twenty
four and we'll talk about this year's schedule coming up

(22:00):
next Friday with that opening game at No Nominee Falls
his Arrowhead takes on Milwaukee Marquette in studio with me
right now, Joel Park from ol Creek, Brian Fletcher from
Uni Girl Routine, Horlick.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Look, I've been a fan of these two for a
long time, and I thank them so much for their
willingness to come in and talk a little bit about
you know, are they missing it? Well, Fletcher's not because
he gets to pop into it out a little bit.
But but Parr is a little bit for sure. Brian.
I'm gonna start with you all the years you coach?
How many years you coach? Had Horlick by the way,
twenty three years? Hey, before I ask you the question

(22:37):
that we ended the segment with, I coached. I had
a chance, the opportunity and the blessing to coach my
son in basketball. You you had a chance and you
still are coaching your sons. How was that for you
guys and the family dynamic?

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Well?

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Did it work out well? For you guys?

Speaker 2 (22:55):
It did a lot better probably behind closed doors and
what people saw, you know, I think people saw his
button heads and you know, being competitive beings that we
are on the field, at times it was like, oh man,
you're wrecking your relationship with your kids because you're screaming
at each other in the locker room or you're doing this,
or it was never really like that. You know, we
understood it. We were competitive beings and we wanted to win,

(23:17):
and it was all coming from the same place. You know.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
It's interesting the exact opposite the first year I coached
my son in high school, where from out in the public,
we look great at home. And I had to make
the changes because I was the adult in the room, right,
and I saw what it did. Because I was not
his coach twenty four to seven, I was his father
most of the time, and so our deal was his
junior year. When we got to the kitchen table, he

(23:41):
took my coach's hat off, and I was your dad,
and if you wanted to talk about the game or
the practice, he had to bring it up. And I
think that really worked for us. I saw when I
saw it the most was when your whole family showed
up at that pick and safe that right inter scene
to give your son that the student Athlete of the
Week award and the love that they have. Man, your

(24:02):
wife's a saint, brother, there's a special place in heaven
for her and that whole I'll kick your coverage. You
know that she's way too good looking for you, Yeah,
just you know, and she might be the toughest of them,
all right, how much did she have to make sure
that you guys once you were button heads, that she
would bring the family back together.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
She really didn't get involved in the referee. I think,
you know, we had a good understanding that the boys
and I and I and they knew that I had
to be harder on them because they were my sons,
because you're in a public eye, and so we had
those conversations at home. Hey, you know what, You're not
gonna get away with anything, right and if I have
to make an example, it's gonna be with you. So
they knew that that when we were at practice and

(24:44):
we were out, you know, in a game, if things
went wrong and there was an example that need to
be made for the team.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
You're gonna light them up.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
They had to wear it. But they understood that. You know,
they were mature enough to understand that. I think that
was really important.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
So the oldest son's first name, Blake, Blake is playing
at Yes Got a Live Time last year. Yes, Yeah, yeah,
he's he's one of their guys right now.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Right.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
I watched that interview and he said, look at you.
I went out to Air Force. I visited three times,
and it was the military part of it that I
had n't wrapped by my head around, and now he
seems like he loves it.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yes, yeah, our first visit out there, a matter of fact,
we joke about it now. But we're driving from Denver
to Colorado Springs and I'm on the interstate and he's like,
you know, I just we're talking about the academy and
he's like, I don't. I just I don't think I
can do the military. I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
I don't think I could ever see myself doing military.
Pull over, what are we doing here? We've got three
plane tickets right here on an unofficial visit. Like, if
you don't want to do military, we're wasting time and money. Yeah,
you know. And so we had a little another little
head buddy match there. Well it's not that, it's not that.
And then we went there and he fell in love,

(25:56):
and you know, I was like, all right, well, let's
go home, we'll pray about to talk about it and
figure some things out. And then went back for a
second visit. And it was kind of in the midst
of Jim Leonard at Wisconsin, because he had Jim was
going to offer if he got the head job, and
when Jim didn't get the head job, and they didn't
offer him a full ride. Then it was like, all right,

(26:17):
well let's go back and look at Air Force again
and see, you know, kind of way out what was got?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
How was how was boot camp for him?

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Tough? I think it was tougher for us as parents
it was for him because.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Thirteen weeks, six six weeks, six weeks.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
But the thing that people I don't think understand is that,
you know, it's hard to drop your kid off for college,
especially your oldest right, that's a big life change. This
was a drive through. It's a caravan of cars. You
have a time slot where there's like one hundred and
fifty cars coming through, and then the next time slot
and so it's they call it I DA. So you're
driving through the you know, the mountains, through these roads

(26:54):
in a parade of cars, and then there's like they
have a hug zone, like you can stop and hugged
it by like along the way. It's like a rest stop.
You know, you get out, say you're goodbye, hugs because
when you get when you pull up, they're hopping out
of the car with a backpack. And that's it.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I went to San Diego six seven. No, but more
than that, maybe maybe three months ago now for US
Marine boot camp that the Educator's Workshop is called. And
I said, look, I didn't get all of it right.
But I was there for a week and my nephew
I flew back on Saturday. My nephew Lucas flew out
on Sunday, and and and I was nervous for him.

(27:33):
I didn't know if he could do this thing. And
he did it, and he is marine. He came back
for a week and the first night he was back,
he went with some old buddies to a soccer game
and he goes, said, uncle, I wanted to go right
back to the depot in San Diego. He goes, I'm
not that guy anymore. These guys are acting a fool
and they're they're doing all this stupid stuff. And he goes,
that was me fourteen weeks ago. It's not me now.

(27:56):
And I just am like, wait, and I'm sure for
with your son. Second son is in in South Dakota
at South Dakota.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
At University of South Dakota.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
And how's that going great? Hey, the house is a
little quiet, huh yeah, and the bella gets after a
little bit, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Let's not get after it, But I told you, and
I said, this would like a normal American.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
I used to say that and my wife would go,
what is normal? Or my wife would say I wanted
to be more normal. I go, we are, We're normal,
and she's like, no, I don't think we are. I
don't think we are. Hey, that question that I ended
segment one with, and Joel, I'm gonna start with you.
If you could go back and coach one more game,
and you could pick the game? What what game? And

(28:39):
it's one you've already coached him, But what game? Would
you go back here and have a redo, whether it
was really good or some thing's happened you'd want back?

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Well, I got two in this first year, and they're
both against him, by the way. Really because going back
to Horlick Field was really cool to me. You know,
that's where I grew up and Racine I played there
and sent cats back in the day, and we had
a game early in my first year and Horlck was
the team to beat that they actually came off. They
had won the conference championship. They were very good. Franklin

(29:08):
obviously is the team and we had a game at
their place at my old coach came to the game,
A lot of people were there, and I'll never forget
the end of the game. We won the last second.
You talk about you know your kid, My kid caught
a ball. Great, he touched on but then he sprang
his ankle dancing and and he goes he's over the

(29:28):
sideline and we still got to kick off, and I'm
screaming at horlick Field there. The other stands are right
on and I'm screaming, he's fine, get him in the game.
And I'm screaming having all that, and we ended up
winning that game, And that meant a ton of me,
just because I know how important horlick Field is and
know how important we're seeing football's history is, and to me,
that was a big deal. But the one I'd like
to have back was in the playoffs when he beat

(29:50):
us on a reverse pass moved him onto the next round.
I don't know if I've seen, and it was uh.
And I'll be honest, Uh, I think that win could
have pushed us even further faster, if you know what
I mean, get into that next round. And I always
felt that loss was one I'd really like to get back.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
You remember that played, don't you.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, tag special. You know, got a counterpass the quarterback.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Hey, well, yeah, you coached your son.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah. So my daughter was our manager. She's she's the
best of them all. She's she's awesome. Uh, she's just
got engaged, gonna get married. I spend a time trying
to find a venue, which is very interesting doing all that. Yeah,
I got to do.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
That now before Yeah, I gotta coach, sure about that.
I got practice.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
And then my my middle son, Nolan, played a football,
wrestled in a baseball all three letters and all three sports,
went on to lacrosse, wrestled at lacrosse, and now was
a fire teacher up in uh at Freedom, Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
And coaching coaching, coaching. Yeah, did you enjoy coaching your son?

Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know, it's interesting to hear you guys talk about
with your kids. I loved it, but I'll be honest,
I delegated them to other people more than anything. I didn't.
I let him go with a decoordinator and whatever, and
I took over the top side much. I'll be honest,
I've probably spent more time with other kids, people's kids
on my own. Yeah, And I do have a little

(31:20):
bit of a regret on that you know.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
But it's amazing because they're in basketball, it's it's hard
to delegate that right you can. In football you can't.
But there are there's a lot of ways to do
this thing, and I don't know if there's a correct way,
but we do it the way. I was a lot
like Brian, where I would get on my kid a lot,

(31:45):
whether he deserved it or not. But he had a
lot of equity in the bank right with me because
he did things the correct way right. He was a
good student athlete, he was a point guard. He got
guys in the right spot. But if somebody needed to
get lit up, I would light him up. But I
didn't have the conversation with him Brian like you did.
And but I know other coaches that say, look, I

(32:06):
need to be his father, and so I'm going to
have some other people coach. And that's worked out. It
hasn't worked every way that we tried. Sometimes it's the
best and sometimes it doesn't work out great. And I
see in your eyes that you have some regret with that.
But I would say to you if he was here
on the show, he would go no. What he did
was was was a good way for our relationship.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, and and I know Brian did this as a
coach as well. If you needed something done, though, you
throw your kid in there because you know who he
could yell at it and who could put it, you know.
And I know that's why Brian felt good about bringing
his kids up as freshmen, because those kids were ready
and they were he trusted them. So there is something
to that. I threw my son Nolan into a ton
of ton of stuff. Yeah, my son Sam is the

(32:50):
same way, you know. You know, they they didn't get
many great jobs, they got a couple of you know whatever.
And it's like, I don't know. I was always been
a cheerleader, you know, for everybody else. But sometimes I wonder.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
If yeah, coach, coach, I feel you, man, I'm telling
you that sophomore year with my son I had I've
read that book called Coaching Our Sons from Coach Tank
up in Dodgeville, and I learned a lot from it,
and it was I had to separate it and it Man,
it's difficult, Brian Fletcher. For you, if you look back

(33:24):
at the games, which one or one or a couple
that you would want to coach again and get back.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, I think any coach would love to go coach
any loss again, Yeah, I think. But I know one
that really sticks in my mind, ironically was also against
So Creaky at Rockfield, and you know, we ran our
book sweep and backside defensive end, chased all right naked
boots there next play and I believe it was Sam

(33:53):
Right playing d N and so we called the boot
because he squeezed on the play before We're like, oh,
we got it. You know, so Blake, my son keeps
the ball. His son's playing d N. Well, somebody must
have told him, hey, you better hold that edge. Yeah,
and he held the edge and it was just a
free thing. He tackles Blake, Blake breaks his ankle. That

(34:15):
that was a game. That was a pretty competitive game.
We were up I think by a couple of scores
at halftime.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
You hadn't lost a game in the year because you
went all through COVID and you had like a four
or f a half got year roll.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
We were rolling. We had a really good team that year,
and then they made some great halftime adjustments. We ended
up having a safety in that game, and one of
our coaches and this is it all falls back on
me but said you have to punt on the kickoff.
Oh oh okay, So we obviously didn't work on this
enough and our kid had never punted the ball. Oh

(34:47):
he almost missed it. So the ball goes like seven yards.
So compounding things out of halftime, they get a safety,
they get the ball now deep in our territory, they score,
Blake ends up getting hurt on the next drive, and
it just kind of unraveled really really fast. Went from
having this halftime lead to all of a sudden, the
wheels are falling off. And that was I think one

(35:09):
of our most talented groups of kids. And when that happened,
it kind of left the air out of that sales
of that team.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Because Blake was the guy.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Blake was the guy, and I think that was what
we had you Later that year, as Carson was playing
quarterback with number thirty three as a freshman.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, yeah, and so there was me. He threw a
couple of good balls.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, and that just you know, it goes to trusting
kid and having kids in the right position on you know.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hey, how was it because your kids all played on
the same team, right, how was that for the brothers
playing on the same team together?

Speaker 2 (35:38):
It was awesome. It was it was It was a
really cool thing to see their friendships. You know, their
their brother their brotherhood, but then their friend they became
really good friends once they started playing varsity football together,
and that was really neat to see.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
So going on to that, you know, so I actually
texted h Brian that night the same man, I'm so
sorry to hear about him, and he gave me one
of the most amazing answers. And it's what people don't
get when you become a head coach and he's he's
at the hospital and you know his son, he knows
it's a bad injury. Well, another person had gotten pretty

(36:14):
bad injury. Got shocked at somebody that was close to him,
and he gave me the answer. He goes, he goes, coach,
it's all perspective, he goes, this is just one thing
on the line. He goes, there's so many kids we
involved with in all these things. We'll get through. This
will be okay. And I earned so much respect for
you that day, when you could have been wallowing in
your own worries, he was worried about somebody else already,

(36:35):
and that was a big deal for me. Brian remember that.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
You know, you and I, Brian, have had a lot
of conversations, and I didn't think this interview would go
in that direction, but about why you keep doing what
you're doing down and we're seeing and and look, your
kids were involved and and you felt like I need
to be part of it. But when we duck deeper
and you said, look, there are so many kids that

(36:59):
are part of this revel program that I'm helping out
of really bad situations. It's so much more than youth football.
It's getting these kids to to to be part of
something bigger than the street, right, bigger because there's some
tough neighborhoods that I've ever seen. And we had a
conversation and you know you will never remember this, but
it was an over an hour long conversation about the

(37:23):
Resine community, the wholely community, and why you do the
things you do, and it was so much more than football.
And I'm wondering for you, did you did you get
into football and then realize this part or did you
realize that part and got into football to be able
to help some of these kids.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
I don't know. I don't know if I can pinpoint
yeah either way, I think it just kind of morphed together.
I think when I started coaching right away, realizing the
impact that I could have on kids is what led
me into education and coaching in the first place. But
you know that that's the hard part. I think about
not being there anymore as a coach.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Hey, how good of a player were you in high school?
You're pretty good? Right?

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Not as good as I tell my kids.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, you're the older, the older you get, the better
you were, right, Yeah, and groove.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yesterday he came up to me and he goes, hey,
so I heard your wife is the athlete of family.
I get a little credit and.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
You might warn to google Brian Fletcher high school football.
You might want to google that before you.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Started athleticism from your wife. I said, well, you know what.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
They got the good looks.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
From the way I the toughness.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Was it hard when you started coaching? And Joe, I'm
gonna ask you the same question, because sometimes as coaches
our kids don't. We were like, you gotta go harder,
you gotta work harder, you get a weight room more
and and sometimes as a sixteen seventeen year old, it's
it's the third on their list, right, They want to
get their homework done, talk to some girls and then

(38:52):
maybe get to the weight room. Was that hard for
you when you saw, well, how hard you guys worked
when you were that age, and then what York sons
were doing that Not everybody had the same priority, right
faith family, the Green Bay Packers kind of thing. And
I'm wondering, as a coach, how difficult was that for you.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
My kids worked a lot harder than I ever did.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
And I think that, as your mom told me, by
the way.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
I worked for my dad painting in the summer. You know,
I was climbing ladders instead of squatting barbells.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
And so my kids grew up in the in the program,
seeing things and hearing stories about former athletes I have coached, saying, hey,
if that kid would have done this, if decade would
have done this, he'd be playing on Sundays. He didn't
dedicate himself in the weight room, he didn't dedicate himself
in the classroom. He burned some bridges for himself. They
grew up hearing those stories and seeing those things, and

(39:43):
I think that kind of was all part of the
package of what led them to where they're at right now.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
So different different community, Oh Creek than than we're Stine,
and you've been in both. How much of being a coach,
and then we'll get to a break. How much from
being a coach? Was it about helping these kids understand
all of the lessons that not only football but Oak
Creek High School can teach kids.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
It's all about the lessons. No one ever called me
a brilliant coach, but no one could ever say I
didn't care. No one could ever say I didn't give
the time and the lessons we learned and the things
we taught, you know, and the things we go forward with.
You asked about, you know, the kids working hard during
the summer and putting that time in. And I had
Brian coach Calhoun come up to me the other day
and it's just it seems sometimes I got care more

(40:27):
than the kids. And I said, Brian, I learned this
back when I was baseball coach in the mid nineties.
I said, you do you do care more than them
because they have five other things to do in that
same decision? I said, they don't get it yet, I said, Brian,
how many guys do we come back and say, Man,
if you would have only done this, you would have
only done that. So our job as a coach is

(40:48):
to not sit and wallow about Karen Moore. It's about
teaching them. Guys, don't give this up. You've got so
much in fun of you got so much you can
get done. And it took me a while to like,
why should I do this? I care more than you
to get over that to know I actually do care
more because they're dumb. They're kids. Yet you know they're
not supposed to know yet they will learn and you
got to get him to learn it before it's over.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
And that's the thing, one hundred percent. He's Joel Parr,
former head coach at oh Creek and Brian Fletcher, the
former head coach at Racine.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
Horror.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Look, we're can get to a break. I listen to
the break, will continue our conversation. And look, guys, Yeah,
through the years, as you guys were both head coaches,
you gave me so much time. Anytime I called, You
were more than willing to come in, more than willing
to come on the phone. And I truly appreciate everything
that you guys have done for me in this show.
And look, high school football took a hit when you

(41:40):
guys stepped down as head coaches in our community. Football
community took ahead. But look, you feel pretty good about
the programs that you left better. I wish that Youth
revel program was still going, but anything I can do
to get it get back. And there's nothing I can
do from this end, but if I can help, you
got to let me know. This is the Varsity but
it's high school sports show presented by your local Pick

(42:01):
and Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports
nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to
the Varsity Blitz, High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, coming live
for the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Coolian Studios. Any
issues you have with your hvac or if you want
to get your furnace looked at now before you're going

(42:21):
to have to turn it on, go to Donovan Jorgensen
dot com, the largest employee owned HVAC company in the
state of Wisconsin. And they love being part of this show.
They love being part of the shows I do, Faith
in the Zone and the Home Improvement Show. But a
lot of those guys over there are big high school
sports fans. They played in high school, their kids playing
in high school, and they love the fact that they

(42:42):
are the studio sponsor for the Varsity Blitz high school
sports show. In studio Joel Parr Brian Fletcher both retired
head coaches from ol Creek. As Joel Parr, we're seeing
horlick Is Brian Fletcher. Guys. During the break we talked
a little bit about Hey, what teaching now? And I
love what you said. Look, I'm at the middle school

(43:02):
and these kids are they're tearing you up.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Huh yeah. So at the that when I retired in November,
I said, hey, I'd be willing to make an adjustment
for the new coach. So there was a position open
at the middle school. So I went down to the
middle school this year and man, them teachers are amazing,
but them kids ate me alive. Man, Holy yeah. I
walked in. I'm like, you know who I am. I'm
kind of somebody, and they you ain't nobody. They buried

(43:29):
me in the place. So that's why I said I
could have retired last year. I said, I'm not going
to let them win.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
I'm coming back from Hey, Brian, are you still going
to be teaching at at Horlock. Yes, I am so
in it's special. Yes, you made a comedy. You said, Look,
you know that it's front ended, so that the beginning
of the year is the busiest, and that's my busiest
when I was I had football coach. This will be
a little bit easier.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Right, Yeah, you know, being able to just focus on
one full time career instead of two at the beginning
of the year.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
And three if you throw painting then and a husband,
there's four.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, merge together at one time for me. So the
beginning of the year, as I stressful, I said, I
told my buddy that I'm looking forward to staff meetings.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Nobody looks forward to staff meaning but if you're up
on the roof painting in ninety degree weather, I would
assume you're looking forward to staff meeting. How busy is
the painting thing?

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Been? Real busy, real busy.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
How many guys do you have working with you?

Speaker 2 (44:26):
I had, I had, I have one guy that's been
with me for like twenty years, and then we had
a college guy working with us. But he's been gone
for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
So you didn't you want him to stick around?

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, And we're getting up there. Now, you know we're
we're in our late forties. We're sitting there talking about man.
Remember back in our twenties, we're doing this and running
up and down his ladder so fast, and now everything hurts?

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Is it all?

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Outdoor painting?

Speaker 2 (44:47):
We do some interior stuff, but in the summertime we
like to stay outdoors.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Scrapy, scraping and painting and.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Doing pressure wash and scraping, painting the whole nine yards.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
You want to, Hey, he's got an opening if you
want to get up on the roof with those guys.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
My wife's got me booked.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I'm busy. No hold on, hold on shar toga second right, Yeah,
I don't know if she's got you completely. Boy Fletcher,
you've been hitting the golf ball pretty.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Well a lot. I'm getting making every stroke.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Count, you know what.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
I'm so addicted to that sport right now. I mean,
if I would have told you two years ago I
was going to watch my grandson and the scrimmage in Mayville,
but I'm gonna go early to get nine in by myself,
you would have been like what I would have been.
I would have had a root canal without novacaine before
I did that two years ago. And then the coach
from brook Central, the golf coach, came in and we

(45:40):
went to we went to storms drive range and he
taught me a couple of things. Right now, I don't
like him. Now I'm bad at him because I I'm
not scoring better, but I'm hitting the ball better. All
of a sudden, I can't put to save my life.
That game is just Brian. I'm not mentally tough enough
to play the game. That's the problem. For no apparent reason,
I had a in this league, had the best four

(46:02):
holes I've probably ever had. I picked it up. Out
of four, I walked over to five, and I couldn't
hit the ball chewing. I couldn't hit fifty yards and
nothing happened in my life. My wife didn't call it
Sam leaving you right. We didn't have We don't have
a dog better, dog didn't run away. Nothing happened between
four and five, And I can't. When you're coaching, you
can take a time out and make adjustments, right, Yep,

(46:25):
in golf you can, Joel, did you play golf?

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Not well? But yeah, yeah, I'm playing more honestly, so yes, yeah?

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well your favorite course town ever scene where do you
go Johnson Park.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
I live right next to Johnson Park, so that's that's
like my home course. But I've been getting up early
in the morning and my wife has actually been coming
with me down to shoot park scene, which is in
one point right in the Lake rend in Lake Michigan.
So we'll get there like between five five thirty and
literally wait for the sun to come up just enough
to see the ball, and we're the only ones out there,
and I call her my batty caddy. She pushed the

(46:58):
cart for me and and then I play. So we
played competitively where I shoot the ball to the green okay,
and then she puts and so then that's how we
keep our score if it takes her that many putts
to get in. So if I get there in three
and she puts it in two, she wins the hole.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
So my wife, we were up and walk pack a
year ago, and she came to drive the cart and
I said, you want to take a swing. Nope, nope, nope.
She would do the putting thing. Though hopefully she's not
listening because I'm not giving by. I gotta get better
a button. I don't want her. She beat me a
miniature golf like yeah, and and the greens over at
Mayville where I played yesterday, it might as well been

(47:34):
minist your golf. I'm telling you, you could just tap
it and if it went past it it was going
on nine three times. Well I did it twice. The
guy that was was playing with this other group, he
did it a couple of times too. You didn't get
it to the hole. Then he came right back to
you and it was far. I mean, it kept coming back,
so you had to get it above the hole. I'm

(47:56):
telling you, man, that that sport is more frustrating than
any sport ever. I'm going to just quit and play
start taking a bullying or something, is what I'm thinking.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Hey, will you be able to go to Oak Creek games? Yes?

Speaker 6 (48:09):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (48:09):
We are you gonna? Are you gonna stand this sideline?

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Good? I will go as far from everybody will stand
in the corner because I so.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
The athletic director secretary called me and said, hey, would
you want to work games or something like that? And
I said, I'm not at the point to do that yet.
If I'm at a game, I really just want to
watch the game, and you know, I'd like to appreciate
it too, And all though, so many people there are
so important to me right now that I just want
to see them all succeed. I was listening the other day, Well,
my trainer for my horse passed away, and he made

(48:38):
a statement I thought was pretty awesome. He said, success
without a successor is failure. And to me, I thought,
that's pretty good, you know, And I thought, that's what
I want Brian to know. As the coaches. Anything I
can do to make this thing keep going, anything I
can do to keep it riding. You know, I was
only there to keep it going from what Coach Byard
and Coach Cook and Coach Dudish did along the way,

(49:02):
and that was always my my thing.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Coach Fletcher, you think you'll get to a Horroric game.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Week one for sure? Week one for sure plays?

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
You're gonna be on the Union Gross highlight.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yes, but I'll have both teams.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
In my heart.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Have sons on the Union Grove team and I'll have well,
you you know what, doted sons on the Horror team.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
You have sons on the Horlic team, trust me, you do.
And and if I know those kids before the game,
they're gonna come over and hug you. It's gonna be tough.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah, it'll be tough for sure, and you know I'm
looking forward to it. But at the same time.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Not Hey, guys, I've told you this one hundred times.
Huge fans of both you and I again, thank you
for all the time that you guys are giving us.
Joe Part, Thank you, Brian Fletcher, thank you. One day,
maybe I'll head down to Racine. I'll meet you at
that golf course and I'm gonna do my own putt
and you guys will beat me. I would think if
it only took you three and it only takes her

(49:55):
two to putt. Yeah, I'm I'm mate, Joel. Maybe you
and I should just take them on.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Good luck with the next week. Good luck to Uni
Grove against Horlick next week and certainly Oak Creek. I'll
see week two against Muskego, and maybe I'll see you
at that camp.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
That sounds great.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Always good to see you, good to see Thank you
you guys. You got the other side of the break.
We're gonna be joined by Brian Nay head football coach
Lafayette Central Catholic. They're known as the Kings of the
small school football in Lafayette, Indiana, and we will talk
to him a little bit about Indiana football, and then
we'll talk to Kat Hummel from Pick and Save about
an event that I'm a part of on next week

(50:34):
Tuesday at the Pick and Save in Muskego nine thirty am.
Come out and see You're not gonna want to come
out and see me, but come out and see Leroy,
Butler I can tell you that, and we'll talk to
Kat on the other side. This is the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and
Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the

(50:55):
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, as always, presented by
your local Pick and Save Market stores. In a couple
of weeks, we'll get back to our naming our Pick
and Save Metro Market student Athlete of the Week, and
we'll do that in a couple of weeks as school starts.
And I thank those guys for all their support for

(51:15):
twenty years I've been doing the show and they've been
a sponsor of this show for a long time, and
I thank them. We're coming from the Donovan and Jorganson
heating and cooling studios. Any issues you have for your
HVAC system Donovan Jorgenson dot com. So a number of
weeks ago, major Blackwell US Marine Corps being promoted and
I went out to Thansville at a park and it

(51:38):
was a beautiful event. It's a great event. And I
got a chance to meet Brian Nay, the head football
coach at Lafayette Central Catholic in Lafayette, Indiana. He came
up for this event and him and I got to talk,
and I've done some research. They are known as the
Kings of small school football in Lafayette, Indiana. I didn't
know that. When I asked him to come on the show.

(52:00):
They realized what a great program the Lafia Catholic Central
team and program is. We're now joined by Brian Nate coach.
How you doing today?

Speaker 7 (52:09):
We're doing well, man, Just gotta just let the team go.
Release them on a Saturday morning. Reviewed film of a
week zero scrimmage against the Harrison Raiders Crosstown West Lafia.
Harrison Raiders a six A program. Yeah, so we're living
our life, man, coach.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
If there were six A, what what are you guys?

Speaker 7 (52:34):
So we're two A So.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Is that two A is it six a larger?

Speaker 7 (52:40):
They have about two thousand students. We have three hundred.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Okay, quite a bit larger. That's awesome. How did you
guys came There was.

Speaker 7 (52:50):
A lot of There was a lot of corrections this morning.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Mike, Yeah, I bet I bet.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Well.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
When we talked over at the event, you said, look,
we got some quality players coming back, but we've got
we have lost, obviously to graduation, some really talented kids.
But you and your assistant coach kind of smirked and
said we got a chance to be okay, And I
took that as these guys think they got a chance
to be pretty good. Brian, talk to me a little

(53:15):
bit about about this program Lafayette Central Catholic. How long
you've been the head coach? And reputation wise, is this
a program that people talk about it in the Lafayette area.
Is one of the best programs in the state.

Speaker 7 (53:30):
Oh yeah, man, it's a It's definitely a blue Like
we talked like blue bloods, you know, like I think
that gets overused a little bit or whatever, Like at
least I'm tired of hearing about it. I know, you know,
you know what I mean. Like sure, just that that general.
But I mean there's a reason, there's a reason I
applied for the job, Mike, you know, like uh yeah,
like Kevin o'sa before me did a did a hell

(53:52):
of a job here. He won five He won five
state titles here, he actually won four in a row.
I mean for a school with three hundred students to
have players like Koy Kronk you know who. Uh. Last
I checked, he he had hung it up. I don't
know if he got picked back up, but he had
spent some he had he had just spent some time
in the league. Uh, just coming out, but he you know,

(54:15):
he comes out a lot. The es Central Catholic. Uh
you know little uh uh school of three hundred goes
to IU and he's a freshman All American. You know,
like this uh, this little this, this small little community
we have is is mighty.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
Man.

Speaker 7 (54:29):
We produced some uh we uh it's able to produce,
you know, just some people who go and do some
incredible things out here. We have a guy on our staff,
you know, look up Jackson Anthrops. Look at look at
his story, look at his family story. Man, there's just
there's just some incredible uh incredible stories we have uh
within this community. And uh I learned new things every

(54:51):
day I did and grow up here or anything. But
like I said, there was a reason, Uh, there was
a reason I applied for the job and and and
loved his community more and every day and uh yeah, man,
like I hope you can feel the love I have
for the place because it is it's a special place man.
And and and kudos for you for doing your homework,
you know, like, uh that means a lot to me.

(55:13):
Uh that that that you did that, because yeah, I'm
I'm extremely proud. I'm extremely proud to be the head
coach at Lafia Central Catholic. Man.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Hey, Brian, give us your background. Where were you before that?
And and where'd you did you grow up in the
in in that area.

Speaker 7 (55:28):
Or yeah, so, uh I didn't grow up him off yet,
but I grew up in Uh grew up on the
southwest side of Indianapolis. Uh, like can't it's called Candy
but in between Moresville Indicator and I went to Moresville
High School, played for Mark Bless, who is a legend
a father to me, and uh, you know, just a huge,

(55:49):
huge part of my life. And uh, you know, played
for him and got you know, really uh he really
was able to teach me some some really atomic habits
that that that lead to sess and and really learned
just by playing for him, and then I coached for
him for a few years right out of college. Uh
really just kind of learned how to how to run
a high school football program. And you know, ask anybody

(56:11):
in the stadi of the Um about Mark bless And
and uh you know, any anybody who knows Indiana football.
Uh so it was you know, no pun intended was
obviously uh by no, you know, it was by the
grace of God. Was just able to play for him,
and uh learned learn those things. And uh so but anyway,
like I went to Florida coach down there for a

(56:32):
little bit. I'm not gonna get into too much detail,
but before I got to Lafayette, I was before I
got to Loafyette, was that Decatur Central, which is kind
of where I grew up. Uh, you know, right down Kentucky.
Avenue was able to coach for Kyle in Wright and
he I learned so much from him and and Justin
Dixon and uh yeah, man, it was uh and just

(56:53):
being able to be their offensive coordinator was and coach
kids like Tyrone Tracy looked like Tyrone Tracy. He plays
with the New York Giants like it ain't me, man like,
it's it's the people that have been around me that
have shaped me to be in this position to do, uh,
you know, the service that we're we're really trying to do.
And you know, I got a great got a great
coaching staff, and a great right him in and and

(57:15):
Nate Blackwell. He'll talk about Niate Blackwell, who come into
our program and really shaped the leadership of it. Man Like,
we're we're trying to grow every day, man and we
hope our actions really show that, and they Blackwell is
just adding him to our staff has been incredible. So
let's talk about Nate Blackwell.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Yeah, yeah, I I could talk about him for the
rest of the show. Coach, I could. I'm such a
fan of his. I nicknamed you a Captain America and
it's stuck and he and you know, he's six three,
good looking, his wife's even better looking. Their kids are
good looking. College athlete, college football player. He can sing
like like are you kidding me? You got all of it?

(57:52):
He can do all of it. It's yeah, And I'm
a huge fan, huge.

Speaker 7 (58:00):
Apologetic man, got.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
One hundred percent. Yeah, I agree with that. Hey, speaking
of that, do you know what a Hoosier is?

Speaker 7 (58:09):
I mean, I guess this something from Indiana. Like I
was like, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Do you know we had I do another show called
Faith in the Zone and John McLachlin, who played basketball
for the Bucks and he's from Indiana, he said, Hoosier
is a winner. And I said, hold on, do you
know years ago there was a ah he was a minister,
and he was a guy that that traveled author Indiana.
His name was Harry Hoosier. And there are some people

(58:34):
that think that's where that came from it because he
was outspreading the word in the state of Indiana. So
look that up. Next time somebody asked you said, maybe
Harry Hoosier. Hey, Brian, really quick, how is it. How's
the team gonna going to be this year?

Speaker 7 (58:50):
Oh? Like, I feel really good, you know, I feel
really good about where we're going.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Man.

Speaker 7 (58:53):
We have such and that's the thing again, it's the
we have this, we have this staff that you know,
I think we're at We're at a point where we're
at a point in our program. And I'm in your
a so you asked that question. I'm in year eight here,
and we have enough staff continuity at this point in time.
I think we are finally just in really full alignment

(59:16):
and I can ceo this thing and really kind of
let them really coach these kids on the football aspects.
You know, still call the plays, uh, still really designed
the offense. That's kind of like how we're set up.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
You know.

Speaker 7 (59:29):
And and just being being able to accept the fact
that that's where we're at with our program and letting
go of and letting really letting the staff do the work.
And I tell you what, man, there's no doubt in
my mind in this films that that there's films that's
been really uh that we had this morning really moved
our program forward. And I'm really looking forward to seeing

(59:49):
what we do on Monday and practice. So that's where
we're out of the program.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
I love that. Here's Brian Near, the head football coach
Lafayette Central Catholic Lafia, Indiana. Again came to the small
school football in Lafayette. Man, this is a program. When
they talk about smaller school programs, threeater kids in that
school some of the best programs in the state of Indiana.
They'll talk about Lafayette Central Catholic and Brian Nay is

(01:00:18):
their head coach. Coach, Man, I really appreciate your time today.
It was so good to meet you a couple of
weeks ago. And Hey, good luck. Who do you open
up with Friday?

Speaker 7 (01:00:26):
By the way, so we're gonna movie hosting Seeger at
the Rock named after Paula Rocca, who won the first
state championship year legend. He's actually was was on the
hiring to me. That hired me, so like you can
probably feel my passion for this place when those those
roots are that deep.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
One hundred. Good luck next Friday. Hey, anytime you want to,
you want to bring some of that week Indiana football
up to the state of Wisconsin. You let me know.

Speaker 7 (01:00:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
I don't know if we're yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I'm not sure. I'd better be quiet because you might
take me up on that. Brian, it was good to
catch up, brother. Have a good day, oh Man, you do.
Thank you. Hey, so before we get to a break, guys,
I am I am so excited. Tuesday, August nineteenth, Pick
and Save and Muskigo nine thirty start and look, they

(01:01:20):
obviously you know, tried every other pseudo celebrity in the market,
but they invited me to come and be a part
of a really cool the District two Regional Bag Off
is the name of the event. A couple of other
people that are out there doing this the judging as well.
One is Leroy Butler and a bunch of other people.

(01:01:41):
And we are now joined by Kat Hummel from Pick
and Save to talk a little bit about this event. Hey, Kat,
first and foremost, thanks for a few minutes of your time,
and thank you so much for the invite to be
part of this This it's going to be a really
fun event.

Speaker 6 (01:01:56):
Absolutely, Mike, and thank you so much for having me
on today. Yeah, it's the District to Regional Wisconsin bagof
Challenge on Tuesday. I will tell you the last four
that we have had to pick our state representatives to
go to the state championship on September thirtieth at the
Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin.

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
Dell's.

Speaker 6 (01:02:16):
These events that we have been hosting have been so
high energy and it just highlights the skills of our
associates and it's really just pumping up the entire community,
and with all the help that we've had from all
of our associates and our store teams, this has just
really been an exciting event for everybody involved, and it's

(01:02:38):
been really really great. So I'm so excited for you
to see what we have in store on Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Well, I thank Emily Williamson for inviting me. One thing
I didn't tell her, Kat, I used to be a
bit I used to sack groceries at a competitor. In fact,
it's now the Metro Market in Shorewood. It used to
be a cold food store and I was a beggar
I sacked, so I kind of know what to look
for when it comes to this stuff. I don't think

(01:03:03):
I was very good, so these guys will be a
lot better than I was. But I better not see
any eggs on the bottom and a gallon of milk
on top of the eggs. I can tell you that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:14):
That's exactly what this challenge is about.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:03:17):
The scorecard is based off of the speed, the weight, distribution,
proper bagging, building techniques, and also style an attitude. You know,
our associates come to work every day take care of
our customers. You know, to make sure that their groceries
get home safely, and they do it with a smile
on their face. And see their reaction at this event,
especially our winners, it is so amazing and we are

(01:03:39):
so proud at our company to just see them get
involved and get excited and have a little fun and
this is such a great event. So I can I
can only imagine you probably crushed a loaf of berea.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Er too in your Yes, I did. They moved me
to produce. That's that's what a great bagger I was. Hey, kat,
I got to tell you talked about how proud your
company is. I am proud every single week that I
get to come on this show and say we are
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
and then during the school year to go out to

(01:04:10):
different stores and award our Pick and Save a Metro
Market student athlete of the Week. And there are times,
Cat's you know, it's cold, It's seven o'clock on a Wednesday,
and I think I just don't want to leave this nice,
warm house of mine. And then I get to the
store and the kid the winner and their family and
mom and dad and sisters and aunts, uncles, grandparents, and

(01:04:33):
then team members come out to support these kids. I
just like, I'm so blessed and happy and proud to
be able to be in our local pick and Save
in Metro market stores to do this and I look
forward to this. Hey, by the way, what does the
winner of the region of the Bagoff? Like, what do
they get? They get to go to the nationals or

(01:04:55):
how does this work?

Speaker 6 (01:04:57):
So we are hosting the regional events within our locations
and we are sending five finalists to the state Wisconsin
Back Off Challenge State Finals.

Speaker 7 (01:05:07):
Okay, and that's.

Speaker 6 (01:05:08):
Going to be on September thirtieth at the Wilderness Resort
in Wisconsin.

Speaker 7 (01:05:12):
Dell's.

Speaker 6 (01:05:12):
Winner of that event has a chance to win five
hundred dollars and a trip to Las Vegas to compete
in the national events.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
No way, there's a national event.

Speaker 6 (01:05:23):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, this is real big. There's grocers
from all over the United States and they end up
at these finals and it is a really, really exciting event.
I will tell you spoke about how much you love
coming into our locations in our stores, and I'll tell
you that's one of the reasons why we're the employer
of choice in Wisconsin because not only do we do
fun events like this and give the opportunity for our

(01:05:45):
associates to highlight their skills, but we're also there for
that community that we serve, and that is the most
rewarding thing to see and to hear it from you.
It's just it's an absolute blessing and I'm so grateful
to be able to be a part of this.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Hey, so before I let you go, fiftieth anniversary and
you to invite listeners to come and have a slice
of cake, which I love. And Emily shouldn't have told
me that because she'd better bring two cakes. You know,
you better bring two because I might have some of it.
But man, that's that's awesome fiftieth anniversary, and wanted to

(01:06:19):
invite listeners. They don't need to come and see me.
But we've got some other really cool judges, including Leroy Butler,
you know Hall of Fame member Leroy Butler, and him
and I work together every day for I don't know,
ten twelve years something like that at a different radio station,
and he is one of the nicest, gracioust humble people

(01:06:40):
I've ever met in my life. And he's been a
great ambassador for Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.

Speaker 6 (01:06:48):
Absolutely, yeah, them. We're very excited for him to join us.
He's definitely got that eye and still when it comes
to a competition. And we also have some other really
great judges. We have Jason Toffy, he's an owner operator
of Top These Table in the Seeming cop He's also
one of our Metro Market taste makers. We also have
Chrissy Googie and Aaron Josh Schneider from the Wakashaw County

(01:07:11):
Fair that is also going to be with us and
be one of the judges, and you as well too.
So this is going to be a very exciting event
and we're just so thankful for all the judges. We're
so proud of just the participants and the excitement that's
around this. So thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Yeah, and Kat, we got it. We had a chance
to talk yesterday what I love and I talked to
Emily after. What I love is your passion for this,
your passion for our local pick and Save and metro
Market stores. I'm not a big fan of your football love,
but that's okay. I love the fact that you hate
the Cubs as much as I do, and that Kat,

(01:07:46):
you and I can hold hands a little bit. We're
okay with that, So, Hey, I look forward to meeting
you in person again this Tuesday at nine thirty Pick
and Save in Musquigo on Jamesville Road. If you get
out there at nine thirty, the event will start. You
get a chance to meet some really cool judges including
Leroy Butler and cheer on these contestants. Man, we're gonna

(01:08:08):
do we have to pick one winner or do we
get to pick a couple?

Speaker 6 (01:08:12):
So it's gonna get down to a final three. And
the final three Wigle had to have challenge for the
one winner in the district that is going to represent
that district and all of Metro Market and Pick and
Save in that state championship.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Well, I'll do my best. There's a celebrity judge. I
might have to jump in there and show a couple guys.
You know my style and how I used to bay
grocers at Colds food stores until they got me out
of that and moved me to produce. Hey, Kat, Kat Helm, well,
thank you so much. I really truly look forward to
meeting your person. I want to think Emily Wilson Williamson
want to thank jed over at Pick and Save and

(01:08:50):
Metro Market Stores for being a part of what I
do and allow me to be a part of what
they do again. Pick and Save Muskigo nine thirty on Tuesday,
come out and say hello and cheer everybody on CAT.
I'll see you Tuesday.

Speaker 6 (01:09:04):
Absolutely, Mike, thank you so much. You have a great day.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
You bet you as well. We're going to get to
a break. The other side of the break, Tim pro Cup,
he's with answers. Last week we had Steve Rushon and
this what they have come up with to be able
to help staffs at the high school and college level
breakdown film is really impressive. And we're going to talk
to Tim on the other side of the break, and
then Rocky Wagenhurst, VP and general manager of My twenty four.

(01:09:29):
We'll talk about this year's high school football game of
the week's schedule with him. This is the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and
Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show is always presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming

(01:09:51):
from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios at
ten ten forty five or so. Rocky Waganhur's going to
join us and we are going to talk a little
bit about this year's schedule for the high school football
game of the Week on Channel twenty four on My
twenty four and the first week Milwaukee Marquette against Darrowhead
be a great non conference game. Six thirty pregame show

(01:10:13):
that I'll do and then seven o'clock kickoff and I'll
be again the sideline reporter. I don't know why they
keep sending me a contract each year. I gotta be
honest with you. Every football game you watch, look at
the sideline reporter does not look like me. I can
tell you that. But they keep asking me to come back,
and I love doing it, so I'll continue to do it. Hey,
So last week Steve Rocks was in and you know, look,

(01:10:37):
if you're anywhere around high school football in southeast Wisconsin,
you know Steve Rocks and his reputation is second to none,
and as a man, as a teacher, as a coach,
and I loved having him studio last week, and he
talked about he's going to teach over at Catholic Memorial.
But he got involved with a company called Answer, and

(01:10:59):
I didn't know anything about it, And so I started
going on on their website and looking up some of
the things that this this company does, and I look,
I'm a fan, I'm a huge fan. And I don't
know why any high school or college staff would not
want to talk to Steve Rux about this. What what
he can offer, the amount of time that you're going
to save your staff at breaking down film? And I

(01:11:21):
asked him if I could talk to somebody from from
corporate and he gets he said yes, for sure. How
about this guy? So Tim Procop is joining us, and
and I think I've pronounced in that last name correctly,
am I Tim?

Speaker 5 (01:11:36):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:11:36):
Yes, Tim pro Cup?

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Tim pro Cup? Hey, Tim, thanks a lot for a
couple of minutes of your time. Can you tell me
a little bit about how you're involved with with answers?
As we're talking to Tim, it's a N s R
S A N s R S dot AI. And look,
if you're involved in I'm telling you even youth football
because you're breaking down film nowadays. But if you're if

(01:11:58):
you're on the high school staff, college staff, and I
know a lot of you guys listening to the show.
It's a N S here. Let me go through it again,
a N S R S dot A I or call
Steve Rucks and Rucks will come out and talk to
you about this thing. If we can't, Tim, how did
you get involved in this and what is your day
to day with the company.

Speaker 4 (01:12:19):
So it's nice, nice to meet to you, and thanks
for having us on. So I'm the CEO of the company.
We we started it and launched it last April and
uh and so we're just you know, excited about the
fall being here and everybody getting back in the season
and getting ready to start playing in football.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Hey, Tim, you've coached at a really high level, right
you coached at Arizona State, USC, NFL, Europe high school
football before shifting to the technology industry. You know that
that that gives you such a leg up from from
maybe some other people. And I feel the same way
with with Steve Rucks. Right, Rucks has stellar reputation in

(01:13:02):
this area. And if he calls to say, hey, look,
can I come out and show this to you. I
don't know any high school football coaching in the area
that wouldn't want to spend a half hour with Steve Rucks,
and so for them to invite him in to show
this product, I think is a great move by your
company to have a guy like him be the representative
in the state of Wisconsin. Boy, with with the amount

(01:13:25):
of football that you coached, when when you when you're
able to present this product to other coaching staffs, I've
got to believe that their jaw's got to drop.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
Right they do. And that's really the funnest part about
the job is when you get to go in it
and you get to help a coach. You know, when
I started coaching back in the late eighties and we
were still using sixteen millimeter film, Oh yeah, and I
was the young I was the young guy on the staff,
so I was assigned all of the technology responsibility. And
you know, Coach Barbie asked me one time, Hey, do

(01:13:56):
you know anything about computers? And I said sure. The
next thing, you know, well, I was in charge, right
and I did the work that every coach does every
weekend for eighteen years. And I know what it used
to take us after a game to break down film
and to create the cutups and all the stuff that
needed to be done so the coaches could do their work.
And when I got out of coaching, I actually went

(01:14:19):
to work at Exos. I was the head of sales
at Exos, which is the company that all the NFL
teams and most of your Division one teams use, and
we started that business with two customers. We had the
Texas Longhorns and the Open Raiders, and five years later
we had ninety five percent of the market using Exos,
which then we sold the Catapult and is now known
as Catapult, but the Thunder product that all those schools use,

(01:14:42):
I was involved with from the very beginning. And my partner, Randiecker,
who started Exos, we met John Shalala at AFCA conventioned
a couple of years ago and we saw what he
was doing to really automate a lot of the work
that's done manually even today, and we thought, man, this
is the next paradigm shift. And so we were able
to acquire John's company and partner up with John, and

(01:15:05):
you know, now we've got Last year we had about
one hundred schools using it. This year we're almost at
three hundred. And to talk to Steve Rucks, I got
the opportunity to spend three days with him in May,
doing a trip and visiting three or four high schools
in the area and about three or four of the
colleges in the area. And it was awesome to see,
like when he walked in the room, just everybody was

(01:15:27):
so respectful and so appreciative of him being there. And
I think you're right in what you said that he
is the perfect representative for us in that area.

Speaker 1 (01:15:36):
Talking to Tim prew Cop, he is It's with Answers.
Is the name of the company. It's a n s
rs dot AI. Hey, Tim, if somebody asks you kind
of like for the reader's digester elevator pitch on what
you offer coaching staffs, look on your website and I'm
going to ask you that question. But the website says, look,

(01:15:57):
we feel like we can save your staff twenty to
twenty five hours a week. And what can your staff
do with an extra twenty to twenty five hours? I
would almost disagree. I think it's closer to thirty to
thirty five sometimes, Tim, depending on how much they want
to dig into these the video and then and the film.
But I and I think twenty to twenty five is

(01:16:19):
is kind of conservative to be honest with you. I
just think that that when these guys see this in
action and the amount of time they can save, I
don't see a reason why they don't get involved in it.
But when somebody asks you, what do you do and
what does your what does your company offer these staffs,
what would you tell them?

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
So what we what we do is we help coaches
get their football answers faster. And that really is what
we do. When you use the Answers platform, you're not
doing anything different than you that you've done for your
entire career. It just all happens faster. And instead of
saying that we save twenty five hours a week, what
we actually do, and Chad Morris made this comment the

(01:17:01):
other day and I thought was appropriate, is we actually
create twenty five to thirty new hours that you can
use to do other things. Right, And so you know,
there's three things that we do. We automate about eighty
five percent of the breakdown process. A coach still has
to identify what the offensive play was and still has
to identify what the defense did, but then the rest

(01:17:23):
of the things that they have to enter into their
data so they can filter later that gets automatically input
into the computer, and we never misspelled the word deuce,
which coaches who have broke down film no help. How
important that is. The second thing that we do is,
after you know, you break down the sum is every
report that a coach would manually create, either after a

(01:17:46):
game or as they're do an opponent scout is automatically
generated as soon as the data is entered into the system.
So typically what coaches do is they'll break down the film,
they'll create a cut up, they'll get out a piece
of paper and they'll start writing down okay, in this
formation they do this. That the other thing right well,
with answers, your hit charts, your down and distance reports,
your self scout reports, everything that you have to manually

(01:18:07):
create is automatically generated the minute that the data is
in the system. And the third is because it's so
fast and accurate, you can actually do the same thing
in game that you do in the office. So we
now have schools all over the country that are entering
data during the game and when coaches want to go, hey,
pull up all the times they were in a three
by one set on first down, those four players will

(01:18:28):
pop up. You can just watch them. So it's all
about creating a more efficient process to do the same
thing that you've been doing before, but leveraging new technologies
to make it happen faster.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
Man, you're too smart to be a football coach. I
gotta tell you that sounds awesome. So let me kind
of get So you have an assistant coach the game
is over or practice is over, let's use game game
is over, and does he have to then go download
this into answer or into their to integrate this or

(01:18:59):
how does that work?

Speaker 7 (01:19:00):
Then that's a really good question.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
So today, like if you didn't have answers today, after
the game, somebody would upload the video into huddle. Then
somebody would have to intercut that video, and then they
would have to create an offensive defense and a kicking
a cut up, and then somebody have to sit down
and grab a piece of paper that somebody had been
writing down all the stuff during the game and start
typing all that stuff in right, And that will take

(01:19:23):
a couple hours, you know. And so after the game's over,
you go home at about one or two o'clock in
the morning, coach college and says, okay, coach, the game's tagged.
And then these coaches who are so so committed to
making sure their kids are having every opportunity to win.
They get up at three in the morning and they start,
you know, grading the film, they start doing all the work.

(01:19:43):
But with answers, you're tagging the game live during the game,
so all the data down distance, hash mark, your formation data,
your results of the plays, your box score, all that
stuff is auto calculated during the game. And when you
get back to the office, you hit a button and
it uploads it into huddle and then you import the

(01:20:03):
data alongside of it, and you're done.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
You're done.

Speaker 4 (01:20:06):
And what the coaches, You're done? Man, And with the
coaches the coaches told me from last year was like tim,
it was unbelievable. Coach Sanders at Vandagert High School told me,
he said, you know, we get we get up, we
get back from the stadium, we get to the office.
I'm talking to a couple of people and I got
to do an interview or whatever. And then I get
to the office. The kids are in the shower and
I go up to coach Muck and I said, hey,

(01:20:26):
how's film coming, And he goes, it's done and and
couch Sanders says, what do you mean it's done. It's done.
He goes, you mean it's up and huddle. He goes, yeah,
it's up in huddle. And it's tagged, because what do
you mean it's tagged, like the whole game's tagg Because
he has tag it's done and it's done, right. And
so he sat there grated his film and he was
home by midnight and he was done. He got to

(01:20:47):
get into good night's sleep and then next morning they
came in there and away they went. So it's it's
about it's about using all the modern technologies that are
available to actually be able to get your football answers faster.
I mean, that ultimately is what we do.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
Hey, Tim, when you had early on you said, look
we met Did you say you met John at an
FCA event.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
It was at the American Football Coach of the Association,
the AFCA event that happens every January after the season
at all the colleges and most a lot of high
school guys go to every year.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
Man, that's awesome, And he's a visionary on this whole thing, correct, John.

Speaker 7 (01:21:29):
He was a Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:30):
So he started as a graduate assistant at Tennessee with
Butch Jones, and then he was there for three years,
and then he was the quality control coach for Mike
Leach a Mississippi State for three years, and then Butch
hired him to come be the linebacker coach at Arkansas
State for three years. So for nine years he coached
six years in the SEC and then three years at
Arkansas State, and he was the young coach on staff

(01:21:53):
that was happening to answer those questions at halftime, like
what's going on? And he tells a story about a
halftime scenario where a coach got mad because they were
using an overhead projector and he handed him the transparency,
but it had got smudged by rob and he couldn't
see the statistic that he wanted to see, and he
picked up that. He picked up that overhead projector and

(01:22:14):
threw it across the locker room and broke it right.
And Job was like, there's got to be an easier way.
I mean, come on, we have all this technology. What
are we doing handwriting stuff on a transparency in twenty
and twenty one?

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Unbelievable?

Speaker 4 (01:22:29):
So he started, So he started working on it at
Mississippi State and he started with building a very extensive
pivot table. It was that could auto populate based on
the information that you were entering. And that worked great.
It was better than what they'd done before. But the
challenge with that was once those pivot tables got off

(01:22:50):
just a little bit in one of the formulas, it
would take hours to go find where the formula broke down.
And he's like, okay, so the idea is good, but
I need to put this into some sort of platform.
So he actually got with another engineering student a Mississippi
State who came in and using a computer program called Python,
said hey, let's let's write this as a actual program,

(01:23:14):
and so they started developing that in about twenty twenty one,
he piloted it with Mississippi State, and then when he
went to Arkansas State, he kept building on it. And
then when we met him in twenty twenty three, I
think it was or maybe early twenty twenty four, it
was twenty twenty three we met him. He had he
was at AFCA for the first time as a vendor,

(01:23:35):
excuse me, and he was showing coaches, Hey, this is
what this could do. And so we started talking to
him and he said, well, John, how are you going
to take this to market? And he was like just
like what I'm doing, I don't know. And we said, well,
would you be interested in potentially working with a couple
of guys who had sold video editing systems in this
market before. He said, well, that sounds like a great idea,

(01:23:56):
and so, you know, he was like, I've got this
great program. Now, we've got two to people who've done
this before, So let's put the whole thing together and
take it to market. And so we've been working together
now for a couple of years on it, and it's
just been a real real joy to work with him
because he is one of the smartest, hardest working people
I've ever been around, and he really cares about helping
coaches and so him and his team, they are just

(01:24:19):
doing things that you can't even believe.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Hey, Tim, a couple of the questions before you let
you go, are you looking at other sports? Does answer?
Do you guys do anything with basketball?

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
Yeah? Anybody anybody that wants to generate information about their
opponents and want to be able to filter that information
and find it quickly. This would apply. So we plan
in the spring to start looking at basketball as the
next sport. And Randy Eker's background is in basketball and

(01:24:54):
so he has tremendous connections there, and so we're working
with some NBA teams already about what would what would
it look like for you guys, So yeah, we will.
We'll port this over to other sports as we go.

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
For sure, Hey, what what is the average cost? Is
it a yearly cost or once you buy do you
own it?

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
It's all It just depends on all the things. We
have several different products that we offer, from the answers
and intelligence to the in game video stuff, to professional
services and support and all kinds of stuff. So it
just depends. And it also depends on how many people
are accessing the system and how much data is in there.
So yeah, it's all over the place. I would want

(01:25:35):
to say a number because what the high school guys
pay is different than what the NFL guys pay because
of the way they use it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Let Steve let Steve Rocks have that conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:25:43):
In tell people what that is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
Yes, yes he does. Do you know the one part
that I would have been nervous about? And I spent
a lot of time on your website. Again it's it's
a n s RS dot AI. But I was like, man,
I'm not great with this kind of stuff, and I'm
a little worried if they just like send something to
me and I've got to download it. But when I
read that, you, guys, if you get involved, you have

(01:26:08):
a dedicated expert that will be hands on through at
the onboarding and training process to ensure your team is
set up for success. That made me a lot more
comfortable with this, Tim because I'm an old grandfather of
six and I want somebody there on boarding and training
not only me, but my staff when I do this,
So I thank you for that. It's not like somebody

(01:26:30):
sends you guys a check or charges something. You send
it out and good luck, hope it works. I mean,
you guys go right with them.

Speaker 4 (01:26:38):
Yeah. We have fourteen men on our staff that all
are former coaches, just like coach Rucks, and all of
them coach twenty to thirty years at the high school level,
a couple of them in the college level. And we
have a support line. And our promise to our customers
is if you call us twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, thing our sixty five days a year,
within ten minutes, somebody will be on the phone with you.

(01:27:00):
We've been filding calls as you can imagine this weekend
because everybody's just getting in the spina. And then the
other thing that we do is when we set up
is we do have dedicated resources who will actually help
onboard you train you how to use it. We have
a really rich coach's Corner that has a bunch of
tutorials and videos. But what we find it to be
most helpful is when we just get with the coach

(01:27:21):
in person and sit down and say, okay, coach, when
you're looking at your opponent, what's important to you, and
then we help them use answers to get the answers
that they want that are important to them.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
Boy, I look, it started out with me being a
big fanta Steve Rus. I just think he's as good
as they get. And then when he started telling me
about answers and started telling me about some of the
things that you guys do and to be able to
free up some of these other coaches to do other
things because they're not spending thirty hours a week, I

(01:27:54):
just tim I think you're onto something. And the fact
that you guys have somebody likes Steve Rus as your
ambassador in the state of Wisconsin, tells me a lot
about the management team at answers, and then as I'm
reading all of this stuff, I love the fact that
you guys, don't you know, sell it and forget it right.
We're here twenty four seven, seven days a week to

(01:28:16):
help you. I don't know why any staff wouldn't at
least have Steve come in and do a demonstration on
this thing. And any coaches I have in studio throughout
this high school football year, I'm going to tell them
about your product and have him give Steve Rucks a call. John.
Thank you, Tim, thank you for your time. I really
appreciate it, and I'm a big fan of this product.

(01:28:36):
Anything you need for me, If Steve Rux isn't doing
his job, you call me. I'll take care of that.
I'll light him up for you.

Speaker 4 (01:28:44):
I'm not worried about Coach Rucks. That guy's amazing, so
I'm not worried about that. But we sure appreciate you.
You get involved in supporting us and being an advocate
for that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
Thank you very much. Well, you're you're I think you
are getting coaches home so they can spend a little
bit of time more time with their families while and
I see all these young coaches in this area get
burned out.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
I just to We had had a coach, if you
don't mind it. So coach at Brandai's High school last year,
and I was talking to him in December after the
season was over, and I said, what was it like
for you? He goes, and he goes, we used to
come at seven thirty in the morning, and on Saturday,
we'd be there till six or seven Saturday night, and
then we'd come back in said seven thirty on Sunday,
and we'd be there till about four or five to

(01:29:26):
get all of our stuff done. And he goes, but
with answers, we still come in at seven thirty on Saturday,
but we're out of there about three and we don't
come in on Sunday at all anymore. And I said, well,
what do you do after three o'clock on Saturday, because
a lot of times coaches will go home and they'll
take the work with them, right right yep, And he goes,
I sit in the pool with a.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
Corona perfect there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:29:47):
And I said, so you really are done? He goes, no,
we're done. And they had a wonderful season last year
they went deep in the playoffs, right, So yeah, it's
it's something that every coach needs to take a look at,
whether you're using it or not. You got to know
what your competitors are. You don't want to get left behind.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
Do not get left behind. Answers the fastest both accurate
data and video management system in football and maybe soon
to be in other sports, but right now in football
and again anything. Do not think you're going to go
on this website and and and go to pick and
save the grocery store five minutes later. If you're involved

(01:30:23):
in youth, high school college football, man, take a look
at this website and you're gonna spend as much time
at it as I have. And then get ahold of
Steve Rucks. There's a lot of people you can contact.
You know, Tim's been kind with his time, but Steve
is the ambassador and the rep for answers here in
the state of Wisconsin. And for nothing else, get a

(01:30:43):
half hour of Steve Rucks and then have to ask
him about some of the offensive line drills used to
do at Wakshaw West. He will help you not only
save a lot of time with answers, but he may
set up a couple of drills for your practice. He
didn't tell me that he's not gonna be happy. I
said that, but trust me, if you get him to
your practice, he'll jump in because that's the kind of

(01:31:03):
guy he is. Hey, Tim, thank you so much for
a couple of minutes of your time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
I appreciate you. You have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:31:08):
You bet, Tim prou Cup again. Answers go to ansurs
dot AI. Let's get to a break. Other side of the break.
Rocky Wagenhurst, VP, General Manager at MY twenty four. We're
going to run down this year's schedule that will start
this coming Friday, six thirty pregame show seven o'clock kickoff
only on MY twenty four. This is the Varsity Blitz

(01:31:29):
High School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and
Save in Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. The Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores. We're now joined by Rocker My
twenty four. Rocky, it's good to talk to you. It
must be high school football season because we're talking a

(01:31:52):
lot these days.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
Oh, Mike, thanks for having me on again and and
by the way, America, I love it there, very good.

Speaker 1 (01:32:01):
Spencer does a nice job with that.

Speaker 5 (01:32:04):
Yeah, it's you know, how exciting, you know what high school,
any kind of sports for me is what I live for,
and especially you know with my twenty four and gosh,
it seems like we were just doing it and here
we are back again, and what so great about it? Dude,
this is yours, not mine, but fifteenth season doing this, Mike.
I mean, that's unbelievable, along with you know, with the

(01:32:26):
rest of the crew all been doing it since two ten,
and it's just getting better every year.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
You know, when when I go back and look at
those in my mind, I was much thinner and way
better looking back then, and I wasn't. I'm like, oh man,
you look bad. No, that's okay. Hey hey hey, Rock
fas handsome. Oh yeah, hey. Before we get to this
year's schedule, I got a text from Steve Rocks and
as we were talking about answers before and I kept saying, look,

(01:32:53):
if you're coaching this area and you want to you
want to talk to coach Rocks about this program, you know,
get a hold of and well he sent me his
email address and let me pass this along. It's coach
Rucks RUX at answers dot AI. So it's coach Rucks
at a n SRS dot ais his email and he
can come out and do a demo for you and

(01:33:15):
and answer any questions that that you have about that program.
That's going to save your staff a bunch of time
from breaking down film and Steve's going to do a
great job of being the ambassading. Game kind of got
thrown with a little bit of a curveball with all
that that rain. Arrowhead at Marquette should be at hard Park,
but it's not going to be at Menominee Falls Friday night,

(01:33:38):
six thirty pregame show, seven o'clock kickoff, Arrowhead against Marquette.
We we went a couple of years in a row
of Franklin and Catholic Memorial and thought, okay, we're going
to change it up a little bit, and I think
picked maybe one of the better non conference games throughout
the state of Wisconsin again on Friday night from No
Nominee Falls High School Arrowhead against Mark k Looking forward

(01:34:01):
to that one rock.

Speaker 5 (01:34:03):
Oh no, it's great and you know, hey, you know Wisconsin,
you know, as we all know the weather can do
all kinds of things. Ninety five one day, seventy the next,
and then fourteen inches of rain one night. That nobody
was prepared by football is, you know, And just like
anything else, you diigger it out and make it work.
And I really appreciate those folks at a Nominee Falls

(01:34:23):
High School for being able to work that out so
Marquette and Arrowhead can still play. So we're looking forward
to it. That's a great campus to help everybody that
was headed to heart to you know, the new location,
so we can't wait lit bit closer to us here
at the station, so that makes it a little bit
easier that way. But that's just the first of I
think there are going to be nine matchups this year.

(01:34:45):
Well wait till our last game of the eighteenth in October.

Speaker 1 (01:34:48):
Yeah, I agree. I'm going to go through the schedule
right now, Rock and then we'll pick a couple of them.
But on the twenty ninth of August, week two, oh
Creek at Muskego. The fifth of September, Hartford at Slinger
September will be down in Racine as Lake Country Lutheran
takes on. We're sine saying of September Whitefish Bad at Cedarburg,

(01:35:09):
twenty sixth of September, Mcguanaco at Pewaukee, on the third
of October brook Central at Brookfield East, Aquitosa East. Hopefully
hard Park will be ready for that one. And then
week nine we have a flex game and for the
first time and I know that that we've been John Wiser,
Terry Kelly and I have talked about this for a while.

(01:35:30):
Let's hold off on week nine, but because the look
in the beginning, people didn't know what we were doing
and we'd have to set the schedule to get the paperwork.
Can we do this, Can we come out to your stadium,
have the truck there. Well, now we've been doing a
long time and it's gotten to the point that people
know who we are. They are very comfortable with Paul
and his staff and everybody that is behind the scenes

(01:35:52):
on this thing. That we can flex that last week
and now we can kind of wait until week four,
week five. Take a look at a game that in
week nine that's going to either be for a conference championship,
two teams fighting to get in the playoffs. We can
make sure that's going to be a competitive matchup yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:36:11):
I mean that's that's really the exciting edition. And I
think at you know, fifteenth anniversary is the time to
do it. And you know they do it in the NFL.
You know, why not we can. We can do the
same thing. It really does make exciting. That last game
then really becomes important, and you know, that's that's what
Friday Night Rivals is all about.

Speaker 1 (01:36:30):
Hey, Rocky, I got it way before I let you go.
We got to thank our sponsors. And we've got some
great sponsors have been with us for years and and look,
there's too many to go through. And I know this
because I have to interview most of them at halftime,
and my wife always says, way too much you at halftime.
I go, I know, I get it, But you know what,
we have to promote highlights, celebrate our sponsors, and I

(01:36:51):
think everybody that's been involved with us. I think some
of the new sponsors. One of the newest sponsors this year,
Current Electrics, is going to be involved with the game,
and I thank them for being involved. The aa YFL,
the biggest youth football league in the state of Wisconsin,
you know, loves what we do on my twenty four
and now they've decided to get involved and they're going

(01:37:12):
to be part of my pregame show. They're gonna be
the play of the game sponsor, and they're really excited
to tie their way again onto my twenty four and say, look,
you guys highlight, promote and celebrate high school football and
we do the job of getting our kids ready to
play high school football. Let's put it all together. And
I thank them for thanking you for getting involved.

Speaker 5 (01:37:33):
That's great, exact, and remember, we can't do any of
this unless we have those folks that are willing to
sponsor us and be able to contribute to so we
can do it. So without them, we couldn't do it.
So thanks for really and getting a couple of new
folks involved this year is awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
Yeah, I agree. Again. This coming Friday six point thirty
pregame show, I do interview with each of the coaches,
and this year we're gonna do the AAYFL Spotlight and
so we will talk to two guys that run different
AAYFL programs throughout southeast Wisconsin and really looking forward to
talking to them about building the youth program and what

(01:38:12):
that looks like. And we'll do that six point thirty
the next nine Friday nights, we'll interview both coaches, preview
the matchup, and then do a little spotlight on the
aa yfl Hey, Rocky, thank you so much. How's Baltimore today, by.

Speaker 5 (01:38:25):
The way, Yeah, you know it's it's Baltimore. It's kind
of exciting. I had to go and do a couple
of things. I had to go see my doc make
sure he can keep me vertical for another year, and
he gave me the thumbs up yesterday, so I think
I'm good. I'll be back this afternoon in Wisconsin, just
in times. It sounds like for some more range, so we'll.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
See how that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
Ye, yeah, it'll be good. Hey, looking forward again next Friday,
six thirty pregame show seven o'clock kickoff Arrowhead against Marquette
at Nominee Falls High School. Rocky, thank you so much.
He is Rocky wagan Hurst, the VP, general manager my
twenty four Safe travels today pal.

Speaker 5 (01:39:03):
Hey, thank you, Mike. Well, we'll see you next week.
Looking forward to it.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
On Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:39:06):
You bet I'll be on the sidelines just looking for
somebody to talk to, so I'll grab you for sure. Hey,
thanks for listening. This has been a really good show.
I thank Joel Parr and Brian Fletcher and Brian Nay
from lafaiat Catholic Central and Cat Hummel from Pick and
Save Again nine point thirty This Tuesday, come over to
the Pick and Save and muskego Leroy Butler and I

(01:39:28):
and a couple other people are going to be judging.
They're beg they're begging contest and looking forward to doing that.
Thanks a lot, everybody. Have a great weekend, Spencer, great
job today.

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
This