April 11, 2024 • 25 mins
Join us in this exhilarating episode of the Force on Force podcast as we sit down with James Dalrymple, a rising star in the world of football and fishing. Raised in a military family, James offers a unique perspective on youth sports, overcoming challenges, and the importance of discipline and resilience. Explore his captivating life journey from being an aspiring angler to becoming a recognized high school football player.
Being a military child, James shares his keen understanding of the critical role fulfilled by servicemen, their spouses, and their children. Hear his adventures from fishing in the iconic lakes of America to competing in intense football matches, perfectly embodying the vibrancy and tenacity of today's young generation. His experiences go beyond the ordinary, tying in outdoor activities with sports, and creating a life filled with learning, growth, challenges, and incredible rewards.
This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the Month of the Military Child, shedding light on the courage, resilience, and determination of military families. It encapsulates an inspirational discourse on sports and military life, seamlessly merging love for football, fishing, and a sense of duty towards family and society.
Dive into this refreshing conversation featuring compelling anecdotes from James's fishing trips, athletic exploits, and personal musings about his life as a military child. Expect intense learnings, honest reminiscences, and mostly, an inspiring demonstration of how passion, patience, and perseverance are fundamental to survival and success. Don't miss this episode of the Force on Force podcast – we guarantee it's one for the records!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Force on Force features the largest and strongest outdoor military organization in the country.
These are the men and women who make it possible to enjoy the freedom to hunt and fish.
It is with great pride that we bring you Force on Force podcast,
coming to you from the Force on Force talk.
Hey, welcome to the Force on Force podcast. I'm your host, Sean Darple.
(00:22):
Exciting trip around this year, enjoying what we're doing here in the Force on Force talk.
We're having a lot of fun. this show is going to be exciting you'll find
out why here in a minute i'm going to have a lot of fun but
we've been busy as you guys know we're right in the
middle of starting season 13 of rv bass
and was forced on force on the sports channel and also in the world fishing
network we also this week released a sizzler at our new army hog hunter show
(00:47):
and a lot of cool things to come out with if you hadn't seen it go over to our
social media on the hog page buck page we We've shared it on all that stuff,
even on our website, forceonforcetv.com.
It's pretty cool. You can see some of the stuff we've done with thermal drones out there.
But more importantly, we want to kind of announce part of that was.
Told you guys last week we would kind of hint that maybe this week we would announce a new sponsor.
(01:11):
And we've kind of finalized the deal on that.
So part, and we teased ATA a little bit of that, what kind of came out of that.
So we have a new sponsor that we're going to announce, and that's Hawk Optics.
And so they're going to be the official optics of army buck
and hog and uh you know just everything we do
here at army bass angler enterprise and then the force on force podcast
(01:32):
and we got to play around a little bit with them so a
lot of good stuff going on with what we're
doing here and it's super excited already got to play around with the
binos use them a little bit after we got through filming at
force on force we actually used one of the scopes as
part of the competition force on force it kind of shaped the
whole thing with the hog hunting so it's gonna be exciting to
see how that goes this week we're back here in
(01:55):
the home talk and this is kind of special april is
the month of the military child and april 15th
what they call the purple updates where we they kind of really celebrate the
military child the military dependent and one thing i've really enjoyed this
year is especially like last week we talked with jake whiteside the chief's
custom calls we talked a lot about turkey hunting and some of the things with
(02:18):
hunting and turkeys and and all the things,
but some of the things we talk about is just the, the things that we don't get
talked a lot about in the military and purple up month day is about,
you know, the month of the military child.
So what I thought would be really cool is to bring on my oldest, uh.
James dowerful and that's why i said it's gonna be
a lot of fun because i'll give you guys a little bit of background on this but
(02:41):
james which is really cool to go along with the purple update we call it purple
because all the military forces across they use the color purple when you talk
army navy air force marine but he is a star football player at clarksville high school.
In clarksville tennessee which is the home of the 101st airborne
division james became the 13th player in
(03:03):
the history of Clarksville High School in 117 years to
break a thousand yards last year also he is
you know was it prep 615s that
are predicting him to be one of the top running backs coming back
in the state of Tennessee so he had all kind of accolades
last year through some touchdown passes but more
importantly he spent a lot of time fishing with me
(03:24):
over the year and we kind of want to do this and
so while this is a lot of fun to me there's a video on
on social media about him making fun of
me along the way about all the times
that I got to do all the stuff for
force on force or as a two-time champion or this.
And so recently he had to do a video for a fundraiser
(03:45):
activity that we had already bashed on where support
the guys at Clarksville High School football so it's
funny to watch him so I get to grasp a little bit because
there's a hilarious video where he's in the shop there in
in Fort Lindenwood Missouri making fun
fun of me with his brother and we would have his brother
on here but i know he's off doing baseball stuff today and so
it's it's a lot of fun to have so james how you doing i'm good
(04:09):
i'm good how are you hey it's always fun to
have have to mess with mess with you you a little
bit so you know you've you've been around
the hunting and fishing stuff with me your whole
life but you also been a military dependent and you also are
in a area where the football program
is in the shadows of the 101st airborne division and
(04:30):
so from the time you know you were really little you
dealt with the fact of being a military dependent and so
kind of like how does that like factor into
your your growing up it was hard when i was little because as a little kid you
know you're used to having your dad around or your parent whatever is in the
(04:51):
military and then you know they leave and you're You're a little too young to understand why.
But it got a lot easier the older I got.
But it was always sad seeing you leave and stuff. But it was always nice to
get the notes and be able to call.
Even though we were in different time zones, we'd figure it out,
(05:12):
and those were always the best moments. I would say it was hard,
but it got easier the older I got.
Yeah, I don't think people kind of understand this. James was two months old
the first time I, not the first time I deployed, but the first time I deployed in his life.
And so from the time he was two months to 18 months old, I was gone to Afghanistan.
(05:34):
And I came back and he and I, from the time he was 18 months old till.
You know, I deployed again, we spent a lot of time together.
Other but the really the really cool stories is
he he really at
a really young age grass fishing didn't you
yeah i did and so we
(05:56):
were stationed at uh fort gordon georgia
and he we used to always want to you
know it at a little over two years old he would always
be like one of the cats of fish and we would try and try and try
and like this goes back to we guys had cody
be praying through on the you know early earlier podcast talked
about my time in grad school and i'd always tell him as he'd be
(06:17):
two years old and i'd tell him wait till we get to alabama knew i was going
to grad school knew we were going to some great fisheries and
he would catch his first fish and so this goes
back to where we're at and how i kind of in the
industry what we do so we get to alabama and
he and i go fishing we hadn't been
there like a couple of days and james catches
(06:40):
at at two and a half he's about two and a half years old
at this point he catches a five and a quarter smallmouth
on a on a snoopy car it
was actually cars but that most people refer to
him as a snoopy rod and reel you know little kids rod and reel on a swim bait
and it was pretty one of the most amazing things that i ever remember he probably
(07:01):
you don't even remember that you were so young it was it was he's got pictures
of it but he doesn't remember so fish of a lifetime the first fish was It's.
What most people go after their whole entire life.
And so you kind of started out early loving to fish and you fished a lot with
me when you were little, didn't you? I did. Yeah. Yeah.
(07:21):
So we were in grad school. Do you remember some of the times that we got to
fish and doing some of that stuff as you got a little bit older?
I think once I hit about three, I started remembering because I remember,
I think when you were at UNA, I think I remember going to a gun range with you,
and I think outside the gun range was a pool table.
(07:44):
I do remember a little bit of that. And then I remember being in the boat a
little bit, but I don't remember the fish, sadly.
But it is pretty cool because there is a magazine cover
or i'm in a bass master magazine and
and that's pretty cool to say that you've been in one of those and
can go and show people and tell the story about
how i caught that five and a quarter smallmouth and there's proof on that piece
(08:07):
of paper yeah they they did uh day preck did an article on james and i and i
did come back from afghanistan and that fish and just how cool it was to kind
of bring that back together and and And it was called War and Bass,
and it just so happened that that was the same year that Jordan Shipley and
Colt McCoy were on the front cover, and they did an article on them.
(08:29):
And James and I were on the article called The Back Deck, and they actually
got more write-ins and more calls in about James' fish and that whole story
than they did about Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy in Texas.
So it was always – and that was the year Alabama beat Texas in the national
championship, so it was always like a really cool deal for him.
But you know he's always you've always loved to fish a really cool deal to watch
(08:54):
both these guys james and ethan and all of them james really loves to fish ethan is the hunter.
James isn't james will hunt but he doesn't like to do it like like his brother
ethan likes to hunt because he gets to take a little nap and get woken up whenever
the deer comes when you it's a little bit different when you start going by yourself.
(09:14):
Well, one of the best parts of it was his brother actually convinced him one
time that there was this big monster deer that we had on trail camera that was
underneath the tree stand that he should go out there and hunt while Ethan and I slept in.
So that's the best story his brothers got on him about hunting.
He convinced him. We had seen a deer in a couple of days, and he convinced him
(09:38):
that he needed to go hunting because he'd seen a big old deer on trail camera.
And so James took the bait when we went hunting and didn't kind of get to do it.
But you also, you know, you've fished a lot, but you're, you know,
you're a phenomenal football player, baseball player.
But you've really kind of focused on the football side of things over the years.
(10:00):
Outside, you know, being the tough from a football perspective,
you know, is really, I think I always look at your time on the water.
Or has that impacted things that you've been able to do on the water?
I think, for me personally, it looks like it helped you develop motor skills,
earlier at a younger age, whether it's football or baseball,
(10:20):
that you don't see in a lot of kids out there. How do you kind of see that?
Honestly, I would say the patience aspect from fishing kind of carries on over
into things like that because when you're playing running back and you have the ball,
Like the hole might not be open right away, but, you know, you have a little
(10:42):
bit of patience and you don't go into the first thing you see.
You go into something that you know is going to be there and you trust is going
to be there because that's what you're taught.
Just like fishing, you're seeing
the grass, your dad's telling you that something's going to be there.
And, you know, you throw in there a couple of casts later and you get a fish,
you know, a couple of steps later.
(11:03):
I mean, you're breaking a 50 yard touchdown. down. So I would say the patience
aspect is really like carried on over into the sports aspect of my life.
Well, that's kind of cool to look at it from that. But I always say,
we always talk about, we talked about last week with, you know,
the podcast we had last week, how much being in the outdoors kind of makes you
(11:24):
a well-balanced individual.
It kind of brings you back to center, kind of helps you recharge from what it is.
And I think, but there is a lot of lessons to learn from being in the outdoors
and then transfer it over.
But you've also got an opportunity to do fish
with some people being a military dependent that you
wouldn't necessarily have ever gotten to to
(11:45):
do that would you you know i i
think one of your coolest was you know tell
the story about getting the fishwood roller that was
the kayak trip right yeah yeah i would
say it was probably like probably my most fun i've ever had fishing like I still
(12:06):
try and go and try to find something like that because it's exhilarating because
you're just in such a small body of water and it's just carrying you down the river.
And the smallmouth, they always fight like they're so much bigger than what they are.
And the funny thing was, is I didn't want to get these.
(12:27):
I think they were they were basically like pool noodles that kept rods afloat if you fell.
Smacked right into a big old leg or like
a log sticking out of the water flip my kayak and
it was so funny because the way the kayak flipped and
all my stuff fell out but I still had everything and it was
just a great experience with rolling and just catching
(12:48):
those smallmouth I mean you get hot you jump in
the water and there's nothing like it it's it truly made
me feel like a kid at that point and
like really enjoy life like that was what life was all
about and what's really neat was roland is
a german officer that was actually here working and
he was in the he worked had an office a couple cubicles down
(13:10):
from me in fort lindenwood and so roland and
i had been fishing on the boat a couple times and james really wanted
to go kayak fishing and so roland i'd ask
roland could james go with him and let him
take the kayak and roland comes to me he goes he goes
man i you know james was 14 at the time and he's
all worried about it and i'm like man you'll be fine trust me he's good and
(13:33):
but from that aspect you know we always talk about like how cool was it to get
to experience that with somebody that from another country that you if you hadn't
been your dad hadn't been in the military you would have never got to experience.
Yeah i mean it was pretty cool he had some cool stories and he was just a really
good dude He taught me some things and made me realize some things that I didn't quite know before.
(13:58):
And I mean, that's the thing about life, too, is you never know what someone can teach you.
That's why, you know, I always try to listen to people older and wiser than me.
And he was one of those people. And it was just a really great time out there.
It was, it was fun to watch him and, you know, Roland come back in the next
week and Roland goes, what do you feed that boy?
(14:18):
And I was like, pretty much anything he wants to eat, you know,
and that's why he, he lives in a weight room.
He, you know, he, he's a beast on the football field and it's just funny,
but you've got to fish with other guys from ABA and whether it's Randy,
you know, go fish tournaments with them.
And then you and I fish tournaments together. other and so it's fun
to watch watch you get the experience of
(14:41):
that and not only that but you've got to fish different bodies of
water around around the united states that's what
kind of what we talked about last week um jake and i
did about being in military you got to that
experience where unless unless you're
you know a traveling fisherman or hunter
you don't get to you probably within hour two hours
(15:02):
of your house you don't get to experience a lot of different so have you ever
ever thought about how many different places you've gotten to fish from from
Texas you know you know just all those places like that over the years yeah
I've been to some pretty amazing lakes that a lot of people would love to go
to like let's say I've been to Pickwick,
(15:23):
What was the one that was like an hour away from Huntsville?
Guntersville. I've been to Guntersville.
Playing between the lakes. What was the one in Missouri? Lake of the Ozarks. Lake of the Ozarks.
Lake Fork. Sadly, when we went up there, it was just a rough time of year.
It was spring, and it was really windy and cold.
(15:45):
So it was a little hard to pull some fish out of there, but it was still really fun.
On two lakes that i really want to go to are
lake michigan where it's really clear and okachobee because
i think punching and fishing a
frog there would be pretty fun but i will say the ozarks
tournaments with randy was also one of the
funnest like times i've had because there's
(16:06):
there's nothing like going out there and competing and fishing and trying
to really like that exhilaration you get with trying
to catch five fish we almost had one one one time and
but even though we didn't win it was always just so
fun just going it and it doesn't get
better than that yeah i remember that you were close there
you guys were just so close that one time and it
(16:27):
was really really cool to to watch you guys kind of
do that me and ethan would fish and then you guys there's a
couple times just you and randy fish me and ethan didn't go fish those
tournaments those wednesday nighters and so it's fun to
get to see see you guys uh get to get to
experience and a little build the trust factor to
get to go learn more and i think that's equated
(16:48):
to i think that goes into leadership and
things like that that you you kind of understand and
and transfers over to what you do on the football field and everywhere else
in athletics because you get you get trusted to go do things like that you have
you know more confidence in yourself yeah it's also nice to fish those different
(17:08):
bodies of water because you get to learn to throw a bunch of different new things like.
Before I went to Ozarks, I never threw a jig or, like, a shaky head on the rocks like that.
I never knew what a bass, like, bite felt like fishing those things.
And the more I fished it, the more I got to know fishing on Kentucky Lake,
throwing a swimbait on Guntersville, throwing a drop shot.
(17:29):
Just a bunch of different things. I mean, even a crankbait on Guntersville.
I mean, just a bunch of different things you get to learn fishing those different lakes.
Yeah you know speaking of garland if you guys have ever seen the
yolo tech video like early on there's
they've used that video especially around father's day that's james
catching a big fish on a drop shot on gunner's boat
with his hand in his pants so he's
(17:54):
like big fish come out of there yeah so
he he had a lot of fun i mean there's been times too where you
know we had a lot he learned about forward-facing sonar this summer he
got to experience that and it was kind of cool to show
him that i remember i was telling him a couple podcasts ago how
i had you and ethan in the boat trying to tell you there was a big fish on that
that brush pile and you got i was trying to get you guys to throw it right there
(18:17):
yeah and you guys didn't believe me and i pulled that big fish off of it and
it was it was a lot of cool stuff to go with it so it was there's a lot of fun,
with that and i think you know when you look at it i think one of my funniest
stories with you and your brother was tell tell the classic story about about
come meet all the pros at the.
(18:40):
I mean we we we like got in line as a joke because we heard like on the intercom
that was like come meet all your favorite skeeter pros and,
We kind of knew he was going to be over there. We just kind of laughed when we got to him.
But I guess as a kid, as you're our parent, you don't see it as like,
(19:03):
oh, he's a good – not a celebrity, but people really do know him.
But it's cool to see all the other people kind of come up to you and see how
influential you are to kids and even adults and how much your show people enjoy
and how much it means to them.
Them and i think part of that was good for you because
now i look at i've always talked to you like and i tell you all
(19:24):
the time you don't know all those little kids that
are watching you on friday night and you know they're
watching number you know the number seven out there on friday nights and you
know you gotta you always guys would get kind of frustrated when we're at boat
ramps or whatever because i take the time to talk to people that watch this
tv show and now you're You're seeing it as a high school football player when
(19:47):
you're the kind of that guy,
you know, that does so much out there, everybody.
And it's kind of important to take the time because people think enough of you to talk to you.
And so you kind of have to be very thankful that because it makes it makes a
lot more funner on Friday nights when people are screaming and hollering because
(20:08):
because what's going on, didn't it?
Yeah it is and i think i
hope that i've done a good job to kind of like show you guys that
that's kind of what it is i mean we're very we're in
our family we're very blessed with some very high performing athletes
between our stepsisters maggie macy you know and then bryce is playing soccer
(20:29):
now we got we never have a dull moment with athletics around the house and the
high performers and i think we're very blessed to watch them all get out there
and play and i think anytime, you know, it's just.
I love to watch him go through the process out there, and James has done a really
good job. It was really fun to watch him come on as a sophomore.
You know, my favorite story to tell about you getting bitched as a sophomore,
(20:54):
he doesn't like to talk about it a lot,
but it's probably my favorite story because I think it demonstrates how hard
it is to work at something to get to where you wanted to go because you have
found the position that you play now because of that.
And I think, and that's, we talk about in fishing and hunting that it's not
always to catch it in the fish, it's the process.
(21:16):
And I enjoyed watching you go through that process.
You may not have thought it at the time, but it was fun watching the process.
Yeah, it was, it was hard, but glad it happened because, you know,
at the end of the day, I know I can, if I make it to the next level or if,
even if I just leave my mark somewhere where i'm in the high school
(21:37):
and people know who i am for years to come
they'll know that i did it legitimately and not
because i was some coach's favorite right and
i've enjoyed watching this is what's really cool like i get
to all the guys a lot of how a lot of the guys at the
clarksville high school football that basically i think
we've had like the whole backfield here before at the house and it's
(21:58):
a lot of fun where whether it's amari or jack
or camille you know they're they're all here you know have
them all here at the same time oh there's there's not
enough food in the house and all that happens you know it's a lot
of fun to watch that but you know i watched jack
you know jack stein developed last year from
his sophomore year and it was a lot of that along that same line
(22:20):
just talking about your team and everything else i
watched him develop and it was so it was
so awesome to watch i remember him
after a game his sophomore year being so
so frustrated with playing time and then just to see him develop and
commit to work that thinking and the things like that and so i i love watching
all you guys kind of do that on on the football field and i think that's that's
(22:44):
what it's and i it's all about putting the puzzle together and what you guys
do so what so you guys are getting ready to start spring practice right.
Yes i believe in a week or two it's something like that i think it's the last
two weeks of April and the first two weeks or the first week of May I don't
(23:05):
know if we have a game yet it's about to find one but either way we still get
three weeks of practice three weeks off and then.
Summer practice starts yeah it's always it's
always a tough you know tough sledding when you're a
high school football player because you just you come
right out of spring you go right in the summer you know james
trying to find time to go fishing and and it like you know to kind of get a
(23:29):
break from to get ready for that football season so i i'm excited to kind of
watch you know you guys you know we kind of excited from that whole deal but
i think that kind of when we talk about this month being the month of the military child,
I think it's really cool to have you on here to kind of talk that piece and
they kind of see like how, you know, there's, we're made up of so many different
(23:53):
parts from the service members to the spouses,
to the, to the, to the kids.
And I think Jane, I think from a perspective of you just kind of do so much
stuff on the football field and,
and now you're, you're turning around and giving back to the community.
And I think that's just Just so much, that's such a good deal to see that, what you guys are doing.
(24:16):
And I'm excited to watch the whole kind of team. And it's in the shadows of
the Mighty Hunter and 1st Airborne Division, and it's going to be Team 118 coming up this year.
So this will be pretty cool. I'll still continue to make fun of you when you
do videos and things like that because it's my time to pick back at you because
you've picked at me all these years, which is kind of a cool deal.
(24:36):
So, you know, this week we've got Episode 2 of Season 13 going on.
It's a pretty cool show to watch.
We also will continue. We've got turkey season going on. I didn't get a turkey
last week. I went and tried. It didn't happen.
Hopefully, I'll be able to nail the coffin this week.
(24:56):
I really appreciate it, James. I enjoyed having you on.
Thanks for sharing a little bit. I know this is new territory for you to do
this, but it was fun picking at you.
I appreciate it. And if you guys want to know about army bass slingers,
buck, duck, or hog, or redfish, go to forceonforcetv.com and appreciate it. Cool?
Thanks for listening to the Force on Force podcast. Join us next time as we
(25:19):
dive into more topics from the Force on Force talk.
For more information or to learn how to join the organization,
visit our website at forceonforcetv.com.
Force on Force features the largest and strongest outdoor military organization in the country.
These are the men and women who make it possible to enjoy the freedom to hunt and fish.
It is with great pride that we bring you Force on Force podcast,
coming to you from the Force on Force talk.
Hey, welcome to the Force on Force podcast. I'm your host, Sean Darple.
(00:22):
Exciting trip around this year, enjoying what we're doing here in the Force on Force talk.
We're having a lot of fun. this show is going to be exciting you'll find
out why here in a minute i'm going to have a lot of fun but
we've been busy as you guys know we're right in the
middle of starting season 13 of rv bass
and was forced on force on the sports channel and also in the world fishing
network we also this week released a sizzler at our new army hog hunter show
(00:47):
and a lot of cool things to come out with if you hadn't seen it go over to our
social media on the hog page buck page we We've shared it on all that stuff,
even on our website, forceonforcetv.com.
It's pretty cool. You can see some of the stuff we've done with thermal drones out there.
But more importantly, we want to kind of announce part of that was.
Told you guys last week we would kind of hint that maybe this week we would announce a new sponsor.
(01:11):
And we've kind of finalized the deal on that.
So part, and we teased ATA a little bit of that, what kind of came out of that.
So we have a new sponsor that we're going to announce, and that's Hawk Optics.
And so they're going to be the official optics of army buck
and hog and uh you know just everything we do
here at army bass angler enterprise and then the force on force podcast
(01:32):
and we got to play around a little bit with them so a
lot of good stuff going on with what we're
doing here and it's super excited already got to play around with the
binos use them a little bit after we got through filming at
force on force we actually used one of the scopes as
part of the competition force on force it kind of shaped the
whole thing with the hog hunting so it's gonna be exciting to
see how that goes this week we're back here in
(01:55):
the home talk and this is kind of special april is
the month of the military child and april 15th
what they call the purple updates where we they kind of really celebrate the
military child the military dependent and one thing i've really enjoyed this
year is especially like last week we talked with jake whiteside the chief's
custom calls we talked a lot about turkey hunting and some of the things with
(02:18):
hunting and turkeys and and all the things,
but some of the things we talk about is just the, the things that we don't get
talked a lot about in the military and purple up month day is about,
you know, the month of the military child.
So what I thought would be really cool is to bring on my oldest, uh.
James dowerful and that's why i said it's gonna be
a lot of fun because i'll give you guys a little bit of background on this but
(02:41):
james which is really cool to go along with the purple update we call it purple
because all the military forces across they use the color purple when you talk
army navy air force marine but he is a star football player at clarksville high school.
In clarksville tennessee which is the home of the 101st airborne
division james became the 13th player in
(03:03):
the history of Clarksville High School in 117 years to
break a thousand yards last year also he is
you know was it prep 615s that
are predicting him to be one of the top running backs coming back
in the state of Tennessee so he had all kind of accolades
last year through some touchdown passes but more
importantly he spent a lot of time fishing with me
(03:24):
over the year and we kind of want to do this and
so while this is a lot of fun to me there's a video on
on social media about him making fun of
me along the way about all the times
that I got to do all the stuff for
force on force or as a two-time champion or this.
And so recently he had to do a video for a fundraiser
(03:45):
activity that we had already bashed on where support
the guys at Clarksville High School football so it's
funny to watch him so I get to grasp a little bit because
there's a hilarious video where he's in the shop there in
in Fort Lindenwood Missouri making fun
fun of me with his brother and we would have his brother
on here but i know he's off doing baseball stuff today and so
it's it's a lot of fun to have so james how you doing i'm good
(04:09):
i'm good how are you hey it's always fun to
have have to mess with mess with you you a little
bit so you know you've you've been around
the hunting and fishing stuff with me your whole
life but you also been a military dependent and you also are
in a area where the football program
is in the shadows of the 101st airborne division and
(04:30):
so from the time you know you were really little you
dealt with the fact of being a military dependent and so
kind of like how does that like factor into
your your growing up it was hard when i was little because as a little kid you
know you're used to having your dad around or your parent whatever is in the
(04:51):
military and then you know they leave and you're You're a little too young to understand why.
But it got a lot easier the older I got.
But it was always sad seeing you leave and stuff. But it was always nice to
get the notes and be able to call.
Even though we were in different time zones, we'd figure it out,
(05:12):
and those were always the best moments. I would say it was hard,
but it got easier the older I got.
Yeah, I don't think people kind of understand this. James was two months old
the first time I, not the first time I deployed, but the first time I deployed in his life.
And so from the time he was two months to 18 months old, I was gone to Afghanistan.
(05:34):
And I came back and he and I, from the time he was 18 months old till.
You know, I deployed again, we spent a lot of time together.
Other but the really the really cool stories is
he he really at
a really young age grass fishing didn't you
yeah i did and so we
(05:56):
were stationed at uh fort gordon georgia
and he we used to always want to you
know it at a little over two years old he would always
be like one of the cats of fish and we would try and try and try
and like this goes back to we guys had cody
be praying through on the you know early earlier podcast talked
about my time in grad school and i'd always tell him as he'd be
(06:17):
two years old and i'd tell him wait till we get to alabama knew i was going
to grad school knew we were going to some great fisheries and
he would catch his first fish and so this goes
back to where we're at and how i kind of in the
industry what we do so we get to alabama and
he and i go fishing we hadn't been
there like a couple of days and james catches
(06:40):
at at two and a half he's about two and a half years old
at this point he catches a five and a quarter smallmouth
on a on a snoopy car it
was actually cars but that most people refer to
him as a snoopy rod and reel you know little kids rod and reel on a swim bait
and it was pretty one of the most amazing things that i ever remember he probably
(07:01):
you don't even remember that you were so young it was it was he's got pictures
of it but he doesn't remember so fish of a lifetime the first fish was It's.
What most people go after their whole entire life.
And so you kind of started out early loving to fish and you fished a lot with
me when you were little, didn't you? I did. Yeah. Yeah.
(07:21):
So we were in grad school. Do you remember some of the times that we got to
fish and doing some of that stuff as you got a little bit older?
I think once I hit about three, I started remembering because I remember,
I think when you were at UNA, I think I remember going to a gun range with you,
and I think outside the gun range was a pool table.
(07:44):
I do remember a little bit of that. And then I remember being in the boat a
little bit, but I don't remember the fish, sadly.
But it is pretty cool because there is a magazine cover
or i'm in a bass master magazine and
and that's pretty cool to say that you've been in one of those and
can go and show people and tell the story about
how i caught that five and a quarter smallmouth and there's proof on that piece
(08:07):
of paper yeah they they did uh day preck did an article on james and i and i
did come back from afghanistan and that fish and just how cool it was to kind
of bring that back together and and And it was called War and Bass,
and it just so happened that that was the same year that Jordan Shipley and
Colt McCoy were on the front cover, and they did an article on them.
(08:29):
And James and I were on the article called The Back Deck, and they actually
got more write-ins and more calls in about James' fish and that whole story
than they did about Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy in Texas.
So it was always – and that was the year Alabama beat Texas in the national
championship, so it was always like a really cool deal for him.
But you know he's always you've always loved to fish a really cool deal to watch
(08:54):
both these guys james and ethan and all of them james really loves to fish ethan is the hunter.
James isn't james will hunt but he doesn't like to do it like like his brother
ethan likes to hunt because he gets to take a little nap and get woken up whenever
the deer comes when you it's a little bit different when you start going by yourself.
(09:14):
Well, one of the best parts of it was his brother actually convinced him one
time that there was this big monster deer that we had on trail camera that was
underneath the tree stand that he should go out there and hunt while Ethan and I slept in.
So that's the best story his brothers got on him about hunting.
He convinced him. We had seen a deer in a couple of days, and he convinced him
(09:38):
that he needed to go hunting because he'd seen a big old deer on trail camera.
And so James took the bait when we went hunting and didn't kind of get to do it.
But you also, you know, you've fished a lot, but you're, you know,
you're a phenomenal football player, baseball player.
But you've really kind of focused on the football side of things over the years.
(10:00):
Outside, you know, being the tough from a football perspective,
you know, is really, I think I always look at your time on the water.
Or has that impacted things that you've been able to do on the water?
I think, for me personally, it looks like it helped you develop motor skills,
earlier at a younger age, whether it's football or baseball,
(10:20):
that you don't see in a lot of kids out there. How do you kind of see that?
Honestly, I would say the patience aspect from fishing kind of carries on over
into things like that because when you're playing running back and you have the ball,
Like the hole might not be open right away, but, you know, you have a little
(10:42):
bit of patience and you don't go into the first thing you see.
You go into something that you know is going to be there and you trust is going
to be there because that's what you're taught.
Just like fishing, you're seeing
the grass, your dad's telling you that something's going to be there.
And, you know, you throw in there a couple of casts later and you get a fish,
you know, a couple of steps later.
(11:03):
I mean, you're breaking a 50 yard touchdown. down. So I would say the patience
aspect is really like carried on over into the sports aspect of my life.
Well, that's kind of cool to look at it from that. But I always say,
we always talk about, we talked about last week with, you know,
the podcast we had last week, how much being in the outdoors kind of makes you
(11:24):
a well-balanced individual.
It kind of brings you back to center, kind of helps you recharge from what it is.
And I think, but there is a lot of lessons to learn from being in the outdoors
and then transfer it over.
But you've also got an opportunity to do fish
with some people being a military dependent that you
wouldn't necessarily have ever gotten to to
(11:45):
do that would you you know i i
think one of your coolest was you know tell
the story about getting the fishwood roller that was
the kayak trip right yeah yeah i would
say it was probably like probably my most fun i've ever had fishing like I still
(12:06):
try and go and try to find something like that because it's exhilarating because
you're just in such a small body of water and it's just carrying you down the river.
And the smallmouth, they always fight like they're so much bigger than what they are.
And the funny thing was, is I didn't want to get these.
(12:27):
I think they were they were basically like pool noodles that kept rods afloat if you fell.
Smacked right into a big old leg or like
a log sticking out of the water flip my kayak and
it was so funny because the way the kayak flipped and
all my stuff fell out but I still had everything and it was
just a great experience with rolling and just catching
(12:48):
those smallmouth I mean you get hot you jump in
the water and there's nothing like it it's it truly made
me feel like a kid at that point and
like really enjoy life like that was what life was all
about and what's really neat was roland is
a german officer that was actually here working and
he was in the he worked had an office a couple cubicles down
(13:10):
from me in fort lindenwood and so roland and
i had been fishing on the boat a couple times and james really wanted
to go kayak fishing and so roland i'd ask
roland could james go with him and let him
take the kayak and roland comes to me he goes he goes
man i you know james was 14 at the time and he's
all worried about it and i'm like man you'll be fine trust me he's good and
(13:33):
but from that aspect you know we always talk about like how cool was it to get
to experience that with somebody that from another country that you if you hadn't
been your dad hadn't been in the military you would have never got to experience.
Yeah i mean it was pretty cool he had some cool stories and he was just a really
good dude He taught me some things and made me realize some things that I didn't quite know before.
(13:58):
And I mean, that's the thing about life, too, is you never know what someone can teach you.
That's why, you know, I always try to listen to people older and wiser than me.
And he was one of those people. And it was just a really great time out there.
It was, it was fun to watch him and, you know, Roland come back in the next
week and Roland goes, what do you feed that boy?
(14:18):
And I was like, pretty much anything he wants to eat, you know,
and that's why he, he lives in a weight room.
He, you know, he, he's a beast on the football field and it's just funny,
but you've got to fish with other guys from ABA and whether it's Randy,
you know, go fish tournaments with them.
And then you and I fish tournaments together. other and so it's fun
to watch watch you get the experience of
(14:41):
that and not only that but you've got to fish different bodies of
water around around the united states that's what
kind of what we talked about last week um jake and i
did about being in military you got to that
experience where unless unless you're
you know a traveling fisherman or hunter
you don't get to you probably within hour two hours
(15:02):
of your house you don't get to experience a lot of different so have you ever
ever thought about how many different places you've gotten to fish from from
Texas you know you know just all those places like that over the years yeah
I've been to some pretty amazing lakes that a lot of people would love to go
to like let's say I've been to Pickwick,
(15:23):
What was the one that was like an hour away from Huntsville?
Guntersville. I've been to Guntersville.
Playing between the lakes. What was the one in Missouri? Lake of the Ozarks. Lake of the Ozarks.
Lake Fork. Sadly, when we went up there, it was just a rough time of year.
It was spring, and it was really windy and cold.
(15:45):
So it was a little hard to pull some fish out of there, but it was still really fun.
On two lakes that i really want to go to are
lake michigan where it's really clear and okachobee because
i think punching and fishing a
frog there would be pretty fun but i will say the ozarks
tournaments with randy was also one of the
funnest like times i've had because there's
(16:06):
there's nothing like going out there and competing and fishing and trying
to really like that exhilaration you get with trying
to catch five fish we almost had one one one time and
but even though we didn't win it was always just so
fun just going it and it doesn't get
better than that yeah i remember that you were close there
you guys were just so close that one time and it
(16:27):
was really really cool to to watch you guys kind of
do that me and ethan would fish and then you guys there's a
couple times just you and randy fish me and ethan didn't go fish those
tournaments those wednesday nighters and so it's fun to
get to see see you guys uh get to get to
experience and a little build the trust factor to
get to go learn more and i think that's equated
(16:48):
to i think that goes into leadership and
things like that that you you kind of understand and
and transfers over to what you do on the football field and everywhere else
in athletics because you get you get trusted to go do things like that you have
you know more confidence in yourself yeah it's also nice to fish those different
(17:08):
bodies of water because you get to learn to throw a bunch of different new things like.
Before I went to Ozarks, I never threw a jig or, like, a shaky head on the rocks like that.
I never knew what a bass, like, bite felt like fishing those things.
And the more I fished it, the more I got to know fishing on Kentucky Lake,
throwing a swimbait on Guntersville, throwing a drop shot.
(17:29):
Just a bunch of different things. I mean, even a crankbait on Guntersville.
I mean, just a bunch of different things you get to learn fishing those different lakes.
Yeah you know speaking of garland if you guys have ever seen the
yolo tech video like early on there's
they've used that video especially around father's day that's james
catching a big fish on a drop shot on gunner's boat
with his hand in his pants so he's
(17:54):
like big fish come out of there yeah so
he he had a lot of fun i mean there's been times too where you
know we had a lot he learned about forward-facing sonar this summer he
got to experience that and it was kind of cool to show
him that i remember i was telling him a couple podcasts ago how
i had you and ethan in the boat trying to tell you there was a big fish on that
that brush pile and you got i was trying to get you guys to throw it right there
(18:17):
yeah and you guys didn't believe me and i pulled that big fish off of it and
it was it was a lot of cool stuff to go with it so it was there's a lot of fun,
with that and i think you know when you look at it i think one of my funniest
stories with you and your brother was tell tell the classic story about about
come meet all the pros at the.
(18:40):
I mean we we we like got in line as a joke because we heard like on the intercom
that was like come meet all your favorite skeeter pros and,
We kind of knew he was going to be over there. We just kind of laughed when we got to him.
But I guess as a kid, as you're our parent, you don't see it as like,
(19:03):
oh, he's a good – not a celebrity, but people really do know him.
But it's cool to see all the other people kind of come up to you and see how
influential you are to kids and even adults and how much your show people enjoy
and how much it means to them.
Them and i think part of that was good for you because
now i look at i've always talked to you like and i tell you all
(19:24):
the time you don't know all those little kids that
are watching you on friday night and you know they're
watching number you know the number seven out there on friday nights and you
know you gotta you always guys would get kind of frustrated when we're at boat
ramps or whatever because i take the time to talk to people that watch this
tv show and now you're You're seeing it as a high school football player when
(19:47):
you're the kind of that guy,
you know, that does so much out there, everybody.
And it's kind of important to take the time because people think enough of you to talk to you.
And so you kind of have to be very thankful that because it makes it makes a
lot more funner on Friday nights when people are screaming and hollering because
(20:08):
because what's going on, didn't it?
Yeah it is and i think i
hope that i've done a good job to kind of like show you guys that
that's kind of what it is i mean we're very we're in
our family we're very blessed with some very high performing athletes
between our stepsisters maggie macy you know and then bryce is playing soccer
(20:29):
now we got we never have a dull moment with athletics around the house and the
high performers and i think we're very blessed to watch them all get out there
and play and i think anytime, you know, it's just.
I love to watch him go through the process out there, and James has done a really
good job. It was really fun to watch him come on as a sophomore.
You know, my favorite story to tell about you getting bitched as a sophomore,
(20:54):
he doesn't like to talk about it a lot,
but it's probably my favorite story because I think it demonstrates how hard
it is to work at something to get to where you wanted to go because you have
found the position that you play now because of that.
And I think, and that's, we talk about in fishing and hunting that it's not
always to catch it in the fish, it's the process.
(21:16):
And I enjoyed watching you go through that process.
You may not have thought it at the time, but it was fun watching the process.
Yeah, it was, it was hard, but glad it happened because, you know,
at the end of the day, I know I can, if I make it to the next level or if,
even if I just leave my mark somewhere where i'm in the high school
(21:37):
and people know who i am for years to come
they'll know that i did it legitimately and not
because i was some coach's favorite right and
i've enjoyed watching this is what's really cool like i get
to all the guys a lot of how a lot of the guys at the
clarksville high school football that basically i think
we've had like the whole backfield here before at the house and it's
(21:58):
a lot of fun where whether it's amari or jack
or camille you know they're they're all here you know have
them all here at the same time oh there's there's not
enough food in the house and all that happens you know it's a lot
of fun to watch that but you know i watched jack
you know jack stein developed last year from
his sophomore year and it was a lot of that along that same line
(22:20):
just talking about your team and everything else i
watched him develop and it was so it was
so awesome to watch i remember him
after a game his sophomore year being so
so frustrated with playing time and then just to see him develop and
commit to work that thinking and the things like that and so i i love watching
all you guys kind of do that on on the football field and i think that's that's
(22:44):
what it's and i it's all about putting the puzzle together and what you guys
do so what so you guys are getting ready to start spring practice right.
Yes i believe in a week or two it's something like that i think it's the last
two weeks of April and the first two weeks or the first week of May I don't
(23:05):
know if we have a game yet it's about to find one but either way we still get
three weeks of practice three weeks off and then.
Summer practice starts yeah it's always it's
always a tough you know tough sledding when you're a
high school football player because you just you come
right out of spring you go right in the summer you know james
trying to find time to go fishing and and it like you know to kind of get a
(23:29):
break from to get ready for that football season so i i'm excited to kind of
watch you know you guys you know we kind of excited from that whole deal but
i think that kind of when we talk about this month being the month of the military child,
I think it's really cool to have you on here to kind of talk that piece and
they kind of see like how, you know, there's, we're made up of so many different
(23:53):
parts from the service members to the spouses,
to the, to the, to the kids.
And I think Jane, I think from a perspective of you just kind of do so much
stuff on the football field and,
and now you're, you're turning around and giving back to the community.
And I think that's just Just so much, that's such a good deal to see that, what you guys are doing.
(24:16):
And I'm excited to watch the whole kind of team. And it's in the shadows of
the Mighty Hunter and 1st Airborne Division, and it's going to be Team 118 coming up this year.
So this will be pretty cool. I'll still continue to make fun of you when you
do videos and things like that because it's my time to pick back at you because
you've picked at me all these years, which is kind of a cool deal.
(24:36):
So, you know, this week we've got Episode 2 of Season 13 going on.
It's a pretty cool show to watch.
We also will continue. We've got turkey season going on. I didn't get a turkey
last week. I went and tried. It didn't happen.
Hopefully, I'll be able to nail the coffin this week.
(24:56):
I really appreciate it, James. I enjoyed having you on.
Thanks for sharing a little bit. I know this is new territory for you to do
this, but it was fun picking at you.
I appreciate it. And if you guys want to know about army bass slingers,
buck, duck, or hog, or redfish, go to forceonforcetv.com and appreciate it. Cool?
Thanks for listening to the Force on Force podcast. Join us next time as we
(25:19):
dive into more topics from the Force on Force talk.
For more information or to learn how to join the organization,
visit our website at forceonforcetv.com.
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