August 10, 2025 • 54 mins
From middle school sidelines to high school head coach, Chris Higgs is taking the reins at James Wood Basketball with a clear vision for building champions both on and off the court. His journey represents the passion and dedication needed to develop young athletes in today's competitive landscape.
"It's not how you do anything, it's how you do everything," Higgs shares, revealing his comprehensive approach to team building. This philosophy extends beyond basketball fundamentals to encompass communication, body language, and classroom performance—essential elements for creating a sustainable winning culture. The program stands on three key pillars: being a great teammate, striving for excellence, and enjoying the journey with those around you.
What sets Coach Higgs apart is his unwavering commitment to holding everyone accountable to the same standard. "Culture is what you allow," he emphasizes, making it clear that even star players must meet the same expectations as bench players. This approach has already shown promise, with summer workouts consistently drawing 20+ dedicated athletes eager to improve their game.
With four returning senior starters, including standout Michael Bell, the Colonels are poised for a competitive season. Higgs is working to reconnect current players with James Wood's rich basketball heritage, bringing back alumni from the program's most successful eras to share what being a Colonel meant to them. His dual focus on basketball excellence and academic achievement (targeting a team GPA between 3.2-3.5) demonstrates a commitment to developing complete student-athletes.
As basketball season approaches with tryouts beginning November 10th, excitement is building around the program. Whether you're a longtime Colonels fan or simply appreciate seeing young athletes develop under positive mentorship, this is a team and a coach worth watching. Come experience the renewed energy at James Wood basketball this season!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was ready, bro.
It's a hindrance.
Silence is cassette, so letyour voices be heard, man, we
brothers with opinions.
Now we spreading the word.
Bringing light to the darkRevolution is our art.
Man, a lot of people talk, butthey ain't never walked apart.
Gotta shine a light on povertyand fight against injustice and
always speak the truth.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey, everybody welcome back to BWO.
I'm here with Chris Tucker.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What's up?
What's up.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
About to have a special guest on today.
We're missing a couple brothers, but we don't know what's up
with them.
But, chris, you're going to getus started with your high
energy this morning.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, my high energy.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I know you've worked 12-hour shifts the past week or
so.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I'm exhausted but I'm up, I'm ready to go
Start season two with the newJames Wood head coach, Mr Chris
Higgs.
And we've had him on as a guestin the past, but you know he
was at Daniel Morgan, so movingup, glad to see him being
successful, and you know thething that he wants to do is
coach, so going from middleschool to high school as a head
(01:29):
coach, that's a pretty big deal.
So we're excited to have him onand hear how he's going to
change James Wood's culturearound over there.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hey, Mr Dixon did the same thing.
He started at Daniel Morgan.
A lot of people probably don'tknow he started out as a
football coach for a few yearsand then moved to basketball.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I must have been a little kid.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't even know when he coached over there.
It had to be in the 80s.
But yeah, he did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So let's you know not wait anymore.
Chris is sitting here waiting.
I'll let Chris join us thismorning.
Hey, chris, you hear us, youthere oh sorry, I was on mute.
I was about to say I see him.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
What's up, Chris?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
What's up guys?
Good morning.
Unfortunately, I have to workat 20, so good to see you, chris
.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, good to see you , man, Been a while but excited
to hear how things are going.
Man, for you to be the new headcoach at James Wood, that's
pretty dope.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that we're very
excited James Wood basketball.
We've got a lot of good kids, alot of good opportunities over
there, just trying to reallychange and build on the culture
that started last year, justkeep growing and giving those
(02:49):
kids opportunities to succeed onand off the court.
So really excited to be there.
A big opportunity, as you guysmentioned earlier, started at
daniel morgan, so tony and Icoached together there for a
couple years.
I transitioned, coached athanley for a year, uh, and then
was a dameswood jb coach lastyear so you were over there with
my buddy, ben, and now you'retaking over since he's gone and
moved on to something else.
(03:09):
Yep, I was over there with CoachBates, worked with him for a
year and then he left forwhatever reasons he left for and
then I took over and got theopportunity to take over this
year.
So really excited.
I started earlier in the summer, actually probably towards the
end of school, you know Apriland May, and then we went all
summer together as a program forJV and varsity so gave the kids
(03:34):
a lot of chances to play insome games, go to some camps.
We were practicing two days aweek at some points when we were
allowed to, so certainly givingthem as much chance to be in
the gym to get better as players.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it sounds like you're taking the bull by the
horns for us.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
putting your foot down on these kids.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
We're putting our foot down.
We've got some pillars and somedifferent things that we sort
of want to live by as we changethe culture and grow the culture
.
Things like discipline,communication, effort, you know,
and the small things matter,like one of the phrases I'll
tell them, or I told them veryearly on in the summer is is uh,
it's not how you do anything,it's how you do everything right
(04:19):
.
And so you know how you talk ondefense, you know your body
language when you miss a shot.
Those sort of things matterjust as much as you know boxing
out, rebound, being able toscore, whether it's.
You know jumpers, layups, etcetera.
But those kind of things matter.
But again, it all starts withthings like discipline and
communication.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Right, so I guess that leads into my first
question.
So what's your coachingphilosophy, right?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
So I guess that leads into my first question.
So what's?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
your coaching philosophy.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
So probably, yeah, because it's evolved a little
bit.
You know, in middle school thatphilosophy was, you know, just
make kids love basketball, enjoythe game, learn how to compete,
you know, and build thosefundamentals so that way, when
they get to high school, thatthey still want to put in the
work and they still reallyunderstand what they're trying
to do.
And so here, you know, it'sreally three things as far as
(05:10):
our philosophy, which is be agreat teammate, you know you
want to be a good teammate onthe court and off the court, and
someone that you're, you knowyour teammates want to hang out
with and be friends.
Those are the kind of peoplethat you're going to play well
with together.
If you don't like someone, it'sgoing to be really hard to.
You know, play as a cohesiveunit and then strive for
(05:31):
excellence.
You know, put your signature inthe work you do every day.
So you know, when you come intogym and practice or we have a
shoot around or just open thegym up and let guys come in and
do anything they want to do is,are you putting your stamp on
that day?
Are you working as hard as youcan, even though you may not
want to.
There may be something going onoutside, uh, a basketball going
(05:52):
on at home.
You're at work or you know, youjust don't feel like working
out.
It's the middle of the summer,you won't be hanging out to the
beach or with your friends, butwhen you're in the gym, making
use of that time and then thelast one, I think, is really the
most important it's like enjoythe journey and the people that
you're with, and so you know youwant to respect everyone that
you're working with in everyrole coaches, teachers,
(06:13):
administrators.
We have a lot of guests andalumni that we're going to bring
in throughout the year toreally talk about what Jameswood
culture and basketball was likein the late nineties and early
2000s, so having those guys comeback in to reiterate that or
build that up, but really justenjoy that journey of all the
people that you're with, becauseit's not about the goal the
(06:35):
goal for all high schoolprograms to win a state
championship.
You have to be realistic.
How close are we to doing that?
We're not as close as someother programs, and so for us,
the goal is more about therelationships and the journey
than it is getting to that statetitle or something like that
(07:00):
Right, Good, good.
So how, how do you balance?
discipline and accountabilityyou mean like on the court or
off the court.
Yeah, on the world, I think youtreat everyone the same right,
and so it's player one who mightbe your best player, your star
player for certain things, allthe way down to player 12 or
even the manager.
You know we've got a greatmanager in Sammy Myers.
We just hung out with him atthe beach a couple of days ago
(07:23):
and had a lot of guys show upand just support him and hang
out.
But it's really just how youtreat everyone and making sure
they're the same.
There's no exception to the rule, because player A might be your
best offensive player, yourbest defensive player, and you
need him.
If he's not doing the work heneeds to do, either on the court
or in the classroom, he's notas valuable to your team as
(07:44):
someone else who is doing thatwork.
And so, you know, it's aboutjust finding that good balance,
holding everyone accountable tothe same standard.
So what we say is like you know, culture is what you allow and
we don't really allow anyone tocut corners or, you know, be the
exception to the rule becausethey might have a different role
or a different, you know,delivering to the school.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Gotcha, gotcha, chris , you got anything.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I know you do, yeah, so if I'm correct, then the
young man that I know that Ithink probably one of the best
players in the area and district.
He's still with you, right, bigMichael Bell.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Big Michael Bell is there.
He's still with you, right, BigMichael Bell.
Big Michael Bell is there.
He's been working hard thissummer, you know, really trying
to grow his game a little bit.
He's actually going to Shepherdon the 13th, so a good
opportunity there for him.
Yeah, bringing Michael Bellback.
We're bringing four seniorsback that started last year.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
A lot of experience.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, looking for those guys to contribute and
really elevate their game andthen provide that leadership
that you would look for in thoseplayers.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah yeah, so you guys will be right there,
hopefully, competing with thelikes of Hanley and anybody else
.
That's pretty good right now.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I would hope so.
You know the guys come in andput in the work.
Hopefully that ends up beingour reward, but we're just going
to go out and compete againstthe opponent we play every night
and not worry about who theyare or what their record is.
As you know, everyone's 0-0 onthat night.
Whatever happens happens.
But yeah, bring back reallywhat looks like five starters,
seven varsity guys who arereturning, and then we'll bring
(09:26):
some guys up for JV that havebeen in the program or that
played in the system last year,and so it should give us some
good continuity and a lot ofdepth.
And then very excited about ourJV program with the amount of
freshmen and sophomores we'vehad at workouts.
This summer it's been 20 plusin the gym almost every night,
again two nights a week, onMondays and Wednesdays.
So as a 14-year-old 15-year-oldkid there's probably a lot of
(09:47):
other things I'd rather do thanbeing in a hot, sweaty gym on a
Monday or a Wednesday during mysummertime, but having those
kids there is just awesome, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That shows the leadership that you have and the
belief they have in you, andthat they want to be better and
they want to win.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And that's what it takes.
You know, yeah, absolutely, andit says a lot to their work
ethic in the way that theirparents raised them.
And then you know, having ourmiddle school programs.
Do you know early morningworkouts sorry tony five days a
week out here at some of ourmiddle schools they'll start the
middle of october and go 6, 15to 7 yeah.
Hey, remember when we were thatyoung the last thing we'd want
to do or any opportunity wecould get to get to when we
(10:31):
would, but we never had thosechances.
So now getting these kids thatopportunity, albeit early in the
morning, it's just a very goodopportunity to help them grow
their skill.
And it's a lot ofindividual-based work.
You know working on microns andform shooting.
You know working on finishingmoves.
We're really trying toemphasize to our guys playing
off two feet, playing to ourstrengths, uh, and so having
(10:54):
them have that opportunity to dothat in the gym on their own,
in addition to practicing andother things like that, is just
great.
It's really going to elevatethe game of basketball, not just
at Jameswood but hopefully inthe area, because other schools
do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And see, I think it's great that now, finally, it's
trickled down to the middleschool.
You know all the middle schools, no matter county, city,
whatever the kids are taking it,you still want them to have fun
.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
But because some kids in middle school are like you
do find out who's serious, who'snot, at the same time that's
true, 7 am workout and whoreally wants to be somebody yeah
, I mean, you know, when youopen the gym at 6 15 or 6 30,
you know and daniel morgan, whenwe were there, I could think of
just a handful of kids thatwill probably show up and come.
And then, you know, we had ateam one year that was begging
(11:44):
us to practice Like Coach.
We want to be in the gym everyday.
Could have been there on Sundays, we could.
And then when you look at thenumbers of tryouts, even last
year, james Woodford, jv, weprobably had 40 kids try out, 45
kids, which is a big number,especially in a school that's,
you know, not traditionallyknown as a basketball school,
right, right.
(12:05):
And then you look at what wehad at Daniel Morgan I mean we
had 60 kids one time and it wasover Halloween and we had kids
in Halloween costumes.
So a wide range of folks thatare interested in playing
basketball or learning about ateam sport which you don't want
to turn that down or turn thosekind of kids away.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah , like you said, dedication and
work ethic, man, that goes along way and it shows, but they
need a good leader.
They need somebody who's goingto stick with them and, like you
said, have realistic goals thatyou know not everybody's going
to make it to States or even winit, but you start with baby
steps and hopefully you guys beone of the best teams in the
(12:48):
district, get to the districtsand do well in that, get to
Regents and then go from there.
But I'm excited to see how youguys do, man, hopefully I can
get down there and watch a gameor two because I'd like to
support Mike when I definitelywant to support you.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yep, we'd love that.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And Yep, we love that and you know all of our games,
at least home games are onHuddle Live, so they're streamed
Now, as your own schedule cameout.
Nobody's basketball schedulecame out yet, right?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It hasn't been released to the public yet, but
I do have it, so I do know ourfirst game is I'm looking at now
it's December.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I was going to ask that next, when the season
starts.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
So nice.
So tryouts for the area startNovember the 10th, right after
that last dead period, electionday.
So you get three days oftryouts and then we have our
first scrimmage.
I'm looking at it now the 17th.
So we'll have Two or three youknow really solid practices
before that scrimmage, right Toimplement some of the new
(13:47):
offense and make some of theother changes that we're going
to make.
We've started doing it thissummer, so we're a little bit
ahead, but we'll finish puttingin all that game plan, get our
new JV coach integrated inplenty of times.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Can you name your coaching staff?
I can name my coaching staff.
You want to give them a shoutout?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So Coach H Paul Hojdovic is ourvarsity assistant coach.
He's the marketing teacher atJames Wood.
He played baseball at Shepherd.
He bounced around, did somethings at Shepherd, did some
things at Elon and somedifferent sports, so really
excited to have him on board.
He was on Coach H's staff lastyear, so a huge asset for us.
(14:29):
And then Quentin Jones, whoplayed at Millbrook, played at
Shenandoah will be our JV coach,and so my goal when I was
looking for a JV coach was can Iget someone who can elevate our
players' skills and knowledgeand then be someone who can not
only relate to them?
Because you know Quentin playedat Millbrook.
(14:50):
You know he had a successfulcareer.
It could have been moresuccessful in high school.
He had a successful career incollege, and I say it could have
been more successful in highschool because I believe, if I
remember correctly, his senioryear or his junior year oh,
covid, he was a little bit here.
That's a lot of kids though hewas cut short.
You know he's still got anopportunity to go play at
Shenandoah and further hisbasketball career.
(15:12):
But I really wanted someoneelse who had positive energy and
positive experiences, andQuentin is a great personality
that will be able to connect andrelate to our kids and our
program.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
That's awesome man.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I didn't know Quentin was over there with you.
Hey, Chris, look, I didn't evenspill the beans, chris,
surprise, surprise yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, he just graduated from Dean College up
in Massachusetts.
He did yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
And he's working at Fast Basketball, you know, with
James Frisbee and Coach Bluefrom Shenandoah and those guys.
So we'll have a goodopportunity to, you know, grow
his teaching skill.
At the same time he's at FAST,same time he's over with us at
Joneswood.
So really excited to bring himon board.
And then he was a one-yearRodsville Stars player.
(15:59):
He played for Wink City andsome other AAU programs here in
the area.
So we bring a lot of goodexperience on and off the court
that I'm excited about.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, nice, that's like me.
Go out and get that young blood, that's good stuff.
Yeah, because you've got BJ.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Him and BJ both played one year for Stars for me
.
So again, great kids who reallylove the game and they want to
give back and, you know, helpyounger kids in the area get
those opportunities and getbetter.
So these guys both played incollege, right?
Bj played football in college,Quentin played basketball.
It gives them an opportunity tosay, hey, this is what worked
(16:36):
for me, or this is what I wastaught when I got to college.
That will make you moresuccessful.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, it's just their experiences go a long way.
Plus, they're young and theycan relate to these kids.
I'm like that's getting old.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I'm old as dirt.
They want to look at my statsor pictures.
They're going to be in blackand white.
They're not going to believe itbecause I can't do it in gym,
but Quentin can dunk andout-shoot most of those guys in
the gym all day long.
Right, I bet I was in the gymall day long, so I had that
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, I had even better after he left Shenandoah,
so he's worked on his game?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And if you follow him on socialmedia, you know he puts out a
lot of good videos and a lot ofgood messages about the kind of
work that you really have to do.
And then again, you know, plugin fast basketball a little bit.
Those guys are great workingwith kids and really further
their game when it gives them anopportunity to work on things
just outside of practice.
Tony, as you know, if you havekids who just show up for just
(17:30):
practice, they're not getting asgood as they could or can't.
You've got kids in the gym fivedays a week at a number of
different places, whether it'sfast or other trainers in the
area.
There's a lot of choices, a lotof good choices, so having that
opportunity for kids to gothere is just phenomenal, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And adding on that it's what you do outside of
practice on your own.
That's right, and it's not hardto tell.
Even if you can be the mosttalented athlete in the world,
but a kid who outworks you inthe gym three, four, five times
a day, they're going to surpassit, and you see it especially
once we get to the high schoollevel, being at the middle, and
(18:10):
then he keeps putting in thework and they'll surpass people.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
They're the most talented, but it's all about
putting that work in, that hardwork and that effort, having
discipline to do that every dayor on your own, is just going to
make you a much better playerand a much better person than
somebody who just tries to do it.
You know the once or twice aweek that you're practicing
during the season, Yep yep,totally agree.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
James Wood.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Did you ever go to James Wood like as a high school
student?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
No, I am a Hanley graduate, so I graduated in 97,
and I saw Coach Dixon at FamilyDay last weekend.
He gave me a hard time becauseI was carrying a James Wood
basketball respect either myformer coaches or colleagues
(19:03):
that I've worked with.
You know the past 15, 20 yearsand you know taking something
from them that I've learnedalong the way.
It's just a huge value add.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Now see Chris putting on James Wood stuff.
Would be like me putting onWashington Commander stuff.
Being a Cowboy fan Like that,that would be hard.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
It's not as hard as what you think.
We've got a greatadministration, We've got a
great facility over there, andso you know the kids really make
it.
What's the?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
battle.
That's right.
I don't think a lot of peopleknow y'all built a new gym Just
what Last year?
Right, Well?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
we don't have a new gym.
The school went over a fullremodel so the gym got a
makeover, but it's not a brandnew gym.
Oh, okay, yeah, so there's anew.
It looks very similar toFrederick County.
There's a window wall on thebackside which you can see into
the school and see the cafeteriaand some different things.
The secondary gym has beenupgraded a little bit.
(20:06):
The bleachers.
We just, you know, refinishedthe floor again, so there's a
lot of upgrades around thebuilding to really make it a
much better experience.
Yeah, a new gym would be great,though, but not right now.
Yeah, who's the gym named after?
It's named after Don Shirley,okay.
(20:28):
Do you know who that is.
Sorry, I'll take that back.
Wendell Dick, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh, and no way I was like got it, yeah, I've been
looking for it because he passedaway a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Mr Dick passed away a few years ago, but when I was
little he was always over there.
He was just, he was a great manand he really cared about
people.
So Absolutely Yep, and we havethat he passed away, definitely
when I was.
When I was told about it, I waslike oh man it's big loss.
Just such a culture builderover there and really you know
he loved the community.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah, we have the Wendell Dick Hall of Fame there.
So when you guys do come to agame and come in the entrance,
there on the right-hand sidewe've got the Hall of Fame which
mentions all the folks thathave been inducted and when, and
it just looks really good whenyou come up there Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Okay, chris, a couple more questions or a few more,
fire away.
This is good stuff.
So how do you stay updated oncoaching techniques and the
latest trends in basketball?
That's a good start.
So how do you stay updated oncoaching techniques and the
latest trends in basketball?
Speaker 4 (21:28):
That's a tough one, because there's a bunch of
different ways, but you are, hey, I always tell people you're a
basketball mind, though I cansay that there's a bunch of
different ways to do it.
I work from home, I'm in IT, Iwatch a lot of obscure
basketball and film.
So I watch a lot of D2 and D3and NAIA games, whether it's
this year or last year.
I watch a lot of Europeanbasketball, some WNBA, you know,
(21:57):
because those kind of plays andsets and the things that
they're doing really relate tothe kind of kids that we've got
at.
James Wood from an athleticstandpoint, you know, if you try
to watch what they're doing inthe NBA James Wood from an
athletic standpoint, you know,if you try to watch what they're
doing in the NBA, it's a lotmore.
One, it's a lot more complex.
And two, you're looking at guysthat are, you know, 6'3 to 6'8
in athleticism that we justdon't have, and so trying to get
(22:18):
us to emulate what they'redoing is just not going to work
out.
I watch a lot of obscurebasketball.
I follow a lot of coaches onsocial media, and then you know
there's a coaching associationhere in Virginia that has now
really done a lot over the last12 months or so to get
information out to us, and sothey're having an in-person
(22:40):
session in September inCharlottesville, and so that
will be a good experience to goto and see what those guys are
talking about and deliver somegood messages to us.
So it's a lot of obscurebasketball, a lot of trainers
and a lot of social media.
The good thing is aboutcoaching in basketball is you
know you can steal it fromsomeone else because it's
(23:01):
probably been done alreadybefore.
If you're inventing it thefirst time, then maybe it's not
the most successful thing.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Right, yeah, I always say, chris, as a coach, you've
got to be a student as well.
A lot of coaches, they thinkthey know it all, but it's like
you always got to be willing tolearn and adapt to the times as
well.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yep, you got to look at it with an open mind and say,
okay, if it's working for thoseguys and it's successful there,
then maybe we should try ithere and see how it is.
You know, I know last year atsome of our workouts with Coach
Bates we were trying somedifferent things defensively the
way we move our hands and howwe pivot and stuff like that and
you know we tried it a coupleof practices and didn't work out
the way we wanted to.
(23:41):
So then we switched back anddid something else.
So it's always good to go inthere and experiment some, see
how it adapts to the kids andthe personnel you got and then
if it works, great.
If it doesn't work, you reallyhaven't lost anything because
you're, like you said, goinginto it with an open mind to try
something different.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, so how would you?
Because I know you're a bigfilm guy, you just tapped on it
film guy.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You just tapped on it .
How do you assess opposingteams?
So spend a lot of time watchingfilm.
But I also like to go watch inperson and so the one thing that
you can watch for on film and Iwas talking about this with
coach green from millbrook theother day when he and I were
talking is, you know, you canwatch and understand their plays
and calls on film.
But all that's going to changewhen you play each other.
You know you're you may run thesame set.
You're going to call itsomething different, you know,
(24:28):
or you may not run the same setsat all.
I know last year when we playedMillbrook the first time they
ran one set of plays.
The second time they ransomething totally different that
they hadn't run before in agame.
So it was kind of a uniqueexperience.
That's good coaching.
You should expect that.
But the thing I like aboutin-person scouting is that you
can really see how big a kid is,how athletic a kid is.
(24:49):
On film it's hard to really seethat.
So you can see the quicknessand the size and their depth
perception and a whole bunch ofdifferent things by just
watching in person, like, forexample, watching Christian.
In person is way different thanwatching on film, because he
doesn't allow anyone to speedhim up or slow him down.
He plays at his pace and thenhis athleticism.
(25:10):
The way that it stands out inperson is a little bit different
in film, just because a lot ofteams that they play are
physically about the same size.
So I really love the in-personscouting, though it helped us a
lot last year.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, I can agree with that and you can sense body
language, bad habits, what theydo, right wrong, that's right.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
They react to different things that the crowd
is doing.
You know all that stuff, howtheir teammates react to them
when they do something good orbad, so you can really pick up
on all those little cues that,if the game is on the line or
you need a shot here or you'regetting ready to drop a, you
know, uh, after timeout play,you're like all right, I want to
go with this kid because inthis situation these things
(25:53):
always happen gotcha yeah, yougot to have a lot of things in
common with hanley then, as faras like returning so many
seniors now, well, upcomingseniors and and a lot of people
that's been together for, youknow, since they were in little
league or middle school.
Yeah, yeah, it's exciting.
I mean there should be a lot ofgood competition.
(26:13):
And when you think about allyour rivalries you know Milbrook
, sharando, hanley, like youmentioned when you play those
teams night in and night out,you're going to get their best
effort, regardless of what youknow.
Your regular season record isgoing into that Again, every
night we look at it, we're 0-0and the opponent is 0-0.
But when you have a, you know,a senior-leading team, like
Hanley does, millbrook isreturning a lot of experience,
(26:36):
sharando's got some experience,and then us, you know all those
local games are going to becomevery, very good.
And then when you look atoutside the region, how some
teams are rebuilding, some teamshave gotten some transfers in,
it's going to be a very goodregion.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Is Garland Williams still at Sherando?
Garland is still there, yep,he's been coaching there since
we were little.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I know, yeah, right, coach hints me in high school.
Yep, absolutely RememberGarland, he's still there.
Coach Simons is still there.
So again they've got a veryexperienced staff that's been
together for a while.
The systems they run, you knowthere's a lot of continuity
there.
So again it's a good sort ofyeah, I guess I'll say
(27:21):
difference, whereas you knowwe're a fresher and newer
coaching staff, even though,like Tony said, I'm getting old.
I'm an experienced coachingstaff, so all these rivalry
games will be very good.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Earlier, about like the late 90s, early 2000s, and
trying to bring people in andreiterate like how they did
things and approached the gameand built a culture.
So you're talking about likeprobably the best big three I
remember seeing and playing whenwe grew up, which was Chris
Boone, john Tickney and MikeCrawford.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Absolutely so.
Yep, going to have two of thoseguys come to the gym, talk to
the guys about I'll call it oldschool James Wood culture and
what sort of being a Colonelmeans to them.
And then, when you bring in,you know, can bring in a guy
like Brad Parks, you know, andsome different guys in the in
the you know 2010 to you know2020, who were record wise, may
(28:15):
not have been as successful asit was in the early 2000s, late
nineties, like you said, butstill being able to have those
guys talk about what it means tobe a Colonel to them, to these
guys, so that when we put ourJersey on every night, that
there's a little more sense ofpride.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, brad was played the year too.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
He was?
Yep, he was a four year varsityguy.
You know, mike was a four yearvarsity guy, I believe.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Is Brad the all time leading scorer?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I think so.
He's real close, he.
I think so he's real close.
He's almost 2,000 points.
I'll have to look.
That's one of the things thatwe don't have in the gym.
I'd like to get put up.
Hanley's got one, millbrook'sgot one.
Who are 1,000-point-plus scores.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
They don't even have that up in the gym.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
We don't have that up .
We have a lot of state bannersup there.
Yeah, we have a lot of statebanners up there, so still which
?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
programs want to stay tight.
They have the Nessarot brothers, they have Ben and John Kane,
like they have a lot of legends.
I can't remember James Wood.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
We've got a long list of great players that have come
through there that you know.
My goal was to get somethinglike that put up in the gym,
whether it's you know, just guysthat are in the Hall of Fame
that play basketball, guys andgals, or if it's you know
thousand point scores plus, getthose names put up there so
people can recognize them.
We do have a lot of greatsports programs who have won
(29:34):
some titles.
You know volleyball.
You know it's going for afour-peat this year.
They've won the last three.
Yeah, shout out to them.
So when you come in there, yousee those banners, you know
we'll be hanging a basketball inthere, knock on wood one day.
That's the goal.
Right, it doesn't have to bethis year, it could be 20 years
(29:57):
from now, you know.
But that's every program's goal, going into it.
But just being able torecognize some of that talent
that we've had the past 20 or 30years and have them come in and
, you know, again, remind ourguys, this is what James should
be about.
And then when you guys comeinto the gym, be able to
recognize those names and say,okay, you know, like you said,
joe and Larry King played here.
A lot of people might notremember that.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Right right.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But John King was the first and only three-time
player of the year.
Yeah, he won 10th, 11th and12th grade and until Zach Diggs
came along.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I was buried in sales Nobody else ever did it.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So all the greats we've had from all, like Hanley,
millbrook, sharando, clarkCounty, nobody did it until Zach
Diggs came along.
But Ben Kane did it in theearly 80s and dominated over at
James Wood.
And then Larry Kane might beone of the greatest ever, but he
played in the 70s so obviouslyI never got to see him play, but
everybody knows all about him.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah, chris, bring back that rivalry, that James
Wood-Haley rivalry, when we wasin school.
I remember that round 40.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh, my God.
If it wasn't a rivalry, chrisand Mike Crawford, crushed.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
When they came to play, I was excited to watch
them.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I remember the game.
They were good.
It was an exciting time.
It seemed like the gyms werejust packed.
Back then, even with them games, oh yeah, the atmosphere and
the culture, yeah, theatmosphere was yeah, and that's
what we want to get back then,you know, even with them games,
oh yeah, the atmosphere and theculture.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, the atmosphere was yeah, and that's what we
want to get back to.
You know we want to pack thestands over there, have a great
student section and put a goodon-court you know product or
experience for the fans that doyou know.
Come to see us.
That's what we want to do andwhether it's win or lose, we
(31:47):
want to be in every game.
We'll know what our game planis and what our strategy is and
what we want to hold teams to,because we want to be a
defensive first team.
What we want to hold teams toto give us the best opportunity
to win Right.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So, Chris, a couple more questions.
So you pretty much answeredmost of them.
So what is your short-term goaland long-term goal for your
program?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
That's a good one.
So short-term goal is justgetting the culture moving in
the right direction.
Again, focus on discipline,communication, effort.
We want to have a team GPAbetween 3.2 and 3.5.
So not only are they athletes,they're student athletes, as you
guys know, first being in highschool.
So we want them all to gettheir GPA where it needs to be.
(32:28):
We want 100% graduation rate.
Geez, can't talk right now.
And so that's a short-term and along-term goal.
A couple of long-term goalswould be last year we hosted our
first playoff game.
I'd love to host anotherregional playoff game.
We'd love to win a regionalplayoff game, both short-term
(32:51):
and long-term, and we'd love tolong-term qualify for the
midterm.
So both have off-the-courtgoals and on-the-court goals.
And then every workout we want20 or 30-plus kids in the gym.
We've got plenty of opportunityfor them to get better.
The times are out there.
We publish all of our timesabout two to three weeks in
(33:12):
advance from a practice schedule, and so we want all these kids
in the gym to get them thatopportunity.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Nice.
So can you touch on any gameson the schedule.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah, I mean it's not public, but I can certainly
talk about some.
Will you want to circle theJames Wood-Hanley date, tony?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Oh, I'm not, hey, I didn't say it.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I didn't say it either.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Some people might be curious what kind of big games
do you see?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Well, because Coach Zach at Hanley might want to
punch me in the face, but youdidn't listen.
I'm like man.
You should send Christian overthere to help.
That's probably like man.
He better not come toWinchester, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
All we're worried about over there, james was kids
who live in our school district, so it's one thing I've told
some other parents.
You know you always get thosechirps of rumors about
transferring or moving here ormoving there.
Look, all I care about.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Chris, do I know Rumors, rumors, rumors.
That's not going to presentwhat it is.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
A lot of it's envy and you know a lot of it is.
People are bored and needsomething to talk about.
But, like I say, I'm onlyworried about kids that live in
our school district that areenrolled in our school.
So I make sure they're enrolled, I make sure they got a
physical from the last 14 monthsand so that they're able to
practice or participate inworkouts.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, that leads to a great question, Chris how do
you handle criticism?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I mean I think I'll steal a line from Nick Saban.
You know, one of my favoritecoaches, regardless of sport,
all time, if you want to makeeveryone happy, go sell ice
cream.
So there's always going to becriticism.
There's always going to be.
You know people are going tothink, hey, we could do it
better.
We could do this.
I'll tell you.
You know, I've been coaching fora long time.
(35:01):
A lot of it's been volunteerhours.
It's never about the money,it's always about the kids, and
so there's plenty of opportunityfor those folks who you know
want to offer their opinion orprovide some expertise.
We could always use healthcoaching.
You know always, whether it'son any level, whether it's a
parking rec, whether it's AAU,whether it's a middle school or
(35:25):
the high school level, in anysport, you can always use more
help coaching.
You can always use extrareferees.
So come on out.
But yeah, criticism is going tohappen.
It's the nature of the game.
You've just got to have thickskin and move on.
You know your kids better thananyone else and you know what
you stand for and what you'reworking on in practice.
And else, and you know what youstand for and what you're
(35:45):
working on in practice.
If you fall short, obviously itstarts at the top of coaching.
I'll always be responsible forthat.
But there's blame to go up anddown the program.
But again it's going to startwith me.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, well, good, take accountability, chris,
that's right you got to.
Unlike you did with me atDaniel Morgan.
Oh, we took accountability, wehad some good years.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
We, oh, we took accountability.
We had some good years.
We had some good years Come upshort in a championship game on
the road, but then we pulled itout the next year.
So I would say all of our biggames are rivalry games.
You know, yeah, millbrook atMillbrook, and then they come to
you or Sharando, or Hanley, andthen vice versa, like those are
(36:22):
going to be the biggest crowd,the most intense crowd and
really just an intense game Likewe play.
I'm looking now we playSharando in early December and
that is going to be a packedhouse.
Yeah, yeah, of course it's agood game.
Yeah.
And I would say another game iswe've got Central on our
(36:43):
schedule.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Okay.
They're pretty good, they're upand coming, they are Yep,
they've got some talent, they do.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
They've got keys and all of it.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Yeah, they've got a lot of good kids, great coaching
staff down there and CoachWhittle, yeah, you know, we
played them in the summer.
They're a very good team butthey're a team that will contend
on their.
You know their level for us.
You know, hopefully for a statetitle.
From talking to their coach,you know class two yeah they're
two.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, they're class two.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
So class two is undergoing some changes,
obviously with Ty White leaving,john Marshall and going to
Petersburg, and so it givesreally central.
Who is the well-coached,well-played team.
They run their system well andthey can execute.
It's going to give them a goodopportunity to, you know, step
up and play.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
But didn't they get knocked out by John Marshall?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
They did.
Yeah, that's sort of likefortunate or unfortunate.
Yeah, some of our bracketsright.
They would have beat anybody inthe state if they were 6A.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So what's your thoughts on that?
Chris, you know all this, likeyour John Marshalls, which is
probably going to be Petersburgnow because we know they could.
But what's your thoughts onthis?
Like teams like that that arejust loaded Because what's
unfair is?
I get it, because in whatRichmond and Enrico County a kid
(38:07):
can go to select a?
Speaker 4 (38:08):
school they want to go to.
Yeah, with some choice and somedifferent things down there.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah, but here we can't do that.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
No, at the end of the day, it's all about just, you
know, coaching and providing forthe kids that are in your
school district, that go to yourschool.
And so, as a coach, you want tomake those guys better, and
that's where it really starts inelementary and middle schools.
Get those guys to lovebasketball, love putting in the
work or love another sport, butstill participating and putting
(38:33):
in that work, Then progressingas you get older.
Sure, not everyone is going tobe 6'5 to 6'10, which I think.
I looked at John Marshall'sroster last year and they had
seven or eight guys that size.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Yeah, you can't compete with that as a public.
That's my point.
Does VHSL?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
need to change something to keep it.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
They're trying to limit the transfer rule now.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, that's what I said, the transfer and all that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, some stuff like that.
But I think if you could justlevel the playing field for the
whole state so either the wholestate has school choice in every
county or each county doesn't.
I know it's a very hard decisionto do and you're jumping
through a lot of political redtape because then it starts at
the state level, then it goesdown to the local and the school
district level, but at the endof the day, you know those guys
(39:24):
are playing within the rules andthat's great, for that's what
works for their county and ourcounty has these rules and this
is what works for up here.
You know, and then we'regetting a fourth high school in
2029, so the county will havethree high schools to four.
And how will that affect things?
Will there be any redistrictingor anything like that that
they've started to talk about alittle bit?
So you know a lot of that playsinto it.
(39:44):
But again, you know, like mostcoaches or what all coaches
should be just worry about thekids that are in your school
district, that are enrolled inyour school, and then we're all
good.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, that's all you can worry about right now.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
That can be exciting to have a new high school but if
you guys can remember, when wewere little like elementary just
started middle school, it wasonly James Wood, which is right
there with the middle school isnow, and now there's Sarando and
Millbrook and, like you said,there's another school coming.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
So, yeah, it can take a while, because if they take
away from your schools, then itwill water down some of what you
guys have and that makes itrough.
Yeah, and then you got to lookat OK, do you stay in class four
, do you drop down student-wiseto go to class three?
You know, maybe you know aschool like Newbrook or Sharanda
then becomes class three andother schools stay class four.
So a lot of different things gointo play, like, for example,
lared, which we got to knowthose guys pretty well.
(40:37):
You know they're coaches fromClark County and so they moved
down to class one this year fromclass two.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You know they're coaches from Clark County, and
so they moved down to Class 1this year from.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Class 2.
Matt Huff's still over there.
Yeah, huffie's still theredoing a great job, played them
also this summer.
They've got a great senior,matt Owens, a player to watch
out for.
Oh, he's a beast, yeah, yeah,and he's grown.
He's a lot taller than Stevie.
But you look on the Class 1level, you know.
So they're going to move downthere, but that doesn't change
their rivalry with schools likePage or even Central.
(41:09):
So you know those guys willstill play each other, still
have that great rivalry, butthey're just on a different
level from the state side now.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
And you're going from Daniel Morgan Middle School a
few years ago, but you werethere for a while and now to
James Wood, You're about tocoach against some of the kids
you coached in middle school.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
That's right Was that exciting.
I did that last year, yeah, yeah, that's exciting.
And those guys are seniors andso I'm really excited, not only
for the opportunity to coachagainst them but then to watch
them play, whether it be inperson or on film.
And you know, even thoughthey're former players now not
in that program anymore stillwish those guys nothing but the
best of luck and succeed.
You know, and seeing some ofthose guys going to look at
(41:49):
colleges or what they're doingon the, on the au or the travel
circuit, it's just exciting, notonly for them as as people and
players, but for the area justto bring some of the attention
back that.
You know we have a lot of greatplayers here in the area and
it's really starting to behighlighted.
But again, it's a great job ofthe kids, their parents, the
coaching staffs at other schools, and you know I was lucky to be
(42:13):
a part of that.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, you've been a part of like you know those guys
and building up like Tony is atDaniel Morgan.
It starts there, that's right.
And building up, like Tony isat Daniel Morgan.
It starts there.
That's right For you guys to bea part of that development
before they even get to highschool.
And now that you're at the highschool level, though, that's
definitely exciting and youshould be proud of yourself, man
, because you guys do a lot withthe kids and you know that.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
You don't get enough credit as a middle school coach
but, like you said, that's whereit starts.
Developing them from there,getting them ready to take off
in high school and hit theground running, you know if you
have a great program.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Yep, just teaching them good habits and really
making sure they love the gameright, because the game is not
all about the trophy or theaccolades or the wins and the
losses.
The game, the love, is all thework that you put into it
grinding and practice, you know,going against your teammates,
compete for playing time andspots, and just enjoying that
journey and that's what wereally want to teach in middle
school is okay.
How can you enjoy this or whatwill make you enjoy this?
(43:13):
So when you get to high schooland it becomes way more
competitive and the coaching isa lot more direct or harder, how
they're going to be able torespond to that?
Being able to prepare them forthat, it's just great.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, yeah, I can't agree more.
Coach Mankins is he still at?
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Millbrook.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
No, Coach Mankins retired so he's no longer at
Millbrook.
He was the DSA or the athleticdirector over there.
He's no longer in that role,but he's still involved with
Millbrook.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay, he was a coach of Boone and Tickney and all of
them when we were in school, butthen he went to Millbrook and I
think he led them to the statechampionship, right.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
He did yep, yep, when Eric was a junior, before he
transferred out his senior year.
But yep, he led them to a statetitle.
They had a lot of good playerson that team, not just Eric, so
I don't want to talk, just abouthim.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
They had the Clayton brothers.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yep, Jordan Sugars Jordan.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Sugars, yeah, and he went to play college ball, so
they had a squad over thereactually.
Yep.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
Andrew Oates, who's on the Millborough coaching
staff now, was also on that teamRight so right, you know still
a lot of players coming back tocoach here in the area.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Well, all the stuff that they've done not to be
funny, tony, because christian'sthere I wish them the best and
like I would love for our highschool to finally win this
championship, but we never have.
Milbrook came and did it likereal quick, so hopefully, chris
you'll get there too, becausenobody else in our area has won
a state championship inbasketball Not for the local
boys.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
No, yeah, Hanley is very, very close.
They had a great playoff game.
I was at last year to watch Agreat atmosphere there.
They just came up short.
But obviously we wish all ofour local high schools the best
once you get to the statetournament.
But when we play each other atzero and zero, we're just.
We're just hoping to competeand be the better team that
(45:05):
night.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Right.
So, Chris, could you highlight,I guess, any upcoming stars on
James Wood?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (45:12):
So I'll talk about a couple of our seniors.
So Chris already alluded toMike Bell.
Yeah, mike has a lot of length.
He's, you know, 6'5".
He's really athletic.
You know Mike has a lot oflength, he's 6'5".
(45:37):
He's really athletic.
His game has grown a lot, Ibelieve.
Going back and look, he was onJV as both a freshman and a
sophomore.
Last year was the first yearhonorable mention player.
He's going to give youeverything night in and night
out defensively and hisoffensive game has really grown.
I'm really excited to watch him.
He's one of those guys who'sgoing to leave it all on the
line every night for his team.
And then we've got AshbyCopenhaver.
(45:58):
Also is an all-district type ofplayer.
Last year's a first-year playerin James Wood.
Offensively he brings a lot tothe table.
Defensively, as you know, tony,from coaching him in middle
school, he's going to give you alot of effort but he's still
about to be a part of the game.
I've got Ronnie Barrett.
Ronnie is a junior.
He's a unique post type ofplayer who sees the court very
(46:24):
well.
And so we're hoping that, youknow, ronnie continues to grow
his game because this willactually be his third year on
varsity, because he was onvarsity freshman Right.
He started on JV his freshmanyear and they moved him up after
five or six games.
So you know those guys are sortof the core of what we've got
(46:44):
but we're returning seven totalplayers.
Another player I'm excitedabout Ethan Tran.
So Ethan, again, you know, wasa James Wood middle player, you
know, a JV player, his sophomoreyear, varsity player last year.
He spends a lot of time in thegym, you know, whether it be
with Fast Bastard Ball or withsome of the former Shenandoah
(47:06):
players really trying to growhis individual game and he's one
of the more athletic orexplosive kids that he's got.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Nice.
Did you guys see the newsSpeaking of Shenandoah, and
that's a great thing, I think,to tell people.
Like you know, people don'teven think about going to
Shenandoah from the area it,except for quentin.
But most people are like, oh, Idon't want to go to shenandoah
and it's local, but they have akid that's transferred to jmu to
play yeah christian just toldme that, yeah, and I said see,
(47:35):
it's not how you start, it's howyou finish.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
That's right.
There's plenty of examplesthat's a great story, yeah, so
that's exciting it's these andwhat these kids got to
understand, and Chris knows thistoo.
Mr Hitt, it's like man thetransfer portal and kids coming
out of high school.
You're at the low end of thetotem pole now, absolutely.
You know, like the average ageof a player in college is what?
(47:58):
23, 24 now, yeah, yeah.
23, 24 now, yeah, yep 24,you've got to.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
You know there's a lot of kids who or a lot of
coaches, I should say who youknow they're getting a new job.
It's their first year, secondyear, you know they're on the
line and so it's a lot easierfor them to win and grow their
program with instant results.
If you go to the transferportal and get a player who's
already been through thatcollege experience.
If you go to the transferportal and get a player who's
(48:24):
already been through thatcollege experience and really
understands what it's like tolive on your own or be away from
home and have to be responsiblefor things, versus an 18 or 17
or 18-year-old high schoolstudent who's really going
through it for the first time.
But they're trying to changethose rules.
Going to JUCO now and somedifferent things like that.
Or, like you said, likeShenandoah and some other
division two or division threeschools that players should not
(48:46):
overlook.
You know it's an opportunity toget a free education for a sport
.
Uh, you know, obviouslydivision three doesn't give you
athletic scholarships, but ifyou can qualify academically you
can get, you know, plenty ofmoney to pay education there.
Use sports as that vehicle toget that education.
Not everybody, or a very smallpercentage of players will
(49:07):
either go play overseas, willplay semi-pro play in the NBA.
How can I use this sport thatI've played and grown in to get
that free education or get partof my education for free?
So I'm set up for success aftercollege, exactly.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yep, use that athleticism, everybody Go get an
education.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
We just had written like that was it?
That's about it.
But athleticism, we got theshort end of the stick.
That's right Anything.
In closing you'd like to saythis is great having you on.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
I appreciate the opportunity to come on here.
I've been very low-key as faras social media or different
things like that.
I'm not a big social media guyanyway.
Or talking to the paper, thosethings, if they reach out to
that, I'm not a big social mediaguy anyway.
Or talking to the paper, thosethings.
If they reach out to me, I'mhappy to do it.
I'm glad to be on here for youguys kicking off Season 2.
Looking forward to you guystalking about the Hanley
(50:13):
Football Team Championship statetitle oh yeah, our big episode.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
I know that one.
Speaker 4 (50:21):
But very excited again to be able to come on here
and not just talk about me, butJameswood basketball and how.
You know how valuable and goodof an opportunity it is for our
kids and I really hope thecommunity comes out and catches
a game because it'll be a verygood experience.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
One of our guests that was an All-State player and
Hall of Famer from that team.
His kid is at James Wood.
Oh yeah, Andrew.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Yeah, Jason LaRue is there.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Heston yeah, two of them are there.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
There's two there.
Speaker 4 (50:54):
Chris, there's two there, andrew and Partlow.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Partlow goes to James Wood also.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, I told you that .
Speaker 4 (51:02):
Yeah, Chris, I told you that.
Yeah, Chris, I told you that wehave two from there and Andrew,
you know, was.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Now, what's up with that?
Speaker 4 (51:08):
You've got all the Haley alumni over at James Wood,
no, but I guess property valuesin the county are a little bit
better than the city.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
But yeah, andrew was in the program last year Heston
was a kid ran.
Last year Heston was a kid wesort of talked about hey, you
want to play basketball?
Remember, tony played at DanielMorgan for a year but he's a
heck of a football player though.
He is a great football playerLike his dad, and he's a great
thrower on the track team.
We don't need basketball to getin the way of those two sports.
(51:39):
So he's got some time to trainand decompress for both Gotcha
of those two sports.
So he's got some time to trainand decompress for both.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
Gotcha All right.
Mr Higgs, it was great havingyou on.
Hey, I wish you future success,man, I wish you well, except
against Hanley.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
You know why Zero, no matter the team.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
But hey, I'm proud of you, man.
We came up together and you'redoing your thing man?
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, for sure, tony, you're a good assistant coach.
Chris, you have to catch somegames, but again, I appreciate
you guys having me on and wishyou guys the best of luck.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Yeah, it's been great having you, man.
I wish you the best as well.
Man, let's go.
Colonels.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
All right, chris, all right, chris, all right, man,
see you.
Well, everyone, that wraps upthe show.
Chris, that was fun.
And what?
Next week we're going to haveEmerus Morel, rylan Stribling
and Hassan Akambi on.
(52:39):
That should be Three youngsuperstar athletes.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
Two already going off to college in about a week or
two and, uh, one that's might gostraight to the olympics yeah,
ryan's a beast, ryan's a beast,so that's our next episode.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Everyone, we got a nice young local talent on
athletes and they're doing bigthing going off the school.
You know guys well for Ryland,he's going into his what senior
year, I believe.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, senior year.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
So, yeah, we'll have those young athletes on and talk
about their successes andtrials and tribulations, all
that stuff.
So good stuff, chris.
So we'll end this.
Everybody, thanks for joiningus and we'll see everybody,
hopefully Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
We should be back on with those young athletes, all
right, everybody.
Later, later, brothers withopinion, let the convo begin.
You know, communication key.
But then you must comprehend.
Preach B-W-O, let your voicesbe heard.
(53:48):
We enlightened by the truth,and now we spreading the word.
How do we learn to live when weconditioned to die?
Most people fail before theystart because they don't ever
try.
Man, they told us we wasworthless.
We believed in a lie.
We took it way too literal whenBig said ready to die.
You know, the KKK turned thecops in disguise.
(54:08):
Outro Music.
I was ready, bro.
It's a hindrance.
Silence is cassette, so letyour voices be heard, man, we
brothers with opinions.
Now we spreading the word.
Bringing light to the darkRevolution is our art.
Man, a lot of people talk, butthey ain't never walked apart.
Gotta shine a light on povertyand fight against injustice and
always speak the truth.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey, everybody welcome back to BWO.
I'm here with Chris Tucker.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What's up?
What's up.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
About to have a special guest on today.
We're missing a couple brothers, but we don't know what's up
with them.
But, chris, you're going to getus started with your high
energy this morning.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, my high energy.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I know you've worked 12-hour shifts the past week or
so.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I'm exhausted but I'm up, I'm ready to go
Start season two with the newJames Wood head coach, Mr Chris
Higgs.
And we've had him on as a guestin the past, but you know he
was at Daniel Morgan, so movingup, glad to see him being
successful, and you know thething that he wants to do is
coach, so going from middleschool to high school as a head
(01:29):
coach, that's a pretty big deal.
So we're excited to have him onand hear how he's going to
change James Wood's culturearound over there.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hey, Mr Dixon did the same thing.
He started at Daniel Morgan.
A lot of people probably don'tknow he started out as a
football coach for a few yearsand then moved to basketball.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I must have been a little kid.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't even know when he coached over there.
It had to be in the 80s.
But yeah, he did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So let's you know not wait anymore.
Chris is sitting here waiting.
I'll let Chris join us thismorning.
Hey, chris, you hear us, youthere oh sorry, I was on mute.
I was about to say I see him.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
What's up, Chris?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
What's up guys?
Good morning.
Unfortunately, I have to workat 20, so good to see you, chris
.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, good to see you , man, Been a while but excited
to hear how things are going.
Man, for you to be the new headcoach at James Wood, that's
pretty dope.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that we're very
excited James Wood basketball.
We've got a lot of good kids, alot of good opportunities over
there, just trying to reallychange and build on the culture
that started last year, justkeep growing and giving those
(02:49):
kids opportunities to succeed onand off the court.
So really excited to be there.
A big opportunity, as you guysmentioned earlier, started at
daniel morgan, so tony and Icoached together there for a
couple years.
I transitioned, coached athanley for a year, uh, and then
was a dameswood jb coach lastyear so you were over there with
my buddy, ben, and now you'retaking over since he's gone and
moved on to something else.
(03:09):
Yep, I was over there with CoachBates, worked with him for a
year and then he left forwhatever reasons he left for and
then I took over and got theopportunity to take over this
year.
So really excited.
I started earlier in the summer, actually probably towards the
end of school, you know Apriland May, and then we went all
summer together as a program forJV and varsity so gave the kids
(03:34):
a lot of chances to play insome games, go to some camps.
We were practicing two days aweek at some points when we were
allowed to, so certainly givingthem as much chance to be in
the gym to get better as players.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it sounds like you're taking the bull by the
horns for us.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
putting your foot down on these kids.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
We're putting our foot down.
We've got some pillars and somedifferent things that we sort
of want to live by as we changethe culture and grow the culture
.
Things like discipline,communication, effort, you know,
and the small things matter,like one of the phrases I'll
tell them, or I told them veryearly on in the summer is is uh,
it's not how you do anything,it's how you do everything right
(04:19):
.
And so you know how you talk ondefense, you know your body
language when you miss a shot.
Those sort of things matterjust as much as you know boxing
out, rebound, being able toscore, whether it's.
You know jumpers, layups, etcetera.
But those kind of things matter.
But again, it all starts withthings like discipline and
communication.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Right, so I guess that leads into my first
question.
So what's your coachingphilosophy, right?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
So I guess that leads into my first question.
So what's?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
your coaching philosophy.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
So probably, yeah, because it's evolved a little
bit.
You know, in middle school thatphilosophy was, you know, just
make kids love basketball, enjoythe game, learn how to compete,
you know, and build thosefundamentals so that way, when
they get to high school, thatthey still want to put in the
work and they still reallyunderstand what they're trying
to do.
And so here, you know, it'sreally three things as far as
(05:10):
our philosophy, which is be agreat teammate, you know you
want to be a good teammate onthe court and off the court, and
someone that you're, you knowyour teammates want to hang out
with and be friends.
Those are the kind of peoplethat you're going to play well
with together.
If you don't like someone, it'sgoing to be really hard to.
You know, play as a cohesiveunit and then strive for
(05:31):
excellence.
You know, put your signature inthe work you do every day.
So you know, when you come intogym and practice or we have a
shoot around or just open thegym up and let guys come in and
do anything they want to do is,are you putting your stamp on
that day?
Are you working as hard as youcan, even though you may not
want to.
There may be something going onoutside, uh, a basketball going
(05:52):
on at home.
You're at work or you know, youjust don't feel like working
out.
It's the middle of the summer,you won't be hanging out to the
beach or with your friends, butwhen you're in the gym, making
use of that time and then thelast one, I think, is really the
most important it's like enjoythe journey and the people that
you're with, and so you know youwant to respect everyone that
you're working with in everyrole coaches, teachers,
(06:13):
administrators.
We have a lot of guests andalumni that we're going to bring
in throughout the year toreally talk about what Jameswood
culture and basketball was likein the late nineties and early
2000s, so having those guys comeback in to reiterate that or
build that up, but really justenjoy that journey of all the
people that you're with, becauseit's not about the goal the
(06:35):
goal for all high schoolprograms to win a state
championship.
You have to be realistic.
How close are we to doing that?
We're not as close as someother programs, and so for us,
the goal is more about therelationships and the journey
than it is getting to that statetitle or something like that
(07:00):
Right, Good, good.
So how, how do you balance?
discipline and accountabilityyou mean like on the court or
off the court.
Yeah, on the world, I think youtreat everyone the same right,
and so it's player one who mightbe your best player, your star
player for certain things, allthe way down to player 12 or
even the manager.
You know we've got a greatmanager in Sammy Myers.
We just hung out with him atthe beach a couple of days ago
(07:23):
and had a lot of guys show upand just support him and hang
out.
But it's really just how youtreat everyone and making sure
they're the same.
There's no exception to the rule, because player A might be your
best offensive player, yourbest defensive player, and you
need him.
If he's not doing the work heneeds to do, either on the court
or in the classroom, he's notas valuable to your team as
(07:44):
someone else who is doing thatwork.
And so, you know, it's aboutjust finding that good balance,
holding everyone accountable tothe same standard.
So what we say is like you know, culture is what you allow and
we don't really allow anyone tocut corners or, you know, be the
exception to the rule becausethey might have a different role
or a different, you know,delivering to the school.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Gotcha, gotcha, chris , you got anything.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I know you do, yeah, so if I'm correct, then the
young man that I know that Ithink probably one of the best
players in the area and district.
He's still with you, right, bigMichael Bell.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Big Michael Bell is there.
He's still with you, right, BigMichael Bell.
Big Michael Bell is there.
He's been working hard thissummer, you know, really trying
to grow his game a little bit.
He's actually going to Shepherdon the 13th, so a good
opportunity there for him.
Yeah, bringing Michael Bellback.
We're bringing four seniorsback that started last year.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
A lot of experience.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, looking for those guys to contribute and
really elevate their game andthen provide that leadership
that you would look for in thoseplayers.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah yeah, so you guys will be right there,
hopefully, competing with thelikes of Hanley and anybody else
.
That's pretty good right now.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I would hope so.
You know the guys come in andput in the work.
Hopefully that ends up beingour reward, but we're just going
to go out and compete againstthe opponent we play every night
and not worry about who theyare or what their record is.
As you know, everyone's 0-0 onthat night.
Whatever happens happens.
But yeah, bring back reallywhat looks like five starters,
seven varsity guys who arereturning, and then we'll bring
(09:26):
some guys up for JV that havebeen in the program or that
played in the system last year,and so it should give us some
good continuity and a lot ofdepth.
And then very excited about ourJV program with the amount of
freshmen and sophomores we'vehad at workouts.
This summer it's been 20 plusin the gym almost every night,
again two nights a week, onMondays and Wednesdays.
So as a 14-year-old 15-year-oldkid there's probably a lot of
(09:47):
other things I'd rather do thanbeing in a hot, sweaty gym on a
Monday or a Wednesday during mysummertime, but having those
kids there is just awesome, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That shows the leadership that you have and the
belief they have in you, andthat they want to be better and
they want to win.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And that's what it takes.
You know, yeah, absolutely, andit says a lot to their work
ethic in the way that theirparents raised them.
And then you know, having ourmiddle school programs.
Do you know early morningworkouts sorry tony five days a
week out here at some of ourmiddle schools they'll start the
middle of october and go 6, 15to 7 yeah.
Hey, remember when we were thatyoung the last thing we'd want
to do or any opportunity wecould get to get to when we
(10:31):
would, but we never had thosechances.
So now getting these kids thatopportunity, albeit early in the
morning, it's just a very goodopportunity to help them grow
their skill.
And it's a lot ofindividual-based work.
You know working on microns andform shooting.
You know working on finishingmoves.
We're really trying toemphasize to our guys playing
off two feet, playing to ourstrengths, uh, and so having
(10:54):
them have that opportunity to dothat in the gym on their own,
in addition to practicing andother things like that, is just
great.
It's really going to elevatethe game of basketball, not just
at Jameswood but hopefully inthe area, because other schools
do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And see, I think it's great that now, finally, it's
trickled down to the middleschool.
You know all the middle schools, no matter county, city,
whatever the kids are taking it,you still want them to have fun
.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
But because some kids in middle school are like you
do find out who's serious, who'snot, at the same time that's
true, 7 am workout and whoreally wants to be somebody yeah
, I mean, you know, when youopen the gym at 6 15 or 6 30,
you know and daniel morgan, whenwe were there, I could think of
just a handful of kids thatwill probably show up and come.
And then, you know, we had ateam one year that was begging
(11:44):
us to practice Like Coach.
We want to be in the gym everyday.
Could have been there on Sundays, we could.
And then when you look at thenumbers of tryouts, even last
year, james Woodford, jv, weprobably had 40 kids try out, 45
kids, which is a big number,especially in a school that's,
you know, not traditionallyknown as a basketball school,
right, right.
(12:05):
And then you look at what wehad at Daniel Morgan I mean we
had 60 kids one time and it wasover Halloween and we had kids
in Halloween costumes.
So a wide range of folks thatare interested in playing
basketball or learning about ateam sport which you don't want
to turn that down or turn thosekind of kids away.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah , like you said, dedication and
work ethic, man, that goes along way and it shows, but they
need a good leader.
They need somebody who's goingto stick with them and, like you
said, have realistic goals thatyou know not everybody's going
to make it to States or even winit, but you start with baby
steps and hopefully you guys beone of the best teams in the
(12:48):
district, get to the districtsand do well in that, get to
Regents and then go from there.
But I'm excited to see how youguys do, man, hopefully I can
get down there and watch a gameor two because I'd like to
support Mike when I definitelywant to support you.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yep, we'd love that.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And Yep, we love that and you know all of our games,
at least home games are onHuddle Live, so they're streamed
Now, as your own schedule cameout.
Nobody's basketball schedulecame out yet, right?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It hasn't been released to the public yet, but
I do have it, so I do know ourfirst game is I'm looking at now
it's December.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I was going to ask that next, when the season
starts.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
So nice.
So tryouts for the area startNovember the 10th, right after
that last dead period, electionday.
So you get three days oftryouts and then we have our
first scrimmage.
I'm looking at it now the 17th.
So we'll have Two or three youknow really solid practices
before that scrimmage, right Toimplement some of the new
(13:47):
offense and make some of theother changes that we're going
to make.
We've started doing it thissummer, so we're a little bit
ahead, but we'll finish puttingin all that game plan, get our
new JV coach integrated inplenty of times.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Can you name your coaching staff?
I can name my coaching staff.
You want to give them a shoutout?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So Coach H Paul Hojdovic is ourvarsity assistant coach.
He's the marketing teacher atJames Wood.
He played baseball at Shepherd.
He bounced around, did somethings at Shepherd, did some
things at Elon and somedifferent sports, so really
excited to have him on board.
He was on Coach H's staff lastyear, so a huge asset for us.
(14:29):
And then Quentin Jones, whoplayed at Millbrook, played at
Shenandoah will be our JV coach,and so my goal when I was
looking for a JV coach was can Iget someone who can elevate our
players' skills and knowledgeand then be someone who can not
only relate to them?
Because you know Quentin playedat Millbrook.
(14:50):
You know he had a successfulcareer.
It could have been moresuccessful in high school.
He had a successful career incollege, and I say it could have
been more successful in highschool because I believe, if I
remember correctly, his senioryear or his junior year oh,
covid, he was a little bit here.
That's a lot of kids though hewas cut short.
You know he's still got anopportunity to go play at
Shenandoah and further hisbasketball career.
(15:12):
But I really wanted someoneelse who had positive energy and
positive experiences, andQuentin is a great personality
that will be able to connect andrelate to our kids and our
program.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
That's awesome man.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I didn't know Quentin was over there with you.
Hey, Chris, look, I didn't evenspill the beans, chris,
surprise, surprise yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, he just graduated from Dean College up
in Massachusetts.
He did yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
And he's working at Fast Basketball, you know, with
James Frisbee and Coach Bluefrom Shenandoah and those guys.
So we'll have a goodopportunity to, you know, grow
his teaching skill.
At the same time he's at FAST,same time he's over with us at
Joneswood.
So really excited to bring himon board.
And then he was a one-yearRodsville Stars player.
(15:59):
He played for Wink City andsome other AAU programs here in
the area.
So we bring a lot of goodexperience on and off the court
that I'm excited about.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, nice, that's like me.
Go out and get that young blood, that's good stuff.
Yeah, because you've got BJ.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Him and BJ both played one year for Stars for me
.
So again, great kids who reallylove the game and they want to
give back and, you know, helpyounger kids in the area get
those opportunities and getbetter.
So these guys both played incollege, right?
Bj played football in college,Quentin played basketball.
It gives them an opportunity tosay, hey, this is what worked
(16:36):
for me, or this is what I wastaught when I got to college.
That will make you moresuccessful.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, it's just their experiences go a long way.
Plus, they're young and theycan relate to these kids.
I'm like that's getting old.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I'm old as dirt.
They want to look at my statsor pictures.
They're going to be in blackand white.
They're not going to believe itbecause I can't do it in gym,
but Quentin can dunk andout-shoot most of those guys in
the gym all day long.
Right, I bet I was in the gymall day long, so I had that
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, I had even better after he left Shenandoah,
so he's worked on his game?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
And if you follow him on socialmedia, you know he puts out a
lot of good videos and a lot ofgood messages about the kind of
work that you really have to do.
And then again, you know, plugin fast basketball a little bit.
Those guys are great workingwith kids and really further
their game when it gives them anopportunity to work on things
just outside of practice.
Tony, as you know, if you havekids who just show up for just
(17:30):
practice, they're not getting asgood as they could or can't.
You've got kids in the gym fivedays a week at a number of
different places, whether it'sfast or other trainers in the
area.
There's a lot of choices, a lotof good choices, so having that
opportunity for kids to gothere is just phenomenal, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And adding on that it's what you do outside of
practice on your own.
That's right, and it's not hardto tell.
Even if you can be the mosttalented athlete in the world,
but a kid who outworks you inthe gym three, four, five times
a day, they're going to surpassit, and you see it especially
once we get to the high schoollevel, being at the middle, and
(18:10):
then he keeps putting in thework and they'll surpass people.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
They're the most talented, but it's all about
putting that work in, that hardwork and that effort, having
discipline to do that every dayor on your own, is just going to
make you a much better playerand a much better person than
somebody who just tries to do it.
You know the once or twice aweek that you're practicing
during the season, Yep yep,totally agree.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
James Wood.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Did you ever go to James Wood like as a high school
student?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
No, I am a Hanley graduate, so I graduated in 97,
and I saw Coach Dixon at FamilyDay last weekend.
He gave me a hard time becauseI was carrying a James Wood
basketball respect either myformer coaches or colleagues
(19:03):
that I've worked with.
You know the past 15, 20 yearsand you know taking something
from them that I've learnedalong the way.
It's just a huge value add.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Now see Chris putting on James Wood stuff.
Would be like me putting onWashington Commander stuff.
Being a Cowboy fan Like that,that would be hard.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
It's not as hard as what you think.
We've got a greatadministration, We've got a
great facility over there, andso you know the kids really make
it.
What's the?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
battle.
That's right.
I don't think a lot of peopleknow y'all built a new gym Just
what Last year?
Right, Well?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
we don't have a new gym.
The school went over a fullremodel so the gym got a
makeover, but it's not a brandnew gym.
Oh, okay, yeah, so there's anew.
It looks very similar toFrederick County.
There's a window wall on thebackside which you can see into
the school and see the cafeteriaand some different things.
The secondary gym has beenupgraded a little bit.
(20:06):
The bleachers.
We just, you know, refinishedthe floor again, so there's a
lot of upgrades around thebuilding to really make it a
much better experience.
Yeah, a new gym would be great,though, but not right now.
Yeah, who's the gym named after?
It's named after Don Shirley,okay.
(20:28):
Do you know who that is.
Sorry, I'll take that back.
Wendell Dick, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Oh, and no way I was like got it, yeah, I've been
looking for it because he passedaway a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Mr Dick passed away a few years ago, but when I was
little he was always over there.
He was just, he was a great manand he really cared about
people.
So Absolutely Yep, and we havethat he passed away, definitely
when I was.
When I was told about it, I waslike oh man it's big loss.
Just such a culture builderover there and really you know
he loved the community.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah, we have the Wendell Dick Hall of Fame there.
So when you guys do come to agame and come in the entrance,
there on the right-hand sidewe've got the Hall of Fame which
mentions all the folks thathave been inducted and when, and
it just looks really good whenyou come up there Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Okay, chris, a couple more questions or a few more,
fire away.
This is good stuff.
So how do you stay updated oncoaching techniques and the
latest trends in basketball?
That's a good start.
So how do you stay updated oncoaching techniques and the
latest trends in basketball?
Speaker 4 (21:28):
That's a tough one, because there's a bunch of
different ways, but you are, hey, I always tell people you're a
basketball mind, though I cansay that there's a bunch of
different ways to do it.
I work from home, I'm in IT, Iwatch a lot of obscure
basketball and film.
So I watch a lot of D2 and D3and NAIA games, whether it's
this year or last year.
I watch a lot of Europeanbasketball, some WNBA, you know,
(21:57):
because those kind of plays andsets and the things that
they're doing really relate tothe kind of kids that we've got
at.
James Wood from an athleticstandpoint, you know, if you try
to watch what they're doing inthe NBA James Wood from an
athletic standpoint, you know,if you try to watch what they're
doing in the NBA, it's a lotmore.
One, it's a lot more complex.
And two, you're looking at guysthat are, you know, 6'3 to 6'8
in athleticism that we justdon't have, and so trying to get
(22:18):
us to emulate what they'redoing is just not going to work
out.
I watch a lot of obscurebasketball.
I follow a lot of coaches onsocial media, and then you know
there's a coaching associationhere in Virginia that has now
really done a lot over the last12 months or so to get
information out to us, and sothey're having an in-person
(22:40):
session in September inCharlottesville, and so that
will be a good experience to goto and see what those guys are
talking about and deliver somegood messages to us.
So it's a lot of obscurebasketball, a lot of trainers
and a lot of social media.
The good thing is aboutcoaching in basketball is you
know you can steal it fromsomeone else because it's
(23:01):
probably been done alreadybefore.
If you're inventing it thefirst time, then maybe it's not
the most successful thing.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Right, yeah, I always say, chris, as a coach, you've
got to be a student as well.
A lot of coaches, they thinkthey know it all, but it's like
you always got to be willing tolearn and adapt to the times as
well.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yep, you got to look at it with an open mind and say,
okay, if it's working for thoseguys and it's successful there,
then maybe we should try ithere and see how it is.
You know, I know last year atsome of our workouts with Coach
Bates we were trying somedifferent things defensively the
way we move our hands and howwe pivot and stuff like that and
you know we tried it a coupleof practices and didn't work out
the way we wanted to.
(23:41):
So then we switched back anddid something else.
So it's always good to go inthere and experiment some, see
how it adapts to the kids andthe personnel you got and then
if it works, great.
If it doesn't work, you reallyhaven't lost anything because
you're, like you said, goinginto it with an open mind to try
something different.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, so how would you?
Because I know you're a bigfilm guy, you just tapped on it
film guy.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You just tapped on it .
How do you assess opposingteams?
So spend a lot of time watchingfilm.
But I also like to go watch inperson and so the one thing that
you can watch for on film and Iwas talking about this with
coach green from millbrook theother day when he and I were
talking is, you know, you canwatch and understand their plays
and calls on film.
But all that's going to changewhen you play each other.
You know you're you may run thesame set.
You're going to call itsomething different, you know,
(24:28):
or you may not run the same setsat all.
I know last year when we playedMillbrook the first time they
ran one set of plays.
The second time they ransomething totally different that
they hadn't run before in agame.
So it was kind of a uniqueexperience.
That's good coaching.
You should expect that.
But the thing I like aboutin-person scouting is that you
can really see how big a kid is,how athletic a kid is.
(24:49):
On film it's hard to really seethat.
So you can see the quicknessand the size and their depth
perception and a whole bunch ofdifferent things by just
watching in person, like, forexample, watching Christian.
In person is way different thanwatching on film, because he
doesn't allow anyone to speedhim up or slow him down.
He plays at his pace and thenhis athleticism.
(25:10):
The way that it stands out inperson is a little bit different
in film, just because a lot ofteams that they play are
physically about the same size.
So I really love the in-personscouting, though it helped us a
lot last year.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, I can agree with that and you can sense body
language, bad habits, what theydo, right wrong, that's right.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
They react to different things that the crowd
is doing.
You know all that stuff, howtheir teammates react to them
when they do something good orbad, so you can really pick up
on all those little cues that,if the game is on the line or
you need a shot here or you'regetting ready to drop a, you
know, uh, after timeout play,you're like all right, I want to
go with this kid because inthis situation these things
(25:53):
always happen gotcha yeah, yougot to have a lot of things in
common with hanley then, as faras like returning so many
seniors now, well, upcomingseniors and and a lot of people
that's been together for, youknow, since they were in little
league or middle school.
Yeah, yeah, it's exciting.
I mean there should be a lot ofgood competition.
(26:13):
And when you think about allyour rivalries you know Milbrook
, sharando, hanley, like youmentioned when you play those
teams night in and night out,you're going to get their best
effort, regardless of what youknow.
Your regular season record isgoing into that Again, every
night we look at it, we're 0-0and the opponent is 0-0.
But when you have a, you know,a senior-leading team, like
Hanley does, millbrook isreturning a lot of experience,
(26:36):
sharando's got some experience,and then us, you know all those
local games are going to becomevery, very good.
And then when you look atoutside the region, how some
teams are rebuilding, some teamshave gotten some transfers in,
it's going to be a very goodregion.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Is Garland Williams still at Sherando?
Garland is still there, yep,he's been coaching there since
we were little.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
I know, yeah, right, coach hints me in high school.
Yep, absolutely RememberGarland, he's still there.
Coach Simons is still there.
So again they've got a veryexperienced staff that's been
together for a while.
The systems they run, you knowthere's a lot of continuity
there.
So again it's a good sort ofyeah, I guess I'll say
(27:21):
difference, whereas you knowwe're a fresher and newer
coaching staff, even though,like Tony said, I'm getting old.
I'm an experienced coachingstaff, so all these rivalry
games will be very good.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Earlier, about like the late 90s, early 2000s, and
trying to bring people in andreiterate like how they did
things and approached the gameand built a culture.
So you're talking about likeprobably the best big three I
remember seeing and playing whenwe grew up, which was Chris
Boone, john Tickney and MikeCrawford.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Absolutely so.
Yep, going to have two of thoseguys come to the gym, talk to
the guys about I'll call it oldschool James Wood culture and
what sort of being a Colonelmeans to them.
And then, when you bring in,you know, can bring in a guy
like Brad Parks, you know, andsome different guys in the in
the you know 2010 to you know2020, who were record wise, may
(28:15):
not have been as successful asit was in the early 2000s, late
nineties, like you said, butstill being able to have those
guys talk about what it means tobe a Colonel to them, to these
guys, so that when we put ourJersey on every night, that
there's a little more sense ofpride.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, brad was played the year too.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
He was?
Yep, he was a four year varsityguy.
You know, mike was a four yearvarsity guy, I believe.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Is Brad the all time leading scorer?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I think so.
He's real close, he.
I think so he's real close.
He's almost 2,000 points.
I'll have to look.
That's one of the things thatwe don't have in the gym.
I'd like to get put up.
Hanley's got one, millbrook'sgot one.
Who are 1,000-point-plus scores.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
They don't even have that up in the gym.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
We don't have that up .
We have a lot of state bannersup there.
Yeah, we have a lot of statebanners up there, so still which
?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
programs want to stay tight.
They have the Nessarot brothers, they have Ben and John Kane,
like they have a lot of legends.
I can't remember James Wood.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
We've got a long list of great players that have come
through there that you know.
My goal was to get somethinglike that put up in the gym,
whether it's you know, just guysthat are in the Hall of Fame
that play basketball, guys andgals, or if it's you know
thousand point scores plus, getthose names put up there so
people can recognize them.
We do have a lot of greatsports programs who have won
(29:34):
some titles.
You know volleyball.
You know it's going for afour-peat this year.
They've won the last three.
Yeah, shout out to them.
So when you come in there, yousee those banners, you know
we'll be hanging a basketball inthere, knock on wood one day.
That's the goal.
Right, it doesn't have to bethis year, it could be 20 years
(29:57):
from now, you know.
But that's every program's goal, going into it.
But just being able torecognize some of that talent
that we've had the past 20 or 30years and have them come in and
, you know, again, remind ourguys, this is what James should
be about.
And then when you guys comeinto the gym, be able to
recognize those names and say,okay, you know, like you said,
joe and Larry King played here.
A lot of people might notremember that.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Right right.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But John King was the first and only three-time
player of the year.
Yeah, he won 10th, 11th and12th grade and until Zach Diggs
came along.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I was buried in sales Nobody else ever did it.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So all the greats we've had from all, like Hanley,
millbrook, sharando, clarkCounty, nobody did it until Zach
Diggs came along.
But Ben Kane did it in theearly 80s and dominated over at
James Wood.
And then Larry Kane might beone of the greatest ever, but he
played in the 70s so obviouslyI never got to see him play, but
everybody knows all about him.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah, chris, bring back that rivalry, that James
Wood-Haley rivalry, when we wasin school.
I remember that round 40.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh, my God.
If it wasn't a rivalry, chrisand Mike Crawford, crushed.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Well.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
When they came to play, I was excited to watch
them.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I remember the game.
They were good.
It was an exciting time.
It seemed like the gyms werejust packed.
Back then, even with them games, oh yeah, the atmosphere and
the culture, yeah, theatmosphere was yeah, and that's
what we want to get back then,you know, even with them games,
oh yeah, the atmosphere and theculture.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, the atmosphere was yeah, and that's what we
want to get back to.
You know we want to pack thestands over there, have a great
student section and put a goodon-court you know product or
experience for the fans that doyou know.
Come to see us.
That's what we want to do andwhether it's win or lose, we
(31:47):
want to be in every game.
We'll know what our game planis and what our strategy is and
what we want to hold teams to,because we want to be a
defensive first team.
What we want to hold teams toto give us the best opportunity
to win Right.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So, Chris, a couple more questions.
So you pretty much answeredmost of them.
So what is your short-term goaland long-term goal for your
program?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
That's a good one.
So short-term goal is justgetting the culture moving in
the right direction.
Again, focus on discipline,communication, effort.
We want to have a team GPAbetween 3.2 and 3.5.
So not only are they athletes,they're student athletes, as you
guys know, first being in highschool.
So we want them all to gettheir GPA where it needs to be.
(32:28):
We want 100% graduation rate.
Geez, can't talk right now.
And so that's a short-term and along-term goal.
A couple of long-term goalswould be last year we hosted our
first playoff game.
I'd love to host anotherregional playoff game.
We'd love to win a regionalplayoff game, both short-term
(32:51):
and long-term, and we'd love tolong-term qualify for the
midterm.
So both have off-the-courtgoals and on-the-court goals.
And then every workout we want20 or 30-plus kids in the gym.
We've got plenty of opportunityfor them to get better.
The times are out there.
We publish all of our timesabout two to three weeks in
(33:12):
advance from a practice schedule, and so we want all these kids
in the gym to get them thatopportunity.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Nice.
So can you touch on any gameson the schedule.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah, I mean it's not public, but I can certainly
talk about some.
Will you want to circle theJames Wood-Hanley date, tony?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Oh, I'm not, hey, I didn't say it.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I didn't say it either.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Some people might be curious what kind of big games
do you see?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Well, because Coach Zach at Hanley might want to
punch me in the face, but youdidn't listen.
I'm like man.
You should send Christian overthere to help.
That's probably like man.
He better not come toWinchester, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
All we're worried about over there, james was kids
who live in our school district, so it's one thing I've told
some other parents.
You know you always get thosechirps of rumors about
transferring or moving here ormoving there.
Look, all I care about.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Chris, do I know Rumors, rumors, rumors.
That's not going to presentwhat it is.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
A lot of it's envy and you know a lot of it is.
People are bored and needsomething to talk about.
But, like I say, I'm onlyworried about kids that live in
our school district that areenrolled in our school.
So I make sure they're enrolled, I make sure they got a
physical from the last 14 monthsand so that they're able to
practice or participate inworkouts.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, that leads to a great question, Chris how do
you handle criticism?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I mean I think I'll steal a line from Nick Saban.
You know, one of my favoritecoaches, regardless of sport,
all time, if you want to makeeveryone happy, go sell ice
cream.
So there's always going to becriticism.
There's always going to be.
You know people are going tothink, hey, we could do it
better.
We could do this.
I'll tell you.
You know, I've been coaching fora long time.
(35:01):
A lot of it's been volunteerhours.
It's never about the money,it's always about the kids, and
so there's plenty of opportunityfor those folks who you know
want to offer their opinion orprovide some expertise.
We could always use healthcoaching.
You know always, whether it'son any level, whether it's a
parking rec, whether it's AAU,whether it's a middle school or
(35:25):
the high school level, in anysport, you can always use more
help coaching.
You can always use extrareferees.
So come on out.
But yeah, criticism is going tohappen.
It's the nature of the game.
You've just got to have thickskin and move on.
You know your kids better thananyone else and you know what
you stand for and what you'reworking on in practice.
And else, and you know what youstand for and what you're
(35:45):
working on in practice.
If you fall short, obviously itstarts at the top of coaching.
I'll always be responsible forthat.
But there's blame to go up anddown the program.
But again it's going to startwith me.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, well, good, take accountability, chris,
that's right you got to.
Unlike you did with me atDaniel Morgan.
Oh, we took accountability, wehad some good years.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
We, oh, we took accountability.
We had some good years.
We had some good years Come upshort in a championship game on
the road, but then we pulled itout the next year.
So I would say all of our biggames are rivalry games.
You know, yeah, millbrook atMillbrook, and then they come to
you or Sharando, or Hanley, andthen vice versa, like those are
(36:22):
going to be the biggest crowd,the most intense crowd and
really just an intense game Likewe play.
I'm looking now we playSharando in early December and
that is going to be a packedhouse.
Yeah, yeah, of course it's agood game.
Yeah.
And I would say another game iswe've got Central on our
(36:43):
schedule.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Okay.
They're pretty good, they're upand coming, they are Yep,
they've got some talent, they do.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
They've got keys and all of it.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Yeah, they've got a lot of good kids, great coaching
staff down there and CoachWhittle, yeah, you know, we
played them in the summer.
They're a very good team butthey're a team that will contend
on their.
You know their level for us.
You know, hopefully for a statetitle.
From talking to their coach,you know class two yeah they're
two.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, they're class two.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
So class two is undergoing some changes,
obviously with Ty White leaving,john Marshall and going to
Petersburg, and so it givesreally central.
Who is the well-coached,well-played team.
They run their system well andthey can execute.
It's going to give them a goodopportunity to, you know, step
up and play.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
But didn't they get knocked out by John Marshall?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
They did.
Yeah, that's sort of likefortunate or unfortunate.
Yeah, some of our bracketsright.
They would have beat anybody inthe state if they were 6A.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
So what's your thoughts on that?
Chris, you know all this, likeyour John Marshalls, which is
probably going to be Petersburgnow because we know they could.
But what's your thoughts onthis?
Like teams like that that arejust loaded Because what's
unfair is?
I get it, because in whatRichmond and Enrico County a kid
(38:07):
can go to select a?
Speaker 4 (38:08):
school they want to go to.
Yeah, with some choice and somedifferent things down there.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah, but here we can't do that.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
No, at the end of the day, it's all about just, you
know, coaching and providing forthe kids that are in your
school district, that go to yourschool.
And so, as a coach, you want tomake those guys better, and
that's where it really starts inelementary and middle schools.
Get those guys to lovebasketball, love putting in the
work or love another sport, butstill participating and putting
(38:33):
in that work, Then progressingas you get older.
Sure, not everyone is going tobe 6'5 to 6'10, which I think.
I looked at John Marshall'sroster last year and they had
seven or eight guys that size.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Yeah, you can't compete with that as a public.
That's my point.
Does VHSL?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
need to change something to keep it.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
They're trying to limit the transfer rule now.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, that's what I said, the transfer and all that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, some stuff like that.
But I think if you could justlevel the playing field for the
whole state so either the wholestate has school choice in every
county or each county doesn't.
I know it's a very hard decisionto do and you're jumping
through a lot of political redtape because then it starts at
the state level, then it goesdown to the local and the school
district level, but at the endof the day, you know those guys
(39:24):
are playing within the rules andthat's great, for that's what
works for their county and ourcounty has these rules and this
is what works for up here.
You know, and then we'regetting a fourth high school in
2029, so the county will havethree high schools to four.
And how will that affect things?
Will there be any redistrictingor anything like that that
they've started to talk about alittle bit?
So you know a lot of that playsinto it.
(39:44):
But again, you know, like mostcoaches or what all coaches
should be just worry about thekids that are in your school
district, that are enrolled inyour school, and then we're all
good.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, that's all you can worry about right now.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
That can be exciting to have a new high school but if
you guys can remember, when wewere little like elementary just
started middle school, it wasonly James Wood, which is right
there with the middle school isnow, and now there's Sarando and
Millbrook and, like you said,there's another school coming.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
So, yeah, it can take a while, because if they take
away from your schools, then itwill water down some of what you
guys have and that makes itrough.
Yeah, and then you got to lookat OK, do you stay in class four
, do you drop down student-wiseto go to class three?
You know, maybe you know aschool like Newbrook or Sharanda
then becomes class three andother schools stay class four.
So a lot of different things gointo play, like, for example,
lared, which we got to knowthose guys pretty well.
(40:37):
You know they're coaches fromClark County and so they moved
down to class one this year fromclass two.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You know they're coaches from Clark County, and
so they moved down to Class 1this year from.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Class 2.
Matt Huff's still over there.
Yeah, huffie's still theredoing a great job, played them
also this summer.
They've got a great senior,matt Owens, a player to watch
out for.
Oh, he's a beast, yeah, yeah,and he's grown.
He's a lot taller than Stevie.
But you look on the Class 1level, you know.
So they're going to move downthere, but that doesn't change
their rivalry with schools likePage or even Central.
(41:09):
So you know those guys willstill play each other, still
have that great rivalry, butthey're just on a different
level from the state side now.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
And you're going from Daniel Morgan Middle School a
few years ago, but you werethere for a while and now to
James Wood, You're about tocoach against some of the kids
you coached in middle school.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
That's right Was that exciting.
I did that last year, yeah, yeah, that's exciting.
And those guys are seniors andso I'm really excited, not only
for the opportunity to coachagainst them but then to watch
them play, whether it be inperson or on film.
And you know, even thoughthey're former players now not
in that program anymore stillwish those guys nothing but the
best of luck and succeed.
You know, and seeing some ofthose guys going to look at
(41:49):
colleges or what they're doingon the, on the au or the travel
circuit, it's just exciting, notonly for them as as people and
players, but for the area justto bring some of the attention
back that.
You know we have a lot of greatplayers here in the area and
it's really starting to behighlighted.
But again, it's a great job ofthe kids, their parents, the
coaching staffs at other schools, and you know I was lucky to be
(42:13):
a part of that.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, you've been a part of like you know those guys
and building up like Tony is atDaniel Morgan.
It starts there, that's right.
And building up, like Tony isat Daniel Morgan.
It starts there.
That's right For you guys to bea part of that development
before they even get to highschool.
And now that you're at the highschool level, though, that's
definitely exciting and youshould be proud of yourself, man
, because you guys do a lot withthe kids and you know that.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
You don't get enough credit as a middle school coach
but, like you said, that's whereit starts.
Developing them from there,getting them ready to take off
in high school and hit theground running, you know if you
have a great program.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Yep, just teaching them good habits and really
making sure they love the gameright, because the game is not
all about the trophy or theaccolades or the wins and the
losses.
The game, the love, is all thework that you put into it
grinding and practice, you know,going against your teammates,
compete for playing time andspots, and just enjoying that
journey and that's what wereally want to teach in middle
school is okay.
How can you enjoy this or whatwill make you enjoy this?
(43:13):
So when you get to high schooland it becomes way more
competitive and the coaching isa lot more direct or harder, how
they're going to be able torespond to that?
Being able to prepare them forthat, it's just great.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, yeah, I can't agree more.
Coach Mankins is he still at?
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Millbrook.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
No, Coach Mankins retired so he's no longer at
Millbrook.
He was the DSA or the athleticdirector over there.
He's no longer in that role,but he's still involved with
Millbrook.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay, he was a coach of Boone and Tickney and all of
them when we were in school, butthen he went to Millbrook and I
think he led them to the statechampionship, right.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
He did yep, yep, when Eric was a junior, before he
transferred out his senior year.
But yep, he led them to a statetitle.
They had a lot of good playerson that team, not just Eric, so
I don't want to talk, just abouthim.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
They had the Clayton brothers.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yep, Jordan Sugars Jordan.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Sugars, yeah, and he went to play college ball, so
they had a squad over thereactually.
Yep.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
Andrew Oates, who's on the Millborough coaching
staff now, was also on that teamRight so right, you know still
a lot of players coming back tocoach here in the area.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Well, all the stuff that they've done not to be
funny, tony, because christian'sthere I wish them the best and
like I would love for our highschool to finally win this
championship, but we never have.
Milbrook came and did it likereal quick, so hopefully, chris
you'll get there too, becausenobody else in our area has won
a state championship inbasketball Not for the local
boys.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
No, yeah, Hanley is very, very close.
They had a great playoff game.
I was at last year to watch Agreat atmosphere there.
They just came up short.
But obviously we wish all ofour local high schools the best
once you get to the statetournament.
But when we play each other atzero and zero, we're just.
We're just hoping to competeand be the better team that
(45:05):
night.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Right.
So, Chris, could you highlight,I guess, any upcoming stars on
James Wood?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (45:12):
So I'll talk about a couple of our seniors.
So Chris already alluded toMike Bell.
Yeah, mike has a lot of length.
He's, you know, 6'5".
He's really athletic.
You know Mike has a lot oflength, he's 6'5".
(45:37):
He's really athletic.
His game has grown a lot, Ibelieve.
Going back and look, he was onJV as both a freshman and a
sophomore.
Last year was the first yearhonorable mention player.
He's going to give youeverything night in and night
out defensively and hisoffensive game has really grown.
I'm really excited to watch him.
He's one of those guys who'sgoing to leave it all on the
line every night for his team.
And then we've got AshbyCopenhaver.
(45:58):
Also is an all-district type ofplayer.
Last year's a first-year playerin James Wood.
Offensively he brings a lot tothe table.
Defensively, as you know, tony,from coaching him in middle
school, he's going to give you alot of effort but he's still
about to be a part of the game.
I've got Ronnie Barrett.
Ronnie is a junior.
He's a unique post type ofplayer who sees the court very
(46:24):
well.
And so we're hoping that, youknow, ronnie continues to grow
his game because this willactually be his third year on
varsity, because he was onvarsity freshman Right.
He started on JV his freshmanyear and they moved him up after
five or six games.
So you know those guys are sortof the core of what we've got
(46:44):
but we're returning seven totalplayers.
Another player I'm excitedabout Ethan Tran.
So Ethan, again, you know, wasa James Wood middle player, you
know, a JV player, his sophomoreyear, varsity player last year.
He spends a lot of time in thegym, you know, whether it be
with Fast Bastard Ball or withsome of the former Shenandoah
(47:06):
players really trying to growhis individual game and he's one
of the more athletic orexplosive kids that he's got.
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Nice.
Did you guys see the newsSpeaking of Shenandoah, and
that's a great thing, I think,to tell people.
Like you know, people don'teven think about going to
Shenandoah from the area it,except for quentin.
But most people are like, oh, Idon't want to go to shenandoah
and it's local, but they have akid that's transferred to jmu to
play yeah christian just toldme that, yeah, and I said see,
(47:35):
it's not how you start, it's howyou finish.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
That's right.
There's plenty of examplesthat's a great story, yeah, so
that's exciting it's these andwhat these kids got to
understand, and Chris knows thistoo.
Mr Hitt, it's like man thetransfer portal and kids coming
out of high school.
You're at the low end of thetotem pole now, absolutely.
You know, like the average ageof a player in college is what?
(47:58):
23, 24 now, yeah, yeah.
23, 24 now, yeah, yep 24,you've got to.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
You know there's a lot of kids who or a lot of
coaches, I should say who youknow they're getting a new job.
It's their first year, secondyear, you know they're on the
line and so it's a lot easierfor them to win and grow their
program with instant results.
If you go to the transferportal and get a player who's
already been through thatcollege experience.
If you go to the transferportal and get a player who's
(48:24):
already been through thatcollege experience and really
understands what it's like tolive on your own or be away from
home and have to be responsiblefor things, versus an 18 or 17
or 18-year-old high schoolstudent who's really going
through it for the first time.
But they're trying to changethose rules.
Going to JUCO now and somedifferent things like that.
Or, like you said, likeShenandoah and some other
division two or division threeschools that players should not
(48:46):
overlook.
You know it's an opportunity toget a free education for a sport
.
Uh, you know, obviouslydivision three doesn't give you
athletic scholarships, but ifyou can qualify academically you
can get, you know, plenty ofmoney to pay education there.
Use sports as that vehicle toget that education.
Not everybody, or a very smallpercentage of players will
(49:07):
either go play overseas, willplay semi-pro play in the NBA.
How can I use this sport thatI've played and grown in to get
that free education or get partof my education for free?
So I'm set up for success aftercollege, exactly.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yep, use that athleticism, everybody Go get an
education.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
We just had written like that was it?
That's about it.
But athleticism, we got theshort end of the stick.
That's right Anything.
In closing you'd like to saythis is great having you on.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
I appreciate the opportunity to come on here.
I've been very low-key as faras social media or different
things like that.
I'm not a big social media guyanyway.
Or talking to the paper, thosethings, if they reach out to
that, I'm not a big social mediaguy anyway.
Or talking to the paper, thosethings.
If they reach out to me, I'mhappy to do it.
I'm glad to be on here for youguys kicking off Season 2.
Looking forward to you guystalking about the Hanley
(50:13):
Football Team Championship statetitle oh yeah, our big episode.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
I know that one.
Speaker 4 (50:21):
But very excited again to be able to come on here
and not just talk about me, butJameswood basketball and how.
You know how valuable and goodof an opportunity it is for our
kids and I really hope thecommunity comes out and catches
a game because it'll be a verygood experience.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
One of our guests that was an All-State player and
Hall of Famer from that team.
His kid is at James Wood.
Oh yeah, Andrew.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Yeah, Jason LaRue is there.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Heston yeah, two of them are there.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
There's two there.
Speaker 4 (50:54):
Chris, there's two there, andrew and Partlow.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Partlow goes to James Wood also.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, I told you that .
Speaker 4 (51:02):
Yeah, Chris, I told you that.
Yeah, Chris, I told you that wehave two from there and Andrew,
you know, was.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Now, what's up with that?
Speaker 4 (51:08):
You've got all the Haley alumni over at James Wood,
no, but I guess property valuesin the county are a little bit
better than the city.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
But yeah, andrew was in the program last year Heston
was a kid ran.
Last year Heston was a kid wesort of talked about hey, you
want to play basketball?
Remember, tony played at DanielMorgan for a year but he's a
heck of a football player though.
He is a great football playerLike his dad, and he's a great
thrower on the track team.
We don't need basketball to getin the way of those two sports.
(51:39):
So he's got some time to trainand decompress for both Gotcha
of those two sports.
So he's got some time to trainand decompress for both.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
Gotcha All right.
Mr Higgs, it was great havingyou on.
Hey, I wish you future success,man, I wish you well, except
against Hanley.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
You know why Zero, no matter the team.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
But hey, I'm proud of you, man.
We came up together and you'redoing your thing man?
Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, for sure, tony, you're a good assistant coach.
Chris, you have to catch somegames, but again, I appreciate
you guys having me on and wishyou guys the best of luck.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Yeah, it's been great having you, man.
I wish you the best as well.
Man, let's go.
Colonels.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
All right, chris, all right, chris, all right, man,
see you.
Well, everyone, that wraps upthe show.
Chris, that was fun.
And what?
Next week we're going to haveEmerus Morel, rylan Stribling
and Hassan Akambi on.
(52:39):
That should be Three youngsuperstar athletes.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
Two already going off to college in about a week or
two and, uh, one that's might gostraight to the olympics yeah,
ryan's a beast, ryan's a beast,so that's our next episode.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Everyone, we got a nice young local talent on
athletes and they're doing bigthing going off the school.
You know guys well for Ryland,he's going into his what senior
year, I believe.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, senior year.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
So, yeah, we'll have those young athletes on and talk
about their successes andtrials and tribulations, all
that stuff.
So good stuff, chris.
So we'll end this.
Everybody, thanks for joiningus and we'll see everybody,
hopefully Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
We should be back on with those young athletes, all
right, everybody.
Later, later, brothers withopinion, let the convo begin.
You know, communication key.
But then you must comprehend.
Preach B-W-O, let your voicesbe heard.
(53:48):
We enlightened by the truth,and now we spreading the word.
How do we learn to live when weconditioned to die?
Most people fail before theystart because they don't ever
try.
Man, they told us we wasworthless.
We believed in a lie.
We took it way too literal whenBig said ready to die.
You know, the KKK turned thecops in disguise.
(54:08):
Outro Music.
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