April 25, 2024 • 16 mins
Welcome to the latest episode of Affton Unplugged, where we delve into the heart of Affton School District by spotlighting its individuals and their accomplishments. In this episode, we focus on the acclaimed Rogers Middle School Basketball Team, and their extraordinary undefeated season. Our host, Superintendent Travis Bracht, invites you to enjoy the stories of our young champions and their dedicated coach, which detail their victorious journey and their thoughts on this triumphant achievement.
Meet our guests - the esteemed Rogers Middle School Basketball Team, composed of three standout players and their devoted coach. Our first conversation is with the beloved coach, Mr. DiDonato, a seventh-grade social studies teacher with a long history with the Afton School District. He shares his unique path which led him to Rogers Middle School, and a glimpse into his personal life.
Following the coach are key players Dresden, Drake, and Breylon - eighth-graders with diverse interests extending beyond the basketball court. Our discussion encompasses their winning season, detailing their successes, tryouts, off-court antics, and their relationships within the team. The coach attributes their undefeated victories to the exceptional bond within the team, providing a far-reaching glimpse into their unity and love for the game.
The episode concludes with memorable highlights of the season, and expressions of gratitude from Coach DiDonato and the team members who underscore the essence of teamwork in their unbeaten season. Tune in to celebrate the undefeated Rogers Middle School basketball champions. Listen to their victorious story filled with teamwork, fortitude, and unforgettable memories—all while garnering valuable life lessons applicable beyond the game of basketball.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:44):
All right thanks for joining us for this episode of the afton unplugged podcast
and on this episode we've specifically invited the rogers middle school basketball
team we have three players and the coach and so their season was specifically
very successful they were undefeated this year.
And so that's one of the reasons why we wanted to highlight their season and
(01:08):
you'll get to hear what that meant to them from their perspective.
And so without further ado, we'll hear from the coach, Mr.
DiDonato, and then we'll do introductions with the three players that we have.
So Mr. DiDonato, tell us just a little bit about yourself on the podcast.
We like to get to know the people and the stories. So maybe what's your role
(01:28):
with Afton? How long you've been with the district?
Are there other jobs or roles you've had before joining Afton?
And then anything you might want to tell us about your family or interests outside
of work would be great. We'll hand it over to you.
Sounds good. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Rock, for inviting us on today. I am excited.
I'm a teacher here at Afton Rogers Middle School. I teach seventh grade social
(01:51):
studies, and I've been with the district approximately eight years now.
Kind of funny how that all worked out when it all did. I won't go into that right now.
Other roles that I've had before joining here with.
Rogers Middle School is I taught for a little bit in Austin,
Texas, but that I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which has a here to St. Louis.
(02:11):
I did that when I was back in Texas. And so it just seems kind of interesting
the way that all that kind of led to me ending up here in the long run.
As far as my family outside of here, I've got two little boys,
a five-year-old and a three-year-old.
And me and my wife have been married as long as I've been working here at Afton.
And so it's been an interesting ride going through the last,
(02:32):
especially four years with small kids and all of that type of stuff happening in there.
So yeah, again, thank you for having me on. All right.
We've got three players here with us. They're going to tell us their first name,
what grade they're in, what position they played during the season,
and then whether there's any other clubs, activities, or sports they want to
mention that they're involved with.
(02:53):
How about we We start with you. My name is Justin.
What grade are you in? Eighth. Eighth grade. And then what position did you
play this year? I played guard, like any type of guard, mostly.
And then I also do play soccer.
Okay. Thanks. How about you? My name's Drake, and I'm in eighth grade. I played point guard.
(03:13):
And then I played soccer for the school, and I played baseball out of school.
All right. What grade are you in? I'm an ace. Oh, great. Yeah. How about you?
My name is Abrayla. I'm an 8th grader. I play outside of school.
I play baseball and basketball, and my position is shooting guard.
And you're also an 8th grader? Yes. All right. Got the 8th grade career.
(03:35):
All three of them have been with me since 6th grade on this basketball team,
so that's why I chose them to come on with us. Great.
I'm sure that helped throughout the season. All right, let's talk a little bit more about the season.
And so, Coach Donato, just tell us a little bit about how would you characterize this season?
Basically, when does it start? When does it end?
(03:56):
How many games were there? How many opponents did you have?
And for you, what were some of the highlights from your perspective? perspective.
Sounds good. Yeah. The season usually starts right around just before Thanksgiving
break when I have my tryouts, I always get ambitious and think I'm going to
have one day of tryouts. It always leads into two because I get 50 players that
show up and that's a great thing to have.
(04:17):
Yeah. So many people will be able to do that. It's also really hard because
you have to make decisions and cut the thing down a little bit and things like that.
So that's why I always do two days so that I can bring back those that like,
I feel like I didn't either look at well enough or that
hey i want to give them a second look along the way and
so like i said these three guys have been with me since sixth grade they've
showed tremendous growth over the time that they've been with
(04:39):
us usually after we do the tryouts we go into practices those are usually in
december and then into january is when we really start practicing and towards
the end of january we get into all the games and then february is when all the
games are really really going we usually end by the end of that we had 11 games
this year we played Lindbergh we.
Clayton, we played Ledoux, we played Bayless, we played Hancock Place, played a lot, 11 total.
(05:05):
A lot of it was back and forth where we played one home game and then one away
game with each opposing team.
It was actually the longest season we've had previous to this, I think five years now.
We've had 10 games every single year. So this was pretty interesting to have 11 this year.
As far as some highlights, really one of the big things for me was that the
students really started this year clicking and meshing together because in addition
(05:29):
to the three in this room, there was a few that I also had on last year.
And so they started really kind of trusting in what each other were doing.
And they began to really trust what I was trying to get them to do as far as
listening, taking the chances, doing what I know that they can do and giving
them hopefully that confidence.
That was really some of the highlights for me for the year was that idea of
(05:52):
teamwork coming together that we were hoping to build. Okay.
Well, let's hear a little bit from the players. Let's just start out from a very basic sense.
Why did you want to get involved with the basketball team? Why were you interested
in getting involved with basketball?
Oh, so I decided to, like, get involved with RMS basketball because,
I mean, I like basketball, so I thought it'd be better playing for my school. Mm-hmm.
(06:13):
How about you? Kind of the same. I really enjoy basketball, so I thought it'd
be fun playing for the school with all the support.
It'll be fun. All right. I just love playing basketball, so it's fun to play.
So any opportunity I can get, I play. All right.
And then I know Coach DeDenato talked a little bit about some of the things he enjoyed this season.
(06:36):
What are some of the things you enjoyed most about this season?
I'm sure there's the obvious, you were undefeated, but anything beyond that
that you want to mention that maybe our listeners wouldn't know about? That's you. Yeah.
The locker room was crazy. Like, it was so fun in the locker room.
Yeah, I would say the teammates, like, they made all the 6.30 a.m.
(06:58):
Practices more enjoyable.
I'd say, like, the chemistry more because we all, like, knew each other.
So, like, you know, you can get to it on the court.
Yeah, as you mentioned, I guess if you play together for three years,
you kind of know what the other person's going to do, right?
Before they even do it, so.
And then what are your plans in the future? All of you mentioned that you were
(07:18):
in eighth grade, and so maybe connected to basketball, what do you hope to do?
But then even beyond basketball, the things you're looking forward to as you
transition into high school. What's yours?
In high school, one of my goals is to play with tough competition in the sports I play for high school.
So I would look for sports. Okay.
(07:39):
I do not really plan on playing basketball. I'm going to focus on soccer and baseball.
But i really enjoy it and
i'll probably play with friends outside of school yeah all right
i'll try to keep playing through high school and every
like pickup game i can get be fun
all right anything else you're looking forward
(08:00):
to in high school maybe beyond just sports and
athletics anything else that you've already thought about or
are you just enjoying eighth grade right now well i'm
excited high school because it's like a different building so I'd
say like making new friends and like the schedule like getting
out also got a start earlier yeah but but if you're if you make 630 practices
(08:25):
you'll be you'll be fine so you have to make it to school all time too yeah
yeah like probably meeting friends I'm like you know I see what else like high
school has a socket dude okay.
And then Coach DiDonato, I know there's probably a lot of things that come to
mind about, you know, a favorite memory or favorite story.
(08:45):
Anything, can you narrow it down to one? I don't know if I can fully narrow it down to one.
I'll probably give maybe two examples here. But then I also want to say,
like, one of the biggest things that was, like, the highlight of this season
was just how engaged our crowd was.
Like, whenever we'd play at home, they would just be so loud in there and so
pumped up. And then like at the end of the season, when that game ended,
(09:07):
the final game, literally half
of the stands ran out on the court and were like jumping on each other.
And everybody was having a good old time and everybody was just excited about that whole thing.
But a lot of it, like for me, favorite memories comes down to watching the talent
and the confidence develop in these guys during the last three years.
And especially over this season alone, there was a couple of other guys that
(09:30):
were with us last year as well. like Adem and Yasin and just seeing the difference
in the way that they played this year. They were both centers on my team.
Last year, one of them was really kind of unconfident in what he was doing and not really sure.
And then this year he comes out on the court and he's blocking shots,
making shots, and he's just excited and you can see it in his face and he's
(09:53):
just jumping around all over the court.
And then another one of them was Adem and he would always be like the kind of
almost a leader type of thing on the team, but he was willing to kind of not
feel like everything was on his back anymore.
And so watching that growth that he trusted his other players when they were
out there with him, knowing that, Hey, I can give the ball up.
(10:13):
I can sit down for five or 10 minutes, or I can do whatever they're going to
make it work. And it's going to be okay.
And I think that ultimately kind of came down to being what was really a lot
of fun for the team is that they all kind of trusted each other.
They all work together with each other. And even in those games where it was
like one point or two points at the end.
And they're just going back and forth was just.
(10:34):
Really kind of stressful, but I think they really enjoyed it. They fed off of it.
We do our loud huddle breaks and everything at the end of our timeouts and just
an amazing atmosphere that was going on with them and with the team and the
entire building and everything.
So, yeah, I could I could tell that I saw some pictures of the final game and
you could tell it was crowded.
(10:54):
And as you mentioned, you could you could tell that people were probably very
excited at the end of the game.
Just just from the pictures I saw their parents got really involved this year.
They had special shirts made up for all the games, highlighting all the different
players that would bring out pom poms. We had Yasin's dad up in the stands dancing
and doing little cheerleading things for us during timeouts.
(11:17):
And it was so much fun. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of fun.
Oh, well, that's good. Lots of lots of spirit. And sounds like everyone wanted
to be a part of the part of part of the success.
All right. From the player's perspective, what was maybe a story or memory?
Marie, again, if you have more than one, that's okay.
But what sticks out to you guys? Who wants to go first? Who wants to go first?
(11:40):
A specific memory that I remember is Yassin hit like a game winner.
It was like a very, like, it was a pretty big moment because it would have broken our streak.
Yeah. So.
Maybe walk us through what was that play like? Give us maybe a little bit of setup.
Yassin got the ball, and he shot the ball. Who were playing on that game?
(12:02):
I don't remember. I think he was playing show me.
Yeah, and then he scored the ball There's a two-point shot three-point shot.
I was like make the basket. It was like the layup There's a way up and then
you can see y'all see that like just slide jump saying that's my son.
That's my son He was very excited. Yeah, that's good How about you?
What was a favorite memory or story from the season?
(12:24):
Mine was the last game It was really back and forth game.
We were probably up by like two points. I think I,
A couple seconds left, and they inbounded the ball, and I batted it down,
and then everybody ran out onto the court. It was just really exciting.
So that game ended more with a defensive play to kind of save the game.
(12:45):
Well, defense is important too, right? Yeah. This guy, like,
go-to defense, the one you're about to hear from right here, Ray. Okay.
Bunchy, what's your favorite memory or story from the season? My favorite memory?
I actually don't know. I have like any memory spoon maybe like I guess right
now like my first game first and right now It was a hard game too,
(13:06):
but like I think like I had one in the best place, you know taking a ball and we both be one like.
It was also a really big thing for especially these guys cuz last year when
they were on the team How many games did we win? Was it one or two?
Yeah, like one game and so he completely flipped turns her up and in the next
year and went from only winning one So winning them all, that was pretty,
(13:28):
that was a lot of fun. That's good.
Knowing that you guys were on the team last year, sounds like the success was very different.
Anything that sticks out between last season and this season other than just the wins?
The trust. Yeah. Everybody trusted everybody a little more.
Like last season, there was mainly one or two people that would always take
(13:51):
the ball, and they never really passed. and never trusted anybody to take a
shot. So everybody trusted each other.
It was a better team role. Yep. Played really good as a team, huh?
That's always the key to victory is having that trust in each other and knowing
that you've got other people that you can fall back on and rely on.
And that's just kind of the key to being successful in life.
(14:14):
So I hope that they stick with that and they figure that one out going forward. Yeah.
We've covered a lot. We've done introductions. We've talked about some specific
things in the season, end, some favorite memories and stories.
Anything else you guys want to add that you think our listeners might enjoy
knowing about the season?
I'll just say that I'm thankful for the Afton community for welcoming me in
(14:35):
as an outsider coming from Texas.
It's kind of always a weird little dynamic coming into a new place,
especially with St. Louis and its family ties and everything like that.
And then lastly, I have to give
obviously a shout out to my wife for allowing me to continue to coach.
No, she doesn't really. She's really good about it. But I know it's a lot of
work on her during the season when I have practices and games and she has to
(14:58):
take care of both of the kids.
And so I'm just grateful for that. And I'm grateful that whenever my kids come,
the community in Afton at these games and at the mixer that we just had over
the weekend, it's just great with them hanging out with my kids.
So that's just awesome for me.
Thanks for that. How about you guys? Any last thing you want to mention?
I want to shout out my mom and my baby brother.
All right. Anyone else?
(15:22):
All right. Well, guys, thanks for joining me on the podcast.
Congratulations on a great season. Sounds like you've got lots of good memories
that will carry on well past this year.
Music.
And Coach Tornado, thanks for making time. Thanks for organizing this today.
Thank you very much for inviting us on.
(15:43):
Thanks for listening to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great.
In the Afton School District, education is the most important thing we do. We'll see you out there.
Music.
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:44):
All right thanks for joining us for this episode of the afton unplugged podcast
and on this episode we've specifically invited the rogers middle school basketball
team we have three players and the coach and so their season was specifically
very successful they were undefeated this year.
And so that's one of the reasons why we wanted to highlight their season and
(01:08):
you'll get to hear what that meant to them from their perspective.
And so without further ado, we'll hear from the coach, Mr.
DiDonato, and then we'll do introductions with the three players that we have.
So Mr. DiDonato, tell us just a little bit about yourself on the podcast.
We like to get to know the people and the stories. So maybe what's your role
(01:28):
with Afton? How long you've been with the district?
Are there other jobs or roles you've had before joining Afton?
And then anything you might want to tell us about your family or interests outside
of work would be great. We'll hand it over to you.
Sounds good. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Rock, for inviting us on today. I am excited.
I'm a teacher here at Afton Rogers Middle School. I teach seventh grade social
(01:51):
studies, and I've been with the district approximately eight years now.
Kind of funny how that all worked out when it all did. I won't go into that right now.
Other roles that I've had before joining here with.
Rogers Middle School is I taught for a little bit in Austin,
Texas, but that I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which has a here to St. Louis.
(02:11):
I did that when I was back in Texas. And so it just seems kind of interesting
the way that all that kind of led to me ending up here in the long run.
As far as my family outside of here, I've got two little boys,
a five-year-old and a three-year-old.
And me and my wife have been married as long as I've been working here at Afton.
And so it's been an interesting ride going through the last,
(02:32):
especially four years with small kids and all of that type of stuff happening in there.
So yeah, again, thank you for having me on. All right.
We've got three players here with us. They're going to tell us their first name,
what grade they're in, what position they played during the season,
and then whether there's any other clubs, activities, or sports they want to
mention that they're involved with.
(02:53):
How about we We start with you. My name is Justin.
What grade are you in? Eighth. Eighth grade. And then what position did you
play this year? I played guard, like any type of guard, mostly.
And then I also do play soccer.
Okay. Thanks. How about you? My name's Drake, and I'm in eighth grade. I played point guard.
(03:13):
And then I played soccer for the school, and I played baseball out of school.
All right. What grade are you in? I'm an ace. Oh, great. Yeah. How about you?
My name is Abrayla. I'm an 8th grader. I play outside of school.
I play baseball and basketball, and my position is shooting guard.
And you're also an 8th grader? Yes. All right. Got the 8th grade career.
(03:35):
All three of them have been with me since 6th grade on this basketball team,
so that's why I chose them to come on with us. Great.
I'm sure that helped throughout the season. All right, let's talk a little bit more about the season.
And so, Coach Donato, just tell us a little bit about how would you characterize this season?
Basically, when does it start? When does it end?
(03:56):
How many games were there? How many opponents did you have?
And for you, what were some of the highlights from your perspective? perspective.
Sounds good. Yeah. The season usually starts right around just before Thanksgiving
break when I have my tryouts, I always get ambitious and think I'm going to
have one day of tryouts. It always leads into two because I get 50 players that
show up and that's a great thing to have.
(04:17):
Yeah. So many people will be able to do that. It's also really hard because
you have to make decisions and cut the thing down a little bit and things like that.
So that's why I always do two days so that I can bring back those that like,
I feel like I didn't either look at well enough or that
hey i want to give them a second look along the way and
so like i said these three guys have been with me since sixth grade they've
showed tremendous growth over the time that they've been with
(04:39):
us usually after we do the tryouts we go into practices those are usually in
december and then into january is when we really start practicing and towards
the end of january we get into all the games and then february is when all the
games are really really going we usually end by the end of that we had 11 games
this year we played Lindbergh we.
Clayton, we played Ledoux, we played Bayless, we played Hancock Place, played a lot, 11 total.
(05:05):
A lot of it was back and forth where we played one home game and then one away
game with each opposing team.
It was actually the longest season we've had previous to this, I think five years now.
We've had 10 games every single year. So this was pretty interesting to have 11 this year.
As far as some highlights, really one of the big things for me was that the
students really started this year clicking and meshing together because in addition
(05:29):
to the three in this room, there was a few that I also had on last year.
And so they started really kind of trusting in what each other were doing.
And they began to really trust what I was trying to get them to do as far as
listening, taking the chances, doing what I know that they can do and giving
them hopefully that confidence.
That was really some of the highlights for me for the year was that idea of
(05:52):
teamwork coming together that we were hoping to build. Okay.
Well, let's hear a little bit from the players. Let's just start out from a very basic sense.
Why did you want to get involved with the basketball team? Why were you interested
in getting involved with basketball?
Oh, so I decided to, like, get involved with RMS basketball because,
I mean, I like basketball, so I thought it'd be better playing for my school. Mm-hmm.
(06:13):
How about you? Kind of the same. I really enjoy basketball, so I thought it'd
be fun playing for the school with all the support.
It'll be fun. All right. I just love playing basketball, so it's fun to play.
So any opportunity I can get, I play. All right.
And then I know Coach DeDenato talked a little bit about some of the things he enjoyed this season.
(06:36):
What are some of the things you enjoyed most about this season?
I'm sure there's the obvious, you were undefeated, but anything beyond that
that you want to mention that maybe our listeners wouldn't know about? That's you. Yeah.
The locker room was crazy. Like, it was so fun in the locker room.
Yeah, I would say the teammates, like, they made all the 6.30 a.m.
(06:58):
Practices more enjoyable.
I'd say, like, the chemistry more because we all, like, knew each other.
So, like, you know, you can get to it on the court.
Yeah, as you mentioned, I guess if you play together for three years,
you kind of know what the other person's going to do, right?
Before they even do it, so.
And then what are your plans in the future? All of you mentioned that you were
(07:18):
in eighth grade, and so maybe connected to basketball, what do you hope to do?
But then even beyond basketball, the things you're looking forward to as you
transition into high school. What's yours?
In high school, one of my goals is to play with tough competition in the sports I play for high school.
So I would look for sports. Okay.
(07:39):
I do not really plan on playing basketball. I'm going to focus on soccer and baseball.
But i really enjoy it and
i'll probably play with friends outside of school yeah all right
i'll try to keep playing through high school and every
like pickup game i can get be fun
all right anything else you're looking forward
(08:00):
to in high school maybe beyond just sports and
athletics anything else that you've already thought about or
are you just enjoying eighth grade right now well i'm
excited high school because it's like a different building so I'd
say like making new friends and like the schedule like getting
out also got a start earlier yeah but but if you're if you make 630 practices
(08:25):
you'll be you'll be fine so you have to make it to school all time too yeah
yeah like probably meeting friends I'm like you know I see what else like high
school has a socket dude okay.
And then Coach DiDonato, I know there's probably a lot of things that come to
mind about, you know, a favorite memory or favorite story.
(08:45):
Anything, can you narrow it down to one? I don't know if I can fully narrow it down to one.
I'll probably give maybe two examples here. But then I also want to say,
like, one of the biggest things that was, like, the highlight of this season
was just how engaged our crowd was.
Like, whenever we'd play at home, they would just be so loud in there and so
pumped up. And then like at the end of the season, when that game ended,
(09:07):
the final game, literally half
of the stands ran out on the court and were like jumping on each other.
And everybody was having a good old time and everybody was just excited about that whole thing.
But a lot of it, like for me, favorite memories comes down to watching the talent
and the confidence develop in these guys during the last three years.
And especially over this season alone, there was a couple of other guys that
(09:30):
were with us last year as well. like Adem and Yasin and just seeing the difference
in the way that they played this year. They were both centers on my team.
Last year, one of them was really kind of unconfident in what he was doing and not really sure.
And then this year he comes out on the court and he's blocking shots,
making shots, and he's just excited and you can see it in his face and he's
(09:53):
just jumping around all over the court.
And then another one of them was Adem and he would always be like the kind of
almost a leader type of thing on the team, but he was willing to kind of not
feel like everything was on his back anymore.
And so watching that growth that he trusted his other players when they were
out there with him, knowing that, Hey, I can give the ball up.
(10:13):
I can sit down for five or 10 minutes, or I can do whatever they're going to
make it work. And it's going to be okay.
And I think that ultimately kind of came down to being what was really a lot
of fun for the team is that they all kind of trusted each other.
They all work together with each other. And even in those games where it was
like one point or two points at the end.
And they're just going back and forth was just.
(10:34):
Really kind of stressful, but I think they really enjoyed it. They fed off of it.
We do our loud huddle breaks and everything at the end of our timeouts and just
an amazing atmosphere that was going on with them and with the team and the
entire building and everything.
So, yeah, I could I could tell that I saw some pictures of the final game and
you could tell it was crowded.
(10:54):
And as you mentioned, you could you could tell that people were probably very
excited at the end of the game.
Just just from the pictures I saw their parents got really involved this year.
They had special shirts made up for all the games, highlighting all the different
players that would bring out pom poms. We had Yasin's dad up in the stands dancing
and doing little cheerleading things for us during timeouts.
(11:17):
And it was so much fun. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of fun.
Oh, well, that's good. Lots of lots of spirit. And sounds like everyone wanted
to be a part of the part of part of the success.
All right. From the player's perspective, what was maybe a story or memory?
Marie, again, if you have more than one, that's okay.
But what sticks out to you guys? Who wants to go first? Who wants to go first?
(11:40):
A specific memory that I remember is Yassin hit like a game winner.
It was like a very, like, it was a pretty big moment because it would have broken our streak.
Yeah. So.
Maybe walk us through what was that play like? Give us maybe a little bit of setup.
Yassin got the ball, and he shot the ball. Who were playing on that game?
(12:02):
I don't remember. I think he was playing show me.
Yeah, and then he scored the ball There's a two-point shot three-point shot.
I was like make the basket. It was like the layup There's a way up and then
you can see y'all see that like just slide jump saying that's my son.
That's my son He was very excited. Yeah, that's good How about you?
What was a favorite memory or story from the season?
(12:24):
Mine was the last game It was really back and forth game.
We were probably up by like two points. I think I,
A couple seconds left, and they inbounded the ball, and I batted it down,
and then everybody ran out onto the court. It was just really exciting.
So that game ended more with a defensive play to kind of save the game.
(12:45):
Well, defense is important too, right? Yeah. This guy, like,
go-to defense, the one you're about to hear from right here, Ray. Okay.
Bunchy, what's your favorite memory or story from the season? My favorite memory?
I actually don't know. I have like any memory spoon maybe like I guess right
now like my first game first and right now It was a hard game too,
(13:06):
but like I think like I had one in the best place, you know taking a ball and we both be one like.
It was also a really big thing for especially these guys cuz last year when
they were on the team How many games did we win? Was it one or two?
Yeah, like one game and so he completely flipped turns her up and in the next
year and went from only winning one So winning them all, that was pretty,
(13:28):
that was a lot of fun. That's good.
Knowing that you guys were on the team last year, sounds like the success was very different.
Anything that sticks out between last season and this season other than just the wins?
The trust. Yeah. Everybody trusted everybody a little more.
Like last season, there was mainly one or two people that would always take
(13:51):
the ball, and they never really passed. and never trusted anybody to take a
shot. So everybody trusted each other.
It was a better team role. Yep. Played really good as a team, huh?
That's always the key to victory is having that trust in each other and knowing
that you've got other people that you can fall back on and rely on.
And that's just kind of the key to being successful in life.
(14:14):
So I hope that they stick with that and they figure that one out going forward. Yeah.
We've covered a lot. We've done introductions. We've talked about some specific
things in the season, end, some favorite memories and stories.
Anything else you guys want to add that you think our listeners might enjoy
knowing about the season?
I'll just say that I'm thankful for the Afton community for welcoming me in
(14:35):
as an outsider coming from Texas.
It's kind of always a weird little dynamic coming into a new place,
especially with St. Louis and its family ties and everything like that.
And then lastly, I have to give
obviously a shout out to my wife for allowing me to continue to coach.
No, she doesn't really. She's really good about it. But I know it's a lot of
work on her during the season when I have practices and games and she has to
(14:58):
take care of both of the kids.
And so I'm just grateful for that. And I'm grateful that whenever my kids come,
the community in Afton at these games and at the mixer that we just had over
the weekend, it's just great with them hanging out with my kids.
So that's just awesome for me.
Thanks for that. How about you guys? Any last thing you want to mention?
I want to shout out my mom and my baby brother.
All right. Anyone else?
(15:22):
All right. Well, guys, thanks for joining me on the podcast.
Congratulations on a great season. Sounds like you've got lots of good memories
that will carry on well past this year.
Music.
And Coach Tornado, thanks for making time. Thanks for organizing this today.
Thank you very much for inviting us on.
(15:43):
Thanks for listening to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great.
In the Afton School District, education is the most important thing we do. We'll see you out there.
Music.
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