Free for All Sideline Edition: Marion County Double Feature

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Sports fans, it's time for the Friday Free for All.
Over the next two hours, we'll bring you all the
latest from across the region in high school and college sports.
Now Here are your hosts, Chris Johnson and Alex Wiederspiel.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome in. This is the Friday
Free for All, brought to you by Dan Cavetota Buick GMC.
It is official, it is August. Camps will open this month.
In fact, one of the coaches we're talking to today
their camp opens next week. Little road trip they're taking.

(00:51):
NFL training camps open, Mountaineer Camp open. High school football
camps about to be open, less than three weeks away
from the return to school and now and now, we
are less than four weeks away from opening day and

(01:15):
four weeks away from opening night for the vast majority
of the schools in the state of West Virginia. Folks.
Can you feel it? Can you smell it? You can
definitely breathe it. It is coming. High school football is back,
and to a greater extent, other fall sports as well.

(01:37):
I don't want to undersell our soccer players. I don't
want to understall our volleyball players, but I will tell
you this started out as a football show, so it
of course always holds a special place in our hearts. Football,
my friends, no matter no matter what you may think otherwise.

(02:01):
It's back. The long national nightmare ends at the end
of July, and we're gonna do this for real. We're
gonna do this for real. We're gonna have a great
show today. We've got lots of good guests coming in.
Now we are going to talk a little baseball. Chris
George is going to join us as our first guest
today to recap everything that went down in the State

(02:21):
Legion baseball tournament and then talk a little bit about
what's next for the winning team as they'll head to
the mid Atlantic Tournament, which I believe is set for
next week. A little check that with Chris when we
have him on. Also, we're going to chat with a
couple of coaches today from Marion County. Darren Hayes of
North Marion is going to join the show, as is
Shane Eckle of East Vermont getting set to join the program.

(02:45):
Chris Johnson will join us a little bit later. He's
going to join us when we talk with Darren Hayes
and that's our show today, folks, And if there is time,
Chris and I talked about this a little bit, maybe
ling around with this as a concept either this week
or next week. Favorite high school football or high school

(03:05):
sport movies, Favorite high school sport movies. I'm thinking about that.
It's been on my mind anyway. That's what's coming up
on the show today. This is the Friday Free for All,
brought to you by Dan Cavatio to buick GMC. We'll
get right into it. Let's take a break first, and
then we're going to hear from Chris George on the
other side. Back after this.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyota Wi GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Friday Free for All kicks off with Chris George this morning,
of course, to chat a little bit about Legion baseball,
among other things. Is going to talk some pirates as well.
Tournament wrapped up and a surprise, surprise, familiar winner at
the top Crown Champion on Monday. Now they'll get a
chance to head to the mid Atlantic Tournament. Chris, what's
up man?

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Good to be Oh, it's been gone for a week. Yeah,
nothing against Morgantown a million times, but a long week
of baseball and dogs in lightning bolts literally, I mean,
there's about that. So we had a couple of different
line of storms come through back on Friday night. We
had a line come through as actually Friday evening slash

(04:16):
after late afternoon and the evening and the lightning bolt
struck the scoreboard and you could hear it sound like
an explosion, and we didn't lose the scoreboard, although the
once once lightning hitted the numbers and lettering on the
scoreboard looked like it was in Chinese to what happened
was the blew out the power supplies the outfield Friday

(04:38):
them and one of the power supplies was powering up
our centerfield camera through video Productions and met News, and
we didn't lose the camera. The camera was fine, but
the power supply was fri so we had we had
two games there on Friday. We have use of our
centerfield cameras, so we're able to get that power supply
read to another power supply on Saturday morning, which we

(05:01):
got accessed back to our centerfield camera. But then on Sunday,
Sunday late morning early afternoon, we had another severe thunderstorm
moved through and it was just as bad, maybe a
little bit worse of the rain. And this time the
lightning struck the right field falpole than you did just doing.
I mean, sounds like another explosion. Then it struck behind

(05:22):
behind a scoreboard somewhere. I don't know if hit a
tree or or just the ground in behind the scoreboard.
And then the third bolt hit the batting cage between
the softball field and the baseball field, which is just
past the roadway there from the field. It drilled the
top of the batting cage. The three lightning strikes, and
here we are. We're in the press box and it's

(05:46):
a metal press box of a roof, and we're like,
maybe we shouldn't be here. We might be next but.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, a elevated elevated higher up.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah. Man, Yeah, So obviously we didn't get hit, uh,
and we got the got the teams back on the
field once once the weather's cleared out. That's a good
thing about the field turf, man. It just once it
stops raining, once the lightning moves off, just get back
on there and play. We had about an hour delay
because of lightning. Because the storm passed literally about forty

(06:14):
five minutes almost, and then the Friday we had a
little bit more. We had a couple of different range
delays on Friday, and our last game Friday night early
Saturday morning was twelve forty five am when the last
out was recorded. So teams will play, they didn't care.
Kids love it. Kids are replate anyways. So all in all,
it was a good tournament. I got it all in.
Wheeling Post one was probably the favorites coming in, although

(06:37):
what turned out to be some parody ended up being
that way. I thought we had some good teams, and
we did. We showed that we didn't have a single
ten running in the entire tournament, which is rare, usually
have one or two. We didn't have any. Everybody showed
out and played well. Even Parkersburg and Clarkson, who went
owing to both played well and very very competitive. In fact,

(06:58):
Parkersburg lost for two games nine innings to Morgantown. Wheeling, though,
was the TA, but the best game the tournament was
on Sunday evening. It was Berkeley and Wheeling. Wheeling at
this point was undefeated. Berkeley had lost playing you know,
literally for their season, and the thing went into the
tenth inning, Berkeley scored a run atop the tenth wheeling

(07:20):
added to an Obama a tempt to win the game
on a Chris up and walk off single up to
the product who ended up being our tournament MVP priss
upt and only going to be a junior at Lensley.
The kid is an absolute stuff. His fastest player is
in any baseball player I've seen in Virginia. Plus he
hits a ton. He showed it there. He had the

(07:40):
game winning hit to deliver Wheeling. It was what it
was before that was Braxton Bilitick and winning central product.
It had the game tying hit on a two strike
pitch of two out tie the game at one, and
then after that up in the leadoff hitter base hit
the center to win the game. But you know, it's
justin eural for Berkeley, the Washington High School product out

(08:02):
of Jason County. He was the number one this past year.
He's a rising senior to be he was almost able
to go ten complete innings. Just after the bass hit
by Braxton bill Lake that reached his pitch count of
one hundred and five, and that's just amazing to be
able to have one hundred and five pitches in a
tenth inning. You see Pitcher was able to get that

(08:24):
through seven. But Jackston Earl, the Washington roduck was just outstanding.
I really pitched well. I probably pitched god as a
bay in the tournament last weekend, I'll be it came
up and losing the effort, which is which you hate
to see. But it was a two to one game
and Wineling won that game and wanted to play Beckley
for the championship on Saturday Saturday one my talking Monday

(08:47):
and then gets to win six to nothing, close game
until the sixth inning when he led two nothing in
the sixth and they scored four in that sixth led
by Brady Brady ernest winning central product who also is
a rising junior, a strong young man, a very good
football player, get a two run home or in the
left center his second home run of the tournament to

(09:09):
at Chat lead out to six nothing and willing Post
won at thirty one, seven and one, or you're back
to back state champions in West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
How do you like their odds going on to the
mid Atlantic.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Last year they went to and two and they got
a better this year. This is a better team this year.
Although Wheeling was hot last year going into that, reginals
that it came from behind and beat Morgantown twice in
the final to win the championship. A year good, but
this is a Wheeling team. It's better. They're more experienced,
a lot of the same players are back, and they
got better pitching this year. Seth Cover, the winning Central product,

(09:44):
is their ace. He's as good as anyone in state
of West Virginia, as good as pitcher as I've seen
this year. You know, he may not have the he
throws in the mid eighties, but he may not be
that Division one guy that people talk about. He's just
a very base that's going to West Liberty. He's going
to be a two way punk. He can hit the
ball to and he pitches that. He's just a machine.

(10:06):
He was an all stater in Class Double, a first
team All state, led winning Central to the state title.
He's as good as anyone, but they have death behind him.
They got Davis to Tyler, consolidated Senior to b who
was their number one, and also Henry Anderson, the Brook product,
who was their number one. Those three they're pitching staff.

(10:26):
But then they got to buy five or six others
behind them that are very good. We saw Justin Brown
or Jake Brown, I say, another junior to be at
Winning Central. He threw five Listen, relief, here's a young
man that can pitch. They got more pitching than they
had a year ago. They're hitting as better. They hit
for a little bit more power. They backed three five
as a team. So anytime you get back three ninety

(10:48):
five as a team through nearly games, that means you
can hit the baseball pretty well. And I think this
winning post team Post one team has a very good
shot to go deep into And I'll be honest with you,
I've seen most of the fields. Decided they kind of
play one of the tougher teams right out of the gate.
And cherry Hill, New Jersey, who was twenty and one,

(11:09):
who defeated Brookline, New Jersey three times this year. Brookline
as a team is notorious for getting into the World
Series of National Championships in the past. This Cherry Hill
team's pretty good. So winning gets the best team looks
like potentially the best team on paper, and down on
August seventh, on nine thirty on that morning, on that
Wednesday morning.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
Can get by them.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Look out this team. We haven't had a Western win
a regional and I think they could be the first.
They've got the talent and the hitting to do it.
And what does have to sweep we I mean last
year Delaware, the state of Delaware, Wilmington was the regional
champion and they were kind of Wheeling was this year
they were you know, load and pitching and they hit
the ball well and they put them to the regional

(11:50):
championship a year ago. We'll see if it works for
winning this year.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Very nice look forward. By the way, what is the
date of the mid Atlantic Tournament again?

Speaker 3 (11:57):
So the teams have to report August six, which is
next Tuesday. Starts August the seventh, or Womenesday at nine
thirty am. It'll be Cherity, New Jersey against Wheeling at
nine thirty am. It's again it's an eighteen doublimination tournament.
Starts Wednesday and championship will conclude on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
They hope, very nice. Before we before we get out
of here, I want to talk a little Pirates baseball
with you. Obviously, this is probably one of our last
time talking baseball in the show. The next time we
have you on, We're gonna be talking Bridgeport football, which
is crazy, but we're we're gearing up, We're in football mode.
I know you'll you'll be in it before long. But

(12:36):
let's talk a little Pirates. Yeah sure, I mean, I'm sure,
I'm sure with the aunt of baseball work you had
this year, but so the the Let's do some Pirates
talk though. As they cleared something like twenty million dollars
in contracts off the books by the trade deadline, traded
third baseman Cabrian Hayes, reliever Caleb Ferguson, starter Bailey Falter,

(12:56):
encloser David Bednar, They're like seventeen and a half games
back going into this series with Colorado got back prospects.
Let's see, I have it down here. Pitcher Taylor Rogers,
infielder Sammy Steffura, pitcher Jeter Martinez, catchers Raphael Flores and
at Glen Perez, and outfielder Brian Sanchez, all of which
are minor league prospects. As I understand it, What are

(13:18):
your thoughts. I've heard very mixed reviews of this deadline
for Ben Sherrington. Thoughts on the on the on the
Pirates overall trade deadline. The STRATEGI and if you think,
you know, is this just a sign that this guy's
probably on his way out? Like what do you make
of this deadline for the buckos Well?

Speaker 3 (13:35):
I mean, you know you've had me on here before
talking pop baseball, and I've been as critical of Ben
Sherrington and the player Defelo staff as anyone you know.
But I've been fair and he kind of look at
kind of look at the six year numbers. That's all
you gotta do is look at the facts and figures here.
But the trades. You know, a lot of people, you know,
it's the A lot of fans are fickle in many ways.

(13:57):
And and and I don't know what it is. I
guess you see it whenever social media brings out the
best of people, if you know what I mean. And
no kidding, wasn't just two months ago. I mean you
look at it two months ago, two and a half
months ago. David Bednar struggled so bad to start the year.
He got options by Indianapolis and he was struggling and

(14:18):
they had to try to find it this after last season,
David Bednar struggled all through twenty twenty four, up and down, inconsistent,
couldn't find his breaking ball. His fastball was being targeted
and he just Bednar like some of the closures doesn't
have electric fastball where he can get away with with
its breaking ball and if he loses command of that

(14:38):
breaking ball. You know, there's a lot of closers there.
They have electric fastball. If they don't have their secondary stuff,
they can survive if they're fastball. Well, bed Noir good fastball,
but not one hundred plus mill an hour variety. So
he has to have kind of all his pitches. And
he found that after his trip to Indianapolis this year.
In terms came to the David Bednar, we saw twenty

(15:00):
twenty three, I was, I was. I was one that
they should have capitalized on the twenty twenty three season
trading that Bob nothing the owner knicks to trade. There
was there was a trade on the table. He wouldn't
allow it. He said, no, we're going to keep him.
You know, it's a ticket seller, he's a local product

(15:21):
and he brings fans to the games. I think where
Pittsburgh's at now being you know, struggling like to have
this year if the win loss record did but even
though they've won, what eight in a row, here, seven
in a row, here seven or last eight, they're still
way below five hundred and they're nowhere right now near
the playoff contention. They're not going to be this year,
So it's time to trade some assets. And what people

(15:42):
don't understand. I know a lot of people do, but
a lot of people don't these deadline These trade deadline
deals for teams that are going to sell instead of bye.
If you tell you trade guys that are on your
major league roster you think you can get the most
value for, but you're going to get pros return. You're
never going to trade David Bednar for a starting first

(16:05):
baseman for the New York Yankees or a starting left
field or earth. It ain't gonna happen. It's going to
be their top prospects that are either inpole or double A.
That's the kind of deals you make. And it's just
the opposite. If you're a team that is in contention
and you're buying, you want to buy major league ready
players that are doing really good, but you're gonna trade

(16:26):
and you're going to sell your prospects to get them.
So you know a lot of people were thinking David
Bednar was way more than what he really is. Ben Sharrington,
the Power got back the exact return that they should
have got. They wanted to top ten prospects. They waited
versely to the last hour on a deadline back on Thursday,

(16:51):
and they got what they could. They got Flores back
from the Yankees, the eighth prospect who's the power hitting
catch her slized first basement. Then they got two other
prospects in their system. They couldn't get too top ten
they you know, honest to goodness, if they if they want,
if they could have to top ten picks, the trade
would have been done the day before the day before that.

(17:12):
Obviously they could and so therefore the trade wasn't done.
People don't understand that the general manager gets a lot
of criticism, but he's just going to trade people that
he got what he could and the return was decent.
Same way with the Cabrian Hayes trade. And here's a
third base. If Brian Hayes was a gold left third basin,
but he can't hit a lick. He's a career two

(17:33):
thirty hitter with about average five to six home runs
a year. Just you need power or at least more
production offensively from the quarter infield spot and Hayes has
had history of back trouble still bothers him. He'll never
be one hundred percent. He has admitted to such great player.
It's great to see him in Pittsburgh. But you had

(17:53):
a chance here to make a deal, and they did it.
They found they found a trade for I was happy
with the return they there. They got exactly what they
should have got. Hayes isn't going to bring you to
top ten prospects or three or whatever else.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
Now.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
The only trade I wasn't happy with. It seemed like
the last secondame was just kind of running in there
before the deadline was the Bailey Falter trade Kansas City Royals.
They got back a couple prospects, but none of these
guys top fifteen prospects. Bailey Falter deserved much better than
what they got from him. It almost seemed like a
dump there for him. We had a couple of years

(18:28):
left to control in this deal. I think three years
to be exact. I felt they could have hang on
to him. I think they wanted to trade one of
their two startingers. They couldn't get what they wanted for
Mitch Keller so they took Keller off market, and they
wanted a lot for Keller, and Mitch Keller deserves more
than what David Bednarik and Brian Hayes are going to
bring him. Mitch Keller, he probably can get you a

(18:50):
major league ready player or a top two or three
prospect from from one of the teams work when they
get it. So they moved on. They realized they get it,
and they wanted to trade. Well, they starting pitchers, so
it's either gonna be Haini or Falter, and Falter was
the one thing to them in Kansas City. Came to
them for Bailey Falter and the trade was made. They
didn't get the value back, so overall probably a B

(19:12):
minus pirates of the deadline. Had they got the value
back in return for Bailly Falter, that's supposed to Friday,
he gave it a B plus, maybe an A minus.
A lot of people are giving d's and f's. I'm
telling you right now, Cabras and David bednar bednar while
he's hot now cashed in now, but he's been inconsistent
the last couple of years. And Cabrian Hayes week third

(19:35):
basemen were you know, like For example, last night for
the Reds, he bad a ninth and that's where he's
going to bat for teams like Cincinnati, but they're going
to have to work with him to try to get
more offense out of him today at that third base level,
or Cincinnati'll be like everybody also see, okay, great defender,
but how long going forward is he going to be

(19:56):
an everyday player. We know we can bring them in
latent games. If he's going to continue to be a
two thirty hitter of five or six home runs, I'm
not sure his days is everyday. Third basement in the
future are going to be large, They're gonna be smaller
in numbers, I think. So that's all down the line.
We'll see. But I think the deadline came and passed,
you know, probably B minus C plus because I thought

(20:18):
they probably should have capitalized on Keller, but obviously they
didn't get back what they thought they could. I think
they can do a much better in the off season
trading Keller to get some offensive players. See in the
off season, you can trade Keller to anybody and get
back to major ready players. You're not gonna get that
to deadline unless you're if you're a seller and you're

(20:39):
trying to get rid of major league ready players. Are
you gonna get prospects in the off season? You can
get back prospects or let's say you get a starting
third basement or a starting left fielder. For me, could happen.
So I think the off seasons where they can go
there if they decided they got so much depth in
their starting pitch and they're almost gonna have to trade
a teller in the off season to be able to

(21:00):
acquire some offense. This team needs offense severe way. We
know that free agency a free agency strategy. For Bob Nutting,
he has he gets the allergic reaction to free agency.
He doesn't like it, and there's been no prescription medicine.
Now there seems that's going to cure that. Although they
did free up, like you said, twenty million dollars. Sorry,

(21:20):
I think that can get you two players next year
off the free agent markets, decent players, not a guy
like a Tommy fam or an a Fraser. I think
you can get guys that can provide starters, that can
hit a little bit, but then make that trade to
bring in some more pieces offensively. Again, Johan Oviedo back,
Johan Oviedo back and starting rotation here that within a

(21:41):
week or two he'll Phil Bailly Falters eventually. Then you've
got Jared Jones coming back halfway through next year. Who
bought them might be your second best picture and the
starting rotation talent wise getting pieces back. You've already got
Paul Skeins and a bunch of other players in that rotation.
Mike Burrows rookie this year is panned out and he
got more coming. So that's the off season wait and see.

(22:03):
But I think the deadline came and passed. They got
what you know, for everybody but Bailly Falter. They got
back the value they would nor get back. Jeff Passing
from ESPN said it best. He thought it was a
great trade if the Yankee. He really likes Flores. He
thinks he can be very good major league player in time.
And he was a Yankees My Player of the Year
last year. And he has power. It's pretty each.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Pass Yeah, no kidding, Yeah, Pirates hitting has been a
It's been a problem this year for sure. Chris, Hey,
what do you do? This is like I feel like
you get a little bit of time off here in
between you have the longest UH broadcast or maybe not
necessarily broadcast, but you have the longest season of all

(22:47):
of us, seemingly because of your work with Legion ball
UH and of course with high school baseball. So what
do you do in the couple of weeks you'll have
off until UH Bridgeport football starts. How do you use
your your your free time?

Speaker 3 (22:59):
I got my last scheme to attend on August twenty second,
and I picked that one late for reason. It's because
it's the Friday before high school football, so I'll get that.
How do you feel back on the road again because
the next week we have our first football game. And
between now and August twenty second, I got two words,
lay low. If I could go a vacation somewhere, I would,

(23:21):
but I've taken off too much time for my actual
job between everything we do, so I just lay low,
get regards start focusing on football again, because I have
zero focus right now in football. Football is sport. I
love love, We all love Bridgeport loves it obviously, and

(23:42):
I think they're going to be very good again this year.
We'll talk more about that in future appearances, but I
think it's time just to get the batteries pre charged little.
I mean, I went to work these last two days
here when I got back late late Monday night, and
I'm still exhausted because it was a long weekend. We
had a little bit of drama back on Wednesday. We
had to remove some people from certain aspects of the tournament.

(24:06):
So to spit it all, it all got cleared out.
Things went well, no trouble. The teams were good, the
players were good, the coaches were good. And I want
to give Tyler Barnett in all his fine staff at
Morgantown the credit in the world for help running this tournament.
He did it a great job, like they've all done.
They've got experience doing these and I want to thank

(24:27):
that folks to Video Production Butch Mounts and also Metro
News TV. What a job they did. I mean, we
had two guys up there. That was the producer and
the other guy ran the home play camera. And that
guy was he must have must have had a two
hundred mile over the weekend as much running and stuff
he did from camera to camera fighting the name jobs

(24:49):
those guys are of a ton of credit. Congratulations to them,
a big thank you to them on a job well
done and great job. Next year we go to beat
Linda K. Eppling's Sam and Beckley for home of the
West Virginia Minors. Now will be the home of the
Beckley Bash going forward. And Beckley was our state runners
up this year and their junior team, but we won

(25:10):
the States two weeks ago in Bridgeports. So Beckley will
host state tournament next year and we'll do it again
next summer. There's some legion baseball level we think. I
will follow the regionals just this kind of was asked
to be an assistant tournament director and I said, no,
not now, too much, just I really can't take off
another week, you know, right now say now, I'll pass

(25:32):
for later in the future. But should be fun and
football is around the corner. We had our first preseason
game last night in the nf OH and it gives
you a little taste. Mountaineers started practice this week as
rich Way not happy game day number two.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
I saw that.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
I saw that, Yeah, what's a little bit more man
and I and that's and that's exact coach what you
needed with someone like that. We'll talk about them in
the future as well. But the great in place there
should be fun and uh, I know you're getting ready
for chool two eventually.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
So yeah, no, it's an exciting time of year, man.
I love it. Chris, much appreciated. We will talk with
you very very soon about Bridgeport football. We're gonna switch
gears to football for the rest of the show, which
includes talking with coaches from North Marion High School and
East Fairmont High School. In fact, Shane Eckle of East
Fairmont is next right after this on the Friday Free
for All brought to you by Dan Cavato to Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
CAVATORYO to Wick GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
This is the Friday Free for All brought to you
by Dan Cavatota Buick GMC. I should come up with
a name. This is like the early edition of the show,
and we do the first half of the show. Once
upon a time, this was a ninety minute show and
now now it's a two hour show, so we start
even start even earlier. Head coach Shane Eckle of East
Fairmont is with us today. Back with us for yet

(26:53):
another year part of this series where we go pretty
much across as many sidelines as we can in north
central West Virginia. You're talking to as many coaches as
we can, and coach, I really appreciate you doing this
as always.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. You guys do a
great job, and our kids enjoy listening to it.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, and I appreciate that. I love that the image
of listening in science classes. It's still one of my
all time favorites. So, you guys were a playoff team
last year and it was it was interesting. You had
kind of an up and down year at times. But
I think one of the interesting kind of hallmarks of
East Fairmont now and under your tenure is that And

(27:30):
I not noticed this about another team that you guys
often wind up meeting in Philip Barber. These programs that
once upon a time might have folded when there was
any level of adversity. And for them, there were a
couple of moments, especially late in the season last year,
where they were battling injuries and didn't play very well

(27:51):
towards the end of the season and then rallied to
host a playoff game. In your guys' case, you know,
it was sort of the the you know, middle portion
of the season. You guys rallied. There were some issue
who's early and in particular you caught a pretty decent
Preston County team who kind of took it to you
guys a little bit in a I believe it was
a forty eight twenty three final in that one, and

(28:12):
at that point it dropped the bees. I believe to
two and three. You guys would rally wind up five
and four make the playoffs again. And I think that's
so interesting because it is obviously for coaches, I think
they'll always say, yeah, there's many things that we would
have preferred, we would have done better. But if you
look at your tenure holistically and kind of where you started,

(28:33):
where you come from, is the ability to now kind
of see this adversity when it comes and know that
you guys as a program are not going to fold,
can bounce back and really rallied. How does that change
your approach as a as a coach, knowing that you
guys have have kind of made that step during your time.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Yeah, I think that's important for our kids, you know,
first and foremost, because that means they believe one in
each other and the and the staff and the program.
So I think that's uh you know, a step in
the right direction for our kids, you know, coming from
where we were at to where they've been the last
few years, and you know, hopefully down the road for life.
You know, that's part of the lessons. But you know,

(29:14):
if they they learn to handle adversity and things now,
you know, and their dads and husbands and things like
that down the road, they're going to handle adversity a
lot better in life and hopefully it be better, you know,
citizens for us down the road, you.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Know, looking a little bit at like, I'm more like
your mindset as a coach when you're when you're in
a season and like you're two and three or whatever
it is, and like do you sit there and think
to yourself, like, I know we can be better than this,
and we are going to be better than this, or
do you ever have like this doubt ever creep through
when you when you reach a certain point and you're like, man,

(29:48):
we're not where I thought we would be. How does
that work as a as a coach? Like what's the
I guess what's like the faith scale, if you will,
as a as a coach when it comes to believing
believing in a team. I've always wondered about that because
like for some coaches, like I remember, and I'll give
you an example of this in hockey. I know, the
the New York Rangers GM like they had a bad

(30:08):
road trip and they they had had a really good
start to the season, but they had one bad road
trip and he had he had like a total meltdown.
And I thought that was really uncommon at any level
of sport to see a team that was, you know,
seven eight games over five hundred early in the season
and and you know, a chief executive for the team
has this huge melt And so I was kind of
wondering about that from like a high school coach perspective,

(30:30):
when do you start panicking, if at all, Like what
what what point will you actually say to yourself, you know,
I still believe in what we're doing, versus Okay, we
might have to make some changes.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, you know, it's it depends on you kind of
get a pulse for each of your teams. Hopefully you
know what what's your what's your feel is, And there's
definitely weeks that.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
After Friday night you look and go, oh my, that was.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
Bad, Like what we thought we were able to do
or what we were supposed to do. That was and
I think last year you had to know them head.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
We had to pick out a game that we really
felt like we just laid a goose egg.

Speaker 5 (31:03):
It was Preston County and I don't know if it
was a perfect storm. We played it on a Thursday night.
We played at four o'clock in the afternoon. It was
the Buckwheat Bowl there. I mean, there's lots of things,
but still at the end of the day, we just
didn't feel like we performed very well. Not taking any
away from them, I thought they performed really well and
we're fired up, but that was a game. After that game,
it was kind of a gut check for us. And

(31:24):
I think as a coaching staff what we've always tried
to do. You know, this is your twenty five for
me and coaching, but I try to look at our
staff and go, okay, we can't just abandon ships. So
what holes can we plug to make the least amount
of water coming into the boat that we can write
this thing. And that's kind of how we approach things.
So each week, you know, we look at things kind
of holistically and then go okay, out of that, if

(31:46):
we have to, if we can fix one thing offensively
or one thing defensively to make us better. One thing's
on special teams. What three things are going to make
the greatest impact that we feel going into next week
to give us a chance to kind of get things right.
And that's kind of how we approach things for our kids.
And and you know, take it a step at the time,
and then if we do fix those things, then you
then you go to your secondary holes. You know, you're like, okay,

(32:07):
all right, now, what's the next best thing we can
maybe work on. So that's kind of how we approach it.
We try not to, you know, just jump out because
you know, in this sport with high school kids and
different things, you know, there's all kinds of things going on,
and you're gonna have up and down weeks, you know traditionally,
And know he's trying to stay the course.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
I guess what's uh, what's more likely when you, when
you and the coaching staff, when you guys successfully fill
that hole. And and and I should have prefaced this
as well, because you guys, when I talked about you
guys rallying, you won your next three games. You beat
we're on the road, you beat liberty. You beat a
Lewis County team that's always pretty difficult, uh to to
to deal with and and historically they they play everyone

(32:48):
pretty tough. Is it a sense of relief or is
it a sense of joy like when you guys fill
a hole. Is it like, oh, this is this is
actually exciting you know, we got something right? Or is
it a sense of relief? Okay, let's move on to
the next problem.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
I think a little bit of both.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
I think you're you're excited because you know what's your
game planning works, and your kids are buying in and
they're obviously working hard to try to make it work.
And then you're like, okay, all right, we got that. Now,
now we're taken a step in the right direction. Now
can we fix the next part to become a better
football team. Because, like you said, when you're running that
gauntlet there, you're talking about, you know, a couple of
three playoff teams. You know, so those guys are fighting

(33:26):
for the same thing. You're fighting for one of those
you know, valid playoff spots, and so you know those
usually the winner of those games are the guys that
get in, and uh, that's kind of how that works.
For us. So each week you got to prepare because
you're going to take another shot from somebody else who's
doing the same thing. You know, coach Koger does a
great job Lewis County and and uh, you know those
guys they play hard, real physical, And you know, coach

(33:49):
Harmon did a great job at Liberty. You know we're
going to miss miss some of the confrontations we had
with him. But yeah, you know, you got.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
Just got to take it a week at a time.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
But there is that you're excited. I think your immediate
reaction is, hey, kind of all right, this is good stuff,
and then you're kind of like relieved, but okay, we
got to go back to work and see what we
can do in the next set.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
I want to switch gears over to what's coming up
this season with you. Of course that's one of the
reasons we have you on, But I did want to
ask kind of one more general philosophy question, but one
more question kind of about last season as well. You
guys opened up with that. I mean we were talking
about it on the show a lot, the really fantastic
opener with north Mary, and obviously I know you would
have preferred a different outcome, But twenty eight twenty one final.

(34:32):
You know, in County School, you guys know very intimately. Well,
I always wonder in games like that, like I imagine
in addition to you know, guys are calling plays, like
coaches are calling plays in a game like that, unlike
say maybe a game against a non traditional opponent that
that might be a blowout one way or another. You know,

(34:55):
you guys had obviously had a big win over Braxton County,
you had the big win over Lewis County. But but
in a game like that, where it's it's nip and tuck,
it's tight the whole game, it's sort of the outcome
was really not decided until late in that game. There
are a lot of emotional swings and I kind of
am curious. Does that add extra work onto the coaching staff,

(35:16):
kind of managing the emotional swings on the sidelines with
young players like that in a game like that, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (35:23):
I think so. I think that's where a couple factors
I like to say go into that. One is your
experienced players, Right, if you have veteran guys that have
been in those games and don't panic, and they kind
of help lead your younger guys to control things and
key situations because when bad things happen to turnover or
you know, they have a big play or you know,

(35:44):
punch one in, and how do you respond to those
types of things. And then the second part of that,
I think is kind of your program. You know, Darren
Hayes and North Marion do a great job. They've had
a winning tradition with Marion for decades, and I think
that part of it. You know, there can look at
each other and go, we're not going to be the
team that loses to these guys, right Like that's you know,

(36:06):
you know seven eight years ago it was forty eight
nothing a halftime, right but now last two or three years,
it's usually more of a dog fight for us. It's
a one two score game. It's back and forth. You know,
in that game, we led a halftime and they responded.
And I think that's part of it too, you know,
the legacy of your program, and that's what we're working

(36:26):
on right now. I do think we have guys that
have been battle tested individually, but we're maybe not quite
to like a Fairmont Senior North Marion Bridgeport caliber of
program as far as a tradition, if that makes sense.
I think we have some tradition because guys now want
to try to achieve postseason play. That's kind of an

(36:47):
expectation for us where you know, in the past maybe
it was the win two or three games, so you know,
that's kind of where we're at. But I think that played.
Both of those factors, in my opinion, play a role
into the game.

Speaker 6 (37:00):
But trying to.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Control emotions, not get too high and not get too
low in those games is important.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you about
for this season. Are there are there guys right now
and if so, they feel free to feel free to
shout them out. Guys right now who you feel like
in those moments when you get into games like that
that really are just total dog fights, who you feel
like they're going to be the calming influence on the
sideline getting guys to refocus.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
Yeah, I hope that we've got some guys. And Adrian Fleming,
he's been one of the hard working guys we've had
last couple of years in key moments. We hope that he,
you know, kind of steps up and we've got some
guys up front with Ryder Fellows, and Chris Garlow and
Larry Nichols and some of those guys that we're hoping
that can be kind of veteran guys for us and

(37:47):
hopefully help kind of curb some things and be experienced,
you know, in those key situations. And then you know,
we've got some guys that are experienced ballplayers, but they're
playing some positions now because graduation and different things where
kids have to move positions a little bit. And you know,
Anthony Corwin will be a kind of a guy that

(38:07):
we're looking to kind of be a key role for
us in kind of a transition. He's been in those
positions a little bit before, but moving a new position.
He's a veteran player, but new in some of those
positions and you know, keeping his cool and handling those
kind of things. So those are guys that we're going
to lean on, and then hopefully we've got some other
guys that are you guys that stepped up like jask
and Jackson. Heskett played as a freshman. His first start

(38:29):
last year was against Bridgeport. As a freshman. Because of
some injuries and things, he had to start outside linebacker
and played extremely well the rest of the season. For us,
maybe one of the brightest spots we had for a
new player. So he's a sophomore this year. He's worked
hard in the weight room in the offseason and kind
of hard nose kid, and you're hoping, even though he's
a sophomore, he's going to kind of help those other

(38:51):
guys kind of bridge that gap with some of our
other young guys that are in his class.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
I'm, I'm, it's it's funny this time of year. I mean,
I love this time a year for so many obvious reasons.
You know, your your Wednesday, WVU broke camp for the
start of the season, so like you can feel it.
NFL training camps are open in the next couple of days,
if not the next week. Pretty much every high school

(39:17):
football team across the state will be into August camps
at that point. And what I kind of find funny
is that the higher level you go, I feel like
the fewer surprises there are, especially as football has becomes
as kind of institutionalized as it is, where folks know,
for the most part they've got to be in shape,
that it's a year round job. And this is kind

(39:40):
of true at the NFL level. It's very true at
the high end, you know Division one college level, It's
very true. But high school is the level where you
can as a coach. I feel like you can still
get really surprised by something that happens in training camp
or at the very start of training camp, or the
way someone reports to training camp.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
What is what would you consider for a coaching What
is a pleasant surprise for you guys coming Because I'm
thinking of myself. Is it a kid growing five inches?
Is it a kid previously not as in shape really
in shape this year? What is what constitutes a good
surprise heading into August camp for Shane Eckle and the
East Fairmount coaching.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Staff, Well, I think one of them may be a
young man named Caden Barr. His first year of football
was a freshman. He'd never played football before. He's really
kind of a basketball guy first, and he'll be a
junior this year for US, and his work ethic from
spring spring sessions through the summer sessions has been amazing,

(40:36):
Like just his leadership roles, how he handles things. I mean,
he's always been a good kid, but he's really stepped
into a leadership role. So we're kind of excited to
see how that goes. He played some small roles for
US last year as a sophomore, saw some varsitytown on
Friday night man they played JV. He'd see some action
here and there in certain games. But I think there's

(40:57):
a kid that you know, we're really hoping that, you know,
he he plays well for US and plays at a
high level, and you know, those are always interesting things
and we may see some surprises when we go to
mini campus. You know, we take our mini camp. Our
first three days are in Tucker County.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
We travel one to.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
Our training up there in Tucker for three days, so
get a chance to kind of know the kids because
they're all together, and build some relationships and do some
different things like that. So you know, uh, we're going
to do a leadership course through a National Guard and
the Army at Camp Dawson on one of the mornings,
and our kids are going to go through some like
boot camp type training with their practices. So it should

(41:33):
be it should be a good time, and you know,
it's always interesting to see what you come out of
those three days. You get a little better taste and
then your first scrimmage and you know, each week in
high school football, things can change drastically.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
No kidding. Do you have a do you have a
preferred style at this point where like in terms of
how you want to play or how you want to
call plays? Or do you pretty much do you do
you defer more to what you get when you have
a final idea of what the full roster is going
to look like when it's healthy, before you kind of
make those decisions. I know we were talking a little

(42:06):
bit before we we got on the air. You were
talking about feeling like you guys are going to be
a bit stronger upfront in years, you know, than in
years past, and maybe not as strong at the skill
positions this year than in years past. Does that Does
that significantly change how you approach sort of installing packages
and systems or do you kind of just go about

(42:28):
your business and say, you know, everything will kind of
meet in the middle eventually. Anyway with these guys, Yes.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
And yes, so okay, you know we're we're going to
be kind of our identity right like we are who
we are. That's something we want to bring in as
a program. However, you know what we look for and
how we look to get different guys to the ball
or do different things does tweet We tweak that as
coaches because that's our job because each year that's going
to change, right and it may change in the middle

(42:54):
of a season an injury or you know, a kid
steps up that you didn't realize there was going to
be a better kid, or something happens. We're man this kid,
we think we can give the ball this way, so
we'll we'll tweak our play calls or our schemes to
our strengths. And that's something you know, over the first
two three weeks you're trying to work to figure out
hopefully by week one, but a lot of times it's

(43:14):
even into the season before you get a settle down
for what you think you know. So we're we're going
to be who we are as far as what our
overall philosophies are. We're not going to change and go
from you know, a three four wide squad to you know,
stick I probably, but on the same token, you know,
if we think we can do certain things.

Speaker 6 (43:32):
Better than others, then we're gonna, you know, we're.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
Going to try to approach that and get some of
our players with the ball in their hands and defensively
try to put key guys and situations to go make
plays for us. You know that's something that you have
to do.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Uh. I've got one one more kind of general question
for you that that I'm curious about when, and this
can apply to I mean really anything offense, defense, special teams.
Have you, as a coach or the coaching staff at
East fair Mind, have you guys ever like had a
I guess like a preconceived notion about a package, either
one that you like, a package or a play or
a concept that you either thought, you know, I really

(44:07):
loved the way this works, and then later on you
totally shifted your opinion on it, or even the other
way around where you said, oh, we're never We're never
running this, and then eventually you actually got comfortable, got
comfortable doing it.

Speaker 5 (44:19):
Always every year there's something that you look you come
in and that we were just talking about that. Last
night we kind of had a team meal, had the
kids over, and we do that the week before we
kind of start camp. We have our players, invite them
to my wife and I's house and feed them and
just give them a chance to fellowship and play corn
hole and stuff. And the coaches were talking a little

(44:40):
bit while we're interacting with the kids, and we were
just talking about that. You remember, there's years where we
came out and did this really well in the summer,
and then we came over the camp and we couldn't
do that, where a crap. I'm like, yeah, And then
there's years where we can't do that, where the crap
all summer long, and then we come into camp and
like where did these guys come from? And it is
funny how that works, you know, And I think happens
every year. There's a package where you're like, man, we

(45:03):
really think this is gonna be good for these players
or personnel, and then you run it and you're like, gosh,
we just can't figure this out. And then you tweak,
you know something, it may be small, and then all
of a sudden it clicks and you're like, wow, we
never thought we would run that, but you know that's
going to be a staple in our offense or defense,
or you know, this is how we're going to do
our special teams blocking or whatever. So yeah, I think

(45:23):
in high school football, I would say more years than not,
that's kind of a yearly thing for us.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
All Right, the most important question of all and this is.
I wasn't planning on this being the final question, but
among among the coaches and the players, who is the
best cornhole player?

Speaker 5 (45:39):
Who's Coach Calloway's pretty solid. He's our offensive coordinator. He
he's pretty stout.

Speaker 6 (45:45):
I know he.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
I think he was on a three or four game
win streak with different partners there while we were doing
some of the acts throwing stuff, so he was pretty
he was pretty tough in that.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
So wait, so the question is stylistically, is he is
he going for or is he actually going for the hole?
Or is he one of those guys who he's going
to get four on the board every time.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
He's he's a strategic guy, he really is. He can
put him in the hole, but he's definitely a strategic guy.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
He usually puts three to.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
Four bags on the on the board when he plays. So, uh,
you know, it depends on what he's looking at and
who he's playing with.

Speaker 6 (46:19):
He may he may cat and.

Speaker 5 (46:20):
Mouse one of our players. It may not be as
well as well versed as him in cornhole. And then
if he's got somebody, it's pretty good. He he goes
for the jugglar pretty quick. So that's well, that's that
offensive coordinator mentality.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
I think, yeah, that's fed. That's fantastic. We're gonna maybe
one day we'll start a high school football preseason cornhole tournament.
I think that would be a lot of I think
that'd be a lot of fun. Coach one last question, Well,
I guess what's the the It doesn't matter, I mean
really in any uh specific sense, though, just one thing
that you're super excited for heading into this season, whether

(46:53):
it's on the field or off the field.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
One thing for us is the work ethic.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
You know, the that we have may not have we
may not have the numbers that we've had in the past,
but the core twenty four to twenty five guys have
really put some time in. I'm excited about that, and
I'm really excited to see how that translates. Because Coach
Lowry joined our staff last year and was our strength coach,
and this is the second year, really the first full

(47:21):
year where he's got to been able to kind of
implement our our lifting and things, and we're just excited
to see how that translates. You know, we've got a
couple of linemen that have worked hard and maybe they've
dropped twenty or thirty pounds and they're fifty or sixty
pounds stronger and losing some weight. And you know, we've
got some smaller guys that you know, there was freshmen
that came in bench in one oh five as a
freshman last year and they were doing their sets of

(47:44):
one to eighty five for their bench, you know, last
week on some of their sets. So you know, those
kids have busted their butt in a year to gain
seventy eighty pounds on their lists, you know. So those
are some things we're excited to see how that translates
when you start to put that into football.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
You know, so very good.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
When do you guys officially break for camp?

Speaker 5 (48:05):
We leave August fourth. We'll leave early in the morning
and head to Tucker and then we'll be there the fourth, fifth, sixth,
and we'll come back and then I think the seventh
when we have like our big ten meetings and SSAC
meetings at East Fair Want so we'll be back for that.
So we practice in the morning that day and then
well I've got meetings pretty much all afternoons.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Oh man, you better enjoy the weekend then, because yeah,
you're gonna be a busy guy. Come Monday. I appreciate
you you talking with us and coach as always, it's
been a pleasure and look forward to having you back
on in the future.

Speaker 6 (48:37):
Yeah, thank you guys.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
And like I said, I mean, we really appreciate you
guys covering our kids and what you do because I
think it's good for the sport and good.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
For the kids absolutely. So what what science classes that
that they're occasionally listening in?

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Usually it's chemistry. I haven't looked at my full schedule
yet because I usually have chemistry first period. You guys
start pretty early, like seven seven thirty, So our our
first period class starts at seven twenty am. So we're
on a lab or something in the back. We'll turn
it on and they'll listen to it while they're working
on you know, science labs and stuff. And so it's
funny because if you do mention anything about ease pharamount,
the kids are like, hey.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Well okay, hey, we're gonna have to find a way.
You know, I was, Science was my worst, absolute worst
class in school. So we'll find a way to work
some chemistry into into some future conversations. Coach much appreciated. Again,
that's Shane Eckle, head coach of East Fairmont. We will
take a break back after this. Chris Johnson joining us
in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Now back to the Dan Cavatoyota w AT GMC Friday
Free for All on one O three three w KMZ.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
by Dan Cavettyota Buick GMC, Alex wheeterspield here now joined
by Chris Johnson of Connect Bridport, my co host partner
in crime. Just missed Shane Echle by the way, head
coach of East Fairmont. Had to get him on. I know,
had to get him on a little bit early, and
we don't always work out timing wise with with everything
going on. But I mean, Shane's great and Marion County

(50:03):
does have some fantastic coaches. He is really fun to
talk to you because I think he's one of those
guys where sort of like coaching philosophy is something he
seems to really think about in terms of how do
I want to approach not just from a football perspective,
but from an actual like program building perspective, culture perspective.
And I always really appreciate that about about guys who

(50:23):
are thinking about from that kind of bird's eye view.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
And you know, and coach Eckle is someone else who
I mean legit fan of what we do on this show.
I mean, this gives back to his days as an
assistant in EUW of Tucker County and he's been a
loyal listener of this show and it's much appreciated. And
like I said, he's one of my favorites. Love when
we get to talk to him.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
We'll definitely have him on again. And we'll have him
on again.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
And speaking to Marion County coaches, you know, a little
bit later, we'll talk to another one of my favorites,
you know, Darren Hayes from North Maria.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Yeah, so looking forward to that. That guy knows his football.
That guy knows his football.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
You know, I end up saying that a lot about coaches,
like he's one of our favors. And you know, we
truly are blessed to work with a lot of not
just great football coaches, but generally good guys. You know, uh,
you know a lot of them or they have a
better sense of humor. I think what a lot of
people realize give them credit for. I mean, they're smart,

(51:22):
they know to x's and o's. They're loyal, they're passionate. Uh,
just a lot of really good guys in this business
as head football coaches that we deal with you every week.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
You know, I sometimes wonder when when we talk with coaches,
if they, if so many, if so many non football
people have rolled their eyes at how in depth they'll
get on x's and o's talk before that they think
sometimes that they have to they have to dial it back.
Don't ever dial it back on the show. Get his
get his deep into the into the weeds as you
want to get into. I love it. I think it's
I think it's fascinating because football is one of those

(51:56):
there's it's so simple and there's yet there's so many
individual battles happening on any play. It's the total game
within the game of football that I think is so
interesting about really at every level, it's it's fantastic, especially
once you start into the high school level and for
the first time, really a lot of these kids are
having to execute concepts that they probably didn't really have

(52:16):
to worry about at the middle school and at the
pee wee level and the youth football level, and they're
really doing it for the first time. So I'm fascinated
by that stuff.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
That kind of leads me to something I'm a snaking
about driving in you know, you know because this time
next week we'll be talking you like numbers. Yeah, your
practice will be underway, is it? I mean, have we
stopped and think about just how does is it maybe
a little unfair to ask high school football coaches to

(52:46):
get ready for a season in basically three weeks? Four weeks?
One of those weeks you have very limited I mean,
because you know they can't start having comment for the
first three four maybe even you first full week of practice.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
And what I'm thinking college football and NFL. I know
it's a different type of athlete, but it's still the
same game. I mean the NFL players get what two.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Months to get ready for see, I mean essentially, yes,
it's it's like seven weeks. I think when when when?
By the time training camp opens in like the third
week of July.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Because NFL training camps were open last week.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah yeah, yeah, And so like I don't know, do
high schools do I've never heard of this before. Do
high schools do? Like obviously we know about the flex
practicing during the late spring early summer. But do they
do any type of spring anything like obviously with college
like you have now the Spring Showcase what used to
be the spring game. And I'm almost a little surprised

(53:46):
that we we that that's something like that isn't offered
at the high school level.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
Well, you can incorporate some of those flex days into
the spring now, whereas you five six years ago or couldn't.
But I still I know there's very strict limitations on
what you can do, what you can't do as far
as contact, you can want, equipment.

Speaker 6 (54:08):
You wear.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
And that's why it's so important to you when we
talk to someone like Tyler Ferrisso talks about the work
that the kids put in. I mean you have to
have that well to your point, a short period of
time to get ready for to.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
See that now on the head right there, because to
your point, like they have to come in, there's no
time to lollygag. You got to be focused from day
one with this.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
You got to be ready to work eight am or
whatever time you have practiced at first. Yeah, and I
mean it's a NonStop blitzkrig until the first game.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Is everybody opening on Monday, like everyone I've talked to
so far is opening.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
I think you'll touch on that. I know Elkins is
doing like a midnight practice, right thing. Notre Dame used
to do that. That's I think that's kind of cool.
That's usually more applied to college basketball, but I think
it's kind of cool in high school football. It does.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I like what I listen. I just like, I like,
if you want to try something new to raise excitement,
go for it. I'm all about that. I think that's
a great especially for a program that is back on
the upswing after being on the down swing for a
while there in Elkins. That they came out of COVID
much the worse for wear and starting to look up again.

(55:17):
This is great. This is just such a great time
of year. And I know I sound like such a fan,
but it's because I am.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Well, and we all love high school athletics. It's like,
I love high school basketball season. I love the high
school track and field season. State track and field meat
won my favorite events. I've grown to really love the
state swim meet. Football is just different, and it's because
the postseason is formated different. You don't just get in

(55:46):
or you're relying on going and doing it. Well in
a sectional or a regional game. Every week matters, you know,
any even if you beat a you go undefeated, and
you beat a one win team, that might be a
bonus point down the line that could cost you a

(56:06):
home or an away playoff game. So every week matters
in high school fall.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
So I at at I'll be curious to see among
the many, many things he's talking about, of course, uh,
Shane Eckele that is, you know, one of the things
that he talked about in that in that previous segment
was about sort of the resiliency of East Fairmont, and

(56:33):
I'm I'm I'm really intrigued by these teams where they
have reached this point, like we talked about it with
Philip Barber. We've talked about it a couple of times
with Philip Barber. But when the program has taken enough
steps forward that a surprise body blow, whether it be
in the form of a bad injury, which Philip Barber

(56:56):
suffered a couple of those last year lost was it
they lost their starting quarterback in game eight for the season,
I believe, and East Fairmont really bad loss. Maybe not,
That's not the right way of putting in Preston County
played really well in that game. It was a bad
loss for the program, not a bad loss because of
who they lost to. They just didn't play very well.
But East Fairmont against Preston County. I think North Marion

(57:18):
lost to Lewis County last year at one point, and
again Lewis County nothing to sneeze at there. That's a
good program, But I think the expectation like that was
an upset And what impresses me about these programs And
it's the thing I keep noticing, and like, this doesn't
really apply to your Bridgeports because Bridgeport is on such
a level of consistency right now, But when you had
a program that recently took a big step forward, I

(57:43):
feel like almost the sign or the stress test that
you would do to see how big a step forward
it was is how do you respond after that kind
of adversity where you lose a game or suffer an
injury or both that might derail a different team. See
and in the case of in the case of Philip Barber,

(58:04):
they rallied hosted a playoff game that after that bad loss?
Was it against Lincoln? Am I remembering that right? Yeah?
After the bad loss to Lincoln East Fairmont. After the
loss to Preston County, rallied only lost one more game
the rest of the season, earned a playoff spot. North
Marion loses to Lewis County. Of course, they rallied, got in, hosted,

(58:26):
won a playoff game, played a decent game, not obviously
not a great game, played a decent game against Princeton,
ultimately lost to a better Princeton squad. And I think
that resiliency is so interesting to me because we keep
seeing this among programs that have taken this step forward.
And obviously North Marion's history is a little bit a
little bit different than say Philip Barber's where Philip Barber,

(58:47):
as you've mentioned to me before, this is a real moment,
a real coming out party for them. North Marion had
some real success in the past, littered with also long
stretches of not having success. But that is it's such
a sign to me that these programs are in a
really good spot where you can see these kind of
real surprises that you would not expect and they find

(59:10):
a way to rally back anyway.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
Yeah, high school sports in general, high school football especially
one of the biggest things it teaches kids is how
to get knocked down and get back up. And that
is exactly what you're you were talking about. It's like, yeah,
took a blow, but got to get back up on
your feet and go.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
And you know who I think is good? You know
who I think is potentially closing in on that. And
this is almost not fair because they have a pretty
good history. Uh, They've been pretty successful throughout their football
program's history. I think South Harrison's getting close to that.
I don't know that they're there. I think this year
will be a good will be a good test of
of that. But I think they're getting close to that

(59:53):
point where they could suffer a set back. I mean
we saw it last year with the lost to Wahama.
I mean they they got the doors blow off of
them and then and then came out and didn't play
very well on a two game losing streak, had a
not great first half against I think it was Tyler consolidated, rallied,
won the game, and ultimately found their way into the playoffs.

(01:00:14):
I think they're pretty much right there. Obviously, again a
little bit different because South Harrison's had a i think
a higher floor than say Philip Barber has had through
much of the program's history, but that that was impressive
in its own right, and I think that's that's sort
of a huge, a huge thing for a lot of
these teams that we'll be looking at over the course
of this season is when that moment occurs, and it

(01:00:39):
will occur for almost everybody. What's the response, what's the
response like? So I'm interested in that. We'll talk with
Darren Hayes. Let's do that, Let's get him on and
we'll come back with Darren and then we'll wrap the
show after that. This is the Friday Free for All,
brought to you by Dan Cavattiota b A GMC. He's
Chris Johnson, I'm Alex Waders Bill. We're back right after this.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Back to the WKMZ locker room for more high school
sports on the Dan cavatoryo w AT GMC Friday Free
for All.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
This is the Friday Free for All, brought to you
by Dan Cavatiota Buick GMC, Alex Whiederspiel. Here, Chris Johnson.
There on the phone somewhere off in the ether in
Marion County is Darren Hayes, head coach of North Marion Football.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Coach.

Speaker 6 (01:01:24):
Well, hold up, man, you say Marion County, I'm right
on the Marion Harrison line where I live. I'm kind
of out in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
That's true. I guess you're not. You're not at the
high school right now, so that's.

Speaker 6 (01:01:33):
Not right now. Getting ready to get crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Though, Well, when do you guys break for camp?

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
So this week's a mandatory in our county at the
mandatory dead week, which we've always done that as a
football program, which is a little different for me because
typically the coaching staff and things like that could be
in buildings, but county kind of shut down buildings for
maintenance request stuff after this week. So it's been a
really slow week trying to get on my honeydew list
done at home, and then the weekend gets a little

(01:01:58):
crazy and then we report for campaign AM on Monday,
and Monday is always that kind of I hate to
say dreaded because you know, it's it's a it's a
part of our program and something that we've always done.
But main Fair is the first week of camp this
week there this year, so it'll be you know, practicing
the morning maintain Fair parade in the evening.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
Yeah, So you catch you before we get going with football.
I have noticed that have you done a little bit
of traveling with the family, making a tour of some
of the states this year, or some of the sites
in the state with with the with the Swings, I've
seen a couple of you know, photos online. Uh is
it cool to get around to see some of the

(01:02:37):
state you just with the family and not think about football.

Speaker 6 (01:02:40):
Yeah. Like I said, I'm like, I don't have a
whole lot of hobbies. One thing I've always owned pretty
much from the time I got my license with a jeep,
and uh, you know, we just kind of enjoyed getting
top off and going for drives. The Swings kind of
give us a roadmap, places to hit and whatnot. But
we're state parkers too, and you know, in this generation
of kid, Uh, it's good to get kind of unplugged

(01:03:01):
and get my daughter to learn state capital, states, math problems,
county seats and things like that. And then, of course,
my favorite part of it is as we're driving through
kind of smaller areas and I'll say something like when
we went to Lost River, I'll say, you know, we're
in Baker. I think he's tardys around here, let's see
if I can find a football field. And then the

(01:03:22):
cool thing, the really secondary cool thing about that is
I'll snap a photo and send it on Snapchat or
something to a kid that I've coached in the north,
South of the game or something, And that's kind of
kind of tizes all those things together.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Yeah. No, I think that's awesome because you know, as
long as I've known you, I mean, I mean you're
not just saying that. It's like, I mean, you know
high school football from every corner of the state, and
you're a fan of it, and you make connections and
you stay with them and yeah, I mean you definitely
bleed high school football. But and you know, yeah, I

(01:03:55):
think Alex could relate to this too. Is like, I mean,
we're both about to get really a different type of busy. Yeah,
then you will fall sports starting, but it's nice to
have something and be able to to get away you
And I mean it kind of recharges your batteries, you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:09):
Know, it does. I mean we talked, I talked to
my staff. I mean, sometimes you feel like you're behind
a little bit, but I think it's really important for
those guys. I mean, if you want to model things
for your kids. You want to show the kids that
it's important to go, you know, go on vacation with
your wife, go on vacation with your kids, be able
to unplug a little bit. We do lift. I mean
we lift pretty much. If you look at a year

(01:04:29):
long calendar our kids, if we're if we make a
deep playoff run, we're typically about eight weeks where we
don't see them aside from you know, that gap of
Christmas break, the week of Easter break, and the dead period,
and then this week. We really see our student athletes
every day or at least three times, three times a week.
But it's good for them to see us in kind

(01:04:49):
of the dad light as well.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
So let's let's let's do let's do the deed. Let's
talk a little, let's talk a little football. I am
like Chris, I'm I'm super excited for this season. It's
such a reminder every year, Like I really enjoy when
we get to April and May and I start really
slowing down because we just don't do as much with
baseball as we do with We still covered of course

(01:05:13):
on the show, but we just don't do as much
with it as we do with football and basketball. Those
are really those are really the sort of the lead
horses on this show.

Speaker 6 (01:05:20):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
But at the same time, you know, by end of June,
by July fourth, I'm like, I'm antsy, and I was
realizing it, like these past couple of weeks as well,
like I've been like feeling more anxious, and it's like
because I don't have anything to do on the same
level of what I would during football or basketball season,
and it's like it's like idle hands, as they say,
And so I'm I'm I'm super excited, and I think

(01:05:46):
more so than ever this year because I have come
to really appreciate high school football in this state and
the hard work that everybody puts in. It's a real
labor of love for coaches, I think for players to you,
even if they don't wouldn't always necessarily admit it. I
think there are there's a lot of love out there
for the sport, uh. And then of course for fans

(01:06:07):
and for parents. So I think there's uh, no matter
how much drama or or weird events that could occur.
And I think we all know what I'm talking about
with regards to odd legal battles here and there. Uh,
it's still at the end of the day, it's just
a it's just a reminder to me that when we
get to this time of year that the amount of
sacrifice that everybody from the folks handling equipment, to the

(01:06:27):
folks coaching, to the folks playing, to everybody else is
going to put in to make this a fun product
is Uh. It's really exciting for me. So I let's
start there. I guess with your excitement level just heading
into another football seasons as as the coach of this
this big puzzle that you're going to put together at
North Maryon this year.

Speaker 6 (01:06:45):
And that's and that's exactly like. I love that you
just phrase it like that, because that's how I view it.
I mean, this is this is seven and I just
headed off this morning. I still keep in pretty good
touch with Coach White's wife and and Kathy texted me
this morning about something completely non football related, and it
circle always circles back to some Coach White stuff for
some stories or funny stuff like that. But it's hard

(01:07:06):
to believe this seventeen seasons for me as a head
coach at twenty at North Marion period. And you know
the coolest part about ever coached the same team twice.
This is probably I mean, I'm trying to think back,
but this might be the most of a true team
that I've had coming back from a year from one

(01:07:27):
year to the next, really only graduating six seniors and
one of those is an injury, so he really didn't
play a ton last year. So your return in a
core that's that's really similar. But as soon as Noah
hess And and Gabe Bland and guys like that walk
out of the locker room and then a couple freshmen
and a couple of new kids come in, it's amazing

(01:07:48):
how much a couple kids and kids and the way
kids develop in the weight room and their roles changing
can really change that puzzle, so to speak. And I
think that's the thing that that I enjoy the most
is trying to putting those pieces together to find what
makes the team tick, what they're really good at, how
you manage them, and what was good for him last
year isn't necessarily the same because kids changed tremendously over
the course of a nine month period.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
Yeah, you coach, I know you're excited about what you
have returning on the line. Yeah, now you know, obviously
you mentioned. You know, every year is different with high
school football, and you know everyone would love to have
like everyone back.

Speaker 6 (01:08:27):
Yeah, absolutely, but that's just not.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
The way high school football works, you know. And you've
had years where you've had like returners on the line,
you've had you probably have had years where you've had
you know, most of your skill guys back, but had
to rebuild that line. Given the choice between the two,
would you rather have an established line coming back to
build around?

Speaker 6 (01:08:49):
Absolutely? Buddy's double one to me. Uh, Defensively, I think
it's I think you've got to include like kind of
a front, a front six with a linebacker play as well,
which we have as well. But you know, I mean,
I'll quote coach Yoho when he was with me, I
was complaining one year because I didn't we were very
good at corner, and he goes, would you rather be
bad at corner or a bad at linebacker? Said? I

(01:09:10):
gotta laugh because there's a lot of truth in that.
You know, if you can't block people, it doesn't matter
how fast Brian is. So so that's really uh, you know,
that's the foundation of the house, so to speak. When
you have those guys, and man, we've been so blessed,
uh in terms of I mean I've I complained just
as bad as the next guy. I get frustrated because

(01:09:31):
I think success should naturally equate to improve and improvement
and numbers, and it doesn't. It doesn't always anyway, But
I'm so blessed to this. Like when I talk to
other people, we're ninety five percent attendance in the weight
room all off season. When our kids are out, they
call off sick. I mean, we treat it like a job.
And I think that's what's high school sports is supposed

(01:09:52):
to be is prep them for real real life. So
it's perfectly fine to miss when you have a death
in the family or when you have a fee or whatever.
But you can't just not show up. You gotta let
somebody know. And like I said, our kids have bought
into that, so well, Uh, it's really rare that we
don't know. And when they're there, man, they put in
whatever amount of work we ask of them. So while

(01:10:14):
we're probably going to be in the mid forties this
year from a roster standpoint, and I prefer to be
in the low to mid fifties, man, we got the
right ones. I mean, there's not a whole lot in
our building that I would say that. I mean, there's
a handful, and I'm really disappointed kind of in our
overall freshman numbers. I think that's something that over the years,
with losing freshman teams, I think kids get a little

(01:10:34):
intimidated to play older kids in a contact sport. But
I mean, I could go today with that discussion. But
we do a really good job of shielding that as well.
But I wish our numbers were a little better. But
we got the right ones and they're all in and
like I said, god willing and a Creek soul rise,
I think we have a pretty good squad.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
It really it kind of reflects back though too, when
you look at sort of this history, like North Mary
Is add some really great stretches since the school came
to be. But one thing that none of your predecessors
did that you have done winning a playoff game in
four consecutive years, if I'm looking at this correctly, that
has never been done before in North Marriyon history until
this most recent stretch from twenty twenty one through twenty

(01:11:17):
twenty four, where you guys won a playoff at least
one playoff game in every single season. And while I
understand championship is ultimately the goal, you can't get there
without at least starting with this level of sustained success,
so that there is a kind of a benchmark and
a bar and I feel like that is reflected back
at what you're describing with these core players. That's how

(01:11:38):
it kind of plays out to us in the media
a little bit, where you see there's sort of a
baseline now for North Marion.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
There is I mean we I mean, I don't really
count bus as a playoff woman. I think this is
five consecutive quarterfinals because of the COVID year that we
kind of got a forfeit or whatever you want to
call that in the first round that card right right,
right right. But so it is kind of almost an
expectation that we're going to play in November and we're
gonna I mean really, it's in an expectation for the
last it might be four years that we've hosted one

(01:12:08):
in the first week. So that's that's another thing that's
that's obviously a feather in our cap. I always hate
to make I mean, first of all, and I say
this and I don't say it, you know, I don't
say it in any regard other than like, when I
took this job, Coach Michael was my wrestling coach and
is an absolute legend. And Coach White is probably you know,

(01:12:30):
to me, he's one of the better football coaches throughout
the course of the nineties and early two thousands in
the whole state. I hate making comparisons of what we've
done compared to what they've done because our school and
our demographics and our schedule is so different. But I
just think we're doing the best with what we have.
But I mean to kind of piggyback off of what
you're saying. The one thing that I've kind of pressed

(01:12:52):
home to our kids is we think we have a
really good team. And we've had you know, back to back,
well really three consecutive years where we were in the
quarters and had it semis. We're in the semis twice
when the finals obviously once. But man, this trip away
class looks a lot different now. You know that that
year that we we came up six inches short or whatever.
You throw Princeton, Bridgeport and Spring Valley into that class

(01:13:14):
and we might not all make it to Thanksgiving. H
So you know this this class is a lot more difficult. Uh,
the schools are a lot larger, and not to not
to play crab baby, because I'm not doing that at all.
Somebody is always the smallest. But when you look at
those top tierer teams, you know, we're we're one of
the smaller roster smaller schools. I think we're are enrollments

(01:13:34):
now below six fifty. We're right around the six forty
range and really towards the bottom of that class. So
we have to really do a good job of, you know,
getting the most out of the kids that we have,
because our total roster number is probably not gonna be
as much as somebody that's got a thousand enrollment.

Speaker 4 (01:13:48):
Yeah, that's a great point, you know. And you know
another school now, I mean you you you know Coach
Fields at Herbert Hoover, I mean has them now, Like
I mean, they're going to be right there every year.
I mean, for for as long he's as he is.
What the program I feel, so yeah, I mean true, man.

Speaker 6 (01:14:04):
I mean I'm not a I'm not sitting here crying
pro or con on the transfer stuff. But that's changed
the game a lot. I mean, especially when you're in
an area where you can have you know, you have
five or six schools that can get to you within
a half hour. I would argue that, you know, the
transfer rule has probably you know, in theory, hurts schools
like us more than any that are close close ish

(01:14:26):
to the Bridgeports and the and the Fairmonts and the Morgantown's,
because you're you can naturally lose some kids that are leaving,
but you're probably never gonna get any or very few.
I mean, we've gotten a couple hundred kids with their closure. Obviously,
Toby and Carter were great additions to our team. But
you know, we have to really truly lock into four
years of development. And it's it's funny sometimes, man. Kids

(01:14:47):
always surprise you. A kid that will lock in and
really commit to you for four years if you're very
good at your job. And I think we're really blessed
to have some good coaches. If you're very good at
your job, you can get a lot out of a
kid that hasn't played football if they just commit to
four years and and compete and get stronger and get
bigger and buy into doing little things correctly.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
You know, you know, go ahead, go ahead, No, I
mean your coach, I mean there's a school right here
in our area. We're going to see this year look
a lot different in Elkins and and don't I mean,
I think coach wear has done a tremendous job changing
the culture. And and you know, it's like, I never
want to be the guy to tell a kid they
don't if they have an opportunity to go someplace else,

(01:15:28):
if they think it's I mean, you know whatever. But
I I just know back to like when I played,
you know, at Philip Barber, I mean, I we would
have rather have transferred and played for the for the Russians,
then we would go to Elkins and play you know.
I mean that's that's just the way.

Speaker 6 (01:15:45):
I understand man. And I mean it's different and you
got to learn to adapt or die. Uh but uh,
I mean no, it definitely has changed the game. And
you have to really do a good job of development
if you're going to keep kids in the program and
retain them. Because I mean we I'm in a group
message And it's funny because we we clinic together every year,

(01:16:05):
me myself and my staff and then Coach Tanner was
at Parkersburg South Coach Matt Perry, that's at Ravenswood and
then Kevin Board that used to be at Petersburg is
now in New Lexington, Ohio, and we get together at
kind of a midpoint over Martin Luther King Weekend every year.
And now now of course Nates at Princeton and we
talked the other day and Nate said, big, big deal, guys,

(01:16:27):
there's ninety nine cent corn dogs at Sonic. And one
of my assistant coach, Hey, Nate, despite what the days
the says, Rachel don't have no Sonic.

Speaker 5 (01:16:36):
We like.

Speaker 6 (01:16:40):
It was funny, man, when we pulled up there last
year for that playoff game. Our charter bus driver picked
us up obviously at our field and then when we
pulled this up to Prince and he goes, good luck guys,
but this really doesn't look like the plays I picked
you up from. And we kind of laugh. We were like, yeah,
we got a big attendance area. Man. We got you know,
probably two thirds of the marri County goes to North Marion,

(01:17:01):
but but Land area don't really apply.

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
That is, but that is fantastic. I am reminded constantly
when we get to this time of the year that
and I talked a little bit about this with Shane
Eckel as well, that this is still and this is
again one of the things that I love about high
school sports, in high school football that I think more

(01:17:26):
than the NFL and more than college football, particularly these
days where obviously, I mean in the NFL they're just
making they're making insane dollars at this point, and college
football now these athletes are being pretty well compensated. High
school football is one of the last areas where in
the football world where there are real training camp surprises,

(01:17:48):
where you can walk in as a coach expecting one
thing or a second thing and be completely blown away
by a player who has grown five inches in a year,
or a player who is completely gotten themselves into shape
in a way they weren't in the year before, or
someone who has made it their goal, especially when you
were talking about a program like yours, where you've been

(01:18:09):
with it for nearly two decades, is who has completely
made sure that they are totally ingratiated in the playbook
and their understanding of what is supposed to happen. I'm
curious about the surprises. What are some of the positive
surprises that you've taken away from camp in the past.

Speaker 6 (01:18:24):
Well, I mean, first thing, I'll say to that, you're
one hundred percent right, but I'm going to piggyback off
of it. Of it's really not usually a surprise because
in high school you are the strength coach and in
most cases, like a guy gaining twenty pounds, we don't
even notice because we watch them gated one pounds every time.
Oh sure, because we never get away from them. But
it is funny once you put like when we never

(01:18:47):
put pads on this June, but as you put helmets
on and then you know, obviously into August, when you
put the pads on, there's always those couple kids. And
sometimes for us that means we need to shuffle kind
of where we're at so that that kid gets a
chance to play. I mean, we have one right now
that I mean, I'll be surprised. He's probably I mean,
when return all linebackers, really, but I think this kid's

(01:19:10):
gonna end up finding a way to start for us
a linebacker, and we're probably gonna have to shuffle the
pieces a little bit just because he's a great camp man.
He runs, his speed's improved drastically. He's two hundred and
five pounds as opposed to one hundred and eighty. We've
always had a hard time blocking him because he's kind
of shifty and gets away from stuff. So, like you said,

(01:19:30):
there's always gonna be that one or two. We got
another one right now. That kind of all of camp,
we kind of restructured how we install Defensively, I don't
think we're going to be that much different, but but
just kind of the scheme at which we kind of
base out of, for lack of better terms, and I
said at the beginning, I said, look, we're gonna do this,

(01:19:51):
and I think I think Van Guelder can play free
in this system. Like if we ask him to play
single high all the time and play hash to hash,
he's probably not big enough, fast enough. But but we've
been really fortunate. Really we had Noah has for two years.
Then we had a Clevenger Jake or Cody, and then Jake.
So for six years we've had a kid on the
field that essentially, aside from myself and whoever's calling it

(01:20:15):
and whoever was called the d do it uh so
so and that's that's what Coleby gives us. I think
I think so we gave him kind of a shot
in the depth chart and we did a lot more
seven on seven stuff this June, and he had a
great camp. Obviously, Brian coming back from injury, you were
a little nervous about, but uh, he's been. He's been.

(01:20:37):
I would say he's up to about ninety ninety five
percent right now. I think he's just gonna have to
play and start getting used to carrying it. Uh, because
he had like a kind of a freakish obviously the
injury in the playoffs, and that carried over into like
you know, he had had had an arm rebroken from
a previous year and that kind of thing. So he's
had a kind of terrible offseason in terms of being

(01:20:58):
able to do a lot. But uh, but he's starting
to come around, and I think he's excited to get
back on the field. And you said, like you said, man,
there's always going to be those handful of kids, and
I think it's just shuffling those pieces to where everybody
has their best chance to play on Friday night and
contribute to our success.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
Let me let me piggyback off of I'm just in
piggybacking now. I'm going to piggyback off of one thing
you said. You mentioned and I just want to clarify
I heard this right, because I don't. I don't ever
write anything down, which is probably not smart in my
industry either.

Speaker 6 (01:21:21):
I'm an auditorius. Did you say kids take that test
every day for every year?

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
Did you say all the linebackers are back?

Speaker 6 (01:21:29):
Let's see, Uh, Stimple's back. Uh Mullet started there at
the beginning of the year, but he did. He didn't
end up finishing the year. So really, what was it
played against prince in our back?

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Okay, Well, the reason I asked.

Speaker 6 (01:21:42):
Toby, Toby, Carter, Josh Holden, and Stemple were the four
linebackers that we played against Princeton at the end of
the year.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
So the reason I ask, though, is because I'm always
fascinated by this because we hear this a lot about
offensive line, right, Like you, you really want as often
as you can get as many of the same guys
who started the year before back. You want preferably them
in the same spots that they were in, assuming that
there aren't major reasons to make a shift because of
player injury or whatever. But that consistency is so important

(01:22:10):
for those guys playing together because they are playing not
as individuals. They are playing as a unit often, And
I'm curious if you can apply that same logic for
us with linebackers and how that would function with when
a linebacker is and maybe diagram a little bit a
little bit of this for our folks who are listening
at home, why that would be important for.

Speaker 6 (01:22:30):
Linebackers, you know, offensively, I think it's a little more
obvious because you see so much more comboing in the
game today, So you build that chemistry as to what
he needs to feel to come off, what he needs
to feel to stay on, especially when you're a zone
scheam primarily like we are, and linebacker's a little bit
more I think of like a personality thing. So so
we know, for example, we've always flipped our interior linebackers

(01:22:54):
and had what we call Sam and a Will. So
Sam's obviously the strong side linebacker and Wills the weekside.
And what we try to do in a perfect world
is to get our kind of quicker trigger guy, and
our wills are slower progressor or slower progression reader and fitter.
So as they developed that, you know, you get like
a Sam that's quick trigger guy. Casey was obviously like

(01:23:15):
the best example I could give you if that Casey
was a sam linebacker from the Tommy was in diapers.
I think, so you get to learn to play with
a guy like that, and then you essentially know that
anytime there's flow away from you, you don't have to
run over top of Jack Krap because that guy's coming
at it, you know, like a bull in a china
shop with his inside shoulder and stealing everything back to

(01:23:36):
you or making a tackle. So that got like Josh
got kind of comfortable playing slow like that because that's
who he played with as a sophomore. I mean, Quentin
Harbert started most of that season, but Josh played a
substantial bount and then when Quentin got hurt in the playoffs,
Josh started in the state championship games. So Josh got
used to kind of playing off of somebody that was
a quick trigger guy. Last year, we kind of started

(01:23:58):
the year with Carter Parsons inside, and Carter is that
Carter is hit buying in china shop man. He goes
and hits it fast. But then as the year progress
we ended up playing with Toby in the box and
Toby's a little slower more like Josh, So Josh kind
of had to develop that that we wanted him to
be a little more quick trigger, a little more aggressive

(01:24:18):
for lack of better terms, and that will guy is
kind of plays the calendar, plays the reverse, plays the
cut back a lot more so he has to play
a little more patient. That's just how we work schematically.
And then really that all piggy tails off of what
we do with our outside linebackers or what we call overhangs,
because those guys primary responsibility is what we call the force.

(01:24:41):
And essentially, like we see force and everybody thinks that
means like the old school box ends nothing can get
outside of you, But I describe force like this, You're
just going to force the ball to change directions. Maybe
it goes backwards, maybe it bounces on outside of you,
and maybe it reverses the field or cuts back. So
you get somebody like like like Simple, who's part of
the year inside and ended up playing husky for about

(01:25:03):
eight to eight of twelve games last year. And Stemple's
really patient out there. He does a really good job
of keeping his inside shoulder free and keeping so that
inside guy can really fit off of that, never feel
like he has to run flat, always be able to
play on a forty five degree angle, which allows him
to make some you know, behind a lot of scrimmage tackles,
and then to even play even further off of that.
The corner kind of interworks with that overhang player because

(01:25:25):
now the corner has to essentially learn to play off
of that guy's outside him, so that if the ball does,
you know, bounce on outside of him, then that's when
your corner has to come up and be a tackler
and be able to get it down with Those guys
don't have to be you know, they don't have to
be Brian Urlaker, but they got to be able to
have enough pride to not let the ball get around him,
get knock it out of bounder, knock it down.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Maybe this is just me. It seems like, Chris, do
you agree some pretty good coaches in Marion County these days?
It was a great diagram coach really appreciating that.

Speaker 6 (01:25:51):
I love them.

Speaker 4 (01:25:52):
I loved like talking to x's and o's like that too.

Speaker 6 (01:25:55):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
It's literally why like I'm like watching it, I'm imagining
this in my head. Yeah is great. Yeah, that was great, Chris.
Do you have anything before we let coach co.

Speaker 4 (01:26:03):
No, man, I'm just I'm excited. I'm excited for North
Marion this year, you know, you, like coach alluded to,
I mean, you trip away is absolutely loaded, but it is.
I think North Marion is one of those teams. I
think they have built up equity. I think, like I said,
you know, those pieces of the puzzle change. But I
feel like there's a lot of kids. You know, I'm

(01:26:25):
sure you would like to have, you know, eight to
ten more, but yeah, I think they they expect, uh,
They're not just like, oh, can we make the playoffs.
I mean, I think North Marion expects to make the
postseason and that's where the program's at right now.

Speaker 6 (01:26:40):
You guys said it earlier. I mean, I don't get
me wrong. I would love to have I would love
to have, especially one ring. Not that there's any regret there,
but just you know, obviously you'd like to win it all.
But I think there's a lot of beauty and just consistency. Yeah,
and you know, when Coach White was here, I believe
it was let's say it started in ninety two, went
to ninety eight, and at that time that was kind

(01:27:01):
of unheard of to go to the playoffs that many
years in a row because there was just so much shuffling. Yeah,
and we were a playoff team from ninety two all
the way to ninety eight with several second and third
round appearances kind of in there.

Speaker 4 (01:27:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:27:14):
That that to me, like that streak of Husky football
in its own in its own regard is almost as
impressive as those you know, those second, third and fourth
season where we went three years only old and losing
two games, because that was kind of a blip in
time and one really good one or two really good
classes lumped together. But I think it really speaks more
of your program when you can do it on a
consistent basis and be able to do it over the

(01:27:35):
course of you know, I'd like to say we're going
to do it over the course of a decade, but
we still got a few years to go before we
get there.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
Yeah, I know that that ninety seven team, man, that
was a special that was a special team, class state
title team.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
And and you know that was my.

Speaker 6 (01:27:49):
Mostly all seniors on that group. Really, I mean, one
great class and that that's unheard of in trip away.

Speaker 4 (01:27:55):
That's that was my first year working in Parkersburg, and
I'm sure people around Rachel and you know, the high
school is like, no, we can go win this thame.
But the majority of the state that's.

Speaker 6 (01:28:07):
Now we got one of my favorite Coach White stories.
And obviously it's probably because I was on the team.
And I don't know if you remember this group or not,
but uh, and this is kind of what North Marrion
football is and has always been to me. Is in
one Uh, we had Grant Paul Rocky, Mansion, Mike Petosny,
but we were small man. We were playing trip away ball,
we were playing Morgantown. I ended up playing him twice

(01:28:27):
that year, playing university, playing playing some big schools, and
I think the biggest lineman that we had up front
was to forty and that like you fast forward now
like we're playing we're playing in the second the smaller class,
and we got three guys three hundred pounds. We had.
We had one guy that was two forty and we
put we Drew gw in the first round of the playoffs.
And I love Steve Edwards. He's a great guy that like,

(01:28:50):
I've talked to Steve about it since and he was like, man,
it looks like you guys look like a bunch of
little kids. On the film and whatnot. And then we
came out. I think we blocked two kicks, uh, turned
the ball over or turned them over for a couple
of times. And we're just really physical and played with
incredible h incredible motors and and that's that's what we
really strive to our kids is to be you know,
to be a to be a real go get her

(01:29:11):
and to try to you know, sometimes kids called a
try hard.

Speaker 4 (01:29:14):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:29:14):
I just had to talk with Nick Maylee the the
other day. I said, kids don't want to be tryhards anymore.
They want to be cool and make everything look easy.
And I said, one of these days, you're gonna want
to marry a really pretty girl and she's gonna want
you to try real hard to get her to like you.
If you don't, you're probably gonna lose that battle. And
that ain't when you want to lose. There's nothing wrong
with trying to get something, whether you get it or not.

Speaker 4 (01:29:32):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:29:34):
Yeah, that's that's that's really good. Hey real quick, am,
I am? I correct? You guys open up on Thursday
this year?

Speaker 6 (01:29:39):
Right, No, we're Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
You are Friday to Friday? Ye gotcha?

Speaker 6 (01:29:42):
Okay, yeah, we we typically open on Thursday. But you know,
as the A D on my number one, I hate
Thursday games, but I've always understood it. But with THERAMAUT
Senior being off that week, uh, I didn't think it
was going to help us gate wise any w Thursday.
So we're just gonna stay in routine and play Friday
on twenty ninth.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
If it's anything like last year game, that should help
gate wise. That was a heck of a game last
year between North mary and East Fairmont.

Speaker 6 (01:30:04):
Yeah. Yeah, we didn't start off very well. It was
so hopefully we got that out of the.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
Yeah, I was was it for plays? Yeah? Fourteen nothing
at halftime?

Speaker 6 (01:30:14):
Right, Yeah, I think so?

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Yeah, Uh yeah, that was that was That.

Speaker 6 (01:30:18):
Was one of those that I'm glad it was year
sixteen and not year one. I was able to not
go in and like freak out. I was just like, guys,
we got a hold order the day on ball, and
you know, sometimes that's the thing, man, You got to
figure out what your team's like and when they need
kicked in the button when they need's p had it
on it. But hopefully we can do a little more
kicking this year because we're a little more mature, Darren.

Speaker 2 (01:30:38):
Really appreciate your time, man. We kept you here way
longer than I thought we would.

Speaker 6 (01:30:41):
And appreciate talking. Yeah, appreciate all you guys do. Man,
Thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
Good luck this season. And I'm gonna I'm gonna say
this tentatively because I don't I don't know how fun
camp really is, but have fun in camp blast.

Speaker 6 (01:30:52):
I love it. It's one of my favorite weeks of
the year. Man. I'm not saying that secetiously. He doesn't
have to a great time to build our team.

Speaker 4 (01:30:58):
He doesn't have to go run in the heat, you know,
So I mean yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:31:01):
No, but I mean going to four ahe camp and
getting that time with the kids outstanding. It's when kind
of our group of guys becomes, you know, a true team.
So I love it. And I couldn't do it without
my wife. She does a lot of planning and our
Boosters is phenomenal to take care of meals and things
like that. It's it's a great time. Our kids really
enjoy it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
Yeah, they could make a movie about coaches wives. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Actually I think you would be better as like a
like a.

Speaker 6 (01:31:24):
TV shows or somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Very good Darren much appreciated.

Speaker 5 (01:31:31):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
We're gonna take a quick break and wrap the show
after this Friday Free for All brought to you by
Dan Kavato to Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (01:31:39):
Cavatoyo Wick GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
by Dan Kavatso to buick GMC. Alex Wheeters still here,
Chris Johnson there and we figured have a little fun.
It's August, and I mean, I'm in a good mood.
As you can you can probably see I'm in a
very good mood. I think this is this is this
is really one of my favorite times of the year,
if not my favorite time of the year, because it
also what August reminds me of is it's just like

(01:32:08):
a chain reaction of all the things I like coming
back almost simultaneously. It's football starts coming back now, and
by the end of this month we'll have high school
and college football back. Week or two after that, the
NFL is back. Then NHL preseason opens up, and then
you know, for you basketball fans that is going to
come back really quickly as well. And then college basketball,
I mean it's just it's one thing after another.

Speaker 4 (01:32:29):
So just to mention the most important stretch for the
baseball season.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
That's true. The World Series will ultimately and playoffs, and
the World Series will accumulate during or accumulate well, well,
will culminate in that time. In fact, trade deadline was yesterday.
I know the Orioles did a couple of things. Yeah,
trade a reliever, right.

Speaker 4 (01:32:48):
Yeah, there was a little concern they might get the team,
but I think they realized that they just had a
little bit of bad, bad luck. I'm glad to see them, like, no,
let's stick with this young core group of guys is
another year and work on address and some of our
issues instead of real starting from scratch again.

Speaker 2 (01:33:05):
Yeah uh so all that though, it's just else we love, yeah,
is movies.

Speaker 4 (01:33:11):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
So I'm in a good mood. And this is why
it had me thinking of this because one of the
things I like to do around this time of year
is I like to watch I like to watch a
lot of sports movies. As as this time draws near,
that's what's on my mind. I actually just rewatched Moneyball
the other day, which is good one. I mean, I'm
not even I'm not even like a major baseball fan,
but like one of my all time favorite books, one

(01:33:32):
of my all time favorite movies. It's just it's a
it's a classic. But I wanted to focus more on
high school movies, high school sports movie. Yes, and I
know you came, you did your homework, you came prepared,
So I'm gonna let you lead off, okay, and we'll
go from there.

Speaker 4 (01:33:46):
First, I was looking at someone else's list just to
make sure because I already got my top two. Okay,
and it's actually a one a one bet.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:33:54):
Uh. There's a couple of movies that are really good
movies that I never thought of as high school sports movie.
I want to see what you thought, Okay, Okay. One
is Karate Kid. I saw that on someone's high schools.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
I mean, by the letter of the law, I will allow.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
Because it's a great movie, but that's never one I've
really thought of as a high school sportsman.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
The other is Teen Wolf. So I'll admit I've never
seen Teen Wolf, but I know the plot.

Speaker 4 (01:34:19):
So yeah, there was a huge famous scene play. But
to me the movies, he just happens to play basketball
on top of, you know, finding out that he's a werewolf,
so I've never ever thought of that as a sports movie.
But uh yeah, another one, bring it on.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
I mean that is that's absolutely yeah, not my cup
of tea, but right, yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
I'll just go aead and throw out my top two,
which without questioning, i mean, two of my favorite movies
of all time, let alone high school sports movies, and
then I've got several others that really I really like.
But to me, the two at the very top of
the list are remembered to Tightens and Hoosiers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:07):
I just rewatched Hoosiers a couple of weeks, a couple
of months ago.

Speaker 4 (01:35:11):
Jimmy Chitwood misses two shots in the entire movie.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
It's so good. Hoosiers is so good, and Gene Hackman
is a phenominal May he rest in peace? He is,
He's fantastic. The whole, the whole, the whole film is
is if you haven't seen Hoosiers, and I'm sure, uh,
there are folks out there who who either haven't or
maybe they have maybe some some gen Zers or jen

(01:35:35):
Alpha kids in their lives. Yeah, you got to show
them Hoosiers. You got to show it's classic. But yeah,
to me, those two.

Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
I mean are I mean it's like the Beatles in Elvis. Sure.
To me, they're at the top of the list. Some
other good ones just off the top of my head
real quick. That I mean, Varsity Blues is a very enjoyable,
uh kind of guilty pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Yeah, it's a little silly.

Speaker 4 (01:35:56):
Yeah. Uh, Friday Night Lights. The movie is a tremendous movie.
But the TV show was literally one of my top
five TV shows of all time, right, so I think
it really takes a back seat to that. Okay, okayh
Coach Carter. Yeah, another basketball, really good one. And like

(01:36:17):
I said, if we count, I mean Karate Kids fantastic.
It's just that's I mean, I grew up on Karate Kid.
I just never really had thought about it as a
high school sports movie until yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
So yeah, I thinking about that. That's fair. So I
did not do like a definitive ranking, but like the
probably like the top three, just don't know. The exact
order for me would be some combination of and you
said two of the three of them in your one
A one B remember the Titans and Hoosiers. But then

(01:36:49):
for me, I think strong case for number one. I
usually rewatch it once a year, is in fact Friday
Night Lights. I think the movie version of Friday Night
Lights is it's it's absolutely fantas, deeply underrated. And I
don't mean that among the people who like it, no,
but like because it was so overshadowed by the popularity
of the TV series. Like like my mom, who is

(01:37:10):
not a football fan, loves the Friday Night Lights TV series.
She has never seen the movie, and I'm not even
sure the movie would be for her, you know what
I mean, Like I I don't know, but but yeah,
Friday Night Lights is probably my favorite high school sports movie,
probably really really good in that Tim McGraw showed another
side that he is. He's capable, capable of acting if

(01:37:34):
we widen it to larger sports movies. Obviously I mentioned Moneyball.
That's gonna be That's gonna be up there every single day.
I I you know, I can't pretend I don't enjoy.
Miracle is one of my one of my favorites.

Speaker 4 (01:37:49):
I've got a yeah, I don't know if you've seen it.
A really good hockey movie that No, not very many
people are aware of Mystery Alaska.

Speaker 2 (01:37:58):
So and I've never seen it. I've heard it's fantastic.
I've heard it's fantastic. I've never gotten around to seeing
Mystery Alaska uh has come highly highly recommended. So definitely,
you know, maybe what we'll do because I only wanted to,
you know, save this for the end of the show,
but I'm having a thought now, you know, we should
have asked the coaches about this. So here's what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna text a couple of coaches we

(01:38:19):
already had on and for next week's show, we're gonna
get some We're gonna get some more nominations from the
coaches that we've talked to for high schools, yeah, for
high school sports. But you know what, I'll say, all
sports movies and and and hear from them, because I
I'm sure there are some that that we're not including
in our list. I'd like to hear. But like, here's
one that I enjoyed, but I don't I don't know

(01:38:40):
how popular. Like I kind of like the movie Radio
with Ed Harris. It wasn't super well received, but like
I enjoyed it. I thought I thought it had some
some some ups to it.

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
My favorite high school sports scene is in a movie
that has not been mentioned. Okay, and it's not really
one you When it comes to sports, Fast Times Richemont
High Classic, which uh Forrest Whitaker's character Charles Jefferson just
goes on the rampage just rerex people. I've used that
so many times, like he'd looked like Charles Jefferson from

(01:39:14):
Fast On.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
That's great.

Speaker 4 (01:39:15):
Some people get it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
Some people thought, Okay, that's gonna become a new thing.
I did not know you were. That makes sense that
you would be a Fast Times guy. That's total. That's
your generation right there. And it's a great movie.

Speaker 4 (01:39:26):
By the way, he just wrex people from a defensive side.

Speaker 2 (01:39:28):
We're gonna we're gonna have to start we might have
to start giving out the Charles Jefferson Award every week
to the best the best defensive like it. Yeah, that's
a great, that's a great that's a great poll. I
didn't even think about that, But that's a great.

Speaker 4 (01:39:40):
Sports movie that just happens to be one really awesome team.

Speaker 2 (01:39:44):
Did you ever think you'd be watching Forest Whitaker and
Star Wars later on in your life. He's like a
It's like a pivotal piece in modern Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (01:39:52):
Yeah, how about him getting an Emmy nomination.

Speaker 2 (01:39:55):
Yeah, good, good for him, for him, Yeah that rocks.
But yeah, it was his orange. A lot of a
lot of folks really made their names for themselves in
that in that film and Forest Whitaker. Of course, he
might be the most famous of everybody. I'd have to
go through the whole cast list, but he might actually
be the most famous of everybody who came out of that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:16):
Nick Cay's you got a small role in, but did
he really he's he's in that little group of friends
with Judge ron Hold.

Speaker 2 (01:40:22):
Yeah, and you know, of course, I'm I'm forgetting about
Sean Penn. How can I forget about Sean Penn?

Speaker 4 (01:40:27):
Probably my favorite role?

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
Yeah, yeahpec is a class. See, this is now, this
is making thing. I gotta go rewatch Fast Times at
Ridgemont High. Uh so that's that is a true American
film classic right there.

Speaker 4 (01:40:40):
Not necessarily high school, but a great high school.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Yes, yeah, okay, all right, that's what we're gonna do.
I'm mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot shoot some feelers
after some coaches and find out what they like as well,
because I'm curious. I wish we had asked either of
the coaches we had on the show today.

Speaker 4 (01:40:54):
But I'm gonna guess remember the Titans.

Speaker 2 (01:40:57):
Is gonna be up there. Yeah, it is is such
a good movie. Yeah, no, I think you're I think
you're I think you're absolutely right. I also just like
it's a little over the top, but I do enjoy
every now and then. I'll enjoy any given Sunday. I
think it's a it's kind of a silly movie, and
it's not high school obviously, but uh, any given Sunday
has some real has some I remember the first time

(01:41:19):
watching me like this is really good, and and I've
seen it since then and be like, Okay, maybe it's
not as good as I remember, but it's it's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:41:24):
I do think baseball has the best pro sports movies. Yeah,
the Major League France, Yes, for the love of the game,
the natural natural I mean, I know, bulldoorums a monor
league team, but it's yeah, you know, but oh, what's.

Speaker 2 (01:41:39):
The other what's the other Kevin Costner? Yeah, oh, Field
of Dreams, Field of Dreams. Absolutely, that's another another classic,
right there. Field of Dreams is is god field fielded Fielded.

Speaker 4 (01:41:49):
Dreams like old classic movies. A surprise and good sport.
Is has like some good black and white movies? Is boxing?

Speaker 2 (01:41:57):
Yes, yeah, that is true. Well, yeah you might might.
Rocky maybe the greatest sports movie ever. It's it's my
favorite Rocky mov though, but interesting, Admittedly, I I've only
kind of been I wasn't that invested. Like, I don't
think I've ever seen Rocky two all the way through.

(01:42:17):
I know I've seen Rocky four. I'd barely remember it.
That might be the Soviet Union wise, yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:42:25):
I mean Semester Sloan into the Cold War no movie.

Speaker 2 (01:42:27):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:42:29):
I'm a big Rocky three.

Speaker 2 (01:42:31):
Okay, I can't even remember Rocky three, mister.

Speaker 6 (01:42:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42:36):
See, I definitely have not seen that one all the
way through because I know he's in it, but I
can't even picture that's the fight.

Speaker 4 (01:42:42):
It's where Carl Weathers and Semester Sloane kind of joint.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Force, right right, Carl Weather's another fantastic, fantastic actor. Yeah,
the original Rocky. See, we don't have time for this
now because we're super low on time. I might save
this for next week. But like, I have a whole
thing on on the original. The original Rocky is it
like transcends its genre in a way, and of course

(01:43:07):
it won Best Picture.

Speaker 6 (01:43:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
I don't think a lot of folks realize that. Like
it's like it's one of those movies that was made,
like we talked about, like with with Darren Hayes, the
concept of labor of love. Rocky was a labor of
love and they happened to get rewarded for it. That
could have that movie could have been nothing, and but
the response to it was overwhelming.

Speaker 4 (01:43:30):
Yeah, so now you're right, it kind of transcends everything.
It's like, you don't you just think of it as
like awesome movie kind of It's really the first big
Stallone role right now.

Speaker 6 (01:43:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
I mean he wrote it for himself and originally I
don't have to go back and check the story so
that I get this right for next week. But as
I understand it, the studio did not want to cast him.
He nobody knew who he was. Essentially, they did not
want him in the role, but they wanted the movie
and ultimately it was one of those great Hollywood stories
where he was able to through some means. I'm gonna

(01:44:06):
go back and check the story before. We talked about
this in further depth next week. He was able to
ultimately be cast in the role, and obviously that the
amount of heart that he brought to that performance in
the firm, I mean, incredible, incredible achievement. Nineteen seventy six,

(01:44:29):
I want to say, I think it was the in
between Jaws and Star Wars. I think I think I'm
right about that. Seventy six is like notorious too, because
that was like All the President's Men is What's one
of the best years of film ever. I'm gonna go
back and double check this again. We'll get deeper into
it next week, and I'll have done my research because
you opened up a whole can of worms with Rocky.
I love talking some Rocky Balboa. Anyway. We'll talk more

(01:44:52):
football next week as well. We'll have some coaches on
and I'm not sure who yet. I don't like to
plan ahead, guys. We we don't. Chris and I don't
roll that way.

Speaker 5 (01:45:02):
Yeah, we.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
By the seat of our pants.

Speaker 4 (01:45:06):
Seat of our pants.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
Yeah, Yet, any exciting plans for the weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:45:10):
I may go to larch Fest.

Speaker 2 (01:45:13):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:45:14):
Uh this fifth year they've had the first four years
we were out of town doing something, so I'm like
it seems like a cool festival. It's really catching one.
So I'm like, you know, let's probably go check it out.

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
Yeah, that's great, it's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:45:26):
But it gonna depend on the weather too. I'm not
going to go walk around and look at outdoor vendors
if the thunderstorm.

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
Yeah, if the weather holds up, I am going to
go play golf for the like Sale University is doing
like a scramble, and uh, I'm going to play with
a with a couple of folks, including Eric Little who
is part of our part of our foursome. And it's
a good thing. It's a scramble because I haven't picked
up the golf clubs all that much this summer, so.

Speaker 4 (01:45:54):
I'm I'm not a huge golf guy. I I've talked
about this before just for some reason, I've never caught
the buck, and I can't really pinpoint why, because I
love being outdoors, you know, I actually really love walking.
But for something like that as a scramble, is the
enjoyment the people you're with, or getting out there and

(01:46:16):
playing golf.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
It's a little bit of all of the above, you know,
because it won I do love getting out there and
playing golf, but there's a lot less pressure with a
scramble man. And granted, there shouldn't really be any pressure
when you're just playing for fun. Oh yeah. Part of
the problem with golf is that, like it's supposed to
be fun, but most people are so bad at it
that it gets frustrating and then you start putting pressure
on yourself. So there's even less pressure. And that's a

(01:46:38):
good thing because knowing that my shot, ultimately there are
three other people who could who could hopefully do something
better than I did. Yeah, I think that's helpful. I
think that's very very helpful to know that that that
that's out there, so that that's kind of the fun
of it for me, is that it takes a lot
of the pressure up. I like being part of a team,
all right, I can't can't help it.

Speaker 6 (01:46:59):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:59):
On that note, we really do got to go. I
kept us here, I kept us here way long. Today.

Speaker 4 (01:47:04):
I hope we both have good weather though, really really
hopefully there's all the dice water.

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
You never know. I mean, honestly, seriously, I'm really really
hoping the month of August is going to be much
more kind than the month of July, because July was
July and June together for just non stop. So I
can't wait to see the rain ine totals for when
they're when they're in the National Weather Service releases that.
All Right, on that note, folks, we'll talk to you
next week. Check out the show and podcast form the

(01:47:31):
Friday Three for All wherever day to get your podcast from,
or just simply go to wkmsynews dot com. It'll be
embedded there.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
See you, you've been listening to the Dan cavatoyot of
you at GMC Friday Free for All. Be sure to
tune in every Friday as we review and preview local
high school sports. This has been a special presentation of
WVRC Media and one O three three w KMZ

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