Free-for-All Sideline Edition: Tyler Phares, Bridgeport

In our next conversation with a local head coach, Bridgeport's Tyler Phares talks about West Virginia's Big Red Machine (46:55). Other guests today include:

• Chris George on Legion Baseball tournaments (3:50)
• Craig Dutton on storylines around the state (1:10:07)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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 Wheederspield.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning friends, Welcome in and it's good to be here,
Good to be back with you. We've got a good
show lined up for you today. Again, we're diving deep.
We're diving deep. We're not no baby steps for getting
right into football. We do still have some baseball talk
coming up, and we'll get to that coming up here
on the Friday Free for All, brought to you by

(00:40):
Dan Cavatio to be at GMC. I'm Alex Readershpield. Good morning,
Thanks for being here with us on a Friday morning.
Another wet couple of days here, so I know, I
know this is we're fast approaching football season and all
I can all I can hope for is that if
the rain is going to kind of stick around for
football season, let the thunder and lightning go, Let the

(01:00):
thunder and lightning go away. I'm hoping we're going to
get a great fall, but the weather has not been
kind to us so far. Want to remind you before
I tell you what's coming up on the show today.
We talked with Brett Hathaway of South Harrison last week,
head coach of the Hawks heading into now his fourth
season at the Helm. There has made the playoffs twice
with South Harrison, has yet to win a playoff game

(01:22):
last year, really came awfully close to pulling it off,
couldn't quite get the job done at the very very
end in a tight loss. That being said, though, we
do encourage you to check it out our conversation with
Brett in podcast form either at the Spreaker app you
can check out the Friday free for all, or at
your own preferred podcasting platform, And of course, all episodes

(01:45):
after they are uploaded, are embedded on the website wkmznews
dot com, so you can check that out there. Chris
Johnson is going to join me in person in studio
in just a little bit and he is going to
be with us for the major play of the show today,
my co host and partner in crime. But first up,
we're gonna hear from Chris George and we're gonna talk

(02:06):
a little Llegian baseball that's coming up on the other
side of our first break at the during the eight
o'clock hour, we've got two guests for you today. So
Tyler Ferris, head coach of Bridgeport Football and of course
this is the flagship station for the Bridgeport Indians radio coverage.
He'll be joining us at eight o'clock promptly to chat
about Bridgeport and of course we'll get into all sorts

(02:26):
of fun stuff with him. I love talking coaching philosophy
with Tyler, but also obviously he's he's got work to do, right,
He's got serious work to do. Because the Bridgeport Indians,
I would say, I don't know if we're going to
outright say that their favorites to do it again, but boy,
you'd be hard pressed to find anybody better in Class

(02:47):
Triple A right now. And there's a real shot that
this team could do it for a second year in
a row. The question is what will it take. We'll
talk about that with coach Ferris coming up with Chris
Johnson and Tyler at that point. Then Craig Dutton going
to join us at the bottom of the eight o'clock hour,
the play by play voice for the Lincoln Cougars also
is I just you know he does. Among the play

(03:11):
by play guys that I encounter, he's one of the
best at keeping his ear to the ground with what's
going on are really around the entire state. And we'll
chat with him a couple of fun storylines, both locally
and statewide that he has been following and tracking. We're
gonna do that coming up again around the bottom of
the eight o'clock hours. Looking forward to that. All right,

(03:32):
let's go ahead and hit our first break. We'll come back.
We're going to talk with Chris George. Got a meaty,
meaty baseball segment with Chris, lots to talk about, not
just Legion ball, some other stuff as well. All right,
we'll take a break. We're back after this on the
Friday Free for All brought to you by Dan cavits
hit a Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyota Wick GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Back in the studio here for Friday Free for All,
brought to you by Dan Caviteota Buick GMC. I had
a chance to catch up with Chris George via zoom
last night just as the final games were ending in
the Legion tournaments. As they're getting ready for the state
tournament set for next week. We caught up about Legion ball.

(04:19):
We talked a little Mountaineers of course, five players drafted,
one signed as an unrestricted or undrafted I should say,
free agent. And we also talked a little Pirates baseball
at the very very end. So, without further ado, our
loan baseball segment today. Chris George is next. Now joined
by Chris George here, of course, who is going to

(04:40):
provide us with our Legion baseball update. We're going to
chat a couple other baseball topics as well while we've
got them here. Chris, what's up man?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, so it's been a heck of a week.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It's been busy the phones of ringanof hook and we
have area tournament action.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
This gets started back on.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Monday, and in here to we should know tonight or
this afternoon who our representatives are for our twenty twenty
five West Virginia Americaly State tournament, which would begin July
twenty four, if that's next thirty up atdal Miller Field
at Molon Park in Morgantown. So we can go through

(05:19):
what has happened. We have a there's always a surprise,
and what do we have a big surprise this year?
Last year we had a couple as well. And we'll see,
you know, it just finds down and we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, why don't we Why don't we start with one
of those surprises you were telling me before we before
we jumped on the call here. That kind of a
rough end to the season for Bridgeport. Lost five six
down the stretch, and that includes losing Thursday night, so
they are officially out.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Yeah, for the first time since the mid nineties. I
have to go back and look, that's on the fly.
It's been since the mid nineties since Clarksburg has made
a state tournament. And he did it, and and they
what a year it's been for Clarksburg. They end up
falling short in the championship game the Morgantown four to three,

(06:17):
but Clarksburg upended Bridgeport an elimination game earlier on Thursday.
The game started at four read to nothing. What a
what A what a job? I landed Fraser for the
Robert C. Bird product plate game three hit shutout and
he needed eighty five us to do it. And uh,

(06:39):
just a great job by Clarksburg.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
All and all.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Fraser also added a double. He had two hits the
way for Clarksburg. Jackson mcglaski, another RCB product, had an
RBI hit as well, and also South Harrison product Farrell
had a hit. Dominic Bombardier, another Dame product, had a
base hit in RBI as well. It's a crappy Clarksburg
bunch that just hangs around the majority of these kids,

(07:04):
six of them are from Notre Dame, four of them
from South Harrison. They got two or three from Robert C.
Byrd and a couple others. One from Lewis County. The
Jeffreys kid who's eighteen. He's a real standout for this team. So,
you know, a ton of Bird kids. Most of the
Bird kids left and went elsewhere this year, and I'm
going to sell a chance to play in a state tournament.

(07:26):
And Frasier one of the younger Bird players this past year.
For Derek Bowen, really has had a good summer both
to play it on the mountain.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
That's going to help him for an year.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
And that's what this is all about, is you know
guys like that maybe did a ton of time during
the high school season, found a way to play some
this summer and boy to day turnout and a lot
of these Notre Dame kids, you know, had a decent
year for a single a school. But these Notre Dame players,
you know, six of them to be exact, all have
played pivotal roles on this Clarksburg team. And we know

(07:57):
how good South Harrison was last year. You know mentioned Pharaoh,
also broken Medina, Bell, Castro, and Maxwell just to name
a few of the South Harrison players, all of them. Well,
this Clarksburg team is a true team. Matt casselp is
that the manager. His son Preston is on the team
as well, and you know it's it's just a very

(08:20):
good team. They like each other, They're energetic, they drive
people crazy both on the field and the dugout.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
They have some nice little chance to go on.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
But that's baseball, man, you gotta be entertainment.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
What a year it's been.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
It's not over with. They'll get a chance to play
in tournament next week.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
How about that? How do you like their odds?

Speaker 4 (08:41):
They're going to open up with a very team in
the first round on Thursday at four o'clock. Defending state
champions and current Area one champions, Building Post one as
Wheeling wrapped up Area one on Thursday with a sweep
over Parkersburg five to two, and then ten to one
in the second game. Wheeling right now currently twenty six

(09:05):
seven and one. They have a lot of players back
from last year's state championship team.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's a Wheeling team.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
It's loaded full of very talented players from Limley and
Wheeling Central and Tyler consolidated and they have four others
from Wheeling, and they got a very good player from
Brook and Henry Anderson as well. It's a very good,
willing team. They might be one paper as we stay,
the favorites to win again this time in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
They they've they're really good.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
I know people it's played them are very high on Parkersburg.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Very good team. They're in their team. It's won over.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Twenty five games this year. They felt short. Parkers will
represent the Area one runner reposition in the States. They
will take old Morgantown and I tap at thirty on Thursday,
and of course Morgantown won Area two, but Area one
well represented with Parkersburg post fifteen Wheeling posts. You know
it's going to be a heck of a run for

(09:58):
those twos it's been all year, and those two right
there out of one area could be some of the
favor actually.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
And what's the schedule look like for the for the
rest of the way you said everything is pretty much
wrapping up here in the next week, like, well, we
have a state title, state champ crown by next week.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yes, So right now we're waiting to see on Area four,
which is Eastern Panhandle Post sixty out of North Berkeley,
the North Burke area which is Hedgesville, Berkeley, Spring Spring Mills,
the Post sixty nights. They're in control to win that
area championship. They won the regular season portion of that.
They're going to play today. Well, they're guaranteed to spot

(10:37):
in and we'll just have to see after that. It's
gonna be Berkeley or Pacionic Valley. Well about that. And
then Area three down in the western part of the States,
so Southern Coalfield, Charleston Post sixty five, whether they've had
they got a big four nothing win last night over
South Charleston put themselves in a winter.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Spracket championship game.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
Charleston right now currently is having a great ye in
sixty fourteen and two. They've played a very tough schedule.
They upset South Charleston I think last night. As I said,
so South Charleston and Beckley, the Bash play an elimination game,
you know, later today at six o'clock and the winner
of that game will go to States.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
And we don't know who the champion's gonna because Winter.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
That game's gonna play with Charleston at eight thirty tonight,
and that's for the area championship and if they if
there needs to be a necessary game, that'll be on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
So that's kind of how it looks.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
We just talked about Area one and Area two is
already wrapped up in the terminally mentioned those teams, and
the state tournament begins Thursday next week at Dale Miller
Field at Mylamark and Morgantown.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
And only is there a state championship.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
On the line, but earth to the mid Atlantic Regionals
and Hanover, Maryland just outside Baltimore, just south of Baltimore
within the metroplex area there in Baltimore, starting on August
and I mean look here, it's the week after on
a following Thursday or all following Wednesday, the week after
the States, So dates on that when we get to
it but a lot of baseball, a lot of fun

(12:09):
and ah by the way, coming up here today this morning,
we have our Junior Legion in American Legion State Tournament
which is hosted in Bridgeport. Bridgeport Post sixty eight and
Juniors are hosting that. Other teams doing that is Wheeling, Beckley,
also Berkeley and Workingtown plus Bridgeport are the five teams
in the Junior Legion State Tournament.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
It's not it's more of a developmental tournament.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Asion baseball is sanctioned by the American Legion nationwide, but
it's only eight the state. There's no regional format for it,
so some states have the tournament's fort so some don't.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
We decided to.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
Throw one out there to the guys and get four
area champions and the host team in. So I'll start
at Bridgeport High School today and then that'll continue with
a champion crown on Sunday, weather permitting. Hopefully we'll try
to get it in If.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Folks are interested in I they're attending, or if there's
a broadcast option, how can folks check out the tournament
coming up next week?

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Okay, next week, there is some options. It's going to
course to be at Dell Miller Field at my park
in Morgantown. That's the backfield where Morgantown High School plays.
And of course i'll see around the back of the
press boxes del miller Field Post to its home of
Morgantown Post too. It starts on Thursday. You've got games
Thursday through Monday. It's a twenty fourth to twenty eighth

(13:27):
All games stream live on the news television app. Also
Video Productions will have it as well on their site.
They're going to produce the games and you can also
hear them streaming on the news radio as well. I'm
actually going to be doing one of the games. I
told them, I said, guys, being the state chairman, I
can help a little bit. So I'm going to do
the seven o'clock game on Thursday night after opening ceremonies

(13:49):
to help them out. I'd love to do more, but unfortunately,
being the state chairman.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
I have other duties this weekend coming up. But it
should be fun, really.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
I gave you a couple of teams that you know, Wheeling, Parkersburg,
the plus sixty nine Northern Berkeley area, Charleston, Beckley, Southrost
whoever survives that. It's an up in the Air Tournament.
I think there are a bunch of teams here to
have a shot, you know, to bring home the gold,
and it'll be fun to see. But if I had

(14:18):
to put bets on anyone right now, I wouldn't bet
number one. Number two, don't have the money to number three.
I think Wheeling's the favorite right now, but that could change.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
You never know. A lot of pressure on Wheeling last year.
The pressure was on Morgantown. They were the odds oiver
last year to walk away with it, and look what happened.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
Willing went in there and beat them twice on the
final day to win a championship. And who knows that
Samet Pressure's gonna be on Wheeling shoulders this year, maybe
somebody else. I stink Sitton grabs the state championship coming
up next weekend.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
I look forward to chatting more about it with you
in depth. Next weekend, We're gonna stick with baseball, and
of course Major League Baseball Draft and the All Star
Game wraps up. It's become a whole big kind of
week weekend event four Major League Baseball and the Draft
felt like there was a stretch of time there. It
just felt like I just kept hearing Mountaineer names getting

(15:09):
get called over and over and over again, and they
ultimately wind up with five guys getting drafted. Obviously, you know,
it's a pretty pretty meaty draft. The MLB draft is
of the four major North American professional sports, is of
course the largest round by round. But five Mountaineers drafted
into organizations. One signs after the fact, which is crazy.

(15:32):
I didn't even realize guys do that. So Jack cartsonis
signed with I believe the the Rays after the fact.
You know, you would think with a draft that large,
there wouldn't be any room for for unsigned guys, but
lo and behold, that still occurs. I just want to
get your your thoughts, your takeaways on a couple of players,
and of course Logan Sauve was the highest drafted. Kyle

(15:52):
West winds up going to the Yankees. Lots of lots
of interesting potential fits here. But who do you like
the best of these guys as far as a chance
to maybe play some games in the majors, if not
carve out a little career for themselves.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Of this group, good question.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
I think Kyle West has a shot because we know
a guy like that. You know, here's a young man
that has done nothing but hit. Start his career at
University at Charles. I remember back when he played leach
in baseball for Berkeley back in the late twenty teen.
Chase the latter was also on that team. Will by
the way as prospect for the Cleveland Guardians just outside

(16:36):
the majors in TRIAA right now. So his former Hedgesfield
Eagle teammate Kyle West now with the Yankee. Wes was
supposed to throw out the first pitch back on Wednesday
in the Area four Tournament in Hedgesfield High where Post
sixty the Nights are hosting, but he had other duties.
The Yankees have already verbally agreed to sign him to

(16:58):
a deal. He's heading down to Tampa at their Florida
Complex League site, get ready to play some potential games
coming up. The Florida Complex League will eat here late July.
But then after that they have what's called the Bridge League.
It's between the Complex legues both in Arizona and Florida,
which is known as Rookie Ball, and it's between the

(17:20):
leagues and the fall training stuff in September and October.
So the month of August there's what's called a bridge league.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
It's exhibition games.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
They don't count, but it's a chance for those guys
to get down there and get some work. And I
see a guy like Kyle West, I think the Yankees
they do a great job of really developing players in
the Fior league system. I think they do an excellent
job at that. I think they have a great job
of putting some muscle on Kyle West and doing some
things with him to try to get more power out

(17:49):
of him consistently. We know it's there, We've seen it
at WVU, so he has a great shot. I think
Griffin current for the Oakland, well the former Oakland A
soon to be Las Vegas as by the time Griffin
Kerr mixed to Mayor to be in Las Vegas. But
right now they're just known as the Athletics and the
West Sacramento. But you know, oak the Athletics are great
at developing position players throughout their minor league system throughout

(18:12):
the years. I think, you know, Griffin kern Is, you know,
has an opportunity there, and Logan Sabe and you know
there's another one, you know, Sawvee seventh round pick. He's
a catcher. So catchers are in high regard. He just
has to out there and catch and do his thing defensively,
and he can be a good, sound defensive career. He'll
climb the system in the minor leagues throughout the age organization,

(18:34):
no doubt about that. And I think I don't think
I know the whole guy have a shot.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
His biggest thing is.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
He's going to have to hit, and he's gonna you know,
he hit okay this year at WU.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Uh, they're more there in the bat.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
I think he's got to get bigger and stronger, which
he will. Uh, he's got to be a capable hitter.
But really, catchers are kind of like the pass when
it comes to guys in lineup. It's like pitchers. They're
in just to pitch.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
They bad at night.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Now most catchers, except outside of Kyle Radley, of course,
who can hit a ton. Most catchers are known for
their defense. R in there because of their defense and
their pitch framing abilities, which will be soon. I think
of the past when the automated balls and strikes come
next year. But you know, I think all of them
have a great shot. I'm happy for them all and
should be fun. I think all sign Skylar King has

(19:23):
a chance to come back. We'll see what he does
to do. Robbie Porko. I think he needs a sign,
I really do. I think he needs a fresh start.
I know the Dodgers drafted based off his ability and
his velocity and his size.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
You know, he started WU with his command.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
I think he needs a fresh start to try to
get in there and take around what's going on that
think six foot eighth body of his.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
The Dodgers another.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Organization is how to develop players. I think he's got
a shot because he throws ninety seven to ninety eight.
But one quick thing about the draft, it used to
be forty rounds, so now you see a twenty rounds
to one. Major League Baseball took over the MIRA leagues
back int twenty twenty one. They also took over the
draft to twenty rounds, which I think was a good idea.
And now just off the NFL undrafted free agents are

(20:09):
signing after the draft, and that Jeff carstonis had his
name called, so you'll see some more. I don't think
Sam White, as I know that coach Sabans has mentioned
Sam White has been talking to some teams. I think
you're side shot. I think Sam White needs to come
back to college for one more year and develop more
power and stay healthy for a full year. Because I

(20:31):
think Sam White and we'll get drafted next year if
he comes back and has another year.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
But we'll see.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
It's always so interesting to me because baseball has the
most intricate farm system and really always has had the
most intricate farm system. Of course, the NFL farms out
of their farm system to college football at NFL Europe
no longer exists. Of course, every now and then you
get a couple of leagues'll that'll crop up, and there
will be some development happening there, but the overwhelming majority

(21:00):
of development is happening at the college level. And of
course the NHL there are two leagues, but really just one.
The AHL, and any other leagues are not under the
NHL's purview. They're usually over seas in you know, Sweden
or Russia or Switzerland or wherever. But baseball has this
this and obviously basketball has the you know, the D League,
the summer league ball, but but baseball has always had

(21:22):
this really intricate farm system. And the one thing I'm
curious about is, how do you feel the NC double
a compares, like like when we're talking about NCUBAA baseball
and at really high LEVELSAA baseball, are we comparing it
to say what what we won't once would have referred
to as like single A baseball or draft league ball?
What where?

Speaker 5 (21:41):
Where?

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Where does the NC double A compare as far as
development goes when you're kind of comparing it to the
minor leaguers.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Good question, and I'll kind of explain it for you.
The best way to maybe help answer that question. You know,
with Menachs League baseball, you have the domestic and then
you got the international side. The international side is the
Dominican summ League where you can give up to seventy
players on your roster and thirty five on each team.
You've anybody it's injured or out. It's like the forty
man roster Major baseball. If you're on the sixty day

(22:10):
injured list, you're not on the roster, but they're still.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Within your team.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
And then outside that you got to domestic one sixty
five in minor league baseball, which is really single A,
high A, double A, and triple A. So guys that
you just saw have until the twenty eighth as signed
their professional contract and they have fifteen days to be
added to the domestic roster the minor leagues, which will
be part of the one sixty five, which is neat
because that's like the three man roster in Major League baseball.

(22:35):
This is the one sixty five in minor league baseball,
and level has its own limits. So if you look
at it, the Florida Compon League is basically for guys
that are just out of high school. Okay, so that's
kind of your college level when it comes to the
minor league side of things. The Dominican League is kind
of like your high school level for United States baseball.
The kids that are sixteen seventeen eighteen signing out of

(22:57):
the Dominican Republic VENEZUELAIA, wherever, Panama, wherever they may be,
even over far East Asi and stuff as well. They're
Simons sixteen seventeen eighteen, so they're going over there playing
with basically like a high school league.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
But it's the same thing. You've got Major league construction.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
They got door rooms, they teach them, they have to
get degrees, they teach them, multiple wages, they take close work,
they get their diploma in high school diploma. Unless they're
are eighteen, they can still get a diploma if they
haven't had one yet, but when they get to the
Florida Complete that's mainly for guys that are younger. You'll
see some high college age kis there, but they don't
last long. For example, JJ Weatherholpt pretty much started and

(23:32):
started in double A. He was an established player at
the college. So you look at that, there's a good
range to think about it. JJ Weatherholt was an All
American Double A high as kind of where that range
is for the All American type college talent compare to
the Mior League. It's like that low, it's like a
high aid the double A range right that twenty two,

(23:56):
twenty one, twenty two range, and then triple is a
poor man's big baseball level, and then double as it's
a little bit below triple A. There's a huge gap
between double A and high I mean huge gap. It's
going from senior to third year as a pro. So
JJ Weatherholt made that jump to double A just a

(24:17):
week ago. We'll see how he handles it. So far,
so good, and then he'll go to triple A and
then therefore and then so we'll go from there. So
actually he made a jump to triple That's why I
meant to say he made a jump Triple A. So
that's even beggar going from Double A to Triple A
as well. So that's kind of how it works. But
JJ Weatherholt, he's also twenty two, so it's time for

(24:40):
him to be in Triple A and hopefully by the
end of the year and maybe next year he'll be
in Saint Louis. The rules have changed because once September
comes and over the forty man roster you're allowed to
use to the end of the regular season, it's just
two more guys you can add to your active list,
which goes from twenty six to twenty eight. So a
lot of those menor leaguers don't get out opportunity to
come up in Septembers show what they can do. But

(25:01):
if weatherhol can do it, we might seem in September
and Saint Louis. If not, we'll see next year for sure.
But that's kind of where you look at it. Like
I said, you know, guys like Kyle West, I think
he'll start in the Florida Complex League and then he'll
work from there. Logan Save has already said he could
start in singal A or the Arizona Complex with the

(25:22):
athletics affiliate. He'll start in the Complex League and he'll
place from there. Normally, college players go to single A
before they go to the ace r FCL that it's
usually for high school kids like seth Rona, the Pirates
first round pick, who's nineteen. The high school kid he'll
start and he'll start to bring into Complex and the

(25:44):
Florida Complex League just because he's young. Yeah, I look
for most of those college kids to start in single
at least.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
That's that's fascinating because it's it's such a complex, complex system.
Because again, college baseball is going through a real moment
to increase in popularity and saw ball as well. I
might add, by the way, drew really really well College
softball in ratings, drew really really well on TV in
their most recent World Series. So worth noting that that

(26:13):
right now, at a time when Major League baseball has
not been as accessible as it was, that's probably not
the right rate of phrases, But at a time when
Major League Baseball has not necessarily been at the peak
of its popularity, especial especially when you compared to say
like the NFL. It's interesting to me that the NCAA
levels are experiencing such a surge in popularity, and that's

(26:36):
I think pretty interesting. One thing I wanted to end
on was the you alluded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. So
I don't know if you heard last week's show, but
I had talked with Eric Little and Michael Minnick and
we made a bet when they were in Cantington the
city what was more likely to occur Bridgeport to win
four playoff games this year and of course win another championship,

(26:57):
or the Pirates to score four runs in any of
the those three games in Kansas City, which the Pirates
failed to do in every single one of those games
against the Royals. They did end the first half of
the season on a high note with a win over
the Twin right at the end there, and they'll open
up with the very lowly Chicago White Sox at an

(27:18):
organization that might even be in a worse condition than
the Pirates are at this point. Pirates second half, any
reason for optimism, anything that fans can look forward to
over the course of these next couple of weeks and months.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
Well, I'm going to be there tonight for the White
Sox game with my bubble device attached to me by
the hip of all the baseball stuff going on. It
was a ticket that I purchased back in November's part
of my plan, So I'll be there. Let's just let's
just put this way this time last year, at the
very end of the first half, going into the Auster Break,
the Pirates beat the White Sox to finish five hundred

(27:56):
at the break. Well, right now, they're not five nine
and fifty eight coming out of the break, way below
what they were last year. You know, the White Socks
one of the worst teams in baseball, the worst team
in the American League. I think Pittsburgh's got shot and
to do something this weekend. Plus they're at home. They
played much better at home they do on the road.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
They only won.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Thirteen road games all year, which is just absolutely terrible.
You know, Pittsburgh. I think the Adam Fraser trades a
sign of things. By the way, they got a lot
more from for Frasier than what probably I thought they would.
A thirty three year old bench player that you know,
isn't a starter, that's you know, so so and low

(28:34):
power guy, and we got a decent return for him.
I didn't think we get any babe back for him,
Plus he was on an inspiring contract. But I think
you're going to see two or three more trades. I
think the biggest question is going forward, we know Pittsburgh
have to make some moves. Do they wait till the
offseason with a maybe possible new general manager to make
these trades? Does ownerships say, look, we need to make

(28:57):
some moves, but we want to do it with a
new GM out telling Ben Sherrington that pretty much saying, okay, Ben,
here you are allowed to trade Isaiah Connor, Fileffa probably
one key, Brian Hayes probably two, and then after that,
I'd be surprised if they trade anybody else. If they do,
it'll ap probably during the off season, and do that,

(29:18):
it'll be with a new general manager. I'm not saying
there's gonna do GM. I think that that is a
very high possibility. So if you don't see Mitch Keller
traded at the deadline, Brian Reynolds, uh, just a name
off you. And that's probably one reason why I think
I KF Goes and I think Cabrian Hayes is seventy
five percent chance to go. I think I had Connor

(29:38):
Fleffer though, be in the free agentcy of the year.
It's almost scaring to go.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
But you gotta be smart here.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
If you've been Sherrington his trades, there's only been of
them that fanned out over his six year tenure. He's
got to do better these trades.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
I think he did okay aft the Fraser trade.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
Time will tell how that works out with the with
the guy we got back from the Worlds. But don't
don't trade to trade. Don't just trade the dump salary.
Don't trade to trade. Fine ways to improve this team,
whether you're here next year or not, because Pittsburgh is
a long way from competing. We know they had pitching. Offensively,
they're absolutely terrible. They got to get much better there.

(30:16):
How about Brian Reynolds has the worst wins above replacement
score on the team, the worst on the Pirates team.
He's almost become a human DH. He's really struggling to downfield.
His hitting is down this year, his powers somewhat down.
But right around two point thirty, you know, Brian, he's
not getting any younger. That's a big contract. They may

(30:37):
try to dump that either in the offseason or if
the deadline, we'll see, but they need a ton of help.
It all starts offensively, but I we'll say this, I
thought this was the best Pirates draft since the twenty
twenty one draft, when they went out and did a ton,
when they got the Buve Chandlers and had that real
deep draft class for Henry Davis Witt number one a
discount to allow the Pirates to go stockpile their slot

(31:01):
money for more picks later on. I thought this was
a very good I mean, maybe better than twenty of them.
We'll see how it pans out, obviously, but they get
Jerry Jones in the ninth the power hitting first base
from from LSU, who had more power in any band
coage baseball. Was an absolute stud. That is a huge get.
I love Tornandez pick in the first round, the best
high school pitcher, and they say in thirty years as

(31:23):
far as refinement and maturity goes has all the stuff
that did one and then overall just a great draft.
I thought they did the next job. Their scouts and
mister Horowitz's scouting director there did a great job for
the Pirates. So again, these guys aren't gonna be there
next It's gonna be a couple of years away for
some of these, but you got to start somewhere, but
them start either into deadline or in the offseason, because

(31:46):
this team has to get drastically offensively next year. So
if you're not going to go get a couple of
free agents, you better trade within the stockpile of your team.
And that's starting pitching. You're gonna have trade one maybe two,
or one starter or one he and high leverage relief
guy David Bednar maybe want two of those guys to
get some offensive back. You have got to find ways

(32:07):
to get this team offensively. They're absolutely terrible at the plate.
They're worse than the Colorado Rockies at the plate offensively,
and they're dead as their twenty eighth of baseball last
I checked most and most offensive numbers maybe twenty ninth now.
And it's not just been this year, it's been the
last sixt years.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
They've been bad.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
And it's time for change and we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Very good Chris George, our resident baseball expert, of course,
and we'll be talking with you next week about the
final of the Legion Tournament that's coming up on July
twenty fourth to start. All right, we'll go ahead and
take a break. This is the Friday Free for All,
brought to you by Dan Cavitio to buick GMC. Chris
Johnson will join me next and a little bit later

(32:49):
we're gonna hear from Tyler Ferris and Craig Dutton as
well at the back half of the show. That's all
coming up as we switch gears to football. We're back
after this.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyo w a GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
We were so busy talking about football right here in
the studio off the air that I almost almost missed
us coming back on the air. Alex Widerspiel here with
you on the Friday Free for All, and this feels
pretty good, right. Chris Johnson's here and it's football time.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Man.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
We're talking football for the rest of the show.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Yeah, it's It's definitely coming up real real quick, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah it is. We're going to talk in about about
twelve minutes or so. Top of the hour. We're going
to talk with Tyler Ferris of Bridgeport, of course, the
defending champion of Class Triple A and certainly, if not
the favorite to repeat, then probably heavy favorite to get
back there, get back to the semis. They're gonna be
They're gonna be good enough to make another deep run.

(33:51):
It's a question of how deep.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
I'm gonna mention this now, because I know Tyler doesn't
like talking about stuff like this. But he's internet fifth
year as coach. His record was forty six and six.
It's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah, that's a pretty bad is Let's let's bring out
the old let's pa about old calcul Let's pap about
the old calculator. Here forty six divided by fifty two.
Do we have any quick guesses?

Speaker 5 (34:18):
Eighty seven?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
That very at eighty eight point four. That's pretty good,
pretty good, eighty eight point or right, you got a
round up? Sorry, eighty eight point five. Favorite radio station
growing up, by the way, eighty eight point five. Different state.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
But he, I mean, I mean, he's going to hit
that milestone fiftieth you know, coaching victory. Yeah, this year,
I mean, and you know, I'm I mean, I would
put it a really good chance. I mean, we're gonna
win our first four games the season. Yeah, you know,
and if you go by the schedule, that mean, he
would get it at home against Philil Barber. So that's

(34:52):
their Week four opponent.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
So yeah, we're going to talk with Tyler Ferriss. That's
coming up.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
We won't mention any of that because he he hates
you know what, That's fine. I love talking reason makes
them such a yeah, and I.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Like, listen, we talked with him last year. We've talked
to him a couple of years now, obviously, but and
you've talked to him like multiple times per year every
year for the last however many years, uh since even
before he was a head coach. I was, I would
imagine you've been. You've had a working relationship with him.
But one of my favorite things about him is his

(35:26):
coaching philosophy. You know, Like I remember asking him last
year about like the Bill Belichick school of thought that
games aren't really one and lost on Sundays in the NFL.
They're won and lost during the week, they're won and
lost in the summer, and and he he pretty much
admitted that that is he thinks that's true. And it's
the same in high school football, that games aren't won
and lost on Friday night. That's just when you play

(35:48):
the game. That games are won and lost in the
weight room, games are won and lost in practice. It's
your level of preparation and then then it's just about
execution at that point.

Speaker 5 (35:57):
Yeah, and you know, I'm sure sure if your team
has been putting in a lot of work since January,
and uh yeah, they got to be amped up ready
to go, don't they. I mean, it's getting close to where,
you know, summer vacations over for football players here in

(36:17):
a couple of weeks, and I mean it's go tom
and you know, hopefully you're you're focusing on the game
of football, you know, until early December. And I think
there's a real good chance that's going to happen for
the end NS. Again, like I said, I mean, right
now everyone's a state title contender.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
But but we I think we have an idea.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
Yeah, I mean, I think when it's all said and done,
I mean, they're going to be right there.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
I'm trying to bring up I had it. I was
actually working on my schedule for the fall, which was
really did make me feel like, oh wow, it's it's
really we're getting to that point here. We're in the
back half of July, We're on the back nine of
the summer break, if you will. And with that note,
I still have not actually golfed. I've been out to
the driving range, but having golfed because it won't stab raining,
I can't catch a break, and when it rains it

(37:04):
seems to be flooding too.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
It seems like the weather this summer it's either been
one hundred degrees with like humidity is so bad you
struggle to breathe outside, or a thunderstorm. Yes that's the
only two options.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, that's it. Airb airb uh. And yeah, no, it's
not been not been super conducive to golfing, though there
are some There are some neat indoor facilities, including a
quick shout out to gore For in downtown Clarksburg, where
if you really want to get out there, I probably
need to get over to gore For at this point
because I don't think we're ever going to see the
sun again.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
I've never caught the bug for golf, and I'm not,
by no means am I anti golf. Sure, I've just
never of which is weird because I do I like
being outside.

Speaker 6 (37:54):
I actually enjoy like walking.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
I mean, I think it'd probably be fun to walk
you eighteen holes.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, it's a good exercise.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
But I don't know, I've just never that in coffee.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
I'm just interesting.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah, that's just I've just never loved both.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
I love both those things. Uh No, but that's that's
the opposite attractive all that. So one thing I wanted
to note. You had mentioned Philip Barber a second agoing
I know we're going to have We're gonna have coach
Melee on at some point before the season starts. So
we hadn't really talked about this, Chris, but South Harrison
and Philip Barber set to meet on Friday, October third

(38:30):
on the football field, uh, seven o'clock kickoff. And Uh,
it's funny because obviously these are two teams that both
lost star players to Elkins. And we're gonna talk more
about that later with Craig Dutton when he comes on
the show a little bit later. But you and I
have been been shipping this as a rivalry, yeah, for
a couple of years now, and and now that they're
they're in the same classification, and I know they're on

(38:52):
kind of opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of size,
but I think that there is especially we saw it
with baseball this year. There's a old budding rivalry to
develop here for these teams.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
Yeah, I mean it makes sense being in the same
class fairly close distance. To me, that's one of the
good things that's come out of all the reshuffling with
the reclassifications. Yeah, you get to see something like this.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah, probably something we'll do in the next week or two,
especially now that we're fast approaching football season. I think
probably highlighting. Chris and I might come come up with
like a top ten top ten games in our region
to find a way to be at watch listen to
on the radio that we're most interesting. I'm gonna be honest,

(39:40):
that's probably that's somewhere in my top ten.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Speaking of the South Harrison schedule, you probably figured it
out by looking at it that they have an opponent
on the short schedule will be the first ever meeting
between the two schools.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
First ever meeting between the two Oh you know what,
hold on, that's a I know it's not Clay County.
It's not Williamstown, is it?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
No?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Okay, I didn't think so. I don't think they've played
Williamstown in my time Uh with them. Uh, it can't
be Lincoln is it gonna.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
Say it has been a couple of years since they've played.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Hold on, I'm uh, the way the way I do
my schedule is not is not super conducive for this.
So hold on because as you can see, it's all
mixed in with the I go by dates. So it's
all mixed in with volleyball and women's soccer dates.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
Oh yeah, that no, that's the best. Uh you got.
You got to come up with a comprehensive schedule, all right.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
So so I'm gonna be able to figure it's pretty
recognizable school, is it? Poka?

Speaker 6 (40:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (40:35):
Wow, first time they've ever met in football. Lincoln actually
has a first time opponent as well.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Who's Lincoln's first time this one?

Speaker 5 (40:45):
This surprised me a little bit just because of the proximity.
But when you think about it, the classifications I haven't
really ever lined up Doddridge County, Lincoln and Doddridge County
never played football.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Now, right, Doddridge is gonna be single A this year?
Is that right? They're gonna be double A. I can't.
I cannot keep this straight. Okay, I cannot keep this
straight with the changing classifications.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
Yeah, because I mean, as crazy as what last year
was or some tweaks right from last.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Year because like Wheeling Central is now single A right, yes,
like I just I can't keep this straight, like this
is I need I need a cheat sheet.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
I think in Wheeling Central's case, they could have been single.

Speaker 6 (41:24):
A last year as well.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
They chose to play up because you do have the
option of playing up right for whatever reason.

Speaker 6 (41:31):
Probably good for for.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Some double A team is probably happy about that, Yeah,
probably happy to get get Wheeling Central Catholic out of
the classical.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
Wheeling Central has every starter FOA. So wow, if not
every the majority.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
I haven't. I haven't perused the full article yet, so
I don't want to. I don't want to dive too deep
into it. But notable because South Harrison is playing Williamstown
this year.

Speaker 7 (41:57):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
There is a Williamstown preview up at the wv Metro
News dot com High School Sports section, and I think
they noted that Williamstown went through a fair bit of
turnover over the offseason, turnover a lot of what was
of course an excellent roster over these last couple of years.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
Yeah, but even but are a blue blood Yeah, I mean,
I mean they're like, you know, the Bridge Sports willing
Central's Martinsburg's that they they feed, they'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, they they feed. That's a that's I think that's
the theme. And that's where you know, obviously look at
South Harrison's play by play guy. This is where I'm
hoping they wind up going. But this is, you know,
kind of what I observed from them is that they
they see the system that works, and they're trying to
emulate it now and build sort of feeder programs down
that are gonna because again, the thing about that works

(42:43):
so well at these places, whether it be Bridgeport now,
I don't know anyone does it the way Bridgeport does
it Bridgeport. And I mean this in the nicest way possible,
but I hope folks won't take this as an insult.
What Bridgeport does is from a hockey perspective, what the
Soviet Union did in in their era. Yeah, they're they
make sure everybody plays the same system that way, everybody

(43:04):
already knows when they get to the highest level exactly
what they're doing, and it's by design that way. So
it's very Soviet esque. It's very like the machine does
not break in Bridgeport. And so I don't mean that
as an insult because I get it the Soviet, but
Soviet hockey was the dominant powerhouse for multiple decades, and
even after the upset in nineteen eighty, was still dominant

(43:25):
after that.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
I mean, but that's why that was such a monumental
moment in the history of sports in this country. Right.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
And I would say Bridgeport from a success perspective, one
of the most successful programs in the state ever.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Oh absolutely, there's only one high school in this state
that has more overall total victories since they started football.
That's Parkersburg hockey. It's Parker's bar one Bridgeport too. And
then there's some distance, and Parkersburg has about an eighty
game seventy to eighty game lead on Bridgeport. But uh,

(44:00):
after Bridgeport there's a little little drop.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
I'll be curious if if Tyler's listing right now, coach
coach bears, I wonder, I wonder how he feels about
the Soviet comparison to Soviet hockey.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
Yeah, he may not even answer the phone.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Listen. I mean this because remember, folks, I'm a big
I'm a big hockey guy. So hockey's a sport and
and there I don't know that you can give you
can pay anybody a bigger compliment than saying that they
play like the the the the seventies Soviets did because
they were the best ever. They are you know what,
You're right, You're right. Very similar color scheme, So a

(44:36):
little bit different politics, but very similar color scheme. Uh yeah,
So I I I'm excited for this year. I we're
we're We're gonna take a break here in just a moment,
but I'm I'm I'm super pumped for this year. I think,
uh again, when you look around the region, there are
lots of reasons to be optimistic about a number of
the teams taking a step forward. We obviously we talked

(44:58):
about the Hawks, We've talked about Bridgepoord, you know who.
We haven't talked about a lot, and I will probably
have Austin Scott on here at some point in the
next couple of weeks, But we haven't talked about RCB who.

Speaker 5 (45:08):
I think.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I think we're all kind of expecting that they're they're
gonna springboard off of the way they ended last season. Obviously,
tough draw in the first round of the playoffs, but
they they did what they had to do to get
in and they got that extra practice in. They got
a little extra time in and and as a result
of which I think that extra experience should be pretty

(45:31):
helpful for a team that has plenty of talent just
needs to now mold it all together.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
Yeah. I mean there was points last year where I
mean that program could have just folded it in and said,
you know what, you know, it's not our go back
to drawing board and come back nice year. But with
the injuries they dealt with, and yeah, I found a
way to get him in the playoffs. Yeah, like yet,
I mean, you know.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
By the skin, and they did it. You know, the
win over Elkins was a literal goal line stand.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
So I mean the pieces are there, you know.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
And that's.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
We'll always talking about like jigsaw.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
Puzzles, right, you know, It's like everyone's got like this
big jigsaw puzzle, and you know some of them have
those those edge pieces, you know, kind of already in
place and just fill in. Some of them you're just
starting from scratch and you got to go through the
box and build that frame. And you know, so pieces
are there.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Yeah, yes, they are. I like that analogy. I was
actually thinking about that last night for sports in general,
funny enough about how building a team roster building in
any sport is really like a jigsaw puzzle. So sometimes
the question whether you're doing it blind or not. Though
it can get it could be a little hard at times,
right at any level. All right, we'll go ahead and
take a break. We're going to talk with coach Tyler

(46:50):
Ferriss of Bridgeport, the defending State Class Triple A champs
right after this.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Now back to the Dan Cavatoyota Uick gmc friday free
for on one O three three w KMZ.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
All right, we are back in the studio here. Alex
Wheeederspiel with you alongside Chris Johnson and on the phone
with us right now is the head coach of Bridgeport Football,
entering now his fifth season as the headman on the job.
Tyler Ferris is with us. Coach.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
Good morning, Hey, good morning guys.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
How you doing good? And thanks for as always joining us.
We love to talk to you this time of year
before things get super crazy. Guys, haven't started obviously, you
still in the flex period. Haven't started camp yet though
that is fast fast approaching. So love to pick your
brain a little bit. But I have a very important
first question to ask you. And what I need to

(47:39):
know is this, is that how quickly after you, guys,
after the clock struck zero on the last year's state
championship win, I need to know how quickly you started saying,
all right, I'm ready for I'm ready to go win
another one next year? When did that feeling creep in?

Speaker 8 (47:54):
You know, I've been knowing this a while.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Nope, looks like we lost them for a second. Good, Yeah,
we got you. We got you.

Speaker 7 (48:05):
Okay, So pretty much no matter what you know with
the following year, where we're ready into January, you know,
the first week of January when the kids come back
to Christmas break.

Speaker 8 (48:15):
And uh, you know, they get settled into their.

Speaker 7 (48:17):
New classes and everything. Uh, that's when we open up
the doors of the weight room and really start getting
after it. And uh, you know, the way the way
that things have been shaking out the past few years,
with kids moving around, transfer and doing all that stuff,
you don't really start to get the molder idea of
your team until you really see the commitment from a
bunch of kids that'll be there. And then then the
wheels start rolling about what you're gonna do for the

(48:38):
next year.

Speaker 6 (48:39):
Yeah, coach.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
You know, you know, I know you well enough and
you and you know the guys on your staff that
I mean when you say that's the mindset, I mean
that's I mean, it's totally the mindset. But how important
is it to get the kids to realize that and
to get like some of your uh you know young
men are gonna be leaders next year. To realize that

(49:01):
and accept that and get you know, their younger teammates,
you had to buy into that.

Speaker 7 (49:06):
I mean, that's something you work on all the time. Especially,
you know, it's it seems to be getting harder and harder.
You know, there's so many distractions and so many things
for kids to do and so many ways to be
pulled now that a lot of times it's tough to
get them to focus in and come in and and
realize that, you know, that weightlift and that they're doing
and the training that they're doing one is going to
be huge for for them individually, but it's huge for

(49:29):
us as a team to start to build there.

Speaker 8 (49:31):
And uh, you know, we're we're lucky.

Speaker 7 (49:32):
At Bridgeport that we we've got a great nucleus of
kids that that continuously come in and do that year
after year. But uh, you know, it's it seems tougher
and tougher to get kids to to accept that and
understand that.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
How do you how do you navigate when you've got
kids And obviously you had a couple of really exceptional
players last year who did this, But how do you
navigate it when you've got kids who are playing multiple sports?
Do they change up their offseason regiment at all? Maybe
don't start lifting as quickly if they're playing basketball, or
or maybe take a break from lifting if they're playing baseball.
How do you navigate that side of it with kids

(50:07):
who are going to play and be multi sports stars.

Speaker 7 (50:11):
Well, our coaching staff will you know, we really mold
to fit the kids. You know, we we want them
to play basketball, baseball. We want them to you know,
to do their thing, and we're not going to tell
them not to. So what we end up doing is,
you know a lot of times with our baseball team
or basketball team will open up weightlifting before school, So
we'll lift from six to seven fifteen, get the kids
out of there enough time to go shower and eat

(50:33):
and make it to school while the other kids are lifting,
you know, out of school. So we're doing everything we
can for the student athletes individually and you know as
a team. And I'm lucky enough to have coaching staff
that that you increates at the awesome job for us
this year coming in and open up the weight room
and every single kid that wanted to get better and

(50:54):
lift in the offseason has that opportunity in our program.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
You coach, we talked about you putting last year, uh
you know, kind of buy in the rearview mirror for
the program. But but with everything you guys accomplished last year,
is there a little extra excitement, a little extra buzz,
you know, even starting in January?

Speaker 7 (51:17):
I mean, yeah, yeah, there are you know, kids are
excited to understand that you know, uh you know blueprints there.
They watch the kids before them do it. And the
kids that are coming through the program aren't very different
from the kids in front of them. You know, they
they remember what those kids were like his ninth and
tenth graders, when they were six and seventh graders, and
you know, they just know if they come in put

(51:39):
into work and and you know things, you know, it
takes a little luck, takes a little a little bit
of everything, but if they come in and do what
they're supposed to do. They have, you know, an opportunity
every year to potentially make a nice run in the playoffs.
So you know, I sometimes you wonder if the if
the kids take it for granted, because you know, that's
that's all they kind of know. But you know, from

(52:00):
a guy that was a football program that was you know,
eight and two, sometimes three and seven, five and five,
I hope to understand how special it is to have
a chance every year to put your name on trophy.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Now, of course you guys are are and you do
this very successfully every year. Which was my point in
the previous segment about the comparing to the Soviet the
big red machine, as you pointed out, the but the
Soviet hockey team, there are some real, really strong players,
particularly in the trenches, who graduated and are going on
to do bigger and better and heading on to play

(52:35):
some college football in some cases. And I'm always curious
about when you're when you've got a program like this,
do you walk into the summer or or even like
the spring, with an idea penciling in who might take
a certain position, or do you think, you know, we've
got a couple of guys who could do this. We're
just gonna let them battle it out in camp. How
do you go about making those sort of initial decisions

(52:57):
on what the roster might look like as you get
closer and closer to game number one?

Speaker 7 (53:02):
For us, it's it's really simple. I mean, it's who's
willing to block? I mean, if you want to step
on the field for us, you're gonna be willing to
put your body on the line and step out and
make contact and block for your teammates and do all
the little things that we need to move football.

Speaker 8 (53:16):
So you know, yeah, you got an idea of who.

Speaker 7 (53:18):
The bigger, faster, stronger kids are. But until those pads
come on and people start, you know, actually blocking and
hitting and making contact, it's really tough to to think
who's gonna be whaere? So August really tells us a lot.
The off season tells us a lot. You know, who's
who's in there, who's dedicated. But we when we start
blocking and everything, when it's real in August, I mean

(53:39):
it they really choose themselves. They do. You know, it's
either who's who's who's moving bodies and who's not.

Speaker 6 (53:47):
Yeah, I mean, you know that's one thing.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
Being as close to Bridgeport football as I have been.
You know you for the past several years. You know,
when you talk about getting started in August, you know
it's it's not like, you know, Bridgeport gets two or
three extra weeks you know, to go full practice unit.
And you know George Washington doesn't start until you're the
middle of August, or you know, Capital starts, you know,

(54:12):
a month before. Everyone has that same starting point. Uh,
when we get to the first week of August. But
it's that work that you guys put in from January
to that point. It's just a year in, year out.
That guy that does have you guys on like a
better footing right out of the gate, I feel. And
then when you get to that point where you can
have full contact, you guys have already went over a

(54:34):
lot of things you need to take care of. Where
a lot of programs. Honestly, we're still trying to figure
that out. When when camp opens in August.

Speaker 7 (54:42):
These kids can lie to their moms, they can lie
of their girlfriends. You're lied to the dads whoever they
want to. You can't lie to a bar bill.

Speaker 8 (54:48):
Yeah, I mean, they come in, they.

Speaker 7 (54:50):
Get they get their base weights, they see where they are,
they see how strong they are, and then we test
them periodically throughout throughout the off season and their numbers
that they are dedicated and they come in, they lift,
they get stronger. When they get stronger, they got the
better opportunity to block.

Speaker 8 (55:05):
And to run and you know, to do all the
little things they need to do.

Speaker 7 (55:08):
So you know, it's it's easy to see, and it's
just it's it's not you're not going to get away
with you know, just trying to just float through things
in our program and then you know, show up in
August and start. There are too many kids that are
trying their best to get better. And like you said,
we do a good job of packing that weight room,
and man, these kids work their tails off and we're

(55:30):
excited to see what that turns into. Come you know,
the second third week August.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
I would be remiss if if at least once per
time having you on, I didn't ask uh to give
a little love to the assistant coaches as well. And
I know, coach first, you're usually the first guy to
do that. A lot of a lot of you know,
I find the really top notch head coaches talk up
their staffs a lot as well. And I am kind
of curious if there's anything of note that you remember

(55:56):
from from last year's run, obviously to the to the
eight title, anything that stood out to you about your
your assistant coaches and what they were able to do
to contribute to that run.

Speaker 7 (56:07):
I mean, nothing stands out to me, just because it's
what they do every day. You know, it's not there.
They worked their tails off day in and day out,
and they they didn't ramp it up for the playoffs.
These guys are as valuable in March as they are,
you know, in August, and I mean that just I
guess there was one story that came out of it
was pretty cool, was there was a huge compliment paid

(56:29):
by somebody.

Speaker 8 (56:30):
Nobody really told me.

Speaker 7 (56:31):
Who said it, but I was told by Joe Bricado
that someone in the States said that our special teams
was as good as he's ever seen on film. And
you know, special teams as coached by everybody.

Speaker 8 (56:45):
It was run last year by Sean.

Speaker 7 (56:47):
Snyder, but you know, everybody's got a piece in that,
and probably more.

Speaker 8 (56:51):
So than the offense of the defense. So that right
there just tells.

Speaker 7 (56:54):
You the attention to detail, and you know, how important
those guys are, the things that they coached that may
go on noticed throughout the year, and that was that
was an awesome thing to hear.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Yeah. Uh, you know, and speaking of special teams, that
brings me to just your one man.

Speaker 6 (57:12):
I wanted to mention real quick, just.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
Because I think he kind of embodies that spirit. Uh.
We were talking about Gavin Williams. I remember talking to
him moments after they wanted the state basketball title, and
you know, he's got every right in the world to celebrate,
and he was definitely happy. But I mean he told
me he's you know, that was Saturday, he said, you know, Monday,

(57:36):
he's in the weight room. He's ready to be in
the weight room because he doesn't want to be just
a kicker and a ponder, which I mean he takes
very seriously and he's one of the best in the
state out but he wants to be a running back
slash safety as well and do everything he can to
help this football program. You're going into his junior season
and it's just I you gotta love kids like that

(57:57):
to have that mindset. And he's just one of many,
you know, on that roster. You we all know that,
but I think there's a lot of people maybe throughout
the state that think, oh, Gavin Williams is a pretty
good kicker slash punter. Uh might realize he can do
some other things on.

Speaker 6 (58:14):
The football field. You know pretty well this year as well.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
And same thing, same thing applies to a lot of kids.
You know, you look at these different lests of top
running backs to your players, different positions to look on.

Speaker 6 (58:26):
You don't see Gay Martin on a whole lot of them.
I think you're gonna see them on a lot of
them at.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
The end of the season.

Speaker 7 (58:31):
I can tell you that they're gonna be pleasantly surprised.

Speaker 8 (58:34):
But when you see what those kids do.

Speaker 7 (58:36):
Gave didn't light to it, and Gavin didn't lie to
you whenever he said they were gonna get in that
weight room. Yes, those kids haven't missed they you know,
they worked their tails off. They're super excited to see
what they've become this year. And I think a lot
of people can be shocked when they see those kids,
you know, have just the difference in their bodies.

Speaker 8 (58:54):
And the amount you know they won. They great in
the weight room.

Speaker 7 (58:57):
But they took nutrition extremely seriously. We bring nutritions then
to talk to the kids about how to build and
get stronger and you know, really take it to the
next level. And man, both those kids have done that,
and uh, we're we're excited to see you know where
where at Hull Coast because yeah, he's a heck of
a lot more than just a kicker or punter. He's
you know, he's the he's the all around player. He

(59:17):
can throw a little bit, he can punt, he can kick,
he can run, Uh, make tackles. Super excited for him,
and same thing with Gabe. But it's a it's an
absolute travesty that he's not higher on some of those lists.
But I don't take a lot of those lists real,
real serious anyway, because that's not that's not what's important
or what matters or gets a kid recruited or any

(59:38):
of that stuff. You know, we've got a great communication
with all college coaches in the area, and you know,
and all of up and down the East Coast, they
are all well aware of who Gavin and Gabe or
tell you that.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
By the way, that that special Teams compliment is great
because it immediately made me think of Super Bowl winning
coach Tom Coughlin, who was really the first coach that
I can remember. Uh, and again I'm I'm you know,
I'm in my thirties, so think about you know, I
was like a teenager when Tom Coughlin was was going
through his time with the Jaguars and eventually winning a
Super Bowl with the Giants twice. I might add, but

(01:00:12):
that is such a great compliment because Coughlin made such
a big deal about how important special teams was, and
he was one of the first guys that I can
remember really making a point out of the importance of
being able to change a game. Because when you think
about football, look, not every year, you're not going to
have a team like Bridgeport had on offense and defense
every year like last year, and sometimes you got you

(01:00:33):
gotta find places to be better than other teams on
the margins. And a lot of those times, those margins
are special teams where you've got hidden yardage, you've got
chances to make game changing plays that oftentimes are hard
to recover from.

Speaker 5 (01:00:45):
That's a hack, you flip field.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Yeah, that's a heck of a compliment, man, that's fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:00:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:50):
I was definitely excited about that, you know, and a
lot of our young guys that are looking to try
to get on the field. You know a lot of
times that's where it starts, and they do a really
good job on special teams, like, okay, they take this
job pretty seriously. You know, let's let's see what they
look like in a few drives here on offense or defense.
And then they start to do well there and then
it's like, all right, yeah, we may have something. That's
how you know, a lot of times a sophomore really

(01:01:13):
like opens your eyes to them on on our football team.

Speaker 5 (01:01:18):
Zachar worg Is, you know a great example. I mean,
I thought he excelled at special teams before you he
got a chance to be you you know, that main
running back, and he ended up being in one of
the top rushers in school history.

Speaker 7 (01:01:29):
Absolutely, that's that's a great point. And you know, I'll
never forget watching him fly down the field and you know,
have reckless abandon going down doing everything, and that's where
you know, you knew that young man was gonna be special,
and man he was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
You have to have a little little little bit of
a daredevil attitude to play on special teams. In my mind,
hey coach, before we let you go, did you get
to do anything fun or or plan anything fun this
summer before camp starts in earnest here in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 7 (01:01:57):
Yeah, my wife, My wife's in charge of all that stuff.
She took me down to uh uh to Mexico for
a few a few days there. That was. That was fun.
I always like getting out of the country for a
little bit. Yeah, hanging out down there. So we did that,
and uh now we're just you know, excited getting everything ready,
getting our our discount cards ready and going around talking
to local businesses and things like that to uh to

(01:02:19):
get ready to raise some funds for our football program.
And like I said, come August fourth, we'll be ready
to roll and hopefully go out and make the community.

Speaker 6 (01:02:28):
Press we're at in Mexico.

Speaker 7 (01:02:32):
Uh So this one was about twenty minutes north of
cane Kun and this was uhh. I love Playa, I
love Maharas. Okay, So again I would love to sit
there and tell you I come up with all this stuff.
I don't. I just go where my wife tells me
I'm going. Yeah, and uh it was awesome, I tell
you what. Those people were fantastic and uh I highly

(01:02:53):
recommend it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Yeah, I I not to turn us into a travel show.
But uh it me and my daughter went to couse
them out, uh, like a year and a half ago.
It was the people were so friendly, it was so beautiful.
It was like I'd recommend anyone. Uh people are because
you know, sometimes people were afraid to go.

Speaker 6 (01:03:12):
I was like, you know, don't, don't be afraid, just go.
You'll love it.

Speaker 7 (01:03:15):
So oh, man, Camcon's one of the cleaner, safer places
I've ever been. Yeah, it was amazing how how how
much they obviously care about about their city for sure,
because man, I didn't see a piece of trash on
the side of the road or anything. I know, not
all of it's the same way, but right right, it was.
Uh it was impressive.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Yeah, very good coach, much appreciated. And also smart decision
is leave the wife in charge of vacation. That's uh,
that's always a safe decision. Uh, Coach, we appreciate it.
Good luck this season. I'm sure we'll be talking with
you again at some point. Uh, and thanks again.

Speaker 7 (01:03:50):
Alright, guys, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Have a good night you too, That is coach Tyler Ferris.
And surprise surprise, as as ever. I mean that that's
his style. Man, He's not going to dwell on a
state title.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
And you know, we've reached a point where people start
talking about like other contenders to the throne. I mean
that you know in trip Away, you know, Princeton's going
to be there, Herbert Hoover is going to be there again,
you know, on down the line. And we've talked on
this show about it's unrealistic to expect that much dominance

(01:04:28):
from Bridgeport again because what they did last year collectively
on offense and defense, I mean even throw.

Speaker 6 (01:04:36):
Special teams in there.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
I mean, that just doesn't happen that level of dominance
every year. I was telling someone last year even talking
about it's like, man, was Bridgeport really that good? And
I'm like, yeah, I was like, and I don't say
things like this very often because I know, any in
any given game, anything can happen. And Herbert Hoover, Herbert
Hoover's really good football team. Last year Bridgeport, that Bridgeport team,

(01:05:02):
that Herbert Hoover football team could play one hundred times,
Bridgeport wins all one. And that's not a knock one
Herbert Hoover.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
No, that was that was a special.

Speaker 5 (01:05:12):
Bridge Just how special Bridgeport was.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Well so, and that's why I thought the special team's
compliment was almost funny because I was like, you know,
in some years that might push a team over the top,
that might make the difference. If Bridgeport just has an
average special teams unit, last year probably doesn't make that
much of a difference. But but you you see it
reflected in the fact that they won by an average
margin of forty nine seven touchdowns. That, I mean, that

(01:05:38):
is an outrageous number, right that that should tell you
about how good they were in all three phases of
the game. I mean, there was just and I'm sure
the coaches would always say there are things they can
get better on, but last year's team really pretty difficult
to find a weakness, and it seems like most coaches
around the state had a hard time finding a weakness
in that team either.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely the special team and I'm
so blessed I was able to. I mean I saw
every single game, everyone in all fourteen games last year.
I was last year, Yeah, and it was special.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
Heck of a season, heck of a season. Looking forward
to seeing what they do again this year and again
another year in in Class Triple A, which, of course,
this whole reclassification process that's going to be ongoing, we're
going to be paying attention to this basically almost every
year now it seems like at least every other year. Yeah,
so we're gonna pay it to I don't know. I

(01:06:33):
still think it's not like the Bridgeport is going to
be in Class quad A anytime soon. But there's a
part of me that's just like, who knows at this point.

Speaker 5 (01:06:39):
Man, what must you be thinking that? Like volcan An upshure? Though,
It's like, I mean, because they got bumped back up
to Quada after being triple I mean, it was a
rough year for be you the initial signs that may
not be a whole lot better, But now they're up
in Quada, which, on one hand, they got a better

(01:07:01):
shot of making the playoffs. But then you're talking about Martinsburg,
Cable Midland.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
You know, you know, it's really tough.

Speaker 5 (01:07:13):
Plus you know them, you know, im pressing, Uh kind
of in the same boat, but you're kind of stuck
in a conference there is predominantly trip away with a
few You're.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Not you're not near you're not near anybody. I mean,
there's just a real, realga amalgamation is the run word.
A real cluster of Quad A teams not in this
part of the state. So you're just you're just just
not around.

Speaker 5 (01:07:37):
It's tough.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
I get it, It is really hard. The one thing
I will say, and maybe this will prove true, if
we get a little consistency and instability in the system, you know,
we talked about obviously, Elkins has been picking up a
lot of really good transfer recruits. I wonder if Buck
Cannon up sure in that same in that same vein.
I wonder if they might be able to pick up

(01:07:58):
as a Quad A school. I wonder if that might
mean that they would have a larger attraction for for
kids who want to play up a little bit. Yeah uh,
and play in the highest classification level. Because again, you know,
and obviously we just saw Bridgeport, which is the pre
eminent class Triple A school, send a couple of kids
D one this past year. But you got to think

(01:08:20):
that more than likely, if you're going to play D
one coming out of West Virginia, you're probably gonna have
to play at Quada to start right, more than likely.

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
Yeah uh, you know, there will be some exceptions, you know,
at the trip A but you know, every class should
go down and becomes, you know, less and less. The
thing I mean, I do think bucking and upshur is like,
I think they've got the right man and the job
to get that program. I mean, Sloan Baslin was an
All state player, He's at his alma mater. I'm no,

(01:08:49):
Sloan is very committed to getting that program turned around,
and I think it's eventually going to happen. I just
don't you know, people got to show a little bit
of patience. You know, I'm talking about the fan base,
because it's going to take a little bit of time,
a little bit of effort, a little bit of changing

(01:09:10):
the culture to get you know, that program Black where
it needs to be. But I do think slum Basin's
the right person to get that to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
All right, let's go ahead and hit our next break.
When we come back, we're gonna our final guest of
the show, Craig Dutton is going to join us on
the other side of this break, and we're gonna break
down a couple of a couple of major storylines both
from inside the region and across the state that Craig's
kind of been paying attention to. He likes to keep
his ear pretty close to the ground on a few things,

(01:09:40):
so we'll chat with him. On the other side. Craig,
of course, is the Lincoln play by play man, so
we'll probably chat a little Lincoln as well. Yeah, we
haven't we haven't done. We haven't talked about Lincoln. Now.
He's not quite into full prep mode yet, so I
don't know how much Lincoln he's gonna. I know there's
some Lincoln stuff he's got on his mind, but I
don't know that he's you know, because they haven't even

(01:10:01):
broken camp yet obviously. So but that's it. We'll take
a break, we'll chat with Craig coming up in just
a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Back to the WKMZ locker room for more high school
sports on the Dan cavatoyot w at GMC Friday Free
for All.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
And we are back in the studio Alex Weederspiel here
alongside Chris Johnson. Craig Dutton is going to join us
here in just a moment. Apologies, folks, that was my
bad technical difficulties there. This is what happens when I'm
multitask Chris, I'm told so here's what I was told actually,
and we're gonna have Craig on in just a moment,

(01:10:39):
so share this anecdote while while he is jumping into
the zoom room, I was told that multitasking is not
actually real. We think we can multitask, but in truth,
we're just distracting ourselves from the task we're actually doing.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
I can buy that. Yeah, I think it's true.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
I think it's true. Look like we've got Craig dot
to see him. Yeah, yeah, we don't have it. We
don't have a we don't have a webcam in here yet,
so he can't see us, but we can see him. Hi, Craig,
what's up man?

Speaker 9 (01:11:11):
Good morning, how are you all going?

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Good morning?

Speaker 5 (01:11:13):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I love this. This is I like I say this
every single time because again, I just there was a
really long stretch er I didn't have any reason to
use this this tech. But so a couple of months ago, Craig,
we got this installed where now we can do zoom
calls from here live in the studio, which is fantastic.
You know, the old system was you know, a lot
of pre recording and everything else. This is I mean,
they just the sound quality is fantastic, and yeah, it's

(01:11:36):
a game and we can see you, which is great.
So good morning, Craig. What's going on, man, It's great
to have you back on the show.

Speaker 9 (01:11:42):
Good morning, I've been a very good morning. I just
want to add to that. You know, I've always been
thinking of that the traditional radio person too. The last
year when we went to going to the laptop programming
for Lincoln, and that was, you know, just stacked above
each other, much better than what we were before in
terms of broadcasting. Right, this is a lot better when
you can implement stuff like zoom or other you know,

(01:12:06):
other applications as well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Yeah, it's tough. You would think that landlines would sound
pretty good, but in the in the instance, for whatever reason,
in our studio, landlines are they don't sound amazing. So
this is a this is a nice this is a
nice change for us, uh, which I'm I'm grateful for.
That said, Craig, we brought you on. I got to
bring up my list, we gotta we got a whole
bunch of things we're going to talk with you about

(01:12:28):
this morning, most of which you helped helped craft. So
let's let's start. Let's start with a little bit of Lincoln.
I know we don't want to spend a ton of
time on them because we still haven't spoken, uh with
with coach yet, but we just kind of started our
coaching interviews last week with South Harrison did Bridgeport today. Uh,
but but talk a little bit about Lincoln, and of
course you pointed out to me that, uh, you know,

(01:12:49):
they're going to really be relying on on A. J.
Bart this year and they've got some holes that they've
got to fill around him.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
They do, and A J.

Speaker 9 (01:12:58):
Bart this is the season where he wants to stick out,
you know, from everyone else in the Big Ten, especially
in Harrison County. Lincoln's committed to, you know, the spread
style of offense under offensive coordinator Kobe Carpenter, and that's
what coach Hawkins wants from this program. So it's all
trying to build a team around him. And you're going
to have a few guys returning back. You have Aiden

(01:13:20):
Rice's younger brother, Connor Rice, and they really look forward
to him really stepping up this season, especially at tailback
and receiver. Nearly getting about five hundred yards rushing last season.
I think they really want him to step up now
as a junior for this Lincoln team. And there was
definitely going to be guys coming back plagued with a
few injuries. Cade Riley will be back at tight end

(01:13:42):
and at linebacker, and he will be important because towards
the end of the season he was really starting warm
up at tight end. He really had a hundred yard
game receiving versus Liberty, and then he suffered an injury
the following week versus Philip Barber, and that really hurt,
you know, them going on in that final run, because

(01:14:02):
that was the other thing there was a lot of
inconsistency with Lincoln in those last few weeks. That was
the best football they played in those final three weeks
minus the Bridgeport game, and they really were coming into
their own. So there's a lot to build off that
coming into season. And the transfer bug hasn't really hurt Lincoln.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:14:20):
The word was Christian Davis came to Lincoln after last
football season and he wrestled for the Cougars last year.
But I believe he is focusing on running. He's going
to be cross country tracks. So in reality, they haven't
lost any of the athletes, nor do they gain any
athletes out of Lincoln. That's the biggest storyline is that
they remained to stay as a community school, strong in

(01:14:40):
the fact that they want to play for that school.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
You want to talk a little bit about obviously they
won three games a year ago, what needs to what
needs to get better in order to take a step
forward this year. I mean, we all thought they would
obviously have some growing pains last year. But I think
we even we were surprised at how the season started
for Lincoln, that they were a little further behind even
than we had thought they were.

Speaker 9 (01:15:05):
And then the problem with that, they really had some
tough games early on, that Nitro game to start with,
and quite now, quite honestly, right now it's looking like
that Elkins game maybe a tough one for them in
Week one this season the way things are starting out.
But for Lincoln as a team, they need to have
an established running game. And like I mentioned, Connor Rice

(01:15:26):
is coming back, they're expecting a lot out of you know,
I forgot to mention him as well talking to coach
Hawkins Colton Edwards. You know, going in last season they
expected him to be the starting tailback for the Cougars.
That may still be in the cards this season depending
on how he comes out, and a lot of that's
based on being an underclassman versus an upperclassman, So Edwards Rice.

(01:15:47):
A young man that really impressed us a couple of
times was Caden Mooney as a freshman, even being as
a sophomore. If you can balance him into the run game,
that would be important. And the offensive line, it seems
like it's like last year again, they have three guys
coming back. They need two more guys to really fill
in that role on the offensive line. And defensively, you've
got to replace the one hundred plus tackles of Aiden Rice.

(01:16:07):
You know there's gonna be guys like Trenton Hardesty, Connor Rice,
who are really people come to mind, Caid Riley, They're
really going to stick out in Cad Mooney was playing
a lot of safety last year for the Cougars, and
you're going to see a lot of them take on
that mantle. And we need to see the line play
strength and I think for Lincoln, they really need to
be tough along the line to give a j bar

(01:16:28):
An opportunity to just orchestrate his offense.

Speaker 5 (01:16:32):
Yeah, you mentioned Elkins is like, let's go ahead and
jump into it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:36):
It's like we.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
You know, I mean all of us understanding that the
reality of the world we live in now when it
comes to high school football in the state, there's a
lot of movement in the off season and this off season,
there's a lot of movement, you know, down or over
a route thirty three.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Elkins collecting, Elkins collecting running backs like stones.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
Right now, we've talked about half Field and Logan Bean.
They also got a couple running backs from Clay County.
So yeah, there's there's been a few football players move
in to play for Elkins this year.

Speaker 9 (01:17:13):
You got the Robinsons from Clay County, Logan Bean from
Philip Barber, the biggest one, Jadeen Hatfield from South Harrison
that's a second move in two years. And then you
also have Noah schoonover from Liberty. So those are all
athletes that are going to make an impact for Elkins.
But it's like you know, you're not going to know
from one play to the next, and the style oftense
they play, it's going to make them rather dominant if

(01:17:34):
you run the spread and they take what they can
from it. They're going to be a pretty good team
this year in Elkins. And that's in Week one. They're
coming to Shenston. I know, I don't want to look
too far ahead. That's another instance of where Lincoln can't
get in over their heads thinking, oh if we if
we don't come out really well in this matchup, then
it's going to be the whole season. It's not going
to be the case. They played Braxton County for years

(01:17:56):
in that Week one slot and that would always be
a very tight game a number of years until Lincoln
started establishing themselves under coach Hawkins. And that's why they
the change was made. Braxton wanted to go back to
play an LKC schedule. Lincoln wanted to face a little
bit more tougher challenging that Week one and they're going
to get it with the Elkins Tigers. And what's even
more surprised about Elkins is that they return They're two

(01:18:18):
wing guys, you know, on that on the spread off
on the on the the wing offense they run. They
return those guys from last season for Elkins, so you've
got to clude them into the mix as well.

Speaker 5 (01:18:30):
For the Tigers.

Speaker 9 (01:18:31):
They're going to be a very dominant team if they
can figure out how to balance out all the skill.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Yeah, that's a that's a big task in front of them,
because that is it's funny. I'm gonna quote you back
at you. You texted me yesterday and said, there's only
one ball, which is my which is one of my
favorite that's a that's another funny hockey cliches. Well, there's
only one puck, which is always thrown out there whenever
and whenever. A team already has a fully stacked set
of guys to play on the power play, and we're
going to trade for one more guy who's a power

(01:18:57):
play specials. But there's only one puck. You know, there's
only one ball, and you've got all these guys, You're
gonna have a lot of mouths to feed, so and
that can present certainly, that's you'd rather have that challenge
than not enough mouths to feed. But that could present
a challenge all in and of itself. But certainly the
expectations right now, Craig rising for Elkins, I'd.

Speaker 5 (01:19:17):
Say they are.

Speaker 9 (01:19:19):
And you you talk about two different disparities. Elkins has
to figure out the balance. And you've got teams like
Lincoln an injury or North Marion now South Harrison. I
know they really are helped by having Harbor on their team.
From Bridgeport, but still one injury to a lot of
these smaller teams than triple A, double a single A
can make the make or break a season. So there's

(01:19:40):
two different different you know, two different outlooks for all
these teams in the state of West Virginia. Either one
you're the ones that are hungry for the skill and
the athletes out there and you're gonna be fine one
way or the other. Or you're going to be the
team that like, hey, we're gonna be fine as long
as we don't lose this person or player at A
B or C on our team. You know, it makes
a big difference in one week to the other. So

(01:20:01):
it's interesting what this transfer portal has done. There's been
positives about I think overall on the run, there's been
some really good positives from it seeing it. I guess
the one thing I like is the fact that my
theory is is holding out for Lincoln. Nothing's really happened
to them yet, but still a lot can change between
now in the next two weeks. I think it's still

(01:20:22):
open for movement until you play your first practice, which
is on August to fourth. For any of these teams
in the state of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
By the way, excited this year is we the first
time And actually I called a game with Craig a
couple of years ago between Lincoln and Lewis County. But
South Harrison and Lincoln will actually meet this year and
they have not done that once in the three years prior.
So excited Craig will be on We'll be on opposite
ends of the press box for that one, but excited
to see you that day.

Speaker 9 (01:20:50):
I'm very excited for that as well. That kind of
establishes the idea. It's a lot of these newer opponents
that Lincoln are putting on their schedule, Doddridge County, first
time ever that will face off against the boldog played
in for years in JV. I think that's a great
fit for Lincoln because they get along so well, and
a lot of those kids from Liberty are going to
Dodderge County as soon as the approval goes through, as

(01:21:13):
soon as the approval goes through on transfers to for
the Bulldogs. And then you got South Harrison. That's that's
potentially could be another rivalry come up. And I honestly,
the way that game played out last season, you could
say Philip Barber is easily a newly confirmed rival for
Lincoln as it goes. But I'm looking forward to that
matchup with the Hawks because the Hawks, even with al

(01:21:33):
Jadon Hatfield, are a well rounded team, and I got
to see him in the playoffs there in Princeton. They
were outstanding in a well oiled machine. You know, just
was one fumble way from you know, defeating Bluefield in
their in their territory.

Speaker 5 (01:21:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Uh, go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 5 (01:21:48):
As we all start getting ready for football season, one
thing I do every year and we'll give Craig his
flowers here on this is like I Craig does such
a great job of keeping track of the coaching changes,
you know, throughout this state, which you can find on
you know, the Tailgate Central message board. To me, it's

(01:22:11):
been a valuable resource, uh, and not only getting ready
for the season, but for me being you at all
state chairman is like, you know, I can't send a
bout to a coach if he's no longer there, So
I'm always going there through in checking the coaching changes.

Speaker 6 (01:22:27):
But Craig, I just wanted to ask you give us
a couple that you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:31):
Think are going to be like significant coaching changes, you know,
either in the region or or throughout the state.

Speaker 9 (01:22:38):
It's funny you mentioned that. I'll say that Chris right now.
It started on tailgate about during COVID. But credit to
all the posters on there. They there's some posters that
really are informed on there. I don't know who they are,
but they are usually head of the step and I
just trust him. I always give credit to them because
a lot of people say all to a place is

(01:22:59):
just you know, you blow steam off and say your
team's a little higher than that. Well, there's a lot
of that on Tailgate, but there are people who try
to stay informed and they do a really good job
about informing me. I got to get caught up because
I know Brandon Wickline was just hired at meadow Bridge
and a number of others. But honestly, it's the internal
changes in the state that really stick out to me.

(01:23:19):
Is like Frank Sassini at Brook he coming from Weir.
Then you also have Nathan Tanner at Princeton. That's a
big difference, you know, going from Parkersburg South all the
way to Princeton to coach for the Tigers. And then
of course Donnie May's going back to South Charleston. I
think I mentioned that to you guys towards the end
of the football season that that was potentially breaking. Ed

(01:23:40):
Forshey was the one who helped break that story in
a number of others that Donnie May's was going to
go back to his original school, South Charleston because administration
changed back to the people who he wanted to see
in there at South Charleston, so he left Hurricane. And
then you can also say this one to Larry Thompson
making the opposite, you know, coming from the southern part
of the state where he coached at Wyoming Right Wyoming East,

(01:24:03):
that's right Wyoming East, and now he was an assistant
for Nathan Tanner Parkersburg South. He is now the head
coach at Parkersburg South. Was supposed to be a Catholic.

Speaker 5 (01:24:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's that was such a great hire for
Parkersburg Catholic and then they ran into a situation where
they had to, you.

Speaker 6 (01:24:22):
Know, fold the program.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
And you know, it's still hard for me to fathom
that there is no park Well, I mean even Notre mean,
there's no Notre name football. There's no Parkersburg Catholic. This year,
there's no Madonna football. Uh, no Van football.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
I mean, by the way, not out of the question.
There was a proposed consolidation plan in Randolph County that
would potentially see the end of Tigers Valley High School. So, uh,
we're seeing this, this is, this is, this is, it's
this is not over.

Speaker 9 (01:24:51):
It is And this is the first year with Wetzel County,
you know, without Hunter in Payden City and Harrison without Liberty.
So it's very interesting to see how this goes. And
then even the plan for Wetzel County that may even
affect an influx for Lincoln is if they ever decide
to close the valley and make the kids travel all
the way to New Martinsville. There's a number of kids
that I've heard that may cross the line from Wetsell

(01:25:13):
and go into Harrison County on Route twenty to go
to Lincoln because there would just be a tad closer
than building a new school near the four H grounds
outside of New Martinsville. Maybe in a couple of years
if that goes through.

Speaker 2 (01:25:24):
Yeah, I would imagine some potential for Clay Batel and
North Marion as well. Wetzell Counties had kind of centrally
located in that way where it's it's kind of close
to everything but near nothing, if that makes sense.

Speaker 5 (01:25:36):
Everyone just vigialized that the meme of the little blondehair
girl going like this, we're losing schools left and right,
but let's go four classes.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and only what is it like eighteen
some quad a right now? Twenty? Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:25:54):
Sometimes these board of education meetings seem like the meme
shared from the Coldplay concert the other night. Surprise, very costly.

Speaker 5 (01:26:05):
That was.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
That was I Someone shared that with me last night
and I was like, I was like, like, inwardly and
outwardly cringing. It was so hard to look at. That
was great. That was That was even better that Chris
Martin called them out. He's like, oh, they're either shy.
They're either shy or they're having an affair. And it's like,
you nailed it, Chris. We're gonna go nailed it one hundred. Craig.

(01:26:26):
I'm really excited for this season, man. I'm excited to
have you back on the show. And of course, next
time we have you on, we're gonna be diving a
lot more into Lincoln because by the time we have
you on again, camp will be breaking and uh, I
guess give me one really big storyline to watch for
Lincoln in training camp.

Speaker 9 (01:26:44):
And training camp is really about what I said, Let's
just see who shows up when when it starts. If
Christian Davis were to come suit up for the Cougars,
which I think he has focused on running, you know,
for you know, cross country and track, but other than that,
it's really going to see who really steps up and
no support skill roles around a J. Bart and there's

(01:27:06):
some established people like Kde Riley and Connor Rice. We
really need them to see how they're going to transition
that role and where the offensive line play. Defensively, we
won't really see much out of them until we get
until they play the grid at North Maryon two weeks
before the start of the season. That'll give us a
better idea. And then when they take on Elkins, that's

(01:27:27):
really going to say a lot what the defense can
do because it's going to be tough because you know,
Rob Hawkins took on that role last season as defensive
coordinator along as head coach, and he transitioned to it,
you know, rather well these last few seasons for the Cougars.
Let's just see if it holds up and it really
is a couple guys who can really get near the

(01:27:48):
triple digits and tackles for the Cougars season.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
By the way, folks, if you're interested in Craig's broadcasts,
Lincoln will be on WFB why once again this year,
and now you can listen online as well, and then
if you to go back and listen after the fact,
they they're embedded on the website. As was there a
video component as well, Craig, I know, I know there was.
We were talking about that for a minute. Is there
a video component this year?

Speaker 9 (01:28:12):
No, not that I know for ours, and I really
need to get those backed up. That's the one thing
I'm behind on. I still need to get through the
playoff game for South Harris.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
Oh that's true. That's true. I guess I have some
I have some thoughts on the if I can get
organized enough, I have some thoughts on some fun segments
for this year that will include and incorporate audio from
all the games that we that we include in our region.

Speaker 9 (01:28:35):
But I'll make that happen.

Speaker 2 (01:28:37):
I'll put a pin in that for now. We'll save
that for another day. Craig. We'll let you go back
to work. I appreciate your time as always, man, and
looking forward to another great football season.

Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
Me too.

Speaker 9 (01:28:48):
This is a I feel, one of the top shows
in the area for high school sports, and I enjoy
beyond every Friday when I can with you and Chris
as well. Let's just hope that we don't get a
sudden surprise like Stephen Colbert did yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
Yeah, well, I think we're okay. I'm more worried about
a sudden sudden court injunction leaving us in the lurch
for that seems like that that could happen at any time,
and all of a sudden, it's like, oh hey, guys,
no playoffs for a week, no playoffs for two weeks.
Uh more worried, more worried about that. But uh.

Speaker 9 (01:29:16):
Yeah, when that happened during basketball, it made me feel
a whole lot better.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
Yeah, yeah, no kidding, Craig, We'll talk with you soon,
all right.

Speaker 9 (01:29:22):
Buddy, All right, you know you guys, have a great morning, all.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
Right, see man, good call by Craig, multiple good calls
by first the cold play meme and then he's talking
cold But I was very sad to see now granted
the fact that they're just canceling. It is crazy. Yeah,
that is like the Late Show is an institution.

Speaker 5 (01:29:40):
I remember in college when when Letterman made the switch over.
I mean that was like a huge pop culture moment.
I mean we had people like gathered in the dorm
rooms like, oh my gosh, what's the first show going
to look? It's like I I mean, and do people
get that excited about no? I that has led us

(01:30:02):
to yes, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
There have been folks who have been saying that this
is political, and again I I don't know one way
or another, and I'm not going to get into it
on this show, but I will say this, I I
do think late night TV is not anywhere near like
that type of Yeah. I think I think that starting
with my generation on down uh the millennials, I don't
think that there is the same level of attachment to that.

(01:30:26):
Uh And and to their credit, to the credit of
the of the you know, they have tried to meet
us where we are. You know, I see more of
Stephen Colbert in four minute clips on the Internet than
I do of watching Stephen Colbert. Uh and and I listen,
I loved Stephen Colbert when he was on Comedy Central.
I did watch that. It's just this is a very

(01:30:47):
different type of show that was that was, Those were
very different types of programs and and so I'm not
as interested in in If I did have the time
to give to to late night TV, I'm more likely
to watch like a John Oliver or Stephen Colbert back
when he was on Comedy Central. I'm just I'm looking
for more direct comedy than I am the Late show,

(01:31:07):
you know, with the huge interview segment and yeah, I
don't know, it's it's it's it's tough, and I I
get that the market is challenging, but it is also
kind of surprising because what are they going to replace
that with? Reruns like of what? Yeah, we can tell
you what, we can take a quick break. We'll come
back and let's chat about your vacation. Yeah, okay, good stuff.

(01:31:31):
We'll be right here. Very short vacation, but a vacation. Nonetheless.
We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
cavatoryo w A GMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
I should probably turn my mic on if I want
to actually talk to you guys. We got a few
minutes left here. I'm I'm all over the place today, Guys.
It's crazy, and I don't even have the excuse of
being able to say, oh, I'm rusty. We haven't hosted
this show in a while. That's not even that's not true.
We do the show year round now, so uh no,
Apparently I just can't remember to turn my own microphone on.
Alex Sweeederspiel and Chris Johnson here with you on the Friday,
for You for All, brought to you by Dan Cavitiot

(01:32:06):
to you a GMC first of all special thanks to
our guests today. They were all fantastic. Craig Dutton the
play by play voice of the Lincoln Cougars, and I
just like to consider him a high school general West
Virginia High School football expert as well.

Speaker 5 (01:32:18):
Plus we're lucky we've got a couple of those we
do well.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
So here's the thing. It's people. It's really funny. People
think I'm an ext like I don't like Craig dwarfs
me like I go to Craig for when I have
quite I go to you. I know what I know,
and I certainly know about South Harrison, and I try
to make make it a point to know as much
as I can about this region. But the guys who
are able to pay attention as well as they do

(01:32:42):
across the entire state, like you and and Craig, more
power to you, because I I it's just an extra
resource for me to lean on. Also thanks to of
course coach Tyler Ferriss and Bridgeport and very excited to
see what they do this year. And to Chris George,
who will be finally exiting baseball mode here the next
a couple of weeks. We've got a few minutes here.

(01:33:03):
Chris said something funny to me last night when we
talked on Zoom. He said that he thought you guys
because he was he was talking about your recent trip
and he was like he was like, he was like
he he was talking about how much you guys knew
about wrestling, and I was thinking to myself, I was like,
you guys should really start, you guy should start like
a wrestling podcast like we need, like a we need
like an aw wrestling podcast from the two from the

(01:33:25):
two Crises.

Speaker 6 (01:33:26):
Just show me something to sign.

Speaker 5 (01:33:29):
Let's do it.

Speaker 6 (01:33:30):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
Because so that's why you were in Dallas, right.

Speaker 5 (01:33:32):
Yes, uh yeah, me and my daughter my tag team
partner when it comes to wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:33:38):
Road, that's good. That's good nomenclature.

Speaker 6 (01:33:41):
Yeah. We uh.

Speaker 5 (01:33:42):
We went to uh All in Well, which is their
their version of WrestleMania. Was an amazing trip.

Speaker 6 (01:33:51):
We got there two days before.

Speaker 5 (01:33:54):
We had an event on the Thursday that we landed
in Dallas, and then Friday was like the big convention
stuff and then a smaller Ring of Honor showed and
Saturday was the big All the Wind show, a Globe
Life Stadium. Fantastic trip, amazing wrestling, amazing food. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
I was gonna say, I know it. It's Texas.

Speaker 7 (01:34:15):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
We I'm real big on Like, if I go someplace
I've never really been, like Texas, it's like I don't
want to. I'm not putting down Chick fil a, McDonald's whatever.
It's like, we got those here.

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:34:25):
If I go to you guys flew right, you guys
flew Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
Yeah, So I'm like, no, let's try to get Our
three targets were some good barbecue, some good authentic tacos,
and what a burger And we hit all three of them. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:34:39):
Barbecue fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
Oh oh, I bet no one does barbecue like Texas.
So we're low on time here, so I don't want
to I don't want to start telling this story before
we have to right right before we have to go
to a break. So here here's the deal, folks. Chris
is going to join us for a few minutes on
the other side of the top of the hour. But
a little bonus segment on the morning Spiel. We'll talk

(01:35:01):
some brisket, what else to talk to? Some catfish. I
have a little story I'm gonna share with the listeners
who I think will really appreciate it, especially if you're
a fan of football. I think you'll appreciate this as well.
This is one of my one of my favorite stories.
I can't believe I I'm gonna ask you off air
when we get if I ever told you this story.

(01:35:22):
But it's a little story about a road trip I
took to Texas when I went to Austin in college.
And along the way we found a restaurant that we
liked so much that would have stopping there again on
the way back, but we'll save it. We'll save that
and more more food talk for the other side of
the break. We're back in just a moment with the
morning Spiel. This is the Friday Free for All. Listen

(01:35:43):
to the full show here on w k m Z,
and you can listen to the podcast, including the bonus
segment at the Spreak wrapper your preferred podcasting platform.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
You've been listening to the Dan cavatoyot of you at
GMC Friday Free for All, be sure to tune in
every Friday KMZ. We are proud to live here too.
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan

(01:36:17):
Cavatoyo w a g MC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
We're going to do a little bonus segment of the
Free for All here to kick off the spiel. It's
the Spiel for All? What what?

Speaker 5 (01:36:27):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
I can come up with additional puns? Don't mind me?
Alex readerspiel here with you and now my co host
from the Friday Free for All, Chris Johnson alongside me
as well. I wanted to I want to spend a
little time talking a little more football. But before we
do that, we're gonna we got to finish the conversation
we're having right at the end of the show, because
we were talking food and road trip stories and you
had just spent some time in Dallas and I wanted

(01:36:49):
to share a story with you before we die, before
we really get into the food. This so so years ago.
This would have been two thousand and I want to
say nine. It was the year that the WVU Mountaineers
were a four seed in I'm sorry, a three seed.
The women's basketball team was a three seed in the
NSAA tournament. But back then, back then, they would not

(01:37:10):
allow Morgantown to host even though they were the three
seed in the pod. So Texas being the sixth seed,
wound up getting to host. And so Austin is the site.
We drove out there for college radio broadcast the game,
and on the way there, two day trip. You can
do it in one day if you're really ambitious, but
I don't recommend it yourself. Moving Yeah, I don't. We

(01:37:33):
did the return trip in one sitting, and I, upon
further review, wished we hadn't, but we did. We split
up the trip there into two days, which was good.
I think we were just so desperate to get home
at that point that that that's why we we rushed
the trip back. But so on the way there, you know,
if you know anything about traveling from West Virginia to Austin, Texas.

(01:37:55):
You're going to go through Tennessee and you're going to
go through Arkansas typically, and you're gonna get into East
Texas on our way there on just kind of a
total like absolute just whim we we've I don't know again,
I don't remember if we were east or west of
Little Rock at this point. But we found like a
truck stop and we were gonna pull off and use

(01:38:16):
the bathroom in whatever and see if we could find
some food. But this is like a real truck stop
because this is a part of the country where you know,
truckers are doing some really really serious serious driving. So
not only is there like a truck stop, but there's
like off this exit, there's like a little motel hotel,
there's places to sleep if you need to sleep. There's big,
huge parking lots for the trucks. There's also a restaurant

(01:38:39):
called Nicks Catfish and Bbq, which I have no idea
to this day if it still exists, I would imagine
it does. But Nick Catfish and Bbq, and and don't
think like like you know, you're thinking like a truck stop,
like oh god, like what do they know? It's like
a legit restaurant that just happens to be off this
truck stop, and so Nick Catfish and BBQ stop there.
First of all, got got a catfish poe boy. It

(01:39:02):
was one of the best meals I've ever had in
my Like it was like it was my first Southern
cuisine and it was a true realization of like, Okay,
this is this is different, this is this is a
very different beast that I'm dealing with. And I was
so good that we stopped there again on the way
back and I got another poe boy. I didn't even try, like,
I didn't even try anything different.

Speaker 6 (01:39:20):
I should have.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
I should have tried the barbecue is what I should
have done. But I was like I I was like, dude,
that that that poe boy was so good. U that
catfish was so good that I gotta do it again.
So we stopped there twice. And what's what's funny though,
is that they had a book of like famous people
who had been there to this restaurant, including uh former
college football and NFL great running back Seawan Alexander, who

(01:39:40):
of course was I believe in Alabama. I want to
say it was an Alabi, but I think he might
have been from Arkansas and went to Alabama. I have
to go back and double check that I might have
it the other way around. But Shawn Alexander had eaten there.
Bill Clinton, of course had eaten their surprise, surprise that
the governor of Arkansas. Now at that time he was
the ex President of the United States, but the governor
of Arkansas had had eaten there at some point. And

(01:40:02):
I don't remember many other names. Again, this was a
really long time ago. This was fifteen sixteen years ago,
but I do remember that. And then I remember I
forgot to mention this to you. One of the other things.
Just just on the way out the door, they had
homemade peanut brittle for sale, and I remember buying, and
I was just gnawing on peanut brittle the entire way
to Austin, Texas, which is a little annoying if you

(01:40:24):
don't like loud chewing. But I don't seem to notice it.
So that was that was fantastic. But so I'm I
saying all of that, I'm very familiar with, uh, very
familiar with that, that that first taste of really good
southern cooking, and you were in you were in Dallas, Man.

Speaker 5 (01:40:43):
Barbecue Capital of the world right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:45):
Certainly up there Kansas City might have something to say
about that.

Speaker 5 (01:40:49):
I'd vote for Texas right now because there might be
some recency bids. But yeah, like we mentioned going off there,
you know the previous shows, like me, my daughter. We
had three specific food targets for our trip, Texas barbecue,
some good authentic tacos, and water burger because I've never

(01:41:11):
eaten a water burger, which was.

Speaker 6 (01:41:15):
Perfectly fine.

Speaker 5 (01:41:17):
The barbecue is the real story of the yeah, of
the trail, and the tacos were excellent as well. But
the barbecue we got that the first night we was
in town. And one, you know, and a lot of
people who have traveled to this party country probably this
is all kind of a new experience, you know. For us,
it's like, first of all, you order your meat by

(01:41:40):
the pound. You can get a half pound of and
you know, so we got a half pound of brisket.
We got a half pound of ribs, and then we
got like a pint of the baked beans with like
which had brisket in them as well, which is amazing,
and a pint of mac and cheese and we just
kind of shared, uh. The brisket out absolutely out of

(01:42:01):
this world. The ribs were also really good. But what
really stuck out about the ribs because I'm watching them
carve the ribs and my first thing is like, man,
this is you know the intro to the Flintstones. Yeah,
it's like it looks this big. I'm like, look at
the size of these ribs.

Speaker 6 (01:42:18):
Okay, so.

Speaker 5 (01:42:21):
A half pounds of ribs is only with their ribs
is just two ribs, right, But they're huge.

Speaker 2 (01:42:26):
I mean they're like, I know, did you ever think
while he was by the way, did you think while
he was carving it, you were like, this man's an artist.
Oh yeah, this man's an artist.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
So he cuts these two gigantic ribs off and I'm like, man, it.

Speaker 6 (01:42:38):
Really is good.

Speaker 5 (01:42:39):
And we're just at the end of this slab of
meat and there was like two just like random pieces left.
I mean about like the size of ribs we would
get here or at Texas roadhouse or a restaurant around here.
I mean, they're like this and he's like, well, we
just got these little ns left. I'll just throw it
them in there for you too, or we're just going
to throw it. I'm like the cuts that they throw

(01:43:02):
away or are bigger than like the size we get
at Sam's Club. Here's crazy. So we had we ate,
we got full there, We had enough to take back
to the hotel, and then we even had a little
bit left for you know, quick breakfast in the morning.
Love that, some cold, nice new Church's breakfast, some cold brisket,

(01:43:23):
and a couple of spoonfuls of baked beans.

Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
When in when in when in, when in Dallas.

Speaker 5 (01:43:27):
Yeah, it was absolutely phenomenal. Man. Yeah, I'm getting hungry
just thinking about. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
I So the thing is I I gave up red meat.
So I used to. Obviously I did that because I
come from a family with a history of a very
high blood pressure, so trying to trying not to help
that as best I can, so so certain things that
I try to avoid for that reason. But I, you know,
still love red meat, and uh, you know, every I

(01:43:54):
don't really get the craving anymore like I used to,
But I do remember from time to time. I remember
the very first year that I did it, the very
first year that I went without red meat. It actually
had been basically a year, and I went to a
party at a friend's house. Funny enough, it's the same
friend who traveled with me on the on the trip
with me, so he's now a father, and I went

(01:44:14):
to his house and they had as sort of a
like this was like a they called it like a
like a diaper and beer party or whatever, and basically
it was you bring as sort of a gift, you
bring diapers for the new parents, and they'll provide you
with alcohol and food, which is a nice trade off.
And so but they had this delicious, delicious barbecue, and
which is really funny. You know this part of the country,
Like it's not like barbecue is something that we're gonna,

(01:44:37):
you know, be known for over here. But so what's
what is funny though, is so one I of course
I did break my at that time. This is a
couple of years ago. I broke the first year, and
I was like, maybe I'll treat myself once a year
to some red meat, because I was like, this is
too good to pass up. But the second thing it
made me think of was going back even further. Before
I had even given up red meat. I was in
Saint Louis on a on a trip for or college

(01:45:00):
radio back in twenty and nineteen, which is the before
times pre COVID and Saint Louis obviously Kansas City. They're
basically they're pretty darn close. I don't think anyone. No
one's gonna sit here and say, like Saint Louis is
known for its barbecue, but regionally speaking, it's part of
that region of the country that is very well known
for its barbecue. So even just like the random hotel

(01:45:22):
restaurant that I was in, I was staying in a
decent hotel, but even like their restaurant had phenomenal brisket
and barbecue that I most certainly partook in while I
was there. It was outstanding, and so like that should
give you an idea of just how good like when
you're there. And Austin was the same way when I visited,
Like they had amazing barbecue there. Like when you get
to the right region of the country, you know, it's

(01:45:44):
not really about go. And this is true with like
Philly and Cheese Steaks. You don't necessarily need to go
find the exact place. You just got to go and
enjoy wherever you can. Yeah, because most places are gonna
have what you're looking for because it's a regional thing.

Speaker 5 (01:46:00):
I guess, like what I mentioned to you off air,
about the tacos. Uh, you know, I mean, and don't
get me wrong, I love Taco bell I love you different,
but there's still a big difference between authentic tacos and.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
What you sure. Yeah, yeah, I have no.

Speaker 6 (01:46:17):
Idea the place.

Speaker 5 (01:46:18):
The place we got was called Holy Tacos and this
we just door dashed in from the hotel room. Type
in tacos on door dashers, A thousand places come up
where I mean, I have no idea if they're the
best in the area, whatever, but they were delicious to us.
But you know, and I just comes back to it's
like I feel like when you travel, it's like again

(01:46:38):
not putting down your your your chains or your popular restaurants.
It's like I can eat a McDonald's as soon as
I leave the studio, you know, It's like I can't
get Holy Tacos. It's like, yeah, I feel like that's
part of your travel experience is trying cuisine that's specific

(01:46:58):
to the area.

Speaker 2 (01:47:00):
If you're if you're in Baltimore, you better have a
crab cake if you're if you're in.

Speaker 6 (01:47:05):
Like my trip a few weeks ago in New York is.

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
Like, you know, you got bagels, pizza, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:47:12):
I mean I think that that's just fun one of
the many fun things about traveling to do different places.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
Before I so, before we get back into because I
did want to use the show for a second here
to talk a little football. But if we have to,
if we have to, yeah, so, what's one place because
I know what I'm going to say to this, but
what's one place you've never been to, city or state
or or country wherever that you've never been to that
you would like to eventually go because specifically of the food. Now,

(01:47:41):
if there's a different reason, that's fine, you can do
that too. But if there's one because of food, I
am kind of curious.

Speaker 6 (01:47:45):
Well I'll give you one.

Speaker 5 (01:47:47):
And in one for food, I feel like as and
there's a lot of really good Italian food right here
in north south to West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
True very Italian heavy population.

Speaker 5 (01:47:58):
I would imagine they're like authentic Italian food in Italy
would probably be pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, food wise, I
like to try that. As far as this travel, that's
I mean, I've been fortunate enough. I've been to a
lot of really cool places. I've been to a couple
of different countries. No matter if it's excuse me, San Diego,

(01:48:20):
Seattle or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:48:21):
I would like to see.

Speaker 5 (01:48:23):
The Pacific Ocean, the West Coast, just somewhere, you know,
at some point in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
I have and I've been to California. It's pretty big,
surs is incredible and I loved California. It was it
was great. I will say. Uh, while I would say
my my number one non food place that I want
to go to is the United Kingdom. Like I want
to see Scotland, I want to see in Ireland, I
want to see England. I want to see London. But
not for the food. I'm not I don't really care.

(01:48:50):
I mean, maybe the fish and chips would be fun,
but but it's not really about the food for that uh,
for a combination food I really want to go to.
I hear Vancouver has some of the best sushi in
the world. And Vancouver has one of the weirdest Like
they have every climate there. They have mountains, they have
the beach, they have a very weird combination. They barely

(01:49:13):
get snow though they don't get a lot of snow,
which is odd for most places in Canada, so sort
of a hybrid like if San Francisco and West Virginia
had a little bit of a of a baby, or
San Francisco and Colorado had a baby, it would be
Vancouver a pretty neat place. I would love to see
Vancouver one day.

Speaker 5 (01:49:31):
Yeah, no, A good call on that, I mean, And
that's why it's such a popular destination for celebs right,
for movie carews. Yeah, and for like recording albums and stuff. Yeah,
get a little bit of everything.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
It's true, I hear. It's an absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous city.
So we should talk a little football before I let
you get out of here and and validate this as
a good excuse to have a bonus segment on I know,
we just turned it into a giant food and vacation segment,
which is okay, it is Friday, after all, It's and
it's Friday in It's true, it's Friday in mid July.

(01:50:05):
So if folks are looking for vacation ideas now, I
don't know, you know, I don't know how big you
know folks are about about. There actually are some pretty
decent sushi plays in West virgin I mean, you can
find if you are paying close to attention, you can
find the right kind of place everywhere. It's just that
you're not gonna do. There's not like an overwhelming number
of good sushi places in West Virginia. There are some, though,

(01:50:27):
and certainly in the north central part we have our
fair share. We even have some here in Harrison County.
But back to football now for a second. I think
my takeaway, and this is something that Craig alluded to
and we didn't really spend a lot of time talking
about it, but this is gonna be the first year
without Liberty Harriston, which I think is gonna be tough

(01:50:48):
for It's gonna be tough for folks you know who
are who are obviously really attached to that program, and
there are plenty of them. But it is gonna be
also interesting seeing where players wound up and seeing where
parts of that program wound up, because I think there
are gonna be pieces of that program that can really
help around the region. And it sounds like Craig has
been paying closer attention to that than than we have.

(01:51:10):
That's probably a story worth keeping an eye on. Is
the pieces of the Liberty program from last year. Where
did those pieces float away to? Yeah, I'll be curious
about that.

Speaker 5 (01:51:21):
Yeah, No, I mean because we kept here and ever
since it became a reality that the school was closed,
that some of them would end up at Bird.

Speaker 6 (01:51:29):
That may even be worth the majority.

Speaker 5 (01:51:30):
Of them ended up I am not sure at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
But I think there some at Doddridge, maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:51:37):
Some at Doddridge, a few at Lincoln, even a few
at South Harrison. Yeah, but to me, it's just it's
like we all knew it was coming, but it's still.

Speaker 6 (01:51:47):
It just seems so foreign.

Speaker 5 (01:51:50):
Yeah, it's like like, oh, man, who's Liberty played home opener? Oh,
that's right, there is you know, I you know, I
people in this area. We kind of went through the
same thing with Notre Dame a few years ago, and
you know, I know we're talking to you a private

(01:52:10):
school publicity. I'm not in all that, but like both
Notre Dame and Liberty football rich history.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
Yeah, and they're just I miss yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:52:21):
I mean the whole school's going with Liberty, I mean
Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (01:52:24):
I mean they just I missed, you know, yeah, I
missed Notre Dame football. One of the best football games
and I had the fortune of getting to call the game,
but one of the best football games I have ever watched.
Was a Notre Dame Grafton game that was played at
Fairmont State and it was it was, like I said,
regardless of level, was one of the most fun football games.

(01:52:48):
Incredible ending uh Jordan Miller through a touchdown pass. It's
gonna bug me that I don't remember the wide receiver
who caught it through a touchdown pass on a fourth
and long. It was a little post route that they
ran over them the field and they pretty much had
to score, but they got the first down which was
big enough and would have they still would have had
a chance to run another play. It just it would

(01:53:08):
have been tough. But they scored on this play and
one of the wide receivers on the team threw just
a tremendous block to spring the receiver who caught the
ball for the last three or four yards of that play.
I'm gonna have to go back and see if I
can find out who it was. This would have been
like twenty fifteen. I think it rocked. It was just
such a great game. It was back and forth, and

(01:53:29):
it was high scoring and it was a ton of fun.
I do I miss that Notre Dame had a nice
rich history as well, so it was.

Speaker 5 (01:53:36):
It offer one name out to you and it might
be him. Might know what Bahanna, It's possible. I know he.

Speaker 6 (01:53:43):
Played receiver right around.

Speaker 2 (01:53:45):
It's possible. What was the last name again, Bohanna, It's possible.
I'm really gonna have to I'm gonna have to go
back Jordan Fury.

Speaker 5 (01:53:52):
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 6 (01:53:53):
I'm just trying to even remember kids who played about
the time.

Speaker 2 (01:53:55):
Yeah, see, and I remember, I do remember the Bhinna
name sounds familiar, but I don't know. Fury is well.
Regardless though, I was one of the best, one of
the like just most fun moments I had had, Like
if I hadn't been calling it, I still would have
been going nuts as a fan, a neutral fan. It
was that cool to see in that moment and again
back and forth game, and that was Grafted was a
pretty decent team back then too. That was there was

(01:54:16):
during a better a little better of a stretch for
Grafton at that time. Obviously they've been down more lately,
but yeah, I I do. I think you make a
great point there about about Notre Dame.

Speaker 6 (01:54:28):
Yah, it's still just weird, you know, And.

Speaker 5 (01:54:33):
Yeah, I don't know, man, It's it's just weird. It's
like and again we kind of choked about a little
bit with Craig Is, like, I mean, I've covered Parkersburg
Catholic football, Notre Dame football, Liberty Madonna and not enough
kids to have teams or in case Liberty not in.

Speaker 6 (01:54:55):
Didn't even keep the school open. And yet here we
are a four classes.

Speaker 5 (01:55:01):
So, uh, you know, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:55:02):
Know, Yeah, no, I know four classes what we're given.
I just you know, I think the issue is and
this is almost a uniquely West Virginia thing, but when
you consider the state's geography is such a challenge. And
then when you consider because like I remember, I had
a buddy who was shocked when I told him how
long I was traveling for road games, Like I'd go
cover a road game and it would be hours away

(01:55:24):
from me, and he was like, dude, I go cover
a road game and it's fifteen minutes for me. And
that's because you most of these, you know, only one
or two schools in a county. Harrison County is lucky
to have four. I had five, had six before that,
but it is lucky to have four. A lot of
places Mont County has three, right, Like you think about
that Montgelia County is one of the biggest counties in
the state has three well four okay your trinity, yeah,

(01:55:49):
which it's tough.

Speaker 5 (01:55:50):
Yeah. I mean when when it comes to just football,
I mean every week it's like, well they have enough
kids to play or right, right, they talked about having football.
Everything was in place for Huntings and Saint Joe's football's back.

Speaker 6 (01:56:04):
Won't have it just last week?

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
Nope, enough, it's so, it's so you get the geography
is such a challenge. And then the other challenge, of course,
is that the disparity in size between the quada and
the single A schools is pretty unfair.

Speaker 5 (01:56:19):
So when you have yeah, and I totally get that,
and you know, and like you look at regions in
the state, their darks all come out, adding even.

Speaker 6 (01:56:26):
More schools in the eastern Painia.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
Right right, right, right, So think about it, if we
go back to the like, when you go back to
the old system, you could wind up having teams that
would have been like middle of the road or maybe
high in enrollment in what is now double A. Some
of them, like right, they'd be playing Triple A schools.
And it's like, because you just don't have any choice

(01:56:48):
when you consider the geography of things. So there is
on that end of it. I do understand that the
desire for for classifications for that reason, but if you
took it, if we were just at face value here
like this, the state doesn't need for classifications. But there
are some extra challenges. I get there's no good answer here.

Speaker 5 (01:57:09):
Absolutely I agree with everything you just said, but on
the surface, because that was always the argument against it
for so long was we don't have enough schools to
justify it. Then all of a sudden that changed, you know,
last year, this or whatever, and we're losing schools that
I'm not saying an alarming, right, but a concerning right.

Speaker 6 (01:57:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
Yeah, Like it's like the trend hasn't stopped.

Speaker 6 (01:57:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:57:36):
I've heard one politician say, hey, maybe maybe we need
to come up with a better solution, and I actually,
I mean, I'm not saying I have the answer. And
again I tend we talk politics a little more on
this show than we do on the on the Free
for All, but I tend not to. I try not
to get too involved in what's going on with the

(01:57:59):
politics of high school football if I can, or with
that stuff in general. But there is a there is
a point that maybe because it's been the obvious answer
for so long. Yes, it's the straightest line towards financial
being in the black is if you have an issue
in a school system and you can consolidate, that that

(01:58:20):
is the simplest thing to do. But maybe that that
doing it the simplest way isn't necessarily the best way
because you are removing a lot from these communities. And
I get this gets to more than just high school
sports at this point, but but I thought that was interesting.
I don't remember his name as a delegate. I believe
in Charleston, and his name is escaping me at the moment.
He used to be a frequent guest on the Mike

(01:58:42):
Queens Show, actually but maybe Mike Stewart, But I remember
him mentioning something about it where it's like, maybe maybe
outright consolidation isn't necessarily always the right answer. I could,
I don't have a better one, right, But yeah, that's
the challenge because it's to your point, again, at face value,
there's not enough for four classes.

Speaker 6 (01:59:01):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 5 (01:59:05):
I was at a like a media relations meeting with
the SSAC the monday before, so I think we touched
on it a little bit when I recorded a segment
before actually went to Texas, but I don't I don't
think we mentioned this one thing that was brought up
because there's even more sports going four classes in that

(01:59:29):
big Quad A division. They're talking about like a North
and a South and part of that, you know, is
to cut down on some of the postseason travel. And
someone brought up football and it's like, is there a
way to incorporate the playoff rating system into like a
quat a North and a quite a South. They're looking

(01:59:53):
into it because we talking about the travel and stuff
like this. The Quad A playoffs in the state of
West Virginia last year from SSAC standpoint lost twelve thousand
dollars because of the amount yeah reimbursement they have to give.

Speaker 2 (02:00:10):
And I will I will tell you. I will say
this fundamentally. I am a supporter in any sport. I
would always prefer, and this is particularly true in pro sports,
but I would always prefer if you're gonna do playoffs,
give me, give me one through sixteen. I don't care
about conferences, give me, just give me the sixteen best
teams in order and we'll do it.

Speaker 5 (02:00:27):
That.

Speaker 2 (02:00:27):
I like the way march madness. Does it give you
just just I don't care about I don't care about
conferences because conferences sometimes are weak or stronger some years.
Divisions the same thing. Just give me one through sixteen. But
when you're losing that kind of money, is there is
a business element.

Speaker 5 (02:00:42):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:43):
I do get it. That that that that could be
in jeopardy with that. And this comes back to the point.
Geography is a challenge.

Speaker 5 (02:00:49):
In which someone and they they kind of work through.
Had they went with like that regional format last year,
the state title game Quade would have been your.

Speaker 6 (02:01:01):
If it played out the way that it did, would
be would have.

Speaker 5 (02:01:04):
Been Martinsburg versus Huntington. It's close to being that anyway. Yeah,
you know, now what was Martinsburg and spring Mills the
two best teams in Quada last year? Absolutely you would
miss out on that.

Speaker 2 (02:01:17):
They probably would have played in the in the in
the final of the of the other side of the bracket.

Speaker 6 (02:01:21):
Right, So you know, I don't know, I mean, it's.

Speaker 2 (02:01:26):
Yeah, I just it's tough.

Speaker 5 (02:01:27):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (02:01:28):
And they are not good answers here there there are
only because when you have these cut types of challenges
that are like structural and deeply ingrained like there are
not easy answers, so I get it.

Speaker 5 (02:01:38):
But bottom line, I mean losing twelve thousand dollars, it's
not a good scenario.

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
No, no, no, no, it's a lot of money. Chris, thanks
man for hanging around.

Speaker 5 (02:01:45):
Absolutely, man, it's been a while since we've done this.

Speaker 2 (02:01:48):
I know this is this is fun. I like this
all right, So, folks, here's the deal. That's our bonus
segment of the Friday Free for All, presented to you
by the Morning Spiel, that will be available in podcast
form wherever you get your podcasts from. If you like,
follow or subscribe to The Friday Free for All digitally,
so please do that. We'll be back with a new
episode of the Friday Free for All next week.

Speaker 1 (02:02:08):
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 WKMZ