Coaches Office Podcast with guest Coach Chris Fisher

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Coach David Buchanan.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Coach Chuck Smith, two legendary high school football coaches. This
is the Coach's Office, a behind the scenes look at
Kentucky high school football.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Welcome to the Coach's Office, Behind the Scenes with Chuck
Smith and David Buchannan. This is off season three, Episode three.
I'm Chuck Smith. I'm joined by co host David Buchanan
and podcast editor Slash flashback storyteller Mike yoakum U. Our
YouTube version of this podcast is at tea coop t

(01:05):
dot UH dot dot C, dot O dot P. If
you would hit like and subscribe that that helps a lot.
What a show we have for you. Tonight we are
getting into Texas high school football with Chris Fisher, the
old line coach at Ridge Point High School in Missouri
UH City in Missouri City, Texas. I believe that's down

(01:26):
by Houston, isn't it in the vicinity in the.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
South of Houston, southwest of Houston, Fort Ben County.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Perfect and he founded the Texas High School Football Chat.
We will coach or we will bring coach Fisher on
here shortly. Our anonymous tough topic question is anonymous UH
and the question is how do you deal with a
key player missing practice because his parents make him do

(01:54):
odd jobs. Man, that's gonna be a tough one right there.
I bet they don't have a lot of those problems
in Texas. But David and I will address that later
on a little bit about Coach Fisher before we bring
you on. He's the founder of the Texas high School
Football Chat, which provides topics and discussions to help high

(02:15):
school football coaches. He is also the offensive line and
a coach and the academic coordinator at Ridge Point High
School in Missouri City, Missouri City, Texas. Like I said,
Texas has always been known as a football state, so
this will be an interesting podcast for us. David, you

(02:37):
want to bring on coach Fisher?

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Now I do? This is uh?

Speaker 5 (02:42):
You know, I used to teach history, and man, I'm
about to blow it. I can't remember the poor guy's name,
but we would talk. We always finished up with the
world is flat. You know, there was a book just
about how we're all connected now and so it's fascinating
with technology and social media. Two Kentucky high school football

(03:03):
coaches can bring in a resource like Coach Fisher and
coach We're very honored to have you tonight if you would,
Before Chuck jumps into the questions, would you tell our
listeners a little bit about you and your your coaching career.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
Well, I'm honored to be on here, So glad you
asked me to be on the you know, on your podcast.
I always enjoyed talking with other coaches and uh sharing,
you know, just whatever I can to help out help
out of fellow coaches. As far as myself, I am
born and raised Texas. I grew up in Waksahachie, Texas,

(03:39):
and was you know, fortunate enough to be a member
on a on a really great UH team one state
or my senior year in ninety two. And then I
went to college where you know, I ended up pursuing
education and coaching after spending several summers talking to one
of my old high school coaches, and so I started

(04:00):
coaching and teaching in two thousand and one and been
and I've been in the district where I currently coach
and Richard since the entire time, basically my entire career.
So this is what year twenty four, I started out

(04:21):
in the middle school level, spent three years there coaching
seventh grade football and basketball and teaching pe and then
an opportunity moved up for me to move up to
the feeder high school that we went to, and I
was able to work under a really terrific staff there

(04:44):
with with some men that I still consider friends and mentors,
and was able to work my way up from a
freshman coach to a varsity coach after seven years there
at Clement's High School that is. And then once I
was you know, then the school out where I lived

(05:06):
built and opened up and after a year it's second
year open. A friend of mine was the head coach,
and he came around the corner because he lived around
the corner from me, knocked on the door and was like, hey,
you know, he had to verify, you know, my full
name because he was searching certificates. And I happened to

(05:28):
take the the Social Studies certificate tests, I don't know,
years ago, like early in my you know, just to
make myself marketable. I'm a science teacher by trade, by
a degree. And he goes, are you're Christopher Todd Fisher
and yes, you know, kay like looking at him, you know,
because he knows I'm Chris Fisher, you know, and he

(05:51):
was like well, I just got to check. He goes.
I got a social studies spot. He goes, And you're
certified in social studies, right, I said, Yes, I am.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
He goes.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Well, I don't have a science spot, but I got
a social study spot. Are you interested? I said, And
I only have I only have one child, and we
didn't want him to leave his friends to go to
high scheel on to where I was. And so I
knew that I wanted to be in the theater, in
the system that he was going to be in, among

(06:22):
other things, you know, I was I wanted to be
out here as well because I knew that, you know,
like the people in the community, and so it worked out.
You and I've been at Ridge Point ever since since
twenty eleven, and I've been the only offensive line coach
or the well the only We've had several other you know,

(06:43):
co assistant offensive line coaches with me, but I've been
the main one since basically we've started playing, since we
started playing varsity football. So that's that's where that's what's
got me where I am today.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
That's awesome deal.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
Well, thanks thanks for making time, and I'm let chuck
get us going on the questions.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, Hey, can you share your vision and your purpose
behind starting the Texas High School Football Chat?

Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yes? Uh so this Texas High School Football Chat became
a thing about ten years ago. In fact, this is
the tenth year of doing it. And what happened was
I was I'm a classroom teacher and we were there
was some professional development that we went to in the fall,

(07:31):
and you know, you know how those things go, especially
if you're a teacher, you know, you pay attention to
it and maybe one thing sticks well, you know, one
they they were encouraging at that time. They were encouraging
uh you know, like social media use and cell phone
use and things like that in the classroom, and so

(07:53):
they encourage and they are encouraged some different teacher chats,
educator chats, and so I was like, I'll try that out,
see what's going on. And so I did, and I
liked it. I liked the the the give and take
and the feedback that was going on. And then you know,
I figured I was active enough and new enough people

(08:15):
that I would see like some coaches here and there
on Twitter. And then I noticed that like there really
wasn't any football conversation going on at the time. And
you know, maybe a little bit here and there, but
nothing like really focused. And I was like, this is
I think this would be something that would be a
great forum for people to be able to get live

(08:37):
feedback in the moment, you know, because that's I mean,
it was just a great conversation, you know. I mean
we had message boards and stuff like that. Back then
there was coach Hueye and you know still around there,
you know, coming off the like there there used to
be the old coach dot com, which is a you know,
solid message board along you know, several years ago, but

(09:01):
there really wasn't anything on social media. And so I'd
reached out to some of these chat operators for the
different ed teacher chats and they told me how to
set it up. They gave me some resources and stuff
to help, and so I set it up and it
was like January twenty fifteen, I did my first one,
and it was it was an incredible response. I think

(09:22):
there was only like ten coaches that maybe answered questions
all night long. We had five questions. But the feedback
I got from it and the experience we got what
was just it was just thrilled, you know, it really was.
It was tremendous and so like from that point forward,
several coaches would message me or tweet to me like, Hey,

(09:42):
I'm not from Texas, but can I get in on this?
I was like, yes, yes you can. I you know,
I can't stop, but anyway, come on please, and so
it just grew from there. And so it was at
that point I knew I'd kind of started to think about, Okay,
what am I doing with this? Okay why I mean,
because it started out as just me kind of just

(10:03):
curious to see what football talk and wanting to you know,
have some conversations and get some feedback. And so that's
when you know, I started you know, putting things together
and saving you know, the chats, putting it on the website,
and so I knew that this would be a great resource,
you know for people to uh fall back into. So

(10:26):
at the time, what became just kind of like a
something to do and something for me on the you know,
to expand my coaching conversations. And now you know, it
became like, okay, I'm helping. I'm there's a lot of
people that are accessing this, and so I had to
I started thinking about what do I want to do

(10:48):
with it, well, I really want to. So what I'm
the whole purpose that I do, that I came up
with and that I continue to push today is basically
to give coaches the opportunity to learn from other coaches
no matter where they are, and you know, to provide
as many you know, free resources as well. You know,

(11:11):
I don't. You know, I don't sit there and do
anything that cost coaches any money, you know, not that
there's anything wrong with it, but I just don't.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
I don't want any of them to have to, like,
you know, to to pay to get to to talk
to each other. I don't. It's to me, it's kind
of like it's the the chat serves the purpose of
having those conversations at a clinic, in the in the
weight room, in the waiting room, or at the you know,

(11:44):
like out in the out in the bar or something
on the knackin. To me, it's like it's that opportunity
to to sit together and really kind of pick each
other's brain and go back and forth with each other
and that and so the whole that's that's really the
whole purpose is to give coaches like a continuous access
to that you know, no matter where you are in

(12:05):
Texas or Kentucky, Alaska, you know wherever you are. So
that's that's my whole deal.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Well, that that's great, and you answered already answer some
of my follow up questions. One one could you could
you do it if you were a Kentucky coach and
you wanted to get some information? You answered that as yes,
and then you also answered another one that doesn't cost
anything right to get on there. Yeah, that's good. How
big of a following do you have right now?

Speaker 4 (12:35):
I have like almost twenty four thousand followers on Twitter
As far as analytics go, like I I when I
checked my analytics, typically during the chat, I can see
like how many times like the tweets are viewed, and
so typically it runs anywhere from about eighty to one

(13:00):
hundred and fifty thousand views the night of the chat.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
So if if a Kentucky high school coach got on
there and was participating in the chat, he could get
feedback from really all of these people that are that
are accessing that that night.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Correct.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Definitely, Yeah, definitely, there's probably. I mean, there's a few
guys that I know, you know, just like I see
commonly that I know are from different states and stuff. Yeah,
and I'm sure if like if you if there was
like some Twitter handles that you knew of Kentucky coaches,
I'm not even recognizing them just because of the regular
you know, if they're regular occurrences, there's probably some Kentucky

(13:40):
coaches on it for sure.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Awesome coach, Awesome appreciated.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
Well, hey, we want to try to talk a little football,
and I want a you know, a Texas perspective. And
you've got you've got access to so many coaches and
frames of reference. So gap scheme or zone scheme? Which
one do you think is better for high school football?
Do you think it's a combination of both? And and

(14:08):
what what you're rationing out for your answer?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
All right? As an offensive line coach, I like both.
That's the way the system that I've come up in
as a coach started out, you know, as a wing
tea system, and so, you know, which was a lot
of more gap scheme. But then as we kind of
progressed and evolved, we you know, incorporated more zone because

(14:34):
we had we had the we had the gap scheme.
But then we would start you know, like our bread
and butter was outside zone, you know, just you know,
eighteen pitch we called it, but it's really it's outside zone.
And so then as we progressed into you know, with
you know, came to Ridge One especially and got you know,

(14:55):
the athletes that we had and could spread the field more,
you know, we started using inside zone more in our
running scheme as well. So you know, we've we used power,
inside zone, outside zone, counter, you know, and then you know,
but then there are also games that we you know,
go back into the eye and and just run lead

(15:17):
all the game because you know it's what we could get.
So I personally, as far as my philosophy goes, I
like to have all of it because I think as
an offensive line coach, you don't always know what your
offensive line strengths will be. At the beginning of the season.

(15:37):
You may think they're they're gonna be like, you know,
great at this, but something about it's not clicking with them,
But they can be great at the other, you know,
and they and like I had a I had a
really good offensive line one year. I remember, and you know,
we wanted to run. You know, we were coming off
a season where we ran a lot of power and
outside zone, and the guys that we had were pretty

(16:01):
much the same guys, but then they got a little
bit bigger and stronger, so they actually became better inside
zone and lead blockers. And so that next season we
were running inside zone and lead and so you know,
it's just one of those things I think you have
to have. To me, I like having everything because it
gives you the opportunity to adapt to your personnel.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
So I mean to me, that sounds like a lot
zone scheme and gap scheme. Are your offensive linemen playing
one way? Yes?

Speaker 4 (16:31):
Yeah, I mean we we right, we don't we We
two platoon and we have time now Like when when
I was at the and Clements, especially early on we
were and we were, you know, a lot more wing team.
We did not to platoon, but everybody played both ways.
But and we still had like you said, we had

(16:52):
the gap scheme, but the only really like zone scheme
was outside zone. But we flipped the offensive line. So
they were only learning they're one their one assignment.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
I got you a last thing and I'll leave you alone. No.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
Yeah, being a swing tea team flipping your line. That's
what my dad ran at Bull County High fifty plus
years ago. I wish I could remember the guy's name,
but I just wondered, where did you get that from
flipping the old line and running the wing tea?

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Where would that?

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Where did that come from? So the way I understand
our progression, our lineage came from from those teams that
rant it back in the eighties. And then you know,
like we had so the coaches that I worked with,
played for or and worked with like a couple of

(17:46):
coaches who were assistants on the eighties great of Decipremian teams,
and so they came over to Clements, you know in
the nineties, and then you know, moved on and then whatever,
and then it came back to Clements and so that's
that's where it came from.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
So we and that's that's the Friday night lights high school.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Correct, Yes, sir, Yes, the Friday Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
That is really cool, really cool, which I'm getting the
vibe already with you. You've got I mean, you're sort
of like Chuck and out, which is because you're older
now you're you you can connect the dice with you
and an awful lot of guys in Texas.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Would that be true?

Speaker 4 (18:33):
I guess I mean, I mean, I've been it feels
sometimes it doesn't feel like that because I've been at
Ridge Point so long, you know, and uh, and I
hadn't moved around to a lot of other people. But
but some of the other guys I've worked with have
and yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of more connections
than what what I've ever thought about.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, that's pretty cool. Up, Like, Chuck, go go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
I got another question for you, Chris. You know, what
advice would you you've been doing offensive line, I think
you said for like ten plus years or so, what
advice would you give a young offensive line coach about,
you know, the key techniques and fundamentals that you know
that they should focus on when developing a you know,
a high school offensive line.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
That's a great question, and I think it's something that
I had to be reminded of this past year. To me,
like one thing that I learned that I that I
was reminded of this year is how important those fundamentals
are every day, you know, and and at the beginning

(19:40):
and throughout the season, but also in the spring. This year,
I came into the season with a very experience and
a very talented group, and unfortunately they're coming back next
year too. I had an assumption. I had an assumption

(20:02):
of knowledge bias, I would say, where I thought that
they because of their experience, they knew so much more.
And so we just kind of brushed over some things
because we were excited to get to work and see
what these guys could do. And we struggled early with
with some thing with some very basic things that we
didn't understand you know, why they were struggling with and

(20:26):
so it you know, uh, the other Alliance coach, we
were talking about what to do and we just said, okay,
we need to we need to strip it down and
we didn't need to just take it take things back
to the basics and just like you know, rep out
these basic things, you know, because we were getting to
too complex with what we were trying to do, you know,

(20:47):
run scheme wise past protection and it was just overloading
our kids.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
And so.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
We just brought it down to basics and we said,
you know, the no except no extra calls. You know,
if this is the play, this is what you do,
this is what you block, you know, this is you know,
and if you do that, you come to the sideline.
And we need something else, then we can make an
adjustment from there. But you know, you call it, you
do it exactly like the very basic way, like your

(21:19):
freshman year, it was taught basically. And so my advice
to the young offensive line is to never forget how
important those fundamentals are. You know, when you think it's
when you think it's boring and you think they got it,
they need it even more so then because you have,

(21:41):
you know, like as a as an offensive line coach,
those kids they have to step every single day. They
have to see what defense, what the front looks like
in front of them, and they have to be able to,
you know, like understand where they're going, who who they're
responsible for and why. And so just keep reping those

(22:03):
fundamentals no matter and just and if it gets boring,
just find a different way to rep the same thing,
because that's what we did, you know, we just you know,
we found different ways of repping the same thing, you know,
whether it's on boards or on the two man slid
or you know, maybe some sort of competition drill. You know,

(22:25):
we were still just repping the same fundamental step in
the same fundamental assignment. And that's and that once we
started doing that, we started to see a lot less,
a lot fewer mistakes, and you know, we started to
do things a lot, you know, like we thought we
should again.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
So do y'all do a lot of slid work, Chris?
Do you rely on that a lot?

Speaker 4 (22:46):
We? I'm not really anymore. We have a two man
sled and I most of the crowthers led, and mostly
what I do with it now is I incorporated into
a into a a step progression or or a circuit.
And so it's something that I that gives me the

(23:07):
opportunity to you know, go around and you know watch them,
you know work, you know, like they might backside hand
up to a backer off the sled or something like that.
But I can't remember the last time. We just like
lined up and old school got in front of it,
hammered into it, and drove it.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
So, yeah, does your defensive line coach use the slid
very often?

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Uh? No, not really. I mean actually the other coach
that uses it more is our receivers coach. He probably
uses it the most as far as drive blocking.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
Yeah, that's interesting, it's funny. Yeah, that's that's really cool. Hey, So,
uh along those lines, wide receiver blocking and then the
RPO stuff. I mean, it's all getting messed together, tough
to recognize.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
So here's my next question to you.

Speaker 5 (23:59):
With the spread of the RPO at all levels of football,
do you see any changes in regards to the rule
regarding ineligible men or men downfield? And the reason I
asked that is because just a very humble opinion here,
I don't think the way that they call the games
and the way it's evolved, I don't think it's sustainable.

(24:20):
I mean, there's guys downfield it's not getting called. I mean,
pretty soon I think offenses are. It's going to be ridiculous.
And I'm just I just wonder what you think about this,
because I think, of course you're on the offensive side,
so it may be all good with you, But uh,
I just think they've got to look at that rule
because a lot of ways, I don't think it exists

(24:41):
some nights.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, it's one of those things that's tough. I mean,
it's a tough judgment call to uh. And you know,
like I can think of the times that we got
called on it this season, and mostly it wasn't because
I mean it was the lineman was definitely downfield. Don't
get me wrong, But mostly it was because the quarterback,

(25:03):
you know, after he made his read he decided to
throw it. He became indecisive all of a sudden, you know,
like he knew he was gonna throw it, but then
all of a sudden he was like, uh. And you know,
so we got called for a lineman downfield because we
don't we don't tell our offensive line, you know, like
like most people I talk to, you don't. I mean,

(25:25):
the offensive line has no clue that it's an RPO.
You know, they think it's a run pass, a run play,
and so if anything, I mean, you know, to answer
your question, I wouldn't mind seeing and I couldn't tell
you the yardage of the penalty. I think it's three yards,
but I wouldn't mind seeing like basically be you know,

(25:47):
a five yard box, you know, like let's you know,
the basically the tackles extended up to five yards. I'm
okay with that, and if my guys are beyond that,
especially with the way defensive have evolved too, with the
with the highest safeties and the three highest safeties as well,
and backers you know, not crowding the defensive line as

(26:09):
much anymore. I feel like that's not unreasonable, like five
yards or anything beyond five yards. It is definitely lineman downfield.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
But do you see it called much in Texas? It's
not hardly called at all in Kentucky. And I don't
think they'll ever get to the point where there it's
become too big of an offensive play. I mean a scheme,
and they're scoring a lot of points on it. That's
what people like to see as all these points scored.
So they're not doing they're not calling it much in

(26:39):
Kentucky and I don't see them ever doing it. Are
they calling it much in Texas?

Speaker 4 (26:43):
No?

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Not really.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
I mean, like I said, the only times it was
called on us is basically, yeah, the quarterback held the
ball way too long and so yeah, our lineman was
fifteen yards downfield.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Other than that, I mean, it's to me, it happens
so quickly most of the time that I think the
I think, especially with the ress, it's too it's too
difficult of a judgment call for them to make, you know,
like to discern it, like, well, is he really downfield?
You know?

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Right?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
I agree, I agree, Uh, it's interact.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
I like, here's the thing, I'm not going to say
I agree with you, because I don't. But here's what
I like. That is a creative solution. I've not heard
that one, and that's what I really liked about it.
I don't I don't like the solution, but I like
somebody bringing something to the table that I mean, I
haven't heard before.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
So I really appreciate you sharing that.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
And who knows, five ten years from now, it may
play out like that was say that Coach Fisher told
us back in twenty twenty five. That's how we need
to do it. So that's really cool and that's a
good insight and and also too, like, I don't like
your answer, So now I'm challenged with, Okay, what would
I come up with as a better answer, And I'm

(28:04):
not gonna lie to you right now, I don't have
a better answer that that was pretty dang good.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
So I'll shut up. Let Chuck get the next one
here quick.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah, well, David wants it called a lot more, and
they're not gonna call it more.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
So they're gonna go, well, that's because there's a there's like,
you know, like that's exactly like how I feel about
like holding you. It's like come on now, he's he's
so yeah, well you along those lines.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Uh, you know, it's fascinating because the game has definitely.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Had an offensive swing.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
But yet, man, when you watch past interference on Saturdays
and Sundays, they're mugging people and it's not getting called.
So I just I would almost feel better. Somebody would say, David,
this is what we have on paper. Now, these are
what the real rules are. And you know, I'm just

(29:01):
you know, sort of fascinated by all that.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
But anyway, hey, you guys, go ahead, My bad, Hey, Chris.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
The last question I have for you here is what
do you think sex Texas high school football part from
other states and what makes it unique.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
That's one of the things that I have definitely learned
over the ten years of doing the chat is Number One,
there is good football all across the nation. Okay, every
single state has some really great football teams out there,
you know. And you know, like beforehand, if you had
asked me, I would have said, oh, no, Texas, only Texas,

(29:39):
you know, But there are some really great football going
on all across the nation. There's really great coaches who
are all in yeah and do really great jobs for
their schools everywhere in every state. I think what makes
Texas so special is the way that we are of

(30:00):
everything is organized. I think, you know, like number one,
having coaches, every coach on campus or working for the
school district is a huge thing. Okay, that that helps,
That just helps promote football and just involvement at your school.

(30:22):
Number Two, I think the I think the organization of
our coaches, the THCHSCA Texas High School Coaches Association, is
a very powerful entity. We've got like over twenty something
thousand members. You know, our coach in school in the
summer will have you know, like fifteen thousand people in
attendance at least. I mean, it's it's one of those things.

(30:44):
And it's it's not just football coaches. It used to
be just football coaches, but it's it's every coach now
and it's a very powerful organization that works hard to
maintain athletics in involved as part of our school day
here in Texas. And then I mean and then the

(31:07):
next thing is just like how and how just intertwined
our football and our schools are with our communities. You
know that that I that identification that we have with
our with our programs and with our schools and our
mascots and everything about it. It just you know, those

(31:29):
all those things factor in to just a great high
school sports experience. You know, like I'll forever identify as
a Waksati Indian because that is what I grew up
and that is where I played, that is where I
graduated from, and I followed them and I love them
and I support them, and you know, because of that

(31:51):
high school experience, because of how involved our community was,
how important the coaches were in in the in the
in the town and in the football program. I mean,
it's just to me, that's what it's all about. It's
about that involvement. And then it's also about that strong
statewide support that really makes Texas a special place to

(32:12):
coach football.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
They My daughter actually lives in Texas now, she's lived
there for several years now, her and her family.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
She lives.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
In McKinney, Texas, right horse of Dallas, and her kids
will go to McKinny Boyd. Anyway, she was telling me,
she said they start really early around there. I mean
they really start.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
She said.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
They do a lot of specializing there in Texas. You know,
where you know, kids don't do a lot of multiple
sports that you kind of just focus in on whatever
sport they feel like, you know, and and of course
football kind of leads the way. I mean, some of
them stadiums up there are like their stadium is like
a seventy six million dollars stadium. You know, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, And that's what you know, like that's one of
those things about the community to support too. I mean,
like when you have a community that really supports and
believes in what you do, then and and and fortunately
Texas As and the communities that they're building those programs
have a strong enough economy to be able to provide
those for the school district as well, you know, and

(33:21):
I think that's that's one of the things that help
us helps Texas out a lot as well as the
all the all the basically you know, the Texas money
that is in the suburbs and in the surrounding areas
that they're able to you know, provide those one hundred
million dollars high school stadiums that are just just incredible,
incredible things to play in. So we don't have one

(33:43):
of those in my district stadiums, but but there's but
like when we go to playoffs, we go to other
places that are just like, wow, that's a nice place.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Well, David might propose to his Board of Education if
they would build him one of them forty or fifty
meters dollar stadium to see if the tax see if
the tax dollars would would support.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
I love, I love my little stadium on my grass,
grasses grass. Don't get us in on that one now,
don't know. We don't want to go down that road.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Chris.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
We really appreciate you being on tonight.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
I appreciate I have a man, Hey, you've messed up.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
Now that I've got your email and your cell number
and all this other I'm gonna be sending you on
line question it's like crazy, and we'll transitioning to a
new old line coach. So here's probably this is what
I'm bad about doing.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
I do this. I say a coach so and so.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
This is coach Fisher's cell number and email, send him
all your questions and whatever he tells you. That's what
we're gonna do. So I just warn you right now, okay.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
All right, yeah, Hey I'm game. Yeah, I love talking
ball and helping coaches. So that's why I'm here.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know, a good deal. Coach, This is been great.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
And hey, if you would to help our listeners on
social media, you know, connect with us on the different
you know, Twitter and so forth, send us your stuff,
because what I'd really like to do. You do offer
a tremendous resource, and I mean we want to offer
it to all the coaches that listen, but we're we're
Kentucky guys, you know. First man, I want all the

(35:24):
Kentucky coaches to get tapped in to you as a resource,
and I want to help our guys. Most of our
Kentucky guys they can't touch the resources that you just described,
but man, if we can get them in touch with
some great Texas high school football, that would be a
wonderful byproduct of you appearing on our podcast.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
And thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Well you're welcome, and I got yeah, anything it can
do to help and just continue to get back to
this profession that's given so much to me. So I'm
one game to help out. So thank y'all for having
me on. If anybody like, say, if anybody wants to
join in on the chat, you can follow at t

(36:08):
x hs FB chat on Twitter or x now it's
every Wednesday night at eight pm Central. And then also,
like you can follow, you can see other resources at
my website, Texas high School Football Chat dot com. And
then I also have a substack that I'm converting over

(36:30):
to as well for newsletters. So good deal, coach, well,
good deal. Well, thank y'all, guys.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Thank you all right, And it's how do you deal
with a key player missing practice because parents make them
do odd jobs?

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah? Yeah, I think it's tough too.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Do you have much of that?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
No, I don't.

Speaker 5 (36:59):
What I did think back to is I had you
this is insane Lazarre back you know the story of Lazarre.
Lazar was in a rough spot and needed to quit
football to work.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
I mean, it was heartbreaking.

Speaker 5 (37:17):
I just said, Lazarre said, let's just look, I said,
I said, if you got to miss a day or
two to work, do what you got to do. But
I said, let's let's try to figure something out. Let's
not just say that you're not going to play, and uh,
we figure something out. And one thing that you know,
here's here's what I found. You know, it's case by case.

(37:41):
I think you need to talk to the family and
you can find a way, I think you can talk
to potential employers, h employers, and you know, uh, I've
always been very fortunate, and it's not because of me.
It's because I've been in great communities like Paris, Mayswelle,
Harrisburg and now Lawrenceburg. If I had a kid that
needed something, people came through to take care of those

(38:04):
kids and help them. We always figured it out. So,
you know, we never you know, in fact, I would
say this, I don't think we ever reached a point
that people were missing practices for work. I don't think
that we ever got to that point. But when I
had kids come to me and tell me about it,

(38:27):
we were always able to come up with solutions before
it got to that point. And you know, I think
it's a little bit like working with a Chris Lofton
and Darius Miller and tray Von Faulkner. You can be
an elite basketball player in high school football, but it
takes a special individual to balance that out, to communicate,

(38:49):
to always be where they're supposed to when they're supposed to.
And I think guys that need to work and make
money they can do it, but it's going to take
a high character guy to really pull it off. The
only other thing that I added is this though, if
you're in a situation and you can't solve it the
way that we just described that, I just describe it,

(39:13):
and I.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Think the ultimate solution is.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
I mean, you just you got to get better as
a program, because in the best programs, I don't think
that's really an issue, you know, I don't. I don't
think that really happens. So in the big picture, I
think you got to get better. But I've never ran
into a situation where a young man who didn't have

(39:38):
a whole lot but wanted to play. We always could
find people in the community to say, Hey, come, he
can come out to my house Saturday, he can work.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
I'll pay.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
We always found people to help our kids. And I
think that's how you do it. You know that that's
been our experience and it's worked well.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah, you covered that really well. I liked your answer. Uh,
what I've got to add is, uh, you know, if
it's if it's a one time thing, then you kind
of give you know, the running pageant punishment, and you
talk to him about you know the fact that him
missing practice is really not fair to the rest of
the team. That's if they're counting on you to play

(40:21):
and counting on you to be a part of the
team and and be a uh, you know, a starter
along those lines. But if it's a regular occurrence, you know,
that's completely different, and I really don't know how you
would survive, you know, a regular occurrence if the parent
is insistent on the young man wanting to you know,

(40:45):
uh work, uh you know, miss miss practice for work,
maybe even one day a week, or even two days
a week, you know, every week. I don't know how
you survive that if it's you know, I had a
one time once as a young coach, and the parent
wanted uh to take and he was a starter and

(41:06):
wanted to take him, uh to back to school shopping.
So so it's going to take him ever gonna go
back to school shop and that miss missed practice and
it was during the season. It was one you know,
I mean, what do you do?

Speaker 1 (41:19):
You know?

Speaker 3 (41:21):
So, but that was the one time occurrence. He came back.
I punished him with a running punishment, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
Hey, looking back on that, I wish that they could
have had a camera on you when they're having the
conversation with you, of Hey, we're going to miss practice
because we got to go back to school shopping. That
that would be by fundraiser for the indoor facility in
Anderson County. I would sell that of you handling that issue,

(41:49):
and I would never have any money problems again, That's
how good it would be.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Well, I did struggle with it, but I didn't get
over it. And and uh, I try not to punish
the kid, uh, you know, for the parents, you know, decisions.
But I tell you, I really have a problem with
parents using high school sports, you know, to kind of
really punish their kids too. And I think you've you've
had some of that over the years, probably you know.

(42:14):
I don't know if they realize, if the parents realize
that they're punishing you know, seventy five other people you
know or or you know, you know what I mean,
fifty to seventy five one hundred people, Uh, you know,
with their decision to hold their child out of practice,
you know, you know, take the phone away from them,
take TV away from them, you know, set a curfew.

(42:36):
There's other ways to punish your child, but taking football
and hold them out of practice is punishing a whole
lot of other people that have invested into that program.
You know, when you join a team, then you've committed
and you're obligated to that team and their and their
team and their teammates. Just as when you get married,

(42:59):
then your wife and your kids are your team and
everything works around that. You know, when you get a
career job, than your workforce and your coworkers are your team.
You know, you couldn't just go in and on a
busy work day and say, hey, I'm not going to
be here today, I'm going back to school shopping. You know,
you're not going to be last. You're not going to
last in that job very long, you know, so you're

(43:21):
not teaching the kid a very good lesson.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
That's my point.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
When you tell your son that they are their personal
and individual needs are more important than that of the
team than uh, you know that they're a part of
then I think you're you know, I think it's the
wrong message and the wrong lesson to teach your son.
And that's kind of my point. And I'm not sure

(43:46):
the parents understand that. Sometimes, as I said, I tried
not to hold it against the kid for his parents' actions,
but if it is consistently happened happening. Then I think
I would do as you said. I would have to
meet with the parents and give them, you know, my
side of the situation. I'd I would let them know

(44:09):
this would not this is not going to work. You know,
something has to give. It's not fair to the other
team members, you know, for your son to miss, you know,
on a consistent basis practice. You know, kids kids can uh,
you know, they could come to practice and they could
go do odd jobs on the weekend, as you said,

(44:29):
or they could do odd jobs later that evening after practice.
They could go back to school shopping after practice. They
could go back to school shopping on the weekends. There's
ways to do it if they want to do it,
there's ways to do it. And sometimes you just got
to get everybody together and try to work through it.
I just think it's a mistake to try to when

(44:50):
your son joins the team, he's you know, he should
be obligated to that team. I think it's a great
lesson to learn, a great lesson to teach a kid,
uh that he is part of something, something bigger than himself,
and that when you start taking it away from him,
it sends the wrong message, a message that could affect
direction of his life later down the road, you know,

(45:14):
But that's.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
What I think.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
I think, Yeah, I mean there, and you know, you
sort of got into some other really good things there too,
Like you know, parents using football to punish their child,
and I hate that. I'm like, this is a positive
experience for him. This is somewhere for two hours, he
gets held accountable. He's with five or six adult men

(45:38):
who should be good role models, who are looking out
for him.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
I'm like, please.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
Don't take away the best, maybe one of the best
things they got going for I hate that. And then
you know, we've all been through this too, when parents
make decisions that put their child behind in football, you know,
and even when you punish them and you run them,

(46:07):
they're still behind. They're still behind. They're still losing the
reps to really get to play. And I tell you
that's something that I don't think I always handle real
well and I want to do better, but I get
so frustrated is when I feel like parents make decisions

(46:27):
that really hurt their child having success on the field.
And you know, I got to walk a fine line.
And when I get to this point, here's what I
have to tell myself. Okay, I'm not gonna tell them
to run their family. They're not gonna tell me, though,
how to run our football program. And you know, I've
got to accept both sides of that coin, even though

(46:48):
there's times, you know, I want to get really upset
and say, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
You're killing your kid. You know you're killing him.

Speaker 5 (46:54):
He's been here since July, been working, and now you
know you're gonna make it a decision. He's going to
miss a day or more, or two or three. I
get frustrated, but you know, I just.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Look. I know that you and I are biased.

Speaker 5 (47:11):
We think high school football is an incredible experience for
young men, and we don't like for things to mess
that up. But I do think it's a very special time.
I was worth a dime. But I love playing high
school football. I loved it. I think about it a lot.
I miss those days so much. And I know it

(47:32):
may sound silly to people. They say, hey, you an albundie,
I'm married with children. I mean, that's fine, whatever y'all
want to say. You could say it, but I love that,
and I just when I see parents make decisions that
take away from that child's experience, I get frustrated, and

(47:53):
I just have.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
To really choose my words carefully.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
And what I really try to do is not tell
them what I think unless they ask. But if they ask,
then I'm honest with them. I just try to say
it in a nice way and not an ugly way.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
I can't. I do my best, but man, sometimes it
doesn't come out to you.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
I love being a part of the team, and you know,
and and I never wanted to let the team down.
That was a lot of my motivation, you know, for successes.
I never wanted to let the team down as a player.
So uh, you know, if I'm missing practice, then I
would be letting the team down. And sometimes it's out
of the kid's hands. I get that, and I try

(48:33):
not to hold it against the kid, but if it's
affecting the quality of the team, then something would have
to give, you know. Unfortunately, something would have to.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Give, you know.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
Talking about how we don't want to let the team down.
This was as a coach. I was supposed to have
a kidney stone surgery on a Tuesday. They didn't get
me till one o'clock. Gosh, I was getting mad. I'm like,
we got to live game. That way they did that surgery.

(49:06):
We were done about two forty five. I grabbed my briefcase.
I told Steve, I said, you're taking me to practice.
So I've just had kidneystone surgery and I'm walking out
to practice and I mean it's rough, and they look
like at me like I'm crazy. But you know what
exactly what you said, I said, look, and I even
told them, I said, look, we've got great coaches here.

(49:28):
You all don't need me today. You'd be fine without me.
But I'm a part of this team. I'm a part
of this team and I want to be here. And
you know what, if I expect all of you ought
to show up when you don't feel good, My guys,
I need to show up when I don't feel good.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
So here I am. Let's go.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
And you know, John Coles was playing for me then
and my coaches thought I'd lost my mind. But you know,
like you said, and I know that's a little bit
of an extreme, but man, when you part of the team,
I mean, I think for you and I we have
to set that example more than anybody.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Just like, hey, the team comes first.

Speaker 5 (50:10):
Hey, when we have a team meal, to me, the
head coach would be the last guy to eat. Everybody
eats ahead of the head coach. And I just think
if we want the kids to put the team first,
and look, we're not perfect, we're gonna make mistakes, but
I think we've really got to make a conscious effort.
And I'm glad. I just really liked how you answered

(50:30):
that question. And that's why I could have played for you,
because you got me fired up and I'd be like,
I'm never gonna let Coach Smith down. I will be
at every practice and I want to do my best.
I probably would have passed out up from the updowns,
but at least I at least hugging there until I
passed out.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
It'd have been fine. Hey, David, another good podcast. I
really liked Chris. He did a good job and you
could tell he's really conscientious about what he does and
being the best he can be at it.

Speaker 5 (51:01):
But he did do a good job. And Uh, Dynamo
coaching coach Kenny Simpson. He'll be our guest on Thursday,
April third at seven point thirty, and we're excited to
have him. And I want to also encourage our listeners.
We've been trying to cut up some of these smaller
segments and sharing those on YouTube so our listeners can

(51:23):
hear that. And I mean again, you know, I know,
I know we say it a lot, but it's really true.
We want to do a great job for our listeners.
They're the ones that drive our podcast. And uh, you know,
it's fun in this off season because we've been able
to do some things a little bit different. And then
when we get to the fall and we're mainly back

(51:45):
on Kentucky high school football coaches, uh that that's going
to be great and we'll be excited to do that
as well.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
And the and the cutups are really really good. David
does those and they're really good. It only takes just
a couple of minutes of your day. You can pull
it up as like sometimes it just depends on it's
just a certain segment of that interview, maybe a two
minute clip where you can get a lot of information
in that two minutes. It's really uh, it's really nice.

(52:13):
It's really David does a really good job with that.
But it's worth it's worth getting on there and checking
them out. You're not gonna be disappointed. And and don't
forget to hang on for Mac's historical segment right after
we finish.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
Talking sports, and in particular, high school sports are woven
into the fabric of Americana. High school sports are part
of the DNA of communities across the country, and that
is certainly true in Kentucky. Fans know the stories of
the big names, but there are many names and many

(52:46):
stories that have been lost to history. This series highlights
those forgotten heroes. Welcome to this edition of Forgotten Heroes.
I'm your host, Mack Yoakam. Since the nineteen seven forty
eight basketball season, when the NC Double A began keeping
track of scoring as an official statistic, there have been

(53:07):
sixty six players over seventy eight seasons who have led
the NC Double A in scoring. Names like Oscar Robertson
and Pete Merevich are the ones that come to mind
when fans think of the great scores. But what you
may not know is that four times it was a
former Kentucky high school legend that led the NC double

(53:29):
A in scoring. William Averett starred at Hopkinsville High. Because
he was slightly built, he was given the nickname Bird,
and he was Bird Avrette going forward. Bird burst onto
the scene in nineteen sixty nine, when he led Hopkinsville
to the Sweet sixteen. He was named to the All

(53:51):
State third team and was named to the Sweet sixteen
All Tournament team. In nineteen seventy, his senior year, Bird
was named to the All State first and was named
to the Kentucky All Star Team after averaging twenty seven
points a game. The only Kentucky school that offered Bird
a scholarship was Kentucky State University, but former Crofton Kentucky

(54:13):
star Fred Overton was an assistant coach at Pepperdine, and
while coach Overton was visiting the state over Christmas, he
saw Bird play, and shortly thereafter, Bird flew to California
and signed with Pepperdine. He couldn't play as a freshman
at Pepperdine because freshman couldn't play varsity in those years,

(54:34):
but Bird served notice of things to come when twice
he scored over forty points in two freshman games against
Bill Walton and UCLA. His junior year, Bird averaged nearly
twenty nine points per game. His senior year, though, Bird
etched his name in the record books when he averaged

(54:56):
thirty three point nine points per game to lead the
nation in scoring. Bird played in the ABA for the
Kentucky Colonels, winning the nineteen seventy five ABA title, and
then he played in the NBA following the ABA dispersal,
and sixteen seasons before Bird Averett was lighting up the

(55:16):
scoreboard at Pepperdine, a young man from Mayor Creek in
Floyd County was setting scoring records at South Carolina. Grady
Wallace starred at Betsy Lane High School. His senior year,
he put up fifty seven points in a game, but
he missed making the All State team. He didn't get

(55:39):
attention from too many Kentucky colleges, so he went to
Pikeville Junior College, now known as Youpike. Everyone should have
expected big things from Grady Wallace, as he led the
nation's jucos in scoring at thirty two point four points
per game. His coach at Pikeville, Walt Hambroke, was hired

(56:00):
as an assistant at South Carolina, and Grady and four teammates.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Went with him.

Speaker 6 (56:05):
As a junior at South Carolina, Grady average nearly twenty
four points a game. As a senior, Grady Wallace became
a South Carolina legend. He scored nine hundred and six points.
That senior season, and he averaged thirty one point three
points per game to lead the nation in scoring. He

(56:28):
battled Wilt Chamberlain all year for the scoring lead. He
scored forty one points against Duke in the ACC Tournament
to hold off Chamberlain. Grady Wallace was South Carolina's first
All American. His jersey hangs in the rafters at South Carolina.

(56:48):
He opted not to play professionally, and Grady Wallace became
commissioner of the South Carolina Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole.
At the same time, he also coached Cardinal Newman High
in Columbia, and at Cardinal Newman, all Grady Wallace did
as coach was win two state titles, and the third

(57:12):
Kentucky legend to lead the NCAA in scoring actually did
it twice. Frank Selvy was an All stater at Corbin High,
where he teamed with football Hall of Famer Roy Kidd.
Kentucky and Western Kentucky showed a little interest, so Frank
went with some Corbin football players who were going to

(57:33):
try out at Furman. He went to the gym and
played with the team, and the Furman president happened to
be in attendance, and he told the coach, get that
kid eight off. Up later offered a scholarship, but Frank
honored his commitment to Furman, and Frank Selvey's career at
Furman was legendary. As a sophomore, he averaged twenty five

(57:58):
points per game. As a junior, he led the nation
in scoring at almost thirty a game. Frank Selvy, as
a senior, again led the nation in scoring at almost
forty two points a game. He was the first NCUBA
player to average over forty a game, and on February thirteenth,

(58:21):
nineteen fifty four, Frank Selvy scored one hundred points against
Newbury College to set the NCAA Division One record. He
was twice in All American and after college, he was
the number one overall pick in the NBA draft. He
teamed with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor with the Lakers

(58:44):
and was twice named an NBA All Star. He coached
Furman following his NBA career and then was an executive
with Saint Joe Paper Company. And an interesting note, there
was one more Kentucky connection. Led the nation in scoring
while not a native Kentuckian. Morehead States. Brett Roberts led

(59:06):
the nation in scoring in nineteen ninety two, so three
Kentucky legends who's scoring exploits in college took the basketball
world by storm. Join us next time for another episode
of Forgotten Heroes. You can find forgotten heroes at most

(59:28):
podcast outlets

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Look to think, think, think,