Coaches Office with guest Coach Bert Bathiany

The coaches welcome Moeller Coach Bert Bathiany

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Coach David Buchanan coach Chuck Smith, two legendary high school
football coaches. This is the Coach's Office, a behind the

(00:33):
scenes look at Kentucky high school football.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the Coach's Office behind the scenes with Chuck
Smith and David Buchanan. This is Season four, Episode eight.
I'm Chuck Smith. I'm joined by co host David buchannan.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Podcast editor slash storyteller Mike Yoakum.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Our YouTube version of this podcast is.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
At teacock T dot C, dot O dot P and
if you was to hit like and subscribe that it
would really help us out. So do that if you can,
if you choose to do it with you two tonight's show,
you know we're gonna move across the river out of
state with our guest coach tonight, just across the Ohio River,

(01:25):
coach Burt Bethie Bethiani. He's the head football coach of
Cincinnati Molar High School.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
He's actually coached.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
In Ohio and Kentucky and also at the collegiate level.
So we're excited to have him on the show tonight
and he'll be on here shortly. David'll bring you on
our tough topic for the night is from the guru
from Blouegrass Preps. Should we go to a system where
there are no districts and we see each class or

(01:56):
region by the RPI to do the playoffs?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, so that's that's that's a good question. We
had a question about, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
It's approaching the playoff time in Kentucky and so we
had another question last week about, you know, moving the
teams up and down based upon success. I think Ohio
does a little bit of that as well. It's upon
the success factor. And anyway, we're going to discuss that

(02:26):
after we get finished with our interview. Games of the week.
We have Hazard and Paintsful and we have more in
Jefferson Town. I love those Chargers. That's where I play.
Resume and credentials of our guest coach, Okay as I said,
coaches from He's the head football coach of Archbishop Muller

(02:49):
High School. He's in his third season as the head
football coach there. In twenty twenty three, he was ten
and five and he received a Coach of the Year
honor there. In twenty twenty four, he was fourteen and
two and he was the state runner up. And he
was also received the Division One Coach of the Year

(03:11):
in Ohio. He's currently five and two plays a very
tough schedule. In twenty twenty two, he was in Kentucky
and he coached and was the head football coach of
Lexington Catholic High School, where he finished the season at
ten and three. In twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one

(03:32):
and through twenty twenty one, he was a defensive coordinator
at at Tifton University where they had three consecutive conference championships,
and they also had as he was the defensive coordinator,
they had the top ranked.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Defense all three seasons.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
In twenty or From twenty thirteen to eighteen, he was
the director of strength and Conditioning and also the linebacker
coach at Dennison University, is alma mater. Between fifteen twenty
fifteen and eighteen, he was also the defensive coordinator there
and again the defense was the leader in their conference.

(04:14):
Twenty eleven twenty thirteen, he was at Lindsey Wilson College
in Kentucky, and in two thousand and nine he was
a graduate assistant at Western Kentucky University. So he has
plenty of plenty of roots. He also graduated as a
native of a Fort Thomas, Kentucky, and he's a graduate

(04:36):
of Highlands High School. And he was on that two
thousand and four state championship team that stoled that championship
Boyle County Rebels, Goss almighty. That was I'll never forget
that game, coach, I'll never forget that game. But welcome
to board. We'd like, I'm glad you're on our guest tonight, David.

(04:57):
You want to bring him on.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
You're going through all those years and all these memories
are flushing back into my head of all the different
players and coaches. And you mentioned that time at West
Kentucky and who was the quarterback that year at West Kentucky?
Brandon it was you.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
It was Brand.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
The toughest, one of the toughest players I've ever met, unbelievable,
so much respect for him. But we played against each
other and then I end up being a volunteer Strength
GA and you have Brad.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
It was Cloud, yeah, Brandon Smith and Seth Tammy Yes yeah.
Becoming pretty good friends with Seth and Brandon. Yeah, and
even in the coaching circle. Me and Brand so keep
in touch. And we were at a clinic and since now,
not too long ago, we were just sitting there.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
You know, hanging out. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Cool, cool, he's work out.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
I have a lot of respect for you all. I
love Coach Mueller and he actually was one of our
guests on the show and he did us. He did
a great job, and we we talk about those rivalries
all the time. Yes, and pretty good games yep.

Speaker 5 (06:07):
And you don't know this yet, but Emmons he married
me and my wife.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, I love him that he's a great guy.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
And then he ended up marrying my neighbor. So like
you talk.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
About what a small world.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
Huh hey, this is sort of a Hostyle interview for you, because,
uh I remember when you came to it to recruit
our guys. You were Lindsey Wilson, and you bring up
that you were at that game when you all beat
us in the snow in two thousand and three, and
uh you know.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
I I was on the team. I was more on
the sideline though. So you can't get mad at.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Me, is that right?

Speaker 6 (06:52):
I got you, But but I do remember that, and
uh I remember you coming in there, and man, what
you have done is just incredible and congratulations to you.
And I mean I'm biased about Kentucky guys, but to
see a Kentucky guy go to Moler and do what
you're doing does not surprise me. And hey, I'm we're

(07:13):
really excited to have you. I want to shut up
and let Chuck ask you the first question. But hey,
thanks for making time for us, and we're, as you
can already tell, we're very, very proud of you and
excited about your career.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Well, I gotta tell you, Mason County was one of
my favorite schools to go in because I and I
still remember Neil pass At the guy who got Away.
He was so good. Yeah, we ended up getting a
really good quarterback named Brandon cressup at Lindsay Wilson's I
can't get too man. But at Georgetown and then you
had I think it was Gilbert, was it Jordan Gilbert?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Jordan Gilbert played wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
So yeah, all these members.

Speaker 6 (07:52):
Well, hey, it's funny you bring that up about Neil.
I lived across the street from Neil, and I remember
when coach Crohman came to visiting YEP and Coach Cronan
walked in with a brief guy. I just looked out
the window. I mean we're neighbors. And I watched coach
Cronan walks in. I don't think he was there for
five minutes, and he turned around and walked out. But
the next thing I know, Neil pos it's a tiger.

(08:13):
So those were man, those were fun days. Those are
fun days. You would come through there and uh, I
tell you, you know, Chuck would come through at Kentucky.
And then as we're talking about this year, another person
really sticks out, Craig mullins. That coach at Georgetown was
Nils That was Nils o c And uh, that's a

(08:33):
really that's a really neat thing. But again, I better
stop because I'll talk about all this stuff for the
rest of night. So go ahead, Chuck, you better ask
you the first question.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
All right, bert, Hey, listen, My first question to you
is who were the biggest coaching influences in your career
and what did you learn from him?

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Man, I tell you what, one thing I've been really
blessed with is I've had really strong male role models
in my life. I can't tell you fortunate enough. Like
I had the best dad in the world, and I
had good grandfathers as well, But my coaches were the
ones that I gravitated to. They were the ones that
I always wanted to like make proud and and really
connect with. So first and foremost, Dale Wheeler had had

(09:15):
a huge impact on my life, and you see a
lot of the things that we do now. I think
back to Dale and I'm like, man, he was just
so ahead of his time. I think from an analytical standpoint, yeah,
because he would get so much slack for taking so
many deep shots all the time, but he knew if
he just connected on a handful and that could change
the outcome of a game. And he just had that

(09:37):
thought process and just the way he he uh made
the offensive lineman figure out who to block. It was
very mathematical on his side, but learned to him most
important the learned about hard work from Dale. Brian Winner
is a huge influence on my life. That deep at
the coordinator at Highlands as well, and then the dB
coach was Dave Meadows, who's now the DC at new

(10:00):
Portentral Catholic with Stephen Lickord. But those three guys probably
had the biggest impact on me growing up. And then
I got to go to college and my defensive coordinator
was a man named Jack Hatum and he's now the
current head coach at Dennison University. But he hired me back,
but I got a play from when. I always call
him a second father to me. But he gave me
that opportunity to go back to Dennison. But before that,

(10:22):
it was Lindsay Wilson College, and it was West Kentucky,
and at Western it was Dwayne Hall, the strength coach,
and Jim Now and you got you probably remember those guys, coach.
I learned a ton from those guys and David Elson,
the head coach of wes Kentucky. He gave me a shot.
I owe everything in this world to David Elson and
uh Jim Now for just taking a chance on me.

(10:44):
And then after that coach Oliver Lindsay Wilson College was
the first GA there, and then Chris Reiser hired me
on at Tiffing University. I could spend an hour talking
about that inner circle and how God had his way
of interweaving all of our names in some way, shape
or form, and you wouldn't believe it. But the commonality

(11:07):
of all those guys is number one, their meta faith
first and foremost, and meta faith, their great husbands and
their great fathers. So I learned from them from that
same point. They truly cared about their players, and they
put their players above everything, and they were as competitive
as you could be. They might act real nice to

(11:30):
you all right when you're when we're hanging out, but
when it came to the game, done like, they're going
for the throat and we're going to win. And I
learned that from every single one of those guys. And
then and they're all hard workers, right like we we
grind it and and that was fun. So it wasn't
a a have to It was a get to mindset,

(11:50):
and every single one of those guys to a t
all shared those same commonalities. And that's what I picked up,
i think, from all of them along the way and
took pieces through that and applied to my own coaching philosophy.
So when you come see me coach, or you see
our program, you will see all those men, in some way,
shape or form, get shown in what we do it more.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
That's definitely a great to be associated with. Hey, coach
of that? What about Dale? You know? Was he to me?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
You know, I'm just knowing from you know, being coaching friends,
but being on the inside was here. Was he a
good motivator? I could see, Yeah, I mean he I
would think it'd be history.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
We had to drink.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
I grew up and thinking Highlands Bluebirds who could beat
the Bengals.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
Every single kid growing up thought that. But that's that's
like this area. Like every single young Boyle County rebel
believes the same thing right now. And they did the
new of the head coach too. They grew up.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
They're going to beat the Kentucky Wildcats. The same thing
at Mueller, same thing at Elder and Saint Excellent. Like
you grow up and you think of these these players
are larger than life, and I think you create this
environment where it's hard for smaller colleges to recruit those
kids now too, Yeah, because there's environments in that high
school experience is so special, it's so hard. It's it's

(13:14):
hard to replicate it. Yes, it really is. And you
see a lot of kids from programs like that and
not go off and play college ball, and they could
and it's because they can't replicate their high school experience,
and it's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
That's a really good point right there, because that was
that's so true that once they get to the college level.
It's not like it was at Boyle County or not
like it was at Islands.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
And kids have a hard time with it.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
They have a hard time transfer. It's just not the same.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
And really got to love it to play college football,
because there's not I mean, you come to a.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Muller X game, it's packed.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
You go to the.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Highlands Boyle County game, it's packed.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
You go to a lex cath Boyle County game, it's
back and it's a cool it's high school football at
it's at its best.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
It is. You can find that all across the country
with those rivalries now, but you truly got to love
football to go play college ball. They're not always like that.
Like even if you watch a action game in the
middle of the week in November and it's up in
Bowling Green, there's not a lot of people out there.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, and it's just tough to find.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Those niche programs where they have that. Georgetown I think
had a ton of success because they could replicate that
and when you go to a Lindsay Wilson Georgetown game,
it was pretty cool. So I think the programs that
can create that buy and they do a pretty good.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Job with it.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Hey, you know one of the things about you, you know,
I mean your first head coaching job was at Legstin
Catholic in twenty twenty two, and now you're Molar and
you've really and you hit the ground running. I mean,
you have success early, and so I really not both
my questions are going to sort of tie to that,
because I think you're exceptional with this. And so here's

(14:56):
here's my question for you. How have you been able
to evaluate so quickly what your players can do?

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Well?

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Mm hmm. I think part of it's luck. And then
I have good players like I just I come in
and you watch the film and you get these opinions
of the kids, and then you see them in person,
and then your opinions change.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
Yeah, and then you got to see him move around.
You want to see him interact.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
But the first thing I want to do is I
want to I want to make I want to take
them to It sounds tough, but I want to create
the hardest environment possible in the weight room and on
the football field and really challenging to see like what
they can handle and have such crazy high standards, to
see how they respond through adversity, how they come together

(15:45):
as a team, and I thought Dale was really good
at this. He had this magical way of taking you
to the fires of hell and having fun doing it.

Speaker 7 (15:55):
Yeah, you just get brainwashed and the thinking like you
have fun working hard, you have fun, sprint until you puke,
you have fun just lifting weights, and you just create
this environment of I get to instead of I have to.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
And that's usually the first thing I try to do
to evaluate the talent is seeing that part of it,
because when I see a kid in the weight room
and I can see how he's handling adversity, what his
work ethic is like, and then we get on the
football field that I can kind of develop the physical
toughness as well. I really kind of slow cook it
until we get through those portions to really kind of

(16:30):
figure out what we have to work with, and then
our system adapts to our players. A big pet peep
of mine is coaches who have a system where the
players that have to adapt to the system. To me,
that's bad coaching. You have to have a system that
adapt to your players. It's about players. Coaches don't make
any place. I've made zero tackles, zero catches, zero touchdowns

(16:50):
in my coaching career, none but my players do. So
we have to put them in the right position to
make plays and utilize their skill sets for what their
best at. Now, the tough thing is is what they
think they're good at might not be what they're good at.
So you put them in a position to gain confidence.
So there's buying and they trust that you have their

(17:11):
best interests at heart, and that takes That takes a
lot of effort, and it takes a lot of time.
And at every single place I've been, we've always spelled
love t I M. And we've got to spend a
lot of time together to figure all that stuff out.
And you build trust in drops and you lose it
in buckets. So if you're not continuously building trust on
a daily basis, you're pretty quick. So I think that's

(17:34):
the challenge is just slowly but surely developing that trust
over time and then put in the right position. Then
when they when it all comes to fruition, that's when
it happens.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, it's good. Yeah, that was a great question, and
I love the answer. I really did. It was really interesting.
I love that.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Hey, coach, one more question for me is you've now
coached in both Kentucky and Ohio. Uh actually played in Kentucky,
but you've coached in Kentucky and how what what do
you what do you see the differences or what differences
have you noticed when it comes to things like administrative support,
fans support, player commitment.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Overall expectations, the.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Player commitment has been the same. I think that's I
think that's on the coach and you you end up
creating that. Obviously at the schools I've been to, like
football is important, well that's been kind of easier for
me than if I was at a school that doesn't
have a ton of tradition. You're trying to create that
buying like, that's that's a little bit longer of a process.
Bowl there is a different animal like a college, right

(18:41):
it really is. We have an athletic department, we have
an admissions department, we have a president. Like that's that's different.
They had some of that at lex Katha and both
of those are private schools. Obviously, you know, the Highlands
doesn't have anything like that, or Boyle County or Anderson
or like public schools don't have that. But I think
that's the biggest difference. More is just like the private

(19:02):
aspect and the public aspect. But to be honest, like
a lot of public schools have way better resources than
the private schools. In a lot of we have to
raise our money. Like we raise a ton of money
like that. We we sell gear at our game, right,
like we we have a lift of thon, we have
fundraising opportunities. Okay, there's a player fee. So like everyone

(19:25):
looks at more than thinking, you know, they got everything
that they can ever want. We have to work for
it and we've got to find ways to develop funds
to be able to have that experience for our kids.
So I think that's the big thing is like at
the school I've been at, fundraising has been pretty big
and trying to raise money so we can have this
experience for our kids. The biggest the difference I think

(19:49):
between Ohio and Kentucky has been the depth. There's there's
just more schools, there's more people, and the depth of
those leagues I think is much greater in Ohio than
it is Kentucky, especially at like across the state. I
mean there's seven divisions now in Ohio and they need
se divisions. There's six in Kentucky. But you can really

(20:10):
argue there's there's not enough real six A schools, and
there's not enough real one A schools. But there are
the Pike Bills of the world and the smaller schools,
and then there are the Attrinities of the world. But
if you can find some of those five A schools
at six eight just doesn't make sense. So I think
depth is the biggest difference I've seen just from Ohio
and Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Hey, coach, what what is your job?

Speaker 6 (20:33):
I mean during the day, are you exclusively the football coach?
Do you have a job at Moler other than being
the head football coach?

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Is that all that you do? Not all?

Speaker 6 (20:42):
I don't mean that doesn't sound good. That's a huge job.
But I'm saying you have jobs tonight.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
My official title is the special assistant to the President
and football coach. So at Moler we have an enrollment
of you know, a little over nine hundred and we
have a football roster about two fifty, so we control
twenty five percent of the student population. So the behavior
of the environment that you create in your football team

(21:09):
that directly impacts the culture of the school. So that's
just that's a big deal. So that's why I've been
given the opportunity. I'm really lucky. I'm blessed beyond belief
that have the position that I have, and have administrative
support that believe in the mission of what we're doing.
And we're like at our school right like, we have

(21:30):
great academics, we have great athletics, but we are building
remarkable men and that is important. And we get to
pray every single day and we get to have a
faith based portion with that. But we're developing men and
that is very very counterculture in today's society to be
able to say that, and we we we're proud of it,

(21:53):
and we're unapologetic of it too, and I love that
aspect of it. But I do get to work on
football during the fall. Well I'm working on football quite
a bit, right Like, There's not a lot of other
things that deter me from that. Now. When I say
that they're still recruiting, there's still budgetary items, are still logistics,
they're still I mean, you're still running a program of

(22:14):
two hundred and fifty kids, and we have two freshman teams,
we have a JV team, and we have a varsity team.
So I schedule forty games every single year and we
don't have a stadium, so logistically we're figuring all that
stuff out. So last year when we went fourteen and two,
we played ten regular season games in ten different stadiums.

Speaker 6 (22:36):
Wow, I had no idea. I didn't know you didn't
have a stadium, So where do you play?

Speaker 4 (22:41):
So we've played all over the place. Last year we
played at Mount Saint Joe, the Division III school. We
played at West Claremont, we played at Differt Stadium. We've
played at all Ground Stadium, they played at Lachland, they've
played at Old Galberfield, you know outside King's Island. That
was like the main place they used to play. But
we've played all over the place, so you know, we
got to and that's a bigger challenge because now you're

(23:03):
trying to find places that you need to play. Well,
a lot of public schools don't want to help you
out because they think that you're taking their kids. And
if I was on that and that's not true to
a certain degree. But we do draw from across the
whole city, so I can understand that logic as well.
But it's it's hard to logistically to figure all that

(23:24):
stuff out. So there's a lot of other aspects that
you're always kind of working on throughout that time too.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Have y'all never had a stadium or ever?

Speaker 6 (23:33):
Really, wow, I had no idea. I had no idea,
and you know what I was digging around. You know,
when I was growing up, Jerry Faust was. I mean
a lot of people thought he was the best football
coach in America.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
I mean, any level is incredible, and I.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
Never I would have never dreamed the national champion in
high school football, which I think they got that three times, fine.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
My bad five times. Didn't have their own stadium we play.

Speaker 4 (24:02):
We played at goldber Field, which I guess that kind
of took it. That's where the old college Football Hall
of Fame used to be up there, like by King's Island,
So there was a field there, and this was before
my time, but that was kind of their home stadium.
It just wasn't on campus. I got that's gone now,
so they've they've played all over and then it was

(24:23):
Lachland for a number of years. It was it was
Norwood for a number of years before I got here,
and then my first year we had to figure all
that out. So we go play at Mount Saint Joe,
which is on the west side, you know, and that's
that's an enemy territory, right, that's the elder of the South.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Country, right.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
So it's about a thirty five minute trip. So even
when we get at a school at two forty five,
we have our team chapel with three h five that
goes to a three thirty five. We our special forces
check in the cafeteria. That's five minutes, and then we eat.
We preate our courtyard at and we're going to the
bus af ten because we have about sometimes thirty to

(25:03):
forty five drive for a home game.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
That's fascinating. I didn't know that we.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Show up, but our guys are good at handling adversity
and they're good at handling and changing schedule. Our art
saying is don't tell me how rocket to see is
bring the damn ship home. Right, Yeah, we still got
to show up and playing game. We gotta win, and
that's our mindset. So things go wrong all the time,

(25:29):
our guys it's like, all right, right, let's go play.
I think our guys handle that really really well. And
then when we go into the playoffs, we play at
neutral sites after round two, so you'll play four games
at neutral sites.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
And you're already. That's that's who you are already. That's
why we're good at it a.

Speaker 6 (25:47):
Coach, as you can tell, you know, I'm at I'm
at my fourth place really the third build slash rebuild.
So I'm I'm really fascinated with the job you do,
especially hitting the grounds so fast.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
As my next question is connected to that.

Speaker 6 (26:04):
Obviously you're you're great at evaluating the players you've got,
but I've got to think that you are really really
good at installing your offense, your defense, I'd even say
your special teams. I've got to think your exceptional when
it comes to installing those things to be so good
so quickly. So that's my question, what do you think

(26:25):
what is it about your install that makes you be
so good so fast?

Speaker 8 (26:30):
Because you are I don't want to disappoint you, but
I think we focus on installing our culture first before
it and we install environments.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
So we have an acronym, it's called you know eleven
c KU and that's our culture to find and sets
the standard for a football team from the very get go.
And that's what we talk about first, and we define,
you know, the environment that we want to create within
our football program. And then that leads to everything else right,

(27:04):
So it's our belief system and our behavior system. Our
belief system is the four FS, and it's faith, family,
future football to make sure we keep everything in line
in that order, and then our behavior system is eleven CU.
Like I said that in the eleven that stands for
eleven hats. So eleven hats is the mentality, and we
want to have an eleven hats mentality where our effort
and our attitude are high all the time. Those are

(27:26):
non negotiable and efforts four to six a to be
in attitudes and tensions when you get there. So when
we hit the ground, run like on defense, if you
make a mistake, just make it fast, make it stinking fast,
make a million mistakes, Just do it stinking fast, and
we're going to be okay. I don't any I'd much
rather have a player do something wrong fast than do

(27:48):
it right slow. And that's hard to get that kind
of through because we want to do it perfectly. But
we try to get that through their mind first and force,
and that happens in the weight room too, and we
emphasize that so at Lexcaf and at Moeller and even
when I was at Dennison, you know, we focused our
efforts on the weight room in our physical development first

(28:11):
and foremost, and then we kind of build that in
as we go. And then the CKU that's compete Kaizen
and Bhutu and that's just our culture to find and
we define it and we quiz our kids on it
every single time too, and I call them out in
meetings and they don't define it correctly. It's five updowns,
it's five push ups right there. And when we do
our conditioning right like, we'll test them during that period

(28:33):
as well, and that sets the standard for what we're
trying to do. Like offensively, our offense has changed every
single year and we try to readapt and reevaluate it
every year. To our coaches, it probably drives them nuts
how much I want to change the words and change
like this and that. But it's all depending on who
our players are and how can we get them on

(28:53):
the field in the best position possible to be successful. So, honestly,
God David, I don't think there's no secret saw to
what we do install wise. I think we're as normal
as can be when it comes all that stuff. Now,
we do always try to provide like when we install something,
we always want them to see a diagram of it.
We want to see a film clip of it. We

(29:14):
like them the regurgitated to us. We like them to
draw it for us, and then we'd like to you know,
walk through it on the field and then before we
do it live. Like that's kind of like the step
by step. Now, sometimes that doesn't always happen. I know,
our schedule is kind of goofy because I got a
lot of coaches that work outside the building. So we

(29:35):
wake up on in the morning and the summers, we
do our warm up, we do a team meeting, then
warm up, and then we do our team run together
and then we lift separately. We do a walk through
offense defense, and that's kind of how we go about.
But there's times where we're kind of installing on the
field too, Like honestly, like what I just said, like

(29:56):
I go against that a decent amount in the summer,
just because of the way our schedule lines, and I
think I don't sometimes I wish we could find a
better way, and we're always trying to find new ways
of doing it as well. I would say our coaches,
if it ain't broken, breaking and let's find new, adaptable,
figure it out, hate being stale, and just hey, this

(30:16):
is what we do and we're gonna do it. I
just don't like doing that. But I think I don't
think I'm gonna answer your question the way that you
wanted you wanted to.

Speaker 6 (30:26):
The best answer is an honest one. That's that's what
we want. We want stuff that's really going to help coaches.
That's really how you do it, not what we don't want,
some canned answer that you know you you go to
a clinic and a guess ort to just throw something
at now you're you're perfect.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
This is exactly a go ahead. I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
I think the most important thing is you hire good coaches.
I've been really fortunate to have some really good coaches
on my staff. You mentioned my career leading up, Like
I was defense my entire life in high school. I've
been on office inside the ball the whole time, right
So a Lex Cath I called the offense. At Moeler,
I called the offense. But I've been really fortunate to

(31:06):
have really good defensive coordinators where I didn't have to
touch the defense. Now I so had my hand in
it to a certain degree. But like that was theirs.
It was like I didn't medal Dave Nermberg in the
defense at lex CAF, and we adapted it to our personnel,
and he made it his own and it still had
some some philosophies of what I've gained across the years,

(31:31):
but it was his and I just let him go
and he was awesome with it. And here at Moehler,
it's Nick Sharp and he ran the same defense. He
was on staff with Marcus Freeman at Cincinnati, and I
copied our defense at Tiffin off theirs and it was
a broken stack and it was a one high defense
and it was really like a three not a true

(31:53):
true not true three three five, but like in the
basic realm, it was a three three five. But it's
man coverage, it's aggressive, and it fit what we did
at Tiffan. But it's his and I like, it's his words,
it's his verbiage, and I let him go. But if
you can hire good people and let them do it
like that, that's the best thing in the world. Like

(32:15):
if I like, I would love it, like I like
to pass off more if I could. Now I still
micro manage a little bit too much, But if you
can hire good people let them go and do their thing.
That's the best thing you can do.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
Yeah, and it this is such a great episode for
our coaches.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
I mean, this is a great episode. You've done a
super job.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
I love the part that, uh that when you were
talking about your install that because it's my philosophy too,
is you you've got to get the culture right first
before you can really get anything else. Nothing really is
going to matter if you don't get it the way
you want it. And that's my philosophy.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
And I think cultures become such a buzzer world. I
get irritated hearing it now because I think a lot
of people don't know what it is, and I think
it's a final product. It's never final. It's organic, and
it's constantly moving and just when you think you haven't
made it, something's going to go wrong and that's when
you really get tested. But you constantly got to be

(33:15):
working at it all the time.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
It's never quite there because it's human nature to take
the path at least resistance and we're.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
All guilty of it. And the worst time it happens
is when you're successful, and that like, that's why it's
so hard to be good all the time. And that's
why it's so amazing to see guys like you, coach,
who won state so many years in a row, and
like the guys like Nick say, they just keep winning,
win and winning. And I think every single guy will
tell you the first one is probably the easiest.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
The other ones were the hard ones.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, Hey, coach, you before you get off here, just quickly, uh,
just tell us what you think about you know, as
you know, we're want to talk about the playoff system
the Ohio's.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
Ohio uses the success factor.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
Yeah, we have a we have a mathematical equation as
well that that ranks all the teams. So we have
like in Division one, well actually in all the divisions,
there's four regions, right and within each reason you have
your little tournament that gets to the final four and
then those four teams play. So in Southwest Ohio, it's

(34:25):
brutal right to get out of Cincinnati, Like I mean,
my gosh, Like you're playing the best teams in the state.
And when you go to Region one and you're talking
about Cleveland, you're talking about ads and ignations and then
like they're oh my gosh, they're so good too. So
like It is brutal just to get through all that
to get to the state semi finals. And Columbus is

(34:45):
tough as well because they've got so many speeds in
there too. So that's how we do it with the regions.
But there is like a mathematical equation to figure out
the seating within that region.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
But well, I think though, what chuch getting too?

Speaker 6 (34:58):
You don't have anything though to where like if the
Division one team struggles very year after year after year,
you don't bumping down to Division two?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Is that correct? They do reclass, they do reclass, they
do Okay.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
I have to be honest, I don't know. I don't
think there's a rule where if you like win it
three times in a row, you're bumped up. Yeah, I
don't know if that. I know there is in Tennessee.
I don't think there is in Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
There's not.

Speaker 6 (35:28):
I think there is in Indiana. But I really don't
know about this.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Last week because we played Christ Presbyterian Academy and they
just won state three years in a row and they
got bumped up. We're playing on this first year being
bumped up. To be honest, I shouldn't know that. To
answer that question. But like, off the top of my head,
I don't think so. Because I know teams like Cold
Water and some of those other smaller schools that are

(35:54):
so dominant, I don't think they've been brought up there.
Telina Central Catholic might have got bumped up. I'll be honest,
I'm gonna I'm gonna plead yeah, ignorance on that one.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
That's okay. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
Now, one thing I do about the r p I
is like two years in a row, my team was
the conference champ and we had to go play on
the road against the team we beat be because of
the RBI factory, right, so we had to go We
beat Boyle at lex caath and we had to go
on the road to play boil Y. Not a lot

(36:33):
of teams went there.

Speaker 5 (36:34):
Yeah, it's guys, like it was like like point one
eight seven.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
That made the difference. If you can't tell them so
salty about it, but it was. It was what it is.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
We really do appreciate you taking than we appreciate you anything.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
You guys need. This has been fun. Respect you guys
like crazy and uh, if you ever need me on
again or whatever you need for them.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
To do it. Going into the next segment, and of
course that is.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
The tough topic and another good you know, another question,
another question. We're right on this playoff thing. I think
that's what people as we approach the playoffs. What is
a few weeks away? Uh, you know, three or four
weeks away, and everybody wants to, you know, start evaluating

(37:23):
Kentucky's playoff system and they want uh, they all everybody.
Everybody seems to have a you know, a better way
to do things and the way we're doing them. So
of course we addressed it last week. We're going to
address it this week.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
This one is from the Guru off of Bluegrass Preps,
and it says, should we go to a system where
there's no districts and we see each class and region
by an r P I, uh, you know, to do
the playoffs?

Speaker 6 (37:53):
What what do you think well? And also let me
qualify it with this. I talked to the Guru, I
told him about this, and he may And there's also
a school of thought that sort of like what Burt's
talking about. You know a lot of people feel like
col Preps or the Massy ratings would be better than

(38:13):
RPI because the RPI doesn't handle as well, when you
play out of state opponents and things like that. So
you know, and again, as we get into this, you know,
my answer this week may not be what I would
say next week. I mean, I'm really sort of trying
to dig into this and understand it better and learn
from it. It's fascinating that we're having this conversation because

(38:41):
I had an interesting conversation yesterday and.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I got wind of.

Speaker 6 (38:48):
A staff that is uh and I'm not even going
to tell you who it is to protect you so
they're not all texting you and asking you. I got
wind of a staff that doesn't like who they would
have to go play if they're the four seed, and
they're talking about we're going to be the four seed,

(39:11):
we may just, for lack of a better term, throw
throw a football game because they don't want to go.
They don't want to go play the one seed. And
right now, if I had to pick, if I had
to pick right now, I would say I like the
Guru's idea, and I would say this, I like the

(39:32):
RPI deal probably better because the RPI is probably going
to be better for some of the lesser programs because
it's the bigger, more successful programs. That the RPI in
the out of state hurts them, and I know that
there's somewhat of a lack of unfairness there, and I
get that, I do, But here's where I'm coming from

(39:54):
on this. First of all, I think if you could
really truly have the top thirty two in the playoff,
I think that's going to be more equitable, and I
think it's going to help somewhat with these lopsided scores early.
I think it'll help. If it's the top thirty two,
it's got to be better than a team that's say

(40:16):
thirty eight or thirty nine, and that they're in a
fourteen district. So I think the top thirty two you've
got a shot at better games that are less lop sided.
And I've thought about this, and I know it's not
gonna sound really very good, but some of this goes
back to things you've said to me over the last
thirty three years, and I really think this. I think

(40:38):
in the short term, Trinity and X get hurt by RPI,
but so they got to play out of state. But
I think in the big picture, Trinity and RPA, Trinity
and st X will benefit by Kentucky High School football
being better, and so yeah, they might actually give a
little bit on the RPI end because it will penalize

(41:01):
them on some of their out of state games. But
I think at some point, maybe some concessions to the
programs that are struggling might not be a bad thing
for the whole. And if it's a good thing for
the whole, maybe it's maybe then it's gonna be good
for Trinity And say next, because.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I think.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
I think in the long run, it's better for everybody
if Kentucky high school football does better. Now that doesn't
mean I'm right, but I think it's better for everybody.
So I would say right now, I would lean in
the direction of let's take the top thirty two and
let's put them in the playoffs. I would like that,
and I do think we would have better games, and

(41:50):
I think I think that would be an improvement over
what we're doing right now.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yeah, well, you know, somewhat agree, but don't I don't agreempletely.
I mean, you know, you're still going to have the
lop when one place, if you divide them in the
region in one place sixteen, Uh, it's not going to
be a good game, you know, it's gonna be a
it's going to be a kind of a blowout, and uh,
you know, it's just uh, and it doesn't solve the

(42:15):
problem of or if it is a problem. You know,
it wasn't a problem when I was still coaching, but
if if people think that it's a problem that the
same teams are dominating, uh, each class. You can name
pretty much name every year who the state champion is
going to be, or who's going to be in the
state championship game. It's going to It's been the same

(42:36):
teams over and over and over, you know. But uh,
and that was that was what what part of the
discussion last week, and just let me let me uh
review a little bit of that is last week we
discussed you know that you know, in Kentucky, our classes
are determined by enrollment numbers. There's six classes, four regions,

(42:57):
eight districts in each class, and uh it's a based
upon you know, it's it's based upon you know the numbers.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
And it's dictated by your in school enrollment and it's uh,
you know, it's it's based upon, uh the theory that
you know, your your numbers dictate your depth and your
resources and your participation. Uh all of that, and uh
we we discussed that that's not necessarily.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
True anymore, but that that is the why it originated. Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
We also talked about an alternative playoff system that was
discussed that would move your team either up or down
a class based upon your success rate. And we said
that it was called a success factor or the competitive
balance rule. And we said that Ohio and Indiana, Missouri

(43:55):
are in even Georgia.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
I've all either done it or talking about doing it.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
And and this class, you know, as you've already stated,
is you know, take the you know, top thirty two
team and teams in each class, you know, by district
I'm sorry, by RPI ranking, and then rank themen. Either
do it by you'd almost have to do it by
region because it was you still.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Got to do it by region. Yeah, you can't take
it one versus thirty two because you because one through sixteen,
one through sixteen, No, I would do it.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
I would divide them into regions and do one through
eight in each region.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Oh okay, I see, I see what you're saying. You're
still going to get the same kind of dominance. Then
that doesn't solve anything. If you're if if one of
your reasons is would be.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
They would make it better. Of course sided, they would
make it better. When one plays eight, it's going to
be a lopside of score. And I think, you know, yeah,
I'm not. I'm not. I'm not agreeing on that.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
And I think that you know, the thing that I
think the bigger schools are not the bigger scores, but
the more successful schools. What they're going to argue is scheduling.
You know, it has to be a scheduling worked out
of that because right now they're guaranteed three Right now,
they're fighting to find games every year, and they're guaranteed

(45:24):
three or four games if they're put into districts. And
I think most of those schools are going to want
to keep that because it's so hard for them to schedule.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
I really don't have a big opinion on either one
of the systems. Maybe I should, but I don't, maybe
because I'm not, you know, a head coach anymore.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
So I know you feel pretty strong about this, well
I do. I don't know if I do or not.

Speaker 6 (45:57):
I'm saying that of the things that have been put
out there, so far, I think it's the best shot.
But do I really think it's going to fix it.
I think it's going to make it better, but I
don't think that. I can't say that I think it's
going to fix it, but I think it would make
it better. And I think it's okay. I think it's
best for everybody if there's some things that happened to

(46:20):
help people lower down the food chain.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I do think that.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
My gut feeling is that neither one of these systems
are better than the system we have right now.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
That's fair. I don't and I.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Think that this and people and people that are critical
of the system we have now that they say, well,
you know what about the the way we used to
do it was before this system was had flaws?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
You know, I.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Remember, you know, you know Bert was talking about you know,
his when he was at Lexing Catholic, he the RPI.
He had to go to Boyle County, but he beat
him during the regular season and he didn't have the
RPI numbers to host that game. Well, when I was
my last year at our second to last year at
boil you know, we had to travel to all the

(47:07):
way to.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Bell CA.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
I mean Belfrey and then we the next week, you know,
and we were the probably the top ranked team, and
we had to travel all the way to Corbett.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
You know. That was two back to back weeks.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
So it had its fault, and it was because it was
based upon the uh, you know I system take term system,
you get it.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
This year.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
That year didn't have anything to do with your record
or your you know or anything like that, or or
what you've earned on the field. So I didn't like
that system at all. So I like this one.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
We're having.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
The system we have now, I like it a lot
better than the system we had before. And I'm not
convinced these two systems that we've talked about the last
two weeks are.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Better than the one we have right now.

Speaker 6 (47:50):
And I really I don't know that I disagree with you.
I'm just sort of taking.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Them one at a time, and I don't know, I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
So look, David, let's move on into the games of
the week.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Okay. We have the first game up is Hazard and Paintsful.
Yes we do.

Speaker 6 (48:11):
I've got Hazard Matthew Chandlers in his second year there
as the head coach. They're three and four, they've played
a played a tough schedule. They're led by sophomore quarterback
Williams Shot who's averaging over tuitor yards of game passing
per game. Cameron Miller's a freshman running back for him.
Gavin Johnson's their top wide receiver, and Gavin, along with

(48:34):
Race Lindon and Connor Holbrook lead them defensively. So, uh,
this will be a big game for him. And I
think they're sort of battle tested. I think, uh, you know,
I think I think it's gonna be a good football game.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah. Well, I have Paintsville their head football coaches, Brian Melvin,
and he's in his first season at Paintsville there, and
he got his team off to a five and two
start pretty good.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
His court back is Parker Helton and he's put up
some nice numbers. He had one game where he went
ten for fifteen four one hundred and seventy three yards
and two touchdowns. Not a bad game at all. And
then the receiving corps is led by Anderson Laffer. He
had seven receptions for one hundred and eighteen yards and
one touchdown in that game. I think this team's a

(49:22):
passing team. You know, it's a passing team. So you know,
Hazard had better be good at defending the past, because
I think these guys are going to put the ball
in the air. This series is pretty close, David. It's
pretty even over the years. You know, it's Paintsville has
won eleven out of the light last nineteen but it's
fairly easy. Even Hazard did win last year and Paintville

(49:47):
was the home team. So that's why I'm going to
pick Paintsville in this game.

Speaker 6 (49:50):
I got I don't know what it is either, but
I'll bet you that Hazard and paints Will have been
playing for over one hundred years.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah, I'm just about the last nineteen oh Yeah, I
know that. I know that.

Speaker 6 (50:00):
I'm not gonna expect you to go back to nineteen
oh five and get the don't have the records. I
don't have the Yeah, yeah, but I think it's I
think it's sort of a toss up. I probably go
with Paintful too, because they're at home. I tend to
agree with you.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, So well, the next game, of course, is more
in Jeffersontown.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Okay, And I have Jeffersontown.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
That's my alma mater, that's where I played football at.
I absolutely love Jay Town. It's changed a lot over
the years, but I love playing there. I love being
my home.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Uh school.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Their head football coaches Dante Ellison, and he's done a
wonderful job there.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
He's he's you know, he's trying to.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Do a lot of little things, uh, you know, to
bring back some of that tradition. I really, I really,
I really think he's done a great job. I really
like him a lot. He's in his fifth season as
the head football coach at Jaytown High School. He's in
twenty twenty three. He was ninety two, so he had
a he had a great year there. His quarterback so
far this year has been really has been Caden in

(51:02):
Brave Bradley. But last week he switched it up a
little bit and he and he had a new quarterback.
His name was Nathan Lawana and he threw for three
hundred and twenty one yards in three.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Touchdowns last week.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
So you know, he might be on to I don't
know if this kid has been hurt he brought him
back or he is wanted to change something up. But
not bad, not a bad not bad outing at all.
The running back position has been held by Jaden Logan,
and you know, one game he had twenty three rushes
for one hundred and thirty six yards and a touchdown.

(51:39):
The receiving corps has been held down by Lauren Westmoreland
and Sean clay Combe. And then last week David Stephen
Green he showed up along with the quarterback and he
had eight receptions for two hundred and twenty four yards,
and uh, you know, that's that's a pretty good game

(52:02):
when you have that many receptions.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
And then the defense has been.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
Uh you know, has been led by Ramari Smith and
he had like twelve tackles against Fardale. That Smith name
has shown up in the past history Jatown making a
whole lot of tackles and uh, this kid is not
keen to me, but that's Smith name.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
That Jaytown goes.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
Along like I got you fired up, and then your
brother play there also fires me up?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Did your brother play there? Also? It is Jawn. He
was younger than you, he's older than I am. I
got you. That's pretty cool, pretty cool way.

Speaker 6 (52:41):
I've got Louisville Moore and their head coach is uh
Michale McKay. And right now they're sitting there at there
at three and four. Let's see, let me get in
my notes here.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
They they're the quarterback is Martin Hines. Their top running
back is uh Jordan Watkins and uh also uh they
they they've also their top scorer, he's got seven rushing
uh touch is their Their leading scorer is also Martin Hines,

(53:21):
who's played quarterback and he can play wide receiver. Uh. Defensively, Uh,
they're led by Malik Williams, Alex Hopewell and Mohammed Job
lead them on the defensive side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Hey again, I'm not going to kidch.

Speaker 6 (53:36):
I'm digging up what I can from the catches double
A and their sight and so forth.

Speaker 5 (53:41):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (53:42):
I'm and looking in comparing scores. Uh, I'm I'm leaning
torygoing with jay Town in this.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
One all the way, man Ja Town, And I don't
and I don't want to, Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
And that's the other that I don't.

Speaker 6 (53:56):
I don't want to fight you tonight, but I do
think that I do think Jay Town, Uh, we'll have
the edge in this game.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I think Dante Ellison has done a great job there.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Hey take you, let's go in. Let's go into a
rapid fire. Okay, that's your favorite show because well, how
do we do. I don't think I did as good
last week. I don't think I did as well. You
didn't do bad?

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Now you went. You was seven out of ten last week,
seven out of ten. I know you're that's a bad
drop of off thing, but seven out of ten is
not bad.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
I was five out of ten fifty percent. Now for
the year, you're so far fifty one out of sixty four.
You hit fifty one out of sixty four. Not bad,
right around eighty percent. And I'm thirty nine out of
sixty four, So, you know, not not.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Great, But I'm not giving up yet.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
The year is still young and I'm still got I
guess I've got a few games left to catch you.
Speaking of that, Okay, speaking of that, let's get into
our rapid fire for this week. I got some good
games on here this week. How about first David Ashland
and Boyd County. What a rivalry that should be?

Speaker 2 (55:04):
That is uh Ashland Ashland, and that's who I pick.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
And how about Bellevue and Dayton, Northern Kentucky.

Speaker 6 (55:14):
Ball uh Man, I love that place. I'm gonna go
with Bellevue on this one.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Bellevue, I might go with Dayton on this one, I
got you. And how about Fern Creek and Bullet East?

Speaker 6 (55:30):
Tell you what that's that's a that's a tough one.
There's two good ones there. Uh, that's about five miles apart. Yeah,
I think I'm gonna go with Bullet East on this one.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Well at East, I'm gonna go with Fern Creek just
to be differentt there you go, and uh Lafayette and
Henry Clay. Oh uh, that's a tough one. Yeah, I'm
gonna go yet. I'm think I'm gonna go with Flaffey
at two. You're dead coach? There didn't he? Yes, he did.

Speaker 6 (56:04):
I've got the nineteen sixty eighteen picture hanging up. I
was three years old. I remember that day. I know
you don't believe me, but I really do.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Hey, Madison Central and Frederick Douglas oh Man, Yeah, that
that's gonna be a good one.

Speaker 6 (56:20):
I still think Douglas is going to edge him out,
but I think that Central will play them tough.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
So who you pick it? I'm picking Douglas. Yeah, that's
who I'm picking too. And how about Oldham County in
eastern Oldham County? I tell you, I love Adrian and
he's uh.

Speaker 6 (56:40):
I think if you rank the toughest jobs these days,
it's a battle between me and Adrian right now. I
mean we we are a we're fighting a good fight,
though I know he's fighting and we're fighting.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Yeah, all right, South Laurel and Pulaski County man, but
Johnny hides against his old school Pulaski.

Speaker 6 (57:02):
Whoam. Yeah, a war that's gonna be a war it
will be and Johnny. I think Johnny's undefeated. I think
they're undefeated. But I still think Blast You're gonna win
this game.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Okay, that's who I'm picking too, because I like my
man Travis. All right, let's go with Scott County. That's
my problem is I picked.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
From the heart, you know, and you pick from h
to make money. You know that you're to make money. Hey,
if I'm making money, I haven't seen any of it.
But anyway, we'll have we'll have to continue that conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Now, you should.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
I'm gonna listen to yours before I make my pick
on this next one. Scott County and South Odham your district.

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Yeah, oh well, I tell you, gosh, Now you bring
it up bad things based on our game. It will
it will be Scott County. I can that's who I
was gonna pick Scott.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Yeah, all right, how about Saint X and Manuel Wow,
I picked some good game week.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah, those are some good ones. I'm gonna go with
Saint X A X.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Yeah, I'm gonna is is that quarterback playing or not?
I think, well, I really don't know. I sort of
think that he is, but I really don't know.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
I'm gonna pick manuals h thinking that he's not. I
got you.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
How about Woodford and Collins out of your district again?

Speaker 6 (58:25):
Oh man, hey, this is great. It's my opportunity to
make everybody mad in my district. Like I don't have
enough problems, I think, thank you Chucksmith. Hey, uh, I
tell you what. Now, here's what's going on with Collins
right now. They have a phenomenal quarterback. Kate Gooden. The
guy they've got now is doing a really good job.
He is uh k though is like I mean, k

(58:50):
would be in the conversation as one of the top
in the in the state.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
He's really that good.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
I don't know that he will be back yet. I'm
gonna I'm not gonna kid you. The Woodford County scored
last week. I know Woodford's good for them to running
Clyde south Oldham, They're really really good. I would have
to pick Woodford County right now.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
That's who I picked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the way.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
That's it, David, that's it. Well, see how we do
had a few separate not many. I think I'm getting smarter.
I'm just waiting for you to pick than I'm picking
the scene. Hey, if you copying off me, you're in trouble.
But hey, I do.

Speaker 6 (59:29):
I did want to share a story i'd shared with you,
and I hope you don't mind me staring at it's uh.
I think it's sort of a behind the scenes type
thing and really getting into up, sort of building a
program type thing. But this past Friday night, we were
at Scott County and it was rough and starting off
with this, Scott County's got a super football program. Jim
m Kee's done a great job. But we were having

(59:50):
a rough, rough night and as one of our best
players really responded poorly to a bad play by.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
One of his teammates. It was ugly. I mean it
was bad and we talked about it after the game.

Speaker 6 (01:00:04):
And so anyway, Sunday I called him in and I
just said, hey, you know, I said, I understand you're frustrated.
I said, I do. I said, it was a really
hard night. But I said, let me help you out
on this. I said, the next time you get frustrated,
you know your teammate is already down because they messed up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
I said, so in that moment, I said, encouraging.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
And then the best thing then is after the game
or the next day, say hey, look, if you want
me to help you and we work on this play
or this particular fundamental, say I'll help you out, and
I'll try to be there for you and I'll help
you out. And he responded, well to that, he said,
you know, he said that that makes sense. And you know,

(01:00:46):
I think a lot of times, for all of us,
we want to respond, we're just not sure how to respond.
And I think, indeed, help This is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
You and him in the office alone.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
Yeah, yeah, this is this is a Sunday afternoon. So
then I said to him, I said, you know, I said,
I will not make you do this. I said, I'm
not doing that, But I said, I've just got an idea.
I said, I think if you mocked the locker room floor.
I said, I think that'd be a really good gesture
to your teammates that you want to restore this relationship

(01:01:19):
and that they're important to you. I said, but I'm
not making you do it. And he said, Coach, he said,
I'm going to do it. I said, hey, I said great,
I said, So what I did is I showed him
where the mop and the bucket and the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Water and all that stuff is.

Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
And I went back because I was still working on
practice schedules and Collins and all that kind of stuff.
So I went back and I did my work, and
I came back about forty five minutes and he was
almost done, and just to sort of a show of
support for him, I helped him finish it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
I helped him do some of the sweeping up stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:01:57):
I helped him, you know, clear off some space, just because,
you know, sort of send a message say hey, you
know you've got to do this, but I'm on your
side and I want to help you get there. So
he did it, and so we got to the end
and I said, I'm really proud of you, and I'm
really glad you've done it. And you know, he's a
young man. I love him. He's really grown a lot
in the last three years. I mean, he has, he's,

(01:02:20):
he's he's it's still a process, but he's grown up
a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
I think though, might have been the coolest thing of
all though.

Speaker 6 (01:02:27):
As I said, now, don't you feel better about yourself
now than you did three hours ago?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
He said, yeah, I sure do. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:02:34):
I thought that was cool because because he needed he
needed that to sort of start to mend that back.
And it's like, I think he he wanted to respond well,
but I didn't do a good enough job explaining to
him before the incident.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Of how to respond.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
I've obviously got to do a better job of helping
our guys with that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
So it was just it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
It was a great way of, you know, teaching him
in the moment a lesson for life. And I thought
that was outstanding. It was a great leadership by you.
I think, I really, I really do think so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:03:11):
I appreciate that, and I do think him doing that
really helped. We're going to practice fall break, and I
think that that really helps set the tone when everybody
walks through and there's gonna be a freshly mop floor
that's clean, it's gonna stand out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
And I think it's going to be a good thing.

Speaker 6 (01:03:30):
Soh A, it's tough right now, but I'm crazy about
our guys and we're going to keep fighting a good fight,
one day at a time, try to keep getting better.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
And we are. We are getting better.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
It didn't look like it Friday, but we are getting
better and it's going to show up.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
It was no doubt about it. David, you got anything
for next week?

Speaker 6 (01:03:49):
Well, our coach next week is you coached him, Mikey Bitton,
who's the heat at Russellville. And he I didn't realize
it because I'm old. I think he's been there since eighteen,
he's been there a while.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
He's been there a while.

Speaker 6 (01:04:04):
And then, ay, our tough topic, We're gonna back off
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
It's gonna be a little wider.

Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
What do you think about alternative uniforms, Like if it's
not your school colors, do you think those are a
good thing or bad? And we'll get into that, so
it'll be a little bit different, but it won't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Be so serious.

Speaker 6 (01:04:22):
And then in two weeks we may jump back in
on this playoff and stuff. And you know, and again
I want to as I've said, I don't want Julian's job.
This is a hard deal and uh, these are not
easy solutions. I mean, if they were, we'd have them.
So I appreciate the people that are trying to fight
it out and trying to do the best.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
They can for kids. I'm very thankful for those people.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
And please hang on and listen to Max's historical segment
at the end. It's always really good and we'll see
you next week.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 9 (01:04:53):
Yep, this has forgotten heroes, and I'm your host, Mack Yoakam,
and I have a story to tell you the story
of John, Chick and Bunny and their amazing legacies. John
was born in eighteen fifty four outside of Louisville, a
woodside plantation on Harriet's Creek. His mother was a slave

(01:05:17):
owned by the doctor who owned Woodside, and yes, that
doctor was John's father. In eighteen sixty two, the doctor
freed John, his mother, two brothers, and his sister, but
in freeing them, essentially the doctor just kicked them off
the plantation. They had no money and no place to go.

(01:05:39):
John's siblings all died within a year. His mother contracted
smallpox and one was unable to work. John was left
to scrounge through garbage for food. He would steal from
the farmer's crops, and then one day John was caught
by a local white teacher named Kate Gilbert. Kate cleaned

(01:06:03):
him up and got John enrolled in the school for
black children run by her missionary group. When he turned sixteen,
he went to work in the tobacco warehouses in Louisville
to save money because Kate had told him of a
college that took black children. That school was berea college.

(01:06:23):
By eighteen eighty one, John had his BA, and shortly
thereafter he got his masters. John wanted to teach, and
John wanted to change lives, and he got his first
and last teaching job in Danville, Kentucky. Among John's pupils

(01:06:43):
were Chick and Bunny. Chick starred in football and basketball,
and Chick was a natural born leader. He became a
high school teacher and a coach. As a basketball coach,
Chick became one of Kentucky all time winning his coaches,
winning six hundred games in his illustrious career. Bunny starred

(01:07:09):
in every sport football, basketball, baseball, and track, and he
was one of the best athletes the state of Kentucky
has ever known. It was on the track where he
earned his nickname, running the one hundred yard dash in
nine point six seconds. He was an All State basketball

(01:07:29):
player and an All American John Chick and Bunny John
was John Bate, the illegitimate son of a prominent family
who built one of the state's foremost schools for African Americans,
Bait School in Danville. The Bait football teams won state

(01:07:52):
titles in nineteen thirty one and in nineteen thirty six,
and the boys and girls basketball teams were among the
states best regardless of skin color. Chick's real name was
Sanford Sanford t Roach, or to Kentucky basketball fans, S

(01:08:13):
t Roach, longtime coach at Lexington Dunbar. He was the
first African American principal at an integrated elementary school in
Lexington and the first African American member of the University
of Kentucky Athletics board and Bunny Bunny was born in
parable Kentucky, William Emery Davis Bunny. Davis Bunny played semi

(01:08:42):
pro baseball for the Lexington Hustlers, the first integrated baseball
team in the South. He was the first African American
baseball umpire in the Southeastern Conference, and he led the
way for African Americans to officiate in the KHSAA. He
was the first African American board member at Ephraim McDowell Mediciner,

(01:09:04):
the Danville United Way, and the Danville Chamber of Commerce,
and he was the longtime doorkeeper of the Kentucky House
of Representatives. Both Chick and Bunny are in the KHSAA
Hall of Fame. John Bate, the son of a slave,
began a ripple effect that carried on through his students

(01:09:27):
like st Roach and Bunny Davis. This episode of Forgotten
Heroes was inspired by the book Shadows of the Past
by the late KHSAA Commissioner Lewis Stout. Join us next
time for another story of a forgotten hero from Kentucky's
era of segregation.