Coaches Office with guest Coach Chris Wolfe

The coaches welcome recently retired Male High coach Chris Wolfe

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):
This episode of the Coach's Office is brought to you
by Kelly Wilkins and five F's Fundraising. For all of
your fundraising needs, go to www dot fi ve e
fs dot net. Fundraising doesn't need to be an F
word in your organization. Five F's Fundraising.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Time for the Coach's Office Trivia time out which Kentucky
high schools have had multiple head football coaches coach there
that won over three hundred games in their careers, not
necessarily only at those schools.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Come to the Coach's Office behind the scenes with Chuck
Smith and David Buchanan. This is season four, episode sixteen,
so this is the state championship week, so it's really
exciting time for high school football across the state of
Kentucky with state championship games taking place this Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
I'm Chuck Smith.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
I'm joined by co hosts David Buchannan. Our podcast editor
and trivia teller is Mike Yoakum. Our YouTube version of
this podcast is t top and if you access it
that way then please hit like and subscribe. Helps us
out a little bit. Hey, you're really really going to
like our show tonight. Our guest coach is retiring head

(02:13):
football coach Chris Wolf at Male High School or from
Male High School.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
I guess he's still there until he retires from Walt Floor.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Chris was incredibly successful at Male, winning two state championships.
He won seventy seven percent of his games. We'll bring
him on here shortly. Our tough topic that we'll address
tonight comes anonymously. Do administrators ever get held accountable for

(02:42):
making the wrong sports higher? And if so, you know
how so we'll address that. The guy that sent that
question in just believes that it's a huge issue that
is not addressed enough. Maybe we can have a male's
ad on here and ask him about that question. I'm

(03:03):
this joke. He's going to have to hire a big
name or a big coach to fill those big shoes
that Chris left. But anyway, the games were week, the
games of the week are going to be We're going
to pick the state champions the winners.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
That'd be hard to do. It's some pretty good games.

Speaker 6 (03:21):
This year.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
A little bit about Chris before we bring you on.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Okay, As I said, he's the retiring head football coach
of Male High School. He spent sixteen seasons sixteenth, it's
a long time as the head football coach at Mayo.
He won two state championships there in twenty fifteen and
twenty eighteen. His record at mail was one hundred and

(03:47):
sixty five and forty seven. That's winning seventy seven percent
of your games. Pretty dog gone good, especially in the
biggest Class six eight in the state of Kentucky. He
had say, seven state championship appearances. That's pretty hard to do.
To get there seven times, five times straight, which is
really incredible. To get there five times straight. He helped

(04:11):
countless numbers of players get to the next level. Uh
and he changed their lives by doing that. He had
head football coaching stints at other schools, though he's most
noted for Mayo. He was at Hancock County, he was
at Wagner. I remember when he was at Wagner. He
and I had a battle or two when he had

(04:32):
Alfonso Smith.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
Remember that, Chris, when you had Alfonso Smith.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
Yeah, I'll fondo. I still stay in touch with him,
believe it or not.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
Yeah, he's a good guy.

Speaker 6 (04:44):
He's a great guy. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Chris was also at PRP before taking over at Mail
and his overall record is two hundred and forty five
and ninety five.

Speaker 5 (04:55):
David, you want to bring Chris on?

Speaker 7 (04:58):
Hey, I'm excited to have Cher and Chris back in
twenty twenty two. Uh, I didn't. I didn't have a team,
so I ended up helping Saint X a little bit
and watching some football. And I tell you what, watching
you and Manual and Elder and some of those guys
in Trinity as a as a whole other different level
of football. But I was I just want to tell you,

(05:20):
I got to watch you all and very impressed with
the job you did with your kids. You did a
super job.

Speaker 6 (05:25):
I really appreciate that, David.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
And thanks for being on the show, Chris. We appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (05:30):
Yeah, thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Hey, Chris, I got the first question for you. You've
had tremendous success through out her coaching career. What's one
thing that you could share with the listeners that you
would probably credit most for that success?

Speaker 6 (05:46):
All without a doubt, coaching is such a tough, tough
deal to get into. But you can't do it without talented,
coachable players. I mean just I'm so grateful on so
thankful to have had the opportunity at Mail on other
places like you mentioned Alfonso Smith at Wagner, But to

(06:08):
have talented and the other keyword there's coachable players is
really what makes it happen for us. And so you know,
just the string of guys that I had at Mail,
just a long list of guys. And you know, probably
the most famous now is Nate Hobbs who plays for
the Packers. He was on that twenty fifteen team, the

(06:30):
first team to win the state championship. And I can
remember Nate was one of the two juniors that started
for that twenty fifteen team and we played Trinity early
in the year and Nate gave up a bootleg. Trinity
was really good at the bootleg bootleg touchdown. He was
the backside corner and I had nine seniors on that

(06:51):
defense that getting Nate off the field. He's not ready
to play, he's not ready for this level. And I
just cracked cracks me on and to think about it
that Nate went on to play and then is playing
in the NFL. But as a junior in high school, buddy,
he he was the guy that everybody was saying wasn't ready.
So but yeah, back to your question, just blessed to
have coached talented guys who are very coachable. And you know,

(07:15):
we're as coaches, we're just we're just as good as
the players that we have. So we got to got
to be grateful for what we do have as players.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, I think that's the word that you used about.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
I think gets overlooked sometimes when you have a lot
of talent on the field, everybody says, well, well you
should win. But if they're not coachable, that talent does
them no good. It really doesn't.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
Oh yeah, And and we've had guys over the years
that were super talented that you know, we didn't start
or we try to. We tried to get their work
ethic right, and you know, people look and say, well,
why is this guy not playing? Why is that guy
to play? And we were blessed at mail to have
guys that you know, we could maybe try to make
a point and try to improve their work ethic because

(08:03):
we had other talented guys. But some schools can't do that.
And and so you want your most talented guys to
be your hardest workers, and that's when you're going to
have a special team. And we've had a few years
that's been like that, and you can really see the difference.

Speaker 7 (08:20):
Hey, so, you know, which we're very talking about you have,
You've had a really successful career. But I'm also wondering
at this point do you have any regrets? Is there
anything that you would go back and do differently? Uh,
looking back at these you know, last sixteen years, especially
at Mail as the head coach.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
Yeah, so I thought the thinging about that question, and uh,
you know as coaches, I'm sure you guys understand that
night after a tough loss and you just replay every
play in your head and you're like, well, what if
I would have called this? Or what if I would
have called that? And and so those kind of regrets
are just part of coaching, Like if a play doesn't work,

(09:02):
you just think, man, what if I'd have called something
different or made a different decision. But that's just part
of the game. And so the big picture is I
think what your question is more about the big picture
and the one thing about me as a coach, and
I look back at my career is I'm really thankful

(09:23):
that I started the way I did you know, I
was a two A coach at Hancock, like coach said,
started at Hancock County, worked up, got a job in
Louisville and three A Wagner uh, and then left there
and got a taste of what was four A, but
eventually became six A at PRP in a district that had

(09:43):
you know, uh mail or yeah, mail and manual and
Saint Axe, and got an idea of what six A
was like. And so it's not a regret, but I'm
really thankful that I did kind of work my way up,
so I can I can. I know what it's like
to coach at two A with only twenty eight guys,
and I also know what it's like to be at

(10:05):
PRP where maybe you just don't have the dudes week
in and week out that you have to have to
compete every week. So I just think I was blessed
to be able to work my way up and then
get to a spot. And I've said this is so
many people, and I really think that's true. There's more

(10:26):
great coaches in the state of Kentucky than there are
great programs, and so I think as a coach, you
have to be very very grateful when you get to
one of those programs that is a great program and
you get to have success, and so I am very
grateful to have had that opportunity. At maam, that's a
good quote.

Speaker 7 (10:47):
I like that. That's a really good quote.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah, I like to answer there.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Why is it that coaches only remember the bad things
that happened. I mean, I'm done the same thing. Only
state championships I can ever remember are the ones that
I lost.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
I can't remember the ones I won.

Speaker 6 (11:08):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And I was thinking about that
the other day. I always think about the bad calls.
But you know, we had an upset of Manual two
weeks ago, a team that had beaten us pretty bad
at the end of the year at Robbery game, and
I started thinking about we scored with thirty two seconds
left to have a chance to win that game. But
I think about that last drive, Chuck, and we had

(11:29):
a fourth and five. This is the last drive, fourth
and five, and I called a trick play. We line
up incorrectly on the trick play and he throws it
to the wrong guy, but we got the first down. So, like,
how many times did that happen versus you know, you
call a play that you think is gonna work and
it doesn't work. Here, I called a play we lined

(11:49):
up totally wrong, and it kept the drive alive for
us to actually go back and win the game. You
forget about those you remember the ones that didn't work.

Speaker 7 (11:58):
You're right, Hey, yeah, I appreciate you admitting that. A
lot of guys they wouldn't want to admit that. But
that's that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
Hey, Chris, looking back, you know, you again, you've been
in Kentucky your whole your whole life as a coach.
If you could change one thing about.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
The football structure, Uh, what would it be, if anything
at all?

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Well, as I've gotten older, I don't know if I've
gotten softer, but I've started to think about the player experience,
maybe more than I ever had. And so this year,
you know, p r P is a place I coached at,
and you know, they really had a tough year, and
they were really outmanned, and they played a really tough schedule.

(12:44):
We had to We played them twice, and I started
thinking about the player experience. And our first round game
was against PRP and our fourth place team was Southern
and their first round game was against Saint AXE, And
I thought, you know, how much better would it be
maybe if Mail and Saint X could have had a
first round by and then you just had Southern and

(13:08):
PRP maybe could play each other for that one extra
game where the two teams could have been competitive, and
both teams would have been able to finish the year
in a game that was competitive and it could have
been probably either team could have won, and so the
experience for those guys would have been different ending their
career versus the PRP guys playing Mail again and the

(13:31):
Southern guys playing Saint X. And I don't know how
that would work, but I just thought about the fourth
seeds that are overmatched and how that's kind of like
it doesn't feel good to just hammer those guys, and
you just kind of think about the player experience for
this fourth place teams. Now. Now I want to say,
like in twenty eleven twenty twelve, Mail was in a

(13:53):
district with Saint X, Manual, and Trinity, and we were
the fourth place team that's in a little bit of
an anomaly, ended up having it. We ended up winning
against Lafia one year and I think Mean County the
other year. But generally now a lot of the fourth
place teams are really you know, struggling to be competitive,
and it just seems like there may be a better

(14:14):
way for them to end in their season versus playing
like Southern playing Saint Axe im Puer or people playing Mail.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
It's a good point, and I don't know the answer
to that. I think a lot of people bring that
point up, but I don't know what the answer is.
I know that I know that South Warren was supposed
to play Christian County and then they end up fourth
and fourthit in the game or choosing not to play
or whatever, but uh, it didn't really bother South Warren.

(14:44):
They did have that week off, you know as a
bye basically.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
It's a You bring up a good point, and it's
been discussed, but I think it's just going to take
somebody that to really sit down and really try to
figure some of this stuff out.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
Yeah, I just I hate the you know, it was
just rough to see. I know, the PRP guys, you know,
it's just just a tough uphill bout and I'm sure
the Southern the team at Southern having to go to
Saint Axe. It just kind of is a rough situation
of being and I know sometimes that happens, but you
just think that maybe there was a better way for

(15:21):
those guys at those schools to finish their season a
little bit more competitive.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah, because sometimes there is a good fourth place team.

Speaker 6 (15:30):
Yeah, I know. And so it's not an easy answer, not.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
An easy answer exactly, yeah, David.

Speaker 7 (15:37):
Yeah, I just wanted to add to that to me.
I mean, I agree, some of these fourth place teams
it's not good for them. I just wonder if we
need to figure out a better classification structure, you know,
like you know, we've talked about to select versus non select.
If we can maybe figure out a better classification structure,

(15:58):
then maybe that a little bit with these things. But
I don't know. I mean, it's gonna be tough, and
the other parts it's tough about it is you know,
the dogs that are at the top and things are
good for them, They've got a lot of influence and
they're not gonna want to make changes to a system
like that. So I don't know. But hey, I tell
you a coach wolf, so tell us here, man, I

(16:20):
think a lot of people are tuning into our podcast
because they want to hear this. What's next for you?
Are you done coaching? Are you looking for another opportunity?
Do you want to go to another state? Are you
interested in a private school? You can even do a
public school in Kentucky, but that is a little trick here.
So what are you thinking? What's next for Chris Woolf?

Speaker 6 (16:43):
Well, first of all, I love coaching. I haven't lost
the passion to coach. I do think the timing for
me was right here obviously, with you know, twenty seven
years is what it is in public schools, and sixteen years,
like Chuck mentions, a long time at one place and
in the in the same school district, and so I

(17:05):
think the timing just really was right for me here.
But I haven't lost my passionate coach. This year, I
knew it was gonna be very challenging. We you know,
we we returned one starter on the offensive line, you know,
three starters on offense. We play a very tough schedule
with you know, Ballart, Saint X Turney, Frederick Douglas, Manual,
just a tough group of teams. And so while it

(17:29):
was challenging, there was rewards. You know, we got better
the upset of Manual, the regional final game. We we
were able to you know, have the lead at halftime
against Saint X, which was, uh, you know, I'm really
proud of the guys battling. We ended up you know,
turning the ball over three times in the second half,
so it didn't turn out, but proud of that. We

(17:51):
got better and so it was very rewarding. But the
next the next phase for me, it's just something that's
gonna be challenged again. Like just like Mail was in
twenty ten. They put us in the superdistrict and it
was a lot of people were saying that Mail would
never come out of there. We ended up winning the

(18:12):
Superdistrict in the last two years of it and getting
on a run and having success against the private schools.
You know, had had a winning record against Trinity and
St X the last thirteen years, twelve and eight against
Trinity and I think ten and eight against Saint X
something like that. So proud of that. And that was

(18:36):
a grind. It was a lot of work. There was
a lot of people involved to make that happen. But
it was a very rewarding experience and so I guess
I'm looking for something similar to that, like another rewarding experience,
something that's going to be challenging and get my juices
going again. And I don't know where that is. Always

(18:56):
look out of state and see, you know, out of state,
it's a tougher situation because unless I do something in
southern Indiana, I'm going to have to move. So if
I look, if I look in Cincinnati, and I know
there's a lot of great football in Cincinnati, and I
grew up in that area, so I have a lot
of respect for Cincinnati football, all of those things would

(19:17):
be moves. So that's a little bit more difficult. So
I have to kind of let the dust settle in Kentucky.
There's just it's very limited on probably situations that would
work for me, but I'm open to that. Also.

Speaker 7 (19:31):
Well, hey, I'm before I let Chuck ask you the
last question, I'm not going to ask you for an answer,
but I want to tell you what I think would
be a great scenario that I would love to see happen.
Prince Wolf at the New Christian County High School. You've
got big school experience, it's in western Kentucky, which you've

(19:53):
been there. You're gonna get your big challenge that you want,
and you know what will happen, which I think is
a good thing. I think it's a good thing when
you wake up at three am and you say, what
have I got myself into? I've lived like that. I mean,
that's my life right there. So I think I'm not
gonna make you answer, but I think Chris Wolf at

(20:16):
the new Christian County High School, I'm gonna put it
out there and I'm gonna say that would be great
for Kentucky high school football at hey. And while I'm
running my mouth about things that I don't have to
back up, I'm gonna go ahead and say this, Chris
Wolf will make the new Christian County High School competitive
with those big LOISLL schools. So I just put that
out there. If you can react how you choose to.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
You're just gonna smile, God, don't you.

Speaker 6 (20:46):
Guy?

Speaker 7 (20:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (20:47):
I guess so, yeah, yeah, Hey, y'all, Chris. I'm just
gonna say, just for clarification, they're now the Christian County Tigers.
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (21:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (21:01):
I don't know, but I'm glad to hear that you
are aware of that. That's a positive. And uh, I
think you would kill it there. I just I think
it's a perfect fit. But uh, I need to shut
up and leave you alone. But I think I think
that Chris Woolf at the new Christian County High School
would be special for for Kentucky high school football. I

(21:24):
really do.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
Thank it's putting that rumor out there.

Speaker 7 (21:27):
Hey, yeah, I mean we got to get people, We
gotta get listeners. We may pick up a couple of
thousand more listeners just to get that rumor that I
got started.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
Well, I guarantee they're all going to be tuned in
in Christian County because they would like that. Hey, Chris,
next question for you is we get a lot on
this show of people that don't you know that that
have an opinion about, you know, the football structure of Kentucky.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
They all have an opinion about the playoff system. And
one of the things that is brought up quite a bit,
and we ask a lot of coaches that are our
guests on here, is that some people feel that the
private schools should have their own division and be separate
from the public schools in football. You know what, what's

(22:15):
your faults on that?

Speaker 5 (22:16):
I know that.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
In this year's state championship game, I think there's five
private schools playing, you know for the state championship.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
You know what, what's your opinion on all that?

Speaker 6 (22:28):
Well, that's been uh as you know, that's probably been
a thirty year question, right. I can remember that discussion
when I when I first started coaching, and back when
we just had the four classifications, and uh, you know,
the idea is that it's not a level playing field
between the privates and the publics. And I understand that.

(22:51):
I mean there is there's obviously some things that are different,
but when you dive into it, there's some things different
between public schools. I can just give my example here
and people don't have to believe it. But there's no
reason for me to make this up. But right now,
at MAIL, we can only draw kids from half the county.
So if you live essentially west of sixty five, you

(23:16):
cannot apply to get into MAIL. You have to live
east of sixty five. Now, this is no this is
not as shot at any of these schools, but Ballard
Eastern Manual, all of those schools can draw kids from
the entire county. Mail cannot. And that's you know, so
the question is, you know, that's obviously not a positive.

(23:38):
I mean, that's there's a a I guess there's an
advantage I would say, clearly to being able to have
kids apply from the entire county versus half the county.
Now that's self imposed by Jefferson County. That's a new thing.
I've mentioned it in my article with Jason Frakes about
you know why it might be time for me to
step away as this new student asign has happened. But

(24:00):
I think when you go out in the state, there's
probably situations like that. You know, I've heard that there
are certain public schools that are able to have kids
that are in counties, not living in their county, but
in counties that touch their county, And there are other
public schools that can only have kids from within their county.
So I don't think if you're if we're talking about

(24:24):
the reason for splitting it up public and private is
to create a level playing field, I don't know that
you're actually going to ever have that happen completely because
the public schools, within the public schools, it's not necessarily
a level playing field. So that's kind of my long
way of saying, I don't know that you can fix

(24:46):
it by just pulling out the privates because because there
is issues within the public schools too.

Speaker 5 (24:55):
Fair answer, fair answer.

Speaker 7 (24:58):
And I think it goes along with that Louisiana idea
of select and non select, which says this whole public
private ship is sealed. And I think I think it's
come down to, you know, how how do you get
how do you get kids, or where do your kids
come from? And and then I think also if you
can look at resources, and that gets back to your

(25:18):
point about PRP being the fourth seed, if we could
ever figure out the most equitable way to classify that
really fits it, maybe that would help. And as you said,
which I appreciate what you said, you said you're becoming solved,
but I don't look at it like that. I think

(25:39):
you're saying you're looking at it from the player's perspective
and the player experience well at the heart of the matter,
even though a lot of adults have an interest, I think,
is it about the kids to begin with? You know,
So it's like if we're if we're looking out for
the kids, maybe the player experience I gotta be higher

(26:02):
on the list of the things we take into consideration.
So for what it's worth. But I appreciate your insights,
and I think your background at mail from Hancock County
and so forth, I think that that's a really good
opinion that we need to listen to.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
Yeah, we appreciate you, Chris.

Speaker 6 (26:22):
I'm doing it. Yeah, I always enjoy it.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
Yeah, thank you, m Yeah, good luck to you your
future hostes.

Speaker 7 (26:30):
Hey, when you go to Christian County, don't Hey, I'm
playing the Bearcats. I'll call you. Don't you call me?
Got it?

Speaker 6 (26:39):
Yeah? Am I supposed to give you a percentage?

Speaker 7 (26:41):
Now?

Speaker 6 (26:42):
Is that the deal? Now?

Speaker 7 (26:45):
They don't worry about that. But I'm an old high
school football coach, the son my dad coach fifty plus
years ago. I just love Kentucky high school football. So
if Chris Wolf ends up at Christian County the way
I look at we all win. So I say, you, guys,

(27:05):
appreciate you. Chris. You did a great job.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
Thank you, thank you. Have a good night.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
The next segment of the program is the Tough topic segment.
The question is uh, it's from anonymous. Do administrators ever
get held accountable for making the wrong sports higher? And
if so, how? And the person that send it in says,
I feel like this is a huge issue that's not

(27:30):
a rest enough. What do you think about that though?

Speaker 7 (27:34):
I thought it was a really good question and I
think it got to a lot of I mean, I
think it's a pretty big factor that doesn't get talked about.
So here's how I answered it. Do they ever get
held accountable? Yes, but rarely is it direct. This is
usually how it plays out. If administrators make poor hires,

(27:59):
that's gonna they're influence and power in their community. And
if it's a superintendent, even on the school board, and
it's gonna make it tougher for them to get things
done because people are not really happy with what they've
done in their athletic program. It's gonna make everything tougher.
I think, now that's not gonna be so open and apparent,

(28:21):
but that becomes part of it, and it can make
the superintendent or the principal's job tougher. You know, I
always go back to this. I know this is gonna
sound strange. You know. I think we were actually in
Nashville for one of your bowl games you were coaching
at UK, the Music City Bowl. I think it was

(28:42):
the New Year's it was a New Year's Eve thing.
But I know people are gonna think I'm crazy and
I share this, But I mean they're already there, so
who cares. They're getting ready to execute Saddam Hussein. Okay,
and we're in Nashville. I got my kids there. Like
I said, you just played that Bowl game, so I
took my kids in where it's gonna be on TV.

(29:03):
Now they're not showing the execute it, okay, but they're
talking about he's about to be executed. And I told
my kids this. I said, you need to understand this.
I said, even an authoritarian ruler who is above the law,
we all get held accountable for our action. Sooner or later,
nobody gets away from their consequences. They're gonna have to

(29:25):
deal with them at one point or another. And I
think that's true for all of us. If you're a teacher,
a coach, a player, or a student, you're gonna get
held accountable. Now do I think that they get held
at the same level accountability that the coach does. I mean,
let's look at all the coaches that just been fired
in the last week or so. I didn't see a

(29:46):
lot of athletic directors get fired, did you. I didn't
see a lot of college presidents get fired off. So
I see the point of the question. And now now
you're really gonna come through there and punish me. But
I mean, this is this is one of the things
I loved about being at Center and the things we
would talk about. What our question gets at, is this

(30:09):
in Western civilization bureaucracy, going back to the Roman Empire,
the higher you up you are the ladder, you have
more of a level of protection that the others don't.
And I'm not saying anything that we don't all know
and understand, but I'm just saying that though that this
is a legitimate issue that administrators I'm going to get

(30:34):
held accountable, Yes, but is it going to be the
same way, and is it going to be as direct
as it is to those of us that are down
the food chain. The answer to that is rarely will
that happen? And the same way A lot of times
answers no.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
Yeah, Well I've answered a little bit different. But you
made me think with your pitch that you that you
gave and I put, no, they don't and then I
put they will not be held accountable, you know, But
you made me think that indirectly they could be because

(31:13):
they could lose their credibility in the community.

Speaker 5 (31:16):
Uh if they if if they do make a bad hire.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
But in terms of you know, being held accountable, in
terms of losing their job, you know, uh, getting reprimanded
or whatever. No, I don't think they do, and I
don't think they will. I think most administrators and I'm
talking about high school, not college, but I'm talking to

(31:39):
but I think most of them do it by committee.
And I think they do it by committee. In other words,
they put a committee together to make a u, a minister,
a coaching hire. And I think they do it, uh,
you know, so to make sure that they they're right
with their choice. They do it by committee. And I
think a lot of some of them even do it

(32:00):
by committee. To Cya, you know, cy cover the book. Yeah,
and I do think that's a big part of it.

Speaker 7 (32:11):
Yeah. I think I'm not gonna say you never get
a committee because you don't have good intentions of I
want to get a lot of thoughts on this, but
I think I'm showing my age here, Okay. I think
sometimes committees are formed to avoid accountability, to avoid ownership,

(32:36):
and and you know, I just you know, it's just
like you and me on coaching, being the head coach.
We can have coordinators, position coaches and all that kind
of stuff, but at the end of the day, in
my opinion, the head coach has got to answer for
what happens in that program, and you can't. You can't
believe it on the coordinators. You have to own it.
So go ahead.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
At the high school level, I don't.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
I don't think they're I don't think they're held accountable,
and I don't think they will for the reasons I said.
I also say this, I don't. They don't get paid
enough money, you know, to be for it to be
a major issue. You know, there's no high school coaches
got a buyout. None of them's got a thirty seven
million dollar buyout, nobody, none of them is getting none

(33:24):
of them is getting a bias. So they're not paid
enough for it to be that big of an issue.
If it is a bad hire, they just let you go,
or they could let you go. A lot of them
don't is ride it out. Some of the administrators don't
take you know, football or basketball or baseball for that matter.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
You know, that's not their priority. Academics is their priority.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
I don't think there's and I say that, and to
say this, I don't think there's enough emphasis put on
making the right hire in the major sports like football,
basket ketball, and even baseball. You know that these are
the major sports, the ones that most people in your
community follow and keep up with. Of course, I'm biased.

(34:13):
I think that football especially is a big hire. It's
an important higher because I've always felt like it starts
your school year off. And I've always felt and always
believe that there's a direct correlation between a successful football
season and a successful start of a school year. I've

(34:35):
always believed that there's a big correlation. I think somebody
should do a study on that, as a matter of fact,
because I really do believe that it correlates together.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
You know, and ever, how you want to define.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
Success in your school, it doesn't always have to be
your team wins a state championship. It could be your
team had a winning season, or your team has not
had much success, but in one a few games means
is going in the right direction, and the the uh,
you know, the chemistry is good and and and it
rubs off into the student body, and you know, that's

(35:10):
what I mean by success. So I think there's a
direct correlation of successful football team and and a successful
start of the school year. And I've also believed that
there's a direct correlation between top academic schools and uh,
successful athletic programs. I bet you any I bet you

(35:31):
one hundred dollars if you went ahead and listed the
top academic schools in the state of Kentucky that that
that participated in athletics. I'll bet you anything all of
their athletic programs are successful. I think there's a direct correlation.
That would be another good study for somebody to do, uh,
because I truly believe it is. I've been around some

(35:53):
really good administrators, uh that have really uh you know,
just you know, done a great, great job and uh
they they they were accountable for their hires.

Speaker 5 (36:04):
And but that's my answer. That's what I think.

Speaker 7 (36:08):
Hey, I think it's a good answer, and uh and
it's also it's one of those things that we can
talk about this for an hour. I mean, we really could,
and we've got a lot of experience with this type
of thing, and uh, you know, I hope for our
our our person asked the question, I hope we gave
them some insights. Uh so, But hey, I appreciate what

(36:30):
you said, and I'm gonna have to watch it. Like
I said, I could keep going. I need to I
need to stop. But hey, I appreciate you. You had
a lot of good insights there. Very good, David.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
Let's go to.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
The uh the gang, the gangs, you know, the state championship.
Call a me some up of what's happened so far
as in terms of our picks. Now, last week it
was a down week for you. You only got six
out of ten, all right, but yeah it's six out
of ten and I got six out of ten as well.
They were tough, guys, they were tough games to pick,

(37:03):
you know. That's the bad. But the good is you
have hit in the playoffs so far twenty six out
of thirty three, which is like, right at eighty percent.
You've hit eighty percent during the playoffs. That's that's really
really good.

Speaker 7 (37:20):
Really, I appreciate you saying that I have.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Hit twenty one out of thirty three, which is around
five percent.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
I mean, that's not bad, but you're.

Speaker 4 (37:30):
Incredibly good, which overshadows my average.

Speaker 7 (37:33):
Well, hey, i'll tell you what you're coaching this week
to get ready for a state championship game. So, uh,
you don't have as much time to put into the
picks as I have because you're getting ready. You're getting
the Spartans ready to go to Kroger Field.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
And Kroger Field. It will be on December or this
Friday and this Saturday. A couple of notes before we
get started of interest, before we get start to pick
the games. Is, first of all, for David, four of
the twelve teams have Boyle County connections. I've got to
brag onto that a little bit more Boyle County is

(38:07):
in it. And they some of my assistants are still
there and they played there. We got three other schools
that Eddie James was an assistant for me there. He's
at Franklin County, and Travis Burns was an assistant there
with me, and he's at Pulaski County. And then of

(38:28):
course Brandon is at South Warren and Brandon played for
Boyle County. So four of the twelve teams have direct
Boyle County connections that are playing for the state championship.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
I'm pretty proud of that. It's pretty interesting too.

Speaker 7 (38:43):
Yeah, well, hey, I want to throw this in there
when Brian Weinrich talked about that we had to out
boil boil. People don't I don't think appreciated because they
don't remember maybe the last fifty sixty years like you
and I do. But for Highlands to say they have
to mimic Boyle Counting Man, that is an incredible reflection

(39:08):
of what you, your staff, your players in that community
did And I thought that was one of the most
insightful moments of our podcast. And I don't know that
a better compliment could be paid than for Highlands to say, hey,
we wanted to be like you. And that was very impressive,
very impressive.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
And another note is, and as I've said before, five
of the twelve teams are private schools that are playing
for the state championship. Now let's get into the let's
get into the picks. Okay, David Single, A single A,
We got Racelin and k C D.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Who you going with?

Speaker 7 (39:47):
I'm gonna go with k C D. And in fact,
I'm even gonna take it a step further and I'm
gonna predict that Cayden long ed Long's son as an
old Mercer County boy. I'm gonna predict that Cayden Long
is gonna be the MVP.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Well, boy, you're getting detail. Hey, Raceland, by the way,
is twelve and one and CASEB is twelve and one
as well. I'm gonna pick Raceland. Raceland's been knocking on
the door. They've been there at times, They've got experience.
They're always battling and getting knocked out by Pipe Full Well,
they beat Pipe Bowl last week.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
I think it's their year to do it. We'll see.

Speaker 7 (40:25):
Hey, Mike's done a super job and yeah, that's not dood.
There's no bad picks this week.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
None at all. Two A Onsboro Catholic and LCA.

Speaker 7 (40:35):
I'm gonna go with LCA, and I'm gonna predict that
Nash Whylan will be the MVP of the two A game.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
Oh and LCA is a eleven and three.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
They play a really tough schedule though, And Onsboro Catholic
is thirteen and one. Okay, I'm going with Onsboro.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
Cathlic for this.

Speaker 7 (40:57):
I got you. It's a good pick.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
That was a heck of a win by them over Beachwood, Yes,
a very impressive win. And then the three A game
is cal who's fourteen and oh and going for a
four P and Murray, who's had a great, surprise, great year.
They're fourteen and oh, coached by Melvin Cuttingham. And who

(41:23):
do you pick in this game?

Speaker 5 (41:24):
Murray?

Speaker 7 (41:25):
On this one, I'm gonna pick Jackson. I'm going to
pick Pal and that Jackson Burke will be the MVP.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
Well, I'll be gone.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
I didn't realize he's going to pick the MV. I
mean that's pretty impressive. Hey, I'm going to pick Cal
as well. I just don't see anybody beating can. I
think Murray's had a great year. I mean, what a
job they've done there, Malvin Melvin Cuttingham.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
But I just I don't know.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
I just think Cals has got it going on right now,
and they got some really good players.

Speaker 5 (41:56):
It's gonna be hard to knock them out of that.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Hey, let's go to four A and we got the
Boyle County Rebels who are thirteen and one, and we
got the Franklin County Flyers who are fourteen and oh,
will you pick it?

Speaker 7 (42:11):
All right? I'm going now see this is gonna give
you a little insight into these MVP picks. Now, I
went back and I looked at rosters and so forth,
and sort of look for things that I thought would
be indicators. I'm really impressed with NOTx Barrit at Franklin County,
their quarterback, and he's only a sophomore. He's really good.
Here's what I think is gonna be the difference in

(42:33):
this game. I think Boyle County's got more debt. I
think Boyle's gonna win, and I think that Seneca Driver
will be the MVP of the four A game.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Man, you're pretty good at this. Of course, you know
I've got I've got you know, Boyle County.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
Which you know that's that's my school. I can't pick
against them, you know that.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
But Franklin County has got Eddie James, who is an
assistant for great job.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
He's doing a great job at Franklin.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
I wouldn't be surprised if Franklin won the game. But
I'm gonna pick Oil County in this game.

Speaker 7 (43:09):
Hey, I wouldn't be surprised either. And Eddie has just
done an incredible job. And I want to say this
about what Eddie's done, and you can relate to this.
Eddie has done this without having in school weights That
is really tough. Yeah, but Eddie gets those guys early
before school. They made it go and Eddie's killing it.

(43:31):
Eddie's killing it and he's done a great job.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
We get into the five Day game and we got
Pulaski County who's twelve and two, and we got Owensboro
who's twelve and two.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
Really interesting game.

Speaker 7 (43:45):
Here, Yes, let's go Owensboro with Hampton being the MVP.
The great running back. That's going to Vandy. And I'm
going to tell you something, if you haven't seen Vandy
play some football lately, it ain't the old bandy goodness, gracious,
they are really really good. They are really good.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
They got a pretty good quarterback.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
But uh, I'm going to go with Pulaski County. I'm
going with my Travis Burns pick. And uh, but Owensboro,
I mean, if they can't stop that running back, it's
going to be a long night for him because he
is the real deal.

Speaker 5 (44:20):
He's really good.

Speaker 7 (44:21):
Yes, And Travis has done a great job. I mean
he's he's killing it.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
He's game. That's pretty dog on good And David, we're
not going to pick the six A game between South
Warren and Trinity because I have a direct conflict there.

Speaker 7 (44:41):
And yeah, I'm like, Okay, so I.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Think Trinity probably is the heavy favorite, but uh, you know,
got to play the game.

Speaker 7 (44:50):
Yeah, well, I hey, congratulations on you all getting to
this game, which is a great accomplishment. And uh hey, hey,
I I got you and Brandon on the one side,
Zane Johnson on the other. Zane's dad, Jordan, played for
me at Mason County, so uh.

Speaker 5 (45:08):
He's a good Yeah, he.

Speaker 7 (45:10):
He's he's crazy good. So but uh ay, here's the thing.
Number one, good luck to all the teams, and number two,
man have a great experience, and congratulations for getting there.
That wasn't experience and an accomplishment, so that that that
in and of itself is impressive.

Speaker 5 (45:27):
Absolutely, David, what do you got?

Speaker 7 (45:31):
Uh, well, it's a little bit like a last week
when we got done with our podcast. We didn't know
that Chris Wolfe was going to retire, and then we
started moving some things around, and we also we went
out and we got some really good uh we got
some really good tough topics. We got two or three.

(45:53):
So so here's here's where we are right now. We
could look at State championship is next week. We've reached
out to some other guests that are a little bit
tougher to get these days, but we may get them.
We may look at really spending a lot of time

(46:15):
though on Coach of the Year Mster football. And you know,
you've got some really good feedback about how much our
listeners like the tough topics. We've got some really good
things that have come down the pike here lately, and
I mean, maybe we need to have a little bit
and we may even look at this so and that's

(46:36):
why it's also up in the air. Maybe we ought
to talk about, you know, University of Kentucky football. They're
in the midst of a change. Everybody's talking about Wayne Kiffin.
I know we're a well I'm a high school guy.
You're a college coach. Okay, you're a college coach, so
your opinion is way more valid than mine. But you

(46:58):
know knows, next week again, next week will be this
whatever we've discussed together and we believe is going to
be the best thing for our listeners, that that will
be the episode. That's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
Yeah, we do. You do a good job of that too.

Speaker 6 (47:17):
As far as.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
Getting the uh, you know, picking a guest that that
we think the listeners will be wanting to get information
from and looking forward to that. It's, uh, well, we'll
pick somebody good and it'll be another good show. We
got probably about two or three more shows left, and
it'll be a lot of fun and we'll see you

(47:39):
next week.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Time for the Coach's Office Trivia Time Out, which Kentucky
high schools have had multiple head football coaches coach there
that won over three hundred games in their careers, not
necessarily only at those schools. Here's the Trivia Timeout answer.

(48:06):
Breathett County was coached by Dudley Hilton and Mike Holcombe,
and Saint X has had Mike Glazier and Kevin Wallace
join us next week for another Coach's Office Trivia Time
Out