Legacy of Southern Regional Wrestling | Coach John Stout on Championships, Rivalries & Building a Dynasty - Airey Bros.'s Radio

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio. Be there or B
Square because it's all killer, no filler. This is John
Stout and you're listening to Aeri Brose Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, how do you know? Loha? Welcome to
another episode of Aery Bros.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are here, you were there, and you are now
rocking with the best. Let's not forget while we're here
to do this. We are here to present conversations with
coaches and programs that are doing amazing things, that have
done amazing things, people that we wish we would have
known about what we were coming through in our recruiting process,
in our athletic journeys. This one is for athletes, families,

(00:46):
martial artists, wrestlers looking to find their tribe and keep
the tradition alive. But before we get rolling, you know
the drill. Make sure you hammer that like button, drop
a comment, every view, review and share helps us grow
and back to the sports we love. Following us on Instagram, YouTube,
Spotify and Apple podcast. And as always, this episode is

(01:06):
fueled by Black Sheep Endurance Coaching for all your ultra
marathon and nutrition needs. Now on to tonight's guests we're
taking another deep dive into Southern Regional wrestling history. You've
heard from coach Jerry Tappuccino, You've heard from coach Dan Roy,
and now we're filling that gap between those two errors.
With eighteen season, there was one man at the helm

(01:27):
leading the Rams to greatness. Coach John Stout is joining
us this evening. In his time as the head coach
of Southern Regional, the Rams won three NJSIAA Group championships
two thousand and five twenty sixteen. In twenty nineteen, they
accumulated twelve sectional championships. From two thousand and five to
twenty nineteen, coach two New Jersey state champions, including Frank Molnaro,

(01:51):
three time champ and an NCAA champ and an Olympian
along with Glenn Carson, seventeen district team titles, a Short
Conference championship in twenty eleven. From snapping Howe's seventy eight
match win streak to producing state champions and All Americans,
to shaping one of the most respected programs in the
Short Conference in the state of New Jersey, Coach Stout's

(02:14):
legacy runs deep without further ado, It is an honored
a pleasure to have you joining us this evening, Coach Stout,
We do greatly appreciate your time. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Thank you very much for having me. That was a
nice intro. Man, It's funny to hear it like that,
to be honest with you, don't think about it, actually,
but thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, we were we were taking a deep dive. I
was seeing all those sectional titles and all those district
team titles. That's no joke, especially from back in the
day before the realignment and that stuff. District twenty four
was a meat grinder.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, it was a little different, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah. Yeah, So, Coach, anywhere you like us to send
the fans, anything you got going on social media, anything
you want to plug or promote the floor is yours.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Well, I'm not really much. I don't have any kind
of social media stuff, you know. I'm just regular guy,
you know, just you know, I have you know, I
have an Instagram, but that's about as far as Okay,
I don't put anything on there.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I don't blame you. But technology is the best
and worst thing we've got going for us right now.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
It's great and it's not right, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So John, Probably the most important question we're going to
ask you all evening. And I think I already know
the answer to this, but I'm going to ask you anyway.
Is it pork Roll or Taylor Ham.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's pork Roll, man, it's not even close. You're in close.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Pork Row is definitely in the lead at this point. Jim.
It's just those uh, those North Jersey Ivy League coaches
that stick to that tailor Ham thing, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah? Absolutely, coach? And I know your your brother lives
in Western Pa. Do you ever you ever venture to
is it Panani Brothers?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
For many?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Oh, we were just actually they were just here for
a week, so we were just talking about that they wanted.
They weren't wondering like how I thought like a Primani
Brothers would do over here on the island, you know,
for the summer. Yeah, it's a they're okay. But I'll listen.
I like the mom and pop places, you know, all right.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
I was gonna ask if you had to go to
when you go there, But it doesn't seem like it
fancies you much.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
No, it's all right. It's good. You don't get me wrong,
but you leavey, it's hard to beat Jersey food though,
you know.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, no doubt that one thing you miss when you
start traveling around and moving away. You're like, when I
moved first moved down here, I was asking the kids
local restaurants and stuff. I'm like, where's the best place
to get pizza? And they're all like Dominoes, little Caesars.
I'm like, no, no, no, that doesn't count.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
So before, sorry, Rich, before we get too deep into it,
you had a son that just won a state title
this year that's called you Penn. And you just just
had a son that graduated from U Penn. And did
he start med school? Did he graduate med school?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Just started med school on Monday?

Speaker 3 (04:57):
So what's that like for you? Because Rich, and I know,
being being elder gentlemen, now that you know that Ivy
League education where we talk to these coaches, that means
a lot that that is going to get you started
for life. So you have both your sons doing Ivy
League and a son that's going to med school. That's
got to be pretty good as a father.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, it's you know, it's a little bit humbling for sure.
You know, you don't really it's certainly not something that
was in my wheelhouse when I was their age. You know,
I didn't have that kind of focus. I guess you
you'd say I didn't really even believe I would. That
was I mean, listen, they wouldn't let me mop the
floors at U Penn back then, you know what I'm saying.
So to have you know, two sons go through there

(05:38):
is and it's really it's a quite you know, humbling. Also,
I gotta be honest not to you know, show you know,
bias or anything, but you Penn has just been It's
a wonderful experience, it really is. And they really take
great care of you, as I'm sure all of them do,
but I can only speak to the U Penn experience,
so you know, it's they've been great. They were great

(05:58):
to my older son've been fantastic so far to my
younger son. You know. So I'm very very pleased I
was able to work that out.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
So I believe you coached John for four years. Yeah,
I think you got the watch why you weren't you
weren't coaching? Did you get to enjoy it more with WHYTT?

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Well, yeah, so that's really a big part of the
reason why I stopped coaching to be honest with you.
Was because it was John's senior year, and I mean
it was it was getting tough anyway for other reasons.
But whyde had lost the match, believe it or not.
In eighth grade and like one of the you know

(06:40):
I remember they had that they had that Red and
Blue division tournament to middle school. Yeah, he lost in
the finals and I got to see him on a
Sunday because it got postponed. I never got to see
them wrestle because we were always wrestling at the same time.
And he loses in the finals, like three to two,
two one something like that. He comes off the mat.
I start doing like the dad coach thing, and he
was like, you can't coach me. He goes, you're never

(07:02):
around because you're always coaching other people's kids. He because
you're my dad, And I said, oh, I got you.
And then I went up to the stands and I
told my wife was the last year man. And then
you know, we kind of got a little fortunate with
COVID coming up, and well we did the Texas Red
shirt with them. You know, we withdrew him from school,
kept him home for a year or him and I

(07:24):
just travel around and did that kind of stuff and
got better, and he put the time in you know,
a short thing and all this kind of stuff, and
we hit all the tournaments and stuff like that. So
I got to enjoy it from the perspective of I
got to focus on him and another wrestler, one of
his best friends, guy named Scotti Surry. We spent a
lot of time together, who actually took six in the

(07:46):
state this past year as well. So I got to
be a coach from the outside and I didn't have
I wasn't getting yelled at and called all the kinds
of names you know, by people and things like that,
and I didn't have to worry about too many other things.
So it was but yes, it was a lot more
enjoyable from pure wrestling standpoint. Yeah, still miss dealing with

(08:08):
the other kids, and yeah, it's nothing like you know,
you guys have been the war matches. You know, there's
there's nothing like when that Thunderstruck starts playing and you're
coming out there with the team and everybody's got that
laser focus. See, you know you miss that for the
rest of your life.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I mean I still hear Thunderstruck and the hairs
on the back of my neck stand up. You know,
it's just one of those songs that just does it
for me. I want to take a step back. We
love origin stories over here. You know, Jimmy and I,
there's eleven years between us, but we definitely have trained
a lot together and done a lot of things together.

(08:44):
What's your origin story with the sport of wrestling? You know,
we know your brother Brian wrestled as well too. You
wrestled for Southern first state champion in school history, but
you graduated from Lacey. What was how did you all
get into wrestling? How did that come about for you guys?

Speaker 1 (08:59):
So it was on it like funny we I was
in fifth grade and there was an announcement on the
last speaker about wrestling, and you know, I just went
home and asked my dad if I could try it,
and he said sure. You know, I didn't really I
had no idea what it was really, to be honest
with you, you know, only except for the stuff that
was on TV. And you know, I didn't think it

(09:21):
was going to be like that. But I really didn't know,
and you know, just started wrestling doing that and believe
it or not, what happened was that you know, I
was kind of natural to it. I was a stronger kid,
and I was quick, and back then, you know, all
you know what you have to do. You had to
do like a an underhook and throw somebody to their back.
You know, wasn't you know, throw a half nelson. There
wasn't much to it, you know, And one of the

(09:43):
older kids on my team got hurt, uh, an eighth grader,
and my coach back then, he just put me in
the lineup, and you know, I held my own. And
the rule was back then that only seventh and eighth
graders could wrestle on the team. He had an eight
team and a B team. So we got the districts

(10:04):
and then weren't gonna let me wrestle. And he said, say, hey, listen, man,
you know he's wrestled all year, this is his record whatever,
And I did, you know, So they let me wrestle
and finish it out, and I ended up taking like
fourth in the district or something like that. Nothing too impressive,
but you know, again I held my own. But the
next year they changed the role to sixth graders being

(10:25):
able to wrestle, and that's what it is now. And
so that's where I came into it, and that's where
got into it. Like like Vinnie Sentinelo was a sixth
grader that year, and Scott Goodale was a sixth grader
that year and got from your was it Doug Hill
Ye Doug ye Hill. Doug Ye Hill was the sixth
grader that year. So that's when we all kind of
in it. It just kind of snowballs from there, you know.

(10:47):
And then seventh grade and then I would go home,
I would wrestle my brother of course, because you know
who was getting beat up on. And so next year
in seventh grade, he was a fifth grader and he
did the same thing. And funny story to I think
connect with you guys. We were going to wrestle Point
Borow Middle School and somebody asked him what grade he

(11:08):
was in and he, you know, the goofball, said fifth.
They went and told her coach and he wasn't allowed
to wrestle for the rest of the season. So you know,
but you know that was back that was back in
the day before everybody knew who everybody was because of
the you know, the Internet and all that kind of stuff.
You know. So but that's that's how we mainly got
into it. That's that was our start in it, and

(11:30):
you know, we were just able to have some success
because again, when you're younger and you know, you stronger,
you're fast, you know it, that's really all you need
when you're in that you know that grade. And we
we just we took to it.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Were you guys, Were you guys good training partners? Was it?
Was it?

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know, I know Jimmy and I have had some
battles that have maybe even with eleven years between us,
that may have turned into fist fights, but.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
We've had to go both ways for sure. But for
the most part, yes, he was very good because he
was right next to me weight wise as well, you know,
because you know, he's a bigger guy than I, so
I had two years on him, but he was always
right next to me weight wise. So you know, by
the time we got to you know, when he was
in middle school, you know, he was my partner there.
And then while I went to high school my junior year,

(12:22):
he came in as a freshman, you know, and you know,
Brian was very very good, you know, so you know
it was always very tight, always a you know, very
good friendly but you know, he could get it could
get personal sometimes.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Sure, yeah, went along went along the line, maybe in
in high school, maybe in college. When did you know
that you wanted to get into coaching.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
At the end of my college coaching career, because I
you know, I had some unfortunate circumstances as far as
injuries and illnesses, but mostly injuries that cut my career
kind of short every season, you know, and you know
you have that frustration level of it. I still I
still wanted to compete, and back then it wasn't like

(13:07):
now where you had so many opportunities just you know,
with the with the what they have now, with the
freestyle and all that kind of stuff. You had to
be one of the top dogs in order to get
really involved in all that kind of stuff. Back then,
there wasn't really there just was an opportunity for it.
So you know, I felt like I still had something
to offer the sport. You know, I still wanted to

(13:29):
be involved with it because I don't know if you
guys felt this way, But like when you're done competing,
it's it's it's somewhat depressing, like you know, you know, yea, yeah,
you don't know what to do with yourself, you know,
so the really you know again, the only real avenue
is to go into coaching and try to help people

(13:49):
that way, and you know, get it and it changed, right,
I mean, you know you got you had your personal
throw it just like you guys know, there's no greater
feeling and getting your hand raised that the gym. You
know I'm saying. But when you get to be the
coach and you get to see people have success, whether
it be running or whatever, you see them improve, and
you see them go from one spot to the next,

(14:11):
and you know you were part of it, you know
that feeling's pretty good as well.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Coach. How many years were you the assistant under coach Tabaccino?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Six years? So I came Yeah, I came in in
ninety six and I took over in two.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Were you were you primed and ready? Were you ready
to take the program over?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
No, not at all. I I had no idea he
was stepping down. He didn't say anything to me until
it was like it was like the second week of
November and it was right before Thanksgiving and at that time,
you know we were if you guys remember you you
were allowed to start the day after Thanksgiving. You know,
so I did. I had no idea that he was,

(14:52):
so I wasn't really mentally prepared. I wasn't thinking on
those terms at all, you know, so it was kind
of like fly by my pants.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
He obviously stayed on with me for you know, you
know again, I heard his thing. He told you he
was going to stay with me for one year and
win staying together. I don't know how many years it was, fifteen, twelve, thirteen,
I don know. I can't remember because it worked out.
But you know, man, there's a lot of a lot
of growing pains in those first couple of years coaching.

(15:21):
I mean, you have them the whole time. Of course,
you have the bumps and bumps in the road, but man,
those first couple of years and you're trying to figure
something out, You're you're you're going from being you know, uh,
the assistant coach, which, for a lack of better term,
that's like the sexy job, right. You know, you you're
the cool guy, everybody's buddy, you know that kind of stuff.
You know, nobody's nothing sticks to you. You know, you're

(15:42):
like teflin, you kind of come go do what you want,
you know, and then now you become the guy and
making all decisions, and you're getting blamed for all the
bad things.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Especially at what point, because I know you said, you know,
two weeks before the season, he kind of said, hey,
you're you're taking over. At what point? How many years
do you feel like you kind of settled into that
that head coach position and felt comfortable taking the brunt
of all the you know, the non sexy things.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I yeah, I think it took me, I think of
a good three seasons to work out where like where
I was coming into this season, and I because you
have to, you have to know what you're coming in with,
right like with your kids and the team you have.
And that was probably a big part of the issue
that I had, you know, as again, as an assistant coach,

(16:30):
you're there to train and to work out and do
those things. And you know, I was focused on individual kids.
I wasn't focused on forty kids, you know. So where
I felt like I, you know, had matured to the
point where you know, I stopped thinking about like the
little things, a little individual accomplishments, and you got to
start thinking big picture and I had a better grasp

(16:52):
on it and more comfortable with the winning and losing
and uh, you know, doing interviews like this and all
that kind of stuff and not being so emotionally wrapped
up in it, you know, kind of taking the wins
and the losses as they come. So I think until
about it took about three good years until I felt
comfortable at least.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
So Tabby and Coach Roy said how important the rec
programs are and the middle school programs are. At what
point did you start focusing on those and making sure
you had guns in order so it kept on coming through.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
So that was my first thing I did. And you know,
I'm not trying to sound like a tough guy or
anything when I did it, but you know, so to
give you an example, what what what we had success
in the ninety seven and ninety eight teams, as you
guys know, you know, it was the first time in
ninety seven that you know, we beat Britamore. We were
the first team in twelve years to beat Pritt Memorial

(17:46):
in a short conference and then we get you know,
we got beat up in the overall final by the
Peabird and ninety eight and we had good wrestlers on
that team, but really what we had on those teams,
if you if I'm being honest, we had a bunch
of really tough kids that were great athletes, you know,

(18:07):
and they were really multi sport guys at the time.
You know, they were you know, most of them were
football players, you know, like Rich Gildner was the starting quarterback,
James Henderson was the starting linebacker, Brett Bakley was a
starting running back, you know, James Bortally was an alignment.
U Schultz was another ligneman, you know. So all those
guys were football players and then then and that wrestled,

(18:31):
you know, and like Richie and rich Gildner, you know,
I mean he was a state champion for US, but
he went on to play football in college. You know.
So that was the first thing that I noticed that
we had to change because you looked around at the
Purple Memorials and the Phillipsburgs and you know, the high
points of the world, and those guys saw playing fields,
you know, you know, they were they were hammers back then.

(18:54):
And why were those kids always so good? What was
what was the difference? And it was the fact that
they were they were wrestlers that maybe they played another sport,
but they were wrestlers primarily, you know, and that came
into spending more time on the mat. We always had
open gyms in the summer, that kind of stuff where
guys could come in and work out and do all

(19:16):
kinds of stuff. So we always had that. But then
you know, I started taking the kids to summer camps,
team camps and competing you know, that way in the summertimes.
And then you know, we I instituted, like our pre
season lifting program that they was mandatory that they couldn't
miss three lifts between September and opening season opening day

(19:39):
or else they weren't. They weren't wrestling, whether you were
a varsity or JV. If you didn't play another sport,
if you learn another sport, obviously you weren't help to that.
So it was more changing changing that mentality. But to
answer your question, you know, there was the middle school
coach at the time, and I don't want to mention
names because I don't want to sound like didn't put
anything negative, but I didn't feel as though he was

(20:02):
taking it seriously enough on on the middle school level,
Like he wasn't having Saturday practices. You know, I went
over there one time and he was doing cookie dough
sales and the kids were running around like crazy, and
he was getting organized. You know that stuff is you know,
that's that's it can't be that way. You have to
be focused when practice is starting at three, Well, practice

(20:22):
is starting at three, you know, and you know we're
not we're not getting We're not getting in three. We're
not coming in three where somebody is getting up and
starting to run at three. And and then you know, Saturdays,
it's a day, right, I mean, why would you why
would you give a day? How many days? How many
saturdays are in a in a season. You know that,
you know, so you put that together. That's you know,

(20:43):
almost probably know half a month or month of training
that you're that you're missing, you know, and if you're
not working on Saturdays. So that was the first thing
I did, was change the coaching in the middle school level.
But that is what, out of doubt, the heart and
soul of of any program is your wreck in your

(21:03):
middle school program. And we're fortunate and have been fortunate
that we have everybody in place, from the wreck to
the middle school to the high school. Everybody's goal was
the ultimate success was getting these guys out of high
school with some kind of uh success level. So that's
we've been fortunate for over thirty years now with that

(21:24):
and and that is without of doubt, and it's still
I think it's what separates us. Now you look around
it really what's left of public schools, which is unfortunately
kind of sad, but that's kind of the difference right
now that Southern has.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, we talk about that a lot, and I'm always
optimistic that you know, it's cyclical and it's going to
come back around and we're going to see some of
the rise of the public schools where some of these
kids aren't gonna No, you don't think so.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think I think that. I think the privates are
just too hungry now, yeah, you know, I think it's
too like and everyone's sold on that success, right, you know,
you it thinks you know, I think it's terrible. Like
you know, you don't have the Jackson Southern rivalry or
burplemorial robbery anymore. You don't have the rivalries within their
own township for schools or what you guys had. You know, Uh,

(22:17):
you guys are a bit above beach obviously, you know,
but you know, but you guys had some solid solid teams,
you know, and it's like but now it's like dads primarily,
you know, they want their kids to have all of this.
It's not good enough for their kid to be a
state champion at Point Borough or wherever. You know, they
want them to be. You know, I have the team

(22:38):
success and have the notariety and all that because of
again the social media and all that kind of stuff.
It's it's blown up. I mean, when have you seen
so many things of these kids. Oh, he's he's down
to fifteen schools, he's gonna pu he's down to ten
Schools's who cares? You know, I mean, I mean, you know,
and I don't care. But it really isn't really anybody

(22:59):
else's business. Yeah, you know, you know all that stuff is.
People get wrapped up in it, you know, and I
understand it. You know, it's not it's not how I
I would operate. It's not how I operated. But you know,
we had other opportunities for especially why went in the States,
you know, but he pretty much took all that off
the board. I mean when we went there for a

(23:21):
spring visit and they said, what if we make it communities,
I'm in I'll go. You know, so he didn't really
want to talk to anybody else. But you know so
I just feel I fear for public school athletics overall,
to be honest with you, you know, and you know
this can you know, you can go down a wormhole
here with the politics and all that kind of choice

(23:43):
school and all you know that, you know that that
kind of stuff, you can get it get to be
an ugly discussion. But yeah, I don't think you're going
to see it as like how I want to you know,
when we grew up in it, you know, you know,
with those public school rivalries and all that kind of
stuff anymore, you know, yeah, unfortunately unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, let's talk about some of those public school rivalries
because I can remember coming to some Southern Jackson matches
that were packed houses and heated. Uh you know, it
was seemed like every one of the short conference was
stopped what they were doing. If they were a wrestling
fan was either in the gym at Southern or the
gym at Jackson. What were those matches like?

Speaker 1 (24:25):
They were intense? Man, I mean, you know there was
there was times when we were ranked one and two
in the state, you know, and that's again public schools,
you know, and we were both ranked in the country
at one time, you know, uh wrestling each other, and
it was always some kind of crazy six circumstances, you know.
You know, I feel like they they got definitely got
the best of but Scott was doing a really good

(24:46):
job there. Especially. They had another they had a guy
at Huxford who was running their wreck, who was doing
a phenomenal job with those kids coming out, and you know,
again that was the difference they you know, they a
lot of times they had one like the one year
and it's just going to sound like Sara Grapes and
I don't but I don't care. Peop were going to
think what you want to think about me. But the

(25:06):
one year, we wrestled them three times. And that's the reason,
a big reason why I stopped wrestling in the Short
Conference tournament because I thought it was the dumbest tournament
in the world. But you know, we wrestled them for
a South, then we had to wrestle them in the
Short Conference, then we had to wrestle them in the sectionals,
you know, and the difference between it literally was a
coin flip three times, and they won the coin flip

(25:28):
three times and it was it was absolutely amazing. And
because they were trying to get a kid away from Glenn,
Carson said, they bumped them down to eighty nine and
then they took their eighty nine pounds to put them
up and they're two fifteen pounds with down eighty nine
and they ended up beating in both matches. And all
I needed to do is get that switch. And what
happened was in the regions, you know, they they both

(25:50):
wrestled their weight classes and our eighty nine pounds wrestled
their guy and for third I think it was, and
we beat them, and then Glenn wrestled their kidding the
finals some we beat them, so I would have been
the difference in the matches. But that's how close those
teams were. Literally came down to heads or tails, you know.
But those those matches were very, very intense. You know,
Scott and I were two rather intense people when it

(26:14):
came to winning and losing. You know, he's a good guy.
We get along fine. Now you know what I'm saying
that we don't pete against each other anymore. But you know,
that was you know, it was it was fun though,
I mean, it was you know, you knew you were alive,
I could tell you that.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, yeah, well that was gonna be my next question,
because you know, back in our day, it always seemed
like the coaches they were in the mode. And you know,
coach Gilmore, coach Savage, I don't think they were they
were breaking bread at any time, but you know during
the matches and it seems like, you know, they're they're
at each other's throats. But you know, they go to

(26:50):
seating meetings and maybe they're a little bit more friendly.
But from some of the stories I heard, some of
the seating meetings used to get pretty pretty heated too.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Oh yeah, man, it was firing because you know, again,
you you know, you're you're fighting, you know, over the
same bone. You know, you're you're chewing over to the
same dry and and you had that, you had the time,
and you had to desire, you had to And again
that's unfortunately with the with the drop off of the
public school competition, a lot of that's gone away too,

(27:17):
you know. And and it's because you know, okay, so
here comes Southern and again I know, but you know
they come in and they don't even contend seeds. Well,
now they took the seeding. They do it differently now
it's a points system and all that kind of stuff.
But because our schedules the way it is, you know,
we go in there and our kids are just getting seeds.
I used to have to fight for those seeds, you know,

(27:38):
like because like you said, District twenty four, back in
the day, it was it was real, you know. But uh,
you know it's I don't think anybody's ever or I've
ever felt like I hated another coach or anything like that.
I don't have any kind of like personal ammossity like that. Yeah.
But yeah, like you said, we you know, we weren't sitting

(27:59):
down it, yeah, dinner table, you know. So I mean
now again you get older things.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Sure, no doubt. Well, you know that's interesting too because
we always talk about it, like because of the level
of your schedule. You know, there would be guys that
are getting down towards the latter part of the season,
championship part of the season, and and you know, didn't
have as many wins as some of you know, some
of the other kids in their district or the regions.

(28:26):
But you always see Southern kids going to run through district,
through regions, and tear through in Atlantic City and you're like,
no one's no one's paying attention because of the record,
but you know they're not looking at the schedule and
the tournaments that you guys are going on early in
the season, and again the Murderer's Row of a South
and some of those matches. So it was it's fun

(28:47):
to watch the Southern kids go on runs late in
the season. Yeah, paying attention.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
That was an intentional thing, man, it truly was. I
was never the kind of guy personally or as a coach,
you know, who cares if you're the best guy in
your block, you know, and then that you know that
doesn't really mean anything. You know, you want to be
the best guy in your town, and you want to
be the best guy in your city. Then you want
to be the best guy in your state.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
You want to keep you know, expanding, you know, because
as you guys know, there's always somebody better, there's always
somebody faster, you know, and there's no sense going around
thinking you're you know, you're all at you know, when
you know you turn the corner, someone's going to lay out,
you know, you know, so you get to make sure
you know what's out there. But and that and that

(29:30):
was it. Listen, it didn't happen. I don't want to
make it sound like, oh, listen, we want to be better.
So we just scheduled tougher. It was. There was a
lot of work that went into it. Man, It was
a lot of preparation. Like you said, it was a
lot of summer camps, It was a lot of preseason stuff.
We were fortunate with the administration at Southern they allowed
us to doce things. They were very supportive of it,

(29:51):
whereas I know a lot of other schools that didn't
have that. And I'm not slighting people, and I'm not
trying to, uh, you know, bad mouth anybody, but but
you know, again, as you guys know back in the
day as well, a lot of coaches back then, you know,
they coached multiple sports, you know, so they didn't really
necessarily have the time to put into it the way

(30:13):
you know we had, you know, me, you know, tab
you know, even before Dan came along, we had coaches
that were available to spend time with the kids and
do those things. And you know, we did that, but
we didn't start off like, hey, listen, we're going to
go to a takedown Phillisburgh tomorrow, you know, as we
were coming through the ranks. It's funny story. It's just

(30:33):
be his paper called The Trentonian right, and this guy
named Rick Fort and Mall I think, used to write it.
And he used to do a ranking every week of
the teams. And you know, you remember seeing us, you know,
at twenty two and then the next week it would
be twenty and at seventeen and then fifteen, and those
were exciting times, man, because you were looking for those teams.
And back then, you know, you're looking at teams like

(30:56):
even like old Bridge was very tough. It was a
tough nut for us, us to crack every on a
consistent basis. In South Brunswick had that very nice team,
those types of teams before we even think about really
going after, you know, the bigger dogs on that list.
But it wasn't a matter of putting yourself out there
and getting in those matches. And also you know, I

(31:18):
I kind of knew, you know, if you wrestle those
teams from that of the area, you get down a link,
say you picked up a win against one of those,
you got criteria now, you know, so you know, for
just seating purposes that he was. He was kind of.
It was a planned thing. It wasn't like we would
just say, well, we want to be good, so we
just scheduled tougher. It was. It wasn't like that, you know.
It was he had to take those little wins first,

(31:40):
as little chunks to do it. You know, it's like running, right,
If you you've a kid who runs a seven minute mile,
you know you're gonna say, Okay, well I'm gonna run
a five minute mile tomorrow. Well it's not gonna happen,
you know.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Cuse you a lot of things you bring up, Oh man,
I want to ask that. I want to asking that,
And you bring up the short conference to tournament, and
I always thought that was the game move of Nope,
we're not we're not competing in the short Conference. And
we grew up going down to Lacey watching the final
four LAC, watching you guys battle Jackson, Brick Morrill even
Thoms over East back in those days, and then all

(32:15):
of a sudden, it's like, man, we're not, We're not
doing it. What are your thoughts now on it being
an individual tournament and what are your thoughts in general?
Do you just think, Hey, these kids are wrestling each
other all year round, even in the offseason. They don't
see each other that well.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, see this, this is my point about the Short
Conference Tournament.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
First of all, a lot of the reason why we
pulled out of the TV is because I never thought
it made sense. But then we got the tournament right,
and we had the tournament for about ten years, and
it wasn't until Kim Cole stepped down that they just
took the tournament away from us. And know what, they
never took it away from anybody else before. They just

(32:56):
it was somebody you had to give it up to
get rid of it, and they just took it away
from us. And that was my easiest reason not to
do it again because listen, listen, I hated the tournament always,
but we were making thirty five hundred dollars offer concessions on it,
so okay, we'll do it, you know that kind of thing.
But when they took it, it became very easy. And

(33:17):
the nature of the Short Conference Tournament, and this is
something that you're going back in history more right back
in that time when they started the Short Conference Tournament,
it was the Ocean County basically Mommouth County, and we
pretty much stunk at everything because it was a new area,
you know what I'm saying. It was a transplant area.

(33:40):
All the good athletics were in the North Jersey section
wherever all these everybody moved down from, so they wanted
to know who was the best kind of local teams
and things like that. And for a long time it worked, man,
and it was a good tournament, and I get it.
I understand how it happened. But then you know, when
once we started winning like sex titles each not just Southern,

(34:02):
you know, when the Raridans started doing it and all
these other teams started doing it, that that tournament becomes
really ineffective. As you said, you know, you wrestled in
the in your conference, whether it be a So South
or be so South or whatever, you wrestled all summer
long against each other. And now I get the fact
that it's an individual tournament now, right, But it also

(34:24):
happens that two weeks before districts, so you go in there,
you got a bum knee or a bad shoulder or something,
or you slip on a piece of ice for you know,
for God's sakes, and you lose. Now, you've given away
all your criteria two weeks before the district starts, and
you don't get a chance to get it back, you know,

(34:45):
because that's the way it works in wrestling.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Now.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
If you you know you lose, you get If I'm
a state returning state champion and you're five and five
and you pin me, you catch me in a headlock
and pin me well, and I know we go to
the regions or where i'ver I see you again. Who
is the return well stats the returning the champ who
beat Stout, will air beat Stout. You're number one seed now,
you know. So I just don't see where the risk

(35:10):
first reward thing for the short conference tournament. I don't.
I don't see how it's worth it. But that's just
my that's my opinion. Listen, people, They still wrestled every year,
but a lot more teams have opted out from time
to time. Sometimes they've done it and sometimes they pulled out,
which is you know, I think this is fine.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
What were your thoughts when they realigned the districts in
the regions and started sending a fourth place to the states.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan of it,
you know, you know, like listen, they had to do
something because at the time when they the Sure Conference.
At the time, listen, we had four in the Ocean
in mom County. I think we have forty four teams
in the Short Conference. So that was our Region six.
And if you went up to High Point, which I
think it was at the time, Region two or three

(35:59):
or can't remember, they had twenty eight teams. You know,
so obviously it's not you're not it's not a level
playing field. So they had to do something. Now I
don't know that they had to break it up the
way they did. Like you know, now we're in Region seven,
so we're actually when we go out to regions, we're
wrestling against really all the western Southwestern like you know,

(36:23):
kid Attindy and not kids in these Lenipe's and all
that kind of stuff. Cherry Hillies were wrestling against all
those kids. Now, you know, it doesn't really make sense.
I don't know how that's done. What they've done is
they broken up Basically, they've taken the thirty two districts
and they've put in one high end team and in
each one of the districts. Right then they take to

(36:46):
eight regions and they put. So now you go from
you know, thirty two to eight, so they take four
and then there's four good teams in each region now
and and that's what they've tried to do to try
to level it off the place kid. And we've benefited
from him as far as we've had kids go to
the states that have have taken forth. But I am

(37:11):
not aware of the stat but I know it's one.
But I know it's a very very low number of
fourth place kids in any region that have ever reached
a podium, you know. But again it's another They did that, right,
They've they've made advancements in it. Right, they did that.
So they brought the kid, so the kid would lose

(37:33):
first round, and now he's out. Now you can't even
you can't even go there and lose and be out.
You got to come back and wrestle another match. So
they get to another night in ac you know, you
spend another night in the hotels, you get another group
of people coming in. Because I get it, it's a
financial thing. I've never been that's not my mind. I'm
out of I never did things for that reason, uh,

(37:56):
which is you know, I've never claimed to be a
mobile like you know, financial mobile. You know, it's not
my thing, but that's why they do it, you know.
And you know, and then they bring the girls in
and they're doing that and you're bringing more people to
Atlantic City, more people at the venue, more people spending money.
You know, that's that's really what that's about.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Is there a better state tournament than New Jersey?

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Though, No, without of doubt. I mean I've been to
PA's many times. My nephews wrestled for PA and listen
to quality wise, Yes, of course Pa. I mean, you know,
I've always said this, like when New Jersey are state champions,
will wrong with anybody state champions. If you took the
PA state champion in New Jersey state champions, that's gonna

(38:42):
be a good battle. Where they get us is the
second through eighth part of it. They they're just so
thick with it. It's it's just part of their culture.
It's just what they do, you know. And it's a
it's a much larger state, of course, you know, so
they have more kids to choose from. But that's uh.
But as far as the show that you put on

(39:03):
and with the effort that goes into the New Jersey
states and everybody will tell you the same thing. That's
not from Jersey. You know, they love they love coming
there for that for that tournament.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, well you mentioned your nephews and seeing them wrestle
at the state tournament. They were one of the big
storylines at the NCAA tournament this past year. Were you
able to take that in Did you go to NCAA's
and yeah, yeah, I was there. I was there.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
I didn't watch the match. I didn't want the match,
you know, I kind of stepped back out of the
you know, towards the back of the stands up top.
You know. I again, I you know, I have issues
with the way it was done. I mean the seating.
You know, they seeded it so that they would meet
in that round because of whereas I felt like they
both could have made the quarterfinals had it been seated

(39:46):
the way it should have been. And then and then
if they meet up, they meet up. But again, marketing,
TV ratings, you know, I get all that kind of stuff.
You know, it was hard for the family. You know,
there's no scars on it and no one's nobody talks
about it or anything anymore, But it wasn't easy for

(40:09):
any of us.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Now you know what. Sorry, you don't like to see that,
but you would think, as you know, a father like man,
your brother must be like I did a pretty good job.
My sons are at the NCAA division one was and
the wrestling each other.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
I did something right, sure, I mean, listen, he was
just here this past week on vacation, and you know,
there was a guy at a house that they were
They were saying that there was a guy who was
partners with the guy who was renting it from and
he knew who they were, and they came up. He
started talking to the boys right away at the beach.
You start talking to my son about being the state champion.

(40:46):
So it was you know, you get a good feeling
from it, you know. And yeah, again it was historic.
You never seen it before. I hope it doesn't happen
to too many families. To be honest with you, it's not.
It's not great, buddy, mean it's but you know you
certainly proud.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Coach. I gotta ask you a question. We always used
to scrimmagech othern and it was the hottest room we
ever went to. And I remember kids fighting over to
stand by the crack at the door.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
When they weren't in.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Was it always that hot in there or was that
just the kind of gas out point borrow?

Speaker 1 (41:25):
It was always that hot. And then, trust me, we
talked about it for three days before anybody came in
the room before that's that if I see anybody by
that door, it was gonna be worse, you know. So
it was you know, that was the part of the gamesmanship. Man,
It was part of you know, making We wanted you
guys to think we were crazy. I mean, you know

(41:45):
we did, you know, Yeah, it was part of it.
Now everyone always thinks that we had the room that
hot for like weightcutting. Like I'm not really the big
weightcutter guy. My sons have never really cut too much weight.
I mean maybe you lose that five to six maybe
seven pounds that you know, everybody has to lose. I
mean now I have a lot more on that to lose.
But you know, it was because when the room's warm,

(42:10):
the mats are soft, your muscles are loose. We had
very few injuries in that room ever, believe it or not,
very few because you just didn't because everything was pliable
and everything was sold and it wasn't worth me, you know,
to you know, getting somebody in practice, that's that's a
horrible reason to lose a kid. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Well, you know you talk about the legend of the
rams and wanting people to think that you're crazy. The
legend has it that you know you mentioned previously about
you know, we used to be able to start the
day after Thanksgiving. Legend has it that that used to
be like a sleepover? Is that true?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, well yeah, we could do again. You could do
some things back then that you could never get away
with now. But again, you know, to to credit those
kids back then, and again you guys know this as well.
Everyone who says kids are tougher back that, you know,
I'm not so sure that it's a thing that they
were tougher necessarily. Is it that they just did it

(43:13):
because we could do it. If if you ask the
kids to do it now, they would do it now too.
It's just that they don't have to do it. So
I don't know about that being true, But yeah, I mean,
like so they would have I don't know, we used
to have that Thanksgiving football game right when you played
on Thanksgiving and we started practice at nine o'clock on Friday,

(43:33):
And we've never had a kid, a football player and
never come to practice that Friday morning. It was just
you know, or you know, if they had to stay,
they stayed, you know the kind of thing. But yeah,
it's you know, they've taken again all that kind of
stuff where they've you know, you're not allowed to practice
now where now you can practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before Thanksgiving,

(43:57):
but then you can't practice Friday, Saturday or Sunday. You
gotta wait till the next It's silly. I mean, I
get it, ads want the weekend off. But that you
know that that's all that stuff, you know, combines itself
into why the nature of things are changing a little bit.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Yeah, coach, when you look back at your time as
the head coach, what do you what do you look
back on most? Finally, like, man, we nailed it there,
or look back on back we could have done better there?

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Well, So well, where I feel I feel like we've
we really nailed is just the willingness to go out
and compete, and no matter who was coming into our gym,
it was clear that we wanted to make sure and
I would always say to the boys that if they
ever thought about coming down the Parkway, they went they

(44:54):
would stop and Lacy and find an alternate route. Anyone
ever want to come down through where Town and Hawking
and Barney it ever again in their life. You know.
It was just that kind of thing that we wanted
to instill. So we I feel like we did that
really well in the sense it was a hometown vibe.
It was it was we were gonna fight you no
matter what. You know. That was the greatest thing that

(45:15):
I think we've accomplished. Like I could call those guys,
they didn't care. I could call him up and tell
him that, you know, Jackson, we had a Matthew Jackson
at two o'clock in the morning at you know, a
shop right parking lot and they'd have their shoes, you
know what I'm saying. You know, So it was That's
the thing where I feel like i've i've kind of
especially maybe my early a little bit into my middle

(45:41):
time of coaching, is maybe I was a little too
harsh sometimes with kids as far as uh, not listening
to maybe their personal their personal issues and you know,
not being maybe maybe a little bit more I don't
know sensitive sensitives the right word, but at least willing

(46:03):
to hear their side of the story, you know that
that kind of thing, and I maybe kind of flew,
you know, went over to top a couple of times,
a little bit too much. And then you know, at
the other the other end of it, you could say,
in matches you lost. But as you guys know, as
athletes and as coach coaches, you can't control everything, you know,

(46:28):
you know, there's sometimes in athletics, you know, shiit just happens,
you know, and there's you know, somebody gets hurt. Like
we had a kid one time, the one year we
didn't win the overall I can't remember what year. I
think it was two thousand and nine, two thousand and nine.
I think we wrestled Britt and Roy earlier in that

(46:50):
year and we beat them, beat them handled for fifteen
points or something like that. And we're wrestling in the
overalls again in the finals, and we had a kid
who went out and he actually tacked the kid the
first time he wrestled him, because he got on he
was very good on top, put boots in, turned him,
turned and turned them, protecked them. And I said to him,

(47:10):
and you know you're there and that Jim and everyone's
amped up and I said to him right before he
went out and I said, man, just stay calm, I said,
don't worry about I said, waits the second period. I said,
get on the mat with him. And I said and him,
we'll win it that way. And that's all we had
to do is win. Well, he goes out there all
I amped up, takes a shot with his arms wide out,
gets pancaked and pinned in forty five seconds on the

(47:33):
edge of the matt, you know, and uh then throws
his head gear and you know, so so him alone
was a twelve point swing, you know in that bout
and we ended up losing that match by like five
or something like that. And you know, so those are
those are the horror stories you have. But as a coach,
you know, how do you control of that? You know,

(47:54):
I mean that's you know that that that kind of thing,
and you know, and that kid, to this day, I know,
feels horribly about it. You know, those are the things
that stink about it. But that's that's went in and losing.
Man at it's life really right.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, we had Pete Riley on he said life is
the wrestlebacks.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Yeah it is. That's a great way of putting it John.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
You know, you had legends like Frank Monaro and Glenn
Carson doing amazing things and going on to do amazing
things at different school, well both at Penn State. But
who are some of the underrated wrestlers. Maybe some of
the kids that overachieved what their their athletic capabilities allowed for.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
So there's a one kid, and especially like now, I
was still the assistant coach at the time, But the
guy who stands out the most, who's he's really but
that the highest on that level was a kid named
Kevin Hoy. He was a nineteen ninety nine graduate. He
went on to the Air Force Academy and to this

(49:00):
day even one Hendrickson Hendrickson has still has the most
wins in Air Force Academy history. It was a four
time All Academy champion. It was a two time Division
one All American when he took eighth and he took
second in the nation, lost to Joe Maco. He is
the kid that has definitely gone the furthest and he

(49:21):
was not an athletic kid. And he listened, he's still
in my one with good friends. He was here two
weeks ago, you know, so he comes still comes and
we's our family still get together and spend time. But
he was the most unathletic kid you ever met in
your life. When he was in eighth grade. He was
a short, stubby, chubby, redheaded kid. I was like, this
kid's got no shot, you know, said, you know, and

(49:43):
now he's six five and you know, you know, but
so he's definitely the one that sticks out. We had
kid named, you know, Brian Broderick, who was you know,
I don't know if you know, I don't know if
you guys are familiar with him. You know he was.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
He was a very good.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Wrestler, very technical, but you know, he was only times
stay placed winner, took third his senior year, but it
went on to be a two time national runner up
for TCNJ. You know, a hundred seventy four pounds or
one eighty four, you know. So we've had a lot,
a lot of kids, but we've also had these kids
like haven Tattering that no one's ever heard of. He

(50:18):
was terrible wrestler, terrible wrestler, but he worked his tail off.
He was a twenty nineteen graduate and he he just
ended up going to NCAA's this year for Castleton one
won his conference and when you know, went to Division
thie Nationals this year for Castleton. So you know, we've
been very very fortunate in that sense to have a

(50:38):
lot of guys that kind of fit that mold.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Yeah, we mentioned, you know early on Kevin wasn't very athletic.
But I can remember you and him and sometimes Eric
Wilhelm coming in and putt your knee wraps on, putting
a couple couple of big plates on the bar and
doing your back squads and I just was like, holy shit,
that kid is strong.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Yeah, he didn't miss any opportunity to get better. That's
the one thing I mean, if if you're talking about
that type of person, Kevin did not miss one opportunity
to ever improve. You know, he really didn't. I mean
it was it was to the point, like I used
to we were when I first got married. We were

(51:20):
actually renting a house some tab that was around the
corner from Kevin Hoy's house. And it was so annoying, man,
because like even on Sundays it was like he's knocking
on my door at eight am. We're going to work out, coach,
And you know, I couldn't say no. You know, but uh,
you know, but he was one of those kids that
just never missed an opportunity to get better. I mean
between his junior and senior year, I know that he's

(51:44):
he wrestled over two hundred matches and you know in
the offseason, you know, so he was just he was
that that guy was, you know, was the epitome of
whatever that description is that you know, you want to
whatever do you want.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
To call that.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Coach show? First season? Your son, son's gonna be off
to college. What is your winner gonna look like this year?

Speaker 1 (52:06):
You know, I'm not sure. We uh, we were just
talking about that because everyone keeps busting our chops. My
wife and I am about you know, being empty nesters and
all that kind of stuff, and you know, you're here
to term a thousand times and you know, you don't
really know what it means until it's you. I guess
we're gonna have some time, you know, you know, uh,
you know why it's going in and he's you know,

(52:28):
he's going into a tough way class probably one fifty seven,
one sixty five area. You know, Penn's got some tough
kids there returning in that area. So I'm not expecting
him necessarily to go in and just you know, become
a starter right away. But they do wrestle in enough
open tournaments and things like that, uh where he'll be
wrestling and he'll be competing and well you know we'll

(52:50):
go follow him around and those do those things. But
you know, as you know, coleege wrestling is very very different,
Like it's not you know, you're you're just sitting in
the stands opening for the best, you know, and it's
it's it doesn't have quite that same intensity level as
far as the yelling and the screaming and all that
kind of stuff, you know, until you get to like

(53:11):
the conferences and the NCAA's of course, but you know,
the every day of match because you know, in high
school you think it's end on be all. But in college, listen,
you don't even wonder if the guy is good because
you know he's good no matter who he is. You know,
if you're wrestling him in college, he's good. You know,

(53:31):
So that that thing you're not worried about losing to
a bad guy. You know, you just kept you out
and compete.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
So we talked about you and Brian wrestle and talked
about Rich and I wrestle and talked about your two
nephews wrestling. How do you how your boys get along?
Is it fist the cuffs or too.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Big a difference? Uh, you know, too big a difference.
I mean they get along great. But you know, John's
five years older. But John's six two or six three,
you know, probably too twenty pounds, you know why. It's
why it's tall. You know why it's about five eleven.
But he's only about one hundred and seventy pounds right now,
you know. So, I mean they you know, physically, and

(54:10):
they wrestle. Don't get me wrong, they go at it,
you know what, because why it's you know, an idiot,
you know, you know, but they they you know, he
tries it, He tries John a little bit, but different
just just too big. They can never really wrestle wrestle. Yeah,
other than in the living room, in the kitchen and
stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Coach, is there anything about your coaching career Southern Wrestling
that we didn't speak on that you want us to
speak on?

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Uh? You know, I just wanted to just kind of
give credit to where credit was due. And as far
as like some of these other these other teams, you know,
And I want people to realize how good, especially in
your early age, early stages, that the Short Conference really was.
When you look at like even two thousand, back in
two thousand and three, men out and won the Short
Conference storm. You know, uh, two thousand and eight to

(54:58):
twenty ten, long branch want the shortcomings three years in
a row, you know, So we really did have It
wasn't meat grinder there for for a long time. And
think about all the great coaches that came out of
that time, in that error with the George brothers and
ver Rosa and and you know, you know, again like
I heard Tap say it, it's unfortunate because you know

(55:19):
you're forgetting people. And but you know Gaglan and with
the Hell and you know we already talked about you know,
Gooddale and you know the all the other great teams
that you know, public school teams that we were there
at the time. You know, it was fun, man, it was.
It was a great time. But I don't want people
just to think that it was we didn't we didn't

(55:41):
put the work in, we didn't put the time, and
we did it was. It was a very big concerted
effort and We're very fortunate that we had a lot
of great people working together to make sure all that
happened at the same time. You know, it wasn't just
because we wanted to be good and we said, okay,
well we'll just just go schedule, you know, Kenny Tenny.
It wasn't like that. We had We had work to
get that. We had to work to get to their gym,

(56:02):
you know, in order to start winning those matches.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Yeah, I was lucky because I had my spy that
was down there, and I was telling me all the
stuff that Southern was doing in the offseason. I used
to bug my coach and be like, well, Southern's practicing,
they got stuff going on, why can't we do that.
It's like they got something different going on there. So
we always knew, we always knew why you guys were good.
And also, you know a lot of those kids went

(56:26):
the sure thing with me, and once school started, they
weren't going as much because they were getting workouts in
and then you know, you guys had them running through
the the the motions, you know, before the season started,
and we always knew like, man, it's gonna be hard
to beat Southern. And yeah, we weren't even competing with
you guys by the time I got in high school,
you know.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
And see, that's another thing. I'm glad you actually said that,
because that's another thing I do want to hit on
is that, you know, again, early on when you guys,
even when you guys were coming through, you made have
had maybe two maybe three club to choose from.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
That's that. You know, now there's clubs all over the place,
and these kids are getting the time in man. So
that's really that's changed the landscape of the sport quite
a bit too. Yet, what would you guys had you
had short thing? I don't know if Triumph even started
up then, you know pretty much, and that was you know,
was that two hours away? Not elite? Yeah, you know that.

(57:26):
You know, So you had basically three clubs that choose from.
Now they're now they're everywhere and the opportunities are insane.
So that's that's changed wrestling quite a bit as well.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
I wish you got anything else for coach you want
to get in the final four.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
I mean, I could talk all night, but you haven't
even really gotten into Frank and Glenn. But I definitely
want to be respectful of this time, it's getting later.
I know he's not in school yet, but down here,
down to South Carolina, we've been in school for two
weeks now.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
That's crazy, man.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Kushi history teacher, Yes, what's your favorite part of history
to teach?

Speaker 1 (58:07):
That's an interesting question. Well, you know, it's funny because
I've always done When I first started off, I started
doing world history, which is that to me is very
interesting because when you look at things that happened in
the world back with the Egyptians were doing it, and
the Greeks and the Roman you know, Romans, it explains
why things happen the way they do now, you know.

(58:29):
So I always like that. But then I just moved
to US one now, but I've done it a couple
of years of US two, but I think US one,
I think probably the Civil War to me is the
most interesting time period in the sense of it. There
really is a difference between mentalities. You look at the

(58:51):
political landscape now right in our country, you know, and
it's based off a lot of the same thing of
people don't want to be told how to live and
what to live, and other people think education is important.
To some people don't think education is that important. I
don't want healthcare is important, you know, so it had
a lot to do with just difference and philosophy and
lifestyle is really what it comes down to. So I

(59:13):
think that's the most enjoyable. And kids, it's a good
opportunity as a as a learning, you know, for kids
that you know basically have an open mind. You know,
nobody's one hundred percent right all the time.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
No, we need to focus on talking about the things
we have in common, not the things we don't have common. Absolutely,
absolutely final for rich let's do it, coach.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Are you coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Absolutely yes?

Speaker 3 (59:39):
How do you brew your coffee?

Speaker 2 (59:40):
And how do you take it?

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (59:42):
So?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
I just do usually just a regular coffee coffee pot.
But my family still makes funny. I don't know why
I like to use a little half in half man
like a splash a half and half. I don't know
why it makes it. They think I should just be
a tough guy. I drink it all black, but ain't
that tough?

Speaker 3 (59:59):
No?

Speaker 2 (59:59):
I still put cream in my coffee. John, do you
have any daily practices or rituals you do on a
regular basis to show up as the strongest version of
John stout Well?

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
To be honest with you. I do, like in the
sense of I try to, especially if I'm going to
get in a situation where I think everybody has anxiety
from time to time, you know, and things like that.
And you know, because I don't know if you guys
are parents yet, you know, I'm not sure. Yeah, you know,
it's things you there's things you worry about. So I

(01:00:31):
try to put as much I try to think on
a positive level. I try to remind myself of the
things that I'm most grateful for every day, you know,
before my day gets going, before I leave out the door,
and stuff like that. And just like you know, kind
of along the lines of what you just said about
being happy about the things you have in common, not
not the negative things. Try to see what, you know,

(01:00:52):
what you're the happiest about in life. I try to
do that every day.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
What are you listening to right now? Music? Podcast, audio, books?
Are you reading anything? No?

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
You know what? I was reading quite a bit and
then life got busy. But right now I like music. Man,
I'm I'm definitely a music guy. So if I if
I'm listening to like a radio like Spotify, it's I
got the rush rush Radio one, So any any kind
of music in that kind of genre. I like that. Man,
that's kind of like my jam.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
It'll be on in the gym tomorrow morning. Rush Radio
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
John last One lighthearted. Want to close it out? Maybe
you know we were talking to the beginning about the
greatness of New Jersey food culture. Maybe it's a craft beverage.
Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Uh, you know what, I don't know other than I like,
I like having a good time. I could tell you that,
you know, you know, I don't know. It does not
necessarily anything. But I mean, like I said, I love
the Jersey. I do love Jersey food, man, I really do.
I like there's nothing like we were just saying Caffrey's
last night. I don't know if you guys know what

(01:02:08):
that is. Bar down. I mean, they just make the
best steaks in the world, man. I just like I
can't wait, like you know, every time we get there.
So I like that. But I would say, second, well,
if I actually one thing that I really really enjoyed
the most is probably wings. That's my That's my biggest
guilty pleasure. No matter where I go, I usually get
a plate of wings just to see how good they are.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
You going blue cheese or ranch.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
I'm a blue cheese guy. Man, all right, all right, the.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Way it should be done, right, Jim, you know, like
they did it in Buffalo.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Coached out. Thank you so much. This was an amazing episode.
Thank you for filling the gaps on the history of
Southern Wrestling. I think this is the first program we've uh,
we've covered like this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Ridge, I believe you're correct. Yeah, three three errors of
the program.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Well, thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
It was my pleasure act absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
We had a great time catching up. John. Was great
to see you. Good luck enjoying your winner this year
for the first time, you know, being a dad. Going
maybe spend us some time out in Philadelphia getting it
getting a cheese steak or two.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
Oh, definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Man. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that's coach John Stot
joining us from Southern Regional Wrestling. We'll be back tomorrow
night with coach Joey Martinez from Menlo University. They are
transitioning from NAI to Division two and he's going to
fill us in all about that transition and what's going
on in the program and bringing opportunities to athletes in California,

(01:03:38):
y'all have a great evening.

All Episodes

Legacy of Southern Regional Wrestling | Coach John Stout on Championships, Rivalries & Building a Dynasty

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Joe Rogan Experience

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Legacy of Southern Regional Wrestling | Coach John Stout on Championships, Rivalries & Building a Dynasty